Invest in belonging rather than belongings

Ari Shapiro of NPR spoke to Robin Wall Kimmerer, a botanist and the author of the books Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge And The Teachings of Plants and The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World. They talked about the economy of abundance. The central idea is whether an economy can be based on reciprocity rather than extraction. Capitalism is based on extraction, but that is not how natural landscapes are organized. Can human economy be circular and regenerative similar to how nature does it? Indigenous cultures widely use gift economies to distribute goods without a market. Other examples are little free libraries (I know of several within a few miles of me) on up to public libraries. Wall Kimmerer said:

So the notion is we don't all have to own everything. Abundance comes from sharing what we have.

Another example of a gift economy is ... NPR. Corporate America pushes the message that the more we consume the more successful and happier we will be. We’re even called consumers. Yet, hyper-consumption is one driver of climate change and environmental damage.

And so if we can start to put the brakes on consumption through practices like gratitude and reciprocity, we say, you know, I already have everything that I need. I really don't need to buy that next thing. Instead, I'm going to invest in relationship. I'm going to invest in belonging rather than belongings. And, you know, I think it's good for - I know it's good for the planet, but it's also good for us.

Wall Kimmerer is pleased that ecological economists are already thinking in this direction. Walter Einenkel of Daily Kos noted that the nasty guy, the supposed champion of the working class, has named several billionaires to his cabinet and administration. The list: + Linda McMahon for Education. + Howard Lutnick for Commerce. + Scott Bessent for Treasury. + Steven Witkoff for Middle East Envoy, who has conflicts of interest there. + Jered Isaacman for NASA administrator – yeah, he did pay to fly twice on SpaceX, but that’s not NASA. + Warren Stephens for Ambassador to United Kingdom. + Charles Kushner for Ambassador to France, yeah, the father of the pandemic prince. + And Musk and Ramaswamy for DOGE.

Many of Trump’s rich-as-hell picks have embraced austerity policies that have already failed western democracies. Their disdain for government projects to help the non-rich is likely to lead to more boom for billionaires and more bust for the American people.

Morgan Stephens of Kos reported that Biden signed the defense funding bill. This is the one that has lots of good things in it, such as increased pay for militarily personnel. But it is also the one that bans military medical insurance from providing gender affirming care for transgender minors.

Biden "strongly opposes" the part of the bill that limits transgender health care and said it will negatively affect the military’s recruiting abilities.

Biden could have vetoed the entire bill, sending it back to Congress for revision. But there were many important things in the bill, including keeping troops paid and maintaining national security, and not any time before the end of this Congress to demand revisions. As for recruiting abilities, anyone with a transgender child won’t want to enlist and those who learn their child is transgender may get out at the first chance. Alix Breeden of Kos reported Biden withdrew a proposed regulation that ...

would have prohibited schools from enacting bans on transgender student-athletes trying to participate on the teams that align with their gender identity while allowing schools to enforce some restrictions on competitive sports.

Yet Biden’s move is being praised by “ACLU lawyer Chase Strangio, the first openly transgender lawyer to argue before the Supreme Court.” What’s going on? Strangio says the nasty guy would have withdrawn the proposal anyway and with the notice of the proposed rule in place the nasty guy could have redirected it into something worse. While Strangio praised Biden on this action, he called Biden’s signing the defense bill a “disaster.” Three weeks ago Breeden reported on the case United States v. Skrmetti before the Supreme Court challenges the Tennessee law that bans transgender minors from getting gender-affirming care. The lawyer arguing for transgender care was Strangio. The ruling may come as late as June. Gillian Branstetter, spokesperson for the ACLU’s LGBTQ Project explained why protecting the ban would be bad. She also explains Tennessee lawmakers are relying on the same logic as the Dobbs decision that took away the right to an abortion. I just saw that I have about two dozen pundit roundups in my browser tabs. I’ll try to get through some of those now. Others will have to wait for another day. And some of those tabs will just get deleted. In the comments of a roundup for December 16 Dennis Goris drew a cartoon of a mother and child talking to a doctor. The doc says, “We’re not doing polio shots anymore. But you do have iron lung coverage.” Also a cartoon by Barbara Smaller for New Yorker Humor shows a young man in a coffee shop saying, “It’s only a conspiracy theory now, but with the right marketing it could be a widely held belief.” I’m finding that some of the memes posted by exlrrp have a limited life. When I revisit some of these roundups I see a lot of broken links. From a roundup for December 13 is a cartoon posted by Dark Warlord. It shows the Muppet Grover dressed as a doctor standing in a surgery suite with the title, “I’m Sorry You Can’t Afford to Be Alive, and Other Stories From America.” In a roundup from December 17 Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times wrote about the Great Capitulation.

Displays of submission aren’t limited to tech and media. Christopher Wray, the head of the F.B.I., agreed to step aside before the end of his 10-year term rather than make Trump fire him. Several Democrats have signaled their willingness to work with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, whose so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, seems poised to hack away at our already threadbare safety net. [...] Different people have different reasons for falling in line. Some may simply lack the stomach for a fight or feel, not unreasonably, that it’s futile. Our tech overlords, however liberal they once appeared, seem to welcome the new order. Many hated wokeness, resented the demands of newly uppity employees and chafed at attempts by Joe Biden’s administration to regulate crypto and A.I., two industries with the potential to cause deep and lasting social harm. There are C.E.O.s who got where they are by riding the zeitgeist; they can pivot easily from mouthing platitudes about racial equity to slapping on a red MAGA hat.

Malcom Ferguson of The New Republic wrote about the postal service.

USPS privatization has been in the works for some time now. Trump-appointed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has been doing his best to corrode one of the oldest, constitutionally ensured institutions in this country. On-time delivery rates fell when DeJoy was appointed in 2020, particularly in communities of color. He facilitated the removal and destruction of mail sorting machines that were crucial to allowing USPS to function smoothly. And he has multiple questionable investments. Last week, he even covered his ears while being grilled by congressional Republicans for dismantling USPS from the inside out. “Louis DeJoy is the perfect example of a Trump nominee. After Trump appointed him, he ran USPS into the ground. Now, he claims it doesn’t work & will propose privatizing it,” one X commentator wrote. “Then, he, Trump & their cronies will steal the business, charge exorbitant amounts & rape the public.”

In a roundup from December 18 Greg Dworkin quoted The Bulwark discussing the real scandal of our media tycoons, which is the rich owners are increasingly antagonistic to their own journalism.

It’s no surprise media owners are rushing to make good with Donald Trump; they know he’s eager to hit them where it hurts. Trump hasn’t just vowed to punish media orgs that displease him, he’s also made it clear that owning such institutions is enough to earn a mogul his economic and political enmity. If you’re a newspaper owner or a corporation with a cable channel in your portfolio, the cost of subsidizing media that tells the truth about Trump has been jacked up tremendously. Say goodbye to that tariff waiver; good luck with that attempted merger.

Parker Molloy of Nieman Lab wrote on the same topic, first mentioning how Bush II treated the press after 9/11 and leading up to the Iraq War.

But this time could be worse. Media billionaires aren’t just staying quiet — they’re actively courting Trump’s favor. The coming wave of media consolidation means these owners have a vested interest in keeping Trump happy. After all, they’ll need his administration’s approval for mergers, favorable regulatory decisions, and continued tax breaks. The signs of this pre-emptive surrender are already visible in how outlets frame stories about Trump. Headlines have gotten softer. Coverage of his most extreme statements gets buried. Stories about his plans for retribution against political enemies are treated as horserace politics rather than threats to democracy.

A tweet from Shannon Watts:

I'm confused. Are Democrats fighting fascism or are we engaging in bipartisanship? Would be nice if leadership settled on a cohesive strategy and message. Either A) democracy is in danger, B) it's actually not, or C) it’s in danger but we still need to cooperate. Please advise.

And a tweet from Edward-Isaac Dovere

many things happened in the election, including an overall shift more toward Trump across a lot of demographic groups, but the difference in the election going to Trump over Harris in the Electoral College comes down to about 0.148% of the votes cast

In the comments Geo Is Pissed reproduced a child’s letter to Santa that sounds like a pretty good idea:

Dear Santa, I have a grate ideea. On Christmas when you are in every ones house you could take all of the guns and put them in your sack and hide them at the North pole and then no one could kill anyone in the world. Thank you.

And a meme that I remember but has a broken link: A family is throwing rocks. The caption says, “It’s not prejudice if you call it religion.” And the roundup for today. Dworkin quoted several pundits praising Carter. In the comments were several cartoons in honor of Jimmy Carter. I like the one showing Carter building a stairway to heaven. A meme posted by exlrrp:, “Notice how Jimmy Carter never gets condemned for mixing politics with his Christianity. That’s because he focused on living it out rather than making grand declarations about it our using it as a legislative weapon against others. Jimmy Carter just focused on loving other well!” – Rev. Benjamin Cremer, pastor and author.

