Foxes vs. Henhouses

Predictably, a cabinet of deplorables.

But that's just to mention some of those more recent named to cabinet positons, omitting earlier doozies in sensitive positions. Like Michael Flynn... truly a General Jack D. Ripper for the twenty-first century.

The Good Old, Bad Old Days

The days when popular art and class consciousness briefly flourished. Erik Loomis, This Day in Labor History: November 27, 1937—

On November 27, 1937, the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) debuted its play "Pins and Needles," which would become the longest running musical of the 1930s. This cultural form of labor feminism at a time when organized labor was dominated by male workers is a vital and important moment both in the cultural history of work but also in the history of women and work.

And so, from the tuneful stroll down memory lane to the present... And ">the near future, thanks to so much of white organized labor deciding to vote for suicide.

90 Miles...

Erik Loomis—

Fidel Castro was a tremendously complex person who attempted to rebuild a society around ideas of justice while also refusing to allow democratic institutions to form. He sought to resist U.S. imperialism while openly hoping his island would be devastated by a nuclear attack. He brought outstanding medical care and education to his own people and the poor around the world while limiting the ability of educated people to use their skills at home. He was on the front lines of fighting the oppression of people of color by U.S. allies around the world while also supporting some pretty awful people around the world himself.

As always, the Noise Machine went into gear: reanimating the Cold War and attacking Obama for normalizing relations. The usual drill, but with something else in the noise.

How long before Havana get its Trump Hotel?

War On Christmas, Open For Business

First salvo fired Thanksgiving week, by the Trump campaign. The grift that keeps giving is now selling a tree ornament, at $149.

Sold on Amazon, which has thousands of reviews.

Top positive review
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3,177 people found this helpful
By Shaenon K. Garrity on November 23, 2016
Came with an entire crate of white hood ornaments. Great bargain! Downside: My tree is now on fire.

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By Emily on November 23, 2016
It tried to put my nativity figures into an internment camp. Would not buy again.

R.I.P., Sharon Jones

At 60, following years of fighting pancreatic cancer, and continuing to perform while the illness was in remission.

Suffered a stroke watching election night results, a second stroke the following day, and passed away the 18th.

Audience At The Gilded Northern Palace

Michael Shaw: "photos of the Trump – Abe meeting, his first with a foreign head of state, were taken by an Abe photographer and later distributed as handouts to western media." American press apparently barred from said meeting with a foreign head of state.

Shaw continues—

In a drastic departure from protocol, there is only one non-family member in attendance for Team Trump, the erratic General Michael Flynn (who reportedly was offered the National Security Advisor role earlier in the day). Even then, he is only fully visible in two pictures. In both cases, he's on the periphery like hired help. He receives no recognition from Abe, and, in contrast to the kids, he looks like Trump's appendage.

Among the pictures released—

Open for business; see Ivanka.

Rewrite Redux

Trump surrogate says it will be no sweat to register Muslims, because Japanese-American internment went so smoothly.

Interviewed by Megyn Kelly, as she cues him to use his inside voice—

KELLY: Come on. You're not — you're not proposing we go back to the days of internment camps, I hope.

HIGBIE: No, no, no. I'm not proposing that at all, Megyn, but what I am saying is we need to protect America from —

KELLY: You know better than to suggest that. I mean, that's the kind of stuff that gets people scared, Carl.

HIGBIE: Right, but it's — I'm just saying there is precedent for it, and I'm not saying I agree with it, but in this case I absolutely believe that a regional based —

She tops it off with this—

KELLY: You can't be citing Japanese internment camps as precedent for anything the president-elect is gonna do.

The language is completely calculated, always. Here, it's Japanese internment, to imply that America's concentration camps were filled with war-time enemies. To obscure the truth: they they were families of ordinary citizens, deprived of homes, businesses, and freedom.

Certainly, they floated this after 9-11. And camp survivors were quick to oppose post-9/11 discrimination against Muslims, recognizing as they did that those who would exploit the situation were directing fearful citizens to find scapegoats in other, vulnerable citizens.

Great rewrite job now, when direct survivors of America's camps will not be with us for many more years.