The Green Elephant - 80 - Most Dangerous Organization : Repuclican Party P. 1

The Republican Party is the Most

Dangerous Organization in the World Part 1

Veto-Proof Super-Majorities Across the Red States

Election results, 2022: State legislative veto-proof majorities

At Least Half of Legislatures Set to Have Veto-Proof MajoritiesAt least half the nation’s legislatures are on track to have veto-proof majorities next year, giving America’s first branch of government more control than ever over policymaking. State lawmaking mirrors the famous lesson from “Schoolhouse Rock!”: Legislators introduce bills that move through committees and, if approved, go to the floor of both legislative chambers. If both chambers vote in favor of the bill, it goes to the governor for a signature or...

Supermajorities in state capitols push controversial policies to the edgeA historically high number of supermajorities in state legislatures has pushed laws further to the edge on abortion, climate and transgender issues.

Opinion | How state legislatures went off the rails Why does the GOP seem so ascendant? Look to the state legislatures.

What Republicans can do with their new supermajoritiesGOP supermajorities in three more chambers have recently formed in states with Democratic governors.

Veto overrides in state legislatures

Against All Odds: How the Minority Gets Work Done in Supermajority ChambersNorth Dakota’s 2023 legislative session started with a bang: Kathy Hogan got conked on the head. The state’s Democratic Senate minority leader was exiting the Capitol’s west entry on the session’s opening day when she tripped over a rug and fell, producing a thwack loud enough to be heard across the Senate floor. Fortunately for Hogan, two colleagues immediately came to the rescue: Rep. Todd Porter and Sen. Brad Bekkedahl, both trained in emergency medical...

Republicans are Transforming America's Educational System

Red states take aim at public schoolsBy abandoning K-12 modernization and reform, Democrats have foolishly ceded the initiative to GOP culture warriors.

Parents would have new power over their kids' education under House GOP billHouse Speaker Kevin McCarthy and House Republicans on Thursday introduced The Parents Bill of Rights

Republican lawmakers in NC propose slew of controversial education policiesNorth Carolina lawmakers packed together a collection of politicized policies into a single education bill that would make it easier for parents to challenge books, prosecute librarians, have superintendents fired or move their child to another school.

Here's the Long List of Topics Republicans Want Banned From the ClassroomThere are now 61 censorship bills proposed in 24 states. One legislator wants teachers to pay $10,000 for teaching "critical race theory."

Republican Surge on Book Bans and Defunding Libraries

The rising Republican movement to defund public librariesLibraries bolster democracy. Republicans want to get rid of them.

GOP Book Bans and Democratic Divestment Both Created Crisis for Public LibrariesThe current battle over libraries doesn’t tell the larger truth about decades of disinvestment by both parties.

Book bans are on the rise in U.S. schools, fueled by new laws in Republican-led statesBook bans in school libraries, spurred on by legislation pushed by conservatives, rose nearly 30% last semester, according to PEN America.

Opinion: Attacks On The Nation’s Libraries Are About Class As Much As CensorshipIf the more than 100 bills in state legislatures aiming to ban books fail, lawmakers want to cut library budgets — which could mean cuts to resources for America's most vulnerable.

Republicans Go Full Racist on Crime

Davis: On the crime issue: ‘The Republicans are lying — and they know they are lying’It’s not too late for the Democrats running for the Senate and House to do what Sen. Ed Muskie (D-Maine) did for Democratic congressional candidates on the evening of the 1970 midterms: to tell the…

The reason Republican attacks on crime are so potent - Vox

Exploiting Voters' Fears

The problem(s) with the Republicans’ election focus on crimeThe GOP's focus on crime in the midterm elections may scare voters, but the closer one looks, the more problems emerge with the Republicans' pitch.

Stories about crime are rife with misinformation and racism, critics sayWe've heard again and again that crime is rising. But the reality is far more complex, in part because of how we define crime in the first place.

The G.O.P.’s Big-City Scare TacticsNationwide, Republicans are portraying Democratics as soft on crime. It’s a well-worn strategy, but can a candidate for governor of Illinois win by calling Chicago a “hellhole”?

Americans don't Trust Politicians to make Abortion Laws

'Heartbreaking' stories go untold, doctors say, as employers 'muzzle' them in wake of abortion ruling | CNNAfter the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, an obstetrician who works at a hospital in the Northeast thought she could make a difference by publicly describing what she was seeing, by telling the stories of the patients she saw suffering in the aftermath of the court’s historic court ruling.

How Texas’ abortion laws turned a heartbreaking fetal diagnosis into a cross-country journey“It was just a matter of time before the baby died, or maybe I’d have to go through the trauma of carrying to term knowing I wasn’t bringing a baby home,” said 27-year-old Lauren Hall. “I couldn’t do that.”

Here’s the harrowing story of one of my patients after Florida’s 15-week abortion ban | ColumnShe was pregnant with twins, and at 20 weeks, her water broke, with one of the twins partially delivering.

Abortion providers on two years of Texas ban: ‘We’re living in a devastating reality’Senate Bill 8 wiped out almost all abortion care in the second-most populous state in the US, and served as a harbinger of what was to come over the rest of the country

Texas woman almost dies because she couldn't get an abortion | CNNAnother woman has come forward with the harrowing details of how the Supreme Court’s decision four months ago to overturn Roe v. Wade put her life in danger.

Doctors Warned Her Pregnancy Could Kill Her. Then Tennessee Outlawed Abortion.A Tennessee mother wanted to end her high-risk pregnancy, but doctors feared prosecution.

