A Guest Post from Alby Damned
If you’re collected indications that Trump is either different or incompetent, take your pick, here’s one that went mostly unnoticed: No Friday news dump. Then again, they’ve been dumping all week, so maybe it was time to rinse out the dumpsters.
It’s almost impossible to keep up with the pace of the news, which is by design. Both Houses of Congress and the President were elected by a minority of the voters, and they want to get as much rammed through as they can before opposition can coalesce. The size of the Women’s Marches rattled them. As we learned Friday from a leaked tape of a closed-door strategy/bitch session, they’re figuring out that wrecking the health-care system on principle and promises might not look so hot to the voters 22 months from now.
The Russian angle hasn’t gotten a lot of ink the past couple of weeks, but that might change now that Moscow has charged three cybersecurity people with treason. They might be patsies, but why set them up if Russia is innocent?
Chuck Todd’s sad search for a clue continues in this self-flagellating interview with the Washington Times (don’t worry, link won’t take you there). What they should have told us, he says, is that Hillary was hated in the heartland, but he seems to have no real understanding of why that might be:
I’m sure this will come as an incredible shock, but the woman at the center of the Emmett Till case admits she was lying:
It’s more than 50 years later and we still have to chant “Black Lives Matter.”
Has Godwin’s Law been revoked yet? If you’re not thinking about how Germany succumbed to Hitler, your head is in the sand. Here’s the take of an actual history professor:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/01/27/how-the-nazis-took-control-of-germany.html
Protest marches might not have deposed Hitler, but they’re certainly driving Trump crazier.
The protests in Philadelphia Thursday lasted far longer than my legs did. I got to Thomas Paine Plaza about 10:30, before the health care rally was supposed to begin at 11, and several hundred already had gathered. The organizers and a few SEIU members were there to represent the old guard, but the bulk of the crowd was young millennials, especially LGBT and women’s rights people, along with a large contingent of middle-aged women from the city and suburbs who had no activist affiliation who wanted to be seen and heard. But that’s just a generalization. I met people a recently laid-off 50-something from Delco, four medical students from Jefferson marching in their white coats, people with Bernie shirts and Hillary signs, lots of fired-up women of every description — a few in kitty hats but most wearing something pink — who refuse to take this crap quietly.
At its peak, the daytime crowd contained 2,000 to 3,000 people, with another 200 or 300 gathered at barricaded intersections. As with any civilized protest these days, there was provender aplenty and even a few vendors with march-themed merch. Most of the older, middle-class folks headed home in the early afternoon, and by 3:30 I was ready to do the same.
That wasn’t the end of things, though. Earlier in the day a reporter for Philly Voice interviewed me; this guy must have had the night shift:
http://www.phillyvoice.com/watch-police-protesters-scuffle-during-thursday-nights-march/
This sort of protest might seem small compared to the crowds of Jan. 21, but it was a fair bit larger than those held in the city in the election’s immediate aftermath. It helps to keep the pressure on.
It can’t be repeated often enough: There is no point in trying to hold a rational conversation with a diehard Trump supporter. Here’s why:
Science is cool, especially when the scientists are throwing shade at each other. Today’s fight: Did researchers succeed in squeezing hydrogen into a metal?
Alby Damned is the nom de guerre of retired journalist and talk show host Al Mascitti. He lives in Hockessin.