Certain sexual harassment-recent events have dominated the news cycle the last week-plus, as you know, but Wikileaks' latest dump of hacked DNC emails shows Hillary Clinton making far too nice with banksters in thoser six-figure speeches she's never wanted to talk about. How one could possibly have witnessed the banksters crash our economy in 2008 and still suggest that "the people who know the business best should tell us how to regulate it" is mind-boggling -- I mean, that level of spiritual corruption should really pay a lot better than six figures. And banksters don't know how to do anything but redistribute our wealth upward to themselves. Let's have them work in a farm or a factory or a hospital or a group home for five minutes and see how they do.
Conservative borough councillor starts petition to make opposing Brexit a treasonous offense. Oh, splendid -- another moron who equates disagreement with treason! Though of course we Americans would recognize this petition as noxious simply because our right to give our counsel to our elected representatives is inviolate, the fatal problem for this effort in England is that the Brexit vote was legally non-binding, and thus defying that vote does literally no injury to the popular will, regardless of whether or not the British government would dare defy the Brexit vote. Britain may have a wider expanse of treasonous offenses than we do -- including adultery with the king or queen or with the king or queen's partner, or otherwise interfering with the line of succession -- but at least these have some history behind them; all this clown's petition has behind it is self-pity and insecurity.
Ho hum, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola have, in recent years, donated millions of dollars to health-focused groups -- but have also spent millions of dollars trying to defeat legislation actually aimed at curbing our soda intake. I'm no fan of soda taxes myself -- they hit working families the hardest, and we really should be going after the corn subsidies that make soda sell for the same amount of money it did 35 years ago -- but the behavior of Coke and Pepsi is noxious. They actually offered CHOP $10 million if the city government dropped its push for a soda tax! And they spent nearly $40 million defeating a federal push to institute a soda tax in 2009! Think maybe they could have created some jobs with that money?
Sen. McCain suggests that Senate Republicans would unite against any Hillary Clinton nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, then walks his remarks back a few hours later, saying through a spokeshack that of course he'd evaluate every nominee on the merits. Even if a Democrat wins Louisiana's open Senate seat (which, in a jungle primary with at least two Republican candidates at each others' throats, could actually happen), they have no shot at a filibuster-proof majority, so only shame will keep Republicans from blocking the next Supreme Court nominee until a Republican wins the Presidency again, however long that takes. But this sure sounds like an unforced error for John McCain, one I presume his opponent -- Democratic House Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, who really should be doing a lot better than she is right now -- will exploit.
Finally, Buzzfeed finds a 2013 radio interview in which Donald Trump, Jr., suggests that women who "complain" about sexual harassment aren't tough enough. Where to begin with this? With the casual equation of a locker room with a workplace? With the notion that sexual harassment is "basic stuff"? With the male predilection for being "tough," when merely not-being-a-prick will get you through most workdays? With the absurd belief that coming forward about sexual harassment isn't tough? Or with the suggestion that "teaching kindergarten" isn't tough, or isn't a real job in a real workforce? That's the problem with these Trumps -- they fling so much crap at you it's hard to get around it. And they're probably proud of it, too.
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