As a hideous far-right politician stands on the verge of taking power in Brazil, Glenn Greenwald says that "many, probably most" of those who'd support far-right politicians aren't virulent racists/sexists/homophobes. I'd say about half myself, but that's close to hair-splitting -- right-wingers they only win because they can get non-racist/sexist/homophobic folks to cast their lot with them, and when Our Glorious Elites do nothing but destroy our institutions and redistribute our income upward to themselves (and, more importantly, when our alleged "opposition" party kowtows to the same elites), we'll always have a lot of folks who may not find racism/sexism/homophobia compelling, but find "anti-establishment" politicians compelling -- and then those politicians keep the cycle going! Why, it's almost like that's the plan.
Ho hum, our President's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, probably paid close to zero federal income taxes between 2009 and 2016. And they say Mr. Obama was bad for rich people! The sad part is that Mr. Kushner appears to have broken zero federal laws -- the law generally assumes that buildings depreciate in value every year, like they're cars or something, when even a glancing acquaintance with websites like Zillow will suggest that the truth is precisely the opposite. Naturally, the Republican tax "reform" passed in late 2017 made this problem considerably worse. (Hate to pile on -- OK, I don't -- but Mr. Kushner bought most of these properties with borrowed money, even though he obviously doesn't have to borrow money, meaning he doesn't have to pay very much up-front and he can take more mortgage interest deductions. Nice work if you can get it!)
Arizona Democratic Senate candidate Kyrsten Sinema comes under "scrutiny" for past association with liberal anti-war groups. And if I were her, I'd say: you say that like it's a bad thing. Sure, right-wing goblins might (might!) be able to do something with some of her past comments, but the Iraq War is so unpopular now that we've long had Americans who supported it saying they never supported it, and if Ms. Sinema's going to run away from opposing a war any sane and reasonable person would have opposed, then she deserves to lose.
Texas Democratic Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke has apparently raised $38 million in the third quarter of 2018 -- taking zero dollars from PACs and corporations. That's a nice haul, but it hardly guarantees victory (he's behind Mr. Cruz by more than the margin of error, last I looked), and even if you're praising your supporters while bragging about money you're still bragging about money. And if he uses that money to pay Democrat consultants to find microfractures among right-wing voters instead of putting workers on the ground to turn out the vote, then he deserves to lose.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) worries there'll be an "assassination" in this "political climate" -- but of course he's more upset about Sen. Booker (D-NJ) telling voters to get up in politicians' grills than the garbage we routinely hear from right-wing politicians. And what a message for our youth -- don't speak passionately about the issues facing the country we love, or it'll be your fault if someone dies! And they say liberals always blame the wrong people! (Also, too, his own assault by his neighbor didn't happen because of "our deep divisions," or he would have said so, rather than just hope you think so by mentioning it right after the Steve Scalise shooting.)
Finally, on the heels of polling suggesting that (again!) folks under 30 are far less likely to vote (still!) than folks over 65, Adam Eichen at Yes! reminds us that young folks have got a right to think there's no point to voting, what with 9.11 and the PATRIOT Act and climate change and ballooning student loans and the bankster Armageddon of 2008 and the Republican Party going completely bat-guano insane. Better, he suggests that the older folks who know how to change the system do a better job training those who don't yet. I'm not so old that I don't remember what being under 30 was like -- I was obsessed with personal transcendence rather than contributing something lasting to our civilization, among other things -- but Mr. Eichen's analysis is a lot more helpful than throwing up our hands about the youngs.
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