Ravens football fans dwarfed by lights and sky at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.
Credit: Patrick Smith/Getty
Banks don’t like lending in lower-income neighborhoods, even as they profit from deposits taken from those same communities. Since 1977, the Community Reinvestment Act has forced the issue, requiring banks to provide mortgages, small-business loans and other services in all areas where they operate.
The current crop of federal banking regulators, picked by President Trump, is now proposing to let banks pump less money into lower-income communities, and even to claim credit for lending that does not benefit those communities. One egregious example: Banks could count loans for improvements to stadiums that happen to sit in poor neighborhoods.
Yes, you read that right: Under the proposal, the banks that financed the new sound system at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore could claim credit for investing in the community.
The proposal is such a perversion of the law that it has […]
White militia man
The Texas Department of Public Safety included the warning in their 2020, “Texas Domestic Terrorism Threat Assessment” (PDF).
“Although not a new movement, Involuntary Celibates (Incels) are an emerging domestic terrorism threat as current adherents demonstrate marked acts or threats of violence in furtherance of their social grievance,” the report noted. “Once viewed as a criminal threat by many law enforcement authorities, Incels are now seen as a growing domestic terrorism concern due to the ideological nature of recent Incel attacks internationally, nationwide, and in Texas.”
“What begins as a personal grievance due to perceived rejection by women may morph into allegiance to, and attempts to further, an Incel Rebellion. The result has thrust the Incel movement into the realm of domestic terrorism,” the report explained.
A buffalo in Yellowstone National Park
Credit: Sandy Sisti
In this waking nightmare, the Trump administration has filled the parks department with anti-public land sycophants.
Under this administration, nothing is sacred as we watch the nation’s crown jewels being recut for the rings of robber barons.
For more than 100 years, professional management of our national parks has been respected under both Democratic and Republican administrations. Yes, they have different priorities, the Democrats often expanding the system and the Republicans historically focused on building facilities in the parks for expanding visitation. But the career public servants of the National Park Service (NPS), charged with stewarding America’s most important places, such as the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and the Statue of Liberty, were left to do their jobs.
Even in the dark days of interior secretaries James Watt and Gail Norton, both former attorneys with the anti-environmental Mountain States Legal Foundation, the National Park Service […]
Kentucky polling place
Credit: kentuckytoday.com
Last month, Kentucky elected Democratic governor Andy Beshear in a closely watch election – a landmark blue win in a mostly conservative state. One of the core promises of his campaign was to restore voting rights to 140,000 people with felony convictions, which he fulfilled immediately after taking office.
Weeks after Beshear issued his historic executive order, however, Kentucky Republicans have proposed a restrictive new bureaucratic hurdle that will likely make it more difficult for minorities and students in the state to vote.
The timing of the bill, which mandates that voters carry an identification card with a photo, is significant: Republicans made it a legislative priority and want it to be in effect for the 2020 general election. This is also the election when Republican senator Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader and a senior face of the establishment GOP, will run in a nationally-watched re-election fight.
Kentucky already requires voter ID at the polls, but the new policy would take this a […]
Trumpers
Psychologists have explained quite a lot about Donald Trump’s political invincibility and the unconditional allegiance of his followers. One well-supported explanation is that the president keeps his base loyal by keeping them fearful. Through persistent fear-mongering, with scary messages like, “Illegal immigrants are murderers and rapists,” and “Islam hates us,” Trump gets to play the role of the great protector.
But there is another major reason why Trump loyalists do not waver no matter how he behaves or what scandals come to light. For most evangelicals, it is not only fear that keeps them in line, but it is also faith. As a cognitive psychology researcher who has been writing about the science underlying Trump’s unshakable support since he began his presidential campaign, I have learned—through comments, emails, and discussion forums—that a significant portion of his supporters literally believe the president was an answer to their prayers. He is regarded as something of a messiah, sent by God to protect a Christian […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
