Important and/or interesting political articles that often don't make the headlines but are worth a look.
Tuesday, June 30, 2020
John Roberts Just Bulldozed the Wall Separating Church and State
This is really, really bad news. The founding fathers were very much against using tax money to fund religious endeavors:
A National Mask Mandate Could Save The U.S. Economy $1 Trillion, Goldman Sachs Says
Yet another good reason to wear a fucking mask:
Monday, June 29, 2020
What Police Can Learn From the Military About the Effectiveness of Soft Power
Soft power is less expensive and more effective than hard power:
John Bolton: It's ‘Remarkable’ Trump Says He Wasn’t Briefed About Russia's Reported U.S. Troop Bounties
There is no way he wasn't briefed, and he'll lose a lot of military support for this:
Trump in ‘fragile’ mood and may drop out of 2020 race if poll numbers don’t improve, GOP insiders tell Fox News
If he thinks quitting will make him seem any less of a loser, he's mistaken. He'll be a loser AND a quitter:
I hate the idea of Pence getting to be on the list of presidents, but he wouldn't be president for long.
Trump’s Real Reason for Running for a Second Term: Fear of Being Remembered as a One-Term ‘Loser’
With nothing to offer but a personal desire not to appear a loser, he's going to lose:
Sacha Baron Cohen Pranks Right-Wing Rally Into Racist Singalong
Way to expose those who claim they're not racist (watch the video):
Have fun with this, Senate Republicans: Trump tells SCOTUS it was your idea to dismantle the ACA
How can he be so profoundly stupid?
Friday, June 26, 2020
Public health experts are increasingly frustrated with America's lack of leadership on coronavirus
No, response to COVID-19 isn't just an "opinion":
Thursday, June 25, 2020
Republicans literally try to drown out judiciary hearing on AG Barr by pounding the dais
Louie Gohmert is a complete tool:
Tuesday, June 23, 2020
This is the most succinct -- and brutal -- Republican rejection of Donald Trump that you will ever read
Republicans viciously attacking Trump with undeniable truth. Gotta love it:
Monday, June 22, 2020
Chris Wallace Chews Out Trump Adviser For Denying Reality Of ‘Empty’ Tulsa Rally
A lot of conservatives watch Chris Wallace on Fox News, so I'm glad he did not let her spin. Sometimes Wallace does a great job:
Sunday, June 21, 2020
'No Lessons Have Been Learned.' Why the Trillion-Dollar Coronavirus Bailout Benefited the Rich
Depressing how we never seem to learn:
Inside the Cult of Trump, His Rallies Are Church and He Is the Gospel
This is DEEPLY creepy, showing why it's impossible to reason with a die-hard Trump supporter:
Friday, June 19, 2020
Churches Are Receiving Bailout Dollars and the GOP is Hiding All the Details
There HAS to be a reckoning for this:
What the U.S. Can Learn From Countries Where Cops Don't Carry Guns
This would be a profound improvement on current US policing:
Wednesday, June 17, 2020
In the Brazilian Amazon, China is buyer, trader, lender, builder – to potentially devastating effect
China is authoritarian and thus can't be trusted:
Friday, June 12, 2020
Trump says chokeholds sound 'innocent and perfect' and compares himself to Lincoln
But of course choke holds are innocent and perfect...like kittens!
Trump Administration Refuses To Disclose Which Businesses Received $500 Billion In Government Bailout
The corruption of this administration is staggering:
Thursday, June 11, 2020
A 2010 Scientific Paper Predicted That 2020 Would Be a Shitshow
“Records show that societies can avert disaster,” Turchin wrote. “We need to find ways to ameliorate the negative effects of globalization on people’s well-being. Economic inequality, accompanied by burgeoning public debt, can be addressed by making tax rates more progressive. And we should not expand our system of higher education beyond the ability of the economy to absorb university graduates.”
In other words, conservatism isn't the solution, it's the problem:
CNN's response to Trump campaign's demand for an apology over poll that shows Biden leading
Trump actually threatens to sue over unfavorable poll results. What a child:
More Than 1,250 Ex-DOJ Workers Demand Probe Of AG Barr Over Protesters’ Removal
I'm really glad to see Barr's butt-kissing behavior called out:
Wednesday, June 10, 2020
'Antifa buses!' Panicked armed men hit small-town streets across America to fend off imagined hordes
Another case of conservatives being more susceptible to conspiracy theories:
Ex-Judge Says Push To Dismiss Flynn Case Is ‘Abuse Of Power’
More evidence Barr is loyal to Trump, not the US:
CDC Director Robert Redfield: Too Smooth to be True
This is what happens when you hire incompetents:
Tuesday, June 9, 2020
Federal Judge, After Reading the Unredacted Mueller Report, Orders DOJ to Explain Itself at Hearing
Oh, I sincerely hope this has traction:
Sunday, June 7, 2020
As Trump touts increased production, coronavirus swabs made during his Maine factory tour will be tossed in the trash
The supreme idiocy of this vain "president":
As They Scream Voter Fraud, Trump And His Press Secretary May Have Voted Illegally
Hypocrisy, thy name is Trump:
Friday, June 5, 2020
People are sawing through and climbing over Trump’s border wall. Now contractors are being asked for ideas to make it less vulnerable.
