Now that I ranted about ALEC, take a moment and look at how broad their policy agenda is.
alec.org/issue/ Here is how they openly collaborate with electeds and interest groups to further their white nationalist agenda
alec.org/task-force/

Susan Lorincz has been charged with murdering Ajike Owens; her arrest was delayed thanks, in part, to the Stand Your Ground law that she believes gave her the right to murder Owens. So, Owens was not just murdered by Lorincz, but also by the white nationalist @ALEC_states

https://twitter.com/Imposter_Edits/status/1667901239709900803

ALEC - the American Legislative Exchange Council is a bill mill, writing model legislation that legislators can grab off their site and introduce. Some do it without even reading the bill, which is why we see videos of state GOP reps befuddled about their own bills.

I am old enough to remember the Grand Jury investigation of Bill Clinton by Kenneth Starr. He and the media had this fiction that they just happened to catch him as he was taking out the garbage. Contrast that with Jack Smith from whom we heard nothing until sharing the indictment. Also notable that Smith reminded the media about the presumption of innocence while Starr presumed guilt - even on things he ended up finding no evidence and had to drop.

The death of Ashli Babbitt is a case of monumental hypocrisy and dishonesty on the part of Republicans. These are people who justified the murder of Breonna Taylor who was sleeping in her own bed by saying she deserved it because she dated a suspected drug dealer. Meanwhile Ashli Babbitt was climbing through a broken window into the Capitol, ignoring police orders to stop. She was attempting to overthrow democracy. She was warned but ignored the warning and was shot. Not one Republican said she should have complied.

Republicans have long sought to make economic boycotts illegal. Here is the Republican organization Heritage Foundation urging states to ban ethical investments.
heritage.org/article/elimin… Here's the white nationalist filth ALEC proposing a model law to ban Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance investing.
alec.org/article/alec-i…

My nephew has two children. When the youngest was three, despite being born female, they were obviously pretty butch, refusing to wear dresses, preferring black, brown, and navy blue, hating pastels, loving NASCAR and football, a physical daredevil. What many would call a tomboy When they came out at 20 as lesbian, I was not surprised. They called me for advice on coming out to my sister and I said, "Sweetie, she already knows." But I expected they had more to come out with. I asked them what pronoun they prefer and they cried because they want to

Is there some reason @KenPaxtonTX is unable to prosecute sex trafficking?
houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editor… Not just that case, either.
@KenPaxtonTX just let more traffickers walk
apnews.com/article/sex-tr…

All the fretting about how unprecedented it is to indict a former president ignores how unprecedented it is for a president to attempt a coup.

Frankly, all the tears and sighs over prosecuting Nixon that led to the damaging pardon created a sense of impunity in the Oval Office We continue to pay for President Ford's vapid character. We paid for it with Reagan ignoring Congress to make deals with Iran trading arms for hostages - a concession that increased hostage-taking. 52 hostages under Carter were less than the number under Reagan

Today's very late admission of the October Surprise by the media reminded me of all the times those who set the narrative have punished the truth tellers. We were told about the October Surprise by Gary Webb and Barbara Honeggar. Also Banisadr (but he was one of the Iranian leaders)

They were called conspiracy theorists, reckless, liars, etc.

If you can't afford health insurance in spite of the subsidies or if your state has not expanded Medicaid, check if your area hospital and physician network has a foundation that pays for care for people who are medically indigent.

https://twitter.com/FINALLEVEL/status/1635688323246174232

While many hospitals went from nonprofit to for-profit, many also stayed nonprofit which means they are required by law to do some nonprofit activities such as providing care. The ones that went from NP to FP had to put their nonprofit assets into something charitable such as a

Funny how rightwing extremists can stage a coup, mail bombs, burn and bomb and shoot up abortion clinics, take out power for hundreds of thousands of people and the only people charged with domestic terrorism are lefties who vandalized equipment for a police training center I don't approve of vandalism. I think it discredits protests and is counter-productive. It is poor strategy, but vandalism is not bombing, mass shootings, or any of the far more egregious crimes of the right.

