And now ordinary people are, too; social movements have helped spread these demands to a public mobilized by the pandemic and the protests.
This reminds me of the French Revolution. There was significant repression of the lower classes to cause dissent, but it was not until the middle class became motivated that change came about.
But all women lose when women’s lives are boiled down to these simple binaries: selfless mother against ruthless careerist.
There is another binary operating in the Meghan-Kate media battle - that of race. In the world of white people, one is either white or black. Never mind that Meghan (and Barack Obama for that matter) is bi-racial. The world will not allow them to be seen as anything other than black.
I long for the day when white and black disappear from our vocabulary when describing human beings.
The biggest danger, of course, is that the Iranians respond, and possibly miscalculate, and then the United States does the same. That’s how wars start.
It seems obvious what Iran's first response will be: to close the Strait of Hormuz and stop the flow of oil from Saudi Arabia and other gulf states. Closing the Strait would be relatively easy. Just start using drones, torpedo boats and aircraft to sink a few ships and traffic will stop until (and if) safe transit can be assured. The cost to Iran is small, while the cost to the rest of the world is high.
Nuclear power, which currently provides about ten per cent of the world’s electricity, remains a profoundly risky technology.
Nuclear power need not be as risky as it has been made. A few simple safety precautions can reduce accidents greatly.<br> First, do not locate nuclear power plants (a) along areas known to be affected by earthquakes or (b) tsunamis (Fukushima should never have been located where it was).<br> Second, employ a method such as that used in the CANDU [Canada Deuterium Uranium) design, which at any loss of power or other irregularity drops shut-off rods into the reactor core to shut it down. The CANDU design also has a second safety feature, that injects a high-pressure gadolinium nitrate neutron absorber solution into the calandria, if needed. To the best of my knowledge, no other reactors in the world use such an automatic shutdown system.
For that matter, even a single day in Trumpworld seems measured on the geologic clock, yesterday being possibly the most outsized example.
In his December 18th rally, Trump followed the good example set by tyrants of the 20th century (Hitler, Mussolini, Castro, for instance) and spoke interminably for 101 minutes. Or, should I say, 101 centuries.
Nunes honored his request, but it did not stop either him or his Republican colleagues from their apparent goal—largely ignoring the substance of Vindman’s testimony and instead using him as a pathway to exposing the whistleblower. Their pursuit wasn’t so much the truth as it was in discovering how the truth got out.
In this case, the truth does not set Mr. Trump free. It removes him from office and imprisons him. His defenders, therefore, have to assume that Americans are easily diverted from a quest for facts, a concern for truth. The slow movement of polling numbers against Trump seems to show otherwise, however.
As the hearings continue, Trump will be taking the meat axe to ever more witnesses—so many that the blade could end up dulling.
When the Mafia does this, we call it witness tampering and we immediately lock up the evil doers. When Trump does it, at most the GOP House Representatives simply put their fingers in their ears and close their eyes and mouths.
At this point, there doesn’t seem to be anyone capable of talking him out of it. There’s no James Baker in sight, no multistar generals, no adults in the room. There’s just Trump, alone.
In an interview in 2017, when asked why he had not filled many State Department positions, Trump infamously stated, "My opinion is the only one that counts." He still believes that and that belief will be his downfall. Trump is alone because his world view isolates him and his worldview values only him. His narcissism does not allow for other viewpoints. People who express contrary views are shown the door, either quickly or in a short while.
Trump looks for views that reinforce his own opinions. Sadly, those views come mostly from right-wing conspiracy theorists. He re-tweets them, he copies them verbatim in his own tweets. He even hires Giuliani who himself based his Biden ideas on a conspiracy theory book written without access to critical facts.
Such an approach to the world both discourages others from engaging him in dialogue and accounts for his reality-free daily recitation of alleged facts. If he were not president, no one would give credence to anything he says.
Legal efforts to quash the probe have failed.
This article was written before the ruling of Chief Judge Howell USDC for DC in the Application of the House Judiciary Committee for DOJ to turn over the grand jury transcripts from the Mueller investigation. Chief Judge Howell ruled for the HJC, holding that the preliminary inquiry does not violate the Constitution, the rules of the House of Representatives, or prior practice. She stated in part: "Relatedly, Representative Collins asserts that HJC's investigation cannot be “preliminarily to” an impeachment trial until the full House passes a resolution authorizing a “formal impeachment proceeding. ”Collins Mem.at1. DOJ equivocates on this proposed bright line test to meet the “preliminarily to” requirement, HrTr.at69:10–11, but seems to indicate that the House must go at least that far, see DOJ Resp.at28. Like all bright-line rules, this “House resolution” test is appealing in terms of being easy to apply. Yet, the reasoning supporting this proposed test is fatally flawed. The precedential support cited for the “House resolution” test is cherry-picked and incomplete, and more significantly, this test has no textual support in the U.S. Constitution, the governing rules of the House, or Rule6(e), as interpreted in binding decisions."