#Election Agendas

[hargo-news]

Monitor Participants' Campaigns, Amran: Ensuring Implementation within Rule Corridors

#MonitorElectionCampaigns #ImplementationCompliance Monitor Participants' Campaigns, Amran: Ensuring Implementation within Rule Corridors

Hargo.co.id, GORONTALO – The Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu) of Pohuwato Regency once again monitored election campaigns by participants in Taluduyunu Utara Village, Buntulia Subdistrict, on Thursday (14/12/2023). Amran Hulubangga, Coordinator of the Legal Division, Prevention, Community Participation, and Public Relations at Bawaslu Pohuwato, stated that the monitoring was carried out by a…

[tomorrowusa]

« Trump can’t beat Biden, but apathy just might. And the stakes are far too high to let that happen. »

— Columnist Eugene Robinson at the Washington Post. (archived)

Engagement is the opposite of apathy. Both engagement and apathy are contagious. We set the tone for people around us. Even boosting our signals can have an effect over time.

Be constant about messaging, this is a ten month project. Voters need to be continuously and creatively reminded of the stakes this year. If you don't remind them, who will?

Liberals tend to be squeamish about repetition; but repetition is the best friend of campaigners and advertisers. It doesn't matter if people you know get tired of your message as long as your message sinks in and becomes regarded as common knowledge.

Chances are that you still remember advertising jingles and slogans that you heard on TV when you were 7 or 8. That's how effective repetition is.

Ronald Reagan, no fan of the Evil Empire, was apparently fond of the Russian proverb "Доверяй, но проверяй" (Trust but verify). We should keep a different Russian proverb in mind this year: "Повторение - мать учения" (Repetition is the mother of learning).

We have it easy compared to Ukraine. They need to shoot down deadly missiles and drones Russia buys from North Korea and Iran. We only need to publicly and repeatedly shoot down MAGA bullshit and conspiracy theories while robustly firing back with our defense of democracy.

Of course things like voter registration and GOTV are still absolutely essential. But those are facilitated when there's a constant background vibe that freedom and democracy are on the line in November.

[sudaca-swag]

me watching the new netflix apocalypse movie about how poor little americans are being targeted and mass murdered by their former oppressed invaded countries as revenge

[gwydionmisha]

Republicans have stopped pretending that the goal is anything other than overthrowing the government in favor of fascist dictatorship.

We are in the end game for democracy in America now.

[bloghrexach]

🤔 … I suggest research and education on ‘Project 2025’!! … 🤔

@hrexach

[fagtainsparklez]

i'm not brazillian but the idea of qforever being called a dictator is just kinda making me go. what? like. objectively he. isnt? thats not what the word means? he CANT have total power when the federation is right there. what is goin on over there.....

i mean. yeah. there’s also the issue that it makes no sense and is clearly untrue. but what really gets me is it feels like during the elections themselves, forever and cellbit were the Only ones who got called (future) dictators. and now that’s extended to forever’s actual presidency. the only two people that have Ever been called dictators on the servers have been brazilians. not even 50 years have passed since brazil was under dictatorship. hell, it hasn’t even been 40. i know these people likely have 0 knowledge of any of brazil’s history, much less politics, but fucking hell 😭

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich

* * * *

We have been warned.

May 1, 2024

ROBERT B. HUBBELL

On a day of many important stories, the most important news came from Donald Trump's interview with Time Magazine. See Donald Trump on What His Second Term Would Look Like | TIME. In the interview, Trump confirmed that he will attempt to exercise dictatorial powers in a second term.

We have been warned.

We ignore Trump's threats at our peril and the peril of our democracy.

In describing his fever dream of autocratic powers, Trump said he would take (or allow) the following actions:

Allow states to monitor the pregnancies of women to ensure they comply with abortion bans (a grotesque violation of liberty, privacy, and dignity).

Fire US attorneys who refuse to prosecute defendants targeted by Trump (a violation of US norms dating to the creation of the Department of Justice).

Initiate mass deportations of alleged illegal immigrants using the US military and local law enforcement (neither of which are authorized to enforce US immigration law).

