Organizing Beats Debating

By artappraiser on Mon, 05/16/2022 - 7:38pm |

I like this post a lot. There’s a big need for institution- and faction-building among moderate Democrats. https://t.co/qetD03SHgm
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) May 16, 2022

URL:

https://thewelcomeparty.substack.com/p/organizing-beats-debating?s=r

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The far left is NOT on Democrat's "side", they're on their own "side". (Neither are Trump nuts of all varieties on the side of the GOP, they too are basically out for #1. I think there's already a parliamentary system of 4 parties in this country, it's just that no one wants to admit it. Andrew Yang's Forward party should steal the majority moderates and let you nut cases on the left and right slug it out to win a line here or there in each congressional bill)

[....] As Matt Yglesias puointed out this week, this “debate” is not much of a debate at all — at least among those concerned with winning elections:

“It is an almost childishly silly thing to argue about. But I believe that it is counterproductive to progressive causes to push candidates in tough races to take high-salience public stances in favor of unpopular progressive causes. Instead, you should encourage candidates to embrace popular progressive causes and allow them to make tactical retreats from fights where conservatives have public opinion on their side.”

This theory of politics, commonly called “popularism” and a favorite of prominent Democratic data czar David Shor (whose cancel culture tribunal we covered last week), is so intuitive that it is difficult to even understand why there is a debate. But, as Yglesias pointed out, the 2020 Democratic presidential primary unfolded in the context of intentional unpopularism — activist groups pressuring candidates to take deeply unpopular stances on a wide range of issues that also happen to be legislatively unfeasible.

This is bad for Democrats. But it is a good business model on the far-left. As we wrote in December, “the far-left may not believe in markets, but the far-left market has become so large and efficient that a robust and thriving current of unpopularism within the Democratic Party is now a given.” [....]

by artappraiser on Mon, 05/16/2022 - 8:02pm

Who woulda thunk it - I mean giving progressives 1/3 the platform seats in 2016 helped them write a progressive platform - so they could piss off to North Dakota to fret about pipelines and sit out the fall campaign (platform not enough of a gesture to "hold their noses" apparently, and Bernie's lukewarm "drag me to the finish line" didn't seem to include his followers nor a Bernie-style campaign onslaught either. "Going through the motions" seems the right term, while Cornel, Bill (the global warming guy) & the others were simply AWOL, and Sirota is even too petulant for that.

https://www.salon.com/2019/03/20/democrats-cant-afford-another-ugly-prim...

by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 05/16/2022 - 9:29pm

Ha, i just realized good candidate Biden won Wisconsin by 20k votes, bad candidate Clinton lost WI by 23k plus saw 110k-120k more votes go to 3rd party candidates than Biden did (40k total) thru whatever mechanisms and zeitgeist (still waiting for someone to audit those ES&S voting machines, as Jennifer Cohen keeps pushing). What a difference a bit of woke liberal pique makes in a swing state.

[Gore won WI by 5k, Kerry by 11k, Obama by 400k+ and 200k+ in 2008/2012

by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 05/17/2022 - 12:21pm

Every Democrat running in 2022 should make this an issue https://t.co/xgZHOXZJm8
— David Friend (@DavidMFriend1) May 19, 2022

by artappraiser on Thu, 05/19/2022 - 4:16pm

Don't know if this is wise or not (and it'll likely get ignored anyway) but at least tries out-of-the-box:

If anyone ever decides to get serious about the corporate income tax, the way to go is to tax stock returns https://t.co/mpVe5Ft5Tu but I know that is too simple for policy types
— Dean Baker (@DeanBaker13) May 19, 2022

by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 05/19/2022 - 4:50pm

yessiree, I think that is exactly what should be done! and yes, too many voters don't get that the diff between earned income and unearned income, which is the whole shebang to understanding almost everything going on right now class-wise (all colors of skin involved can I add?), while at the same time many more are seeing that light (hence all our current "gambling" problems such as losing everything all at once among other things..).

by artappraiser on Thu, 05/19/2022 - 4:58pm

Woke Black professor at Georgetown, with 44K+ followers, bitching about the evil Obama

in an era of imperial decline, ecological collapse, and historically unprecedented protests against police violence, you really gotta admire Obama's total commitment to not being about shit.
— Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò (@OlufemiOTaiwo) May 19, 2022

other than strikebreaking, organizing against Bernie, and narrating about the migratory patterns of birds, we have not heard a peep from this man. good vibes only
— Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò (@OlufemiOTaiwo) May 19, 2022

thank god for the brave young white guy willing to stick up for him, that's rare:

uhhh he's actually concerned about the biggest issue of the era: disinformation! (and, in that spirit, I am reporting this tweet for being false and abusive)
— Sam Adler-Bell (@SamAdlerBell) May 19, 2022

by artappraiser on Thu, 05/19/2022 - 9:51pm

and here's Marianne and The Jaobin aghast at the evilness of Pete Buttigieg:

My God.

