Making a lot of money? National pride? Belief in the superiority of liberal capitalism? A historical perspective that focuses on the difficulty the American military had mobilizing in the 19th and early 20th century? A sincere fear of the outside world and belief that strong military spending can protect them?

I may be missing Vatz point, but I don't think Bitzer would define "positive modification" as an absolute unquestioned good, but that someone has to have some cause for desire. The MIC has a load of very obvious reasons behind it, reasons I might not personally agree with or be persuaded by, but it has a whole bunch of really obvious "positive modifications" that can be found.

I've been thinking about the internet arguments, mentioned in class, where neither side seems interested in persuasion, and instead just sort of perform their side's argument. On the Internet, audiences are vague, shadowy things (I'm fond of the forum term of the "lurker," someone who reads the forums but doesn't post, and might not even have an account) that come across these arguments through retweets and crosslinks from friends-of-friends. These audiences are the actual target of these arguments, either to rally the base or to persuade moderates to take a more extreme side because they break the situation down into a binary between the one side and the enemy. Every content aggregator article that contains the word "eviscerates" demonstrates that this is a popular form of argument, but does it actually have a situation? Or is its audience entirely fictional?

The charge that the British Crown had induced Native Americans to attack colonists was later repeated in the Declaration of Independence.

The ACLU of Iowa reports that 11 percent of eligible Iowa voters--260,000 people--don’t have a driver’s license or non-operator ID, according to the US Census and the Iowa Department of Transportation, and could be disenfranchised by the bill.

...

 So far in 2017, 87 bills have been introduced in 29 states to restrict access to the ballot, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. (And that’s on top of the 21 states that already passed new voting restrictions since 2010.)

Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, partnered this year with a controversial technology company co-run by a man once convicted of trying to sell stolen biotech material to the Russian KGB espionage agency.

Jared Goes to Iraq! A Picture Story

Trump's "whataboutism".

It looks like French voters might make the same stupid mistakes Americans and British made -- either falling for bullshit lies, or failing to vote at all because they don't think their vote matters or they aren't thrilled with their options.

I wonder how broadly Booth interprets stakeholders in these questions. Obviously, Jews have a place in the Holocaust question, but in something like Global Warming, which has a vague-but-global effect, could you create a real consensus?

Let us identify what we mean by "insiders"

Those who are close to power.

When asked to explain a topic, students often realize that they don't understand it as well as they thought. The same thing happens when someone is asked to explain the consequences of a government policy. They tend to realize they don't understand the issue very well, and moderate their opinion.

I believe many wars have started because of religion. Religion has created discord and disagreements between presidents, countries and nations. In this passage Martin Luther is well aware of this and literal blood has been shed because of the church. Even the ones that may not be as noticeable, like blood of innocent Christian homosexuals that have committed suicide. We even have wars today because of religion affecting government and countries.

In this passage we see that a big driver of raising money is to become greedy. Since having a reform could take away believers who will spend money to receive indungances. This will remove the supply of money available to the pope.

This is another great example of how the pope is using his political power to control the people that live on the lands owned by the church. By using his political power the pope is able to become rich and powerful. Luther is using this example to show why the pope does not want reform. If there is reform, then he could lose ther land he owns, and the money he recieves. Reform could also take away his political power to make decisions.

In contrast to the condenation of the prestant religion in a script written by the pope, Luther finds that cardinals in the cathlic religion are abusing thier power by letting people pay thier way into heaven. He is suggesting thier using thier political power to get money.

A public official may not appoint, employ, promote, advance, or advocate for appointment, employment, promotion, or advancement, in or to a civilian position in the agency in which he is serving or over which he exercises jurisdiction or control any individual who is a relative of the public official.

NJ state legislature passed a bill that would require candidates for president and vice president to release their tax returns in order to appear on the state's ballots. The bill is yet to be signed by Gov. Chris Christie, a Trump supporter. NM, HI, OR, and CA are considering similar bills.

It is my gut reaction that this is an overly complicated IT structure. What do you think?

The truth unquestionably is, that the only path to a subversion of the republican system of the Country is, by flattering the prejudices of the people, and exciting their jealousies and apprehensions, to throw affairs into confusion, and bring on civil commotion. Tired at length of anarchy, or want of government, they may take shelter in the arms of monarchy for repose and security.

