As a practicing Democrat, I have endured the slings and arrows of the conservative-Christian community for years. I have heard that caring about the poor, taking the stewardship of the planet seriously, and leaving the decision to have a baby to God and the mother were spawns of the devil....
Trumpites were fond of saying promises made, promises kept at the end of his disastrous administration. They could not say that the promises made to the middle class and the poor were kept. The public is still awaiting his secret health care plan—promised a week into his presidency. Infrastructure became...
I was born in the 1950s when it was not illegal for black people in the south to vote—it was suicide. Pseudo-laws, tests, intimidation, hoods, ropes, and guns were the anti-democracy tactics of the day. Southern state officials could not legitimately ban black people from voting, so the strategy was...
A few years ago, I wrote the piece titled “Boomers Must Take Some Blame And Help Fix Generation Y Unhappy Problem” without any malintent. I was raked over the coals by my boomer friends who accused me of agism and much more. Some said I was pitting generations against each...
It depresses me to acknowledge this, but the Republicans’ commitment to blatant and serial lying, and Orwellian “make believe” governing, pose a real threat by overwhelming the public debate and individual’s efforts to stay grounded. While a bit well-worn (and of uncertain provenance), this quote is fundamentally true: “A lie can travel halfway around...
President Trump and his Republican sycophants are the masters of projection. It turns out voter fraud is from Trumpsters. It turns out the voter fraud is by Trumpsters See full episodes here. As Trump and most of the Republican leadership stir its low information sycophants into a fearful frenzy about voter fraud,...
It’s a sign of the times that Liz Cheney had to explain herself: I disagree strongly w/@JoeBiden policies, but when the President reaches out to greet me in the chamber of the US House of Representatives, I will always respond in a civil, respectful & dignified way. We’re different political...
At home with my elder five sisters I very soon learnt that freedom of speech had consequences, by that I mean that you better had been damn ready to defend what you said. My parents had encouraged the principle that you say want you want, however the wise course of...
That is one line that jumped out at me from this Washington Post opinion piece by Jennifer Rubin that describe Joe Biden as “Distinguished ol of the week” while pointing out that “No progress was possible without Biden”. I am taking time from planning, writing tests, and grading papers for...
Well, actually, he’s a Badger, not a duck. I was born in Wisconsin and currently live in Oregon. Believe me, I know the difference. And I can assure you, this guy is one enormous Johnson. I’m really not sure what Republicans’ strategy is vis-à-vis the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill that’s...
Darn those class commitments, aligning us to our political choices in a democracy, made worse by all those folks who knew they were in that Gilded Age. “If the future of the Democratic Party is in the rich suburbs, the future of American politics is another long Gilded Age.” Matt...
No, not by the US but by that jolly benevolent Empire of the British. Of course, it was started by a corporation. But something changed in 1765, shortly after the East India Company took control of the subcontinent and established a monopoly over Indian trade. They arranged a sweetheart deal....
Let’s hope he does another two-hour snore-fest speech. “Trump to speak at CPAC conference in Florida next week: he plans to directly attack President Biden’s new immigration plan and will talk about the future of the Republican Party, a source familiar with his speech said.” The usual lies and perhaps...
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...
I know many don’t read Bruni’s column in the NYT, often for good reason, but sometimes it is worthwhile. Some here didn’t appreciate my comments on the Lincoln Project for varying reasons such as “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”, I replied I don’t believe that crap. I...
For much of the world’s history, we have been ruled by violence and its descendants. Kings won their thrones by having better fighters than their opponents. Transfers of power meant inheriting that throne or by violently seizing it. On those rare occasions where power changed hands non-violently from one living...
Of all the depredations Donald Trump has exposed my tender, guileless soul to, making me feel warm fuzzies for a Cheney — however fleeting those feelings may have been — is perhaps the least forgivable. But hey, when the opposition party is overrun by rampaging orcs, I’ll take the steady, resolute...
“Can anyone honestly say that if some of those in the mob with zip ties, stun guns and other weapons actually came upon a member of Congress in the Capitol on Jan 6, they'd have just stopped and asked them to pose for a selfie?” x Anyone who thinks Trump...
