One definition of a politician is someone who sees which way the wind is blowing and goes in that direction. OTOH, it is possible to sail against the wind. Methods for doing this are called tacking or beating. However, even these methods one cannot sail directly into the wind. (BTW, the whole essay is one big nautical analogy. You have been warned.)
State regulators in California have penalized Health Net $200,000 for violating antidiscrimination laws by denying coverage for transgender people seeking gender reassignment surgery.
I should start by saying I was wrong and Bernie Sanders was right: waiting for the repeal Obamacare battle to finish before introducing a Medicare For All bill was a good move.
Why? Just look at how public opinion on health care shifted this year.
Recently departed White House strategist Steve Bannon is preparing a war for Donald Trump, not against him.
A few months ago I posted an essay about how a study showing that the mortality rate for poor white people was increasing at an alarming rate, and that some people were, uh, shall we say, amused by it.
I have never seen anything like the circus surrounding Charlottesville. The neoliberal corporate media is stoking the fires by letting both sides say outrageous things - the same way the police stoked the riots by standing aside and refusing to do their jobs. The two sides seem to be the standard far right and a newly minted FAKE far left calling itself antifa.
Last Saturday in Waxahachie, TX, Gwynevere River Song reportedly got into an argument with another adult in her home, which led to that other person shooting Song to death. We have no idea what the argument concerned, but we do know that Song was a transgender woman. The assailant was also injured during the shooting and he was transported to a hospital.
Trump is running out of allies.
Edg had a thought-provoking essay the other day about tearing down monuments, that was soon followed by Vice calling for blowing up Mount Rushmore.
Obviously we are on the edge of going from a logical response to an insane response.
So, I've alluded to this a few times, but I think I need to come completely clean so people can understand where I'm coming from. I'm not trying to brag or elevate my status, just state the truth as I see it, and accept the judgement of others based upon that.
I came across this article posted in Medium by Kai Cheng Thom, a radical leftist, SJW, Transwoman. I believe what she has to say might just interest you.
Aaron Belkin and the Palm Center have released a new report which estimates the cost of discharging and replacing currently serving transgender troops at $960 million.
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FTR: I wrote this well before Charlottesville. Despite Nazi references, it has nothing to do with Charlottesville.
From Karl Marx:
(also available as PDF: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/18th-Brumaire.pdf )
As a politician when you lose the confidence of big business across the board in one fell swoop, even if you are the President your days are numbered.
Donald Trump was forced to disband two White House business councils disintegrating around him on Wednesday in the wake of his controversial remarks about the weekend violence in Charlottesville.
Legislators this year spent countless hours talking about who should use which bathroom in Texas. But they failed to pass proposals that would restrict where transgender Texans relieve themselves or change clothes, leading Gov. Greg Abbott to add the item to his special session agenda.
The current brouhaha about removing Confederate flags and statues should be considered within the overall context of what history is acceptable. A Chicago Pastor wants statues of Presidents George Washington and Andrew Jackson removed.
A Chicago pastor has asked the Emanuel administration to remove the names of two presidents who owned slaves from parks on the South Side, saying the city should not honor slave owners in black communities.
Something Old, Something New will be back next week. I want to use my Open Thread this week to discuss an uncomfortable development in the ways we talk about race.
It seems that it's time to bring out this old speech, which has been in danger of being reduced to a cliche that people repeat but pay no real attention to:
Hell now what Europeans call liberals and Americans call Neo-liberals refuse even to accept that Neoliberal is even an accepted terminology or that it even exists.
Once upon a time that the Atari Democrats were proud of their calling.
I take a slow, enjoyable three day Sanity Break and all of a sudden I'm an Alt Left Fascist, racist Bernie Bro.
Fortunately I read The New Jim Crow over the weekend and here is Michelle Alexander's critique:
THE DRUG WAR IS THE NEW JIM CROW
(p. 3 emphasis in the original text)
That is a key feature of The New Jim Crow. Who's behind the war on drugs in addition to Bill and Hillary Clinton?
Establishment Democrats and conservative Republicans have something in common: they both hate socialists above all else. Even more than fascists.
Establishment Democrats and conservative Republicans have one other thing in common: they both use the same talking points of the far-right to smear socialists.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis spoke to reporters yesterday at the Pentagon about transgender service.
Mattis said that he and his staff are still studying the issue, including how having transgender service members affects other members of their units.
If you didn't see Vice (on HBO) last night, you MUST VIEW this 3 min clip. It's an interview with one of the Charlottesville Rally Alt-Right leaders talking about the success of their rally. His cold blooded demeanor even after the murdering Alt-Right thug plowed his car through a crowd of non-violent protesters is jaw dropping.
Normally I spend my time knocking the corporate elites of the Democratic Party, but this time I have some choice words for the rank-and-file Democratic voter.
Let's start with John McCain. A man who has never met a war he didn't like.
North Korea probably acquired the rocket engines for the two intercontinental ballistic missiles it tested in July from Ukrainian or Russian sources within the past two years, a study has claimed.
