onfocus

I can already hear the objections from the Times and its defenders: It’s not our job to make people care about things. Nonsense. Of course the news media plays a central role in determining what people think about. The choices they make about what topics to cover and how much to cover them send a clear signal to the American people about what is important; what is worth thinking about.

Based on the number of mentions, a single poll a year before an election is the most important thing to think about. The consequences of encouraging political violence, not as much.

Repetition is the most important element of communications, but you don’t hear President Biden hammering the theme of freedom, making it clear how close we are to the precipice of authoritarianism and spelling out what that will mean. As a result, many voters seem largely unaware that fundamental American freedoms are at stake.

Great article about why freedom is a much better message for democrats than the economy.

But yet the pundits have already pivoted from “Joe Biden is terrible and unpopular and should be ashamed of himself!” to “The Democrats just shockingly [not shockingly if you understand anything about America right now — Ed.] had yet another great election night, and for that Joe Biden should feel bad, because according to polls, which are the same as elections [No — Ed.], he is terrible and unpopular and should be ashamed of himself!”

Cathartic rant about media Trump thirst.

Given all of this, given Trump’s increasingly explicit rhetoric about shifting the chief executive position toward authoritarianism, it seems difficult to understand how he’s still running even with President Biden in early polling — or, in some cases leading him.

My guess on why: the US is a nation with a culture of violence and toxic masculinity and many people have abusive fathers as a model for how the world works. It’s hard to break free from the familiar systems we were raised with, but it’s important to try to create (and vote for) a better world.

Ohio voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to enshrine protections for reproductive health services, including abortion, in the state constitution — the latest in a post-Roe streak of ballot box wins for the abortion rights movement.

The finding out phase of letting the states decide. Turns out people want human rights like bodily autonomy.

Dubbed “Project 2025,” the group is developing a plan, to include draft executive orders, that would deploy the military domestically under the Insurrection Act, according to a person involved in those conversations and internal communications reviewed by The Washington Post. The law, last updated in 1871, authorizes the president to deploy the military for domestic law enforcement.

This is what fascism looks like. This is your regular plea from me to never willingly vote for a fascist. Democracy can be a mess but it’s preferable to boots stomping human faces forever.

“I’m gonna say to NIH scientists, God bless you all,” Kennedy said. “Thank you for public service. We’re going to give infectious disease a break for about eight years.”

On the bright side, voters don’t have to speculate that a vote for this guy is a vote against using science to make informed decisions. It’s painfully clear. And this is your regular plea from me to please vote for people who want to minimize infectious disease.

It is, of course, possible that Johnson really has no bank accounts and just keeps all his money in sacks of cash hidden under his mattress. Another explanation could be that he has selective amnesia and has forgotten to disclose his assets for seven years. But several ethics experts offered another reason: Johnson is terrible at managing the money he makes and may be in massive debt.

Ethics for thee but not for me. If you haven't heard, the new speaker has some strange stuff going on. Third in line for the presidency.

Our emotional responses to these massacres are valid. Strike while the iron, and our blood, is running hot. Let our emotions fuel the urgency of our attempts to respond with overwhelmingly popular gun control legislation, and let Republicans head into elections in two weeks opposing them.

Now is absolutely the time. The time has been now since the epidemic of shootings began. We have tried doing nothing for a long time and it's not working.

Trump’s supporters in trying to overturn the election have not fared well in elections since the violent assault on the Capitol, with a slate of conspiracy theorists attempting to assume positions overseeing elections in key swing states all losing their races last year. Instead, they have excelled at winning internal party contests and taking control of some state parties. Now they also have claimed one of the nation’s most powerful political positions.

This is what it looks like when your party is at odds with most of the voting public. You elect people with widely unpopular views to leadership positions and then try to limit public voting as much as possible through gerrymandering, voter supression, and legislating via Supreme Court decisions.

It particularly galled them that Mr. Scalise, the No. 2 Republican, defeated Mr. Jordan, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, in the initial party vote to choose a replacement for Mr. McCarthy only to then watch Mr. Jordan’s allies immediately pivot to denying Mr. Scalise the speakership on the floor.

This is your regular reminder that Republicans don’t want a functioning government. Government shutdowns and inability to legislate are a success state for them. I wish the media would make that more clear.

When, for instance, he accuses public officials and the media of treason punishable by death, reporters should categorically state that what he is doing is classically authoritarian behavior. Then they should ask Republican leaders and Trump supporters to say whether or not they agree with him and why. And reporters should do that every time Trump says something alarming.

If the media is going to do horse race coverage only anyway, at least they could provide some context and report on the consequences of all this base baiting.