April, 2025 archive
“History Does Not Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes”* 0
Via the Las Vegas Sun, Scott McIntosh looks at Donald Trump’s suit against CBS News and hears a rhyme from three centuries ago, when a wannabe despot sought to punish a news outlet for printing news he didn’t like.
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*Mark Twain.
The Middle-East Misdirection Play 0
Kenneth Obel and Jennifer Obel are Jewish parents raising two daughters. From that perspective, they write at the Philadelphia Inquirer about the Trump maladministration’s efforts to dictate to universities what they can and cannot teach.
In particular, they submit that right-wing operatives are disguising efforts to restrict freedom of speech and learning under a cloak of fighting antisemitism. Here’s a tiny bit from their article:
This includes rounding up and incarcerating foreign students and misusing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to make drastic cuts in federal funding to universities. These actions do not protect Jews — they endanger the very freedoms and institutions that have made Jewish life in America possible.
Their piece is worth the few minutes it takes to read.
The Rule of Flaw 0
These folks truly don’t know what they are doing.
Honest to Betsy, if it weren’t so vile, disgusting, and dangerous, it might even be funny, sort of like a Three Stooges short is funny.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Yet another “responsible gun owner” feels compelled to expose his portable phallus on a public highway.
A Tune for the Times 0
Warning: Mild language.
The Rule of Lawless 0
The Arizona Republic’s E. J. Montini comments on Kari Lake’s fawning unwavering support of Donald Trump. A snippet:
Follow the link for the evidence.
A Notion of Immigrants 0
Suffer the children. It’s a Republican family value.
So is mean for the sake of mean.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Yet another I’m-sure-if-you-asked-him-he-would-say-that-he-knows-how-to-handle-his-portable-phallus “responsible gun owner” takes politeness for a ride.
Guns and stupid, guns and stupid.
They go together like love and Cupid.
Let me tell you brother,
You can’t have one without the other.
Inquiring Minds Want To Know 0
Is it at all possible that, after a career of both-sidesing the heck out of every issue under the sun, David Brooks has come to his senses?
Snow in Texas 0
No, not that kind of snow. The other kind.
Vaccine Nation 0
Ron Fournier is the father of a fully functional son who is on the autism spectrum and a member of the board of the Autism Alliance of Michigan. At the Detroit Free Press, he–er–expresses some skepticism as to RFK Jr.’s intent to conduct “studies” to blame autism on vaccines. Here’s tiny bit of his article; the whole piece is worth a read:
What I’m not OK with: President Donald Trump and his Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., spending taxpayers’ money on phony studies with rigged outcomes to support their conspiracy theories ? or with RFK’s plans to reportedly pursue those studies by collecting Americans’ private health data.
“History Does Not Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes’* 0
From the Washington Monthly:
Instead, the economy slows. Budgets collapse. Investors are spooked. Core services erode. Even allies defect. By the end, voters—many of whom once cheered the project—recoil . . . .
No, Nate Weisberg is not talking about Donald Trump in that passage. Rather, he’s hearing a rhyme from a decade ago. Follow the link to find out who he refers to.
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*Mark Twain.