onfocus

Crybully definition: “a person who presents himself or herself as a victim of injustice in order to intimidate and manipulate others”.

I’m calling it: word of the year!

"When fascists throughout history have looked for victims, they almost always begin with queer people. That minority has the smallest circle of people (compared to racial and religious minorities) who personally know and accept them, who will stand up and defend them, and who will speak out against their persecution."

This is important historic context for our current moment where Republicans are trying to make groups of our friends and neighbors illegal. It's an old playbook that we need to recognize and stop.

"Bearing all this in mind, our ancestor from 1791 might well conclude that a legal system crafted to protect life and liberty should readily encompass the value of protecting people from being terrorized by gun-possessors with a propensity to physically harm others."

The ridiculous Federalist Society "mission" of interpreting law through a historic lens is only one narrow, misguided way to interpret history. I think it’s clear by now that this history garbage is obfuscation and their mission is enacting authoritarian policies.

"To reach this extraordinary conclusion, the court engaged in the worst version of Drunk History. It went all the way back to the English Militia Act of 1662 (not a typo) and treated us to a recitation of the king’s prerogatives, James II, and Oliver Cromwell, to conclude that the law’s restriction on “dangerous” individuals was not in line with the thinking of the authors of the US Constitution."

Please vote for Democrats so we can have reasonable gun laws in this country and save people’s lives. Republicans are out of control and nothing will change them but repeatedly losing elections.

"University campuses as well as elementary through high schools, are supposed to be places where students can flourish—places where ideas can be generated and learned. They can’t serve this purpose if they are environments of mortal fear."

We can’t continue to watch this without changing anything.

"The research discovered that excess deaths between Democrats and Republicans remained steady in the early part of the pandemic then began to separate after vaccines were widely available. Schwartz said the reasons why were beyond the remit of the study, but speculated that early COVID prevention measures were government-driven while the vaccine required someone to make a personal choice."

We should never forgive the political party and their media servants that made this happen.

"…prosecutors hold complete discretion over who gets charged, and those charging decisions (or declinations) are largely unreviewable. Donald Trump could have shouted “I ordered the Code Red” at the select committee, and Merrick Garland could still decide to hide under his desk instead of doing his job."

The very frustrating reality of the situation.

"Beyond Musk’s political affiliations, his actual political convictions—by which I mean the bedrock set of values, ideologies, and organizing principles through which he sees the world and wishes it to be structured—are a slightly different conversation. Here, I tend to agree with The Verge’s Liz Lopatto, who wrote recently that Musk doesn’t really have political beliefs, only personal interests. But one can have vapid or nonexistent political beliefs and still be a political activist. Political activism is about actions."

If someone behaves exactly like a far right activist it doesn't matter what they believe in their heart. Debate should center around known actions, not unknowable motivations.

"The likelihood that Congress will impose a deal along the lines of the presidential panel’s recommendations, or the tentative agreements, means that management has little incentive to agree to union demands."

Pretty wild that congress can just force a labor contract for rail workers. Knowing that congress will side with management means negotiating was never meaningful.

”Passing this bill is our chance to send a message to Americans everywhere: No matter who you are, who you love, you deserve dignity and equal treatment under the law. That’s about as American [an] ideal as it comes.”

More like this please.

"Democrats running on pro-abortion rights nearly swept the table, and every ballot initiative aimed at restricting abortion lost, while ballot initiatives strengthening abortion rights prevailed and even outperformed Democratic candidates in some cases."

Where is all the media soul searching and feature articles about abortion rights voters?