Right-wing “populism” is a joke: Poor-bashing, immigrant-hating, and a revolting agenda Writer John Judis presciently published an important book about American politics about a decade before its time called “The Paradox of American Democracy: Elites, Special Interests, and the Betrayal of the Public Trust” in which he accurately observed the seeds of discontent among the American public…
Scalia’s major screwup: How SCOTUS just gave liberals a huge gift With an otherwise awful Hobby Lobby ruling, right-wing judges just said I don’t have to pay for warfare! My husband, Tom, and I have been dancing gleefully with our Corgi Bessie in our modest home every evening since the Hobby Lobby ruling, because it’s clear…
(Two links for the price of one today; same subject) Lone Star Crazy: How right-wing extremists took over Texas In today’s Texas, which is falling into the hands of gun nuts, border-sealers, and talk-radio charlatans, George W. Bush would practically be considered a communist. After nearly six years of pumping out cynical horror stories involving our…
Judge invalidates two Florida congressional districts A judge threw out Florida’s congressional map late Thursday, ruling that the Legislature allowed for a “secret, organized campaign” by partisan operatives to subvert the redistricting process in violation of the state Constitution. In a 41-page ruling, Leon County Circuit Court Judge Terry Lewis said that two of the state’s…
Thrown out of court: How corporations became people you can’t sue Late last year a massive data hack at Target exposed about 110 million consumers around the country to identity theft and fraud. As details of its lax computer security oversight came to light, customers whose passwords and credit card numbers had been stolen banded together…
Recent immigrant surge is rooted in law to curb child trafficking It was one of the final pieces of legislation signed into law by President George W. Bush, a measure that passed without controversy, along with a pension bill and another one calling for national parks to be commemorated on quarters. It was called the William Wilberforce Trafficking…
Chris McDaniel’s election tantrum is more than sore-loserdom Last Wednesday marked the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a bill designed to protect the right to vote and fight racial discrimination in education, employment, and public facilities. It was a hard-fought historic accomplishment, one that changed lives and made the promise of democracy…
Hillary Clinton wants child migrants sent back. Here’s what that would look like On June 17th, Hillary Clinton discussed the growing child-migrant crisis in south Texas—and called for most of the tens of thousands of children and teenagers to be sent back to their home countries in Central America, as long as their parents could be…
GOP’s culture war disaster: How this week highlighted a massive blind spot Progressives often comfort themselves that while they’re losing a lot of economic battles, at least they’re winning the so-called culture wars. But lately it’s impossible not to notice that even our culture war victories are uneven. They mostly involve gay rights, particularly marriage…
The Big Lobotomy: How Republicans made Congress stupid Last September, as they scrambled to decide on one final ultimatum before shutting down the federal government, Republican House leaders came up with what seemed like an odd demand: to strip their own staff of health care benefits. At the time, staffers reacted to the news with a…