Grievances about imaginary enemies Thanksgiving is over (even if leftovers may not be). It’s time to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and get to resisting what’s coming. Spocko has gotten after that message with both ears. False narratives that sold half the country on Trumpism were not born yesterday. It took time, billions of oligarch money, and repetition, repetition, repetition. Propaganda succeeded, among other things, in convincing people that illegal immigration (a misdemeanor, first offense) was a “crisis” best dealt with by a career criminal with 34 felony convictions, dozens of other grand jury indictments (including for inciting an insurrection and theft of state secrets), and a civil penalty for sexual assault. Courts liquidated Donald Trump’s charitable foundation as a fraud, dismantled his “university” as a fraud as well, and banned him from doing business in the state of New York. How the hell could Americans hire that guy as chief executive of the United States of America? A second time? The answer, says Andrea Pitzer of the new Next Comes What podcast, is simple: propaganda works.
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Give thanks Olivia Troye is now a regular guest on cable news networks not in the grip of the MAGA cult. Her experiences as Homeland Security and Counterterrorism advisor to Vice President Mike Pence during the Tump administration left her both changed and politcally homeless. Troye’s Thanksgiving message reminded me of another story of political transformation I once witnessed. View on Threads Troye writes: I’m especially grateful for the incredible gift of finding a new tribe. Taking a stand has often left me in political no-man’s land, but in that space, I’ve discovered something profound—a community of people like you. Your support, courage, and shared belief in doing what’s right have reminded me that I’m not alone. Together, we are building something stronger than partisanship: a tribe rooted in shared values, integrity, and hope for the future. Thank you for being my tribe. Gratitude is a powerful force, but its true strength lies in its ability to inspire us to be better—for ourselves, one another, and the country we love. That’s something we can all be thankful for. Before MAGA came the T-party.
The BBC license fee will increase through 2027; some UK viewers may not be thrilled, but it is the best way to keep getting more Doctor Who.
Last Wednesday I wrote about Democrats fear of fighting back. I linked to a video from my friend Cliff Schecter. We’ve been talking about what fighting back looks like. I’m going to share some examples here next week with specifics. Today Cliff shares an example, Gavin Newsom. Yes we were all horrified by Trump’s win. But at some point we get back up and fight. Newsom’s response has been chef’s kiss. No Trump congratulations. You accept the results, but rip him to cameras, point out it was a puny win, he’s no king and still an asshole. You call a special legislative session to bolster legal defenses and garner media coverage of your message! You go to D.C., meet with Democratic reps and President Biden–not Trump. You know it’ll piss him off and he doesn’t deserve the photo op. The coup de gras? Newsom’s using a Trump threat to justify harming Apartheid Man-Baby’s business, which should help kick the inevitable Musk vs. Trump clash into gear. Watch the video for that one and all the rest, as we learn to fight the tyrants.
More than 1500 members of the United Workers Union have been on indefinite strike at four Woolworths distribution sites in NSW and Victoria since 21 November.
The post Woolies workers strike back: ‘We are not robots!’ first appeared on Solidarity Online.
Saturday, 30 November 2024, marks the 17th annual Blue Beanie Day celebration. It’s hard to believe, but web standards fan Douglas Vos conceived of this holiday way back in ’07: The origin of the name of the holiday is the image of Jeffrey Zeldman on the cover of his book wearing a blue knit cap.[7][8][9] Over the […]
The post How to Join Blue Beanie Day: Wear and Share! appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.
I posted this piece in RenewEconomy a couple of months ago. It didn’t convince the commenters then, and I don’t expect it to be any different here, but I’m putting it on the record anyway. AI won’t use as much electricity as we are told, and it’s not a reason to slow transition to renewables […]
I know I did this last week but all this footage came over the Xitter yesterday (pretty much the only feeds I follow there anymore…) and I enjoyed them so much I’m doing it again: Enjoy the rest of your long weekend folks!
When music is medicine.
The post That Healing Sound appeared first on Nautilus.
If you have time to watch this talk by pollster Cornell Belcher, (assuming you have the stomach for this kind of analysis right now) I urge you to do it. Whether he’s right is beyond my ken, but I found it interesting. David Neiwert, an expert on white identity movements, takes a stab at why that might have happened: @davidneiwert.bsky.social: It’s one of the more popular lines of self-flagellation Democratic Party critics and strategists have taken in the wake of the disastrous 2024 election: Harris and her “identity politics” caused many voters, including minorities, to look elsewhere. 2/15 @davidneiwert.bsky.social: But as Tressie McMillan Cottom already observed, Harris in fact tended to deemphasize the racial aspects of her historic candidacy and worked hard to win over Republican voters—to little avail: 3/15 www.nytimes.com/2024/11/06/o… @davidneiwert.bsky.social: Nonetheless, the New York Times proclaimed that the results were about how “Identity Politics Loses Its Grip on the Country”—thereby erasing Trump’s obvious and pronounced white identity politics, which were they key to his victory.
James Joyce: “Maaaaaam, oh, maaaaaaaaa…”
Albert Camus (to a concerned Big Lots manager): “Lost maman in home goods today. Or maybe it was yesterday.”
George Orwell: “Mom, The Party is holding me at checkout for thoughtcrime (throwing hangers at store security cameras).”
Herman Melville (to Costco employee): “When we find her, please don’t tell mom I said she’s my white whale.”
Emily Dickinson (scribbled on an old receipt and hidden under a dressing room bench):
Mom—ma—
Mother, come—quick, or I’ll be found—
by no one.
Ernest Hemingway: “I’m scared. That’s all.”
Third party intervention led by the US and France has achieved a ceasefire in Lebanon. The US now needs to push for a settlement in Gaza where the combatants withdraw, and an external force is charged with maintaining the peace. A ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon came into effect at 4 am local time on Continue reading »
From the Committee to Protect Journalists: “The Israel-Gaza war has taken an unprecedented toll on Gazan journalists since Israel declared war on Hamas following its attack against Israel on October 7, 2023. As of November 26, 2024, CPJ’s preliminary investigations showed at least 137 journalists and media workers were among the more than tens of thousands killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Continue reading »
The US submarine base was always going to come first, not for the sake of supplying useless boats for Australia’s phantom defence needs, but for keeping an ever watchful US imperium stocked. When news comes from across the Pacific about AUKUS, that laborious, unequal trilateral pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, Continue reading »
Like all policy instruments, the Future Fund was created to manage the challenges the country was facing at the time. The government has every right and reason to adjust and adapt the mandate to manage very different political and economic challenges today. The Future Fund (FF) was created by the Parliament at the time when the Continue reading »
The ACT Supreme Court was the scene of two uniquely powerful demonstrations of advocacy on the one evening last week. Justice Chrissa Loukas-Karlsson was presiding, with Chief Justice Lucy McCallum swapping her usual role of judge for that of examiner, before a gallery including Justice Louise Taylor, Acting Justices Rebecca Christensen and Richard Refshauge, and Continue reading »
Critics say the ruling Georgian Dream party has twice this week violated the country’s constitution following parliamentary elections now slammed by the EU as rigged
On November 27, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court announced that he is seeking an arrest warrant against Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the head of Myanmar’s military junta, for his role in the commission of crimes against humanity against his country’s Rohingya minority. This announcement comes at an awkward moment for American politicians of Continue reading »