Month: August 2020

Republican Boogymen wouldn’t scare informed voters

“On a campaign swing in Minnesota, Trump made clear his message for the election. He repeatedly insisted that Biden ‘is the puppet of leftwing extremists,’ who will ‘replace American freedom with leftwing fascism.’”

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/august-17-2020?r=7vfc4&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&utm_source=copy

This tells any informed voter, who understands the political spectrum, that Trump is shoveling bullshit.

Because “left-wing” and “fascism” are opposite ends of the political spectrum.

And, left-wing shouldn’t even be scary if voters remember that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, as well as other programs designed to ensure that the basic needs of the American population are met, are all left-wing. And conservatives called them “left-wing extremism,” and “socialism” when they fought against their passage.

Today’s Rant: Cannon Hinnant Trope: Institutional Racism in a Nutshell

By now you have probably seen memes asking why a white child killed by a black man hasn’t brought people out in the streets. “Why does George Floyd’s life matter, but not Cannon Hinnant’s?” the meme asks.

Delve into what baggage is packed into the meme in Today’s Rant: Cannon Hinnant Trope: Institutional Racism in a Nutshell

Defeat voter suppression: Drop your ballots off at the county clerk

Roscoe Woods, president of American Postal Workers Union Local 480-481 in the Detroit-metro area, said he didn’t initially think the policy changes were about the election. But after what he’s seen and heard from his members, he says he’s now “a firm believer that it’s a fundamental effort to undermine people’s confidence in this agency and make it harder to vote by mail…There’s no other explanation.”

Michigan’s Postal Workers Say the Fix Is In

Newsweek tries to apologise/not apologize over Kamala Harris Birther bullshit

So, after running an opinion piece questioning Kamala Harris’s citizenship using the exact same Birther bullshit used against Barack Obama, and then arguing in an editorial note it was completely different,* Newsweek’s own staff revolting seems to have caused them to realize their mistake. Or not. They have now issued one of those “I’m sorry you misunderstood me” non-apologies.

The Daily Beast reports:

“Newsweek Editor-in-Chief Nancy Cooper and the magazine’s recently hired opinion editor, Trump-backing conservative activist and attorney Josh Hammer, apologized on Friday after nearly a week of defending a right-wing law professor’s op-ed questioning Sen. Kamala Harris’ U.S. citizenship and her eligibility to be Joe Biden’s running mate.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/it-took-newsweek-three-days-and-a-staff-revolt-to-apologize-for-kamala-harris-birtherism-op-ed?ref=scroll

*Newsweek magazine’s original defense of the Birther opinion piece pointed out the article questions the citizenship of a natural-born American-born citizen – just as was Barack Obama, whose parents were from a different country – just as was Barack Obama’s father, and just happens to be a person of color – just like Barack Obama, and is therefore completely different than the racist Birtherism bullshit used against Barack Obama.

In the original Birther bullshit opinion piece, after admitting the law has been settled, law professor John Eastman (whom Newsweek fails to mention ran against Harris for the office of California Attorney General) argues born-in-California Kamala Harris doesn’t deserve citizenship because we were still pretty racist when she was born. See our original piece here:

Today’s Rant: And The Racist Birtherism Begins


Pink isn’t well, he stayed back at the hotel

We have now reached the point in the Pink Floyd movie The Wall where Bob Hoskins breaks into Pink’s hotel room, and finding him catatonic, calls for a doctor to shoot him full of whatever will get him on his feet and through the next show.

And we all remember how that turned out.

Shhhhh! You’re not supposed to say it out loud!

Somebody needs to tell Trump that when you are destroying a government agency to ensure your reelection, you aren’t supposed to say that out loud.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/m7jkxq/trump-just-admitted-hes-sabotaging-the-usps-to-screw-up-the-election?fbclid=IwAR37ZB99-NEG6Q9IJqsWMGmlz6uoaBLV_tcrAuBJ9q57_zzd5iAMkQfM9fg

Today’s Rant: And the Racist Birtherism Begins

Whatever is old is new again when it comes to Republican politics.

John C. Eastman, professor of law at Chapman University, suddenly has a problem with born-in-California Kamala Harris’s citizenship.

Sound familiar?

Read more on Today’s Rant: And The Racist Birtherism Begins