Courage Required
• It's About Choices • The election is over. We know the cabinet picks. The stress level has gone up. But, we do not have to fall victim to the incoming hate…
Compared: List of 20
A younger Trump, according to his first wife’s divorce filings, kept and studied a book translating and annotating Adolf Hitler’s pre-World War II speeches in a locked bedside cabinet. (more…)
A Spelling Bee
How Do You Spell Coward In American English (more…)
Fear, Liberty, and Good Sense
There's been a flush of diarrhea from the mouth of the former guy (TFG) as the nation readies for the upcoming election on November 5. Devoid of any sensible attempt to inform…
Reminder, Part Infinity
~ Special Counsel Prosecuting Trump Shows Us A Revealing Brief ~ Jack's got a new brief. It’s a nice brief. It’s a good brief. It’s a brief brief; only a 165-page…
Still Doing The Heavy Lifting
~ Our Gratitude ~ The Violence Against Women Act Turns 30, Today By Professor Dale Margolin Cecka, director of the Family Violence Litigation Clinic at Albany Law School. Intimate partner violence…
Felon and Flakes and Fairy Tales, Oh My
Far-right Republican Congressman Mike Johnson, who is Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and second in line to the Presidency, is at it again in his role as Supreme Lackey, conveniently…
Now That Was A Convention
WOW! Talk about conventions! That was a convention, wow. Prime time entertainment at its best. Drama. Comedy. Music. Dance. Anticipation. And the must-have in any prime entertainment production: Leave The Audience Hanging.…
Narcissist Unhinged
Former occupant of the Oval Office who got booted out in 2020 said the civilian Medal of Freedom, like the one he gave to a billionaire donor, is better than the Medal…
2024: Warnings Continue. Maybe We Should Pay Attention
Latest warning (August 2) of assaults on U.S. democracy comes loud and clear from the American Bar Association’s Task Force for American Democracy. “Our country and democracy face a wide variety of…
JRB Is Asking America
Joe's Good Thing. It's All About Love, And Finishing The Job (more…)
Da Dems. That’s Them!
Dems Fighting Over ‘Virtual Roll Call’ To Nominate Joe Biden Before Convention ~ The Democratic National Committee says its virtual roll call will start next month. Some elected Democrats say it’s an…
Saving U.S. Democracy, Still
Voter apathy this election cycle is another privilege Black Americans do not have The fight for freedom is once again at our doorstep, and we cannot afford to stay home when oppression…
Oh No, Uncle Joe. Say It Ain’t So
~~ From Right Left Centre and In Between ~~ News Media Still The Same Old, Same Old: If It Bleeds – It Leads (more…)
There Was A Debate?
That Was Just Two Old White Guys – One Mumbling Words, One Lying Because That's What He Does; Both Whining: ‘You’re The Bad Guy. No, You’re The Bad Guy’ And The ‘Moderators’…
A Truly Embarrassing Spectacle
• Returning To The Scene of The Crime, By Invitation • ~ With Mitch McConnell As Representative of Today’s Republican Party ~ 3 February 2021, Mitch McConnell: “Former President Trump’s actions that…
Making Hypocrisy A Virtue. It’s A Sickness
Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday rejected claims of hypocrisy with House Republicans pushing a contempt of Congress charge against Attorney General Merrick Garland when Rep. Jim Jordan and other Republicans refused to…
It Was A Comedy Routine, Right?
Greene Compares Trump To Jesus WTF! Now, I'm not a religious person. Not a practicing any religion. If religious beliefs work for you, great. Not my business; until, of course, your belief…
The GOP and Unified Horror
On Monday, a video was posted on the social media network of a person named Donald J. Trump that included multiple references to something called a “unified Reich”. Most of us know…
Mike Johnson Is A Threat To America, Part Infinity
Mike Johnson, Republican, Speaker of the House of the United States of America, and second in line to the Presidency, on Tuesday led a group of dangerous red-tie sycophants to the New…
Hate. America’s Fatal Disease
America today is overwhelmed by HATE and HATE will bring an end to ‘The Grand Experiment’. Yes, HATE has been an integral part of the American experiment from its beginning, bringing with…
Our Mother and The Future of All Things Living
“We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children” First Nations proverb. The Planet is under severe assault; by climate changes, extreme rains and heat, dying…
Whatever… Ms Murkowski
Reports are circulating that Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican from Alaska, has said she “absolutely” will not vote for former President Donald Trump in the 2024 election. Also, according to CNN, the senator…
There’s No Cure For Stupid
…When This Guy Is Your Hero… You Are One Sick Little-Dick MotherFuc*er ••• Donald Trump’s dinner guest at Mar-a-Lago Nick Fuentes says that when the America First movement takes power, all non-Christians…
Hey Dems, Look, There’s A Hole In The Wall. Save US.
