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Last week on MSNBC, the “Morning Joe” pundits were talking about Donald Trump’s latest scheme to con the rubes, his sale of Trump Watches.

Elisabeth Bumiller, the New York Times’ Washington bureau chief, told her fellow panelists: “He’s entertaining. Let’s not forget.”

But he’s not entertaining, Elisabeth. He’s frightening.

[...]

Time after time, the New York Times sands off the sharp edges of Trumpism:

• The Times described JD Vance’s denunciation of “childless cat ladies” and his lie about Haitian immigrants eating dogs and cats as “combative conservatism” when it’s really sexism and racism.

• When Trump posted “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,” the Times toned that down with a headline saying he “expressed disdain” for her.

• When top Republicans lied about Haitian immigrants, the Times’ headline said “Republicans Seize on False Theories” as if those theories came out of the ether instead of originating and being spread by the pro-Trump right wing.

• Early in the pet-eating hoax, the Times wrote this headline: “JD Vance Appears to Backtrack on False Claim About Haitian Migrants in Ohio.” But that was an embarrassing misreading of what Vance did. The correct headline would have been: “Vance Says Claim About Haitian Migrants May Be Hoax, but Urges People to Spread It Anyway.” That’s what he did. Three weeks later, Vance still hasn’t disavowed the lie and apologized.

• This past weekend, the Times wrote a ridiculously warm-and-fuzzy mentor-protege story about Trump and Vance, making them seem like Dumbledore and Harry Potter when they’re more like Dr. Evil and Mini-me. (Or not fictional characters at all, but real-life fascists.)

Archived version

In what we can only assume is an effort to prove he’s not weird by standing next to people who may be even weirder than he is, JD Vance will be doing a town hall today with Christian extremist Lance Wallnau during a Monroeville stop on Wallnau’s “Courage Tour.”

[...]

Wallnau is a leader in the dominionist New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement and one of the authors of Invading Babylon: The 7 Mountain Mandate — a deeply disturbing Christian movement centered on them taking over the “seven spheres” of society — family, religion, education, media/entertainment, business, government, and science/technology (the science and technology mountain was added after COVID; media and entertainment used to be separate mountains). Once they do that, not only will they be in control of all of us … Jesus will come back!

[...]

Wallnau sees himself not just as a guy trying to practice his own religion in peace, but as engaging in “spiritual warfare” against the rest of us. Why? Because of how we are all demonic.

“The Left is loaded with demons,” Wallnau has said. “I don’t think it’s people anymore. I think you’re dealing with demons talking through people.”

[...]

Project 2025 intends to use U.S. foreign assistance programs to push conservative culture wars worldwide, conditioning aid on restricting abortion and pulling all funding for climate change.

Jeremy Konyndyk, who worked in the U.S. Agency for International Development under President Biden & Obama, says the culture war obsessions in this chapter would ally the U.S. with authoritarian countries around the world.

Archived version

As Florida braced for Hurricane Helene, some weather and politics observers were mad about Project 2025.

“Reminder that Project 2025 would dismantle the National Weather Service and NOAA,” wrote the League of Conservation Voters on X.

NOAA is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, founded in 1970.

[...]

“Project 2025 wants to get rid of NOAA, wants to get rid of the National Weather Service — the people that tell you the weather and help you prepare for hurricanes,” said Moskowitz, a past Florida emergency management director under Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla.

Moskowitz quipped about how hurricane forecasting would function under Project 2025 and a Trump administration.

“Maybe we will just do it with a Magic 8 ball or maybe with a Ouija board. Or maybe we will do hurricane cones like President Trump did, right where he just circled in another state that wasn’t in the cones,” Moskowitz said.

[...]

> Legislators are not allocated enough funds to properly pay their staffers, a well-documented problem that leads to constant turnover at the mid and senior levels as the private sector lures some of the best policy minds away. It’s a vicious cycle: Elected officials, aware of their association with a deeply unpopular legislative body, don’t want to be seen “wasting” taxpayer dollars increasing staff salaries, and while congressional capacity isn’t the only reason why people are dissatisfied with Congress, the lack of capacity certainly contributes to public disappointment.

