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Doc Sportello

Doc Sportello's Journal
Doc Sportello's Journal
September 14, 2022

There is no single 'national mood' - just ask Britain's republicans

snip

Largely unremarked, support for the monarchy has fallen quite significantly over the last decade, from 80% in 2012 to 62% in 2022 – despite the latter figure being recorded in the runup to the platinum jubilee. Among Scots, Labour voters, minority ethnic Britons and people under 50, monarchism has either become, or looks likely to eventually become, a minority position.

The idea that the whole country is mourning the Queen and welcoming her successor is a fiction: energetically disseminated, seductive for many in a time of division, but a fiction nonetheless. There is no single “national mood” about the royal family, and there never has been, whatever most journalists and politicians say. ...

... In the short term, the Queen’s long goodbye will probably revive support for the monarchy. But over the longer term, the reign of her more divisive, less historically resonant son may cause that surge to fade, and the decline in royal popularity to resume, even accelerate. With Charles, known for his impatience with staff and extravagant lifestyle, the sense of entitlement, which is as fundamental to the royal family as a sense of duty, is more obvious.

The poorer country that the UK is likely to become over the next few years may also be less tolerant of one of the world’s most lavish monarchies.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/14/there-is-no-single-national-mood-just-ask-britains-republicans

September 5, 2022

Biden is giving a helluva Labor Day speech right now

In Milwaukee. Talking about unions, the middle class and democracy in peril. Crowd is fired up.

September 4, 2022

Robert Reich takes media to task over coverage of Biden's speech

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/04/biden-speech-democracy-attack-media-coverage-republicans


snip

It is dangerous to believe that “balanced journalism” gives equal weight to liars and to truth-tellers, to those intent on destroying democracy and those seeking to protect it, to the enablers of an ongoing attempted coup and those who are trying to prevent it.

Two Sundays ago, CNN’s Brian Stelter, host of the show Reliable Sources, put it well:

It’s not partisan to stand up for decency and democracy and dialogue. It’s not partisan to stand up to demagogues. It’s required. It’s patriotic. We must make sure we don’t give platforms to those who are lying to our faces.

Not incidentally, that was Stelter’s last show on CNN.
September 2, 2022

Welp, John Harwood is out at CNN

Just a few minutes ago he was disagreeing with the take that Biden was political last night, saying that Biden was arguing for democracy. Now he's gone too. I thought he did a great job the last few years in holding dump and his minions accountable.

https://twitter.com/JohnJHarwood/status/1565731351617277957

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Gender: Male
Home country: United States
Current location: Channelview Estates
Member since: Fri Jul 7, 2017, 03:31 PM
Number of posts: 7,505
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