624 posts tagged with unitedstates.
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And ya know getting them out will be a bloody story
Content Warning: Incredibly ugly upcoming U.S. Politics.
Stephen Miller and Donald Trump's public promise for a "bloody story" - plans for sweeping raids and mass deportations of 10 to 20 million people living in America are expected to start when Trump assumes office and begins on day one. [more inside]
☑️ The Most Important Election of Our Lifetimes (🇺🇸)
Election Day is finally here. (*gulp*) Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, after replacing a Biden campaign killed by an abysmal June debate, has run a historic sprint to the finish, promising (with Coach Tim Walz) "A New Way Forward" focused on reproductive rights, middle class economics, and protecting American democracy. Former President Donald Trump, saddled with myriad felonies, a historically unpopular running mate, and a platform that ranges from fascistic to incoherent, leads a darkly authoritarian counterculture that tried once to subvert the popular will and aims to do so again. Dozens of key House and Senate and ballot races hang in the balance, and the outcome has titanic implications for human rights, climate change, the international order, and the future of liberal democracy around the world. But despite the stark contrast, a lingering economic malaise (and suspiciously close polling) make this look like the closest contest in modern history. So let's give it a push in the right direction, yeah? Voting resources:
🪪 Check your registration -
🗳️ Find your polling place -
💭 Make your plan -
📆 States with same-day registration -
🗹 See what's on your ballot - 🏛️USA.gov voting guide -
Volunteer to get out the vote:
🚪Knock on doors -
📞 Phonebank -
📱Textbank -
🚗 Carpool -
👋 Neighbor2Neighbor -
❤️🩹Help cure ballots -
Follow the returns: ⌚ Poll closing times - 🚨DecisionDeskHQ results - 📈 538 benchmarks - 📺 Live coverage - 📰 Politico Liveblog - 🐀Preparing for post-election subversion - ⌛Timeline through Inauguration Day [more inside]
The Travellers' Tour Through the United States
Matthew Wynn Sivils (The Conversation, 05/08/2024), "What America's first board game can teach us about the aspirations of a young nation": "'The Travellers' Tour' first appeared in 1822, making it the earliest known board game printed in the U.S. But for almost a century another game held that honor ... 'The Mansion of Happiness,' an English game first produced in the U.S. in 1843 ... Announcing itself as a 'pleasing and instructive pastime,' 'The Travellers' Tour' consists of a hand-colored map of the then-24 states and a numbered list of 139 towns and cities." Scan available at the LOC. [more inside]
Kamala Harris Campaign: Week 2
We'll find out who won the veepstakes next week:
Kamala Harris to appear with running mate in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Aug. 6 (Guardian link).
Meanwhile in her Atlanta rally Harris tells Trump to 'Say it to my face' (Guardian link). [more inside]
Kamala Harris re-energizes U.S. presidential campaign
A guide to the coming attacks on Kamala Harris. The frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination quickly raised over $50 million in small donations on her first day as a presidential candidate and has consolidated endorsements from many of the folks thought to be potential rivals for the nomination, including Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
How to Talk about War Truthfully
Words About War. "From George Orwell’s critique of the language of totalitarian regimes to today, discussions of war and foreign policy have been full of dehumanizing euphemisms, bloodless jargon, little-known government acronyms, and troubling metaphors that hide warfare’s damage. This guide aims to help people write and talk about war and foreign policy more accurately, more honestly, and in ways people outside the elite Washington, DC foreign policy “blob” can understand." Link to the PDF. [more inside]
Do you know your mollisols from your alfisols?
"So when you say judging, it’s not, this soil is great. This soil is bad. It’s classification and analysis, right?" (scroll to bottom for transcript). To prepare for the National Collegiate Soil Judging Contest, they spent three intensive practice days describing soils derived from glacial till, outwash, lacustrine sediments, and loess. They braved freezing temperatures, snow and sleet, high winds, pits partially filled with water, and muddy conditions before the weather finally cleared up for the two competition days.
