Monday Reads

Handouts by the superrich almost always mean there are strings attached.
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Hillary Clinton launches her presidential campaign.
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I'll believe it when I see it, Paul.

The bribery money is just too tempting to pass up, and these Wall Street types and billionaires never give away money unless they get something in return.
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This piece about the Dolezal mess really gets to the basic incoherence of identitarian nonsense, including and especially transgenderism:

The transrace/transgender comparison makes clear the conceptual emptiness of the essentializing discourses, and the opportunist politics, that undergird identitarian ideologies. There is no coherent, principled defense of the stance that transgender identity is legitimate but transracial is not, at least not one that would satisfy basic rules of argument. The debate also throws into relief the reality that a notion of social justice that hinges on claims to entitlement based on extra-societal, ascriptive identities is neoliberalism’s critical self-consciousness. In insisting on the political priority of such fictive, naturalized populations identitarianism meshes well with neoliberal naturalization of the structures that reproduce inequality. In that sense it’s not just a pointed coincidence that Dolezal’s critics were appalled with the NAACP for standing behind her work. It may be that one of Rachel Dolezal’s most important contributions to the struggle for social justice may turn out to be having catalyzed, not intentionally to be sure, a discussion that may help us move beyond the identitarian dead end.


The pointing out of neoliberalism means this is about libertarianism, which is inherently flawed. You can call yourself whatever you want; there is no such thing as objective reality, and the rest of us must accept your definition as truth.

In short, the inmates are running the asylum.

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Obituary: Famed burlesque star Blaze Starr, 83, has died.

She was also noted for her affair with Louisiana governor Earl Long.

Blaze Starr, a Wayne County native who became one of America’s most famous burlesque stars and strippers, died early Monday morning at the age of 83.

Born in Wilsondale as Fannie Belle Fleming on April 10, 1932, Starr may have been best known for her affair with Louisiana Gov. Earl K. Long, the brother of Louisiana Gov. and U.S. Sen. Huey P. “Kingfish” Long Jr. The two met when Starr was performing at the Sho-Bar in New Orleans.

Their relationship was featured in the 1989 film “Blaze,” starring Paul Newman and Lolita Davidovich. The movie was based on Starr’s memoir, co-written with Huntington resident Huey Perry, who had taught high school in Mingo County, and published in 1974.

From 1950 through the 1970s, Starr was based at the Two O’Clock Club in Baltimore, where she got the nickname “The Hottest Blaze in Burlesque.”

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Arizona teachers are leaving in droves.

When you treat teachers like shit, don't expect them to stick around.

Nevada is almost as bad for teachers.
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