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…
Laugh Now, Cry Later: UPDATED
Red Wave. Blue Collapse. Blue Wave. Red Collapse. The Battle is ongoing. The Bullshit continues. It's Nothing New... Or Is It: UPDATED 11/14 - SEE BELOW (more…)
It’s Not Complicated
Now Is The Time For All Good Women and Men To Come To The Aid Of Their Country
A Spelling Bee
How Do You Spell Coward In American English (more…)
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
America Day 365: One Free – All Free
America Will Not, Can Not, Be Free Until All Are Free One Of Us - None Of Us None of Us Are Free / Solomon Burke
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…
Election Afterthoughts
Eisenhower. Einstein. Definitions. And Health Care Rights, Privacy Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of…
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…
And Now A Few Words About Politics and Elections and…
... Leaders? Politics: the art of using euphemisms, lies, emotionalism and fear-mongering to dupe average people into accepting--or even demanding--their own enslavement. © Larken Rose. Voting rights are the most…
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
