John Oliver on Charlotte

I was really disappointed by the US President's response to the violence this weekend.  I struggled with some kind of response to that and didn't want to stare blankly at ugly events in my country.  I'm still at a loss but meanwhile, someone else was very disappointed.

Fear at the heart of the American experience

It's an admittedly left-leaning analysis but I think many of the concepts of an ongoing national paranoia are hard to ignore.  More than anything it helps underline that fear is undoubtedly a kind of commodity.

Politics near and far

One trying to explain the last several months: Trump wants to be communications director, not the president and one big picture: what happens when a political party abandons their ideas.

Related articles: Analysis of the rather strange psychology of a very strange situation.  Also, someone may just not be having fun.

Fox News and women

This was hard to watch but kind of important.  I know too many women who are -- in an ongoing way -- catching this same crap on a daily basis in areas where you'd expect professionalism.

If I were one of the (as of today) 23 women running Fortune 500 companies, I definitely wouldn't think this was funny.

More politics with bite

An article from the L.A. Times on the train wreck presidency and another one from Bill Maher

On a lighter note, an analysis of the growing importance of clear satire in a culture of political obfuscation.

Not what I ordered

Another look at what was promised versus what was delivered in 2017 for the American presidency from Bill Maher and Maureen Dowd.

The party double-standard

I think I reference Maher too much, but I was pleased with someone drawing from a wide history of American politics to make a case against the current political climate.

I have no idea what I'm doing

It's a comedy show take on really embarrassing politics but part of me is horrified by the clownishness implied by this analysis.  There's not being diplomatic, there's being uninformed, there's being kind of a dick and then there's this.  Just astonishing.

Something else I watched did make me feel a bit better, if only a little.

Give me your tired, your poor ... or nevermind

Bad news from President Trump.  I can't remember how many times I read an article or heard some argument about how he was actually going to end up being a centrist.  Instead, we have replaced a reasonable immigration policy with xenophobia.

More election views

Various looks at the recent election from a satire track:

• Colbert's Pizzagate
• Electoral Confidence

Other views

• Trump as magician

More academic approaches

• Chomsky
• Cornell West

Political-bizarro land

Never mind the cabinet picks, the business conflicts of interest, and the complete disinterest on uniting an obviously divided country.  Now, aggressive moves to interfere with an election are being ignored.  I'd call it exciting if it wasn't so totally insane.

Pain now, pain later?

Two interesting articles that try to address concerns around the (at the time of this writing) president-elect both now and in the future.  Here's hoping this turns some kind of corner.

Rise of the demagogue in American elections

Vox presents a look at the current Republican political landscape, the media that feeds on itself, and why it may be out of scope with what the founding fathers established.  Note that this was produced before the election and supposes (wrongly) that Trump would lose, making it that much more pointed.

Most crucial is that this is not the last we'll see if this phenomenon where a small minority of the electorate determines course for everyone else.

The world and the US

In what is a very grim and ugly time here in the states, I was please to see this from Denmark and this from Canada.

Thanks to both of them.

Interesting climate change items

• Great explanation of why we're reacting so poorly: we're not built for this 
• The Pope's views
• The burden of proof problem in the global warming argument

Political overcorrection

An interesting analysis of the current extremely bizarre election coverage: the media desperately wants to be seen as objective but at the expense of simple fact-checking.

Equally illuminating is a Guardian article suggesting a possible interpretation of the current landscape was very welcome, seeing it as a larger GOP over-response to Obama.

(Note that this post was formerly two separate posts.)

They went down to the crossroads

In my struggle to understand the political events of the 2016 Republican convention (and everything else going on) I found this interpretation. 

White people responsible for all of civilization?

While a piece of what we understand as civilization as a whole certainly came from the Greeks, let's just say not everyone there looked like all the Irish guys from the movie 300.  I don't expect Steve King's understanding of history is much better than that.

It's amusing to think of the general lack of contributions by Europeans to the world at large during the 400 years often called the "Dark Ages", but even that is too dull a statement.  Instead, let's just note a few things civilization could have done without:

• 100 Years War
• Hitler
• Destruction of the Library of Alexandria
• European Imperialism
• Fanta and Mentos

Sigh.

A step past satire

None of the other responses to the mass-shooting in Orlando sounded like anything I hadn't heard 20x before so it was nice to hear Samatha Bee say something new.

The Donald Drumpf

John Oliver's majestic, probably overdue teardown of the current phenomenon that is (what looks like) the US Republican nominee for President.  Having followed many of the topics covered over the course of the last few months, it's nice to see them packaged as a broad counter-argument to the candidacy.

Alternatively, there is a synopsis in case you don't feel like watching the whole video.

The related website is also amusing.

Related: Conservatism in this decade