Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
babylonsister
babylonsister's Journal
babylonsister's Journal
September 1, 2021
Politico employees will not have to sign the pledge, according to the New York Times. Still, they will understand what the clear political leanings of their German owners are and that they demand fealty, which could lead American journalists to pander to their bosses. (News reporters signing any kind of worldview “pledge” is a bad idea.)
In a strange, collective oversight though, virtually none of the mainstream media coverage about the blockbuster, $1 billion deal has mentioned the proud conservative preferences of Politico’s new owner. That salient fact regarding the purchase of a powerful political media outlet in Washington, D.C., has been conveniently ignored. Reuters, CNN, CNBC, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal all covered the Politico sale without mentioning the buyer’s politics.
more...
https://pressrun.media/p/why-politicos-about-to-get-worse
Eric Boehlert: Why Politico's about to get worse
Why Politico's about to get worse
New conservative owners
Eric Boehlert
8 hr ago
Is Politico jumping out the frying pan and into the fire?
The influential bible for savvy-obsessed Beltway insiders, Politico already has a strong tendency to disappoint by viewing the world through a Republican prism. Eagerly propping up Dems in Disarray storylines, Politico remains committed to portraying Republicans as being forever shrewd, and stands at the ready to amplify whatever phony outrage the GOP is pushing.
snip//
Politico’s hallmark, clickbait failures are likely to become more pronounced because the publication was just sold for $1 billion to an openly conservative media giant based in Germany, Axel Springer. Named after the company’s founder who has been referred to as Germany’s Rupert Murdoch, all Springer employees must pledge their allegiance to the company’s “Essentials”:
1. We stand up for freedom, the rule of law, democracy and a united Europe.
2. We support the Jewish people and the right of existence of the State of Israel.
3. We advocate the transatlantic alliance between the United States of America and Europe.
4. We uphold the principles of a free market economy and its social responsibility.
5. We reject political and religious extremism and all forms of racism and sexual discrimination.
2. We support the Jewish people and the right of existence of the State of Israel.
3. We advocate the transatlantic alliance between the United States of America and Europe.
4. We uphold the principles of a free market economy and its social responsibility.
5. We reject political and religious extremism and all forms of racism and sexual discrimination.
Politico employees will not have to sign the pledge, according to the New York Times. Still, they will understand what the clear political leanings of their German owners are and that they demand fealty, which could lead American journalists to pander to their bosses. (News reporters signing any kind of worldview “pledge” is a bad idea.)
In a strange, collective oversight though, virtually none of the mainstream media coverage about the blockbuster, $1 billion deal has mentioned the proud conservative preferences of Politico’s new owner. That salient fact regarding the purchase of a powerful political media outlet in Washington, D.C., has been conveniently ignored. Reuters, CNN, CNBC, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal all covered the Politico sale without mentioning the buyer’s politics.
more...
https://pressrun.media/p/why-politicos-about-to-get-worse
September 1, 2021
Children's Hospitals Are Pleading For Federal Help As They Run Out Of Beds
September 1, 202110:17 AM ET
Joe Hernandez
A group of more than 220 children's hospitals is imploring the Biden administration for help, as a surge of young COVID-19 patients puts an "unprecedented strain" on their facilities and staff across the country.
Pediatric hospitals are "at or near capacity" and they expect to see more child patients as the school year resumes, according to the Children's Hospital Association.
"[T]here may not be sufficient bed capacity or expert staff to care for children and families in need," wrote association CEO Mark Wietecha in a letter to President Biden on Aug. 26.
more...
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/09/01/1033233408/childrens-hospitals-coronavirus-covid-capacity-federal-help
Children's Hospitals Are Pleading For Federal Help As They Run Out Of Beds
Children's Hospitals Are Pleading For Federal Help As They Run Out Of Beds
September 1, 202110:17 AM ET
Joe Hernandez
A group of more than 220 children's hospitals is imploring the Biden administration for help, as a surge of young COVID-19 patients puts an "unprecedented strain" on their facilities and staff across the country.
Pediatric hospitals are "at or near capacity" and they expect to see more child patients as the school year resumes, according to the Children's Hospital Association.
