Here are some excerpts from the September issue of Harper’s Index:
• Portion of Americans who regard naturalized citizens as “real Americans”: ¾
• Who regard undocumented immigrants who have lived in the United States for most of their lives as “real Americans”: ¼
• Average number of months by which Republican-appointed judges sentence blacks to longer jail terms than whites: 7.8
• By which Democratic-appointed judges do: 4.8
• Minimum portion of ATF inspections of licensed firearm dealers last year that found violations: 1/3
• Portion that led to the revocation or denial of a license: 1/250
• Percentage of Americans aged 18 to 34 who do not identify as completely heterosexual: 37
• Factor by which male political journalists retweet male colleagues more than they do female colleagues: 3
• Percentage of Americans who are “unbothered” to hear that companies monitor employees on their work computers: 73
• Who are “pleased”: 59
• Percentage of Americans who say they hear about Donald Trump’s tweets at least “a fair amount”: 76
• Who say they follow Trump’s Twitter feed and read all or most of his tweets: 4
• Portion of likely US voters who think that Mike Pence would make a better president than Donald Trump: 1/5
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QUOTATION
“The causes that destroyed the ancient Republics were numerous; but, in Rome, one principal cause was the vast inequalities of fortunes, occasioned partly by the strategems of the patricians.”
~~Noah Webster, A Collection of Essays and Fugitiv Writings on Moral, Historical, Political and Literary Subjects, 1790
TWEET OF THE DAY
BLAST FROM THE PAST
On this date at Daily Kos in 2002—Chickenhawks push war:
But the fools in our country's governing junta see things differently. For them, war is a political tool, to be wielded when expedient. It's no surprise that almost none of the "invade Iraq" cabal have served: Bush, Cheney, DeLay, Wolfowitz, Perle, Fleischer, Rice, Barnes, Hannity, Kristol, Lieberman, and the master tactician himself -- Rove (Rumsfeld is the exception).
On the other hand, the veteran contingent in both parties have led the anti-war effort -- Powell, Hagel, Kerry (MA), Scowcraft, Schwarzkopf, Clark, and the entire uniformed cadre at the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Armey is the exception). This is significant.
As Perle has said, this war is no longer about achieving any notable strategic considerations. It's no longer a military campaign. It's a political effort, all about saving face.
"The failure to take on Saddam after what the president said would produce such a collapse of confidence in the president that it would set back the war on terrorism.