Pete Buttigieg: Hungry Babies, Regrettably, Are Just the Price of the Free Market https://t.co/XAAFOTN3sU
— Marianne Williamson (@marwilliamson) May 20, 2022

to the ramparts! off with their heads!

by artappraiser on Thu, 05/19/2022 - 10:36pm

Use this updated version. pic.twitter.com/M1LGreKFZp
— Terry Watkins Jr. (@TerryWatkinsJr1) May 11, 2022

Normalize being a Democrat against Cori Bush.
— Ethan Wolf (@ethanmwolf) May 13, 2022

by artappraiser on Thu, 05/19/2022 - 11:41pm

I've spent much of the past 4 years, sadly, documenting the "Justice Democrats" and The Squad's very problematic flirtation with anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic rhetoric.

During this time, so many of my Lefty friends have gaslighted me, said I was crying wolf... pic.twitter.com/MjOqW9Kuzs
— Chester A. Arthur (@ZacAKAMadu) May 20, 2022

Perhaps reasonable minds could disagree with respect to Ilhan Omar's AIPAC tweets, Rashida Tlaib's Nakba Resolution, AOC's demagogic conspiracy theories, The Squad's votes against Iron Dome funding...

All of those things were, nominally, about the State of Israel.
— Chester A. Arthur (@ZacAKAMadu) May 20, 2022

by artappraiser on Fri, 05/20/2022 - 10:52pm

"The efforts to stop @SummerForPA are part of a broader trend in Democratic politics, as super PACs with big budgets have sought to prevent progressives—often women of color—from winning races across the country." #PA12 https://t.co/vL9qMJTQfw
— Justice Democrats (@justicedems) May 19, 2022

In reply to the above, Professor Emerita at University of Maryland's Merrill College of Journalism. Specialty areas science, health and environment journalism and women in the media.-

I expect better from Vanity Fair. Our Revolution is a dark money organization. It’s way past time to call out “Justice Democrats,” who are neither Democrats or for justice. They regularly oppose progressive Democratic candidates.
— Carol L. Rogers (@Rogersonline) May 19, 2022

by artappraiser on Fri, 05/20/2022 - 11:10pm

Obama 2012 pollster weighing in on the Musk meme debate (the meme was actually produced by @SwipeWright) https://t.co/ulEKreBpTp
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) May 20, 2022

If anyone doesn't think American politics as a whole moved left the past couple decades you really should go back and watch the presidential debates in 2000, 2004, and 2008.
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) May 20, 2022

Al Gore 2000 presidential campaign brochure: "Reducing the Federal Workforce to its Lowest Level in 30 years. The reinventing efforts have helped reduce the federal workforce by more than 350,000, to its lowest levels since President John F. Kennedy."https://t.co/vs1WVq7IzH
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) May 20, 2022

by artappraiser on Fri, 05/20/2022 - 11:42pm

Shor's full comments in the last day

Think the real dichotomy btwn progressives and "centrists" like Shor/Iglesias is that the centrists try to position Dems to win power under that undemocratic system and progs see a need to reform the entire system and make it more democratic to save our democracy
— m2c4 (@tidalsoundings) May 20, 2022

Both of us have written *a lot* about the need for reform, probably more than nearly anyone else? https://t.co/aShm3vpJDl
— (((David Shor))) (@davidshor) May 20, 2022

But the reality is that we would need to add six to seven new states to return to the senate bias we had in 2012, there isn’t any path back to power that doesn’t involve some degree of moderation https://t.co/HRQV1X7JJM
— (((David Shor))) (@davidshor) May 20, 2022

It's reasonable to call for a more electorally optimized message but I wouldn't refer to it as moderation given that Biden won a better vote share as a challenger than Obama did as an incumbent in 2012.
— Andy Tharp (@papanoel_cool) May 20, 2022

