Break Time 0
Off to drink liberally.
Masked Marauders 0
Thom argues that Trump has given a green light to racists to act like racists.
The Predator’s Playbook 0
Michael in Norfolk perceives a pattern.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
Lawrence O’Donnell minces no words in commenting on Donald Trump’s restoring the names of military bases so as to honor the Secesh.
Via C&L, which has the transcript.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Yet another “responsible gun owner” practices politeness on the pavement.
“History Does Not Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes”* 0
At the Washington Monthly, Garrett Epps hears a rhyme:
The struggle in the 1850s arose out of the federal government’s determination to return Black Americans to slavery (via the Fugitive Slave Act–ed.) even after they had escaped to the free North. What is happening on the streets of American cities—and most particularly, now, on the streets of Los Angeles—carries uncanny echoes of that decade-long battle, which ended in secession and Civil War.
Follow the link for his reasoning.
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*Mark Twain.
Vaccine Nation 0
Thom looks at how the Trump maladministration is undermining public health.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
More politeness on the pavement:
According to police, a 61-year-old semitruck driver pointed a handgun at a woman and child during a road rage incident.
For some fool reason, I find myself to be somewhat skeptical of the NRA’s notion that more guns make for more politeness. It seems to me that they make for les–oh, never mind.
One Thing Is Not Like the Other Thing, Reprise 0
At AL.com, Jared Margulies, Emily Wittman, Janek Wasserman, and Luke Herrine, Jewish faculty members at the University of Alabama, argue that conflating opposing Israel’s actions in Gaza with antisemitism, as Alabama senator Katie Britt recently did, is a misdirection play. Given dis coarse discourse, methinks it a timely and worthwhile read. Here’s a tiny bit from early in the article:
“Fight Fiercely, Harvard”* 0
Der Spiegel spoke with Harvard Professor Ryan Enos about Donald Trump’s crusade against universities, particularly Harvard, America’s oldest institution of higher education. The interview is worth a read; here’s a tiny bit:
DER SPIEGEL: Why has Harvard become the main target?
Enos: I think there are three reasons. First, Trump is following the classic pattern of authoritarian leaders who want to destroy democracies. He is attacking the institutions of civil society that could potentially limit his power: judges, broadcasters – or, indeed, universities, as places of free thought. Second, Trump thought it would be popular to attack elite universities because parts of his electorate were critical of them. He miscalculated, but more on that later.
DER SPIEGEL: And third?
Enos: Donald Trump now harbors a personal grudge against our university because it openly opposes him. Harvard is the beacon of resistance against Trump. No other institution in the U.S. opposes him so openly. Trump wants to break this resistance.
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*With apologies to Tom Lehrer.