Tootfinder

"Hope is a Thing With Calloused Hands." Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove of the Center for Public Theology/Public Policy at YDS interviews religion author and sociologist Robert P. Jones on the "Advent in a Time of Authoritarianism" series. https://ourmoralmoment.substack.com/p/

Trump has a plan for the midterms, and ICE is a big part of it. He wants violence on our streets this year, because he thinks it will give him a pretext to attempt to “cancel” the election. So he’s pulled all guardrails off his masked thugs and given them the green light to be as abusive and cruel as possible, in the hopes that they’ll incite the American people to violence. That’s Trump’s plan.
**Tyranny Is Here** - The Social Contract with Joe Walsh
https://socialcontractwithjoewalsh.substack.com/p/tyranny-is-here

Iberia
1) Convincing victory of united left in second round as António José Seguro elected president of Portugal with 67% of second round vote, a rout for far right Chega.
2) In the Bourbon monarchy next door, right PP wins regional election in Aragon but will depend on far right Vox doubled representation. Centre left PSOE diminishes, left Sumar hangs on to 1 seat while Podemos vanishes.
Broad left unity defeats the right in these PR systems.

El socialista Seguro arrasa al ultra Ventura en las presidenciales de Portugal, según los sondeos
La situación catastrófica provocada por el tren de borrascas ha impedido votar a casi 37.000 personas que acudirán a las urnas el próximo 15 de febrero ya conociendo el resultado electoral, un 0,3% de electores que apenas modificarán los porcentajes de voto

If you don’t already know, I’m an anarcho-syndicalist and I’m tired of people thinking that means I’m some authoritarian commie pretending to be leftist. I don’t bootlick party lines or worship dead strongmen. Centralized power rots no matter what color the flag is.
Hear me out, I’ve read actual labor history, I know what labor power means. We build our politics on horizontal organizing and direct action, not on some bureaucrat ordering purges in the name of the people. Real socialism …

"While the rest of us headed into years of immiseration, the filthy rich carried on regardless – and they did so with the willing aid of the centre-left elite, whether Peter #Mandelson or the French Socialists or the US Democrats." -- Aditya Chakrabortty
#Kleptocracy

According to sociologist
Tressie McMillan Cottom,
the AI future is for the rich.
Cottom’s contention is a bleak one — the idea that the most powerful billionaires in the world are using AI to seize total control of humanity
But she isn’t short on hope.
“I think refusing is actually the more hopeful, expansion vision of the future...
That’s my daring idea."

Professor Warns That the Wealthy Are Trying to Use AI to Seize Control of Everything
Renowned sociologist Tressie McMillan Cottom says that AI is a tool for the rich to cement control over society.

Resource 2 for how to talk about current political events more effectively:
This book from George Lakoff called “Don’t Think of an Elephant” is short, to the point, and very practical.
First edition came out in 2004, I recommend the second one from 2014. It’s surprisingly on point to everything that’s happened in the country since.
It will give you both a theoretical framework to understand framing / messaging specific advice on key issues.
#USpol #politics #communications #change #socialJustice #USA

Trump’s threat to impose fresh tariffs on eight European countries
– UK, Norway and six EU member states
– is a wrecking ball to the carefully stitched deals he concluded with those countries last summer.
The two biggest voting blocs in the European parliament,
🔸the European People’s Party (EPP) and
🔸the Socialists & Democrats (S&Ds),
said on Saturday night the deal with the EU cannot be approved in the present circumstances.
Trump’s threat a…