Blogs Aid Defenders of Democracy
"Everybody knows who Donald Trump is; let's show him who we are," said Joe Biden during the presidential campaign. Yes, we do know who Donald Trump is -- a destroyer of democracy. And, yes, we did show him who we are -- defenders of democracy. During our fight to get from the destroyer's victory in 2016 to the defenders' victory in 2020, we drew from the armory of democracy -- the free press. From there we armed ourselves with factual information and thoughtful analysis from its hundreds of reliable news publications.
But the destroyer fights with relentless disinformation, big lies and chaos, and tramples the rule of law and democratic norms. That onslaught has spurred some news curators and writers to create new blogs focused on logging the destruction. As the destroyer's reign slips into history, those focused, news-logging blogs can serve as a gateway to that history. As such, they can serve to further aid the defenders in bringing justice, repair and vigilance. Here is a list of four of those blogs:
The Weekly List
"Experts in authoritarianism advise to keep a list of things subtly changing around you, so you’ll remember," reads the home page of "The Weekly List," by Amy Suskind. As described on its About page, the blog
tracks specific news stories representing eroding norms under the current regime. Taken together, they reveal a nation pushed towards authoritarianism, the wielding of unchecked governmental authority by one person or group at the expense of the freedom of those who oppose them.
If you had just five minutes a week to absorb the news, you would do well to spend it reading the short summary of each week's article. But the heart of each article is the 100+ links to reliable news reports. With each link comes a graceful one- or two-sentence description of the news report. In marking the march to authoritarianism, Suskind views The Weekly List as being a "road map back to normalcy."
WTF Just Happened Today?
"Today's essential guide to the daily shock and awe in national politics. Read in moderation." So goes the slogan for WTF Just Happened Today?" by Matt Kiser. This blog began on Inauguration Day 2017. Like "The Weekly List," "WTF Just Happened Today?" curates the news, but daily (Monday to Friday). Each daily entry lists several top stories of the day, with a solid, short summary for each, and links to several sources that have reported the story.
The Washington Post's Trump False Claims Database
The Trump false claims database by the Washington Post also began on Inauguration Day 2017. Day-by-day, the Post's Fact Checker department reviews Trump's claims and logs the false or misleading ones into this database. In three and two-thirds years, Fact Checker has logged 23,035 entries -- a rate of 17 per day, more than one per waking hour. As of today, the database has been updated through Sept. 11 -- so it seems the Post has fallen a bit behind with this project.
Letters from an American
"I'm a history professor interested the contrast between image and reality in American politics," says Heather Cox Richardson. In her blog, "Letters from an American,"she gives a daily essay that sets the day's political events into historical context. Richardson says, "This is a chronicle of today’s political landscape, but because you can’t get a grip on today’s politics without an outline of America’s Constitution, and laws, and the economy, and social customs, this newsletter explores what it means, and what it has meant, to be an American."
List of Blogs
To further aid defenders of democracy in bringing justice, repair and vigilance, here is a list of blogs focused on logging the destruction wrought by the Trump regime.
- "The Weekly List" by Amy Suskind
- "WTF Just Happened Today?" by Matt Kiser
- Washington Post - Trump false claims database
- "Letters from an American" by Heather Cox Richardson
Sources
Image found at The Rationals.
reliable news publications "Media Bias Chart" - Ad Fontes Media
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By Quinn Hungeski, TheParagraph.com, Copyright (CC BY-ND) 2020
Comments
will these blogs "defend democracy" during the era of Biden?
Have they been pointing out how dishonest Biden is? Will they track all the lies he tells? Or now that the era of Trump is near the end, will they fold up shop and go home?
If you only point out lies and unconstitutional behavior when it is done by "the other team" but not by "your team" then aren't you just as much of an enemy of democracy?
Well said
sir.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Resistance
I think these blogs all arose in resistance to the coming authoritarian dictatorship with the election of Donald Trump. It's clear that they have put a great amount of work into their projects, and I see them as patriots.
"We dance round in a ring and suppose, But the Secret sits in the middle and knows." - Robert Frost
If Trump is so bad
and leans towards fascism then why did the house/Pelosi pass all of his agendas without discussion? Is it okay for Trump to be fascist when it comes to over the pond with the military, but just not for here at home?
