
In light of their failed attempt to make Hunter Biden’s laptop a credible scandal, it appears the GOP is scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas to bring down Joe Biden in the remaining days before the 2020 election.
At least the former scandal held just a morsel of entertainment value for all of us, regardless of political affiliations. This one is so boring I might use it to induce a state of hibernation in myself for the month of November, depending on the election results.
Apparently, House GOP members have penned a letter to Amtrak CEO William Flynn questioning whether or not Biden — an avid Amtrak rider who has described trains as his “favorite means of transportation”—wasted funds from the already struggling railway company in order to charter his Build Back Better Express Tour, which took the Biden campaign through various cities in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Both states went to Trump in 2016, and could hold the key to a win for either candidate. …

On Tuesday, October 13th, Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee tweeted “The word abortion does not appear in the Constitution,” insinuating that abortion is therefore unconstitutional.
This incredible logical leap should bring us all a collective sigh of relief. No more arguing over Amy Coney Barrett, no more defending or decrying judicial review — we don’t need a Supreme Court at all, as it turns out! We can simply hit Ctrl-F on a PDF of the Constitution and search for keywords to determine whether something is unconstitutional or not.
Luckily for you, I’ve done just that. According to Blackburnian Thought, here‘s a list of three other things that are as un-American as abortion. …

I was in first grade when George W. Bush won the 2000 presidential race. Ceremoniously, my class held a mock election right before the real one.
In our simulation, Al Gore won, which is not surprising given I was raised in a large suburb outside of dependably progressive Seattle. Only a handful of kids voted for Bush, and I was one of them.
At that age, kids either voted for whoever their parents supported or the guy that their friends wrote down. …

You can’t claim to be a champion of equality and cast your vote for a man who, by all accounts, is not. Look no further than the Supreme Court and Trump’s potential replacement of the late women’s rights champion Ruth Bader Ginsburg with Amy Coney Barrett, a proud member of People for Praise — a conservative Catholic group that believes men should control their household and their wives, as well as prohibiting women from leadership positions within the organization.
And sure, maybe Barrett will shock us all and be the objective judge she wants us to think she is, but Trump does enough damage in this area without any help from the Supreme Court. Remember his ban on transgender individuals in the military, which not only barred transgender people from enlisting but denied active transgender service members access to hormone therapy or gender-affirming surgeries? Or this administration’s concerted efforts to roll back anti-discrimination laws that protect Americans from being fired from their workplace or denied healthcare based on their gender identity or sexual orientation? …

Amidst the national grief over the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on September 18th, there has been another overwhelming emotion in the heart of many Americans: anger. This collective outrage stems from realizing that the passing of one justice in the highest court of the land could spell the end for so many human rights gains made over the past decades, including but not limited to abortion, same-sex marriage, and the right to healthcare.
What kind of democracy do we live in when the life of someone none of us voted for — or could vote for — was so crucial in protecting the rights of historically subjugated and marginalized Americans? …

If you follow climate-related news, you’ve almost certainly seen a particular fact regarding corporate emissions floating around the past couple of years. It was first brought to mainstream media attention after it was published in the 2017 CDP Carbon Majors Report and according to FullFact, it is, unfortunately, true: between the years 1988 and 2015, 71% of all man-made greenhouse gas emissions were traced back to just 100 companies.
Upon seeing this troubling statistic, you may feel helpless. If most emissions are linked to just 100 companies, why does the burden fall on you as a consumer to be eco-conscious? You may feel like all the previous efforts you’ve made to live sustainably — efforts that take a lot of time, energy, and often money — are so minuscule in the grand scheme of things that there really is no point to them at all. …

Back in April, when Bernie Sanders announced that he was suspending his presidential campaign, I tweeted “Tell me why I should vote for Joe Biden. I won’t accept ‘he’s not Trump’ or ‘he’s better than Trump.’ How? Tell me. Why should I trust anything he says? Why should I play into the hand of the corrupt Democratic establishment and vote for their cherry-picked candidate again?”
I meant it. I was angry. As someone who supported and campaigned for Sanders when he ran against Hillary Clinton in 2016 and again this election cycle, I was livid at what was essentially yet another move by the DNC to slow Sanders’ momentum like they had in 2016. This time, they encouraged all the other Democratic candidates to drop out and rally behind Biden — a candidate who didn’t challenge their platform or openly criticize them like Sanders had. …