Here are some excerpts from the latest edition of the Harper’s Index:
• Number of helicopters the United States announced that it would give to Afghanistan’s air force: 159
• Number of trained flight crews in the Afghan military: 4
• Minimum number of U.S. civilian universities that received funding from the Charles Koch Foundation in 2016: 300
• Number of classroom teachers on Forbes Magazine’s 2018 30 Under 30 Education List: 0
• Percentage of Britons aged 18 to 25 who find it easier to express themselves in emoji than in words: 72
• Amount the federal government spent between 2006 and 2016 responding to extreme weather: $357,000,000,000
• Number of days by which U.S. winters have grown shorter since 1895: 14
• Percentage change in the level of glyphosate, an herbicide, in Americans’ urine since 1993: +1,200
• Date on which Virginia opened express toll lanes to ease traffic on I-66: 12/14/17
• Maximum price of a one-way commute into Washington that day: $34.50
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QUOTATION
“We are not anti-American. we do not dislike Americans though we abhor American imperialism in all its manifestations. But then, so do many Americans. Many of them have said that even more forthrightly than we have, and many of them have suffered more than any of us for their plain speaking.”
~Tommy Douglas, at the Canadian New Democratic Party convention, April 1971
TWEET OF THE DAY
BLAST FROM THE PAST
On this date at Daily Kos in 2003—Bush Hands Gephardt a Big Issue:
Without proposing an alternative of his own, and as another sop to the Trent Lott Republicans he steamrolled last month, President Bush came out against the University of Michigan Law School's admissions policy today, claiming that the current system calls for quotas and makes race "the" factor in admissions.
Dick Gephardt will file an opposing brief. In the big scheme of things facing this country right now, it is hard to see, outside of pure, craven pandering to a base he pissed off last month, why the President feels it is important for the White House to weigh in on this. Apparently John Ashcroft had free time apart from INS illegal detentions, the on-the-loose Democrats-only anthrax terrorist, and his singing engagements.
To demonstrate his opposition against race-based actions and policies, Bush announced that he would ask Clarence Thomas to resign from the Supreme Court, withdraw the nominations of Alberto Gonzales and Miguel Estrada from considertion for federal appeals court consideration, and directed Bill Frist and the NRSC to broaden their previous voter suppression efforts beyond African-American precincts in future elections.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: A hell of a weekend. And for Trump, it’s not even over yet. At least some—some!—of us didn’t think we were getting nuked. Trump’s a racist asshouse. The blue wave keeps swelling. Another terrible Trump appointee. KITM Told You: Trump’s money laundering.
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