books

Right Hooks: Trump and the Anatomy of the Alt-Right

Michael Hirsch The Indypendent
The book traces the myriad links between the far right, from Fox News, Tea Party activists, militia supporters, new media trolls, White Nationalists, resurgent Klan members and self-proclaimed Nazis to Donald Trump, where each piggybacks on the rest in honing messages and growing their influence. While the author spends little time referencing left and progressive forces opposing the right's resurgence, his work is exhaustive in researching the phenomena.

books

Trump's Itchy, Twitchy Finger

Scott McLemee Inside Higher Ed
Focusing mainly on Trump's first year in office, the authors emphasize what they call a pattern of systematic reaction, where growing voter frustration regularly drives each party in and out of control. Trump arrived with scant political capital, amassed little and appears to have no strategic competence going forward. While the authors believe Trump can develop one, the essayist faults the authors for offering nothing but wishfulness to back up the assumption.

GOP Attacks Healthcare, Now Seeks to End Medical Tax Break

Kate Zernike and Abby Goodnough The New York Times
Ending the medical tax break could be a ‘gut punch’ to the majority of the country. Eliminating the medical-expense deduction would end a source of relief that has helped millions of people cope with steep medical costs in a country without comprehensive, universal health coverage.

Tidbits - June 29, 2017 - Reader Comments: Truckers Strike; Trumpcare Round One; White Workers Against Racism; Workers and Unions; Roseanne Barr; Handmaid's Tale; Radical History; More on the United and Popular Front; AlterNet Hiring; and more....

Portside
Reader Comments: Truckers Strike Against "Owner-Operator" Debt and Poverty; Trumpcare Down, But Not Out; Working Class Whites Organize Against Racism; Slavery; Workers and Unions; Roseanne Barr; Handmaid's Tale and Race; Herb March - Untold Working Class and Communist History; Julian Assange; More on the United and Popular Front - Reality, Theory and Relevance for Today; Honduras; CIA Torture; AlterNet is Hiring; and more....

Tidbits - June 22, 2017 - Reader Comments: GOP's Secret Health Bill; Verdicts Protect Cops Who Kill; Trump Investigation - Follow the Money; Progressive Electoral Politics, People's Summit, Socialists; On the United Front; Gig Work; and more...

Portside
Reader Comments: GOP's Secret Health Bill - not popular in Red states; Across the Country, Verdicts Protect Cops Who Kill; Naomi Klein; Mueller's Trump Investigation - Follow the Money; Readers respond to various Portside posts - Progressive Electoral Politics, People's Summit, Socialists and Electoral Politics; On the United Front; Gig Work; and more...

G.O.P. Senators Might Not Realize It, but Not One State Supports the A.H.C.A.

Christopher Warshaw and David Broockman The New York Times
It’s no secret that the American Health Care Act is unpopular. In recent national polls, only about 29 percent of Americans support the bill. It is the most unpopular piece of major legislation Congress has considered in decades — even more unloved than TARP (“the bailout”), and much more unpopular than the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

Trumpism: It’s Coming From the Suburbs

Jesse A. Myerson The Nation
Racism, fascism, and working-class Americans. If you’re looking for Trump’s implacable support, Texas trailer parks and Kentucky cabins are the wrong places to find it. Fascism develops over hands of poker in furnished basements, over the grill by the backyard pool, over beers on the commuter-rail ride back from the ball game—and in police stations and squad cars.
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