A Thread:
Upon seeing how low Musk can go in crawling like a snake to curry favor from and gain influence with Trump and the MAGA world, my first impulse was to quit ex-Twitter altogether.
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Moyers represented a type of journalist almost extinct today.
A voice of extraordinary fairness, reason, and humanity.
He and his now dwindling cohort are very much missed in whay passes for public discourse in America.
We are the poorer for it.
@walterkirn@JoyceCarolOates @AmericaWeek @mtaibbi I am neither a public intellectual nor an academic, but I read novels, as do numerous friends of mine. There are a plethora of online groups devoted to literary and genre fiction.
This article really doesn't say anything at all.
California is the fourth-largest economy, the most diverse state in the most diverse democracy, and a leader in technology and innovation BECAUSE of immigrants.
Immigrants are what make our state great and they are what make this country great.
This brief interview sums up very well the reasons why Democrats are flailing and utterly failing to effectively organize against the clear and present danger presented by Trump
@Davemconte@blabbate@JoyceCarolOates I'm also a native American English speaker (but not a Native American), and "has" sounds wrong to my ear. "Have" is correct, and there really should be no debate about it. If you want to use "has" that's OK; as long as it's understandable, the grammar police won't come knocking.
Rant from LA.
(And yes, I'm gonna criticize appearance.)
Do not accept the crappy excuse that it's okay for the ICE agents prowling our neighborhoods, places of business and courthouses to act without presenting ID or showing their faces because "they'll get threats".
Tough titty.
Half of our country gets "threats", now. You can't be on a school board, in a detergent commercial, own a business or get a divorce without receiving "threats". Even our polling places receive "threats" but we still vote, barefaced.
ICE agents aren't infiltrating cartels, they're banging outside our grocery stores, grabbing citizens. They aren't storming cartel strongholds, they're speeding through our school zones in unmarked expensive rental SUVs without sirens or lights.
And why is the protection of these ICE agents more important that the protection of our local law enforcement officers, who are apprehending actual dangerous criminals, not moms appearing for legal appointments? Many cops receive "threats" and they deal, they don't hide.
We don't pay taxes to satisfy Stephen Miller's sick lust to demoralize and "threaten" People of Color.
We do not pay taxes to protect hastily minted ICE agent's shame or keep their social media accounts from getting dragged or to fend off their wussy fear of "threats".
BTW, a president cannot grant ICE agents immunity without Congress passing legislation. Trump's never had the legal or constitutional power to immunize jack when it comes to federal agents.
Is the purpose of being masked a sneaky way to avoid liability of the agent and the government when courts call BS on the Venezuelan invasion? Is it to give ICE agents a "threatening" appearance? Was hiding identity the only way to get some guys to agree to do the ugly job? Is it to invite imposters to commit crimes? All four?
In these paranoid days, with people being murdered by fake policemen and FOX viewers blowing away folks ringing their doorbell, standard credentialed identification is a protection and safeguard for both the public and law enforcement.
Wasn't public safety the supposed goal of all this performance terror when Trump spewed his "threat"-filled, racist, invasion-from-Venezuela lie and unleashed ICE on los Angeles?
Where the hell is all that public safety? All we're getting from Trump's mouth or unidentified, masked ICE agent gun waving is "threats". Every damn day.
It's time to realize all of these ICE agents are OUR employees and that we pay their salaries through OUR taxes which makes them obligated to suck up their wimping about "threats" we all endure and identify themselves so they can truly put OUR constitutional rights and public safety first.
Not last.
@WhitStillman@nbunkerauthor@JoyceCarolOates Yes, WFB would've hated Trump every single minute he spent enabling the beast. But enabling he most surely would have done. Who else today would give him supper when he sings? A showman needs an audience, even a "serious public intellectual" like WFB.
@WhitStillman@nbunkerauthor@JoyceCarolOates Sure, He rejected lunatics, he was witty and smooth and sharp, but his accent, his education, and his slightly rumpled J. Press/Brooks Brothers wardrobe read "one of us," and he was still just another bigoted enabler of a greedy and exclusionary upper class.
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@RealPCDonaldT @GeorgesCrochet@JoyceCarolOates That refreshing breath of relief that occurs when you realize you don't have to put in any effort whatsoever to solve difficult social problems embedded in our foundational institutions and our history for 400 years.
@TNJoel@mmpadellan@PMtalking When you say the virus was man made and probably funded by the US, you realize that you are accusing Trump (in term number 1), not Biden