LAPD on horses charge at and beat guests standing in line to the Short Stop in Echo Park. @shoton35mm.bsky.social

The assumption appears to be that ordinary voters will be cowed, obsequious, and unwilling to challenge autocracy, just like the billionaires, business leaders, media executives, and other leading institutions of civil society, which have decided that fighting back is “not worth the hassle.”

This graph never fails to be shocking: "The US has experienced the earliest and greatest slowdown in life expectancy improvements among higher-income countries, reported Eileen Crimmins. “We have horrible life expectancy—and it’s getting worse and worse”"

www.prb.org/resources/se...

FL is moving forward w/ plan to end all childhood vaccine mandates. Starting with hepatitis B, chickenpox, and the bacteria causing meningitis and pneumonia. Then next year GOP FL legislature is expected to revisit 1977 law re: whooping cough, measles, polio, rubella, mumps, diphtheria, and tetanus.

I think we all know this but a lot of us desperately want to believe otherwise. We assume that most people are fundamentally decent and that we should be able to find common ground even if we disagree. It's shocking to find so many who genuinely have nothing but hate in their hearts.