Laura Seay

@texasinafrica.bsky.social

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Political scientist, Africanist, tired (she/her)

Posts Replies Media

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Laura Seay

Just to be really explicit about what’s happening here, the cover conflates age, physical disability, and cognitive disability, and goes on to conflate disability with unfitness for office. It’s utter bullshit.

IMO this is a straight-up ageist and ableist image, no?

Sorry to link to the Other Place, but this clip of Sky News' anchors being literally unable to form words when they saw the UK exit poll results is amazing.

x.comx.com

No idea what's going on in the grocery bakery department, but the cake decorator sure enlivened our cookout! Happy 4th, everyone!

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Laura Seay

It should not be controversial to say that prison sexual violence and/or coercion is never a good thing or an appropriate thing to joke or threaten about, even when the target is someone terrible. It is a deeply fucked up, traumatic part of our carceral system.

This is, in fact, really fucked up

Steve Bannon prison video sparks fury: "Disgusting beyond words"www.newsweek.com The Lincoln Project's video mocks Bannon over the prospect of him being assaulted while serving his prison time.

This story keeps getting more horrifying.

Texas megachurch pastor tried to pay off his child sexual abuse victim, phone transcript shows | Texas | The Guardianamp.theguardian.com Gateway founder Robert Morris allegedly told survivor Cindy Clemishire in 2005 to ‘put a price on it’

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Laura Seay

Saw this display at the grocery store in ABQ yesterday and it sure is a vibe

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Laura Seay

Reply to

Michael Hobbes

Sticking with Biden or running Harris would be *far* less risky than dedicating two of the next four months to Democrat infighting, followed by an unprecedented delegate voting process and dubious chances of even getting on the ballot. Knowing this shit is supposed to be these people's job

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Laura Seay

Reply to

Michael Hobbes

I actually think people are getting a bit over their skis on freaking out over Biden! We're talking about one terrible debate performance, something that can be turned around with a few good TV appearances. And bowing out could hurt Dem polling more than it helps. bsky.app/profile/bikm...

Staying with Biden is now the most suicidal option. We will lose all 3 branches simultaneously.

One thing that's been very clear this past week is that most of those writing & pontificating about Biden's future as the party's nominee have a little to no experience in state and local Democratic Party activities. A brief 🧵:

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Laura Seay

I mean it’s been pointed out that the problem at the heart of it all is that Biden can do all the things people are demanding-live rallies, interviews every day, and even president at the same time but the people who don’t want to believe he’s capable still won’t no matter what. The narrative abides

he has done rallies, he’s done radio call-ins, he’s done sit down meetings and he is still doing his job as president with a major hurricane in the carribean and a major fire in california

He is literally doing the job right now! Quite competently!

It's unclear to me how Biden could prove his fitness to the NYT and Atlantic editors or whatever. It is pointless to demand Biden prove something when this all turns on the whims and vibes of supposedly centrist commentators who have no sense of threat and mistake contrarianism for truth-to-power.

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Laura Seay

NEWS: Judge John Broomes, a Trump appointee in Kansas, today blocked the Biden admin Title IX rule as to Alaska, Kansas, Utah, & Wyoming — but also any school nationwide where Young America's Foundation members or the kids of Moms for Liberty go. Opinion: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

How on earth does he demonstrate fitness for office beyond continuing to do the job he's currently doing pretty darn well? What are the indicators?

Breaking news: President Biden and his senior team said they accepted the grim ultimatum they’ve been hearing from almost all quarters of the Democratic Party — to demonstrate his fitness for office or face a significant effort to force him to step aside.

Biden and aides concede he needs to quickly demonstrate his fitness for officewww.washingtonpost.com Critics have been shaken by his relative inaction to directly address the panic ignited by his halting debate performance last Thursday.

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Laura Seay

There's like 10 different kinds of DC brain making this situation worse than it has to be

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Laura Seay

[S] Your chance to be the steward of 92 wax figures related to John Brown's raid has arrived. cc: @scalzi.com wtop.com/local/2024/0...

As a Harpers Ferry museum closes, its 92 wax figures are looking for a new home - WTOP Newswtop.com The home of the John Brown Wax Museum in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, has been sold. Now, 92 of the 93 wax figures that help tell the story of abolitionist John Brown need a new home.

