2021 Archives

The Best of the Rest of the News. — The media is largely ignoring or poo-poohing Trump’s claim Wednesday that Republicans won’t show up to vote in 2022 and 2024 unless the party orients itself totally around “election integrity.” But, as I noted in yesterday’s Daily Rant, that phrase (among others) is his code for rigging elections so he can regain power in 2024.

We’re seeing tent cities & massive homelessness in cities across America because a handful of Wall Street billionaires want to make a killing: Will America remove housing from their clutches? It seems that everywhere you look in America you see the tragedy of homelessness. Rarely, though, do you hear that Wall Street is helping cause it. Thirty-two percent seems to be the magic threshold, according to new research funded by the real estate listing company Zillow. When neighborhoods hit rent rates in excess of 32 percent of neighborhood income, homelessness explodes. And we’re seeing it play out right in front of us in cities across America because a handful of Wall Street billionaires want to make a killing.

We are close to either a collapse or a renewal of democracy: which way will America go? While there’s apparently “nothing to see here” when it comes to conservative media outlets and even, in many ways, mainstream media, it’s worth asking the question: “How far down the road toward authoritarian oligarchy, or even outright fascism, have we gone?” The answer to that question informs our understanding of how close in time we may be to some sort of “final” crisis, and to how easy or difficult it will be to pull back and preserve a functioning democratic republic.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — 2020 Election: How close was America to having Trump declare himself president-for-life? — Trump’s people are trying to run out the clock or outright defy the January 6th Select Committee — The Founders and Framers put the Emoluments Clause into the Constitution to prevent a president would was in financial trouble or beholden to a particular patron or interest from holding office — What the hell is Joe Manchin talking about when he says, “I cannot accept our economy, or basically our society, moving towards an entitlement mentality”? — It's the Algorithm, Stupid! — Morbidly rich people around the world are hiding hundreds of billions of dollars in South Dakota — Crazy Alert! New Orleans Republicans dump their leader for praising slavery and she’s spittin’ mad — In Good News: A historic vote for a clean environment — As 1 in 500 children in America have lost a caregiver to Covid, an Oregon group is now calling out corrupt Republican politicians for spreading lies about vaccines, masks and the disease.