The reality is that American politics is generally people in the 85-95th percentile of liberalism running against people in the 5th-15th percentile of liberalism, whichever side moves toward 50 will win more votes but parties very very much don’t want to do it.
— (((David Shor))) (@davidshor) May 20, 2022

Biden did better as a challenger in a higher turnout and more polarized environment! I have no idea how you hand wave that away.
— Andy Tharp (@papanoel_cool) May 20, 2022

I agree with you that in some sense the Obama message is more optimized. But if your theory of the case is the Obama message appealed to more people that's clearly wrong! It appealed to fewer people!
— Andy Tharp (@papanoel_cool) May 20, 2022

The country has gotten considerably more educated and secular (and also more cosmopolitan on both social issues even controlling for that). If you had run an Obama-style campaign you would have done better.
— (((David Shor))) (@davidshor) May 20, 2022

The basic state of things is that the median voter has moved left in the past ten years and both parties moved left in response, which is why the two way popular vote total was basically unchanged (52.3 vs 52), but leaves us in a much worse place in the senate/EC
— (((David Shor))) (@davidshor) May 20, 2022

Meant to QT this https://t.co/tGs4p4Zok7
— (((David Shor))) (@davidshor) May 20, 2022

I have three claims here:
1) Obama’s public positioning under any reasonable scaling system is to the left of at least 85% of voters (likely higher)
2) Biden was considerably to the left of Obama
3) There are generally large returns to moderation in winning elections
— (((David Shor))) (@davidshor) May 20, 2022

(1) is really a pretty straight forward empirical claim that you can validate yourself with ANES data.
(2) is something people argue about (see the Musk thread) but subjectively is clear if you watch each convention
(3) Has been validated with multiple identification strategies
— (((David Shor))) (@davidshor) May 20, 2022

So the fact that a Republican hasn't won a fair election where everybody's vote counts the same since 2004 makes me a little skeptical of 1 & 2. Let's say you believe Obama is further left than 85% of people. What is the dark magic democrats are using to still get more votes?
— Andy Tharp (@papanoel_cool) May 20, 2022

The whole dynamic here is that Democrats run people at the 90th percentile and Republicans run people at the 10th percentile because both parties hold combinations of popular and unpopular policies. pic.twitter.com/GCjj6PjxiO
— (((David Shor))) (@davidshor) May 20, 2022

The basic dynamic here is that educated people tend to be much more *ideologically consistent* (which means that they are more likely to support their ideology's unpopular stances) while swing voters tend to pick popular things regardless of ideologyhttps://t.co/6XcuBQlwcx
— (((David Shor))) (@davidshor) May 20, 2022

by artappraiser on Fri, 05/20/2022 - 11:57pm

Biden would have had a Hillary problém without COVID, which let him not campaign with no excuses. And let him stay out of the news, while more people stuck at home could see Trump act like a buffoon. Hard for Fox to pummell Biden without appearances. Hard for Biden to put his foot in his mouth, and he became much more careful. 3rd time(+pandemic)'s the charm.

by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 05/21/2022 - 12:54am

Yglesias vs. Taibbi:

I think when people leveled these criticisms of Bush they were worried about the invasion of Iraq and the global network of secret torture prisons, and Biden really hasn’t done anything like that. https://t.co/14Dm8Cnkw5
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) May 23, 2022

by artappraiser on Sun, 05/22/2022 - 9:37pm

It's awful when Biden does nothing about baby food shortage, and then "authoritarian" when he steps in to handle.
And then it's awful "government regulation" that caused the problem (under Biden, or from before?), and so on.
It's like one of these board games where every square on the path is "It's Biden's fault, take a card".
Of course the Woke equivalent to The Hyde Act and packing the courts is what exactly? Who have they gotten elected, what's the Woke equivalent to Falwell Ministires with its college and Focus On The Family offshoot, and....?

by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 05/23/2022 - 1:01am

Cultural Power Won’t Save Progressives

By Michelle Goldberg @ NYTimes.com, May 23

Andrew Breitbart, founder of the right-wing website Breitbart News, once said that “politics is downstream from culture,” and conservatives have been reverentially repeating his maxim ever since.

