Tootfinder

Optimism about US democracy, with sports metaphors and statics nerdery: https://open.substack.com/pub/natesilver/p/dont-discount-american-democracys?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Don't discount American democracy's resilience
The U.S. has a highly popular democratic tradition, even as it battles an authoritarian element.

This DHS funding battle is part of a bigger question Democrats must answer as they fight to regain power.
Large sections of the Democratic base are now echoing calls to “abolish ICE.”
Some Democratic leaders, like New York Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader,
are pushing back against this with much more tepid, unwieldy, and frankly pretty weak ideas to “restrain, reform, and restrict” the agency.

ICE is just over 20 years old, formed as part of the sec…

Democrats Should Take Control on Immigration
The battle over DHS funding should prompt Democrats to reexamine some of their assumptions on this topic.

😅 New research finds Americans deeply concerned about US democracy
#usa

New research finds Americans deeply concerned about US democracy
A new study from the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University and Public Agenda finds that Americans are deeply concerned about the state of U.S. democracy and that growing divisions within the Republican Party deepen partisan divides over how the Constitution should guide presidential authority and the balance of power.

from my link log —
The race to create a perfect lie detector, and the dangers of succeeding.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/05/the-race-to-create-a-perfect-lie-detector-and-the-dangers-of-succee…

First they made useless demands, then they also caved even on their useless demands. The US is a one-party state but in our typical extravagance we have two of them.
https://truthout.org/articles/democrats-cave-on-demands-f…

Democrats Cave on Demands for DHS Reforms, Agree to Short-Term Spending Bill
The deal — a major concession from Democrats — funds DHS and its immigration-related agencies for another two weeks.

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #MiddayShow
Dinosaur Jr.:
🎵 Feel the Pain
#DinosaurJr
https://whatsupwiththekids.bandcamp.com/track/dinosaur-jr-feel-the-pain
https://open.spotify.com/track/6xUMt58RCX98m7g0KcMwAS

It’s just hard to catch your breath, because every day there’s a new, outrageous thing happening with the administration
Abortion has been replaced as a top issue by affordability and the economy.
That seems to be first and foremost for everyone.
But it’s also, for Democrats,
the state of democracy writ large.
We consistently find that Democrats are more concerned about the health of democracy.

Democrat Christian Menefee won a Texas U.S. House seat in a special election Saturday
that will narrow Republicans’ already-slim majority, telling Donald Trump that the Democratic district “topples corrupt presidencies.”
Menefee, the Harris County attorney, prevailed in a runoff against Amanda Edwards, a former Houston City Council member.
He will replace the late Rep. Sylvester Turner, a former Houston mayor, who died in March 2025.
The seat representing the heavily …

Democrat Christian Menefee wins House seat for Houston in special election
Democrat Christian Menefee has won a Texas U.S. House seat in a special election that will narrow Republicans’ already-slim majority. Menefee, the Harris County attorney, prevailed Saturday in a runoff against Amanda Edwards, a former Houston City Council member. He will replace the late Rep. Sylvester Turner, a former Houston mayor, who died in March 2025. The seat representing the heavily Democratic Houston-based district has been vacant for nearly a year. Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott didn’…

A new report from the grassroots organization #RootsAction aims to do what a promised “autopsy” from the Democratic National Committee ultimately did not:
publicly reckon with the failures of the Democrats’ 2024 presidential campaign.
While the Democratic Party’s official postmortem assessment was pulled from public release earlier this month, RootsAction’s
“

“The Blue Road to Trump Hell”: Norm Solomon on “How Corporate Democrats Paved the Way for Autocracy”
A new report from the grassroots organization RootsAction aims to do what a promised “autopsy” from the Democratic National Committee ultimately did not: publicly reckon with the failures of the Democrats’ 2024 presidential campaign. While the Democratic Party’s official postmortem assessment was pulled from public release earlier this month, RootsAction’s “Democratic Autopsy” looks at how factors like “service to corporate power, hostility to the progressive wing of the party, …

🔥Dems win special election in Texas, narrowing Republicans majority.
⭐️Friends, there are now just 37 days until the special election in Georgia to fill the seat vacated by Marjorie Taylor Greene. 
20 Republicans are running. 
One Democrat is running. 
I’m that Democrat. 
This is how we win. 
This is how we take back the House -- and put a check on Trump's rampage against our Democracy.
I’m Shawn Harris.
I’m a Democrat. Husband. Father. Reti…

Help Defeat Marjorie Taylor Greene
Chip in $3 to support Shawn Harris for Georgia!