;)
November 11, 2021
Late Morning Update:
Colleen Long of the AP: "President Joe Biden, whose son Beau was an Iraq war veteran, is using his first Veterans Day in office to announce an effort to better understand, identify and treat medical conditions suffered by troops deployed to toxic environments. The effort centers on lung problems suffered by troops who breathe in toxins and the potential connection between rare cancers and time spent overseas breathing poor air, according to the White House. Federal officials plan to start by examining lung and breathing problems but say they will expand the effort as science identifies potential new connections."
Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "Vice President Kamala Harris announced on Wednesday that the United States had joined a French-led international initiative to protect civilians against cyberattacks and discourage digital meddling in elections, three years after the Trump administration declined to sign onto the effort. The agreement, called the Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace, is a nonbinding declaration and is largely symbolic. But so is Ms. Harris's presence in Paris. In the weeks since a pact between the United States, Australia and Britain brusquely canceled out a lucrative and strategically important submarine contract that the French had with the Australians, the Biden administration has thrown an entire olive tree at the feet of Emmanuel Macron, the French president.... Even if [the Vice President's] assignment in Paris appeared to lack concrete objectives, it seemed to include stressing that the U.S.-France relationship was now about looking forward, not back."
Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "The number of Haitian migrants attempting to cross into the United States fell by more than 90 percent in October after the Biden administration aggressively ramped up its use of deportation flights, according to preliminary U.S. Customs and Border Protection data obtained by The Washington Post. CBP figures show about 1,000 Haitians were taken into custody along the Mexico border last month, down from 17,638 in September, when huge crowds waded across the Rio Grande to a makeshift camp in Del Rio, Tex., creating a humanitarian and political crisis for the Biden administration. Biden officials responded to the Del Rio surge by using the Title 42 emergency public health order to 'expel' more than 8,500 migrants back to Haiti, sending as many as seven flights per day from Texas to the destitute Caribbean nation."
The New York Times is live-updating COP26 developments Thursday here. The Washington Post's live COP26 updates are here.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Thursday are here: "A coalition of 10 states filed a lawsuit Wednesday against President Biden and various public health agencies and officials to challenge a federal vaccine requirement for most workers in health-care settings -- the latest in an increasingly complex web of lawsuits pitting Republican-led states, sympathetic interest groups and employers against the federal government. The latest lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri on behalf of the states of Missouri, Nebraska, Arkansas, Kansas, Iowa, Wyoming, Alaska, South Dakota, North Dakota and New Hampshire. All but one are represented by Republican attorneys general. The lawsuit challenges a rule issued on Nov. 4 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that mandates coronavirus vaccination for more than 17 million workers in about 76,000 facilities that receive reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid."
Belarus, et al. Robyn Dixon of the Washington Post: "Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko threatened Thursday to cut gas supplies to Europe as the European Union weighs new sanctions on Belarusian officials and entities, in a sharp escalation of tensions over a migration crisis on the Belarusian-Polish border. Lukashenko told Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko that if Europe imposes new sanctions, 'you must not forgive them anything.' Warning that Belarus would not tolerate the closure of its borders, he told 'the leadership of Poland, Lithuanians and other brainless figures to think before speaking.' European leaders blame Lukashenko for orchestrating the crisis in retaliation for European sanctions. They accuse him of opening Belarusian borders to migrants, mainly from the Middle East and North Africa, who are trying to reach Europe through Belarus." ~~~
~~~ The New York Times is live-updating developments in the standoff. ~~~
~~~ Vanessa Gera & Monika Scislowska of the AP: "Thousands marched in Warsaw on Thursday to mark Poland's Independence Day, led by far-right groups calling for strong borders, while its troops blocked hundreds of new attempts by migrants to enter the country illegally from neighboring Belarus in a tense political standoff. Security forces patrolled the capital and other cities for the holiday rallies, which in recent years have seen some violent attacks by nationalist extremists. This year's march was overshadowed by events unfolding along Poland's border with Belarus, where thousands of riot police and troops are turning back migrants, many from the Middle East, who are trying to enter the European Union. Makeshift camps have sprung up in forests on the Belarusian side near a crossing at the Polish town of Kuznica, and with temperatures falling and access to the frontier restricted, there are fears of a humanitarian crisis."
