So the white man can feel superior, which he has confused with freedom

I finished the book The Burden, African Americans and the Enduring Impact of Slavery, edited by Rochelle Riley. This book is over 20 essays by various black authors refuting the claim that slavery is long gone, just get over it, nobody alive has been enslaved. These essays speak from experience that the reasons why there was slavery still exist and that the effects of slavery live on. People living today very much continue to suffer from it. I won’t list all of the topics discussed, though here are a few. I have taken up my parents’ interest in genealogy and have traced most family lines to their villages in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Germany. A few lines I and my brother have traced back to the beginning of village record keeping. I know where I come from. But for many black people slavery has erased those records and those links. For Paula Williams Madison the best she could do was a DNA test that says her father’s family came from Ghana. In contrast, her mother’s father was Chinese and once connected to her Chinese family she found its known history is 3000 years long. But for many black people they don’t know their roots, they don’t know where they came from, and they don’t know who they are. And that affects them. Kevin Blackstone discussed modern sports. Even though some black athletes are paid millions, it is still a plantation mentality that white owners can do what they want with black bodies. Tamara Winfrey-Harris wrote that on a plantation a black child didn’t have a childhood and many modern black children still don’t. That’s especially true of black girls who, when they approach puberty, are seen as budding Jezebels ready to wield their sexuality as a weapon. Vann Newkirk talked about the school to prison pipeline. T’Keyah Crystal Keymah discussed black women’s hair. White society looks at natural black hair and assumes the person is dirty, and black women assume they need to mimic the hairstyles of their oppressors for their own protection. Michelle Singletary wrote that her grandmother taught her that debt is a form of slavery. Others talked about redlining and the poor quality of schools with black students. Tonya Matthews wrote about Beyoncé’s album Lemonade and pondered why do black men not return home and why do black women continue to wait for them? Part of that might come from the slavery practice that black men were rented out to area plantations to get black women pregnant to produce more slaves. He was taught not to be faithful. An excerpt from the essay by Patrice Gaines:

When the Emancipation Proclamation freed me, it wasn’t the physical bodies and imaginative minds that those white people with economic power feared, it was the possibility that I might rise and be powerful too. That I might be as powerful as them. That they might have to share power and wealth. And so fear said: Make these darker people into monsters roaming the earth, untethered. This is the legacy of slavery. I must be a monster so the white man can feel superior, which he has confused with freedom.

This book presents its arguments quite well. I agree this is a book that white America needs to read. Another book on slavery is The Underground Railroad, Authentic Narratives and First-Hand Accounts by William Still. I bought it at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati when I visited a year ago. The book was first published in 1872. The author was a leader in the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society which was a major link in the underground railroad that got slaves out of the South and (after the Fugitive Slave Act was passed) got them through to Canada. When passengers got to Philly Still recorded their stories, their reason for escaping and method of doing so. This book is about five dozen of those stories. Alas, I didn’t finish it. The stories are important and show a great deal of determination and ingenuity. But this telling was boring. Still had filled out his notes, but with a recitation of facts and very little drama for these dramatic stories. Earlier this week was the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington, where Dr. Martin Luther King gave his famous “I have a Dream” speech. I happened to be in Washington for the 50th anniversary event and heard part of President Obama’s address to the crowd. Back to this year’s event. Walter Einenkel of Daily Kos included a video and transcript of Sacha Baron Cohen’s speech. Cohen started by asking the obvious question of this speaker at an event promoting black liberation: “Now, many of you are probably wondering, ‘What the hell is a white Jewish comedian from England doing here?’ ” Short answer: he was invited. Though he is known for some mighty raunchy comedies with some highly racist segments, he did a college thesis on the civil rights movement and spent time at the King Center in Atlanta. Here are excerpts from his speech:

There I learned about how Black Americans and Jewish Americans and people of many faiths linked arms together, went to jail together, sacrificed their lives together, and achieved historic victories together for civil rights. The brave alliance teaches a lesson that we can never forget: When we are united, we can hasten the day, as Dr. King proclaimed, when all of God's children will be able to walk the Earth in decency and honor. The power of unity is exactly why those who stand in the way of equality and freedom seek to divide us. They appeal to the worst instincts of humanity, which often simmer just below the surface. ... And so it pains me that we have to say them out loud again. The idea that people of color are inferior is a lie. The idea that Jews are dangerous and all powerful is a lie. The idea that women are not equal to men is a lie. And the idea that queer people are a threat to our children is a lie. ... So as others fuel hate and division, we choose the empathy and unity that allows us to make progress together for equality, for decency, and for democracy. Especially here in the U.S. today.

Intentionally confusing the ballot

My Sunday movie was Being 17, the English title to a 2016 French film. The setting is the Pyrenees Mountains near the border with Spain. Damien lives in town with his mother the doctor. Thomas is biracial and adopted and lives on a farm in the mountains. Getting to school is a 90 minute trek by foot and bus each way. Tom and Damien hate each other and frequently fight. Tom later says his hatred is because he thinks Damien is stuck up. Then life gets in the way. Tom’s mother is ill and Mom the doctor invites Tom to live with her and Damien to make his commute to school easier in the winter. One has a pretty good idea where this is going. But, thankfully, not quite. There’s schoolwork to complete, some growing up to do, and life to live. Metacritic gives this one a score of 83/100. Both young men were nominated for various acting awards, and the film won for best international narrative feature at the LA Outfest. I enjoyed it and recommend it. I had wanted to see a play this weekend. It’s titled Perfect Arrangement, written by Topher Payne, about a gay couple and a lesbian couple in the 1950s at the height of the Lavender Scare, when LGBTQ people were driven from government jobs because they were considered blackmail targets and thus security risks. They attempt to get around that by the gays faking being married to the lesbians and living in adjacent houses. This sounds like a play worth seeing. Alas, violent storms swept through the region Thursday evening – about the time the play let out. I’m glad I didn’t go. The storms knocked out the power, which made the rest of the show’s run impossible. The utility outage map suggests they might have gotten their power back today. David Nir and David Beard are hosts of The Downballot on Daily Kos. In this episode (transcript included) they talked to Kari Chisholm on his experience in working on drawing voting districts for the city of Portland, Oregon. This discussion is the second half of the episode, so perhaps search for the name. This is the first time Portland needed districts drawn. Before now the city council was four people, each elected by the entire city. They are moving to a council of twelve from four districts each supplying three. They hope this will broaden the representation on the council – the eastern quarter rarely got a seat and the western quarter almost always got a seat. Now both will have three seats. And those three seats will be chosen by ranked choice. Chisholm describes some of what the districting commission did. They talked about: What makes a good district? What does “community of interest” mean? How do they boost the representation of renters to be on par with homeowners? They talked to neighborhood organizations both before they drew maps and after. I had helped to get Michigan’s districting commission passed and attended some of their meetings. So I am quite interested in what it was like for a commissioner. An Associated Press article posted on Kos reported that backers of abortion rights are furious with the way their proposal will be summarized on the ballot. Their fury is, of course, directed at a Republican, this one Secretary of State Frank LaRose. An example of the switch: The original says “abortion may be prohibited after fetal viability” and the replacement says “always allow an unborn child to be aborted at any stage of pregnancy, regardless of viability if, in the treating physician's determination.” Laura Blauvelt of Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights calls this substitute summary “propaganda.” LaRose also, quite intentionally, labeled it “Issue 1,” the same as the ballot question earlier this month. Yup, let’s get as much confusion in the mix there as possible. The people that voted no on that Issue 1 will want, just three months later, to vote yes on this Issue 1. All the yard signs and other campaign documents will have to warn of the reversal. A week ago I wrote about the discussion of using the 14th Amendment to disqualify the nasty guy from the ballot. That’s the place in the Constitution that says someone who committed insurrection shall not be allowed to hold government office. Last week the discussion was how to trigger its use. Aldous Pennyfarthing of Kos reported Lawrence Caplan, an attorney in Florida, has brought a suit in a federal court to disqualify the nasty guy. Pennyfarthing then reviewed a few legal scholars, both liberal and conservative, who concur that the nasty guy is not eligible to run and serve as president. Perhaps instead of lawsuits secretaries of state should act on their own. But no matter how it is done it will be litigated. This could be fun. Kenneth Chesebro, one of the 18 co-defendants in the Georgia case about attempts to overturn the election, asked for a speedy trial. The prosecuting attorney requested a trial in March 2024. All the other defendants, particularly the guy at the top, want to delay the case as long as possible and certainly after the 2024 election. In response to Chesebro’s request the court granted him a date – October 23, as in just under two months from now. Now most of the other defendants are (or will soon be) clamoring that the whole group not be tried together. Sure, let Chesebro go first, but please delay my case. In the comments of a pundit roundup on Kos are a series of cartoons by Ann Telnaes. The nasty guy had posted last week “The public knows who I am.” That prompted Telnaes to show the ways the public knows him – “Narcissist, liar, instigator, phony, con man, thief, and a little, little man. In the comments of another roundup Rick McKee drew a cartoon of the nasty guy under arrest as the ghost of John McCain tosses words back at him saying, “I like people who weren’t captured.” Charles Jay of the Kos community reported that Russian propagandists have been quite busy claiming the plane crash that killed Yevgeny Prigozhin, was not caused by Putin. Must have been someone else that did it. Even Belarus strongman Lukashenko declared Putin didn’t do it. In an update Jay added that the Russian Investigative Committee had completed “molecular genetic examinations” of the bodies recovered from the crash and have confirmed they are Prigozhin, a few leaders in the Wagner group, and the others stated on the passenger list. Is “molecular genetic examinations” another name for DNA testing? Or is the RIC claiming some sort of scientific cover for their claim that Prigozhin is dead? Kos of Kos reported there is an emerging pro-Putin talking point coming from Republicans. The claim is that the US needs to “pivot to China” and to do that we have to drop our support of Ukraine. Kos then explains how silly and stupid that claim is. His major points: While China may not overtly support Russia’s war in Ukraine, they are allies and both are part of the growing BRICS movement. If China attacked Taiwan Russia and its Pacific fleet would support China. Allowing Russia to win in Ukraine would tie up NATO forces in Eastern Europe and hamper the US ability to focus on China. And if the US abandons its European allies, Asian allies would notice. So the US must fully support defeating Russia before it pivots to Asia.

