the attitude with arnie arnesen the Monday edition noon to 1pm on WNHNFM Dec 15

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Arnie Arnesen

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Dec 14, 2025, 3:24:58 PMDec 14
to AttitudeArnieArnesen
The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen
opening thoughts: let's talk fonts...I am not kidding
producers: Dave Scott and Stephanie Collins
Chloé LaCasse (the best of the attitude)
streaming live at wnhnfm.org noon & 7pm EST on the dial-94.7FM Concord NH
opening thought: Mad King Trump’s Latest Peeve: Sans Serif Fonts Why does he care? He doesn’t even read! https://newrepublic.com/article/204274/trump-war-sans-serif-fonts

In The Emperor, Ryszard Kapuściński’s classic portrait of autocratic senility, Emperor Haile Selassie orders a great palace to be built in Ethiopia’s Ogaden Desert, keeps a liveried staff there for many years—but visits the site only a single day. In Addis Ababa, one servant waits on Emperor Selassie so that whenever he mounts his throne he can place a pillow under the emperor’s feet (Selassie was very short), and another stands by so that when the emperor’s little dog pisses on a visiting dignitary’s shoe this servant can wipe it off with a satin cloth. The dignitaries are not permitted so much as to flinch. The point, I guess, is that autumnal patriarchs run out of large abuses of power to initiate (indiscriminate deportations, selling pardons) and turn to petty ones. Two examples of the latter are Trump’s gilding the Oval Office and erecting a 90,000 square-foot White House ballroom that dwarfs the executive mansion. The style of these is literally rococo because MAGA itself has entered its rococo stage. The latest example is Trump’s war on sans serif fonts—that is, typeface lacking traditional small decorative flourishes.
It started with words. When Trump returned to office, he banned from all government communications the words and phrases equality, inequality, climate science, at-risk, socioeconomic, underprivileged, and 193 others. Now Trump is dictating how the letters in the remaining words should appear on a computer screen or page. It’s reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio on December 9 sent an “action request” to all diplomatic posts ordering them to stop using sans serif type, to “restore decorum and professionalism to the department’s written work.”...
Last month, Trump ordered placed, on a pillar just outside his office and behind the (former) Rose Garden, some gold signage (“The Oval Office”) in flourish-heavy Shelley Script. It looked like an invitation to a Bar Mitzvah. That came down, then went up again. The same font is also visible along the “Presidential Walk of Fame” (the same one where President Joe Biden is depicted, insultingly, as an autopen). It’s all part of Trump’s project to make the White House resemble a 1970s dinner theater.,,,
The Trump administration opposes sans serif because they think it’s DEI bullshit. In 2023, Rubio’s predecessor, Antony Blinken, in a cable headlined “The Times (New Roman) They Are A Changin’,” switched State Department communications to the sans serif Calibri font. His reason was that it was easier to read for people with dyslexia or other reading disabilities—and, yes, that suggestion came from the State Department’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion, one of many such offices throughout the federal government that Trump ordered eliminated his first day in office...In initiating a crusade against sans serif type, Trump appears to be telling us: “I’ve never read my briefing books, and I don’t intend to start now. But I like how things look, and serifs look better, and if that creates problems for handicapped people I don’t care.”

Richest 1/1000th of world’s population controls 3 times more wealth than the poorest 50%. "The global wealth gap has become so staggering, and its impact on economies & democratic institutions so corrosive, that policymakers should treat it as an emergency..." https://www.commondreams.org/news/world-inequality-report
rethink the week
talkers:
Jamie Rowen is a professor of Legal Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the founding director of UMass' Center for Justice, Law, and Societies. Her work focuses on both domestic and international criminal law. Her book, Worthy of Justice: The Politics of Veterans Treatment Courts in Practice, has just been released December 2025.
Egberto Willies is a political activist, author, political blogger, radio show host, business owner, software developer, web designer, and mechanical engineer in Kingwood, TX. He is an ardent Progressive that believes tolerance is essential. His favorite phrase is “political involvement should be a requirement for citizenship”. Egberto is Host/Producer of Politics Done Right aired on Pacifica Network's KPFT 90.1 FM and other networks. Read his articles at his "Egberto Off The Record" Substack newsletter at politicsdoneright.com/newsletter.
Stephen Pimpare is Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Master in Public Policy program at Vermont Law and Graduate School. He is the author of four books, numerous articles, and the Host of the New Books Network's public policy channel. 

Alexander Theodoridis is an associate professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and co-director of the UMass Poll.  His work seeks to understand the ways in which citizens interact with the political world in an era of hyper-polarization..

topics:
25 Years After Bush v. Gore, Supreme Court and Election Law Still Feel the Fallout The 5–4 decision started a long slide in public approval for the court, accentuated by a widening partisan gap.



aside: BESSENT: “I run a soybean farm.”
BRENNAN: “You don’t own one. You invest in it.” 
BESSENT: “People in my family go out and work on it.” This is the billionaire playbook in real time, claim the struggle, outsource the labor, and pretend proximity equals experience. He’s not a farmer. He’s a shareholder wearing overalls for the camera.

Trump’s Empire of Hubris and ThuggeryThe president’s latest National Security Strategy memorandum treats the freedom to coerce others as the essence of US sovereignty. It is an ominous document that will—if allowed to stand—come back to haunt the United States.  https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/trump-national-security-strategy-memo

Trump’s White Christian Foreign Policy
According to our new official National Security Strategy, we have to support Europe’s neo-Nazi right in its fight to keep Europe white. https://prospect.org/2025/12/08/trumps-white-christian-foreign-policy/

Indiana Republicans Reject Trump, Vote Down Gerrymander

The full result of Trump’s election-rigging scheme shows almost no advantage. And the way things are going, it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. https://prospect.org/2025/12/12/indiana-republicans-reject-trump-vote-down-gerrymander/

House Democratic Leaders Urged to Force a Vote on Stock Trading Ban

Enough Republicans are on a discharge petition to get a House vote to end congressional stock trading—if Democrats sign on. https://prospect.org/2025/12/11/house-democratic-leaders-urged-to-force-vote-stock-trading-ban/

Will the Court Rule for Trump or for Wall Street?

Today on TAP: As the Supreme Court now considers whether Trump can take over the Federal Reserve, we lose either way. https://prospect.org/2025/12/11/will-supreme-court-rule-for-trump-or-wall-street/
Trump’s Venezuelan Oil Tanker Seizure May Not Be What It Seems https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/12/trump-venezuela-oil-tanker-seizure.html
After Trump pardon, Rep. Henry Cuellar restored to homeland security funding post After his corruption indictment last year, the Laredo Democrat forfeited his role as the top Democrat on the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees more than $65 billion in annual spending. https://www.texastribune.org/2025/12/11/henry-cuellar-house-appropriations-subcommittee-homeland-security-trump-pardon/
National Democrats put Texas House on list of legislative targets for 2026 Rep. Christina Morales, the new chair of the Texas House Democratic Campaign Committee, said she wants to initially target five GOP-controlled districts, with a broader list to come later. https://www.texastribune.org/2025/12/10/texas-house-legislature-election-2026-national-democrats/


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KEEPING THE POT STIRRED SO SCUM DOESN'T RISE TO THE TOP -  Anonymous 

D. ARNIE ARNESEN
15 Rumford Street
Concord NH 03301
nha...@gmail.com
(C) 603-321-7654

Host of "The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen"
Award Winning Public Affairs Show (NHAB 2018)
airs noon to 1pm and 7pm EST M-F at 94.7FM (concord nh)
Home Station - wnhnfm.org
Part of the Pacifica Network
go to wnhnfm.org for streaming live 

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