onfocus

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.

It’s very important that people understand this: We reside in a media environment that promotes—whether it intends to or not—right-wing authoritarian spectacle.

Current media coverage relies on the idea that both parties want a functioning democratic government. That has changed and this premise is giving cover to Republicans.

“It would be almost like if someone was doing a speech to kindergartners and they talked about the Holocaust and the horrors of the Holocaust,” she said, adding that the district had used the episode to remind its principals that all instructional resources, including guest speakers, must be “thoroughly vetted.”

Ridiculous levels of hatred. Like this author, none of us should change reasonable behavior to appease bigotry. As always, please register to vote and then vote for people who care about making life better for other people.

The star’s comments come amid a wave of anti-trans legislation in the U.S., specifically targeted at restricting gender-affirming care for trans youth. While right-wing politicians claim that the risks of this kind of care do not outweigh the benefits, peer-reviewed research disagrees. Multiple studies show that gender-affirming care reduces the rates of depression and suicidality among transgender kids.

Guys like Carlos Santana think they're taking a lone wolf stand but they're really just joining an angry mob. If you're raising yourself up by dumping on vulnerable people you're on the wrong side.

A Georgia school board has voted to fire a teacher after officials said she improperly read a book on gender fluidity to her fifth grade class.

Like this teacher, we should all resist this bigotry any way we can. As always, please register to vote and then vote for people who care about other people.

West Virginians, trapped in the clutches of economic hardship, find themselves mercilessly shackled to a state most can ill afford to abandon, left to suffer the full weight of the WVU administration’s harrowing decisions. We will learn only subjects aligned with the preferences of the rich, driven by their financial motivations.

I work for an R1 land grant university and I like to think those designations help keep the university on track. Seeing WVU make students pay the price for poor leadership is sobering.

The incomparability between the Trump and Biden “scandals” is almost too obvious to mention, but not mentioning it in a story about the Hunter Biden case is journalistically criminal. I’d recommend something like “Despite attempts by Republicans to liken the legal perils faced by Trump and Biden, Trump faces a slew of incredibly serious criminal charges including for conspiring to steal a presidential election; Biden has been credibly accused of nothing.”

Both sides journalism has become a parody of itself. What was once a way to maintain objectivity is now an offensive way journalists appease media owners and mislead everyone else.

Oregon Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade has determined that Republicans who have repeatedly boycotted legislative sessions will not be allowed to run for re-election, reported The Oregonian on Tuesday.

Enjoying this new "finding out" phase.

[Trump] and the six unnamed co-conspirators told these GOP officials in seven states what illegal acts they should do and how they should do them. Those communications are not protected speech. They are instructions on how to commit fraud.

You can’t extend plausible deniability infinitely. We all saw this crime happen in real time despite the constant gaslighting posing as legal nuance.