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demmiblue
demmiblue's Journal
demmiblue's Journal
December 24, 2024
https://bsky.app/profile/jkbjournalist.bsky.social/post/3le2jjhtxbs2w
A front page for the ages (front page of The Wall Street Journal):
https://bsky.app/profile/jkbjournalist.bsky.social/post/3le2jjhtxbs2w
December 17, 2024
Michigan state lawmaker [McMorrow] passes on DNC chair position
A top Michigan state lawmaker announced on Tuesday that she would be passing on a bid to run for Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair, saying in a video posted on social media that she believed some of the ideas she was mulling could be better achieved by not running.
“There are a lot ideas that I have circulating about, tapping into the incredible network of Democrats we have all across this country in elected office at all levels of the ballot to help uplift their voices, get into the cultural conversation and really change the narrative,” Michigan State Senate Majority Whip Mallory McMorrow (D) said in her video.
“And that is something that I think I can do better outside of the position of DNC chair.”
McMorrow has been seen as a rising star within the party. She garnered headlines in 2022 for a speech she made criticizing a GOP colleague of hers, who had accused her in a fundraising email of grooming and sexualizing kindergarteners.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5044410-mallory-mcmorrow-drops-dnc-chair-bid/
“There are a lot ideas that I have circulating about, tapping into the incredible network of Democrats we have all across this country in elected office at all levels of the ballot to help uplift their voices, get into the cultural conversation and really change the narrative,” Michigan State Senate Majority Whip Mallory McMorrow (D) said in her video.
“And that is something that I think I can do better outside of the position of DNC chair.”
McMorrow has been seen as a rising star within the party. She garnered headlines in 2022 for a speech she made criticizing a GOP colleague of hers, who had accused her in a fundraising email of grooming and sexualizing kindergarteners.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5044410-mallory-mcmorrow-drops-dnc-chair-bid/
December 16, 2024
UPDATE: Connolly defeats Ocasio-Cortez to lead Democrats on Oversight panel
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) on Tuesday defeated Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) to lead Democrats on the Oversight and Accountability Committee in the next Congress, putting the feisty liberal veteran in one of the most powerful spots to confront President Trump in his second term.
The win was forecast a day earlier, when the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee voted to recommend the seat to Connolly, who has a decade more experience than Ocasio-Cortez on the powerful committee.
The non-binding Steering vote lent a symbolic boost to Connolly, 74, but his victory was ultimately decided by the full Caucus, which huddled behind closed doors Tuesday morning in the Capitol basement and voted by secret ballot to give him the coveted seat.
Connolly also got some help from former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who endorsed his bid and lobbied actively on his behalf in the lead up to this week’s votes.
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5044107-connolly-ocasio-cortez-oversight-committee-democrats/amp/
The win was forecast a day earlier, when the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee voted to recommend the seat to Connolly, who has a decade more experience than Ocasio-Cortez on the powerful committee.
The non-binding Steering vote lent a symbolic boost to Connolly, 74, but his victory was ultimately decided by the full Caucus, which huddled behind closed doors Tuesday morning in the Capitol basement and voted by secret ballot to give him the coveted seat.
Connolly also got some help from former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who endorsed his bid and lobbied actively on his behalf in the lead up to this week’s votes.
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5044107-connolly-ocasio-cortez-oversight-committee-democrats/amp/
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) on Monday claimed the first round of the two-step contest to lead Democrats on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee in the next Congress, besting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) to win the recommendation of the Democrats’ influential Steering and Policy Committee.
The 34-27 vote lends a boost to Connolly, the more senior of the two candidates, heading into a vote of the full Caucus later in the week. The Steering and Policy panel is headed by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and is packed with leadership allies.
A vote of the panel — while essentially symbolic — also sends a signal to the broader caucus about which candidate the party brass deems to be stronger.
But it is not the final word. That will come from the full Democratic Caucus, which is scheduled to vote Tuesday in a secret ballot that will decide which Democrat will replace the outgoing ranking member of the Oversight panel, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.).
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5043016-connolly-ocasio-cortez-oversight-committee/
The 34-27 vote lends a boost to Connolly, the more senior of the two candidates, heading into a vote of the full Caucus later in the week. The Steering and Policy panel is headed by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and is packed with leadership allies.
A vote of the panel — while essentially symbolic — also sends a signal to the broader caucus about which candidate the party brass deems to be stronger.
But it is not the final word. That will come from the full Democratic Caucus, which is scheduled to vote Tuesday in a secret ballot that will decide which Democrat will replace the outgoing ranking member of the Oversight panel, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.).
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5043016-connolly-ocasio-cortez-oversight-committee/
November 30, 2024
Video here: https://bsky.app/profile/yasharali.bsky.social/post/3lc53j3skb22m
Cheryl Hines Uses Naked RFK Jr. Video to Hawk 'MAHA' Candles
Actress Cheryl Hines appears to finally be embracing MAGA after President-elect Donald Trump named her husband Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his nominee for secretary of health and human services.
The Curb Your Enthusiasm star shared a bizarre video of RFK Jr. partially nude to promote a line of scented candles, sprays, and body creams sold by her self-care company, Hines + Young. Some of the candles were even branded as “MAHA,” or make America healthy Again.
In the clip, RFK Jr.’s upper body is visible in the background behind Hines while she playfully admonishes Kennedy for taking a shower while she is hawking her products.
