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This Is Not Right (Again) Wow. Just when you think he can't go any lower or crasser, there he goes. The profane spectacle of Trump haranguing 40,000 Boy Scouts - children, let's be clear - about his petty grievances and electoral triumphs (STILL!? WTF?!) was variously critiqued as "mortifying," "a disgusting display," "not right," "the antithesis of Scout values," "indoctrinating kids into hate," "sick" and "a sin." Yes. Read more |
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Took Back What They Stole From Me: The Resistance Revival Marking six months since The Women's March, its organizers have launched the Resistance Revival Chorus, aimed at reviving the spirit of collective joy and resistance through monthly events featuring protest songs old and new. They held their first performance in New York City Monday night, after launching the project a day earlier with an electrifying, white-clad flash mob in Times Square. "Do not forget your anger," they urge. "Do not forget how they see us." Read more |
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Nonsensical Stuff: Mooch In the House So much for marketing. First reviews on Anthony Scaramucci, Drumpf's swaggering, sweet-talking, snappy-dressing, obsequious new communications director, are less than stellar. After days in the job, former Wall Streeter "The Mooch" has outed his boss, contradicted key talking points and been utterly, jubilantly savaged on social media. The consensus: "Scaramucci is a used car salesman trying to sell us all a Ferrari with no VIN number and a weird stain in the trunk." Read more |
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We Shut This Down: Minneapolis Protesters Take Over Mayor Presser In a dramatic testament to community outrage and solidarity against police abuses, a raucous multi-racial crowd of protesters shut down a press conference by Minneapolis mayor Betsy Hodges even as she was announcing the forced resignation of the city's police chief over those same abuses. Citing the need for institutional change, the crowd - led by Philando Castille friend John Thompson - called for the mayor to resign, chanted "Bye Bye Betsy," and declared, "This is our house." Read more |
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Breaking Back Into the People's House Finally. After months of appalling, obsequious silence by a prostrate media more focused on access to an obsessively secretive autocrat than the First Amendment, one lone journalist who none of us have heard of broke ranks at Wednesday's so-called press briefing - where live audio/video coverage is banned and not much is said - to livestream what in fact are its public proceedings. She was hailed as a "hero" and "patriot." Now we need more of them. Read more |
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To Love Everyone: Well-Played, Jesus The recent Pride Parade in Seoul, part of a rapidly growing Korea Queer Culture Festival, drew a record 85,000 revelers chanting "LGBT is love!" and “There is no later - now is the time for change.” It also drew hundreds of conservative Christian protesters arguing homosexuality is an illness and urging LGBTQ people to “ return to Jesus ” - at least until Jesus turned up in full Biblical regalia to sweetly declare, actually, love is love and it's all good. Read more |
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What We Do: Jane Austen's Tenner On Tuesday's 200th anniversary of the death of Jane Austen, U.K. officials unveiled a new £10 banknote featuring "the mother (of) the English novel," making her the first woman besides the Queen on their currency. Woefully, someone wasn't reading their Pride and Prejudice. The note's quote - "I declare, after all there is no enjoyment like reading!" - is a bogus claim by a woman wooing a suitor. A better choice these days: "It isn't what we say or think that defines us, but what we do." Read more |
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Made In America (Just Not Yet) Never mind Russia: Our Glorious Leader has declared another theme week - think middle school - notable for its deranged hypocrisy. "Made in America Week" celebrates, well, you know. Alas, it will not include any of the tons of Trump clothes, shoes, hats, household goods etc made in low-wage sweatshops in China, Mexico, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and almost anywhere but America. Will the week herald a change? From a Drumpf spokesperson: “ We’ll get back to you on that ." Read more |
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You Are Stupid F#cks, Sincerely...Drumpf's Voter Disenfranchisement Thingy Is Going Swell So that whole "Election Integrity Commission" idea - aka voter suppression scam - is working out about like most things Drumpfian. At least 44 states have refused to comply, two lawsuits are pending, voters are removing themselves from the rolls, and its inept beleaguered perpetrators have called a temporary halt to the debacle. They've also published some of the often priceless responses they got. Typical sample: "Mr. Kobach, fuck off. Sincerely, Marcia McCarthy." Read more |
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But You Forget/He Is A Seed: Chinese Dissident Liu Xiaobo Dies In Prison Nobel Peace Prize Winner, pro-democracy advocate and "China's conscience" Liu Xiaobo has died of cancer in Chinese custody while serving an 11-year prison sentence for "inciting subversion of state power." He was 61. A leader of the non-violent struggle for human rights, Xiaobo long denounced hate and praised freedom of expression as "the mother of truth." Despite his loss, supporters say, his ideas “will persist, spread (and) one day come to fruition.” Read more |