Category: Politics

Meta Doesn’t Like Me

MAGA cultists / Musings / Personal Reminiscences / Politics / Rightwing claptrap / US PoliticsLeave a comment

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The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,/  Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit/ Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,/ Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it. That’s how Edward Fitzgerald translated the 51st quatrain of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam in his first edition of his book (1859). Fitzgerald might have done that translation differently had he known of our modern social media. Social media firms can “wash out” not just words, but posts, threads, and even … click below for more ↓

Trump: America’s Mussolini

MAGA cultists / Politics / Rightwing claptrap / US Politics3 Comments

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While Trump’s racist, misogynist running mate, JD “Shady” Vance, in 2016 called Donald Trump, “America’s Hitler,” (before he became a Trump sycophant) it was really a dictator too far. Trump, the racist felon and serial liar candidate for the US presidency, is far more like Benito Mussolini than Hitler in many ways. Of course, I realize their political careers are not parallel and that Trump has not yet managed to be the dictator he so clearly plans to be if re-elected (a dictator only on … click below for more ↓

A Time for Political Optimism at Last

MAGA cultists / Politics / Rightwing claptrap / US Politics5 Comments

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After many dreary months of the relentless, pounding negativity, insults, accusations, lies, deflections, racism, and rage-farming of a convicted felon, tax cheat, and serial liar Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, we now have a significant counterbalance to give us — including those of us outside the USA — hope for America’s political and social future: Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Wow. What a change. Instead of the vituperative MAGA firehose of lies, insults, slurred and mispronounced words, cognitive slips, more lies, racist and misogynist insults, sleazy … click below for more ↓

Trump and the Trojans

MAGA cultists / Politics / Rightwing claptrap / US Politics2 Comments

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Donald Trump — aging, obese convicted felon with more criminal trials pending, serial liar, serial adulterer, business fraud, con man, tax cheat, rapist who boasted about his sexual assaults, misogynist who boasted about it and continually insults women, racist, bankrupted casino and hotel owner, scam artist, spray-painted sneaker and printed-in-China bible salesman, thief of classified documents, grifter who stole from a children’s cancer charity to line his own pockets, indicted four times, con artist who scammed students at his fake university, wannabe dictator in serious … click below for more ↓

No Dog in That Fight, But I Still Care About the Results

Canadian Politics / MAGA cultists / Politics / US Politics2 Comments

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As a Canadian, I can only watch US politics from afar, albeit with unease. My comments on events and issues there are those from an armchair observer who has no dog in the ongoing, and increasingly bitter partisan fights. Like a lot of voices on social media, mine is that of an outsider. But… like any citizen of this planet who is concerned about our collective future, I have an interest in the outcome of the upcoming US election, just as I have one in … click below for more ↓

Trump, Ozymandias, and the Hubris of Ambition

MAGA cultists / Politics / Rightwing claptrap / US Politics5 Comments

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Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! wrote Percy Bysshe Shelley in his 1817 poem, Ozymandias, the ancient king who called himself in the poem, the ” king of kings.” I was thinking about that poem as I watched the news that an AR-15-wielding, fellow MAGA Repugnican had shot at the convicted felon and wannabe-dictator Donald Trump at one of his hate rallies. Do you know the name of the person the shooter actually killed? Or the two people seriously wounded? Of course not, … click below for more ↓

Christofascists Make Their Move in Oklahoma

MAGA cultists / Talibangelists and pseudo-Christians / US PoliticsOne Comment

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The MAGA pseudo-Christians in the USA have recently been making bold moves toward implementing their oppressive theocracy and making Gilead a reality in their states. Louisiana required one of the two biblical Ten Commandments to be posted in every classroom (albeit without identifying which of the two even though they have significant differences). Now Oklahoma has decreed that “all schools must incorporate the Bible and the Ten Commandments in curriculums.” No one is surprised that when ranking education in the 50 states, these are always … click below for more ↓

The Litter That’s Killing Everything and Everyone

Collingwood / Environment / Ineptitude and bungling / Manners & Civility / Politics / Social Order & DisorderOne Comment

