Category Archives: Politics

“This is what grudging benevolence rooted in a sense of personal superiority and belief in the power of performance looks like.”

The Washington Post: In Puerto Rico, Trump’s paper-towel toss reveals where his empathy lies.

“Nicholas Vargas, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Florida, noted that Trump doesn’t approach everyone in such a state of callous disconnect. In August, Trump said there were “very fine people“ among the white supremacists at a rally in Charlottesville that left a counterprotester dead. Soon after, he pardoned former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, formally expressing concern for a man known for racially profiling Latinos and housing jail inmates outdoors in tents.

In these cases, Trump showed compassion.

“But when it comes to Puerto Rico and the humanitarian crisis there, what we see is a hands-off, bitter, hardly restrained resentment that anything is expected of him at all,“ said Vargas, who studies issues related to race and ethnicity. “This is a man who has the capacity to empathize. It — even in a catastrophe — is just a selective thing.“

These images show a president without mercy for certain human beings, “people unlike him,“ Vargas said. “That is women, people of color — even in the most dire of circumstances.“ “

Der neue europäische Rechtsradikalismus

Die Zeit Campus: Martin Sellner hört Hip-Hop und hasst den Islam. “Er postet Selfies bei Instagram und will Ausländer rauswerfen. Er war mal Neonazi, jetzt hat er ein neues Projekt: Rechtsradikalismus hip machen.”

“Die Identitären, scheint es, sind ein Allzweckgefäß: Den alten Rechten versprechen sie Nachwuchs, eine gewisse Jugendlichkeit und trotzdem traditionelle Werte. Für die jungen Rechtsradikalen in den Burschenschaften und den Bier- und Wurstkneipen ist der provokante aktionistische Ansatz der Identitären zusammen mit der Öffentlichkeitsarbeit auf allen Social-Media-Kanälen ein Weg, sich als größer, cooler und einflussreicher zu inszenieren, als es ihre Mitgliederzahlen jemals hergeben würden.”

“She lives in a tiny rented shed that has no plumbing. She gets water from a brother who lives in a trailer across the road.”

Washington Post: After the check is gone. “The underground economy has long been a part of rural America, where some receiving disability benefits are forced to work to survive.”

“Mallory, W.Va. — For the people of the hollow, opportunity begins where the road ends, and that was where they now went, driving onto a dirt path that vanished into forest. It was here that they came at the end of the month, when the disability checks were long gone, and the next were still days away, and the only option left was also one of the worst.

The goal was simple. Get to the top of the mountain. Collect as many wild roots as possible to sell to a local buyer. Avoid the copperheads and rattlesnakes. Descend before the rains came again and flooded their way out.”

And this is not in a third-world-coutry, it’s in the country that calls itself the “greatest country on earth”.

“Two 3-year-old boys were shot by another toddler who found and inadvertently fired a gun at the home of their babysitter in Dearborn, Mich.”

Washington Post: American toddlers are still shooting people on a weekly basis this year.

“The Dearborn boys are at least the 42nd and 43rd people to get shot by a child under the age of 4 this year, according to a database of accidental child-involved shootings maintained by Everytown, a gun violence prevention group. On average, someone gets shot by an American toddler a little more frequently than once a week, similar to previous years.”

“It’s a public safety issue, and something needs to be done already.”

Jimmy Kimmel Live: Jimmy Kimmel on Mass Shooting in Las Vegas. (YouTube, 9:54min)

It’s incomprehensible to this European why gun laws have not been changed in the US a long time ago and why they probabbly won’t be changed after this tragedy.

Washington Post Opinion: Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue on guns was very powerful. It’s not enough, Jimmy.. By Greg Sargent.

“Polarization in Congress is worse than at any time in memory, and negative partisanship is on the rise. GOP lawmakers risk angering their own voters if they moderate or compromise. Then there’s the “minority rule“ problem. Gerrymandered districts and population clustering mean GOP lawmakers have to worry less about mainstream public opinion. And recall: In the Senate, a majority did vote after the Newtown shooting for expanded background checks, but it was filibustered by then-minority Republicans. (This is another way guns are different from health care, on which a Senate majority did carry the day.) If Dems take back the Senate, 60 votes will be needed for gun reform again. The problem is not the NRA’s money. It’s the self-reinforcing interaction between GOP ideological conviction, minority rule, and structural malaise.

It is important that Kimmel is mobilizing people. The best hope for countering these things is for Democrats to win more elections, and getting the base fired up is key to that. It would also be folly to expect Kimmel to turn his show into a political science seminar by discussing these dreary problems. But if there is anyone who might find a way to make them more entertaining and accessible, it’s Kimmel. Maybe he should try.”