Pardon insurrectionists who attacked the Capitol on January 6.

Prosecute President Biden (for unspecified and non-existent crimes).

Deploy the National Guard to cities and states across America—likely those with predominately Democratic populations (presumably under the Insurrection Act, a deployment would violate the terms of the Act and implementing regulations).

Withhold funds from states in the exercise of his personal discretion (a violation of the Impoundment Control Act of 1974).

Abandon NATO and South Asian allies if he feels the countries are not paying enough for their own defense.

Shutter the White House pandemic-preparedness office.

Fire tens (hundreds?) of thousands of civil servants and replace them with Trump acolytes with dubious qualifications (other than loyalty to Trump).

Most readers of this newsletter understand the seriousness of Trump's threats and are working tirelessly to prevent a second Trump term. But tens of millions of Americans seem oblivious or apathetic in the face of an imminent and dire threat.

If elected, will Trump succeed in achieving any of his stated goals? No—not if Democrats continue their resistance in the courts, in Congress, in state legislatures, and in the hearts and minds of most Americans.

However, whether Trump succeeds in achieving his stated objectives is beside the point. He will attempt to do so—and his attempts will tear at the fabric of democracy and destroy legal norms that have served as the bedrock of our republic since its founding.

To be clear, I am not attempting to frighten readers of this newsletter. To the contrary, I believe that we can and will defeat Trump—or outlast him, whatever it takes. But the interview confirms that we are not frantic alarmists exaggerating the threat posed by Trump.

No, far from it.

When we challenge the milquetoast, both-siderism reporting of the media or the normalization of Trump by spineless politicians, we are not overreacting. We are sounding the alarm in a responsible, necessary way. For reasons that defy comprehension, our warnings have been unheeded—often dismissed, minimized, or patronized.

We must redouble our efforts. Commit the above list to memory. Copy the URL so you can forward this newsletter or the Time Magazine article to friends, colleagues, and complete strangers who doubt that Trump is a danger to democracy. Pick two or three issues and be prepared to discuss them when the moment arises. We have been warned—and we must act accordingly.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[akechi-if-he-slayed]

love stan because he’d kind of just be like. a pathetic loser boy in high school. i think he would do freshman football just to appease his dad but then realize it wasn’t something he wanted to really do for like all four years. firmly believes in c’s get degrees but somehow manages a couple of b’s and maybe like two a’s in his electives. not popular like in the slightest but everyone seems to know his face. what a guy !

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

[tomorrowusa]

A second Trump administration would make the first one seem like a festival of human rights and democracy.

High on the list of groups targeted for repression is the LGBTQ+ community. And Trump could accomplish his homophobic goals simply by packing his administration with extremist Christian nationalists. No new laws would be necessary. And with the power to appoint federal judges, including SCOTUS, his decisions could withstand legal challenges.

By contrast, Joe Biden is the most LGBTQ-friendly president in US history. Those who claim both parties are alike probably are afflicted with political dementia.

President Biden's Pro-LGBTQ Timeline

Pro-Trump members of the LGBTQ community are analogous to something like "Gazans for Netanyahu". If they enjoy persecution, let them go to Russia or Iran.

It's almost always easier to prevent dictatorship than it is to get rid of it after it's in power.

[beau-rebloga-coisas]

I think the main difference I notice between the average USAmerica leftist and Brazilian leftist can be attributed to the fact that Brazil had a dictatorship, that was fought with tooth and nails to get rid of, and past that we got universal healthcare and voting rights again. I wish I could say all of Latin America is like this since so many of us had dictatorships but I don't know that many people from other countries (if you're latino please tell me), i think the average brazilian leftist understands there's no worth on peacefully resisting and if you want something, you need to fight or you'll be take and killed, or silenced, or "suicided". I note in a lot of (mainly white) USAmerican leftists that they wait for the change to be made for them instead of going like "wait, I can be a catalyst for changes" even if they're small.

