Notes on Philip Roth's "The Plot Against America" in the Age of Trump

by Nomad

Published in 2004, novelist Philip Roth's last book what-if alternative history has definitely come back to haunt us. 

The events in "The Plot Against America" takes place between June 1940 and October 1942 in a world that took a different course.

The middle-class Roth family from New Jersey- a re-imagining of the author's real family- live in an America where President Franklin Delano Roosevelt has lost his bid for a third term. His unlikely Republican challenger? The aviator and all-American hero, Charles Lindbergh.

Some readers back in 2004 might be forgiven for thinking that this event was extremely far-fetched. Who back then would have ever believed that a celebrity without any political experience whatsoever could win a presidential election?

In actual history, Lindbergh was an isolationist and the leading voice of the America First Committee — an isolationist group of some 800,000 members. The organization believed that England was attempting to drag the US into another European war.

Good News Round Up- July 2018

by Nomad

The theme for this month's good news round-up is compassion. In a time of growing intolerance and the mentality of "might makes right," it might seem like the idea of compassion has gone extinct. It's not so hard to find evidence to the contrary.

Toddlers in Court: The Cruel Absurdity of Trump's Child Separation Policy

by Nomad

According to attorneys in Texas, California and Washington, D.C., children as young as three have been ordered to appear in court (without legal representation) for their own deportation proceedings.

You might be surprised to learn that requiring unaccompanied minors to go through deportation alone is not a new practice. However under Trump's zero-tolerance policy, More children - and some much younger- are now being ordered to appear before a judge.

Thomas Paine and the Despotic Danger of the Unaccountable Presidency

by Nomad

A Nation Turning Its Back on Its Own Glory

The last years of Thomas Paine, one of America's first and most outspoken intellectuals, were bitter ones. The American political activist and philosopher had left in the spring of 1787, bound for France.
A strong supporter for the anti-royalist side, he was caught up in the lethal throes of the revolution there. Charged with crimes against the state, Paine was arrested in December 1793 and was imprisoned for a year in Luxembourg Prison (formerly a palace.)
His survival was, by his own account, based solely on sheer luck. 

Sanity Sunday- The Lullabies and Ballads of Jackie Oates

by Nomad

English folk singer and fiddle player, Jackie Oates hails from Staffordshire. Since her debut in 2006, Oates has released 6 albums. According to her bio, she was a finalist in the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Awards 2003 and has performed extensively at festivals and venues across the country and beyond.