FM123
FM123's JournalReddit Is Done Pretending The Donald Is Fine
(The Atlantic) The social platform just banned the president’s most notorious internet fan club, as part of a sitewide purge of forums that “promote hate.”
Reddit is banning one of its most notorious communities today, the subreddit—or forum—dedicated to discussion of President Donald Trump.
The ban comes after years of controversy around r/The_Donald and its promotion of racism, anti-Semitism, conspiracy theories, and violent memes starring a cartoon frog. Reddit is also removing 2,000 other communities today, including the 160,000-member subreddit associated with the popular left-wing podcast Chapo Trap House. And alongside the purge, Reddit is debuting an updated content policy that is significantly more detailed than its previous list of rules—a change that was promised three weeks ago in response to conversations about Black Lives Matter.
The new policy’s preamble states in part that “no community should be used as a weapon,” and that users should not “interfere” with communities they are not a member of—a reference to the long-standing tradition of “brigading,” or coordinated trolling. r/The_Donald, which had 790,000 members at the time of the ban, was well known for this behavior, and Reddit’s bare-bones policies and sporadic enforcement of them often meant that the moderators of targeted subreddits had to come up with their own jerry-rigged tools to prevent harassment. r/The_Donald was quarantined in June 2019—meaning that it would no longer show up in site search results and couldn’t display ads—but Steve Huffman, Reddit’s co-founder and CEO, has vocally resisted calls to remove the subreddit until now.
Read More https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/06/reddit-ban-the-donald-chapo-content-policy/613639/
Which one of these servicemembers were killed for their bounty, trump - answer me you coward!
(Stars and Stripes) Afghanistan: Remembering the fallen of 2019
https://www.stripes.com/news/afghanistan-remembering-the-fallen-of-2019-1.613124
Bye Ivanka.
(HuffPost) The hashtag #ByeIvanka trended nationwide on Twitter late Friday following the release of a new video highlighting the hypocrisy of President Donald Trump and his administration.
MeidasTouch, a progressive PAC, took White House adviser Ivanka Trump’s widely derided announcement from Friday on the federal government prioritizing job applicants’ skills over college degrees, and spliced it with previous comments her father has made about nepotism and appointing rich people.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1276700527041052676
I just hate pence so much, even watching little clips of him on the news makes me sick!
I don't know who our Veep will be, but I can not wait for the VP debates when she knocks him on his ass then wipes the floor with him!
The U.S. Military Has a Boogaloo Problem
(VICE News) The U.S. military appears to have a brewing boogaloo problem. Active-duty military are flocking to online networks frequented by the anti-government movement, known for its meme culture and Hawaiian shirt-clad adherents, who are often called Boogaloo Bois.
“Boogaloo” is code for civil war, which is the ultimate goal of the movement, and some of its followers trade in memes glorifying violence against federal agents and crack jokes about the impending “Boog.” Recently they’ve become regular fixtures at anti-lockdown and Black Lives Matter protests in states that allow open-carry of military-style firearms.
An analysis of some of the largest private Facebook groups catering to the boogaloo movement found that scores of members self-identified as active-duty military on their personal profiles. Members spanned an array of branches, including the Marine Corps, Army, Navy, and Air Force, and a range of positions, from infantryman, to mechanic, to army bus driver, to medic, to “amphibious assault crewman.”
Some of the most active online boogaloo communities are on Discord, a platform popular among gamers. There, members have been discussing ways to co-opt protests against racism and police brutality to advance their own agenda. And current or former military have chimed in with their expertise, from the best gas masks to military-grade firearms, according to screenshots provided to VICE News.
snip
Active-duty service members or veterans have the potential to “dramatically escalate the impact of fringe activism, pass on explosives expertise, urban warfare expertise,” said Belew, which is why extremist groups have long-sought to radicalize and recruit those individuals.
“This is not a problem we should take lightly,” said Belew.
(read more) https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xg8g87/the-us-military-has-a-boogaloo-problem
Trump Is Exploiting D.C.'s Lack of Statehood
(Atlantic Monthly) The president’s crackdown in the capital exposes its vulnerability to authoritarianism.
On June 26, the House of Representatives will vote on whether to make the District of Columbia the nation’s 51st state. The measure is expected to pass with the support of the House’s Democratic majority—the first time ever that either chamber of Congress has backed legislation for D.C. statehood.
A great deal has changed since 1993, the last time advocates tried and failed to pass such a measure in the House. But the surge of support for statehood among congressional Democrats is in large part a backlash against President Donald Trump’s aggressive response within the district to the civil unrest sparked by George Floyd’s death at the hands of police. National Guard troops gathered with federal law-enforcement officers in the streets of the capital, arrayed against peaceful protesters without the city’s consent. For residents of D.C., who already go without voting representation in Congress and almost half of whom are black, it was a harsh reminder of the city’s limited control over its own affairs.
“Statehood fixes it all,” D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said at a press conference announcing the House vote. That may be overstating things. But the congressional push for statehood—symbolic though it is, given opposition from the Republican-controlled Senate—suggests the scope of possible reform in the post-Trump era.
snip
Although supporters of D.C. statehood have sometimes called the district “America’s last colony,” that appellation could just as well describe the U.S. territories that are still denied the full protections of the U.S. Constitution. Puerto Rico, still reeling years after the devastation of Hurricane Maria in the absence of a competent federal response, is another space of exception, and could also benefit from statehood. Authority over the border needs rethinking too: Some kind of reworking of presidential control is in order. It’s unlikely that much will happen under the current administration and Congress, but when Trump leaves office—perhaps as soon as January 2021, if Joe Biden wins in November—these reforms are worth a serious look.
