What you need to know today - 8/29

OK, you don't want Trump. But exactly what do you want? And the answer is that you do not know. 

To counter every signature Trump issue, there is almost no rational alternative advanced. That void helps explain the bizarre, three-year litany of dreaming of impeachment, the emoluments clause, the Logan Act, the 25th Amendment, the Mueller special-counsel investigation, Stormy Daniels and Michael Avenatti, Trump’s tax returns, White Supremacy!, Recession! — and Lord knows what next.

When the family is vanishing, you only have "identity." ‘The Great Scattering’: How Identity Panic Took Root in the Void Once Occupied by Family Life 

Let’s try a new theory: Our macro-politics have become a mania about identity because our micropolitics are no longer familial. This, above all, is what happened during the decades in which identity politics went from being a phrase in an obscure quasi-radical document to a way of being that has gone on to transform academia, law, media, culture and government.

Yes, racism, sexism and other forms of cruelty exist, and are always to be deplored and countered. At the same time, the timeline of identity politics suggest another source. Up until the middle of the twentieth century (and barring the frequent foreshortening of life by disease or nature) human expectations remained largely the same throughout the ages: that one would grow up to have children and a family; that parents and siblings and extended family would remain one’s primal community; and that, conversely, it was a tragedy not to be part of a family. The post-1960s order of sexual consumerism has upended every one of these expectations.

Who am I? is a universal human question. It becomes harder to answer if other basic questions are problematic or out of reach. 

There are fires in the Amazon. But "the Amazon" is not burning. The Great Amazon Fire Fraud

Hysterics (like President Macron) robotically describe the Amazon rain forest as the Earth’s “lungs.” And it is true that over the years, there has been some deforestation in Brazil and other countries in the Amazon region, as they continue to develop. But what liberals never mention is that overall, the Earth is getting greener. Forested areas, worldwide, are growing, not shrinking, in large part due to the increasing concentration of CO2–plant food–in the atmosphere. (CO2 is great for the environment.) You can see this easily in satellite photographs. Deserts are shrinking and vegetated areas are growing.

Segregation today. Segregation tomorrow. Segregation forever! Kentucky district to open STEM school to support girls of color

The district plans to open the academy for the 2020-21 school year. It will initially serve about 150 sixth graders with plans to expand to serve grades six through eight. The district expects the school to serve a total of 450 students from all over the county. The district opened a similar school last year aimed at supporting boys of color.

So racial segregation is official government policy in Kentucky. Well.

Today's "tell me another one" entry.  From presidential candidate Kamala Harris:

Let's fill in the rest of the story.

"The root of this is the strange obsession with racism that has become a religion of its own over the last two decades. The anointing of Obama as the completion of the Second Founding, the event that was supposed to wash the stains of slavery, segregation and racism from America, instead ushered in an era of race panic. The Left is in a near frenzy over racism, which they now see everywhere. It is an obsession to the point where even the so-called Right is infected by it." Read the rest at Civic Anti-Racism.

I got that from Gerard's link-fest so go there and read all his good stuff (after you are done here, of course!).

And finally: