International
Ernest Hemingway on American Fascism
Because I took no books with me on what I thought would be a three-week trip to Paris and Barcelona, I’ve been passing the time by reading old books online. Over the past day I read Ernest Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” his novel set in the Spanish Civil War. His protagonist, Robert Jordan, […]
BREAKING: It’s Officially A Pandemic
The World Health Organization has officially designated the Coronavirus outbreak a world pandemic: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/03/11/coronavirus-live-updates/ The organization cites ‘alarming levels of spread and…alarming levels of inaction’. A congressional briefing on the government’s response is halted due to ‘an emergency meeting at the White House’. White House, of course, says that the meeting’s ‘routine’. Even though Anthony […]
This Is Why Republicans Can’t Turn on Trump
As I guessed more than two years ago, the explanation is a lot simpler than “they’re afraid of his base,” which is true but doesn’t explain why they won’t cut the Orange Albatross loose now that he’s hurting the entire party. The truth is that Russian money, much of it funneled through the NRA, didn’t […]
DL Open Thread 9/20
Iconic arms manufacturer Colt announced it will stop making military-style rifles for the civilian market, explaining that there already are enough of them to go around. That sound you hear is the blubbering of big, strong ammosexuals, and I still think 30-50 Feral Hogs is a good name for a band. Nancy LeTourneau at Washington […]
DL Open Thread 9/19
Why hasn’t the Deep State removed Trump from office? Because they’ve mostly been working around him instead of with him or against him. But apparently Trump promised somebody in his Dictator of the Month Club something so egregious that it prompted a whistleblower complaint, which Republicans are illegally covering up. Still think they aren’t a […]
DL Open Thread 9/18
Anyone who thinks Donald Trump is everything the quisling GOP wants in a president must reckon with the fact that he won’t go to war in the Middle East on the slightest provocation. Most of the GOP Senate is a bunch of bloodthirsty chicken hawks (a few even served), but even the pleading of presidential […]
DL Open Thread Tuesday 9/17
Think the Cold War ended? Think again. Russian codebreakers reportedly hacked into the FBI’s comm systems and interfered with the agency’s tracking ability. Nearly 50,000 General Motors workers are out on a strike that pundits say neither side can really afford, which probably means each side will wait endlessly for the other to cave. House […]
Man Who Stopped New Zealand Massacre Was Good Guy Without a Gun
The so-far unsung hero of the New Zealand massacre was not, per U.S. gun-sissy lore, a good guy with a gun. Abdul Aziz Wahabzadah, a refugee from Afghanistan, was with his four sons at the second mosque the gunman went to. He heard gunshots, looked out a window, and saw the killer, armed with an […]
Calls for a Global War on White Nationalism Begin
Christopher Dickey, foreign editor of the Daily Beast, is out with a column that calls the devil by his name. The New Zealand killer, Dickey writes, may have been a lone shooter when he slaughtered 50 people at two mosques in New Zealand on Friday, but he was not a “lone wolf.” He was part […]
Another Reason Russiagate Matters
I think the No. 1 reason is that foreign money in elections was a foreseen consequence of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, and I hope I don’t have to convince you this is a bad thing. Leftists who think Russiagate is no big deal seem to believe it’s all just political. But leave aside […]
Who’s Afraid of the Green New Deal?
Lots of people, it seems, even some of the 81% who tell pollsters they support it. Republicans consider it the spawn of Satan or, worse, Lenin. Democrats fret that it’s so radical it will drive voters into the nurturing arms of President Stable Genius. To which I say, good. Excellent. All this chatter shows the […]
Aug. 2 Open Thread: Liberals Are Not Popular, But Liberal Ideas Are
When people say, “I worry that voters will be scared of a leftist agenda,” they’re really saying, “I’m scared of a leftist agenda.” Polling demonstrates this over and over again — people label themselves conservative but approve of all sorts of programs that are unabashedly liberal. Here’s another one that shows surprising strength even for […]
July 24 Open Thread: Stand Your Ground = License to Kill
The latest Florida outrage — I know, it’s a new one almost every day — involves the cold-blooded slaying of another black man by another white man who apparently will get away scot-free by invoking the NRA’s notorious stand-your-ground law, claiming that the white man felt his life was threatened by the black man, who […]
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