An adopt-a-pet event for the billionaire class

I didn’t watch the Republican debate Wednesday evening. I didn’t want to waste the brain cells. The good people at Daily Kos provided enough highlights and commentary to show I didn’t miss a thing. Kos of Kos discussed the winners and losers. Among the winners are Ukraine – Pence and Haley came to Ukraine’s defense and the crowd cheered. Topic done. Also a winner: Rule of Law – Christie talked about it and got a good response. Among the losers: Allegiance to “life” got a bored response from the crowd at a Republican debate. As for how the actual candidates did, read the article. Kerry Eleveld of Kos discussed that in addition to the Republicans in the audience at the live event many independents were given dials they could turn to show how much they agreed or disagreed with what the speaker was saying. One could see in real time what lines brought what kind of response.

When it came to the key issues on which the general election will likely be fought—Trump's alleged crimes, fitness for office, and abortion—the Republican crowd's reaction was almost always polar opposite of the dial-in independents. For instance, when Christie looked directly into the cameras and said of Trump, “Someone has got to stop normalizing this conduct,” the crowd began booing just as reactions from independents started trending up. "Whether or not you believe that the criminal charges are right or wrong," Christie continued, "the conduct is beneath the office of president of the United States." By the time Christie finished, he had cleared 90% among independent women and 80% among independents overall. ... The other side of the coin was Ramaswamy absolutely plummeting with independents as he declared Trump "the best president of the 21st century." The crowd went wild.

Hunter of Kos wrote that nobody won the debate. However, it did show the party doesn’t need the nasty guy anymore.

If you're an insufferable godbotherer then you've got Mike Pence, who's willing to channel Jesus Christ Himself at the drop of a hat so Jesus can tell you all about how brilliant Pence is while Mother looks on with adoration. If you want a rough-and-tumble asshole, Chris Christie is your guy. Nikki Haley is for the fans of tactical evasiveness, and Ron DeSantis is the jackass who grew up thinking he would be America's Julius Caesar, only to learn that the general public already has a lot of people like that in their family and at their workplace and aren't particularly interested in adding in another.

There was a telling moment. The candidates were asked if they would support the nasty guy – the one indicted for attempting to overthrow the last election – all but one “took sheepish looks at one another and timidly raised their hands.” That included Pence – “Not even Pence thinks sending a violent, police-attacking mob after him is something that should disqualify a person from being granted the power to try it again.”

It was all just another evening of dull nihilism, one with a flashy opening and a lot of yelling and no real principles you could plant your flag in. This is a party that has lost its way, a set of performances even the most partisan of crowds appear to be tiring of. There should be a lesson there, but there's nobody left in the party who seems capable of finding it.

Laura Clawson of Kos reported:

“Woke” has been one of the top Republican refrains of recent months and even years, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in particular turning to it whenever he feels the need to score a point. So it was shocking when the word was used only once in the first Republican presidential debate, and not once by DeSantis. ... From catchphrase to dead and buried in record time.

Before the debate Hunter offered advice to the candidates. I’ll skip all that and go to Hunter’s description of the evening.

But the main thing they’ll be going after this evening is convincing the conservative press—and conservative big-dollar donors—that they look "presidential" enough to be worth sponsoring. This is an adopt-a-pet event for the billionaire class.

In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted the NBS News’ “Meet the Press” blog. In this excerpt candidate Tim Scott had a discussion with a voter from New Hampshire, with the voter speaking:

You don’t stand up to Trump, how are you going to stand up to the president of Russia and China?

Eleveld discussed the performance of candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, perhaps more dangerous than the nasty guy. It seems when Ramaswamy became a candidate he had no beliefs. He crafted his message based on what sort of reaction he got from the audience. From that process the ten point platform, uh, philosophical positions he came up with is a doozy. Well, much of it is a much better articulation of what the nasty guy said and did. But Ramaswamy does add two points the nasty guy didn’t: “God is real.” “The nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind.” I and a great number of LGBTQ people know quite well what a candidate means when he starts his ten points with “God is real.” And it ain’t gonna be good for us or the nation. That second point is the one that took up most of Eleveld’s discussion. First, Ramaswamy blames our problems on fatherlessness. That conjures up Reagan’s racist “welfare queen” stereotype. There’s a whole lot of ugly misdirection that goes along with that. The second part of that is the comparison that in the same way a father is needed to rule the family this country needs to be ruled by a father figure – a patriarch, one who embodies patriarchy and can define for the country what is patriotic. Conservative Christians are delighted with that line of thought. And that thought is what makes Ramaswamy more dangerous than the nasty guy.

A conflict of interest between clients

I had written about some of the nasty guy’s co-conspirators complaining he and the MAGA crowd were not helping out with paying legal fees. Mark Sumner of Daily Kos discussed a case in which who pays the legal fees is more of a problem than a help. This isn’t the case about the conspiracy to overthrow the election. It’s about the documents hidden at the Florida resort. The main character is Yuscil Taveras, head of IT operations at the resort. He’s the one identified as “Trump Employee 4.” He denied knowing how the security camera recordings were deleted or lost. After Taveras testified before the grand jury. Three months later he was informed he’s the target of investigation. After that Taveras said the earlier statement was a lie. Why did he change his tune? Sumner suggested it was because Taveras changed lawyers. His original lawyer also represented the nasty guy, personal aide Walt Nauta, and others. So Taveras originally lied to protect this lawyer’s other clients. But when he became a target that didn’t sit so well. His lawyer gave bad advice because whatever he said could bring more charges to the lawyer’s other clients. So he asked the court for another lawyer. And spilled the beans. That’s why in this case the special counsel added more charges to his indictments of the nasty guy and his other partners in crime. In this case the nasty guy provided the lawyers and paid the legal fees. But those lawyers had conflicts of interest amongst their clients and with the guy paying the fees. I started hearing this bit of news yesterday afternoon. I noticed how carefully reporters were choosing their words. An Associated Press article posted on Kos said as much as the radio reports. A plane crashed in Russia yesterday, killing all ten people on board. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner Group and the leader of the attempted and disbanded Russia coup a while back, was on the passenger list. But saying he was on the passenger list does not say he was actually on the plane and therefore now dead. Russia is saying he was on board. But we know how much Russian media lies. And we also know how much Putin likes revenge and the many stories of high level officials falling from windows. Not to much of a stretch to think he made sure the plane crashed. In a Ukraine update Kos of Kos discussed all the possible scenarios of maybe Prigozhin is still alive or Putin murdered him. The crash is of a nature that DNA tests would be required to verify any remains.

But really, there are two obvious possibilities: Either Putin killed Prigozhin to settle the score from the failed coup, or Prigozhin faked his death to hide from Putin.

