Category Archives: authoritarianism

We’re Living in an Age of Regression

Posted on Tuesday 13 May 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

In Trump’s America, it’s every parent and child out for themselves; Who decides who’s Christian? The government? Fox News says the Qatari bribe to Trump is fine because FDR gave three planes to the Saudis… 80 years ago; Robert Reich … Continue reading →

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Palace in the Sky, For the One

Posted on Monday 12 May 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Several items today about the Trump administration’s acceptance from Qatar of a $400 million luxury 747, for Trump’s personal use; How Trump shrugs off intelligence briefings; he knows what he knows because he’s smart; How the story of a woman … Continue reading →

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Disconnects from Reality, and a Couple Positive Notes

Posted on Sunday 11 May 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

On the one hand, A Truth+ movie about ‘Lizard People’; RFK Jr vows to stop chemtrails; Democrats have a ‘dictatorship mentality’? Texas Christians presume to spend a month celebrating God’s promises; Tom Nichols on a witch hunt at the State … Continue reading →

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How the US is retreating into tribalism

Posted on Saturday 10 May 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

The White House press secretary, addressing the firing of the head of the Library of Congress, is either ignorant, stupid, or lying; How the natalist movement, perhaps led by Elon Musk, relies on endless growth, which is not plausible; To … Continue reading →

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Trump 100

Posted on Tuesday 29 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Trump’s 100 days, with charts; Even the conservative Wall Street Journal considers Trump’s a “failed presidency”; Now the administration is looking to jail journalists; How MAGA loves public meltdowns; How Hegseth boasts of axing a program as “woke” that was … Continue reading →

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Tribal Warpaint

Posted on Sunday 27 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

How Trump doesn’t want to govern, and rejects the idea of American government as a collaboration; How the idea of consumer choice led to the idea of being gay; Trump and covid.gov rewrite the history, as authoritarians do; How Trump … Continue reading →

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What Conservatives Mean by the Deep State

Posted on Tuesday 22 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Namely, anything that interferes with their agenda, in effect the entirety of Jonathan Rauch’s “constitution of knowledge,” since MAGA conservatives don’t truly believe in the Constitution or our system of government; Robert Reich on the billionaire class, that doesn’t care … Continue reading →

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The War Against Intelligence

Posted on Tuesday 22 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Trump’s rage against smart people; Defunding Harvard will hobble medical research that would benefit people like us; Historian Lauren Thompson compares the Gilded Age to the Trump Age; Trump and Vance praised b conservatives for lying about abortion; Hegseth purges … Continue reading →

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Perhaps Humanity Has Hit a Conceptual Ceiling

Posted on Sunday 13 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Alternate title: America was supposed to be better than this. Perhaps MAGA is about making America *simpler* again; perhaps what we’re seeing is a rejection of the complexity of the modern world; Why is it Americans love watching crime shows? … Continue reading →

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“An arbitrary, corrupt, mendacious, and utterly incompetent king”

Posted on Saturday 12 April 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Andrew Sullivan on Trump; How Trump supporters rationalize whatever crazy things he does, from Charlie Warzel and Molly Olmstead; Trying to understand what Trump’s crackdown on science will accomplish; Another item about the Christian right’s war on empathy; have I … Continue reading →

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