Politics Archives - Page 51 of 109

Past Present

The 2020 Presidential Election Certification

Past Present Podcast, Episode 261

January 6, 2021 • by Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: On January 6, Congress will meet in a joint session to formally count the votes of the Electoral College. Natalia referred to Trevor Potter’s Washington Post piece underlining that this meeting should be purely ceremonial, not an opportunity for a ...

Past Present

Hallmark Christmas Movies

Past Present Podcast, Episode 260

December 22, 2020 • by Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: The Hallmark Christmas movie is a bona fide super-genre. Niki referred to this New Yorker article about how the form took over cable television, and Natalia drew on this piece at The Lily about the tradition of hate-watching the films. In ...

Democracy

The Seamy Side of the Politics of Small Things

Turkey Poland, China, the United States and beyond

December 22, 2020 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

I recognized that the reviewer had a point and decided to answer the question by adding a chapter: “2004: The Church, the Right and the Politics of Small Things.” In it, I showed how micro-politics, politics in the details of social interaction, in churches with links to the Republican Party, ...

The Seamy Side of the Politics of Small Things

Columnists

The Trump Administration Wanted You and Your Kids to Get Sick

December 17, 2020 • by Heather Cox Richardson

The reality that Joe Biden is about to become president, and Kamala Harris vice president, is sinking in across Washington, and we now have some indications of what that’s going to mean. Stories about what exactly happened in the Trump administration are coming out, and they are not pretty. For members ...

The Trump Administration Wanted You and Your Kids to Get Sick

Literature

Creatures of Habit

From Our First Zombie President to Ling Ma’s Severance

December 17, 2020 • by Russ Castronovo

The main problem with zombies is that they lack self-awareness. The opening words of Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morals— “We are unknown to ourselves”—could serve as a zombie manifesto. Driven by little more than the impulse to consume, zombies shamble along from meal to meal without ever pausing to ...

Democracy

Oppression, Resistance and High-Tech Totalitarianism

December 16, 2020 • by Teng Biao

But most censorship does not directly involve such happenings. It involves fear of such happenings. Perry Link had a classic metaphor - He described the CCP's censorship system as an “Anaconda in the Chandelier”. The silence of the anaconda crouching overhead means “the big brother is watching you!” So everyone will automatically ...

Oppression, Resistance and High-Tech Totalitarianism

North America

Is Trump Right Not to Surrender?

How the Commander in Chief’s refusal to face defeat squares with the U.S. military’s Code of Conduct

December 16, 2020 • by Kelsey Baker

It’s become another endless loop of the Trump administration: the constant refrain that the President won the election, the recurrent assertion that massive fraud occurred on November 3. Sources within the White House have compared the President’s refusal to concede to the ramblings of Mad King George. Ironically, Trump’s refusal to ...

Columnists

Yes, Biden Should Call Out Trump’s Lawlessness

We can’t ignore it. We must face it head-on

December 15, 2020 • by John Stoehr

Joe Biden is full of surprises. After the Electoral College met Monday to finalize the results of the election, the President-Elect delivered a speech I never thought he’d deliver. He did not say you’re with us or against us, but that’s what he righteously implied. And by implication, Biden gave a ...

Yes, Biden Should Call Out Trump’s Lawlessness

Democracy

Disqualifying Instability

On the selective application of rule of law principles

December 15, 2020 • by Ewa Letowska

It’s not that difficult Particularly politicians from Hungary and Poland oppose the conditionality mechanism, arguing that the concept of the rule of law is too vague and has no basis in the treaties. However, it is not true that this mechanism has no treaty basis. It has a basis in Article 322 of the ...

Activism

Worse Than Betsy DeVos? Outside Money Swamps 2020 School Board Elections

A national campaign to privatize public schools continues regardless of who is president

December 15, 2020 • by Jeff Bryant

When a Biden victory in the 2020 presidential election became certain, supporters of public education gleefully took to social media to say good riddance to U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. DeVos came into office with an agenda to further the privatization of public education by expanding charter schools and ...

Worse Than Betsy DeVos? Outside Money Swamps 2020 School Board Elections

Democracy

Could a Form of “Liberal Fascism” Help Solve the World’s Problems?

Rediscovering H. G. Wells

December 14, 2020 • by Emma Planinc

In September 2020, in conjunction with the annual meeting of the United Nations, the World Economic Forum organized a summit meeting on what its leader, Klaus Schwab, was calling “The Great Reset.” The Forum convened leaders “from government, business, international organizations and civil society along with a diverse group of ...

Could a Form of “Liberal Fascism” Help Solve the World’s Problems?

Democracy

Stoking the Flames

The Trump wing of the Republican Party continues its attacks on American democracy as the COVID-19 death toll continues to rise

December 10, 2020 • by Heather Cox Richardson

Today’s big story remains the loss of our neighbors to COVID-19. On Wednesday, the official United States death count for 24 hours passed the number of those killed in the 9/11 attacks. On that horrific day in 2001, we lost 2,977 people to four terrorist attacks. On Wednesday, December 9, ...