This belief contributes to the right’s eternal sense of victimization. Our system’s rural bias may give Republicans disproportionate political power, but progressives have outsize sway in academia, media and the arts. “They — the progressive left — tell us what is the truth and what is not, what is right and what is wrong,” the Hungarian strongman Viktor Orban said in a speech last week at CPAC, an influential American conservative conference held, for the first time, in Budapest. As conservatives, said Orban, “our lot is to feel about our nations’ public life as Sting felt in New York: like a ‘legal alien.’”

Progressives sometimes seem to believe Breitbart’s maxim as well, acting as if the way to change the world is to change how we describe it. At best, the left’s ever-shifting language rules can push social norms in a more decent direction. At worst, they’re obscurantist and alienating. Either way, they reflect a choice about where to focus political energy.

This choice is understandable. It makes sense that, faced with the right’s structural advantages, some progressives sought to exercise influence in the more responsive realms of culture and business. Corporations, after all, can be more movable than Congress. The mass shootings that have become a regular feature of American life haven’t led to national gun control, but they have caused Walmart to scale back ammunition sales. People fight where they feel they have a chance of winning.

But purely cultural victories are little match for the brute force of politics. One lesson of Orban’s rise in Hungary is that the hard power of the state can crush the soft power of intellectuals, artists and tastemakers. It’s a lesson that American conservatives are learning.

Let’s start with Disney. In March, the corporation, under pressure from some of its employees, spoke out against Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, responded by signing a law revoking the company’s special tax status. “If you’re a woke C.E.O., you want to get involved in our legislative business, look, it’s a free country,” he said. “But understand, if you do that, I’m fighting back against you.”

Other companies took note of this unambiguous act of retaliation. The Wall Street Journal reported, “In private meetings and coaching sessions over the past few weeks, top business leaders have been asking a version of the same question: How can we avoid becoming the next Walt Disney Company?”

An easy answer is to remain mum on contentious social issues. A memo from the PR firm Zeno, first obtained by the newsletter Popular Information, advised clients reacting to the leaked Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade to “avoid taking a stand that they cannot reverse, especially when the decision is not final.” Many conservatives have been gleeful about the relative quiet of previously outspoken corporate leaders. “The campaign against Disney was really proof of concept for how the political right can tame woke capital,” the conservative activist Chris Rufo told me.

Rather than denounce the likely death of Roe, some companies have promised employees in red states that they’ll pay for abortion-related travel costs. But conservative state lawmakers may take aim at such benefits [.....]

by artappraiser on Mon, 05/23/2022 - 8:51pm

Prime example in the news, this was quick, one day after leaked emais

Insurance company State Farm tells the Washington Examiner it no longer supports a program by GenderCool, an organization that promotes education around LGBTQ issues, that allowed for 'distribution of books in schools' following reports of leaked emails

by artappraiser on Tue, 05/24/2022 - 4:27am

Basically saying the same thing, less the stuff about corporations

THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN My Lunch With President Biden May 22, 2022

Lunch was off the record so he can't say what Biden said. But praises Biden in several ways..Especially nice debunk of the Biden senile smear by lauding how he's unified the western world, really on top of things. But very worried about the U.S. itself, especially the Trump right and feels the far left feeds them and that the left also derails the good Biden tries to do to counter the Trump right and catch 10% of GOP voters. Thinks the country's fate really does hang in the balance, reminds him of the old really bad days in Lebanon

by artappraiser on Tue, 05/24/2022 - 4:54am

"The mainstream left is seen—correctly, in my view—as elitist and openly disdainful of working people, as more concerned with culture wars than class wars."
Vivek Chibber w/ @daniel_dsj2110 on why culture is not- at all, as in zero %- class. @thenation https://t.co/YWHZwhm1YB
— Sam Haselby (@samhaselby) May 24, 2022

(Note: not Fox News but The Nation and it's a Marxist saying this)

by artappraiser on Tue, 05/24/2022 - 8:25am

This is a good corrective to the "moderates aren't actually moderates but just have a mix of extreme left-wing and right-wing views" narrative. https://t.co/Z1AFl2g0iA
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) May 20, 2022

Also, keep in mind that in a 2-party system, the parties' platforms aren't so philosophically coherent. Instead, they reflect complex trade-offs in coalition building and maintenance. There's no particular reason your view on abortion should be correlated with your view on taxes.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) May 20, 2022

When someone is described as having coherent political views, maybe that's true of, say, a committed Marxist or democratic socialist or libertarian. But not really of a committed Democrat or Republican. Don't confuse partisanship for philosophical coherence.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) May 20, 2022

by artappraiser on Tue, 05/24/2022 - 9:15am

Senators Collins & Manchin statement on guns, from NYTimes update on Uvalde shooting:

May 24, 2022, 6:42 p.m. ET1 minute ago

Emily Cochrane

Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, described the attack as an “unbelievably tragic and horrible crime,” and expressed support for so-called “red flag laws” that help restrict potentially violent individuals from accessing firearms.