"[T]here may not be sufficient bed capacity or expert staff to care for children and families in need," wrote association CEO Mark Wietecha in a letter to President Biden on Aug. 26.
"Our children's health care safety net is under unprecedented strain," Wietecha said in a news release. "Children's hospitals and their dedicated staffs are doing their part, and we hope every American, the White House and Congress can help."
more...
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/09/01/1033233408/childrens-hospitals-coronavirus-covid-capacity-federal-help
September 1, 2021
The Rude Pundit
Proudly lowering the level of political discourse
8/31/2021
Afghanistan Done (Part 2 of A Country on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown)
snip//
The problem, of course, is that the withdrawal wasn't a catastrophe. It simply wasn't. Yes, there were tragedies large and small, but the airlift of 120,000 people, mostly Afghans, was something of a miracle. It exceeded even the most optimistic predictions about the evacuation, and it made all the naysayers seem like damn fools.
According to so many who understand Afghanistan far more than I do, the end of the war was what it was always going to be: the second the U.S. started withdrawing in earnest, shit was going to go nuts. There was no subtle way to do it. Chaos was going to happen. How could it not? The entire 20-year boondoggle had been a waste of time, lives, and cash, a payoff to military contractors and another woeful experiment in attempting to cram the round peg of democracy into the square hole of another nation and pretend that the stench of colonialism wasn't behind it. There was no way that it all wasn't going to collapse. Nation-building is a Jenga game on a wobbly table on the best days.
Instead of understanding this, what we have gotten, from the right, center, and moderate left, is an outcry, about the withdrawal as a betrayal of American values, about how Biden isn't fit to be president, about how we have some kind of obligation to stay forever in a country that, truly, doesn't mean dick to us. Yes, what's going to happen to women there is awful. But what's happening to women in a fuckton of places is awful. You wanna bomb Saudi Arabia? What makes Afghanistan so fucking special? Because a guy we wanted dead hid there 20 years ago? Foreign policy is about shitty choices. But too many in Congress and in the media are invested in making this whole withdrawal effort seem wrong for reasons that they can barely describe beyond the idea that we should just keep doing what we've been doing. It's ludicrous.
And, as Biden put it forcefully today, the rational choice right now is to get the fuck out of Afghanistan. He's right that it's idiotic to keep putting money and lives into an effort just because we can. Goddamn, we haven't fought a war worth fighting in my entire life, and in the post-Vietnam era, the idea that it took 20 years to come to the same conclusion as we did in Vietnam is depressing beyond words. In many ways, Biden's speech was pro-military and pro-veteran. He was saying that he's not going to send them into places for bullshit reasons. And give the man points for consistency. He's been wanting to be out of Afghanistan for at least a dozen years now.
One other thing that Biden is doing is saying that the U.S. will abide by its agreements, unlike Donald Trump who shitcanned the Iraq nuclear weapons deal and the Paris Climate Accord. With a strengthened Taliban in the wake of Trump's deal with them (helped by 5000 Taliban prisoners released as part of the agreement), the options were to abide by the deal and leave or to go full-on aggressive war, with all the civilian casualties and misery that would cause, as well as the increased US casualties and exploding cost. At least that latter path is foreclosed. Hopefully for good. It's over. It's really goddamn over.
But, hey take comfort, war-humpers. We're probably still gonna drone missile the fuck out of people living in stone huts in some godforsaken rural area of Afghanistan because freedom. My dad would advocate nuking them, but, as I said, he was a bit of a one-strategy guy.
The Rude Pundit: Afghanistan Done (Part 2 of A Country on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown)
https://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2021/08/afghanistan-done-part-2-of-country-on.htmlThe Rude Pundit
Proudly lowering the level of political discourse
8/31/2021
Afghanistan Done (Part 2 of A Country on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown)
snip//
The problem, of course, is that the withdrawal wasn't a catastrophe. It simply wasn't. Yes, there were tragedies large and small, but the airlift of 120,000 people, mostly Afghans, was something of a miracle. It exceeded even the most optimistic predictions about the evacuation, and it made all the naysayers seem like damn fools.
According to so many who understand Afghanistan far more than I do, the end of the war was what it was always going to be: the second the U.S. started withdrawing in earnest, shit was going to go nuts. There was no subtle way to do it. Chaos was going to happen. How could it not? The entire 20-year boondoggle had been a waste of time, lives, and cash, a payoff to military contractors and another woeful experiment in attempting to cram the round peg of democracy into the square hole of another nation and pretend that the stench of colonialism wasn't behind it. There was no way that it all wasn't going to collapse. Nation-building is a Jenga game on a wobbly table on the best days.
Instead of understanding this, what we have gotten, from the right, center, and moderate left, is an outcry, about the withdrawal as a betrayal of American values, about how Biden isn't fit to be president, about how we have some kind of obligation to stay forever in a country that, truly, doesn't mean dick to us. Yes, what's going to happen to women there is awful. But what's happening to women in a fuckton of places is awful. You wanna bomb Saudi Arabia? What makes Afghanistan so fucking special? Because a guy we wanted dead hid there 20 years ago? Foreign policy is about shitty choices. But too many in Congress and in the media are invested in making this whole withdrawal effort seem wrong for reasons that they can barely describe beyond the idea that we should just keep doing what we've been doing. It's ludicrous.
And, as Biden put it forcefully today, the rational choice right now is to get the fuck out of Afghanistan. He's right that it's idiotic to keep putting money and lives into an effort just because we can. Goddamn, we haven't fought a war worth fighting in my entire life, and in the post-Vietnam era, the idea that it took 20 years to come to the same conclusion as we did in Vietnam is depressing beyond words. In many ways, Biden's speech was pro-military and pro-veteran. He was saying that he's not going to send them into places for bullshit reasons. And give the man points for consistency. He's been wanting to be out of Afghanistan for at least a dozen years now.
One other thing that Biden is doing is saying that the U.S. will abide by its agreements, unlike Donald Trump who shitcanned the Iraq nuclear weapons deal and the Paris Climate Accord. With a strengthened Taliban in the wake of Trump's deal with them (helped by 5000 Taliban prisoners released as part of the agreement), the options were to abide by the deal and leave or to go full-on aggressive war, with all the civilian casualties and misery that would cause, as well as the increased US casualties and exploding cost. At least that latter path is foreclosed. Hopefully for good. It's over. It's really goddamn over.
But, hey take comfort, war-humpers. We're probably still gonna drone missile the fuck out of people living in stone huts in some godforsaken rural area of Afghanistan because freedom. My dad would advocate nuking them, but, as I said, he was a bit of a one-strategy guy.
September 1, 2021
https://www.thedailybeast.com/oklahoma-rep-markwayne-mullin-on-harebrained-kabul-quest-threatened-us-ambassador-report
Oklahoma Rep. Threatened U.S. Ambassador Who Rejected His Kabul Quest: Report
‘EXTREMELY DANGEROUS’
Blake Montgomery
Reporter/Editor
Published Aug. 31, 2021 8:50PM ET
Oklahoma Rep. Threatened U.S. Ambassador Who Rejected His Kabul Quest: Report
https://www.thedailybeast.com/oklahoma-rep-markwayne-mullin-on-harebrained-kabul-quest-threatened-us-ambassador-report
Oklahoma Rep. Threatened U.S. Ambassador Who Rejected His Kabul Quest: Report
‘EXTREMELY DANGEROUS’
Blake Montgomery
Reporter/Editor
Published Aug. 31, 2021 8:50PM ET
An Oklahoma congressman asked the U.S. ambassador to Tajikistan to help him move large amounts of money into the country for an Afghanistan rescue effort last week and made threats when he was rebuffed, The Washington Post reports. The State Department had issued strong warnings not to cross into Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover. But Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) said he was planning to hire a helicopter to evacuate five American citizens, a mother and her four children, and sought the ambassador’s help, according to the Post.
The ambassador, John Pommersheim, turned Mullin down, however, noting that such a transfer of money would be illegal. Mullin was reportedly enraged and threatened Pommersheim and his staff. The congressman is said to have already made a trip to Greece and requested State Department permission to go on to Kabul from there, which was also denied. Mullin’s current whereabouts are unknown to the State Department. One agency official told the Post, “To say this is extremely dangerous is a massive understatement.” Reps. Seth Moulton (D-MA) and Peter Meijer (R-MI) traveled to Kabul on an unauthorized trip last week amid the massive evacuation effort.
