Saturday, March 02, 2024
Blacks Have About 25% Less Equality Than Whites In U.S.
According to the National Urban League's new report (The State of Black America), even 60 years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Blacks still lack about 25% of the equality that Whites have in our society.
This is unacceptable, and much more needs to be done to insure all Americans citizens enjoy the same equality. Whites must recognize the institutional racism that exists, and fix it.
Mitch Stops Obstructing Gov. To Obstruct His Family (Satire)
Alexandra Petri (The Washington Post) satirizes McConnell's announcement that that he will give up his Minority Leader post in November.
Mitch McConnell will step down from his longtime post as Senate Republican leader in November, he announced on Wednesday, to spend more time eroding the rights of his family.
“I got into public service hoping to make a difference,” McConnell said in a floor speech. “And I did: a negative difference. Things are objectively worse now, thanks to me. Knowing that, I can retire from this role.”
Looking back on a tenure that saw him chip away at the nation’s political institutions, obstruct President Barack Obama at every turn, reshape the Supreme Court to strip reproductive rights from women, and fail to convict President Donald Trump after he incited an insurrection that flooded onto the floor of the Senate, McConnell said he was eager to spend more time fraying the fabric of his own home and family circle.
At time of writing, he had already moved his armchair to a very inconvenient location.
“For two decades,” McConnell said, “obstruction has been my passion. Just because I will no longer be Senate minority leader does not mean that I won’t get to keep doing what I love.”
McConnell gestured broadly at the country and said he was eager to turn his destructive gaze from public institutions to private ones — family dinner, board game nights, sitting quietly on the couch reading a book. “These seem sturdy,” he noted, “but so did the Senate when I got there, and now look at it. As I look at it, you can’t spell Monopoly without N-O.”
In retirement, McConnell eagerly anticipates standing in the middle of pickleball courts with his arms folded while people try to play around him, digging up his neighbors’ gardens and unplugging the pottery wheels of people trying to learn ceramics.
“It won’t be the same without the heady rush of power to devastate millions of human lives,” McConnell sighed, “but it will be nice to be able to keep a hand in, all the same.”
McConnell noted that he had already been offered a number of positions in the private sector for once he finishes his regular term in January 2027: as a disembodied, evil eye presiding over a blighted land; sitting in a lifeguard chair peacefully while people struggle and call for help; or just parked on an expressway at rush hour in the path of emergency vehicles.
But the leader said he would be happy simply going on neighborhood walks with his loved ones, throwing passing children’s ice creams on to the ground and turning over turtles “the wrong way.”
Despite McConnell’s years of dedicated service catering to Republicans’ worst impulses and making it possible for them to do the bad things they had been trying to do, many in the party responded to news of the departure by spitting in the outgoing leader’s eye and saying “Good riddance.”
McConnell shrugged. “This is all they know how to do anymore. You’re welcome!”
To those concerned about his departure, McConnell said not to worry: “The best part of my legacy? The guarantee that my successors will almost certainly be even worse!”
Friday, March 01, 2024
The Public Disagrees With The Alabama Supreme Court
The chart above reflects the results of the Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between February 25th and 27th of a nationwide sample of 1,688 adults (including 1,498 registered voters), with a 3.2 point margin of error.
About 215,000 Workers Filed For Unemployment Last Week
The Labor Department released its weekly unemployment report on Thursday. It showed that about 215,000 workers filed for unemployment benefits in the week ending on February 24th. Here is the official Labor Department statement:
In the week ending February 24, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 215,000, an increase of 13,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 201,000 to 202,000. The 4-week moving average was 212,500, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 250 from 215,250 to 215,500.
Biased Court Makes A Political Move To Help Trump & GOP
For most of our nation's history, the Supreme Court has acted to make sure that the Constitution is upheld, and it has done so in a political-neutral way. Unfortunately, that no longer seems to be true. The current Court is a very political one. Instead of making sure actions and laws are consistent with the Constitution, they are interpreting the Constitution to fit the agenda of right-wing Republicans.
This week they made the rather shocking decision to hear Donald Trump's claim of absolute immunity. Most had thought the Court wouldn't take this case. It seems obvious that a finding of presidential immunity would put the president above the law. That would be unimaginable in a nation built on the idea of equality under Constitutional law. One of our most sacred beliefs is that no one is above the law.
Putting the president above the law would be tantamount to giving him/her dictatorial power (since he/she could not be charged with a crime - no matter how egregious an action taken). He/she could imprison, or even kill, political opponents, take action to censor or ban the media, sell access to the White House and decisions made by the president, etc.
I don't think the court's right-wingers would go that far. Giving a president immunity from the law would also apply to Democratic presidents - and they certainly don't want to allow that!
So, why did they decide to hear the case - a case they are extremely unlikely to uphold. It was purely a political decision - not a constitutional one. It was to give Donald Trump and the Republican Party a delay of the trials Trump faces.
They won't hear the case until late in April, and won't announce a decision until probably late in June. The federal trials cannot go forward until their decision is announced, and a late June announcement would mean the trials probably couldn't be held before the November elections.
That is what Trump and the Republicans wanted. If they could delay the trials until after the election, and then Trump win that election, the cases would probably go away. A Trump Justice Department could simply drop the charges. Or Trump could pardon himself (since the Constitution gives the president pardon power, but doesn't say he can't use it on himself).
This was a political move by the most political Supreme Court in U.S. history!
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