Like debating a hailstorm

My smoke detector went off at 3:40am last night. It’s in the hall outside my bedroom and definitely woke me up. This wasn’t the short beeps saying the battery is low. This was an always on full blast. I followed fire protocols I could remember – I felt my door to verify it was cool before opening it. When I did open it I sniffed for smoke and didn’t smell anything. I got the step stool and yanked out the battery. It fell silent. I toured the house, even opened the basement door, and did not smell or see smoke. I need a new smoke detector. This one is at least 30 years old – it was in the house when I moved in. I guess it wore out. I’m annoyed it did it at 3:40am rather than noon. I went back to bed, though it took a while fall asleep and I’m not as well rested as I usually am on a Sunday. This afternoon I saw my third movie of the Freep Film Fest. This one is Breaking Bread. It is the story of a food festival in Haifa, Israel in which Jewish and Arab chefs are paired together to create a dish or meal for their customers. The Freep Fest features documentary films with a connection to Michigan. I thought this one was a stretch. It doesn’t take place in or reference the state. I guess the link is the Detroit area has both a large Jewish population and large Arab population – in different parts of the metro area. This is a movie about the idea that if Jews and Arabs sat down and ate meals together they would be little less inclined to fight each other. However, it is more muted than one might expect. The movie doesn’t end with Palestinians and Israelis eating together then collapsing into tight hugs. There are a few reasons for that. These Arabs in this movie declare they are Israeli citizens. The organizer of the food festival said that 90% of the country doesn’t want to fight, they want to coexist. And Haifa has gone the furthest in promoting coexistence and friendship. The organizer said that as an Israeli Arab she has a better life. The Israeli government may not give her full rights, but she does have the opportunity to have both Arab and Jewish friends. Food all the same color is boring. Food must have lots of colors. In the same way having both Arab and Jewish friends is much more colorful. A lot of the food of the Middle East is similar no matter which country one is in. The most common dish is hummus (it is something I also enjoy and bought a package of it earlier this afternoon). Even so, there are regional specialties. One chef would teach his partner a dish he learned to make from his grandmother. Another made something new for his customers, a dish they don’t eat every day at home. The chefs gained respect of their partners and in a couple cases new friendships were forged. I recommend this one. Even though this seemed like a muted step towards regional and world peace, it is still a vital and important step. A warning: don’t watch while hungry. The camera lingers over every beautiful dish. Aldous Pennyfarthing of Daily Kos reported on the results of a Morning Consult/Politico poll.

Ever wonder why there are so many racist, homophobic, antisemitic, and transphobic GOP candidates? Because GOP voters love ‘em, that’s why!

The poll asked several versions of the question “If a candidate is accused of ___ is it a major problem?” If that blank is filled in with “racist remarks” 80% of Democrats said yes, that is a major problem. Only 38% of Republicans said yes. Homophobic remarks are, alas, a bit more tolerated. 71% D said yes, 25% R said yes. It’s good that at least two thirds of Republicans agree being accused of domestic violence is a problem. Marissa Higgins of Kos reported on polling by Civiqs on attitudes about transgender people. There is data on a much wider variety of topics. Higgins only reported on trans issues. Here’s some of it. 43% believe trans people face discrimination and attacks on their rights. 41% believe trans people have basic rights and want special rights (sheesh, that old nonsense is still around?). 35% believe anti-trans legislation actually helps trans youth (it doesn’t), 48% believe such laws hurts them (it does). 45% believe banning trans youth from sports is helping, 36% said it is hurting. The question doesn’t clarify whether the respondent believes the ban helps transgender or cisgender youth, so be careful with that one. Higgins believes this data shows the GOP campaign against trans people is affecting what voters believe. Carolyn Fiddler of Kos reported on another aspect of that Civiqs poll:

This survey of 1,248 registered voters was conducted online from April 23-26 and reveals that 67% of Democrats in the 18-34 age cohort believe that President Joe Biden has failed to deliver on a lot of the promises he made during his campaign. Democrats aged 18-34 also thought Biden was going to do more to help people like them (62%). In contrast, only 9% of older Democrats aged 65+ feel that Biden has not delivered on his campaign promises.

About that GOP campaign against trans people... Daily Kos Elections reported that Michigan state Sen. Tom Barrett, who is running for Congress, sent out a fundraising appeal that said, “Appointment Status: Confirmed ... Appointment for: Your child, Appointment type: Gender Reassignment Surgery, Appointment Date: Tomorrow at 9 AM” Saying someone is coming for your kid while smearing actual trans kids is a creepy and vile way to campaign. Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos included a couple tweets. The first from Kristen Hodges:

If God made you a male, that’s not a mistake. If God made you a female, that’s not a mistake. Saying any different is insulting a perfect creator. Read your word.

And from Dana Goldberg

God made you a brunette, yet you are now a blonde. God gave you bad vision, yet you fixed it with glasses. God gave you crooked teeth, yet you straightened them with braces. Trans people change the outside to match the inside just like you do.

