Same as it ever was. Same. As it ever was.

Last updated on: June 25, 2018 at 4:17 pm by Fred Clark

Same as it ever was. Same. As it ever was. 2018-06-25T16:17:10-04:00 Fred Clark

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

• Here is a six-year-old Frank McNally column from the Irish Times, cataloging “the history of Ireland in 100 insults.” It is both a delightful read and a valuable reference that you may want to bookmark/study/memorize for future use.

I found my way there courtesy of Charlie Pierce, whose latest symphony of appropriate invective had me Googling the word “thooleramawn.” The conclusion of Pierce’s column is good and beautiful and true:

Who knows, maybe if Elliott Abrams had been chased out of a few DC bistros in the 1980s, Archbishop Oscar Romero and four American nuns would still be alive. … SarahHuck is the lying mouthpiece of a lying regime that is one step away from simply hauling people off in trucks. That she was politely told to take her business elsewhere is a small step towards assigning public responsibility to public officials that enable a perilous brand of politics. There are bigger steps to be taken, but everyone in official Washington is too damn timid to do what really needs to be done about this band of pirates.

• “40 Ways White People Say ‘White People’ Without Actually Saying ‘White People’”

• The National Enquirer is not just Trump-friendly, it’s Trump-aligned. David Pecker, chief exec of the gossip-rag’s parent company, has actively worked to make the supermarket-checkout fixture a campaign asset for Trump and Trumpism. The Washington Post’s Sarah Ellison reports:

During the presidential campaign, National Enquirer executives sent digital copies of the tabloid’s articles and cover images related to Donald Trump and his political opponents to Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen in advance of publication, according to three people with knowledge of the matter — an unusual practice that speaks to the close relationship between Trump and David Pecker, chief executive of American Media Inc., the Enquirer’s parent company.

Although the company strongly denies ever sharing such material before publication, these three individuals say the sharing of material continued after Trump took office.

“Since Trump’s become president and even before, [Pecker] openly just has been willing to turn the magazine and the cover over to the Trump machine,” said one of the people with knowledge of the practice.

This would be a good day to talk with the manager of your local supermarket about no longer confronting customers with this pernicious, dishonest fake-news vehicle at every counter. Continuing to shove this hideous Pecker in customers’ faces is disrespectful and contemptuous, reflecting an all-too Trumpian disdain for customers as suckers and rubes to be strung along and exploited with constant lies.

Consider the character traits to which every cover of the National Enquirer is designed to appeal: prurience, nosiness, nastiness, credulity, indignation, envy, vanity, spite, resentment, cruelty, ugliness of every stripe. That’s what this rag is designed to cultivate. That is what it assumes you are and accuses you of being every time you pass it there at the checkout counter. Having the Enquirer shoved in your face every time you stop for a gallon of milk is no different than having the manager of that supermarket flip you off every time you go shopping.

Yet somehow that sort of thing never seems to upset the self-appointed hall monitors of “civil discourse.”

• Alex Wagner states the obvious for The Atlantic: “The Republican Party Moves From Family Values to White Nationalism.”

Trump has instead redefined his party around white nationalism, which deems brown-skinned men, women, and children of degraded humanity — and therefore absent any inherent value and unworthy of protection. You could see that this week as the president compared immigrant men, women, and children to vermin (they want to “infest our country,” he tweeted). You could see it when his deputy, Stephen Miller, painted migrants as menaces—not candidates for asylum, but rather incarceration. …

… There have been many indications that this — a white nationalist takeover of Republicanism — was coming. In Puerto Rico, when a natural disaster ripped through homes and destroyed the lives of countless families — Hispanic ones — Trump’s response was, effectively, You brought this on yourselves. …

Racial animus has been at the heart of policy prescriptions including mass incarceration and partisan gerrymandering and voter-ID laws, all of which disadvantage Americans of color. It informs the White House responses to Muslim hate crimes and police brutality, or a lack thereof. It remains, consistently, at the core of the worst moments of this presidency — from Charlottesville to Colin Kaepernick — which, coincidentally, are also some of its most defining moments, for detractors and supporters alike.

This has been clear for a long time, but now every fig leaf of potential denial is gone. The Republican Party is the party of Trumpism and Trumpism is white nationalism. Period. If you vote for Republicans, you are voting in support of white nationalism. If you run as a Republican, you are running as a white nationalist. If you do not believe in white nationalism then do not vote for Republicans. If you vote for Republicans, you are participating in and supporting white nationalism. Full stop.

A lot of (white) people won’t be able to understand any of Wagner’s piece because they refuse to allow themselves to accept that white nationalism is an ideology and not just a mean thing to call someone. It’s certainly not praise when we recognize that Trump and a Republican Party shaped by and for Trump are white nationalist, but that is not an insult or mere name-calling. It is simply recognition of the agenda, program, priority and organizing principle guiding Trump’s every action. It’s what he is doing.

• The other day I linked to a version of “Once in a Lifetime” including only David Byrne’s isolated vocals. Here’s another fantastic and revelatory take on that song, from Angelique Kidjo:

class warfare

Decent Stores Do Not Confront Customers With The National Enquirer

immigration

racism

Trump

Previous Post

June 25, 2018

Postcards from the class & culture wars (6.25.18)

Next Post

June 26, 2018 'The Soreno has politely said No'

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category class warfare evangelicals Iraq Left Behind Mammon music Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who tried to lure Nehemiah into a trap to discredit him?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Sanballat and Tobiah Darius and Cyrus Ezra and Eliashib Haggai and Zerubbabel