Greg Sargent/WaPo:
A frantic warning from 100 leading experts: Our democracy is in grave danger Democrats can’t say they weren’t warned. With yet another GOP effort to restrict voting underway in Texas, President Biden is now calling on Congress to act in the face of the Republican “assault on democracy.” Importantly, Biden cast that attack as aimed at “Black and Brown Americans,” meriting federal legislation in response. That is a welcome escalation. But it remains unclear whether 50 Senate Democrats will ever prove willing to reform or end the filibuster, and more to the point, whether Biden will put real muscle behind that cause. If not, such protections will never, ever pass. Now, in a striking intervention, more than 100 scholars of democracy have signed a new public statement of principles that seeks to make the stakes unambiguously, jarringly clear: On the line is nothing less than the future of our democracy itself.
A frantic warning from 100 leading experts: Our democracy is in grave danger
Democrats can’t say they weren’t warned.
With yet another GOP effort to restrict voting underway in Texas, President Biden is now calling on Congress to act in the face of the Republican “assault on democracy.” Importantly, Biden cast that attack as aimed at “Black and Brown Americans,” meriting federal legislation in response.
That is a welcome escalation. But it remains unclear whether 50 Senate Democrats will ever prove willing to reform or end the filibuster, and more to the point, whether Biden will put real muscle behind that cause. If not, such protections will never, ever pass.
Now, in a striking intervention, more than 100 scholars of democracy have signed a new public statement of principles that seeks to make the stakes unambiguously, jarringly clear: On the line is nothing less than the future of our democracy itself.
Excellent thread excavating the some of the real reasons this new statement from democracy scholars is so important. Note the idea that history's judgment cannot come to our rescue here: https://t.co/ooI6J5ArLr— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) June 1, 2021
Excellent thread excavating the some of the real reasons this new statement from democracy scholars is so important. Note the idea that history's judgment cannot come to our rescue here: https://t.co/ooI6J5ArLr
🇺🇸 Good to see that President Biden is read up on a crucial issue of our time: “How Democracies Die”. pic.twitter.com/03DHuLxIoU— Michael Knigge (@kniggem) June 1, 2021
🇺🇸 Good to see that President Biden is read up on a crucial issue of our time: “How Democracies Die”. pic.twitter.com/03DHuLxIoU
Daniel W. Drezner/WaPo:
The biggest question in American politics right now Sooo … will the United States be a democracy in 2025 or what? There are three interlinked questions at play here. First, will the GOP win more power in the midterms and 2024 election? Second, if the GOP does gain more power, will Republicans use it to thwart a legitimate victory by Democrats? Third, if they do that, what happens?
The biggest question in American politics right now
Sooo … will the United States be a democracy in 2025 or what?
There are three interlinked questions at play here. First, will the GOP win more power in the midterms and 2024 election? Second, if the GOP does gain more power, will Republicans use it to thwart a legitimate victory by Democrats? Third, if they do that, what happens?
"I come here to help fill the silence."Pres. Biden becomes the first sitting president to visit the historic Greenwood neighborhood to commemorate the Tulsa Race Massacre. https://t.co/ypNa27LGmm pic.twitter.com/dcaDcD5liR— Evan McMurry (@evanmcmurry) June 1, 2021
"I come here to help fill the silence."Pres. Biden becomes the first sitting president to visit the historic Greenwood neighborhood to commemorate the Tulsa Race Massacre. https://t.co/ypNa27LGmm pic.twitter.com/dcaDcD5liR
Charlie Sykes/Bulwark:
Coups and Rumors of Coups The threat is no joke. Let’s stipulate that any talk about coups is crazy. Our traditions and institutions — both in and out of the military — are simply too strong, and the very idea of a coup is so profoundly un-American that it is unthinkable. And yet, we spent the Memorial Day weekend thinking about it, because a three-star general who was also the National Security Advisor to the President of the United States seemed to suggest that a military coup might be good idea here. A questioner asked the retired general: “I’m a simple marine. Why can’t what happened in Minimar[sic] happen here?” He is clearly referring to a military coup and the audience clearly understands him — and cheers. “No reason,” says Flynn. “It should happen here.”
Coups and Rumors of Coups
The threat is no joke.
Let’s stipulate that any talk about coups is crazy. Our traditions and institutions — both in and out of the military — are simply too strong, and the very idea of a coup is so profoundly un-American that it is unthinkable.
And yet, we spent the Memorial Day weekend thinking about it, because a three-star general who was also the National Security Advisor to the President of the United States seemed to suggest that a military coup might be good idea here.
A questioner asked the retired general: “I’m a simple marine. Why can’t what happened in Minimar[sic] happen here?” He is clearly referring to a military coup and the audience clearly understands him — and cheers.
“No reason,” says Flynn. “It should happen here.”
