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Recent Posts
- Government “of the people” (Gary Krenz) November 1, 2026
- Trump’s plan to use DOJ to block Alaska senate outcome October 24, 2026
- Trump administration holds up Patriot missiles for Ukraine October 19, 2026
- Astounding bit of dictator play … October 12, 2026
- An alternative narrative — hope! October 10, 2026
- If Trump Steals an Election, Here’s What to Do October 8, 2026
- Here’s what to do about Trump’s war crimes October 8, 2026
- Government “by the people” (II) (Gary Krenz) October 5, 2026
- Are we tolerating the policies of a modern-day Eichmann? (Dan Little) September 29, 2026
- Unimaginable cruelty in our name … September 29, 2026
- Government “by the people”(I) (Gary Krenz) September 24, 2026
- Corruption and Corruption (Gary Krenz) September 22, 2026
- Citizens demand impeachment (Dan Little) September 18, 2026
- Government “for the people” (Gary Krenz) September 14, 2026
- Remembering 9/11 (Gary Krenz) September 11, 2026
- “Government of the people, by the people, for the people”: A Prologue (Gary Krenz) September 9, 2026
- Why democracy? (Gary Krenz) September 5, 2026
- Chaos and Resolve (Gary Krenz) September 3, 2026
- Ode to Canada (Dan Little) September 1, 2026
- In full: Tiananmen vigil activist Chow Hang-tung’s mitigation after guilty verdict in national security trial | Hong Kong Free Press HKFP August 29, 2026
- Der Untergang August 26, 2026
- An Unsettling Glimpse Into the GOP’s Future August 21, 2026
- New University of Michigan President: Hope and Questions (Gary Krenz) August 18, 2026
- Inside school investigations frozen under Trump: Racial slurs, sexual harassment and more August 9, 2026
- NYTimes Gift Article: It Wasn’t a ‘Civil War.’ It Was the Slaveholders’ Rebellion. August 2, 2026
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Author Archives: gdkrenz
A Follow-up on the Bloomsday Thought
I’ve been thinking more about Ulysses and Leopold Bloom’s comment about history. “History,” he says, “is no life for man and woman!” “History means violence and hatred — the opposite of love. Let’s see if we can unpack this a bit more. … Continue reading
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Tagged Bloomsday, books, democracy, history, philosophy, politics, writing
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A Bloomsday Thought
Happy Bloomsday! If you are among the uninitiated, that means that today, June 16, is the day on which James Joyce’s Ulysses is set in 1904, the day in which the book’s protagonists — Leopold Bloom, Stephen Dedalus, and Molly Bloom — … Continue reading
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Tagged democracy, history, ireland, James Joyce, photography, politics, protest, travel, trump, Ulysses
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The Shell Game About Social Security “Insolvency”
Robert Reich on his Substack has an excellent, brief piece on Social Security, which as usual is again under assault by Republicans, who are arguing that to make the program solvent, benefits must be cut and the age of eligibility … Continue reading
Misunderstanding Postmodernity (Gary Krenz)
I hope that readers will allow a little leeway for me to vent about a pet peeve: pundits and sometimes even supposed scholars pointing the finger at “postmodernism” as an explanation of our woes: loss of respect in institutions; loss … Continue reading
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Tagged democracy, history, philosophy, politics, postmodernism, trump
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SCOTUS’s Rejection of “Democratic Energy”
Jamelle Bouie is one of the most incisive and profound commentators on the sociopolitics of America, bringing historical understanding, philosophical perspicacity, and clear vision to bear on any number of topics. His newsletter from a couple of days ago on … Continue reading
Inequality and the National Debt (Gary Krenz)
On his Substack, Robert Reich provides this brief but important commentary on the national debt: “Psst: What No One Will Tell You About the National Debt (But I Will).” Reich notes that the national debt has now crossed the “once-unthinkable … Continue reading
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Tagged government spending, inequality, national debt, politics
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The Right’s Demonization of Democracy (Gary Krenz)
An ongoing canard on the Right and among MAGA types is that the United States is “not a democracy but a republic.” This piece by Barbara Clark Smith of the Smithsonian Institution is a fine, concise historical review of the relationship of … Continue reading
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Tagged authoritarianism, democracy, history, human dignity, news, philosophy, politics, reactionary, republic, Right
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Democracy and the Progressive (Gary Krenz)
Following up on Dan’s important post about The Sorrow and the Pity, I’d like to draw attention to this piece by Seva Gunitsky at Persuasion: “The Incels are Taking Over.” Gunitsky, the George Ignatieff Chair of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Toronto, reviews the … Continue reading
Time to “Orban” Trump (Gary Krenz)
There has been much good commentary on Magyar’s decisive victory over Orban in Hungary. It will take some time to sort out various lessons, but as Anne Applebaum suggests in this piece, “Illiberalism is not Inevitable,” in The Atlantic, perhaps … Continue reading
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Tagged authoritarianism, democracy, donald-trump, history, Hungary, impeachment, Orban, politics, trump
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Let’s change how we talk about taxes (Gary Krenz)
The Nation has an excellent article by Zephyr Teachout on US energy prices and policy and the need for reform. My immediate reason for posting about it, however, is not energy, it’s about the framing that the article utilizes for … Continue reading