America’s Right-Wing Propaganda Problem Might Be Terminal by Karl Bode

I expend a lot of words decrying the failings of mainstream news media and the Democratic Party as the right wing runs roughshod over the nation. I stand by all that ire, but it’s worth acknowledging that anyone pushing to get more honest assessments of the world out there is up against a formidable right-wing apparatus that specializes in distortion and has fully suckered a huge portion of the population with their scary lies. Writing for DAME, details the extent of the problem, including some terrifying calculations about how the flagrant falsehoods peddled by the GOP and their adherents have become deeply embedded into society.

We Better Pray That No Unexpected Crisis Hits While Trump Is President by David Rothkopf

Too much of the the U.S. population takes for granted the ongoing and emergency work of federal employees. As the miscreants currently occupying the White House viciously decimate vital government agencies, they do so with the callous comfort that most people don’t really understand the repercussions of swinging wrecking balls at the likes of the National Weather Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. With the simplest extrapolation, David Rothkopf explains how ill-prepared the country is to address a wide array of crises. This piece is published by The New Republic.

Playing Secretary by Kerry Howley

This New York magazine article represents amazing reporting and insight on the part of Kerry Howley. The ineptitude, stupidity, and general moral failings of Pete Hegseth, the United States Secretary of Defense, are presented with a flurry of damning details. The piece is filled with examples of backstabbing, which aligns it solidly with one of the aspects of this era of GOP politics that I find so amazing: All these individuals who bind themselves to pathologically disloyal opportunists and are somehow astounded when they themselves are soon cast aside like so much garbage.