China. Christian Shepherd of the Washington Post: "A high-level meeting of the Chinese Communist Party on Thursday declared President Xi Jinping's undisputed rule of 'decisive significance' for its history, affirming Xi's iron grip as he prepares for a near-inevitable third term that would extend his rule until at least 2027." MB: Because history has proved that having a forever president is such a good idea.
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Josh Boak & Colleen Long of the AP: "President Joe Biden touted his $1 trillion infrastructure plan Wednesday as an eventual fix for the natio's inflation and supply chain woes -- if Americans just have the patience to wait for the construction to begin. The president toured the Port of Baltimore at the start of what is likely to be a national tour to showcase his signature legislation that cleared Congress last week and that he intends to sign on Monday. He declared that the spending would improve transportation of products and supplies from overseas and within the U.S. to help lower prices, reduce shortages and add union jobs. That message is becoming more critical as the government reported Wednesday that consumer prices in October climbed 6.2% from a year ago. Inflation has intensified instead of fading as the economy reopened after the coronavirus pandemic, creating a major challenge for Biden whose administration repeatedly said that the price increases were temporary. During remarks at the port, he acknowledged that consumer prices remained 'too high.'" ~~~
~~~ President Biden speaks at the Port of Baltimore. His remarks begin at about 1:15 minutes in:
Why can't Democrats write ads like this? ~~~
Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "Investing in the nation's roads and bridges was once considered one of the last realms of bipartisanship in Congress, and President Biden's infrastructure bill drew ample support over the summer from Republicans in the Senate. But in the days since 13 House Republicans broke with their party leaders and voted for the $1 trillion legislation last week, they have been flooded by menacing messages from voters -- and even some of their own colleagues -- who regard their votes as a betrayal.... The dynamic is a natural outgrowth of the slash-and-burn politics of ... Donald J. Trump, who savaged those in his party who backed the infrastructure bill.... The visceral nature of the backlash is particularly striking because House Republican leaders who lobbied their rank and file to vote against the measure have made few substantive policy arguments against the plan...." ~~~
~~~ Marie: When a toddler starts crying after he falls down in the dirt or drops his lollipop in the mud, the people around him are apt to try to soothe him. The collective effort to soothe Donald Trump after he dropped his lollipop has to be the biggest pity party in the history of the world.
Marie: Anent a discussion in Reality Chex' Comments section two days ago, Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post examines Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg's remarks at a White House briefing Tuesday & Robert Caro's biography of urban designer Robert Moses. Despite disagreements among historians, I stand with Pete.
Brad Plumer & Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "The United States and China announced a joint agreement Wednesday to 'enhance ambition' on climate change, saying they would work together to do more to cut emissions this decade while China committed for the first time to reduce methane, a potent greenhouse gas.The pact between the world's two biggest polluters came as a surprise to the thousands of attendees gathered here for a United Nations climate summit.... Still, the joint agreement was short on specifics.... Several experts said the joint pact between China and the United States fell short of a 2014 deal between the United States and China to jointly curb emissions, which helped spur the Paris climate agreement among nearly 200 nations a year later." The AP's story is here.
AP: "Ten House Democrats, led by the co-chairs of the Democratic Women's Caucus, said Wednesday that they will introduce a House resolution condemning Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., for tweeting a video that included altered animation showing him striking Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., with a sword. In a statement, the 10 Democrats said Gosar's posting 'goes beyond the pale' and called it a 'clear cut case for censure.'... In their statement Wednesday, the House Democrats said that '[House Minority Leader Kevin] McCarthy's silence is tacit approval and just as dangerous.'"
Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A former New Jersey gym owner who was the first person to plead guilty to assaulting a police officer during the attack on the Capitol in January was sentenced on Wednesday to 41 months in prison, the most severe punishment given so far to any of the more than 650 people charged in the riot. The gym owner, Scott Fairlamb, admitted in August to breaking into the Capitol and then after he left, approaching a group of officers outside as they were making their way through a large and angry group of pro-Trump protesters. A hulking, bearded man who once competed as a mixed martial artist, Mr. Fairlamb could be heard on video shouting at the officers: 'Are you an American? Act like it!' Then, unprompted, Mr. Fairlamb shoved one of them and punched him in the face.... Judge Royce C. Lamberth called Mr. Fairlamb's assault on the officer 'an affront to society and the law,' adding that he needed to serve time in prison even though he had shown remorse for the attack." The more interesting Huffington Post report, by Ryan Reilly, is here.
Judge Tanya Is Sick & Tired of King Donald. Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "For the third time in two days, a federal judge has shot down ... Donald Trump's effort to block Jan. 6 investigators from accessing his White House records. U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan said in a ruling late Wednesday that she would refuse to stay her own decision -- just one day earlier -- denying Trump's request for an injunction that would block the House's Jan. 6 select committee from gaining access to some of his White House papers. Chutkan, an appointee of President Barack Obama, sharply rejected Trump's attempt to assert executive privilege over the documents, contending that the decision by the sitting president, Joe Biden, to release them carried greater weight under existing legal precedents. In her latest decision, the judge said her earlier rationale dictated that she should turn down Trump's request for a temporary order preventing disclosure of the records pending further legal action."
Tim Mak of NPR: "Soon after the Columbine High School shooting in 1999, senior leaders of the National Rifle Association huddled on a conference call to consider canceling their annual convention, scheduled just days later and a few miles away. Thirteen people lay dead at a high school in Colorado. More than 20 were injured. Images of students running from the school were looped on TV. The NRA strategists on the call sounded shaken and panicked.... NPR has obtained more than 2 1/2 hours of recordings of those private meetings after the Columbine shooting.... In addition to mapping out their national strategy, NRA leaders can also be heard describing the organization's more activist members..., deriding them as 'hillbillies' and 'fruitcakes' who might go off script after Columbine and embarrass them. And they dismiss conservative politicians and gun industry representatives as largely inconsequential players, saying they will do whatever the NRA proposes.... Then-NRA President Charlton Heston delivered the defiant message that its leaders had planned out in their private calls -- a message very similar to the group's position on mass shootings today: The national media is not to be trusted, and any conversation about guns and the NRA after mass shootings is an untoward politicization of the issue." Thanks to RAS for the link. Worth reading the whole story.
The Pandemic, Ctd.
North Dakota. Andrea Salcedo of the Washington Post: "Days ahead of an anti-vaccine rally he helped organize, North Dakota lawmaker Jeff Hoverson, a Republican, urged his social media followers to gather on the steps of the state capitol on Monday to oppose coronavirus vaccine mandates.... On Sunday, a day before the rally, Hoverson announced he would be skipping the event because he had contracted the coronavirus. He said that he did not need to check into a hospital because he was taking ivermectin -- a deworming drug that some people are using to prevent or treat covid, despite several public health agencies advising against it. Covid is real and like a really bad flu,' he posted on Facebook. 'I am currently quarantining and each day is getting better.'... Monday marked the start of a five-day special session during which a bill to prevent vaccine mandates is up for discussion and could gain approval in the GOP-controlled legislature. House Majority Leader Chet Pollert said Hoverson could attend remotely." The article is free to nonsubscribers.
Beyond the Beltway
Michigan. Ed White of the AP: "A judge on Wednesday approved a $626 million deal to settle lawsuits filed by Flint residents who found their tap water contaminated by lead following disastrous decisions to switch the city's water source and a failure to swiftly acknowledge the problem. Most of the money -- $600 million -- is coming from the state of Michigan, which was accused of repeatedly overlooking the risks of using the Flint River without properly treating the water.... The deal makes money available to Flint children who were exposed to the water, adults who can show an injury, certain business owners and anyone who paid water bills. About 80% of what's left after legal fees is earmarked for children."
