Not the odds, but the stakes.

That's my shorthand for the organizing principle we most need in journalists covering the 2024 campaign. Not who has what chances of winning, but the consequences for American democracy. Not the odds, but the stakes.

This report from the Washington Post is getting there. Have a read of it and tell me if you see what I mean. https://wapo.st/41yXOmI [Gift link, no paywall]

#journalism #USpol #journalists

The Supreme Court considers hate speech protected speech. It has confronted hate speech many times and repeatedly held that it was protected.

Read up on precedent:
- https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1528/matal-v-tam
- https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1474/snyder-v-phelps
- https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/usrep/usrep395/usrep395444/usrep395444.pdf

What this means is that there is no hate speech exception to me. Hate speech—like other speech—is protected unless it meets the elements of an actual exception, like incitement, fighting words, or true threats.

#FirstAmendment #FreeSpeech

I protect drag shows.

#FirstAmendment #FreeSpeech

https://reason.com/2022/12/21/the-war-on-christmas-comes-for-the-drag-queens/

Any pundit who is criticizing Pres. Zelenskyy's attire is failing to read the room, but moreover, they're just completely missing the point.

A country and its leader under immediate and existential threats have no time for suits and neckties.

He has no visible rank or medals or nametapes or epaulets or brass buttons or starched creases. He's wearing what women and men who are fighting on the frontlines in Ukraine are wearing.

He's wearing the urgency of the moment.

That's the point.