Then there are those (the ones who think the source of all evil is the US) who pulled the CIA into the mess. But why pull in the CIA when Putin eliminating the guy who launched a coup against him is a much more obvious scenario? And theories get even stranger from there. In the rest of his Ukraine update Kos discussed Bakhmut, the little town of no importance that Russia (and Progozhin’s mercenaries) took nine months to capture. It made little sense for Russia to spend so much effort to take the town. Now that Russia has taken it and not pushing any farther Ukraine seems to be expending a lot of manpower to take it back. And that also doesn’t seem to be worth the effort. NATO generals have noticed and apparently told Ukraine to forget Bakhmut. There’s nothing of value there to liberate and Ukraine needs to focus on what does matter, that comprehensive counteroffensive. It appears Ukraine is listening. As for that counteroffensive, there are four lines of Russian defenses for Ukraine to get through to liberate Tokmak, the city Russia turned into a logistics hub. By liberating Robotyne Ukraine is now through the first line. Just south of Robotyne is a ridge. From that ridge it is all downhill to Tokmak. That gave RO37 of the Kos community a chance to explain the advantage of fighting from the higher elevation. A review of a few famous battles that included hills show the change in elevation doesn’t have to be much. The famous hill battles include Bunker Hill, Pratzen Heights near Austerlitz (Napoleon), Little Round Top at Gettysburg, Sugar Loaf Hill on Okinawa, and Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima, which also had a giant underground fortress. The advantage of elevation is the guy at the top has only his head exposed to the guy down below, and the one below has his whole body exposed to the guy at the top. Last Sunday Kos posted photos of Zelenskyy visiting NATO countries Netherlands and Denmark to receive donations of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. That’s great! Then Kos got into the challenges. Not enough potential pilots know English and training manuals haven’t been translated. Why didn’t they start with the English training when Zelenskyy first asked about acquiring the planes? Then there is logistics, which has been discussed many times during the war. And that comes down to each plane needs 50 personnel to maintain and operate it. Add to that every different kind of equipment Ukraine is getting from other countries, each with its own logistical needs. It is complicated, hard, and can’t be done all at once. Then there is the expense. An F-16 costs $27,000 per hour to fly. Then each hour takes 17 hours of maintenance. A pundit roundup by Chitown Kev for Kos includes quotes by Sethu Pradeep of Indian Express discussing the achievement by the Indian Space Research Organisation of landing a spacecraft near the south pole of the moon. India is only the fourth nation to land a spacecraft on the moon (Russia just crashed one) and the first to land at the south pole. The craft includes a rover that will soon begin scientific experiments. Back to that crashed plane... In the comments of that roundup is a cartoon by Lalo Alcaraz with the words, “Fly Putin Airlines, when a window’s not enough.” A later AP article does not confirm Prigozhin is among the dead. It does say that the other six passengers were in the Wagner leadership. There were also three crew who died. All of the leadership on one flight means someone screwed up on security. The flight was headed towards St. Petersburg, where Wagner has its headquarters. It crashed because there was an explosive on board. There Progozhin supporters treated the news as his death, creating a memorial outside the building.

It’s time to brand environmental awareness as masculine

Because of news people saying COVID cases on the rise I downloaded Michigan’s data. I hadn’t done that in the last seven weeks. Yes, cases are up, a small but steady rise since the beginning of July (about the last time I checked the data). Over that time the weekly peaks in new cases per day have been 131, 132, 128, 146, 195, 279, 282, 332, and 364. This is much below last December when there were peaks above 2000 and a year ago when there were peaks close to 3000 (and above 23300 just after New Year in 2022). The deaths per day has been in the single digits since about mid May and has been 2 or fewer deaths in the last four weeks. An Associated Press article posted on Daily Kos reported that though the state of Georgia passed a law to make it easier to ban books out of school libraries, the rate they’re doing so is well below other states with such laws. The reason is that while the process is simpler, it is restricted to actual parents with children in the district. Yeah, parents who join groups such as Mama Bears do challenge books and get them removed. But activist citizens who don’t have children can’t badger schools and libraries. And that makes a big difference. Yesterday I wrote about a CBS poll about nasty guy voters and who they feel is telling them the truth. Today I include another piece of that poll, reported by Kerry Eleveld of Kos. This question asked voters who say honesty is very important who they support. 61%, almost two-thirds, of those who say honesty is important support the nasty guy. In a distant second place is the 17% who support DeathSantis. Yeah, I’m struggling with those who say they value honesty are supporting the guy known for how constantly he lies. The rest of Eleveld’s post is about how convinced the MAGA crowd is that the nasty guy will beat Biden in 2024. And if he’s not the nominee, any Republican will beat Biden.

Only a legitimate cult could believe a guy who twice lost the popular vote, was defeated in 2020, doomed an entire slate of handpicked MAGA candidates in 2022, and is now haunted by four criminal indictments is a shoo-in for 2024.

That may not be such a strange belief when they’re fed a steady diet of videos of Biden stumbling over words and sandbags. If the MAGA crowd is fed a steady diet of a frail and bumbling Biden they could very easily believe that Biden stole the 2024 election too. Joe and Jill Biden went to Hawaii to look over the Lahaina devastation and offer comfort and support. While there he did what Republicans are trying to turn into a scandal. His crime: he petted a dog. Specifically a dog helping to find missing people who might still be under the ashes. That moment, and the Republican reaction to it, prompted Hunter of Kos to review the protocols when a dog presents itself to you. You complement the dog, then you pet it (if the dog is willing). If the dog is accompanied by a human handler you then then acknowledge the handler by complementing the dog. Hunter goes from there. Can’t wait for Republicans to try to broaden the scandal by showing Biden petting dogs. Jen Sorensen of Kos comics noted that conservatives have tried to declare fossil fuels are manly and renewable energy are effeminate. It’s time to flip that script and brand environmental awareness as masculine. One frame says, “Trucks are for wimps. Real men use real muscles.” It shows a man on a bicycle saying to a man in a truck, “Outta my way, softie!” In another pundit roundup for Kos a cartoon by Dennis Goris was posted in the comments. On either side of a child wearing a vest are two women. The kid’s mother tells the other, “I usually don’t like to splurge on back-to-school stuff but it is kevlar.”

Who decides what is unconstitutional, unjust, and evil?

An Associated Press article posted on Daily Kos discusses the current state of the constitutional sheriff movement. I haven’t discussed them in a while. The story begins with comments by Dar Leaf, who says, “The sheriff is supposed to be protecting the public from evil.” Also, he says sheriffs have a duty to “protect their citizens from the overreach of an out-of-control federal government” and to refuse to enforce any law they determine to be unconstitutional or unjust. And unjust laws are laws of tyranny. My first reaction on reading that was who decides what is unconstitutional, unjust, and evil? What I consider “evil” – such as guns so prevalent that schools must to active shooter drills, that masks to prevent the spread of COVID are targeted as an abomination, and claiming the nasty guy won the 2020 election – is quite different from what Sheriff Leaf considers as “evil.” The other half of what’s wrong with what Leaf said is deciding constitutionality of a law is not their job. Mary McCord, executive director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown University said:

They have no authority, not under their state constitutions or implementing statutes to decide what’s constitutional and what’s not constitutional. That’s what courts have the authority to do, not sheriffs.

The more recent developments are the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association has been holding training sessions, rallies, and meeting with law enforcement groups and political figures in 30 states. They are also getting supporters onto state boards in charge of law enforcement training standards. That gives their “training” an aura of approval. One more problem with CSPOA – the group, according to McCord,

is now essentially part of a broader movement in the United States to think it’s OK to use political violence if we disagree with some sort of government policy.

These sheriffs will gladly draw comparisons between themselves and civil rights protesters of the 1950s and ‘60s. They say they are also defying unjust laws. But there’s a big difference. The civil rights leaders, using the concept of non violent civil disobedience, were willing to take the consequences of disobeying an unjust law. These sheriffs are using violence to enforce what they believe the law should be. Kos of Kos discussed a CBS poll, specifically the question: Do you feel what they tell you is true? The story is about the answers from nasty guy voters. First a bit of background. Cults work hard to block their members from anyone that might pull them back to reality. This “disconnection” is described as removing obstacles to growth within the cult. Now to the results of the poll. 71% say that what the nasty guy tells them is true. 42% say what their religious leaders tell them is true. As much as I don’t like the direction conservative religions are going to have 42% nasty guy voters not trust religious leaders is scary. But that explains why so many of them now believe the commandment of Jesus to turn the other cheek is “weak,” as I mention a few days ago. Only 56% saying they feel conservative media is telling them the truth might be surprising, but the nasty guy has been bashing Fox News quite a bit lately. 63% of them feel their friends and family are telling them the truth, and that 36% don’t. Yeah, that’s action of a cult. Now back to the 71% who believe the nasty guy is telling the truth. That means 29%

of Trump voters don’t feel that Trump himself tells them the truth. That is, a significant portion of Trump’s own voters think he’s full of s---, and they still support him!

