Thieves in the Temple.

Around the table: more lessons about how the other side feeds off failure.

Tyler Rogoway at The Drive tells you, in excruciating detail, why the Trump missile strike on the Syrian airbase was "a sham." Of course you can't discount the possibility the Trump Administration knew their attack would restrict their military options in the region -- after all, that would increase the possibility of a future military reversal, meaning more opportunities to rally the American people to a President they don't otherwise like. I mean, you know Republicans feed off failure the way dung beetles feed off, well, you know.

Senior editors at Breitbart News have asked writers to lay off Mr. Trump's advisor/son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Because that's what you do when you work for a big-league news outfit: kowtow to the President. And that's what you do when you work for a big-league White House advisor: complain about news coverage. And remember that one of Breitbart's biggest problems with Mr. Kushner is his Membership in the Tribe. Seriously, this is all a big pile of suck.

No less an authority than Goldman Sachs estimates that the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. "Obamacare") has created 500,000 health care jobs over four years. More people having more health insurance means more people getting more health care means more jobs to meet the increased demand, as you know if you studied economics employed common sense. Anyway, think of how many jobs we could create if we could get everyone covered under a Medicare-for-all, single-payer program!

President Trump apparently will not visit Pope Francis I during next month's G7 Summit in Italy. Because TEH POPEZ SAIDZ THE MEAN THINGZ ABOUTZ MEZ!!!!! So, there's probably on truth to the rumor that he won't visit because he fears getting deported from Vatican City, or the rumor that he fears he would the Pope's presence would cause him to spontaneously combust.

Finally, we might do better assuming that Mr. Spicer intended his "Hitler didn't use chemical weapons" flatugasm on Tuesday, because it sure sounds like dog-whistle politics to me. I mean, I'm not going to check, but I would not be surprised to find more than a few right-wing message boards aflame with TEH SPICER IZ TEH ONE OF UZ!!! declarations, since "Hitler didn't use chemical weapons" is kind of a way of denying the Holocaust. I wouldn't blame you if you applied Occam's Razor and chalked Mr. Spicer's flatugasm up to mere stupidity, either, but I would then feel compelled to remind you: stupid is evil.

Around the table: no, Donald Trump is *not* mentally ill, and other hard lessons.

Corporate trade lobbies ask that the entire D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals hear their challenge to the FCC's net neutrality rules. As you know, a three-judge panel that ruled in the FCC's favor back in June; I can't blame the big telecoms for wanting to take their chances with eight more judges, I suppose, but their arguments remain desperate -- to the degree one can even argue that the net neutrality regulations are "unprecedented" (which would be tough, since the big telecoms were already observing net neutrality principles beforehand), that's mainly because the internet is a pretty unprecedented technology, one more responsive to customers than any other media, and thus looking to the narrowest possible precedent wouldn't promote freedom for those customers.

Pope Francis says we shouldn't "identify Islam with violence," and adds that "in nearly all religions there is always a small fundamentalist group." I don't know why he said "nearly," but it's otherwise an important reminder -- maybe even as important a reminder as "terrorism grows when there is no other option and when money is made a god." Naturally we'll I guess we'll be hearing from Donald Trump about what a LOOOZER!!!!! the Pope is (hey, he's gone after Gold Star families, so why not the Pope?). Plus we'll get to hear more from other right-wingers about Pope Francis's "Communistic tendencies." He'll be the Barack Obama of the next decade if he's not careful.

Ho hum, Think Progress finds that the 10 states that require drug testing of welfare recipients spent over $850,000 in 2015 on those drug tests -- and found 321 drug users. Why, it's almost becoming harder to find a drug-using welfare-recipient than someone actually committing voter fraud! Seriously, though, the whole thing boggles the mind -- not only that they could have spent all that money, you know, helping people, but that they seem to think that drug dealers all take EBT cards now.

Hillary Clinton gets her first endorsement from a Republican House Rep, in part because he finds Donald Trump "profoundly offensive and narcissistic." Probably you'll read the article and say, "oh, it's Richard Hanna, I should've known," and since Mr. Hanna (NY-22) is one of the last three or four moderate Republicans in the House (and he's not seeking re-election this year, possibly because he's tired of getting primaried from the right), I don't exactly expect a whole lot of other dominoes to fall from that side of the aisle.

