McKay Coppins at The Atlantic writes about Newt Gingrich, a.k.a. "The Man Who Broke Politics." I'm old enough to remember when you couldn't get more crass in Congress than Newt Gingrich, but now it seems like everyone in Congress is an obnoxious jerk, and Mr. Gingrich helped start all that, as he "pioneered a style of partisan combat —- replete with name-calling, conspiracy theories, and strategic obstructionism," as part of "an effort to strip American politics of the civilizing traits it had developed over time and return it to its most primal essence." Surprise, surprise -- the man who constantly claims he defends civilization actually destroys civilization! And naturally (pun intended) he uses isolated examples from the animal kingdom to justify it!
Our President criticizes the "rush to judgment" in blaming Saudi Arabia for the torture and murder of a dissident journalist, saying it's a case of "guilty until proven innocent." But, ah, those NFL players protesting the peculiar police habit of killing black folks before even charging them with a crime? Still "sons of bitches," according to our President. As his votaries understand, "innocent until proven guilty" is only for the right people.
In a related note, violent right-wingers beat liberals in the New York streets, while the New York police look on. Maybe there'll be some blowback now that the video's gone viral, but right now, here's how it is: violent white criminals rampage in the streets and don't even get arrested, while black men in their family's backyards who pull out a cell phone get shot to death.
Ho hum, our Administration reports America's biggest budget deficit in six years, a deficit of nearly $780 billion for the fiscal year that ended September 30. And with no economic Armageddon to justify deficit spending, either -- only another Republican tax-cut-for-the-rich, which has, get your surprised face ready, resulted in a lot less money in taxes coming from corporations. Naturally, Republicans don't blame their own evil budgeting, but rising Medicare and Social Security costs -- and three weeks before the midterms, too, they must be feeling confident! Why, this is all rather like Tha Bush Mobb years, without the 9.11. I expect our Administration has discussed this amongst themselves.
I'm not sure how much of the elephant dung I need to see in re our President's 60 Minutes interview, but don't give him credit for saying climate change isn't really a hoax after all, particularly not when he won't say we're warming the planet, and certainly don't ignore him saying that scientists "have a very big political agenda." This is worth saying again: think of how much money scientists would gain from convincing us that we must address climate change if we're to survive, and then think of how much money big fossil fuel corporations would gain from convincing everyone of the opposite. The second pile of money is much, much bigger, meaning it's not the scientists with a "political agenda" any more than it's a "scary time for young men."
Finally, D.C. District judge forces our Department of Education to start enforcing the 2016 borrower defense rule, meaning that students defrauded by their colleges can now get actual relief. Our DOE has tried to delay the rules since the change in power, but of course our government can't do that just because it feels like it -- our government would have to go through a new rule-writing process and get public comments all over again, because that's how civilized people do it. Victories like these can help sustain us through all our multitudinous hardships as patriotic Americans.
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