Many reasonable doubters I come across in my UFO digging ask me how the government could possibly keep something like this a secret all these years, and I like to answer that question with one of my own: what if they haven’t?
It seems genteel and quaint today, compared to what we’re living through now, but at the time, to a lot of people, the Reagan revolution was shocking. He and his movement launched a massive assault on everything liberalism had advanced in the previous two decades: civil rights, women’s rights, concern for the environment, opposition to an immoral war (Vietnam) and excessive militarism, and more.Reagan also took aim at other, fatter targets: inflation, the disappearance of Rust Belt jobs, an America exposed as weakened by OPEC and Iran; rising crime, an explosion of welfare rolls, and the general sense that the country was in collapse. One expected a conservative Republican to attack all these. But Reagan went out of his way to undermine the whole project of twentieth-century liberalism, appointing people to run pieces of the executive branch who were outright hostile to those agencies’ missions. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Pam Bondi are bad, no doubt about that; but go read up on James Watt and Ed Meese and Anne Gorsuch Burford (yes, she has a certain son who is prominent today).Democrats and liberals were on their heels. The congressional Democratic Party of the early 1980s was still more like it was in the 1930s than it is today—that is, it was a hybrid of Northern and Western liberals and Boll Weevil Southerners who were raised on the New Deal but were turning increasingly conservative. So a lot of them voted for most parts of the Reagan program.A few stalwart liberals like Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy stood their ground (most of the time). But one man did more. Jesse Jackson, who died Tuesday, was certainly famous then—first for having been there on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel on April 4, 1968, when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, and for his civil rights activism in subsequent years. But he was still just the head of Operation PUSH, a Chicago-based social service and activist organization. And he decided that someone needed to be the voice of those the Reagan revolution had trampled—the Black and brown and poor; the white farmer (he campaigned a lot in farm country); the people whose supposed moral shortcomings were being constantly denounced on the then-new medium of cable news television, even as new shows like Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous celebrated the “morals” of the new rich class, like the huckster who built that temple to his own ego at Fifth Avenue and 57th Street.So Jackson ran for president in 1984 in the Democratic primaries. It was clear from the start that Walter Mondale, a respected senator and former vice president whose “turn” it was that year, was going to be the nominee. Gary Hart, then a young senator from Colorado, also ran, challenging Mondale mostly on generational arguments. Five senators’ campaigns lasted into late February and early March.But Jackson ran the full race. He won two contests—Louisiana and, oh yeah, the District of Columbia—and collected 3.3 million votes. He built and energized something called “the Black vote,” which wasn’t really a thing nationally until 1984, and his campaign rhetoric about a “rainbow coalition” reminded Americans that the Reagan movement, while popular and very easily reelected, was leaving millions of Americans behind.That laid the groundwork for 1988. In 1984, Jackson ran to make a statement. In 1988, though, he was running to try to win. He didn’t; Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis did. But he finished second—ahead of prominent Democrats Al Gore, Dick Gephardt, and Paul Simon—with 13 victories, 6.9 million votes, and more than 1,000 delegates. Jackson never really seemed like he was truly going to win. But I do remember his massive victory in the late-March Michigan caucuses. That shocked people, and it put a scare into the party establishment. Three weeks later came the big New York primary. I was a young political reporter in New York at the time, and I remember those weeks well. If Jackson could somehow win New York, would people have to start taking seriously the idea that he could be the nominee?He got the progressive unions, and he spoke at large, boisterous rallies. But in the end the establishment rallied behind Dukakis, and Jackson finished a distant second (but still way ahead of Gore, who ran an embarrassingly Israel-centric campaign). He petered out toward the end of the primaries but had done enough to earn a marquee speaking slot at the convention, where he delivered a barn burner (he was one of the great political orators of our time). And his campaigns were the glue that brought a lot of up-and-coming progressives together for the first time. I remember Harold Ickes, then a top Jackson aide, telling me to keep my eye on a young state senator from Maryland who was working on the campaign. His name was Jamie Raskin.So Jackson was the leader of the party’s progressive wing. At the same time, though, something was brewing in the party’s stronger establishment wing: Al From founded the Democratic Leadership Council in 1985, and he hitched the centrist DLC’s wagon to the talented Bill Clinton, and the rest is history. Despite representing very different politics, Jackson and Clinton always kind of liked each other, and Jackson, of course, still wanted to be a player. So he invited Clinton to come speak to his Rainbow Coalition conference in Washington in June 1992. I was there that day. It was a normal speech for about 15 minutes, nothing special, and then Clinton started in on this riff about this obscure rapper named Sister Souljah—condemning her quote about killing white people. There was no mystery about what Clinton was up to—pundits had been after him for weeks to “stand up to the special interests.” Jackson, at a press conference shortly after Clinton left, was clearly annoyed. But within a month, Jackson endorsed Clinton. “It takes two wings to fly,” I remember Jackson saying regularly at the time, reminding the dominant centrists that there were Democrats who were leery of free trade, angry about this new problem of income inequality, perfectly happy with big government, and eager to see their party defend unions and workers.The centrists called the shots for a long time. But 30 years on, who’s won that economic argument? On the four matters I name above, and a few more, it’s Jackson’s positions that are today ascendant. And it all traces back to his brave decision to confront Reaganism head-on at the precise moment that it was at its most triumphant. Jackson was a man of many accomplishments, and yes, a fair share of flaws. But for that decision, he deserves our thanks, and history’s respect.
