Two major research studies this week fingered Trump as a primary source of disinformation: first COVID19 and then voting by mail. What do they have in common? Getting re-elected.
Cornell University researchers analyzed 38 million English-language articles about COVID19 and discovered that Trump was the largest driver of the “infodemic.” nytimes.com/2020/09/30/us/…
Harvard Law School Professor Yochai Benkler plus researchers from the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society show that the vote-by-mail disinfo campaign is led by political elites like Trump & the GOO with mass media amplification.
Reading this, I flashed to the 80s & the Reagan-era effort to push barefoot women back into the kitchen.
"Too Late for Prince Charming"
Crappy research (mid-80s) claimed college-educated women 40+ had a greater chance dying in a terrorist attack than getting married.
1991: Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women
Susan Faludi
Opened my eyes to two-steps-forward/one-step-back “progress.”
Who encouraged the backlash? Right wingers like Limbaugh et al, including Rupert Murdoch (by July 1985, he owned 50% of Fox Filmed Entertainment)
One key difference between Reagan Republicans and Trump Republicans: today’s GOP has *declared* war on more than half the country:
all people of color
immigrants
the Jewish community
the LGBTQ community
women … and
non-evangelical “Christians.”
According to @nytimes analysis, most public schools with large J.R.O.T.C. enrollment numbers are in low-income neighborhoods where students are primarily nonwhite. @ByMikeBaker et al
“parents in some cities say their children are being forced to put on military uniforms, obey a chain of command and recite patriotic declarations in classes they never wanted to take.”
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This data point is meaningless without knowing % of schools that offer JROTC, @ByMikeBaker
“The Army says 44 percent of all soldiers who entered its ranks in recent years came from a school that offered J.R.O.T.C.”
I am very Very tired of he-said, she-said reporting. Rather than tell us that Republicans think there is insufficient kerning (what?) ... why not tell us what the law/reg says? Why not tell us HOW this board can reject a ballot initiative? detroitnews.com/story/news/loc…
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You don't even SHOW us the alleged hard-to-read section(s), @detroitnews! I expect such cavalier reporting from national orgs, which is why I went local.
Michigan state requirements for petitions 1. Paper 8-1/2 by 14 in 2. Heading, ALL CAPS in 14-point bold type🤦♀️
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And @ByronYork?
Do you have a better way to show, after the fact, that highly classified docs were stuck in a box with personal mementos? One that would make it clear to a judge that a crime had occurred? Note the docs aren’t visible, just their classification.
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Perhaps some books need to be read after having life experience.
I have always been biased towards words. News via magazine and newspaper not television or even radio. So I can imagine having raced through Amusing Ourselves To Death, nodding my head.
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But I’m re-reading it decades later.
I have questions: Was the requirement to own land in order to vote a proxy for literacy? Am I in error thinking that most 19th century Americans were illiterate? Who let women go to school?
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The world that Postman paints as one of reason over passion feels like one dominated by White male privilege. Speeches were printed in full in newspapers. And readers had to follow current events to understand the arguments.
Now Steven Hoffenberg, a businessman who served 18 years in prison and who was “one of Jeffrey Epstein's close friends,” has been found dead in his Connecticut apartment. Hoffenberg hired Epstein in the ‘80s. Cause of death UK.