> [...]If you're a Legislative Correspondent making $70,000 a year, it's hard to pass up a private sector job that could pay double that. Legislative Directors make significantly more, but by that point, we’re talking about mid-career professionals with even more lucrative opportunities outside of Congress. And it’s just not reasonable to ask these staffers to stick around for the love of the game.

Archived version

Election misinformation about the U.S. presidential election is going viral on Facebook while Zuckerberg makes amends with the GOP - a false claim recently went viral “and there wasn’t anything happening to stop it," one official said.

Derek Bowens has never had such an important job. He’s the director of elections in Durham County, North Carolina, one of the most-populous areas of a state that’s increasingly viewed as crucial to the 2024 presidential contest.

So when a former precinct official emailed Bowens in July to warn him of a post containing voting misinformation that was spreading virally on Facebook, Bowens quickly recognized that he may be facing a crisis.

The post, written as if from an authority on the subject, said voters should request new ballots if a poll worker, or anyone else, writes anything on their form, because it would be invalidated. The same incorrect message was spread on Facebook during the 2020 election, but the platform flagged the content at the time as “false information” and linked to a story that debunked the rumor by Facebook’s fact-checking partner, USA Today.

Bowens said no such tag appeared on the post, which was widespread enough that the North Carolina State Board of Elections had to issue a press release on Aug. 2, informing voters that false “posts have been circulating for years and have resurfaced recently in many N.C. counties.”

“It was spreading and there wasn’t anything happening to stop it until our state put out a press release and we started engaging with our constituency on it,” Bowens told CNBC in an interview.

The elections board wrote a post on Facebook, telling voters to “steer clear of false and misleading information about elections,” with a link to its website. As of Wednesday, the post had eight comments and 50 shares. Meanwhile, multiple Facebook users in states like North Carolina, Mississippi and New Jersey continue to share the ballot misinformation without any notification that it’s false.

Archived version

Yesterday we learned that Kevin Roberts, the cosplaying Yall Qaeda coal roller truck driving, Lucchese cowboy boot-wearing president of the Heritage Foundation whose Project 2025 preaches the centrality of “the family” as the foundation of American society, a foundation to be achieved in part by forcing impregnated incest and rape victims to give birth, is so far astray from the teachings of Jesus that he reportedly once bragged about killing a neighbors’ dog with a shovel.

[...]

Today [...] Opus Dei [a Catholic organization that exists today at the red-hot center of the judicial and right-wing donor world in Washington D.C.] has achieved influence at the highest echelon of American power. The organization has been increasingly active in Washington since at least the early 1990s when it set up shop at 15th and K — the heart of the capital lobbying industry. From there, one of its priests (wearing a spiked garter under his robes to restrict his bodily urges) converted at least a half dozen of the top right-wingers in Washington to the Opus Dei brand of regressive Catholicism. Among his converts — future Trump administration National Economic Advisor Larry Kudlow, and other men in the highest echelons of American law and government — future House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Senator Sam Brownback, failed Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, and many other leaders who found themselves in need to priestly guidance.

Some of the most powerful figures in American politics and political finance today have Opus Dei connections. One of the most effective Opus Dei-affiliated Catholics in DC today is Leonard Leo, bagman for rightist billionaires, who spent decades working to capture the federal judiciary for the anti-choice movement. Five of the six members of the right side of the Supreme Court are right-wing Catholic — Chief Justice Roberts, Amy Coney Barrett, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh who replaced Opus Dei adjacent Antonin Scalia after Mitch McConnell refused to let Obama fill his vacancy for almost a year. These modern-day priest-kings have been working to force American law into line with a creed most Americans — including the vast majority of Catholics — reject — all under the guise of “religious freedom.”

[...]

Many Americans still don't know about Project 2025, the plans Republicans will implement if Trump becomes president. There's a hilarious but scary 'Schoolhouse Rock' video (4 min) about Trump's Project 2025 that's worth watching and sharing. Just like the original Schoolhouse Rock videos, the simple song explains the horrible details of Trump's plan in a way that gets the point across.