Those then, who resist a confirmation of public order, are the true Artificers of monarchy—not that this is the intention of the generality of them. Yet it would not be difficult to lay the finger upon some of their party who may justly be suspected. When a man unprincipled in private life desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper, possessed of considerable talents, having the advantage of military habits—despotic in his ordinary demeanour—known to have scoffed in private at the principles of liberty—when such a man is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity—to join in the cry of danger to liberty—to take every opportunity of embarrassing the General Government & bringing it under suspicion—to flatter and fall in with all the non sense of the zealots of the day—It may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he may “ride the storm and direct the whirlwind.”

Saw this quote on Twitter. It was selectively edited. I wish people wouldn't do that.

The Region that lies beyond the 66.5 degree latitudinal line is widely accepted as the Arctic Circle. However, there are other indicators of an arctic region such as 10 degree celsius as the maximum air temperature, tundra to taiga biomes, or continuous permafrost. Despite these different labeling standards the Arctic Circle encompasses roughly 15% of the earths land area and 5% of the world ocean. Some areas in this region can go upwards of 130 days with out experiencing a sunrise. This period of time is known as a Polar Night, but is only experienced at latitudes north of 72degrees. Rather than Polar Night, much of the Arctic Circle experiences an extremely long twilight due to the gentle angle at which the sun rises and sets. As technology and globalization has improved, exploration in the Arctic Circle has increased substantially. The Arctic is an incredible asset to scientific researchers as we begin to increase our understanding of the region. Its variation in natural landscapes and ecosystems provide researchers with an extremely biodiverse system to study. This region is also home to an abundance of rich raw materials including gold and natural gas. As industrial interest in this region increase, there will also be an increased need for actors with stake in the region to communicate properly. With almost 30 different territories having claims in the Arctic and an estimated 200 million indigenous peoples living in the region, there are constant socioeconomic and political issues that need to be resolved.

1)Burn, C.r. "Where Does The Polar Night Begin?" The Canadian Geographer/Le Géographe canadien 39, no. 1 (1995): 68-74. doi:10.1111/j.1541-0064.1995.tb00401.x. 2)Marsh, William M., and Martin M. Kaufman. Physical geography: great systems and global environments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. 3)Young, Oran R. Arctic Politics Conflict and Cooperation in the Circumpolar North. Hanover: Dartmouth College Press, 2000. 4)"Maritime jurisdiction and boundaries in the Arctic region ..." Accessed March 9, 2017. http://www.bing.com/cr?IG=3A1010B3AB3B42069672D55F84DE5213&CID=1CC31139A229699C242B1B79A318680A&rd=1&h=7tqBibkrhXoO_0f49soB5YPVU1UMalDfYlMRDxGhdv8&v=1&r=http%3a%2f%2fnews.bbc.co.uk%2f2%2fshared%2fbsp%2fhi%2fpdfs%2f06_08_08_arcticboundaries.pdf&p=DevEx,5071.1.

Interesting with the bit I had on Tim Kreider. Art is not just better propaganda, it can never not be propaganda.

Thinking with Carl Von Clausewitz's theory that war is an extension of a nation's politics, the dialectical synthesis of the political sphere and physical violence.

It is no secret that there was a lot of tension between the oil and gas company and the indigenous people of Canada and Alaska. In the 1950's and 1960's there was extensive drilling in areas of Alaska and Canada. Almost all of these decisions were made without consulting with the native people living in these areas. The drilling and exploration of the oil and gas fields had severe impacts on the ecosystem in the region. These impacts included the destruction of habitats from marine and terrestrial wildlife. This created many problems for the Native people who relied on hunting and fishing for a living. The Native people felt slighted by the actions of the oil and gas companies who refused to recognize their claims to the areas. Much of this problem was related to the fact that the Canadian and American governments also did not recognize them as people with claims to the land. The "Inuit in Canada faced a federal government that developed some powers-- in this case, to the territorial rather than the state government-- but nevertheless disregarded Aboriginal rights in the pursuit of Northern development." This stance from the government without a doubt led to the same dismissive attitude from the big oil and gas companies. Eventually, in the 1960's the native groups began to take steps in getting themselves recognized by the government and oil industry. It was through the help of environmental agencies that the native people started to be known. Many environmental agencies made it clear that activities in the Arctic such as oil drilling is extremely detrimental to the ecosystem and that it should not be continued. Many native groups piggy-backed on this stance and made themselves heard on the topic. Through this act both the oil industry and government began to recognize them as a legitimate body.

