A Progressive Response to Ukraine • Texas Elections • Do Police Stop Crime?

This is the newsletter of OptOut, a news aggregation app for exclusively independent media that's currently in beta testing for iOS (download it now!). Find out more about the app at optout.news.

This week's roundup of media content from OptOut's independent, trustworthy news network includes stories about the war in Ukraine, the Texas primary elections, police policy, and rightwing extremism in the U.S. and abroad.

Your Independent Media Roundup

The War

For Jewish Currents, Alex Kane interviews Matt Duss, foreign policy adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), about how progressives should respond to the war in Ukraine.

What progressives have on our side is that we approach these issues with some consistency, whether we’re talking about opposing Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, or we’re talking about opposing Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s obliteration of Yemen...Addressing this broader problem of authoritarianism, repression, and corruption cannot and should not stop with just going after Putin and his regime.

A Progressive Foreign Policy Response to the War in Ukraine

An interview with Matt Duss, Bernie Sanders’s foreign policy adviser, on Russia’s invasion.

Jewish CurrentsAlex Kane

The Red Nation's Nick Estes offers an Indigenous perspective on the war in Ukraine and the U.S.'s role in it.

From an Indigenous perspective, we can look the diplomacy of the United States as being one of only a hammer. And if all you have is a hammer, then everything is going to look like a nail.

In Jacobin, Ukrainian-American Polina Godz proposes a global movement to support for refugees, support each other, and oppose war.

Ukraine Needs a Global Antiwar Movement

Jacobin’s Polina Godz, who is from Kharkiv, describes the impact of Putin’s invasion on her home city — and explains why Ukraine needs an international antiwar movement fighting for de-escalation.

Polina Godz

Discourse Blog's Jack Crosbie has been reporting from Ukraine about the conflict, and now he's on his way home.

‘They’ve Had to Leave Behind Things That I Didn’t’: Talking to Jack Crosbie About Leaving Ukraine

‘I’m going home, and they’re going away from home.’

Discourse BlogJack Mirkinson

What do you think?

Meet Our New Curator!

We're pleased to announce that Samira Sadeque has joined the news curation team at OptOut! Samira is a New York-based journalist who reports on immigrant communities, mental health, and hate speech and misinformation, among other issues. Her work appears in outlets such as The Washington Post, Al Jazeera, Reuters, and The Daily Beast, and she is currently a contributing reporter for The Guardian US and The Daily Dot. Follow Samira on Twitter: @Samideque.

Samira joins curators Trevor Beaulieu, Walker Bragman, Jacqueline Keeler, Alex Kotch, and Michael Sainato. Support for our news curation team comes from The Puffin Foundation and individual donors like you.

Elections

The Big Lie of widespread voter fraud, a lie that animates almost the entire Republican Party as it grovels before Donald Trump, did well in this week's Texas elections, reports Bolts. And don't forget—this was the first election after state lawmakers passed a highly restrictive voting law, justified, they thought, by their Big Lie.

Republican voters on Tuesday blessed an effort by GOP elected officials in a North Texas county to take over the local election administration process in the name of fighting fraud.

On the other side of the Dallas region, a rare Republican member of Congress who voted to certify the 2020 presidential election and create a January 6th commission found himself locked into a runoff against a badly underfunded candidate who thinks it’s too early to say who won in 2020 and cheers efforts to overturn the results.

Big Wins for Big Lie Politics in Texas’s Republican Primaries - Bolts

Baseless claims of voter fraud fueled GOP candidates on Tuesday, though “Stop the Steal” activists failed to oust one of their top targets.

BoltsDaniel Nichanian,

The Humanist Report reviews several Democratic U.S. House primaries in Texas from Tuesday, including District 35, where Democratic socialist Greg Casar won in a landslide.

Policing

New York City mayor and former cop Eric Adams is bringing back plainclothes police officers. Tana Ganeva writes for New York Focus.

Despite a long history of documented abuses, virtually without consequences, bringing back plainclothes police units is a key factor in Mayor Eric Adams’ plan to combat violent crime in the city. It’s not clear how he plans to stop them from committing more violent crime than they solve.

Eric Adams Is Bringing Back the NYPD’s Anti-Crime Unit. Do They Commit More Crimes Than They Solve? - New York Focus

“I don’t want the ‘jump-out boys’ back out on the street,” said retired NYPD commander Corey Pegues, who disagrees with the mayor’s plan to bring back the controversial NYPD units.

New York FocusTana Ganeva

In Prism, Kinjo Kiema argues that the police don't stop crime, despite what corporate and legacy media often claim.

Police don’t stop crime, but you wouldn’t know it from the news - Prism

Police don’t stop or prevent crime, but police propaganda in U.S. media pushes another narrative

PrismMore by Kinjo Kiema

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Extremism

The right's favorite business lobbying group continues its troubling work as it collaborates with a notorious hate group to push anti-abortion policies, reports David Armiak for Exposed by CMD.

ALEC Cozies Up with Designated Hate Group Promoting Anti-Abortion Policies - EXPOSEDbyCMD

The American Legislative Exchange Council provided the Christian Right Family Research Council access to its legislative members for a “Pro-Life Legislative Summit” immediately following its December policy conference in San Diego.

EXPOSEDbyCMDDavid Armiak

Listen to SH!TPOST for the latest on the rightwing U.S. "convoy" movement.

Sara Aniano is a graduate student at Monmouth University studying communication with a focus on the rhetoric of the far-right on social media. She joins SH!TPOST to talk about US activists’ attempts to replicate Canadian trucker-themed protests stateside. In this episode, Jared and Sara examine the “People’s Convoy”: the most put-together of such efforts. They discuss who is behind People’s Convoy, what journalists and pundits are getting wrong about the effort, and how we can glean lessons from what’s happened so far.

The US activists trying to replicate Canadian trucker protests — Sara Aniano (3/3/22)

Listen now (31 min) | HONK HONK HONK!!!

SH!TPOSTJared Holt

Yale professor Jason Stanley, author of How Fascism Works, explains Putin's fascist tendencies and antisemitic propaganda to justify his war on Background Briefing with Ian Masters.

Listen on Soundcloud.

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