May 24, 2022, 6:42 p.m. ET1 minute ago

Emily Cochrane

Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a Democrat whose effort at legislation on background checks for gun purchases was blocked in 2013, said, “It makes no sense at all why we can’t do common sense things and try to prevent some of this from happening.

NUFF SAID!

by artappraiser on Tue, 05/24/2022 - 7:11pm

TRUE

Any Democrat could score big political points right now by pledging to vigorously enforce current gun laws.
— Stacie loves playoff basketball (@Stacie_loves) May 25, 2022

It gets rid of one of the most devastating arguments by pro-gun people: "you don't even enforce the gun laws we already have." Cynically - you don't even have to be an advocate for more gun control; you just have to stop pandering to those who argue that gun felons need loser bail conditions and lenient if any prison sentences because they are victims of systemic racism or poor background or untreated mental health troubles or some such. You'll get more votes, easy peasy.

by artappraiser on Wed, 05/25/2022 - 1:44am

Inside New York's hipster wars

Why the city’s clash of cultures between progressive Brooklyn and transgressive Manhattan marks a new era in American politics.

Twitter events this morning, tweets from New Statesman article

by artappraiser on Fri, 05/27/2022 - 2:05pm

This kind of organizing?

Around the same time, I started reading up on all of @ylecun's papers and online videos. Loved his talk "Who is Afraid of Non-Convex Loss Functions?" from 2007: https://t.co/OTuHInWgJ8. It greatly captures the zeitgeist. (2/n)
— Durk Kingma (@dpkingma) May 29, 2022

by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 05/30/2022 - 12:13pm

this looks promising NOT !

Join @codepink and @DSA_Intl_Comm on their Philly stop of the Venezuelan Feminists Tour, TONIGHT at 5pm!

Details below https://t.co/vn5Gs61ivU
— Philly DSA (@PhillyDSA) May 30, 2022

by artappraiser on Mon, 05/30/2022 - 6:04pm

Swing voters explain most electoral change cross-nationally, though population change & turnout change both contribute. Turnout change is more important in the US. turnout change & swing voters usually move in the same direction everywhere
https://t.co/o1hotEDbgk
— Matt Grossmann (@MattGrossmann) May 30, 2022

Turnout change is relatively more important in the US than elsewhere because we have lower turnout & switch between higher presidential & lower midterm electorates. But there isn’t a trade-off: both partisan turnout & vote choice move against the party of the president in midterm
— Matt Grossmann (@MattGrossmann) May 30, 2022

by artappraiser on Mon, 05/30/2022 - 6:10pm

Great point and looks to me now as an artifact of a world gone a bit insane pandering to protestors:

imagine if pelosi went to the predominately latino community of Uvalde and did this but with a poncho & sombrero pic.twitter.com/oZYTCc8PK0
— (@tinywienerbabe) May 29, 2022

by artappraiser on Wed, 06/01/2022 - 1:30pm

It was this and many did not want to partake of the ritual >

Black Lives Matter's donors got what they paid for, says @bungarsargon https://t.co/cC0L6eU9sV
— spiked (@spikedonline) May 23, 2022

by artappraiser on Wed, 06/01/2022 - 1:52pm

On Congressman Bobby Rush's black lives bullshit, Twitter thread by "SWS Chicago, transferred to a single page with the Reader app, 4 hrs. ago:

Two years ago, in the heat of summer, my coworkers and I were transported by bus to a part of the city that was in the final stages of being looted. We were dropped off with no access to water, food, or bathrooms. After clearing the area of looters, we sat for hours doing nothing

We had no method of transportation to respond to calls. A bus is not an emergency vehicle, a bus driver is not outfitted with a ballistic vest. The only bus that remained with us served as a "cooling center" because it was extremely hot outside.