Stuhl, Andrew. Unfreezing the Arctic. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2016.

Something tells me that Weaver would love Trump and his populist rhetoric, if for this reason alone.

Also, is he advocating for the weak or strong defense here? I would assume the weak, but I could see a case be made for him pushing the Strong.

New rhetorical work to undertake.

Robert Mercer, Steve Bannon, Breitbart, Cambridge Analytica, Brexit, and Trump.

“The danger of not having regulation around the sort of data you can get from Facebook and elsewhere is clear. With this, a computer can actually do psychology, it can predict and potentially control human behaviour. It’s what the scientologists try to do but much more powerful. It’s how you brainwash someone. It’s incredibly dangerous.

“It’s no exaggeration to say that minds can be changed. Behaviour can be predicted and controlled. I find it incredibly scary. I really do. Because nobody has really followed through on the possible consequences of all this. People don’t know it’s happening to them. Their attitudes are being changed behind their backs.”

-- Jonathan Rust, Cambridge University Psychometric Centre

Claiming people are being paid to riot, Republican state senators voted Wednesday to give police new power to arrest anyone who is involved in a peaceful demonstration that may turn bad — even before anything actually happened.

SB1142 expands the state’s racketeering laws, now aimed at organized crime, to also include rioting. And it redefines what constitutes rioting to include actions that result in damage to the property of others.

This is universally good advice for political movements. Looking into past movements and what to appropriate for contemporary use, you see a lot of focus on discipline, like here, and a reality that you have to train your members in the precise message, even if they're generally, even enthusiastically, on your side.

I know that coffee houses were often times the meeting places for political discussion among men in London and Paris and that women were not usually allowed to partake unless employed as a waitress or servant. It seems like a notable connection that the meetings were happening in saloons in America as well and consisted mostly of men.

Would be interesting to see someone from the Library Publishing/Library ScholComm universe on this committee, or the larger OASPA board. Would Springer Nature still meet the criteria if a librarian were arguing our fields interests in the room? hmmmm...

Paul Ryan (WI) and Bob Goodlatte (VA) are claiming authority over who other congressmen are allowed to meet with.

Rep. Gutiérrez was among the Members who requested the meeting with the Acting ICE Director in a letter on February 11. A meeting originally scheduled for Tuesday with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and other Democrats in the House was cancelled at the last minute by ICE. It was rescheduled to today and turned into a Republican-led meeting run by Chairman Goodlatte and was apparently made invitation-only. Members were told by Chairman Goodltte at the meeting that any further meetings with ICE officials would have to be cleared by the Republican Judiciary Committee Chairman.

One of the things I note with embodied rhetoric is that Douglass and the abolitionists weren't the first movement to face physical violence for their beliefs, but they were a movement where physical violence could not be distanced from their advocacy. Douglass not only uses his scars as a rhetorical tool, that scarring is significant to the construction of his own identity. I'm looking to Harriet Wilson's Our Nig, particularly at the end where the protagonist, Frado, contrasts herself against her husband, a fugitive slave who's touring the abolitionist lecture circuit, and notes his "back showed no marks of the lash, erect as if it never crouched beneath a burden." The scars of slavery aren't just a demonstration of his condition, they're a part of how his identity was formed.

Hugh Blair's attitude towards invention seems to be at play here. Social scientists are not seen as part of the knowledge building process, but as part of the advancing of that knowledge towards an end.

Growing up as a conservative Christian, I was warned about secular, liberal relativism. Nothing’s really bad, who knows, it’s all relative. We had to be careful about such slippery slopes.

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Balance_fallacy<br> balance fallacy - The mistaken assumption that two sides of an argument have equal merit, so the truth or solution lies somewhere between the two. In reality, one view is often entirely wrong, and should be rejected. Or both views may be wrong, and the truth or solution has not yet been considered.

Why won't "liberals" just accept that Trump is president? Because Trump is an evil, incompetent piece of shit who should not be allowed to hold any government position, let alone the presidency. It isn't just liberals rejecting Trump -- it's anyone with common sense and decency.

Andrew Postman says his father Neil got it right in "Amusing Ourselves to Death": our situation is more like Brave New World than 1984. But it's like both. Constant entertainment is a big part of what got us here, but we also have politicians practicing newspeak, and excessive surveillance.

