Hipster racism

I tend to skip any news story that has the word ‘hipster’ in the title, thinking that it will deal with some trivial and ephemeral social trend that I am not part of nor wish to be part of and that will have disappeared by the time I learn what it is by the process of news osmosis. What I basically knew about the word ‘hipster’ was that it was used pejoratively against people who tried to differentiate themselves from their peers by adopting some lifestyle that was supposedly ironic and avant garde but could just as easily be described as pretentious.
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How many wrongs will it take?

Russia, Russia gate, overthrow, regime change, propaganda, coup d’état, 2016 presidential election, hiking, interference, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, 81 wrongs, Cold War, covert, CIA

As cartoonist Ted Rall says: “The United States tried to overthrow or directly interfere in the elections of at least 80 countries throughout the Cold War alone. How exactly is it in a position to complain if it turns out to be true that Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential election?”

The Trump administration tries to subvert yet another agency mission

The Donald Trump administration is likely to be headed to the courts again, this time over the leadership of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This was an agency set up to police the consumer financial markets and protect the rights of consumers against big banks and was championed by senator Elizabeth Warren as one means of preventing another financial crisis. Its first director Richard Cordray was quite effective in that role but his term ended in 2018 and he wanted to step down this year, reportedly to run for the governorship of Ohio.
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How Congress protects its own abusers

We are learning that sexual harassment knows no boundaries. It takes on all forms and the perpetrators span ideologies, professions, ages, everything. Those waves are now lapping at the feet of members of Congress. So far there has been only a trickle of information about sexual abuse there with senator Al Franken and congressman John Conyers being named but it is only a matter of time before more names come out, given that the nature and culture of that institution is ripe for abuse. One member of congress Jackie Speier has spoken from her own experience as a young intern about what goes on and said that there are at least two others, whom she did not name, who are culpable.
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Saudi Arabia lays the groundwork for war with Iran

Vijay Prashad writes that crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (known as MBS) of Saudi Arabia has decided to take the country into uncharted waters with his internal crackdown on corruption, that has resulted in 11 princes and about 200 businessmen that include people who control sources of power (such as the National Guard) that might challenge him, arrested and detained in the Ritz Carlton hotel in Riyadh, and his military adventurism in the region. He has also challenged the power of the clerical class in that country by decreeing that women can drive.
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Yet another episode of “What was he thinking?”

US congressman Joe Barton of Texas is a member of the Republican Freedom Caucus which means that he has notoriously reactionary views on pretty much everything, all wrapped up in smug religious piety. He is a strong advocate for the oil and coal industries and a vehement climate change denier, using the Bible to argue against the science and even suggesting that wind energy is not a renewable resource.
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“But the drawing looked fine!”

Blackfriars Priory school, a Catholic boys school in Adelaide, Australia commissioned a statue of a saint Martin de Porres that was supposed to showed him giving a loaf of bread to a child. While the commission was granted on the basis of a drawing of the statue, when the final statue was unveiled, it suggested something completely different, though one that is consistent with what we have learned about the Catholic church.
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What the Republican tax plan will do

The Tax Policy Center has analyzed the tax proposal and who pays less and who pays more. Spoiler alert! The rich pay less and the rest pay more. While everyone would pay less in the first year (enabling the Republicans to claim that everyone gets a tax cut), the rich will pay a lot less and there is a time delay in the bill that results in tax increases for lower income people down the road.
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