As Climate Crisis returns to the new US administration agenda, negative emissions technologies (NETs) may find their implementation hindered by neoliberal financialization. An earlier ACM story showed how Steve Keen’s critique of Nordhaus’s use of discounting climate change demonstrates that orthodox economics is incapable of accelerating innovation especially in...
From CNN: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that the House's article of impeachment will be delivered to the Senate on Monday, triggering the start of the Senate's impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump. “I have spoken to Speaker Pelosi who informed me that the articles will be delivered...
More Charlie than Kevin, McCarthy now tries to polish a turd about the insurrection, tiptoeing a fine line between Trumpists and “post-trumpist” GOP constituencies. McCarthy is just not good with shiny objects to distract the media, as he defaults to the GOP’s more covert racial messaging. x Wherein @GOPLeader indignantly refuses...
Impeachment and insurrection part deux on deck for next week, even as there’s now mixed messaging on the part of Pence invoking the 25th Amendment. Lots of banality of evil around and about. x 🇺🇸 Impeachment 🔵@SpeakerPelosi / #Democrats House Can ✔️Submit Articles of Impeachment ✔️Put it in Permanent Record...
Twitter has finally and permanently suspended @realDonaldTrump from its platform. Bye Felicia. x After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.https://t.co/CBpE1I6j8Y — Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 8, 2021 x So...
Suddenly, we’re all talking about the felony murder doctrine. Broadly, that’s a legal principle stating that if someone is involved in the commission of a felony, and the circumstances of that crime result in a death, then they are guilty of the offense of murder even if they weren’t directly...
A prepared Stacey Abrams did not allow This Week host to create a false equivalence between her Georgia election and Trump's. Stacey Abrams sets the record straight x x YouTube Video See full episodes here. There is absolutely no similarity between Donald Trump's refusal to concede his loss to Stacey...
rMoney finds that conscience like a visually impaired squirrel. Mitt Romney says, "The egregious ploy to reject electors may enhance the political ambition of some, but dangerously threatens our Democratic Republic." — Niels Lesniewski (@nielslesniewski) January 3, 2021 “It would not be Congress’s job to second-guess the state’s appointment of...
There are now so many pardon requests there’s a spreadsheet for them, but Trump’s so angry at the lost loyalty, the list could be smaller. Trump just sees no evil, even in a mirror. There may be a firing spree, among other irrational acts by a Trump now confronted by...
Counting coup involves winning prestige against an enemy rather than doing serious damage. We’re now way past that point. But the latest gesture in search of a coup is today’s Trump meeting with MI GOP legislative leadership. It’s a sedition stunt close to horseshoes and hand grenades. They have just issued...
This story supports a group reading of Karl Marx’s Capital Vol 1. #GoodMorningMarx #WeeklyMarx This covers chapters 14, 15, 16. Chapter 14 will provide further evidence of alienation in the division of labor and manufacturing in the capitalist reorganization of labor. Chapter 15 describes more closely the production process and...
Here’s the latest news today out of Georgia courtesy of Emerson College’s latest poll: The final Emerson College poll before the November 3rd election in Georgia finds President Trump leading Biden by less than a point, 49% to 48%. Two percent (2%) of voters plan to vote for someone else...
Admittedly I had a choice of two The snake-oil-salesman from New York Crazy Uncle Snowflake Joe Biden I certainly didn’t vote for the narcissistic sociopath/psychopath whose idea of a hard days work is cheating at golf followed by a twitter meltdown about how everyone is mean to him. Now during...
Mother Jones has a great piece about the Alaska U.S. Senate race between incumbent U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R. AK) and Dr. Al Gross (I. AK). But there’s a really good part of this piece that explains why Gross is making this race competitive and how his campaign strategy might...
“Trump's odds of victory will decrease rather quickly, absent a sharp increase in his poll numbers.” Trends will out, and then there’s this bit of unhingery, as Trump bails on a 60 Minutes interview, because reasons… Likely Lesley Stahl asked more than a few uncomfortable questions. This recalls his historic comments to...
Yale Environment 360 notes “just as global warming has propelled the Arctic Ocean past a tipping point which will lead to a largely ice-free Arctic in summer in the coming decades. Wildfire scientists say that rising global temperatures and worsening droughts mean that the world has entered a new era...
“Capitalism is the legitimate racket of the ruling class.” Trump’s betrayal has come from a number of sources, and he’s going to spend more than a bit of time trying to get revenge on what he called ‘fake news’ today. More interesting will be when someone somewhere picks up the...
Black people get that question put to us a lot more often than you would think. It is generally followed by the statement, ‘well…I don’t see color’ or ‘things have changed’ accompanied by a raised eyebrow of incredulity. Unlike the police or people who believe in witchcraft, people of color...
What are these assholes even talking about? Now, I knew they’d be pricks about this regardless, but isn’t a little convenient that they’re both on Donald Trump’s SCOTUS nominee short list? First, Wolfman Jack’s colicky vestigial twin: x “We can play that game all day long” — Ted Cruz dismisses...
President Obama has weighed in on the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the confirmation battle that’s sure to ensue. Here’s his statement in its entirety: Sixty years ago, Ruth Bader Ginsburg applied to be a Supreme Court clerk. She’d studied at two of our finest law schools and had ringing...
U.S. Senate candidate, Jon Ossoff (D. GA), recently did an interview with Q Magazine and vowed to be an unwavering ally for LGBTQ rights in the U.S. Senate: “There’s no place for discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity,” Ossoff said. “Those should not be merely a...
In his latest screed, Trump made the usual nonsense claims, hoping to gain support from independents who might be afraid of PoC and poor people. Because no one’s heard of the FHA, Trump wants people in McMansions to vote for him, even if his claims about higher home prices is more about...
This week I attended (remotely) the Rethinking Economics Festival and encountered challenging pluralist discourses like a platform economy (noting that most of such work is populated by women), decolonizing the Eurocentric position in disciplines, or “fully-automated luxury communism”. I thought I’d share some resource items and make a few observations....
Today in disinformation: the plan continues to be no plan, increasing our information search-costs. The best example of that is removing as campaign manager, Brad Parscale, the real manipulator of the real and imagined 2016 data-sets in the swing-states. What is normal functioning for Trump has been disinformation, as he...
Former GOP Congresswoman Claudine Schneider represented Rhode Island’s 2nd District from 1981-1991. She is also the founder of the group, Republicans for Integrity. According to the groups website, it is an organization where former GOP representatives “who feel compelled to remind Republican voters about the fundamentals of our party and...
GOP spokeswoman Liz Harrington slams Joe Biden because he had the nerve to paraphrase the constitution by replacing men with people in all men created equal. Spokeswoman Liz Harrington, really? x x YouTube Video Watch complete episodes here. The Washington Post reported Liz Harrington rather ridiculous commentary about Joe Biden as follows....
If you ever get annoyed, look at me I’m self employed. I love to work at nothing all day BTO Taking Care of Business Many moons ago, in my street rat days as a Chicago political junkie, I once went to a Democratic gathering. It was actually a cross between...
Received this e-mail today from former presidential candidate, Andrew Yang, in support of former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign: I centered my campaign for president on one simple principle: We need a fairer, more human-centered America. This idea could not be more important today as our country grapples with...
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee appeared on Face the Nation this morning, and he made some good points. The first being that an American president should probably be more concerned about the lives of our citizens than the memories of traitors who rose up against the legitimate government of the United...
The oceans are really what tells you how fast the Earth is warming. Using the oceans, we see a continued, uninterrupted, and accelerating warming rate of planet Earth. This is dire news.” Professor John Abraham, University of St Thomas, MN There are many complicating factors in our efforts to combat the...
The oceans are really what tells you how fast the Earth is warming. Using the oceans, we see a continued, uninterrupted, and accelerating warming rate of planet Earth. This is dire news.” Professor John Abraham, University of St Thomas, MN There are many complicating factors in our efforts to combat the...
Trump got stuck dealing with his approval of Uighar concentration camps while also signing their condemnation in the Uighur Human Rights Policy Act. Another screw up like Bunker Boy’s street-clearing stunt, and Trump as usual attacks to divert attention. An angry Trump has spent a number of tweets attacking John Bolton. x...
