The Analilia Mejia cautionary tale: Republicans desperately need an answer to socialism
Source: Washington Examiner · Bias: Center Right
Summary
New York City’s money men have called North Jersey “home” for nearly a century. The high priests of American capitalism — stockbrokers, analysts, and banking titans — have long ended their days on Wall Street by crossing the Hudson River’s tunnels and bridges, retreating to the tree-lined suburbs of Essex, Passaic, and Morris counties. That […]
The Analilia Mejia cautionary tale: Republicans desperately need an answer to socialism
Center Right
New York City’s money men have called North Jersey “home” for nearly a century. The high priests of American capitalism — stockbrokers, analysts, and banking titans — have long ended their days on Wall Street by crossing the Hudson River’s tunnels and bridges, retreating to the tree-lined suburbs of Essex, Passaic, and Morris counties. That […]
In light of the Lakers’ 35-minute free-agency splurge Wednesday morning, which netted them Quentin Grimes, Sandro Mamukelashvili and Collin Sexton, and the dissection of each of those agreements, what can’t be overlooked is how the Lakers kicked it all off by filling their biggest need. The Lakers agreed to a blockbuster trade with the Jazz...
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) committed to block House floor proceedings unless House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) inserts the SAVE Act into a must-pass piece of legislation, Punchbowl News reported on Friday.Luna has pressed for the SAVE America Act – a bill that mandates voter ID and citizenship checks while adding new restrictions on mail-in ballots – to be folded into the annual defense policy bill."We should be doing all of the above," Luna told Punchbowl News for its report published Friday. "Why not try? It's crazy."Luna has already disrupted leadership's plans once – she helped defeat a rule that would have inserted SAVE Act language directly into the defense bill, despite House GOP leaders having spent three years working to keep unrelated amendments out of it.Meanwhile, Senate Republicans have grown frustrated with inter-party disputes. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Punchbowl that Republicans "need to be very careful" about how they message the standoff, arguing that Democrats – not Republicans – are the ones blocking the SAVE Act's passage.“The message we need to convey to our supporters – it’s not Republicans that are preventing the SAVE America Act from being passed. It’s Democrats,” Johnson told Punchbowl News.
Even as President Donald Trump and his MAGA movement gut civics in public schools by dismantling the Department of Education and pushing pro-MAGA interpretations of history and “God-centered education,” a new study suggests that Generation Z can ill afford this educational erosion, as they are shockingly ignorant of basic facts about American history.“Nearly two-thirds (61 percent) of Americans under 30 are unaware of what America’s 250th is commemorating this year, while just 39 percent know we are celebrating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence,” reported Cato Institute’s Jonah Messinger and Emily Ekins on Thursday. The right-leaning think tank conducted a survey, the Cato Institute Fourth of July Survey, with the help of the polling firm Morning Consult.Messenger and Ekins added that “a majority (52 percent) of Gen Z Americans also don’t know what country from which the American colonies declared their independence, while 48 percent correctly answered that it was Great Britain.”Additionally, “More importantly, two-thirds (67 percent) of Gen Z do not know why the American colonies declared independence from Great Britain, while 33 percent correctly answered that it was to protest high taxes and a lack of representation in government.”There was a bright spot in the numbers, in that 66 percent of Generation Z knew America’s first president was George Washington. That number, however, is 11 points less than the number of Americans overall who know their nation’s first president.“Six in ten Americans (64 percent) under 30 likewise don’t know what the main purpose of the US Constitution is,” Messenger and Ekins wrote. “Instead, 14 percent thought the main purpose of the Constitution was to declare independence from Great Britain (which is what the Declaration of Independence did), 17 percent thought the main purpose was to create a presidency, Congress, and Supreme Court, 8 percent thought it was to list all federal laws, and 4 percent thought it was to create two major political parties. Another 21 percent admitted they didn’t know. Only 36 percent knew that the main purpose of the Constitution is to establish and limit the powers of government.”In a separate Thursday post about the poll, Ekins identified similarly ominous findings about the American public overall.“A new national survey from the Cato Institute, conducted in collaboration with Morning Consult of 2,253 Americans ahead of July 4th and America’s 250th anniversary, finds nearly half (46 percent) of Americans don’t know what America’s 250th anniversary commemorates,” Ekins wrote. “A little more than half (53 percent) correctly answered that it was the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.”The survey discovered that “while most Americans have at least an instinctive sense that the US Constitution protects their rights, a majority (58 percent) don’t actually know how it accomplishes this. Less than half (41 percent) correctly said that the Constitution’s purpose is to establish and limit the powers of government. The remaining said the purpose of the Constitution was to declare independence from Great Britain (17 percent), create the presidency, Congress, and Supreme Court (12 percent), list all federal laws (7 percent), or create two major political parties (4 percent), while 18 percent conceded they don’t know what the purpose of the Constitution is.”The survey also found majorities of Americans support ideas about how to change America’s Constitution that one or the other party staunchly oppose. These include conservative views such as requiring photo ID to vote (66 percent), requiring a balanced budget (69 percent), making English the nation's official language (64 percent), banning flag burning (60 percent) and banning transgender women from women’s sports (59 percent). It also includes liberal views such as guaranteeing health care (73 percent), providing free college (60 percent), limiting money in political campaigns (69 percent), guaranteeing a right to abortion (58 percent), banning hate speech (58 percent) and increasing taxes on the wealthy (58 percent).
Despite a deadly heatwave sweeping through Europe, the US president’s ineptness has created reason for optimism on the climate crisisSign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter hereTwo real-life climate-themed movies are playing in parallel across the globe. They are about the world today, but they are also a snapshot of the future. The first is a slow-building horror story; the second, a feelgood summer hit. Both are worth watching.Horror films are suddenly box-office gold, so let’s start there. The World Health Organisation says the extreme, record-breaking heatwave blanketing Europe has killed more than 1,300 people. But everyone knows that number will end up a dramatic understatement. Continue reading...