A couple more thoughts from the article. First, when Hurricane Michael devastated the Florida panhandle in 2019 nasty guy supporters weren’t upset the government had failed them. They expected that. They were upset he had failed them. Second, the only purpose of government they see is whether it is hurting the people they hate: immigrants, minorities, Democrats, city people, women, and college students. One is quoted as being upset with him because, “He’s not hurting the people he needs to be hurting.” Mark Sumner of Kos reported that the nasty guy is raking in lots of bucks for his “legal defense fund” – $250 million as of June 2022. Now that his actions and leadership has led to the indictment of 18 co-defendants none of that money is going to help them. Some of them are now complaining that the MAGA people, on whose behalf they sacrificed their career and perhaps freedom, are also not helping with defense funds. Which means they’re much more likely to cut a deal with the prosecutor to share what they know of the nasty guy in hopes of a reduced sentence. I now have twice as many posts mentioning the nasty guy (440) as I do mentioning President Obama (219) and more than four times as many posts that mention Biden (98), though he’ll be around for a while. Ah, for the time when the president was boring.

His smirking mug on every corner or the apocalypse? A tough sell.

My Sunday movie was Tu me manques. I think the movie said the title translated from Spanish means I miss you in me. (Google translate says something quite different.) It is based on a true story. Gabriel had moved from his conservative Bolivia to New York. There he meets Sebastian, also from Bolivia. They fall in love. The movie actually opens with Gabriel’s father receiving his son’s red backpack and suitcase. A while later he receives his son’s body. Dad goes off to New York to demand from Sebastian what did you do to my son? Dad meets his son’s friends and begins to understand who his son was. There is a scene where Dad talks to a priest about what the Bible says, and doesn’t say, about homosexuality. Sebastian wants to do something about the homophobia in Bolivia and creates a play featuring thirty versions of Gabriel – the audition of these men explaining why they want to be a part of the play is intense – as are several scenes in the movie. The story is not told in a linear manner. There is a lot of jumping between Gabriel and Sebastian falling in love, then Sebastian dealing with Dad, and Dad learning about Gabriel’s life. When Sebastian takes Dad to a restaurant where Gabriel had worked we almost see them in the same scene. I now prefer watching stories with a lot less homophobia. Even so, I recommend this one. The University of Houston LGBTQ Resource Center took a while to get approved and get up and running. That happened only a few years ago. Monique Welch of the Texas Tribune, in an article posted on Daily Kos, reported the UH LGBTQ Center is closing because of a Texas Senate bill that bans diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at public higher education institutions. The law exempts student run programs, but this one was run by the university. Orion Rummler is a writer for The 19th a “trusted source for contextualizing LGBTQ+ and education news.” In an article posted on Kos he started with:

At least 11 states have passed laws to censor discussion of LGBTQ+ issues in public schools, eliminating the potential for queer students to see themselves in their education. But most LGBTQ+ students haven’t been learning about their community in school anyway. Instead, they’ve turned to the internet to learn about their identities as queer and trans young people. Some do online research about LGBTQ+ identities after learning from their friends or seeing representation in fiction.

Schools hadn’t been teaching LGBTQ history, didn’t mention us in sex ed classes. That comes from surveys of students, most in high school, a few in middle school and college. So the Don’t Say Gay laws don’t make much difference. So in some places the students are teaching themselves. One club meets once a week and students present history from the LGBTQ, women’s, and black point of view. Willie Carver, an English teacher, said it was embarrassing to watch teens try to do what professionals should be doing and also inspiring to see them care enough to persist. They’re also more motivated over these topics than they are over the sanitized curriculum. As for learning about their community on the internet there is a lot of good content, and also a lot of very bad content. And a teen may not be able to tell the difference. Mark Sumner of Kos reported that when the nasty guy was indicted last week he boasted that today he would release a report that would result in “complete exoneration.” Then last Friday he signaled that the report and associated news conference was “no longer necessary.” Friday’s announcement included words such as “I believe” and “my lawyers prefer.” Which means, wrote Sumner, that those lawyers convinced him these charges are serious and that litigating in public, and committing more crimes as he did so, rather than in the courtroom would damage his case. That’s some amazing lawyering.

So for the moment, Trump has to bite his lips, scowl, and go without a television appearance in order to please his attorneys. But Trump’s faux contrition is unlikely to last. After all, if Trump can’t run his mouth without limit, isn’t he already in jail?

Greg Dworkin, in a pundit roundup for Kos, quoted a couple articles that discuss the same idea. The 14th Amendment of the Constitution says that a person who committed insurrection shall not be allowed to hold government office. Of course, this is aimed at the nasty guy. Today I heard on NPR (maybe the last half of this show here?) a discussion about this clause in the 14th amendment. One of the basic questions is how does it get triggered? Election officials in one or more states who refuse to put someone on the ballot? Citizens sue to make it happen? (and who has standing to bring the lawsuit?) There was agreement such actions should happen well before the election rather than after. Hunter of Kos noted that Republicans don’t have any policies, they just support whatever the nasty guy wants. So how might Democrats use that to their advantage? One way is to name every bill after the nasty guy: The “Donald Trump American Awesomeness Act” for example.

Now, I'm not thickheaded. I know full well there are two main problems with this plan. The first would be that while we could probably save the planet and certainly society by slapping Trump's name on everything, it would require seeing Trump's name on everything. It would be a hellscape. A hellscape of free health insurance, lower global temperatures, and the continued existence of Florida, to be sure, but if the price is seeing Trump's smirking mug on every corner, then it's quite possible the majority of America would prefer apocalypse. It's a tough sell.

There is a lesser problem that if we’re using the nasty guy’s name he’d want a cut. Though that might start a bidding war with billionaires. The other way is for Joe Biden to change his name to Donald Trump. The base would get the second term they’re clamoring for. Biden could claim he’s the original and that guy in Florida is the impostor. We’re already used to the nasty guy contradicting himself. And the old Trump is likely going to prison where he can’t object to what the new one says. I had written that since liberal justice Janet Protasiewicz joined the Wisconsin Supreme Court and flipped the court to a progressive majority the conservatives on the court have become quite annoyed. Quinn Yeargain of the Daily Kos Elections community discussed two of those conservatives, Justice Rebecca Bradley and Chief Justice Annette Ziegler. The chief justice is annoyed because the liberals are limiting her power, saying she’s been abusing it. As for Bradley, she sounds like a full throated conservative, criticizing everything and everyone that doesn’t conform to her beliefs and getting in her way of imposing those beliefs on others. She tosses out a great deal of projection along the way. Hunter reported that in Georgia Republican State Senator Colton Moore is calling on the governor to call a special session of the legislature to “review” what Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis did in indicting the nasty guy. That review is to consider impeaching her and stripping funding of her office (and he adds a “donate here” button). Hunter wrote that Moore’s move is deplorable but right on brand for Republicans. As for the party as a whole...

Republicanism is a fascist movement, and fascist movements operate from the core presumption that they are allowed to commit crimes and promote violence as long as it is in service to expanding movement power.

In the comments of one of Greg Dworkin’s pundit roundups for Kos there is a cartoon by Christopher Weyant in which a mob boss is playing poker with his associates and he tells one, “Get our consigliere. We want to sue Trump for giving organized crime and racketeering a bad name.” And a cartoon by the Daily Felltoon shows the devil in a MAGA t-shirt in bed next to a very surprised evangelical. The devil says, “Oh, come on, now... Who did you really think you were in bed with?” In another roundup is a cartoon by Bob Englehart. A black man is talking to a white man. The black man speaks first.

What are you white people so afraid of? That you will treat us the way we treated you! You mean lynch you and rape your women? And steal our jobs! So, you’re afraid of revenge. (pause) That and justice.

Pint-sized heroes

RO37 of Daily Kos discussed the nasty guy legal team’s claim that a proposed trial date for one of his crimes scheduled for January 2, 2024 is simply unreasonable and that the trial must be postponed until April 2026 (a year after the start of what he hopes is his second term). The reason they want the later date is there are 11.5 million pages of evidence and the defense team would need to review 100,000 pages a day to meet the earlier trial date. RO37 says they don’t know (or pretending they don’t know) how document reviews are done in the computer age. He says that with good authority – he works for a company that reviews documents for law firms. No, there are not 11.5 million pieces of paper and they haven’t been a thing for about 20 years. And with all the tools available to work through 11.5 million documents (including which documents say something similar to others or don’t add anything at all) he and his crew could get through them “in six weeks. Not six years. Not six months. Six weeks.” Handling this number of documents is now routine stuff.

[Judge] Chutkan, of course, is undoubtedly aware of common practices in handling larger volumes of evidence in major litigation. I think she is unlikely to be sympathetic to Team Trump’s claims of the need for a years-long delay. For Trump’s legal team to suggest that such volume requires years of review potentially implies complete ignorance of modern major litigation practices. More likely, it is a disingenuous ploy to undermine the credibility of the court in the public eye when their request is denied. TrumpWorld is all but certain to fall for it—but I know you won’t.

