Numerous NRA members take to their organization's Facebook page demanding to know why the organization hasn't defended licensed-gun owner Philandro Castile, shot to death by police in Minnesota last week. Good for them, and I thank them for reminding us that an organization's members are not its leadership. The NRA ultimately said they found reports of Mr. Castile's death "troubling," but didn't want to make any other comment "while the investigation is ongoing" -- which I'd more easily accept from an organization that hasn't been beating its chest for decades now.
Jim Hightower at Nation of Change reports on a highly-profitable steel corporation that's decided to up and move its Indiana factory to Mexico. Mr. Hightower quite rightly susses out the real reason Carrier's taking its workings south (since the move would only save Carrier an amount equal to one-eighth of one percent of their annual revenues) -- banksters want their stock to go up, and cutting workers tends to raise stock prices, so out they go. Dear right-wingers: is it a free market when Wall Street tells corporations what to do?
Some "liberal" media punditoids are afraid of Donald Trump's brand of populism -- so naturally, they think the solution is "a different kind of center" that could fight the dirty, "ignorant," "unrealistic" masses on left and right. Silly "liberal" media punditoids -- their "different kind of center" would be the same kind of center that keeps dumping all over everything, only with different faces (like, very soon, Julian Castro's). Naturally, some of these punditoids cannot conceal their admiration for China, though China's government really does combine the worst of Communism with the worst of capitalism.
Ho hum, Republican Congressman says "thousands of studies" say that ozone doesn't make anyone's asthma worse -- then can't produce a single one when questioned about the claim. Rep. Abraham let this flatugasm loose at a House Science Committee called "Ensuring Sound Science at the EPA," possibly because if it were called "Ensuring that the EPA Lets Fossil-Fuel Corporations Dictate How Clean Our Air Can Be," people would've been suspicious.
Finally, Calvin Exoo at TruthOut finds the famous Chilcot report on the run-up to the Iraq war "is failing to say plainly what the evidence so clearly shows: George W. Bush lied; so did Tony Blair." We can never be reminded too many times of the cost we pay -- in blood, treasure, and shame -- when we fail to vigorously exercise our duty to ensure our government works for us, and not for some politician's cronies. And we can certainly never be reminded too many times of the sins of Tha Bush Mobb, of their bald lies and their murderous notions, of the multitudinous humiliations they visited upon the American people who deserve so much better. (And psst: most Trump supporters used to be Bush supporters -- they just don't like to say so, for reasons you can imagine.)
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