I’ve got a piece up at Politico this morning, setting out what I think the real Clarence Thomas scandal is, why corruption may not be the best way to think about it, and what the proper approach of the Left should be to the problem of Clarence Thomas: As a description of the problem of Clarence Thomas, however, corruption too has its limits. Morally, corruption rotates on the same axis as sincerity — forever testing the purity or impurity, the tainted genealogy, of someone’s beliefs. But money hasn’t paved the way to Thomas’ positions. On the contrary, Thomas’ positions have paved the way for money. A close look at his jurisprudence makes clear that Thomas is openly, proudly committed to […]
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Two thirds of police stations in England have closed since 2010. A new study digs into the dire consequences, Josiah Mortimer reports
♫ Then they let their hair hang down Remember when after Obama’s election, pundits insisted we were living in a “post-racial” society? “America’s struggle is to become not post-racial, but post-racist,” Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote years later. On the far right, “post-racial” was a prime, MAD magazine example of “What They Say and What it Really Means.” What some white people really meant was it was time for Black people to STFU about their treatment in white, by-God America. It was wishful thinking. At best. ‘Cause when they get behind closed doors, Charlie Rich might have sung, they still let their hair hang down. In Oklahoma, for example (The Oklahoman): In southeast Oklahoma, the sheriff of McCurtain County, one of his investigators and a county commissioner are accused by a newspaper of discussing killing a local reporter and lamenting that modern justice no longer includes hanging Black people. The explosive accusations were published this week in the McCurtain Gazette-News.
But you knew that Rep. Jeff Jackson (D-NC) will be lucky to survive the coming next round of gerrymandered congressional maps from the NC GOP. But he has shown himself adept at using social media since long before he got to Congress. Watch. He’s slick. @jeffjacksonnc Rep. Jeff Jackson (NC): Fake anger #fyp #politics #nc #charlotte #raleigh #asheville #durham #greensboro ♬ original sound – Jeff Jackson Maybe too slick. Perhaps another of those pretty boys we’ve seen use his military service to position himself for public office. But watch that space.
Here we go again. It seems as if every other election cycle or so for the past few decades has produced dreams of a centrist third party “unity” ticket that would appeal to all the Americans who say they want the partisan bickering in Washington to stop. The Beltway media gets excited at the idea of “the grown-ups” being in charge and the Big Money Boys lick their chops at the prospect of a party based entirely on their needs and their needs alone. This year it looks like the perennial group that calls itself No Labels has decided to throw a monkey wrench into our closely divided electoral college map and possibly send Donald Trump back to the White House in 2024 — in the name of unity, of course. No Labels is already gathering signatures to get on the ballot and is trying to recruit a Democrat and a Republican to run as a bipartisan ticket. Joe Manchin D-W.V., Kirsten Sinema, D-Az., Susan Collins, R-Me., and former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan are the names mentioned most often.
Some things never change Kevin McCarthy went to Wall Street to unveil his debt ceiling plan: stick it to the poor. How perfect: On Monday, the speaker delivered remarks at the New York Stock Exchange on the pressing issue facing Congress: raising the debt ceiling and ensuring the US can avoid a catastrophic default that could happen as soon as July. After months of stalemate, and Biden remaining adamant that he will not use the debt ceiling as bargaining chip, McCarthy confirmed that the House will vote on a bill “in the coming weeks” that would raise the debt ceiling through next year while keeping federal spending at the 2022 level over the next decade. Part of that deal would include strengthened work requirements on welfare programs, like the food stamps program called SNAP. “Our proposal will also restore work requirements that ensure able-bodied adults without dependents earn a paycheck and learn new skills that will grow our economy and help the supply chain,” McCarthy said. “Right now, there are more job openings than people who are looking for jobs. You know why?
We need this Fox Dominion trial for the sake of democracy Michael Tomasky makes the case: Here’s an instructive and telling little exercise for you, one that I engaged in myself this past Sunday morning. Head over to Google and search for “NBC defamation lawsuits by former employees.” And then, do the same with CBS, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. You’ll find a few interesting incidents. A Native American employee sued NBC over discrimination at the 30 Rock workplace. The CBS affiliate in Dallas settled an age discrimination case brought by an on-air reporter. After you’ve done that, go Google “Fox News defamation lawsuits by former employees”—and watch your computer explode. There’s the record $1 million fine Fox paid in 2021 over various #MeToo allegations from female employees. There’s the staggering $20 million Fox agreed to pay to Gretchen Carlson in 2016.
There are many reasons for the state to battle with a corporation but being a snotty bitch because the corporation objected to something the Governor said isn’t one of them: Gov. Ron DeSantis vowed Monday that the Florida Legislature will soon reassert control over Disney World’s Reedy Creek Improvement District, promising to void development agreements and even floating the idea of building a state prison near the world-famous attraction. Legislation also will be filed to take away Disney’s self-inspection of rides and monorails and allow the state to examine a ride if someone is seriously injured on it, DeSantis said at a news conference at Reedy Creek’s administrative building. He then mused about potentially selling off the district’s utilities and developing district land that Disney doesn’t own. “People are like, ‘Well, … what should we do with this land?” said a smiling DeSantis. “… Maybe create a state park, maybe try to do more amusement parks? Someone even said, ‘Maybe you need another state prison?’ Who knows?
One of the right’s top hitmen seems to be one… The following is probably way too much information for some of you but I can’t resist. Ali Alexander and Milo Yiannopoulos are alt-right icons. Alexander is one of the big organizers of the Stop the Steal insurrection and Yiannopoulos has been hanging around Roger Stone for years and was most recently working with Marjorie Taylor Greene. These are people with access to the highest reaches of the GOP, including the Dear Leader. Oh, and they’re all affiliated with the Nazi Nick Fuentes and Kanye West. This is just … amazing: A key figure in the pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” campaign has apologized after being accused of asking teenage boys for sexual pictures. Ali Alexander has become one of the most ubiquitous figures in the MAGA movement. Trump himself reportedly requested that Alexander speak at his rally before the riot, with his appearance only quashed by a last-minute intervention from Trump’s aides. But this week, Alexander stands at the center of a scandal that raises questions about how powerful men in the far-right treat their younger acolytes.
Cruelty is the point again Remember André Bauer? He was the South Carolina lieutenant governor (Republican, naturally) who in 2010 compared government food assistance to the poor to feeding stray animals: “My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals,” Bauer said during a town hall meeting, as the Greenville News reported over the weekend. “You know why? Because they breed. You’re facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don’t think too much further than that. And so what you’ve got to do is you’ve got to curtail that type of behavior. They don’t know any better.” Bauer was saying the quiet part out loud before MAGA made it “conservative cool.” Cutting off poor people’s food is “a perennial Republican target,” observes Politicos’ Meredith Lee Hill.