Just one week into the Trump presidency, the newly inaugurated president and his circle of sycophants are working overtime to convince us that words
Category: Language/Words
Political civility during the Trump administration
If one assumes that “divide and conquer” remains the ruling class’s favorite weapon, many leaders must be applauding Donald Trump for having done such
Trump’s tweets: a taxonomy of trouble
We have done such a poor job of processing Donald Trump’s tweets. Our reaction has always been to immediately parse the literal content. Fact-check
Trump’s inauguration transcript: A demagogue’s dictionary
Trump’s inaugural speech was a speech for the ages: The Dark Ages. If you couldn’t bear to watch it, you can gag your way
Reflections on George Carlin, in the era of Donald Trump
Before capitulating to misanthropy, George Carlin delighted many of us by eviscerating the meritocracy’s treacherous rhetoric. Towards the end of his life, he tragically
Make the pie higher: nostalgia for W in a Trump era
Recent references to Donald Trump’s bizarre ramblings in interview transcripts (Trump’s NYT transcript: Read it, and weep for our country) make one yearn for
The Scrawler strikes again: A Trumpian response to my letter to the editor
Found today in my mailbox—the snail-mail kind: A note in response to my recent letter to the editor in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The
Half of a Yellow Sun: The story of a war Americans hardly remember — Biafra
“Half of a Yellow Sun” is a difficult novel to read, but well worth the effort. It’s not difficult in the sense that you’ll
New political code words: an unofficial glossary
Politicians have been using code words for many years [Remember “states rights,” one of the all-time classic code words, meaning institutionalized segregation and racism?]
Memes: A new form of old-school propaganda
We have to talk about memes. I’m not joking, I swear. It’s kind of disturbing how much of political discourse on social media is