Month: August 2017

 
From the Bjork Report:

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Trump Unbound

He had been forced to betray his most loyal followers and his own deepest beliefs.

Then the fury erupted and rage spoke for him.

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From driftglass:

“Well I do think there’s blame. Yes, I think there is blame on both sides. You look at both sides. I think there is blame on both sides. And I have no doubt about it. And you don’t have doubt about it either. And if you reported it accurately, you would say.”

 

If you are a Republican, whether your are rich or poor, man or woman, a fascist or just really, really cool with fascism, every day of your life is spent in a dim little shed.

And there is always a monster at your door.

The monster is Reality. Terrifying Reality. The Reality that you have spent your life as a fool and a chump. The Reality that everything you believe is a lie, that everyone you trusted to explain the world to you has lied to you and laughed at you behind your back and, worst of all, the Hated Left has been right about you all along.

And so you stop having any interest whatsoever in facts or history or actual politics or policy debates.

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From Margaret and Helen:

There is a reason that in Germany you will find no statues of Hitler, no monuments to the Third Reich, and no Chancellor of Germany suggesting there was blame for World War 2 on both sides. And there is a reason that Robert E. Lee himself didn’t want statues honoring the Confederacy. In his own words, “I think it wiser not to keep open the sores of war but to follow the examples of those nations who endeavored to obliterate the marks of civil strife, to commit to oblivion the feelings engendered.”

Mr. President, you joked recently that you might one day be on Mount Rushmore. I wonder at times what color the sky is in your world? Are you really this stupid? How in God’s name did you become the leader of the free world?

No, Mr. President. There were not many sides in Charlottesville. There were just two. Right and wrong. There were white supremacists on one side and Americans who believe all people are created equal on the other side. There were hate groups and there were Americans who oppose hate. There were neo-Nazis and… Do we really have to go beyond that? Isn’t that what we call a non-starter?

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From Jon Perr at PERRspectives:

Defending the indefensible on Tuesday, President Donald Trump traveled back in time to deploy the “both sides do it” talking point to explain the Civil War. Providing air cover for white supremacists, Trump declared “you had some very fine people on both sides,” apparently including “many of those people were there to protest the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee.”

But as I first documented after Dylann Roof slaughtered 9 innocents at Mother Emanuel AME Church in that cradle of secession Charleston, South Carolina, the leaders of the Confederacy were not “fine people.” And we know this, because they told us so.

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From The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser:

No matter how many times I tell people that I am not a Christian, I have no interest in Christianity, there is a less-than-zero chance that I will return to Christianity, some Evangelicals remain convinced that I am either a backslidden Christian or I harbor deep in my heart of hearts (wherever the hell that is) the desire to return to Christianity. Dealing with such people remains one of my biggest frustrations, mainly because they refuse to hear what I am saying and accept the telling of my story at face value.

Several years ago, one Evangelical man said that he just knew that I was still a Christian because I capitalized the words God and Bible in my writing. Other Evangelicals read my writing and see in it a man who still wants to believe in God and reclaim his faith. For the life of me, I can’t figure out what they think they see.

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Wondering why a few conservative friends are less than impressed.

 
Well. That was bracing!

As if we are witnessing a weekly detective drama, an hour of evasions and denials are shattered by an angry, climactic confession. I did it and I’m glad I did it!

It first took two days to go from this:

…hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides — on many sides.

to this:

…criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.

Continue reading “Trump Unbound!”

 
From Tommy Christopher:

Donald Trump delivered a long-delayed and perfunctory denunciation of white supremacy at the White House on Monday afternoon, a performance that fooled almost no one (almost). But then, the point wasn’t ever to fool anyone in the first place.

Trump’s refusal to denounce Nazis and white supremacists on Saturday, followed by ostensible acts of cleanup by others in his administration, and his forced statement two days later, were all part of a performance art piece intended to do exactly what it did: signal to white supremacists that he’s really on their side and feed his other aggrieved white supporters’ sense that the media is out to get him.

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From nojo Stinque:

We’ve always been drawn to satire. From Mad to SNL to Spy and beyond, satire has been the refreshment for our soul. We drink it in, savor it, remember it for decades.

Satire makes sense of the world. It brings order to chaos, the rational mastering the irrational. Satire gets at the truth, by revealing the lies. Like jazz, the genius of satire is in what remains unsaid.

We have practiced satire whenever possible. We wrote a satire column in college. We helped produce a tabloid with a satirical undertone. We launched a blog whose dominant theme is satire.

And yet we have produced little satire for a long time.

There was a moment, a year ago spring, where we felt the urge leave us. It was not that the dominant Republican candidate wasn’t ripe for satire — you would think it unavoidable, really — but that satire wasn’t up to the threat he presented. The truths that satire could reveal, the truths that make good satire fun to produce, were unneeded. Nothing was hidden, nothing needed teasing out, nothing needed highlighting. It was all there, for all to see. Satire could add nothing to the picture. It was the wrong tool.

Which really bothered us, because from Nixon on, whether as audience or producer, satire had gotten us through a lot. Through everything, really. And from Nixon on, there’s been a lot to get through. So why, now, when we would need satire to get us through the worst yet, has it failed us?

That question’s been on our mind for more than a year. The answer has been as well, but we’ve seen only glimpses. But we’re starting to get it now, and in a manner that really surprises us:

Satire is a luxury.

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