The tight relation of science and politics is strong in someone like Locke.

The Trump Score: "An updating tally of how often every member of the House and the Senate votes with or against the president."

An economist from Venezuela advises us that polarization is the main weapon of populism. We need to counter it.

This is really something to think through. It challenges much of Western thought as well as the goals of higher education. I cannot help but think of the current phrase post-truth in this context.

This view is certainly one that manifests itself in terms of politics as well.

A rant against those on the far left who refuse to compromise, and criticize centrist Democrats -- yet don't hold their leaders to the same standards.

21 Jan 2017. Trump's White House press secretary Sean Spicer holds a press conference. He reads a prepared statement in which he berates the press and lies like a rug. He takes no questions.

Early Free Software (predating Open Source) was about protecting community rights: in this case the ones of the hacker communities and authors sharing the software. The extreme depolitization of modern open source, particularly in USA and The Valley, brings hide politics and governance, as is documented in the bitcoin case, the hidden politics of the "apolitic" money. So, there is some kind of pendulum movement from plain Open Source to its re-politization showing again a concern for governance and sustainability of software as a commons.

One of the most alarming aspects of the rise of Trump is (or should have been) his embrace of the Orwellian lie.<br> ...<br> we are not talking about garden variety lying here — we are talking about the totalitarian lie: lies told, repeatedly, loudly and insistently, in direct confrontation with the indisputable truth. Lies purposefully designed to undermine the very capacity to make truth claims.<br> ...<br> It is a plain fact that our political system is compromised. Nowhere is this more evident than in the financial sector and its (non-) oversight, a bipartisan catastrophe two decades in the making<br> ...<br> It is simply not possible to shy away from the ugly fact that racism was an essential ingredient to his election.<br> ...<br> the playing field has changed, empowering some actors at the expense of others. Or put another way: no internet, no Trump.<br> ...<br> The internet is exponentially more pernicious: entry is free, accountability is absent, and — here we are more stupid — the ability of people to distinguish between fact and fiction has virtually vanished. We are living in a post-fact, post-rationalist, post-deliberative society, in which people believe what they want to believe, as if they were selecting items from different columns of a take-out menu.<br> ...<br> from this point forward we will always be the country that elected Donald Trump as President. And as Albert Finney knew all too well in Under the Volcano, “some things, you just can’t apologize for.” This will be felt most acutely on the world stage.

religion is competing with politics

Tweets deleted by public officials and candidates.

Kudlow makes the case not only that Trump and his administration are not corrupt, but also that they cannot be corrupt, by virtue of their wealth. “Why shouldn’t the president surround himself with successful people?” reasons Kudlow, “Wealthy folks have no need to steal or engage in corruption.”

-- Lawrence Kudlow, "reported leading candidate to head the administration's Council of Economic Advisors"

This asshole has a syndicated radio show, a column in The National Review, and used to host a show on CNBC.

From 19 Jan 2014. If this is accurate, then Edward Snowden is more libertarian extremist than responsible, concerned citizen. Maybe President Obama is right not to pardon him.

It seems that some (or many?) people who vote Republican consciously ignore policies that are against their interests. They either think the Republicans won't actually try to do the things they say, or won't be able to pass them into law.

In one of the most heartbreaking interviews in Kliff’s piece, a voter whose husband is waiting for a liver transplant was able to get health insurance for her family thanks to Obamacare. Yet she told Kliff that she backed Trump because “I guess I thought that, you know, he would not do this, he would not take health insurance away knowing it would affect so many people’s lives.”

In 2012, a Democratic super PAC convened a focus group to assess whether Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s support for the GOP’s fiscal proposals could be used against him. Yet the focus group’s reactions to these proposals resembled the conversations Kliff had with Trump voters in Kentucky. When the super PAC “informed a focus group that Romney supported the Ryan budget plan — and thus championed ‘ending Medicare as we know it’ — while also advocating tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, the respondents simply refused to believe any politician would do such a thing.”

Nigel Farage is a piece of shit.

If anybody has a right to speak out about the dangers of hatred and extremism in modern Britain, it is Jo’s bereaved husband, Brendan.

On Tuesday morning, hours after a truck was driven into a Berlin Christmas market, Nigel Farage spotted an opportunity. “Terrible news from Berlin but no surprise,” he wrote, not even bothering to separate his horror and his vindication with a comma. “Events like these will be the Merkel legacy.” Brendan Cox’s response – “blaming politicians for the actions of extremists? That’s a slippery slope Nigel” – was logically flawless.