In another must-watch video on Trump's Project 2025, Mehdi Hassan summarizes all 30 chapters of Project 2025 in just two minutes. Watch this video and share it with people who haven't heard about Trump's plan to turn America into a theocracy.

Archived version

Democratic group launches legal fund to help secretaries of state in key U.S. states defend against an anticipated post-election deluge of lawsuits.

In plans shared first with NBC News, the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State plans to spend at $5 million to support top election officials in Maine, Michigan, North Carolina and Nevada. Officials with the group said they may expand their reach to other states as needed and could spend more if fundraising is strong.

The group began aggressively raising money and campaigning to elect Democratic secretaries of state, who oversee elections in many states, in the wake of former President Donald Trump's false claims of voter fraud in 2020. It first funneled money to deal with postelection litigation to then-Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs in 2022 to deal with postelection litigation.

“This is us trying to help our people but also help democracy,” said Travis Brimm, the group’s executive director.

Archived version

Immigrants are no longer welcome in Donald Trump’s America. Instead, the Republican presidential nominee posited that under his potential second administration, he would round up and mass-deport noncitizens based on their “serial numbers.”

Speaking with Full Measure’s Sharyl Attkisson, Trump argued that the United States—which was founded by and has historically been a nation of immigrants—shouldn’t be a “dumping ground” for newcomers.

[...]

Attkisson then asked Trump how he even intends to carry out mass deportations. “A lot of the millions of people have had children who are American citizens, and don’t you think the first time there is an image on television of a family tearfully being told to board a bus that that whole program would end?” she asked.

Trump agreed and offered a solution: less media coverage.

“That’s right,” he said. “If you take a young woman with two beautiful children, and you put her on a bus, and it ends up on the front page of every newspaper. It makes it a lot harder."

[...]

Archived version

Cannon went to an event in Arlington, Virginia, honoring the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, according to documents obtained from the Law and Economics Center at George Mason University. At a lecture and private dinner, she sat among members of Scalia’s family, fellow Federalist Society members and more than 30 conservative federal judges. Organizers billed the event as “an excellent opportunity to connect with judicial colleagues.”

A 2006 rule, intended to shine a light on judges’ attendance at paid seminars that could pose conflicts or influence decisions, requires them to file disclosure forms for such trips within 30 days and make them public on the court’s website.

It’s not the first time she has failed to fully comply with the rule.

In 2021 and 2022, Cannon took weeklong trips to the luxurious Sage Lodge in Pray, Montana, for legal colloquiums sponsored by George Mason, which named its law school for Scalia thanks to $30 million in gifts that conservative judicial kingmaker Leonard Leo helped organize.

Current rates for standard rooms at Sage Lodge can exceed $1,000 per night, depending on the season. With both Montana trips, Cannon’s required seminar disclosures were not posted until NPR reporters asked about the omissions this year as part of a broader national investigation of gaps in judicial disclosures.

Cannon did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

[...]

Archived version

If you are a U.S. citizen living overseas, for more information about voting from abroad you may go to: https://www.fvap.gov

With his "absurd and baseless rant on 'Truth' Social, Americans abroad join a host of other groups of US citizens Donald Trump has threatened and feels shouldn’t be allowed to participate in our elections," the organization says in a statement.

"This represents yet another assault by Trump on the 'suckers and losers' he believes make up the US military; the Department of Defense is the agency entrusted with administering the entire overseas voter program."

[...]

Democrats Abroad International Chair Martha McDevitt-Pugh had this to say in response to Trump's un-’Truth’:

> “Trump’s Project 2025 campaign is premised on stripping away the rights and freedoms that Americans enjoy. Now this election denying, two-time popular vote loser is attempting to preemptive delegitimize the votes of deployed military and civilian voters abroad. That we’re in Trump's head, and he perceives us as a threat to his scraping a win, is yet more evidence of the critical importance of overseas voters and Democrats Abroad, which mobilizes them. We expect many Americans abroad to use votefromabroad.org and help finally turn the page on this MAGA-maniac. As Vice President Harris says ‘when we vote, we win!”

Archive link

Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest in the halls of power. They aim to "defend democracy, resist corporate power, and fight to ensure that government works for the people – not big corporations."

Founded in 1971, there are now 500,000 members and supporters throughout the U.S.

Hamas is literally an internationally recognized terrorist organization, proscribed by many countries including the UK and the Arab League.

CBC also refuses to call Hamas terrorists despite their government labeling them as such.

Access options:

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• archive.today
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/28369402

> Dan Osborn is a strong pro-labor independent candidate who has a legitimately good chance of flipping Nebraska out of the GQP's shitty hands. He's sure not a super liberal, but he isn't going to roll over for corporate interests or corruption either, and I consider that a massive win. Deb Fischer is wildly unpopular and a whopping 23% of voters are still claiming undecided in polls that are otherwise tied- this election HAS A CHANCE. The battle is far from over. > > Please check out Dan Osborn (https://osbornforsenate.com/) and consider donating and volunteering for his campaign. He needs every tiny ounce of support he can get in Nebraska, he has no party backing and no major PAC in his corner (he even actively rejected a large donation from George Soros) while Fischer has millions of dollars amassed from every corporate donor you can think of. >

NEW YORK (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris raised $27 million at a packed New York City fundraiser on Sunday, her largest fundraising haul since she took over at the top of the ticket from President Joe Biden, according to a Harris campaign aide.

Though Harris has far more money than former President Donald Trump, the money will be needed to compete with pricey advertising by deep-pocketed outside groups that support Trump, said the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private fundraising details.

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (AP) — Ohio stationed state police at Springfield schools Tuesday in response to a rash of bomb threats — the vast majority that officials said came from overseas —- after former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance falsely said legal Haitian immigrants in the small city were eating dogs and cats.

Schools, government buildings and elected officials’ homes in Springfield were among the targets of more than 30 hoax threats made last week that forced evacuations and closures. Two more schools had to be evacuated on Monday, and the high school was threatened on Tuesday. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said a foreign actor was largely responsible, but he declined to name the country.

> Ballot initiatives are the tool we need in this moment to not only block authoritarian rule and ideology, but to build a world where all of us thrive and live with dignity — the world we deserve.

> Time and time again, ballot measures have proven to be powerful tools for collaborative governance that transcend party lines and often receive higher vote percentages than candidates. This trend started in 2014 when four states, Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota, raised the minimum wage through ballot measures; another four states, Arizona, Colorado, Maine, and Washington, followed suit in 2016. Florida made headlines across the country in 2018 when nearly 65% of Florida voters approved Amendment 4 to restore voting rights to Floridians with past criminal convictions. > > In 2020, Missouri and Oklahoma expanded Medicaid to low-income adults, which has proven to significantly benefit individuals who gain healthcare coverage as well as their communities as a whole. Since the overturning of Roe, voters have successfully protected reproductive rights every time the issue has been placed on the ballot. In Ohio—a state that Trump won with more than 53% of the vote in 2020—hundreds of thousands of voters mobilized in the 2023 elections to pass Issue 1, enshrining the right to abortion in the state constitution just months after they successfully defeated a ballot measure that would have blocked that victory. These are just a few instances that showcase how voters have used the power of direct democracy to support progressive policies, even in Republican trifecta states. Ballot measures are bypassing partisan politics and turning people-power into policies that transcend divides and improve lives.

> Donald Trump's running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), on Monday said there's a "big difference" between Republicans and Democrats: "No one has tried to kill Kamala Harris."

Note that earlier in the day, Elon Musk wrote and deleted a similar post. From NY Times: > In response to a user who asked, “Why they want to kill Donald Trump?” Mr. Musk, who has endorsed the former president and comments frequently on the U.S. presidential campaign, wrote: “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala.” His post, which was captured by X users, included a thinking-face emoji. > >Mr. Musk took down the post after it immediately drew outrage.

