One can only live in fear if one listens to Republicans and watches their campaign ads. Republicans consistently decouple gun control from crime. Criminality is a real problem, but Willie Horton is not waiting around every corner. I have lived in Philadelphia for over 16 years and have not been...
September
The split in America is less about politics than—it is—politics becoming our lives. It is more about party alliances and tribal wars. It has reached such a crescendo that in January of 2021, it morphed into an armed insurrection at the nation’s citadel. Many seem incapable of allowing common sense...
Using COVID relief funds, Ron DeSantis with Greg Abbott have achieved the ridiculous. The way to Delaware starts with an original flight plan to start in Texas, go to Florida, and then arrive in Delaware, only this time the same charter jet goes through Nashville and finally lands in New Jersey, still without...
When a group of Islamic radicals terrorized the country on September 11, 2001, the resolve of Americans was mobilized, and the GOP doubled down on the hate. Despite the fact former President George W. Bush made it clear that Islam was not the culprit for the actions of a few...
We spent the four years before President Joe Biden took office in a drama-laden dystopia authored by an incompetent, irresponsible president. America’s press became so addicted to the reality show aspect of a man who had more lies than answers that real stories gave way to Kabuki theatre. Chasing the inflation...
With the news media lapping at the toes of the former Governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, save for a few like MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace, no wonder the GOP bar for redemption is set so low. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden is fighting the headwinds of oversized media expectations, conservative propaganda, ridicule...
“I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office,...
Oh, Facebook. Sweet, sweet Facebook. Could you go back to the day when everyone annoyed me with their latest Bejeweled Blitz and Candy Crush scores instead of their breathless invitations to join in the thorough dismantling of Western civilization? You’d think a guy who wanted to nuke hurricanes, suggested injecting disinfectant...
Beetle-Juice Three Times. Thank Jeebus that cheesehead is not banned from primary and secondary schools in Wisconsin. Because nothing says “Freedom” and “Liberty” like being the language police. If you talk about “spirit murdering” and “action civics” they might even exist. Better to be “un-woke”, because you might develop an “unconscious-bias”. Darn...
If you were old enough and curious enough, most of us can remember where we were when tragedy struck. Historically sad events have a way of freezing that point in time like it is suspended in dry ice; only thawed by the heat of another heartbreak. Again, if you are...
The media should set an example for public discourse. No, I do not mean shaping a monolith of Democratic or Republican philosophy, we have that now. Two questions need to be asked of a guest before any interview with a public official or passing the sweet potatoes at the Thanksgiving...
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the words, terrorism? 9/11? ISIS? The Taliban? While these examples are certainly just, they don’t always represent terrorism in its entirety. Dan Brown said, “History is always written by the winners”. Stereotypes and generalizations often cause the public...
A couple of days ago, alleged congressperson Marjorie Taylor Greene sent a letter to Joe Biden. I read it; you don’t have to. Unless you read at a third-grade level or worse, it might be hard for you to follow. It essentially boils down to “Wuhan lab … Chinese-made virus...
Here’s the latest news today out of Pennsylvania: Lou Barletta, the Republican Party’s Donald Trump-endorsed nominee for U.S. Senate in 2018, is running for governor of Pennsylvania. Barletta, 65, becomes the most prominent figure to enter a 2022 governor’s race that Republicans have won every time in the past half-century...
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...
Here’s the big news today out of California: The campaign to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom has failed to gain momentum in recent months as significantly more California voters favor keeping him in office, and only anemic support has surfaced for reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner while other Republican candidates hoping...
So much still unresolved from the Trump era installed in 2016, and continued through 2020, a Russian intelligence operation. Hard to tell whether it ranks with Robert Hanssen, Aldrich Ames, or even Operation Pandora, the plan to foment a US race war in the 1960s, although the Trump win could...
All US troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan by 9/11/2021, ignoring the 1 May deadline set by previous guy. 2,500 troops remain. *“Wars with Native tribes from 1788-1890 count as the actual longest U.S. war, the nation’s very own Hundred Years War. ” x “I’m now the fourth United States...
If anything a nightly rant by David Letterman about Madoff marked the 2000s, with $65 billion swindled. x T***p surprised some observers by not pardoning Madoff (through brokerage) & by not staging a Kent State massacre of protesters; but he more than made up for these omissions by facilitating the...
I wanted to make sure you all saw this: Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet on Wednesday called on the Senate to act in the wake of a mass shooting at a supermarket in his state, asserting in an impassioned speech from the chamber floor that his colleagues have a moral obligation to a generation...
In September of 2013, Republicans attempted to curtail full funding of the Affordable Care Act but their efforts came to an absurd end. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) spent just over 21-hours regaling the public with a tale penned by Dr. Seuss, the wisdom of Ashton Kutcher, and the World Wrestling...
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...
US vaccinations for Covid-19 have exceeded 101 million since December 14, according to numbers released for yesterday by the Center for Disease Control. This leaves the country less than 19 million vaccine jabs short of the goal set by Joe Biden for his first 100 days. About 19.9 million were vaccinated before...
