I grew up thinking that the US was slowly becoming more equal

I have only a small Ukraine update. Mark Sumner of Daily Kos gave a history of Russia Ukraine relations since the Soviet Union fell apart, then summarized it:

Ukraine looked West. Putin spent 20 years trying to prevent Ukraine from building a functional democracy. Ukraine shrugged off the efforts. Putin invaded. Ukraine resisted. Putin fumed. Screw you, Vlad.

I mentioned yesterday that the Supreme Court, using the shadow docket, damaged the Clean Water Act. April Siese of Kos describes the case in more detail. Greg Dworkin, in a pundit roundup for Kos, quoted HuffPost. Here’s the key sentence:

With Jackson on the court, white men will not be a majority of justices for the first time ever.

Jen Hayden of Kos discussed an interview that Moscow Mitch did with Jonathan Swan of Axios. A few key bits:

McConnell refused to say whether Republicans would allow a vote on a potential Supreme Court nomination next year if Republicans regain control of the Senate. Jonathan Swan sounded incredulous at McConnell’s refusal to answer and rightly said it sounded as if McConnell was formulating a plan to obstruct a future nominee during a non-election year. This is as big of a red flashing warning sign as I have ever seen

. Mitch has complete confidence in Clarence Thomas’ ethics and that he would recuse himself if needed (though Thomas never has and there have been several times when he should have). When Mitch was asked whether he had any moral red lines, he had no answer. In another long term browser tab, this one from ten days ago, Hunter of Kos reported that Rep. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma has introduced a House resolution to officially expunge the nasty guy’s first impeachment. He says this document will mean it never happened. It is necessary, he says with a great deal of projection, that Democrats did it for political gain. Michigan has a 1931 law that declares abortion to be a felony. With the Supreme Court likely overturning the federal right to abortion, state Republicans in control of the legislature are quite content to let that old law come back to life, in spite of the large percentage of Michigan voters who wan to protect the right of an abortion. One way to overturn that law is a ballot petition being circulated that would put a right to an abortion into the state constitution. Another way, as reported by Rebekah Sager of Kos, is being pursued by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. She asked the state Supreme Court whether that 1931 law violates the state constitution. As governor she can make that direct request. In the 90 years that law has been around the state Supremes haven’t been specifically asked. It is time they did – especially while there is a progressive majority on the court. MarcKyle64 of the Kos community asks an important question. Two big hurdles in the acceptance of electric vehicles is range anxiety and charging time. There is a reluctance to spend an hour charging every 350 miles when one can fill up a gas tank in under 10 minutes. So why aren’t EVs being designed so one could pull into a service station, have the drained battery pulled out, and a charged one pushed into place? Instead of buying a battery (which is quite expensive), one rents it per charge. This post includes photos of that being done on electric vehicles from the 1970s. I had to take a moment to work through the players in this discussion about eugenics. I think I got it right. The author of the article is John Stoehr of the Editorial Board. There is Ben Wattenberg, who back in 1987 wrote the book The Birth Dearth, What Happens When People in Free Countries Don’t Have Enough Babies. There is Jane Elliott, who is a white anti-racist teacher and who discussed the book in a video. There is Fern Schumer Chapman who reviewed the book in 1987 and last month discussed the book and review with Stoehr. And there is Michelle Young who had done an earlier interview with Stoehr on another topic and introduced Elliott’s video to him. Forgive me if I didn’t get that right and I end up crediting ideas and quotes to the wrong person (which means Mr. Stoehr could, ahem, edit his articles to be more clear?). I think this is Stoehr summarizing Elliott:

“Immigration” isn’t about immigration. “Abortion” isn’t about abortion. “Critical race theory” isn’t about CRT. Instead, they’re proxies for the fact that many white people “value whiteness more than democracy.” Republican issues are usually about something else – and that something else is almost certainly rooted in white anxiety and fear of a republic slipping out of the control of white people, especially men.

Elliott summarized Wattenberg’s book. The opening sentence of the book: “The main problem confronting the United States these days is that there aren’t enough white babies being born.” The way out of this is to prevent white people from getting an abortion. 60% of the aborted fetuses are white. Keep them alive and that would solve the birth dearth. That’s racism. Elliott wrote:

Finding out that within 30 years, white people will be in the numerical minority in this country is going to be traumatic. White people are scared to death right now, particularly white males. They’re scared to death that they are going to lose their power in the future, and they are, but if you want to get ready for the future, if you want to be treated well in the future, treat others well in the present.

On to the interview with Chapman. She said that Wattenberg is worried that America will no longer be a nation of mostly white European extraction. He blames women who want to control their lives and blames a tolerance for homosexuality. Nothing new here. Of course, Wattenberg’s worry is based on the idea that white people are superior. He and many Americans don’t understand (or don’t believe) the country is built on democratic principles, immigration, and diversity. The emerging restrictions on books will make that worse. Commenter Elly added, quoting Elliott:

First, the fact that Wattenberg, a Jewish American, could write this way means that he was quite assured of his own whiteness, that his prescriptions wouldn’t impact him. That itself is powerful proof of the centrality of white supremacy as a founding principle. Second, “[The book] tells white people that they are superior because of the lack of melanin in their skin. Then they find out we’ve got a Black president. That’s traumatic. That’s where their trauma is – living a lie. Finding out the truth is traumatic” I could reverse this statement– I grew up thinking that the US was slowly becoming more equal and beginning to live up to its democratic ideals. Then I find out we’ve got Trump for president. That’s traumatic. Because I assumed things were getting better. Finding out the truth is traumatic.— This is the first thing I thought of when reading this passage. Realizing the depth and breadth of authoritarian, white supremacist feeling in this country has been an ongoing source of bewilderment to me.