[thisfairytalegonebad]

wrt my theory that quitting my job will fix me: it's the first day after i've left and i am working on a cross-stitch and listening to my favourite dnd podcast again for the first time in a year. so i'd say it worked

Well damn, good for you! (in the English "I genuinely think it's good and I'm happy for you" way not the passive aggressive German "Ja schön für dich" way)

It's insane how work just saps the will to live power to do absolutely fuck all right out of you, so hey, enjoy your newfound *gestures* energy?

[gwydionmisha]

For fuckssake take this seriously. They are trying to make it illegal for us to exist in public. We are already subject to the death penalty in Florida for existing. They are planning to nationalize this.

They are coming for us first, but they will come for the whole queer community next. Respectability politics and throwing us under the bus won;t save you.

[officialyourdailyinspiration]

by David Fiorazo | In yet another violation of biblical principles, the progressive United Methodist Church (UMC) voted to make “Reverend” Cedrick Bridgeforth, an openly gay man, bishop at their official meeting last week. Of course, they did. But if church rules and Bible doctrines no longer matter, why have them...

[buttercuparry]

See I don't know if I should support the ban of The Kerala Story or not. On one hand it acts like a catalyst that further tries to incite hate and divide on communal and religious lines. It absolutely is a propaganda in a atmosphere where islamophobia is rampant and where the nationalist hindutva freaks are constantly looking for anything and everything to justify their hate. But my question is won't this ban be politicized and used as "see! They want to hide something! That's why they are suppressing our voice and banning the film under the guise of secularism!" Etc etc. Besides what about a free media? But then again after what people have done with The Kashmir Files, where the violence that happened was exaggerated and the exaggeration then got used to instill a feeling of being at war with a religious community, it doesn't take much to conclude that the Kerala story too is a work of the same political genre. So I personally don't know what to say. Like in the US you have copaganda. Is it better to ban those shows? Or to let it run but form your own educated decisions.

Can it even be compared because in India it is a propaganda against a community and the resulting boiled over pots would be riots and targeted assaults on the people of the community

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Michael de Adder :: @deAdder :: Nov 1 :: The Toronto Star

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

November 3, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

NOV 4, 2023

Today, Representative Ryan Zinke (R-MT), who was former president Trump’s Interior Secretary until he left under accusations of misconduct, introduced a bill to ban Palestinians from the United States and to revoke any visas issued to Palestinians since October 1 of this year. Although the U.S. has resettled only about 2,000 Palestinians in the last 20 years, ten other far-right members of the House signed onto Zinke’s bill, which draws no distinction between Hamas and Palestinian civilians.

This blanket attack on a vulnerable population echoes Trump’s travel ban of January 27, 2017, just a week after he took office. Executive Order 13769 stopped travel from primarily Muslim countries—Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen—for ninety days. The list of countries appeared random—Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, countries from which terrorists have sometimes come directly to the U.S., weren’t on the list—and appeared to fulfill a campaign promise and assert a new view of executive power.

Insisting that immigrants endanger the country is a key tactic of authoritarians. Excluding them is a central principle of those eager to tear down democracy: they insist that immigration destroys a nation’s traditions and undermines native-born Americans. With tensions in the nation mounting over the crisis in the Middle East, this measure, introduced now with inflammatory language, seems designed to whip up violence. 

Representative Greg Landsman (D-OH) called out his Republican colleagues on social media. “Un-American and definitely NOT in the Bible, [Speaker Johnson],” he wrote. “You going to tell them to pull this bill?”

But, far from trying to work across the aisle, Johnson has been throwing red meat to his base. In the last two days, for example, the House has voted to slash 39% of the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and 13% of the budget of the National Park Service. It voted to require the Biden administration to advance oil drilling off the Alaska coast. It has voted on reducing the salary of the EPA administrator, the director of the Bureau of Land Management, and the Secretary of the Interior to $1 each.

Yesterday, Johnson told reporters he considers extremists Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) close friends and said “I don’t disagree with them on many issues and principles.”

To direct his communications team, Johnson has tapped Raj Shah, a former executive from the Fox News Corporation, who was a key player in promoting the lie that Trump won the 2020 presidential election. As the head of the “Brand Protection Unit,” Shah demanded that the Fox News Channel continue to lie to viewers who would leave the station if it told the truth. Johnson has hired Shah to be his deputy chief of staff for communications and, according to Alex Isenstadt of Politico, “help run messaging for House Republicans.” 