Finally, let's dispatch with a quickness the notion that "Donald Trump is acting so erratically that he must be mentally ill." Firstly, insinuating that Donald Trump is mentally unstable profoundly insults folks who struggle with actual mental illnesses. And secondly, and perhaps more importantly, he behaves the way all Our Glorious Elites behave, though he's more obnoxious. I'm serious about that -- bragging about how great you are, telling "easily disprovable lies," and "fly(ing) into a wounded rage at mild criticism" are all behaviors that have afflicted Our Glorious Elites for many, many years now, and suggesting that Donald Trump is fundamentally different from them is, unfortunately, another way of insulating them from the criticism they deserve from civilized people. Why, it's almost like that's the idea!

Around the table: free speech, corporate taxes, forced arbitration, *habeus corpus*, the minimum wage, and the Catholic vote.

Iowa agricultural newspaper fires editorial cartoonist of 21 years after his last cartoon points out that three big ag CEOs made more money last year than over 2,000 small farmers combined. Some have cried First Amendment on this, but it's not a First Amendment issue -- the First Amendment protects Rick Friday from our government, not from his employer. But it would certainly be appropriate for a few thousand letter-writers to descend upon Farm News and shame them for their cowardice in the face of big ag CEO criticism. Why are big ag CEOs so sensitive to criticism? Because they know, in their heart of hears, that they're not real farmers.

Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) introduces bill imposing an exit tax upon corporations that become "foreign" corporations via inversion. After all, folks who renounce their citizenship have to pay the taxes they've been deferring, so why not corporations, too? As Rep. Doggett suggests, if corporations want to enjoy the rights of personhood, they ought to fulfill the obligations of personhood, too -- I mean, rights come with responsibilities, don't they, Zombie Russell Kirk? All that would be weapons-grade PR, in a sane and healthy society. Still, rebuilding a sane and healthy society is our task, so when I get action alerts about the Corporate EXIT Fairness Act, so will you.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposes new forced-arbitration rules for banks, which would only permit banks to put forced arbitration agreements in customer contracts if they don't also ban class-action suits. That's progress, though I'd prefer an outright ban on forced arbitration, and of course even though the CFPB did appear to listen to bankster "concerns," they're still on the attack -- one of their more devoted servants, Rep. Duffy of Wisconsin, has sent a letter to the CFPB demanding to know if the Bureau talked to any trial lawyers, no doubt so they can brandish "trial lawyers" as scare words. After all, people use scare words when they can't win arguments.

Liliana Segura, writing at The Intercept, takes us back in time to the passing of the "other" Bill Clinton crime bill, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which has given us, among so many other things, the "habeus corpus reform" that limits the number of appeals death-sentenced prisoners can file. If you believe in putting someone to death for a crime, you'd think you'd want to get it exactly right, but in that stuffy mid-'90s air, only the rageheads got heard, and President Clinton, in true President Clinton fashion, sought to get ahead of Republican rage by stealing their thunder, never mind whom it might hurt. The "liberal" media calls that "bipartisanship," but I call that weakness.

Now Donald Trump finds himself "open" to a minimum wage hike, though he's said in the very recent past that he's against it, and has even said that workers make too much money. And that's not just from my memory of recent events -- the article at the above link actually recounts all of that! And the headline begins with "In Reversal"! Maybe, just maybe, all that wall-to-wall coverage of every filth-drenched uttering emanating from Donald Trump's mouth hole will do some good now that he's the presumptive nominee -- certainly it's all easy to dig up, and if there's one thing the "liberal" media likes, it's easy. Sadly, though, a lot of folks who secretly never found his utterings all that disgusting will hear "I'm very different from most Republicans" and figure that's permission enough to vote for him. Of course, George W. Bush wasn't "like most Republicans," either -- until he won.

Finally, Sister Simone Campbell, writing at the Philadelphia Inquirer, describes how the "Pope Francis effect" could transform Catholic voting habits in 2016. "(A)ttempts to control the 'Catholic vote' through issues of personal sexuality -- often nothing more than a crass political calculation -- will no longer work as well, if at all," she writes, and though I think the "chattering class" has always oversimplified the Catholic vote anyway I sure hope she's right. After all, answering and fulfilling the Pope's call for a politics that works for all of us requires courage, and courage isn't a one-day act but an every day act.

Around the table: lessons about bad government (plus the Pope shaming *all* bad governments).

Jeff Bryant, writing at the OurFuture blog, reminds us that "Breaking Government Hurts Children, in unsafe drinking water, bad public schools, and other ways. And of course the kind of person who'd run Gateway into the ground and then run Michigan into the ground would never say he wants to hurt children -- he'd say he just "does what he has to do," which is cut costs (and services, though he'll avoid saying that, too). And we tolerate this from those "entrepreneurs" who constantly tell us they are our boldest and brightest.

Jennifer Granick, writing at the Just Security blog, reminds us that oversight of government surveillance should be "President-proof," by reminding us how well all the "layers of accountability" worked when George W. Bush was President. If you heard me argue, back in the old days, that you should oppose warrantless wiretapping if you're OK with George W. Bush doing it but not OK with Hillary Clinton doing it, because all it takes is one bad apple to wreck a country, then you'll likely find the sentiment quite sympathetic.

Saudi Arabia sentences well-known journalist Alaa Brinji to five years in jail, an eight-year travel ban, and a five-figure fine -- for a handful of twitterings supporting a woman's right to drive, among other good causes. Naturally, using Twitter wasn't the charge -- actual charges included "insulting the rulers of the country," "accusing security officers of killing protestors," and the ever-noxious "violating cyber-crime laws." And this nation of weak rulers who routinely imprison and kill dissenters is our ally! Just like Turkey, which is closing newspapers and oppressing the only folks successfully resisting ISIS as we speak.

Ho hum, a Ted Cruz national security "advisor" tells the world she thinks we should emulate Joe McCarthy in preventing ISIS infiltration into our government, or something. Let the record show that the Republicans' "establishment" candidate for 2016 endorses the notion that Sen. McCarthy conducted anything but a witch hunt in the 1950s. Besides which, how much infiltration will ISIS ever need to do if we're going to respond to their attacks by repressing our own citizens?

April Glaser, writing at Wired, describes "How the Rich and Powerful Use Tech to Silence Activists." Sympathetic as I am (obviously!) to the good that social media can do, I also remember that when a million good Iranians took to the streets to protest the results of the 2009 elections there, I cautioned the smartphones-are-game-changers crowd that the state has smartphones, too. And it has worse -- not just technology like the Stingray, but "low-tech" controls like ag-gag laws.

Finally, Pope Francis shames world governments by washing the feet of a dozen refugees. At least, world governments would be shamed, except that in our sick, immoral, and decadent society, it's OK to deflect such deserved shame by, say, calling the Pope a Communist. Rhetoricians call such an attack an ad hominem attack -- it's more popularly known as a personal attack, ad hominem literally meaning "to the man" in Latin. Folks then say such attacks are "just opinions," but until such opinions' holders demonstrate they can argue their way out of a paper bag (i.e., by pointing out exactly where the Pope has advocated complete central planning by the state or constant police surveillance of the citizenry, two actual attributes of Communist states), such opinions deserve no respect merely because they exist.

Around the table: Shell abandons Arctic oil drilling, and other stories.

This is a surprise: Shell announces it will abandon plans to drill in the Arctic Ocean. The Times credits cheap oil and the resulting falling profits for industry's unwillingness to embark on big projects like drilling in the Arctic; Obama fans no doubt figure that he let Shell move forward on its existing drilling leases knowing they'd abandon them, but that's a hell of a thing to count on, and I certainly wouldn't discount all the bad PR generated by drilling opponents (bad PR helped along by Shell's previous misadventures in the Arctic).

The Justice Department orders Hudson City Savings Bank (which serves the New York and Philadelphia metropolitan areas) to pay over $30 million to stop "structuring its business so as to avoid majority-Black-and-Hispanic neighborhoods." That "structure" includes not putting branches in such neighborhoods, working with brokers there, or making customers close on houses all the way up in Fairfield, CT. The Rand Paul Freedom Brigade would tell us that you should be able to sell to whatever customers you like. But the rest of us would ask why that should result in segregation, and assert that the freedom of black folks to live wherever they like is more important. Redlining is real, folks, and any program that would end racism must destroy redlining.

John Boehner, now on his farewell tour, warns against the "false prophets" who "whip people into a frenzy believing they can accomplish things that they know...are never going to happen," a criticism apparently directed at his far-right flank. Anyone else think it would be rich for the man who owes his entire Speakership to his far-right flank to "warn" anyone about them? Seriously, this guy would still be bumbling along as Minority Leader if Americans for Prosperity, Freedom Works, et al hadn't "whipped people into a frenzy" in 2009 and 2010.

Ho hum, Jeb Bush thinks Pope Francis I should clam up about climate change, because he's "not a scientist." We could debate whether the Pope's several years working in a food lab before seminary school, or his secondary school diploma in chemistry, make him a "scientist" per se, but, ah, what's Jeb Bush's scientific expertise, exactly? Jeb Bush's scientific expertise derives from the same source as the rest of his "expertise" -- whatever his big corporate donors tell him. Having to keep big campaign donations coming really makes you much less free.

