"Unlike cynicism, hopefulness is hard-earned, makes demands upon us, and can often feel like the most indefensible and lonely place on Earth. Hopefulness is not a neutral position either. It is adversarial. It is the warrior emotion that can lay waste to cynicism."
~ Nick Cave
#hope
Veteran journalist Margaret Sullivan takes her journalistic guild to task for its response to the serious threat to US democracy right now. Key problems she identifies:
1. News organizations have turned Biden’s age (granted, a legitimate concern) into the equivalent of a scandal
2. The evidence-free Biden impeachment efforts in the House of Representatives are presented to news consumers without sufficient context.
#MediaFail #democracy #Biden #Trump
/1
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/15/trump-biden-mainstream-politics-news-coverage
About his own fellow Republicans, Romney now says,
“A very large portion of my party really doesn’t believe in the Constitution.”
Kuo adds,
"The truth is a welcome disinfectant today, even if the rot has been allowed to fester for years. We need to better understand the depth of Republican hypocrisy, cowardice, and fear in order to safeguard against its effects and call it out clearly. "
#Romney #Republicans #democracy #corruption
/2
Jay Kuo comments on Mitt Romeny's new "burn book," written by McKay Coppins, an excerpt of which just appeared in the Atlantic:
"Now that he has nothing to lose, along with a conscience and record he apparently wants to clear, Romney’s accounts of the GOP behind the scenes, and of the party he once led but now literally fears, are a gripping read, and ultimately very unsettling."
#Romney #Republicans #democracy #corruption
/1
https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/mitt-romney-calls-it-quits-and-his
"They confirm what many have long suspected but the Republican Party has kept secret behind closed doors, and for the first time they confirm a very dark threat to the rule of law in our Republic.
With this book, Romney has broken faith, and ranks, and the party’s deep pathologies and treachery to our constitution are being laid bare."
#Romney #Republicans #democracy #corruption
/2
Jay Kuo comments on Mitt Romeny's new "burn book," written by McKay Coppins, an excerpt of which just appeared in the Atlantic:
"Now that he has nothing to lose, along with a conscience and record he apparently wants to clear, Romney’s accounts of the GOP behind the scenes, and of the party he once led but now literally fears, are a gripping read, and ultimately very unsettling."
#Romney #Republicans #democracy #corruption
/1
https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/mitt-romney-calls-it-quits-and-his
As Parker Molloy notes, parents of trans young folks organized by the group Fight for the Future just sent the US Senate a letter which states,
"To the US Senate and all organizations supporting the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA):
We write to you as the parents of transgender kids to ask you to please not put our children in further danger by advancing dangerous and misguided legislation like the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA.)"
#children #trans
Tori Otten reports on a new poll conducted by ChangeResearch which finds that, in the 18–34 in age group, 64% of women are politically left of center, as are 86% of trans and nonbinary people. Just 39% of men identify as liberal or progressive.
Want to know who's driving the Republican-Trumpian attempt to break democracy as it appears democracy no longer serves Those Who Count?
This. 👆🏼
#gender #GenderRoles #patriarchy #MaleEntitlement
https://newrepublic.com/post/175556/poll-men-women-red-flags-dating
"The gerrymandering alone undermines Wisconsin’s status as a democracy. If a majority of the people cannot, under any realistic circumstances, elect a legislative majority of their choosing, then it’s hard to say whether they actually govern themselves."
~ Jamelle Bouie
#Trump #Republicans #democracy #BigLie #authoritarianism #gerrymandering
/3
"The removal of a judge who threatens the existing power structure by calling for more democratic representation is the sort of things we associate with authoritarian regimes. And now we associate it with Wisconsin."
#Trump #Republicans #democracy #BigLie #authoritarianism
/2
nostr:npub1lzz05275zkk6zwuzel45jusr74ftyyuah8zll8vl09k98w8smy7qedjhl3 true, the "again" is ambiguous, so the supporter can fill it in with what racist or bigoted thing they can imagine. It's kind of a genius slogan tbh
nostr:npub1554hvhvwdlef73t24cqrk4l3c7as0erwtxas07yq3m6cx8auxwsqemrx00 Yes, I think that's how the word's meant to function rhetorically. And PRRI's research has found repeatedly that a very large percentage of white US Christians hanker for the "again" of the 1950s, which they imagine as a golden era in which they were on top and everyone else knew their place. They are perhaps the biggest consumers of this Trumpian rhetoric.
nostr:npub19cr8a8l46vj3ymuv2ja4x543gp8ncmvk5xlqvvxssp2lzlw6ax0sgnqyum Yes, would be hard for anyone else to humiliate the man more than he has humiliated himself.
nostr:npub1w5vpr5y9ky9juusa3cawd6cqsz70y5escn7yfqnzfjpjpkwjgurssn79f9 I hear you. At the same time, hilarious, isn't it?
nostr:npub1w47hnjukvf66wj284cpkehpcd8spkht4r0sm9d4nzflu6fv8d6ps38mj88 I wholheartedly agree.
nostr:npub16qptyvc6446hu66ahlluvymv7eu9f4q32e567d7mxqk7l5acu4wqz2u0e9 Excellent. You're exactly right, and put the point so well.
Kim Wehle says today
"THE REPUBLICAN-DOMINATED ALABAMA LEGISLATURE is hellbent on constraining the black (read: Democratic) vote in that state—and on doing it illegally."
That's absolutely correct.
And on the very same day two of New York Times' biggest BS artists (BS = both sides), David Leonhardt and Nate Cohn spin a fable about how people of color increasingly vote Republican and white people are votingn more liberal.
Which is total BS.
#race #politics #Alabama
https://plus.thebulwark.com/p/alabama-republicans-lawless-lawmakers
"What do you do when your candidate is twice impeached and four times indicted? Apparently, MAGA Republicans will do anything to try and make it look like the score is even ahead of the general election. So here we are."
~ Joyce Vance
#Republicans #Trump #crime #impeachment #theater #distraction #ClownShow
"A new liberal tilt to the court is driving Republican fears of losing their large legislative majorities, which were built under some of the most gerrymandered political maps in the country."
#Wisconsin #Republicans #gerrymandering #democracy
/2
"Wisconsin Republicans have enjoyed outsize control of the Legislature in one of the most closely divided states for a dozen years. Maintaining that power is now at the heart of a drama involving the state Supreme Court that has national political implications."
~ Scott Bauer and David A. Lieb
#Wisconsin #Republicans #gerrymandering #democracy
/1
"White men have controlled women’s reproductive rights throughout US history. The post-Dobbs era is no different.
This is not the first period in U.S. history when white men have exercised control over women’s right to bear – or not bear – children, including during slavery."
~ Rodney Coates
#men #race #women #abortion #WomensRights
"Republicans have openly admitted that their efforts to impeach President Joe Biden — which will begin in earnest this week as House members return to DC from summer break — are in bad faith. They don’t just want to tarnish Biden. They want to tarnish the impeachment process itself."
~ Noah Berlatsky
#Republicans #impeachment #Biden #democracy
/1
https://www.publicnotice.co/p/house-republicans-biden-impeachment-23-explained
"As the GOP has become increasingly authoritarian and anti-democracy, Republicans have become increasingly committed to undermining and mocking forms of democratic accountability. A nakedly partisan and clownish impeachment is useful because it signals to voters that all impeachments are clown shows, and all impeachments are partisan. That exculpates former President Donald Trump and delegitimizes resistance to him should he win the presidency again."
#Republicans #impeachment #Biden
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