Bill quoted some late night commentary:

Comedy doesn’t change the world, but it’s the bellwether. We’re the banana peel in the coal mine. When society is under threat, comedians are the ones who get sent away first. It's not the 'woke police' that are going to be an existential threat to comedy. … It's not the fragility of audiences. It's the fragility of leaders. … Authoritarians are the threat to comedy, to art, to music, to thought, to poetry, to progress. —Jon Stewart, accepting his Mark Twain Prize for American Humor

Laura Clawson of Kos reported that Republicans in the House are setting up conditions so that if they take the House in November they will be ready to go for at least one impeachment of a cabinet member. They sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, accusing him of endangering citizens and undermining the rule of law. Clawson provided a translation: “Basically, Mayorkas has not kept every single one of Donald Trump’s hateful immigration policies in place.” The letter doesn’t include the word “impeach” but it does question his “suitability for office.” Clawson concluded:

One Cabinet official has ever been impeached in U.S. history. Republicans are getting ready to make that commonplace, not because Cabinet officials suddenly magically got worse, but because the Republican Party is committed to sabotaging not just a Democratic administration but voters’ faith that the government can function effectively.

Walter Einenkel of Kos reported John Bennett is the head of the Oklahoma GOP and is running for Congress in a safely red district. He’s known for calling for a “firing squad” for Hillary Clinton and said Islam is a cancer that should be cut out of America. And now he has called for the firing squad for Dr. Anthony Fauci too. April Siese of Kos reported that three large banks, in shareholder meetings, had to deal with climate finance resolutions. The banks are Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America, The proposals were calls to affirm that continued expansion of fossil fuels is incompatible with protecting the climate and their overall portfolios. The proposals got only 11-13%. That’s high enough they can be brought back next year. Clawson reported that when we talk about inflation we should also talk about corporate profits. She discussed reports from the Economic Policy Institute and the Brookings Institution that show a big reason for inflation is corporations raising prices for higher profits and not labor costs. Supply chain issues are a big contributor to inflation, but profits are bigger. And when profits go up it is shareholders, not workers, who get more money. I’ll let you study their reasoning. In a report from last weekend Michel Martin of NPR talked to Dawn Davis, Editor-in-Chief of Bon Appetit about how climate change may affect what appears on our plates. Avocados and coffee may go extinct. Peaches and other stone fruits need cold weather for best taste and they have been impacted already. We should look at foods that don’t tax the environment. Instead of a fish flown halfway across the world for your sushi, use a local fish. If your strawberries are grown locally you’ll get more taste. Science Fiction writers have suggested foods of the future. Said Davis:

I think the cricket tartare served on a bed of plankton might have gone a little bit too far. But, you know, I'm willing to try everything at least once.

A while back I wrote about Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and her great response to a Republican colleague who attacked her. I’ve got a couple more posts about what she said. From Kerry Eleveld of Kos:

It's shorthand for Democrats being scary because they want to destroy everything you hold dear. Democrats often call this out as examples of the GOP using dog whistles or fearmongering to convey their message. That's true, and it is particularly compelling for the racist contingent of their base. But fearmongering isn't actually the point in and of itself. Republicans' real endgame is to get voters so incensed about change, about their loss of status or way of life, that they don't actually pay attention to the real GOP agenda.

Note that “loss of status.” The fear of the possibility of losing their position in the social hierarchy is why people are racist, misogynist, homophobic, and all the rest.

And what exactly are Republicans up to? They are making sure all of America's financial spoils continue to accumulate at the top. ... "People who are different are not the reason that our roads are in bad shape after decades of disinvestment, or that health care costs are too high, or that teachers are leaving the profession," McMorrow explained, touching on several of voters' key concerns. ... Go ahead and answer for that, Michigan Republicans. Why are the roads crap? Why are health care costs soaring? Why is there a teacher crisis? Why—particularly when Republicans have dominated control of the state legislature for the past 20 years. ... Democrats have got to couple their indignation with an immediate question, “Why do you think Republicans are doing or saying such an outrageous thing?” And then they can tell voters why, which is really quite beautiful since Republicans haven’t had a fresh idea among them since the ‘80s.

From Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald, USA Today, and ArcaMax who wrote of McMorrow’s unapologetic conviction, moral clarity, and able to state liberal values without wavering.

That’s a virtue Democrats, exhausted by years of defending against ad hominem nonsense, often forget to have. It’s hard to blame them. Debating Republicans is like debating a hailstorm. While you’re addressing the rock that smacked you in the chest, five more hit you in the head. That’s pretty much all the GOP does these days. In the absence of ideas, it throws rocks. Pedophiles! CRT! BLM! War on Christmas! Seuss! Disney! Cancel Culture! Benghazi! Death panels! Caravans! Rock after stupid rock. McMorrow’s triumph was to cut through the hail of idiocy with an implicit reminder that the moral high ground is held, not by those who objectify and thingify, who demonize, marginalize, scapegoat and fearmonger, but by those whose compassion isn’t bound by tribe, those whose hearts dwell with “the least of these,” those who build bridges in place of walls.

Biden spoke at the White House Correspondents' Dinner and did a good job, throwing out a few good zingers at the nasty guy and Fox News. He did 14 minutes and the first half was decent comedy. That included saying Fox News was there and they wouldn’t have gotten in the door if they hadn’t been vaccinated. The second half discussed the necessity of good journalists (though he didn’t say how many of these attendees haven’t been good journalists). Biden was followed by Trevor Noah, who did a good job of roasting Biden, other politicians, and a lot of the journalists in the room for 25 minutes. For example, he said the reason Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis banned math books so people wouldn’t know how to count votes in the 2024 election. Kos has both videos.