The Biden-Harris Inauguration

Past Present Podcast, Episode 263

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: On January 20, President-Elect Joe Biden will be inaugurated to the office of the President. Niki referred to the book Before the Oath. Neil and Natalia referred to Rebecca Onion’s Slate piece on transitions.  In our regular closing feature, What’s Making ...
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The Riot in the Rights

Fascism, freedom and the far-right

The Trump presidency has been a rocky road for pretty much everyone to the left of Trump himself – and not only in the United States. Nonetheless, the efforts of the President’s supporters, at his command, to ‘stop the steal’ and overturn the election result by force really has taken ...
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The Riot in the Rights

Hopeful New Year!

Five Notes Against Despair, 2021

The Covid-19 pandemic is spreading and is ineffectively controlled, as is the global political pandemic, spectacularly on view in Washington, D.C. White supremacy and politicized misogyny, homophobia and transphobia are becoming ever more virulent, supporting an ascendent right-wing authoritarianism around the world. Economic and social inequalities are increasing, as police ...
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Hopeful New Year!

The January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol

Past Present Podcast, Episode 262

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: On January 6, armed rioters interrupted the joint session of Congress convened to certify the vote count of the Electoral College. Natalia referred to this Axios article rounding up conservative media response to the insurrection. Niki mentioned David Blight’s book, ...
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The January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol

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

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

Donald Trump’s Lies

Why presidential falsehoods are part of United States political history

Do Americans think presidential lying no longer matters? Perhaps a better question, journalist and historian Eric Alterman asks in his new book, Lying in State: Why Presidents Lie—and Why Trump is Worse (Basic Books, 2020), is whether it ever mattered to voters. Following in the tradition of Isadore F. “Izzy” ...
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QAnon Will Outlast Trumpism

How a conspiracy theory was born in the Great War and made its way into the 21st century

For the past three years, someone using the alias “Q” has been posting updates to internet forums, supposedly from within the so-called “deep state.” The posts allege a conspiracy: Donald Trump, they say, is fighting a secret war against a cabal of pedophiles and Satanists entrenched in the government. Soon, ...
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QAnon Will Outlast Trumpism

None Dare Call It Treason

Is calling for a military coup Michael Flynn’s payback for his pardon?

On the evening of December 2, Trump’s disgraced former National Security Advisor, retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn-- whom Trump recently pardoned after he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with then-Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak before Trump took office-- retweeted a news release from ...
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None Dare Call It Treason

Democrats Have a Religion Problem

2020 confirms a trend of religious voters moving away from the Democrats, with a few notable exceptions

_____ In a previous essay I demonstrated that Democrats have been consistently losing ground with both people of color and people of faith in virtually every midterm and general election cycle after 2008. Republicans, meanwhile, have seen consistent gains with many constituencies. What occurred in 2016, therefore, was not an aberration – but the culmination ...
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Democrats Have a Religion Problem

Can the Republican Party Move Forward After the Inauguration?

As Biden creates a cabinet that looks like America, Trump is determined to keep hold of a party that has courted White Supremacists for decades

At about 6:00 on Monday, Emily Murphy, the Trump appointee at the head of General Services Administration who has been holding up the transition to a Biden administration, notified President-Elect Joe Biden that she recognizes his status and will release the money set aside for the transition. This should launch ...
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Can the Republican Party Move Forward After the Inauguration?