Wiretap: Trump’s flip-flop, Bernie’s revolution and Burning Man’s 30th birthday

Say what?

Donald Trump is expected Wednesday to give a speech in Arizona clarifying his new immigration policy. And, boy, does it need clarification. The Donald made immigration the centerpiece of his candidacy, favoring a “deportation force” to send 11 million or so undocumented immigrants back to where they came from. Now, he seems to be saying that undocumented immigrants shouldn’t be deported, but instead should have to pay back taxes. His supporters – including even the proxies he dispatched to speak for him on Sunday morning talk shows – seem confused about where, exactly, he stands. The New York Times reports on the mixed messages.

The Trump discrimination legacy

“My legacy has its roots in my father’s legacy,” Trump said last year. That legacy, as The Times reports, involve a long history of racial discrimination involving the Trump family’s real estate holdings – a business in which Trump got his start. This is a must-read investigation showing that accusations of racial bias are nothing new for the candidate.

Clinton followed, rather than led, on same-sex marriage

Hillary Clinton is running as strong advocate for the LGBT agenda. But it took her a while to sign on. The Washington Post reports on her decision not to champion same-sex marriage in 2008, and how it’s affecting her support eight years later. “Clinton’s path to get to this point frustrated many of her supporters,” The Washington Post reports, “While most national politicians have been slow to evolve on gay marriage, Clinton’s handling of it was particularly saddening to some activists because they had expected more.”

Revelations about the revolution

Bernie Sanders said he wanted a revolution. But, at least so far, he only kind-of, sort-of has delivered. Vox looks at the so-called “Our Revolution” movement, its rocky start and infighting, and its lack of momentum in state and local races.

Civic spying

Since the beginning of this year, a small Cessna airplane equipped with technology that once was used only be the military has been circling over Baltimore for as much as ten hours a day videoing the city. The footage is instantly archived and used by the Baltimore police as evidence in everything from property theft cases to shootings. Thing is, there’s no public disclosure about the secret program, which is being funded privately by a billionaire Enron trader. And this is a problem why? Because everyone in view of the super wide-angle camera is being watched. Via Bloomberg.

Abortion concerts

Writing for The National Review, Alexandra DeSanctis derides this a national series of upcoming concerts in celebration abortion access as a “celebration of death.” While she’s at it, DeSantis also take aim at what she sees as the “glorification” of abortion rights by a wide gamut of pro-choice groups using public events, social media and traditional media to get the message out about choice. “Groups such as these would have us believe that a greater willingness to chat casually over a cup of coffee about abortion experiences will make the whole thing less objectionable and persuade Americans of the indisputable value of abortion-on-demand,” she writes. DeSanctis hopes for a backlash. “Perhaps, instead, more people will begin to realize the horror of a movement that boasts of and celebrates its commitment to ending innocent life.”

The other pipeline

About 30 people – including a tribal chairman – have been arrested protesting a 1,172-mile project called the Bakken Pipeline, and also known as the Dakota Access Pipeline. The pipeline, billed as the next Keystone XL, passes through tribal lands and under the Missouri River on its way fromm North Dakota to Illinois. Mother Jones has been covering the outrage against the project and the escalating standoff against it.

The poetry of illness

There’s one word that bugged Max Ritvo more than all others – “inspiring.” It’s a label the world pinned on the young writer when he was diagnosed in his teens with a rare and fatal cancer and started writing, candidly, about the experience of being sick. About living with bad luck. About wishing everyone would stop looking to him for special insight or magical powers, just because he was dying. And about the tricky business of living in the present. His poetry is at once funny, raw and painfully beautiful. Ritvo died last week at age 25. We’ve lost a national treasure. Via The New York Times.

On the Road

As a kid, a young Texan named Mark Burns got hooked on landscape photography on trips with his dad to southwest Colorado. Now in his late 50s, he has completed the assignment of a lifetime – travelling 160,000 miles to photograph each of the 59 national parks for the occasion of the National Parks Service’s centennial. See the exquisite black and white landscapes that make up Burns’ National Parks Project. Via The Atlantic. And happy birthday, NPS!

Indulge your inner Burner

Speaking of birthdays…Burning Man turns 30 (which makes us feel old) this year, and things got hopping yesterday. If you couldn’t make it to the Playa in person, here’s the next best thing: a live stream you can watch without a sunburn or all those creepy green bugs.

Flickr photo by Jon Collier

 

 

The Colorado Independent is a statewide online news source operating in a time when spin is plentiful, but factual, fair and unflinching news in the public interest is all too rare. Our award-winning team of veteran investigative and explanatory reporters and news columnists aims to amplify the voices of Coloradans whose stories are unheard, shine light on the relationships between people, power and policy, and hold public officials to account. We strive to report the news with context, social conscience, and soul, and to give Coloradans the insight they need to promote conversation, understanding and progress in this square, swing state we call home.