On the evening of April 3, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his last speech. The world remembers his speech in Memphis, Tennessee, as the Mountaintop Speech. Most famously, the closing few paragraphs live in the hearts and minds of Americans for its soaring rhetoric and sheer mouth-opening awe....
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Okay, you won’t believe this one. Or, rather, you will, but the barf bags you label “M, Tu, W, Th, F” in anticipation of the coming week in conservatism will fill up faster than a pair of Trump family pantaloons at a New York deposition. J.D. Vance, the guy who less...
“…wearing a mask while playing was no different from wearing a parachute while skydiving.” The above quote is purportedly from the late Jacques Plante, former goaltender for the Montreal Canadiens Hockey club when his bravery was questioned for wearing a mask. As absurd as it seems now, there was a...
I took a moment, in the interest of “fair and balanced” reporting, to tune into Fox News’ coverage of the opening of the 1/6 Committee hearing, last week. Of course, the scrolling chyron across the bottom of the screen calling it the Pelosi Committee was an obvious attempt to prejudice...
The misplaced displays of so-called love for the U.S. by Republicans will eventually strangle her to death. We heard evidence of that in the opening testimony from one of four officers present at the Capitol insurrection on January 6. Faced with a frothing mob of white supremacists, fascists, and riotous...
Burned out at the end of the Joy-Ann Reid hour on MSNBC, I am ready for mindless tv. By that time, my intellectual palette is dulled by the talk of the continuous meal foisted on me of tasteless conservative ambrosia. A nice, seared steak of the NBA playoffs or a good...
Pure propaganda with more Big Lies for the Big Liar. The Trumpian alternative universe is touted in Elise Stefanik’s opening speech as the new GOP Conference Chair. LOL about “the far left, radical socialist policies of President Joe Biden and Speaker Nancy Pelosi.” In comparison with Liz Cheney, she’s an...
Among the countless examples of inane “Washington group-think” is the notion that only Democrats have to “pay for” their legislative priorities (i.e., enact corresponding tax increases and/or spending cuts to match the costs of new programs). Republicans do not remotely consider themselves so constrained — in part because they also are...
So this happened yesterday: Glenn Youngkin, a wealthy first-time candidate who walked a line between his party’s Trump-centric base and appeals to business interests, won the Republican nomination for governor of Virginia on Monday. He heads into a general election in one of only two states choosing their governors in...
http://www.cnn.com/… The Food and Drug Administration is giving emergency approval to the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid Vaccine for use in juveniles from 12 to 15 years old. Several of the vaccine manufacturers are conducting limited trials for younger groups. Vaccinations of young people will not only increase the percentage of the population...
In case you didn’t already know that Ron DeSantis is an awful, Hardee’s grease trap of a human being, the following eye-opening revelations about the country’s foremost COVID-19 superspreader are bound to disabuse you of any notion that he's got a soft spot—unless you’re talking about his wee cartilaginous skull. Seems he’s...
I was raised Lutheran i.e. by the doctrine of Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, and Sola Scriptura. The only part of which spoke to me was that my neighbour needed more of my “good” deeds than god, being omnipotent that made sense, the rest not so much. I was aware of...
Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) was born in the heart of the old Democratic south. He is a devout southerner, born in Mississippi, and attended college at both the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt in Tennessee. At age sixty-nine, I believe it is safe to say that the one-time southern Democrat,...
He’s now posing as his own Walmart greeter. Trump regularly crashed random wedding receptions at his Bedminster NJ golf club, because he simply likes that opening-the-car-dealership shtick, and copping a feel from the bride seems more acceptable as perv-adjacent. Try the attention-seeking veal, and tip your cow. Unfortunately Facebook may allow him back by next...
Like Martin Luther objecting to Pope Leo X selling indulgences to raise money for a variety of excesses, the environmental costs of carbon markets far exceed the benefits. Austerity would have denied us Renaissance art which is less at risk in an age of non-fungible tokens. Today the consequences for the planet...
The stuck ship does tell us something about the fragility of global trade and the flow of capital. Fungible Space Logistics, that concept popularized by United Parcel Service is also about the spatial problems of concrete versus abstract global networks. x Everyone is talking about the big ship getting stuck...
