Janell Ross

Ours has always been a country of both law and—where Black Americans are concerned—lies. time.com/5957143/george…

As I just shared on @AymanMSNBC, the goal of Trump's deportations is NOT to rid this country of criminals. It's to radically re-engineer this country's demographics. Legal immigrants will be targeted. So will citizens.

And yet, Black Americans, who are disproportionately working class, hold collectively close to zero wealth, who have the highest unemployment rates even in a good economy did NOT vote for the man that his own former generals called a fascist. What that tells you is that vote was about perceived loss of status. What elected Trump was demographic anxiety — his campaign ran explicitly on it, explicitly! — and so many people whose job it is to dispassionately deal with facts still do not want to deal with that.

From Ipsos last month. People who answered factual questions about inflation, crime, and immigration incorrectly were "more likely to opt for Trump," while those who answered correctly preferred Harris. Disinformation and lack of basic education and knowledge are destroying us.

None of this is meant to diminish voters' feelings about issues. But as Ipsos observed last month, "the end result is that Americans feel that crime, immigration, and the economy are all worse than they actually are. This will affect the election." They were right.

Check out this @Ipsos poll from last month. People who answered factual questions about inflation, crime, and immigration incorrectly were "more likely to opt for Trump," Ipsos said, while those who answered correctly preferred Harris. ipsos.com/en-us/link-bet…

It's a mistake to dismiss real dissatisfaction with the economy and the government as merely a product of right-wing propaganda. But it's also a mistake to ignore the mis- and disinformation that permeates pro-Trump media from top to bottom. For example...

I cannot emphasize enough how disturbing it is that Fulton and Dekalb county voting precincts were targeted for bomb threats. These are the biggest, Blackest counties in Georgia. A quarter of the state's Black population between them.

Thought so many times today about Laura Wooten, a woman I interviewed in 2018. She was 97, believed to be the longest serving poll worker in the US, and so clear eyed about democracy it was inspiring. She passed away in 2019 leaving quite the legacy. nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/la…

New by me —> It's not just @washingtonpost. Roughly 3/4 of major U.S. newspapers aren't endorsing anyone for president this cycle. Just 20 years ago, only about 1/10th skipped out on endorsing. niemanlab.org/2024/11/the-wa…

Maybe its still ahead on Election Day but @TargetSmart early vote update as of 530 TODAY still shows no sign of big bro wave in battlegrounds. Among ages 18-29, women still nearly 10 pts more of early voters than men-just as in 2020. W/1st x voters, women lead by more than in 20!

"Innocent Black people are about seven-and-a-half times more likely to be convicted of murder than innocent white people. That applies equally to those who are sentenced to death and those who are not." law.umich.edu/special/exoner…

A 2022 National Registry of Exonerations report found innocent Black people were 7 times more likely to be wrongly convicted of murder than innocent white people. The racial disproportionality in wrongful conviction cases reflects persistent biases in the criminal legal system.

Breaking: Less than 50 days before the election, pro-Trump allies on the Georgia State Election Board just approved a rule requiring counties to hand-count *all ballots* this year — potentially upending the entire election by delaying reporting of results by weeks if not months. washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/…

One more thing, about that debate... inquirer.com/opinion/commen… inquirer.com/opinion/commen…

White folks have been calling Haitians savages for over 200 years, not because of what they eat, but because of who they beat

JD Vance acknowledges the cat and dog stories are urban legends and then rationalizes it (via CNN): “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm going to do."

So glad this was asked — by a Hatian American. Those making jokes about this are apparently blissfully unaware of America’s rich white lynch mob history.

Just fyi: when there is asymmetrical lying, there will be asymmetrical fact checking.

Tomorrow we awake to at least two genera of cat commentary.