Book Burning is Back – With A Twist

Trump Signs Executive Order Unwinding Obama Climate Policies
Coral Davenport / New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Trump signed on Tuesday a much-anticipated executive order intended to roll back most of President Barack Obama’s climate-change legacy, celebrating the move as a way to promote energy independence and to restore thousands of lost coal industry jobs….

When, instead of paper compilations — e.g. “books” — the information itself is being deleted, wouldn’t that qualify as “book burning” in the most existential sense?

A member of the SA throws confiscated books into the bonfire during
the public burning of “un-German” books on the Opernplatz in Berlin.
U.S. National Archives, via  United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Because that’s what Der Trumpf and his minions are doing.

Fissures of Men

In order to protect our country from the anecdotal scourge of murderous rapist foreigners, first it is important to declare war on one’s own cities:

AG Jeff Sessions takes aim at sanctuary cities, says DOJ will cut funding
Meghan Keneally / ABC News

—  Attorney General Jeff Sessions made a surprise appearance at today’s White House press briefing, slamming cities that are working to actively ignore the federal law to turn over people who are living in the country illegally….

Come to think of it, the cities are just the latest in a long string of declarations of war this maladministration is heir to: the ongoing war against the press, the idiotic angering, insulting and angering of our allies:

The Brightest Unlit Candles in the Room

The more I think about it, the more I wish I’d pushed my book “Reality 101” a LOT harder. Because, fundamentally, it was a primer on political disinformation. C’est la vie.

Rachel Maddow Turned a Scoop on Donald Trump’s Taxes Into a Cynical, Self-Defeating Spectacle
Willa Paskin / Slate

— At 7:36 p.m. Tuesday, Rachel Maddow tweeted, “BREAKING: We’ve got Trump tax returns. Tonight, 9pm ET. MSNBC. (Seriously),” sending the internet into a frenzy of theorizing. Did Maddow have Donald Trump’s tax returns or just one of the Trumps’ tax returns?\

And thence the snark: Rachel was too wordy, there wasn’t enough tax return, etc. etc.

Which State(s) Ought to Die?

I have had a little meme for a while that is funny because it’s true:  Progressives protest war and torture; Conservatives protest health care and science.

Seldom has this been more true than today:

House GOP’s Obamacare Replacement Will Make Coverage Unaffordable For Millions — Otherwise, It’s Great
Avik Roy / Forbes

That’s not an ironic headline.  Leading House Republicans have included a number of transformative and consequential reforms in their American Health Care Act, the full text of which was published Monday evening. But those reforms are overshadowed by the bill’s stubborn desire to make health insurance unaffordable for millions of Americans, and trap millions more in poverty. Can such a bill garner the near-universal Republican support it will need to pass Congress?

As someone whose life was literally saved by Obamacare, I find the sheer callousness of the conservative response obscene. I am not going to go into the weeds here, but …

Tripping Over the Limbo Bar

“This was the most conventional speech Trump has ever delivered.” ~ NPR

Ex-Clinton volunteer slammed, loses job, after swipe at widow of fallen SEAL
Fox News

A former Hillary Clinton volunteer drew swift condemnation — and lost his job — after mocking the widow of a fallen Navy SEAL who was honored by the president during his congressional address Tuesday night.

 

The Limbo dance is sometimes known as the “under the stick dance” and comes to us from Trinidad in the mid-19th Century. The point is to dance under a horizontal stick which is progressively lowered until, ultimately, it is physically impossible to get under the stick. Last dancer “standing” wins. In the Donald Trump Limbo, the stick has been lowered to the ground, where the only remaining expectation is that no one trips over it and falls, injuring themselves or some innocent animal.

Last night, in one of the greatest Nothingburgers™ ever served up to a joint session of congress, in an ersatz “State of the Union” address, Donald Trump didn’t fall down.