onfocus

"The incentive structure that has been created is one in which so far we've seen zero accountability for lying and pushing these narratives," Masterson, the former DHS official, said. "We don't see anyone really, truly being held accountable."

With no accountability why would they stop? This looks like a pilot program or practice for invalidating future valid elections.

"One thing you see a lot on here is people pointing out the contradictions in the putative views of Trump’s GOP. COVID is a Chinese plot but also a hoax. The insurrection was antifa but also a tour of patriots."

Twitter thread explaining why the contradictory beliefs of Trumpism are a feature not a bug.

"In future elections, these laws politicizing the administration and certification of elections could enable some state legislatures or partisan election officials to do what they failed to do in 2020: reverse the outcome of a free and fair election. Further, these laws could entrench extended minority rule, violating the basic and longstanding democratic principle that parties that get the most votes should win elections."

This statement signed by dozens of political science professors is an excellent summary of the current threat to voting rights.

"Bipartisan legislation to establish an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has failed in the Senate, as Republicans staged their first filibuster since President Biden took office to block the plan."

We have a party complicit with a crime. This is like asking defendants to help organize their trial. Of course they derail it at the first opportunity. Democrats need to get past the idea that there are two parties operating in good faith and work to fix this environment on their own.

"Think strategically about how you want to allocate your attention. Many of the worst people on the Internet wake up every morning to hijack your attention. They want to use your outrage to build their brand and amass political power. Denying them the engagement they so desperately crave is how we fight back against the politics of 'owning the libs.'"

Trolling works. I appreciate the appeal here but I believe this approach takes the pressure off of platforms. Twitter and Facebook et al should be improving and enforcing their policies to stop disinformation. Sure, we can always do better as individuals, but the people who run large social media platforms have been mostly absent.

We're talking about a guy who received one complaint from a student who came to his office to talk to him, and then he himself voluntarily canceled the course. He took his ball and went home. And yet we're supposed to be like, “All of these kids today, they're so over-sensitive”.

Fantastic conversation that connects 90s political correctness discourse with cancel culture discourse. They show how flimsy moral panic stories were fabricated, used as evidence of liberal overreach, and repeated ad nauseam.

"The press needs to start taking this even more seriously than it does now. Every elected Republican who has played footsie with the Big Lie should have to defend that record before they can speak on any other topic. They can’t be allowed to dodge."

Dan Rather on The Big Lie reminding us that we’re still in a dangerous moment in the country.

"The station has stuck to its pledge in its day-to-day coverage ever since, by simply and without fanfare including boilerplate language about how lawmakers conducted themselves during the attempts to overturn the election whenever they are mentioned in the course of regular news coverage."

Daily journalism with a memory is rare.

"Just as he passed the $1.9 trillion COVID rescue package with zero Republican votes and zero regrets, his team sees little chance he's going to be able to rewire the government in his image if he plays by the rules of bringing in at least 10 Republicans."

Republicans made it clear right out of the gate that they are there to block anything proposed. Good to hear Biden is considering moving forward without them.

"In short, McConnell recognized that the modern filibuster introduced a serious flaw into the code of American democracy. Far from fostering compromise, the current filibuster has given a unified minority party every incentive to block legislation, no matter how many Americans support it."

This is a good summary of the problem with the filibuster which still isn’t widely known. That’s why it works so well at blocking progress without blame where the filibuster still applies.

"'This was a pivotal week,' said Adam Jentleson, a former Senate Democratic leadership aide and author of the book 'Kill Switch,' which argues that the filibuster is crippling American democracy. 'Manchin's comments were certainly encouraging, but the most important thing may be the fact that zero Republicans voted for the American Rescue Plan. I think that drives home the need for reform more than anything else.'"

This is why I think the filibuster is the most important thing to work on right now. If no Republicans will support widely popular (and more important--obviously necessary) legislation, imagine how much support they'll lend to things that aren't as popular. We need to get over this myth that there are two parties operating in good faith to make the government work.

"Despite being the very thing that imposes a 60-vote threshold on much Senate business, the filibuster itself isn’t subject to the same threshold. If the current Democratic caucus majority in the Senate — with its 50 votes, plus Vice President Kamala Harris as the tie-breaker — wanted to eliminate the filibuster altogether, it could do so."

I'm glad they're talking reform but I think this quote is the key point. They don't have to settle for "reform" they can completely do away with the filibuster with their majority. And who made Manchin the head of the party? Why does he go on all the talk shows and decide what level of reform can happen?