35% of Americans have debts and unpaid bills that have been reported to collections agencies. But it’s not all bad news. The collections industry is hiring. But wait.
The Long Goodbye
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Despite a series of executions that have stretched out over an hour or even more, many Americans continue to approve of capital punishment. Many Internet commenters love longer executions. Which means doing them intentionally can’t be far away.
The GOP Finally Takes on Poverty
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Republican Congressman and former vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, infamous for budget proposals that denigrate and starve the downtrodden, has changed tack with an anti-poverty proposal that actually includes safety-net items like expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit. Still, the Republican Party remains in thrall to trickle-down economic theories that, if they worked, would take years to help poor people who need money now.
Spaced Out
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Possible GOP Presidential candidate Marco Rubio, whose father entered the US illegally, says the US is full up, that there just isn’t any room left in the US for new immigrants, including the children arriving at the border with Mexico. But when you actually consider how much space there is in the country, that’s obviously untrue.
Clueless in Gaza
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As in previous conflicts, Israel claims its right to defend itself in its current conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. But its response, killing hundreds of civilians in response to the deaths of a few Israelis, is wildly disproportional and thus a violation of international law.
The High Price of Abortion Rights
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Hillary Clinton supporters are resurrecting an argument made by Obamabots to progressives: Despite her support for right-wing policies like NAFTA and voting for war against Iraq, liberals should vote for her because she might get to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court that might determine whether abortion remains legal. I’m pro-choice, but I’m nauseated by the thought that the right to an abortion necessitates voting for someone like Hillary Clinton, who has the blood of millions of innocent people on her hands.
False Equivalence
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The American media’s coverage of the current fighting between Israel and the Hamas government of Gaza is a case study in false equivalence. More than 200 Palestinians have died; only one Israeli. Yet they are portrayed as intractable, equivalent foes.
War and Peace, Made in USA
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As the largest, most expansionary military empire in history and the world’s number one arms supplier, often to both sides in conflicts, the United States is once again offering, hilariously, to broker a peace agreement, this time between Hamas in Gaza, and Israel. First you start the war, or at least expand it, then you get credit for making peace!
Lemmings, Moths to Flames and Liberal Democrats
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Once again, liberals are being taken for granted by the Democratic Party. This time, they’re presenting the possibility of a lame, poorly-funded and thus merely symbolic primary challenge to Hillary Clinton from the left, via Bernie Sanders or possibly Elizabeth Warren, as ersatz democracy and a way to make progressives, whose concerns are ignored by the party bosses, feel less badly about holding their noses and voting for Hillary in the fall of 2016.
Ready for Hillary, 2017/Overseas Edition
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Echoing the Obama campaign’s claim that electing the first black president would make history, the incipient Hillary Clinton campaign says that, as the first woman president, Hillary Clinton would do the same. But Obama continued many of Bush’s worst policies, including drones. So, it seems clear, would Clinton. What would “history” look like, especially under fire by American drones? Pretty much like the same old, same old.
