Category: politics

Why Do We Admire Mobsters?

even as late as the nineteen-twenties, Italians and Italian-Americans were often considered “other” by much of the rest of the country. In fact, many people subscribed to what criminologists call the alien conspiracy theory of organized crime—the idea, as Finckenauer puts it, that “Southern Italians came to us with evil intent to create criminal enterprise… Continue reading Why Do We Admire Mobsters?

The Bush administration’s enormous national security failure, in one tweet

The Bush administration’s enormous national security failure, in one tweet

You see in Bush’s conduct and Cornyn’s tweet a persistent unwillingness to recognize the existence of disparate forces in the world. Al-Qaeda merges alternately with Saddam Hussein or the regime in Iran in a hazy muddle of “Muslims behaving badly.” It’s a deeply flawed analysis of the world and it’s one of the main reasons it took so long for bin Laden to be brought to justice.

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(via Voters Love Obama’s Ideas When They Think They’re Trump’s) The explanation seems to be GOP positions are not popular with the GOP. I’d like to see the exact same thing done with Trump’s positions and Hillary’s positions on likely democratic voters. (Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

What the jihadists who bought “Islam for Dummies” on Amazon tell us about radicalisation

“far from being religious zealots, a large number of those involved in terrorism do not practise their faith regularly. Many lack religious literacy and could … be regarded as religious novices.” The analysts concluded that “a well-established religious identity actually protects against violent radicalisation”, the newspaper said. … “… what inspires the most lethal terrorists… Continue reading What the jihadists who bought “Islam for Dummies” on Amazon tell us about radicalisation

Reporters Scoff At James O’Keefe’s Big New ‘Scoop’ To Destroy Hillary

James O’Keefe promised a new undercover video campaign that would expose “illegal activity conducted by high-level employees within Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.” Tuesday, he released the first video, produced by his group Project Veritas Action. His group’s big scoop? That a Canadian citizen spent $75 on Hillary swag at Clinton’s June campaign kickoff event. Reporters… Continue reading Reporters Scoff At James O’Keefe’s Big New ‘Scoop’ To Destroy Hillary

Trump Is the Poison His Party Concocted

Trump is a byproduct of all the toxic elements Republicans have thrown into their brew over the last decade or so — from birtherism to race-based hatred of immigrants, from nihilists who shut down government to elected officials who shout “You lie!” at their commander in chief. It was fine when all this crossing-of-the-line was… Continue reading Trump Is the Poison His Party Concocted