Democracy Survives in North Carolina

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What the hell happened in politics this week? Esquire's legendary blogger Charlie P. Pierce has answers

A Serious Attempt in North Carolina to Thwart American Democracy Just Crashed and Burned

There's good news at last from North Carolina as the Republican attempt to ratfck the state's supreme court has finally crashed and burned. The record shows that, during the six months (!) he's spent challenging the results of the election, Griffin has not respected any of the three (!!) counts that showed him as having lost the election. He has not respected at all the rules under which the election was held.

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The New Pope Is a Child of the American Suburban Church

There had not been another Leo until this Thursday, when a new pope was elected and took the name of Leo XIV. He was Robert Cardinal Prevost, and he was born outside Chicago. U.S. Freaking A. So he's a child of the American suburban church, like millions of other baby boomers, including me. First communions. May parades. Midnight masses at Christmas. His mother was one of those parish church ladies who kept everything running. Children going to the parish school.

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Trump's Commencement Speech at the University of Alabama Was a Performance of Complete Lunacy

The president went down to the University of Alabama on Thursday night to deliver the commencement address. It was not a solemn event. It was a performance of complete lunacy, one of the worst things that campus has seen since George Wallace stood in the schoolhouse door back in 1963. He did caution the graduates not to behave like victims, and he did not immediately burst into flames. There is no God.

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In Escalating Trump's War with Harvard, Education Secretary Linda McMahon Comes Off as Plain Stupid

That we have a secretary of education whose only experience in education is teaching preadolescent boys to jump on each other's heads, and that she now is the willing vehicle for a half-mad walking Newsmax talking point, are for the moment unsolvable problems. But I would call your attention to the letter itself. It is proof either that the secretary of education didn't get anywhere near enough education or that she hired on some Artificial Intelligence that was Genuine Stupid.

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Trump's Poll Numbers Have Plummeted and He's Not Taking It Well at All

The president's poll numbers are headed for Middle Earth. It is not possible to ignore that now. Confronted with his own unpopularity, the president is doing the logical thing and lashing out at the pollsters. The president is taking this with his usual cool equanimity.

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