Author's archive
Target Audience 0
The son of the founder of the white nationalist website, Stormfront, who has renounced his father’s views, tells what America’s Neo-Nazi, white supremacist movement looked like from the inside and why he finds it dangerous. Here’s how he starts out (emphasis added):
Much more at the link.
Afterthought:
Natch, “I’m not racist, but” means “I’m a racist, and.”
It’s a corollary to what I learned back when I did management training in communications skills:
“Yes, but” always means “No.”
Monumental Stupidity 0
In related news, my local rag reports that there might be some cracks appearing in the base.
Trial Separation? 0
Several advisory boards to the President have recently resigned en mass as a result of Trump’s embrace of Neo-Nazis and his mealy-mouthed refusal to condemn the Confederate insurgency in Charlottesville, Virginia. Admittedly these groups are largely symbolic, but there is a larger symbolism in their resignations.
At the Washington Monthly, Nancy LeTourneau considers the implications of corporate CEOs’ jump off the Trump ship. A snippet (follow the link for the complete article:
This move brings into focus a growing fissure within the Republican Party. Historically, corporate leaders have been one of the key members of the Republican coalition—along with military hawks and white evangelicals. But some of the cultural issues that define the attachment of evangelicals to the party are the very ones that are driving the corporate world away.
The conventional wisdom is that the Republican Party’s corporate masters have been willing to tolerate the Republican Party’s bigots and culture warriors so long as the corporations get the tax cuts and other breaks they want. It will be curious to see whether Trumpery leads to the dissolution of that uneasy partnership.
“Look in the Mirror, Boy,” Reprise 0
Der Spiegle devotes another editorial to Donald Trump, and this one is a barn-burner. I find this telling sentence:
Follow the link for the rest of the sentences.
Southern Twistory, Reprise 0
Werner Herzog’s Bear takes down the talking point that removing memorials to American traitors is somehow “destroying history.” (History can be misinterpreted, reinterpreted, explored, even forgotten, but it cannot be destroyed, for its fruits are all around us.) Here’s a nugget (emphasis in the original):
Southern Twistory 0
In The Roanoke Times, Halford Ryan explodes the myths that neo-Confederates and apologists for the South’s rebellion to preserve slavery tell themselves. Here’s one; follow the link for more:
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
More polite play.
A 4-year-old girl is in critical condition after a shooting Friday night.
(snip)
Investigators said two or three young children were at the home, and they said the 4-year-old was playing with the gun.
Just another day in the Gun Nut Garden of Eden . . . .
“Look in the Mirror, Boy” 0
In an editorial, Der Spiegel takes a look at Donald Trump.
It is not flattering.
Here’s an excerpt:
Follow the link for the complete article.
“No Irish Need Apply” 0
Writing from disgust, Robert F. Lyons protests Donald Trump’s and the Trumpkins’ immigration proposals by telling the story of his Irish immigrant ancestors.
Read it.
Droning On 0
Boys and their toys . . . .
The pilot landed the plane safely without needing to take evasive action, according to a newly released Federal Aviation Administration report. But the Jan. 23 incident, one of at least 27 pilot-reported drone sightings so far this year near Bay Area airports, highlights the growing problem drones pose to airports.
Follow the link for the full article; the problem is much greater than one would think. Over the past two years, there have been 3,000 such incidents in the U. S.
Southern Heritage and Southern Hypocrisy 0
My local rag looks at a monumental concomitance (more at the link):
Up to 25 people were auctioned at a time. The Norfolk crowd was usually a small group of traders with offices down the street, looking to buy slaves they could ship down to New Orleans at a big mark-up.
Once in a line, their clothes were stripped off so they could be inspected. Families were often split up.
These slave auctions were held steps away from where the city’s Confederate monument now stands, and a stone’s throw from jails where slaves were kept, historians say.
It’s largely the same story for two other prominent Confederate monuments in South Hampton Roads, although experts say the extent of the region’s role in the slave trade has been largely forgotten.
Shush.
Listen very carefully.
You won’t hear the folks who glorify gracious living in the Old South talk about this, even though it was the foundation thereof.