spit_evil_olive_tips

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46
Former Black Panthers fear the FBI is still keeping tabs on them decades after COINTELPRO. In at least one case, they were right. (www.thenation.com)
 

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In fact, it’s the uncertainty itself that contributes to the surveillance PTSD experienced today by aging Black activists like Silvers. Surveillance PTSD, also common among young men who’ve experienced multiple police stops, manifests as hypervigilance, anxiety, depression, and mistrust of formal institutions, including health clinics and banks. Sometimes it’s the very inability to know whether you’re really being watched, or you’re simply being paranoid, that is most unsettling of all.

...

Rahim and Silvers are not outliers. The destabilization, the inability to know what’s real, to be haunted by uncertainty for decades—that’s the point. FBI briefs from 1971 describe their purpose as the inducement of “paranoia.” So COINTELPRO’s effects linger on, whether or not the program’s targets are still being actively surveilled by the state today.

Dying Congressman to Lead Watchdog Committee in c/politics@beehaw.org
[–] spit_evil_olive_tips@beehaw.org 25 points 5 days ago (2 children)

putting this in the context of other committee fights the Democrats have been having:

77-year-old Jerry Nadler was the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee (which also plays a crucial oversight role)

Nadler's leadership was successfully challenged by 62-year-old Jamie Raskin.

so Democrats' version of "younger blood" was to replace a baby boomer (born 1947) with...a slightly younger baby boomer (born 1962, which depending on where you draw the line is the last of the baby boom, or the very beginning of Gen X)

Raskin had previously been the top Democrat on House Oversight, so that spot became vacant.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ran for that leadership position on House Oversight. she's 35 years old, has an excellent media presence, and is well-known nationally.

instead of AOC, Democrats chose a 74-year old, Gerry Connolly.

and not just any 74-year old...they chose a 74-year-old who has cancer

and not just any 74-year old with cancer...a 74-year-old who has an especially deadly form of cancer

and not just any 74-year old with an especially deadly form of cancer...esophageal cancer. cancer of the esophagus. you know, that thing that's in your throat. you know what else is in your throat, right next to your esophagus? your voice box. that thing you speak with.

Democrats in a nutshell: the guy we put in charge of oversight of the Trump administration...there's a good chance he's going to have surgery that renders him physically incapable of speaking.

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Dying Congressman to Lead Watchdog Committee (www.kenklippenstein.com)
submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by spit_evil_olive_tips@beehaw.org to c/politics@beehaw.org
6 comments fedilink
 

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A 74-year-old congressman stricken with an especially deadly form of cancer was chosen today to be the top Democrat in charge of oversight, a watchdog role that will oversee investigations into public corruption and wrongdoing over the next two years.

...

Doctors I interviewed took a uniformly dim view of Connolly’s prognosis, expressing shock that he hasn’t resigned, much less been passed up for the demanding oversight role.

“This man is clearly dying,” a Pennsylvania-based surgeon told me, requesting that their name not be used in order to comment candidly. “This is insanity.”

Democrats eye Harris 2028 presidential run as they devise political comeback in c/politics@beehaw.org
[–] spit_evil_olive_tips@beehaw.org 18 points 5 days ago (3 children)

the most plausible explanation I've seen so far - credit to this post (from one of the hosts of the 5-4 podcast) where I saw it first:

my suspicion is that Kamala is floating a CA governor run or 2028 run not because she thinks she has a chance but because it will help convince wealthy donors that it's still worth buying influence with her and thus help her fundraise to pay off her campaign's debts

but also Kamala ending up as the nominee wouldn't surprise me. if it's not her, there'll be a different "establishment" Democratic candidate that the DNC puts their thumb on the scale for. 2028 seems likely to be yet another "this is the most important election of our lives, it's crucial to the future of the country that you vote for whichever Democrat we tell you to vote for, now shut the fuck up and stop complaining".

73
Victims of ‘kids-for-cash’ judge outraged by Biden pardon: ‘What about all of us?’ (www.theguardian.com)
 

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In 2011, Michael Conahan was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison after he and another judge, Mark Ciavarella, were found guilty of accepting $2.8m in illegal payments in exchange for sending more than 2,300 children – including some as young as eight years old – to private juvenile detention centers.

if you're unfamiliar with the backstory of this "kids-for-cash" scandal, yes that is an accurate name for it. here's the Wikipedia article about it.

