Posts by Robert Harrington

“He who controls the past controls the present,” George Orwell wrote nearly eighty years ago, “and he who controls the present controls the future.” Orwell’s novel “1984” remained a work of fiction in the United States for most of those 80 years. Today, much of what he wrote is a dim but growing reflection of…

I can’t think of any other pair of major conspiracy theories, in this case flat earth belief and global warming denialism, where both get to share the same villain — NASA. In a world now awash in crackbrained conspiracy theories it had to happen sooner or later, I suppose. Giving the whole matter a moment…

One of the most useful and enduring ideas to emerge from the pop psychology fad of the 1960s was Transactional Analysis, or TA. TA divides the ego-in-action into three types, Parent, Adult and Child. We are said to be in a Parent or Adult or Child state of being when we exhibit certain behaviours. These…

I would have sworn that the announcer at Trump’s jackbooted fascism parade introduced the historic 1st Cavalry Division as the 1st CALVARY Division. He said it that way twice. Was that just how I heard it or did anyone else notice that? I was hoping the event would get rained out. Now I’m glad it…

I suppose we should be thankful that it doesn’t happen more often. Vance Luther Boelter, 57, the alleged murderer of Democratic Speaker of the House of the Minnesota legislature Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, is still at large as I write this. He attempted to murder two other prominent Minnesota Democrats and was apparently…

I mean no disrespect to the fine city of Oakland, California, when I employ Gertrude Stein’s enigmatic epigram concerning it, “There is no there there.” I quote her as I write this on the morning of Trump’s 79th birthday. I apply her quotation to Trump to point out that the man who unconstitutionally occupies the…

Whenever the acronym TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) is applied to Trump, I’m reminded of Joe Pesci’s character Tommy in the movie “Goodfellas.” Tommy was a psychopathic killer whom it was dangerous to goad, even jokingly. Sometimes someone got murdered, sometimes they didn’t. It was a game of Russian roulette best unplayed. But the acronym…

It was part of his mythos that fair weather followed President John F Kennedy everywhere he went. They even had a name for it, “Kennedy Weather.” I don’t know the odds against such a thing, but I do know that it was supposed to be windy and rainy in Dallas on, to pick a date,…

I spent 26 years of my life in Southern California, and never before have I been prouder to lay claim to that fact. The governor of California (for whom Trump has called for the arrest), the mayor and the chief of police of the city of Los Angeles have all stood tall against the fascistic…

“If I hear one more leftist shill in mainstream media utter the words ‘peaceful protest,’” actor James Woods excreted on X, “I’ll throw up.” The words were over a photo of a burning police car. Texas Senator Ted Cruz reposted Woods’ photo and comment with a comment of his own: “This … is … not…

What’s worse than Trump? No this isn’t a joke or a riddle. The answer isn’t “two Trumps.” (Even though that’s actually a correct answer, it’s not what I’m looking for.) The answer is 430 ppm. Okay, I’ll stop being coy and obscure. What I mean by “430 ppm” is 430 parts per million, and it…

Is there anything so sad as unrequited love? There are small signs that Elon Musk, after coming down from his rant against Trump, is beginning to have regrets. Is it because he misses the good times with his buddy Trump? The fond memories, the laughs? No. It’s because Musk is slowly coming down from the…

One of the amusing things about awful people is, when they become friends, you can bet their friendship will end in bitter acrimony. Who hasn’t worked in an office and seen just that kind of thing happen? Two office gossips or backstabbers form a rogue’s alliance, and before you know it they’re at each other’s…

“They’re eating the cats, they’re eating the dogs.” It was supposed to be the utterance, the defining moment, that cost Trump the election. On the split screen Vice President Kamala Harris had a perfectly beautiful look of utter amused disbelief. Surely, her look said, this man is out of his goddamn mind. What sane person…

It is said that Vladimir Putin is … unpleasant when he’s angry. I suspect there’s a lot of unpleasantness in the Kremlin these days. On June first more than 100 Ukrainian drones struck air bases deep inside Russia. Targets included nuclear-capable long-range bombers. The massive destruction from Operation “Spiderweb” became evident almost as soon as…

If it’s possible to forget for a moment that the “president” of the United States has both the nuclear codes and the apparent belief that Joe Biden is a clone, that the “real” Joe Biden was executed five years ago, there is one good thing that can come from it. It is going to further…

In 1973 Trump was sued by the Department of Justice. At that time Trump made it clear that he would not rent apartments in one of his developments to African-Americans. He made sure that the people who worked for him understood that policy. The lawsuit was based on evidence gathered by testers for the New…

Okay, we now know for sure what has long been rumored and explains a lot. Elon Musk, destroyer of American lives and jobs, was and remains a junkie. A drug addict. A messed-up dopehead. He is also a liar, a felon, an illegal alien, a fraudster, a hoaxer and a swindler. He is, in fact,…

Well, the erosion of the rogue’s alliance between Elon Musk and Trump has taken another giant step toward inevitable war. I say “inevitable” not only because Trump’s relationship with everyone has only one way to go, and that’s down, but also because for a while Musk was being touted by both social and legacy media…

