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Authoritarianism

Snyder’s On Tyranny

Prof. Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny: ‘Lesssons from the Twentieth Century’ (2017) recently came my way. By design, it’s a brief presentation of twenty lessons that Snyder has discerned after a long career as a historian, with significant study and research on twentieth-century European history. It’s a small, inviting pamphlet addressing a big, unwelcome subject. We’ve…

An Example of Bottomless Ignorance in Walworth County

Some residents of Walworth County, Wisconsin object to public health measures to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus. So hysterical is their opposition that one reads Opponents say county’s coronavirus safeguards are ‘like Russia’: Confronted by a raucous crowd of opponents fearing government intrusion, Walworth County Board members have backed away from a measure…

Detailed Video Timeline of the Crackdown on Protesters Before Trump’s Photo Op

The Washington Post analyzed hours of video footage and obtained audio of police communications and other records to assemble the most complete account to date of the June 1 crackdown on protesters in Washington D.C.. Late in the day on June 1, demonstrators gathered near the White House, on the edge of Lafayette Square, to…

Trump’s Condition: Unfit by Many Standards

It’s enough, as an indictment of Trump, to see and then reject his role on purely political grounds: a bigoted autocrat of limited knowledge & reasoning ability with a love of foreign dictators and contempt for American liberal democracy.  One doesn’t need a training in medicine to reject Trump. There are, however, compelling critiques of…

Yegor Zhukov’s Message

At the New Yorker, Masha Gessen translates A Powerful Statement of Resistance from a College Student on Trial in Moscow (‘Yegor Zhukov’s message about responsibility and love at his trial, for “extremism,” shows what political dissent can be and seems to describe American reality as accurately as the Russian one’). (Zhukov was accused of “extremism”…