Farage’s response in turn – that Cox “would know more about extremists than me” because of his links to the anti-fascist organisation Hope Not Hate – is shocking on a number of levels. First, he is talking about a widower whose wife was murdered by an extremist six months ago. Second, he smeared an organisation that exists to drive back racism – at a time when hate crimes have surged after a referendum campaign made inflammatory by politicians including Nigel Farage.

TV writer and producer Danny Zuker suggests putting on a big televised music and comedy concert on inauguration day to oppose Trump, with all proceeds going to non-profit organizations.

On the thinking of Trump supporters, particularly in Louisiana. Similar to what I've read elsewhere, they tend to view wealth as a virtue. Those who still belong to the vanishing middle class look down on "big-government handouts". But those in the struggling working class are willing to accept needed assistance -- as long as it is only going to "real Americans".

From 15 Nov 2016, an insightful and entertaining rant about the 2016 election campaign and its outcome.

"Hillary Clinton didn't fail us, we failed Hillary Clinton."

Paul Krugman points out that our current situation is like that during the rise of fascism in the 1930s. And it is also like the situation during the gradual decline of the Roman Republic. Political norms are being ignored. Republicans are placing their party, their wealthiest campaign donors, and their careers, before their nation.

"Famously, on paper the transformation of Rome from republic to empire never happened. Officially, imperial Rome was still ruled by a Senate that just happened to defer to the emperor."

Russia thinks state secession movements are a swell idea. They're involved with some of them.

In an online guide made public Wednesday night, a number of those onetime Hill staffers say that the best way for individuals to derail the policy agenda of Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) is to organize locally and badger their own congressional representatives to vote against individual pieces of legislation.

The guide argues that, like the “Tea Party patriots” who found common cause in their unified loathing of President Barack Obama, progressives who oppose Trump should stand against him before all else rather than try to articulate a policy agenda that has no hope of advancing while the GOP controls all three branches of government.

Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda

Dave Pell points out that Trump's "grab her by the pussy" video was the big news on 7 October -- the same day the New York Times reported that U.S. intelligence acknowledged that Russia was responsible for the DNC hacks. The latter should have been the main story that day, but it wasn't.

Lawrence Lessig on the legal constraints and ethical obligations of the Electors. (First published in The Daily Beast, 13 Dec 2016.)

In my opinion, if the Electors don't reject Donald Trump, they have failed to do the only duty for which the Electoral College was created. (Putting aside the fact that the actual majority voted for Hillary Clinton...) The majority can make a stupid decision. It should be the sworn duty of the Electors to judge the candidate.

Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda (Former congressional staffers reveal best practices for making Congress listen)

Donald Trump's conflicts of interest are already a source of ongoing corruption.

Nine Democratic Senators call for a National Intelligence Estimate on the extent of Russian intervention in the 2016 presidential election, and ask the DOJ to confirm that a criminal investigation is ongoing, or to begin one.

Oh, look. The Benghazi investigation is officially done.

I guess Republicans are probably really tired of investigating stuff right now.

http://phys.org/news/2016-12-pro-trump-bot-colonised-pro-clinton-twitter.html

http://politicalbots.org/?p=787 Bots and Automation over Twitter during the U.S. Election

http://politicalbots.org/ An international research group studying political bots.

A survey of voters asked if they remembered seeing a headline, and if so, whether they believed it was true.

It may come as no surprise that high percentages of Trump voters believed stories that favored Trump or demonized Clinton. But the percentage of Clinton voters who believed the fake stories was also fairly high!

familiarity equals truth: when we recognize something as true, we are most often judging if this is something we’ve heard more often than not from people we trust.

...

if you want to be well-informed it’s not enough to read the truth — you also must avoid reading lies.

The Senate recently passed the Water Resources Development Act, which included a provision that would require the use of American Iron and Steel. But as the House considers the bill, Paul Ryan is pushing to have that provision removed.

Soon after the election, I heard Ryan was planning on beginning to eliminate Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Now this. I'm almost suspicious that he's deliberately playing the bad guy to make Trump look good when Ryan "backs down". (Then again, maybe he's just a jerk.)

How a moderate Republican could stop Trump in the Electoral College, most likely followed by votes in Congress.

The less we expect of our people, the less democracy we have.

