Good news, everyone! "The Social Shaming of Racists is Working," says Laila Lalami at The Nation. That New York lawyer who got caught on video harassing and threatening non-English-speaking workers at a deli? That jerk who called the police on a black student for napping in their dorm's common room? The Starbucks manager who called the police on two black men for not ordering something? They have all suffered for their wrongdoings! And yet too many presumably intelligent folks are whining about these completely-deserved sufferings as an ominous sign of "conformity of thought," when, hey, if you threaten someone with deportation, or call the police on someone who's doing nothing wrong, you deserve to be shamed. Hey, it's what civilized people do.
My heart swelled when I saw this headline: "Centrists Are the Most Hostile to Democracy, Not Extremists." But David Adler's study says folks who identify themselves as centrists like civil rights less and strongmen more than folks who identify themselves as left or right. If you've ever listened to a centrist drone on and on about how bad both sides are, you won't be surprised to learn that they're the most likely to prefer strongmen -- and this is pretty good news for our President, and pretty bad news for folks who are counting on "reasonable" Americans to reject him and his policies. (Luckily, you and I don't "count on" other people to do the right thing; we do the right thing ourselves, and set a good example for others.)
If your right-wing uncle is telling you that our President's "deal" letting the Chinese corporation ZTE off the hook for its violation of sanctions against Iran and North Korea is evidence of a "master negotiator," then ask him why the President counts "forcing ZTE to buy American parts" as a "concession," when ZTE has long relied on buying American parts is ongoing, and keeping them from buying American parts is what hurt them the most. Also, too, law and order means nothing to our President when the lawbreaker is a big corporation.
Eleanor J. Bader at TruthOut describes how "US Lets Public Housing Developments Crumble as a Prelude to Privatization." The headline pretty much says it all -- our government lets public housing get worse and worse, as an obvious prelude to getting corporate cronies (are you reading, Sean Hannity?) to tear them down, and build up new buildings to attract richer (and whiter!) customers. Still, read the whole thing, and recall that public housing was always segregated, and note that Europe (or, as Don Rumsfeld used to say, "Old Europe") does public housing a lot better -- and cheaper.
Finally, ain't nothing the NFL can do to its players that our President can't make worse, and so it goes with his suggestion that NFL players who won't stand for the anthem should maybe be deported. No, there's really no other way to read that! The NFL absolutely can issue this mandate to their players, not just because their contract allows it but because the First Amendment protects players from their government, not their employers. But only a sick, immoral, and decadent society whines this much about flags and anthems. And, sadly, this sickness, immorality, and decadence manifests itself perfectly in our President.
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