It’s astonishing how far corporations will go to shape public opinion about their harmful products. Consider the plastics industry.
Have you ever heard the Saga of Sweet Medicine? Have you ever heard of the Cheyenne’s four sacred arrows? Do you know the story of how a Cheyenne medicine man named Bull lost the sacred arrows during an 1830 battle with the Pawnee?
The Republicans of Bucks County, Pennsylvania just took a shellacking in a special election. They were just crushed.
Opinion about Gaza among my Jewish friends is varied, but it really does trend heavily against the approach pursued by Netanyahu. Of course, none of my Jewish friends are Israelis or right-wingers.
I still don’t know what Alejandro Mayorkas did to get impeached, but at the least the New York Times tried to explain. The Washington Post never even made an attempt. The answer, of course, is that Mayorkas did nothing, but why is it so hard to articulate what he’s accused of having done? The Lewinsky scandal was a lot easier to understand.
I’ve been thinking about writing an explainer on the discharge petition which might be used to force the U.S. House of Representatives to vote on a foreign/military aid bill for Taiwan, Ukraine and Israel. But it’s possible that a different trick will be used. Punchbowl News has a scenario where supporters of the bill can wrest control of the House floor by defeating a motion on “moving the previous question.” Either way, something must be done because Speaker Johnson isn’t going to bring the bill to a vote on his own.
It’s kind of a downer to have Valentines Day on Ash Wednesday, don’t you think? I’ll focus instead on it being my fathers 91st birthday. He tells me he’s always disliked having a Feb. 14 birthday, which makes me sad. But then one of my closest friends was born on January 6, and that’s been ruined.
Maybe it’s just me, but I think the Progress Pondcast sounds better on Apple than on Spotify. Can you tell the difference?