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...
Likely there will some stunt somewhere today, perhaps not in DC. Hopefully there will be no casualties, but nothing will match the easing of mask mandates in Texas and Mississippi. Perhaps there’s a numerological formula for predicting the next stupid QAnon event. x Anti-Trump Republicans are facing punishment back home. But...
Is Lindsey Graham for real? No, that’s a serious question. Because he looks like a Rankin-Bass Claymation character to me. Lindsey, the misfit Christmas elf who never liked to make toys and forgot to show up for elf practice because his real dream was to loofah Donald Trump’s hide so he’d stop looking...
Because not wanting to be accountable for perhaps something more felonious like manslaughter is so on brand for Republicans. The detectives confront him with what they know, starting around 1:10 and building through 1:15 https://t.co/JSVjUYabLB — Helen Kennedy 🌻 (@HelenKennedy) February 24, 2021 This video clip of the SD AG...
Trump never truly understood why Paul Manafort chose Mike Pence as his Vice President. Trump thought that Pence’s commitment to theocracy would serve Trump’s con of the evangelicals and guarantee loyalty rather than the opposite. Trump got “betrayed” by Pence because he knew Trump would never really be able to deliver a...
Recovering memory and historical revisionism in sex work might be the sad product of many repressive regimes. What becomes worse is the complicity of academic institutions in white-washing crimes against humanity. Harvard is no stranger to items like Alan (buddy of Jeff Epstein) Dershowitz’s attempt to move the statutory rape...
GOP AGs have been busy supporting the Trumpian delusion and sedition. The 1/6 Commission will have plenty of narrative content. Not unlike the mania for appointing Trump judges, the GQP AGs are a cabal that for some evangelicals, theocratically leads to a dominionist (fascist) state. Not unlike the QAnons who believe...
Rush Limbaugh was more of a conservative index and perhaps a reactionary icon. He claimed whenever cornered with a political lie that he was an entertainer rather than any credible media source. “Rush Rooms” everywhere should be festooned with black crepe. x This is a metaphor for Trump’s presidency. Everything...
The New York Times shed some light on this on Monday: G.O.P. legislators, dozens of whom supported overturning the state’s election results to aid former President Donald J. Trump, are moving to change the entire way that judges are selected in Pennsylvania, in a gambit that could tip the scales...
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...
Lots of events happening even if they’re all quite chaotic in the Russian Federation. Numerous anti-Putin demonstrations in the middle of winter. and some mysterious doings. Considering how long Trump was groomed, there are very few Trump-like Russian stooges in the wings although Rand Paul, Ron Johnson, and Devin Nunes...
The best explanation of short selling (as it applies to GameStop) that I've read pic.twitter.com/o9ZL5HqsKf — John M. Cunningham (@jmcunning) January 28, 2021 1/2Short selling means borrowing shares and immediately selling them. When the price goes down, they buy them back for cents and return them to the lender. This...
It seems clear that Trump will continue to be a Russian asset, with the bonus of classified information transferred even beyond his presidency. A new book by Craig Unger features a former KGB spy, Yuri Shvets as a source. …Trump first appeared on the Russians’ radar in 1977 when he...
Large hedge funds representative of fictitious capital aka “dumb money” got screwed by swarming reddit collective action. Numerous “redditors” caused a small scale version of (short) market chaos. WE GOT JON STEWART TO JOIN TWITTER He's right tho… https://t.co/iHedgMhKqg — WSB Mod (@wsbmod) January 29, 2021 UPDATE: It's definitely not a...
We’re not even at the Silly Season yet, even as we’re reminded of the predictions of Harold Camping about the end of the world in 2011. But DHS has taken it seriously by keeping troops in DC until Mid-March. Accordingly the nutters are casting about for prophetic revisions to maintain...
The Daily Beast has done it again; a compelling read, this time on Russ Travers, who was fired by Trump and hired by Biden as his deputy homeland security adviser. The article is lengthy but worth the read. Some critics are nervous about this hire, but I have not seen one appointment...
It’s now moving toward that Trump resignation, because impeachment is moving forward and even McConnell has appeared to favor it. Unlike Nixon, perhaps the death of Sheldon Adelson, a major Trump backer, among other defections will not require the approach of major GOP luminaries to pressure Trump to resign. For...
Trump’s up late again, fantasizing things about Georgia’s Secretary of State. Trump is obviously unhappy with Brad R. x The person, Ron Raffensperger, exists. But he is not Brad's brother. James O'Keefe is not my brother, either. See how that works?— Brendan Keefe (@BrendanKeefe) December 30, 2020 x https://t.co/UQEiQ3xIIO —...
I had never heard the extraordinary story of Ada Blackjack, her Alaskan way of life was transformed into a destitute single woman with a small child when abandoned by her dog-musher husband. She had no choice but to walk forty miles to Nome, Alaska, with a two-year-old ill with tuberculosis. Upon arrival, she...