After <em>The Hollywood Reporter</em> wrote that he's been "terrorizing" New Orleans for the last week, TMZ reported that he'd been arrested, then <em>Page Six</em> broke the story on him and Goth.
Look around. Day to day, steadily more Americans understand that we have to get Beyond Donald. It isn’t a done deal though it is getting there. But then what?  “Don’t muddy the waters with such a question,” some would reply. “We have enough on our minds. We have enough to do right now without worrying [...]
Some wars brutalise, and others erase. Gaza has been erased for the past 3 years. In the crowded, coastal strip of just 140 square kilometres, the detonation of a 2,000-pound MK-84 bomb does more than level concrete, leaving no trace of nearly 3,000 Palestinians. It creates a fireball reaching roughly 3,500 degrees Celsius — about [...]
Not Our President's Day, thank God, has passed. Along with mattress sales, it was marked by many middle fingers in the air, a typically grotesque message from a tainted White House, and news that a massive, ill-fated, gold-leaf statue of the worst president in history, hilariously dubbed "Don Colossus," remains stranded on its back in an Ohio warehouse as its creator and a bunch of crooked crypto bros - surprise! no surprise! - back-stab and bicker about money. May he rot there, please.The general sentiment around our latest National Holiday was best summed up by one post: "Happy Presidents Day. Except the current one. Fuck that guy." He didn't win any points by marking the day spewing the usual hateful vulgarity "in the creepiest way possible," declaring in a vengeful post, "They came after the wrong man. I was the hunted. Now I'm the hunter." He is also, of course, "one sick dude," old, dazed and confused with unprecedented low approval ratings, maybe because all he does is lie, bully, bribe, be bribed and in his gluttonous delusion insist, “We have the greatest economy actually ever in history” as he rips us off for billions by selling his name for hopeful airports and don't forget their trashy "clothing, handbags, luggage, jewelry, watches, and tie clips." Democracy dies in tie clips. Now, in one final, loutish indignity, he - or at least a gaudy doppelgänger - is being held hostage in Zanesville OH for a $92,000 payment, having been both delayed and downgraded from a planned prime spot at his inauguration to his Doral golf course - specifically, the tenth hole. The statue saga began when sculptor Alan Cottrill, who's made about 400 figures on commission, including bronzes of 16 past presidents and a Thomas Edison now in the Capitol, got a call from an unknown Las Vegas sculptor asking if he'd like to make a statue commemorating Trump's brave ear being allegedly grazed in Butler, Pennsylvania - an "iconic" 2024 moment a consortium of 16 cryptocurrency enthusiasts deemed "a turning point in world history," also a cool chance to "show our appreciation of his embrace of crypto." LOL.The original plan was to unveil a bronze, 15-foot, 2,400-pound Don Colossus, installed on a 6,000-pound concrete base, at Trump’s inauguration, positing it to loom over the National Mall. The roughly month-long timeline was tight - Cottrill had to work "crazy fast" - and he was to be paid $300,000. There were tough moments. When he replicated Trump's "turkey neck," the crypto boys were "aghast" and requested "a more flattering, less realistic look." The hardest part was the hair: "Holy shmoly! You can't sculpt and cast something that is....wispy." Still, he toiled away at it, and met the deadline. The night before one of the crypto clutch called: Temps had plunged, the Secret Service had moved Inauguration Day inside where a two-story rapist might pose a danger, and the new plan was to install Don later at his Doral resort. The statue malingered in a warehouse in DC, then in another in Pittsburgh. Cottrill got paid over time, but "every payment arrived weeks late." In November, he approached his patrons with a shiny new idea: The bronze was burnished to look gold, but what if they coated it in Trump's beloved gold leaf? The proposal was "like a glass of water to a person dying of thirst - Immediately everybody jumped on board." But finding someone to work on a giant Trump statue proved tough; several declined the job "because of the subject matter" before someone agreed to slather it in a layer of 23.75-carat gold leaf. A photo was sent to the felon, who loved it - "Wow, it's so bright and beautiful" - a plan was formed to install the pedestal at "a juicy spot" near three palm trees at the 10th hole, and the crypto investors began "actively looking” for a launch date.But Cottrill suddenly charged the crypto guys - who include Dustin Stockton, a GOP strategist investigated by federal agents for the "We Build The Wall" fraud Steve Bannon did time for - with copyright infringement, arguing they'd gone behind his back for months to promote their $PATRIOT cryptocurrency while marketing the statue: "That was their play all along." Instantly, the deal got bogged down in the volatile world of crypto, a meme coin only worth what current speculation makes of it; things got really messy when the gluttonous Trump, smelling money, launched his own $TRUMP coin days before his inauguration, hammering the $PATRIOT value before itself predictably tanking to over 95% below its peak. Still, and despite charges of massive conflict of interest, Trump has reportedly raked in $1.4 billion from this crap.Meanwhile, Don Colossus is being held hostage in "financial purgatory" by Cottrill, who claims the crypto guys are both ripping him off and refusing to fork up their final payment. "They keep saying, 'Oh don’t worry Alan, we’ll pay you, we’ll pay you,' but actually they've been illegally infringing on the copyright of my original art right up to the present day." They're also continuing a bizarre social media campaign, posting images of the pedestal - all they have - with promos for their meme coin. "The dream is alive and well," they proclaim. "What