Back in 2010 Mark Sumner of Kos wrote the book, The Evolution of Everything: How selection shapes culture, commerce, and nature. Amazon lists it as limited availability. In this post Sumner applies those same principles to the Republican Party. In almost every democracy is a political party that is pro-business, anti-labor, and for “traditional values” – that being whatever their base believes. These are parties easily tipped into authoritarianism. Up until Reagan Republicans could work with Democrats when it benefited the nation (the Senate overrode Nixon’s veto of the Clean Water Act in two hours). Then Reagan harnessed dissatisfaction with government policies into support for crippling the government. Newt Gingrich went from limiting government to eroding governance – make the government inoperable. Both Gingrich and Reagan did it through emphasizing racism. That means the nasty guy’s ideas are not new. Reagan and Gingrich

applied selective pressure that boosted the candidate willing to adopt the most radical view of Reagan’s racist authoritarianism—even if that meant going to positions even Reagan would find abhorrent.

That selective pressure was (and still is) hate and fear.

That’s also not a new thing. Hate, especially in the form of racism, has long been the most effective means of persuading people to take actions that with any reflection would obviously be damaging to their own interests. Make people hate enough and keep them scared enough, and that reflection never happens. ... Republicans have pushed their racism, anti-labor, anti-environment, and anti-government schtick to a near end game. When you've labeled your opponents satanic pedophile communist cannibals in service to a deep state conspiracy of international (read: Jewish) billionaires, what action can’t be justified? More importantly, what do you do for an encore? Right now, Republicans appear to be running almost entirely on a syrup derived from attacking the LGBTQ+ community, but there’s only so many times you can say “drag queen story time” before it loses its punch. They’ve already consumed the good stuff.

A phrase used by the right is “America is not a democracy.” No they are not misunderstanding that a republic is a democracy. They are paving the way for getting rid of democracy. Taking his evolution ideas a step further, Sumner says there are two possible scenarios for the Republican Party. The first is they go into full fascism. The second is they go extinct. We hope for the second. Earlier this week I wrote about the case in Montana won by a group of 16 kids who had sued for a cleaner environment. Sumner discussed what effect (lots, we hope) this ruling will have on other such cases.

The case is certainly concerning Republicans. As HuffPost reports, Sen. Steve Daines responded with a statement about “[a]ctivist judges … helping far-Left environmentalists push their green hallucination down the throats of Americans.” Yeah, those kids are just pint-sized lobbyists. And after all, it’s not as if July was the hottest month in the history of mankind or something. (Spoiler alert: It was.) Republicans are also calling these kids “pawns.” But there’s a better word: They’re heroes. And we’re going to need a lot more like the Montana 16.

Will cut the deal just to keep the legal expenses down

Yeah, there’s still a few things to mention related to the nasty guy’s fourth indictment. Mark Sumner of Daily Kos discussed the current silly argument that what the nasty guy did really isn’t a crime. They do that by “breaking it down into its smallest components. And then trying to argue that if you dice them up small enough, none of the pieces are really a crime on their own.” After listing the individual indictments of Mark Meadows and Jenna Ellis Sumner wrote:

That Republicans are singling out tiny fragments of these actions and trying to make it seem as if that makes the whole indictment invalid is absurd in the extreme. Not only are these acts just a fraction of the total picture, but even the smallest, normal, everyday action can be illegal when it is done in furtherance of a crime. Just ask any getaway driver.

Kos of Kos wrote:

Trump has fashioned himself after a mob boss, but those guys are generally smart—they make sure to keep anyone who might testify against them either happy or dead. We can stipulate that Trump hasn’t resorted to murdering his enemies, but he could at the very least take care of those with access to his damning secrets. For example, he could pay the legal bills of all his indicted co-conspirators, making sure they remain dependent on him for their freedom. ... It’s simple self-preservation: If they can’t afford to pay their bills, their likelihood of turning into the state’s witness is exponentially higher. But of course Trump won’t do that.

Kos reported that the nasty guy has refused to pay the legal bills for Giuliani (who I see cartoonists are calling “Ghouliani”) and Jenna Ellis. He may refuse to pay Giuliani’s bills because they are so high. The bills for Ellis aren’t high (yet), but Ellis, though she has given him years of service, has stated her support for DeathSantis. None of these people are the good guys. Based on this sort of treatment several of them will cut a deal against their former boss. And some of them will cut the deal just to keep the legal expenses down. In a pundit roundup Greg Dworkin of Kos quoted Jonathan Last of The Atlantic. Last describes a couple hypothetical scenarios, which he can’t prove, about the vice nasty, but are also about the two political parties. If the vice nasty walked through a crowd at a nasty guy rally he would not be safe even with a security detail. His Secret Service team would probably prevent it. But the vice nasty could walk through a Biden crowd without security and the worst that would happen would be snide comments. Some might shake his hand for saving the Republic on Jan 6. And down in the comments connief57 posted a quote from Bruce Springsteen:

You are not alone. Decent Americans outnumber Trump supporters 3 to 1.

In the comments of another pundit roundup exlrrp posted a meme that says:

Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

Kos told the story of a conservative woman who goes by Reformed-Her 007. She won’t be voting this year (and her husband approves). Her reasoning isn’t that she’s disgusted with the nasty guy and a party that won’t challenge him. It’s because she thinks “things like voting and law enforcement should be reserved for MEN ONLY.” Kos then surveyed the conservative media and found many instances of people calling for a repeal of a woman’s right to vote. That included John Gibbs, a MAGA Republican House candidate last year. He gave the tired reason that women shouldn’t vote because the Founding Father’s didn’t put it in the constitution and they “understood liberty and democracy better than anyone.” They understood 18th century democracy and our understanding has matured. Other women decried the sentiment of the conservative woman – at least while women can vote. They say by not voting she cuts her husband’s voting power in half. An Associated Press article posted on Kos showed one cause of the Lahaina fire was live power lines downed by high winds. That left many people wondering why the electric company didn’t shut the power off. There was also a lot of complaining that with some power off (downed lines) people weren’t able to get notifications about the severity of the situation. So do you want notifications or the power off? Yeah, this is just one aspect of a lot of coming investigations. Hunter of Kos reported the conspiracy cranks are in action after the Lahaina fire. One claim was suspicious that the Obama estate wasn’t touched by the blaze (it’s on a different island).

The Maui fires would either have to charter a private boat to travel the 100 miles of Pacific Ocean that separate the two, or purchase a commercial plane ticket to Honolulu like the rest of us. Most wildfires do not have that kind of money.

There was also the claim that Bill Gates’ estate wasn’t touched either (it’s near Seattle with 2600 miles of Pacific Ocean in between).

Oh, and the proliferation of these especially ridiculous claims probably has at least something to do with a billionaire named Elon Musk now making it known he's willing to hand out cash prizes to the wankers whose conspiracy theories can drive the most traffic.

If he were an ordinary citizen he would be in jail by now

Yeah, there is that fourth indictment against the nasty guy. This one appears to have real consequences to it, not something that can be satisfied with paying a fine. Of course, there are several articles about it on Daily Kos. Laura Clawson starts off with some of the basics of this one. This is about the efforts in Georgia to overturn the 2020 election, brought by a district attorney in Georgia working under Georgia’s laws. The main charge is racketeering. Dictionary.com defines that as extortion. A lot of racketeering is done by more than one person, and the indictment lists 18 other people who helped the nasty guy. The nasty guy likes to say he was only doing what his lawyers suggested. This time the lawyers are indicted too. If he got back to the White House he can’t pardon himself or his co-conspirators because this follows Georgia law and pardons are very hard to get (thanks to a constitutional amendment passed in 1943 in response to Gov. E.D. Rivers and his scheme to peddle pardons). An Associated Press article posted on Kos describes the 18 associates included in the indictment. It includes the top players – Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Mark Meadows, Sidney Powell – plus many I hadn’t heard of before. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/15/2187371/-A-look-at-the-19-people-charged-in-Georgia-indictment-connected-to-Trump-election-scheme Mark Sumner of Kos reviewed why this being a racketeering indictment is so important. It is referred here as RICO – Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations. It makes a difference in what is to be proven and what evidence can be used. It gave federal and state prosecutors a big boost when going after Mafia, drug cartels, and criminal organizations. That include Wall Street insider trading and corrupt health care providers. The law is for going after the criminals at the top of the pyramid. So this indictment isn’t against just the nasty guy, it is also against the whole team of coup plotters. In a delicious bit of irony Giuliani used RICO laws quite a bit when cleaning out the Italian Mafia (so the Russian Mafia could move in). The attorney is bringing the case in Fulton County, Georgia because the attempted outcome would have affected voters in Fulton County. Sumner then explains there may be individual acts that are generally legal and all those acts taken together that are a crime. In this case the purpose of all those acts was to “unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump.” An important part of the Georgia RICO law is if a person is found guilty they must serve time in prison. That means the smaller players in that list of 18 are going to be looking for deals. A likely outcome of a deal is to give more evidence against those at the top of the enterprise. Kerry Eleveld of Kos noted that the nasty guy’s tendency to punch back and intimidate those who try to bring him to justice. That works in a political rally and he has lashed out at the judges in other cases. But Georgia law...

Legal expert and co-editor-in-chief of Just Security Ryan Goodman pointed to one key difference regarding a defendant's eligibility for release on bail. Georgia puts the burden of proof on the defendant to demonstrate they pose "no significant risk of intimidating witnesses."

An AP article posted on Kos introduces Fulton County attorney Fani Willis and some of what she did to bring this case. Sumner discussed the term FAFO (F[ool] Around and Find Out). Don’t believe there will be consequences? Keep doing what you’re doing. These are state charges. Returning to the White House and its ability to pardon can’t make these state charges disappear. The state governor can’t pardon. Sumner fills in the story about Gov. E.D. Rivers and why the pardon power was taken away from him. Even the state pardon board will only clear a record five years after a sentence has been fully served. Of course, various people are now calling for the Georgia governor to be given the ability to pardon. But that ability was taken away by a constitutional amendment. The indictment names the nasty guy and 18 more people. But the “criminal enterprise” wasn’t limited to just those. Eleveld reported there were lots of accomplices outside of Georgia and many Republicans are getting worried. The list of those include the Republican National Committee, the fake electors in several states, individual efforts to refuse to certify the vote, and people like Sen. Lindsey Graham, who called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger lobbying to invalidate votes. A pundit roundup by Greg Dworkin for Kos included a quote from Simon Rosenberg, writing “Hopium Cronicles” on Substack. Rosenberg quoted and then expanded on a tweet from Stuart Stevens. Here’s what Stevens wrote:

This is basically a Rico indictment of the Republican Party. As it should be. Every Republican elected official who refused to acknowledge the winner of the 2020 election is an unindicted co-conspirator.

There are a few more quotes related to the indictments. And in the comments a large number of cartoons. Hunter of Kos wrote about the wave of columns from the pundits who support the nasty guy. There will be lots of these. The first one, at least the one Hunter is focused on is by Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post. Marcus wrote the individual acts and says they are not crimes. But that misses the point. For that Hunter quoted a tweet by Lee Kovarsky:

OMG this is going to go on for days. SAY IT WITH ME: OVERT. ACTS. IN. FURTHERANCE. OF. ENTERPRISE. OBJECTIVES. NEED. NOT. THEMSELVES. BE. CRIMES. It's like if I took a sentence documenting the getaway driver's role and was like "NOW IT'S ILLEGAL TO DRIVE ON THE TURNPIKE!"

Hunter adds:

If you go up to someone or a group of someones and say, "Please give me money," as long as you're wearing nice clothes and do not look homeless, it is not often considered a crime. If you say "please give me money" while inside a bank, pointing a loaded gun at a cashier's head, it is immediately a crime and your blurry face will be on FBI posters within a week.

And:

Trump and others are now facing racketeering charges because Georgia (and federal) prosecutors have a mountain of evidence to prove that each of those not-criminal acts were undertaken in order to further the criminal part of the plan.

Charles Jay of the Kos community discussed some of the nonsense coming from Republicans.

Incredibly, the latest talking point for Trump defenders is that if Democrats want to ensure Trump, the current GOP frontrunner, isn’t elected president in 2024, they should let it happen at the ballot box rather than in the courthouse. This script ignores entirely that so many of Trump’s legal issues stem from the fact that he wouldn't concede that the previous presidential election had been decided at the ballot box.

Sumner reported this upcoming Monday the nasty guy will reveal a new report documenting the election fraud in Georgia. That leaves one wondering how he got info now that he could have used 2½ years ago. Yeah, it is all about him spouting more lies (or spouting the same ones over again). Perhaps he’s going for the non existent theory that “it’s not a crime if you really believe it.” It’s also not a crime to express your beliefs. Sumner wrote:

Trump is welcome to believe he won Georgia. He can believe 5,000 zombies voted in Georgia and 125,000 ghosts pulled the lever in Detroit. He is free to take those claims to court, to file requests for recounts, and to seek redress through every legal means. But having done that, he can’t use these statements or any other statements as a means to solicit illegal activity. That’s the problem, and it doesn’t matter what Trump believes.

Clawson reported that the nasty guy has been on his Truth Social app attacking the judges and prosecutors of his various indictments. Which means his followers are now threatening those judges and prosecutors. And some are being arrested.

If Trump’s supporters can walk right up to the line of direct threats before facing criminal charges, Trump himself—in theory—should be on a tighter leash. The conditions of his release bar him from making “inflammatory statements” and in particular attempting to intimidate witnesses. Yet Trump is doing exactly that and has yet to face consequences. The New York Times reports, “Some lawyers have said that if Mr. Trump were an ordinary citizen issuing these attacks, he would be in jail by now.” It’s one of the many ways Trump has been given special, lenient treatment as he moves through the legal system. Any judge, though, who puts Trump in jail over his efforts to intimidate witnesses and incite his supporters to violence will face a major burst of rage from those supporters, along with accusations by Trump and much of the Republican Party that it’s a political persecution of a presidential candidate. Trump is banking on continuing special treatment for exactly that reason.

After a previous indictment Kos of Kos wrote the nasty guy posted “If you go after me, I’m coming after you.” Yes, the judge took note that it appears to be witness intimidation, which can affect the fair administration of justice. An AP article posted on Kos Judge Tanya Chutkan, overseeing the federal election conspiracy case, warned him the defense “is supposed to happen in the courtroom, not on the internet.” Repeated intimidation and harassment will prompt her to take action to “safeguard the integrity of the case.” That could include moving up the court date. Another part of what the nasty guy wants to do is publicly release much of the evidence against him, making it harder to use it in court. That includes “sensitive” documents. His legal team is discussing it with the judge, though the prosecution’s definition of what is sensitive is prevailing. Meteor Blades of Kos reported in spite of the warning the nasty guy is still “pushing the envelope.”

At some point, a threat must be exercised or the power of future threats is vapor. If Trump keeps it up, Chutkan will have little choice but to call his bluff and make good on her warnings.

Right now his lawyers are doing all they can to delay the trials. But...

If the former occupant of the White House does ultimately get held in pretrial detention, he and his lawyers will be desperate for the trial to start ASAP rather than keep trying to delay it until January 2025.

In the comments of another pundit roundup Pat Byrnes says all these indictments aren’t fair to cartoonists. He shows himself at his desk muttering, “Another indictment cartoon? How many of these do I have to come up with?” Further down in the comments is a meme posted by exlrrp that says, “Confession! I was one of the 81,281,502 people who ‘rigged’ the election for Biden.”

Whether the price of these advances was far too dear or a bargain

Walter Einenkel of Daily Kos reported on the latest study into the use of guns. This one is from Rutgers University and shows that

lax gun safety laws leads to more gun violence. ... An increase in concealed carry licenses led to an increase in the number of gun-related deaths the following year.

That means people aren’t using concealed guns to thwart homicides. Rather more guns lead to higher homicide numbers. An increasingly armed society does not make us safer.

Fortunately, more gun-related data became available to researchers after the federal government resumed funding gun-violence research in 2019, over decades-long opposition from right-wing Republicans. The studies all show what was obvious to most of us: Lax gun safety laws and more guns on the streets leads to more gun violence. This proof is what Republicans and Second Amendment fetishists like the NRA want to avoid as they continue to actively try and stop federal funding for these studies.

William Melhado of the Texas Tribune in an article posted on Kos wrote that Baylor University of Texas received an exemption from the US Department of Education over keeping LGBTQ students free from harassment. They argued the university was exempt because otherwise the rules were inconsistent with the university’s religious tenets. Student Veronica Penales was harassed because the is lesbian. She filed a discrimination complaint against the university. The university responded saying because it is a religious university it is exempt from parts of civil rights laws.

“This statement tells me that Baylor cares more about its right to discriminate against queer and other students than it does about the health and safety of its queer and other students,” Penales wrote in her declaration for the discrimination complaint.

Two years later Baylor received notice that its religious exemption includes exemption from sexual harassment prohibitions. Interesting that “in the history of Title IX no other university has requested such an exemption.” Not even Brigham Young in Utah? Hmm. An Associated Press article posted on Kos begins:

Young environmental activists scored what experts described as a ground-breaking legal victory Monday when a Montana judge said state agencies were violating their constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment by allowing fossil fuel development. The ruling in this first-of-its- kind trial in the U.S. adds to a small number of legal decisions around the world that have established a government duty to protect citizens from climate change.