The ambassador, John Pommersheim, turned Mullin down, however, noting that such a transfer of money would be illegal. Mullin was reportedly enraged and threatened Pommersheim and his staff. The congressman is said to have already made a trip to Greece and requested State Department permission to go on to Kabul from there, which was also denied. Mullin’s current whereabouts are unknown to the State Department. One agency official told the Post, “To say this is extremely dangerous is a massive understatement.” Reps. Seth Moulton (D-MA) and Peter Meijer (R-MI) traveled to Kabul on an unauthorized trip last week amid the massive evacuation effort.
August 31, 2021
Personal History
A Better Place
Why the euphemisms? My father did not “pass.” Neither did he “depart.” He died.
By David Sedaris
August 30, 2021
Doesn’t all our greatest art address the subject of death—its cruelty, its inevitability? The shadow it casts on our all too brief lives? “What does it all mean?” we ask ourselves.
Allow me to tell you: death means that the dinner reservation you made for a party of seven needs to be upped to ten, then lowered to nine, and then upped again, this time to fourteen. Eighteen will ultimately show up, so you will have to sit with people you just vaguely remember at a four-top on the other side of the room, listening as the fun table, the one with your sparkling sister at it, laughs and laughs. Or perhaps you’re all together but not getting your main courses because the chef, who should be in the kitchen, cooking, is getting dressed down by your brother-in-law, who did not care for the soup. Or maybe your party has been split into six groups of three, or three groups of six. While the specifics blur together, there will remain one constant, which is you, having to hear things like “Well, I know that your father did his best.”
snip//
As for my father, if anything, he’s looking up at me, not down. He was ninety-eight. “A blessing,” you keep saying. “He must have been a wonderful man to have been rewarded with such a long life.” As if it worked that way, and extra years were tacked on for good behavior. All kinds of good people die young. You know who’s living a “good long life”? Dick Cheney. Henry Kissinger. Rupert Murdoch.
“He’ll always be with you” is another tiresome chestnut that I’ll be happy never to hear again. In response to it, I say, “What if I don’t want him with me? What if sixty-four years of constant criticism and belittlement was enough, and I’m actually fine with my father and me going our separate ways, him in a cooler at the funeral home and me here at the kids’ table.” He won’t be in his grave for another few days. Is that the “better place” you’ve been assuring me he’s headed to? The cemetery that people pass on their way to the airport? Perhaps a plot with a view of the Roy Rogers or that car wash that went out of business? And what, exactly, is it better than? This restaurant, clearly, but what else? This state? This country? This Earth?
No offense, but how can you be so sure of his whereabouts? You didn’t even know where the men’s room was until I told you, so why should I suddenly believe that you’re omniscient? The best you can say with any degree of certainty is that my father’s in another place, meaning not the one restaurant in town that could accommodate a party of eighteen with five hours’ notice, which, hint, it could do only because nobody else wants to eat here, especially me, only I need to keep my strength up. Because I’m grieving.
A Better Place
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/personal-history/a-better-placePersonal History
A Better Place
Why the euphemisms? My father did not “pass.” Neither did he “depart.” He died.
By David Sedaris
August 30, 2021
Doesn’t all our greatest art address the subject of death—its cruelty, its inevitability? The shadow it casts on our all too brief lives? “What does it all mean?” we ask ourselves.
Allow me to tell you: death means that the dinner reservation you made for a party of seven needs to be upped to ten, then lowered to nine, and then upped again, this time to fourteen. Eighteen will ultimately show up, so you will have to sit with people you just vaguely remember at a four-top on the other side of the room, listening as the fun table, the one with your sparkling sister at it, laughs and laughs. Or perhaps you’re all together but not getting your main courses because the chef, who should be in the kitchen, cooking, is getting dressed down by your brother-in-law, who did not care for the soup. Or maybe your party has been split into six groups of three, or three groups of six. While the specifics blur together, there will remain one constant, which is you, having to hear things like “Well, I know that your father did his best.”
snip//
As for my father, if anything, he’s looking up at me, not down. He was ninety-eight. “A blessing,” you keep saying. “He must have been a wonderful man to have been rewarded with such a long life.” As if it worked that way, and extra years were tacked on for good behavior. All kinds of good people die young. You know who’s living a “good long life”? Dick Cheney. Henry Kissinger. Rupert Murdoch.
