The 2020 Presidential Election Certification

Past Present Podcast, Episode 261

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 ...
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The Seamy Side of the Politics of Small Things

Turkey Poland, China, the United States and beyond

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, ...
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The Seamy Side of the Politics of Small Things

Creatures of Habit

From Our First Zombie President to Ling Ma’s Severance

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 ...
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Creatures of Habit

Oppression, Resistance and High-Tech Totalitarianism

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 ...
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Oppression, Resistance and High-Tech Totalitarianism

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

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 ...
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Is Trump Right Not to Surrender?

Yes, Biden Should Call Out Trump’s Lawlessness

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

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 ...
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Yes, Biden Should Call Out Trump’s Lawlessness

Disqualifying Instability

On the selective application of rule of law principles

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 ...
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Disqualifying Instability

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

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

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

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

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, ...
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Stoking the Flames