Rasmussen is a rightwing polling company that got racists like Scott Adams up in arms because many Black people are dubious of the sentence, "It's okay to be white." Meanwhile, I bet dollars to donuts that these same people would be dubious of the sentence "Black Lives Matter." Stories about the Rasmussen Polls erase the context that the phrase "It's okay to be white" is more than those four words. It is is motto of white supremacists and comes out white nationalist hate groups. So yes, people are dubious. No one wants to be agreeing with the Klan.

Watching Below Deck, you see a clear and obvious manifestation of a national sickness - the widely disparate space for fucking up between white and Black women.

So Camille can say right to Sandy's face when told to apologize, "What if I don't want to" and Sandy sympathizes. But Alissa says "Sandy, I mean Captain Sandy..." and she is fired. Sandy is so hostile to the interior she assumes that was deliberate. Alissa is given no grace. Camille gets nothing but grace.

I love @BeaconPressBks where you can always find books with a liberation worldview. Their newsletter came today with a great list for #BlackHistoryMonth
beaconbroadside.com/broadside/2023… Look at this prescription for symptoms of misogynoir

For #BlackHistoryMonth I have been highlighting folks who are part of Black History being made today. Listening to the #StateOfTheUnionAddress, we all saw some of the work of Elyse Crawford-Hicks & her colleagues at Americans for Financial Reform @RealBankReform @RealBankReform She has been researching, writing, and testifying to advocate for reduced or eliminated "junk fees"
Here she is testifying before Congress.
govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CH…

Continuing with the history makers of today who will be part of #BlackHistoryMonth of the future. Makani Themba @Makani_Themba is an important organizing genius who promotes one of the most basic principles of organizing, don't get in your own way. I'm not sure she ever phrased it that way, but her basic idea is that don't use messages and ideas for a win today that creates barriers to victory in the future. So, say you want a more just criminal justice system with fewer people in prison

Tomorrow's #BlackHistoryMonth history is being written today. So to highlight the history-makers, I want to recognize Cherie Buckner-Webb. She is a Black activist and good-troublemaker in Idaho. Yes, that Idaho.
@BucknerWebb Buckner-Webb was elected to the ID House in 2010 and served one term before running for the Senate seat Cole LeFavour @nicolelefavour retired from to run for Congress.
Buckner-Webb was the first Black legislator and, of course, the first Black woman elected to legislature.

The second concert I ever went to was Bonnie Raitt at The Orpheum in Minneapolis. Freebo played a tuba solo that changed tuba forever in my mind. The third concert I ever went to was Bonnie Raitt at a protest/fundraiser against Prairie Island Nuclear Power plant But back then, being a Bonnie Raitt fan was like having insider trading knowledge.

Her 10th album finally broke her into being a big name. Think about that kind of persistence.

#BlackHistoryMonth Tomorrow's history is happening today. One of those who should be Hop Hopkins of the Sierra Club
sierraclub.org/other/authors/… Hopkins worked on environmental justice issues in the Pacific Northwest. In the late 90s and early 00s, anti-immigrant activists tried to take over the Sierra Club. They were following the advice of John Tanton who advised taking over a liberal group to push their agenda

Here is the video Oregon State Police released about pulling @IamTravisNelson over. I want you to notice the two cars the OSP are following. They are traveling the same speed. The speed of traffic is the safest speed. Driving slower than traffic is not.

They speed up and get close enough to see his license plate, they fall back a bit, long enough to run his plate, check his license, and see he is driving while Black. Then they turn on their lights. During that time, he did not get closer to the car in front of him.

Today's leaders will be the people of tomorrow's #BlackHistoryMonth so let's acknowledge them now. As a Portlander, I have to lift up @joannhardesty who as commissioner @JoAnnPDX accomplished a lot in her short four-year-term, but also her loss should be a warning for reformers First, her accomplishments are incredible given the short four years she had in office.

Most significantly, she took the police at their word that one of the biggest reasons for police shootings is that police are asked to do too much and are not social workers.