Today’s comic by Mark Fiore is Calling all xenophobes!
What’s coming up on Sunday Kos:
- This isn't the first time right-wingers used 9/11 as a weapon. Remember Limbaugh's lies about Obama, by Ian Reifowitz
- Donald Trump will be re-elected president of the United States without a real conversation, by Egberto Willies
- Congress needs Trump’s tax returns to investigate $400 billion pass-through scam, by Jon Perr
- The threat of White Power and Nationalism rises while Conservatives gaslight and ignore the danger, by Frank Vyan Walton
- 'Democrats must nominate a white guy in 2020.' Oh, really? by Sher Watts Spooner
- The other mayor running for president: A conversation with Wayne Messam, by Armando
- Cutting off Puerto Rico's Medicaid is not a 'fiscal cliff.' It will push people off a cliff—to die, by Denise Oliver Velez
• The National Snow & Ice Data Center shows the extent of Arctic sea ice at the lowest level for this time of year in the 38 years records have been kept: The low was set in 2012. The current measurement doesn’t necessarily mean the extent will still be the lowest in the record come mid-September when the ice has retreated as far as it will before freezing begins again. But it’s not good news. Ice reflects most solar radiation that strikes it, reducing warming. More melting means Arctic waters absorbing more of the solar radiation, which melts more ice and absorbs more heat in a vicious cycle. A decade ago, a number of climate science deniers were still daring to claim that summer sea ice in Arctic was not dwindling at all. Now, even they have stopped making such claims and, instead, tout the benefits of having less ice, including the ability to drill beneath the Arctic seabed for oil, the burning of which is, of course, a key reason the extent of summer ice keeps lessening.
• Though charges were dropped, Chicago is suing Jussie Smollett over police work costs:
Outgoing Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration says it has gone to court to try to force Jussie Smollett to pay Chicago back for an alleged hate crime hoax even though Cook County prosecutors dropped all charges against the “Empire” actor.
The lawsuit, filed late Thursday in Circuit Court, comes after Smollett failed to pony up $130,106 by a deadline imposed by the city to cover the cost of the police overtime hours expended in the investigation into his allegations.
MIDDAY TWEET
• At the Poynter Institute, Kelly McBride notes that the word ‘mistress’ has been creeping back into the media’s vocabulary:
This word is sexist. It lacks a male equivalent, and reduces women to their sexual relationship with men — and it’s increasingly creeping back into our language. I Did Jeff Bezos have a lover, a girlfriend, an extramarital affair or a mistress? What about El Chapo?
Both stories in recent months generated a renewed use of the term mistress as a shorthand for a married man’s girlfriend. I blame Twitter, which creates a premium on punchy words that can convey complicated ideas. [...]
• Fugitive taunts Pennsylvania county sheriff's office on Facebook, reveals location, gets arrested. She was wanted for not showing up in court on an assault charge.
• Natives call for permanent ban on energy development on their ancestral lands in New Mexico: The Trump regime has been trying to authorize oil and gas drilling on public lands around Chaco Culture National Historical Park. But a newly introduced bill would ensure permanent protection for the area with a buffer zone where development would not be allowed. Democratic Rep. Deb Haaland, the first American Indian to serve as chair of the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands, will play a critical role in moving this legislation forward. Pueblo and Navajo leaders in New Mexico support her in this effort to shield an area where their ancestors lived for millennia, held ceremonies, and buried their loved ones. "As a member of Laguna Pueblo, Chaco Canyon is my ancestral homeland, and it remains a living landscape, where we must honor the sacrifices of our ancestors," Haaland said in a conference call with reporters.
On
today’s Kagro in the Morning show: Returning to that complicated Rule 6(e) stuff. What do the other guys think & why are they wrong? They're already fighting the subpoenas. And already gaming Facebook ads for 2020. Plus one of those Friday curveballs from the wacky world of high finance.