What a perfect symbol for the Trump administration:
Donald Trump is (Finally!) Losing Support Among White Evangelicals and Catholics
Evangelicals gave Trump the presidency. Losing a chunk of them will hurt him a LOT:
Delicious Fox News poll has Trump cratering in key swing states, including one absolute zinger
Nice to see Fox News polling these results, since their viewers will see them:
Thursday, June 4, 2020
Tensions flare between Trump, military figures over handling of George Floyd unrest
I love seeing Fox News print negative stories about Trump:
Read the comments. Almost all are anti-Trump.
One of America's most prominent conservative columnists wants Republicans to lose in 2020
Wow. Conservative George Will wants to see the Republicans lose the Senate. That's huge:
Evidence mounts of far-right extremists' violent chicanery at police protests around the nation
Several examples of right-wing extremists trying to turn protests violent:
Trump Went Full-On Fascist For A Photo-Op. What’s He Willing To Do To Keep Power?
I'm glad he's called out for each of these displays of authoritarianism, but he should have been kicked out of office long ago:
James Mattis Denounces Trump as Threat to Constitution
IN UNION THERE IS STRENGTH
I have watched this week’s unfolding events, angry and appalled. The words “Equal Justice Under Law” are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand—one that all of us should be able to get behind. We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values—our values as people and our values as a nation.
When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens—much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.
We must reject any thinking of our cities as a “battlespace” that our uniformed military is called upon to “dominate.” At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state governors. Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict—a false conflict—between the military and civilian society. It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, and of which they themselves are a part. Keeping public order rests with civilian state and local leaders who best understand their communities and are answerable to them.
James Madison wrote in Federalist 14 that “America united with a handful of troops, or without a single soldier, exhibits a more forbidding posture to foreign ambition than America disunited, with a hundred thousand veterans ready for combat.” We do not need to militarize our response to protests. We need to unite around a common purpose. And it starts by guaranteeing that all of us are equal before the law.
Instructions given by the military departments to our troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that “The Nazi slogan for destroying us…was ‘Divide and Conquer.’ Our American answer is ‘In Union there is Strength.’” We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis—confident that we are better than our politics.
Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.
We can come through this trying time stronger, and with a renewed sense of purpose and respect for one another. The pandemic has shown us that it is not only our troops who are willing to offer the ultimate sacrifice for the safety of the community. Americans in hospitals, grocery stores, post offices, and elsewhere have put their lives on the line in order to serve their fellow citizens and their country. We know that we are better than the abuse of executive authority that we witnessed in Lafayette Square. We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution. At the same time, we must remember Lincoln’s “better angels,” and listen to them, as we work to unite.
Only by adopting a new path—which means, in truth, returning to the original path of our founding ideals—will we again be a country admired and respected at home and abroad.
Wednesday, June 3, 2020
Leaked Proud Boys Chats Show Members Plotting Violence At Rallies
More examples of right-wing extremist attempts to subvert peaceful protests. Fortunately, they are incompetent wannabes:
White Nationalists Posing As Antifa Caught Calling For Violence On Twitter
The next time a conservative accuses ANTIFA of violence, show them this:
Roberts Upholds COVID-19 Restrictions on Churches, Scolds Kavanaugh
Yup, turns out Kavanaugh isn't a great judge. Shocker. Roberts has to be the adult in the room:
Monday, June 1, 2020
That time Donald Trump tweeted about 'weak leadership' leading to riots
There really is a tweet for everything:
Obama’s new statement on the protests exposes Trump’s failures
The stark difference between how Obama handles national tragedies vs. how Trump does:
Temperature Tipping Point for Tropical Forests Identified – Scientists Recommend Immediate Steps
Yet another reason to move quickly on combating climate change:
Ferguson Police Take A Knee In Honor Of George Floyd
I don't understand how nobody seems to have noticed the fact that police are kneeling to honor a victim of police kneeling:
OTOH, what other option is there? Bow? A moment of silence?
How Vietnam managed to keep its coronavirus death toll at zero
Who would have thought that the Vietnamese would do it right: