We’re Looking For A Few Good Reads

And, once more, we’ve no end of interesting articles on the web to consider. Alas, so many of them have to do with Trump, or idiots, or both…

Really scary story over on Splinter, The Eugenicist Doctor and the Vast Fortune Behind Trump’s Immigration Regime, by Brendan O’Connor. Seems that Trump’s minions at ICE and such are influenced by a Think Tank called the Center for Immigration Studies, which is funded by the hugely wealthy Scaife family, and headed up by John Tanton, who just happens to want more white people — and fewer others — in the country. You do remember how the Handmaid’s Tale gets started because White Folks aren’t having enough kids, don’t you?

Meanwhile, there’s a very nice piece at The Washington Post, Here’s how we’ll recover from Trump
by Jennifer Rubin. The Post’s resident conservative writes about the non-partisan group Protect Democracy’s proposals for the revamping of American politics. “It might as well have been titled “What We Do to Fix Trump’s Mess,” she writes.

A rather more depressing piece can be found over on the Atlantic, Abraham Lincoln’s Warning by Conor Friedersdorf. The author argues that Lincoln warned us about Trump when he expressed the fear that we were losing touch with the fundamental values of America as expressed in the Declaration of Independence.

Also depressing, and frightening, is this piece on TruthDig, Trump’s Ever More Powerful Weapons Against Journalism by Jacob Sugarman. In it, Sugarman looks at Trump’s expanding power to silence the media (and critics!) by legal means. Most recently “…the Department of Homeland Security is reportedly compiling a database of journalists, editors, correspondents and bloggers to identify the leading voices in their respective fields.”

We don’t often quote from libertarian journals, but here’s a story that everyone should note. Apparently Facebook’s new algorithms meant to tag hate speech also censored the Declaration of Independence. Reason magazine reports that a local paper, Liberty County Vindicator of Liberty County, Texas, celebrated the Fourth by posting excerpts from the Declaration to its Facebook account. And, surprise! They were deleted. Facebook later restored the postings and apologized, but this is the shape of things to come, folks.

Oh, and on the off chance you hadn’t noticed, Trump just hired former Fox News exec Bill Shine to be his communications Guru. The kicker? As Buzzfield points out, Shine comes with more baggage than the luggage carousel at Chicago O’Hare. He was, you see, Roger Ailes’ main guy, and was later”ousted over the network’s mishandling of sexual harassment.” Apparently, GOP insiders are stunned by Trump’s choice. But, then, they shouldn’t be. After all, Mr. Pussy Grabber In Chief could use an assistant like this. Lots of experience in the field, you see.