Category Archives: lp4

11.4.2020: American Democracy To-Do List

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Usa_distress_flag

Short term:

  • get rid of electoral college
  • fix Senate
    • four-year terms
    • eliminate filibuster
    • lay groundwork to eliminate it entirely (see below)
  • eliminate gerrymandering – require that Congressional representation mirror popular vote
  • eliminate superdelegates
  • eliminate presidential veto and restrict executive orders
  • make election day a national holiday
  • all state and federal elections to be 100% publicly funded
  • eliminate all bribery lobbying
  • fix Supreme Court
    • explicitly limit de facto legislative powers of Supreme Court
    • expand number of justices to reflect growth in population
    • limit terms to ten years, subject to reappointment
  • make voter suppression a federal crime punishable by no less than five years*

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I’m Glad I Wasn’t Black Today

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white-privilege

I came home this evening after running a couple of errands to find a half-dozen people at my door. Two or three were uniformed.

Two followed me around back as I parked. Since my girlfriend (let’s call her J) has never so much as jaywalked I figured they had to be after me. No idea why, but the adrenaline was starting to pump.

I’m not going to talk to cops but I can hear what they have to say. It turns out they were looking for a woman named Amanda, whom they had seen coming in and out of my apartment routinely over the past three weeks. Read more

Dear Conservatives: It’s Judgment Day

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Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? - Matthew 7:16

On Tuesday night, Donald Trump stood before America and refused to denounce white supremacy. Instead, he used the opportunity to order one of America’s most notorious hate groups to stand at the ready.

He did this on national television, with millions watching and the cameras rolling.

After years of denial, years of deflection, of misdirection, of dog-whistles and whataboutism and hey-look-over-there-ism, after years of insisting that black is white and up is down, you, Trump supporters, find yourselves standing naked in full daylight. Read more

Trump’s “Failure” to Denounce White Supremacy: Journalistic Malpractice in the First Degree

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2020 Presidential Debate

It’s been a long time since I expected much from corporate journalism, but no matter how low I set the bar they keep finding ways to tunnel under it.

Their handling of Trump’s “debate” shout-out to white supremacists everywhere – his overt call for them to stand at the ready – buggered belief.

Check this nonsense from ABC: Read more

Do Billionaires Get a Bad Rap?

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Monopoly-ManA famous man once said “it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

I thought about this as I was talking with my friend Bryan yesterday. The subject was NBA and MLB players striking in protest against the attempted murder of Jacob Blake by the Kenosha PD, and Bryan was saying that it can’t always just be the players. The owners need to stand up, too.

He’s right, but I have very little faith in owners. Read more

CNN: We false equivalence, you decide.

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Yes, goddammit, THIS.

Stimulus talks on the brink of collapse as two sides trade blame and get no closer to a deal

BOTH sides are to blame. The people who want to keep us alive are as much at fault as the people who lock kids in cages and think Nazis are very fine people and who don’t care if we live or die. The people who want to give us enough to survive are just as bad as the ones who want to give us nothing.

Brought to you by CNN. We false equivalence, you decide.

What was it Hunter said?

Some people will say that words like “scum” and “rotten” are wrong for Objective Journalism — which is true, but they miss the point. It was the built-in blind spots of the Objective rules and dogma that allowed Nixon to slither into the White House in the first place. He looked so good on paper that you could almost vote for him sight unseen. He seemed so all-American, so much like Horatio Alger, that he was able to slip through the cracks of Objective Journalism. You had to get Subjective to see Nixon clearly, and the shock of recognition was often painful.

🤬

Defund the Police? Good Cops, Bad Cops…

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defund-the-police_lg

The individual tells you nothing about the system. The system tells you nothing about the individual.

The issue isn’t whether you respect Black Lives Matter. It isn’t whether you respect the Police. It’s whether the Police believe all are equal under the law. Recent weeks and months (and years) have set before our eyes a wealth of evidence answering that question. Read more

Stop Saying “Cancel Culture”

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cancel-culture

I’m getting a little tired of this “cancel culture” nonsense.

The term originated with the #MeToo movement, which targeted the likes of Bill Cosby and Louis CK, men whose history of misogynistic behavior led people to (justly) withdraw their support for the offenders’ careers. But while the term is newish, the tactics it describes aren’t. Canceling is another word for boycotting, which has been around forever. Read more