Sam G. Howard
@samghoward.riliberator.com
2.2K followers 930 following 5.4K posts
Rhode Islander, education union data organizer and Democratic ward committee member. Recovering comms pro, RI's leading vexillologist (probably). Occasionally blogs at riliberator.com
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Reposted by Sam G. Howard
Somehow it's only "demonizing half of the country" when Democrats mildly criticize Trump supporters. This just doesn't count
Leavitt: "The Democrat Party's main constituency is made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals."
King Charles has simply found a creative solution to keep England's troops paid, and rather than congratulate him for doing that, Parliament is saying it's illegal.
Leavitt: "The president tapped into tariff revenue to keep WIC money going out the door. He found a creative solution to keep the troops paid. And rather than congratulate him for doing that, this unprecedented action to get our troops paid, Dems want to sue him for it. They're saying it's illegal."
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
The advanced level conversation on today's global economy. One that to be honest is barely featuring across a Europe in danger of being squeezed by the US, China, and its own incumbents.
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
Glenn Beck has been targeting these same groups for so long that a viewer of his attempted to murder people at the Tides Foundation in SF *a decade and a half ago* (and settled for a shoutout with cops on 580) www.democracynow.org/2010/10/12/p...
"Progressive Hunter": Gunman Cites Listening to Glenn Beck and Others as Inspiration for Armed Plot Against ACLU & Tides
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
Again, based on the party in the lead on these issues, especially affordability, I'd say their description is much more accurately applied to Republicans. And look how out of step they are on immigration, an issue that indies want parties to focus on *LESS THAN CLIMATE CHANGE*.
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
Hey, hey guys! Guys! They reinvented the textbook! And the library!

Just amazing to see someone tell on themselves so clearly in public that they do not really know what teaching...is?
Wow. Just wow.

"Students pay premium prices for information that AI now delivers instantly and for free. A business student can ask ChatGPT to explain supply chain optimization or generate market analysis in seconds. The traditional lecture-and-test model faces its Blockbuster moment."
When Knowledge is Free, What are Professors For?
Higher Education Must Stop Competing with AI on Information and Start Teaching What Machines Can’t Do
www.forbes.com
It's politically, morally, and democratically correct to try corrupt officials for corruption even if they're of an opposing party... but for some reason American pundits and politicians have long thought it's an electoral liability and now we're facing the consequences of that laxness.
There's a fairly typical thing in most stable democracies where if the former governing party did have a corruption problem, their corrupt former officials are tried by the new governing party for corruption; often to the latter's immediate electoral benefit!
💯 The goal is threefold:

1) Tie the GOP to corruption + crime, thus reclaiming "law + order."

2) Perhaps deter some violations now.

3) Build popular support for an anti-corruption crusade when Dems regain office, a master frame that Dems can use to legitimize transformative institutional change.
Instead of "This is inappropriate!" Democrats - especially those who might run for president - should say right now "Anyone who participates in this should know: You are committing a crime, and in the next administration you will be prosecuted."

That will change the frame of the story.
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
Mary Miller (R-IL) quoted Hitler on the steps of the Capitol on January 5th, the day before a Republican mob attacked the Capitol, one wearing a "Camp Auschwitz" T-shirt and Elon Musk gave Heil Hitler salutes and Donald Trump says he wish he had Hitler's generals. Johnson is good with all of that.
Q: Are you worried about extremist pro-Hitler sentiment among young Republicans?

JOHNSON: No. I don't know who any of these people are. I've never heard of them. Somebody posted a photo of me standing next to these guys wearing tuxedos. It was at the inauguration, people were coming up for selfies
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
Instead of "This is inappropriate!" Democrats - especially those who might run for president - should say right now "Anyone who participates in this should know: You are committing a crime, and in the next administration you will be prosecuted."

That will change the frame of the story.
Again, it is a full-blown federal felony crime for anyone in the White House or Executive Office of the President to order tax investigations into anyone.