The extremists are doubling down on Trump and his election lies even as his allies are admitting in court that they are, indeed, lies. Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows is in trouble with the publisher of his memoir after admitting that under oath that the election had been fair. The publisher is suing him for millions in damages for basing his book on the idea that the election had been stolen and representing that “all statements contained in the Work are true.” 

The publisher says it has pulled the book off the market. 

House extremists continue to back Trump even as he is openly calling for an authoritarian second term. In September, former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley had to take “appropriate measures” for his own security after Trump accused him of disloyalty to him, personally, and suggested that in the past, such “treason” would have been punished with death. 

On Wednesday, Jonathan Swan, Charlie Savage, and Maggie Haberman of the New York Times reported that Trump was frustrated in his first term by lawyers who refused to go along with his wishes, trying to stay within the law, so Trump's allies are making lists of lawyers they believe would be “more aggressive” on issues of immigration, taking over the Department of Justice, and overturning elections. 

They are looking, they say, for “a different type of lawyer” than those supported by the right-wing Federalist Society, one “willing to endure the personal and professional risks of association with Mr. Trump” and “to use theories that more establishment lawyers would reject to advance his cause.” 

John Mitnick, who served in Trump’s first term, told the reporters that “no qualified attorneys with integrity will have any desire to serve as political appointees” in a second Trump term. Instead, the lawyers in a second term would be “opportunists who will rubber-stamp whatever Trump and his senior White House staff want to do.” 

Trump has also made it clear he and his allies want to gut the nonpartisan civil service and fill tens of thousands of government positions with his own loyalists. Led by Russell Vought, who served as Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, Trump’s allies believe that agencies like the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Securities and Exchange Commission should not be independent but should push the president’s agenda. 

This week, Trump vowed to take over higher education too. In a campaign video, he promised to tax private universities with large endowments to fund a new institution called “American Academy.” The school, which would be online only, would award free degrees and funnel students into jobs with the U.S. government and federal contractors.

“We spend more money on higher education than any other country, and yet they’re turning our students into communists and terrorists and sympathizers of many, many different dimensions,” Trump said. “We can’t let this happen.” In his university, “wokeness or jihadism” would not be allowed, he said.

In admirable understatement, Politico’s Meridith McGraw and Michael Stratford noted: “Using the federal government to create an entirely new educational institution aimed at competing with the thousands of existing schools would drastically reshape American higher education.”

Trump has made no secret of his future plans for the United States of America. 

Meanwhile, Republicans appear determined to push their agenda over the wishes of voters. In Ohio, where voters on Tuesday will decide whether to amend the state constitution to make it a constitutional right to “make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions,” Republicans first tried to make it harder to amend the state constitution, and then, when voters rejected that attempt, the Republican-dominated state senate began to use an official government website to spread narratives about the constitutional amendment that legal and medical experts called false or misleading. 

Adding reproductive health protections to the state constitution is popular, but In an unusual move, the Republican secretary of state, Frank LaRose, quietly purged more than 26,000 voters from the rolls in late September. LaRose is a staunch opponent of the constitutional amendment and is himself running for a seat in the U.S. Senate. 

In Virginia, where Republicans are hoping to take control of the state legislature to pass new abortion restrictions as well as the rest of Republican governor Glenn Youngkin’s agenda, a study by the Democratic Party of Virginia shows that officials are flagging the mail-in ballots of non-white voters for rejection much more frequently than those of white voters. As of today, 4.82% of ballots cast by Black voters have gotten flagged, while only 2.79% of the ballots of white voters have been flagged.

In Richmond, The Guardian’s Sam Levine reported, city officials flagged more than 11% of ballots returned by Black voters but only about 5.5% of ballots cast by white voters. After the ballots are fixed, or cured, the rate of rejection for Black voters remains more than twice as high as that of white voters. 

Virginia officials also reported last week that they had accidentally removed more than 3,400 eligible voters from the rolls.

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON