Donald Trump

How he sees himself:



How he appears sub specie aeternatis.



How his devoted followers actually present themselves (sans ironie aucune).

American Toxicity

The long read.

Funny/Not Funny

Life In Trumpland

Midwestern Progressive Politics

Not an oxymoron...

Derail The Rogue Republican Party

True Patriotism

Good News/Bad News

The good news is that, sooner or later, Donald Trump will retire from public life and the white supremacists he has emboldened will likely slither back under the rocks from whence they have come.

The bad news is that they will still be lurking under those rocks.

Another World Is Possible!

Make America Great Someday

The Reagan Revolution Rolls On

Had Ronald Reagan’s presidency only represented a correction to some apparent excesses, we would remember him as a Dwight Eisenhower figure. He would elicit yawns and little else. But that's not what happened. Instead, Reagan inaugurated the great white right-wing revanchement—a political movement dedicated to rolling back every gain that ordinary Americans had been able to achieve towards a system of fairness and economic security from the New Deal to the Great Society.

The good news is that old, frightened, greedy, angry white people have only been partially successful in establishing what Jack London (in a novel published 110 years ago) called "The Iron Heel." However, if they continue to have their way (and Brett Kavanausea is yet another tool in their box), Americans will see unprecedented shifts downward in social equality and economic security: the descent to a pre-New Deal America.

Let us eat cake.

The really disheartening part of the Kavanausea saga is that he couldn’t have done it without the support of women. And let us recall that it was a white Evangelical woman (Phyllis Schafly) who led the charge to defeat the ERA back in the 1970s. This is a phenomenon that we cannot afford to ignore.

In his brilliant treatise "The Politics of Obedience and the Discourse of Voluntary Servitude," Etienne de la Boetie laid out how this phenomenon unfolds back in the 16th century (on the cusp of the modern era in Europe).

The painful truth is that it is only in rare historical moments that genuine political change can be effected. Having grown up during one of those rare historical moments, I made the honest mistake of assuming that I lived in a dynamic political culture, one where anything was possible. Taking the long view of history across geography and culture, however, one begins to see that the period from 1965-1975 in the USA (cue Bruce Springsteen’s "Born in the USA") was the exception that proves the rule. I was fortunate to be able to witness it, but I have since learned that I must not be fooled into thinking that I will necessarily see a time like that again before shuffling off this mortal coil.

Of course, as I have said before and will continue to say: History is the record of unintended consequences. The Shahnameh ends happily (a Persian proverb). My advice to one and all in these troubled times is as follows:

We should avoid the cake, keep our powder dry (the price of liberty is eternal vigilance), take care of those close to us and the stranger in our gates, and with sober eyes see the extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds that pulse all around us for what they are.

Emerson wrote in his journal after the death of his little son Waldo: "I am Defeated All the Time; yet to Victory I am born." An apt motto for a Cheerful Nihilist.

The Liberal Rehabilitation Of George W. Bush

Is complete.

This is the way the world ends/This is the way the world ends/This is the way the world ends/With the full complicity of bourgeois Liberals...The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.

After Trump

Andrew Bacevich.

Be Not Afraid

Go Left.

Now That Cohen Has Flipped...

We can count on President Pence to pardon them all...with the possible exception of Cohen...

Rogue's Gallery

Why Marx Was Right

It bears noting that Eagleton's book (despite its title) is not doctrinaire advocacy but a critical interpretation of Marx's/Marx-Engels's thought. As anyone who has bothered to read Marx knows, he was not a theoretician of Communism but of Capitalism. Throughout his book, Eagleton points out what should be obvious: as the contradictions and dysfunctions of Capitalism create ever greater disparities of wealth while failing to deliver even the basic necessities of life for increasing numbers of people throughout the world, Marxist analysis will remain relevant. Put another way, for so long as there is Capitalism, there will be Marxism.

In short, if you don't like Marxism, there is only one way to get rid of it: jettison Capitalism.

Dear America: How Long Do You Plan to Allow Your Country to be Held Hostage by the Military Industrial Complex?

The Party Of Capitulation

That calls itself the Party of Opposition.

The First Step

Admit you have a problem...

The Kavanaugh Nomination

Mutiny on their knees: The Democratic Party’s phony opposition to the Kavanaugh nomination

The Joke's On Us

What Donald Trump Sees In His Mirror

American Apocalypse

Christian Zionists commit fanatical treason on behalf of a foreign government.

Michael Moore: We Are Ruled By A Shadow Government

Nothing Has Changed

The Demolition Man

I ran into a politically astute friend the other day and, as is often the case, the subject of our conversation turned quickly to Trump. I said that I was surprised that DT didn't seem bored with the whole President thing considering the fact that he has the attention span of a gnat.

My friend shot back: Yes, but there's so much to destroy.

I found that to be an incredibly insightful remark.

The self-proclaimed "deal-maker" is really nothing more than a demolition man.

Never Forget...

Herbert Hoover's response to the federal government's violent suppression of the Bonus Army.

There's plenty more where that came from...

You Don't Need A Weatherman To Know Which Way The Wind Blows

Weather Underground from WUO on Vimeo.

Front Porch Republic

Place. Limits. Liberty.

Reality Bites

The G.O.P.

And the dark tradition of American fascism.

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

1968/2018

If Only...

Emma & Al

I've Seen All Good People Turn Their Heads Each Day So Satisfied I'm On Way

Let's Face It

It's only a matter of time before the House of Cards we call the "World's Last Superpower" collapses.

So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late.

The Militarized Corporatocracy At Work

The US political police and the 2016 elections

Noam Chomsky On Libertarian Socialism

Before It's Too Late

A Toast To The President Of The United States!

Pre-Reagan/Post-Reagan America

There is, in fact, some "liberal spin" in this chart: it is not acknowledged that Bill Clinton's two terms as President took place during the 1979-2007 period. The so-called "New Democrats" in the White House and Congress did not prevent the egregious transfer of wealth from the middle class to the wealthiest 1%. Indeed, they took part in the swindle.

Tom Waits

"We are monkeys with money and guns."

And Here We Are

The Orwellian States Of Amnesia

The Madness Of Crowds

Where did white people ever get the impression that they were "victims" of the government that they staff and run?

Hasan Minhaj Breaks Down "Punish a Muslim Day"

1968

In fifty years, only the names have changed. And that, my friends, is what we call "progress" in the Orwellian States of Amnesia.

An Old English Proverb

An Old Turkish Proverb

The fish begins to stink at the head...

That said, if we were honest with ourselves, we would have to admit that Trump's America isn't much different from Obama's.

While You Were Sleeping...

It happened here.