Compassion, Dignity, Love, Honesty, Service and more

My Sunday movie was this afternoon, the 1922 silent film Robin Hood starring Douglas Fairbanks. As was the case a few days ago it was shown at the Detroit Film Theater with live piano accompaniment by David Drazin. This was quite an ambitious film for the time, 2:15 in length and includes many large crowd scenes. It was also the most expensive at that time. And it’s a good one. It also does a good job of explaining the Robin Hood story. The story opens with King Richard the Lion-Hearted preparing to head off for the Crusades. The Earl of Huntingdon (Fairbanks) does well in a jousting match and Richard appoints him as his second in command. Before they leave Huntingdon encounters Lady Marian. Prince John, Richard’s brother, knows he will rule England while Richard is gone and connives to make sure Richard and Huntingdon don’t return. And John is a tyrant. Huntingdon hears about it and leaves Richard to return to England, where he becomes Robin Hood, stealing from the rich (John and his allies) and giving to the poor (the commoners oppressed by John). They build a community in the Sherwood Forest, actually a pretty good response to tyrants. From there it is all about defeating John and his allies and returning Richard to the throne. There are, of course, lots of plot twists and close calls along the way and lots of battle scenes, both big and small. In all a pleasant day to spend the afternoon. I’ve now heard two silent film accompaniments by David Drazin. This one required him to play nonstop for 2:15. Alas, I’m not all that impressed with his music. I didn’t think it highlighted the emotions of the score all that well. Fairbanks was so athletic in this movie I had to look up how old he was when it was made. Wikipedia says he was born in 1883, so 39 when it was released. I came home from the movie to read the news that Jimmy Carter died. “Jimmy Who?” The Atlanta newspaper quipped when he announced his run for president in 1976. His time as president is now being assessed as much better than voters thought in 1980 when they replace him with Reagan. There are a lot of summaries of his life online, such as this one by the Associated Press posted on Daily Kos. Navy officer. Governor of Georgia. President of the United States, where he achieved a peace deal between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, but was thwarted by the Iran hostage crisis. Then came the work of the Carter Center. Monitoring elections around the world. Nudging governments towards democracy. Pressuring dictators to release thousands of political prisoners. Receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. Building homes through Habitat for Humanity. Routinely teaching Sunday School. And that’s barely the highlights. Meteor Blades, Kos Emeritus, pulled together quotes about Carter. One of those is by Kate Riga at TPM:

Some found Carter to be prescient, almost prophetic, in his concern about climate change and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Some found him to be ahead of his time in his diversification of the federal judiciary and preservation of wide swaths of Alaskan wilderness. Some found him to be distinctly unsung, with little attention given to his brokering of peace with the Camp David Accords and emphasis on global human rights. And some just liked him. A serious, intelligent, faithful, deeply honest man who spurned political expediency and burned through hundreds of pages of memos a day, he preached self-restraint, stewardship and commonality to an electorate that cast him off four years later for the glib excesses of Ronald Reagan.

His concern for climate change included putting solar panels (maybe for heating water) on the roof of the White House. Reagan removed them. When Carter went into hospice care, 22 months ago, there were a flurry of articles and cartoons praising him. I saved many to use when he died (which I thought would be in just a few months) and lost a few in the turmoil of social media sites. Chris Britt drew a cartoon of Habitat for Humanity houses Built by Jimmy Carter labeled Grace, Compassion, Dignity, Humility, Faith, Love, Honesty, Courage, and Service. Mark Sumner of Kos wrote in March 2023 that in 1980 Ben Barnes, the youngest speaker of the Texas House went with Gov. John Connally to the Middle East to convince Iran not to release the hostages. This was part of a plan to get Reagan elected. At the time of this article Barnes told the story, saying, “History needs to know that this happened.”

The plot was simple enough. Connally and Barnes traveled “to one Middle Eastern capital after another” over the summer of 1980, as U.S. hostages were being held in Tehran. On every one of those stops, they passed along the same message for the new leadership in Iran: Don’t make a deal with Carter. Wait for Reagan. He’ll give you a much better deal. When they arrived back in the United States, Connolly checked in with Reagan’s campaign chair, and future Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, William Casey. For his role in “torpedoing” Carter’s chance at reelection, Connolly hoped to be rewarded with the job of Secretary of State. He was not. Completely ignored in this strategy was that every day of captivity put the lives and health of the hostages in Iran at risk. In addition, the military planned and attempted to execute a rescue operation in which eight U.S. service members died and another four were injured. Prolonging the crisis created a risk every day to the lives of those in Iran, and to members of the U.S. military. It also created ongoing harm to U.S. standing abroad and to national security in general.

Ted Littleford posted a cartoon. On one side is the nasty guy wearing a MAGA hat and the caption “The Republican idea of what Jesus would do.” On the other side is Carter in a Habitat hat and holding a hammer and drill with the caption, “The Democratic idea of what Jesus would do.” In an article from April 2023 Walter Einenkel of Kos listed links to 27 stories about Carter. Just a few titles: Jimmy Carter is the voice of sanity and morality in a nation that’s dying for lack of either. Unstoppable Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter heading to Nashville for Habitat for Humanity’s 2019 project. 44 years ago, on his first full day in office, Jimmy Carter pardoned draft resisters, including me. Jimmy Carter calls for a return to publicly funded elections. Jimmy Carter: “Jesus would approve gay marriage.” An AP article from May 2023 discussed the stories of three political prisoners that Carter rescued from dictators. An AP article from June 2023 discussed the close relationship Carter had with the family of Martin Luther King. Towards the end is this:

During the first half of Carter's long life, “he had to navigate in a society, in a culture where, as a white person, you were expected to hate and see Black people in a very demeaning way,” Bernice King said. Considering the whole of his life, she said, “I think he managed that very well.”

JekylInHyde of the Kos community posted cartoons and memes in tribute to Carter. My favorite is in the comments. It shows a photo of Carter at a Habitat build with the caption, “This is what it looks like when a real Christian actually does something to make America great again.” I’m relieved that Biden is the one to preside over Carter’s funeral. That other guy wouldn’t show the proper respect. And Carter very much deserves that respect. Paul Berge’s cartoons regularly appear in gay newspapers. In March 2023 he created a cartoon of Carter’s words from a Huffington Post interview in 2012. I saw it in Between the Lines. Carter says that Jesus never said gay people should be condemned. Jesus reached out to people who were despised. Carter concluded:

The more despised and the more in need they were, the more he emphasize that we should go to and share with them our talent, our ability, our wealth, our influence. Those are the things that guide my life.

In the cartoon Jesus replies:

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Jimmy Carter very much understood what Jesus taught us.

He can create a lot of chaos and panic in the process

Oliver Willis of Daily Kos reported of a split in the MAGA world. On one side are the white supremacists who want to get rid of immigrants (at least the brown kind). On the other side is Musk and his pals who got rich through Big Tech and want more immigrants to develop their products. Musk even said:

The number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated in the USA is far too low.

Yeah, let’s insult the American worker. Musk’s DOGE buddy Ramaswamy said:

American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long. ... A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.

That all prompted a lot of arguing between the racists and the oligarchs who want less government and more money in their pockets. In the process H1-B visas were mentioned. Back when I worked in the auto industry as a computer programmer I became acquainted with the H1-B visa system. Several of my colleagues were there on those types of visas. It allows a foreigner to work in a high tech field. An important part of that type of visa is that the visa is held by the company, not the foreign employee. Phil in Denver of the Kos community wrote about his experiences with his own H1-B colleagues. That bit about who holds the visa means the worker is beholden to the company – annoy the boss too much, your visa is terminated, and you could soon be on a flight back to where you came from. Also, it means you can’t search for a better job elsewhere. And that means the worker is exploited, told to work longer hours for significantly less pay. Which means Musk and Ramaswamy are not after exceptional talent, they’re after low wages and compliant workers. Phil agrees:

Am I saying that all H1B hires are green or incompetent? No not at all. I've met many who were quite capable and fine programmers, and even the majority of them who lacked experience struck me as likely to become seasoned pros with time. But I never noticed a preponderance of talent that I did not see equaled or surpassed from domestic engineers of the same experience levels. They are not smarter, they are not more capable, and they certainly are not more experienced. What they are is cheap and pliant and that is ALL that the DOGE crowd and their fellow tech bros care about. And it is all they ever will.

In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin has a quote I like. It is from Axios and is discussing this MAGA civil war:

The fight exposes one of the MAGA movement's deepest contradictions: It came to prominence chiefly via the white, less-educated, working class but is now under the full control of billionaire technologists and industrialists, many of them immigrants. ... While some want to make America great by restricting immigration and promoting the American worker, others want to cut costs and increase efficiency no matter who does the work.

Down in the comments are cartoons and memes that take the DOGE guy’s statements at face value. Member exlrrp quoted Alex Cole:

Rich MAGA: College education is woke! MAGA: Yay!!! We hate college! Rich MAGA: We have to hire educated foreigners because you MFs are too dumb! MAGA: Wait What???

Further down exlrrp posted a meme from Occupy Democrats:

So, the bigoted MAGA base put a felon back in the office he tried to steal because he was “everyman” who said he was going to stop immigrants from “taking their jobs,” but they ended up with an immigrant billionaire who’s going to cut the benefits they very much need while outsourcing the jobs they’re not smart enough to do to the immigrants they hate.

rugbymom listed several points related to the situation. I’ll summarize: + There is a conflict between tech bros who want more immigration and MAGAs who want less. + The MAGAs are afraid the DOGE bros will cut their government benefits. DOGE is supposed to hurt only libs and black and brown people, not MAGA people. + Musk has banned his opponents in this argument from X. This is what dictators do. + The nasty guy is ignoring this debate, raising questions of dementia and who is actually in charge. + JD Vance, whose wife is from India, appears to be in hiding. A cartoon posted by paulpro:

CEO: We can’t hire Americans because they’re not educated enough. Student: Educate me. CEO: F--- off.

