hay rick
hay rick's JournalTrump is THEIR crook.
This painting, by Sharif Tarabay, was commissioned by Clarence Thomas' billionaire benefactor, Harland Crow, and memorializes a meeting between Crow, Thomas, Leonard Leo and two other conservative legal activists at Crow's Adirondacks compound.
Trump has a well-deserved reputation as a bully. Like many bullies, he is also immediately submissive to those he fears or he considers superior in power. The obvious example is his deferential attitude to Vladimir Putin. The Federalist Society, which promotes the legal interests and preferences of right wing billionaires, is also able to push Trump around with impunity. All of Trump's Supreme Court nominees were Society members. Trump appointed 54 judges to U. S. courts of appeal. As of March, 2020, 43 of his 51 appointees were Federalist Society members. Trump did what he was told.
Trump needs them. They don't need him. The oligarchs can get what they want and keep what they think they need without him. Their other levers of power include a captive Supreme Court, the legislative veto power of the Senate's 60-vote filibuster rule, and the unlimited bribery permitted by Citizens United. They tolerate Trump in part because his constant bile and buffoonery distracts attention from their systematic looting of the wealth of the people and the well-being of the planet.
I am of two stomachs on this issue.
When Joe started to shuffle onto the debate stage, I was on my feet screaming at the TV before he got to his podium. The night went downhill from there. That fiasco can not be denied or unseen.
On the other hand, Joe is the best president I have seen since Lyndon Johnson. His accomplishments tower over those of his critics. I think only a very superficial and unworthy society would pitch a man's lifetime of achievement over his bad appearance on a single evening.
Joe has been pushed into an exhausting and futile round of repair appearances since the debate. It is unfair to Joe and diminishes the entire process. It caves to the assertion that a sometimes awkward public appearance is as important or more important than substantive policy and a demonstrated history of accomplishment. The problem isn't stuttering, old Joe. The problem is a bunch of juvenile media consumers (voters) and the shallow purveyors of trivia (the media) that feed them.
I am less harshly critical of Democrats who are wringing their hands and asking Joe to step down. There is a real problem that won't go away just because it ignores our calls for unity.
Research shows more Americans support violence to stop a second Trump presidency than back violence in his favor
Source: The Guardian
A survey conducted in late June from the University of Chicago found that there is now more support for violence against Trump (10% of American adults, or 26 million people) compared with violence in favor of Trump (6.9%, or 18 million people). Until January, the survey showed there was more support for violence in favor of Trump.
And of the 26 million American adults who support violence to prevent Trump from regaining the presidency, more than 30% own guns and almost 80% have access to internet organizational tools.
............
On both sides, those that support violence are predominantly urban Americans.
The survey also found that 58.6% of American adults agree that in today’s America, elections will not solve the country’s most fundamental political and social problems.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/13/trump-rally-shooting-political-violence
This is a discussion that has been avoided so far. The polling cited suggests that "peace-loving liberals" are losing faith in the ability of America's democratic processes to deliver meaningful results or protect us from harm.
I think you are exactly wrong.
"What should have happened is that EVERY elected Democrat should have had his back." That would be a Democratic Party that exists only in a world of unicorns and rainbows. That is not a realistic expectation. As it was, the relatively small number of Democrats who spoke out calling for reconsideration or replacement got disproportionate coverage in the media. The sound bites supported a prefabricated narrative and got immediately plugged into current coverage.
It reminds me of the Defund the Police reporting of 2020 following the George Floyd demonstrations. The prefabricated narrative was "Democrats soft on crime" with the implication that this is why demonstrations happen and demonstrations turn into riots and violence. Virtually every elected Democrat, including Joe Biden, spoke out strongly against defunding the police. Rather than illuminating the overwhelming consensus Democratic support for financing effective community policing, the media put the spotlight almost exclusively on "squad" members- Omar, Tlaib, and Ocasio-Cortez.
We don't need a party that reins in "halfwits." We need media that tries to report stories fairly, not to fit a Procrustean bed of ownership or advertiser interests.
New Trump-friendly New York Times logo.
The logo will soon be deployed in front of a new section, starting on page 86, devoted to all the unimportant stories that are not about Joe Biden's age. Sample stories coming up:
ARE TRUMP'S CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS GLORIFIED OVERDUE LIBRARY BOOKS? Florida judge considers dismissal motion...
TRUMP CLAIMS HE DOESN'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT PROJECT 2025. The former president, known for his complete ignorance on many subjects...wishes his many former and future appointees luck and notes that "there are many good people on both sides."
CONVICTED FELON SEEKS BILLION DOLLAR BRIBE FROM OIL EXECUTIVES. Shocker, LOL. What did you expect?
Textbook authors told climate change references must be cut to get Florida's OK
Source: Sun Sentinel
Textbook authors were told last month that some references to “climate change” must be removed from science books before they could be accepted for use in Florida’s public schools, according to two of those authors. A high school biology book also had to add citations to back up statements that “human activity” caused climate change and cut a “political statement” urging governments to take action to stop climate change, said Ken Miller, the co-author of that textbook and a professor emeritus of biology at Brown University. Both Miller and a second author who asked not to be identified told the Orlando Sentinel they learned of the state-directed changes from their publishers, who received phone calls in June from state officials.
. . . according to his publisher, a 90-page section on climate change was removed from its high school chemistry textbook and the phrase was removed from middle school science books, he said. The other author said he was told Florida wanted publishers to remove “extraneous information” not listed in state standards. “They asked to take out phrases such as climate change,” he added.
The actions seemed to echo Florida’s previous rejection of math and social studies textbooks that state officials claimed include passages of “indoctrination” and “ideological rhetoric.” And they fall in line with the views of many GOP leaders, who question both the existence of climate change and the contributions of human activities to the problem, despite a broad scientific consensus that human-caused climate change is transforming the earth’s environment.
In May, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill that stripped the phrase “climate change” from much of Florida law, reversing 16 years of state policy and, critics said, undermining Florida’s support of renewable and clean energy. The bill did not address public education nor the state’s science standards, which were adopted in 2008 and spell out what students should learn in science instruction from kindergarten through 12th grade. But SB 1645 altered Florida’s energy policy, removing the goal of recognizing and addressing “the potential of global climate change,” Senate staff wrote in an analysis of the bill.
Read more: https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2024/07/05/textbook-authors-told-climate-change-references-must-be-cut-to-get-floridas-ok/
DeSantis has said the new legislation was “restoring sanity in our approach to energy and rejecting the agenda of the radical green zealots.”
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