“No, you can’t take a shower,” Hines says to her ostensibly oblivious husband, while staring directly at the camera. “I’m doing a video. No, no, no—you’ve got to give me a second, I’m doing a video for Hines + Young. Honey… 60 percent off.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/cheryl-hines-hawks-maha-candles-with-bizarre-naked-video-of-rfk-jr/
The Curb Your Enthusiasm star shared a bizarre video of RFK Jr. partially nude to promote a line of scented candles, sprays, and body creams sold by her self-care company, Hines + Young. Some of the candles were even branded as “MAHA,” or make America healthy Again.
In the clip, RFK Jr.’s upper body is visible in the background behind Hines while she playfully admonishes Kennedy for taking a shower while she is hawking her products.
“No, you can’t take a shower,” Hines says to her ostensibly oblivious husband, while staring directly at the camera. “I’m doing a video. No, no, no—you’ve got to give me a second, I’m doing a video for Hines + Young. Honey… 60 percent off.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/cheryl-hines-hawks-maha-candles-with-bizarre-naked-video-of-rfk-jr/
Video here: https://bsky.app/profile/yasharali.bsky.social/post/3lc53j3skb22m
November 24, 2024
More: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/17/how-to-survive-the-broligarchy-20-lessons-for-the-post-truth-world-donald-trump
How to survive the broligarchy: 20 lessons for the post-truth world
In the wake of Trump’s unnerving appointees, the investigative journalist and veteran of the libel court offers pointers on coping in an age of surveillance2 Journalists are first, but everyone else is next. Trump has announced multibillion-dollar lawsuits against “the enemy camp”: newspapers and publishers. His proposed FBI director is on record as wanting to prosecute certain journalists. Journalists, publishers, writers, academics are always in the first wave. Doctors, teachers, accountants will be next. Authoritarianism is as predictable as a Swiss train. It’s already later than you think.
5 You have more power than you think. We’re supposed to feel powerless. That’s the strategy. But we’re not. If you’re a US institution or organisation, form an emergency committee. Bring in experts. Learn from people who have lived under authoritarianism. Ask advice.
7 Know who you are. This list is a homage to Yale historian, Timothy Snyder. His On Tyranny, published in 2017, is the essential guide to the age of authoritarianism. His first command, “Do not obey in advance”, is what has been ringing, like tinnitus, in my ears ever since the Washington Post refused to endorse Kamala Harris. In some weird celestial stroke of luck, he calls me as I’m writing this and I ask for his updated advice: “Know what you stand for and what you think is good.”
10 Listen to women of colour. Everything bad that happened on the internet happened to them first. The history of technology is that it is only when it affects white men that it’s considered a problem. Look at how technology is already being used to profile and target immigrants. Know that you’re next.
15 Remember. Writer Rebecca Solnit, an essential US liberal voice, emails: “If they try to normalize, let us try to denormalize. Let us hold on to facts, truths, values, norms, arrangements that are going to be under siege. Let us not forget what happened and why.”
More: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/17/how-to-survive-the-broligarchy-20-lessons-for-the-post-truth-world-donald-trump
November 6, 2024
Good sign for MI... the two Democratic backed Supreme Court candidates won.
https://twitter.com/emilyslist/status/1853987775504085032
November 6, 2024
Elon Musk's America PAC Canvassers Faced Surveillance, Sickness, and Late Pay in Arizona
Source: Wired
"I felt like Big Brother was always watching me,” says a contracted door knocker, one of several who allege to WIRED that they faced poor working conditions while getting out the vote for Donald Trump.
Paid door knockers for Elon Musk’s get-out-the-vote effort in Arizona allege to WIRED that they’ve had to work through illness and have struggled to get paid on time or in the full amount promised under onerous quotas.
Five people who shared their experiences working under the umbrella of the billionaire’s canvassing operation in the state—four through a group which has received donations from Musk and GOP megadonor Harlan Crow, one with a subcontractor for Musk’s America PAC—claim they were subjected to poor working conditions. These include, they allege, practically impossible-to-meet quotas akin to the ones first reported by WIRED in a story about the treatment of paid canvassers brought into Michigan for the same work.
While the Michigan workers had to contend with being driven around in seatless U-Haul vans—Blitz Canvassing, the America PAC vendor involved, later told WIRED its subcontractors “never should have driven their canvassers in a U-Haul van”—the Arizona workers make distinct allegations. These include pressure to work through sickness in the desert heat and what one canvasser describes as a hyper-surveillance culture.
“I felt like it was 1984, you know what I mean?” a door knocker who was flown in from out of state and contracted by Liberty Staffing Services to drop literature for America PAC tells WIRED, requesting anonymity because they signed a nondisclosure agreement. “I felt like Big Brother was always watching me.”
Read more: https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musks-america-pac-canvassers-surveillance-sickness-late-pay-arizona/
November 5, 2024
https://twitter.com/nicoleperlroth/status/1853901523572654244
OMG!
Nothing made me tear up harder than the old man who made it all the way to his car and then walked back with a cane to..
Nothing made me tear up harder than the old man who made it all the way to his car and then walked back with a cane to ask for a sticker: "I never got a sticker. I really want a sticker. So I can show my granddaughter. I'm voting for her."
https://twitter.com/nicoleperlroth/status/1853901523572654244
OMG!
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