There is supposed to be another presser at 1030am ET in Boulder. The shooter was injured. The details will simply get worse. At least three people were shot in the street presumably as the shooter entered the store. The location is south of the university campus and the central city in...
Friendly reminder: retiring U.S. Senator Pat Toomey (R. PA) is still an asshole and will not be missed: Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania on Thursday blocked a bill meant to bar private debt collectors from seizing checks issued as part of the recent stimulus bill. The law that Toomey...
The Atlanta spree killings are unfortunately a story with structural similarity to events elsewhere. How do we know that Robert Long wasn’t on his way to Mar-a-Lago when the cops performed a PIT maneuver on him after he killed eight people. Darn hypotheticals of the culture wars. Mar-a-Lago as spa resort...
Ok, this is Sunday and I try to stay away from political posts on Sunday. Something happened yesterday and took me back 30 years and I smiled. My car had just stopped and would not crank at the drive through at CVS. I called my husband to come down and jump...
Yeah, this was easy enough to predict. Part of voting against a COVID relief measure that polls better than dolphins riding glitter-farting unicorns on enchanted rainbow highways to free breadsticks and blowhole-waxing night at Olive Garden is that you’re morally obligated to sit back and take your lumps. But as we well...
It’s been a long and very busy week for me, hence why I haven’t been posting a lot of diaries. But I just wanted to pass this along: 'No idea what he's doing': Manchin perplexes with Covid aid power play In the end, it took a direct call from President...
Before 1937, inaugural day wasn’t until March 4. Back in the day we would’ve been facing 6 more weeks of Trump. QAnon-Pushed March 4 As Trump’s ‘True Inauguration Day’—But Officials Don’t Expect Violence https://t.co/vBkkXuPVww pic.twitter.com/2gOGsJ5myh — Forbes (@Forbes) March 2, 2021 Apparently, many QAnon supporters believe that Donald Trump has...
Statue of the “other guy” arrives at CPAC, the annual owning the libs festival and meat market. The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is underway in Orlando, Florida, opening with a 2020 election conspiracy supercut, a video heralding cancel culture “victim” Gina Carano and a gold statue of ousted president Donald Trump raising eyebrows in the Hyatt Regency lobby...
I’ve always admired Naomi Klein since reading her terrific and insightful book “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.” She has a NYT editorial column up yesterday, expounding on her prior theme in relation to Texas’s recent disaster, titled “Why The Republicans Fear The Green New Deal,” in which she...
Apparently Lindsey Graham was none too concerned about the galaxy-sized gap in our nation’s credibility after he voted to acquit Donald John Trump—twice—of eminently impeachable offenses. Moreover, he’s not terribly concerned about gaps in health coverage, or in our previous pr*sident’s response to COVID-19. Though he does appear determined to...
Texas is the coalmine canary of failures in the GQP’s industrial policy. The “clusterfuzzle” appears to be only in Texas: perhaps they skimmed on costs and failed in winterizing their plants. The structural failure comes from the anti-federal, deregulatory policy of the Texas grid which reveals itself in the disinformation...
Disgraced former president Trump is well-known for his intense dislike — and fear — of powerful women, from Speaker Pelosi to the Squad to any woman journalist who questions him. So it comes as no surprise to see this story in today’s New York Times: Promotions for Female Generals Were...
The Washington Post is reporting that the Biden Administration is acquiring an additional 200 million vaccine doses bringing the total to 600 million, enough to vaccine 300 million. This was an option in the origin contracts with Pfizer and Moderna but, by itself, won’t immediately increase supplies though it should secure them...
I’ve seen roller coaster accidents that were easier to follow—and less unnerving—than that gory mess Trump counsel Bruce Castor presented earlier today. To say it was shambolic and meandering is to insult anyone who’s currently lost in a mall parking lot. I was half expecting a big novelty hook to...
Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) was one of only five Republican senators to vote to table Rand Paul’s motion to dismiss the impeachment trial of Trump as unconstitutional. He also insists he is keeping an open mind on whether or not to convict him: Ben Sasse, Nebraska’s outspoken congressional critic of...
