Here we are again. More children and teachers have been slaughtered in an American school. The death toll was horrific enough this time to get the gun control debate raging once more. At first blush, that sounds cynical, but remember that the shooting last week in Parkland, Florida, which claimed 17 lives, came less than a month after a 15-year-old student in Marshall County, Kentucky shot 16 people in the lobby of his high school, but only two of them died. That story was barely a blip in the news. Continue reading “Insane and Stupid”
Politics & War
Trumpster Fire Day 392: The Best People
The scandals surrounding the Turdpol Kakistocracy continue to mount every single day. In fact, there hasn’t been a moment in this scoundrel’s presidency when there haven’t been questions about its conduct swirling around. This week it’s a scandal over when the White House knew that one of its high-level employees was a wife beater who was vulnerable to blackmail, and an old (by that, I mean mere weeks) scandal resurfaced about hush money paid to a porn actress. Continue reading “Trumpster Fire Day 392: The Best People”
Trumpster Fire Day 385: Are We Sure the Election Wasn’t Rigged?
In reporting yesterday from NBC News, head of cybersecurity at the Department of Homeland Security, Jeanette Manfra, said, “We saw a targeting of 21 states and an exceptionally small number of them were successfully penetrated.” This comes five months after Homeland Security notified those 21 states that Russian government hackers had been targeting them, and a full 17 months after NBC News reported attempted hacking. So far, only Illinois has confirmed that the hackers had been able to gain access to its systems. Continue reading “Trumpster Fire Day 385: Are We Sure the Election Wasn’t Rigged?”
Trumpster Fire Day 363: The Sky is Falling
This past Sunday, residents of Hawaii were sent an emergency alert to their phones. It stated, “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.” Understandably, this caused some consternation among the Hawaiian population. It was a false alarm, but a message stating so wasn’t sent out until 38 minutes after the initial alert. So, for over half an hour, a whole lot of people in our 50th state thought that they were going to die in nuclear fire. How very retro. Continue reading “Trumpster Fire Day 363: The Sky is Falling”
Cocksuckers Ball: Courts to the Rescue
A three-judge federal panel on Tuesday voided North Carolina’s congressional map, on the grounds that the gerrymandered districts were ‘motivated by invidious partisan intent.’ In other words, the Republicans in North Carolina engineered congressional districts following the 2010 census in order to ensure most of the state’s districts were won by Republicans. Redrawing districts to partisan advantage has been a legal grey area ever since the advent of partisan politics in this country. But the panel has now set precedent that such practices are unconstitutional, and that’s a good thing. Continue reading “Cocksuckers Ball: Courts to the Rescue”
What Rotten Luck
The United States has just about the only government left in the world that is hostile to the realities of global warming. The scientific consensus, that the globe is warming due to human activity, has been embroiled in party politics. There’s no false equivalency here, either. Turning global warming into a political fight is solely the responsibility of the Republican Party. Resistance to action to combat global warming is almost exclusively a Republican disease, and it affects everyone from donors, to legislators, all the way down to conservative voters. This is a huge problem considering that, until recently, the United States was the world’s largest producer of greenhouse gases, which are responsible for global warming. Continue reading “What Rotten Luck”
Here We Go Again
The 2nd Amendment to the Constitution is an outdated relic that gun enthusiasts use as a cudgel against any meaningful gun control legislation. Many liberals, this one included, have been loathe to speak out too forcefully against it, for a variety of reasons. The way that I soothed my own conscience about the 2nd Amendment was to hold with the idea that weakening the 2nd could leave the other amendments vulnerable. That’s still a concern, but it’s outweighed by my desire, a common sense one, to live in a society that is no longer armed to the teeth — that no longer fetishizes firearms. Continue reading “Here We Go Again”
Trumpster Fire Day 251: An Ongoing Disaster
Puerto Rico got walloped by Hurricane Maria. The storm made landfall on Puerto Rico as a category 4 hurricane seven days ago, now. Maria destroyed the territory’s electricity transmission infrastructure, and the vast majority of the territory is still without electrical power, with all the attending problems that causes. Food is running out, potable water is in desperate short supply, and it could be months before power is restored. Continue reading “Trumpster Fire Day 251: An Ongoing Disaster”
Cocksuckers Ball: Graham-Cassidy is Bullshit
Two months. That’s all it took for the Republicans’ efforts to repeal Obamacare to come back from the dead. After a dramatic vote in the Senate that saw John McCain cast the deciding vote to kill a terrible healthcare plan, Senate Republicans are set to try again. Shame on them. Continue reading “Cocksuckers Ball: Graham-Cassidy is Bullshit”
Cocksuckers Ball: Disaster Averted
When I went to bed last night, I was sure that when I awoke, Obamacare repeal would have passed in the Senate. After years of waiting, and months of legislative ineptitude, it looked like the Republicans were finally going to get their signature piece of legislation out the door. And what a piece it was. Continue reading “Cocksuckers Ball: Disaster Averted”