Nebraska becomes the 19th state to repeal the death penalty, as the legislature overrides Gov. Ricketts's veto. The repeal may not last, depending on how quickly death penalty supporters can get a ballot question before the voters, but that something like this could even happen in one of the reddest of red states is actually quite encouraging.
Pay careful attention to the title of Chris Hedges's Nation of Change op-ed: "Our Mania for Hope is a Curse." Not "hope is a curse," as you might be inclined to read it, but our mania for hope. I agree that being able to envision how bad dystopia could get is a vital skill for creating the new world out of the old -- though I, like I suspect most folks, envision life after dystopia more clearly, and that's a necessary skill as well.
Paul Craig Roberts gives yet another example of how "Free Financial Markets Are a Hoax," and though you may find the topic (manipulation of the futures markets in gold and silver) a bit esoteric, you'll recognize Our Glorious Elites' insistence that our economy is plagued by too much saving as, well, quite strange if you've looked at your own checkbook lately, and though I suppose "too much saving" could well apply to the trillions of dollars corporations still sit on instead of hiring people to make stuff, I wish they'd just say so instead of trying to sound smart. I wouldn't call the media "prostitutes," though, because prostitutes work for a living. I'd call them pimps instead.
Nick Walker reviews George Miller's latest film, Mad Max: Fury Road, and finds it compelling, not just for its feminism (the film, as you may know, features an "amazing badass disabled woman heroine") but for the film's "explicit and vivid portrayal of Max’s PTSD." It's not just "mens' rights jerks" that might be dissatisfied with the notion that "Max’s stoic demeanor is not the result of his being too 'manly' and 'cool' to be emotional, but rather the result of his being heartbroken and traumatized" -- I suspect, in fact, that most men and a considerable amount of women, frustrated with a world where you can't just buffalo your way through troubles that seem or are absurd, would also be dissatisfied -- which doesn't mean that art should coddle folks with such frustrations, of course.
Ho hum, AT&T sues the FCC over net neutrality, and asserts that net neutrality violates its First Amendment rights. If you still think corporations really do have rights and feelings and whatnot, then please attend the unspoken argument AT&T lawyers are making: our First Amendment rights are more important than yours. A vigorous net neutrality regime would ensure that corporations can't interfere with your First Amendment rights, not just of free speech but also of free association.
Finally, in a most tremendous surprise, 2002 Arkansas U.S. Senate candidate Jim Bob Duggar (who eventually lost the Republican primary to incumbent, who then lost the general election) did say during his campaign that incest should be punishable by death. Whether Mr. Duggar actually knew his son Josh had molested several of his sisters by the time he publicly declared his position on incest is unclear, but here's what's clear: you don't let your mouth write a check your ass can't cash.
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