An American security contractor and a Chinese embassy employee are at a bar. The American says, “I gotta say, your propaganda is impressive. You sure know how to keep your people in line.”
“Oh, you’re too gracious,” the embassy worker says. “And besides, it’s nothing compared to American propaganda.”
The contractor chokes on his drink and gives his friend a bewildered look.
“What are you talking about? There’s no propaganda in America.”
I wish I was persuasive
I didn’t realize the anti-immigrant sentiment had gotten to this level in so much of the population
I think the causation is backwards here, a lot of low engagement voters just assume that the best policies are somewhere to the left of whatever the GOP wants and to right of whatever the Dems are pushing for, but they keep thinking that even as the Dems move to the right.
Dems were thinking if independents saw that they’d respect the Dems willingness to compromise or whatever, but Indies saw that and just decided “Oh, I guess immigration really is a problem like the Republicans were saying all along, even the Democratic party thinks we need a border wall now.”
e; an attempt at better phrasing
Survey methodology is described in detail here - https://www.prri.org/research/challenges-to-democracy-the-2024-election-in-focus-findings-from-the-2024-american-values-survey/#page-section-12 (archived at https://ghostarchive.org/archive/FtPGJ)
Lots of great nightmares fuel here, but I can’t believe nobody’s mentioned The Lottery yet. The end of that story still makes me feel absolutely nauseous.
MARTIN: It’s interesting, 'cause I covered the White House in the administration of George H. W. Bush, and I knew about it. But then when I’ve talked to colleagues about it, they didn’t know about it, and people are continually surprised.
Maybe because news publishers like NPR and CNN never put that detail in the headlines of their stories that brush up against this open secret
Also, I’m pretty sure Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, and Egypt have all pretty much done everything the US wanted them to for years now
So there are eligible voters in the USA literally afraid to try voting in case they’re jailed for it
Yep, this is exactly the dynamic they’re going for and achieving.
Also, I should have thought of this when I posted this article, but your comment just made me remember a research paper I saw a few years ago that found that just being stopped by police shortly before an election had a statistically significant association with being less likely to turn out in that election (archive link).
One of the researchers of that participated in a reddit thread that was really fascinating you can find here - https://archive.is/oDSkv
They also wrote up a summary for a magazine (archive link), which has these two paragraphs -
These results make clear that the collateral consequences of policing—including worsening outcomes for economic security, educational attainment, and health—also extend to political participation. If the communities who are most frequently subjected to policing are also discouraged from voting as a result, it could create a vicious feedback loop of political withdrawal.
Why would traffic stops make people less likely to show up to the polls? Past research has already established that the most disruptive forms of criminal legal contact, like arrest and incarceration, discourage people from voting. Our study shows that low-level police contact matters in the same way. If a traffic stop makes a motorist fear that the government will harm them, it can prompt a withdrawal from civic life that political scientists call “strategic retreat.” Motorists might worry that a routine traffic stop could escalate into police violence, a more common outcome for Black people in particular. Beyond justified fears of violent victimization, voters might also bristle at the perception of being targeted to raise revenue through excessive ticketing. Accordingly, if incarceration ‘teaches’ would-be voters that their government is an alienating and harmful force in their lives, traffic stops could catalyze a similar form of ‘learning.’
-that I feel ought to be read verbatim in any conversation people have about why red states with lots of poor people and low voter turnout rates keep electing crappy governments that hurt them. They’re terror states in a very literal way.
If you really think you’re the subject of a criminal investigation and think there is some utility in engaging with it before it comes to you, retain a criminal defense attorney and let them start making phone calls and sending letters
Well shoot, it loaded the article for me, but try this one instead - https://archive.is/ZXQXe
If we had a functioning federal government, the answer would be because the EPA required it and failing to follow environmental regulations could lead to them being prosecuted for child endangerment
He also wrote that Netanyahu will pay any price at the expense of the public in Israel, provided that his rule does not fall "and therefore, to the horror of it, there is no chance that the war will end in the foreseeable future. Neither voluntarily nor according to logic. Its continuation forever is the only barrier that will prevent his personal catastrophe.
Yep, the ongoing war is delaying a corruption trial against Bibi where I think he could be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison, so he’s going to keep this war going forever if he can
So no, the police dog can’t sniff out abortion pills, instead a dirty cop either signaled his dog to the behavior, or the copy is straight lying about what the dog did.
You’re not wrong, but that reality didn’t stop a warrant from being issued or those envelopes from being opened
I mean, lawsuits are still one of the best ways for regular people to hold powerful entities accountable, so I’m super leery of anything that purports to stop “frivolous” lawsuits. I think the real underlying problem here is we’re expecting a for profit company to do the right thing in a market environment where doing the right thing isn’t the most profitable course of action. What we need to do is change the market environment or find someone that’s not a for profit corporation to do the right thing (both admittedly easier said than done).
If the Wikipedia page on expungement is accurate there is some sort of process where it will get sealed from public view after a certain amount of time has passed.
I do agree if this is a one off thing it shouldn’t haunt the rest of her life, especially given the fact that we’re talking about a thirteen year old who was a victim of (at best) extremely negligent caregiving.
Conservatives when a criminal justice system is punishing someone they don’t like: “Blood for the blood god!”
Conservatives when someone’s held accountable for a hate crime: “What has happened to our humanity?!”
Yeah, the federal government changed their rules just in time to make sure Trump can’t be sentenced for something our supreme court decided he should be immune for, but meanwhile in this case
The innocence claim centers around three pieces of evidence… [one of which is] a photo lineup [that was] administered to a 9-year-old witness.
…
The photo lineup, meanwhile, did not appear in the case files of the county prosecutor, state police, or county police, according to the investigation by Herring’s office. The lineup was referenced during the federal case against Richardson and Claiborne, indicating that federal agents had a copy of it. Richardson’s counsel said they obtained the lineup through a public records request to federal investigators.
During the May hearing, the confusion surrounding the lineup led to conflicting interpretations by Richardson’s legal team and state prosecutors.
…
There is one individual who might be able to clear up the confusion around the lineup: ATF agent Michael Talbert, an architect of the 2001 federal case against Richardson and Claiborne. But Talbert did not testify at the May hearing because the federal government declined to make him available, citing his busy schedule.
Ultimately, Sussex County Circuit Judge William Tomko decided not to allow the photo lineup to be admitted as evidence.
“You’re not going to apparently ever be able to get the federal government to assist you with regards to establishing these documents, but that’s the unfortunate position that you’re in,” said Judge Tomko. “I can’t help that.”
Though Talbert did not testify at the May hearing, he spent an entire day in the courtroom watching proceedings.
“I am not permitted to ask questions of Agent Talbert because the federal government has refused to make him available, though he’s clearly available to testify,” said Hensley.
You would think, but the article makes multiple mentions of “state prosecutors”, so I think this is Virginia prosecutors bringing charges under federal law in Virginia courts
e; or rather, this is an appeal of a case brought that way
Good question.
Alternative archive link:https://archive.is/WL5eP
TBH I don’t want have to change at all, I’m just saying in the magic genie scenario I’d wish that people agreed with me