Life and Times of Ogn Dulk

5 Reasons Why MAGA Conservatism Has Never Made Any Sense Even on its own terms, MAGA doesn’t add up. BY PAUL STARR JANUARY 31, 2019 https://prospect.org/power/5-reasons-maga-conservatism-never-made-sense/ Expand shutterstock_735101602.jpg.jpe JOHN M. CHASE/SHUTTERSTOCK MAGA hats have become a symbol of support not just for Donald Trump but for a return to a lost world of white privilege. In the slogan “Make America Great Again,” the operative word is “again.” The slogan points vaguely to a time in the past when things were “great,” when white men were free to push black people, women, and immigrants around. But, for the sake of argument, let's admit the possibility of a more generous interpretation. In the wake of the Great Depression, many Americans during the mid-20th century—white Americans chiefly—experienced greater social mobility and economic security than at any time since. In the generous interpretation, “Make America Great Again” could mean let's rebuild an Ameri...

CHARLES M. BLOW The Exploitative Anti-Blackness of Kanye West Oct. 9, 2022 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/09/opinion/racism-kanye-west.html Among Kanye’s West’s defenders, the thinking goes like this: He is a genius, a freethinker, an elevated conscience. They may not like or agree with everything he does, but they applaud the man. There is a cult of Kanye, and I came to the opinion long ago that our society confers a special allure on cults, particularly when they are tied not to religion but to pop culture or politics. In those arenas, they feel fun, innocent, like rooting together for a favorite team. So I’m not here to argue about whether West is a genius, although when anyone refers to themselves as such, it tends to undercut the appellation. This newspaper itself has repeatedly called West a genius, so it would behoove him, I suppose, to run with the branding. But it has always seemed to me that West is aching to be considered a modern Mozart: the tortured genius. Of course...

Opinion Obamagate was the worst crime ever committed and here is what it was Image without a caption By Alexandra Petri Columnist | Follow May 13, 2020 at 6:05 p.m. EDT It went all the way to the top, where Obama floated inside a sinister Masonic eye. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) “What is the crime exactly that you’re accusing him of?” “You know what the crime is. The crime is very obvious to everybody. All you have to do is read the newspapers, except yours.” Sign up for a weekly roundup of thought-provoking ideas and debates — President Trump responding to Washington Post reporter Philip Rucker Obamagate began long ago, long before Trump even got elected, before he even knew he was running. It began before America, before time, in those early days when President Barack Obama lit the furnace of the sun, just before he fixed the paths of the planets in such a way that millennia in the future, Donald Trump would stare directly into a solar eclipse. And, of course, everyone knew abo...