Tag Archives: American Democracy

Current Affairs, Politics, Television, Times They Are A-Changing

Biden attacks Trump and his Republican supporters as a threat to democracy : NPR

By Frank Ordonez, Updated September 1, 20229:31 PM ET

President Joe Biden speaks outside Independence Hall on Sept. 1, in Philadelphia.
Evan Vucci/AP

President Biden on Thursday warned Americans that democracy is under attack from a faction of the Republican party led by former President Donald Trump, and called on Democrats, mainstream Republicans and independents to “speak up, speak out, get engaged — vote, vote, vote.”

In a rare prime time speech, Biden attacked his predecessor, saying that “too much of what’s happening in our country today isn’t normal.” The speech came just two months ahead of midterm congressional elections, where Democrats are fighting to keep their slim majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives.

Biden said the Republican party is “dominated, driven, intimidated by Donald Trump” and his supporters, calling it “a threat to this country.”

Source: Biden attacks Trump and his Republican supporters as a threat to democracy : NP

Current Affairs, Memories & History, Politics, Science & Health, Times They Are A-Changing

Welcome to the Martians! We now live in a world stranger than science fiction | Salon.com

In an age of surging authoritarianism, our world is increasingly like science fiction – and not in a good way

By Tom Engelhardt, Published November 26, 2021 4:00AM (EST)

Donald Trump | Aliens (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)

Who knew that Martians, inside monstrous tripodal machines taller than many buildings, actually ululated, that they made eerily haunting “ulla, ulla, ulla, ulla” sounds? Well, let me tell you that they do — or rather did when they were devastating London.

I know that because I recently reread H.G. Wells’s 1898 novel “War of the Worlds,” while revisiting an early moment in my own life. Admittedly, I wasn’t in London when those Martian machines, hooting away, stalked boldly into that city, hungry in the most literal fashion imaginable for human blood. No surprise there, since that was almost a century and a quarter ago. Still, at 77, thanks to that book, I was at least able to revisit a moment that had been mine long enough ago to seem almost like fiction.

Editor’s Note: This is about authoritarianism, Trump, and attacks on American Democracy.

Continue reading Welcome to the Martians! We now live in a world stranger than science fiction | Salon.com →