One step forward
For those Democrats suddenly convinced the culture wars are over, Heather Digby Parton writes, they’re not. They’ll never be over. If one battle in the culture war comes to a close, the war just shifts to another battlefield. Via Salon.
Devil’s deal
David Shipler writes in The Atlantic of the Faustian bargain between church and state: Churches resist electioneering in order to keep their tax-exempt status from the IRS. Shipler asks an obvious question: Is that Constitutional? If it’s not, why isn’t anyone challenging it?
Right turn
If the exit polls are right, the pre-election polls were all wrong, as Conservatives apparently win in a rout when the first polls said the election was dead even. Via fivethirtyeight.com
Power plays
The Iran review bill passes the Senate with near unanimity. But despite that bill, The National Journal writes, Obama has been gaining power to negotiate and wage war — not losing it.
Clean slate
Two major banks agree to do what seems like obviously the right thing — no longer forcing borrowers to pay debt that has been legally erased but that still lives on in their credit reports. Is that the end of zombie consumer debut? Via The New York Times.
Leave him
The best thing Hillary could do for her campaign, writes Rebecca Traister in The New Republic: Ditch Bill. Doesn’t he at least owe her that much?
Nailed it
The New York Times tells the sad story of an unlikely class of abused workers — manicurists. The report tells how nail specialists are underpaid and exploited and how they are often forced to endure ethnic bias and other abuse.
12 Angry Men
A brilliant Amy Schumer sketch/parody is all about the way men talking about women sounds to women. Via Vox.
