It has been one other week of unfettered ethical depravity in the USA. Donald Trump held a Klan rally frivolously disguised as a cupboard assembly the place he railed towards Somali immigrants. Pete Hegseth defended the merciless and unlawful boat strikes which have murdered a minimum of 83 civilians. Marco Rubio put ahead a “peace plan” for Ukraine that quantities to giving Vladimir Putin all the things he’s ever wished for. And saddest of all? Most individuals most likely don’t even know any of it occurred.
Probably the most disturbing tales I noticed this disgusting week highlighted new analysis from Pew exhibiting that information consumption is on the decline throughout all political events and age teams. The report, which was targeted on adults below 30, discovered that solely 15 p.c of individuals in that age group observe the information “all or more often than not.” After they do, it ought to shock nobody, they think about the “information” to be no matter they arrive throughout on social media.
I can hardly blame them. The information is miserable. Given Trump’s entrenched cult following, it doesn’t really feel like there’s something that may be instantly completed to cease him. Mainstream retailers are extra focused on appeasing energy than in holding it to account. And the “opposition celebration” is feckless (extra on that later). I bought sick over Thanksgiving, and through the uninterrupted days I spent mendacity in mattress and praying for loss of life, did I watch “the information”? No, I didn’t. I watched films about house (Apollo 13 is one of the best film that inaccurately options no Black folks ever made), and allowed myself to get enveloped within the Lane Kiffin teaching drama. I wasn’t bodily or mentally wholesome sufficient to learn about America for per week.
This nation is a horror present, and lots of people don’t like watching scary films. I can’t blame them for trying away. Sadly, the filth won’t clear itself up.
Proper now, Hakeem Jeffries is the worst argument for the proposition that Hakeem Jeffries ought to be speaker of the Home. His efficiency this week has been terrible, bordering on complicit.
First, the person gave Trump credit score for “securing the border.” Then, he praised Trump for pardoning corrupt Democratic Consultant Henry Cuellar, who had been indicted on costs of accepting $600,000 in bribes. He wrapped issues up by telling the press that they need to not count on the Democrats to pursue impeachment costs towards Secretary of Battle Crimes Pete Hegseth.
The nation is crying out for management towards the violent, racist, and corrupt Trump administration. The nation is determined for leaders who will combat Trump on each floor: political, financial, authorized, and ethical. And Jeffries spent per week doing press hits for the person. Literal silence would have been higher than what Jeffries did this week.
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The issue with Jeffries is that he needs to be the chief of the Democratic Occasion, and that may be a very totally different job from being the chief of the opposition celebration. It’s the distinction between ready on your flip on the wheel versus attempting to interrupt the wheel. Jeffries isn’t a revolutionary or a reformer. He’s not an activist or crusader. He’s only a careerist. He’s rigorously and competently positioned himself to be this near getting a promotion, and he’s attempting desperately to not screw that up.
Jeffries exposes the issue with the “management” of your entire Democratic Occasion: Their posture within the face of fascism isn’t one in every of insurgency or resistance however one in every of parliamentarian video games and political stunts. They often speak like they know Trump and MAGA are totalitarian threats to democratic self-government, however they don’t act prefer it. As an alternative, they act like Trump is a traditional American president and might be defeated by means of regular political means. Democrats need folks out within the streets shouting “no kings,” however Jeffries wouldn’t dare throw Trump’s tea within the water, and he’d help the prosecution of anyone who did.
The folks, all through historical past, who lead anti-authoritarian actions are people who find themselves keen to be jailed for the trigger. They’re people who find themselves keen to be killed by the very regime they’re opposing. Hakeem Jeffries isn’t a type of folks. He’s simply the average man on the politburo, attempting to tell apart himself from the “hard-liners,” hoping he’ll get an opportunity when the outdated man kicks the bucket.
It would work. Jeffries would possibly effectively get the promotion he’s angling for. I’ll spend most of subsequent 12 months arguing that Democrats should retake the Home and, due to this fact, that Jeffries have to be the subsequent speaker of the Home to be able to put some restraint on the fascist president. However Democrats like Jeffries won’t ever defeat Trump, as a result of Democrats like Jeffries aren’t keen to problem the system that produced him. They’re simply ready for his or her flip to be answerable for that system.
What I Wrote
Pete Hegseth is a assassin. I wrote about all of the legal guidelines that make that so. He ought to be impeached, no matter what Hakeem Jeffries thinks.
In Information Unrelated to the Present Chaos
So Lane Kiffin was the top soccer coach of the Ole Miss Rebels (a reputation I can’t imagine they’re allowed to maintain). He left the varsity final week to grow to be the top coach of the LSU Tigers, a rival to Ole Miss, even though Ole Miss is slated to be within the School Soccer Playoffs whereas LSU isn’t. This has, understandably, angered Ole Miss followers, and plenty of within the faculty soccer group are decrying Kiffin’s betrayal of the college, regardless that, in straight soccer phrases, the LSU job is clearly the higher one.
Kiffin bought a seven-year, $91 million contract from LSU—a public college—which works out to about $13 million per 12 months, making him the second-highest-paid coach within the nation. With it, he instantly turns into the highest-paid public official within the state of Louisiana (though it isn’t in any respect unusual for the soccer coach of the general public college to be the highes-paid public worker in a state).
It’s fascinating that that is taking place in Louisiana, as a result of the one motive the LSU job was open is as a result of the varsity lately fired its final high-paid coach, Brian Kelly. The state of Louisiana nonetheless owes him $54 million.
After Kelly was fired, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry threw a match. He vowed that the LSU athletic director wouldn’t be allowed to supply such an costly contract once more, and that future contracts wouldn’t be assured in order to not put Louisiana taxpayers on the hook for a soccer coach they’ve already fired. Landry is a Republican—and whilst you know I don’t like saying good issues about Republicans, Landry was precisely proper on this level. The salaries of faculty soccer coaches (and basketball coaches) are fully out of whack with the general public universities they work for. It might be one factor if all the billions of {dollars} faculty sports activities generates have been going again into the states, however they’re not. LSU isn’t funding levees in New Orleans.
With the hiring of Kiffin, it might seem that Landry’s directive was fully ignored by LSU. Not solely did it rent a coach for $91 million; it gave him a totally assured contract, and that contract was negotiated by the exact same agent who represented the previous coach.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower as soon as warned that even the president was comparatively powerless within the face of the military-industrial advanced. I think about Jeff Landry may now communicate in regards to the football-industrial advanced. There seems to be no method for even the governor of a state to cease the insanity when the soccer crew wants a well-known new head coach.
I’ve stated a number of instances: A presidential candidate who ran on getting corruption and graft out of faculty sports activities, permitting for honest competitors whereas distributing the cash generated by the sports activities extra equitably, would win in a landslide. Sadly, I’m nonetheless ready for a presidential candidate who runs on getting corruption and graft out of the White Home.
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