“The racial justice movement, the Black Lives Matter movement, is a particular target of these organizations. Obviously, if you’re a white supremacist you don’t care for racial justice and these are people who you want to stop from expressing their views and reforming American democracy in a positive direction. The government needs to be paying attention to this.”
-Dr. Heidi Beirich
Oddly enough, the narrative coming from the Trump administration about voter fraud is not at all new. In late November of 2016 President Trump tweeted that he would have also won the popular vote, “if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.” Even though he provided no evidence for that claim then, it became a cornerstone of the rhetoric of his administration.
Yesterday’s hearing on “Oversight of the Department of Justice” brought Attorney General William Barr before the House Judiciary Committee to answer questions and provide insight on a number of events that he and the Department of Justice have been involved in.
The questions ranged widely throughout the hearing and varied greatly by party. The topics included the murder of George Floyd and the ensuing worldwide protests to support the Black Lives Matter movement, the Roger Stone case, the Michael Flynn case, the Mueller Report, Russian interference in the 2016 and 2020 elections, Jeffrey Epstein, the photo-op at St. Johns Church and the precursory clearing of protesters from Lafayette Park, and more.
Attorney General William Barr testified before the House Judiciary Committee Today
He consistently dismissed any notions of systemic racism in the U.S., struggled to answer questions related to the appropriateness of tear-gassing protesters, and attempted to protect President Trump and provide support for law enforcement.
The authors of the study noted “that a single-payer, universal health-care system is likely to lead to a 13% savings in national health-care expenditure, equivalent to more than $450 billion annually.” It follows that if a Medicare for All single-payer system would lead to a 13% savings in expenditure, then funding such a program shouldn’t be a major concern. Rather than individuals paying into an insurance company or out of pocket at exorbitant rates, they would pay directly to the government via taxes to fund universal healthcare. Such a system eliminates massive CEO salaries and bonuses, puts an end to the price-gouging of the pharmaceutical industry, and ensures that no American goes without coverage or without care.
The War on Drugs has been an immense failure to the American people. It has made the United States into the country with the largest population of incarcerated people on the planet. It has torn apart countless communities, particularly poor communities and communities of color. It has enriched those who have invested in the prison-industrial complex and pressured our politicians to continue pushing archaic policies in the face of contradictory scientific evidence.
The Political Historian 