Check out Tuesday’s newsletter!
From The Reporter’s Notebook
Heidi Cruz addressed the internet meme that her husband Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is the infamous serial killer, The Zodiac Killer, marking the Cruz camp’s first response to the meme, TPM’s Kristin Salaky reported. Heidi Cruz told Yahoo that having known the unpopular senator for so long, this type of joke at his expense doesn’t shake her. “Well, I’ve been married to him for 15 years and I know pretty well who he is, so it doesn’t bother me at all. There’s a lot of garbage out there,” Cruz told Yahoo.
Agree or Disagree?
Josh Marshall: “It drives me crazy, candidly, when Sanders claims on the stump that where voter turnout has been highest, he’s done best. That’s not remotely true. Indeed, where it’s been lowest, he’s done best. Almost entirely because of caucuses, which are really the most effective voter suppression method in politics today.”
BUZZING: Today in the Hive
From a TPM Prime member: “As regards the gross characterizations that serve as political insight, I am not a pure dove. i believe in the defense of our nation. I believe there are circumstances that call for the use of military intervention as a legitimate tool in foreign policy. However, when I look back on the modern history of American involvement in international affairs, I do not believe the use of our military has been predominantly or even significantly in defense of our nation as I understand “defense”. I cannot consider the military interventions in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, or Iraq (to name a few) to be legitimate acts in our country’s defense. We may be pursuing our interests (“America First”), but the benefits of these excursions is grossly exaggerated, the impacts on the people of the countries that serve as our theaters is grossly understated, and the overall result is degrading to the standing of our culture on the world stage. Worse still, we harbor an industrial complex that is bent on profiting from global harm and destruction. This is a problem. A serious problem. I feel all Americans end up complicit in a pattern of bad behavior that I want, more than any other political issue, to see end. There is only one nation on Earth that has used weapons of mass destruction on the civilian populations of another country; we own it. We continue to push the envelope of militarization, violating treaties and subverting morality to find the weapons of tomorrow. I actually believe our history of foreign intervention is linked to the culture of gun violence we see domestically. And per our grand American tradition, nobody is held accountable for the worst offenses. It’s as if we lack the courage to say this chronic mistake has got to stop.”.”
Related: Trump said he has more foreign policy experience than “virtually anybody.”
Have something to add? Become a Prime member and join the discussion here.
What We’re Reading
AllRecipes shows us the enormous gap between foodie culture and what Americans actually cook. (Slate)
America has never been so ripe for tyranny — that’s what’s scariest about Donald Trump. (New York Magazine)
|
|