And it's not just a crime to DO it, it's even a federal crime for an employee not to REPORT such an order to the Treasury Inspector General.
26 U.S. Code § 7217 - Prohibition on executive branch influence over taxpayer audits and other investigations
U.S. Code
Notes
prev | next
(a)Prohibition
It shall be unlawful for any applicable person to request, directly or indirectly, any officer or employee of the Internal Revenue Service to conduct or terminate an audit or other investigation of any particular taxpayer with respect to the tax liability of such taxpayer.

(b)Reporting requirement
Any officer or employee of the Internal Revenue Service receiving any request prohibited by subsection (a) shall report the receipt of such request to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

(c)Exceptions
Subsection (a) shall not apply to any written request made—
(1)to an applicable person by or on behalf of the taxpayer and forwarded by such applicable person to the Internal Revenue Service;
(2)by an applicable person for disclosure of return or return information under section 6103 if such request is made in accordance with the requirements of such section; or
(3)by the Secretary of the Treasury as a consequence of the implementation of a change in tax policy.
(d)Penalty
Any person who willfully violates subsection (a) or fails to report under subsection (b) shall be punished upon conviction by a fine in any amount not exceeding $5,000, or imprisonment of not more than 5 years, or both, together with the costs of prosecution.

(e)Applicable person
For purposes of this section, the term “applicable person” means—
(1)the President, the Vice President, any employee of the executive office of the President, and any employee of the executive office of the Vice President; and
(2)any individual (other than the Attorney General of the United States) serving in a position specified in section 5312 of title 5, United States Code.
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
Good news for democracy in New York. Moving local elections from odd-numbered years to align them with federal and state elections in even-numbered years can boost turnout by multiple times over
The New York Court of Appeals (the state’s highest court) unanimously upholds the law moving most county and town elections to even-numbered years.

www.nycourts.gov/ctapps/Decis...
It’s totally fair game, since there’s little chance of them being the secret oldest person in the world, but I don’t like it.
Discovered someone who shortened their 2001 birth year to “01” and suddenly felt extremely old.
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
If you were “prematurely anti fascist” about this you were a hysterical lib, if you were wrong about it you’re a respectable intellectual with lots of billionaire connections bsky.app/profile/gtco...
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
I've been calling this the Rucho–Alexander two-step. In very short order go from "partisan gerrymandering is lamentable but not addressable by the Court" to "if it COULD be partisan gerrymandering, it MUST be partisan gerrymandering"
They also explicitly greenlighted this sophistry last year in Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP. Alito argued there that racial discrimination isn't racial discrimination if Republicans target Black voters for political reasons.
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
There’s 1,000 times more chatter about the Maine senate race in a year than about Maine’s ballot measure in 3 weeks that’d bring voter ID and crack down on mail voting… maybe let’s start there??? boltsmag.org/maine-questi...
A Ballot Measure Targets Mail Voting in Maine - Bolts
Question 1, on the November ballot, would set up a barrage of new restrictions on absentee ballots that would considerably affect older voters and people with disabilities.
boltsmag.org
That seems bad.
UK: today's Find Out Now poll shows the governing centre-left Labour Party (LAB-S&D) on 15%. This is the lowest vote share the party has ever received in any national parliament poll since the birth of modern polling.

➤ https://europeelects.eu/uk
Reposted by Sam G. Howard
UK: today's Find Out Now poll shows the governing centre-left Labour Party (LAB-S&D) on 15%. This is the lowest vote share the party has ever received in any national parliament poll since the birth of modern polling.

➤ https://europeelects.eu/uk
Yeah, ultimately, I don’t think him winning with <40 points or >60 is really going to impact how he governs and how NYC politicians react to him.
But on the other hand, how many mayoral candidates have ever had to compete against a former governor from their party? Kind of frustrates any attempt to draw more general lessons from this race.
I’ve been thinking about this; obviously the “mandate” of a majority in a municipal off-off-year election is complete nonsense, but a Mamdani plurality will be given a different narrative than over-performing the polls and achieving a majority.