Nick Herceg’s Post

Welcome to Wednesday, week of June 23rd. This week in Washington will be relatively quiet (well, maybe not on Thursday…) The Senate is away and the House is focusing on Appropriations. Both will be in recess next week for July 4th. The first presidential debate between Biden and Trump will take place this Thursday at 9pm in Atlanta. It seems to be all anybody in DC can talk about. The rules have changed, and we're curious. Here’s what to watch: The Debate Club: Debate Details: This Thursday, CNN will host the first presidential debate of 2024, earlier than previous cycles. Moderators: Dana Bash and Jake Tapper of CNN. Format: No studio audience, only two commercial breaks, and microphones will shut off when a candidate does not have the floor. Broadcast: ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, and PBS will air the debate live at 9pm EST. Biden's Prep: Spending the week at Camp David, focusing on a high-energy performance, tackling Trump directly, and emphasizing abortion rights. Trump's Prep: Concentrating on immigration and crime, projecting the tough businessman image from his 2016 campaign. Issues We’ll Be Watching: - Biden balancing support for Israel with progressive anger over Palestinian casualties. - Trump extending 2017 tax cuts while addressing national debt concerns. - Biden pushing for new taxes on the rich and corporations. - Both candidates' solutions for controlling inflation. - The new debate format: will it affect either candidate? - Potential future debate cancellations, if either candidate is disappointed. We’re keeping a close eye on how the debate will shake things up in D.C. What issues are you interested in discussing?  #Politics #PresidentialDebate #BidenVsTrump #WashingtonUpdate

https://lnkd.in/euTeYVCK  Trump is a liar and a national embarrassment The #debate, the #media reporting, and online conversations are not all about the #candidates—they’re also about us, our families, friends, and #community members          #uspolitics Laurie Woodward Garcia and #PeoplePowerUnited Sep 10, 2024 ..."Vice-President Kamala Harris Jobs Created: 15 million (more than the past two Republican Presidents) Lowest Unemployment: Unemployment has been below 4 percent for the longest stretch in over 50 years American Rescue Plan: Funded vaccination campaigns and reopened schools. Bipartisan Infrastructure Law: Rebuilt roads, bridges, and expanded high-speed internet. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson: Appointed first Black woman on the Supreme Court. Bipartisan Safer Communities Act: Significant gun violence prevention legislation. CHIPS Act: Boosted American manufacturing and created jobs. PACT Act: Expanded health care for veterans. Respect for Marriage Act: Enshrined marriage equality. Inflation Reduction Act: Lowered costs for families, promoted clean energy. Marijuana Pardons: Removed barriers for simple possession offenses. Protecting Reproductive Rights: Ensured access to reproductive care. Climate Action: Rejoined Paris Climate Accords. Support for Ukraine: Rallied international support against Putin. Affordable Care Act: Strengthened and expanded coverage. Criminal Justice Reform: Promoted accountable policing. Student Debt Relief: Approved billions in loan forgiveness. Diversity: In white house staff, cabinet, administration, and appointments Besides what a leader has accomplished, I want to know if they have a vision that I agree with, and for me, that candidate is Kamala Harris. I believe if we can take the House and Senate, and elect Kamala Harris, she will sign into law policies that will take our country forward: Women's Health Protection Act (enshrines abortion rights into law) Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) Environmental safeguard bills Student debt relief bills Supreme Court reforms like ethics, expansion, and term limits Equality Act John Lewis Voting Rights Act Freedom to Vote Act Immigration reform bills Gun violence prevention bills Affordable Housing bills and make significant improvements to Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, and our healthcare system."...

Good to see big thinking on democracy from Rich Wilson at ISWE but this needs honing. (1 ) Citizens' assemblies - yes. But advisory not definitive, otherwise they are another elite. But if they come up with good policies that are well communicated, that should generate mass pressure that legislators can't ignore. (2) Empower local communities - yes. But not by making them reliant solely on local income or running assets. What happens in a locality is necessarily a triangulation of local people, local institutions and central institutions and law. Government should pay properly for everything that national law requires local councils to do, and this should include devolving appropriate powers to local communities. Councils can already acquire and run assets and can do it badly which is partly why an increasing number are going bankrupt. (3) 'Reduce voting age to 6' ?? Including this casts doubt on the seriousness of the rest. (4) 'Repurposing... public service broadcasters'. Not just them. there needs to be a way of ensuring greater fairness and responsibility across the mass media. See recent books and blogs by Henry Tam. (5) Add something about ensuring proper education about democracy, and pursuing these goals internationally as well as at home.

If we do not actively engage to stop the dismantling of our remaining democratic foundations - ie truthful media, right to protest, protection of basic human rights and a ruling elite with some accountability to actually consider well-being of the population, we have little chance of avoiding a dictatorship ala 1984. Humans have the capability to work together for collective benefit. We see it everyday. We should be able to find a better way to govern ourselves as the status quo is accelerating us into disaster. It is time to have courage to let go of the past and try out some options.

