… because of this: Some of my best friends are teachers, including my wife. Overall, teachers are the best people. When I imagine a trained armed force larger than the United States Marine Corps, made up of 100% teachers, teachers ready to put things right, I get all giddy.
But seriously… Continue reading I for one welcome Donald Trump’s policy to arm half the teachers …
Donald Trump will advance the regulation and control of deadly weapons but not in the way you might think. He is currently contemplating, which is a big word to use for Trump so maybe I mean having some verbal diarrhea that vaguely resembles an idea, banning assault style weapons and bump stocks. Of course, he can’t do that himself, it would be Congress, but he’s talking about it. Continue reading Trump and Gun Control. LOL Republicans.
That’s 13 Russians and 3 Russian entities.
The document filed in the US District Court for DC is HERE.
This appears to be a key but closely circumscribed moment in the Mueller investigation. No Americans are knowingly doing anything bad here. This is just the Russian campaign to manipulate social media etc. to shape an election, which we apparently believe they are continuing to do for 2018. This looks more or less like the end-game for that particular problem (though that does not mean that there won’t be more indictments.)
I have no idea, and I think this is generally the case, if an of these individuals or entities are in the US and/or can be actually arrested.
Some paraphrasing from the document, referring mainly to the first two counts, which are the big deal counts with all the jucy information in them, to give you an idea: Continue reading Mueller Indicts 13 people
Donald Trump has ordered his military to stage a parade. This is not normal in America, but it is normal in dictatorships across the world and throughout history. Here are a few examples to give you a flavor. Continue reading Military Parades
(At this point you may want to know about this guy, the person running against Nunes for his seat in the House.)
The memo is from the staff of the House Intelligence Committee to the majority (Republican) members of that committee, with the subject line “Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Abuses at the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.” Continue reading The Nunes Memo is out, here it is
Sorry to all my Evangelical Christian friends, but it is true.
Since this form of Protestantism has a built in way out based on its structural granularity, so most evangelical Christians can say, “Oh, that’s not me, that’s not my church, that’s the other guy,” most of you (talking to the Evangelicals here) will believe for a time that you are not tarnished by your religious leaders sidling up to a man who appears by all accounts to be a sex abuser, thief, and general asshat. But you don’t really get to do that. Continue reading Evangelical Christianity in America is Dead
It was a Republican shut down but Trump took a lead, so we shall call it the Trump Shutdown.
There is a non-zero possibility that a bill to keep things going will pass in the Senate and House, that Trump will veto it, and that Congress will override Trump’s veto. Not too likely, but it could work out that way.
And, more to the point, the Democrats will not be electing a president until they elect a celebrity. Continue reading Why the Next Democratic President will be a Celebrity
During the last 347 days of the Trump presidency, Donald Trump has lied 1,950 times, according to the Washington Post, which is keeping track.
The same newspaper tracks the number of times the police in the US shoot and kill a person. During the 365 days of 2017, that happened 987 times.
So, Donald Trump lies about 6.62 times a day.
So, american cops kill about 2.7 people a day.
This means that by the time Donald Trump delivers his inaugural address later this month, he will have lied approximately 100 more times. This does not mean that he will give us 100 more distinct lies. Many of his lies are repeats. Then, in the inaugural itself, we’ll probably get another big batch.
Between now and the inaugural address, about 40 of us will be gunned down in the streets or in our homes by the cops. (For perspective, the total rate of death of Americans in this country’s longest war, in Afghanistan, averages out to about one killed every three days, while the number of Americans killed in Viet Nam, which is actually hard to estimate, is two to three times the rate at which the cops kill us. So, the cops kill us at a rate that is about the same order of magnitude as a recent, modern, war.)
Happy January!
By the way, I’m enjoying Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House
A meme for you:
Apparently Donald Trump is going full on conniption over this new book.
Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House
The book is based on hundreds of interviews and considerable time spent in the White House by the author. I’m not sure if this guy is exactly my favorite author, but anybody who can get Trump to explode is worth checking out.
My advice to students I’ve had the chance to supervise is extensive, but includes the phrase “look both ways.” In that case, I refer specifically to library research. This worked better when most of our research was done using dead tree fragments. Here’s how it works. You find out about a book of interest. You go find it on the shelf in the library. Instead of just pulling it off the shelf and checking it into your carrel, you stop for a moment and look both ways. There is a good chance that the books right next to the one you found are by the same author, or about the same topic, or in some other way related. Indeed, you may have located a useful source, the one you sought, but didn’t know that the same author also did research in exactly the area you are working, wrote the classic tome on it, and in fact, that classic tome is what you thought your thesis was going to be on based on this great idea you had at the bar last night! Continue reading When investigating Trump, Look Both Ways
The Trump administration has sent the CDC a list of words that they are verboten … er, sorry, forbidden, not sure why I keep reverting to the language of the FATHERLAND! … anyway, words that the CDC if forbidden to use in describing their budgetary needs.
The list includes these words: Continue reading Trump Gives CDC List of Verbotene Wörter
Mueller knows that once the excrement hits the fan, Don the Con Trump is going to go ballistic and act do predictably unpredictable things. He may issue pardons, he may try to send his SS agents, or the Army, to bust people, he’ll certainly try to fire Mueller and his staff. Most of that is either impossible or can be stopped, and none of it makes sense. But anyone who thinks that those facts will stop Don the Con from getting cute is as dumb as a moldy brick. Continue reading Editors and Producers: How to catch Robert Mueller in the Act
The Despot’s Apprentice: Donald Trump’s Attack on Democracy
Yet another Republican in the US Congress is leaving. Bob Goodlatte, of the Virginia 6th, and chair of the House Agriculture COmmittee, will retire in December 2018. His seat will be up for grabs. Here is what he says about it, as reported in WaPo: Continue reading The Rats are Leaving the Ship. What lifeboat are the heading for?