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Don’t dismiss Trump, understand him
I had this idea for a post examining Trump, Trumpism, and the whole MAGA movement through the lens of another unlikely figure and phenomenon, Aimee Semple McPherson in 1920s Los Angeles. My premise was simple: she was and Donald Trump is a charlatan duping otherwise sane people for personal gain. At this point, the post…
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I am sickened by this
There is nothing particularly controversial about naming an American aircraft carrier after a president. Provided, of course, that the president is no longer in office, has been dead for several years, and is therefore unable to object to the wording of the plaque. The difficulty arises when the president is still in office, is involved…
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Chesterton’s Fence
Few things are easier to ridicule than a regulation. Republicans have made a meal out of this since Ronald Reagan mockingly said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.’” Nobody wakes up in the morning excited about fire codes. No one tells friends…
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Welcome to the gerontocracy
Mitch McConnell is alive! And heading back to work. See? There’s no conspiracy here, as some of the dim bulbs in Trump’s orbit were suggesting, like Laura Looney – um, sorry, my bad… I mean Loomer – who, amidst the four weeks of secrecy and cagey information released about the senator’s condition after being hospitalized,…
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Two Tribes
I have long wondered what makes contemporary Republicans tick. It is sophomoric to dismiss them outright because their leader is a vulgar half-wit, but, I’ll admit, Donald Trump’s Svengali-like hold over them confused me. After all, this is the party that has been banging on about family values ever since Dan Quayle launched a crusade…
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Remember Rome
The people around Donald Trump are dangerous. For them, he is a useful idiot. In him, they have found a vehicle to establish their vision of a grand, civilization redefining project. You’ve got your white nationalists engineering a country purged of those they deem racially inferior. You’ve got your Christian nationalists who imagine a future…
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Pope Leo is the right man for the job
I was not paying attention in 1978 to the stage set in Rome for a showdown with the Soviet Union that would ultimately lead to its demise. I was 12. I was only mildly interested in the Catholic Church as an altar boy at my parish, but, if I’m honest, it was for the outfits…
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Beware the Ides of March
Today is the the Ides of March, observed on March 15. Its origins are in the ancient Roman calendar, and it has become one of the most famous dates in the history of the world. Though originally a routine marker of time in the Roman civic and religious calendar, the day became immortalized because of…
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Are we justified?
As we’ve established, this month’s name – March – comes from Martius, the first month of the earliest Roman calendar, named after Mars, the Roman god of war, and an ancestor of the Roman people through his sons Romulus and Remus. His month Martius was the beginning of the season for warfare; ironic, yes, given…
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The cruelty is the point
In case you’ve forgotten, Donald Trump descended his golden elevator in Trump Tower to announce his first candidacy on June 16, 2015. His announcement was a masterpiece of the meandering Trump nonsense we’ve come to know so well that included a joke comparing ISIS to inadequate air conditioning, and this assessment of Mexican immigrants: When…
Your mileage may vary.