New Jersey Election. Support Your Local Newspaper! Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: "Edward Durr was such a long-shot candidate in his New Jersey state Senate race that no one seemed to notice something rather striking about him: He had a history of posting bigoted, misogynistic and derogatory comments on social media.... According to a search of the Nexis database, which catalogues thousands of news sources, there were no published or broadcast reports about Durr's posts in the six months leading up to Election Day. Durr's comments made plenty of news after last week's election, when reporters finally caught up to his social media history. But by then he had already scored a stunning upset over Democrat Steve Sweeney, one of the state's most powerful officials.... But the lack of media scrutiny may tell a larger tale about the state of local news reporting. Years of cutbacks and consolidation among news organizations have left many communities without vigorous local coverage.... [Also,] it's unclear whether Sweeney's campaign possessed such 'opposition research' or tried to disseminate it during the campaign." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Farhi's article is useful for its intended purpose, but it doesn't disappoint when it comes to political non-apology apologies: Durr: "If I said things in the past that hurt anybody's feelings, I sincerely apologize." Why, who would be offended by Durr's posts? He said both Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) & the prophet Mohammed were pedophiles. He called Islam "a cult of hate." He blamed the spread of Covid-19 in the U.S. on an "influx of #illegalAliens," and he compared vaccination mandates to the Holocaust.So, Muslims, Jews, new Americans -- IOW, millions & millions of people.
New York. Luis Ferré-Sadurní of the New York Times: "Over the course of an 11-hour deposition, Andrew M. Cuomo ... [said] he was the type of governor who often showed concern about the well-being of his employees, both male and female, as well as their romantic lives and their health. He said that yes, he often kissed and hugged staffers, allowing that if any inappropriate touching occurred, it must have been 'incidental.' And he wanted to make sure that the questioners knew that he believed they were carrying out a 'biased political investigation,' and that those leading it had a yearslong vendetta against him.... The state attorney general, Letitia James, released a 515-page transcript of Mr. Cuomo's sworn testimony from July and interviews with 10 women whose allegations formed the basis of the report that led to Mr. Cuomo's resignation in August, as well as more than 800 pages of evidence, including emails, text messages, photos and his daily schedules." ~~~
~~~ Here are the New York Times' primary takeaways from the documents.
Texas. Brian Lopez of the Texas Tribune: "A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Gov. Greg Abbott's executive order prohibiting mask mandates in schools violates the Americans with Disabilities Act -- freeing local officials to again create their own rules. The order comes after a monthslong legal dispute between parents, a disability rights organization and Texas officials over whether the state was violating the 1990 law, known as the ADA, by not allowing school districts to require masks. U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel barred Attorney General Ken Paxton from enforcing Abbott's order.... The judge said the governor's order impedes children with disabilities from the benefits of public schools' programs, services and activities to which they are entitled.... 'My Agency is considering all legal avenues to challenge this decision,' Paxton said in [a] tweet."
Texas. The First Draft of History Is Usually False. Meryl Kornfield & Brittany Shammas of the Washington Post: "Houston Police Chief Troy Finner on Wednesday said medical staff had given investigators incorrect information that a security officer had been drugged at the deadly Astroworld festival. The frightful, false account of the guard getting pricked by a needle, blacking out and waking up after an injection of an overdose-reversing treatment was disproven by the guard himself, Finner said after first sharing the story with the public the day after the concert. The unsubstantiated claim about the syringe attack is yet another case of law enforcement sharing unfounded claims about the risk of drug exposure for first responders and others."