48
Democrats’ fundraising tactics aren’t just annoying. They’re backfiring. (www.msnbc.com)
 

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Santa-eoisie in c/humor@beehaw.org
[–] spit_evil_olive_tips@beehaw.org 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Diane Morgan playing the character of Philomena Cunk. some of the best deadpan British humor I've ever seen.

34
Planned Action for LGBTQ+ & Allies in Response to Democrats Capitulating on Trans Rights (juliaserano.substack.com)
 

from Julia Serano

I propose that on Tuesday, December 3rd, 2024 (the first day that both the House and Senate are back in session), all of us who are invested in this issue and have a platform (whether it be a blog, newsletter, column, podcast, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, etc.) publish a piece with the shared title: “LGBTQ+ People Are Not Going Back.” Yes, I know, it’s a cheesy title, but it holds Democrats accountable to their own talking points and makes it clear that backsliding on LGBTQ+ rights is nonnegotiable for us.

...

The purpose of this endeavor is not to dictate how you should vote in future elections, but to remind your representatives that your vote should not be taken for granted, and if they abandon LGBTQ+ people or backslide on LGBTQ+ rights, then they will pay a political price for that decision.

76
The men who swallowed everything: This campaign season, some of America’s richest people promoted, and even seemed to believe, ludicrous hoaxes (www.motherjones.com)
 

If there’s one salient feature of the 2024 election cycle, it’s that rich people—rich men, particularly, and even more particularly ones who support Donald Trump’s reelection campaign—fell for things at a previously unimaginable rate. Separate from simply supporting Trump or advancing right-wing talking points, they promoted ideas and stories that almost no reasonable person could possibly believe: cartoonish lies, absurd leaps of logic, and clearly fake documents.

What state & local election results are you following? in c/politics@beehaw.org
[–] spit_evil_olive_tips@beehaw.org 4 points 1 month ago

here in Seattle: the at-large City Council seat (district 8) between Tanya Woo and Alexis Mercedes-Rinck

Woo ran for a different city council seat a year ago, and lost. in the same election, a sitting city councilmember (Teresa Mosqueda) won an election to the King County Council, so she resigned her city council seat. to fill that vacant seat, the other newly-elected city councilmembers appointed Woo, even though she had just lost.

by the rules of the resignation and temporary appointment, the next regular election (now) elects a permanent replacement.

this leads to an unusual scenario - normally, Seattle (and all of Washington state) holds its municipal elections in odd years. the current mayor was elected in 2021, the most recent city council election was 2023. this leads predictably to much lower turnout for the municipal elections, which leads in turn to conservative business interests having an easier time buying the local elections.

Woo is aligned with the "business-friendly", conservative (by Seattle standards) councilmembers who were elected in 2023. Mercedes-Rinck is significantly more progressive.

based on the primary results and subsequent polls, Woo winning seems pretty unlikely - but the margin of Mercedes-Rinck's victory will still be interesting, because of what it says about Seattle politics in elections with high turnout. voter turnout in the 2023 elections was a dismal 36%. this year is likely to be in the ~80% range.

it's also an opportunity for something very funny to happen - Tanya Woo may set a record that will likely never be broken, becoming the first candidate in city history to lose 2 elections in consecutive 2 years, for a seat that normally gets elected every 4 years.

9
What state & local election results are you following? (beehaw.org)
 

everyone is focused on the Presidential race, for obvious reasons, and to a lesser extent on control of the House and Senate.

but there's thousands of downballot races across the country. are there any that you're watching / particularly interested in?

38
Inside the plan to use AI to purge voter rolls (www.404media.co)
 

Nancy Gay, the executive director of Columbia County’s Board of Elections, told 404 Media that the county ultimately did not use EagleAI this year because it ran out of time to get trained on it before the election. But the audio shows how the software was pitched, what voters in the county think about it, and, most importantly, show how some election officials have in some cases begun repeating and spreading ideas that are popular with election deniers.

31
Opinion: What four more years of Trump would mean for trans people like me (www.msnbc.com)
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Volunteers with wheelchair vans are ensuring disabled voters have a say on Election Day (19thnews.org)
66
Breaking a Child’s Will: The Evangelical family’s twisted obsession with corporal punishment (www.thecut.com)
 

archive link: https://archive.is/H0FZY

from Talia Lavin, who's high on my list of "anything she writes is worth reading" journalists. an excerpt from her upcoming book Wild Faith: How the Christian Right Is Taking Over America.

hopefully the title made it obvious, but a big ol' content warning for explicit and heartbreaking details about child abuse and endangerment.

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