Back in harness

Slow times on blogging - maybe it's January and post-Christmas blues but I've been extremely lethargic about writing things, a tendency extending beyond my meagre contributions to the blogosphere.  This past Monday was allegedly Blue Monday, the day of the year that is discerned by statisticians to be the most depressing 24 hours of all the 12 months.  Being very engaged with a new member of the family and making sure his big sister doesn't feel left out has also consumed copious hours but this at least is mutually beneficial.
There was a big picture on the front page of yesterday's Daily Telegraph of the red trigger aboard HMS Vigilant that would unleash its arsenal of nuclear weapons at what would probably be the end of the world as we know it.  Aside from needing a paint job (for something that is rarely seen and has never been used, it is in very poor nick), it formed part of the propaganda for keeping nuclear weapons with the picture headlined "The red button Corbyn will not press" - thus it comes across The Telegraph is effectively egging on Corbyn with "Press it.  Press it.  Press it."  Such is the casual approach to nuclear Armageddon by the nuclear lobby.
Across the pond, Donald Trump continues his 'Carnie' act with Palin joining the hoopla.  No not our venerable Michael but Sarah - the woman made out of, to purloin Abraham Lincoln's phrase, "the base alloy of hypocrisy."  She proclaims herself as the unimpeachable apple-pie mom, yet hours before she took to the stage with Trump, her son had been arrested for domestic violence and days later her daughter Bristol has a second child out of wedlock (an act that is despised by the evangelical right of which Palin is one), despite Bristol being the face of a sexual abstinence campaign.  My, their parents raised them well.  Although he wouldn't know it, Trump, appropriately, is channelling the spirit of the 'Know-Nothing' movement of 150 years ago.  That was virulently opposed to immigration, especially by Roman Catholics and had some electoral success including the mayoralties of Washington D.C. and Philadelphia amid some dreadful violence.  For the Catholics of then, Trump vilifies Muslims now after seemingly getting bored of attacking anyone south of the Rio Grande (who, incidentally, are overwhelmingly Catholic).  The 'Know-Nothings' dissolved over the issue of slavery most joining the anti-slavery Republican Party (from which Lincoln derived his hypocrisy charge in a private letter - people opposed to slavery but happy to degrade and denigrate Roman Catholics, especially Irish ones).  It could be said that the Republican party has come a long way since it was under the tutelage of the wise Lincoln but in another way, it could be argued it is little different.