By the way, did you know there are state soils? (folder of pdfs for all states & PR & VI) and New Jersey’s is named Downer. [more inside]
By the way, did you know there are state soils? (folder of pdfs for all states & PR & VI) and New Jersey’s is named Downer. [more inside]
Their Men in Havana
A yearlong investigation by The Insider, in collaboration with 60 Minutes and Der Spiegel, has uncovered evidence suggesting that unexplained anomalous health incidents, also known as Havana Syndrome, may have their origin in the use of directed energy weapons wielded by members of Russian GRU Unit 29155. Members of the Kremlin’s infamous military intelligence sabotage squad have been placed at the scene of suspected attacks on overseas U.S. government personnel and their family members, leading victims to question what Washington knows about the origins of Havana Syndrome, and what an appropriate Western response might entail.Unraveling Havana Syndrome: New evidence links the GRU's assassination Unit 29155 to mysterious attacks on Americans, at home and abroad [more inside]
The Second Haitian Revolution?
The nation of Haiti has been rocked by far more than its fair share of disasters in recent decades, from major hurricanes to a devastating 2010 earthquake (which killed upwards of 200,000) to the lingering effects of the COVID pandemic. The humanitarian situation has been worsened by escalating political instability, with the "legal banditry" of President Martelly followed by the 2021 assassination of President Moïse amidst a wave of mass protests and criminal violence. The ongoing turmoil reached a fever pitch this week as gang leader Jimmy "Barbecue" Chérizier led an audacious jailbreak of the country's prisons, freeing thousands of convicts that have joined forces in a united front that controls most of Port-au-Prince and credibly threatens to overthrow the government. Acting president Ariel Henry (himself a prime suspect in Moïse's murder) remains stranded outside the country, having secured a deployment of Kenyan police to bolster a multinational force. Most Haitian citizens, however, oppose foreign intervention -- understandable after the last UN mission triggered a major cholera epidemic. The Biden administration is allegedly pressuring the embattled Henry to resign (an improvement over the last time the US was involved in Haitian politics). For their part, a coalition of Haitian civil society offers a possible solution in the Montana Accord, a multi-stage plan to restore electoral democracy. [more inside]
All it takes to dismantle Dobbs is an Equal Rights Amendment
Pennsylvania has an equal rights amendment. Its supreme court just used that fact to dismantle the forced-birth logic of Dobbs (ungated). The decision (PDF).
The 50 Worst Decisions in the Past 50 Years of American Politics
The 50 Worst Decisions in the Past 50 Years of American Politics "...when politicians make dumb decisions, the results are quite a bit more serious. If the political ruling class had just a little more sense, we might live in a world where Al Gore was president, Sarah Palin never became a national figure, and Donald Trump remained nothing more than a crooked real estate developer and reality-show host." [more inside]
SpaceX vs OSHA
“Elon’s concept that SpaceX is on this mission to go to Mars as fast as possible and save humanity permeates every part of the company." CW: Descriptions and a few photos of injuries.
“SpaceX’s idea of safety is: ‘We’ll let you decide what’s safe for you,’ which really means there was no accountability,” said Carson, who has worked for more than two decades in dangerous jobs such as building submarines. “That’s a terrible approach to take in industrial environments.”
2024 Anti-Trans Legislative Risk Map
I have tracked anti-transgender legislation for 3 years @erininthemorn on Twitter and TikTok. Every day, I’ve gotten messages from worried people wondering how they are supposed to assess their risk of staying in their home state. The messages range from parents of trans youth wondering if their children will be taken from them to trans teachers wondering if their jobs will be safe in coming years. Sometimes people just want to know if there is a safer state they can move to nearby. Writer and trans activist Erin Reed has mapped the United States from the perspective of safety for trans individuals. [more inside]
The Intimacy of Discovery
Bringing up the Bodies: The forensic anthropologists who redress migrant death in Texas, by Caroline Tracey. Related: Archaeologist Jason de León's interdisciplinary Undocumented Migrant Project.
Reflex Holiday
NTSB would like cars to tell people to slow down, maybe even limit speed
Hey lead foot, get off the gas! If your car knows where you are because of GPS, and knows the speed limit because of on-board maps, and the speed limit is a legal mandate, why doesn't your car keep you from breaking the law by preventing you from driving too fast? The NTSB thinks it's well past time for this to be the case.
19th Century Scientists Set Out to Solve the Problem of American Storms
The long history of weather observation and prediction in the US (National Endowment for the Humanities)
Iowa: Justices must retire at age 72.
Your State-by-State Guide to Every State Supreme Court (+ D.C. and Puerto Rico). Bolts Magazine explains the structure (5, 7, or 9 members?), selection procedures (gubernatorial appointment? statewide election?), and functions of each state’s highest court. Does this court have anything to do with setting bail schedules? Is it involved in certifying election results? Is anyone on its bench old enough they’ll soon have to retire? Will a vacancy spark a special election?
PROUD Academy, the first school for LGBTQ+ youth in Connecticut
Bringing 19th-Century Black Organizing to Digital Life
The Colored Conventions Project. The first Colored Convention was held in 1830 in response to Ohio’s 1829 exclusionary laws and a wave of anti-Black mob violence that had forced two thousand Black residents to flee the state...more than 200 state and national Colored Conventions were held between 1830 and the 1890s. An Introduction to the Colored Conventions Movement. Colored Conventions and the Carceral States. Mary Ann Shadd Cary’s Herstory in the Colored Conventions. To Stay or To Go? The 1854 National Emigration Convention. A rich site with lots of detailed exhibits. [more inside]
They were not just ahead of their time; they were ahead of our time.
Although it’s estimated that 750 women—likely more—fought as soldiers in the United States Civil War, the United States Army once declared that not a single woman ever fought. We know little from the women-soldiers themselves; many, like the men, could not read or write. Scholars rely heavily on obituaries and letters to piece together the stories of how they lived. [more inside]
The first thing he played us: Despacito.
He was actually a celebrity in Afghanistan, the violinist for the on-screen backup band for their version of American Idol (Single link Threadreader, original Twitter thread). He had heard through a friend about an Afghan violinist who had just escaped from Kabul and settled in LA (where I live). Problem was the guy had to leave his violin behind.
Maintaining in-network provider directories costs $2.7 billion annually
The US spends more on health care administration than comparable nations. One estimate, based on 2021 data from the OECD, finds that the US spends $1,055 per capita on health care administrative costs—by far the highest amount on a list of twelve OECD nations plus the US. The next highest is Germany at $306 per capita.
“[F]or parody to work, it has to plausibly mimic the original.”
Anthony Novak made a parody facebook page of the City of Parma’s police department.
The cops arrested him, charged him with a felony, and lost. Novak sued the cops for ignoring that his site was a parody. He lost his case. He appealed to the sixth circuit and lost again.. Now, it’s on the docket for this Supreme Court term.
Most importantly (to me), The Onion has filed an amicus brief in support of Novak that jokes around but makes a serious argument.
The cops arrested him, charged him with a felony, and lost. Novak sued the cops for ignoring that his site was a parody. He lost his case. He appealed to the sixth circuit and lost again.. Now, it’s on the docket for this Supreme Court term.
Most importantly (to me), The Onion has filed an amicus brief in support of Novak that jokes around but makes a serious argument.
“[A] brief drama that was also a metaphor… But… a metaphor for what?”
Sarah Viren, who has previously written in the New York Times about an academic falsely claiming Cherokee ancestry (previously) and false sexual assault allegations against her wife to get an academic job has a new essay in the paper about the fallout after a video of a confrontation in an ASU multicultural space went viral: “The Safe Space That Became a Viral Nightmare”
(This is not an essay that reaches pat conclusions for its actors, but rather an exploration of ripples.)
(All links non-paywalled.) [more inside]
(This is not an essay that reaches pat conclusions for its actors, but rather an exploration of ripples.)
(All links non-paywalled.) [more inside]
The super-rich preppers planning to save themselves from the apocalypse
Unvarnished
Unvarnished This digital history project reveals a comprehensive history of housing discrimination and segregation across the US' North and West. Complicating the notion that most racist policies existed only in the Jim Crow south, Unvarnished includes a national narrative on how racist policies and practices created a segregated nation, along with six "local spotlight" stories for Appleton, WI; West Hartford, CT; Brea, CA; Naperville, IL; Oak Park, IL; and Columbus, OH.
[via mefi projects] [more inside]
What is it like to enforce an embargo?
In 2014, Eric Schwitzgebel, Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Riverside, published the paper "If Materialism Is True, the United States Is Probably Conscious", putting forward the idea that if you accept that matter and physical things are at the root of everything, then if that means you believe rabbits are (or at least, can be) conscious, then the United States is probably conscious, too. [more inside]
"Journalists are hearing the profanity; voters are hearing the truth."
