Brendan James wrote up this column by Rich Lowry in Politico in which Lowry says that to protestors “some black lives really don’t matter.” In part, this is no more than a more biting version of the old saw of ‘why don’t blacks get more upset about black on black crime?.’ – a high-toned form of concern trolling.
I’m not interested in digging into the outrage tug of war over this. But there’s a pretty elemental blindspot to all these arguments.
Let’s back up first for some context.
It was quite a shock to hear that former Speaker Denny Hastert had been indicted under a law used to prevent people from concealing movements of major amounts of cash. So what could it possibly be about and why was Hastert trying to conceal the movement of roughly $1 million in cash.
We now have the indictment and the charges stem from Hastert’s efforts to pay off an unnamed individual to conceal “past misconduct by defendant against [the individual] that had occurred years earlier.”
I’m gonna need you to help me with some extra WTFs here. But former Speaker Denny Hastert has been indicted on charges of ‘structuring’ a cash withdrawal of almost $1 million and lying about it to the FBI.
It’s going to be quite the irony if Hastert is the member of that leadership team who ends up doing time.
Hulu pulls episodes of Duggar mass-kid reality show as scandal spreads.
Scott Walker won three straight elections in four years. But the budgetary mess he created is now sinking his presidential ambitions.
Scott Walker is onboard with a new 20-week abortion ban for Wisconsin. No exceptions for rape or incest.
Texas open carry activist calls for arrest and execution of all Texas officeholders for voted against open carry law.
This is something I’ve been wondering about for a while. And it is something that is a subset of the point I made last month about the unique nature of the Democratic nomination process in 2016 – with Hillary Clinton so seemingly unchallengeable that the intra-party negotiation and jockeying which normally takes place between rival candidacies has shifted to different factions and constituencies contending over the terms and nature of their support for Clinton’s candidacy.
Here’s something I’ve noticed over the last few weeks: The DNC is sending out a lot of Bernie Sanders emails.
Elizabeth Green, CEO and editor-in-chief of Chalkbeat, a news site devoted to educational change, will chat with Prime members today in The Hive (sub req).
Green has years of experience in education reporting, having written for The New York Sun, New York Times Magazine and U.S. News & World Report. Last year, she published Building a Better Teacher: How Teaching Works (and How to Teach It to Everyone). She will be answering questions about her book, the Common Core, teacher evaluations, and the opt-out movement.
Drop your questions here before or join us at 2:30 PM Eastern.
Here’s a fascinating look at a dimension of Wal-Mart you may not have thought about. Generally, we hear a lot about Wal-Mart driving down wages or running local retailers out of business. From the right, we hear paeans to Wal-Marts as engines of capitalism driving down prices for ordinary everyday products for tens of millions of Americans. Each is true in its way, two sides of the same economic coin. But there’s another reality. In many small towns throughout America today, Wal-Mart has become the de facto meeting place – open 24 hours a day – where all sorts of things happen beside just buying a TV or stocking up on dry goods. It’s replaced the mall, the town center, the drive-in, all the places where life happens, teenagers hang out or tailgate and drink, or people just meet up. This piece looks at the local Wal-Mart as the center of life in one Texas town.