That confirms it isn’t about talent and is about control and cost. Now that I think about it, that same claim that Americans were insufficiently education for tech jobs was being used 20-30 years ago to explain why H1-B visas were needed. An Associated Press article posted on Kos discussed why Big Tech is cozying up to the nasty guy. The cozying part is being done by donating to the inauguration party. Since minimum donations appear to be one million this will be quite the party – and the nasty guy will expect nothing less than over the top. Here’s what Big Tech is expecting in return: + Clearing the way for AI through business-friendly regulation and not strengthening copyright laws that would reduce access to data to train their AI systems. + Easier energy for data centers. Electricity use has ballooned in the last few years and they don’t want environment efforts to get in the way. + Stop the efforts to break up Big Tech. + Shield Big Tech from European crackdowns on taxes. + Try to make amends after previous badmouthing to fend off the nasty guy’s retribution and keep government contracts coming. Emily Singer of Kos wrote on the same topic and added this:

It’s all an ominous sign that corporate America is “obeying in advance,” a term author Timothy Snyder coined in his book “On Tyranny,” which he describes as a “guide for surviving and resisting America’s turn towards authoritarianism.” “Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given,” Snyder wrote in the book. “In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked.” That sure looks like what is happening now, as corporate leaders travel to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump and fork over millions so the wannabe despot can throw himself a lavish celebration after he takes the oath of office.

Sinai of the Kos community discussed why the nasty guy tried to put in the spending bill a provision to raise or eliminate the debt ceiling. That bill was voted down in the House. The nasty guy will attempt several things that could add trillions to the national debt – renew the tax breaks he signed in 2017; do mass deportations, which will take lots of money; institute tariffs. Neither the nasty guy nor Musk wants to try to raise the debt limit at the same time as doing all those expensive things. So they tried now to get rid of the debt limit. It was voted down by 34 Republicans because either they saw how badly all this would affect the economy or they’re simple deficit hawks. Morgan Stephens of Kos wrote that college and university faculty are telling their international students to be back on campus before January 20 and once there stay there and don’t leave for holiday and summer breaks. The reason is expected travel bans issues by the nasty guy. Faculty don’t want their students caught in the deportation crackdown. Some universities are saying the school will not release immigration status without a warrant or subpoena. In another pundit roundup Dworkin quoted Seth Masket of TUSK:

Here's the thing. Trump doesn’t and won’t have the formal powers to do a lot of the things he talks about doing. He can’t just unilaterally take back the Panama Canal or buy Greenland or make U.S. states out of Canadian provinces. He can’t just toss Liz Cheney in jail. He can’t just end Obamacare and replace it, or lower prices or hand eastern Ukraine over to Russia. He can’t compel companies to end DEI hiring practices or trans-friendly employee policies. And he can’t simply deport 10-20 million residents with the wave of his hand. But he definitely thinks he can do at least some of this. And more importantly, he can create a lot of chaos and panic in the process.

Down in the comments exlrrp posted a meme from hillsbeanz:

You’re safer in the bathroom with a trans person than any one of Trump’s cabinet picks.

On Christmas john Fugelsang posted:

Jesus was a radical nonviolent revolutionary who hung around with lepers, hookers and crooks; wasn’t American and never spoke English; was anti-wealth, anti-death penalty, anti-public prayer (M 6:5); but was never anti-gay, never mentioned abortion or birth control, never called the poor lazy, never justified torture, never fought for tax cuts for the wealthiest Nazarenes, never asked a leper for a copay; and was a long-haired brown-skinned homeless community-organizing anti-slut-shaming Middle Eastern Jew.

There is a vigor in their hatred

Andrea Chalupa of Gaslit Nation did an episode on the election just a few days after it. The episode description begins, “Was the election stolen? Yes.” I know the election was seven weeks ago. I held off discussing this one because I was waiting for the transcript, which wasn’t posted for what seemed to be a long time. Then I go caught up in writing about the nasty stuff the nasty guy was doing. Also, a couple holidays slowed me down. So I’m taking a break from all that to write about this – even though it may seem like old news. To my friend and debate partner, I know you say the nasty guy won’t be able to accomplish as much as he wants. Some people who have studied dictators, Chalupa being one of them, have been saying we could be in for much worse. I’d rather be prepared for the much worse and it not happen than not be prepared if it does. Joining Chalupa in this episode is Terrell Starr. Chalupa doesn’t describe him other than saying he is a “dear friend.” Later on he says he is black. Right now, before the new Congress takes power and the nasty guy gives his big speech in front of the Capitol, this is the last moments of normalcy. Nazis call themselves the storm. They’re coming to smash everything – laws that protect our food and water and much more. They’ll cut taxes for the oligarchs and the rest of us will be forced to make up the difference. In contrast to when the nasty guy won in 2016, this time there is a sense of uselessness, complacency, and grief. Things are going to get dramatically worse. Starr said we must recognize that many people voted for fascism. Yeah, they didn’t hear that term and may not know what it means if they had. Yeah, many people are out of touch. Pundits argue there were many things Biden and Harris could have done differently.

I just don't find that acceptable for the very simple reason that at some point we have to contend with the fact that as imperfect as Kamala Harris and Joe Biden is, are their imperfections so bad that Trump and all of his criminality was not?

The election went to the nasty guy because of white people and Latinos. Starr had previously pointed out “there is a vigor in their hatred.” Chalupa said they can’t wait to put their racism into action. They want the dominance and the power. They see that dominance in the nasty guy. This isn’t about facts, it’s about emotions. Biden and Harris made great strides in trying to overturn the “greed is good” mentality prominent since the Reagan era. But that mindset can’t be undone in four years. And not when the far right dominates media. Sinclair and Fox News have gobbled up local news. Those local stations not taken over have shrunk. The podcasts of Joe Rogan and Candace Owens reach millions and tell young men they will feel powerful when they dehumanize women. “We’re dealing with an epidemic of deeply insecure men.” And they’re dealing with it by dehumanizing others. Yeah, they should have outgrown it. But we have to deal with it now. Progressives have to beg for support from other progressives and from the Democratic Party. Far right conservatives merely have to act on their misogyny and they get support. They get money and an invitation to power. Democrats haven’t set up a way to counter the strong message coming from the far right. Conservatives are delighted when that misogynist has a black face because that black face can go into black places to preach misogyny and white supremacy from the black perspective – black people shouldn’t want to allow abortion because that limits the number of black people. That’s the same thing white people against abortion say. We cannot assume that a person of one minority cares anything at all about people of another minority. Or that they care about anyone other than themselves. Republicans will go to any media outlet that will let them push their message. Democrats appear reluctant to do that, wanting to go to outlets that “are serving up happy pills.” That is not what Chalupa does, even though she would gladly amplify the Democratic message. Economists say the economy is humming right along. But too many people are still juggling multiple jobs and not able to buy a house. A housing crisis makes that worse. Even so, many hurting financially did not vote for the fascist, rapist, predator, traitor, and Russian tool. So while the economy was important the election was also about sexism and racism. That’s been a part of American history for generations, amplified by Reagan. “Donald Trump is the Frankenstein monster of the Reagan Revolution, okay?” As for all those yelling about identity politics, scapegoating trans and gay people, launching a genocide against them, is also identity politics. Needing to say trans is good and gay is good was forced on us. Starr said:

Donald J. Trump is the master of identity politics because he operates on hate and grievance and resentment, and on this notion that whiteness is being devalued this whole election cycle. And his success is based on identity politics.

Don’t blame each other. Work at being a community. Chalupa is now hosting Monday afternoon salons to be that community. The far right is salivating at the opportunity to force non-white people into death camps. They’re going to start in blue states as a way to terrorize us into submission. Be ready for that. As you build your community screen people by asking them: Who did they vote for in 2024? How did you help get out the vote? How did you use your influence to stop the nasty guy? Or did you abuse power by trying to claim Democrats and Republicans are the same? If the latter, ignore them (and don’t buy their books). Democracy depends on a well educated public, yet the public school system is being weakened and college is increasingly unaffordable. Democracy also needs a robust, widespread, and credible free press. We don’t have that anymore. We have a media polluted with propaganda. Back to the statement at the top of his episode about whether the election was stolen. There was voter suppression in Georgia. Was the result hacked? MAGA people had the software, info on how these machines work. But DOJ, FBI, and Homeland Security did nothing about it. Our institutions failed us so we’ll never know whether the results were hacked. There is that huge far right media propaganda machine, including at the local level. The introduction also said the election was stolen through Russians buying MAGA influencers, oligarch consolidation, and mainstream media capitulation. Details of these were not included in this episode. And, yeah, inflation and the global effort to defeat incumbents were also issues. As was sexism and racism. There may not be another election for president.

