Weekly Political Linkspam

[owlmoose]

This will be my last link collection for the year, since I'll be out of town the week after Christmas.

• I haven't read this yet, but The Indivisible Guide sounds like an amazing resource. Basically a plan of action for creating the progressive version of the Tea Party, to stand against the Republican majority and build up the party for the future. I need to download and take a closer look.


• In an interview with NPR, Barack Obama talks about his intention to mentor and develop young Democratic talent once he leaves office, with the goal of strengthening the party at the state and local level. This work is sorely needed, and I can't think of anyone better to take on this role.


• From the Columbia Journalism review, an article on how Vanity Fair protected one of its writers from doxxing and harassment after she wrote a review panning Trump Grill. More publications need to take the threat of Twitter harassment seriously, and it's good to see a strong, effective example of how it might be done.


• The Resistance Party is a coalition of Democrats who plan to take an active stand against the incoming government. I'd like to know more about who's actually behind it -- are any elected officials or power players already on board? -- but the platform is promising. And when I retweeted it with a comment that I wish it had more explicit mention of women's issues other than abortion and women's health, I got a quick response back informing me that they'd already heard that feedback and were planning on incorporating it in the next draft. Something to keep an eye on at least.


• For another prong to the resistance, NARAL has announced that they will not support any Democratic politician who votes to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. I think this is a good development; Democrats are too quick to cave in to GOP demands, and we need to hold our own party accountable.


• Serenity in the Time of Trump: important piece on the problems with playing the blame game -- especially since most people will try to deflect responsibility for their failures onto someone else, like mainstream media focusing on the role of fake news to dodge their own incompetent coverage -- and the dangers of succumbing to despair.


• Speaking of mainstream media and fake news, apparently Google's algorithm gave the top search result for "did the Holocaust happen" to Stormfront. At least, until a reporter at the Guardian paid the company to put an ad in that spot. Good reminder of the limits of search technology -- and why Google's "don't be evil" motto is less convincing every day.


• In better news, Brianna Wu is planning to run for Congress!

Today's bit of fun: I was reminded of one of my favorite pieces of meta-media: the fake Lucas Lee movie posters from Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, featuring Chris Evans. Sadly, the original article with Evans's own commentary no longer seems to be online, but there's a screencap here, and larger versions of just the posters here.