As always, please go to the full article at the link.
The goofy red sign off State Road 23 still says “Eddie’s Steak Shed,” just as it always has. The thank-you plaques for sponsoring the county Little League are still in the front entrance, alongside 15 years’ worth of stickers honoring the steaks as the area’s best.
But farther inside, most everything has changed in the year since the old owner was detained, then deported, as part of a crackdown on undocumented immigrants by a tough-talking new president.
Roberto Beristain, a former dishwasher who worked until he could afford to buy the place, was gone. In his place were refurbished wood-paneled walls, a bar with a granite counter and a new pork chop entree. Even the name had been changed with something snappier, sleeker — Eddie’s was now simply, “The Shed.”
“I love what you did to the place!” Heather Pepper, 47, exclaimed to the bartender on a recent night. “It looks so updated, and it still feels local.”The town's original outrage that was felt at the cruelty of Beristain's deportation was superficial and fleeting; the ugliness underlying Americans' acceptance of the white supremacist Republican regime's treatment of innocent people remains strong.
Anne Applebaum discusses the corruption of the regime of kleptocrat Donald "Rump" Trump in the context of other so- called "populists," and why its effects are so pernicious:
Corruption and nepotism have both reached new levels in this White House, as everyone who knew Trump predicted, and as many who voted for him will ignore. Every time one of these stories breaks, there is a routine response: Is this what working-class Americans really wanted when they voted for an “anti-elitist”? Is this what the Midwest meant when it cheered calls to “drain the swamp”? But if history and precedent are any guide, then these abuses of power won’t matter to them at all.
But the spectacular corruption of so-called anti-elitist elites has another effect in the longer term: It makes people cynical about politics altogether. I recently asked one of Orban’s opponents why the endless revelations of crooked contracts don’t create an overwhelming majority for the opposition. “Because voters now think everyone is corrupt,” he told me. “They’ve got used to it.” As the nepotism and the cronyism of this White House begin to sink in, Americans may not turn against Trump. They may turn against politics, or even democracy, altogether.The Rump regime is rolling out its NRA- approved plans for school safety (more on that in a separate post), including that age- old method for deflecting and delaying -- a "commission to study the problem." This is the dangerous ninny who'll be in charge:
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos appeared on CBS’s “60 Minutes” Sunday night and stumbled in answering questions that journalist Lesley Stahl asked during a pointed interview.
These are just some of the things that DeVos said — or couldn’t answer — during the interview:
- She couldn’t say whether the number of false accusations of sexual assault on school campuses is lower than the number of actual rapes or assaults.
- Arming teachers “should be an option” for states and communities, she said, even though she couldn’t “ever imagine” her first-grade teacher, Mrs. Zorhoff, having had a gun.
-“We have invested billions and billions and billions of dollars from the federal level, and we have seen zero results,” DeVos said — a statement Stahl challenged.
-“I hesitate to talk about all schools in general because schools are made up of individual students attending them.”DeVos' main mission is to wreck public education in this country just as she did in Michigan. She's a soulless monster who is exposed every time she opens her lie- hole.*
Last but never least, Infidel has another strong link round- up that will introduce you to topics from anime to the composition of sand to speculation about Rump after 2018 (and much more). Always worth time to discover.
*BONUS: Speaking of DeVos, Andy Borowitz has the perfect headline:
Betsy DeVos Calls “60 Minutes” a Waste of a Half Hour
