My ignorance is just as good

Fannie Wolfe of *Shakesville* occasionally has a summary of LGBT news in the age of the nasty guy. In Tuesday’s installment she included a discussion of the baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple. This case was before the Supremes on Tuesday. Fannie closes with this:
http://www.shakesville.com/2017/12/dispatches-from-queer-resistance-no-5.html

I have a working theory about anti-LGBT strategy here. With Trump continuing to be historically unpopular, how beneficial might it be for the Christian Right to wage a revived, full-on culture war, in which leaders of the Christian Right convince their followers that the forces of Political Correctness are oppressing them? What vigorous anti-LGBT counter-measures and messaging might the Trump/Pence Administration deliver to their loyal, white conservative Christian base, in response to a win or, perhaps worse, a loss in this case? It's hard for me to see any outcome of this case as a win, at least in the short-term, for LGBT people.

Some men seem to be upset that they can’t flirt (harass) women in the workplace anymore. Melissa McEwan, also of Shakesville, offers no sympathy. You know how to treat men in the office without harassment so you already know how to treat women. Harassment includes unwanted hugging or leering while commenting on a woman’s dress. And since there is this big public discussion about harassment you can no longer plead ignorance that a particular action is inappropriate.

McEwan is also annoyed with the call that men should treat female coworkers the same way they their wives and daughters. Some of her reasons:

Some men abuse their wives and daughters.

A woman shouldn’t have to be related to a man to be treated with respect.

Making a distinction between women who are relatives and those who aren’t implies these female relatives are property to be maintained.



A quote appropriate for today.

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”

– Isaac Asimov, 1980 “Cult of Ignorance.”



For the absolute best (if a little purple) description of trickle-down economics here is Lewis Black on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

You wanna test that trickle-down theory? Drink about twenty beers. Then pee your pants. Then put a cup down here, and stand and see how long it takes for that pee to fill up that cup.

The alcohol beverage industry doesn’t like this one. Researchers at University of Connecticut and Georgia State University have noted that after the introduction of medical marijuana laws alcohol sales fell by about 15%. That’s because marijuana is safer: People don’t die of marijuana overdose. It is less addictive, less likely to cause vehicle deaths, and less linked to violent behavior. Excessive alcohol use kills nearly 90,000 people a year compared to marijuana’s zero.

I don’t drink alcohol and haven’t tried marijuana (though I was pretty sure I smelled it at a recent Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra concert). I hear legalizing marijuana will be on the Michigan ballot next year. Perhaps these stats are a reason to vote for it.

Keep the vision of the society we wish to live in

Other bits of news:

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory trusted the political analysis of the state’s Christian conservatives and went all out for the state’s “bathroom bill” that targeted transgender citizens. McCrory didn’t listen to what happened to Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, where a similar license to discriminate bill essentially killed his political career (until he jumped on the nasty guy’s coattails).

At the moment McCrory is on the low side of a very close race to keep his job. He’s down by a few thousand votes and the state won’t certify the results until all provisional votes are counted.



Recreational marijuana was legalized in California, Nevada, and Mass. and lost in Arizona. In Maine the measure is too close to call. Medical marijuana was legalized in Florida, Arkansas, and North Dakota.

Gun control laws passed in California, Washington, and Nevada. Higher minimum wage laws were passed in several states, including Arizona, Colorado, Maine, and Washington.



Michael Moore has a five point plan. My summary:

1. The Democratic Party failed us. Take it over.

2. Fire all pundits who pushed a narrative rather than seeing what was really happening.

3. Any Congressional Democrat not ready to be obstructionist as possible must step aside.

4. Stop saying you were “stunned” and “shocked.” It only means you weren’t paying attention to the despair of your neighbors.

5. Hillary won the popular vote, which means a majority want action on climate change, equal pay for women, debt-free college, raising the minimum wage, universal health care, and they don’t want us invading other countries. The majority of voters agree with the “liberal” position.



George Takei also has things to say, which he did in a series of tweets:

1. We may not have prevailed, but we must not despair.

2. This does not feel like the America we love and honor.

3. We must reaffirm the values we cherish: equality, justice, and the care of our planet.

4. We must stand up to any divisive acts and look for the most vulnerable among us.

5. Keep the vision of the society we wish to live in.

6. This country has lived through slavery and grave injustices. We’ll find our way through this too.

7. In the toughest days we find our true mettle.



I didn’t know this was a thing. After women of Rochester, NY vote, many of them take their “I voted” sticker and place it on the grave of Susan B. Anthony. This year the line for doing so had hundreds in it and was an hour long. The city’s mayor kept the cemetery open until well after voting closed.



There were thousands of people many in many cities across the country protesting the nasty man’s victory. The protests in Manhattan focused on Trump Tower.



This is the second of the last five presidential elections in which the candidate with the most votes didn’t win. Time to get rid of the Electoral College – or at least make it more reflective of the country by getting rid of winner-take-all. The good news is that such a change doesn’t have to come from Congress (since the GOP benefited both times why would they want to?). The downside is what the Michigan GOP considered – assign the Electoral College votes according to which party won each highly gerrymandered congressional district.



It is not completely dark for progressives. Democrats in office are becoming more diverse, such as Catherine Cortez-Masto (Harry Reid’s replacement) who is the first Latina in the Senate, and Tammy Dickworth who is the first Thai-American there. Democrats made gains in western state legislatures, including taking back the New Mexico House. We gained a majority in the North Carolina Supreme Court and kept a couple others (including Kansas!).



Yesterday I wrote about the GOP to-do list. My comments were on the mild side. For example, I suggested the GOP would privatize Medicare. It looks like they would rather kill it. They’re not too fond of libraries either.

Reopen routes to the middle class

Colorado and Washington approved marijuana use in the recent election. David Frum, conservative columnist for Newsweek, talks about its dangers. He notes that pot smokers miss more work, don't do as well in school, and tend to be more poor. At least he doesn't confuse correlation and causation and allows two interpretations: Pot use tends to make you poor. Poor people are more likely to use pot.

I won't get into that (comments to the article do a decent job of it), though it would be entertaining to sit Dan Savage and David Frum in the same room to hash it out. Savage has a chapter on pot use in his book, Skipping Towards Gomorrah. The book is one reason why Savage is referred to as an ethicist for our time.

What I do want to get into is another section of Frum's column. He wrote:

The young people most likely to become habitual users are those who already face declining opportunities. Over the past generation, American society has closed route after route into the middle class. Wages are stagnant, upward mobility has slowed, job security has deterior¬ated, higher education has become more expensive, and two-parent families have dwindled. Meanwhile, we have opened more and more roads to self-harm. Must we now open another?

If declining opportunities leads some to become habitual users, there is another way out. Let's reopen all those closed routes to the middle class. Let's make wages less stagnant, improve job security, and reduce the cost of higher education. Our young people (as well as the established worker and the person forced into retirement before they're ready) might be less inclined towards self-harm.