January, 2025 archive
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
Donald Trump, a second-generation American citizen who benefited from Americans’ constitutional right to birthright citizenship, wants to strip away the right to birthright citizenship.
At Above the Law, Elie Mystal reprises an article laying bare the underlying intent. A snippet:
Today’s Republican Party has truly become the party of the New Secesh, as America’s original sin of chattel slavery and the doctrine of racism created to rationalize it continue to wield their curse.
Broligarchy, Reprise 0
At AL.com, Kyle Whitmire sees a precedent–and it ain’t a pretty one.
Why Did Trump Win? 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Nilanjana Dasgupta tries offers some thoughts. I don’t know that I agree with everything she says, but I do think her piece is a worth-while read. Keep in mind that she is discussing voters’ perceptions of reality, not reality itself.
Here’s a bit of her piece:
The social class gap in opportunity isn’t recent. It has been widening since neoliberalism became the dominant ideology in the 1980s, shaping political and economic policies. A good society, according to neoliberalism, is one that privatizes public resources and property, privileges free market and trade, reduces government spending on social safety nets, and minimizes regulation of businesses (Harvey, 2005). Decades of neoliberal policies have been associated with yawning inequalities in income, health, and education, crushing middle- and working-class people whose pent-up despair and rage was recognized and used by Trump.
Missing from the analysis and, indeed, from Trump voters’ perspectives, is another crucial fact. Donald Trump’s track record of keeping his wor–oh, never mind.
Aside:
The irony is that the neoliberalism she refers to leans to the right and, indeed, has served as cover for Republicans’ gutting many of the programs instituted by Democrats from FDR to LBJ.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Yet another child . . . .
I will concede that a toddler may indeed have shot him- or herself “accidentally,” because a toddler would likely not understand the consequence of picking up a portable phallus, but someone’s negligence allowed him or her to do so.
We must needs hold oxymoronic “responsible gun owners” responsible.
But we won’t, for we are a society of stupid enraptured by our portable phalluses.
“History Does Not Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes”* 0
Kean University Professors Christopher M. Bellitto and Frank Argote-Freyre hear a rhyme from over the millennia.
We are sad to report that our modern republic – like Rome at that moment – is not well. The era of Trump offers interesting parallels with the reign of the dictator Sulla (138-78 BCE), who marched on Rome from exile in 82 BCE and slaughtered his enemies.
Follow the link for their parsing of parallels.
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*Mark Twain.
Karen Karen-Like 0
Karen wields a mean meme.