Finally, The Nation profiles John Fetterman, the Mayor of Braddock, PA who is also running for the 2016 Democratic nomination for U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania. You know the road to hell is paved with the skulls of folks who say "I'm not focus-grouped, I'm not poll-tested" and don't deliver on that promise -- and you're also witnessing a Presidential candidate who perhaps isn't as focus-grouped or poll-tested as he should be! -- but Mr. Fetterman seems to know how to talk to people who don't start out agreeing with him, and that's a good thing. It might even help get him past the Establishment figure the Establishment hates (Joe Sestak) and the Establishment figure no one cares about (Katie McGinty) in the primary.

Around the table: why we shouldn't blame white evangelicals for Democrat losses, and other lessons.

The Center for Economic Policy Research asks whether happier workers bring a corporation higher profits. They find the case ambiguous, at least scientifically, but for decades now "cost-benefit analyses" have only measured the "cost" to corporations when we make them do the right thing, and corporations these days seem dedicated only to maximizing short-term economic gain, which they can now get without actually doing (or even investing in) any worthwhile work at all. The social scientists may develop the research tools to prove that happiness-is-profitable-too, but I find the moral case for happier workers quite sufficient.

The Center for Effective Government finds that seven of America's 30 largest corporations actually paid their CEOs more than they paid our government in taxes. In other words, you have every right to suspect that when CEOs say they need to pay less in taxes so they can invest in jobs, what they really mean is that they need to pay less in taxes so they can pay themselves more. The return of the 91% tax bracket on millionaire income sure would come in handy right about now.

Major polluters join out-of-state Attorneys General and legislators to sue the EPA for its Chesapeake Bay cleanup plan. From the sound of it, a sane society would call this a "frivolous lawsuit" -- far from handing a mandate down from Mt. Sinai, the EPA worked with states to craft a cleanup plan, and it's an open question whether the folks filing the suit even have standing to sue (only one state involved in the cleanup plan, West Virginia, has joined the suit). And when you hear politicians talking about "states' rights" in this context, you have every right to wonder whether they're really talking about corporations' "rights."

Pope Francis I tells a multifaith traditional-marriage conference that "children have a right to grow up in a family with a father and a mother." No use parsing his words to ask if he really meant "a family should be able to teach how masculinity and femininity can work together" -- you can hardly expect the Pope to abandon millenia of tradition (rank-and-file Catholics can do that more easily, which is as it should be). Still, gay marriage doesn't evoke "the culture of the temporary," or else it wouldn't be about, you know, marriage.

Finally, exit polls indicate that white evangelical Christians actually made up the same proportion of the electorate in 2014 as they did in 2012 and 2010. And voted more or less the same way, too, though you expected that. Further, white evangelicals made up roughly the same proportion of voters in 2008 and 2006, too, but broke harder for Democrats in those years, especially in 2006. In other words, perhaps we should look elsewhere to figure out how Democrats did so badly -- starting with weakness when in office, I should think.

Around the table: telling certain truths about small businesses.

Almost on cue, Tea Party knuckleheads come out against net neutrality. Most people across the political spectrum still understand that allowing the internet consumer, not the internet corporation, to dictate their own internet experience is the path to the most freedom for the most people -- but right-wing politicians pretend not to understand it, because Obama. (How does net neutrality HURTZ TEH SMALL BIZINZZEZ, according to Freedom Works? The world may never know.)

Speaking of small businesses, the Center for Effective Government describes how big corporations hijack the process by which our federal agencies review rules that could affect small businesses. Long story short: big corporate trade associations find small business proxies and write their comments for them, and the relevant federal agencies don't properly review these small businesses to see if they're legit -- plus, you know, garden-variety corruption. I think it'd also help if the Small Business Administration didn't define most "small businesses" as businesses with less than 500 employees. I know America's a big place, but no Mom-and-Pop store has 500 employees.

Joseph Stiglitz counts the lessons we learned from the ebola scare. Of course ebola's spread points out "the downside of globalization" and maybe not as precisely as the "investor-state tribunal" would, but we also saw that "(e)ven right-wing fanatics who want to dismantle government institutions turn to them when facing a crisis like that caused by ebola." Ebola also reminded us that "where the private sector does play an essential role -- vaccine development -- it has little incentive to devote resources to diseases that afflict the poor or poor countries." Also, our health care system is still absurdly messed up.

After a notorious episode earlier this year during which Tennessee politicians threatened Volkswagen with various retaliations if the UAW won a union vote for Volkswagen workers there, Volkswagen announced that its workers in Chattanooga would enjoy limited participation in European-style "worker councils," though not necessarily actual union representation. The UAW approved, though, possibly because half of what you want is still more than what you had, and possibly because (as with the minimum wage battle in Seattle) getting good results for workers is more important than gaining them representation per se.

