Mike Rose is a justly celebrated author and a professor at UCLA. He writes like a dream, as the saying goes.
On his blog, he recently posted his musings about what the Trump administration would look like if seen through the lens of Dante’s Inferno.
Rose indulges in a great guilty pleasure by imagining the punishment awaiting some of the key players in contemporary American politics. Donald Trump, his cabinet, and his advisors present so many threats to all that’s holy that in addition to political action we need to draw on every artistic and cultural resource at our disposal to give us clarity and hope. If we’re forced to gambol on the edge of the abyss, let’s use every dance move we got.
Hell consists of nine concentric circles located deep within the earth: Abandon all hope ye who enter here. Each circle is the realm of a particular sin—lust, greed, violence, treachery—with each descending circle representing more and more grievous evil until, finally, there is the center of hell where in the lowest depth, Satan is frozen eternally in ice, futilely beating his massive wings.
Part of Dante’s poetic genius is that the punishment he creates for each of the sins is a physical analogue of the sin itself, and he renders the sights, sounds, and smells of the physical with grisly vividness. Gluttons, for example, wallow for eternity in a freezing slush of the rotted garbage their earthly indulgence produced. Fortune tellers and diviners (part of the circle of fraud) sought in life the unnatural power of foretelling the future, so in hell their heads are twisted forever backward, their eyes blinded by tears “that [run] down the cleft of their buttocks.” You get the idea.
In my Trumpian Inferno, there will be a special circle for the president’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, his chief of staff, Reince Priebus, and his counselor, Kellyanne Conway. These three long-time Republican operatives were each critical of Donald Trump during the GOP primary—Conway called him “a man who seems to be offending his way to the nomination”—but made their peace with the devil in exchange for power and limelight. Through an endless flow of double-talk, re-direction, avoidance, and flat-out lying, this unholy trio has thrown into fast-forward the degradation of our political language. For eternity, then, let them each be bound to podiums jammed close together in the blinding light of a press conference, repeating face-to-face ad nauseam and ad infinitum the blather that has become their stock-in-trade.
Chief strategist Steve Bannon who revels in provocation and shock-and-awe strategy would be buried forever in the middle of a vast desert, just enough below the surface that his endless flailing and blustering produces the tiniest puff of sand, seen by no one, not ever, affecting nothing at all.
What does he envisage as the fate of Donald Trump? Open the link to find out and don’t share the secret in your comments.

I think that for eternity they listen to Trump ramble and brag on his golf course. Trump keeps thinking they are smarter than he is and bored, and they are bored and wish they could be thinking and doing other things.
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MIke Rose is a brilliant writer. I won’t disclose the end of his post, but here is also a tidy exercise from another bright mind, George Lakoff’s analysis of Trump’s Tweets. Versions of this are making news.
?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
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Laura H. Chapman: So glad this kind of method behind the rhetoric is becoming common knowledge. George Orwell is smiling at us from his grave.
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Thanks for sharing this Laura!
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“Hell consists of nine concentric circles located deep within the earth.”
No, one more has been added:
Going Along to Get Along (GAGA): Nefarious practice of most educators who implement the edudeformers’ agenda even though the educators know that those educational malpractices will cause harm to the students and defile the teaching and learning process. The members of the GAGA gang are destined to be greeted by the Karmic Gods of Retribution upon their passing from this realm.
Karmic Gods of Retribution: Those ethereal beings specifically evolved to construct the 21st level in Dante’s Hell. The 21st level signifies the combination of the 4th (greed), 8th (fraud) and 9th (treachery) levels into one mega level reserved especially for the edudeformers and those, who, knowing the negative consequences of the edudeformers agenda, willing implemented it so as to Go Along to Get Along. The Karmic Gods of Retribution also personally escort these poor souls, upon their physical death, to the 21st level unless they enlighten themselves, a la one D. Ravitch, to the evil and harm they have caused so many innocent children, and repent and fight against their former fellow deformers. There the edudeformers and GAGAers will lie down on a floor of smashed and broken ipads and ebooks curled in a fetal position alternately sucking their thumbs to the bones while listening to two words-Educational Excellence-repeated without pause for eternity.
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You know, there’s a wide spectrum there, and easy generalization to being a nonconformist within a corrupt society.
‘Brand’ doesn’t end well for Brand. And not everyone has to be martyr or shoulder the world. Atlas shrugged, right?
True though: If everyone could stand up, just a bit, all at once, no one would be a martyr, or perhaps just a few, relatively speaking. Not easy to coordinate. Not just about integrity, also info, views and beliefs, and life situations.
