{"id":26803,"date":"2026-01-18T17:29:37","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T01:29:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/?p=26803"},"modified":"2026-02-06T15:21:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T23:21:12","slug":"trying-to-understand-how-modern-life-makes-sense-in-larger-contexts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2026\/01\/18\/trying-to-understand-how-modern-life-makes-sense-in-larger-contexts\/","title":{"rendered":"Trying to Understand How Modern Life Makes Sense in Larger Contexts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I like to think that this blog isn&#8217;t about politics, per se, but about following current events and trying to make sense of them in larger contexts, especially the broad contexts both of history and of what science fiction explores. Though again today, I am cramped for time, so let&#8217;s note these items relatively quickly. And obviously I don&#8217;t have any final answers.<\/p>\n<p>Update 20jan26:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>How Trump is fighting half of America;<\/li>\n<li>How for Trump justice means vengeance;<\/li>\n<li>How Trump is trashing America.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"center\">&#8211; &#8211; &#8211;<\/div>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alternet.org\/media-library\/file-photo-u-s-president-donald-trump-speaks-at-a-ceremony-held-to-dedicate-a-4-mile-stretch-of-road-from-west-palm-beach-airp.jpg?id=62830860&amp;width=1245&amp;height=700&amp;quality=50&amp;coordinates=0%2C260%2C0%2C261\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>AlterNet, Alex Henderson, 18 Jan 2026<\/strong>: <a>Inside Trump&#8217;s &#8216;retribution&#8217; against &#8216;half of America&#8217;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>AlterNet is essentially a consolidation site (as JMG is), and this item is based on an MS Now (formerly MSNBC) piece by Paul Waldman (formerly of Washington Post).<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ms.now\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/260116-trump-map-pi.jpg?resize=1000,666\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>MS Now, Paul Waldman, 18 Jan 2026<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ms.now\/opinion\/trump-ice-minnesota-renee-good-noem-civil-war\">The president of the United States is at war with his own country<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;The Trump administration is engaged in a comprehensive war, and its enemy is half of America.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Is this not obvious or do I need to quote? OK I&#8217;ll quote.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Trump can\u2019t just shut off all federal funding to states he doesn\u2019t like. But no one doubts he would if he could \u2014 or doubts he\u2019s trying to. This is more than bloviation. Something important and dangerous is happening. The Trump administration is engaged in a comprehensive war, and its enemy is half of America. This war is being waged in rhetoric and regulation, budget cuts and violence. Its aim is to tear the country in two.<\/p>\n<p>There is no precedent in modern times for this; one might make an analogy to Reconstruction in the wake of the Civil War, in which the federal government forced the South to accept democracy. But that was for the best of reasons, and Trump\u2019s attempt to bend blue states to his will is for the worst.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p>This states something fairly obvious.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2026\/01\/17\/opinion\/17vengeance-editorial-image\/17vengeance-editorial-image-superJumbo-v3.jpg?quality=75&amp;auto=webp\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>NY Times, The Editorial Board, 17 Jan 2026<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/01\/17\/opinion\/editorials\/trump-second-term-vengence.html\">For Trump, Justice Means Vengeance<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\\<\/p>\n<p>And this.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.newyorker.com\/photos\/696984b4d3b80a24cc2ce432\/master\/w_1600,c_limit\/GLASSER-TRUMP-MINNESOTA-GettyImages-2256091466.jpg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The New Yorker, Susan B. Glasser, 15 Jan 2026<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news\/letter-from-trumps-washington\/the-minnesota-war-zone-is-trumps-most-trumpian-accomplishment\">The Minnesota War Zone Is Trump\u2019s Most Trumpian Accomplishment<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;The President may have started out by trash-talking America; one year into his second term, he is simply trashing it.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I like to think that this blog isn&#8217;t about politics, per se, but about following current events and trying to make sense of them in larger contexts, especially the broad contexts both of history and of what science fiction explores. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2026\/01\/18\/trying-to-understand-how-modern-life-makes-sense-in-larger-contexts\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,48,96,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-authoritarianism","category-conservative-resistance","category-human-nature","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26803"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26929,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26803\/revisions\/26929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}