I’m emerging from my social media hiatus to share recent comments from Ken Burns. I’ve chatted with him a few times over the years, always to my benefit. He’s very worried about American democracy — I think with good reason.
Here’s a video excerpt from his speech at Brandeis:
"I’d strongly disagree that the right and left are in comparable positions. Moreover, the idea that they are roughly equivalent seems to be a deliberate smokescreen by partisans to hide the real story, which is one of the unprecedented radicalization of the right in service of a minoritarian political project.
I can’t think of any precedent to this moment, at least not in American history."
"Billionaire money is now gushing into the 2024 election. Just 50 families have already injected more than $600 million into the 2024 election cycle, according to a new report from Americans for Tax Fairness. Most of it is going to the Trump Republican Party."
The BBC's Quentin Sommerville spent a month with revolutionary forces at jungle bases and on front lines in Myanmar....Two loudspeakers, as big as the men carrying them, are brought to the rocky hilltop. Some 800m below, in the town of Hpasang, lies a sprawling Myanmar army base....
If you are a citizen of a European Union country, you can vote in the EU elections, even if you live outside the EU. You can use any EU country polling facilities (I haven't tested it).
In Australia, Poland is opening polling booths in Brisbane, Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, and Perth on Sunday, June 9th, 7am-9pm.
National service can boost up job opportunities in Britain, it's a good idea of implemented properly!
Young people who take up a full-time armed forces placement under a national service scheme could get better work or study opportunities as a result, the Conservatives have said.
Gaza has began to attack Central Israel through rockets!
Will the war ever end?
A massive barrage of rockets targeted Tel Aviv and central Israel for the first time in months. The rockets were fired from Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-803682
Finally, people are realising the harmful effects of tobacco. Good move taken by the Telangana government!
The Telangana government has issued a one-year ban on the manufacture, storage, distribution, transportation and sale of gutka and pan masala containing tobacco and nicotine throughout the State, effective immediately.
If you wanted to write today about vested interests, about the groups (and their networks) that are preventing governments from pursuing the reforms needed for Australia's economy to flourish, you'd have different targets.
I'm wondering, are there any articles on the #Assange case which elaborate on a what if Julian was released? Not just "superficially", e.g. that it would strengthen #democracy. But what that would mean for various institutions maybe, how they would need to change. As obviously that's what's been causing the clash all along, a clash with institutions. Could it maybe even change our view on and enhance the basic structure of democracy? Let me briefly elaborate: 1/
Justice Sonia #Sotomayor admitted being moved 2 tears by #Supreme Court decisions that she did not agree w, reflecting on her emotional experiences in her time on Court. Sotomayor shared her emotional response to cases in speech at Harvard Radcliffe Institute, highlighting her personal struggles, dedication to her work. The 69-year-old Justice made these comments during an event honoring her at #Harvard, where she received an award for her contributions. #insurrection#constitution#democracy
It's the typical case of using power to exploit the poor and bribing them to get away with anything.
In Pune porsche crash case, the accused's grandfather told the family driver to take the blame for the accident and threatened him against speaking about the matter to anyone and now has been arrested.
The flags outside of #SCOTUS Justice Alito's homes are symbols that fuel white nationalism.
Throughout U.S. history, Americans have been warned that anti-Black #racism is deeply embedded in the fabric of our society and institutions... and has always been a threat to #democracy. Real progress will require racism to be confronted within Americans' minds, homes, and communities first, not just Washington D.C. https://www.axios.com/2024/05/24/alito-censure-flag-jan-6-democrats
As Heather Cox Richardson reports, the Supreme Court just signed off on a South Carolina congressional map that dilutes Black votes by gerrymandering.
And Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion. She writes,
"Almost exactly 70 years after the Supreme Court unanimously decided Brown v. Board, it appears that the framed timbers designed to reverse the expansion of minority rights are falling into place."
A controversial bill to give Taiwan's legislature increased power passed a second reading on Friday. A third reading is required for the bills to become law
#Musk has lost a lot of his clout, but his RW rhetoric is harmful to Pres Biden, Dems & #democracy given his SM influence:
Last month, he posted on X that Pres Biden “obviously barely knows what’s going on.” “He's just a tragic front for a far left pol machine"-29th time this year -he'd posted about the pres. on X. By bringing an ideological bent to X, Musk mirrors what media moguls such as Murdoch are doing -helping shape their outlets’ coverage & broader pol discourse. https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/elon-musk-ramps-up-anti-biden-posts-on-x/
Peru's new bill classifies LGBTQ people as mentally ill! This is the new of society.
Transgender model Carmen Carrera is speaking out against Peru's new bill that officially classifies transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people as "mentally ill"
Feature: Myanmar: Young insurgents changing the course of a forgotten war (www.bbc.com)
The BBC's Quentin Sommerville spent a month with revolutionary forces at jungle bases and on front lines in Myanmar....Two loudspeakers, as big as the men carrying them, are brought to the rocky hilltop. Some 800m below, in the town of Hpasang, lies a sprawling Myanmar army base....