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Don’t know anything about Atlas Shrugged. The fact is that so many are GAGA, damn near every teacher and administrator with whom I’ve ever spoken will acknowledge the harms caused and the insanity of doing the malpractices but implement them anyway. That fact points to the GAGA nature of almost all public school educators and if I believed in hell I’d say to damn them to hell for their cowardice.
Yeah, that’s not playing nice. Screw that, look at where playing nice has gotten us and what those malpractices have done to many students. I’ll let someone far more versed than I to explain the problems of personal expediency, i.e., GAGA, and justice:
“Should we therefore forgo our self-interest? Of course not. But it [self-interest] must be subordinate to justice, not the other way around. . . . To take advantage of a child’s naivete. . . in order to extract from them something [test scores, personal information] that is contrary to their interests, or intentions, without their knowledge [or consent of parents] or through coercion [state mandated testing], is always and everywhere unjust even if in some places and under certain circumstances it is not illegal. . . . Justice is superior to and more valuable than well-being or efficiency; it cannot be sacrificed to them, not even for the happiness of the greatest number [quoting Rawls]. To what could justice legitimately be sacrificed, since without justice there would be no legitimacy or illegitimacy? And in the name of what, since without justice even humanity, happiness and love could have no absolute value?. . . Without justice, values would be nothing more than (self) interests or motives; they would cease to be values or would become values without worth.”—Andre Comte-Sponville [my additions]
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It’s not about being right or wrong in the abstract, it’s about how people live in the real, largely corrupt world.
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With families and other responsibilities. Self-interest gets complicated. Not just self-interest anymore.
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Tell me about those negative consequences for self interest when one challenges “the authorities”. Would you like to see my file?
Yeah, I understand those complicating factors and yes I have felt the sting of having them bite me when I have challenged those who implement malpractices.
None of that matters, though, because being a GAGA Good German is to not suffer those negative consequences of those complicating factors which don’t require any sacrifice by those whose conscience can tolerate abusing children with educational malpractices while rationalizing it all away.
Here, let me hold the water basin so they can wash their hands of their complicity in violating children!
The GAGAers are a disgrace to the teaching profession. And we wonder why no one wants to listen to them.
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Everything you say about testing and even the GAGA and deformer situation really appeals to my more idealistic side.
Why not eliminate all punitive and weeding sorts of testing, negative criticism as well, for students? Make it all about support, confidence, guidance, encouragement and motivation. Until then people have to work within a system far below the ideal and beset by issues through and through. I don’t think it’s very clear much of the time when harm is really being done versus teachers and students stressing each other some of the time, sometimes over inexplicable policy adjustments. Pulling back on testing could fail to prepare students for testing to come. The whole system needs to change. We can certainly mitigate damages to some degree. But things are not so clear cut or crystal clear. There are not that many things in education right now that are so widely agreed upon with such certainty to the point that not employing them is accepted as harmful. Some things are clear, like some charter school practices.
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A NOD TO THE HUMANITIES as educational background: Here is a Bloomberg interview with Mark Cuban, the billionaire investor. His remarks about humanities occur around minute-12, but the whole interview is worth a listen for teachers for his critique of Trump (bad and good) whose “ear” he has had on occasion.
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2017/02/20/billionaire-predicts-liberal-arts-driven-future?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=ea1e107457-DNU20170220&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-ea1e107457-198488425&mc_cid=ea1e107457&mc_eid=f743ca9d07
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And as to whether or not we should react to what is happening, more from Dante’s Inferno.
“The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.”
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“He that is without sin, throw the first stone”. Before any of us metaphorically or allegorically judge the sins of others and ponder the just retribution they deserve, let us be consistent and not hypocrites. What about the sins of the prior administration, and the ones before that? Is Trumps presidency so categorically and qualitatively different and worse than all before it? I’m of the opinion that time will tell and I’ll reserve my judgments for later. For now, I’m told to “honor…respect,,,pray for those in authority, that we might live a peaceable life in all justice and righteousness” (and that command was given to believers under Nero’s and Dominitian’s rule [not the nicest guys to Christians]).
Oh wait, I just remembered that when I point one finger at someone, 4 others are pointing back at me. “If You should mark iniquity, who could stand, but there is mercy and grace with You, that You might be revered”. Yes, I’d love to point out the sins of others, but Jesus told me “You hypocrite, before you go to your brother and point out the sawdust in his eyes, make sure to remove the tree growing out of your own eye”.
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“Is Trumps presidency so categorically and qualitatively different and worse than all before it?”
Is your comment meant to appeal to religious rabble?
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NO, I disdain much of what Trump is doing and stands for. But I don’t think “Russia was in the voting booth manipulating the choices of the electorate”.
I only posted this to point out that we all need patience, mercy and grace, and that none of us are really in a position of moral-superiority to point out the flaws of others. The Apostle Paul was martyred by the Romans, but rarely (if it all) did he criticize the corruptions of the Romans, because he knew himself to be “the chief of sinners”.
“Religious rabble” is everyone, for we all live by some kind of faith (even the materialists).
Yes, I believe in criticism and even condemnation, but with a humble and self-aware spirit.
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Then in that spirit . . . This is really quite striking:
“You hypocrite, before you go to your brother and point out the sawdust in his eyes, make sure to remove the tree growing out of your own eye”.
A surrealist’s depiction of illusion, delusion, myopia or subjectivity, and by extension perhaps ideology or even belief.
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The mud one slings often returns and lands in their own face. I just point out the reality of all administrations’ fallibilty and now get all these attacks on my competence…..really?
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Rick Lapworth: You keep missing that you are involved in a false equivalence. And then you bring in otherwise worthy religious quotes to avoid that point. I call that “religious fog.”
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OKAY, I confess that Trump’s actions are beyond the norm and I don’t approve of many of them, as I wouldn’t approve of prior adminstration’s actions either. I never said what Trump does is an “equivalence” to prior leaders, to begin with.
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Which of Trump’s actions do you approve of, Rick?
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That’s not all you did. You, not do gently or humbly, scolded everyone on the thread using the stick or beam or plank or tree of religious instruction.
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Sorry for your hurt feelings and misperceptions. I “scolded” NO ONE, but only pointed out the issue that administrations have their problems and need are prayers.
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You forget that Rick pointed out that no administration is infallible, thereby demonstrating that he is a reasonable man (because he does not go so far as to believe Trump to be a god) and utterly refuting everyone on this comment thread who believes that some administrations (I’m looking at you, Obama!) are infallible.
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I never cease to be amazed how dialogues started with some kind of objective goal or pursuit of truth digress into personal attacks, innuendo and ad-hominem puerile name-calling. Wow, upset the post-modern notions of some and out come the claws?
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Upset the post-modern notion that some administrations are infallible? Is that what you thought you were doing when you wrote that?
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To follow up, Rick, sorry if I was too personal or aggressive in this thread.
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Don’t worry, my feelings aren’t hurt and I’m a big-boy; I debate top-notch materialists all the time and nothing they say or do surprises me (and visa versa). Peace!
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Not so gently or humbly
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You’re not focusing properly. I’m saying you brought actual religious instruction into this.
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Citing texts from acknowledged reliable sources is “religious”, just as Darwin’s work on the “ascendency of the human races” (a most racist and demeaning treatise on colored people and women). Call it philosophy, not religion, if you want. Otherwise, be consistent because secular humanism is a “religion” too.
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Rick, this is what you wrote:
Yes, I’d love to point out the sins of others, but Jesus told me “You hypocrite, before you go to your brother and point out the sawdust in his eyes, make sure to remove the tree growing out of your own eye”.
And now you’ve become a fog machine.
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This can’t be repeated enough: Rick is a science teacher who believes that the earth is approximately 10,000 years old.
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Well, the evidences for billions of years has problems and is refuted by certain chronometers. Go do research FLERP and maybe you will realize that old-age chronologies have their problems, and people that cling to them do so regardless of the anomalies. OOOOhhh, I have an open mind and read from varying perspectives and that makes me questionable? I thought scientists looks at all the data, not just that which is pre-approved and filtered to fit specific paradigms. Did you read the star-birth article?
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I said I would be happy to read any research you had published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. What you sent me was something written by someone else and the journal appeared to be dedicated to publishing creationist science. My offer doesn’t extend that far.
Just curious, do you believe the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate?
Do you believe that the speed of light is always the same regardless of what frame of reference it’s measured from?
Do you believe that entropy is a real thing?
Would be interested in getting the opinions of an expert in these fields such as yourself.
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Well then your “offer” is preloaded, full of bias and blinders and is not an offer to discuss science, but to repeat current dogmas and “herd mentality” of the majority (which history bears out can often be wrong). Explore and search the site and find out these things for yourself. I have better things to do with my time then “hold you by the hand” and help you do your own research. PS – yes entropy is real and genetic entropy (search it out) is a real barrier to the adding/increasing of a genomes information (a possible “nail in the coffin” for macroevolution).
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Rick, as I’ve said many times, I’m not qualified to have a meaningful discussion about the age of the universe. My understanding of that issue is based on reading of books written for laypersons who do not have a deep background in physics or mathematics. I’ve also mentioned that I don’t think you’re qualified to have a meaningful discussion of this issue. In response, you told me that you had taken graduate courses in “science” and that you have published “research.” I told you that I wasn’t overly impressed with the fact that you have taken graduate-level courses but had not received a PhD in any field of science, but I said I would be happy to read whatever “research” you have published (although I warned that if it actually contained original research, I likely would have trouble understanding it). You didn’t send me any link to your research. Instead, you sent me something someone else wrote.