The Center for Disease Control report on daily covid-19 vaccinations shows a jump of 2,216,752 total, the largest one day increase. Vaccinations have been running about 1.3 million per day. Some of these vaccinations reported were almost surely from earlier in the week, still it represents a major increase as...
Even in exile* Donald Trump can’t stop fucking up and embarrassing the shit out of us. Whoever’s on deck this week to defend Trump in his impeachment trial (it’s either Barry Zuckerkorn or Lionel Hutz; I forget which) is so sharp, they can’t quite spell the name of the country Trump was...
Conservatives love to mythologize wealthy people as brave, resolute, patriotic captains of industry who won’t let anything get in the way of their success. At the same time, they also frequently portray the rich as timid little whelps who will instantly grab their balls and go home if anyone tries to pluck...
Republicans (not just Trump) have embraced and largely succeeded with a “flood the zone” strategy of misconduct and corruption that, regrettably, can make it hard to keep track of their bad faith, much less hold them accountable. In that vein, I simply wanted to note three instances before they slip away...
We were warned, now a new study has determined that the Earth’s plants' ability to sequester carbon emissions through photosynthesis will be halved by the 2030s or 2040s from what it is today at ten percent. That kind of loss will turn the natural world into a heat and carbon source, bringing...
We were warned, now a new study has determined that the Earth’s plants’ ability to sequester carbon emissions through photosynthesis will be halved by the 2030s or 2040s from what it is today at ten percent. That kind of loss will turn the natural world into a heat and carbon source, bringing...
As Trump’s one term winds to a thankful close, one of the largest scandals remains seemingly forgotten and bizarrely unexplained. There not only has never been a counter-intelligence investigation into Trump’s connections with Russia and Russia’s interference in the 2016 election — but we have learned that this is because that investigation was secretly thwarted...
Overcoming the tragedy of 6 January and the coming crises of inauguration week require attention to how it is less about calls for unity and more about Constitutional justice. Pay attention to your doomscrolling; take care of your self. Doomscrolling is the act of consuming a large quantity of negative online news...
Please practice greater situational awareness from January 17 to January 20. We all trust that those whose jobs it is to keep the nation safe are doing that effectively despite the numbers of law enforcement officials participating in violent anti-government demonstrations. x Police departments across the United States are opening probes...
This post in the Anticapitalist Chat supports a group reading of Karl Marx’s Capital Vol 1. #GoodMorningMarx #WeeklyMarx Reproduction and accumulation Capital is “self-valorising value”. But for capital to continue to generate new value and create surplus-value, this surplus-value must itself by reinvested back into production – that is, surplus-value must be...
Crimes against humanity by needless deaths, because sending Americans a check with his name on it obligated a vote. Trump needed anti-masking reactionaries and antivaxxers to merge in order to foment some naïve idea of herd immunity such that wanting to get more people infected was more important to the...
“Bettors who wagered thousands of dollars that President Donald Trump would win the 2020 presidential election are now planning legal action against at least one online gambling site for their return.” This reminds us of the ridiculousness of the snipe-hunt for Hunter Biden related dirt in Ukraine, as OANN continues its...
The Kraken Caucus makes itself known. GOP sedition messaging harkens back to the 19th Century, except Trump's lost cause won't rise again. This time it’s not a Brooks Brothers Riot but pseudo-secessionist displays. “Trump can't handle the concept of the label 'loser'” as he pimps a 'seditious abuse of justice', and Jake Tapper...
A young boy goes to the school nurse’s office, complaining of a sore throat. The nurse gives him a cup of ice and sends him back to class. My son is teaching science to a socially distanced class room, but the sick kid was often within 6 feet of him,...
Trump’s doing nothing about the continuing rise in Covid cases, and is spending his time at golf and continuing to sow chaos on the path to the bunker. Meanwhile the derangement spreads to Newt Gingrich. x The more data comes out on vote anomalies that clearly are not legitimate the...
So what will the new conservative boogeyman be now that Republicans are finally starting to accept that Donald Trump is a lame duck à l'orange? Well, conservative media have always played the hits from the ‘90s till today, so they’re bound to cue up a few oldies to keep the...