No crime
This may not surprise you, but the GOP’s interest in defunding Planned Parenthood apparently has nothing to do with whether the organization has done anything illegal. Three House committees and six states have investigated Planned Parenthood since the highly edited sting videos were released. As The Hill reports, none has found evidence that Planned Parenthood broke any laws.
Closed doors
Amy Davidson says Europe seems to be finally awakening to the refugee crisis, for good and for bad. But the question is: When will America? Via The New Yorker.
Getting worse
As if things weren’t difficult enough in Syria, the Russians have now sent in the tanks in support of President Bashar al-Assad. Now what? Via The New York Times.
Black families
Ta-Nehisi Coates on the black family in the age of mass incarceration — and how the sudden interest in the issue from politicians doesn’t take into account its long and sad history. Via The Atlantic.
Moderate implosions
Krugman explains what happened to the Blairite center of the British Labour Party and how Jeremy Corbin’s unlikely election as party leader is less a matter of the party moving to the left than the moderates imploding. Via The New York Times.
Great commission
Bernie Sanders goes to Liberty University to bring his brand of democratic socialism to an evangelical audience. The students — attendance was required — were quiet but respectful. And the biggest cheer came when Sanders was asked how his stance on abortion fit with his concerns for social injustice. Via The New Republic.
Face off
You can thank the Donald for turning Carly Fiorina, an avowed non-feminist, into the accidental feminist. All you have to do is watch her these-are-the-faces-of-women ad. Via The Daily Beast.
Screen time
The terrible movie (says the movie critic) that explains Ben Carson’s appeal to his Republican audience. Via Politico.
Lotsa talk
Three speeches. Hillary Clinton says she is unworried by her 29-point drop among women in a Washington Post/ABC News poll. It’s just a poll, after all. Donald Trump goes to Texas to say America is a “dumping ground” for the rest of the world. Those being dumped are people who are illegal immigrants. And Chris Cillizza annotates the Bern’s speech at Liberty University.
Photo credit: Timothy Krause, Creative Commons, Flickr.