“He’ll always be with you” is another tiresome chestnut that I’ll be happy never to hear again. In response to it, I say, “What if I don’t want him with me? What if sixty-four years of constant criticism and belittlement was enough, and I’m actually fine with my father and me going our separate ways, him in a cooler at the funeral home and me here at the kids’ table.” He won’t be in his grave for another few days. Is that the “better place” you’ve been assuring me he’s headed to? The cemetery that people pass on their way to the airport? Perhaps a plot with a view of the Roy Rogers or that car wash that went out of business? And what, exactly, is it better than? This restaurant, clearly, but what else? This state? This country? This Earth?
No offense, but how can you be so sure of his whereabouts? You didn’t even know where the men’s room was until I told you, so why should I suddenly believe that you’re omniscient? The best you can say with any degree of certainty is that my father’s in another place, meaning not the one restaurant in town that could accommodate a party of eighteen with five hours’ notice, which, hint, it could do only because nobody else wants to eat here, especially me, only I need to keep my strength up. Because I’m grieving.
August 31, 2021
Eric Clapton, Enough Is Enough
By Barry Blitt
https://media.newyorker.com/photos/612e63497b57c6b359cf8f76/master/w_1600,c_limit/Blitt_Eric_Clapton.jpg
Eric Clapton, Enough Is Enough
https://www.newyorker.com/cartoons/blitts-kvetchbook/eric-clapton-enough-is-enoughEric Clapton, Enough Is Enough
By Barry Blitt
https://media.newyorker.com/photos/612e63497b57c6b359cf8f76/master/w_1600,c_limit/Blitt_Eric_Clapton.jpg
August 31, 2021
Opinion
Joe Biden ended the war in Afghanistan after 20 years. That's a BFD.
Ending America's longest war despite pressure to keep it going deserves our credit and respect.
Aug. 31, 2021, 5:32 AM EDT
By Mehdi Hasan, MSNBC Opinion Columnist
OK, I’ll say it again: I was wrong about Joe Biden.
During the 2020 presidential primaries, I was aghast at the prospect of an Iraq War supporter winning the Democratic nomination. I reminded readers that Biden was the only Democratic candidate “to have voted for the Iraq War” and had “(falsely) claimed the United States had ‘no choice but to eliminate the threat’ from Saddam Hussein.” I said his “hawkish” foreign policy record should be “disqualifying.”
I never expected Biden to be anything other than belligerent once he was seated inside the White House Situation Room.
Yet as of Tuesday evening, Biden has done something that three previous presidents either wouldn’t or couldn’t: ended the longest war in American history. The last U.S. troops left Afghanistan on schedule and ahead of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
But Biden has also done something that no other president has managed to do in living memory: He has stood up to the generals.
snip//
He vowed to “not repeat the mistakes we’ve made in the past,” mistakes that include “attempting to remake a country through the endless military deployments of U.S. forces.”
America’s longest war is over. And it was the guy whom I once dismissed as “the hawkish chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who provided cover for Bush's dodgy and dishonest arguments about WMDs” who, astonishingly, gets credit for that. To borrow a line from the president himself, it’s a “BFD.”
Joe Biden ended the war in Afghanistan after 20 years. That's a BFD.
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/joe-biden-ended-war-afghanistan-after-20-years-s-bfd-n1278091Opinion
Joe Biden ended the war in Afghanistan after 20 years. That's a BFD.
Ending America's longest war despite pressure to keep it going deserves our credit and respect.
Aug. 31, 2021, 5:32 AM EDT
By Mehdi Hasan, MSNBC Opinion Columnist
OK, I’ll say it again: I was wrong about Joe Biden.
During the 2020 presidential primaries, I was aghast at the prospect of an Iraq War supporter winning the Democratic nomination. I reminded readers that Biden was the only Democratic candidate “to have voted for the Iraq War” and had “(falsely) claimed the United States had ‘no choice but to eliminate the threat’ from Saddam Hussein.” I said his “hawkish” foreign policy record should be “disqualifying.”
