I thought I would do a short essay on my own understanding of what the Inspector General's report is and is not. I have read at several places that people are disappointed at the most recent report by Inspector General Michael Horowitz.

Without passing judgment on the content of the IG report, which I have not yet read, I am going to try lay out a framework for understanding what we have seen thus far from the OIG.

America's liberal pundits are outraged at President Trump for actually doing diplomacy with North Korea.
On the other side, America's conservative pundits are heaping praise on Trump for taking a bold step toward peace.
Both sides are idiots.

The Internet is full of complaints about our current political and economic arrangements. Our current political economy has led to a reduction in the number of semi-skilled jobs, a stagnation of real wages, a loss or substantial reduction in manufacturing businesses, financial gambling and speculation, more frequent and severe recessions, and the observation that our political representatives are more responsive to corporate interests than to the needs and wants of our people.

The US is a prison state...5% of the world's population and 25% of the incarcerated people on the planet. About a quarter of prisoners are serving time for non-violent drug offenses. Even outside of prison, people are imprisoned within a system blind to their needs because of the sole quest for ever more profit. American citizens can be swept up and sent to black site prisons in another country if they are accused of being a terrorist (including eco-terrorist). Police kill with impunity especially people of color. Hell you can stalk a black kid, shoot them, and claim stand your ground immunity in America...poor Trevon, guilty of being black. Our young people are imprisoned under a mountain of debt they accumulated in obtaining a mediocre education we told them they must have in order to be successful. It is time to escape this prison...

The title will already be polarizing depending upon your political affiliation (what color jersey you wear). But, I really have to ask: How is this administration that significantly different from the past decades of administration?

I'm serious.

Throughout the media and the blue-painted echo chambers, it is shouted that the fascists have come. The apocalypse is here. Our republic is no more.

The NY Times had an above-the-fold article recently titled Hunger Strike Creates Unwanted Backdrop for Russia During World Cup.