Culture Warriors category archive
“History Does Not Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes”* 0
- Thom hears a rhyme
From another time
When men in hoods
Roamed the woods,
With crosses ablaze
Through nights and days.
_____________-
*Mark Twain.
Republican Thought Police 0
Der Spiegel takes a deep dive into Republican attempts to suppress dissenting views. A snippet:
Follow the link for context.
The Rule of Lawless 0
In a longer article about Donald Trump’s use of the National Guard to subjugate those who might disagree with his edicts occupy American cities, Roy S. Johnson decodes de code:
Translation: Trump is sending American troops to “protect” his swelling flotilla of barely-trained, masked and thuggish ICE agents who are attacking brown and Black people, including children and the elderly, even in their homes, as they did this week in Chicago.
The Rule of Lawless 0
David suggests that we are seeing
. . . authoritarian theater at its worst.
“History Does Not Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes”* 0
Grunge_e_Gene hears a rhyme that sounds a lot like “Blackwater.”
You remember Blackwater, do you not, the security firm mercenaries from the Great and Glorious Patriotic War for a Lie in Iraq?
_______________
*Mark Twain.
Republican Thought Police 0
Anita Chabria conjugates the latest con from Donald Trump’s Ministry of Truth.
Republican Thought Police 0
Michael in Norfolk interprets the intent of the indoctrination.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
The Trump maladmnistration wants them darkies to know their place.
“History Does Not Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes”* 0
In an article about the mean for the sake of mean that the Trump maladministration is displaying toward immigrants, persons who look like immigrants, and even natural-born American citizens who happen to be brown, Gustavo Arellano hears a rhyme:
That’s one step away from “The Eternal Jew,” the infamous Nazi propaganda movie that compared Jews to rats and argued they needed to be eradicated.
_____________–
*Mark Twain.
Republican Family Values 0
Mrs. Betty Bowers marvels at the mendacity.
Separation of Church and State
0
Der Spiegel takes a deep dive into the right-wing they-call-themselves Christians who (rather incongruously, considering Donald Trump’s history) wield great influence in the Trump maladministration. Their findings are not comforting. Here’s a tiny bit from the artilce:
(snip)
It sounds a lot more like radicalism than like faith. It is the attempt to turn the clock back by several decades, if not centuries – back to a time when men were still men and conflicts were solved with faith in God and a revolver. Jesus and Jesse James. The resuscitation of a quintessentially American myth. An overtly far-right response to left-wing identity politics seen as overly feminine and moralizing. And, ultimately, it is an attempt to dismantle the rule of law.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
Methinks Michael in Norfolk has a valid wonder.
Republican Thought Police 0
Rebecca Watson looks at the Republican thought policing currently being exercised at Texas A&M University. (Warning: Mild language.)
Or you can read the transcript.
Occupation Nation, Reprise 0
Sam and the crew discuss the tactics of the occupiers. (Warning: There’s language in some of the video clips that they show.)
Afterthought:
Late in his life, my father said to me, “I’m glad those days are over.”
He was referring to the days of racism and segregation during which he and later I as Southern boys were raised.
But they’re not over. They may have been in abeyance for a while, but they are most certainly back with crosses burning.
America’s original sin of chattel slavery and the racist mythology created to rationalize it continue to exact their toll.