So, we were stuck. After we cleared out the looters, we secured the strip mall, and then sat on our asses for over 10 hours, waiting to get wind of any redeployment plans. That never happened. We sat around until we were released, about 14 hours later.

Some of my coworkers were able to make entry to a nearby business that had already been looted prior to our arrival. They were able to locate the pin code for the bathrooms. The city around us was burning, but everything was out of reach. At least we had bathrooms.

With nothing else to do, no means to actually get anywhere and make ourselves useful, some of my coworkers sought refuge in the shade, on the bus, or inside of the business. Some napped. We were all exhausted. Days off were cancelled. Shifts were 12+ hours with no end in sight.

It was later revealed that, elsewhere in the city, that same day, officers who were in the same predicament as us, decided to seek refuge in a nearby looted office space. (It has been repeated many times, but never publicly confirmed, that they were invited there.)

That office belonged to Congressman Bobby Rush, who has been in political office since 1983. Longer than I've been living on this earth.

Like us, the officers presumably didn't have access to food for their 12+ hour shift, so they helped themselves to some popcorn for sustenance

Not two weeks later, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown (newly appointed at the time), Mayor Lightfoot, and Congressman Bobby Rush held a joint press conference in which they slammed the officers who sought refuge in Rush's office.

Never once was it mentioned that these officers were on a platoon-style deployment and did not have access to squad cars, bathrooms, water, or food during their 12+ shifts, which went on for another 10 or so days. It was in the upper 80s/low 90s.

These officers and their supervisors were all punished, some taking so much time that they would lose their health insurance benefits. Congressman Bobby Rush so kindly declined to press charges on the officers. (sarcasm smilie he put here was lost in the translation.)

tweets added after the thread was transferred:

The Superintendent never admitted any fault regarding how poorly planned the looting/riot response was. The OIG released a scathing report, but as usual, shit rolls down hill. Officers who did exactly what we did to escape the heat were vilified in the media.
— RDO Enthusiast (@SWSchicago) June 1, 2022

One day before the now-infamous "Popcorngate" press conference, a Chicago Police Officer, Chinese immigrant, U.S. Navy veteran, and father named Xu Meng died of carbon monoxide poisoning after failing to turn off his car in his attached garage after his 12th 12-hour shift.
— RDO Enthusiast (@SWSchicago) June 1, 2022

While this event made the evening news, neither the Mayor nor the Superintendent held any press conference regarding his death. After almost 2 weeks of non-stop 12+ hour shifts, the callous disregard for this fallen officer, followed up by a finger-pointing press conference [...]
— RDO Enthusiast (@SWSchicago) June 1, 2022

Regarding some snacked-on popcorn and "lazy," "cowardly" officers who were just trying to manage their stress and exhaustion while being unable to relocate to tame the rioting... really struck a chord with the rest of us. Especially those of us who knew Officer Meng.
— RDO Enthusiast (@SWSchicago) June 1, 2022

Those were incredibly dark days. What I've covered only scratches the surface of the hypocrisy and mismanagement by city government and CPD brass.

But, someone asked me why 2 years ago was the worst month of my life. This is just a piece of the reason why.
— RDO Enthusiast (@SWSchicago) June 1, 2022

I'll throw in one more thing, just so this isn't too depressing. A few weeks after the riots, late June 2020, a little girl walked up to me & my partner while we were eating lunch on a patio. She slipped us this note. It's still saved in a folder on my phone called "good things." pic.twitter.com/PVKKgYqxxS
— RDO Enthusiast (@SWSchicago) June 2, 2022

After everything I had gone through that month--that we had all collectively gone through--this girl will never know how much that note, that small gesture, meant to me. I have a few similar pictures in that folder, for whenever I have doubts regarding why I'm still in this field
— RDO Enthusiast (@SWSchicago) June 2, 2022

by artappraiser on Wed, 06/01/2022 - 11:06pm

We'd heard about these RNC Community Centers popping up in nonwhite areas across the country. So we sent @alex_sammon to a couple to check them out. He essentially got tossed out, but he brought back enough information for this great report:https://t.co/lda4Ms2F5W
— David Dayen (@ddayen) June 1, 2022

by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 06/01/2022 - 5:34pm

her team is clearly and interestingly playing the non-partisan policy Yglesias/Shor advice with this tweet, but don't know if its's going to work given that she has such a strong partisan image already:

Today, Chris Christie (who expanded Medicaid in New Jersey) is appearing with Brian Kemp, who deprives 500,000+ Georgians of Medicaid access and just vetoed access for Georgians living with HIV. Kemp doesn’t care, so Georgians suffer while our tax dollars flow to 38 other states. pic.twitter.com/4ANWYqSxyd
— Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) May 17, 2022

by artappraiser on Sun, 06/05/2022 - 4:56pm

Just learned that my Czech immigrant gay bartender in NYC -- who has always been strangely Republican -- I could never figure it out... turns out, of course, he grew up in Communism. Indeed, that's all it takes to have no tolerance to left-wing bullsh*t.
— Peter Moskos (@PeterMoskos) June 5, 2022

by artappraiser on Sun, 06/05/2022 - 10:05pm

I think their current president is largely an old Communist with Putin ties, yet the Czechs voted him in rather overwhelmingly (forgiving him his decrepit age as well). Somehow enough people have tolerance for whatever wing bullsh*t.

by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 06/06/2022 - 12:59am

In the News

Russia plays weak hand in Palestine
Russia plays weak hand in Palestine

submitted by PeraclesPlease 8 months ago

The intra-Palestinian meeting in Moscow has precedent

Russia's hosted such meetings in the past, most recently Feb 2019

Russia has long lamented the US' "monopolization" of the peace process & tried to carve out a niche for itself: mediating among the disunited Palestinians/2
— Hanna Notte (@HannaNotte) February 29, 2024

Read the article at https://twitter.com/HannaNotte/status/1763116222256701787

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Mother Jones is Reaching out to Alternative Party Voters
Mother Jones is Reaching out to Alternative Party Voters

submitted by HSG 9 months ago

Here's what I told them: https://halginsberg.com/vote-for-jill-stein-again/

Read the article at https://halginsberg.com/vote-for-jill-stein-again/

2 comments

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Controversial Brazil law curbing Indigenous rights comes...
Controversial Brazil law curbing Indigenous rights comes into force

submitted by artappraiser 10 months ago

Controversial Brazil law curbing Indigenous rights comes into force https://t.co/pCoDg05irX
— Gareth Harris (@garethharr) December 28, 2023

Read the article at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/28/brazil-law-indigenous-land-rights-claim-time-marker?CMP=share_btn_tw

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Security Alert: U.S. Embassy Port-au-Prince, Haiti (...
Security Alert: U.S. Embassy Port-au-Prince, Haiti (December 25, 2023)

submitted by artappraiser 11 months ago

Location: U.S. Embassy and residential compounds

Events: Heavy gunfire is occuring around the area of the U.S. Embassy and residential compounds adjacent to the Trutier area of Tabarre. All Embassy personnel have been instructed to remain indoors and shelter-in-place until further notice. All others should avoid the area.

Actions to take:

Avoid the area;

Avoid demonstrations and any large gatherings of people;

Do not attempt to drive through roadblocks; and

If you encounter a roadblock, turn around and get to a safe area.

Read the article at https://ht.usembassy.gov/security-alert-u-s-embassy-port-au-prince-haiti-december-25-2023/

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Pakistan Is Creating the World’s Next Refugee Crisis
Pakistan Is Creating the World’s Next Refugee Crisis

submitted by artappraiser 11 months ago

By The Editorial Board @ Bloomberg.com, December 8, 2023

A mass expulsion of Afghan migrants could destabilize the region and fuel radicalization. The West should pressure Islamabad to change course.

Read the article at https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-12-08/pakistan-s-expulsion-of-afghan-refugees-risks-another-crisis

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Internet shut down in Chad
Internet shut down in Chad

submitted by artappraiser 11 months ago

All eyes on #Chad right now
Chad has two internet trunks coming into the country: One from the Red Sea via Sudan; the other from Cameroon. Not possible for the totality of the country's internet network to be shut unless done centrally. A lot of rumors swirling; few facts. https://t.co/N6bDJZ2ixO