Michigan state House bill would divide electoral votes among several Presidential candidates, rather than award all electoral votes to the statewide popular vote winner. But unlike the plan former Pennsylvania Gov. Corbett mooted briefly in 2010, which would have awarded Pennsylvania's electoral votes by U.S. House districts, Michigan would just award electoral votes to the runner-up if the runner-up makes it close, which, like, who cares. Possibly the bill's author only went that far so he wouldn't get phone calls from Michigan House Reps worried that Democrats might actually contest their districts in 2016.

Finally, Pope Francis I and his almoner, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, will build showers for homeless folks in St. Peter's Square, not far from the nearly 400-year-old St. Peter's Basilica, and apparently Cardinal Krajewski has further projects in mind. But if "traditionalists" really fear the sight of homeless folks washing up right near the apostolic apartments, well, they're kind of missing the whole point of Jesus.

Around the table: banksters, whiners, fools, and war hawks.

FAIR finds the "liberal" media curiously uninterested in figuring out why more banksters aren't going to jail for what they've done. Many of them have taken the "failure isn't illegal" line, curiously ignoring the "their failure ruined our economy" line, not to mention the "packaging up dung securities and calling them meatloaf securities is actually illegal" line. They also curiously ignore the fact that some folks do get life in prison for far lesser crimes that hurt far fewer people.

Ho hum, Home Depot founder suggests that Pope Francis's anti-greed rhetoric might alienate some rich Americans, citing exactly one person he knows who might not donate seven figures to the Catholic Church after all. Anecdotes: even when you can't verify them independently; they're so much better than scientific evidence! Mr. Langone then suggests the Pope really ought to be more "positive," which is what they all say when they know they're not convincing anyone of a damn thing. It's amazing how often so-called conservatives whine these days.

Right-wing blogger touts North Carolina's falling unemployment rate, without noting that unemployment rates also fall because people get discouraged and stop looking for jobs -- let alone that North Carolina's falling unemployment rate is almost entirely due to such discouragement and thus almost entirely not due to people actually getting jobs. Said right-wing idiot also claims North Carolina's unemployment rate has dropped by a staggering 8 points, which is bunk, of course, but unfortunately some pundit extra-eager to serve his or her corporate paymasters will repeat it on TV and then it'll become a "fact."

Daniel Larison at The American Conservative points out the logical flaw in Congressional threats of new sanctions on Iran. Here it is: "(o)ne would think that hawks would be the first to understand that the foreign government’s predictable response would be to dig in its heels and refuse to make concessions under duress, since that is a normal reaction to repeated expressions of hostility, but instead they assume that all other governments can be compelled to yield and engage in what hawks would inevitably call appeasement if our government did it." Of course, hawks just want us to think they're tough. They're not. That's probably why they act out so much.

Action: food stamps, the Volcker rule, and Frankensalmon.

Pope Francis has asked the world to create a "wave of prayer" to end world hunger today, and NETWORK, the national Catholic social justice lobby, helps you call your Congressfolk and demand an end to these cruel food stamp cuts. Don't get bogged down in the right-wing talking point declaring that charity is the business of the church, not government -- charity is the business of the people, and what is government but a tool the people wield on their own behalf? Meanwhile, the SEC still hasn't finalized a Volcker rule that would prevent banks from indulging in the kind of speculation that crashed our economy back in 2008; CREDO helps you tell the SEC to pass a strong Volcker rule. Why do I mention these two items in the same paragraph? Well, for one, the SEC plans to vote on the Volcker rule today. For another, the first item's about charity, and the second one's about greed. They're intricately related in our work, and not just because less of the second would require less of the first.

Meanwhile, the FDA plans to approve AquaBounty's AquaAdvantage salmon, a genetically-modified fish, for sale in our supermarkets -- unlabeled, of course, because freedom. You know, by now, why we shouldn't approve it -- because AquaBounty hasn't proven it's safe (merely saying they know it's safe not being the same as proof), because it produces growth hormone year-round, and because the salmon could well wipe out wild salmon populations. You may not know that GMO fish tend to get fed GMO soy and GMO canola at fish farms, as well as, well, chicken parts from poultry processors, and not the parts you and I eat. And you may also not know that AquaBounty faces accusations of violating Panama's environmental laws. So both the Organic Consumers Association and the League of Conservation Voters help you tell the FDA to reject the Frankensalmon.

