Seldom Balanced – Usually Fair
From Dorian de Wind at The Moderate Voice:
Those who missed Trump’s 2019 Independence Day extravaganza, or who would like a do-over of this stirring event, can rest easier.
They’ll get another chance to relish it in 2020, 2021 and many, many more Fourth of Julys.
“Based on its tremendous success,” Trump says he has “made the decision to do it again next year and maybe we can say for the foreseeable future.”
From Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger:
This is a failed economic theory, and always has been. Nothing trickles down. The bank accounts of the rich just get fatter — and the rest of America is left to suffer. Americans simply cannot feast on the table scraps left by the rich.
Now the International Monetary Fund (IMF) tells us what most of us already knew — that trickle-down economic theory does not work. It actually has a negative effect on economic growth, while giving more to the poor and working classes has a positive effect.
From Frances Langum:
The White Power Hour with Tucker Carlson labels a plan to fight decades of housing discrimination “racism against white people.” Because of course, he does.
Tucker Carlson sang what will no doubt be a familiar Fox refrain by the time this election is over:
“What about WHITE PEOPLE?”
Talking with a completely unprepared Melissa Francis about Kamala Harris’s plan to reduce the wealth gap between black families and white families, Tucker squinted and said it was racist against white people.
And that was the segment.
Maybe if Melissa Francis had read one article about the plan (or knew anything about American History) she could have explained some details to Tucker…
From tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors:
Speculating Wildly
The reports are talking about vast quantities of pictures (and it’s not clear to me other than the very young girls if anyone else is in these pictures). Why would a billionaire who presumably ran a sex trafficking ring keep pictures unless they are useful to him? It’s not a spank bank. I assume he could procure another victim anytime he wanted. So there’s something else going on here. Why would he keep vast quantities of incriminating evidence?
The speculation on Twitter (again, Twitter is the worst) is going in the blackmail direction, but I fundamentally don’t buy it. Epstein did not blackmail anyone, he doesn’t need the money.
But what if the pictures are insurance policy of a sort?
From The Onion:
Defense Attorneys Vow To Present Irrefutable Evidence Proving Jeffrey Epstein Billionaire
“The authorities are treating my client, a man who has shown himself to be nothing but an affluent citizen of his wealthy community, like a common millionaire. I am confident that after the jury is given all the facts, they will find the defendant very, very rich.” At press time, Epstein’s legal team released numerous photographs of a private 70-acre island that they say would completely exonerate their client.
From our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit:
The stench of people who are not allowed to clean themselves is so bad that it permeates the guards’ clothing.
The lead villain is a Border Patrol sector chief[1] named Aaron Hull. Hull seems to be one of the people who, arguably, deliberately engineered the overcrowding at Clint and other facilities. To Hull, as wll as Trump and Miller, cruelty and degradation are part of their plan.
From The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser:
Racism is in the air thanks to Donald Trump. What was once said in secret behind closed doors is now publicly vomited on social media, blogs, and news sites. I live in an overwhelmingly white area. Confederate flag-waving knuckle-draggers are common, as are make Make America White Again® Trump supporters. In 2016, Trump overwhelmingly won in the Ohio counties of Williams, Defiance, Henry, and Fulton — rural northwest Ohio. Blacks make up less than one percent of the population, Hispanics/Latinos, seven percent. The Hispanic/Latino population is a reflection of the fact that farmers once used large numbers of migrant workers to pick crops. Some migrants who made the trek from Mexico to Ohio stayed after completing their work. They quietly go about their lives, increasingly worried that ICE might show up at their doors, destroying everything they have built and worked for. As a teenager, I knew a number of people who were in the United States “illegally.” To the person, they were productive members of society.
Rural northwest Ohio is my home, even though politically, religiously, and socially I have little in common with most locals. I have been surrounded by overtly racist people most of my life, including in the churches I pastored in this area. If you think Jesus is an antidote for racism, think again.
From David P. Greenberg at MadMikesAmerica:
It was the brutal winter of 1775. The army named after the great George Washington had gathered in Boston, New York, and other cities. They looked out into the harbor, where they saw the ships of the evil Cornwallis of Yorktown.
As the Ramperds red glared, these Patriots sang the American song named after the famous General, Thomas National.
Suddenly, one of the new invisible F-35s arrived. The pilot was a great American and a young Secretary of State, Ivanka Trump. “What a ten,” the army said. She spoke those words that sent fear into the Cornwallis’ heart.”My daddy’s on his way.”
Soon, Trumpforce One, the pride of the Space Force, arrived.
From author John Scalzi:
In the wake of a recent mild uptick in people being angry at me for existing, a question in email, which I am paraphrasing for brevity:
What do you think these people are hoping for with these posts? What’s their endgame, and how do they think it will affect you?
Well, in the case of the angry member of old-line fandom, I don’t think there was any expectation for anything to happen except her venting to other members of old-line fandom, which she did, and good for her. I hope she feels better and can move on to healthier uses of her time. That’s all that needs be said about that.
In the case of the alt-right dingleberry actively hoping for the collapse of traditional publishing (or at least Tor Books), which will presumably take me down with it: I think the plan there was reassuring the other dingleberries with whom he corresponds on social media that, yes, indeed, one day my virtue-signaling self will get mine, along with all of traditional publishing (or at least Tor Books), and what a glorious day that will be for them. As this particular alt-right dingleberry self-publishes on Amazon, there’s also the implication that upon the smoking ruins of traditional publishing (or at least Tor Books), and the dessicated bones of all the SJWs that toiled there, will come a new age where these alt-right dingleberries and their work will finally take their rightful place at the top of the science fictional heap, while I and my sort, I don’t know, maybe suck quarters out of vending machines to survive.
And, I guess, sure, maaaaaybe? But probably not?
From Jack Jodell at The Saturday Afternoon Post:
He has never known poverty in his entire life, so he merely looks at these desperate people who are trying to enter this country any way they can as being bothersome nuisances. That is why he orders these unfortunates to be locked up in camps, many of them with grossly inadequate food and medicine, and even soap, toothpaste, and toothbrushes – lacking proper beds and even blankets!
Sanitation? Who needs that?