the president has in store for the $PATRIOT community and his inner circle for this unveiling will surely be spectacular!" They say they hope to offer Trump one of Cottrill's earlier miniature versions, coated in the same gold finish; they'd love to have it placed in the Oval Bordello, along with all its trashy drek.The crypto cartel argue they'll pay their final installment before Don "leaves for Doral," and Cottrill is "trying to squeeze us for it." But Cottrill says he already went to Doral a few weeks ago to install the base; he brought along a 12-inch version to scope out the site - "It was the only thing I could fit in my hand luggage" - and a landscape architect dug up and re-positioned the palm trees just so. "The gold leaf in the Florida sun - it’s going to be brilliant," he pledges. "But what they owe me is $91,200, and it's not leaving until they pay me." For all the aggravation, Cottrill says he's enjoyed working on the project. But it's taken up a lot of space in his studio for a long time, and now, "I'd like to get it the hell out of here." Many, many Americans can relate. See on Instagram
New Mexico’s state House is looking to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s ranch in the state, unanimously passing a bill on Monday to establish an investigatory subcommittee to see what the convicted sex criminal was up to there.One of the bill’s co-sponsors, state Representative Andrea Romero, called the committee a “Truth Commission” that will use testimony, subpoena powers, and public records to “put the whole story together.”New Mexicans “deserve to know the truth about what went on at the Zorro Ranch and who knew about it. We have heard years of allegations and rumors about Epstein’s activities in New Mexico, but unfortunately, federal investigations have failed to put together an official record,” Romero said in a statement. “With this Truth Commission, we can finally fill in the gaps by investigating the failures that led to the horrific allegations of abuse and crime at Zorro Ranch, so we can learn from them and prevent such atrocities from taking place in our state going forward.”Epstein’s Zorro Ranch was a sprawling 7,500 acres that he bought in 1993, which had its own helipad and airstrip. Court documents say that sex trafficking took place there with the help of Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, but the federal government has never conducted a full search of the property. In 2019, then–New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas said his office conducted its own investigation and found “activity that occurred in New Mexico that was still viable for prosecution, including contact with multiple victims.”Balderas added that federal prosecutors in New York asked his office to hold back on any investigations or prosecutions related to Epstein, as they had their own ongoing investigation of Epstein. In emails released earlier this month, Manhattan federal prosecutors said in 2019 that they had spoken with the New Mexico attorney general’s office, who they said had “agreed to cease any investigation into sex trafficking and share whatever they had gathered regarding sex trafficking activity with our office.”Years later, New Mexico authorities are going to be taking a full look at what happened on the ranch. Several of Epstein’s victims have testified that they were abused there, but Epstein successfully managed to keep those activities hidden for many years, even from his neighbors. With this commission, the truth may finally come out.
After staving off major mark-ups during the holiday season, American companies are finally starting to hike prices in response to President Donald Trump’s tariffs and other policies making business more expensive, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. The initial tariff-driven price spike started to dull in October and fell before Black Friday—but it is back for a post-Christmas price reset, according to Alberto Cavallo, a professor at Harvard Business School who tracks online prices of U.S. retailers. Between the end of November and February 10, the prices of most affordable imported goods rose by 2.3 percent, according to Cavallo.Driven by the rising price of appliances, bedding, computers, electronics, and furniture, online prices posted their largest monthly increase in a dozen years, according to the Adobe digital price index.American companies aren’t shying away from blaming Trump’s tariffs for the suddenly soaring prices.After delaying price increases on winter goods, Columbia Sportswear said it intended to up the price of spring and fall merchandise by, on average, a high single-digit percent. Speaking on an earnings call earlier this month, Columbia’s chief executive Tim Boyle said that raising prices, and other mitigation measures like renegotiating prices with its factories, was intended to “offset the dollar impact of high tariffs.”Levi Strauss raised prices in January in response to Trump’s tariffs, and is continuing to mark up price tags in February. The company said it identified more opportunities to boost prices on new, high-end items, while only moderately increasing the price of entry-level products.McCormick & Co said that tariff expenses added a whopping $70 million in gross costs last year, and will add $50 million in incremental costs this year. The spice maker initially raised prices in September, and plans to increase prices again this month.The Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling on Trump’s disastrous tariff policy as early as Friday. But tariffs aren’t the only Trump administration policies making business more expensive.Structural Systems Repair Group, a Cincinnati-based construction company, was forced to raise prices by 10 to 15 percent after tariffs and health care costs for its 115 employees both increased by 10 percent. In 2026, the absence of Affordable Care Act subsidies, which elapsed under the Trump administration, has caused health insurance premiums to spike even higher.