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Millennia after we emerged from the cave, we cling to the paintings on its walls: modern man turning to sympathetic magic to better the hunt.  We've traded the cave for massive cathedrals and pretenti

Donald Trump said today that having the government track Muslims in this country is a good idea, and that a national data-base to register them would require little more than good management.  He also

The Democratic presidential nominee has been chosen: in effect, in essence, for practical purposes, however you want to put it.  My candidate, Bernie Sanders, has acknowledged as much.  I hope he keeps going to influence the platform.  I hope he keeps...

From the AP: Concern that global warming could make it more expensive to store and transport wine has caused the Wine Institute to turn to the GOP.  In a letter to the Republican National Committee,

On TPM EDBLOG, Josh Marshall writes that the health-care goalposts were moved while Republicans weren’t looking. “The problem is that over the course of seven years Republicans have essentially accepted the premise of the ACA: which is to say, the...

First, I am not a Christian. I was raised one, though, and I would like to start a dialog with those of you who have not yet gone astray (that is, awakened to reason). The Pope’s visit and the ...

More than 24 hours after The Donald unleashed his latest attack on rational thought, it still was hard to find any news that wasn’t about some courageous person or group standing up to say that Donald

The 2nd of May, 2016, marked five years since Navy SEALs caught up with Osama bin Laden.  That prompted a number of articles on the current state of al-Qaida.  The gist was that, though no longer preeminent, al-Qaida still is a player and is undergoing...

At the Democratic Convention, President Obama noted that people outside of this country don’t understand what’s going on in this election.  Well, neither do I.  And neither does anyone else, from what I can tell.  I’ve been trying to figure out why...

One of Trump’s favorite lines is that Hillary has been in public life for 30 years and still hasn’t prevented him from skating by without paying taxes, hasn’t solved racism, hasn’t done whatever charge crosses his petty, little mind at the time. ...

Russia attacked our sovereignty and continues to do so.  That is the unanimous conclusion of the nation’s intelligence agencies.  Semantic wrangling about which legal terms apply or don’t is half a century out of date.  Cyber warfare is warfare.  A...

From the New York Times: “‘False Flag’ Theory on Pipe Bombs Zooms From Right-Wing Fringe to Mainstream.”  From the next day: “Bombing Suspect Arrested in Florida; Van With Pro-Trump Stickers Seized”      “Mr. Sayoc, a registered Republican …..”...

This has been an adventurous year for Republicans: they discovered the middle class. The annual Koch jamboree even discovered the poor. Republican candidates in tonight’s debate discovered and ...

Bobby Knight has endorsed Donald Trump, thus creating what David Zirin at “The Nation” accurately calls a Brotherhood of Bullies.  However, Trump’s behavior is anomalous for his arena.  Knight’s behavior in his arena often is held up as the character...

There have been at least two recent diaries suggesting that we start a concerted campaign to label Donald Trump as a coward: BorderGal and bosdcla14 .  Both authors provided supporting arguments, ...

NBC poll: 50% of Republicans, 73% of young Republicans see Russia as an “ally” or “friendly” Had this poll been taken before the primaries, my guess is that Republicans overwhelmingly ...

 An illegitimate President now has given us an illegitimate Supreme Court.  Yes, he had the help of a Senate majority leader for whom democracy and the rule of law are not priorities.  Yes, he had the help of the racists, the misogynists, the...

Former Minnesota Governor and former Republican Presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty tonight was on MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell . The discussion turned to gun control, and ...

Hillary Clinton has made a running series of jabs based on a Bernie Sanders’ comment about shouting that did not mean what the Clinton campaign pretends it meant. That is a move worthy of Fox. ...

I just watched Rick Perry on CNN defend Donald Trump for attacking the parents of Captain Humayun Khan.  His claim was that The Donald was justified in attacking this family because they used a partisan event to attack Trump for no reason other than...

Bigthink.com published a synopsis of British political theorist Roger Griffin’s work on fascism.  Griffin’s high-level definition of fascism is as follows: a form of populist, ultra-nationalism ...

There recently have been a few posts that take the Republicans to task by comparing their policies to the teachings of Jesus.  I’d like to present an alternative approach that gets us to the same ...

How can a man who is sufficiently intelligent to have become a very good neurosurgeon also be a complete idiot? Lawrence Krauss, in an article in The New Yorker , details Ben Carson’s anti-...

Stable realignments of the electorate do happen.  Political scientists recognize 5 of them in our history, some say 6.  The elections of 1980, 1994, and 2008 were hailed as realignment elections, but only by media pundits.  None had legs.  However, the...

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”    The man who wrote those words...

The economy is in it’s ninth year of steady recovery.  Trump, of course, is taking credit for this in his usual, understated, rigorously honest way: "In many ways this is the greatest economy in the HISTORY of America….”  Unfortunately, that is working...

During the Civil War, white Southern boys from poor and yeoman families gave their lives by the hundreds of thousands so that a landed aristocracy could continue to build wealth from the raw material

Today, CNN reported that “Donald Trump's campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was arrested and charged in Jupiter, Florida, with simple battery of former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields, according to police.”  This grew out of a campaign event during...

Donald Trump may be, is, in fact, an openly racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, narcissistic, authoritarian, ignorant, habitual liar — but when he’s right, he’s right This election is rigged. “As of August 2016, 31 states enforced voter...

There has been a recent flurry of comments regarding the media’s malfeasance: posts here at DKos and a few articles by the print media calling out of the whole media.  Calling the media out is ...

Have Republicans, right-wing media, and mainstream media so normalized Trump that, even after his surrender in Hamburg, few will say what seems so frighteningly obvious?   Senator Schumer declared Trump’s actions in Hamburg “disgraceful” and a...

Somewhere around 10,000 years-ago, the last of the so-called saber-toothed cats disappeared from what would become the fossil record. Humanity breathed a collective sigh of relief. Somewhere ...

The Supreme Court has ruled on what the LA Times calls a “well-planned legal assault on public unions.”  Or maybe it didn’t rule.  It dead-locked, 4 to 4, which means that the lower court’s pro-union ruling stands.  It stands, though, as a lower...

I had thought and hoped that Bernie would bring back the Party of FDR.  I thought he was the first candidate in three decades that spoke to the base.  I still believe that he is the only reason that Hillary Clinton checked into Wall-Street rehab.  But...

After watching a few interviews, today, it seems clear that Trump’s people have been told to double down on the “Hillary started the birther movement” lie.  It also seems that many of you ...

Democrats can’t fight.  I don’t know why.  I’ve not seen any explanation that rings true.  It’s just the way it is.  Democrats get steam-rollered whenever push comes to shove or debate ...

From Bill Gardner at The Incidental Economist: The AHCA and the ACA in Two Charts Gardner’s Chart 1 (below): Income Improvement due to the ACA by Income Distribution (net transfer effect)  Gardner’s Chart 2 (below): Same for the AHCA. 

Whatever conservatism once may have been, it is no longer.  Modern American conservatism is evil.  There is no other word for it.  The proof is the tax crime that conservatives are about to pull off and for which they have sold their souls to their...

From the Washington Post: “House Democrats are prepared to support increased spending on border security, but not a wall, if President Trump agrees to reopen the government first, lawmakers and aides said Wednesday.” No.   Democrats need...

The current gaggle of Republican pretenders to the Presidency is using the issue of gun violence to showcase its leadership capabilities: shrug it off America because “stuff happens;” shrug it ...

US News reports that “a sizable number of Democrats” are ready to “defect” to Trump.  The New York Times says that Trump’s “very best voters are self-identified Republicans who nonetheless are registe

I watched Joe Biden, this morning, speaking to union guys in Ohio.   I normally try to be as substantive as possible in posts, but this speech struck me as hard as any I have ever heard – and I’ve been around for a while — so I wanted to get the...

Renounce them and remove them: Bannon, Gorka, Miller, Sessions, and Trump.  That should be the new mantra of Democrats.  None of these pieces of wretched, human detritus belongs in a twenty-first century White House.  Demand that people choose: basic...

God has shown his displeasure, Alabama.  He could not clearer: Thou Shalt Not Vote for Child Molesters.  Your sins have festered in God’s nostrils for too long.  REPENT!  Vote for Democrats from this point on, or all your first born shall be molested...

In tonight’s Republican debate, there was a prayer service featuring a liturgical petition and response.  The petition was given by the Fox Business, fair-and-balanced moderators: “Oh Reagan, thou gav

The most typical Trump supporters are members of a recurrent demographic.  I refer to those who first raised him up, who were drawn to him instinctively early in the primary.  By May, Trump was pulling in other demographics, but this likely was due to...

This is not a good day for logic, reason, or the United States.   Republicans are jumping on their first opportunity to normalize Trump.  You could see this coming after Trumps first, massive flip-flop in Syria.  It accelerated as other reversals...

In 1776, Thomas Jefferson produced, somewhat optimistically, a draft constitution for Virginia.  It in, he writes, “All persons shall have full & free liberty of religious opinion ….” In 1783, in yet another draft constitution for...

Ben Carson is a presidential candidate with no relevant experience, no observable understanding of government, no policies, and either no ability or no desire to scrutinize bizarre beliefs.  He does h

Trump is a clown, a dangerous one, but a clown.  He looks at Putin and imagines himself wielding total power.  McConnell looks at Putin and exercises what power he has.  McConnell’s imitation is weakened by having to feign respect for our democracy,...