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Four and a half trillion. That’s how many cigarette butts are estimated to be littered every year on our streets, sidewalks, parks, downtowns, parking lots, lawns, and everywhere else smokers feel entitled to leave them. That’s 4,500,000,000,000 pieces of toxic, non-biodegradable, chemical-soaked plastic waste that smokers — and smokers alone — pollute the earth with every year. That’s litter deliberately left to poison the water, kill plants and wildlife, and remain in the environment for more than a decade, doing their damage. An estimated 1.69 … click below for more ↓

Donald Trump and the Art of Victimhood

Christianity / Rightwing claptrap / Talibangelists and pseudo-Christians / US Politics6 Comments

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Persecution. It’s a deeply-ingrained core component of the myth of Christian history, and well-weaponized in modern times by rightwing politicians who depend on the support from both the faithful and the pseudo-Christian Talibangelists. We’re under attack, they claim, justifying their own attacks on other faiths and non-believers. They use the imagined threat of persecution against Christians to justify book banning and book burning, forced prayer in schools, cuts to education, closing libraries, cuts to healthcare, bans on same-sex marriage, and restrictions on women’s reproductive rights. … click below for more ↓

A 30-Year-Old Warning About Rising Fascism

Books & Reviews / Canadian Politics / Politics / Rightwing claptrap / US Politics6 Comments

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Convicted felon and insurrection supporter Donald Trump claimed in a media conference after his trial that, because the justice system works, Americans are “living in a fascist state.” It’s not the first time Trump has used the term to describe opponents or their accomplishments. Last month he told donors Biden was “running a Gestapo administration” and added that Biden is “surrounded by fascists around the Oval Office.” But Trump and his supporters have been using the term to describe opponents — including those in his … click below for more ↓

May 30: The Day Justice Prevailed

Politics / Rightwing claptrap / US Politics4 Comments

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O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! He chortled in his joy. Thirty-four criminal charges and found guilty for every one of them. Thirty four! Of course, I don’t have to tell you the name of the person, since the whole world knows whose recent court case I’m writing about. And have been celebrating about, ever since the verdict came in.* May 30, 2024, was a historic day everyone will remember like they remember 9/11, the day Kennedy was shot, and the day the Canadian hockey team … click below for more ↓

The Rise of the New Fascists and Their Threat to Democracy

Canadian Politics / International politics / Politics / Rightwing claptrap / Talibangelists and pseudo-Christians / US Politics12 Comments

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I wonder if this was how my father felt in England, watching the rise of fascism in Europe in the 1920s and ’30s. By the time of my father’s 20th birthday, Mussolini had already secured his one-party-state in Italy; Hitler was elected and appointed chancellor. He would do the same in Germany within six months. While these two tightened their authoritarian hold on their nations, Stalin in the USSR would begin his Great Purge, and Franco would join the coup that led him to fascist … click below for more ↓

The Death of Truth in the Trump Era

Canadian Politics / Political fads / Politics / Rightwing claptrap / US Politics5 Comments

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The ongoing criminal trial of Donald Trump (the first one; others are to follow) continues to expose the difference between what he and his followers believe and anything related to evidence, truth, or facts. Trump lies. Blatantly, shamelessly, openly, and frequently. He lies so often that quite literally nothing he says can be trusted as truthful or factual. It’s not simply opponents who are aware of his lies. His followers must know too, because his lies are so glaringly obvious and are debunked in all … click below for more ↓

On the Bay’s Libertarian Piffle

Collingwood / Ideologies / Local media / Politics / Rightwing claptrap5 Comments

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Less (sic) taxes is, for On the Bay‘s publisher David Loopstra, a “solution” for the problems of inflation. It’s certainly not the solution for correct grammar, where he should have written fewer taxes or the phrase “less in taxes.” You can only get away with saying less if the noun is singular (tax). Perhaps I expected too much of a former newspaper reporter and editor. But regardless of his foray into the bad vernacular, his opinion piece in the magazine is merely poorly-informed libertarian piffle. … click below for more ↓

Why Are Canada’s Conservatives Opposed to Everything Good?

Canadian Politics / Politics / Rightwing claptrap5 Comments

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Canada used to be known worldwide as a nation of nice people. Canadians were thought of as polite, cheerful, compassionate, caring, respectful, honest, and helpful. We said please and thank you. We opened doors for people. We opened our homes and took in people in trouble. We gave aid to others. We were so well respected worldwide that American travellers sewed Canadian flags on their backpacks so people would not think they were actually Americans. But all that has changed. And I blame the conservatives … click below for more ↓

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