We are seeing a familiar scenario play out now that the Democrats made sweeping gains in the November elections and switched 40 seats to gain control of the House of Republicans. They now have a 235-199 majority with the disputed seat in North Carolina still to be determined. As a result, they can set the legislative agenda and now have sweeping powers to investigate all the abuses of the Trump administration.
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No, this post is not about my favorite sport. Thanks to a private communication from Marcus Ranum, I became aware of this article that sheds some light on the mysterious affliction that affected US diplomats at its embassy in Havana, Cuba that I had written about before. This had led to all manner of wild speculations of high-tech sonic warfare being waged against the embassy personnel by Cuba, Russia, or China or some combination of those countries. None of those theories made much sense but when did the lack of evidence ever prevent a lot of breathless media speculation, especially when wrapped up in Cold War fears?
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As a result of the rapid advances in science, the explanatory claims of religion for natural phenomena have been all but discredited. But that has not stopped religious people from trying to retain some relevance. Some have taken the tack of arguing that religion ‘explains’ things like the meaning of life that science cannot, a fatuous claim since those ‘explanations’ are simply evidence-free assertions. But others take the position that their ancient religious texts actually predicted scientific phenomena.
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While the House of Representatives is passing bills to fund the government, the Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is refusing to bring those bills up for a vote in that body, even identical ones that had been passed at the end of last year when Trump had indicated he would agree to it before he abruptly reversed course and demanded finding for his stupid wall.
But not to worry, the Senate is not doing nothing. While the government grinds slowly to a halt and people undergo hardships as a consequence, Ryan Grim and Glenn Greenwald write that the very first bill that the Senate is likely to bring up is one that punishes people who criticize Israeli policies and support the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement that is intended to pressure the government of Israel to end its apartheid-like treatment of Palestinians.
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The NFL has been utterly craven in its response to the kneeling protest launched by quarterback Colin Kaepernick to highlight police brutality. They have clearly conspired to punish him and any others who protest by denying them the chance to play. Now it appears that some major stars are joining the protest by refusing to perform in the Super Bowl half-time show, once a much sought after gig for any entertainer.
Some of the biggest names in pop and rap, including Rihanna and Cardi B, have turned down the opportunity to appear, while one group that has reportedly been booked, the Adam Levine-fronted pop-rock act Maroon 5, is facing pressure to pull out. Rapper Travis Scott, the only performer reportedly secured to join the show, is facing pressure from hip-hop superstar Jay-Z and civil rights groups to pull out. With four weeks to go, producers of the 13-minute event are scrambling to find additional performers for what Variety last week called “music’s least wanted gig”.
Of course, I will watch neither the game nor the half-time show since I feel that evidence of rampant traumatic brain injuries has placed football on the same level as boxing, a throwback to the gladiator days when people risked their lives for the entertainment of the public.
It is truly fascinating to see how Republicans and conservatives are freaking out over new Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, criticizing everything that she does, says, and even the clothes she wears. But they are finding out that she does not give a damn and is throwing it back in their faces. Peter Wade has a nice article about how she has responded.
And when Great America PAC Chairman Ed Rollins bashed Ocasio-Cortez’s proposed top marginal rate of 70% from her Green New Deal, calling her “a little girl,” she fired back.
…“GOP loves to insult my intelligence… If anything, this dude is a walking argument to tax misogyny at 100 percent,” Ocasio-Cortez responded to Rollins in a tweet. “Republicans rob everyone the opportunity of real policy debate by resorting to this,” she added.
We have all heard Donald Trump at various times proclaim what a genius he is and how he knows so much more about practically everything than anyone else. Thanks to Rod Painter, I came across this tweet that has a mashup of all the times he has made this kind of boast. To see them consecutively is really something.
Trump is the #1 expert on…
– Taxes
– Construction
– Campaign finance
– Drones
– Technology
– U.S. History
– Infrastructure
– ISIS
– Renewables
– Polls
– Courts
– Steel workers
– Golf
– Banks
– Nuclear arms
– The system
– Debt
– Politicians…according to Donald Trump pic.twitter.com/Pfh92Gtmtc
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) January 4, 2019
2019 saw the implementation in 20 states and 24 counties and cities of new laws raising the minimum wage.
THANKS TO LEGISLATIVE efforts, ballot measures and adjustments for inflation, workers in 20 states will see an increase in their minimum wage in 2019.
These minimum wage increases, which range from a $0.05 inflation adjustment to a $2 per hour increase, will impact 5.2 million workers and, for those who work year-round, it will raise their annual pay between $90 and $1,300, according to a recent Economic Policy Institute report. On Jan. 1, 2019, 24 cities and counties will also raise their minimum wages.
Though the federal minimum wage has remained at $7.25 an hour since 2009, there has been a growing movement across the nation to raise this number at both the state and local levels.
In 29 states, the minimum wage now surpasses the federal level, and a handful of state have pledged to raise their minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next few years.
The radio program On the Media had a powerful program that looked at how differently the US and Germany deal with their ugly pasts. In Germany, there are memorials and reminders everywhere of the Nazi era with no attempt to hide the atrocities committed by them, all in the effort to make subsequent generations clearly aware that they as a people were capable of doing things like that and that they must be alert to avoid any repetition. But there are no memorials to the Nazi leaders, no statues or buildings or any other monuments named after them. In other words, the Nazi history is preserved and remembered but as a cautionary tale, not honored.
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Gavin McInnes is the founder of the group known as the Proud Boys, a right wing, ultranationalist group that has been involved in violent confrontations with anti-fascists. Kelly Weill describes his history.
More than anything, the Proud Boys are anti-leftist. Members talk openly of beating leftist opponents (“commies” and “antifa”) in the streets. Proud Boys at a violent Portland, Oregon, rally wore T-shirts valorizing Augusto Pinochet, a Chilean dictator who murdered tortured and murdered leftist political foes. When a prominent Twitter user made videos mocking the Proud Boys, a member showed up at his home. Members have also variously expressed sexist, anti-Semitic, and anti-LGBT views. The ideological flexibility gives some space for members of color; the aforementioned Proud Boy who attended Unite the Right also runs with a primarily Latino skinhead crew. It also gives plausible deniability for figures like McInnes, who constantly toe the line of acceptable hatred.
…In McInnes’ case, he accused Soros of funding a network of “lesbian” lawyers who harass the far right. (He also falsely accused Soros’ staff of organizing Unite the Right “to discredit us all.”)
…But there’s something more sinister than simple conservative shit-talk at play: With one foot in the world of right-wing street fights and the other in upstate country clubs, McInnes is marshaling an extremist group from a safe remove. One Gavin McInnes champions violence and reaps speaking fees, the other doesn’t care for critical emails from neighbors.