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…
A Call For Action
A coalition of more than three-dozen journalism, civil-rights and consumer-rights organisations released a letter Thursday, 15 August, calling on news outlets to do a much better job reporting on rising authoritarianism and…
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…
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…)
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…
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…
Mass Murder Still NOT Patriotic
A terrorist attack on 19 April 1995 at a Oklahoma City federal building killed 168 people including 19 children and over 850 were injured. The bomber Timothy McVeigh, a U.S. Army veteran,…
IS SCOTUS LISTENING TO THE ALARMS
The former President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump, lives in an otherworldly fantasy where he was King or at least Authoritarian Fuhrer while in office (2016-2020), which would…
Stunning. Disheartening. Dangerous.
••• A Story in Words and Images A stunning report by Thor Benson, staff writer at CommonDreams.org, reveals an absolute threat to the future of U.S. Democracy. Safe to say the piece…
1/6: Not Just Another Anniversary
We Know How This Plays Out There's a Commonality. It's Pathological. Resist. Believe What Your Eyes, Ears and History Are Telling You. There is no doubt about it, America is…
History: It Can Help You. It Can Hurt You!
~ The immediate former president of the United States of America - twice impeached, four criminal indictments, 91-charges, civil indictments, etc., etc., etc., Donald J. Trump - is the leading Republican choice…
When Allowed, History Can-Will Repeat
~ One Word ~ The True Character of a So-Called ‘man’. On Veterans Day, Donald Trump, a one-term, twice-impeached, four-time indicted, 91-count charged criminal, publicly labeled rapist by judge in civil case,…
The Assault On U.S. Democracy Is Far From Over
~ When Fascists Tell You They’re Fascists, Believe Them ~ Talking Points Memo, one of the better websites for short and long-read news stories, yesterday posted ‘Our Slow-Moving National Crisis Is…
US Top Court – Maybe Not So Supreme
"Every federal judge [in the United States of America] is bound to an ethics code requiring them to avoid behavior that so much as looks improper, except for Supreme Court justices. Chief…
Same Game. Same Players. Same Playbook. Same Danger.
They Keep Trying. They Inch Closer. And Corporate Media Plays Its Role. Good Luck, American Democracy
The Threat From Inside The Asylum, It’s Real
Yes, of course, we lead with the latest shit-story about that Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Marjorie Taylor Greene. A guest speaker at the Young Republicans gala this weekend,…
Democracy Can Be Messy and Ugly. Doesn’t Mean It Can’t Clean Up
America: Pass or Fail On Tuesday, 8 November, Americans will be tested: Does the Experiment continue – flawed as it might be – or will America fall in to the…
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…
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…
McConnell’s Big Fear: If You Let It, Democracy Works
McConnell Thinks Fighting For Voting Rights Is ‘Radicalism’ – And Not The Good Kind U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday laid bare his reasoning for vehemently defending the use of…
Democracy In Crisis
Democracy Crisis in the Making, Report Update: 2021 Year-End Numbers Research identifies at least 262 bills were introduced in 41 states this year with the intent to hijack the election process As…
End of The Allusion
Upon the ruling by U.K.’s High Court to allow the extradition to the U.S. of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, questions about a free press in the United States of America are being…
Backsliding, It’s All The Rage
“This year we coded the United States as backsliding for the first time, but our data suggest that the backsliding episode began at least in 2019” No American – woke or unwoke,…
Shrinking Into Nothingness
In an opinion piece on Tuesday at The Guardian, Robert Reich poses a familiar, and some may say inevitable, Democratic Party policy outcome: Is Biden’s entire agenda about to shrink into nothingness?…
Similarities? Undeniable!
School Board Protests Are Not Grassroots Movement, Are Not Spontaneous Conservatives are disrupting school board meetings by shouting, using Nazi salutes, and even physically assaulting anyone they disagree with. But these attacks…
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
