Bonfire of Spectacles

With love, Jenna: it’s not the “language ‘we’ use”. It’s the President of the United States being blatantly racist and cruel. I know this is a big ask but: don’t frame it as ‘we’ doing anything. ‘He’ is doing it—and you and your dad should stand up, vocally. https://t.co/g9xOOxMYLp

— Soledad O'Brien (@soledadobrien) July 27, 2019

The fact that I know of Soledad O’Brien’s name means I must have picked it up from somewhere, which holds PBS or NPR suspect, but I have no context for her recognition and so remain unfazed that she and I follow each other, and in fact, although intonation can be hard to discern in relation to social media, her constancy in berating Trump supporters over their racism has nearly as much a satirical quality to it as the president’s shrewish grimace in North Carolina while his crowds obediently engaged in papier mache pep rally incantations, this too being a woefully inadequate strategic move against the encroachment posed by Llhan Omar. No less than a crusty old veteran like Bill Moyers backs up the argument pushed forth, at times with the reactionary force of a battering ram, against Omar’s representation, as with striking independence, he asked one of his interviewees (within the last eon) “Why is Africa so badly governed?” The question remains in full force today as it has since de-colonialization and the unraveling of imperialism, all but expired by the time of the Kennedy administration, with allowances for the Soviet frolic in Angola. Search cannot always provide the context to a frame, since we media dependents are discussing narrative frames in relation to populist challenges, but even frames are nothing new, as admirers of Joseph Conrad would comprehend. When Miles O’Brien replied to me on air while anchoring his then most recent Newshour story about not wearing his prosthetic arm, that was cause for a mild dose of slack jaw astonishment, partly because you learn not to expect such interstices despite digital folding lengths, but also partly due to anchorage, the familiarity of being a known quantity. Mr O'Brien had this for me without my ability to recall before and after bookends. Soledad doesn't have that and neither does her vehicle, Matter of Fact, but neither shall she have it. Sometimes, the best strategy is not revealing the hand you hold. Cato Institute contributors manage this particularly well. Johan Norberg orated on video that Africa would demand that its energy needs be met, on par with the developed world. This shouldn't necessarily mean that indigence in more privileged countries continues to downgrade, as under Llhan and her sympathizers it surely shall. By this reasoning, I'd admire Trump more if his administration brought federal charges against the congresswoman, popped her off to the ANC, wherein she'd have like minded company.