Virginia. Do Not Tell the Kids about Sex. Adele Uphaus of the Free Lance-Star: In a 6-0 vote, "the Spotsylvania County School Board has directed staff to begin removing books that contain 'sexually explicit' material from library shelves and report on the number of books that have been removed at a special called meeting next week.... The board also requested a report next week on the process by which books are selected for inclusion in digital and hard copy library collections at the different school levels and indicated that it will consider a division-wide library audit.... Two board members ... said they would like to see the removed books burned." The moves were inspired by a parent who spoke up during a public comments period. She said she was first disturbed by "LGBTQIA" fiction but later found a book titled 33 Snowfish that upset her even more. The American Library Association named 33 Snowfish a Best Book for Young Adults in 2004. ~~~
~~~ Virginia, Kansas, Texas, etc. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Not only are conservatives increasingly targeting school curriculums surrounding race, but there&'s also a building and often-related effort to rid school libraries of certain books.... 'What has taken us aback this year is the intensity with which school libraries are under attack,' said Nora Pelizzari, a spokeswoman at the National Coalition Against Censorship.... Even as the news broke Tuesday in [Spotsylvania], another school board just outside Wichita, announced that it was removing 29 books from circulation. Among them were [a Toni] Morrison book, 'The Bluest Eye,' and writings about racism in America including August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play 'Fences,' as well as 'They Called Themselves the K.K.K.,' a history of the white supremacist group. The day before, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) issued an executive order calling on state education officials to review the books available to students for 'pornography and other obscene content.'"
Wisconsin. Ashley Luthern of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Kyle Rittenhouse's defense attorneys on Wednesday asked a judge to grant a mistrial in the case against the teen who shot and killed two people and wounded a third during the unrest in Kenosha after the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Defense attorney Corey Chirafisi asked for a mistrial with prejudice, meaning if the judge granted the motion, prosecutors could not refile the charges. He made the motion on the basis of 'prosecutorial overreach,' after Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger cross-examined Rittenhouse, who took the stand and said he acted in self-defense that night. Judge Bruce Schroeder declined to make a ruling on the motion immediately and allowed testimony to continue Wednesday afternoon." ~~~
~~~ New York Times reporters live-updated the trial of killer Kyle Rittenhouse. Rittenhouse testified Wednesday. ~~~
~~~ Paul Waldman of the Washington Post: "From the moment Rittenhouse killed Rosenbaum and Huber, he has been embraced by the right as a hero. The Trump administration immediately distributed talking points to federal law enforcement officials to use if asked about Rittenhouse, in which they were instructed to say that he 'took his rifle to the scene of the rioting to help defend small business owners. Conservatives quickly raised much of the $2 million for his bail. After he was released, Rittenhouse went to a bar wearing a T-shirt that said 'Free as F---,' where he posed for pictures flashing a white power sign and was 'serenaded' with the anthem of the Proud Boys.... On Fox News and other conservative media, one personality after another rushed to his defense.... [His] defenders ... repeatedly insist he was trying to secure 'his town' or 'his community' despite the fact that he does not live in Kenosha or even the state of Wisconsin.... If he's acquitted, [conservatives will] see little more than another opportunity to Own the Libs. And it will be all the more likely that more deluded right-wingers will show up to protests, armed and looking for trouble."
News Lede
New York Times: "strong>F.W. de Klerk, who as president of South Africa dismantled the apartheid system that he and his ancestors had helped put in place, died at his home near Cape Town on Thursday. He was 85. The former president's death was confirmed by the F.W. de Klerk Foundation, which said in a statement that he had been receiving treatment for cancer. A member of a prominent Afrikaner family, Mr. de Klerk had vehemently defended the separation of the races during his long climb up the political ladder. But once he took over as president in 1989, he stunned his deeply divided nation, and the wider world, by reconsidering South Africa's racist ways, a step that led to him and Nelson Mandela, whom he released from prison, being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize."
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Reader Comments (16)
Yes, Virginia, let's burn those books. Oh, but you overlooked all
those dictionaries. Mine has any number of licentious words, hundreds
of them.
And no sex ed for all those coming of age teenagers with no books
to read, so just go at it. And sorry girls, no abortions in this state.
You can just drop out of school and live with the consequences.
I never thought I'd see the days of book burning. I keep saying that
almost every day---never thought I'd see the day of, etc. etc.
"Never thought I'd see the day" says Forest which is exactly what my mother said about a whole lot of things in HER day. But she was referring to progressive changes for the better. Like you, it knocks my socks off to realize we are going backwards in some of those states that are going backwards. So far the books are just being banned; how long will it be before we see huge bonfires actually burning those books. It chills me to the bone!
