(Again?) I’m unclear about the unique national security risk Washington believes Tik Tok to be. The questioning from members of congress last week showed they are clueless about social media so I’m not convinced. (Emptywheel has some thoughts on that question.) Be that as it may, I am very sure of the political risk that banning tik-tok will bring to the Democratic Party and I don’t know if these people are savvy enough to realize it. This article spells it out: For Chris Mowrey, a TikTok creator who posts popular videos focused on politics, the app represents more than just a platform: It provides a sense of community for his generation, connecting like-minded users and motivating them to take action. TikTok had a “massive influence on young people getting out to vote” in the 2022 midterm elections, Mowrey argued to me in an interview, particularly for those Democratic-leaning voters who may have felt isolated in a red state or area.
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I don’t know exactly what this guy is grooming kids for but it’s obviously not something we would normally associate with religious right family values. And yet: Some people might say that’s just a tad homoerotic. Not that there’s anything wrong with that… In case you were wondering, Turning Point USA is adamantly opposed to LGBTQ rights: Turning Point UK too:
Only 21% of Republicans don’t want Trump to be president again I don’t know why so many Republicans still refuse to believe that their voters actually like this guy. More proof from the Maris Poll: A majority of Americans (56%) think the investigations into former President Donald Trump are fair. 41%, though, consider the probes to be a “witch hunt.” Perceptions align closely with partisanship with 87% of Democrats and 51% of independents reporting the investigations are above board. Nearly one in five Republicans (18%) agree. Most Republicans (80%), though, think the investigations are a “witch hunt.” Most Americans perceive Trump has engaged in improper behavior. A plurality of Americans (46%) think the former president has done something illegal, and an additional 29% consider Trump to have done something unethical but not illegal. Only 23% of Americans say Trump has done nothing wrong. Most Democrats (78%) consider Trump’s actions to be illegal. While majorities of Republicans and independents perceive wrongdoing by Trump, there is less consensus about the criminality of his actions.
This piece by David Lauter makes a point I hadn’t heard before. Trump’s been famous for a very long time and his “approval” rating has been pretty much the same. Since the 80s. There’s a fact about Donald Trump that both devotees and detractors often ignore, and it’s key to understanding what likely will happen politically — and what won’t — if any of the several criminal investigations of him lead to an indictment: Few people have ever been known so widely for so long. How widely? In 1999, 16 years before he launched his campaign for president, almost 9 in 10 Americans already knew enough about Trump to have an opinion of him, Gallup found. That year, Trump was as widely known as Al Gore, the sitting vice president, who was about to launch his fourth national campaign. Slightly more people had an opinion about Trump than about George W. Bush —the governor of Texas and son of a former president — who would defeat Gore in 2000. By contrast, only about a third of Americans that year had an opinion of John McCain, who was already in his third term as a U.S.
The problem with the likely indictment of Donald Trump is that his offense is a metafiction. It is a story about a story. None of the main plot points—which are expected to lead to Trump becoming the first former or sitting US president ever to be charged with a crime—relate to what actually happened on […]
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Now tolerating “pure evil” is How long before carnival shooting galleries replace little yellow ducks with cutouts of schoolchildren? Would anyone notice? Would anyone take offense? First news reports Monday said the Nashville elementary school shooter was a woman. All the rest was familiar. All too familiar. Read the gory details elsewhere. What stood out in the aftermath more than the gender identity of the shooter was the exasperated reaction of one Nashville tourist, Ashbey Beasley: “It’s only in America can somebody survive a mass shooting and then go on vacation…and find themselves near another mass shooting.” “That is a thing that happens now in our country,” MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow told viewers Monday night. “Gun murders are in fact so common in this country that the shooter in one attack can shoot and kill 11 people [and] drive to a nearby parking lot to kill himself at the site of where another mass shooting had occurred just a few years prior.” Beasley’s preliminary assumptions about the shooter appear incorrect, but so are many early reports about these events.
The politics of loud and obnoxious Jamelle Bouie turns a phrase that distills the loud-and-belligerant’s approach to politics: the heckler’s veto. From Clear Skies to Healthy Forests and beyond, American conservatives have displayed a knack for couching objectionable legislation in unobjectionable terms. When Democrats were 19th-century America’s conservative party, they framed their defense of slavery as “states’ rights” — “pro-slavery” being too gauche even for Southern slave owners. MAGA Republicans’ 21st-century enthusiasm is for “parents’ rights,” a catchall for “pro-book-banning,” “pro-censorship,” and “pro-discrimination.” Particularly in Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’s Florida-based, freedom-frosted fascism incubator. Envious GOP governors in Texas and Virginia nip at his heels. Bouie explains: The reality of the “parents’ rights” movement is that it is meant to empower a conservative and reactionary minority of parents to dictate education and curriculums to the rest of the community.
This kind of thing is nothing new for the forced childbirth crowd. But it’s even more reprehensible in the wake of Dobbs as desperate women from other states are having to travel long distances to obtain an abortion: Florida regulators over the last year punished more than a dozen abortion providers for violating a nearly decade-old law that requires pregnant patients wait 24 hours before getting the procedure. Florida legislators approved the law in 2015, but it remained in limbo after the American Civil Liberties Union challenged it. After a judge upheld the law in April, Florida’s abortion regulator, the Agency for Health Care Administration, almost immediately began issuing fines. Abortion-rights advocates say providers were given little chance to prepare for the law, which requires patients to wait 24 hours between clinic visits. In some instances, clinics were not in compliance with the “24 hour” law because of paperwork issues or computer problems. Florida has become a hub for abortions since the fall of Roe v.
It’s here! Data Extract issue 255 is out now, going behind the scenes on a cosplay photoshoot, visiting the UK’s Worlds of Wonder exhibition, detailing a timeline of Doctor Who in Australia in the 1990s, counting down the Thirteenth Doctor’s greatest hits and much more! This is the second release for 2023, following on from issue 254 in January, which found us looking into the Ian and Barbara relationship, concluding the Brigadier’s Time War adventures, detailing Australian fandom in the 1980s in a comprehensive timeline, visiting the Doctor’s neighbor at 78 Totters Lane and checking in on the Boffin!… Continue reading
It’s 2023 and fans worldwide are all set to celebrate 60 years of Doctor Who all year long! Here in Australia there are plenty of ways to get together with fellow fans and mark the 60th anniversary year. Here are a list of upcoming events that you may want to attend!1 April 2023 – Sirens of Audio, Janet Fielding Down Under hosted by Rove McManus, Sydney15 April 2023 – Sirens of Audio, Janet Fielding Down Under hosted by Rove McManus, Hobart, Tasmania15-16 April 2023 – Swancon 47, The West Australian Science Fiction convention in Perth, WA15-16 April 2023 – Supanova Gold Coast22-23 April 2023 – Supanova Melbourne23 April 2023 – Sirens of… Continue reading