Assholes can still be victims.

Yes, we need a zealous prosecutor or a corporatist sellout, anything but a woman who, in the process of raising children and going to community college, misunderstood Native American identity in the mid 80s.

I don’t know about Splinter - I think they’re just naive. The Intercept, OTOH, is shady AF. Not too long ago Greenwald was loudly proclaiming the foolishness of investigating Russian collusion and adamant that it was merely a political hit, which looks awfully suspicious considering how closely he is associated with…

Agree with your point but with an asterisk: schools CAN mandate study of a religious text, as long as they don’t favor one religion over others. In my public HS world history class, we had a world religions unit in which we looked at excerpts from the Bible, Torah, Quran, Rig Veda, Dao, and a couple others I can’t…

I’ll bet you a coke, given that his entire family immigrated from Europe in the 20th century. In fact, I’ll bet you some actual coke - or whatever it is that makes him all sniffy when he does a high-pressure public address.

Can never be unseen

Hamilton, that office is like two blocks from the UN. Maybe because being next to the most important international diplomatic organization is helpful when you're trying to address global poverty.

The poorest person in the US is not in the top 1% globally. We’re about 4% of the global population, for one thing. For another, it’s not like the poorest American has more money than the richest citizen of the next-wealthiest country; due to our extreme wealth inequality and insufficient public services, our poorest…

Soo... A machina ex machina?

I’m sorry, but what about the last two decades of American politics makes you think figureheads aren’t important? Joe Crowley’s politics didn’t reflect his constituents as well as AOC’s, and he was disengaged and and arrogant enough to feel entitled to his seat. The only reason you and me remember Joe Crowley at all…

False claims are always ignorant and out of line (e.g. “My great great great grandmother was a Cherokee shaman so I have a deep connection to nature.”) At the same time, isn’t this just an inversion of the one drop principle? She very clearly and empathically (from the beginning!) stated that she had a Native American…

We had a story like this in my family too. When we did gene testing it turned out my Indian great great grandmother was not a Native American; she was *actually* Indian, from India. That side of the family is mostly settlers, so it’s understandable how my family lore transcribed her origin. But I like knowing that my…

And he’s going to be replaced by a person who oversaw the Florida recount on behalf of Bush. So in other words, the investigation into whether the president colluded with a foreign power to steal an election will be overseen by a man who made his name helping the previous Republican president steal an election.

Oh please, he'd love both the attention and the urine.

He had a fake Renoir that he insisted was real for a long time. The real one is on display at the Art Institute Chicago, although like all Renoirs it should be displayed at the bottom of a deep lake, ideally face-down. Renoir was the Thomas Kincaide of his time: a painter with no vision who rose to prominence by…

It’s O'Conner. He has to win the general in November as well, and it's going to be the same candidates in this case. There's a pretty good chance that he only gets to hold the seat for a few months.

Fair point. I should have said I don't think he's a white supremacist, but plenty of people are racist without being supremacists.

To my shame, I used to read The Daily Dish. He used to go on these interminable ramblings about Catholicism every Sunday, but what really killed it for me was his defense of Charles Murray. For someone obsessed with Catholic theology, he is terrible at admitting his own faults. I’m not even sure if he’s an actual…

Even if they didn’t have a formal setup, those cops have walkie talkies and presumably smartphones capable of video chat. A jury-rigged remote hearing is a hell of a lot more constitutional than gagging someone with TAPE ffs. And even if they couldn't think of that obvious solution, how does nobody participating step…

That’s exactly what I was thinking. You can't manipulate people unless they trust you. These were the opening moves.