‘Hacking Hate’ Review: A Voyeuristic Documentary Infiltrates Online White Supremacy
Politics

‘Hacking Hate’ Review: A Voyeuristic Documentary Infiltrates Online White Supremacy

Politics tamfitronics A tense documentary that winds its way through online right-wing politics, Simon Klose‘s “Hacking Hate” is a detailed (if occasionally disconnected) exposé of contemporary extremism. It follows Swedish journalist My Vingren as she embeds herself within white supremacist digital spaces. By chronicling her investigations, as well as her interviews with several experts on content moderation, the film introduces numerous parallel threads spanning the entire globe, from the U.S. to Scandinavia and beyond, though it doesn’t always manage to weave them together.Vingren is a committed and knowledgeable subject, referred to by some as the real-life “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” Her proclivity for tracing online footprints comes in handy during “Hacking Hate,” when she not only creates numerous fake profiles to court invites from white nationalist groups, but finds a trail of digital breadcrumbs...
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Readers Respond on Dignity Wraiths and Democracy #1
Politics

Readers Respond on Dignity Wraiths and Democracy #1

Politics tamfitronics From TPM Reader EA …You are totally correct that Trump’s style of dominance politics demands that everyone around him surrender their dignity. But it’s wrong to call him a strongman, because his demand is really a sign of his utter weakness. I have never seen a more psychically fragile, pathetic U.S. President, and doubt if there was ever a weaker one.Innumerable reports came out as soon as Trump won the 2016 election on how his staff could only brief him with materials that flattered him. He needed to see the electoral college map displaying his victory again and again. Every day, he needed to be propped up with flattering headlines and photos. Sometimes...
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Former GOP Rep. George Nethercutt, who defeated House Speaker Tom Foley in 1994, dies at 79
Politics

Former GOP Rep. George Nethercutt, who defeated House Speaker Tom Foley in 1994, dies at 79

Politics tamfitronics SEATTLE — Former U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt, who was a Spokane lawyer with limited political experience when he ousted Democratic Speaker of the House Tom Foley as part of a stunning GOP wave that shifted national politics to the right in 1994, has died. He was 79.Nethercutt died Friday near Denver of progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare, neurodegenerative brain disease, his son said in an email Monday.“He lived a life based in faith, family, community, and service, never sacrificing his principles as a statesman,” Elliott Nethercutt wrote.The 1994 midterm elections, which came halfway through President Bill Clinton’s first term, were a resounding victory for Republicans, who won control of both houses of Congress for the first time since the early 1950s.Nethercutt was the chairman of the Spokane County Republican Party and had served...
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Presidential Politics, Polka and Wisconsin
Politics

Presidential Politics, Polka and Wisconsin

Politics tamfitronics Wisconsin, the land of fried cheese curds and the Green Bay Packers, is one of a half-dozen key battleground states where President Biden is trying to make health care a key issue in his expected November matchup with former president Donald Trump.Biden narrowly won Wisconsin in 2020, after it went for Trump in 2016. And while recent polling indicates that Trump now holds a slight edgemany people here still can’t figure out whom to vote for, or whether to vote at all. Across the state, the rising cost of health care is high on their list of concerns.A Wisconsinite to my core, I wanted to gauge what is motivating voters. Among the best places to understand the state’s mood are the many summertime polka festivals that draw voters of all political stripes.This past...
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