How can one be a good citizen of a bad state?

Kos of Daily Kos has a thought experiment. What would have happened if Democrats didn’t cave on the government shutdown? The core Democrat demand was a restoration of Affordable Care Act subsidies. So suppose Republicans agreed and the subsidies were restored. Rural American, those most reliant on the subsidies, would not notice that Democrats protected them. These people would hear the nasty guy protected them or would remain oblivious. They would not notice their own party tried to take the subsidies away. Democrats would not get the credit. But with Democrats caving rural Americans lose health care at the start of the midterm campaign. They will much more likely blame Republicans. These rural voters probably won’t flip their vote to Democrat. But they may stay home, giving Democrats a half vote. And that might be enough. Democrats caving again and reinforcing their weak brand may just improve their chances next year. A bit of two week old news: An Associated Press article posted on Kos reports that Nancy Pelosi, the first female Speaker of the House, will not seek reelection. A year from now she will end a career in Congress of almost 40 years. Some of her signature bills: The Affordable Care Act, Dodd-Frank financial reforms after the Great Recession, the repeal of the military Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Of course, there is lots more to her career. More than two weeks ago Max Burns of Kos reported on the meeting between the nasty guy and Premier Xi of China. The short version is that Xi made the nasty guy feel like he won the contest while Xi won all the goodies. The trade deal they negotiated includes the US selling the best AI chips to China in exchange for a pledge that China would buy US soybeans. Cybersecurity experts warn China’s easy access to AI tech will make US companies competing in global markets harder. World position will depend on who controls AI. There were other issues, loosening China’s hold on rare earth elements critical to a lot of tech and restricting the flow of fentanyl. On these also China came out on top. Well, maybe the nasty guy knew he didn’t win. His language seemed to acknowledge that China set the terms of the negotiation. Did the nasty guy fumble so much because chip maker Nvidia wanted access to the huge China market? So this was a case of Nvidia profits against American security and prominence. Burns describes Nvidia as having a friend in the Oval Office. How much Nvidia “donated” to the nasty guy is not recorded. In the pundit roundup for Kos from 11 days ago, Chitown Kev quoted M. Gessen of the New York Times:

When your country pursues abhorrent policies, when the face it turns to the world is the face of a monster, what does that say about you? In my experience, it is strikingly easy to shrug off one’s responsibility for the country where one pays taxes, contributes to the public conversation and, at least nominally, has the right to vote, if that country is the United States. It seems one can just say “Not in my name” and continue to enjoy the wealth and the freedom of movement one’s citizenship confers. But as this country builds more cages for immigrants, deploys military force against civilians in city after city, regularly commits murder on the high seas and systematically destroys its own democratic institutions, that may change. It should change. What does one do then? How can one be a good citizen of a bad state? [...] “In a free society, all are involved in what some are doing,” said Abraham Joshua Heschel, an American rabbi who opposed the Vietnam War and participated in the civil rights movement. “Some are guilty; all are responsible.”

Eric Reinhart, in an essay for AlJazeera:

In a society where every sphere of life has been subordinated to the logic of accumulation – where medicine, education and even care itself are governed by profit – the exposure of corruption does not generate collective moral renewal. It confirms what everyone suspects: that there is no ethical order left to defend. The result is a form of political paralysis. We can name corruption but cannot act against it, because doing so would require dismantling the very system we’ve been trained to believe is inevitable and upon which our nation, as we know it, is built. Liberal responses to corruption falter for the same reason. They appeal to morality – to decency, fairness, honesty – without confronting the fact that these values have been emptied of institutional substance and stable cultural ground. The right, meanwhile, has learned to weaponise this emptiness. Trump’s genius lies in his capacity to turn corruption into spectacle, to make its shamelessness feel for many like authenticity and its violence like freedom. His followers recognise, rightly, that corruption pervades elite life; what they mistake is the source of it. They see decadence in bureaucrats, not billionaires; in migrants, not monopolies.

In last Saturday’s roundup Greg Dworkin quoted the Courier news site which posted they have put all 20,000 files of the latest Epstein release online into a searchable database. This huge batch came from the Epstein estate as a result of a subpoena and released by Democrats. They’re separate from the Department of Justice files that have been the battle in Congress. I’ll discuss all that when I get to it in my reading. I’m still a few days behind. Peter Hamby of Puck discussed the way Gen Z men voted. They narrowly went for the nasty guy in 2024, but went massively for Democrats in the recent election.

“With young men in ’24, Trump and MAGA influencers spoke more directly to their concerns, and [young men] were more likely to think he would have a positive impact on their lives,” said John Della Volpe, the director of the Harvard Youth Poll and C.E.O. of SocialSphere, which studies youth voting patterns. The perception was that Trump “listened better than Democrats.” But the lesson of last week was that Trump seemed more interested in his new ballroom than the cost of housing. “He is not as in touch with these young voters as he was when he was campaigning,” Della Volpe told me. “Democrats were the ones listening and connecting the dots.”

So much for all those hot takes a year ago about what Gen Z men are like. In the comments The Wolfpack posted a meme. I’ll quote only part of it.

Why Trump for Prison? Treason, Collusion, Conspiracy, Obstruction of Justice, Inciting Violence, Racketeering, Sexual Assault, ... Bribery, Intimidation, ... Organizing Hate Crimes, Witness Tampering, Tax Evasion, Breach of Contract, Money Laundering, Using Office of President for Personal Profit

Wolfpack also posted a meme looking like the cover of TIME magazine. It shows nasty guy supporters facing a branch in the path. The title: “The time has come.” Over one path, “Admit you were conned.” Over the other, “Support a pedophile.” In the comments on Monday’s roundup toonerman posted a cartoon with a lot of text of a rant. It’s long and familiar. Also included are the words of toonerman’s conscience dog, which I’ll repeat:

It’s how all authoritarians do it. When they take care of the “others,” they find different “others” to scapegoat. They won’t run out of others, and everyone that isn’t them could easily become an other, even if you own a red hat.

A meme posted by exlrrp comes after the subject was called a “traitor” by the nasty guy.

Marjorie Taylor Greene has been an enemy to the left for years, and she hasn’t had to be afraid. She’s been an enemy to the right for one day, and she has to fear for her life. We are NOT the same.

Scott Horton posted a cartoon by Drew Sheneman. At a grocery checkout a guy in a MAGA shirt is talking to the worker who is bagging his groceries. Behind her the screen showing the bill has a lot of dollar signs. He says, “No, No... I don’t think you understand, the president said groceries were cheap now.” Captain Frogbert posted this meme:

A Democrat will feed 100 people for fear that one of them might starve. A Republican will starve 100 people for fear that one of them might not deserve being fed. Republicans are evil to the bone.

My thought: There is no such thing as not deserving to be fed. A tweet by Kyle Cheney:

BREAKING: President Trump has pardoned Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Mark Meadows, Christina Bobb, Boris Epshteyn and dozens of false GOP electors and other key figures involved in his effort to overturn the 2020 election results, per pardon attorney Ed Martin.

And a response from Sarah Longwell:

“Anyone who helps me try to steal an election gets a pardon” is perhaps the most corrupt thing to happen in American history. That “conservatives” have simply accepted this as the price of admission is the greatest moral and intellectual humiliation.