Transcript from NPR news on November 6, 2019 “Link” Mike Lofgren is the very definition of a civil servant. He was a congressional staffer for 28 years, with most of that time spent crunching numbers on the Senate and House budget committees. He’s moderate and mild-mannered, saying, “I was on the Republican side my whole career….
Spare Us From the Vichy Republicans
The party has become a cult run by crooks. Published in Common Dreams (link to article) Item: Bob Livingston. Remember him? When last seen by the wider public in the waning, innocent years of the 20th century, he was the newly minted designee to succeed Newt Gingrich as Republican Speaker of the House. But he abruptly resigned…
When It Comes to Plutocrats Like Epstein and Trump, Always Assume the Worst
In the age of Trump, the wrongdoing has become so blatant, the attitude towards the rest of us so contemptuous, that a presumption of guilt may be the only realistic attitude Published in CommonDreams July 17, 2019 ( link to article) By now, everyone not vacationing in a sensory-deprivation tank knows the outlines of the…
Integralism: The Shiny New Toy of the Right
A dangerous dissatisfaction with American life that borders on clinical paranoia and dictatorship. Published in CommonDreams July 7, 2019 ( link to article) The Next Big Thing in American right-wing circles is integralism, or, in the original French, intégrisme. Founded in early 20th century France, integralism stresses a comprehensively integrated social and political order complete with religious…
Reverse Darwinian Selection Afflicts Trump’s Washington
This administration always chooses the worst and the dumbest Published June 26, 2019 by Common Dreams article In the 1960s, at the very dawn of the New Right rebellion, William F. Buckley, Jr., declared that he would rather be governed by persons selected from the phone directory than the faculty of Harvard. Conservative egghead bashing has a long…
Did Trump Just Add Another Count To His Bill Of Impeachment?
Published in Lobelog June 14, 2019 ( link to article) Practically hidden among the past week’s domestic news of floods, political rallies, and helicopter crashes was the revelation that the murdered half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un was a CIA asset, followed by President Donald Trump’s vow that he would not spy on that regime. Trump’s…
Enough. Wake Up, Sheeple!
Why people think reality is a conspiracy. Published in CommonDreams June 3, 2019 ( link to article) George Bernard Shaw once wrote, “We are more gullible and superstitious today than we were in the Middle Ages, and an example of modern credulity is the widespread belief that the Earth is round. The average man can advance not…