SaturTabs
- Via TNR: DHS’s Neo-Nazi Memes Show the Agency for What It Is.
- Via ABC News: A timeline of the US military’s buildup near Venezuela and attacks on alleged drug-smuggling boats.
- Via MS Now: Why Minnesota child care fraud is MAGA’s new obsession.
- By Lisa Needham at Public Notice: The blame for alleged fraud in Minnesota belongs to conservatives.
- By Caroline Orr Bueno writing at Weaponized: Nick Shirley’s Somali Daycare Fraud Video Is Bullsh*t. Here’s Why It Worked Anyway.
- Via the AP: Trump says he’s dropping push for National Guard in Chicago, LA and Portland, Oregon, for now.
- Via Can We Still Govern? Life Under a Clicktatorship.
- Via Politico: Trump says he will temporarily cap credit card rates. Because, as is well known, presidents set credit card interest rates by fiat.
- From Philip Bump at MS Now: Kristi Noem and DHS do not deserve the benefit of the doubt. I would note that this piece is labeled “opinion,” but is nothing but straight-up reporting of facts. Even the title conclusion is clearly empirically true if, in fact, words mean anything. That the supposedly liberal-leaning MS Now feels the need to label this an opinion piece is just yet another example of what political scientist Mark Copelovitch has been saying for years: “Neither our media nor our political system is designed to deal with a far right authoritarian party.” The notion that detailing the statements of government officials and demonstrating that they are consistently untrue is the domain of “opinion” is part of why we are in the mess we currently find ourselves.
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This MN daycare thing is straight out of the playbook used by James O’Keefe when he went after ACORN. The Shirley guy lies and misrepresents a lot of stuff but it shows conservatives what they want to believe so they will believe it. It’s so obviously patterned on what O’Keefe did I am surprised more people arent pointing that out.
Steve
“Neither our media nor our political system is designed to deal with a far right authoritarian party.”
In a sense I disagree with him. The media and political system have been designed and cultivated and engineers to *support* a far right authoritarian party.
What’s changed is that the GOP has emotionally and intellectually realized that the safeguards don’t hold, and is now taking advantage of them.
Think of the *norm* of whitewashing police killings,
the *norm* of endless forgiving of GOP for anything, while excoriating Dem politicians.
The daycare nonsense is insane. A few random weirdos show up at a daycare demanding to see the children? I’d have called the cops. Steve222 is correct, this is straight-up James O’Keefe.
The Philip Bump piece is good, and sobering. I really don’t know how we fix this mess. We do need an immigration agency, but we’re going to have to start over from scratch.
I think your kitty made the cover of New Yorker. Paywall free link.