From further down the article:

The state argued that even if Montana completely stopped producing C02, it would have no effect on a global scale because states and countries around the world contribute to the amount of C02 in the atmosphere. A remedy has to offer relief, the state said, or it’s not a remedy at all.

Doesn’t Montana mine a significant amount of coal? The judge rejected the idea that Montana’s greenhouse gas emissions are insignificant and that renewables could replace 80% of the state’s fossil fuel use by 2030. Yeah, it will be appealed. Also...

However, it’s up to the Montana Legislature to determine how to bring the state's policies into compliance. That leaves slim chances for prompt changes in a fossil fuel-friendly state where Republicans dominate the statehouse.

My last update of the war in Ukraine must have been at least ten days ago. I say that because I have an article from nine days ago. As I read it again there isn’t much to comment on. In the article Kos of Kos reported that Ukraine took out a couple bridges that connect Crimea to mainland Ukraine. With the damaged bridge between Crimea and Russia this further reduced the amount of military equipment and supplies Russia can get into its occupied territory and to the battlefront. From four days ago Kos, in a post labeled Ukraine update, discussed the Wagner group in Africa. The Wagner Group, under leader Yevgeny Progozhin, led that coup in Russia several weeks ago. They’ve been in Africa quite a long time and their exploits there paid for their efforts in Ukraine. And those exploits?

Before Russia’s Wagner mercenary group became famous in Ukraine, capturing Bakhmut by throwing wave after wave of prisoners against Ukrainian defenses, it was best known for war criming in Africa, violently propping up the most repressive regimes in exchange for mineral gold and diamond rights. With yet another African government falling to a Russian-backed military coup, a regional armed war in Western Africa may soon break out.

I’ve been hearing a lot about the coup in Niger. This reporting adds the deposed leader was one of the good guys and the coup was supported by the Wagner Group.

Russia may be struggling in Ukraine, but Africa has proven fertile ground to advance its interests. And as much as Russia plays on the West’s colonial history, it is Russia that now wants to plunder the African continent’s riches for itself, just as it’s trying to do in Ukraine.

Yesterday, Mark Sumner of Kos wrote that Ukrainian troops are close to pushing Russia out of the villages of Robotyne, Urozhaine, and Pryyutne.

At any moment, there may be an official announcement that these locations have been liberated. But they won’t be—not in any way that makes sense. There is no one living in these villages. There are few if any buildings still standing in any of these locations. ... No one is being saved in Robotyne. No one is going to line the streets to greet Ukrainian soldiers in Urozhaine. There won’t be many scenes of flags being raised over city buildings. But that doesn’t mean this fight is for nothing. Because it’s for everything. ... Ukraine has sacrificed large numbers of both men and equipment to capture Robotyne. Was it worth it? Absolutely not. Not for Robotyne. But if in taking Robotyne, Ukraine has significantly degraded the Russian army and positioned itself to advance on the defensive lines that prevent rapid movement to the south, then sure. It probably was worth those lost tanks, lost fighting vehicles, and even the irreplaceable men and women who died to make that tiny advance. We don’t really know if it was worth it at this point. Ukraine probably doesn’t know, either. What happens next will tell us whether the price of these advances was far too dear or a bargain.

Humanity's spiritual maturation into living in global peace and harmony

My Sunday movie was The Quiet Girl, an Irish film. Cáit is nine years old. She has three older sisters, a toddler brother, and another sibling on the way. She’s the middle child and can get overlooked in the crowd. She’s also good at hiding. Her family is a bit dysfunctional and is poor. To give Mam a break leading up to the baby’s birth, her parents take her to live with her mother’s cousins, a couple with no children. Of course, Cáit is not consulted. Over the summer her guardians don’t do anything special, just include her in their daily tasks of keeping a farm and treat her with love. It’s a tender film. I can’t really say she blossoms under their care – she sheds only a bit of her passivity. Once with her summer guardians the woman says there are no secrets. “If there are secrets in a house, there is shame in that house.” But there is a secret in that family’s past, though it doesn’t have much consequence in the story. This came out last year and was Ireland’s submission for this year’s Oscar for Best International Feature Film. It was the first Irish language film to be shortlisted for that award. I enjoyed it. Aldous Pennyfarthing of the Daily Kos community reported on the latest efforts of the Wisconsin Republicans to protect their gerrymandered maps. Yes, they’re gerrymandered – in a state that is evenly split for the parties (the nasty guy edged out Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Biden squeaked by in 2020) Republicans hold 64 of 99 seats in the Assembly and 21-11in the Senate. There will be a case challenging the gerrymandered maps before the state Supremes, as an Associated Press article posted on Kos reports. The big question is what happens when it gets there. Back to Pennyfarthing’s post. The Wisconsin Supremes recently switched from a conservative to progressive majority when Janet Protasiewicz was elected by a wide margin and took her seat. She ran on abortion and gerrymandering. And now Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said that if Protasiewicz doesn’t recuse herself for this case he will begin impeachment proceedings on the grounds that she “prejudged” the case. Since that was one of her campaign issues Vos says she cant be an impartial observer. Michael Li pointed out that once Protasiewicz is impeached she cannot participate in any case until she is acquitted. So if the Assembly impeaches and the Senate stalls on the trial she is sidelined and the Court is balanced between conservatives and progressives. There are several voices that are saying that not prejudging the case would be difficult – it is obvious that the districts are gerrymandered. And Protasiewicz would have to be “dense, corrupt, or a Republican” to not see it.

“That type of reaction shows how threatened the Republican majority is by a challenge to their rigged maps,” Rep. Evan Goyke, a Milwaukee Democrat, told The Journal Sentinel. “It's really good evidence that the state is gerrymandered, that they'd be willing to go to such an unprecedented maneuver.”

The Daily Kos Elections team warns the Wisconsin Republicans using the lesson of Ohio – Issue 1 to increase the amendment approval threshold lost by a big margin because so many voters were upset with Republican overreach. In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin included a tweet by David Pepper that linked to and quoted an article from the Ohio Capital Journal:

There’s a tendency by political professionals to think that voters can be inherently and consistently manipulated.

In the roundup’s comments Denise Oliver Velez included a cartoon by Jesse Duquette. It is titled “Conservatives throughout history” and shows Jesus giving sight to a blind man. In the background is a guy in a red hat who says, “It’s not fair! I can see perfectly fine and this guy gets his blindness forgiven just like that?” Duquette added the caption, “Woke Commie Jesus Trades Student Loans for Loaves and Fishes Because Bootstraps Haven’t Been Invented Yet.” Last week Hunter of Kos reported that Republicans have been calling for a special counsel into whatever Hunter Biden’s been doing that’s illegal. And now that Attorney General Merrick Garland has done what they asked they’re outraged. Hunter has a few examples of their outrage. The core of the Republican anger is that the guy named as special counsel – David Weiss, who has been on the case since the nasty guy appointed him – is the guy who hasn’t found anything worthwhile so far, in spite of years of trying. So from the Republican perspective he’s part of the cover up. Pennyfarthing wrote about the crop of Republicans running to be President. He noted:

[Chris Christie is] the only Republican who’s actually running for president in 2024. Or running to do the job, anyway. Trump is running, but mostly because he wants to stay out of jail and likes the way his Diet Coke button looks on the Resolute Desk. Sure, some of Trump’s other opponents are taking little swipes at him here and there, but Christie is the only one talking about Trump the way he needs to be talked about.

In another pundit roundup Chitown Kev quoted Paul Waldman of the Washington Post. Waldman discussed that Republicans have been using ballot initiatives to impose their will on a state. See the efforts to ban same-sex marriage in 11 states in 2004.

But lately, liberals have had more and more success — even in conservative states — making policy gains at the ballot box that they can’t achieve in state legislatures.

An example is Michigan. Yeah that 2004 effort banned same-sex marriage here too. But we passed a citizens redistricting commission in 2018 and last year passed abortion rights and voter rights. And a few more I can’t think of at the moment. Meteor Blades of Kos posted another Earth Matters article with a few things to mention. There is the new national monument around the Grand Canyon (I won’t attempt the Native name). A good thing about it is the Native tribes in the area will be an integral part of managing it. Blades talked about the climate news out of Antarctica, and it isn’t good. Sea ice around the continent, a vital part of keeping the ice sheet from melting, is about 20% of what it should be at this time in their winter. Blades included an excerpt from an article by Jason Bordoff in the New York Times. In spite of goals to cut fossil fuel use the amount used is still rising. And it is rising fast enough that oil companies are dropping plans to slow down production and diverting money that had been designated to develop clean energy. Yes, there is increasing investment in clean fuels, but it’s still well short of what’s needed. Rachel Martin of NPR, as part of her Enlighten Me series, spoke to Rainn Wilson. He played Dwight on The Office (I never watched) and even though it seems opposite of that role he wrote a book about spirituality titled Soul Boom. Wilson, who grew up in the Baháʼí faith, had a few interesting things to say.