Donald Trump is a vile liar. So are the people who associate with him. So are the Republicans who supported his presidential campaign, or stood by as though it was fine to say nothing. Don't regard them as anything other than vile liars.

journalists need to understand what Trump is doing and refuse to play by his rules. He is going to use the respect and deference typically accorded to the presidency as an instrument for spreading more lies. Reporters must refuse to treat him like a normal president and refuse to bestow any unearned legitimacy on his administration. They must also give up their posture of high-minded objectivity — and, along with it, any hope of privileged access to the Trump White House. The incoming president has made clear that he expects unquestioning obedience from the press, and will regard anyone who doesn’t give it to him as an enemy. That is the choice every news outlet faces for the next four years: Subservience and complicity, or open hostility. There is no middle ground.

This is an interesting look at Trump's personality, but it shrugs off the danger we're in.

Donald Trump is a liar, a cheat, a narcissist, and a petty bully with no principles. And Trump himself is only part of the danger. I have no doubt that some members of the 1% are actively looking for opportunities to flush democracy down the toilet for the sake of making an extra billion. And they may be colluding with wealthy Russians.

That’s how you move Trump. You don’t talk about ethics. You play the toughness card. You appeal to the art of the deal. You make him feel smart, powerful, and loved. You don’t forget how unmoored and volatile he is, but you set aside your fear and your anger. You thank God that you’re dealing with a narcissist, not a cold-blooded killer. And until you can get him safely out of the White House, you work with what you have. People in other countries have dealt with presidents like Trump for a long time. Can we handle it? Yes, we can.

I have watched as tobacco, coal, oil, chemicals and biotech companies have poured billions of dollars into an international misinformation machine composed of thinktanks, bloggers and fake citizens’ groups. Its purpose is to portray the interests of billionaires as the interests of the common people, to wage war against trade unions and beat down attempts to regulate business and tax the very rich. Now the people who helped run this machine are shaping the government.

Donald Trump has filled his staff with these liars.

Yascha Mounk of Harvard and Roberto Stefan Foa of U. Melbourne have proposed 3 criteria to measure the strength of a democracy.

• How important do citizens think it is for their country to remain democratic?
• How open are citizens to the idea of non-democratic forms of government such as military rule?
• How strong are political parties with an antisystem platform calling the current government illegitimate?

If support for democracy is falling, while opposition to democracy is rising, the democracy is "deconsolidating" -- in danger of falling to an authoritarian government. Under these criteria, democracy is in danger in a number of Western countries, including the US, UK, and AU.

Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, chair of the House Oversight Committee, has shown great enthusiasm for persecuting Hillary Clinton. But for some reason, he doesn't seem to have any interest in investigating Donald Trump's glaring conflicts of interest.

Donald Trump is using the methods of tyrants to control the media. He was already doing this during his campaign, and he has only gotten worse since becoming President-Elect.

• Berate them directly.
• Refuse access to those he disapproves.
• Turn the public against them.
• Condemn criticism and satire aimed at him.
• Threaten them with lawsuits and potential new laws.
• Limit media access.
• Speak directly to the public. (There has been mention of Trump continuing to hold rallies. He likes the instant gratification and adulation of a cheering crowd.)

http://robertreich.org/post/153748549760

Trump is dangerous. But his election has also angered many millions of people who don't like him. We need to take advantage of that.

We've been too dependent on the theory of monolithic power, "the idea that government and the representative leaders within our institutions are the primary means to change people’s lives." Government and civil rights organizations are necessary, but not sufficient. We can't sit back and depend on them to work for us.

"Together, we can redefine civic participation not by organizational membership but as movement-building. Movement-building is an ongoing process of building leadership, relationships and avenues for getting involved."

Strategic Unity and Common Purpose: "We may disagree on specific policies, but we can be united around values and a common vision for the future — the American ideal of inclusivity, around civil liberties, around a secular government that protects the freedom of diverse religions, and around the right to decide what happens to our bodies."

Participatory Leadership: "We need participation-oriented leaders whose job is to empower and activate rather than represent and control, allowing communities around the country to replicate the same behavior"

Strategic Action: protest is good, but it isn't a strategy. "Strategic action feeds movement growth by ensuring each action leads people to another action."

Existing movements have been working hard (and sometimes bleeding) to fight for the rights most of us have taken for granted. "White Americans ready to fight must either prioritize minorities' struggles or we will all lose."