Around the table: measuring the depths of gluttony!

Study finds 29 corporations, including the five largest oil corporations, are now factoring in an as-yet-unpassed carbon tax into their future budget calculations. How far into the future we don't learn, as even a filibuster-proof Democratic Congress couldn't get it done in 2009 (and that was a very corporate-friendly bill). And at least one big oil corporation wants tax cuts in return, like they don't get enough already.

Forbes tax blogger Kelly Phillips Erb, in the middle of a post about one man's effort to get toilet paper exempted from sales taxes in Florida, writes the best paragraph I've ever seen about why folks consider the sales tax regressive. Key points (it's paragraph 8): "you generally use the same amount of squares whether you take home $10,000 per year or $100,000 per year" (also useful when discussing the flat tax) and "toilet paper isn't an 'opt-out' good," meaning you won't suddenly decide you can go without. If states have to have sales taxes, of course, they should be taxing things like truffle oil rather than toilet paper.

Scholar claims that workers have made a smaller share of U.S. income over the last thirty-plus years not because of technological innovation, but because of the decline of unions. Which matches my intuition, though Ms. Kristal also allows that employers have been "able to deploy new technologies in ways that spurred the decline of unions" to some degree. (Here is her full study, though it ain't on-the-john reading.)

The Center for Media and Democracy asks "Why is Google Funding Grover Norquist, Heritage Action, and ALEC?" Maybe it has something to do with hiring former Rep. Susan Molinari as a Vice President back in early 2012, but certainly it has something to do with Google stashing $33 billion offshore (per USPIRG). Google likes to play the we give to both sides card, though we don't really know that's true -- and we do know that there's really no "other side" to stashing your money overseas in order to avoid taxation, thus depriving us of schools, roads, and bridges, as well as teachers, police officers, and firefighters.

Finally, Patrick J. Deneen at The American Conservative notes how many right-wing commentators wish Pope Francis would talk more about abortion and less about economics -- without noting, of course, that the Pope's Evangelii Gaudium follows "a century-old tradition of Catholic social and economic teaching," and that commentators left and right never spoke out when the two previous Popes commented similarly on economic matters. I'm always glad to see a conservative talk about "maintaining an economic system premised upon limitless extraction" like that's a bad thing -- and I'm thrilled to see that notion joined with "a fostering of endless desires," since that's also a bad thing.

Around the table: the Lord cries in heaven! Plus other tales.

The Center for Effective Government instructs us that corporate tax cuts don't create jobs. In stark terms: corporations that pay higher taxes are actually more likely to create jobs, while corporations that pay much lower taxes are far more likely to shed jobs. And collecting taxes at the nominal 35% corporate tax rate (versus 12.6%, the effective average corporate tax liability) would have cut our deficit by almost $400 billion. Am I beating a dead horse? In these times, beating a dead horse is an act of courage.

Surprise, surprise, the NSA sent its employees home for the holidays with talking points they might use in conversation with their family and friends. But surely the NSA knows by now (never mind how!) that hardly any family members who differ about politics ever talk about politics at the holidays anymore.

Study finds immigrants less likely to commit minor crimes or engage in "antisocial" behaviors than their American counterparts. I'd have expressed skepticism at the fact that the study relies almost entirely on self-reporting by subjects, but official crime stats tell a similar story, and the study also finds that the earlier young immigrants come here, the more likely they are to act in an antisocial manner. That's not a reason to "blame America," but it is a pretty good reason to blame our stupid, venal elites and the sick, immoral, and decadent culture they've made in America.

UCal Berkeley economist finds that food stamp use, at least during pregnancy and early childhood, actually increases economic self-sufficiency when those kids grow up. How? Well, when you can get access to food, you can get access to better health and reduced stress, too. And all of these things happen over the long term, which the right-wingers who slam food stamps hardest claim to care about. The article explains the nuts-and-bolts of Ms. Hoynes's research, plus it slams Newt Gingrich for birthing the fact-free culture that now envelops Congress and "liberal" media debate.

Finally, Tea Party radio host claims that "Jesus Christ is weeping in heaven" over Pope Francis's remarks excoriating mammon-worship (though the Lord is not crying, presumably, over the Pope's secret ministry to the homeless of Rome). Go ahead and click through to said radio host's World Net Daily piece, which defines "socialism" and "capitalism" however it pleases, pretends that only governments ever use the "threat of violence," and reads the Parable of the Talents as if it could only ever be about money. And then ask yourself how likely it is that the author ever actually does anything about his professed hatred for "crony capitalism" when there are food-stamp recipients for him to pick on. And then? Never think of him again.