So you are correct that my offer was preloaded (otherwise known as an offer with terms) and was not an offer to discuss science with you, as I have no indication that either of us is qualified to have an intelligent discussion about science. My offer was that I would read research you have published, assuming you sent it to me. You haven’t done that.
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Btw, do you not have any opinions about the speed of light or the expansion of the universe? Or are you still in the process of googling your creationist web sites to see what they have to say about those things? No need to rush — Einstein and Hubble are dead, so they can wait.
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Well, the C value may not be constant and there is some evidence for a C-decay with time, and yes, expansion could be accelerating and gravitational pulls weaken over increased distances. I love your slander about “googling”, so intellectually edifying. Can you refute the problems with star-formation (because nobody really has yet, even BB experts admit it is a problem….but then you would know that if you kept up on the research).
Here is a link about problems in isotope dating, presented by “non-evolutionists” at a long-age secular conference (each presenter is an expert in his field and has yet to be refuted, soundly, by any long-ager…..are you familiar with He retention or dinosaur soft-tissue, or significant amount of C-14 in dino-bones…..all of which contradict long-age dates). http://www.icr.org/article/rate-posters-agu-conference
FLERP, I hope you do the explorations from both sides of the fence, and not just ignorantly accuse people of using “creationist” research, when you’ve never read it or understand the arguments of be able to refute it.
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You say there’s “some evidence for a c-decay with time” — has the speed of light ever been measured as some speed lower than a previous measurement?
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In connection with the speed of light — do you also take issue with the prevailing methods by which scientists measure the distance of stars from earth?
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OR…that makes what was written a light to cut through the fog of all our biases, mine included. What fog do you live in?
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FLERP!: I’m reserving a special place for you in secular heaven. You da best! Evah! (I can’t honor you more than to thank you in my hometown’s dialect.) Or the the highest compliment possible: Yeah, you right!
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Rick Lapworth says: “What about the sins of the prior administration, and the ones before that? Is Trumps presidency so categorically and qualitatively different and worse than all before it?**
Yes, it is.
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Good, then it needs more prayers for wisdom than others. So, pray and hope and contribute toward righteousness and justice (that is what the prophets preached, not a “blame the king for the ills of society” polemic).
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Rick Lapworth: I certainly do hope and pray. I doubt anyone here has an exclusive on such activities. I only think prayer and hope excuses no one from the responsibilities of living in a democracy–of speaking out, peaceful demonstrations, calling Congresspeople, and generally (call it “blame the king” if you will) but if things go forward without correction, exposing errors, fabrications, mis-directions, and lies, will become more and more heroic–and dangerous. Orwell sits next to my Bible on my shelf right next to my copy of the Constitution.
Nor are we on sound ground to reduce our present problems to in Old Testament political orders. Again, a democracy is not a kingship. But you called it right when you say: “contribute toward righteousness and justice.”
On the other hand, you avoided my reference to your own false equivalence–where I said, “Yes, it is.” Is that religious fog at work, or did you do that deliberately?
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“religious fog”….don’t we all suffer from it? When I look back on the examples from our history I see other presidents that did some pretty extreme things (ex. intern Japanese during WW 2), so my evaluations of Trump’s actions will defer till I have more evidence (and YES, I don’t agree with everything he is doing), But then saying marriage can be between same-sexes is not the historic norm either [NO, please no comments on that issue, just pointing out the radical nature of that decision]).
Why do people like to insinuate bias (ie, religious fog) in others, just because they may not like their axioms and inferences??????????????
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Rick Lapworth: I don’t “like to insinuate bias.” Neither do I take pleasure in recognizing it. In this case, it sounds like either religious fog to me, or you are being deliberately obtuse to the seriousness of the problem.
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Must one have “religious fog” in order to recognize it?
No, I see the seriousness of the problem, as those in the past too.
Grace!
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He did address it, suggesting it is due to the ills of society, at this current time, I presume.
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Akademos: While Rick is trying to overlook or excuse his political amnesia, the Rome he takes for granted begins to burn down. Let’s all stand aside and watch with him so he won’t feel bad about himself and his own sins. And so, on the aside, we find that the Religious Right bears no responsibility for their deeds, such as they are.
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Oh, I’m blind to history, just because I point out that all administrations are fallible, led by sinful people in need of grace, mercy and our prayers.
Your personal innuendo against me is PATHETIC and has no basis in objectivity, but it is so easy to throw stones and insult another’s intelligence, when one has nothing better to contribute???
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