Threatening the nation that protects them Sometimes in grazing the net, a theme appears in otherwise disconnected bits of internet flotsam. The current of electrons this morning delivered several random entries pointing toward the cultural degradation of the very people in this country who decry cultural degradation the loudest. This is the real American carnage, to borrow a phrase. The meme at the top is one example. The man who entered American carnage into the lexicon spoke of “Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities, rusted out factories, scattered like tombstones across the across the landscape of our nation, an education system flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge.” His most ardent followers are working at this very moment to decimate public education, to proscribe what children can learn, and to ensure children remain in poverty. Violent crime is rampant, he suggested, and does to this day. People believe him. In fact, violent crime is down. Yes, property crimes are up, but along with hate crimes targeting Blacks, Latinos, and LGBTQ+ Americans. Antisemitic crimes are up as well.
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Maybe they mean to repeat history When was America great the first time? Someone go ask Donald Trump. Maybe Jordan Klepper should query Trump rally attendees what “great again” means again. I’m guessing they really mean 1859. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905. From the series Great Ideas of Western Man. Historian Seth Cotlar (Rightlandia) will be in Seattle on Tuesday interviewing Rachel Maddow about her new book Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism. Those who listened to her latest podcast, Ultra, know the basics. She traces the America fascist movement of the 1930s and 40s in more detail.
McCarthy: This is embarrassing for the Republican Party. It’s embarrassing for the nation pic.twitter.com/Mv8fc4PvoR — Acyn (@Acyn) October 22, 2023 EJ Dionne: The chaotic Republican-led House of Representatives has a rather poor sense of timing. The United States is in the midst of two international emergencies and faces the threat of a government shutdown next month. President Biden’s prime-time speech on Thursday pressing for aid to Ukraine and Israel underscored the exorbitant costs of the GOP meltdown. But the embarrassing exercise could prove to be a blessing because it’s exposing a crisis in our politics that must be confronted. The endless battle for the speakership is already encouraging new thinking and might yet lead to institutional arrangements to allow bipartisan majorities to work their will. The House impasse was precipitated by both radicalization and division within the Republican Party. Narrow majorities in the House have enabled right-wing radicals to disable the governing system.
First the Kraken lady, then Kenneth Chesebro As more dominoes fall, it might look something like this at Casa Insurrection. It won’t be Trump confessing, but one by one he’ll be seeing his friends evaporate. (I can dream, can’t I?) Clip borrowed from Dave (1993).
Joe Biden was a private citizen in 2018 Hold that thought (CBS News): House Republicans released bank records of President Biden’s brother, James Biden, Friday, that they argue raise more questions about whether President Biden personally benefited from his family’s business ventures. Bank records released by the GOP-led House Committee on Oversight and Accountability revealed a $200,000 personal check paid to Mr. Biden from his brother, James Biden, and sister-in-law, Sara Biden. The personal check, which was labeled a loan repayment, was issued before Biden’s presidency, on the same date in 2018 when Americore Health LLC, a healthcare company that manages rural hospitals across the United States also wired a $200,000 loan into James Biden’s PNC bank account. In video remarks posted to X, Rep.
It turns out that when the owner of the social media site is a narcissistic, control freak, troll the site ends up being a hellhole of lies and propaganda. Who could have guessed? A handful of influential but unreliable accounts, some of which have been promoted by Elon Musk, are dominating the flow of news on X around the Israel-Hamas war and easily outpacing established mainstream news outlets, according to research published Friday by the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public. Researchers analyzed viral posts about the conflict during a three-day period starting from the beginning of the attack against Israel on Oct. 7. They concluded that the most popular posts about the crisis revealed how news on the platform is “faster, more disorienting, and potentially more shaped by Musk himself.” The new work adds data to a swell of recent anecdotal accounts from researchers, academics and journalists who have noted a change for the worse in the way news and information moves and is incentivized on Twitter over the last year, especially since the start of the Israel-Hamas crisis.
Worth recalling Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre undermining the rule of law and DOJ independence; we have hardly advanced from that. Indeed, Trump is promising its return. https://t.co/KYprXck79l — Andrew Weissmann (weissmann11 on Threads)🌻 (@AWeissmann_) October 21, 2023 Trump came close in the post-election period. He was going to fire the whole top layer of the DOJ and put in that coup-plotting toady Jeffrey Clark in as Attorney General in order to get the department to back his play to overturn the election. He was talked out of it when the White House lawyers convinced him that that entire executive team in the department would leave and it would affect his public standing. He would not take that advice today.He’s learned by now that there is no price to pay for maximalism. Next time, he won’t hesitate.
Trump doesn’t think it is Trouble in wingnut paradise? Fox News was essential to Donald Trump’s success in both of his last presidential runs. Now, as the former president navigates another campaign through a tidal wave of indictments and legal problems, he’s facing a much frostier relationship with the cable giant—and that could be bad news for both of them. In recent months, Trump’s inner circle has become convinced that Fox News is essentially sidelining the former president by restricting live appearances on the network. “Trump is not allowed live on Fox,” a Trump operative told The Daily Beast, chalking it up to “fear” that Trump could level a baseless allegation that could leave the network in a legal mess. A Trump adviser told The Daily Beast a similar story—that the former president isn’t allowed live on air anymore, and that Fox News prefers to have Trump in a pre-recorded setting. “Fox sent down word from the top that they don’t want to ‘platform’ Trump like they did before,” a Trump adviser told The Daily Beast. “I find it hilarious.
But not just in foreign affairs Joe Biden’s Oval Office speech Thursday night is yet another example of how his life and his faith have shaped him. This is not going to be an apologia for his failings, but rather a review of whether, despite Americans’ chest-thumping about their faith, they really mean what they say. Biden does. “Biden’s throwback, almost corny optimisim about the country he’s spent his life serving feels authentic. When he says he’s not kidding, he’s not kidding,” I wrote just yesterday. When he said last night, “We’re facing an inflection point in history,” he says it with an almost George Bailey sincerity. He emphasized “the humanity of innocent Palestinians who only want to live in peace and have an opportunity.” Biden called out recent waves of antisemitism and Islamophobia at home. We can’t stand by and stand silent when this happens. We must without equivocation denounce antisemitism. We must also without equivocation denounce Islamophobia. And to all you hurting, those of you who are hurting, I want you to know I see you. You belong.
Here we go-go again-again There was a time in this country when redistricting happened once every ten years. Not in North Carolina since 2011. I’ve lost count of the number of maps we’ve seen. So many that the local League of Women Voters sponsored the first Gerrymander 5k here in 2017. Well, the latest batch of maps from the GOP coven dropped late Wednesday. Daily Kos Elections offers this summary: ● NC Redistricting: North Carolina Republicans unveiled new congressional and legislative maps on Wednesday that would rank as some of the most extreme gerrymanders in the country. The new proposals would cost three to four House Democrats their seats in Congress and lock in GOP majorities in the legislature in this longtime swing state. And in the near term, there’s little Democrats can do to stop them. Republicans put forth a pair of congressional maps that would both upend the state’s House delegation, which currently includes seven Democrats and seven Republicans thanks to a court-drawn plan.