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About This Site
This site offers a daily column on current events, and unlike other blogs, in long form. Short posts pointing to this and that and saying "Oh my!" seems a bit lazy. Columns here are an attempt to think things through. If you'd like to come along for the ride, fine. If you have neither the time nor patience for that, that is also fine - you can click on the LINKS tab at the top of the page and visit the sites that offer quick hits. Those provide the raw material for the analyses here.
The views here are mine alone, save for the occasional column from Ric in Paris or comments from key readers, like Rick, the News Guy in Atlanta, and others.
Commentary and guest columns are posted here, but there is a sister site, Just Above Sunset Photography, where images are far more important than words. That site is updated daily. Take a look.
JUST ABOVE SUNSET has been online, in various formats, since May 2003. Click on the ABOUT tab at the top of the page for more on that, and a note on who I am.
~ Alan PavlikArchives
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All text and photos, unless otherwise noted, Copyright © 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 - Alan M. Pavlik
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The current banner photo - looking northwest from Mulholland Drive, sunset on the day of Ronald Reagan's funeral, taking place far off in the distance -
Tag Archives: Thomas Frank
In Medias Res Again
From Homer to Hamlet to Faulkner to half the James Bond movies, stories are best told in medias res – start in the mysterious dramatic hot middle of the story then, later, use brief flashbacks to make all the frenetic … Continue reading
Posted in 2016 Election About Trade, Uncategorized
Tagged 2016 Election About Trade, Democrats Betrayed Working Class, Marco Rubio Fades, NAFTA, Neoliberalism, Racism Not the Issue, Sanders Hits Clinton on Trade, Sanders Wins Michigan, Thomas Frank, Trade Agreements, Trump All About Trade, Trump Rolls On
3 Comments
The Kansas Way
Never trust cultural critics, those who look at the sweep of history, and at the moment, and tell us all where this is all heading. The struggle of our times, after Hitler and Tojo were gone, was the epic battle … Continue reading
Posted in Austerity Economics, Kansas
Tagged American Soft Communism, Art Laffer, Arthur Laffer, Austerity Economics, Capitalism versus Communism, Cold War, Conservative Test Case, Francis Fukuyama, Historical Trends, Kansas, Koch Brothers, Medicare, Obamacare, Personal Freedom, Ronald Reagan, Sam Brownback, Tax Cuts Pay for Themselves, The End of History, The Kanas Experiment, Thomas Frank
2 Comments
Ghost Politics
Living in the middle of Hollywood seemed a good idea at the time, but that was twenty years ago. Now it is what it is. Like the rest of Los Angeles, Hollywood is dry and hard, baking in the brutal … Continue reading
Posted in 2016 Presidential Election
Tagged 2016 Presidential Election, Chris Christie, Clinton Defends His Legacy, Creating a Buzz, Hillary 2016, Hillary Clinton, I See Dead People, Jeb 2026, Jeb Bush, Life in Hollywood, Movie Tag Lines, Republican Establishment Dumps Republican Establishment, Republican Establishment for Jeb Bush, The Clinton Legacy, The Restoration (1660), The Sixth Sense, Thomas Frank
1 Comment
The American Game
It may be that the lost America that everyone on the right longs for still exists down there in Texas, where they still take high school football seriously – even if no one else does. For everyone else it’s more … Continue reading
Posted in Income Inequality, Meritocracy, Rick Santorum
Tagged Class Warfare, Collapse of Civilization, Economic Collapse, Economy Rigged, High School Football, Income Inequality, Inequality of Opportunity, Meritocracy, Middle Class, NASA Predicts Collapse of Civilization, No Middle Class, One Percent Always Wins, Paul Ryan, Rick Santorum, Sneering at the Poor, Thomas Frank, Triumph of the One Percent
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Sinking in the Deep State
Everyone knows the government is broken. The very day that Obama was first elected, back in 2008, key House and Senate Republicans met privately and agreed that their party would oppose anything Obama proposed, and stop it if they could, … Continue reading
Posted in Broken Government, Populist Outrage, Populist Politics
Tagged Bill Moyers: Deep State, Broken Government, Deep State, Objective of Congressional Republicans to Render Executive Branch Powerless, Political Populism, Populism, Return of Political Populism, Thomas Frank, Ultimate Owner of the Deep State and Its Strategies, Using Policy to Gain Power, Using Political Power to Enact Policy
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A Whole Lot of Duping Going On
We’re old now, but we know we were right – those of us who are still alive. Imagine coming of age in the sixties – sitting in high school chemistry class and listening to the announcement over the tinny speakers … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Framing Devices, Conservative Values, Social Conservatives, The Sixties, Wisconsin Recall
Tagged 1968: The Year That Rocked the World (Mark Kurlansky), Jonathan Haidt, Moral Psychology, Self-Interests Which Transcend the Economic, Social Conservatives Continue To Vote For Republicans, Social Conservatives Voting Against Their Best Interests, The Duping Hypothesis, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, The Silent Majority, The Sixties, Thomas Frank, What Went Wrong in Wisconsin, What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America, Wisconsin Recall
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Wanting To Be One of the Useless Hated Rich
Growing up in Pittsburgh in the fifties was a sort of The Adventure of Ozzie and Harriet in the Rust Belt. After those first years in the Czech community down in the dark valley by the even darker river, listening … Continue reading
Posted in America's Disappearing Middle Class, Americans and Wealth, Americans' Ambiguity Regarding the Rich
Tagged Beck and the Chamber of Congress, Daphne Merkin, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gap Between Rich and Poor, Glenn Beck, Hating the Rich, Income Inequality, Old Money, Pittsburgh, Socialism, The Great Gatsby, The Idle Rich, Thomas Frank, Wanting to Be Rich, Western Penitentiary (Pittsburgh), What's the matter with Kansas?
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