The Little Tramp goes to the circus

My Sunday watching wasn’t a movie, it was the broadcast of the Kennedy Center Honors. I like to watch the program every year, though sometime I miss it, because there’s usually a classical music star (though not this year) and I learn something new about the others. This year the honors went to: Bonnie Raitt. I hadn’t known about her disinterest in being a star. She wanted to present her music, not be told what to sing and how to sing it. I also hadn’t known about her activism and how much she supported other musicians. Arturo Sandoval, Cuban jazz trumpeter who came to America. He created the Sandoval Institute to teach jazz students. Sandoval also ventured into the classical world and composed a trumpet concerto. I’m pretty sure I have a recording of it, though I can’t find it right now. Apollo Theater. The first non-human honoree. It opened in 1934. One of its big draws was amateur night, which is how Ella Fitzgerald got her start. Aretha Franklin and James Brown also got their start at the Apollo. It is now a haven for black culture. It is also a community gathering place, conversation place, and political center. At the White House part of the celebration Biden said Black culture is American culture. Francis Ford Coppola. Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Lawrence Fishbourne, and Martin Scorsese told stories about working for the director. His granddaughter, a budding director, was there too. Grateful Dead. Of course, the tribute discussed Deadhead culture. Audience participation was encouraged and the band and audience felt like a big family. A couple of the members, Phil Lesh and Jerry Garcia, have passed. The rest were there, as was Garcia’s wife (or maybe daughter). Starting today and through the end of the year the Detroit Film Theater is presenting a series of silent era films with live musical accompaniment. Cost is only museum entrance (which is free to me because my taxes support the Detroit Institute of Arts and the DFT). Today I saw a Charlie Chaplin movie. Tomorrow is a series of animated shorts (which I’ll skip). Sunday is Robin Hood from 1922 starring Douglas Fairbanks. And on New Year’s Eve they’ll show the German movie The Last Laugh. Today’s Chaplin movie was The Circus from 1928. Chaplin, as the Little Tramp, gets caught up in a traveling circus. He upstages the clowns, but when asked to audition he isn’t funny. Unintentionally he upstages the magician. He falls in love with the owner’s daughter. She falls in love with the new guy who is hired for the tightrope act, so the tramp tries to do it too – with a man pulling on a safety harness. It all goes delightfully awry. Chaplin was quite the physical comedian. I enjoyed it very much, as did the kids sitting around me. The music was by David Drazin, who appears to be making a decent career providing live music for silent films. The DFT went with the live pianist even though the movie’s opening credits list a score by Chaplin. My Christmas Day was quiet. I visited Sister and Niece for the afternoon. We shared a meal and we talked. And that was enough. I wrote last time about Sen. Chris Murphy’s description about how democracy could end in America. My friend and debate partner was in full debate mode as he wrote that he disagreed with nearly everything in that previous post. I’ll summarize: Liz Cheney isn’t going to jail. The nasty guy is a bully and no one likes bullies. ABC didn’t fight the nasty guy’s libel suit because they really did inaccurately describe the crime against E Jean Carroll. Pushing liberal fantasies in the time of Republican control isn’t going to work. He says Ocasio-Cortez is too extreme for a leadership role. And:

These views do not imply that I in any way support Trump -- I will not forget the lies and intimidation and I will not forgive.

A couple cartoons from Tom the Dancing Bug by Ruben Bolling posted on Daily Kos. The first one was inspired by the murder of a medical insurance CEO that produced a lot of cheering for the gunman. This cartoon begins:

In a brazen action in broad daylight, a 12-year-old girl was killed in New York City by health insurance denial of prior authorization for her cancer treatment. This shocking event has put the NYPD on a frenzied search for the person responsible.

It ends:

The killer CEO has distressingly become something of a folk hero to shareholders of NerrexHealthCo, eliciting message of support on social media and votes for a compensation bonus. Male executive: Run, CEO, Run! Female executive, Deny, Delay, Deflect!

The second cartoon is It’s a Wonderful Life, 2024. Instead of the angel reviewing the life of George Bailey to show what his town would have been like if he hadn’t lived, this version reviews what Pottersville would have been like if banker Henry Potter hadn’t lived – no global warming because he didn’t fight environmental regulations, middle class people able to afford a home, no for-profit health care.

Attacking him will land flat if we defend the existing system

I went to the Detroit Film Theater this afternoon for their annual showing of the British Arrows. These are the winners of the best in British commercials. Yes, I sat through 75 minutes of nothing but commercials and did it willingly (and paid money) because their sense of what is appropriate for commercials is so different from ours (then again, I watch very few American commercials). Some of my favorites: A boy who plants a seed, perhaps expecting a pine tree, and gets a huge Venus flytrap (a friendlier version of Little Shop of Horrors). I don’t know what the product was. A tennis tournament in which the players and audience are naked – except for the clothed “streaker” who interrupts the game. This is for Puma. A woman on a farm is ready to tell us about the glories of living there but the animals tell horror stories of being abused for our clothing – the shorn sheep is bloody, the cow and snake are dead because they gave of their skin. Put out by PETA. The woman who thanks us for our investments in oil companies through our pension funds. Pot Noodles has the tagline, “Nothing Fills a Hole Like Pot Noodles,” and we see all the types of holes it fills – the slot on a mailbox, a front-load clothes washer, an actual pothole, and many more. The Marie Curie hospice organization (I think that’s what they do) says death isn’t the opposite of life, just a part of it. Goats in hang gliders for Virgin Media. An ad for Greenpeace that shows people partying as the staff becomes more frazzled and disasters mount in the kitchen. They say petroleum companies are still partying because of record profits. Pregnant women eat marmite and do an ultrasound to see if their unborn baby will like the stuff. I see from the website that the program shown at the DFT was not all of the winners. While I don’t mind missing a few Coke and Burger King commercials some of the others did look interesting and I saw a few at home. Some of those I enjoyed: RNIB has a commercial about getting people with vision problems together video game companies to help create games even those with reduced vision can enjoy. National Art Pass has a commercial of people looking at art while their brain waves are recorded. That shows our minds become a great deal more active then. Personal Voice on iPhone allows a voiceless dad tell his daughter bedtime stories. Greg Sargent of The New Republic interviewed Sen. Chris Murphy. The topic was a thread Murphy wrote (on X so I don’t have access) about the nasty guy’s plan to cripple democracy. Those plans are going into effect before he takes office. The trigger for Murphy’s thread was a House report accusing Liz Cheney (of what doesn’t really matter because it was created out of thin air, but headlines don’t tell you that). Based on that report the nasty guy is saying Cheney is in a lot of trouble. A reminder, Cheney was the Republican head of the committee that investigated the nasty guy’s involvement in the January 6 Capitol attack. Kash Patel, nominated to head the FBI, believes anyone who has opposed the nasty guy should be prosecuted and go to jail. Pam Bondi as AG won’t interfere. A court with a judge appointed by the nasty guy won’t stand in the way. His political opponents, perhaps starting with Cheney, could go to jail in 2025. We need to emphasize how damaging this will be to democracy, perhaps fatally. That’s because people will look at Cheney and say I’ve got commitments at home, opposing the nasty guy isn’t worth it. And that has a chilling effect on speech. The nasty guy sued ABC News for libel. Instead of fighting the network settled for a $15 million. That is the first sign media companies are folding. Another example is Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post. When the media doesn’t tell the full story, when people are reluctant to engage in political opposition because of threats of jail, that’s not a democracy. We’re not two years or six months from that, all of that might begin in a month. If we don’t explain why the nasty guy’s nasty picks are nasty, if we don’t put up a fight, then we tell Americans they aren’t a big deal. And Democrats aren’t saying enough about how bad they are. If Democrats don’t say they’re bad, no one will and they’ll be seen as normal. Democrats may believe that the only way voters will pay attention to them is on economic issues. But Democrats need to have a loud and unified stand against the nasty guy and these nominees. Murphy is aware voters will only listen if they feel Democrats are serious about reforming government. But in the last campaign voters believed Democrats are serious only about the current version of democracy, which doesn’t work for anyone. That means no marginal steps. Get money out of politics. Stop the revolving door in and out of government. No one should be able to trade on their influence to make money. Big banks and big corporations, including big tech, need to be broken up. Raise minimum wage. Strengthen unions. Democrats’ attacks on the nasty guy will land flat if they defend the existing system. But Democrats could say that, could define a position that shows the nasty guy’s populism to be false and insincere. I add: The failure of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to get a high committee position means too many Democrats are too invested in the current version of Democracy. Democrats not saying much now is not a problem. There was a huge amount of work to get done by the end of the year. But Democrats remaining silent until January 20 is a problem. They may not be able to defeat the bad nominees, but the fight must happen anyway. If it doesn’t Democrats won’t be believed later. According to Murphy this is how democracy dies: A couple Democrats get thrown in jail. The number of people wanting to get into politics in the opposition – which is Democrats – drops. Donors stop donating. Volunteers stay home. The media stops criticizing the nasty guy. They don’t publish polls of tight races because they don’t want lawsuits or their FCC license pulled. They don’t discuss opposition opinions. By the time of the 2025 elections the opposition doesn’t have enough oxygen to breathe. Effectively there will be no opposition.

Richest man acts like Congress works for him

My latest consumer annoyance: Perhaps a couple decades ago, when computer printers became inexpensive their makers realized they could turn the ink into a profit center by shifting some of the electronics into the ink cartridge, which is why we’re supposed to recycle them rather than throw them out. Though my computer is new I kept the old printer, at least for now, which means its about a decade old. And now a particular problem is magnified. Another way printer companies can boost profits is to require all three color inks be bought together. That might make sense if one routinely used all three colors in equal amounts. But I doubt that is true and certainly isn’t in my case. I use ink slowly, so slowly that I frequently have to run the process to clean the ink nozzles before printing. Today I had to do that twice. I’m quite sure I’m losing more ink in the cleaning than actually gets on a page. Today’s cleaning emptied the magenta cartridge (already known to be low) and I went out to buy more. Recently I replaced the yellow cartridge and now with today’s purchase I have two yellow cartridges I haven’t used yet. I wish I was allowed to buy the colors separately. Another annoyance: This printer, when low or out of black ink, will allow me to simulate black using the color inks. But when a color ink runs out it won’t let me print at all, even if the document is entirely black. The federal government runs out of money at midnight tonight, so there has been lots of drama getting a funding bill passed. And much of that drama comes from Republicans. Oliver Willis of Daily Kos reported that a bipartisan spending bill was in negotiations for several weeks. It wasn’t just a Republican bill because Johnson knew his Freedom Caucus would reject it and he needed Democratic support. Then Elon Musk inserted himself into the process (it’s about time I have a nickname for him, similar to Moscow Mitch, the nasty guy, or the Pandemic Prince – suggestions?). Over several hours Musk tweeted to Johnson (of course, in a way that is public) about how bad Musk thinks that bill is. No surprise that Musk didn’t describe it accurately (some say he lied about it). Musk even declared any member of Congress who voted for it deserves to be voted out in two years. Does he not know that senators have six year terms? After a while the nasty guy joined the conversation, taking Musk’s side. But Musk drove the conversation and Johnson gave the appearance of subservience.

Previous reports have indicated that sources close to Trump are already upset at the level of influence Musk wields, with some describing him as a “co-president.” If Musk is now dictating the House agenda on his own, is he now the shadow speaker as well?

Willis wrote again to say this is a spending revolt led by billionaires. Musk’s partner in the Department of Government Efficiency, Vivek Ramaswamy, also condemned the bill. Some Republicans are willing to give them what they want – though their working class base may suffer the consequences. In a third post Willis reported Johnson dropped that bill and crafted a replacement. The nasty guy reportedly thought the bipartisan bill was fine, until Musk objected to it. A moment here. Isn’t Biden still president? Don’t these spending bills need Biden’s signature? Democrats started talking about President Musk, both to mock him and to make the nasty guy feel a bit more insecure, with hopes he’ll boot Musk. Willis posted more of Democrats’ condemnation of the situation. Walter Einenkel of Kos reported that the bill was replaced with one more to the nasty guy wishes. He wanted raising the debt limit to be added. Is he assuming his desired policies will make the national debt go up? But Rep. Chip Roy wants to force spending cuts now. He refused to go along with raising the debt limit. Of course, that put him the nasty guy’s crosshairs. That debt limit will need to be raised early next year. An Associated Press article posted on Kos reported this bill went up for a vote and was soundly defeated. Democrats voted against it, refusing to accommodate the sudden demands (and because the spending priorities they had negotiated, like support for farmers, had been stripped out). Several Republicans also voted against it. Alex Samuels of Kos reported that a few House members are floating the idea that Musk be named Speaker when the position is up for a vote in January. The Constitution does not specify the Speaker be a member of the House. Republicans have a slim margin and several have already said they won’t vote for Johnson. With this idea floating around several have said they won’t vote for Musk. The news today is that the debt limit was taken out of the bill and the remainder voted on this evening. It passed. Shutdown averted. I’m puzzled why, with Musk’s and the nasty guy’s preferences defeated, Johnson didn’t go back to the bipartisan bill. Perhaps he took Musk’s meddling as a chance to stiff the Democrats? In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin included a tweet by Charlie Sykes:

Elon Musk has committed 2 cardinal sins in Trump world. He upstaged him; and is now responsible for an embarrassing defeat. (and Trump must absolutely hate the whole President Musk thing.)

Down in the comments is a cartoon by Graeme Keyes showing Musk, JD Vance (I think), and the nasty guy wearing red “MAGI” hats and holding containers labeled “Gold,” “Frankly Dense,” and “Mire.” A big part of this story is that Musk, who is a private citizen with no legal role in government, inserted himself into Congressional affairs. And House leadership paid attention. Granted, Musk is the richest man in the world, which appears to give him the belief that Congress works for him. Also, granted, the nasty guy has appointed him to lead a department – outside and unofficial – to advise on deep spending cuts. But the guy who is making that appointment is not yet president. A few days ago I wrote the House had passed a $895 billion defense spending bill. In addition to funding the military (likely with more money than the military needs and can reasonably use) it has several other good and important things. It also has a provision that bans transgender minors using the military’s health insurance for gender-affirming care. Alix Breeden of Kos reported that the bill has passed the Senate and is heading to Biden’s desk. All those other good things, plus the need to get the bill passed before Congress goes home for Christmas, means the Senate passed it while leaving the transgender care ban in place. Biden probably doesn’t have time to veto the bill and demand Congress take out that provision. And soon Republicans will be in control and won’t want to or need to take it out. A spokesperson for Republican sen. Joni Ernst said the ban was about “trimming the fat.” Given that transgender children are likely about 1% of military offspring, the cost of this care is minuscule in a budget of almost $0.9 trillion. I’m sure there is other things, like military supplier largess, that is a greater chunk of fat than this is. This ban in the military budget is part of a large series of bills targeting trans people. Breeden mentions a few of them.

ACLU spokesperson Gillian Branstetter told Daily Kos that the lawmakers banning abortion are the “exact same politicians” who are targeting the trans community.

Gee, what a surprise.

Rating news on its politics instead of its facts

I finished the book The Great Passion by James Runcie. The story is set in Saxony of 1726. The narrator is thirteen year old Stefan Silbermann. His mother has died and his father sends him to Leipzig to the St. Thomas Church and School where he can study music with the Cantor – Johann Sebastian Bach. I saw Stefan’s last name and wondered... My thought that he was a part of the Silbermann pipe organ building family of that time in Saxony was quickly confirmed. Bach knew and tested organs in the area and would have played Silbermann organs and consulted with the builder. Stefan is the nephew of the master builder, though is actually fictional. Bach, of course, is historical as are many events in the story, though details would not have been recorded. One main purpose of the school was to teach the boys singing so they could sing in the church services. The voices of most of the boys hadn’t changed yet so they could sing the soprano and alto parts. This was necessary because women were banned from singing in the church at the time. Several of the boys knew their usefulness to the school would end when their voice changed. When Stefan gets to the school he is bullied, as many boys new to a situation are. Part of the bullying is because Bach recognizes how well Stefan sings and asks him to sing solos, to the annoyance of the boy who had been getting most of the solos. So Bach invites Stefan to leave the dormitory and move into his family quarters provided by the church. There Stefan gets to know Bach’s seven living children and experiences puppy love with the oldest, seventeen year old Catharina. As part of living in the household Stefan serves as a copyist as Bach must prepare a new cantata nearly every week. Stefan takes organ lessons from Bach and singing lessons from Bach’s second wife Anna Magdalena. Most of the book is scenes of domestic, school, and church life. Not a lot happens. There is a lot of talk of theology and much of it is of the sort that life is hard and miserable but heaven will be glorious. Death is common and you will die too. So don’t be idle. Yeah, gloomy theology. Bach is a strong task master, wanting to be busy and wanting his children to always be productive. The commonness of death is shown in Bach’s own family. The book describes some of it and I consulted a Bach genealogy for more. By the time of the story Bach and first wife Maria Barbara had seven children and only four were still alive. Maria Barbara had also died. Anna Magdalena eventually gave birth to thirteen children, giving Bach a total of twenty – the last when she was 41 and he was 57. Eleven of those twenty died before he did in 1750 at age 65. The last 20% of the book is what gives it its name. At the start of Lent of 1727 Bach has the idea of a big Passion cantata to be given on Good Friday, the day that marks the crucifixion of Jesus. He doesn’t want to just tell the story. He wants the text to comment on the story, to draw the listener in and make them feel they could have been a part of it. The result is The Passion of Christ According to the Evangelist Matthew. So there is a rush to get such a huge piece written. Then get it rehearsed. That includes teaching the soloists (including Stefan), convincing them they are capable of meeting the demands of the music, and telling one that a recent death is all the more appropriate for them to sing this piece about death. If one is really into Bach this is an enjoyable story. Mark Sumner, Daily Kos staff emeritus, discussed the decision of Los Angeles Times billionaire owner Patrick Soon-Schiong to give stories a “bias meter,” a way “to alert readers about the ideological tilt of the paper’s content.” The rankings could be from “far left” to “far right.” What could go wrong? Sumner says plenty. The rankings would be done by AI. There isn’t an existing AI that could provide such ratings. So the first problem is that Soon-Schiong is adapting the medical AI he’s already created. Current AIs can be bad at their tasks and offer no explanation on how they arrive at their outputs. Sumner reviews two problems that appeared in medical AIs. First, one AI determined which skin lesions were cancerous by determining that physicians held rulers next to the cancerous ones. Second, an AI determined which x-rays showed tuberculosis from how out of focus they were. Tuberculosis is thankfully rare these days, so the only x-rays that showed it were older, more out of focus ones. So, how would such an AI rate a story on climate change? Far-right sources don’t use the term and pretend it doesn’t exist. A factual, well-researched story on climate change will be labeled “far-left.” Public Enlightenment wrote about how unhelpful a bias meter would be by showing how some outlets are ranked by various services. Associated Press – “far left,” Fox News – “center right,” Reason Magazine, supported by the Koch Brothers – “center.” Public Enlightenment adds, “Ratings do not reflect accuracy or credibility; they reflect perspective only.” And that gets to the core of the problem. Wrote Sumner.

Only pure ignorance will make it through as unaligned. For large sections of the Times' audience, any stamp that indicates a story is left or right will be tantamount to saying "This is inaccurate, so don't bother to read it." What Patrick Soon-Shiong is creating is a system that tells his readers that the content of the paper he owns can't be relied on for accuracy. It's hard to imagine any way to more quickly delegitimize and decimate journalism. Which may, of course, be the intent. ... Any ranking service that examines articles on a political rather than factual basis is inherently harmful to independent, unbiased journalism. And every one of these bias charts seems to start with a huge bias.

Oliver Willis of Kos wrote:

“There is talk about the Postal Service being taken private, you do know that—not the worst idea I’ve ever heard,” Trump said at a press conference on Monday. “It’s an idea that a lot of people have liked for a long time. We’re looking at that.”

My thought in reading that paragraph is who are those “a lot of people”? They certainly aren’t the vast majority of Americans. But we know the nasty guy doesn’t listen to us common folks that make up the vast majority of Americans. He listens to billionaires who either want to get richer off the USPS or don’t want it as competition. Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union said privatization would “end universal service.” People in hard to reach locations would lose service. Many people, especially us in the ’burbs, don’t know that many of the big package delivery companies use the USPS for those hard to reach locations, the places the USPS must go by law, but for-profit companies would see as too expensive.

“Universal service is especially important to rural America. Privatization also would lead to price-gouging by private companies,” Dimondstein added.

Put another way, the nasty guy and his cronies would not see any change in service. Their political base would. A reminder: Louis DeStroy is still in charge of the USPS. Biden didn’t accomplish his removal. Alex Samuels of Kos wrote that American voters can be quite messy in their opinion on big issues. This assertion is based on a Civiqs poll for Kos done December 7-10. It shows views don’t align with the goals of either party. Some of the messiness: 94% of Republicans believe the nasty guy will act on his promise to deport millions of immigrants. But only 50% of Republicans believe he’ll end the Affordable Care Act. Voter preference? A belief that the federal government has a responsibility in health care coverage? In 2024 Missouri voters approved abortion rights, raise the minimum wage, and paid sick leave while voting in Republicans, who oppose these policies. The messiness could be perpetual dissatisfaction with both parties. Or liking Democratic policies and not their candidates this year. Or trying to compress incoherent views into a binary choice. Two weeks ago Samuels reported that based on the election results many pundits are making the claim America has shifted to the right. But based on actual policies America is still quite liberal. One example is that 71% of Americans want the government to lower drug costs and prevent price gouging. Also two weeks ago Samuels reported:

In fact, according to a survey from YouGov, which was fielded in late November, the majority of Americans surveyed said that they view allegations of sexual assault (62%), domestic violence (61%), and a history of substance abuse (51%) as disqualifying to serve in a presidential Cabinet position. American adults also suggested that they didn’t want Cabinet picks who had links to extremist groups (70%), allegations of links to hostile foreign governments (66%), and past criminal convictions (61%). These numbers might not dissuade Trump, however, who is actively rolling out new names for those who he wants to fill out his administration. Several of Trump’s picks are embroiled in controversy. And it’s possible that Trump is hoping that Americans will turn a blind eye to these lower-level Cabinet members.

Samuels then reviewed all the cabinet nominations a majority of Americans view as disqualifying. Again, two weeks ago (yeah, I didn’t do much writing early this month) Margaret Huang, president and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center, wrote that the SPLC is closely monitoring the cabinet nominations and why the choice matters.

A strong federal government is essential to ensuring that the rights guaranteed by the Constitution are both protected and applied equally to all Americans and to providing vital resources and services to the most vulnerable populations. In arenas such as housing, education, criminal justice, health care, and more, civil rights laws protect against discrimination and ensure equal opportunity. However, we are concerned that the incoming administration will seek to shift power to individual states and abandon the federal government’s responsibilities to protect everyone’s rights.

Lisa Needham of Kos reported that last week “Texas sued New York physician Margaret Daley Carpenter for providing abortion pills via telehealth to a Texas resident.” This is an attempt to crack New York’s shield law that protects abortion providers from prosecutions in other states. So, yeah, ditch the idea that anti-choice advocates simply wanted to return abortion to the states.

Red states are going to astonishing lengths to try to stop their own citizens from obtaining abortions elsewhere and to demand that blue states honor red states’ laws. ... Generally, states do not get to dictate what happens in other states, nor do they get to try to reach into another state and impose their own laws.

There was one shameful exception, the Fugitive Slave Act. That empowered anyone to capture the enslaved, even in states that banned slavery, and return them to their owners. The anti-abortion efforts are similar in that Texas set up a bounty hunter system. Texas could get an injunction against Carpenter, but the New York shield law means New York can’t order Carpenter to comply. The next step is for Texas to sue New York to force compliance with Texas law. That will immediately go to the Supreme Court. With a supermajority that hates abortion, New York would likely lose. And that would overturn shield laws in 18 other states and Washington, DC. And states could impose their abortion bans on states where it is legal.

Anti-choice state politicians have no intention of leaving pro-choice states alone when it comes to abortion. They’re not going to stop until they make it impossible to get abortions in blue states. This is not how federalism is supposed to work, but it’s what we’re headed toward now.

Campaigned for blue collars, governing for blue bloods

My Sunday movie was The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. It’s a short one, only 40 minutes. This won the Oscar for best short live action film in 2024. They story is by Roald Dahl and the movie opens with an actor playing Dahl introducing the tale. It is about a man from India who says he is able to see without using his eyes. Rich man Henry Sugar learns about the trick because he wants to give himself an advantage when he gambles. But it doesn’t go as expected. This film is very much eccentric. First is Dahl’s story. Second is Wes Anderson’s filming. I’ve seen a couple of Anderson’s films and know his style is eccentric. I haven’t watched everything he’s done because to me his manner can distract from the story. One eccentricity is that one character in a scene is always narrating, even going as far as turning to the camera after another person speaks and adding, “He said.” Another is that most of the scenes are presented on a stage and we see the backdrops come and go and stagehands lean in to place or remove objects. I wanted a short movie because I’ve now completed all of my holiday concerts and was a bit too tired for a long film. Though eccentric this one was enjoyable. Alex Samuels of Daily Kos discussed the failure of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to become the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee. She’s 35. The guy who got the job is 74. The main point is that Democrats have a lot of young (and more progressive) members who would be great leaders, but the current leadership, mostly in their 70s and 80s, isn’t passing the torch to the younger generation. And it is the current leadership that was in charge of messaging in the last election. I’ve been thinking a lot that while Republicans very much support the social hierarchy (with themselves and their billionaire donors on top), that does not mean Democrats don’t support the hierarchy. An Associated Press article posted on Kos reported that the home of Frances Perkins has been designated by Biden to be a national monument. Perkins was the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet, serving under Franklin D. Roosevelt. She was also the longest-serving labor secretary. Her work was instrumental in establishing Social Security, the Fair Labor Standards Act and the National Labor Relations Act, establishing the right to organize and bargain collectively. She helped formulate many parts of the New Deal and helped create economic safeguards to prevent another great depression. Alas, I contrast that with a post by Oliver Willis of Kos reporting that the nasty guy and Musk of the outside-of-government Department of Government Efficiency are talking to potential bank regulators what they think about abolishing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The FDIC was created by a law signed by FDR during the Great Depression to protect consumers in the case of a bank collapse. Of which there were many, and many that were serious. The question is whether the Treasury Department could handle the task instead. The article does not discuss what the effect of absorbing the FDIC into Treasury would do. But if the nasty guy and Musk are behind the proposal it can’t be good for regular citizens. Especially since Musk has also said he opposes the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau created under Obama. The CFPB advocates for consumers against banks, credit card companies, and the like. The CPFB has given $21 billion in relief to consumers since its creation. That is while Musk’s charitable foundations haven’t been donating the required 5% of assets and are behind by about $421 million. Musk’s worth is about $429 billion.

Musk is just the most high profile and wealthiest of the billionaires with no qualifications to steer government policy that Trump has put into positions of influence. Despite professing to be an advocate of “blue collar” values, Trump is giving blue bloods an enormous power boost.

Alix Breeden of Kos reported last week that House Republicans passed a massive $895 billion defense bill. It has some good stuff in it, like hefty pay increases for the military. However, it includes a provision banning medical care for transgender youth. Thankfully, those opposed to that provision includes Republicans. But that wasn’t enough to stop the bill. The bill now goes to the Senate. Chabeli Carrazana, in an article for The 19th posted on Kos, reported that many same-sex couples are rushing to finalize the adoption of their children before the nasty guy is sworn in. These are cases where one is a biological parent and the other isn’t. Many couples haven’t done this because the legal fees can be a couple thousand or more and under Biden it didn’t seem necessary. But under the nasty guy and a Supreme Court wanting to get another look at marriage equality, same-sex couples are looking for all the protection they can get. Supreme Court justice Ketanji Brown Jackson fulfilled a longtime dream of acting on Broadway. Last Saturday she had a moment in the musical “& Juliet.” This article has a short video of getting her ready for the role. Other sources, such as her appearance on the NPR show Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me, talk about how she was a student of theater as well as of law.

Billionaires who don’t feel sufficiently admired

Morgan Stephens of Daily Kos reported there is an effort to get Biden to certify the Equal Rights Amendment to require gender equality. This article says this amendment to the Constitution has been ratified by enough states. All that needs to be done is for Biden to tell the National Archives: yep, all the requirements have been met, so make this amendment officially a part of the Constitution. Even after reading I am puzzled why the Archive can’t do that on its own. The last state to ratify was Virginia in 2020. The nasty guy told the Archives not to make it official because the confirmation process took too long. Since I hadn’t heard anything about the ERA since the 1980s and hadn’t heard about Virginia’s ratification only four years ago I thought I had better check this story out. So I went to Wikipedia (aware that its accuracy is suspect). And I found the situation isn’t simple. The amendment was first proposed in 1921. It finally passed Congress in 1972 with a seven year time limit (which was in an accompanying law, not in the amendment text). To be part of the Constitution 38 states (¾ of them) must ratify an amendment. By the time of the deadline in 1979 only 35 states had ratified it. Them some of them revoked their ratification. The deadline was extended to 1982. Four more ratified, then one of those revoked. Some states said their ratification is good only until the deadline. If not enough states have ratified by then our approval has expired. Since then there have been more extensions and extension attempts. There have been lawsuits against the extensions. There have been lawsuits over whether a state can revoke its ratification. All that means I understand why Biden is hesitant to tell the Archives the amendment should be made official. I had written that the nasty guy wanted to fire FBI Director Christopher Wray. The nasty guy had hired Wray (after firing his predecessor) and Wray has another three years in his ten year term. That term was set up by Congress to make sure FBI directors could remain above politics. Oliver Willis reported that Wray has said he will resign on inauguration day. He says he is doing it so the FBI can focus on fighting crime instead of on his fate. So the nasty guy is free to nominate Kash Patel to the job. Willis reminds us why Patel will be so bad. One reason, which I had mentioned before:

Patel also authored three children’s books starring a thinly veiled version of himself and Trump (as a king) fighting against Democratic plotters seeking to usurp an imaginary kingdom.

In a pundit roundup for Kos Chitown Kev quoted Jonathan Chait of The Atlantic:

Now Trump, preparing for his second term as president, has decided to replace the FBI director again. The figure he picked to replace Comey—the lifelong Republican Christopher Wray—proved unable to meet Trump’s expectations for the position, which are (1) to permit Trump and his allies to violate the law with impunity, and (2) to investigate anybody who interferes with (1). Wray, wrestling with the problem of Trump’s desire to separate him from a job he apparently liked, chose to step down on his own. This raises the likelihood that the media will treat the replacement of Wray as normal administrative turnover rather than as a scandal. […] The problem that keeps arising is that there is no way to remain in Trump’s favor while following the law. In a celebratory statement posted to Truth Social, Trump claims, “Under the leadership of Christopher Wray, the FBI illegally raided my home, without cause.” Had the FBI raid actually been illegal, he could have proved that in court. He didn’t, because by taking massive troves of classified documents when he left office, keeping them in a wildly unsecured location, refusing multiple requests to return them, lying repeatedly about it, and engaging in a clumsy cover-up, Trump had given the bureau no other choice. For Wray to allow this brazen defiance of the law would have been to simply admit that the law doesn’t apply to Trump, in or out of office. But that is precisely the credo Trump demands that the bureau follow. It is why he has selected Kash Patel, a sycophant so childishly worshipful that he spelled out his loyalty to Trump in a literal children’s book portraying Trump as a virtuous king and himself as Trump’s loyal wizard. Perhaps Patel (or whomever Senate Republicans ultimately confirm for the position) will, once in office, somehow develop an adult, professionalized understanding of the rule of law. More likely, Trump’s FBI director will discover that actually locking up Trump’s enemies is hard. This was the anticlimactic outcome of the Durham investigation, Trump’s first-term campaign to imprison his foes, which resulted, after months of conservative-media salivating, in two embarrassing acquittals in court.

In another roundup Kev quoted Paul Krugman, in what he announces is his last column for the New York Times. A bit:

What strikes me, looking back, is how optimistic many people, both here and in much of the Western world, were back then and the extent to which that optimism has been replaced by anger and resentment. And I’m not just talking about members of the working class who feel betrayed by elites; some of the angriest, most resentful people in America right now — people who seem very likely to have a lot of influence with the incoming Trump administration — are billionaires who don’t feel sufficiently admired.

Kev also quoted Res Huppke of USA Today:

Axios reported last week that, including Trump himself, the administration-to-be is already staffed with 14 billionaires. ... I’m sure these down-to-earth billionaires care deeply about the forgotten men and women who put Trump in office. Surely they are in no way “elite,” aside from perhaps owning an island, or maybe occasionally hunting poor people for sport on said island.

Down in the comments – after the cartoons – The Geogre wrote about an article by Adam Cox and Ryan Goodman of Just Security on “The Public Framing of Mass Deportation” as in how they’ll structure their lies to keep mass deportation palatable to the public. They will say they are targeting the deportations the public supports – getting rid of those who have broken the law – but they’ll actually target groups whose deportation is easiest to accomplish. Deporting criminal noncitizens will keep public support but there aren’t nearly enough such criminals to meet the numbers the nasty guy is talking about. Saying that’s what they’re doing is a trick to satisfy those who have no idea of the state of immigrants and their lack of crimes. Polling has shown the public doesn’t support dragnets that tear families apart or hit long-term residents with deep ties. So they’re already lying by redefining their terms. They will falsely tag entire classes of immigrants as criminals. See the effort in falsely claiming immigrants ate pets in Springfield, Ohio. There will be lots of stories of immigrant crime. An example (which is not true) would be a headline blaring, “Mexican nationals rape women.” The story would be spread by media and eventually appear on an executive order. They will falsely equate criminal law and immigration law, declaring that a violation of immigration law is a crime when it is only a civil offense. That makes all undocumented immigrants, which they’ll refer to as an “illegal immigrant” (a legally meaningless term) to be a criminal and a high priority for deportation. The Geogre reminds us “the goal is quiescence, not legality.” The goal is to keep public protests at a minimum while keeping “immigration” a hot topic for the 2026 midterm elections. Then comes redefining legal immigration – those here with official permission – as illegal. Along with that they’ll keep up the drumbeat that immigration is an “invasion.” The Geogre’s quotes and comments ended here. So I went to the original article. Some of the other thing it discusses: A major obstacle is to mass deportation political. Americans support stiffer border patrol, but they don’t support mass deportation and do support paths to legal status and citizenship. Another major obstacle is logistical. How to identify, locate, and arrest large numbers of noncitizens? In modern times the US has deported only a quarter million in any one year, and that rate wasn’t sustainable. It was also more than a decade ago. The nasty guy’s goal is an order of magnitude larger. I add one way to avoid the work of determining who is and isn’t a citizen is to not care if citizens are caught up in any dragnet. Undocumented immigrants that have been here for more than a decade are not easily identified. This include most of the 11 million who are undocumented. That lack of easy identification is why the nasty guy will target the easy to identify first. Another way to tag immigrants as criminals is whether they use programs they shouldn’t. An example is getting a drivers license. Immigrants from several countries have been given Temporary Protected Status. These are countries with high internal violence where going back could be deadly. Haiti is one of these countries. The nasty guy could revoke those programs and easily send those people back. This could be one million such people, perhaps as many as three million.

At bottom, these tactics boil down to a potentially profound betrayal of the American public. These approaches fail to reflect the public’s expressed preferences for immigration policy, and mislead rather than try to reason with or persuade Americans toward a more aggressive deportation policy. Some of the rhetorical tactics are familiar, and, indeed, have been practiced by both Democratic and Republican administrations. But not in the context of trying to legitimize the displacement of potentially millions of people. The remaining question is whether such tactics can succeed in the coming period, that is, whether deceptive framing of actual underlying deportation policies can win out.

A couple days ago Leila Fadel of NPR spoke to Kristin Kobe Du Mez, who is a professor of history and gender studies at Calvin University, a Christian school. She is the author of the book Jesus And John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted A Faith And Fractured A Nation. In this discussion she explores the belief that the US is (or is supposed to be) a Christian nation and explores how her faith has been politicized. Here’s some of what Du Mez said:

What's different about Christian nationalism is this sense of privilege that the country itself must reflect particular Christian values. They present histories - largely mythical histories of the founding era that suggests that the Constitution was, even some will go as far as to say, inspired by God and that the Constitution reflects biblical values.

