You may be wondering why this story is not "bigger news," why it is not all we are talking about right now. And the reason for that is not only are we in no way surprised or astonished by this news, but because we know it's not going to fucking matter. It is a depressing reason, but it is the truth. We watched as Brett Kavanaugh got appointed to the Supreme Court with the allegations against him. We watched as Alabama very nearly elected Roy Moore as a Senator. We have seen 21 other women accuse Trump of sexual assault, and though we cared, it has been very clear that his supporters do not. Of course they don't. They voted for him after he announced on tape that he regularly "grabbed women by the pussy" without their consent. They know what he is and they don't care. They're not going to care, and we know they're not going to care. Women, especially, know they are not going to care.

It's depressing to know that they are not going to care. That they will make whatever excuses they need to, just as they will with anything else he says or does. It is depressing to be constantly reminded of that each time something like this comes out. We do not want to have to go through the part where we hear or read the excuses. It is exhausting and it sucks.

The best thing we can all do now is to simply support E. Jean Carroll, and to support any other women brave enough to come out and accuse Donald Trump of sexual assault. Well, that and hope that more of the 100 million people who didn't come out to vote last time will come out and vote this time. The Trump voters are lost to us, but they might not be.

In court documents filed Friday, the avowed neo-Nazi who murdered Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, Virginia two years ago asked a federal court judge for mercy and a punishment shorter than a life sentence.

James Alex Fields Jr., 22, was convicted of a state first-degree murder charge in December. Jurors recommended life in prison, plus 419 years for intentionally mowing down Heather Heyer with his car during the white nationalist “Unite the Right” rally in August 2017. Fields also pleaded guilty to federal hate crime charges in March.

When told there was a video of Bannon talking about it, his advisers changed track. A spokesman told the Observer that the idea of him taking advice from Bannon was “preposterous to the point of conspiracy”. He conspicuously failed to repeat the previous denials about the pair being in touch, however.

But Johnson has been caught in lies before and shrugged them off. It’s why Bannon compares him to Trump. He has described him as “one of the most important persons on the world stage today” and drawn the obvious comparison: “Look at some of the scandals around Trump – the sexism and racism. Nothing sticks. You can’t lay a glove on him.”

But what’s new and potentially toxic for Johnson is what the apparent relationship with Bannon says about him. Johnson’s love life is once again dominating the news, but it’s his engagement with populist far-right politics and rhetoric that could and should worry other people more.

Why? Because Bannon is the man who laid the groundwork for Donald Trump’s victory. First as the executive chairman of Breitbart, the far-right website, and then as Trump’s campaign manager and chief strategist. A man who is open in admiration of both Mussolini and Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, aka Tommy Robinson, the former EDL leader whom he described as “the backbone of Britain” and who has been working with openly racist far-right leaders across Europe.

When I called out @BorisJohnson's links with hard right, white supremacist Steve Bannon in April, Johnson branded it a "Lefty delusion".

Here is proof on tape. Steve Bannon helped write your resignation speech. You are a pathological liar, unfit to serve.

On those questions, he provided little more than equivocation. Most notably, he again refused to say whether - or how - he would take Britain out of the EU by 31 October. Even if Johnson manages to evade questioning on his private life all the way to Downing Street (with the support of Tory members), he won’t be able to avoid the political questions he fudged today upon his arrival. Neither his parliamentary party nor grassroots will let him. So while there was little in his appearance to suggest looming disaster for the leadership bid, there was plenty of reason to believe there will be no honeymoon once the premiership begins. Dale even went as far to dub Johnson the future Lady Jane Grey of Downing Street, after the Tudor queen who reigned for nine days. There is as yet no evidence to suggest he can avoid that fate.

The American economic system is focused on maximizing shareholder returns. And it’s achieving that goal: on Friday, the S&P 500 notched a new all-time high.

But average Americans have seen no significant gains in their incomes for four decades, adjusted for inflation.

China’s economic system, by contrast, is focused on maximizing China. And it’s achieving that goal. Forty years ago China was still backward and agrarian. Today it’s the world’s second-largest economy, home to the world’s biggest auto industry and some of the world’s most powerful technology companies. Over the last four decades, hundreds of millions of Chinese people have been lifted out of poverty.
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Instead of trying to get China to change, we should lessen the dominance of big American corporations over American policy.

China isn’t the reason half of America hasn’t had a raise in four decades. The simple fact is Americans cannot thrive within a system run largely by big American corporations, organized to boost their share prices but not boost Americans.