Designed-in countermajoritarian features contribute to minority rule Michelle Goldberg speaks with Harvard government professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt. The authors of “How Democracies Die” (2018) released “Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point” this morning. What shocked them since 2018 was how swiflty the GOP slid sown the behavioral sink into insurrection. They did not consider the Republican Party an authoritarian party in 2018, and “did not expect it to transform so quickly and so thoroughly.” Goldberg writes: “Tyranny of the Minority” is their attempt to make sense of how American democracy eroded so fast. “Societal diversity, cultural backlash and extreme-right parties are ubiquitous across established Western democracies,” they write. But in recent years, only in America has a defeated leader attempted a coup. And only in America is the coup leader likely to once again be the nominee of a major party. “Why did America, alone among rich established democracies, come to the brink?” they ask.
Reading
The ruling classes always work to keep the powerless from understanding how power functions. This assault has been aided by a cultural left determined to banish "dead white male" philosophers.
The post Chris Hedges: The Pedagogy of Power appeared first on MintPress News.
Listening for those voices from the deep.
It’s an ocean of conflict and ecological decline. Despite its vast size — 1.3 million square miles — the South China Sea has become a microcosm of the geopolitical tensions between East and West, where territorial struggles over abundant natural resources may one day lead to environmental collapse. While the threat of a devastating military conflict between China and the United States in the region still looms, the South China Sea has already experienced irreparable damage. Decades of over-harvesting have, for instance, had a disastrous impact on that sea’s once-flourishing fish. The tuna, mackerel, and shark populations have fallen to 50% of their 1960s levels. Biologically critical coral reef atolls, struggling to survive rising ocean temperatures, are also being buried... Read more
They’re making every effort to prove it First thing this morning, up pops a Kaitlan Collins CNN interview with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.). Collins posts: Rep. Nancy Mace says she supports a House impeachment inquiry. Asked isn’t it supposed to be the evidence that leads you to pursue an impeachment inquiry, Mace responds, “That’s what the inquiry is for, to get more evidence.” Marcy Wheeler (@emptywheel from Ireland) responds: BREAKING: @NancyMace admits, 1) She hasn’t read Biden’s tax releases, which unlike Trump, Biden releases 2) she’s willing to engage in a constitutional abomination of impeaching BECAUSE there’s no evidence of wrongdoing. Trump wants his retribution NOW Let’s cut to the chase. Digby summarized what’s behind this nonsense on Monday: It’s absolutely the case that they are doing this for Trump because he has demanded it. That goes without saying. But since they are all bent on destroying democracy and the constitutional order, de-legitimizing the impeachment process is a no brainer.
Here's a preview for Big Finish's David Tennant & Michelle Gomez-starring Doctor Who - Once and Future: The Martian Invasion of Planetoid 50.
My son is ten, and recently he asked me something about racism.
And in the middle of it, he farted.
“Dad, with racism, are there like, y’know, different typ—BRRRRRrrrrRRRRppp.”
Breaker of winds, first of his name, my son has no self-consciousness about producing some natural energy. For him, the sound of flatus rippling flesh is a precious gift, an “easy button” for laughs when bored. Of late, he has taken to using his booty as a weapon, pointing it at me and firing whenever I do something he doesn’t approve of. Say, “iPad time is over,” for example, and blocka-blocka, he lets his nine-millimeter heinie spray that potent tear gas. Give him Nacho Cheese Doritos instead of Cool Ranch for a snack, and you’ll receive a rapid-fire rat-a-tat-tat rat-tat-tat.
In today's BCTV Daily Dispatch: AHS: Delicate, Stranger Things, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, Loki, Star Trek: Lower Decks, and more!
What are the forces driving refugees across the Channel? What are they fleeing? What are they hoping for?
New Kremlin purges only cement Russia's hardline commitment to the disastrous invasion
- by Brett Gary
- by István Darabán
An analysis indicates that a high percentage of U.S. patents that shifted to tax havens like Bermuda are intrafirm transfers. Such transfers may be a tax avoidance strategy by multinationals.
"Human beings do not belong in barges or camps. The correct way to house people is to house them in communities.”
When people hear the word “complexity,” they respond in different ways. Some think “complicated” or “messy,” not being able to see the forest for the trees. Others think of a clutter of matter going this way and that with no chance to get a purchase on its behavior, to take hold of the “blooming, buzzing […]
To staff their agricultural properties, Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch, and other tycoons are using a controversial visa program linked to labor abuses and human trafficking.
Think again A children’s book about a lion raised by two men has been banned in Florida because right-wing activists suspect the men might be gay – despite nothing in the book suggesting they have any romantic relationship, according to a report. The Florida Department of Education released new information about books that were banned or temporarily removed pending investigation in various county school systems as part of the state’s new laws making it easier to challenge material in a school library, reported the Tallahassee Democrat. One of the books was “Christian, the Hugging Lion.” According to the report, schools in Manatee County, a conservative community just south of Tampa, withdrew the book that’s based on the true story about a pair of men who raise a lion in their London apartment, then are lovingly remembered by the animal when they go to Africa to see him years later. Nothing in the book indicates the two men are in a same-sex relationship — but activists speculated that they might be, which was enough for a complaint about the book.
After four years of frontline reporting and research, The Grayzone’s Anya Parampil unveils her forthcoming book, Corporate Coup: Venezuela and the End of US Empire. Based on four years of original investigative work and interviews with diplomats from across the globe, Corporate Coup uses the case of Venezuela to examine the West’s blueprint for modern regime change war: the hybrid diplomatic assaults, economic terrorism, covert destabilization tactics, and information warfare that the US and its allies unleash against all governments […]
The post Announcing ‘Corporate Coup: Venezuela and the End of US Empire’ by Anya Parampil first appeared on The Grayzone.
The post Announcing ‘Corporate Coup: Venezuela and the End of US Empire’ by Anya Parampil appeared first on The Grayzone.
The looming impeachment has a grander purpose Noah Berlatsky writes: Republicans have openly admitted that their efforts to impeach President Joe Biden — which will begin in earnest this week as House members return to DC from summer break — are in bad faith. They don’t just want to tarnish Biden. They want to tarnish the impeachment process itself. As the GOP has become increasingly authoritarian and anti-democracy, Republicans have become increasingly committed to undermining and mocking forms of democratic accountability. A nakedly partisan and clownish impeachment is useful because it signals to voters that all impeachments are clown shows, and all impeachments are partisan. That exculpates former President Donald Trump and delegitimizes resistance to him should he win the presidency again. It’s absolutely the case that they are doing this for Trump because he has demanded it. That goes without saying. But since they are all bent on destroying democracy and the constitutional order, de-legitimizing the impeachment process is a no brainer.