Academics can drive us crazy because they are so tuned into polls that they either can't or refuse to think outside the box. Sometimes we wonder if they put their pants on one leg at a time like the rest of us or if they are oblivious to the real world, outside their penthouses and government offices. Hell, you would think they would recognize that the damn polls aren't people, they don't eat, sleep and work at home or deal with traffic, pick up the kids, feed the dogs and pay the bills. We just wish they'd stop being poll struck, grab a cup of Joe and chill with us for a change. Then they might actually know something beyond data, statistics, numbers, trends and television ratings. Why the American people win election 2024: First, they've seen this play before. It was ugly and it failed. [Trump lost and his MAGAs attacked the Capitol Building, damaged public property, denigrated our citadel of law and order and caused people to die.] I've walked through those buildings, they are democracy. Just being inside them is a religious experience. Even with the challenge of post covid inflation, the economic continues to grow, hiring is strong and interest rates aren't out of control. Here's why President Biden gets a second term in 2024: Election 2024 is an 'Election for Dummies': It's not difficult to figure out unless you have little or no respect for your elders (moms, dads, grandparents, great grandparents etc.) Every key issue belongs to the current administration, whether because of brilliant leadership or great fortune is open for discussion. -economy, despite higher (post covid) inflation, jobs are strong and compared to the rest of the world, the U.S. is by far the best economically. -abortion, conservative justices labeled themselves MAGA with Dobbs, overturning Roe v. Wade and disregarding or rewriting decades of stare decisis (legal precedent) to appease Trump, breaking nearly every promise made to the American people during pre-appointment hearings that they would adhere to previous case law. It looks more like the MAGA justices have acted to please their King. -foreign affairs, Trump insists on coddling with Russia's Putin, North Korea's Un and is pursuing a dangerous path of undoing U.S. alliances around the world. -U.S. military, MAGA House Representative Tommy Tupperville held up military promotions and pay for month, endangering our troops and stifling efforts to ensure stability in command. -infrastructure, the Biden administration is rebuilding across the U.S., the electorate knows Biden must be retained if the work is to be completed. -leadership, The U.S. House of Representatives has been largely inactive and ineffective while in session. -The GOP nominee for President of the United States has arguably established a pattern of behaviors some cite as curious, dangerous and mentally unstable disqualifications for running for any U.S. public office. Photo: Democracy

Many media outlets will cover the first presidential debate, hosted June 27 by CNN, by zeroing in on the best zingers. PolitiFact will focus on the substance, helping voters discover the truth, or lack thereof, in the candidates’ statements. We monitor the appearances of Biden and Trump for new and repeated claims every day. So far this year, we have published about five dozen fact-checks of the candidates. (We also fact-check Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who is running as an independent; he did not qualify for the CNN debate.) Based on their patterns, we think we have a good idea of how Biden and Trump might answer questions on important voter topics, including the economy, immigration and health care. Inoculate yourself from the spin of these talking points and more with this fact-checked guide.

RISING THREATS TO U.S.DEMOCRACY: ROOTS & RESPONSES https://lnkd.in/g_hqTpHj Today I therefore grapple with the pressing question before us as social scientists and as citizens: How and why have U.S. politics and governance arrived at the present juncture where long-standing Constitutional practices and democratically responsive governance are very much at stake? My answer focuses on what I see as the prime driver of the current crisis, the recent radicalization of the Republican Party and its allies, as they have pursued two forms and phases of anti-democratic politics. The first version involves maximum use of legal hardball steps that stretch existing laws and rules to disadvantage partisan opponents (I also call this approach “McConnellism” in honor of its chief practitioner, outgoing GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky). The second approach targets political competitors and government operations with extralegal harassment, threats of violence, even actual violence. Drawing on my own research with many collaborators, as well as from many excellent studies by colleagues in political science and beyond, I will dissect the elite and popular roots of recent Republican embrace of both forms of antidemocratic politics. Let me note a caveat. Anyone hoping for 2024 election predictions will be disappointed. After I probe developments on the right of the U.S. political spectrum, I will speak briefly about recent shifts in liberal and Democratic Party politics and look ahead at what may come next for American democracy. But I will not speculate about near-term electoral winners and losers. Especially at junctures of upheaval and change, political scientists are not good at soothsaying. My scholarly tribe, historical institutionalists, focuses instead on why crisis 1 junctures emerge – and considers alternative possible trajectories. That is what I plan to do today.

Now we've entered the run-up to the UK General Election, I'd like us to pause for a moment. Why do we vote for the parties you vote for? • Much of the time (be honest), it's because our parents did, or our social group does. • Much of of the time it's a form of tribalism. • A lot of the time one or another party just "feels better", or feels like it can (or can't) govern well. • Some of the time it's simply because one party has outlived its welcome in government. • And sometimes something happens that makes us thing "them, not them!". But apart from these pre-manifesto considerations, what actually governs our voting habits? The answer is: issues. I've always had a theory (unevidenced, unchecked, and unproven!) - we vote on three basic issues: the economy, whatever is "big in the news" right now, and... that one thing that we feel passionately about. Be it the climate, be it education, be it "Europe", or something else. Now, just imagine. If all the #dyslexic #voters decided to #vote on the issue of #dyslexia, what sort of impact that might have on our political landscape. Let's put dyslexia on the electoral map. Come on John Curtice, we can do this!

Before you start telling everyone how to improve government, Rich, you need to apologise for the unholy mess you and Claire Mellier etc. made of the governance of the 2021 Global Assembly. You turned a blind eye to the corrupt practices, the unethical behaviour of the Sortition Foundation, their intellectual property theft. You turned a blind eye to their disgusting, predatory behaviour. You and your teammates just didn't want to know. And until you and everyone at Iswe who was involved in that fiasco finally own up to your mistakes - your co-culpability through your criminal neglect and avoidance of the issue - you have zero credibility in anything and everything to do with governance. The number 1 quality in a leader is the ability to admit to one's mistakes. I see no evidence of that with you. You and Jon Stever and Claire Mellier didn't even have the gumption to turn up to a Zoom meeting to at least talk about it face-to-face. You just kept putting it off, again and again. Pathetic. You didn't even have the courage to go through with that, even though it was Mellier who invited everyone to it in the first place. You bottled it. And now you want to explain to people how to run a country? Clean up your own governance mess first.