21 Comments

Gosh, who knew?

Did it not begin this move several decades ago with the Dixiecrat swing to the republican party?

"Senator" Kennedy is so sharp-tongued and openly racist he might be the reincarnated Strom Thurmond. Such talk should not be protected by the speech and debate clause because he is not expressing any ideas and simply vilely using his platform to attack individuals that outside the Senate dais he uses he could be easily prosecuted for defamation.

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I agree with everything you said but I ask you this, what are Democrats doing about it? Sure some of them will talk about it here and there, but what are they DOING about it? I just don't understand how anyone in this country is willing to settle for the lessor of two evils, evils that not you and I picked to run for potus or for congress, but a bunch of rich assholes, ex politicians, and their cronies picked. Wtf man. Does anyone else not see that the gop and the dnc are all working for the same people, and those people are not us.. but for some reason everyone is too chicken shhh to vote 3rd party. 3rd party candidates who are 100% against funding this genocide b.s. Who want Medicare for all who want to end the funding of that proxy war... who want reparations... but no yall just jumping back on the same damn marry go round we have been on for decades. You really think the Democratic party is any different than the republican party? They only swap out the scapegoat.. they know what their doing, and they ain't doing it for any of us. What's wrong with you people, get off the merry go round before we end up .... well yeah my voice don't mean a damn thing. Even my tribes leadership is totally ducked up, crooked as a judge they are. We're all ducked, and we did it to ourselves, what really gets me is we also did it to the next generation, and here we are doing the same shit expecting different results.. well I tell ya we ain't getting anything different unless we do something different.. and that's voting 3rd party.

Yall do what you want I'm voting for Jill

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I am glad that we (democrats) are not afraid of being part of a polarized nation. When the Republicans are so clearly anti-democratic, we have to be the polarized opposite party, and show that with pride. We should be the polar opposite! The threat of being taken over by autocracy with a Fascist nominee for president is a covert Russian invasion being accomplished internally by the Republican party. We must crush this internal threat at the ballot box, again and again and again, by voting for democrats up and down the ballot. For the next 20 years. No exceptions!

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Racism has always been here. Just an observation, but it seems whenever a mob of poor me white peoples get together, and they’re dissatisfied with their own lives, they need to show false superiority for their own failures and beat down other ethnicities. And there a lot of white losers.

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Racism is a strategy of fascism, Trumps main strategy from his first rally.

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The southern strategy weaponized racism by convincing poor whites that at least they’re “better off” than Black and brown people

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Appreciate everything you write!

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Thank you for reading and sharing!

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The frustration level that the smart and sane have had to endure, since trump began his reign of terror, is too much to bear. The fact that the far-right GOP has been able to commit their verbal atrocities is outrageous The racism and bigotry is so exposed because trump has allowed it to surface. He hates who his MAGAT cultist lunatics hate. He gave them permission to come out from behind their rock, with no repercussions. Verbal has become actual. The lies in Springfield should cause trump and vance to have charges brought on them for inciting violence. I feel for the town for having bomb threats, and the fear that they are experiencing.

I had family members escape Europe, before the Holocaust, and others perished in the Holocaust. If hitler had been eliminated, before becoming the fuhrer, the world would be a better place. We must make sure that the existential threat to our democracy and freedom never steps back in the White House. It is that serious. I do not want to live in a dictatorship!

P. S. Senator kennedy is a disgrace to the human race and so are the rest of the MAGA GOP.

I will not honor these people with capitalizing their last names.

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Thank you for your commitment to justice and humanity, Linda.

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First a couple clarifying points:

1 - I have enjoyed Qasim's newsletter for a few months now and appreciate his perspective.

2 - I am deeply disturbed by the hateful, racist extremism perpetuated by the far right. People perpetuating hate should not be given public platforms and should be held accountable.

3 - I am not apologizing for anyone who is spreading hate - and the people called out in today's newsletter use their platforms to perpetuate hate and bigotry and they should be ashamed of themselves.

HOWEVER:

I'd disappointed with the left for uncritically evaluating and bashing these and other extremists for the wrong reasons - especially when there are plenty of valid reasons to bash them.

In two of the examples from today's newsletter, the words these guys were quoted as saying are ambiguous at best. I didn't need NPR to tell me (though they seemed to reach the same conclusion as I) that Lowry actually seemed to be mispronouncing "migrant" or "immigrant" rather than saying the N-word. You can even see him making the "m" shape with his mouth. He may be a racist, but he didn't use the N-word in this case.

And Senator Kennedy was awful. He was extremely disrespectful and unprofessional with Dr Berry, But I clearly heard him say, "You should hide your head in a bag;" not, "You should have your head in a bag," as quoted in the newsletter. Both are rude and inappropriate, but the difference between the two is very important. The former denotes shame (bad enough), but the latter evokes violence and could even be considered a dangerous dog whistle.

We are truly fighting for our lives as we enter the final stretch of the most terrifying election most of us have experienced. PLEASE, let's stay above the fray and work hard to build and maintain credibility in this chaotic time. I promise, people will continue to say reprehensible things to show who they really are and what they really believe. Let's focus and report on those things so people can decide for themselves how dangerous these people are.

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Thank you for your support. I will say regarding your critiques, I very carefully listened to the interview and even ran it through my auto caption software and it repeatedly came back as the N-word. Given the history of the national review of being very pro racist I am not willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, because there is no doubt.

Likewise with Senator Kennedy, I don’t think there’s a meaningful difference between have andhide. Either way it’s dehumanizing and disgusting, especially at a hearing about dehumanizing anti Muslim bigotry.

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And it will only get worse over the next seven weeks, Qasim. Thanks for what you do.

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“No, I don’t.” She answered the question not once, but twice.

“You should have your head in a bag.” As the old joke goes, is that in case the bag over his head breaks?!

What a jackass Kennedy is -- it’s ironic he has that surname. He’s a disgrace and should have been censured by Congress, and then removed by the public. I don’t mind admitting that I can’t wait until his entire body is in a bag.

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Bc of the electoral college & the senate the US is a Confederate Economy: low wages, crap safety net, crushing levels of medical/education debt, poor health, mass murder as economic policy and hideous levels on inequality. Johnny Reb gets the last laugh: fuck you Yankees, we can & will turn the US into a 3rd world country … we’ll sell you into servitude to capital by convincing you of the beneficence of the free market. When in reality, the “free markets” so beloved by neoliberals is just the freedom of capital to exploit labor & destroy the environment.

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Thank you for putting this crisis into words. I feel like our country has forgotten the lessons of the 1960s and is repeating the same mistakes that were made then. Please keep up the great work that you are doing! We should not, will not and cannot allow these people to get away with their vile racism. They must be held accountable for their lies, actions and crimes!

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Thank you, and agreed, we cannot relent. I am grateful for your support, Huley.

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Bless you, Qasim!

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Thank you, David.

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Thank you Qasim. 🙏🏻

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Thank you, Ted.

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