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Category Archives: Creeping Totalitarianism

A final lesson from the Gilded Age

Sunday, May 27, 2018

One more lesson from the Gilded Age, and, since I’ve now finished Richard White’s The Republic for Which It Stands, this will be the last.  This is not so much a parallel to our own age, but a warning of what we may have to come, assuming we survive the present state of affairs. Toward the […]

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Meanwhile, below the radar

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Recently Mitch McConnell let it be known that he would not let a bill designed to protect the Mueller investigation get to the floor. In this I think he erred, and I’m not speaking from the perspective of a person who cares about the Constitution, but from the perspective of a right wing Republican who […]

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If gerrymandering doesn’t work…

Saturday, March 10, 2018

I’ve given my own opinion that the Democrats will find a way to lose in November, but the Republicans are leaving nothing to chance, as they never do. Gerrymandering and traditional forms of voter suppression may not be enough, so…: President Trump would be able to dispatch Secret Service agents to polling places nationwide during […]

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A prediction

Monday, February 12, 2018

Here’s a bit of good news: A political science professor with no management experience and controversial views about redistricting is no longer being considered for the top operational role at the Census Bureau. The White House had been considering Thomas Brunell, a political science professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, for the role […]

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Taking a page or two from Orwell

Saturday, December 30, 2017

I’m pretty sure that when Orwell wrote 1984 he meant it as a warning, but it really looks like Republicans consider it a how-to book. Recently we heard that the folks at the Center for Disease Control were barred from saying certain words. Now we learn that when the facts don’t fit the narrative, you […]

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Hello, Fellow Peasants

Saturday, December 2, 2017

It now looks like only a miracle will prevent the passage of the Transfer the Money from the Masses to the Aristocrats tax deform bill. That miracle is not likely to happen, so I think it’s safe to say that we can declare today to be the official beginning of the American plutocracy, which perhaps […]

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Supreme Court about to legalize discrimination

Sunday, September 17, 2017

It’s more than likely the case that the Supreme Court is about to legalize anti-Gay discrimination in the name of free speech and/or religious freedom. The case arises out of the refusal of a baker to make a wedding cake for a gay couple. It’s terribly unfair, he says, that he should be asked to […]

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Meanwhile, under the radar

Saturday, August 19, 2017

It may very well be that Donald Trump is destroying the Republican Party from within. He is apparenlty (whether intentionally or not, who can say?) fomenting a civil war in the party, and he is certainly setting the stage for an electoral turnaround that even the Democrats may not be able to blow. So, things […]

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Connecticut Delegation disgraces itself

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

I think this is the worst thing that Joe Courtney has done since he voted to condemn Moveon years ago.: Last week, House Republicans pushed through an invidious bill they’ve cynically dubbed “Kate’s Law” that would impose draconian mandatory minimum sentences on those who attempt to re-enter the country illegally—and which would have done nothing […]

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Someday I’ll tell you I told you so

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

I believe I’ve made this observation before, but I want to repeat myself, so when it happens, like Trump I can say “I told you so”. What brought this to mind was the editorial in this morning’s Boston Globe, which, in the course of dissing Trump’s twitter mania, made oblique reference to an extremely troubling […]

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