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For Vance comments, see also NY Times, Vance says the left is to blame for the attempts on Trump’s life., and/or CNN, Vance blames liberal rhetoric for apparent assassination attempt against Trump :

> “I know it’s popular on a lot of corners of the left to say that we have a both sides problem. And I’m not going to say we’re always perfect. I’m not going to say that conservatives always get things exactly right. But you know, the big difference between conservatives and liberals is that we have — no one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months, and two people now have tried to kill Donald Trump in the last couple of months,” the Republican vice presidential candidate said at the Georgia Faith & Freedom Coalition dinner in Atlanta. > > “I’d say that’s pretty strong evidence that the left needs to tone down the rhetoric, and needs to cut this crap out,” he continued. > > Vance vowed to “do my part” to tone down the rhetoric and said he was speaking particularly to those who say that Trump needs to be “eliminated.” > > “Somebody’s gonna get hurt by it, and it’s gonna destroy this country. Somebody is gonna get hurt. And you think about what an incredible wound it would open up in the United States of America, all of us, and I promise I will do my part to tone down the rhetoric,” Vance said. “But in particular, the people telling you that Donald Trump needs to be eliminated. You guys need to cut it out, or you’re gonna get somebody hurt.”

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Thankfully, both Democrats and Republicans came together to disavow the New Hampshire Libertarian Party for this from Deadline:

> Republican and Democratic Party leaders have condemned New Hampshire’s Libertarian Party for sharing a post saying that anyone who assassinated Vice President Kamala Harris would be “an American hero.” > >The party later deleted the post on X, formerly known as Twitter, but appeared unrepentant about the message, saying it was removed because of the platform’s rules and complaining about restrictions on free speech.

What if citizens were called to policymaking duty the way they are called to jury duty?

All over the world, ordinary people are finding out what that’s like when they’re selected by civic lottery to participate in a citizens’ assembly, a democracy innovation that may just be the antidote to the polarization of the world we need.

[...]

According to the OECD database, environment and other long-term policy issues are the most popular topics addressed by citizens’ assemblies, and local governments are the most frequent users of these methods.

[...]

In citizens’ assemblies, there are teenagers and octogenarians, business people and activists, people of all genders, races and abilities, individuals who have been regulars at city council and those who have never engaged in local democracy before. Inevitably there is a wide range of political leanings, lots of passion and some trepidation.

[...]

The challenges range from giving everyone a base of technical knowledge to effectively participate in discussions — a component often missing in public consultations — to ensuring complex accessibility needs are met, something required to address the gap in effective involvement of people with disabilities in decision-making.

[...]

The OECD estimates that roughly half of the recommendations of deliberative processes are implemented. We’ve also found that the side benefits of citizens’ assemblies, such as increased community cohesion and a sense of hope, are substantial.

[...]

Building trust with government may be another important outcome. Research shows trust in government is significantly higher among Canadians who feel they have a say in what the government does (79 per cent compared to 21 per cent who do not).

[...]

> Rather than fearing polarization, organizers should seek to understand how they can use it most effectively. This involves recognizing that, while collective action undertaken in pursuit of a good cause typically results in positive outcomes, not all protests have identical effects or produce equal benefits. > > Central to harnessing the power of polarization is appreciating that, by its nature, it cuts both ways: the same actions that create positive polarization — drawing more active supporters into movements and convincing previously neutral or undecided observers to at least passively sympathize with the cause — will also have negative effects, turning off some people and firing up the opposition. The goal of movement participants is therefore to make sure that the beneficial results of their actions outweigh the counterproductive ones, and that they are shifting the overall spectrum of support in their favor.

> So how, then, can movement participants predict how a given protest will polarize? And how can they work to improve their skills in designing effective actions?

Fig. 1 gives an example of a conversation where the user goes from 100% belief down to 40% after getting their questions explained by the AI.

Looking at the conclusions, the impact is not so big for all the interactions.

Anyway, this is a great tool. Sure, when people are doomscrolling 24/7 they’re not fact-checking. So, the intervention might not be there. Yet, I choose to remain optimistic. More recent generations might get easier access and be better than our current trend :)