Read the article at https://x.com/_hudsonc/status/1732891968709992511?s=20

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[Economy] where Joe's success falls short
[Economy] where Joe's success falls short

submitted by PeraclesPlease 11 months ago

Read the article at

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[CRIME News] 3 loss-prevention employees in Macy’s across...
[CRIME News] 3 loss-prevention employees in Macy’s across the street from Philadelphia City Hall stabbed

submitted by artappraiser 11 months ago

BREAKING: Three loss prevention employees in Macy’s across the street from Philadelphia City Hall stabbed, one of them has died from stab wounds, @PhillyPolice sources tell me. Police converged on the store as the three workers were rushed to Jefferson Hospital. pic.twitter.com/4U1eKycL4W

Read the article at https://x.com/KeeleyFox29/status/1731713272942940365?s=20

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Former U.S. Ambassador Arrested, Charged With Working As...
Former U.S. Ambassador Arrested, Charged With Working As Secret Agent For Cuba

submitted by artappraiser 11 months ago

Former US Ambassador Arrested, Charged With Working As Secret Agent For Cuba https://t.co/LDwo4ZJI1K
— HuffPost (@HuffPost) December 4, 2023

Read the article at https://www.huffpost.com/entry/manuel-rocha-ambassador-arrested-cuba_n_656d1e2ae4b028b0f3d07478

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[War in Israel, Chapter II] UNRWA under scrutiny
[War in Israel, Chapter II] UNRWA under scrutiny

submitted by artappraiser 11 months ago

[Chapter I news is HERE, Oct. 7 til today]

You don’t get it.
It’s not about an UNRWA teacher who held an Israeli kid hostage in his house.
It’s all about how for 75 years you have destroyed the future of generations of Palestinians, including my family.
My cousins in Arab countries are still not citizens - not even the… https://t.co/nv6anubGhc
— George Deek (@GeorgeDeek) December 2, 2023

Note 'Community Notes' attached to UNWRA's statement.

Read the article at https://x.com/GeorgeDeek/status/1731020551328579863?s=20

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Maduro, Under Pressure, Holds Vote to Annex Territory From...
Maduro, Under Pressure, Holds Vote to Annex Territory From a Neighbor

submitted by artappraiser 11 months ago

Imperialism for me but not for thee?

It's wild that Venezuela is now holding a vote on whether 2/3 of Guyana actually belongs to them! Analysts suggest that Modoru may want military action to pump up his sinking popularity.

Could we have a war in South America?!?

"The people who live in Essequibo are largely… pic.twitter.com/QvMEjkkgwy

Read the article at https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/03/world/americas/maduro-vote-essequibo-guyana.html

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[Where is the GOP headed?] Divisions leave Florida’s House...
[Where is the GOP headed?] Divisions leave Florida’s House Republicans powerless

submitted by artappraiser 11 months ago

The lack of a cohesive delegation has allowed attention-seeking lawmakers to act on their own.

McCarthy: “You have [Rep. Matt] Gaetz, who belongs in jail…”

Gaetz: “Tough words from a guy who sucker punches people in the back. The only assault I committed was against Kevin’s fragile ego.”https://t.co/LctPuz6Pcf

Read the article at https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/29/divisions-leave-floridas-house-republicans-powerless-00129200

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‘She got so mad at me’: book on the ‘Squad’ details AOC-...
‘She got so mad at me’: book on the ‘Squad’ details AOC-Pelosi clashes

submitted by artappraiser 11 months ago

By Martinn Pengelly in Washington DC for TheGuardian.com, Nov. 30

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tells Ryan Grim life in Congress ‘completely transformed’ after Democratic leader stepped down

Read the article at https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/nov/30/squad-book-aoc-nancy-pelosi?CMP=share_btn_tw

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US health insurers Humana, Cigna in talks to merge -source
US health insurers Humana, Cigna in talks to merge -source

submitted by artappraiser 11 months ago

@ Reuters, Nov. 29

Read the article at https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/us-health-insurers-humana-cigna-talks-merge-wsj-2023-11-29/

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Central Africa’s dinosaur regimes and the art of coup-...
Central Africa’s dinosaur regimes and the art of coup-proofing

submitted by artappraiser 11 months ago

"Both the AU and the intl community place more weight on whether elections are held than whether they are free and fair. Sanctions/expulsions occur when there is a coup but not necessarily when elections are rigged or if an “institutional coup” occurs." https://t.co/m9dNimJP0D
— Cameron Hudson (@_hudsonc) November 28, 2023

Read the article at https://africanarguments.org/2023/11/central-africas-dinosaur-regimes-and-the-art-of-coup-proofing/

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