Lawrence Lessig is tired of hearing that the US is not a democracy. The US is not a direct democracy. But it is a republic -- a representative democracy.

Interview with a man who has run several fake news sites since 2013.

Well, this isn't just a Trump-supporter problem. This is a right-wing issue.

...

We've tried to do similar things to liberals. It just has never worked, it never takes off. You'll get debunked within the first two comments and then the whole thing just kind of fizzles out.

Journalism faces an 'existential crisis' in the Trump era, Christine Amanpour

As all the international journalists we honor in this room tonight and every year know only too well: First the media is accused of inciting, then sympathizing, then associating -- until they suddenly find themselves accused of being full-fledged terrorists and subversives. Then they end up in handcuffs, in cages, in kangaroo courts, in prison

...

First, like many people watching where I was overseas, I admit I was shocked by the exceptionally high bar put before one candidate and the exceptionally low bar put before the other candidate.

It appeared much of the media got itself into knots trying to differentiate between balance, objectivity, neutrality, and crucially, truth.

...

The winning candidate did a savvy end run around us and used it to go straight to the people. Combined with the most incredible development ever -- the tsunami of fake news sites -- aka lies -- that somehow people could not, would not, recognize, fact check, or disregard.

...

The conservative radio host who may be the next white house press secretary says mainstream media is hostile to traditional values.

I would say it's just the opposite. And have you read about the "heil, victory" meeting in Washington, DC this past weekend? Why aren't there more stories about the dangerous rise of the far right here and in Europe? Since when did anti-Semitism stop being a litmus test in this country?

J. Alex Halderman, Professor of Computer Science at U. Michigan, says yes, it's possible that the election was hacked. We should audit the results. And paper ballots should always be used in future elections.

19 May 2016. Republicans defeated an amendment by Rep. Sean Maloney D-NY, aimed at upholding an executive order that bars discrimination against LGBT employees by federal contractors. Seven Republicans switched their votes under pressure from House leaders. Final vote 213-212.

"Farewell, America", Neal Gabler

If there is a single sentence that characterizes the election, it is this: “He says the things I’m thinking.” That may be what is so terrifying. Who knew that so many tens of millions of white Americans were thinking unconscionable things about their fellow Americans?

...

The virus that kills democracy is extremism because extremism disables those codes. Republicans have disrespected the process for decades. They have regarded any Democratic president as illegitimate. They have proudly boasted of preventing popularly elected Democrats from effecting policy and have asserted that only Republicans have the right to determine the nation’s course.

...

The media can’t be let off the hook for enabling an authoritarian to get to the White House. ... When he ran, the media treated him not as a candidate, but as a celebrity, and so treated him differently from ordinary pols. The media gave him free publicity, trumpeted his shenanigans, blasted out his tweets, allowed him to phone in his interviews, fell into his traps and generally kowtowed until they suddenly discovered that this joke could actually become president.

National Election Defense Coalition - a nonprofit that fights for fair elections and voting rights.

Elizabeth Warren on the horde of lobbyists Trump has appointed to his transition team.

Donald Trump is a liar. What a surprise.

Juan-Pablo Brammer on why many poor whites feel they can identify with Donald Trump. The capitalist myth insists that anyone can work their way up with hard work and cleverness. They have accepted this idea completely.

Where we're heading under "President" Trump.

Prof. Timothy Frye on the disturbing abnormalities of the 2016 election -- and their similarity to the status quo in weak democracies.

• candidate keeping his finances a secret
• threats to imprison a political opponent
• racism, xenophobia, and misogyny
• interference by a foreign government
• media circus
• politicization of security services (FBI)

Leonid Ragozin: "We Russians have watched our president embrace anyone prepared to join his gang and do his bidding. Americans will see the same from [Trump]." Expect him to neutralize criticism over xenophopia, racism, and misogyny by welcoming people from various communities into his camp, and appointing some to government posts.

"Putin and Trump don't create ethnic movements, they create gangs in which the only criterion that really matters is whether you are 'with us' or 'against us'"

But as managing editor of the fact-checking site Snopes, Brooke Binkowski believes Facebook’s perpetuation of phony news is not to blame for our epidemic of misinformation. “It’s not social media that’s the problem,” she says emphatically. “People are looking for somebody to pick on. The alt-rights have been empowered and that’s not going to go away anytime soon. But they also have always been around.”

