It makes cosmic sense that “Bloodsport” — which was released 30 years ago on Feb. 26 — would be Trump’s favorite movie. It says something about political discourse too: The turning point involves its hero, Frank Dux (Van Damme), proudly punching someone squarely in the dick.
Democracy in Crisis
Posted inOpinion
Democracy in Crisis: ‘Law and Order: SVU’ echoes Trump’s problematic ‘both sides are bad’ narrative
Contrary to a recent Law and Order: SVU episode, the Anglo-American tradition of law enforcement touted by Jeff Sessions has been one of white supremacy — and police departments and sheriff’s offices around the country are still trying to grapple with that.
Posted inOpinion
Democracy in Crisis: Memo hysteria and a Baltimore corruption trial highlight the state of law enforcement in 2018
The national media was largely silent about the vast police misconduct revealed in the Baltimore trial, even though they dovetailed in some uncomfortable ways with the Memo Watch hysteria.
Posted inOpinion
Democracy in Crisis: Citizens are left to address the opioid overdose crisis on their own
Trump’s 24-year-old frat-boy drug czar is out, and we’re left with a vindictive DOJ. So, around the country, advocates of a harm-reduction approach to the drug overdose crisis are taking matters into their own hands.
Posted inOpinion
U.S. Attorney’s Office drops some charges against Inauguration Day protesters, but continues prosecuting others
On Thursday, federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C. dropped charges against 129 of the remaining 188 people facing rioting charges during the DisruptJ20 protests on Donald Trump’s inauguration last January. The decision comes after a jury found all six of the defendants in the first round of trials not guilty on all charges on Dec. 21.
Posted inOpinion
Democracy in Crisis: Fire and ‘Fire and Fury’
Steve Bannon is the antihero of Fire and Fury, Michael Wolff’s ribald and riveting account of the early days of the Trump regime. Even if you read the bestseller with a grain of salt, it’s clear Trump, Bannon and his motley crew of enablers all believed the American people would never elect President Trump.
Posted inOpinion
Democracy in Crisis: How Screwed Are We in 2018?
At the beginning of 2017, we were in purgatory. Remember the interregnum, after we elected Trump but before he took office? We knew it would be bad, but we also had no idea how bad or what to expect. Then Trump took office. Hundreds of people were arrested on Inauguration Day. Tens of thousands came out for the Women’s March. People spontaneously stormed airports when Trump’s first travel ban went into effect.
Posted inOpinion
Democracy in Crisis: 10 of Trump’s insane tweets
I got drunk recently and read all 2,735 tweets that Donald Trump had written since the election in the hopes that Trump’s Twitter feed, collected and searchable on trumptwitterarchive.com, might be a good way to get a sense of the horrors we’ve endured.
Posted inCommunity/News
Democracy in Crisis: Jackson Mayor on Trump’s visit to the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum
Noted racist and U.S. President Donald Trump had the audacity to attend the opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson last Saturday.
Posted inOpinion
Democracy in Crisis: James O’Keefe and Project Veritas have no claim to the word ‘truth’
Project Veritas, the creepo undercover right-wing sting team run by James O’Keefe, spent months trying to fool The Washington Post into printing false accusations against theocrat and alleged pedophile Roy Moore in order to undermine the real allegations made by women that he was sexually inappropriate with them when they were minors.
Posted inOpinion
Democracy in Crisis: Dude columnist struggles with what it means to be a ‘good man,’ female editor has doubts
Mary Finn, an editor with Democracy in Crisis, often makes extensive notes on my columns —
in this case, we decided they were far more interesting than the column itself. So we left them, in dialogue with a half-formed column.
Posted inOpinion
Democracy in Crisis: Protestors arrested on Trump’s Inauguration Day are facing felony charges
The J20 caseis the first mass trial, beginning this week. Most of the defendants were arrested on Inauguration Day, after a protest (which the government has called a riot) resulted in several broken windows and other damage. Police officers threw more than 70 “non-lethal” grenades, sprayed dozens of canisters of pepper spray and cordoned off around 200 people in a “kettle” flanked by riot police and walls on all sides.