There are eight schools in the United States that are loosely referred to as “Ivy League.” In alphabetical order they are: Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Yale University. Harvard is generally considered the most prestigious of the eight. Not many people know this (and…

Who remembers how Republicans rolled their eyes to the sky, clutched their pearls and whined FOR YEARS about how Hunter Biden once made a few million dollars (the estimates constantly vary) on his famous father’s name? Remember, Hunter Biden was never an elected official. He was not a civil servant. He took no contracts from…

So Trump said he’s “not happy” with Vladimir Putin. Imagine that. Following Moscow’s largest aerial attack yet on Ukraine, Trump also said, “What the hell happened to him? He’s killing a lot of people.” He later called Putin “absolutely crazy.” Speaking to reporters in New Jersey late on Sunday, Trump also said of Putin, “I’ve…

The President sat in the Oval Office, the very model of calm decorum. Rising above the bickering and braggadocio, he exuded wisdom and dignity. He was that rare thing of late: he was presidential. Of course I’m not talking about Trump. I’m referring to South African president Cyril Ramaphosa. Many South Africans were proud of…

In the summer of 1967, just before they gave their first and only performance on the Ed Sullivan Show, Sullivan’s son-in-law made a request of the great rock and roll group The Doors. He asked them to change a single lyric in their flagship song “Light My Fire.” Instead of singing, “girl we couldn’t get…

The 1.0 Trump “administration” had one and only one “achievement.” It was the passage of a sinister tax bill that gave temporary relief and long term grief to the working class. That was to trick the suckers and losers who voted for him into thinking Trump actually gave a crap about them. The real reason…

“Fixed fortifications,” General George S Patton once said, “are monuments to the stupidity of man. If mountain ranges and oceans can be overcome, anything made by man can be overcome.” Consider as an object lesson of one man’s stupidity, Trump’s border wall. Trump claimed it was a success, of course. It was in fact a…

It comes as no surprise that the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case isn’t unique. Indeed, it is the rule rather than the exception. Of 90 illegal kidnappings and (let’s call it what it is) renditions of Venezuelan men sent to an El Salvadorian prison by the Trump “administration,” 50 were in the United States legally. In…

The upper echelon of the MAGA elite is composed mostly of old white guys with bad diets. Because they’re selfish they have no vested interest in the future of our beleaguered planet. Some would scoff, others would laugh, but most would scratch their heads and wonder what I mean because they’re also stupid, but all…

It’s particularly amusing when the Supreme Court of the United States uses a Trump lie against him. On Friday they reaffirmed their earlier decision that Trump can’t kidnap human beings off the street and send them to a brutal foreign prison. In a 7-2 decision SCOTUS wrote “The government said it’s ‘unable to provide for…

I am weary of news about the plane. It seems a minor folly compared to a government kidnapping and deporting legal residents and kids with cancer, the former into brutal foreign prisons and the latter without medical support. Resources are being ravaged, the economy is being deliberately tanked, habeas corpus is being suspended and a…

Note from Bill Palmer: While I’m dealing with a personal matter today, please enjoy this thoughtful column from Robert Harrington: I don’t ordinarily like to begin an article with an assertion that White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller was right about something. However, when he referred to habeas corpus as a “privilege” and…

What do Rand Paul, Laura Loomer and Ben Shapiro have in common? I mean apart from the fact that they are MAGA psychotics, of course? They think Trump accepting a brand spanking new plane from the Qatari government isn’t a good look. Even the lunatic New York Post published an editorial that was headlined, “Qatar’s…

Trump has finally allowed refugees into the United States. Well, sort of refugees. They are in fact well-dressed, affluent Africans. From South Africa. Okay, they’re white. But Trump says it has nothing to do with race. “It’s a genocide that’s taking place.” There’s just one problem. There is absolutely no evidence that genocide against Afrikaners…

It should be noted as a public service that the name Karoline contains letters that spell the word “lie.” It should also be noted as a further public service that the name Leavitt contains letters that spell the word “lie.” That Karoline Leavitt, with her massive Christian cross perennially on display, is a double-barrelled lying…

As if we don’t already have enough to worry about. We have one hell of a problem, brothers and sisters, and believe it or not it’s not Trump’s fault. At least, not yet. But give him time because soon it will be. I’m talking about the avian influenza A (H5N1) virus, affectionately known as bird…

The Covid-19 pandemic and its attendant shutdowns devastated the world economy. Tens of thousands of small businesses, especially the public-facing kind such as restaurants, barbers, small grocery stores and the like, closed their doors forever. Supermarket shelves quickly emptied out due to the twin ravages of panic buying and supply chain depredations. Inflation demolished savings…

Shortly after Pope Francis died, my wife and I did what millions of other people across the world did. We watched the movie “Conclave.” (It was brilliant, by the way.) Afterward we played a game. What nomen would we pick if we were elected Pope? She picked “Leo” because, like me, she is a cat…

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