[ Posted Wednesday, June 17th, 2020 – 17:16 UTC ]
In the midst of what can only be called a non-traditional presidential campaign, Joe Biden might want to consider breaking another political tradition, by releasing a very early shortlist of possible nominees to his cabinet. Such a move is not without risks, of course, which is one of the reasons why traditionally it just isn't done. But the benefits may outweigh such risks in this particular campaign.
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[ Posted Monday, June 15th, 2020 – 17:14 UTC ]
Conservative Republicans just chalked up another big defeat in their continuing losing streak in the culture wars. The Supreme Court ruled today that L.G.B.T. rights are indeed included in Title VII, which mandates equal treatment for all "on the basis of sex." Discriminating against someone because they are gay or transgendered (by firing them, for example) is just as unconstitutional as it is to discriminate against all women (or all men, for that matter). To put it another way, what could be called the final battle of the Sexual Revolution just ended, and the counterculture has now absolutely routed the field of conservatives.
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[ Posted Friday, June 5th, 2020 – 17:24 UTC ]
This week, an American president ordered the violent removal of peaceful protesters -- who were doing nothing more than exercising their First Amendment rights to assemble, speak, and petition the government for redress -- from a public park so that he could then walk across the park and hold up a borrowed Bible for a photo opportunity with both the Secretary of Defense and (clad in battle fatigues) the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Afterward, the Trump White House immediately issued a propaganda video of the event. Later that evening, a military helicopter clearly marked with a red cross took offensive action against the protesters (which is banned by the Geneva Conventions, and is now under investigation). Later still, the president and all his enablers in the White House lied through their teeth about the entire incident, repeatedly. At week's end, we learned of another affront to the Constitution by the Trump administration, when it was revealed that federal law enforcement had unconstitutionally seized a shipment of cloth face masks created by a Black Lives Matter affiliate, and the only possible reason they did so was that the Department of Justice apparently didn't like the messages displayed on the masks (which read: "Stop killing black people," and: "Defund police").
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[ Posted Tuesday, June 2nd, 2020 – 17:29 UTC ]
President Trump staged a photo opportunity yesterday that went horribly wrong, but the White House doesn't yet seem to have comprehended how bad a look it actually was. In fact, they proudly put up a video montage of the event that seems to strive for the impact of a Leni Riefenstahl production (watch it for yourself if you think this is overstating the case). The whole staged event is nothing more than a naked effort to counter the growing ridicule Trump has gotten for hiding in his bunker over the weekend during the protests, in fact. You see President Trump boldly striding away from the White House, crossing Lafayette Square, pumping a macho fist to all the militarized police standing around, and then appearing in front of a historic (and boarded-up) church where he awkwardly tries to hold a Bible up for the cameras. Trump then (according to the Riefenstahl clip) triumphantly strides back to the White House, to the adoration of all. Mission accomplished. Roll credits.
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[ Posted Friday, May 29th, 2020 – 17:16 UTC ]
Anyone "tired of all the winning" yet? Just asking....
In the same week America passed the grim milestone of 100,000 dead from the coronavirus pandemic, a black man was suffocated by a white police officer while three other cops stood by and either helped him commit this crime or did absolutely nothing to prevent it. Since then, there have been sometimes-violent protests in the streets of not only Minneapolis but in several other cities across the country. The dead man was accused of the crime of trying to use a fake $20 bill at a convenience store. The cops, acting as judge, jury, and executioner, provided him with a death sentence -- for the transgression of trying to pass a fake twenty.
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[ Posted Thursday, May 28th, 2020 – 17:23 UTC ]
President Donald Trump executed a double-reverse bit of irony today, by signing an executive order that he thinks will threaten social media companies like Twitter into allowing conservatives to spout whatever hate-filled or wildly inaccurate rants they wish to. However, as with many things Trump does, his executive order might just wind up giving companies like Twitter more incentive to police Trump's own tweets. In other words, by attempting to "fight back," Trump may in fact have just shot himself in the foot.
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[ Posted Wednesday, May 27th, 2020 – 16:53 UTC ]
President Donald Trump is unclear on the basic concept of the First Amendment's "free speech" clause. This isn't all that surprising, since he's obviously never made it all the way through a reading of the United States Constitution. After all, the Founding Fathers didn't see fit to provide colorful graphics instead of boring blocks of text, and the whole thing just goes on for pages and pages and pages -- both of which absolutely guarantee Trump has never read it.
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[ Posted Tuesday, May 26th, 2020 – 16:33 UTC ]
Twitter is at the heart of a storm of controversy today, and rightly so. It just made a timid move to better its own public standing, but it is far too little and far too late to really stem the tide of deserved criticism they're now receiving. Twitter is, to be blunt, scared of President Donald Trump and his legions of followers. So they've allowed him to get away with tweeting pretty much anything that pops into his head, no matter how false or downright destructive his words prove to be. Now, perhaps, they're beginning to pay a price for this timidity in the court of public opinion.
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[ Posted Friday, May 22nd, 2020 – 18:08 UTC ]
Proof has finally emerged that President Donald Trump has actually put a mask on his face. Bizarrely, this proof came from a non-official photographer instead of from an official media or White House source. Because the one thing Trump wants to avoid at all costs is ever setting any kind of good example for anyone.
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[ Posted Wednesday, May 20th, 2020 – 16:57 UTC ]
Today President Donald Trump returned to a favorite bugaboo of his, the continuation of a relentless smear job on absentee (or "mail-in") voting. This is part and parcel of his world view, which is both contradictory in the extreme as well as laughably hypocritical. Trump's basic position is that he doesn't like it when Democrats use absentee ballots, while it is just fine for Republicans (including, notably, himself) to do so. But the biggest danger for Trump isn't being ridiculed for such blatantly partisan contradictions, but rather that he might in fact motivate more people to vote against him and the Republican Party. Which would, of course, be deliciously ironic for Democrats.
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