Ed Simon of Belt Magazine: The Rise of Pennsylvania’s Everyday Left — Candidates like John Fetterman and Summer Lee are charting a more progressive future for Democrats [more inside]
"different types of problems toggle...different facts and relationships"
Lawsky Practice Problems is a website that generates multiple-choice practice problems for United States federal income tax classes and often provides useful redirections for wrong answers. "The problems are a random selection of facts, names, and randomly (but thoughtfully) generated numbers about a range of basic tax topics and partnership tax topics" such as depreciation, options as compensation, home mortgage interest deduction, capital gains, etc. Professor Sarah Lawsky also works on Catala, a "domain-specific programming language designed for deriving correct-by-construction implementations from legislative texts". [more inside]
1st Sedition Charges for January 6, 2021 Insurrection
Takeaways from the landmark sedition indictment against the Oath Keepers and why DOJ acted now, Marshall Cohen, CNN, Updated 10:39 PM EST, Thu January 13, 2022. The Justice Department on Thursday announced the first sedition charges related to the January 6 insurrection, a watershed moment in the year-long investigation. The case revolves around the Oath Keepers, a far-right extremist group, and its leader Stewart Rhodes.
Less than two hours, December 7, 1941
Attack on Pearl Harbor: December 7, 1941, fold3 HQ, Jenny Ashcraft, December 2, 2021. Eighty years ago this month, a surprise attack by Japanese forces occurred at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The attack killed more than 2,000, injured 1,178, and led to America’s entry into WWII. During the attack, six U.S. battleships were sunk, and more than a dozen others were damaged. The Japanese also destroyed 300 airplanes. The attack lasted less than two hours, and the following day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan. The volunteers at Stories Behind the Stars are working on an ambitious project to tell the story of each Pearl Harbor casualty. As we mark the 80th anniversary of that fateful day, here are a few stories they’ve gathered:
The idea that is "America"
Today, on Thanksgiving, also known as the National Day of Mourning, we learn that Ian Fishback, Army officer and whistleblower against detainee abuse, dies at 42. His letter to Senator McCain. Remembered by a former student. I do not think anyone will nominate him for a medal, but I do. RIP Major Fishback.
The affirmation trap & the overconfidence man.
The Dilletant Army issue, Mission Accomplished, presents essays and poetry on the topic of hollow and premature declarations of victory, largely involving US government officials.
Salute the rank
New Space Force uniforms draw comparisons to 'Star Trek,' 'Battlestar Galactica' – The Hill, Michael Schnell, 09/21/2021. The Space Force enlisted rank insignia are here, and they look a lot like ‘Star Trek’: 'The Delta, of course, is pure Star Trek and everybody knows it.', Task & Purpose, Jeff Schogol, Sep 21, 2021.
Google v. Oracle
The United States Supreme Court has decided in favor of Google [pdf] in the case of Google v. Oracle, essentially resolving a case begun 11 years ago. The 6-2 majority* avoided deciding whether or not the Java API was copyrightable. Rather, it held that, even if the API is copyrightable, Google's use of the API for Android was fair use. SCOTUSblog has more. [more inside]
[Beef trusts] pride themselves on producing a safe and wholesome product
In 2008 Mexico refused a shipment of beef from the United States because its sampled copper content was too high to meet Mexican food safety standards. Regulators in the US could not prevent the beef from being re-sold to domestic distributors because the US does not have any limits on the copper content in food. A 2010 United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Inspector General report concluded... [more inside]
As ye deal with my contemners so with you my grace shall deal—Julia Howe
161 years ago last month, convicted insurrectionist and incorrigible abolitionist John Brown (PDF) was put to death by the united Commonwealth of Virginia for masterminding his final attempt to ignite an American version of the Roman Republic's Servile Wars: the tactical raid on the United States Armory at Harper's Ferry, an intentional attack on the US Federal Government as a planned first step in unraveling a slave empire founded on notions of freedom. [more inside]
Guanay Cormorant, Peruvian Pelican, and Peruvian Booby
Because of guano... The Incas were some of the earliest bird conservationists. And for the sake of seabird poo, the U.S. Congress authorized the earliest significant expansion beyond the North American continent in the Guano Islands Act of 1856, which "allowed (and still allows) any American who discovered an island with a large supply of guano to claim that island as an American territory." Haiti continues to demand the return of Navassa Island from the U.S.
noreply@haveibeenpwned.com: You're one of 1 countries pwned by Cozy Bear
The computer networks of a large number of United States government agencies and private sector companies have been infiltrated in a massive cyberattack that has been attributed by US Government officials to the Russian advanced persistent threat actor APT29, also known as Cozy Bear. [more inside]
Sweet Land of Liberty
94 years ago in May, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down its 1927 pro-eugenics 8–1 decision Buck v. Bell, which found that, if it is in the compelling interests of the state, governments may involuntary sterilize “unfit” people who “sap the strength of the State”—that this is in keeping with the United States Constitution and other United States law. The SCOTUS ruling would be cited at the Nuremburg Tribunals by a fugitive Nazi party official charged with war crimes in his defense. It has never been overturned. [more inside]
The Unravelling of America
As they stare into the mirror and perceive only the myth of their exceptionalism, Americans remain almost bizarrely incapable of seeing what has actually become of their country.Activist Anthropologist and Public Ruminator Wade Davis discusses the decline of the American Empire. But his former colleague at UBC Deanna Kreisel counters with her own attempted take-down of smug Canadian exceptionalism.
running requires you to be vulnerable
Spirit Run: A 6,000-Mile Marathon Through North America’s Stolen Land is a memoir by Noé Álvarez that begins his freshman year of college, when raw and lonely and feeling out of place as the working class kid of Mexican immigrants, he dropped out to run with Peace and Dignity Journeys. Every four years, this spiritual run connects Indigenous peoples from across the Americas, with runners starting in Chickaloon, Alaska and in Tierra del Fuego Argentina. [more inside]
An interview with Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg.
"Those laws, artificially restricting what women can do, will not come back. Ever."
Take us back to when you first started, when you wanted to practice as a lawyer but it was difficult for you to do that. In the 1950s, you were attending Harvard Law School. You were one of nine women in a class numbering over 500.
History Books Are Meant to Educate; Monuments Are Meant to Glorify
“If the criteria is that the subject of the statue owned slaves, then what’s next; taking down the statues of the Founding Fathers? Denigrating the memory of the Founding Fathers?”[T]he protestors have shown they were not bluffing. Statues of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson have been removed by protestors... Attention should be brought to the Founding Fathers, not because they were white slave owners (although that should be enough), but because the entire narrative about their intentions regarding creating the United States is not history, but mythology. Traditionalism has consequences. Myths have consequences. And these myths must be dismantled as much as any statue. — Renegade Cut, The Cult of Tradition [more inside]
The Weaponization of Diversity
This is an unusually extra lengthy essay, because the issue is so complex, sensitive, and nuanced that it deserves an appropriate level of patience and attention. It includes my deeply honest, personal, and some would say risky perspective on the topic of diversity in high-performance careers, including tech entrepreneurship; and my concern, as a latino, that the decision by some to “weaponize” diversity is backfiring and causing harm to under-represented minority groups.
In re Toilet Flush
In response to the pandemic the US Supreme Court began hearing oral arguments via conference call, and it was only a matter of time before the inevitable happened. From Ashley Feinberg at Slate: Who Flushed? A Supreme Court Investigation.
Why Americans Don’t Vote Their Class Anymore
Why Americans Don’t Vote Their Class Anymore — New York Magazine's Eric Levitz on the declining correlation between American voters' socioeconomic class and their partisan voting behavior [more inside]
Stop at that top turtle and you miss that it’s turtles all the way down.
But design isn’t magic. To address a wicked problem is to look for its roots — and there’s no hexagon map for getting there. Stop at “insufficient competitiveness” and what you get is a solution that can be tidy exactly because it doesn’t touch the deep causes of Gainesville’s economic stagnation. You get a solution that’s indifferent to the legacies of slavery and segregation, to the highway projects that systematically cut off and blighted East Gainesville, to East Gainesville’s miserable public transportation, and to Florida’s $8.46 minimum wage.
Who Killed the Knapp Family?
They were bright, rambunctious, upwardly mobile youngsters whose father had a good job installing pipes. Today, only one of the Knapp siblings is still alive. [more inside]