We have 100 days to stop Donald Trump from systemically corrupting our institutions


The country has entered a dangerous period. The president-elect is the least qualified man to ever hold high office. He also operated the least transparent campaign of the modern era. He gave succor and voice to bigoted elements on a scale not seen in two generations. He openly praised dictators — not as allies but as dictators — and threatened to use the powers of his office to discipline the media. He also has a long history of corrupt behavior, and his business holdings pose staggering conflicts of interest that are exacerbated by his lack of financial disclosure. But while most journalists and members of the opposition party think they understand the threat of Trump-era corruption, they are in fact drastically underestimating it. When we talk about corruption in the modern United States, we have in mind what Andrei Shleifer and Robert Vishny define as “the sale by government officials of government property for personal gain.”

Credit to Occupy Democrats

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Indiana GOP Curt Nisly, R-Goshen proposes total abortion ban in Indiana This guy reps an area just a few miles from me. From the article.

INDIANAPOLIS — A Hoosier lawmaker hoping to permanently end abortion in Indiana could get an assist from a U.S. Supreme Court reshaped by Republican President-elect Donald Trump. State Rep. Curt Nisly, R-Goshen, said Tuesday he plans to file a “Protection at Conception” proposal when the Republican-controlled General Assembly convenes in January.

 If enacted into law, it would prohibit all abortion in Indiana in all circumstances and authorize the criminal prosecution of any doctor or woman who participates in an abortion. “It’s time to bring the Roe v. Wade era to its logical conclusion,” Nisly said. “My goal is to deregulate abortion right out of existence in Indiana.”

Good Read

Nice people made the best Nazis. 
 Or so I have been told. 

My mother was born in Munich in 1934, and spent her childhood in Nazi Germany surrounded by nice people who refused to make waves. 

When things got ugly, the people my mother lived alongside chose not to focus on “politics,” instead busying themselves with happier things. 

They were lovely, kind people who turned their heads as their neighbors were dragged away. I don’t remember the first time I heard the stories my mother told me; I feel like I always knew them. 

She’s dead now. If she were alive, I imagine she would be quite sanguine; all her anxieties would be realized, so there would no longer be anything left to fear. More goodness at link.