A year after fall of Roe v. Wade, 25 million women live in states with abortion bans or restrictionsSaturday is the one year anniversary of the court's Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling, which struck down Roe v. Wade. Abortion law is now in the hands of state lawmakers and courts.

She Just Had a Baby. Soon, She'll Start 7th Grade.After the fall of Roe v. Wade, some travel hundreds of miles to get abortions. This is the story of a girl who couldn't

The Insane Conservative Campaign to Rewrite Child Labor Laws

The Republican push to weaken child labor laws, explainedIt’s not just about a labor shortage.

‘It’s just crazy’: Republicans attack US child labor laws as violations riseChanges lawmakers are seeking, such as expanding types of approved work, will potentially ‘put kids in dangerous situations’

Rolling Back a Century of Progress, Republicans Are Reviving Child LaborIt might seem unimaginable that we're backsliding into the era of exploiting child labor. But that’s precisely what the GOP appears to be doing.

‘It’s slavery for modern times’: how children of 12 toil in Colorado’s fieldsSome Republican-led states are pushing to relax child labour laws but even in the farms of San Luis valley, where most are Hispanic/Latino, youngsters can work an unlimited number of hours

Why Is the Republican Party Suddenly Weakening Child Labor Laws?Rolling back restrictions on child labor and dismantling public education will make the country far more unequal. For today’s GOP, that’s a feature, not a bug.

New State Laws Are Rolling Back Regulations On Child Labor : 1A

Republicans push for teenagers as young as 14 to work in restaurants, industrial jobsWith unemployment at 50-year low of 3.5%, businesses of all types need workers. State lawmakers, mostly Republicans, see teenagers as a solution.

A meat processer killed a 16-year-old. Yet US lawmakers want more child labor | Akin OllaAdult workers are demanding a fairer slice of corporate profits – so child labor is a way to increase and undercut the labor pool

Fox News and an Extraordinary Amount of Lying

Analysis: Fox News has been exposed as a dishonest organization terrified of its own audience | CNN BusinessFox News has been exposed like never before.

Fox News and the marketing of lies

Financial Times

Apr 21, 2023 — Yet what was long Trump's biggest media cheerleader, Fox News, played a key role in perpetuating the most dangerous instance of fake news to date in a democracy

Beware Fake NewsInfluence operations, whether launched by governments or non-state actors, existed long before social media, but their scale, severity and impact are new.

The truth is there's little the government can do about lies on cableTucker Carlson trying to rewrite history on the Jan. 6 riots is exposing the government's limited ability to regulate distortions on cable news.

Fox News and its audience became hooked on lies – now they can’t break the habit | Jonathan FreedlandEvidence revealed in the Dominion case exposed the channel as the hostage of its viewers’ fantasy: a Trump election victory, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland

Fox News controversies - Wikipedia

Misinformation & Disinformation | TimeRead the latest stories about Misinformation & Disinformation on Time

Trump’s Poison Pills Are Still ToxicWhether it’s Iran, China, Cuba, or immigration, U.S. President Joe Biden often finds himself stymied by his predecessor’s foreign policy.

5 striking examples of politicians around the world starting to sound a lot more like TrumpIn their speech patterns and turns of phrase, international leaders and politicians are beginning to sound a lot like President Donald Trump.

Trump Mini-Tyrants

In Brazil and Israel, leaders show Trump there can be political next acts | CNN PoliticsIt’s the season of political comebacks, and don’t think ex-President Donald Trump isn’t watching.

Perspective | Donald Trump is inspiring world leaders — just not the ones you’d thinkHe's turning mainstream conservatives across the globe into racists and nativists.

Opinion | While Trump stands by, the world’s tyrants are trying to make the world safe for dictatorshipRussia and China have become the most active underminers of democracy.

The populist paradox | BrookingsThree leaders whose rise and rule illustrate the underlying vulnerabilities of anti-corruption systems which populists exploit are Donald Trump in the United States, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, and Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines.

Donald Trump and the New Dawn of Tyranny'Post-factuality is pre-fascism'

Trump Joins a Notorious Club: World Leaders Who Got in Legal TroubleThere is a long history of leaders prosecuted before, during and after holding power with representation across continents.

The Plan for Trumps Second Administration:

Project 2025: A 5-Alarm Fire Bell for Our Republic

Conservative groups draw up plan to dismantle the US government and replace it with Trump’s visionWith more than a year to go before the 2024 election, a constellation of conservative organizations is preparing for a possible second White House term for Donald Trump.

Conservatives Plot To Replace U.S. Government With Trump's VisionA 1,000-page handbook lays out how to fire up to 50,000 workers and staff the federal government with an "army" of conservatives.

‘Project 2025’: plan to dismantle US climate policy for next Republican presidentRightwing groups penned a conservative wish list of proposals for the next conservative president to gut environmental protections

Project 2025 is GOPers’ blueprint for destroying the planet. It must be stopped.It sounds insane: In a summer of 110-degree heat waves and killer floods, GOPers draft a 2025 scheme to end all action on climate change.

Conservatives have already written a climate plan for Trump's second termHundreds of conservative operatives outlined a plan that Donald Trump, or any Republican, could use to purge climate action from the federal government.

Right-Wing Network Plots to Undermine Democracy with Project 2025The Heritage Foundation, a long-standing extremist think tank, is working to build a new far-right initiative called Project 2025, a blueprint for MAGA conservatives to dismantle critical checks and balances and undermine democracy. While Heritage is leading the charge, a right-wing network of over 70 extremist groups is backing the project.