I never expected Biden to be anything other than belligerent once he was seated inside the White House Situation Room.
Yet as of Tuesday evening, Biden has done something that three previous presidents either wouldn’t or couldn’t: ended the longest war in American history. The last U.S. troops left Afghanistan on schedule and ahead of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
But Biden has also done something that no other president has managed to do in living memory: He has stood up to the generals.
snip//
He vowed to “not repeat the mistakes we’ve made in the past,” mistakes that include “attempting to remake a country through the endless military deployments of U.S. forces.”
America’s longest war is over. And it was the guy whom I once dismissed as “the hawkish chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who provided cover for Bush's dodgy and dishonest arguments about WMDs” who, astonishingly, gets credit for that. To borrow a line from the president himself, it’s a “BFD.”
August 31, 2021
8/31/21 4:38am
Richard Engel Is Very, Very Sad About U.S. Leaving Afghanistan
For decades, we have poured billions into our wars -- while fighting over every penny intended for the poor.
By Susie Madrak
While we see elite military advisors and journalists predicting dark things for America as a result of leaving Afghanistan, I thought about Martin Luther King Jr.'s seminal speech, "Beyond Vietnam -- A Time To Break Silence":
For years, we've asked, "Why can't America feed our hungry, or provide health care for the sick? Why is there always enough money for war?"
Well, war makes defense contractors, mercenaries, and assorted other people rich. And it gives journalists a high profile that increases their career standing and clout.
https://twitter.com/schwarz/status/1432477704188833797
Maybe this is one of the reasons Richard Engel is so sad. While war is hell, adrenaline is addicting, and soldiers often have a hard time adjusting to relative calm. The same is probably true of journalists: "Without the war, who am I?"
Well, Richard, your feelings should not be the basis of foreign policy.
You said, "This is the worst capitulation of Western values in my lifetime." Really, Richard? More than the entire Trump era?
Your speech crossed a line, I think. You are neither a historian, nor a pundit. Finally, Richard, you are no Walter Cronkite. No doubt your employer will try to equate your speech with his, but you fall far short of the standard.
We know which side today's media is on, and it ain't ours.
Thank you, President Biden, for choosing the rest of us over the Endless Wars.
Richard Engel Is Very, Very Sad About U.S. Leaving Afghanistan
https://crooksandliars.com/2021/08/richard-engel-very-very-sad-about-us8/31/21 4:38am
Richard Engel Is Very, Very Sad About U.S. Leaving Afghanistan
For decades, we have poured billions into our wars -- while fighting over every penny intended for the poor.
By Susie Madrak
While we see elite military advisors and journalists predicting dark things for America as a result of leaving Afghanistan, I thought about Martin Luther King Jr.'s seminal speech, "Beyond Vietnam -- A Time To Break Silence":
Since I am a preacher by calling, I suppose it is not surprising that I have seven major reasons for bringing Vietnam into the field of my moral vision. There is at the outset a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I, and others, have been waging in America. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor -- both black and white -- through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watched this program broken and eviscerated, as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So, I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.
For years, we've asked, "Why can't America feed our hungry, or provide health care for the sick? Why is there always enough money for war?"
Well, war makes defense contractors, mercenaries, and assorted other people rich. And it gives journalists a high profile that increases their career standing and clout.
https://twitter.com/schwarz/status/1432477704188833797
Maybe this is one of the reasons Richard Engel is so sad. While war is hell, adrenaline is addicting, and soldiers often have a hard time adjusting to relative calm. The same is probably true of journalists: "Without the war, who am I?"
Well, Richard, your feelings should not be the basis of foreign policy.
You said, "This is the worst capitulation of Western values in my lifetime." Really, Richard? More than the entire Trump era?
Your speech crossed a line, I think. You are neither a historian, nor a pundit. Finally, Richard, you are no Walter Cronkite. No doubt your employer will try to equate your speech with his, but you fall far short of the standard.
We know which side today's media is on, and it ain't ours.
Thank you, President Biden, for choosing the rest of us over the Endless Wars.
