Illiberalism
Gilead
Speaker of the House of Representatives, 2023
Fig. 1. Photograph credited to Office of Congressman Kevin McCarthy, date inconsistent with title but given as November 9, 2022, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Want to increase the pain of a government shutdown? How about introducing a House of Representatives speakership contest right smack in the middle of it? We don’t know that he’ll actually do it, but guess what Matt Gaetz has in mind.[1]
It’s hard to imagine that even most Republicans will go along with this, let alone independents, and, of course, completely forget about Democrats. But hardliners are likely hoping voters will have forgotten about yet another stupid fucking shutdown by election time.
So there you have it: We have politicians cynically exploiting voters’ short-term memories, all because Gaetz has a hard-on for Kevin McCarthy. It’s far beyond stupid, straining the outer limits of disgust.
Leigh Ann Caldwell and Marianna Sotomayor, “Hard-liners plot to replace McCarthy with a deputy as shutdown looms,” Washington Post, September 28, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/09/28/kevin-mccarthy-tom-emmer-government-shutdown-motion-vacate/
Israel
Fig. 2. “Sara Netanyahu, wife of the Prime Minister of Israel, Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu signing the visitors book, at Teen Murti Chowk, in New Delhi. . . . The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi is also seen.” Photograph credited to Prime Minister's Office (GODL-India), January 14, 2018, via Wikimedia Commons, GODL-India
Jeremy Sharon, “AG’s lawyer tells High Court she can’t force a PM’s recusal, then says she can,” Times of Israel, September 28, 2023, https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-u-turn-lawyer-for-ag-tells-high-court-forcing-premiers-recusal-a-possibility/
Gilead
Donald Trump
Coup attempt
Fig. 3. Donald Trump booking photograph by Fulton County (Georgia) Sheriff’s Office, August 24, 2023, via New York, August 25, 2023,[2] public domain.
Zachary Cohen, Jason Morris, and Nick Valencia, “Bail bondsman is first Trump co-defendant to plead guilty in Georgia election subversion case,” CNN, September 29, 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/29/politics/fulton-county-election-plea-scott-hall/index.html
Roman Catholic Church
Sex
Fig. 4. Saint Bernard’s Roman Catholic Church, with the rectory in the foreground, in Mount Lebanon, a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The electronic sign says, “Chastity: The way to human flourishing,” suggesting the website pghpure.org. The text on this side of the sign isn’t much more legible in person (it’s a little better on the other side). Photograph by author, August 27, 2023.
Michelle Boorstein, “Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, facing possible slew of abuse lawsuits, files for bankruptcy,” Washington Post, September 29, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2023/09/29/catholic-bankruptcy-baltimore/
- [1]Leigh Ann Caldwell and Marianna Sotomayor, “Hard-liners plot to replace McCarthy with a deputy as shutdown looms,” Washington Post, September 28, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/09/28/kevin-mccarthy-tom-emmer-government-shutdown-motion-vacate/↩
- [2]Margaret Hartmann and Nia Prater, “All the Mug Shots of Donald Trump and His Alleged Co-Conspirators,” New York, August 25, 2023, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-mug-shot-gallery.html↩