(long article, but worth the read)
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/trump-exploiting-dcs-lack-statehood/613393/
Will FL's System Of Felon Pay-To-Vote Disenfranchisement End In Time For November?
(Talking Points Memo) The decision to expedite Florida ex-felon voting case is a good sign for those hoping to vote in 2020.
By Ciara Torres-Spelliscy
June 23, 2020 10:00 a.m.
On May 24, 2020, federal district court judge Robert L. Hinkle issued a sweeping rebuke to what he called Florida’s pay-to-vote system in a case reviewing the 2018 change to Florida’s Constitution that was intended to restore voting rights to ex-felons. Judge Hinkle ruled last month that Florida’s continued disenfranchisement of certain former felons was unconstitutional and the case is now on appeal to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. The Appeals Court has signaled that it will expedite the case.
Under the voter-approved Amendment 4, most ex-felons had their voting rights automatically restored once they had completed their sentences. Previously, ex-felons were disenfranchised for life. The basic idea behind the change was to allow a person who paid their debt to society and who was back in their community the opportunity to vote.
But shortly after Amendment 4 became part of the Florida Constitution, the Republican governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, along with the Republican dominated state legislature swooped in with a new law (SB 7066), which said that ex-felons could not get their voting rights back unless they paid any remaining fees and fines. This put the rights of roughly a million people in flux because Florida doesn’t have an easy system for informing people of outstanding fees and fines. Moreover, some of the ex-felons at issue were impecunious and unable to pay the fees and fines they owe.
The Jones v. DeSantis case brought before Judge Hinkle challenges the Florida law as a violation of the Florida and U.S. Constitutions. As I explained here, the argument that the Florida law runs afoul of the U.S. Constitution is that it acts as an unconstitutional poll tax under the Twenty-Fourth Amendment and this law discriminates against some of the plaintiffs and is therefore a violation of equal protection.
Past attempts to get rid of felony disenfranchisement has fared poorly in the courts ever since Richardson v. Ramirez, 418 U.S. 24 (1974), which ruled that taking away felons’ right to vote was constitutional under the penalty clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
So why might results be different in the Jones case? What may make a difference is the ridiculously bad facts for the state of Florida, including its failure to create a workable system so that ex-felons know for certain how much, if any, fees and fines they owe the state. As the judge complained in his decision: “even with a team of attorneys and unlimited time, the State has been unable to show how much each plaintiff must pay to vote under the State’s view of the law.”
snip
Judge Hinkle ruled the pay-to-vote system is irrational as applied to individuals who are unable to pay — under equal protection analysis, when a law is deemed to be irrational, that means that it won’t survive any equal protection challenge.
Judge Hinkle has given the 11th Circuit many different ways to find the Florida law unconstitutional. It’s a good sign that the 11th Circuit is expediting the case. If they affirm Judge Hinkle quickly, then hundreds of thousands of Florida citizens will be able to register and vote in 2020.
(Read More) https://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/cafe-11-circuit-court-appeals-takes-florida-pay-vote-system
Revealed: millions of Americans can't afford water as bills rise 80% in a decade
(The Guardian) Millions of ordinary Americans are facing rising and unaffordable bills for running water, and risk being disconnected or losing their homes if they cannot pay, a landmark Guardian investigation has found.
Exclusive analysis of 12 US cities shows the combined price of water and sewage increased by an average of 80% between 2010 and 2018, with more than two-fifths of residents in some cities living in neighbourhoods with unaffordable bills.
In the first nationwide research of its kind, our findings reveal the painful impact of America’s expanding water poverty crisis as aging infrastructure, environmental clean-ups, changing demographics and the climate emergency fuel exponential price hikes in almost every corner of the US.
America’s growing water affordability crisis comes as the Covid-19 pandemic underlines the importance of access to clean water. The research shows that rising bills are not just hurting the poorest but also, increasingly, working Americans.
“More people are in trouble, and the poorest of the poor are in big trouble,” said Roger Colton, a leading utilities analyst, who was commissioned by the Guardian to analyse water poverty. “The data shows that we’ve got an affordability problem in an overwhelming number of cities nationwide that didn’t exist a decade ago, or even two or three years ago in some cities.”
(Long article, but worth the read)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/23/millions-of-americans-cant-afford-water-bills-rise
Jill Wine-Banks says we can get rid of William Barr via disbarment
She was asked by John Heilemann this afternoon (Nicolle Wallace was off today) about what to do about William Barr and this is what she told him:
This time it looks like Barr has made a series of incompetent moves:
His taking control of the Federal Troops at Lafayette Square, his clearing the way for using the gas at Lafayette Square - there’s a whole series of things where he has apparently pissed off The House and I think we need to take into account not just deliberate malice and obstruction, but that he’s being incompetent. And I think the thing that can be done - because realistically between now and election you are not going to be able to get an impeachment on even though it’s well deserved - but there is The Bar and he could be disbarred and I think that’s something that no one should ignore and that we should pay attention to what he is doing to undermine the Department of Justice.
*she also suggested that public outrage could force him out or force trump to remove him, less likely I think...
Happy Failure's Day Trumpy!
No happy wishes from your kids? No where to be found? Should we send an amber alert out on them, like we had to on your missing maga crowd last night?
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