Watching some of the Rittenhouse trial yesterday I was stunned at the presentation posed by this little punk. Baby face kid buys a killer gun because "it looked cool." His breakdown performance was so well orchestrated that the Judge issued a break. I looked closely for tears–-there were none. The battering from Judge B.S. toward the prosecutor, Thomas Binger was one for the books. I'm not skilled at all in understanding lawyerly exchanges but this sounded to me to be way over the top. Poor Binger couldn't even stress the fact that this punk was driving around without a license, and other back stories that would portray a sixteen year old out of control –-no, let's keep the fable of a clean, white, innocent just out to help his fellow man. My guess is that he has been carefully coached by the Defense––and coupled with this Judge B.S. the Right will have their little hero who came to Kenosha to save the day.
The Virginia & Wisconsin stories are perfect bookends. Wingers are so afraid of sex that they make up for it by prancing around in camo, carrying AR-15s and occasionally unloading their big guns on passers-by on some lame excuse.
The Rittenhouse case calls to mind generations of child soldiers recruited, ginned up and sent off to war against the infidels by supposed adults who might or might not know better but are demonstrably too cowardly to fight their own battles, so they send children to risk their lives and their entire futures in their place.
Very sad, top to bottom.
I have no doubt Rittenhouse was frightened when he fired his assault weapon but that he had the weapon, was there in the first place and that the local constabulary stood by and watched the tragedy unfold is as much of a part of the tragedy as the unnecessary deaths themselves.
And at each step along the way, an adult or or a series of them, was responsible.
It is they I would like to see strung up.
@Ken Winkes: You are so right. Where were the parents? Where was law enforcement? Where were the idiotic legislators who wrote the laws that made it seem all right for a kid who looked about 11 years old to be carrying around a loaded semi-automatic rifle on a city street during a period of civil unrest? A child pulled the trigger, but a whole bunch of adults -- including the drunken lunkheads who participated in this: "After he was released [from prison], Rittenhouse went to a bar wearing a T-shirt that said 'Free as F---,' where he posed for pictures flashing a white power sign and was 'serenaded' with the anthem of the Proud Boys -- made that possible.
Wonder if Cadet Bone Spurs is celebrating Veterans Day, known in Trump circles as Losers and Suckers Day. It’s still astonishing to me that confederates, especially those with connections to the military, let him get away with this shit. They still scream about Obama’s reference to Bibles and guns, but had he called dead and wounded service members losers and suckers, he would surely have been targeted for assassination.
Trump also tried to keep wounded veterans from appearing in parades or other military ceremonies because he thought it made him, as the CIC, look weak. Remember that bullshit about him being given a Purple Heart medal by a veteran (who earned it)? He said he always wanted to have one but didn’t want to have to get shot for it.
No shit.
I’m sure he proudly displays his unearned Purple Heart right next to the medal he got for doing a good job making his bed.
I’m equally sure that he’ll be celebrating Veterans Day the same way he honors every important date on America’s calendar.
On the golf course.
One way to keep the Durr's from having power over other people's lives is to pass the Build Back Better bill. One of the provisions in it is a tax credit for local news journalists. $25k for the first year and $15k for the next 4 years. That could help a lot of communities keep their citizens informed about the awful people trying to get control over their lives.
https://deadline.com/2021/11/build-back-better-act-local-news-sound-recordings-1234867570/
Issac Bailey, professor of Public policy at Davison, and author of "Why Didn't We riot?: A Black man in Trumpland" gives us his take–-and it's a good one–- on the Rittenhouse trial and ends with this:
"If he is freed, the status quo of America's flawed criminal justice system, in which white offenders are less likely to be convicted, can remain just a little bit longer, the inevitable merely delayed, if not denied. If he's imprisoned, those sympathetic to his plight have even more reason to use him as an example of how their way of life could be threatened if they don't fight and hard. His supporters have basically guaranteed these outcomes."
