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Joined 7 months ago
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Cake day: April 17th, 2024

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  • It was dumb just going along with Biden as the nominee, hubris and status quo thinking. Now the Democratic party needs to come up with something to energize the electorate. Scaring people with democracy being on the line, while completely true, isn’t gonna do it. Hoping the attacks on reproductive rights will carry them over the finish line is a bad idea. Trying to bring Harris out now into the limelight isn’t gonna work. People are tired and struggling. The youth feel betrayed and themselves are struggling. There is no energy coming from up on top. Dems have always sucked at messaging.


  • This is frightening, dystopian stuff, and i don’t understand how police and govt allow for this.

    "Known as the Hate Crime Working Group and formed in 2019, it is composed of nearly two dozen Crown prosecutors, some of whose public comments show pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian bias.

    The committee’s chair has said she is “committed” to the state of Israel, while another member described a pro-Palestinian activist as a “terrorist” and collaborated with a group of lawyers that aggressively defend Israel’s assault on Gaza, which has killed 38,000 Palestinians.

    In one case from 2021, involving a protest in front of the Israeli consulate of Toronto, the Hate Crime Working Group’s prosecutors had greater access to the consulate’s staff than the police. … The Hate Crime Working Group is shrouded in secrecy. In the Crown Prosecution Manual published by the Attorney General’s office to explain the criminal process, there is no mention of its existence. … A direct line to Israeli consulate

    Even before the recent uptick of public mobilization opposing Israel’s treatment of Palestinian, the Hate Crime Working Group has intervened in cases of solidarity activism. In 2021, David Mivasair, a rabbi and member of Independent Jewish Voices, was charged with mischief for pouring red paint on the steps of the Israeli consulate in Toronto.

    But its treatment by the Crown was highly unusual. Two high ranking prosecutors—Rochelle Direnfield and Kim Motyl, another member at the time of the Hate Crime Working Group—were assigned to the case and it was dragged out for many months."





  • Anyone trying to spin this positively is delusional. This was a very, very damning performance by Biden. It doesn’t matter what Trump said or didn’t say. Dems are saying it was bad, donors are saying it, even onlookers from abroad.

    Dems sticking with an octogenarian was dumb. It’s like lessons never learned. They fight the progressive’s to defend the status quo. Scaring people about democracy being on the line may not cut it, even though it’s absolutely true. People are already tired and struggling. It helps to have some energy at the top of your ticket.

    You can downvote, but we will all be wringing our hands for the next five months.









  • https://democracyjournal.org/arguments/the-untold-history-of-charter-schools/ … In the 1970s, deregulation was the name of the game. Efforts to deregulate major sectors of government took root under Ford and Carter, and continued to escalate throughout the 1980s under Reagan. From banking and energy to airlines and transportation, liberals and conservatives both worked to promote deregulatory initiatives spanning vast sectors of public policy. Schools were not immune. Since at least the late 1970s, political leaders in Minnesota had been discussing ways to reduce direct public control of schools. A private school voucher bill died in the Minnesota legislature in 1977, and Minnesota’s Republican governor Al Quie, elected in 1979, was a vocal advocate for school choice. Two prominent organizations were critical in advancing school deregulation in the state. One was the Minnesota Business Partnership, comprised of CEOs from the state’s largest private corporations; another was the Citizens League, a powerful, centrist Twin Cities policy group. When the League spoke, the legislature listened—and often enacted its proposals into law. In 1982 the Citizens League issued a report endorsing private school vouchers on the grounds that consumer choice could foster competition and improvement without increasing state spending, and backed a voucher bill in the legislature in 1983. The Business Partnership published its own report in 1984 calling for “profound structural change” in schooling, with recommendations for increased choice, deregulation, statewide testing, and accountability. The organized CEOs would play a major role throughout the 1980s lobbying for K-12 reform, as part of a broader agenda to limit taxes and state spending. …