To have all that power… and use it to bully children

Mark Sumner of Daily Kos, in a Ukraine update, discussed Putin’s threats that don’t seem so threatening anymore. He threatened the US because we’re sending lots of high-precision weapons. But his “or else” (which he didn’t actually say this time) seems quite lame. We’ve seen how his military operates. Putin has threatened Sweden and Finland for applying to join NATO (applications are being fast tracked). He says he’ll strengthen his military forces in the Baltic Sea. After watching his flag ship sink in the Black Sea the countries around the Baltic aren’t scared. There is one thing Putin has the West should be discussing – Russia’s tactical nukes. If he uses one over a NATO country there would be a swift and costly response. But what if he uses one over Ukraine? The West should think about how to respond to that. In a second post Sumner included a photo of a Ukrainian tractor doing its day job – actually working a field for planting. Sumner also discussed what remains of Ukrainian fighters in Mariupol – just two small areas and one of those under heavy shelling. Then Sumner discussed the latest Russian propaganda, tweeted by Sam Ramani:

Russian media is now pushing the conspiracy that Europe is about to divide into three parts. The three parts are a recreated Austria-Hungary led by Viktor Orban, a Eurasian bloc led by Russia and a U.S. and Britain-dominated Western Europe Russia will gain East Germany, Poland and the Baltic States.

Sumner added:

As with many such conspiracy theories, the biggest point is to claim that your enemy—in this case, both NATO and the EU—is very weak and soon going to fall apart, leaving your team in the driver’s seat. This kind of claim can be good at raising morale and confidence in the short term. In the long term, people begin to notice that your wonder team is always losing to a weak team.

Greg Dworkin, in a pundit roundup for Kos included a tweet by Charlie Angus that has a picture of a statue in a town in Sweden. The statue is of Danuta Danielsson swinging her handbag. Angus wrote:

Now this is a statue: In 1985 Danuta Danielsson was on the streets of her town in Sweden when a Neo-Nazi march went past. Ms. Danielson's mother had been at Auschwitz and she waded into the fascists and hit the Nazi with her handbag.

Dworkin also quoted Kaleigh Rogers of FiveThirtyEight about conservatives who use the word “grooming” when discussing to LGBTQ people. It is the modern term for “recruiting” that we had long been accused of doing. Rogers wrote:

This is a deliberate tactic that was promoted as early as last summer by Christopher Rufo, the same conservative activist who helped muddle the language around critical race theory. “Grooming” is a term that neatly draws together both modern conspiracy theories and old homophobic stereotypes, while comfortably shielding itself under the guise of protecting children. Who, after all, can argue against the safety of kids? But by adopting this language to bolster their latest political pursuits, the right is both giving a nod to fringe conspiracy theorists and using an age-old tactic to dismantle LGBTQ rights. “There is no better moral panic than a moral panic centered on potential harm to children,” said Emily Johnson, a history professor at Ball State University who specializes in U.S. histories of gender and sexuality.

Marissa Higgins of Kos reported that in the Missouri House Republican Rep. Chuck Basye slipped a provision to let schools decide whether to allow trans athletes compete into an unrelated bill. Democrat Rep. Ian Mackey, who is gay, had a few things to say about that. On the House floor Mackey asked why did Basye’s gay brother feel afraid to come out to Basye? Perhaps he would keep his children from seeing their uncle? Basye was surprised by the question because his kids adore their uncle. Mackey said if he was Basye’s brother he would have been afraid to come out. And the reason is simple: Basye spends so much time on anti-LTBGQ legislation one might think it represents they way he feels. Laura Clawson of Kos reported that 2021 had the highest level of attempts to ban books since the American Library Association started tracking the issue 20 years ago. There were 729 challenges to 1,597 books and these books were overwhelmingly about black or LGBTQ people. The ALA says this effort is led by organized groups who go to school and library boards and demand actual censorship in order to conform to their moral or political views. Librarians are also coming under attack in the form of bills that include criminal charges for not removing challenged books. Though these efforts are in the language of parental rights, there is a difference between a parent preventing their child from reading a book and a parent preventing all children from reading a book. Concluded Clawson:

In the short term, Republicans are trying to get their base angry and scared enough to turn out in droves in November. In the long term, they’re engaged in a pitched battle to claim themselves as the only legitimate judgment about education or parenting or who matters in this country. And they don't care how many kids or librarians or teachers they have to trample on to do it.

