tingilinde

now where have I seen something like that before?

A US Attorney General who doesn't understand the Constitution.  Here's Paul Krugman's commentary.

 

 

 

oh yeah...

 

 

on the beginning of the viking age

Commentary on a project that is studying the beginnings.

 

 

right-wing populism in the us

Plutocrats and Pitchforks by Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson

snip

...

The coalition between establishment forces in Congress and right-wing populists in the White House is neither stable nor peaceful. Power has clearly shifted to the Executive Branch. It is Trump, rather than congressional leaders, who attracts the loyalty of Republican voters. Establishment figures who insist on independence have exited the White House and Congress. Fear of their own voters and fear that the GOP cannot survive Trump’s collapse bind the party’s political elites to him, even as his dangers to the party—and the nation’s fragile social cohesion—become ever more apparent.

Back in the quaint old days of 2010, President Obama observed that perhaps we just had to wait for “the fever to break.” Indeed, it is clear this cannot go on. But whether the resolution of the GOP’s three-decade march away from normal democratic politics will take the form of a salutary electoral backlash or a devastating crisis of the American political regime is difficult to say. What can be said is that roots of Trumpism go back much farther than the short presidential career of Donald J. Trump. It will take much more than a lost reelection bid to purge the GOP of the plutocratic populism that increasingly defines American politics.

..

Interesting piece, but I suspect the roots of this go back further.

 

 

when wernher von braun's rocket almost killed his father

A fascinating post by Keith Cowing.

 

dealing with walls - the little escape

The story is rightfully famous.. BMW has a video on it:

 

 

and here's a good backgrounder

 

how many republicans in the house and senate are earl landgrebe clones?

Famous for his Nixon defense..

(reading about Nixon's demise these days)

 

 

 

progress the republicans are fighting

What California did .. (via The Washington Post)

 

 

fear based politics

Political Scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt wrote the well-received book How Democracies Die. Here's their NYT's opinion piece on the greatest threat to democracy in America.

snip

...

Such a transformation is less far-fetched than it may appear right now; indeed, the Republican National Committee recommended it in 2013. But parties only change when their strategies bring costly defeat. So Republicans must fail — badly — at the polls.

American democracy faces a Catch-22: Republicans won’t abandon their white identity bunker strategy until they lose, but at the same time that strategy has made them so averse to losing they are willing to bend the rules to avoid this fate. There is no easy exit. Republican leaders must either stand up to their base and broaden their appeal or they must suffer an electoral thrashing so severe that they are compelled to do so.

...

 

 

things a woman couldn't do in 1971

A list of things women couldn't do back then. Serious progress has been made, but not enough.  And now the Republicans want to go back to the pre-1930 era.  Don't expect women's rights to escape unscathed. 

a tip of the hat to sara

 

ps - try after the 20th.. the site is on strike for the climate strike today

 

 

 

 

 

radio traffic analysis in wwi

A long fun read that a few of you will love.

snip

a tip of the hat to Steve