Take The Traitors At Their Word(s). Go At Them Hard, Or They Will Find A Way To Close That Hole. To Trump, Johnson and the rest of the Republican traitors and…
Damn, America, Come In Out Of The Rain
DoJ Releases Devastating Report On ‘Cascading Failures’ Of Uvalde > The Justice Department’s report is a damning 575-page catalogue of confusion, lack of courage and their deadly consequences. Full Report here (pdf)…
Answer: Obviously Not
Question: Have You No Shame ~ Sometimes, Somethings Just Make You Vomit A Little In Your Own Mouth ~ ~ After A While, Some People Get To Like The Taste and…
It’s Like Looking In A Mirror
Politics. Campaign Performance. Avoiding Truths. X/Twitter. TikTok. Instagram. Podcasts ABC - to - XYZ. News Media. Etc., Etc., Etc. ~~ News Media and Presidential Campaigns § The style of campaigning is symbolic…
Emergency Call
Journalists in Ukraine Need Help
> Ukrainska Pravda <
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Those who cover the frontlines need first aid kits, medical supplies, flak jackets, helmets. Those trapped in towns and cities under fire need safe passage, relocation and humanitarian assistance.
More at International Federation of Journalists.
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Journalists in Gaza need your help. Here’s how:
International Media Support (IMS), the Danish-based media development organisation, is collecting donations for:
- Food, clothes, blankets and other utilities for journalists and their families
- Safety equipment and gear for journalists, such as press vests, helmets, cell phones and cameras.
- Psychosocial support for journalists
- Ongoing support to keep as many media outlets as possible operating.
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THE TRACKER
Freedom of the Press Foundation
Court says First Amendment means less free speech
[WHAAAAT ?!?!?!?]
If it sounds backward to use the First Amendment to undermine a law meant to protect free speech, that’s because it is.
Yet that’s just what a federal court of appeals did in a recent decision on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act — the federal law that shields online services from legal liability for posts made by their users.
We explain on our website how the court’s nonsensical decision threatens online freedom of speech by journalists and everyone else.
Jobs & Events
Opportunity for Young Journalists
Rising D.C. reporters can apply for a yearlong reporting fellowship. The National Press Foundation is accepting applications for the 2025 Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship.
Fellows will learn more about the White House, the Pentagon, the Supreme Court, the Capitol and other key Washington institutions. They’ll review politics and policy with regulators, lawmakers, experts and the best reporters in the business.
To apply, submit two recent work samples, a letter of support from an editor or supervisor and a brief autobiography. Application Deadline is Dec. 2
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Color Of Change, in partnership with the National Education Association, invites you to watch “Educating for Equity: Brown v Board of Education 70 Years Later,” a short video featuring a range of young and older thought leaders talking about the groundbreaking case and the challenges facing our public education system today. Participants discuss what we need to do to protect education moving forward.
Issues
The Reading List
Lie Machines
How to Save Democracy from Troll Armies, Deceitful Robots, Junk News Operations, and Political Operatives
by Philip N. Howard
Lie Machines is full of behind-the-scenes stories from the world’s biggest and most damagingly successful misinformation initiatives.
Howard, not only shows how these campaigns evolved from older propaganda operations but also exposes their new powers, gives us insight into their effectiveness, and explains how to shut them down. Howard is a sociologist and communication researcher who studies the impact of information technologies on democracy and social inequality. Book Here:
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The ReMindEr
Speakables
The New Normal? ~ The first tool of authoritarian regimes is always informational control—both in the gathering of information on the public through surveillance and the filtration of information to the public through owned media. In its early days, the Internet seemed to pose a challenge to authoritarian regimes, but with the advent of social media, we are watching the construction of architectures that fulfill the needs of every authoritarian regime: surveillance and information control. Authoritarian movements are possible only when the general public becomes habituated to—and numbed by—a new normal. Christopher Wylie.
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What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. ‘What to a slave is the 4th of July’. 1852. Frederick Douglass.
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The First ~ Jessie Tarbox Beals (1870 – 1942)
The first published female photo-journalist in the United States and the first female night photographer. She is best known for her freelance news photographs, particularly of the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, and portraits of places such as Bohemian Greenwich Village. Her trademarks were her self-described “ability to hustle” and her tenacity in overcoming gender barriers in her profession.
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Repeat After Me
And it gets you elected
