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| Photo of stack of newspapers by Daniel R. Blume, Wikimedia Commons |
Jay Kuo, "There Is No Joy in Trumpville":
This has been a disastrous week—one for the record books, truly—in Trumpland. Three separate calamities went down this week, and we would be remiss to focus on just any one of them.
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| President Donald J. Trump 2 March 2019, at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Oxon Hill, MD; official White House photo by Tia Dufour, at Wikimedia Commons |
Heather Cox Richardson, "Letters from an American: December 3, 2002":
The leader of the Republican Party has just called for the overthrow of our fundamental law and the installation of a dictator.
Lawrence O'Donnell states,
This is the day when every apologist for Kanye West, everyone who blames his medication, everyone who blames Kanye West's claimed mental health issues which have never actually been medically documented — this is the day those people are out of apologies for Kanye West. No more pleas for sympathy for mental health issues that have never been medically documented publicly by anyone. No medical records, no physicians, no one who has treated him has ever spoken publicly about these conditions. If you believe he has mental health conditions, you believe Kanye West. That's who has told you that he has mental health conditions, and these mental health conditions that he claims under no circumstances cause antisemitism.
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| Merriam-Webster dictionary |
Heather Cox Richardson, "Letter from an American, December 1, 2022":
Today, Ye, also known as Kanye West, appeared with right-wing white supremacist Nick Fuentes on Alex Jones’s show InfoWars, and was so vile even Jones began to push back. Eventually, Ye praised Nazis and Adolf Hitler. Then, and only then, did the Twitter account of the Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee delete its tweet of October 6, 2022, that read: “Kanye. Elon. Trump.”
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| Merriam-Webster dictionary |
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| Right Wing Watch, 25 November 2022 |
As a former president and now candidate for re-election dines with a white supremacist anti-Semite Holocaust denier, enlightening commentary:
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| White House photo by Benjamin Applebaum of Trump and press in Oval Office, 21 March 2017, at Wikimedia Commons |
In the wake of the announcement of the former reality t.v. show host who fomented insurrection in the nation's capital and was twice impeached that he's running for president again, there's continuing good commentary on the role the media have played in putting wind in this man's sails, and what the media could and should do now — though some signs already tell us the media is not learning and does not want to learn, to paraphrase George W. Bush on the nation's children:
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| 17th-century mirror, Dutch artist Johannes Hannart (or Jan Hanat), held by Metropolitan Museum of Art, photo uploaded to Wikimedia Commons |
Thoughtful commentary from Jared Yates Sexton in "The Unbearable and Untenable Emptiness" about the face many of us Americans are now forced to see when we look in the sad mirror that is Donald Trump:
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| Photo by Tyler Merbler from January 6 attempted insurrection |
Several days ago, I told readers about a new a new series of videotaped/podcast discussions about white Christian nationalism being offered by historian and religion scholar Jemar Tisby. The series is entitled "White Nation Under God." The first episode in this five-part series was broadcast on Wednesday, 11 November and is now available online. Its thematic focus:
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| Washington Post headline, 15 November 2022 |
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| NPR headline, 15 November 2022 |
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| Guardian headline, 15 November 2022 |
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| Photo of stack of newspapers by Daniel R. Blume, Wikimedia Commons |
Jonathan V. Last offers an intriguing reason Republicans are now underperforming politically, one I haven't seen elsewhere: quite simply, their approach to the pandemic killed off a lot of their voters. One reason the Republicans underperformed this election cycle: they killed off a lot of their own voters during Covid. As he says, "Republicans accounted for about 80 percent more of the excess deaths than Democrats."
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| Photo of jail cell, National Museum of Crime and Punishment, by Zaid Hamid at Wikipedia |
"Time's up, DOJ," says former U.S. attorney Andrew Weissmann, with Harvard Law School professor emeritus Laurence Tribe echoing him: time to stop the foot-dragging and indict the criminal who formerly occupied the White House, Donald J. Trump. The cry for Merrick Garland to indict Donald Trump is growing louder and louder following the recent elections and Trump's action yesterday failing to appear to testify under subpoena, while indicating he'll announce a presidential run today.
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| Photo of stack of newspapers by Daniel R. Blume, Wikimedia Commons |
Joyce Vance, "Democrats Hold the Senate—and the Ability to Appoint Federal Judges," explains why the Democrats retaining control of the Senate is so important: it's about judicial appointments:
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| Photo of stack of newspapers by Daniel R. Blume, Wikimedia Commons |
More dissection of the results of this week's U.S. elections, with continuing claims that "abortion rights proved a hugely motivating force for voters in Tuesday’s midterms" (Moira Donegan) and an astonishing statement by Trump that he rigged the 2018 Florida gubernatorial election in favor of DeSantis, a claim commented on by Heather Cox Richardson and Aaron Rupar:
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| Photo of stack of newspapers by Daniel R. Blume, Wikimedia Commons |
Post-election commentary continues. Here are some pieces I've read that I'd like to recommend:
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| Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers |
Greg Olear summarizes a conversation he had yesterday with Katherine Stewart, author of The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism. Stewart was Olear's guest on his PREVAIL podcast. The two discussed the dangerous (and underestimated, by many Americans and our media) rise of Christian nationalism. Seven main points, discussed in detail in the article linked at the opening of this paragraph:
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| Hammer photo uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by Malene Thyssen |
Each Friday, Mark Wingfield, editor of Baptist News Global, sends a Friday roundup by email to those on the BNC mailing list. There's not an online link to this weekly roundup, so I can't offer you a link. I would, however, like to share some of Mark Wingfield's commentary from this week's roundup email (boldfacing emphasis is in original):
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| Hammer photo uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by Malene Thyssen |
Jill Filipovic notes the prevalence of violence emanating from the political right as opposed to the left, and explains why this is the case:
Brandon Tensley, "Millions of White voters are once again showing who they are":
One thing that this week has clarified is the lengths to which many White Americans are willing to go in order to protect their Whiteness, to centralize it, even after a summer that saw unprecedented support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
"The Guardian, CNN's Van Jones brought to tears as Joe Biden wins US election"
Mark Sumner, "America is celebrating like a cloud has left the skies and a weight is off our hearts":
Right now, a pandemic is raging. Right now, the economy is in recession. Right now, the nation is suffering from four years in which Donald Trump did everything possible to rewind decades of progress and tear at the foundations of democracy.
But right now. Right now. All of that has to be set aside. Right now, it is time to shout. To cry in joy and in relief. To jump. To dance. To celebrate.