Andrew Limgong of NPR spoke to Nick Higgins of the Brooklyn Public Library about a new program called Books Unbanned. A teenager or young adult in a school that has banned books can email the BPL and explain the situation. They will give the young person free access to the to the half million audiobooks and ebooks in their library. This access normally costs $50. In addition, the library connects these young people with contemporaries in Brooklyn to discuss books and to learn how to fight against book bans. In a post from a month ago Williesha Morris of Kos Prism explained the book banning situation in more detail. There have been studies on the effects of banning books – “books with ‘objectionable’ material reveal the true lives of students, and banning these books can foster isolation in children.” There are groups forming to denounce and prevent bans. They need collaboration from educators, parents, and especially students. Education is not where one can straddle the fence, be an impartial observer. In a post from two months ago George Johnson, also of Kos Prism wrote that book bans are a result of white fear. The bans are...

about protecting white supremacist ideology and the indoctrination of children in the K-12 system with a false, revisionist history of the U.S. that continues to feed systemic oppressions. Contrary to school board talking points, it is less about protecting the innocence and purity of white children and more about denying and erasing the experiences of other races, genders, and sexual identities as the country’s demographics become more Black, brown, and nonheterosexual. ... According to the 2019 census, Gen-Z is 52% non-Hispanic white, 25% Hispanic, 14% Black, 6% Asian, and 5% other. According to a poll, 15% of Gen-Z identifies as part of the LGBTQ+ community. This current data showcases that Gen-Z could be the first generation where nonwhites outnumber whites within a few years. These shifting demographics are at the heart of the banning of books. They are also at the heart of the attacks against voting rights, challenges to abortion rights, voter redistricting, and anti-transgender legislation. ... Our books also share experiences that are nonwhite and nonheterosexual, giving other young adults their right to read about experiences like—and unlike—their own. No one banning the books seems have any issue with nonwhite kids being forced to read almost exclusively about the experiences of white children like my family has for generations. At the heart of this is anti-Blackness and anti-queerness, as our stories and experiences are being deemed potentially “hurtful” to white students without regard for how their experiences have historically and systemically oppressed us. ... We have reached an unprecedented time where the fear of the majority becoming the minority has reached its boiling point. ... Book bans are about more than removing books—they’re an attempt to remove our existence, and we must fight against them fervently.

There are a couple things we can do. First, conservatives tend to win by being the loudest voices in the room. We must be in those same rooms and share our dissent. Second, buy the banned books. The higher the sales the more likely bookstores will carry them. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), demonstrating one way a person in power can be an ally, gave a 15 minute floor speech about the oppressions trans people, especially trans youth, endure every day. This post includes a video. Trans people (and all LGBTQ people) face a higher rate of mental health issues, which is a public health crisis. It is made worse by the anti-trans legislation pushed by Republicans, especially the bills and laws that ban gender affirming medical care. The trans people of today have more space to explore their gender. That process is a fine one and not a threat to anyone else. You might not know any transgender person, but you do. They just may not be out to you. Squeamish about sharing a bathroom with a trans person? You probably already have.

“Imagine how small and weak a person must be to have all that power… And use it to bully children,” he added in reference to people like Donald Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and others who spew their views and rhetoric.

Lauren Sommer of NPR discussed green infrastructure. As the federal government starts handing out billions of dollars to improve infrastructure states should make sure green infrastructure is part of the package. Rain storms are becoming more intense, causing flooding. Stormwater systems are being overwhelmed. They also haven’t been updated in a long time. So the gray – the concrete part – will likely receive most of the funding. But the green part – actual plants – can keep the gray part from being overwhelmed. The green part can be rain gardens and plants in the street median. The plants absorb the water and slow its way to stormwater pipes. As we start to spend those infrastructure billions we need to upgrade both the gray and the green. A few years ago I read an article about an excavation of dinosaur bones in Tanis, North Dakota. The site showed evidence those dinosaurs died directly because of the giant meteor impact that killed off the dinosaurs. They didn’t die because they were where the meteor struck. They died because of the tsunami that raced across the inland sea that covered much of America. The sign that the deaths happened on that day was the presence of little glass balls that were formed and thrown up by the impact that then rained down across the world. Lib Dem FoP of the Kos community posted a trailer for A BBC program about this excavation. It aired sometime today and will be available on iPlayer. Also PBS Nova will broadcast it later this year.