"Want a Leaner Federal Government?" asks John DiIulio and Paul Verkuil ask. "Hire More Federal Workers." Their argument is actually a little obscure, but certainly if we stopped outsourcing and privatizing federal work, we would save the taxpayer money, which is the same as reducing spending, and hiring more federal workers would certainly reduce the amount of money we spend on the emergencies we have because we don't have enough workers to do the work. You could probably tell that to your boss, too.
Henry Rollins answers the question of whether to boycott North Carolina in an article entitled "North Carolina, I Love You, But Your Governor is an Asshole." Remembering the good folks he met as a youth and as part of "a broke band on the road," he finds himself wishing Bruce Springsteen hadn't canceled his Greensboro show: "I wish he had spoken to the thousands of people who were there about what had just happened to the greatness of their state, then told them where he was donating all that money. The cancellation, in a way, allows McCrory to end the conversation, which I think should be just beginning." I'm sort of halfway myself -- every time I think I don't want to punish good North Carolingians either, I remember that they elected that Governor.
ProPublica and the New York Daily News catch New York City police running stings in immigrant-owned stores and then using "public nuisance" charges to get what they want from them, including huge fines and the freedom to conduct warrantless searches whenever. The NYPD gets to close stores until the "public nuisance" has been "dealt with" in court, which is rather like punishment before the crime, and naturally the NYPD conducts these shenanigans almost exclusively in minority neighborhoods. In a sane and healthy society, heads would roll over this. In this sick, immoral, and decadent society, it took ProPublica and the Daily News almost three whole years to even put this report together.
Ho hum, South Carolina sheriff compares the NAACP to the KKK, and adds that "the most racist people in America right now sometimes are minorities." And then lists the multitudinous offenses committed by the NAACP that compare to lynching, intimidation, and murder! I kid, of course -- Sheriff Wright seems to think the NAACP is racist merely for concentrating on remediating the injuries caused by racism, which is a little like calling women who fight rape "sexist." Plus, he has a black friend too and just wishes we could all get along. But I don't want to get along with stupid people -- I want stupid people to better themselves, preferably out of sight and earshot.
Finally, in case you were taken in by all this sneering right-wingers do about "free college," Robert M. Nelson reminds us that state universities in New York were, in fact, tuition-free (and paid for by taxes) until the early 1960s. And the road to sky-high tuition rates and crippling student loan debt -- both of which have made banksters very, very rich -- began with a Democratic Congress and Republican President starting a student loan program that ultimately got managed by the banks but backed by the taxpayer, meaning banksters take none of the risk but reap all the rewards. Yes, a financial transaction tax (or Robin Hood tax) (or Wall Street sales tax!) would certainly do better at funding public colleges -- and Donald Trump's kids could still go to private colleges on their dad's dime, to address the noxious argument advanced by Mrs. Clinton.
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