Almost the entire political establishment, including almost all his Republican rivals for the nomination and even war criminal Dick Cheney, has attacked Donald Trump’s most recent statement that no Muslims should be allowed to enter the US for the foreseeable future, with Jeb Bush going so far as to call it “unhinged”. Trump, predictably, has brushed off the criticisms.
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There are so many offensive things that people say and do that are reported in the news that I often do not bother to comment on them because to respond to each and every one would become pretty much a full time job. For example, this time of year brings out those who feel that anything other than overtly Christian messages and symbols are an affront and the attempts to make the holidays more inclusive are a sign of discrimination against Christians. This faux war on the nonexistent war on Christmas has reached such a meta-level that it threatens to create a black hole of phoniness.
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The Citizens United ruling by the US Supreme Court opened the floodgates to big money playing a huge role in US elections through groups known as SuperPACs that could collect unlimited amounts and spend it is support of candidates. There were supposed to be some limits still remaining, such as that the SuperPACs were not supposed to coordinate with the campaigns. But Stephen Colbert on his old show brilliantly demonstrated how easy it was to get around that, winning an EMMY award for his expose.
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What do these refugees from regions of turmoil really want? Peace? Stability? A better life for their children? No, they want our women, that’s what they want. Or so it seems to this woman who asked Donald Trump at one of his rallies the following question: “Do you think the refugees that are coming here, trying to come here, that are trying to go to Germany and all over Europe, do you think they are going to become priests and become celibate? If not, what is going to happen to the women in the world, the countries they are going to?”
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The recent spate of mass shootings has been shocking no doubt but the sad reality is that this is just another day in America. The focus on mass shootings to some extent hides the fact that daily gun violence has become endemic and routine. As Lois Beckett writes for ProPublica, the definition of mass shootings as only those that involve four or more people killed may obscure the real picture, and the definition should be expanded to include four or more people shot, though even that does not capture the full reality of gun violence.
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Along with the steady rise of Donald Trump, the other recent noteworthy feature in the Republican presidential race is the steady decline of Ben Carson. Whereas Trump seems to thrive despite saying and doing things that would sink anyone else’s candidacy. with every supposed gaffe simply adding to his appeal, Carson is finding that his support is less solid and has been on a steady slide for the last month.
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The political leaders of the United States never tire of proudly proclaiming their adherence to the idea that we are a nation of laws, unlike all those other nasty countries that protect abusers and criminals. But the reality is that the US is one of the worst when it comes to bringing its criminals to account, especially if they are high-ranking ones.
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Yesterday, all the Republican candidates for president showed up at yet another audition for Sheldon Adelson, the casino billionaire who has been teasing all of them with the promise of major financial support. The venue was the organization Republican Jewish Coalition that is sponsored by Adelson. The main (if not only) criterion used by Adelson and his wife is enthusiastic support for the most extreme right-wing expansionist and anti-Palestinian policies of Israel and almost all the candidates dutifully went down that road, trying to outdo one another in proclaiming their loyalty to his agenda, to the extent of some going overboard.
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