Politics
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This Country Does Not Care About the Claims of Abused Women, and It Enables the Men Who Have Been Accused
Before Donald Trump even won the presidential election, women had come forward and accused him of various types of sexual misconduct. A recording surfaced in which he bragged about being able to do whatever he wants with women, and in which he said you should just “grab ’em by the pussy.” No one thought he’d…
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#NetNeutrality: Virginia Lawmakers Vote Against Creating Open Internet Protections for Their State
Another move in a long line of maneuvers to protect net neutrality at the state level was smashed down when a Virginia bill that would have prevented internet service providers from prioritizing or blocking web content was killed by a state House subcommittee Tuesday. The Associated Press reports that the House Commerce and Labor Subcommittee…
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John Kelly Is a White Man
On Wednesday night, as the world learned about allegations of domestic violence against presidential aide Rob Porter, pundits and politicians from across the political spectrum focused on White House chief of staff John Kelly’s defense of Porter and Kelly’s recent comments about the laziness of immigrants. The sentiments of the wide-eyed people perplexed by the…
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Russia Is Boring
I never thought I’d say this, but I am tired of hearing about Russia. That’s hard for me to admit, given that I’ve devoted my entire graduate education and more than four years of my life—so far—to living in Russia and other former USSR republics. But the news cycle that seems to find Russia under…
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The White House Knew That Rob Porter Had Allegedly Assaulted His Ex-Wives and Kept Him Around Anyway: Report
The White House has become an endless, vast hole of shame and embarrassment. Just when you think that the allegations coming from one of the most revered and respected adobes worldwide can’t get any worse, the entire White House—staff, administration, housekeeping—is like, “Hold my folders.” On Wednesday the White House was rocked by allegations that…
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These Polls Ain’t Loyal: Why the Generic Congressional Ballot Is the Worst Predictor in American Politics
Nothing amuses me more as a political scientist than people who just don’t trust polls. The skepticism is usually brought on by incredulity about some type of polling analysis—“There’s no way black districts voted more Republican in 2016 than in 2012”—which is usually followed by some nonscientific justification for not believing the results. Well, no…
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White Supremacy Roundup: 4 Stories That Show How Institutional Racism Works
When the Ku Klux Klan sets a cross on fire, the fact that a few snuff-chewing Caucasian troglodytes have come together to celebrate their low-IQ ideology is as inconsequential as the fact that they are contributing to global warming and deforestation. It has always been about the hoods. The idea that the cowardice of teachers,…
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Trump’s Lawyers Tell Him to Stand Down on Mueller All-Access Interview; Will He Listen?
When you have a client who is known for going off-script even when that script is written as simply as a Little Golden Book, it is in the best interests of both you and your client to caution him against doing an interview in which he could possibly perjure or incriminate himself because he is…
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Trump Wants a Military Parade Because Fascism Isn’t Coming to America Fast Enough
Your president is nothing if not a gigantic stunt queen who revels in the act of proving that his figurative penis is bigger than everyone else’s. I say “figurative” because we all know that if the real one were big, we wouldn’t have to constantly worry about getting nuked by North Korea because Donald Trump…