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/politics-policy/sobbing-kyle-rittenhouse-won-before-ruling-rcna5114
Have been watching “American Veteran” on PBS - a Ken Burns-like combination of archival footage and commentary by current veterans. Well worth watching and makes you really appreciate what these men and women have gone through.
And yet, I also keep thinking about how our 50+ years of war in Viet Nam, Panama, the Balkans (remember them? Hardly anyone does), Iraq I & II, Afghanistan, etc etc etc has produced tens if not hundreds of thousands of vets who have not been successful in integrating back into modern civilian society. Instead, these vets have become increasingly alienated from the rest of us and drawn to militia and other similar organizations who provide the validation and home that they need.
I don’t see how we are going to recover from these downstream effects of our endless warmongering any time soon.
Listened, a short time ago, to a Public Radio show looking at book banning around the country. Of course, a lot of this is centered in Texas (where the fuck else?). Some anal cyst politician (R, natch) down there is demanding that every school report to him about whether the schools own any of the books on a list of 850 (what, he couldn’t make it an even thousand?) that he prepared. When asked why, or what he planned to do, he refused to say. Another teacher there was publicly shamed and ripped by a school committee for owning a book called “This Book is Anti-Racist”, because how dare she.
A bill now in the Texas legislature is demanding that if a school has books about the Holocaust, they need to stock just as many books with an opposing point of view. What? Pro-Holocaust books? Books that claim there wasn’t any Holocaust? Fucking hell, where do these people come from?
Then, the kicker (you knew this was coming, right?) after many examples of confederate book banning and bullying of teachers, administrators, and school librarians, one of the reporters says “But ‘Experts’ maintain that there’s just as much book banning on the left.” Say what? Okay…examples please.
Um, we couldn’t find any examples, but we’re sure there are some.
Yeah, maybe books on white supremacy and bomb building, but still…no examples.
Both fucking sides. It will never end.
Oh, and one last thought about the efficacy of banning books, from personal experience. Back in grammar school days, every month, the nuns would post a list of books and movies banned by the Church. It was a goldmine of great information to 12 year old kids! We didn’t have to waste time looking for books with “the good parts”, the Cardinal did it for us! Thanks, yer Eminence!
Seriously, you want to pique a kid’s interest in a book? Ban the sucker. And get a whole lot of screaming mimi parents to shout about how perverted, dirty and anti-social it is.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/11/politics/trump-motion-documents/index.html
At least it ain't the Fifth Circuit...
Ak: thiose banned movies were referred to as "C" pictures -- for "condemned."
But no one explained that to us in grade school, so I often wondered what the archbishop had against "sea pictures", like Moby Dick, Horatio Hornblower, etc.
Yeah, I used to go to those "C"/sea pictures with my friends who went to the local Catholic school and/or church. The name of the school & church were "Immaculate Conception." I once asked my father what that meant, and he told me. Frankly. I got a lot more information about sex from the name of the church itself than I did from the banned movies.
Marie,
The Church--the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic--made a clear distinction between an immaculate conception and a virgin birth.
Think my parents must have, too, cause I had to go to their secreted parents' handbook (a thick red volume stuck behind the sheets in their linen closet) for my education.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/appeals-court-temporarily-bars-release-of-trump-white-house-records-to-house-jan-6-committee/2021/11/11/0e71fd5e-423f-11ec-9ea7-3eb2406a2e24_story.html?
A darn!--with some good news buried in the details.
"How concentrated corporate power makes inflation worse
Why are prices from everything from laundry detergent to potato chips to My Little Pony going up? Inflation is a complex phenomenon. Supply chain disruptions, increased labor costs, and surging demand all play a role. But one factor driving inflation is seldom discussed: mega-corporations with massive market power.
In competitive markets, profit margins should approach zero, as long as there are reasonable substitutes available for a given product. But corporate profits as a share of the American economy have risen dramatically over the last two decades, from 5% of GDP to nearly 12%.
As prices have increased in recent months, corporate profits have surged to record highs, according to data from Bloomberg:"
https://popular.info/p/how-concentrated-corporate-power