One of the major values in a democracy, and that supports democracies, is #transparency. It’s essential to a healthy information system and is part of why a free press needs to have transparency regarding ownership.
Computer generated content, as its boosters & profiteers have designed it, run it, and distributed it, is radically nontransparent. By design. It will therefore be easy to use to erode democracies.
Support local news orgs while you still have that option:
https://progressives.social/@MAD_democracy@journa.host/111188957624973887
#Butler's appointment came "less than a month after EMILY’s List...laid off eight people, citing budget deficits ahead of a major election year."
Layoffs were announced in September, just over a year before the 2024 elections. The influential Democratic Party-aligned organization cut five staff members from the training & community engagement team, which ran outreach to grassroots candidates & voters; two people from the digital team; & another person on the state & local campaigns team."
https://sb-progressives.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/111/184/812/828/408/766/original/ce2fab47d9fed18c.png
It seems like some shadiness went down at #EMILYsList, even beyond malapportioning its resources primarily to white candidates with access to funding networks, vs. helping more working class/WOC get elected.
Remember:
Early
Money
Is
Like
Yeast
That's what EMILY means. The founding goal of the org was to get as many pro-choice women elected as possible.
But as President of #EMILYsList, #LaphonzaButler shut down Run to Win & channeled resources to VP #Harris.
#GavinNewsom #Pelosi #Feinstein
https://sb-progressives.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/111/184/594/250/309/638/original/6e398f05a4311e05.png
I feel very protected from such stupidity here on Mastodon, but my understanding is that Twitter is full of Very Angry White People who are high dudgeon & blaming Democrats for failing to save McCarthy from his own party.
While I definitely want to understand why Dems decided to vote with Gaetz (& don't yet) it is 100% not Dems' job to save the GOP from the consequences of their own actions.
Basic abusive family dynamics: enablers blame victims for not stopping the abuser from losing control
Do people imagine that the political project that animated the period we call "Jim Crow" is something that's over?
Same question about the Holocaust.
Because it really seems like people think it's something in the past.
Which is understandable, because historians & politicians tend to treat it that way.
But I don't think that matches reality.
Do you understand that what's going on is that Lee is being punished by Pelosi & Newsom for daring to run?
For seeking power, as a Black woman, on her own initiative?
Newsom pointedly stated that Butler is appointed with the expectation that she will enter the race if she wishes.
@46cd5609@319b2e4f
It's very criminal the way politicians & newspapers avoid addressing the issue of the chronic damage COVID does to living victims - when researchers & doctors do it, it's beyond depressing.
Walter Isaacson is a fraud.
"when I opened the Musk biography, I wanted to know if Isaacson had done his homework. The first thing I did was flip to the back, where the author lists his sources for the Ukraine thing. They are: interviews with Musk, Gwynne Shotwell, & Jared Birchall (Musk’s body man); emails from Lauren Dreyer; & text messages from Mykhailo Fedorov, “provided by Elon Musk.”
Just so we’re clear: the GOP doesn’t WANT a functioning government if the voters choose to have the Democrats run it.
The #GOP have decided they will ruin it, as punishment for voters letting anyone besides the GOP be in charge.
They don’t object to the govt, debt, or deficits, AT ALL. They want its power at their sole command so they can punish women, POC, LGBT, for getting uppity & talking to white supremacists like we’re all equals here, or changing WS laws to give freedom to anyone else.
Dianne Feinstein (with help from her apologists in Congress) hamstrung Democratic control of the Senate Judiciary Committee at an absolutely critical time in American history, when it needed to operate aggressively & swiftly, including investigations & judicial appointments. American democracy couldn't afford it.
Schumer & Durbin should never have put her on Judiciary in Feb 2023. I pray the Democrats actually fight get another Democrat in her place, over whatever the GOP *will* do to block it.
p.s. I'm truly sorry if you don't like criticizing recently dead people for enabling fascist advances. I don't care because this is a petty concern in the face of reality.
Therefore, please spare everyone what you may think of as moralizing. I assure you I know the "proper etiquette."
My morality does not prioritize the preferences of one person to hold power over the needs of the tens of millions of people they are supposed to have a sacred duty to represent, or the 100,000,000s they harmed.
"#Mastodon is interesting because it is a decentralized, federated system...not controlled by a single entity."
"There is a growing community of scientists using Mastodon, spread across numerous different instances (e.g. mtsdn.science, mas.to, mastodon.social, genomics.social, fediscience.org). bioRxiv and medRxiv are happy to announce we will be joining biologists.social [an instance] operated by The Company of Biologists...a non-profit organization run by biologists that supports research"
https://sb-progressives.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/111/147/677/441/814/793/original/086fd45c7db2fcd2.png
A caring & diligent government would inform you of this, & clearly state the guidelines. Not suggest you can a) take one antigen test & disregard your risk to others, or b) not test at all.
Second, we need a federal agency (perhaps the new "Long Covid" group, since the CDC has apparently abandoned its statutory role) that funds #COVID monitoring & actually does it.
Federal govt should fund sampling at *every single* #Wastewater treatment plant in the US. There is no reason not to do this.
@ad39b1fd
You should be looking to this study for information on how the virus works, not to adjudge your personal risk level or the function and effectiveness of vaccines.
@4bba930f@01d7868f
Ordered our household's ration of 4 #COVID tests yesterday. Thanks US taxpayers!
Get yours: https://special.usps.com/testkits
4 per household is GROSSLY inadequate. It will protect ONE of your household members for ONE exposure.
For each exposure you need to test 3 times, waiting 48h in between each test, so you don't miss it. These antigen tests are notorious for false negatives.
Don't waste the tests you already have! Their expiration dates have been magically extended (prob by about 3 months).
"Individual states have seen increases that are even more eye-popping. From 2016 to 2021, cases shot up 3,300% in Mississippi, nearly 3,000% in Oklahoma, more than 2,200% in Hawaii, more than 1,800% in Washington, more than 1,600% in New Mexico, more than 1,500% in Wisconsin and more than 1,000% in Iowa and Arizona, according to CDC data."
I suspect that taking away women's right to control their bodies, including abortion, plays into rates of congenital syphilis as well
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/01/health/congenital-syphilis-alarming-rise/index.html
Oddbean new post about login | logout
Notes by 43b0c365 | export