clair070

White House approves broad new powers — including use of deadly force — for U.S. troops on the border. “It’s not enough that President Trump asked American service members to spend Thanksgiving at the border in furtherance of a partisan agenda,” said Michael Breen, president of Human Rights First. “Now the White House is upping the ante by authorizing those service members to use lethal force against refugees, migrants and others at the border. This legally dubious ‘Cabinet order’ creates confusion, undermines morale, and may very well lead to violence,” Breen said. The Truman National Security Project, a Washington public policy organization stocked with former Obama administration national security officials, called the White House order “illegal and unconstitutional” and called on Congress to block it. “It is a long-standing policy and undisputed principle that the United States military cannot engage in law enforcement activity at home,” the group said in a statement. “This policy...

This first person account of the Jonestown mass murder in Guyana by Congresswoman Jackie Speier is freaking wild and well worth a read.

I will make the reckless prediction that “Donald Trump” and “good news” are not fated to appear in the same sentence unless the good news happens to be that his presidency is ending. Everything about his behavior since the midterms suggests that even he has figured this out. It has belatedly dawned on him that (a) he lost the election he thought he won; (b) the Robert Mueller investigation has moved faster than his efforts to thwart it; (c) any of his legislative fantasies, notably the funding of his border wall, are doomed; and (d) and his pouting in Paris elevated his international image as a buffoon to a whole new level of notoriety. Remember when Republicans attacked Barack Obama (falsely) for allegedly barring Winston Churchill’s bust from the White House ? Now the GOP’s hero is a president whom Churchill’s own grandson, the Conservative member of Parliament Nicholas Soames, has labeled “pathetic,” “inadequate,” and “not fit to represent this great country” after Trump ...

This 3 part video series on the Russian fake new operation "Operation Infektion" is worth a watch. For instance, the conspiracy that HIV was engineered by the US Army as a bioweapon was definitely Russian propaganda.  I think in the conspiracy realm, it's important to be aware of the influence of foreign propaganda, and particularly for 9/11, we need to wonder about some of the "facts" that are part of the conspiracy lore. Of course it's a spy game, and the US puts out its own propaganda too, so the truth can be a bit confusing sometimes. For me the keys are to: 1) have several trusted sources of info 2) never trust any source or one story completely 3) find direct sources if possible, like video 4) highly partisan sources mislead a lot, particularly on the right 5) popular conspiracy sources put out a lot of bullshit 6) be aware of confirmation bias 7) nuance is important

Beautiful passage from Michelle Goldberg : The last two years have been a stress test for American democracy, and they’ve revealed this country and its worst and at its best. We’ve seen how quickly an entire political party, with shockingly few exceptions, has capitulated to authoritarianism, white-nationalist demagogy and naked cruelty. Trump’s Republican Party has shattered whatever was left of the civic compact binding this country together, abandoning American ideals that transcend blood and soil, and American values that transcend brute power. It’s fitting that the president is closing this political season with an ad so racist that even Fox News has pulled it off the air. Yet if the past two years have given lie to the myth of American exceptionalism — a system that elevates a person like Trump is by definition not the best in the world — they have also revealed an enduring strain of actual American greatness. Movements like Trump’s thrive on social decay and atomization. Million...

It's probably the Linda Cortile abduction case.  I blogged about it 3 years ago . This case came up again as I was reading this book: George Hansen's "The Trickster and the Paranormal" It's an interesting book for sure-- a scholarly and almost philosophical dive into all sorts of strange histories and paranormal events. There's a lot of important and unique ideas explored at length in the book. Hansen's a bit odd in that he believes in the reality of paranormal events, but he also shows how much (supposed) fraud is associated with paranormal events (is a complicated topic). But what's even more odd is how downplays the idea of UFOs and ETs as being real. In the same vein, Hansen completely dismisses the Cortile case as a hoax. So it's worth revisiting this excellent Greg Sandow rebuttal to Hansen's criticism. He does a great job in pointing out how strong the Cortile case is and taking down Hansen. And it does seem like Hansen acted unethicall...

Interesting piece. They blame this effect on corporate lobbyists influencing Congressional staff, which I'm sure plays an important role. But it also seems obvious that the corporate-controlled media has a huge stake in maintaining the idea that the US is predominantly conservative. All told, the study paints a picture of a Congress that is out of touch with the American people -- with perceptions of public opinion skewed rightward by the influence of deep-pocketed lobbyists. The authors say that the best way to combat these distortions is by increased civic participation among the general public. “Political action can’t end on Election Day,” co-author Matto Mildenberger wrote in a tweet on Thursday. “Citizens need to keep writing, calling and meeting with elected officials and their staffs long after the midterms.”

‘Assault On Our Country’: Trump Goes All In On Nativism To Salvage The Midterms The revelation Tuesday morning that President Trump has plans to end birthright citizenship by executive order is the culmination of the President’s weeks-long effort to inject nativism into the midterm elections as his party desperately tries to hold on to its congressional majorities. In the closing weeks before voters head to the polls, Trump has repeatedly railed against undocumented immigrants, used nationalist rhetoric to appeal to his base and unleashed anger towards the “other.” Trump’s language of late harkens back to his 2016 presidential campaign, when he offered his supporters a scapegoat, telling them that immigrants were snatching up their jobs and bringing violence to their communities, and only a big, beautiful wall could protect them. Though Trump has largely avoided talk of his proposed border wall this cycle, he has demonized immigrants at rally after rally while stumping for Republican c...

One response to all this is to say that these bad things have always been with us, that Trump is the inheritor of historically racist institutions, unchecked nihilist capitalism, a monstrous military-industrial complex, and a political system bent to serve the greed of plutocrats. None of this is incorrect. And unquestionably it’s true that he is a figurehead for a party and a movement that were around long before his political career began, and that they rally beside him and go along with him because he’s going where they’ve always meant to go. But that is why it is so important to recognize, at the same time, that he and they are moving. Getting the same things, but more of them, does not mean getting more of the same. It is worse now than it was last year, and last year was worse than the year before. It doesn’t have to be new to be disastrous. The idea of American history as an uneven forward march toward greater democracy, despite occasional setbacks and errors, is flatly unt...