Tag: Politics

Steam Whistle News Feed – March 29, 2024

Posted on by Joseph C. Kolkas in Weekly news

When I was around 12, my local parish told me I had to start “studying” to receive the right to what all tweenage Christians realize is the awesomest part of going to church: communion—which, among the Lutherans, meant you had to understand the wine before you could chug the wine.  I remember one day in … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – March 29, 2024 →

Political Addiction and the Fabric of American Society

Posted on by Joseph C. Kolkas in Weekly news

Trump’s won the nomination for Republican candidate in the 2024 presidential election.  People just can’t let go of the addiction, apparently.  I mean, with good reason.  Just ask any addict.  Any of them—or anyone who engages in arguably compulsive patterns of behavior, e.g., remaining in a physically abusive relationship, say—in their own mind, it’s perfectly … Continue reading Political Addiction and the Fabric of American Society →

Steam Whistle News Feed – March 1, 2024

Posted on by Joseph C. Kolkas in Weekly news

Alexei Navalny—whose body had to be almost wrested from the hands of the Russian state—was mourned by thousands during an orthodox ceremony on Friday (which several churches refused to officiate), before being borne to a nearby Moscow cemetery and finally laid to rest.  Though he started his career as a nationalist in Russian politics, and … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – March 1, 2024 →

The Toxic Solution of Trumpism

Posted on by Joseph C. Kolkas in Politics, Weekly news

I read an analysis in The Washington Post recently which recounted quite well, over the last ten years or so, out-and-out Republican efforts to obstruct the operation of the very government to which they were elected—discussing/passing legislation, approving judges—if it was deemed, in the end, to somehow benefit the Democratic Party.  This, of course, included … Continue reading The Toxic Solution of Trumpism →

Their Headlines, My Headlines (January 26, 2024)

Posted on by Joseph C. Kolkas in Weekly news

Can you tell by the headline that I’ve been devolving into my own atomic, hermetic, marginal bubble of outrage and self-importance?  That I’m now looking at the news under a figurative lamplight for maybe ten minutes and then turning around and shouting at everyone who’ll listen (on the internet) the real meaning behind it all? … Continue reading Their Headlines, My Headlines (January 26, 2024) →

Steam Whistle News Feed – January 12, 2024

Posted on by Joseph C. Kolkas in Weekly news

Welcome to the New Year.  Of the rest of your life.  You know that time only moves forward, right? Like, forever? Until your dead? I see people talking about making every day count, calling out others who waste their time, doing one thing every day that scares them. All the while trying to un-memento that … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – January 12, 2024 →

You Can Choose Your Friends, But You Can’t Choose Your Lifeboat

Posted on by Joseph C. Kolkas in Ideas, Weekly news

Rep. Kevin McCarthy was ousted from his role as Speaker of the House of Representatives on October 2nd, 2023, through the filing of a motion to vacate by the one person everyone knew was going to file the motion because he was the strongest arm in implementing a new rule saying the Speaker could be … Continue reading You Can Choose Your Friends, But You Can’t Choose Your Lifeboat →

Nobody Knows History, Nobody Understands Context

Posted on by Joseph C. Kolkas in Ideas, Weekly news

At my first ever, week-long summer church camp (I was 11 and a practicing Lutheran), I and the token skater/heavy metal kid of the lot—who used a ballpoint pen to tattoo the letters O-Z-Z-Y on his knuckles once a day—were tasked with being in charge of setting up viewing of the afternoon’s film, a sort … Continue reading Nobody Knows History, Nobody Understands Context →

Steam Whistle News Feed – October 20, 2023

Posted on by Joseph C. Kolkas in Weekly news

Hey, Neighbor!  How’s it going?  Heading out for a weekend trip?  Can you believe these gas prices still?  Thanks a lot, Sleepy Joe, am I right?  Like I always say, if a Republican were president, you know gas would be, like, five dollars a gallon cheaper.  Well, because Republicans always lower gas prices.  It’s, like, … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – October 20, 2023 →

Welcome to The Way of The World

Posted on by Joseph C. Kolkas in Politics, Weekly news

There’s a throwaway scene in the 2019 Romanian documentary Collective, where the country's new Minister of Health is watching a news show on television, and, at a podium, the mayor of Bucharest is denouncing the decision made by the administration to send patients to Vienna for transplant surgeries, and not maintain the patients in Romania … Continue reading Welcome to The Way of The World →

The Niger Coup: A Hollywood Film Treatment

Posted on by Joseph C. Kolkas in Politics, Weekly news

In case you were looking for a microcosm of the history of half the entire world dating back, say, the last few hundred years, there’s one example playing out right now in the news over in Africa, in the Republic of Niger. And by the way, it’s pronounced Nee-ZHAYR, not the other way you were … Continue reading The Niger Coup: A Hollywood Film Treatment →

Steam Whistle News Feed – July 14, 2023

Posted on by Joseph C. Kolkas in Weekly news

I know it seems like I’m doomsday picking and preaching these days—that all I want is to talk about the most general and large-scale, worst-case scenario news headlines, and then cynically and half-assedly rattle them in your face like I’m some kind of know-it-all toddler who seems to get his jollies that way. This world … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – July 14, 2023 →

Steam Whistle News Feed – July 7, 2023

Posted on by Joseph C. Kolkas in Weekly news

Reading the daily news disgusts me. There, I said it. It's reached the point of where I feel like I'm living out the abattoir metaphor whenever I do. Which I'm just making up, right now, but hear me out. Do you eat meat? And if you do, do you prepare it yourself—“harvest” it from scratch—or … Continue reading Steam Whistle News Feed – July 7, 2023 →