What Game of Thrones says about America today

As I have said many times before, I had no interest in watching Game of Thrones but have been fascinated by it as a cultural phenomenon that garnered a huge amount of media attention. So I was interested in this article by Jon Schwarz titled THE RISE OF GAME OF THRONES WAS PART OF THE FALL OF AMERICA because he is enough of a fan that he watched the entire series and yet can provide a dispassionate analysis about what the show’s popularity says about its audience, by which I mean all of us, not just those who actually watched the show.
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Degree of passion may motivate EU election results

The UK election to the European parliament on Thursday, May 23 is being viewed as a gauge to determine the current sentiment on Brexit. But interpreting the results is going to be problematic since the whole process is a shambles. The latest is that the talks between the Conservative and Labour parties in the hope of arriving at deal they can agree on have broken down. Not that there was much hope of success anyway. Given that neither party speaks with a unified voice on this highly divisive issue, a consensus solution emerging would have been nothing short of a miracle.
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Sex Ed for legislators

We have seen a spate of highly restrictive anti-choice laws passed by mostly male legislators who do not seem to understand basic facts about pregnancy. So Samantha Bee provides some lessons.

Of course, these legislators don’t give a damn about facts. They want to control women’s bodies (and by extension women in general) and hate the idea of people having sex at all.

Liberals sign on to supporting regime change

The obsession of liberals and the Democratic party establishment with this idea that Russia influenced the last US elections sufficiently to deny Hillary Clinton the presidency has led them down a rabbit hole to old Cold War attitudes, in which they see Russia as an arch-enemy that must be combated everywhere. This has led them to supporting regime change in those countries such as Venezuela and Syria that have support from Russia, despite the disastrous effects of previous regime change efforts in Iraq and Libya.
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Drug price extortion

One of the worst aspects of the for-profit health care system in the US (it could more accurately be called the ‘health couldn’t-care-less’ system) is the price gouging on prescription drugs. This is heartless because drug companies are taking cruel advantage of the fact that people will do anything to save the lives of their loved ones, by jacking up the prices of essential drugs far above what people in other countries pay, enabling the companies to reap enormous profits and pay their executives obscene amounts of money.
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US primarily responsible for rising tensions with Iran

It is a familiar story. When the US is preparing for war with some country that has been designated as an enemy, it follows a pretty standard method. It first applies all manner of non-military pressure using its clout to impose economic sanctions, boycotts, and diplomatic isolation on that nation. Then it creates military pressure by ostentatiously sending its troops into the region (even though it already has military bases pretty much everywhere) and even imposing blockades. And then it waits for the inevitable ‘provocation’, some act by that nation that can be interpreted as a hostile attack that justifies war.
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The mustache of war

Donald Trump’s national security advisor, the neoconservative John Bolton, desperately wants to start wars with Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, and who knows what other countries. Strangely enough, Donald Trump, after appointing this rabid warmonger to such an important post, now seems to be a restraining force on him. For now.

This cartoon captures Bolton perfectly.

The Fox News dilemma for Democrats

There has been some controversy over the issue of whether Democratic candidates should appear on Fox News programs and on the ‘town halls’ that they sponsor, where their hosts interview candidates before an audience. Some have chosen to do so while others have declined. Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar, and Pete Buttigieg have chosen to appear but Elizabeth Warren was particularly stinging in her rejection of their invitation, calling Fox a ‘hate for profit racket’. The Democratic party has said that they will not allow Fox to sponsor any of the debates of their candidates.
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez raises the bar yet again

She had already declared that all her full-time staffers’ salaries would start at $52,000 thus freeing them from having to work second jobs just to pay the rent in expensive Washington DC. Interns would be paid $15 per hour plus benefits. She has now said that her staffers would also get three months full pay parental leave.

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Renewed violence in Sri Lanka

Curfews have been reintroduced in Sri Lanka as a result of violence aimed at Muslims presumably in retaliation for the deadly Easter Sunday attacks by Islamists that killed 253 people and injured hundreds more.

Sri Lanka has imposed a nationwide curfew for the second night in a row after a wave of anti-Muslim violence in the wake of the Easter bombings.

A Muslim man was stabbed to death while rioters torched Muslim-owned shops and vandalised mosques during Monday’s attacks.

Police have arrested 60 people, including the leader of a far-right Buddhist group.

The United Nations has called for calm and a “rejection of hate”.

A nationwide curfew, declared for the second night running, will come into effect at 21:00 (15:30 GMT) on Tuesday.

The country’s North-Western province, where the worst violence flared, will be shut down for longer, police said.

This kind of retaliatory violence against innocent people that leads to increased tensions between communities is of course exactly what the bombers want. They want to destabilize societies by inflaming sectarian passions and those who are behind these new attacks are playing right into their hands.