Around the table: the Pope's platform and other stories.

Pope Francis writes apostolic exhortation, saying (among other things) that "(a)s long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world's problems or, for that matter, to any problems." If that's how he feels, then why would I care if he's anti-abortion? Too many pro-choice politicians would let the Chamber of Commerce write all their legislation. They're less our ally than the Pope.

Mother Jones reports on our government's internet kill switch. Wait, what? you may be saying. And yes, though we managed to beat back a Joe Lieberman internet kill switch bill in the last Congress, Tha Bush Mobb, in concert with the big telecom corporations, devised a plan in 2006 to shut down communications networks in a time of "emergency," a plan called SOP 303 -- a plan Mr. Obama has, naturally, embraced since taking over. And there's legal precedent for such a plan going back at least to World War I, though not necessarily Constitutional precedent. Any good news? Maybe: an FOIA lawsuit may compel DHS (sic) to release SOP 303 early next year.

The Supreme Court will take up the Obama Administration's birth control mandate. A few corporate lackeys hope that the Court will rule on that the way they did on Citizens United, where the Court treated corporations as people for the purpose of making some political campaign contributions. But if John Roberts becomes Super-Literal Man -- that is, if he asks how a corporation can have a religion, or what specific religious doctrine prohibits paying for birth control -- they might find themselves disappointed.

Ho hum, the "liberal" media pounds away at another "Obamacare horror story" without giving you all the facts you need to know. Long story short: a woman in Washington state, who has a son with ADHD, didn't qualify for federal subsidies as the state had led her to believe -- but the state still found almost-free health care for her son via Medicaid. The woman might still be unhappy (which is totally understandable, given what she thought she was getting), but she can also still get good healthcare at about half the cost she might have gotten crappy healthcare last year -- if, ah, anyone had been willing to insure her last year.

Around the table: Occupy vs. debt, Sarah Palin vs. the Pope, and other stories.

An Occupy Wall Street group buys up almost $15 million of personal debt (for a mere $400,000), and forgives it all. Yes, you can buy debt for pennies on the dollar, because the debt's holders get frustrated collecting the debt and try to get something for it. And, unlike vulture capitalists, Occupy doesn't buy government debt so they can cripple government services.

Surprise, surprise, the "liberal" media loves covering New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's personality rather than his record. Granted, I can see the temptation, since I like his act myself. But I don't like his policies, and I certainly don't like the presumption he's a "moderate" because he bucks the far right two or three times a year. Don't words mean things anymore?

Meanwhile, The Hill describes a hunger on the left for a more liberal challenger to Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic Presidential nomination. Kudos for actually mentioning three Democrats who might qualify, though not for going on and on about Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who's said repeatedly she doesn't want the job. And why not explain how Messrs. Schweitzer, O'Malley, and Feingold might be "alternatives"?

Erika Eichelberger at Mother Jones suggests that Democrats save food stamps by joining with Republicans to kill the current farm bill. Her reasoning? Killing the farm bill would force the House to approve food stamp funding, probably "at previously authorized levels," and not doing so would be, in one Democratic aide's words, "unthinkable." But come on! Nothing is unthinkable for Republicans.

Finally, Sarah Palin says Pope Francis sounds "kind of liberal" to her -- but suggests that this impression could be the "liberal" media's fault, and that she'll have to "do (her) own homework" to figure out the truth for herself. Which she couldn't have done before she went on TV? What a waste of our time. Let's never speak of her again.

Around the table: starring the overpaid and their staunchest defenders.

Another day, another cable news punditoid sticking up for J.P. Morgan Chase as, somehow, a "victim" of Big Bad Gummint. And surprise! Said cable news punditoid, CNN's Erin Barnett, used to be a financial analyst for Goldman Sachs and a Vice President at Citigroup -- not that such experience automatically corrupts how you think, but our cable news elites sure do seem to like that kind of experience for some reason.

Citizens for Tax Justice finds Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker giving a projected $100 million budget surplus over two years to help fund local school districts -- but the aid will be permanent, even if the surplus won't be, and the aid mandates property tax cuts that most folks won't even feel. That's because the tax cuts go across the board -- big corporations get them and folks with vacation homes will get them just as much as folks who are lucky enough to own one home. That Scott Walker sure is a clever servant of corporate power.

German Bishop spends $40 million on renovating his personal residence, then gets suspended by the Vatican. Clearly Mr. Tebartz-van Elst didn't get any of the many memos Pope Francis has been leaving for Christianity lately. What's worse: German taxpayers paid for all of that. No, really -- Germans have been paying taxes to support their churches since the Middle Ages. And that is one more reason we separate church and state in America!

