June, 2017 archive
Tales of the Trumpling: Snapshots of Trickle-Down Trumpery 0
This is clearly terrorism, but you will not see it so described because, in the Trumpled States of America, right-wing white people ipso facto can’t be terrorists.
In a Facebook post published Saturday night, Kim Weaver wrote, “Over the last several weeks, I have been evaluating personal circumstances along with the political climate regarding this campaign. After much deliberation, I have determined that the best decision for me is to withdraw my candidacy for the US House race in Iowa’s 4th Congressional District.”
She explained that beginning during her 2016 campaign, she has been receiving threats of physical violence and murder, and said that “recent events at my home” were forcing her to re-evaluate her decision to run against King.
Buyers’ Remorse 0
Farron has little sympathy for Trump voters who are discovering that Donald Trump is, well, exactly what liberals have been saying he is.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Be polite to your sweetie-pie.
Fields was showing them his new pistol. As he went to put it away, the gun went off hitting Luna in the stomach.
She was taken to the hospital but died during surgery.
Calm Down and Take a Breath 0
Scene from the Meditation Garden at the A. R. E. in Virginia Beach.
On What Authority? 0
In a timely post at Psychology Today Blogs, Jeremy Sherman muses on why persons become authoritarians and why others follow them. Here’s short bit of a long post:
With authoritarian followers, the thinking is already over. They’re not guessing at what’s true. There’s no interpretation left to do. They and their leaders have already done all the interpretation necessary. They discovered the truth, embraced it, internalized it, and now only have to act on it like machines. They see reality clearly, truly and purely through their unambiguous mechanistic world view.
This is as true of soft spiritual followers as it is of techno-authoritarian nerd followers. Their theory could be warm and fuzzy or hardline firm. Either way, they have stripped the ambiguity from life. There are no tough judgment calls left anymore. Life can be managed with absolute rule-based discipline. Their absolute rules don’t always work, but they won’t admit it. They’ll say “sure there are exceptions, but still, it’s an absolutely universal rule.”
The whole thing is worth your while.
Russian Impulses 0
Trudy Rubin takes an acerbic and disturbing look at Donald Trump’s fascination with autocrats and autocracy. A snippet:
China is playing him, with flattery and tiny trade concessions, but no shift in the South China Seas, and no real help on North Korea. As Trump withdraws from global leadership, Beijing is rushing in to fill the vacuum.
Islamist jihadists are watching him, hopeful he will continue his denigration of democracies — undermining the self-confidence they need to combat terrorism jointly. Jihadis can only cheer his blinkered assumption that Gulf autocrats will help him crush them.
Trump is on the wrong side of history, abandoning the values America has stood for at a time when democracies need to be bonding together.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Get a leg up on politeness.
One person is recovering tonight after accidentally shooting themselves in the leg.
I shall refrain from commenting on the horrifyingly incorrect grammar in that sentence. I shall not point out that “him” and “them” do not agree, unless “him” is a multi-bodied swamp monster.
(Oh, my. I notice that, to my shock and horror, I failed to refrain. Where are my pearls, that I may clutch them? Where oh where is my fainting couch that I may fall upon it?)
QOTD 0
Rex Stout:
. . . rancor is a pimple on the brain.
Stout, Rex, “Eeny Meeny Murder Mo” in Homicide Trinity (New York: Viking Press, Bantam Edition, 1966) p, 14
“Strange Fruit” 0
Warning: Graphic images from the past America pretends did not exist..