Republicans have found continued success in promoting their policies through easily digested three-word slogans. This works especially well as discussions regarding complex solutions find no public forum save for esoteric journals and other under attended media. Not that even a great outcry would matter now. Abbott is imperious in his border ukase. Therefore it comes to my mind that the only wall I now wish to see is the one behind which Abbott and his other two stooges fight among themselves to get to use the chair.
"When the current American president entered the congressional chambers to present his State of the Union message, he was confronted by a Georgia congresswoman wearing a Trump MAGA hat and a tee shirt bearing the command, “Say her name,” a reference to Laken Riley. … The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, who hopes to become head of Homeland Security if Trump is reelected, has yet to publicly speak the name of the soldiers or immigrants who have died as a result of his border circus known as Operation Lone Star."
Do you know if there have been any follow-up investigations into where all the little kids separated from their parents at the border under Trump ended up? I found an article from 2023 that said there are still families to reunite, but what are the chances that a lot of kids were trafficked/“adopted”? It seems like another act of hypocrisy for our wealthier citizens to welcome immigrants they can find a use for (cheap labor, sudden family) while claiming to want better border control.
Just several more of your stories that needed to be told. Also, regardnig the first part, the politics of outrage has polluted our electoral process for quite some recent history. But to illustrate how bad it's gotten, wait for the next round of political advertising.
The dawn of the "politics of outrage" came with Lee Atwater, Reagan and H.W. Bush political consultant, who turned a convicted murderer named Willie Horton, into a campaign commercial. You can guess Willie's race, and the implication of what it meant. Dukakis was accused of being lax on crime and people were dead cuz of Willie and Duke. It's been all downhill ever since, bro.
I had left the Dukakis Administration to come work in Texas about a year earlier before all that was going down. (My kind of guy, and never an embarrassment. I rode the MBTA Green line home from work with him straphanging on many occasions.) I assumed Carl Rove was behind all that. Lloyd Bentsen on the ticket seemed like a wise move on paper -- but didn't seem to help balance. The program under which Horton had been released positively transformed so many more lives and led to a much safer Massachusetts. But you KNEW that. (Atwater did apologize to the Duke on his deathbed, but the fact that it was apparently a pretty horrible death was small consolation.)
I believe Texas is being used by Fascist Abbottini(and trumpy)as a proof of concept for the Day One Dictatorship...hadn't heard about Abbottini's designs on the Homeland Security job but it makes sense...what a team Abbott & Miller would make...
Adam Gopnik's piece in this week's New Yorker: "The forgotten history of Hitler's establishment enablers" should be recommended reading for everybody. The parallels not just to the MAGATs and hooligans but to the rest of the Republicans going along for what they think is in it for them is scary stuff.
Republicans have found continued success in promoting their policies through easily digested three-word slogans. This works especially well as discussions regarding complex solutions find no public forum save for esoteric journals and other under attended media. Not that even a great outcry would matter now. Abbott is imperious in his border ukase. Therefore it comes to my mind that the only wall I now wish to see is the one behind which Abbott and his other two stooges fight among themselves to get to use the chair.
"When the current American president entered the congressional chambers to present his State of the Union message, he was confronted by a Georgia congresswoman wearing a Trump MAGA hat and a tee shirt bearing the command, “Say her name,” a reference to Laken Riley. … The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, who hopes to become head of Homeland Security if Trump is reelected, has yet to publicly speak the name of the soldiers or immigrants who have died as a result of his border circus known as Operation Lone Star."
Thank you for saying their names.
Thanks, my friend, for reading, but more importantly, as always, for caring.
Heartbreaking. 💔
Amen to all!
REPUBLICAN politicians continue to create more problems than they solve.
Keep writing, Jim!
It's in me, Mauri, and it's got to come out!!
Do you know if there have been any follow-up investigations into where all the little kids separated from their parents at the border under Trump ended up? I found an article from 2023 that said there are still families to reunite, but what are the chances that a lot of kids were trafficked/“adopted”? It seems like another act of hypocrisy for our wealthier citizens to welcome immigrants they can find a use for (cheap labor, sudden family) while claiming to want better border control.
Just several more of your stories that needed to be told. Also, regardnig the first part, the politics of outrage has polluted our electoral process for quite some recent history. But to illustrate how bad it's gotten, wait for the next round of political advertising.
The dawn of the "politics of outrage" came with Lee Atwater, Reagan and H.W. Bush political consultant, who turned a convicted murderer named Willie Horton, into a campaign commercial. You can guess Willie's race, and the implication of what it meant. Dukakis was accused of being lax on crime and people were dead cuz of Willie and Duke. It's been all downhill ever since, bro.
I had left the Dukakis Administration to come work in Texas about a year earlier before all that was going down. (My kind of guy, and never an embarrassment. I rode the MBTA Green line home from work with him straphanging on many occasions.) I assumed Carl Rove was behind all that. Lloyd Bentsen on the ticket seemed like a wise move on paper -- but didn't seem to help balance. The program under which Horton had been released positively transformed so many more lives and led to a much safer Massachusetts. But you KNEW that. (Atwater did apologize to the Duke on his deathbed, but the fact that it was apparently a pretty horrible death was small consolation.)
I believe Texas is being used by Fascist Abbottini(and trumpy)as a proof of concept for the Day One Dictatorship...hadn't heard about Abbottini's designs on the Homeland Security job but it makes sense...what a team Abbott & Miller would make...
Adam Gopnik's piece in this week's New Yorker: "The forgotten history of Hitler's establishment enablers" should be recommended reading for everybody. The parallels not just to the MAGATs and hooligans but to the rest of the Republicans going along for what they think is in it for them is scary stuff.