No American should advocate or support the violent overthrow of the United States. https://t.co/dpa20pLG4n— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) May 31, 2021
No American should advocate or support the violent overthrow of the United States. https://t.co/dpa20pLG4n
Kaila Philo/Courthouse News Service:
Past Due: Black Tulsans Recall Horrors of 1921 Massacre A full century after a white mob destroyed the predominantly Black neighborhood of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a group of now very old survivors told House lawmakers that they are still waiting on justice. Viola Ford Fletcher had gone to bed the night the attacks broke out. “The neighborhood I fell asleep in that night was rich,” she recalled, “not just in terms of wealth, but in culture, community and heritage.” Within hours, she said, her family’s beautiful home was lost along with all their possessions. Fletcher spent most of her life as a domestic worker for white families as a result. Despite turning 107 a week ago — an announcement that was met with applause in the chamber — Fletcher is still haunted by what she’d witnessed. “I will never forget the violence of the white mob when we left our house,” she said. “I still see Black men being shot, and Black bodies lying in the street.
Past Due: Black Tulsans Recall Horrors of 1921 Massacre
A full century after a white mob destroyed the predominantly Black neighborhood of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a group of now very old survivors told House lawmakers that they are still waiting on justice.
Viola Ford Fletcher had gone to bed the night the attacks broke out. “The neighborhood I fell asleep in that night was rich,” she recalled, “not just in terms of wealth, but in culture, community and heritage.” Within hours, she said, her family’s beautiful home was lost along with all their possessions. Fletcher spent most of her life as a domestic worker for white families as a result.
Despite turning 107 a week ago — an announcement that was met with applause in the chamber — Fletcher is still haunted by what she’d witnessed. “I will never forget the violence of the white mob when we left our house,” she said. “I still see Black men being shot, and Black bodies lying in the street.
Chronicle had a column exactly about this connection https://t.co/JrOscN6Kyx— x - Jared Joiner (@jnjoiner) June 1, 2021
Chronicle had a column exactly about this connection https://t.co/JrOscN6Kyx
Jonathan Liew/Guardian:
We’re not the good guys: Osaka shows up problems of press conferences Young athletes are expected to answer the most intimate questions in a cynical and often predatory environment Regular attendees of Arsenal press conferences at the Emirates Stadium – in the before-times, when these things still happened – will tell of a mysterious character by the name of First Question Man. Nobody ever discovered who FQM worked for, or if he was even a journalist at all. His only real talent, if you can call it that, was to sit in the front row and make sure he asked the first question, usually by barking it while everyone was still taking their seats. Why FQM did this was never clear. It can’t have been ego: I never met anybody who knew his real name. Nor was it an attempt to glean some sort of privileged insight: indeed, most of his questions were actually statements: banal bromides beloved of press conferences the world over. “Arsène, you must be happy with the win.” “Unai, a point seemed like a fair result.” “Mikel, a tough afternoon, your thoughts.” Naturally it was to FQM that my thoughts turned when the world No 2 Naomi Osaka announced that she would be boycotting press conferences at the French Open in order to preserve her mental health. As a journalist who has sat through thousands of these inane obligations, and entertained numerous apocalyptic thoughts in the process, my first instinct was naturally to sympathise. And yet, the resounding chorus of condemnation and blind outrage suggests that there are some surprisingly strong feelings out there. For some, the press conference is clearly a sacred way of life. You may take our lives. But you’ll never take our ability to ask an athlete “how they felt it went out there today, you know?”.
We’re not the good guys: Osaka shows up problems of press conferences
Young athletes are expected to answer the most intimate questions in a cynical and often predatory environment
Regular attendees of Arsenal press conferences at the Emirates Stadium – in the before-times, when these things still happened – will tell of a mysterious character by the name of First Question Man. Nobody ever discovered who FQM worked for, or if he was even a journalist at all. His only real talent, if you can call it that, was to sit in the front row and make sure he asked the first question, usually by barking it while everyone was still taking their seats.
Why FQM did this was never clear. It can’t have been ego: I never met anybody who knew his real name. Nor was it an attempt to glean some sort of privileged insight: indeed, most of his questions were actually statements: banal bromides beloved of press conferences the world over. “Arsène, you must be happy with the win.” “Unai, a point seemed like a fair result.” “Mikel, a tough afternoon, your thoughts.”
Naturally it was to FQM that my thoughts turned when the world No 2 Naomi Osaka announced that she would be boycotting press conferences at the French Open in order to preserve her mental health. As a journalist who has sat through thousands of these inane obligations, and entertained numerous apocalyptic thoughts in the process, my first instinct was naturally to sympathise. And yet, the resounding chorus of condemnation and blind outrage suggests that there are some surprisingly strong feelings out there. For some, the press conference is clearly a sacred way of life. You may take our lives. But you’ll never take our ability to ask an athlete “how they felt it went out there today, you know?”.
I am so sad about Naomi Osaka.I truly hope she will be ok. As athletes we are taught to take care of our body, and perhaps the mental & emotional aspect gets short shrift. This is about more than doing or not doing a press conference. Good luck Naomi- we are all pulling for you!— Martina Navratilova (@Martina) May 31, 2021
I am so sad about Naomi Osaka.I truly hope she will be ok. As athletes we are taught to take care of our body, and perhaps the mental & emotional aspect gets short shrift. This is about more than doing or not doing a press conference. Good luck Naomi- we are all pulling for you!
Amy Davidson Sorkin/New Yorker:
The Unique Dangers of the Supreme Court’s Decision to Hear a Mississippi Abortion Case The most pressing question now may be not whether Roe and Casey can survive but how reproductive rights can be sustained without them. Jackson Women’s Health has another distinction. There is every possibility that the case bearing its name—along with that of Thomas Dobbs, the state health officer of Mississippi—will be the one that either overturns Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, the two Supreme Court rulings that are the bedrocks of reproductive rights, or renders them powerless. This case began as a challenge to a Mississippi law forbidding abortions after fifteen weeks (counting from a woman’s last menstrual period), except in very narrow circumstances. A woman would have to be facing a medical emergency that could cause “substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function”—or threaten her life. The only other exception would be if doctors determined that the fetus, even if carried to full term, could not survive. Rape and incest would not be taken into account. Crucially, fifteen weeks is well before the point at which a fetus would be viable outside the womb, and that is also the point at which the Supreme Court has said that a woman’s interest in controlling her own body outweighs any other interests the state has. The Mississippi law is so clearly contrary to the Court’s precedents that Judge James Ho, a Trump appointee to the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, wrote in an opinion in 2019 that it was his “duty” to strike it down, even as he railed about pain being inflicted on “innocent babies.” Similar state laws are regularly batted down. Why, then, did the Court take this one?
The Unique Dangers of the Supreme Court’s Decision to Hear a Mississippi Abortion Case
Jackson Women’s Health has another distinction. There is every possibility that the case bearing its name—along with that of Thomas Dobbs, the state health officer of Mississippi—will be the one that either overturns Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, the two Supreme Court rulings that are the bedrocks of reproductive rights, or renders them powerless. This case began as a challenge to a Mississippi law forbidding abortions after fifteen weeks (counting from a woman’s last menstrual period), except in very narrow circumstances. A woman would have to be facing a medical emergency that could cause “substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function”—or threaten her life. The only other exception would be if doctors determined that the fetus, even if carried to full term, could not survive. Rape and incest would not be taken into account.
Crucially, fifteen weeks is well before the point at which a fetus would be viable outside the womb, and that is also the point at which the Supreme Court has said that a woman’s interest in controlling her own body outweighs any other interests the state has. The Mississippi law is so clearly contrary to the Court’s precedents that Judge James Ho, a Trump appointee to the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, wrote in an opinion in 2019 that it was his “duty” to strike it down, even as he railed about pain being inflicted on “innocent babies.” Similar state laws are regularly batted down. Why, then, did the Court take this one?
The states where children are getting the Covid-19 vaccine? The same states where adults are getting vaccinated... Correlation is over +0.9. This will only serve to exacerbate the blue/red state gap on vaccinations. https://t.co/Ay5vm0e18V pic.twitter.com/qYu75S64oD— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) May 31, 2021
The states where children are getting the Covid-19 vaccine? The same states where adults are getting vaccinated... Correlation is over +0.9. This will only serve to exacerbate the blue/red state gap on vaccinations. https://t.co/Ay5vm0e18V pic.twitter.com/qYu75S64oD
Lena H Sun/WaPo:
Barbershop offers coronavirus shots, in addition to cuts and shaves. Some see it as a national model. “Why not go where people already have trust?” Black community leaders, University of Maryland and Biden White House hope to recruit and train barbers to help end the pandemic. Reginald Alston never expected to get a coronavirus vaccine and never expected anyone would change his mind about it. But his best friend, a hair salon owner, kept telling him he was being shortsighted and maybe even a little bit selfish. What about his niece and her newborn who live with him? How would he feel if they became sick? Also, his job as a contractor and painter meant he was often going into other people’s homes. Didn’t he want to be protected? By the time that friend, Katrina Randolph, told him about the nearby barbershop hosting a vaccination clinic, and offered to drive him there, Alston, 57, was far along on the journey to changing his mind.
Barbershop offers coronavirus shots, in addition to cuts and shaves. Some see it as a national model.
Reginald Alston never expected to get a coronavirus vaccine and never expected anyone would change his mind about it.
But his best friend, a hair salon owner, kept telling him he was being shortsighted and maybe even a little bit selfish. What about his niece and her newborn who live with him? How would he feel if they became sick? Also, his job as a contractor and painter meant he was often going into other people’s homes. Didn’t he want to be protected?
By the time that friend, Katrina Randolph, told him about the nearby barbershop hosting a vaccination clinic, and offered to drive him there, Alston, 57, was far along on the journey to changing his mind.
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