Everything is rigged to favor the wealthy

The latest example of how the wealthy rig the system for their benefit is the story of how they bribe their children into the colleges of their choice by paying people to do standardized tests for them or bribing sports team coaches to certify that the students are top athletes when they are nothing of the sort. This kind of bribery is for those who cannot afford he more traditional kind of bribery of making large ‘donations’, with the Trump and Kushner families being prime examples. The extremely wealthy can do even more, by making even larger donations to colleges for buildings and the like. All this is legal. As has been often pointed out, what is shocking in the US is not what is illegal but what is legal.

Stephen Colbert explains what kind of cheating was done in the cases that were just revealed.

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Another day, another Brexit vote

Today saw another day of drama and maneuvering in the British parliament (Is there any other kind these days as the March 29 deadline looms ever closer?) with bills and amendments and amendments to amendments. The main item on the agenda was a vote on whether to rule out a no-deal Brexit and net result was a vote of 321-278 in favor. So for those keeping score at home, on Tuesday parliament overwhelmingly rejected Theresa May’s Brexit deal, today they again defied her and ruled out a no-deal Brexit, and tomorrow they vote on whether to extend the March 29 deadline. Logically, that would seem to be the only option left and should pass but nothing can be taken for granted anymore. Even voting against a no-deal Brexit seems at best symbolic since, as far as I can tell, if nothing changes by March 29, a no-deal Brexit will go into effect automatically.

Here are the results of today’s vote, the first on an amendment to the motion and the second on the motion itself. The results of the votes are announced with fun bit of parliamentary ritual with the ever-colorful speaker John Bercow presiding.

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Attempts to discredit AOC continue to flounder

There seems to be no end to the efforts of right-wing efforts to disparage congressperson Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in order to diminish her popularity. In a congressional hearing, she sharply questioned the CEO of Wells Fargo, a truly disgraceful company, about its practices. It showed how well prepared she is for these hearings.

In addition she asked who bears liability for oil spills from the pipeline, and whether the people who financed it share in it.


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The US is targeting independent journalists

I have written before about how so many mainstream media outlets in the US serve as propaganda arms of the US government, especially when it comes to reporting on foreign government who have been deemed to be hostile to the US or when the US is planning to invade those countries. The examples are so many that only the most fervent apologists (which includes many in the media and punditocracy) could possibly deny it. The latest target of such propaganda is Venezuela where it is clear that a covert war is being waged against that country.
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Another crushing parliamentary defeat on Brexit for Theresa May

The British parliament today resoundingly defeated by a margin of 391 to 242 prime minister Theresa May’s revised plan for Brexit. The feeling seemed to be that the new deal did not significantly differ from the previous one that she lost by an even heavier margin. Apparently she had expected a loss but hoped to contain the margin of defeat to less than 50 so this has got to hurt. Again the main sticking point was the so-called ‘backstop’ on Northern Ireland.
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Great moments in political grandstanding

I wrote before about the problem of single-use plastic pollution where plastic items are thrown away after being used just once. One of those items is straws and a movement began to have restaurants only provide them on request. That seemed to have caught on quickly because I have noticed that the places I go to no longer hand out straws as the default option.
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The role of identity in selecting candidates

In response to my earlier post about how Bernie Sanders, despite a contrary narrative promoted by the Democratic party establishment that dislikes his progressive stances, has considerable support in the black community, hyphenman wrote the following comment: “I don’t have a candidate, but I do have a hierarchy with African American Women at the top of my list and European American Males on the bottom.”
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