Responding to the nasty guy promising a task force on anti-Christian bias.

Now, to understand how that can make sense when the majority of Americans do hold Christian beliefs, it's important to note that when they talk about threats to religious liberty, many conservative Christians have a fairly expansive notion of what that entails. They want the religious liberty not just to practice their own beliefs, but also they think that to be faithful as Christians means to reshape society and even to impose those beliefs on fellow Americans. And when they are not able to do that, that seems like a restriction on their religious liberties. It'll be very interesting to see what that task force actually entails because within the Christian nationalist framework, often some of the key targets of Christian nationalists are fellow Christians themselves - fellow Christians who did not adhere to the Christian nationalist agenda.

I long ago figured out when religious people talk about religious freedom they mean freedom to discriminate, to force others to be like them. Du Mez was asked why the nasty guy appeals to the far right of Christianity:

His real appeal lies in the fact that he has promised to give Christians power. ... And, yes, he's not what many might expect, but he's their strong man. And in fact, he may be all the more effective at restoring Christian America because he's not constrained by traditional Christian virtue.

Du Mez added these people argue that the separation of church and state is a myth.

Women write about gay love, men not burdened with patriarchy

I finished the book Something Wild and Wonderful by Anita Kelly. The author uses they/them pronouns and has a wife, so a member of the LGBTQ community. Much of the story takes place on the Pacific Crest Trail, a western equivalent of the Appalachian Trail in the east. The PCT is 2652 miles, stretching from the Mexican to the Canadian borders through the Sierra and Cascade mountains. The story is about Alexei and Ben. Both are approaching their 30th birthdays, so delightfully not teenagers. Alexei is from near Portland, OR and on the trail because his parents disowned him because he told them he is gay. They are members of a conservative church. He’s had a few one-night stands and is tired of that. He hopes his time on the trail will help him figure out how to create Alexei 2.0. Ben is from Nashville feels he wasted his 20s in not knowing what he wants in life. He also had a few not good relationships. He got his act together enough to complete nursing school and hopes time on the PCT will settle his restlessness before getting a job. Their “meet cute” is on Alexei’s first day on the trail. He joined the trail a hundred miles from Mexico to skip the worst of the desert. He hears a rattlesnake ahead and puts out his arm to block and protect the people coming up behind him. Of course, at the front of that group is Ben. A couple days later Alexei and Ben meet again. Ben decides to leave the group he’s been hiking with and join Alexei. One reason is to keep Alexei from hiking alone through the dangerous desert. Another reason is he’s attracted to Alexei. From there friendship and love develop. But Alexei is still dealing with his demons. Also, both are wary of the other leaving, unsure of their own commitment, burned by previous relationships, and doubtful they will want to live where the other is from. I downloaded a map of the PCT to follow along, though only 250 miles, the time they fall in love (the first 2/3 of the book), is covered in much detail. I was amused by and saw the great practicality of the PCT map that shows the train, bus, and car routes that cross or are near the trail. The last third of the book shows Alexei dealing with those demons in a healthy way. I enjoyed this gay love story. Krotor of the Daily Kos community discussed Boys’ Love, a multimedia genre that focuses on male relationships. This is the first I’ve heard of that term. Krotor intends to have this as the start of a regular discussion on Kos because the topic is wide. The use of “boys” in the description does not refer to male children. It is used in the same manner as “boys’ night out.” The central characters are late teens to young 30s. And, yes, this is young men falling in love with young men. The genre started in Japan with manga graphic novels. And...

The original Japanese creators — and consumers — of Boys’ Love works were typically heterosexual females. The explanation I have seen most frequently is that straight women enjoy fantasies about men being loving and vulnerable with each other in relationships that are not burdened with the misogyny, patriarchy, constrictive gender roles, and similar negatives that women often experience in their own relationships with straight guys.

In 2014 the genre became international, or at least Southeast Asian. A company in Thailand released Love Sick: The Series that explored male relationships over 51 episodes. In contrast to the sexiness of some of the early manga, Boys’ Love video series usually stick to kissing, and that is usually only a second or two before the scene ends. That kiss tends to come in the last or second-to-last episode. Only a few swear words might keep a show from being rated G. A standard pattern to these shows is two young men are thrown together (perhaps the reason is contrived). Their relationship grows, they must overcome challenges, and they eventually see they’re in love. The focus is on the romance, not sexual desire. The assumption is if the emotional connection is strong enough physical passion will be there. There is no discussion of passion outside of that connection. There seems to be no concept of one-night stands. These are not like Hollywood rom-coms. The characters usually are not driven by lust and don’t shed their clothes to convey passion. Conventional European and American shows derive their tension through the cultural gender wars. But in these shows there are no shortcuts through opposing genders. Instead, the story is about the individuals. They slowly develop an emotional bond and physical attraction grows from that. Homophobia barely exists, if at all. If one of the lads is beaten up, it is because they’re from the opposing sport team and not because they’re gay. Straight friends are supportive of them pursuing a same-sex relationship. And there is no concern that a guy dating a woman flips to dating a man. In Hollywood the woman must be beautiful, but the man doesn’t need to be (how did he end up with her!). But in the Boys’ Love universe both of them are beautiful (and many work as models). These shows are quite popular. Fans call for sequels to keep the relationship going. Fans are disappointed when the actors have love lives away different from their show’s love life, especially if they love a woman. That isn’t entirely the fan’s fault. Sometimes the producers have the actors appear in public together with enough interaction that fans can conclude they’re in love. Krotor discussed US made movies with gay characters. Before the 1980s gay characters were portrayed as perverse and disgusting and worthy of a violent death. In the 1980s AIDS colored the films, but gay men still faced illness, suffering, and death. By the 1990s the gay characters weren’t the butt of jokes and didn’t always die, but they had no serious emotional connections. Unless it was the anguish from coming out. With that sort of portrayal no wonder the religious right was afraid of their children turning gay.

Heck, yeah, I love BL. It finally shows me who we should always have been seen as: strong and valued and loved and loving and happy and deserving of love and happiness. We needed this decades ago and it would have had a tremendous positive impact on gay boys, giving hope and guidance and encouragement as they developed into young gay men. We have it now and I am grateful for it and generations of gay boys to come will be better for it.

This discussion ends with ways to find Boys’ Love stories. I’ll try to see a few of them. And I’ll keep watching for more articles on the topic. Krotor linked to a list on IMDB of 100 Boys’ Love series. The list I saw had only 85 entries. A few of them are rated for mature audiences. I see I’ve seen a couple of them already, two that aren’t from Southeast Asia. They are Heartstopper and Young Royals. A few more are American. I went to another list on My Drama List. The link is for a search that brought up 1939 entries (the first page listed only 20). This list includes trailers. So I watched a couple. The first trailer I watched went so fast I couldn’t keep up with the English subtitles. In the second the subtitles were in Korean. I had written that the satirical news site The Onion had put in a winning bid to purchase Infowars, the site Alex Jones uses to spread conspiracy theories. The Onion announced plans to repurpose the site for good messages rather than destructive ones. Tovia Smith of NPR reported a federal bankruptcy judge blocked the sale. The judge said there was a lack of transparency in the bidding process and that there was a failure to maximize value for the people Jones owes money to. Those people are the parents and family members of the children killed at Sandy Hook. They had sued Jones because he called the shooting that killed 26 children and teachers a hoax. He now owes them a billion dollars. The Infowars show, its equipment, studio, and brand are only a part of the whole package. The families said they liked what The Onion planned to do with the Infowars site and brand and were willing to forego some of what they are owed so that the purchase could proceed. But the judge rejected their argument. So Jones still has the capability of spewing his bile, at least for now, and he did his usual spewing in praise of the judge. I had lunch with my friend and debate partner today. Some of our discussion turned to the momentous events in Syria. He said there are more factions in Syria, some of them Islamist, than we hear about in mainstream media. He was disappointed that the US military targeted several military sites around Syria after Assad left. And he said he would not at all be surprised if Syria fell into civil war as these various factions fight for power and the ability to impose their ideas on the country. In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted a few articles that explain the situation in Syria a bit more. That includes a thread by Raylan Givens that explains the term “Syrian Rebels” actually refers to several groups. Other articles discuss how much the HTS leader can be trusted when he claims religious minorities and women shouldn’t fear his group coming to power. Another pundit roundup by Dworkin has more quotes about Syria. I include it for a tweet by Charles Lister:

With #Assad gone & his brutal regime dissolved, #Syria refugees are already surging back home. There was only ever one solution to the “refugee crisis” & all those who said reinforcing #Assad would resolve it were at best delusional, at worst, complicit in #Assad’s agenda.

The tweet includes a minute long video of a huge traffic backup from all those refugees surging home. Irena Buzarewicz posted a cartoon by John Atkinson that has small images of how two dozen famous artists would depict a Christmas tree. The artists include Picasso, Seurat, Monet, Haring, Pollock, Warhol, Van Gogh, and Dali.