The misinformation crisis, according to Binkowski, stems from something more pernicious. In the past, the sources of accurate information were recognizable enough that phony news was relatively easy for a discerning reader to identify and discredit. The problem, Binkowski believes, is that the public has lost faith in the media broadly — therefore no media outlet is considered credible any longer. The reasons are familiar: as the business of news has grown tougher, many outlets have been stripped of the resources they need for journalists to do their jobs correctly.

The problem is not JUST social media and fake news. But most of the false stories do not come from mainstream media. The greatest evils of mainstream media are sensationalism, and being too willing to spin stories the way their sources want them to.

Columbia Law Professor Richard Briffault on the history of the Electoral College and the issues surrounding "faithless" electors.

Ideas about what to do during a Trump presidency. It seems too optimistic to me. I hope I'm wrong.

Lawrence Lessig argues that the Electoral College should reject Donald Trump and elect Hillary Clinton.

Gloria Steinem responds to the election of Donald Trump.

I’m being realistic, not negative. Almost every issue of equality now has majority support in public opinion polls, ideas of race and gender are changing, activism and iPhones are exposing the racial violence that has always been there, sexual assault from the campus to the military is no longer hidden, and Trump’s very public misogyny has unified women, educated men and inspired activism. It’s the Anita Hill effect, but deepened and multiplied. Trump has helped to expose desperation among those jobless and working poor who support him only because they oppose Washington.

Mike Caulfield says Facebook's feed algorithms are far from its only problem. The entire site design encourages sharing of items that users haven't inspected beyond reading the headline.

The forces that propelled Mr. Trump’s rise need to be confronted and defeated. It won’t be easy, given that tens of millions of Americans will vote for him and believe deeply in him. But if these forces are not defeated, what happened this year will be replicated in one form or another, and the Republican Party will continue to inflict great harm on our republic.

• Anti-intellectualism [Actually, outright insanity. Complete disregard for reality. Trump and his followers "believe" whatever they want to "believe". The Republican party has become a party of frauds and liars.]
• Political recklessness [Playing bullshit games instead of doing the duties they were elected to do. The refusal to vote on President Obama's Supreme Court nominee is one example.]
• Appealing to nativism and xenophobia [No shit. This article is otherwise forthright. He should have said fascism and white supremacy.]

Aside from the sins of the Republican Party:

• Major media failed us by giving this asshole all kinds of free publicity.
• Responsible journalists did their jobs. We need to support them, and we need more of them.
• Entertainers pretending to be serious political commentators and fake news sites have become a danger to democracy.
• Trump supporters: shameless racists, or just astonishingly stupid? [No, moron, Hillary Clinton is not just as bad as Trump.] Can we please improve education at least enough to counterbalance the ineducable?

the greater sin of the Republican Party wasn’t that Mr. Trump won the nomination by carrying a plurality of votes in a large field. It was that people who surely knew better rallied to Mr. Trump once he became the nominee. Some advised him, others defended him and excused him, and still others tried to ignore him.

And we should never forget who those people were, Paul Ryan.

GOP States Keep Ignoring Court Orders to Restore Voting Rights -- Wisconsin, Ohio, Texas, and North Caroline won't stop suppressing the vote.

But the thing is, this doesn’t make me different than Trump supporters; it makes me exactly the same as Trump supporters.

While our very real fears may manifest themselves in different ways, and while those fears may look and sound dissimilar, they are really the same fears: The fears of being left behind, left out, and being turned against.

But on issues of racism, race-baiting, religious intolerance, misogyny, sexual assault, white supremacy and demagoguery — there can be no gray area, Peter. These are disqualifying issues and you are completely wrong to support Donald Trump.

Senate Republicans have refused to give President Obama's Supreme Court nominee a hearing, under the pretense that it is too close to an election, and "the American people should have their say on this issue".

Now, they're talking about refusing to consider anyone that Hillary Clinton nominates.

The people already spoke twice when they elected Barack Obama. The people are about to speak again.

The motivations of Trump supporters.

Jon Udell and Mike Caulfield discuss web annotation and personal wikis as tools for fact-checking on the Internet.

Trump is Bad for Business. Letter opposing Donald Trump, drafted by 12 business leaders and signed by hundreds.

Conservative Media's Influence on the Republican Party<br> Jackie Calmes, 27 July 2015

The Conservative Case Against Donald Trump