August 31, 2021
Posted on Mon, Aug 30th, 2021 by Jason Easley
Trump’s Legacy: Hate Crimes Surged To A 12 Year High In 2020
One of the many bad legacies of the Donald Trump presidency was hate crimes reaching a 12 year high during his final year in office.
CNN reported:
Trump’s legacy is not just vast amounts of crime and corruption or killing hundreds of thousands of Americans with pandemic management negligence. Trump also remade parts of America into his own bigoted and hateful image.
No president has been viscerally associated with hate more than Donald Trump. The former president didn’t invent hate. There has been bigotry and racism in the country long before it was the United States.
Trump took the hate out of the nation’s darkest corners, gave it a stamp of approval, and made it mainstream.
Hatred is who Trump is, and his mentality was reflected in the federal hate crime statistics.
Trump's Legacy: Hate Crimes Surged To A 12 Year High In 2020
https://www.politicususa.com/2021/08/30/trumps-legacy-hate-crimes-surged-to-a-12-year-high-in-2020.htmlPosted on Mon, Aug 30th, 2021 by Jason Easley
Trump’s Legacy: Hate Crimes Surged To A 12 Year High In 2020
One of the many bad legacies of the Donald Trump presidency was hate crimes reaching a 12 year high during his final year in office.
CNN reported:
The report, released on Monday, found more than 7,700 criminal hate crime incidents were reported to the FBI in 2020, an increase of about 450 incidents over 2019. The increase comes even as fewer agencies reported hate crime incidents in their jurisdictions to the FBI than in previous years.
Last year had the highest tally of reported hate crime incidents since 2008, when 7,783 incidents were reported to the FBI.
The data released on Monday showed that bias against African Americans overwhelmingly comprised the largest category of reported hate crime offenses pertaining to race, with a total of 56% of those crimes motivated by anti-Black or African American bias. Asians have been targeted during the Covid-19 pandemic amid online and political rhetoric stigmatizing them, though this category of hate crime is often underreported.
Last year had the highest tally of reported hate crime incidents since 2008, when 7,783 incidents were reported to the FBI.
The data released on Monday showed that bias against African Americans overwhelmingly comprised the largest category of reported hate crime offenses pertaining to race, with a total of 56% of those crimes motivated by anti-Black or African American bias. Asians have been targeted during the Covid-19 pandemic amid online and political rhetoric stigmatizing them, though this category of hate crime is often underreported.
Trump’s legacy is not just vast amounts of crime and corruption or killing hundreds of thousands of Americans with pandemic management negligence. Trump also remade parts of America into his own bigoted and hateful image.
No president has been viscerally associated with hate more than Donald Trump. The former president didn’t invent hate. There has been bigotry and racism in the country long before it was the United States.
Trump took the hate out of the nation’s darkest corners, gave it a stamp of approval, and made it mainstream.
Hatred is who Trump is, and his mentality was reflected in the federal hate crime statistics.
August 31, 2021
Florida Is Now Refusing to Pay School Board Members Who Order Mask Mandates
I sincerely hope desantis is digging his own grave.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/florida-is-now-refusing-to-pay-school-board-members-who-order-mask-mandates
Florida Is Now Refusing to Pay School Board Members Who Order Mask Mandates
CUT OFF
Jamie Ross
News Correspondent
Published Aug. 31, 2021 5:06AM ET
Reuters/Marco Bello
Florida is refusing to pay monthly salaries to school board members in counties that defied Gov. Ron DeSantis to introduce mask mandates on their campuses. The state’s Department of Education confirmed the move Monday, saying it had “withheld the monthly school board member salaries in Alachua and Broward County” because of the mask mandates, which it said “violate parental rights by not allowing a parent or legal guardian to opt-out their child.” The statement added that the salaries will not be paid until the districts abandon their mandates. The move came despite a court ruling last week that school districts can enforce temporary mask mandates to help stop the spread of COVID-19. Broward County Public Schools Interim Superintendent Vickie Cartwright said late Monday that the county will continue its mask requirements, saying: “The health and safety of our students, teachers, and staff continue to be our main priorities.”
Profile Information
Gender: FemaleHometown: NY
Home country: US
Current location: Florida
Member since: Mon Sep 6, 2004, 09:54 PM
Number of posts: 171,099