You see, the backstory to Star Trek that a lot of people don't know is that there has been a horrific World War III. And coming out of the ashes of that war, humanity has essentially solved racism, solved sexism, has solved income inequality, and is then able, in its maturity, to go out into space and explore and spread the word. ... I would always look at things through a spiritual lens. So for me, when I look at Star Trek, I talk about this in terms of a spiritual path. We all have an individual path that we walk on a daily basis. I'm trying to be a better person and I've got this stress at work and I'm feeling anxious and this person is mean to me and I'm struggling with this and that. And that's our personal spiritual path. When people talk about spirituality, they're often focused on that aspect of a personal spiritual journey and we're not focused so much on the broader one, which is humanity's spiritual maturation into living in global peace and harmony. I am old enough to remember the '70s, when people would actually talk about world peace. ... And we believed that we could have peace, especially with the end of the Cold War. And nowadays, you bring up world peace and you just get that big, collective eye roll like, oh, you're the most naive idiot to walk the face of the earth to even consider world peace. ... There's another [mythology of humanity] where humans lived at peace with nature, where humans were cooperative or kind to each other or worked together, shared knowledge and enlightenment and moved forward and into progress.

I like his thinking and want us to move in that direction. I also know how difficult that is.

You don't get to acquire new wealthy friends

Kos of Daily Kos wrote about Russell Moore, formerly a top official at the Southern Baptist Convention. He’s former because the denomination’s support of the nasty guy did not match his own religious beliefs. His own congregation considers Jesus as too liberal. As Moore explained on the show Main Character of the Day on NPR, which Kos quoted:

It was the result of having multiple pastors tell me, essentially, the same story about quoting the Sermon on the Mount, parenthetically, in their preaching — "turn the other cheek" — [and] to have someone come up after to say, "Where did you get those liberal talking points?" And what was alarming to me is that in most of these scenarios, when the pastor would say, "I'm literally quoting Jesus Christ," the response would not be, "I apologize." The response would be, "Yes, but that doesn't work anymore. That's weak." And when we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we're in a crisis.

Yeah, we’re to the point where a whole Christian denomination is rejecting the teachings of Jesus Christ, the supposed reason why they exist. They’re more interested in power and domination. Kos also commented on Moore’s discussion of why many, perhaps most, people go to church. It’s for the community. A generation ago the structure of the week was defined by the community. COVID made a big mess of that. And so is a church worshiping the nasty guy, dismissing climate change, and dumping on LGBTQ people. The membership of the SBC is down about 20% since their peak in 2006, from 16.3 million to 13.2 million today. Scott Detrow of NPR spoke with Russell Moore about his new book Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call For Evangelical America. Some of it repeats the NPR article quoted above. It also adds a few more points. To change the Evangelical church one can’t fight the national institution. One mus start small and local, do something different, show a different way. All movements begin this way. Moore uses the example of C.S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia. He was an atheist and antagonistic to Christianity, then he converted and became a strong voice for the faith. The next leader of the church may not be Christian yet. Moore appreciated Lewis wasn’t trying to market Moore or to mobilize Moore. He was only saying this is the truth I found. With all the warring tribes in America there are many who feel they don’t fit in. They feel homeless. Moore thinks this tribalism is not sustainable. Moore paraphrased a passage of the Bible: “Beware, if you bite and scratch at one another, that you do not devour one another.” And America is realizing we’re devouring one another. But the church should not be that way. The church should be about reconciling with each other. Since it isn’t we must rethink what church is. In a ProPublica article posted on Kos Brett Murphy and Alex Mierjeski discussed more research done into the corruption of Clarence Thomas. This is a long article and I’ll try for the highlights. I had written before that Harlan Crow was a sugar daddy to Thomas, providing luxury vacations. But Crow wasn’t the only one providing them. There was also Tony Novelly, Wayne Huitenga, and David Sokol. All four of them met Thomas after he was confirmed to the Supremes.

Don Fox, the former general counsel of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics and the senior ethics official in the executive branch, said, “It’s just the height of hypocrisy to wear the robes and live the lifestyle of a billionaire.” Taxpayers, he added, have the right to expect that Supreme Court justices are not living on the dime of others. Fox, who worked under both Democrat and Republican administrations, said he advised every new political appointee the same thing: Your wealthy friends are the ones you had before you were appointed. “You don’t get to acquire any new ones,” he told them. ... Thomas, however, is apparently an extreme outlier for the volume and frequency of all the undisclosed vacations he’s received. He once complained that he sacrificed wealth to sit on the court, though he depicted the choice as a matter of conscience. “The job is not worth doing for what they pay,” he told the bar association in Savannah, Georgia, in 2001, “but it is worth doing for the principle.” To track Thomas’ relationships and travel, ProPublica examined flight data, emails from airport and university officials, security detail records, tax court filings, meeting minutes and a trove of photographs from personal albums, including cards that Thomas’ wife, Ginni, sent to friends. In addition, reporters interviewed more than 100 eyewitnesses and other sources: jet and helicopter pilots, flight attendants, airport workers, yacht crew members, security guards, photographers, waitresses, caterers, chefs, drivers, river rafting guides and C-suite executives. ProPublica has not identified any legal cases that Huizenga, Sokol or Novelly had at the Supreme Court during their documented relationships with Thomas, although they all work in industries significantly impacted by the court’s decisions.

The article then described a trip that Sokol gave to Thomas and his wife Ginni. There were skybox seats at a University of Nebraska football game. Then to his private ranch with wonderful views of the Tetons. Novelly took them to fishing trips through the Caribbean on one of his yachts. Huizinga made his fleet of aircraft available to Thomas, plus parties at his private hangar and golf course – the kind of course that has a helipad. In all these trips Thomas has plenty of opportunity to get to know other rich people. Thomas met Huizinga through the Horatio Alger Society. Thomas did his part by hosting society events within the Supreme Court Great Hall. Virginia Canter, a former government ethics lawyer, called that an abuse of power. Wealthy donors shouldn’t be able to pay big bucks to visit a justice inside the courthouse walls. In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted Daniel McGraw of The Bulwark. He talked to Ohio voters on why they voted no on the Republican attempt to raise the threshold to approve constitutional amendments.

“It’s not that I expect them to act all nice and friendly while they are attempting to stab people in the back,” she told me. “But in this case, the feeling I am getting is that they thought most people were too dumb to figure out anything and that they could just walk all over all of us as if that is just how this world of politics works.” ... Hardly anyone said they were mainly there to vote because of abortion rights or being anti-Trump. Almost all indicated they felt that Issue 1 was an overreach of the highest order. One guy told me that “this is one of the lowest below-the-belt actions I’ve seen in politics ever.”

Dworkin also included a tweet by Philip Bump. It includes a chart showing that nearly every county in states that had votes to protect abortion rights in California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, and now Ohio, the support for abortion outpaces support for Biden in 2020. In the comments are a couple good cartoons. Jack Ohman of Tribune Content Agency has one showing the Thomas’s RV – yes, they really have one and frequently use it (when they’re not out on a yacht). Ohman pointed out some unusual features: A political baggage rack, a red carpet, civil rights brakes, a 1950s rearview mirror, and more. Separate from the roundup Clay Jones posted a cartoon in Kos comics that shows Thomas in his RV with a bunch of cigar smokers in the back. He pulls up along side another RV and says, “I’m a common man of the people too... How many billionaire sugar daddies can your RV hold?” In a second roundup Jesse Duquette has a cartoon with Thomas in a fur coat and briefcases full of cash saying, “Ginny, Where’d you park the dark money yacht?” Duquette added the caption, “Clarence Thomas doesn’t have a price, Clarence Thomas is the price.” Back to the first pundit roundup. Way down in the comments is one by Christopher Weyant. A little girl holding a stuffed bear comes into hear parent’s bedroom. Father says, “The planet is on fire, the oceans are boiling, democracy is hanging by a thread, and Trump is still running for president. What kind of scary monsters do you have under your bed?” A couple days ago Walter Einenkel of Kos posted photos of the wildfire devastation of Lahaina, Hawaii. The historic town has burnt to the ground. Reports today, such as this one from the Associated Press posted on Kos say at least 80 people have died. The winds were so strong (a hurricane passing to the south) and the fire spread so quickly many people didn’t have time to evacuate. Biden has declared it a major disaster.