49 Republicans and Their Un-American Activities
"There is nothing more important than ensuring our veterans and their families can enjoy a safe and healthy life after their service to our country". Rep. Mary Peltola (D-AK) ~ On Thursday,…
Flying Their True Colours
Last week 203 House Republicans voted against legislation preventing U.S. Presidents from using the Electoral Count Act to overturn the will of the People. The bill did pass 229-203: every House Democrat…
Asked and Answered
In a campaign-style speech Tuesday in Pennsylvania, President Joe Biden FINALLY got serious about calling out the dangerous rhetoric coming from officials in the highest levels of government who refuse to denounce…
America Votes: It’s The Culture, Stupid!
Illumination I think it's one of things we find unattractive about the [A]merican culture, a culture which I find mostly, extremely attractive, and I like [A]mericans and I love being in…
The Stranger My Dad Met
About six months before he died in early 2016, my father told me a story about The Stranger… A few months after I was born, my Dad met a stranger who was…
Sometimes, It’s True
No Man or Woman Is Above The Law With warrant in hand, the FBI on Monday evening 'raided' former president Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence. Nobody yet knows the details of the warrant…
Wait! What? WHAT?
Much screaming lately from pundits and politicians, from economists and egoists, and from influencers and idiots, about inflation, recession, spending, saving, buying and selling. It's scary, for sure. What to do? What…
To Heed Or Not To Heed: That Is The Question
Mr. President, The Answer? Media outlets of all sizes, journalists of courage and cowardice, politicians of dignity and dinginess, and pundits of all stripes have entered the debate questioning whether President Joe…
How Many Hearings Is It Going to Take
Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Department of Justice have to this point resisted calls to charge the former president for his role in the assault on the U.S. Capitol - which…
Hey Joe! You’re Being a Nero. Stop Fiddling!
'Fight for Us Goddamnit': Frustration Grows Over Biden Fecklessness Amid GOP Destruction via CommonDreams.org We simply cannot make promises, hector people to vote, and then refuse to use our full power…
Surprise Hearing Reveals The Makeup of an Armed Coup
On Monday, by news outlets big and small, it was called a surprise hearing. However, what was revealed Tuesday, 28 June, 2022, during the 6th hearing of the Select Committee to Investigate…
Hypocrites and Hucksters and History
In his opinion piece at The Washington Post, Dana Milbank lays bare the hypocrisy and dangerous 'new precedent' of the radical right-wing majority at the US Supreme Court. Yes, Americans should be…
Jan 6 Hearing Four
The Takeaway
Opening Night Tops The Hype
The prime-time January 6 Select Committee hearing on Thursday delivered the promised statements of accusation and painful recollections, with all the receipts. I and at least 20 million in the U.S., and…
Jan 6 Committee Hearing: 2022.06.09 19.00hrs
Look at the orators in our republics; as long as they are poor, both state and people can only praise their uprightness; but once they are fattened on the public funds, they…
Memorial Day 2022.05.30
Thank You, All
America At That Crossroad. Again. What’s Next?
Americans Have A Decision To Make. Choose Love and Respect, Succeed. Continue Choosing Hate, Devolve. (more…)
White Supremacists and Murder: America’s Shame
An 18-year-old white supremacist went to a grocery market in an African American neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, on Saturday with an assault rifle and full body armor and – in less…
Strategy: Losing The Love
Losing The Love – When You Don’t Fight For It There is “a sharp decline in enthusiasm among the people who put the White House and Congress in Democratic hands, contributing significantly…
The ‘Draft’ – A Right-Wing Mission Statement
The draft of Justice Samuel Alito's majority opinion overruling Roe, which was obtained by Politico, [a right-wing news outlet] is right-wing Republican politics masquerading as law. In the draft, Alito declares: "Roe…
Never Forget: 1995.04.19
A terrorist attack on 19 April 1995 at the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City killed 168 people including 19 children and over 850 were injured. It was the deadliest…
They Also Burned Books
Florida Republicans continue their war on education after rejecting this week more than 50 proposed math textbooks that allegedly “included references to Critical Race Theory”. The Florida Department of Education announced Friday…
Sunday Reads
Fantasies of the Master Race: Literature, Cinema and the Colonization of American Indians. Ward Churchill. 1992. “The white man made us many promises, but he kept only one. He promised to take…
Whispering In His Ear
Running With One Leg While You’re Telling Me All The Things I Want To Hear ~ Is This The Love Story That’s Ruining America? Ginni interviews Clarence in 2018: GINNI THOMAS:…
Murderous Camapigns
Vladimir Putin is not happy with the way his unprovoked war on Ukraine is going; not happy in terms of how Ukrainians are not surrendering even as the Russian dictator expands his…
Leadership: An Everyday Reminder
True leaders are: givers, not takers; lovers, not haters; builders, not destroyers; warriors, not worriers; doers, not talkers; forgivers, not shamers; encouragers, not flatterers; performers, not complainers; achievers, not quitters; winners, not…
Trayvon Benjamin Martin: American
10 Years On, You Are Not Forgotten ~ The killing of the baby-faced, hoodie-wearing, unarmed Martin at the hands of a stranger still reverberates after a decade. (via The Grio)
Is History Our Future
History As Teacher; We Learn or We Perish ~ Near the end of 1923, an odd, self-absorbed little man was arrested and charged with sedition and treason for his part in what…
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
