Tick-tock, tick-tock. Just 108 days remain until the November midterms.
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Today’s comic by Mark Fiore is Doubly Negative:
What’s coming up on Sunday Kos …
- Democrats need to #VoteLikeBlackWomen, by Denise Oliver Velez
- World War III started during the 2016 elections—and the United States lost the first battle, by Mark E Andersen
- Progressives can't let tactical differences cause defeat: The Beto O'Rourke example, by Egberto Willies
- The dangerous veto power of right-wing rage, by Jon Perr
- 'God, guns and ... Russia?' is no longer a question, by Susan Grigsby
- How deep are ties between Russia and the GOP? by Sher Watts Spooner
- Seven questions for Cliff Schecter, author and co-host of the UnPresidented podcast, by David Akadjian
- Cracks have formed in the right-wing dam of delusion after Helsinki, by Frank Vyan Walton
- 'Twice as good as them' to get half what they have: Racism and the subpar presidency of Donald Trump, by Kelly Macias
- In Mandela speech, Obama offers nuanced approach to dealing with white anxiety and resentment, by Ian Reifowitz
• Federal judge dismisses climate lawsuit against oil giants:
New York City cannot litigate its way out of the climate change crisis, a federal judge ruled Thursday, dismissing a lawsuit against oil giants BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell.
“Climate change is a fact of life, as is not contested by defendants,” U.S. District Judge John Keenan wrote in a 23-page opinion. “But the serious problems caused thereby are not for the judiciary to ameliorate. Global warming and solutions thereto must be addressed by the two other branches of government.” [...]
“The court recognizes that the city, and many other governmental entities around the United States and in other nations, will be forced to grapple with the harmful impacts of climate change in the coming decades,” Keenan said. “However, the immense and complicated problem of global warming requires a comprehensive solution that weighs the global benefits of fossil fuel use with the gravity of the impending harms. To litigate such an action for injuries from foreign greenhouse gas emissions in federal court would severely infringe upon the foreign-policy decisions that are squarely within the purview of the political branches of the U.S. government.”
• Minnesota’s 2nd District Congressman denigrated women on his radio show: CNN reports that U.S. Rep. Jason Lewis repeatedly made disparaging comments about women when he was a talk radio host. In an audio recording, he complains about not being able to call women “sluts.’’ “We required modesty from women. Now, are we beyond those days where a woman can behave as a slut, but you can’t call her a slut?” He also was recorded saying women are “guided by more emotion than reason.” The first-term Republican is up against Democrat Angie Craig in this year’s election. In 2016, he squeaked into office by defeating her with 1.8 percent margin.
MIDDAY TWEET
• Global Slavery Index released Thursday says 40 million people living in modern, hidden slavery worldwide, mostly Asia. The GSI, which released its first report in 2013, calculated that 400,000 of these modern slaves live in the United States. The GSI is a product of the Walk Free Foundation. Some critics aren’t happy with GSI’s approach and have called into question the replicability and validity of its methodology. In an essay in Anti-Trafficking Review, Anne T. Gallagher wrote:
‘Modern slavery’ is something quite different, not least because it is a made-up concept to which no international legal definition is attached. As used by the GSI, the term seeks to encompass under its expansive umbrella a raft of exploitative practices and a myriad of victims: from the schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram to the abused maids of diplomatic households in London and Washington; from orphanage tourism in Cambodia to the recruitment of child soldiers by the so-called Islamic State. Even the authors of the Index have recalibrated their conception of ‘modern slavery’ from year to year, which makes comparison between their own reports a challenging exercise.
• The regime change in Iran that U.S. hawks are so eager for could put somebody a lot worse into power than is now the case.
• Columbia Journalism Review interviews uncover prevalence of sexual harassment of women photojournalists: Over five months, CJR interviewed more than 50 people who described behavior ranging from making unwanted comments about women’s bodies to outright sexual assault:
Many women in the industry say the behavior is so common that they have long considered it simply one of the realities of working as a woman in the profession. They say the problem is rooted in a number of factors: The field has historically been male-dominated with a culture that glorifies macho, hyper-masculine behavior; there is an increasing reliance on freelancers, which affects accountability; workshops and other events for young photographers are often exploited by older, established photojournalists.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: What does it mean to be a "Russian asset?" Does Trump know what he's doing? Does he have to, in order to be guilty? Is "getting along with Putin" the same as "getting along with Russia?" And what should we make of the claim that that's "a good thing?"