David Sirota instructs us further about the myth that higher state income taxes cause millionaires to flee. He cites the Princeton study in New Jersey from the middle of the last decade, of course, but also similar findings from California. And, of course, he debunks the "finding" that millionaires "fled" New York state from 2007 to 2009 -- just like in Oregon and Maryland, the bad economy didn't cause millionaires to "flee," but merely caused them to become not-millionaires. Jesus Mary and Joseph I'd like to live in a world where we're not constantly playing whack-a-mole with stupid arguments.

CBS News reports on surgeons who own their own medical device corporations -- and who may well be performing more surgeries, using these devices, than they should. Some say such corporations should be abolished; I'm more inclined toward regulating them, as Mr. Steinmann would, but of course my ideal regulatory scheme wouldn't be voluntary.

Around the table: banksters are not oppressed, and other moral lessons.

AIG CEO thinks the uproar over post-bailout executive bonuses was "sort of like what we did in the Deep South," and adds that it was "just as bad and just as wrong." Yes, what a sad day that was when we strung up AIG executives just for looking at white women. But you know what might be even worse? He claims that "bonuses" are "core compensation" in the financial industry, which you might refute by looking up "bonus" in the dictionary. The self-absorption of the American financial sector is just intolerable.

Wendy Kaminer describes how our government's obsession with surveillance exists side-by-side with its inability to protect us from real dangers, like the Navy Yard shooter. Students of irony will also recall how our government could wiretap Americans without a warrant while letting a port city drown. What Mr. Reagan said, that a government that could do anything for you could also do anything to you? He didn't say that an utterly incompetent government could do anything to you, too.

Popular Science magazine decides to shut off comments on its website, citing research finding that commenters can skew "a reader's perception of science.". While I certainly share their frustration -- our "liberal" media typically talks about science in a completely unscientific way -- I can't help but feel that if you have idiotic commenters, you just need to work smarter to get rid of them. Note well that I didn't say "work harder" -- you don't carefully refute each and every idiocy they spew forth; you just make them feel like idiots for spewing it forth.

An exhaustive study of almost 40,000 Cotton Belt-area whites finds that whites have more negative attitudes toward African-Americans in areas where the slave/plantation economy dominated than in areas it didn't. Yes, I thought it was a no-brainer at first, too, but remember that this is over 150 years later, and note also the study's finding that Southern areas where slavery didn't dominate rather closely resemble similar Northern areas politically.

Finally, here's an unusually strong Jim Hightower piece, excoriating Republicans for their heartless food stamp vote and extolling the moral compass of my new favorite world leader, Pope Francis, who condemns our "throwaway economy" with money as its "idol." My heart swells at the prospect that our greatest defender of the poor could also just happen to be the Pope -- until I realize that soon the right-wingers will just start calling him a Communist and a Nazi and a terrorist (yes, even the Pope!), and the "liberal" media will feel "obliged" to "cover" all of that.

Around the table: starring Pope Francis I! Also starring banksters and corrupt politicians.

Pope Francis I tells us he thinks the Catholic Church has become too "obsessed" with issues like abortion and gay marriage. I'd say it's not just the Catholic church, but what a breath of fresh air this guy is!

JP Morgan Chase will pay a $950 million fine to settle various civil lawsuits concerning its $6 billion-plus series of "bad bets" last year. That's less than $1 billion out of $6.5 billion in profits for the second quarter alone, but consider that regulators got an admission of wrongdoing out of JP Morgan Chase, and that some criminal investigations over the "London Whale" scandals (and others!) will still move forward. A mere five years after everyone else in America decided banksters were ruining the world, the Obama Administration may be starting to get serious about the matter.

The USDA rules that the contamination of a Washington state farmer's alfalfa with Monsanto Frankenfalfa -- which meant the farmer could not sell his alfalfa in countries that ban GMO foods -- is a "commercial issue" demanding a "marketplace" solution, and thus requiring no governmental intervention. Golly, looks like the "market" has decided that a farmer who gets his seed accidentally tainted with some corporate GMO alfalfa is completely screwed through no fault of his own. It's not like we have governments to prevent such absurdities from happening or anything.

Finally, Derek Pugh lists ten U.S. House Reps who voted to slash food stamps but who also receive farm subsidy money. And on that list, you may find the inimitable Stephen Fincher of Tennessee, whose farm received over $70,000 last year. You remember him? The one who said people who need food stamps "steal" from taxpayers? I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that he doesn't think of farm subsidies as "stealing from the taxpayer."