Studies say book banning at schools is worse than ever; the American Library Association study finds more attempts to ban books in 2021 than in any of the past 20 years. Naturally, most of these books feature Black, Brown, gay, or trans folks, and the PEN America report found that in literally 98 percent of book bans, school administrators didn't follow established procedures for challenging books -- yes, there are procedures for that! -- which means they're either unusually cowardly or unusually unscrupulous, neither of which is a good look in a civilized society. In a sick, immoral, and decadent society, I guess, it's totally acceptable. Dear Democrats: run against book banning in the midterms.
I can't imagine that "paid relational organizing," which pays folks to talk politics with their friends and neighbors, is a "novel" strategy in electoral politics; I can't tell you how many times I've suspected that the right-wing friends on my Facebook feed are all paid trolls for the Republican Party. The strategy's creators may be right that folks talking to each other means more than the phone calls most of us don't even answer anymore or (even) traditional door-knocking, but they might also be letting their love of technology override their judgment. Boy, it's a good thing that's never bitten Democrats in the ass before! I kid, of course. Even more important than "relational organizing": establishing a record and then running on it. Democrats have established a record, and if it ain't even the record they tried to establish, they can still run on it.
Jesus Mary and Joseph I'm so tired of right-wingers using stupid math not just to assert that TEH RICHEZ PAYZ MOSTZ OFZ TEH TAXEZ!!!!!, but that "the middle class is not really paying any kind of a fair share" of taxes. Setting aside that Ohio Republican Senatorial candidate Mike Gibbons, last seen losing an argument with Josh Mandel, thinks "the top 20%" are all in the same club; setting aside, also, that folks who "pay no taxes" on April 15 still pay plenty of sales taxes, payroll taxes, and state income taxes; setting aside, even, how rich folks shield most of their wealth from taxation by simply never selling stocks and properties and the like: rich folks are supposed to pay most of the taxes; it's how we keep them from taking everything away from us! Saying "the middle class is not really paying any kind of a fair share" of taxes is uniquely stupid, though, and if Democrats have any guts -- again, I kid.
When you hear that Peter Thiel has called Warren Buffet a "sociopathic grandpa" for failing to worship at the altar of crypto, you may be compelled to wonder: why "sociopathic"? Sociopaths have trouble telling the truth, respecting other people's feelings, and telling the difference between right and wrong, plus they also display a tendency toward impulsiveness and risk-taking; how does Mr. Buffet's stated opposition to crypto display any of those things? We never learn, but hey, they're just words, it's not like they mean things. Or is Mr. Thiel merely unable to avoid projecting his faults onto others?
I would not have wished for Will Smith to come along and slap Marjorie Taylor Greene, as Jimmy Kimmel did on his live show the other night, but Ms. Greene should know better than to file a police report about the matter, since a wish for violence isn't the same as a threat of violence -- which she should especially know since she herself has wished, out loud, for "a bullet" to magically make its way "to the head" of Nancy Pelosi. Now at least four individuals need to file libel charges against Ms. Greene for calling them "pro-pedophile," and then we can restore a semblance of law and order to this great land
Finally, when you hear Kyrsten Sinema tell a gaggle of Koch-affiliated "business" interests that "extreme rhetoric" interferes with her efforts to create "lasting results" for Americans, remember what she has really opposed: she has opposed raising taxes on the rich and on corporations back to where they were a mere six years ago, and she has opposed letting Medicare negotiate its own drug prices, and polls typically tell us that more than 60% of Americans want higher taxes on the rich and on corporations, and that 80% of Americans want Medicare drug price negotiation. Remember, also, that when she says Build Back Better "did not have the support to move forward," remember that the bill didn't move forward because she withheld her support on the above-named matters, matters that did, as I've said, have the support of the American people. So her battle, then, ain't between Kyrsten Sinema and "extremists," but between Kyrsten Sinema and America. (Also too, all her unctuous intonations about "small businesses" are right out of Paul Ryan's playbook from 10 years ago. That's how forward-thinking she is.)
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