August, 2016 archive
Hiding in Plain Sight 0
One of the screwier trends to emerge from Europe lately has been efforts to ban burqas and “burquinis” (and this is the United States of America–we know something about screwy); one column I saw somewhere in a US paper I forget where about Nice’s recent banning of the burquini was headlined something like “Leave It to the French To Outlaw Modesty.”
Der Spiegel attempts to understand the movement in Europe, and particularly in Germany, to “ban the burqa.” It concludes that the movement has little to do with religion and everything to do with domestic politics and attempts to co-opt the European far right. Here’s an excerpt, but I urge you to follow the link and read it in its entirety.
Droning On 0
Britain is high on drones:
One drone crashed while flying over the all-male jail on 14 August.
Another was intercepted in “mid-flight” heading towards the prison later that same day.
Police did not say exactly how they stopped the second drone.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Is politeness your bag?
The shooting occurred at about 10:30 p.m. in the 12100 block of Andrew Sater Road, the office said in a news release. Deputies arrived at the scene to find a woman, whose name has not been released, with an apparent gunshot wound to the stomach.
Witnesses told investigators a man visiting the property had a gun of unknown type in a bag, and the gun discharged when he set the bag down.
According to the story, the man beat feet.
The Trump Card 0
In a long and thoughtful essay, Josh Marshall attempts to understand the appeal of Donald Trump. He concludes that most simplistic explanations (poor, downwardly mobile white persons)–the ones we hear repeatedly from the corporate media–miss the mark. Whereas they describe one leg of the elephant, they miss the larger beast. Here’s a nugget; follow the link for the whole thing (emphasis added):
That brings us to the second key point: Trumpism is about loss. And that loss is real. It’s not just about being haters or uneducated or stupid. The fact that what’s being lost is in most respects something that wasn’t legitimate to have in the first place – status, centrality and racial privilege – should not blind us to the fact that the loss is real and that it will have political consequences.
ISIS, Origins Issue 0
Thom explains how ISIS arose from the Neoliberal paradise resulting from President George the Worst’s Great and Glorious Patriotic War for a Lie in Iraq.
Civil Rights Movement, Act Two 0
At the Ashland, Oregon, Daily Tidings, Herb Rothschild posits that we are seeing a second Civil Rights Movement. Whereas the first was directed at legally-enforced discrimination (Jim Crow laws, segregated public institutions, red-lining neighborhoods and the like), this one is directed at gaining social equality, that is, equality in deed, not just in word.*
Just as the first Civil Rights Movement engendered opposition, so too has this one, as the Republican Party has become little more than the Party of the New Secesh. An excerpt:
This year is shaping up to be for the second struggle what 1964-1965 was for the first. On one side, Republican officials at every level have been openly combative since a black person was elected president. Now their George Wallace has emerged, and this time they’ve embraced him. Hate speech and hate crimes are increasing. In April the Southern Poverty Law Center published research indicating the Trump campaign is inflaming racial and ethnic tensions in U.S. classrooms nationwide. On the other side, graphic exposure by phone cameras has made routine police violence against people of color no longer tolerable and sparked renewed grassroots activism.Do please read the rest.
Image via Michael-in-Norfolk.
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*The actual extent to which “equality in word,” as opposed to “equality in deed,” has been achieved, of course, is arguable and has been spotty, at best.
It is not just chance that, until the rise of Donald Trump, though, racists have been restricted to speaking in code since the 1970s. Now they’ve dropped the codes as they rally for racism.
Slants on the News 0
Daniel Ruth marvels at the unfairness of the news coverage of Donald Trump. A bit:
The Art of the Troll 0
At The Guardian, David Sax makes a convincing argument that Donald Trump is trolling the electorate. A nugget:
Elsewhere, Christopher J. Richter considers how Trump’s experience on “reality” television has molded his behavior.
“The Record” 0
I’m a Southern Boy. I know a bigot when I see one.
Christallmighty, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Don’t these people listen to themselves?
Long-Term Goals? 0
Thom and Jared Yates Sexton wonder whether Trump is looking beyond the campaign to a media venture, sort of like this:
I don’t buy it.
I don’t think that Trump is capable of “plans,” at least not as most of us understand the term.
If he were, he’d not have left a trail of broken dreams and failed businesses.
