During interviews earlier this month with the House select subcommittee on the pandemic, Dr. Deborah Birx conceded that the Trump administration was “distracted” from its work on COVID-19 because of the election, and that the administration’s early failures likely led to as many as 130,000 unnecessary deaths. The best thing...
Strategy
“Slammer Time” may be on the horizon. It won’t be about the DoJ looking backward or forward, but looking inward to do something historical to maintain democracy. Because a malign GOP is going to try it again. The blueprint was there for a while before it was committed to paper...
Here’s the latest news out of Pennsylvania: The TV ad is no-holds-barred. It bluntly attacks a decision of the Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania Supreme Court. And on Saturday, the state Bar Association said the spot went too far. The ad says the Democratic contender, Superior Court Judge Maria McLaughlin, “chose...
“[The debt limit suspension] ensures our federal government will not approach any kind of short-term debt crisis in the coming weeks or months. It secures our nation’s full faith and credit and ensures that Congress will not throw this kind of unnecessary wrench into the gears of our job growth...
Not since, Tuco, Blondie, and Angel Eyes formed a triangle, within a circle, has greed, corruption, and self-interest intersected so destructively. Politics in America, for nearly 250 years has boiled down to money, policy, and humanitarianism in that order. Now it is strictly a good, bad, or ugly proposition. In...
From that moment in November of 1969, when former President Richard Nixon asked for a “silent majority” to support his ‘Vietnamization’ effort, utilizing the peace with honor strategy; America’s shotgun wedding to the GOP marriage of silent loyalty and moral obedience was consummated. Between the Nixon and Reagan administrations, Republicans...
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...
Rube Goldberg was an inventor and cartoonist who satirically depicted complicated machines to perform simple tasks used to show the absurdity of over-thinking. In March of 2016, with eight months to go in former President Obama’s first term, the then-Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell refused to consider the current Attorney...
Once Senator Mitch McConnell staked out the politically uncompromising GOP opposition to ‘everything’ Democrats proffered, during the Obama administration, the redline was drawn. Slowly but surely, the so-called moderate Republicans like; Susan Collins, Rob Portman, and John Thune have repeatedly torn their knickers on the fence. Collins, for example, agreed...
If there are epitaphs for the US involvement in Afghanistan, it will resemble the problem of a modern military against a historically unconquerable country built on tribal differences. The winner will be Pakistan and the loser the people of Afghanistan. In a remarkable and previously unreported incident in early December, top...
Yesterday was a very busy day for me so I’m playing catch up today. Received this e-mail yesterday from former Air Force Pilot and U.S. Senate candidate, Amy McGrath (D. KY) on behalf of her new organization, Democratic Majority Action PAC: RoJo The Traitor Since I told you about my...
President Joe Biden set a new goal of having 70% of adult American vaccinated for Covid (with at least one dose) by the Fourth of July. About 56.4% of adults in the US were vaccinated with a dose as of yesterday. The pace of vaccinations has slowed dramatically with only...
If the Ministerium für Staatsicherheit (Ministry for State Security) had had a crystal ball 40 years ago they would have promoted capitalism, the sheer amount of information people are willing to give away for free would have made their job so easy. Now in a functioning democracy that would be...
Expect some GOP to be triggered by this new information about intelligence produced during Trump’s term as “…it was used by the US Justice Department to support a secret court order authorising surveillance of Carter Page” “The former MI6 spy Christopher Steele produced a second dossier for the FBI on Donald Trump while...
Charlie McCarthy’s cousin, Kevin claimed POTUS Biden’s speech could have been an email, as previous guy claimed paternity for vaccine development that wasn’t even his. Remember when Trump and Kushner declared 60,000 American deaths to COVID-19 “a great success story”. .@GOPLeader: “Republicans will work with anyone to build America up…” 🤡 pic.twitter.com/tw2RHJ6gbV...
Dr. Anthony Fauci is on a roll. First, he went after this clown: x “You can get infected, and will get infected, if you put yourself at risk.” -Dr. Anthony Fauci responding to podcast host Joe Rogan’s suggestion that young people not get the COVID-19 vaccine pic.twitter.com/6E02GI31VV— TODAY (@TODAYshow) April...
Statistically, the state with the highest black population by percentage in America is Mississippi; or is it? I came of age in Washington, D.C. in the 1970s and at the time D.C. had a predominantly black population, as it does now. The number of black residents has dwindled significantly. At...
The Washington Post Editorial Board made their endorsement today: IF VIRGINIA governors were allowed consecutive terms in office, Terry McAuliffe could have run for reelection in 2017 and almost certainly would have won easily. But the commonwealth is an outlier — the only state whose constitution mandates eviction for governors every four...
Whether it’s soccer teams or sandwich shops, financialization was there before the pandemic, only making some of its supply-chain hijacking yet another example of an impending capitalist disaster. Re-regulation must remain important as crises loom in the post-pandemic recovery. A 2017 interview with UMass’s Gerald Epstein points to the need to...
GOP consultant Tim Miller weighs in on the Newsom recall effort in California. Someday the political status quo will be disrupted in the Golden State—politics is always in motion. But if somebody tells you the disrupter is going to be a red-hatted reality-show star (or an obnoxious internet troll turned interim director...
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...
The Biden administration has disclosed for the first time that a Russian agent who received internal polling data from the Trump campaign in 2016 passed it along to Russia’s intelligence services. Biden to deliver remarks on Russia at 4:30 p.m./2030 GMT https://t.co/SP3vkqtDEX — Fichman (@ukrlaa) April 15, 2021 The White...
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...
Americans should listen to the rational Republicans willing to publicly lift the scales from their eyes, who say their brethren are cowardly. Current and former Republicans like the previous Republican National Committee Chair, Michael Steele, and former Rep. David Jolly have said over and over the current crop of GOPers...
By way of a baffling and contradictory threat in explaining his position, Senator Mitch McConnell, in his best southern drawl, warned “Co-cola” to not be “stupid.” Addressing a gaggle of reporters in Kentucky, McConnell said, “It’s quite stupid to jump in the middle of a highly controversial issue,” he went...
Is US progressive politics, especially in cultural issues, incapable of attracting majority support. Not so much in terms of the usual self-fulfilling marginalization, but there are absolute limits to the mutability of moderate ideologies in order to build working majorities. In these conditions, it seems almost certain that tit-for-tat will...
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...
Assuming Jason Miller is a real person and not a failed Soviet-era experiment to cross the human genome with the formula for Axe Body Spray, he appears to be in some trouble. According to The Guardian, the former former-guy spox, who impregnated another Trump campaign adviser while engaging in an...
Received this e-mail today from the Pennsylvania Democratic Party: Registering voters today helps Democrats win this year, next year, in 2024, and in every election to come. It’s the best thing we can do to create long-term power and progress, which is why we’ve made it top priority. We need you...
CA-22 remember that treasonous cowpoke Devin Nunes voted against the $1,400 hitting your bank account. x Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) calls out Devin Nunes, Ron Johnson, Rudy Giuliani, and other Republicans in Congress for being Russian assets. pic.twitter.com/JTNP4lgFWv — Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) March 17, 2021 I’m proud that Chairman...
Letting a cabal like Council for National Policies choose the tropes: “Buy Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head because it’s the end of an era. It is the end of freedom in America”. Because of course you learn gender roles from potatoes, your ideology from conservative lobbying groups, and then there’s...
Elaine Chao holds the (dubious) distinction of being one of the few Trump cabinet picks to hang onto office for his entire term. (OK, she resigned two weeks before the term ended, but still.) One reason for her longevity was undoubtedly her husband, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (a/k/a Moscow...
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...
The sparse number of actual carbon capture and sequestration projects plus weak carbon markets amplify the problems of the climate crisis yet to be revisited, post-Trump. Two heartland examples in North Dakota and Texas show how there are several interlocking problems addressing the climate crisis that must be included in future environmental policy. More specifically...
One month into the Biden Administration and we are almost half way to getting the 100 million vaccinations the President promised for his first 100 days. Vaccinations have slowed considerable in the last week due to extreme winter weather, but 42.8 million Americans have received at least one dose, 13%...
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...
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...
Sixteen hours had been alloted to each side, The disgusting so called jurors and republican house of shame legislators went in to talk to the defense team. This is totally unethical and they should be cencured. I do think I figured out why they skipped down the hall like little...
Trump aide who slipped an abortion pill into a girlfriend’s smoothie claims Trump is happier. The reality is that there may be a Trump sockpuppet account in Parler anyway, but fortunately no one has yet noticed. x https://t.co/tFzNoKODki— Don Moynihan (@donmoyn) February 8, 2021 x A Former Aide Would Like...
“In all things of nature, there is something of the marvelous.” ~ Aristotle It is a fact that the biggest threat to our species is not climate change, though it will likely end much of what we experience today, but rather our war on bio-diversity. Bio-diversity is under attack from...
Ben Sasse is still a RW member of the GQP, but he can still afford to offend his state party. x Sen. Ben Sasse to the Nebraska GOP State Central Committee: “You are welcome to censure me again. But let’s be clear about why this is happening: It’s because I...
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...
BIG Hat tip to kittylou: This story just got more interesting: First on CNN: Five of Trump's impeachment defense attorneys leave team less than two weeks before trial Five of former President Donald Trump's impeachment defense team attorneys have stepped aside a little more than a week before his Senate...