National

Oh how I am going to enjoy the day when CRI has to drop its phony non-profit status and reveal that this phoney-baloney "grassroots" operation is funded by two big checks (one from Foster Stephen Friess and one from the Koch Brothers).

I love that whenever he interprets the ministry of Jesus for the world's 1.1 billion Catholics, Antonin Scalia can be heard saying, "Fuck this guy."

In this context, some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting. To sustain a lifestyle which excludes others, or to sustain enthusiasm for that selfish ideal, a globalization of indifference has developed. Almost without being aware of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people’s pain, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone else’s responsibility and not our own. The culture of prosperity deadens us; we are thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase; and in the meantime all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us.

The Iranian Agreement is the subject of today's open thread. I have a simple question to those who so vehemently support Israel that they are confused about which flag they are supposed to pledge allegiance to. Is there any deal with Iran that would garner your approval? Or is the only option that is good for Israel the complete destruction of Iran and its people? I suspect the answer to the first question, if you are a Netanyahu apologist, is no. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is Israel's Dick Cheney or John McCain. There are never enough wars to fight, never enough Muslims and Arabs to kill. They are relics of a different time. I no longer listen to those who are always so reflexively pro-Israel that they always, without fail, reject peace. And those who I talk about will now say I am anti-semetic or anti-Israel. No, I am pro-peace. Peace in the Middle East is in the best interests of Israel. War in the Middle East is not. Ending Iran's capacity to make a nuclear bomb is in America's interests. It is also in Israel's interest. This deal has a chance of that goal. Yet Israel's government rejects the deal out of hand.

Not a primary opponent - just a primary. That's news, right? And who did this "high-ranking Democratic official" huff the news to? Celia, of course.

As a high-ranking Democratic official huffed, "We cannot afford not to primary him, because if we don't, we will lose that seat, because there are a lot of Democrats like me who won't vote for him." No Democrat has come forward to run yet, but it may just be a matter of time.

As a high-ranking Democratic official huffed, "We cannot afford not to primary him, because if we don't, we will lose that seat, because there are a lot of Democrats like me who won't vote for him."

[...]

People on welfare are black. People who use food-stamps are lazy, and probably vote for Democrats because they like getting free cell phones. The esteemed "Doctor" Stapleford of the CRI said just that in a News Journal Op-ed once, so it must be true. (Except it isn't and Stapleford, as we all know, is a outright fraud.) As it turns out, white people get welfare (most of it). And many of those white people who get most of the welfare, are rural, broke-ass, angry SOBs. Who do they vote for...? Alex Henderson has the skinny. [...]

Republicans, like a bully punched in a nose for the first time after doing it to others for years, are really crying this morning. They are angry, vowing revenge like they are in some Shakespearean story. They think their threats about retaliation actually scare us.