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Laura Seay

The answer to political anxiety is political organizing.

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Laura Seay

Either the Democrats will run Biden, or he'll say he can't continue the campaign and Democrats will run Harris. Either is newsworthy, but neither is nearly as radical as running a pro-insurrection convicted felon with legal immunity he's eager to use.

This is the thing.

1/ I'm agnostic as to whether Biden should withdraw from the race. It's a genuinely tough question IMO. But I have clarity on one thing: He should absolutely not step down as president. If Harris becomes President, the Vice Presidency is empty. Under the 25th Amendment ...

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Laura Seay

Historians try not to invoke LBJ, whose decision to step down led to catastrophe, or Lincoln, whose choice of unifying veep was even worse, challenge

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Laura Seay

I think it is wise and productive for people to take seriously the idea we are in a constitutional crisis in America. I don’t think it is wise or productive to assume what happens next is like what happens in semi consolidated or consolidated authoritarian systems.

You don't say.

A new research paper from Google says generative AI could “distort collective understanding of socio-political reality or scientific consensus,” and in many cases is already doing that: www.404media.co/google-ai-po...

Google: AI Potentially Breaking Reality Is a Feature Not a Bugwww.404media.co “While these uses of GenAI are often neither overtly malicious nor explicitly violate these tools’ content policies or terms of services, their potential for harm is significant.”

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Laura Seay

Happy "Robert E Lee Yeets 3 Treason Divisions Into a Deathblossom" Day to all who celebrate Lee's July 3d might be one of his worst days of fighting. Starts off the day with the XII Corps kicking his teeth in on the right flank, booting his bubbas out of US trenches they'd taken the night prior

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Laura Seay

Yep. One of the biggest blind spots people have is assuming that underneath, others share the same basic values as them. They have trouble imagining an ideology that is completely misaligned with theirs.

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Laura Seay

Biden is unpopular because Americans are unhappy with economic/political conditions and they blame the sitting president for it, not because he's old, and any other Democrat would be saddled with the same issues

o well anyway

Really glad I never donated to or block walked for Golden. And very sad for my former students who were so misled by him.

"Donald Trump is going to win. And I’m OK with that." —Jared Golden, Dem Cong. in tossup ME-02, writing in the Bangor Daily News www.bangordailynews.com/2024/07/02/o...

Donald Trump is going to win the election and democracy will be just finewww.bangordailynews.com “Democrats’ post-debate hand-wringing is based on the idea that a Trump victory is not just a political loss, but a unique threat to our democracy. I reject the premise.”

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Laura Seay

This is one of the most dystopian signs I've ever seen. Republicans are quickly turning this country into an unrecognizable freakshow.

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Laura Seay

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has been disbarred for his part in Trump's 2020 election interference efforts

Rudy Giuliani officially disbarred in New York | CNN Politicscnn.it Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has been disbarred for his part in Donald Trump’s election interference efforts in 2020.

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Laura Seay

Trump committed these crimes as a private citizen, prior to becoming president. This is ridiculous.

Breaking news: Donald Trump’s July 11 sentencing in his criminal hush money case will likely be postponed in light of the Supreme Court immunity ruling. Manhattan prosecutors said they would not oppose a delay Tuesday, following a request from Trump's lawyers.

Trump’s N.Y. hush money sentencing may be postponed due to immunity rulingwww.washingtonpost.com Donald Trump’s lawyers are seeking to vacate his New York hush money conviction based on Monday’s Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.

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Laura Seay

CNN poll post debate finds that Harris outperforms every other Democratic contender *including* Biden. www.cnn.com/2024/07/02/p...

CNN Poll: Most voters think Democrats have a better chance of keeping White House if Biden isn’t the nominee | CNN Politicswww.cnn.com Three-quarters of US voters say the Democratic Party would have a better shot at holding the presidency in 2024 with someone other than President Joe Biden at the top of the ticket, according to a new...

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Laura Seay

Seems like “No we will not delay this because Trump was convicted for actions prior to his presidency” would have been a reasonable response.

NEW: Trump sentencing likely delayed. Manhattan DA's office says it would not oppose a brief delay to brief issues surrounding immunity decision. (via Frank G. Runyeon, Law360)