I truly do not see how you can see what has happened during Trump's tenure as a partisan issue. Pelosi sure had plenty of other options to impeach Trump on. Using Ukraine just showed how corrupt democrats were after Obama's brutal coup. Did you know that Obama knowingly armed and supported neo Nazis in Kiev? The same group from Hitler's days that our grandfathers fought during WWII? How does that make sense in a partisan world? Obama never sent the weapons, yet he wasn't impeached for it. And now we see that Trump did see that there was evidence of Hunter Biden's/Joe's rolls with Burisma.
Did you notice the big fight dems put up to keep Barrett off the SC? They so did not want her on it they had Feinstein run the hearings. Except a lot of them were warning the week before they started that she wasn't up to the job and yet they went with her anyway? WTF?
How about Schumer letting McConnell fast track putting his judges on the court more than once? And that democrats have voted for some of them. 3 including Tim Kaine voted for Barrett for the federal court.;. Some resistance.
Be fair. The country has been on the road to fascism long before Trump rode the escalator down. Both parties have moved us in that direction.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
This is what “Way of the Bern” Reddit folk call “Blue MAGA”… n/t
"defenders' victory in 2020"
Lololol. Hahahahaha. Oookay. If you say so. Meanwhile my sig line gets better and better.
Is it great yet?
Nice cut and paste diary from TOP
If I wanted lopsided red team vs blue team dreck I know where to find it. Thanks for reaching out though.
“ …and when we destroy nature, we diminish our capacity to sense the divine,and understand who God is, and what our own potential is and duties are as human beings.- RFK jr. 8/26/2024
Lopsided
I think it's clear that the scale from democracy destruction to democracy defense runs, in fact, lopsided from red to blue.
"We dance round in a ring and suppose, But the Secret sits in the middle and knows." - Robert Frost
Yes, it's gone from Red to Blue.
In the twenty years since the Neocon coup in DC — and after two decades of intense Israel-based foreign policy and election meddling — the only thing the Defenders of Democracy have managed to achieve is to make Communism look really good.
It's little wonder that the number of true Democracies in the world is dropping.
IMAGINE if you woke up the day after a US Presidential Election and headlines around the the world blared, "The Majority of Americans Refused to Vote in US Presidential Election! What Does this Mean?"
Interesting Phenomenon - I just opened the 3 that could be
of interest and use to me (Skipping WaPo - useless) and found that WTFjusthappenedtoday comes up as Trump News Today | WTFjusthappenedtoday, One wonders if it will be around next year. I note that it quotes sources, which is nice, but note that they are mostly the usual suspects. Letters is a substack and wants my addy, but does allow a peek.
My plan is to revisit them in maybe February and April and see what they look like then.
The idea of keeping a log or journal is good, but, you really need to keep links, preferably permalinks, and even clippings. Back during the war on Iraq, I checked various sources many times a day, and watched stories change and get retrated and all that shit. Years later, many of those stories really could not be recovered by ordinary searches on ordinary search engines, such that, in effect, they no longer ever happened. But who has the time and space to curate such a pile?
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Keeping history
Yes, links break over time so that is a weakness for keeping history. I would like to see real perma-links or an article archive.
For "Letters," click on the "Let me read it first" link to get in, no address needed.
"We dance round in a ring and suppose, But the Secret sits in the middle and knows." - Robert Frost
More proof.
That the US cannot be reformed from inside the US.
A nation run by psychopaths who believe that murder is a substitute for international diplomacy, and slow-murder is a substitute for health care and justice at home.
It cannot be reformed at all.
IMAGINE if you woke up the day after a US Presidential Election and headlines around the the world blared, "The Majority of Americans Refused to Vote in US Presidential Election! What Does this Mean?"
Since the MSM conspired with the Dems to hide
Biden's long history of lying, fabricating his resume', denying his record and having a real penchant for a bad temper and creepy touching of women and children, I really don't want to hear about what Trump is anymore.
"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin
Oh And PS....
The actual destroyer of democracy was George W. Bush... you know...that dear sweet man adored by Michelle Obama?
"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin