April 8, 2023

The end goal of the right is fetal personhood and the abolition of legal abortion in the U.S.

"The first footnote in the Kacsmaryk opinion staying the FDA's approval of mifepristone.

If you think the Dobbs "state-by-state" settlement is a lasting one, you're delusional. The endgoal is--and always has been--fetal personhood and the abolition of legal abortion in the U.S."

https://twitter.com/ProfMMurray/status/1644706213475614722?s=20

April 4, 2023

Hal Sparks takes on the rightwing freakout to the trump indictment

great stuff as usual

https://twitter.com/halsparks/status/1643014425048403968

March 26, 2023

Three things the media should have their hair on fire about but don't seem to care much about

1) the climate crisis and the urgent need to decarbonize the economy (see the latest IPCC report)

2) Republicans holding trump above the law and threatening law enforcement

3) the Trump/DeSantis/GOP war on women, black people and LGBTQ


WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE???

February 19, 2023

Politics Girl-- how to save democracy

https://twitter.com/IAmPoliticsGirl/status/1627021496165228545

February 19, 2023

How to Save Democracy! Hint-- it's about the WI Supreme Court Primary

https://twitter.com/IAmPoliticsGirl/status/1627021496165228545

Please donate if you can!

https://wisdems.org/

February 1, 2023

MTG claims school in Illinois received $5.1 BILLION in funding for "equity and diversity"

Congressional hearing today--

Greene: Can you tell me how much COVID cash went to CRT?

Govt official: CRT?

Greene: It’s a racist curriculum used to teach children that somehow their white skin not equal to black skin and other things...

Govt official: federal funds are supposed to be used for curriculum

Greene: oh Mr Dodaro, you should know that an elementary school in Illinois received $5.1 BILLION in funding for "equity and diversity"

https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1620874964219084802?s=20&t=3vE9Rr0Med3RcSIWXbHhaA


Not only is she horribly evil, she is horribly dumb

January 24, 2023

The thing that really stands out in the classified documents cases that are popping up

all over now, is why in Trump's case, NARA knew the documents were taken and were so eager to get them back.

Possible reasons I can think of:

1) Trump very blatantly took hundreds of documents in large batches, they weren't intermingled with mostly other private papers.

2) the documents Trump took were very top secret highly classified, the most precious secrets, that NARA kept close track of where they went.

3) NARA was just being particularly mean to Trump because they didn't like him.

4) the Biden administration specifically sent NARA after Trump

5) some combination of the above


My guess has always been 1 and 2.

3 and 4 are silly IMO.

January 24, 2023

America's gun culture is priming us for authoritarianism

Perspective by Ruth Ben-Ghiat
Ruth Ben-Ghiat is professor of history at New York University and author of "Strongmen: From Mussolini to the Present."
October 26, 2021 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

What is driving democratic decline in America? Disinformation, election subversion, Donald Trump’s authoritarian leader cult and institutionalized racism leap out at you. But there’s another factor that is all the more dangerous because it’s part of our everyday reality: civilian access to lethal weapons, and the mass death that enables.

The scale and scope of gun violence in America doesn’t just desensitize us to violence. It also cheapens the value of life. It fosters political, social and psychological conditions that are propitious for autocracy. The omission of gun law reform from discussions of democracy protection is symptomatic of our normalization of this tragic situation. The Jan. 6 insurrection shows us how dangerous that blind spot has become.

For decades we have shot each other, with Americans causing fellow Americans more harm than any foreign enemy. More than 1.5 million died of gunshots in the past 50 years vs. 1.2 million in all the wars in the country’s history. This year alone, mass shootings have killed or injured more than 1,800.

Yet no amount of loss seems enough to deter the supporters of a brutal gun rights culture that factors in harm to some so that the freedoms and privilege of others can continue, and accepts mass death and trauma in the name of “liberty.” Add in an uptick of activity by extremists that preach violence and extralegal action as a way of changing history, and you have a high potential for political destabilization. Guns were prominent at the storming of the Michigan Capitol in May 2020 by militia members. They also featured at the Jan. 6 insurrection, which brought many strains of armed political extremism together: militia members, retired and active-duty law enforcement and military and radicalized civilians.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/10/26/gun-violence-authoritarianism-normalization/

January 16, 2023

Hakeem Jeffries Stumps for Conservative Judge

WTF! Why is he doing this??? What am I missing here?

Progressives charge that Hector D. LaSalle is too conservative, anti-abortion, anti-labor and anti-due process and his appointment would tilt New York’s top court further to the right.
Common Dreams Staff
Jan 16, 2023

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries joined New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and other state Democrats at a Bronx rally Saturday, just days ahead of what is sure to be a contentious confirmation hearing in which progressive lawmakers opposed to LaSalle’s appointment to lead the state Court of Appeals could be decided.

Progressives charge that Hector D. LaSalle is too conservative, anti-abortion, anti-labor and anti-due process and his appointment would push one of New York's highest courts even further to the right.

Jeffries, however, voiced his support for the judge, saying LaSalle is “highly qualified to serve as the chief judge.”

https://www.commondreams.org/jeffries-lasalle

January 7, 2023

"McCarthy loses 14th round of voting for speakership"

Source: CNN

All votes in at 11pm Jan 6th 2022
McCarthy 216
Jeffries 212
Other 4
Present 2

McCarthy needed 217 votes to win or at least 3 voting present

Same hold-outs against McCarthy, Gaetz and Boebert vote present

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/house-speaker-leadership-vote-01-06-23/index.html