Alito’s lies make it impossible to trust his judicial integrity

While the nation has been focused on the nasty guy the latest scandal surrounding Justice Alito has continued to simmer. Mark Sumner of Daily Kos wrote about Alito’s explanation of why two “stop the steal” flags were seen flying over his properties – and why that explanation is falling apart. One part of the story was that Martha-Ann Alito was upset that a neighbor had a sign about the nasty guy with a vulgar word that could be seen by children waiting for the school bus. But in January 2021 schools in that area were still operating remotely and children were not waiting for the bus. Another part was that this neighbor insulted his wife Martha-Ann. But the neighbor says she had been harassed by Martha-Ann. At one point the neighbor did call police – a month after the flag was seen flying. Kalli Joy Gray of Kos discussed the letter Alito sent to Sens. Dick Durban and Sheldon Whitehouse of the Senate Judiciary Committee explaining why he rejects their demand to recuse himself in insurrection cases, as the committee demanded. One of those insurrection cases is to decide whether the nasty guy has immunity. Alito’s claim is that his wife is responsible for the flags (she loves them) and she is a private citizen and has freedom of speech. He says he had no involvement. Also, she didn’t know what they meant. Gray’s translation of Alito’s conclusion:

In closing, normal, reasonable people—obviously not Democratic senators or any other American who has dared to question Alito’s ability to be impartial—can see this is totes no big so screw you.

Another way to look at this is Alito saying: Yes, I’m corrupt, but this incident shows I have so much power that you can’t do anything about it. RandomNonviolence of the Kos community discussed the op-ed that Rep. Jamie Raskin wrote for the New York Times. Before he joined Congress he was a constitutional scholar. Raskin wrote that when there is an obvious conflict of interest, someone like the Attorney General can petition the other justices to require the justices with the conflicts to recuse themselves. Raskin cites sections of the Constitution and federal law. In the case of whether the nasty guy has immunity for his actions in the Capitol attack, the justices with conflicts are, of course, Alito and Thomas. The Supreme Court can’t rule on those laws because of the separation of powers. Also, previous Supreme Court decisions have affirmed those laws. Look’s good! Though I wonder if Roberts, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett would ever agree to demand Alito and Thomas recuse themselves. Jonathan Last of The Bulwark explains why Alito’s actions are a big problem. Last’s conclusion is towards the top of the article. Alas, his explanation of Alito’s lies are behind a paywall. So, the conclusion:

With respect, the problem with Justice Alito is not that his wife is fond of flying flags and may have insurrectionist sympathies. The problem is that Justice Alito lied to the public. And Justice Alito’s public lies make it impossible to trust his judicial integrity. ... And he doesn’t care that you know it.

CorpFlunky of the Kos community wrote about the fragility of history and what the rangers of the National Park Service have to deal with. An example is a group that came to a ranger, wanting her to pose with them and the “Appeal to Heaven” flag they brought. They explained the history of the flag, including claiming Washington had designed it. She refused being a part of the photo and explained the inaccuracies of their story – Washington’s design work being one of them. It’s important to tell actual history. That exchange ended well. Not all of them do. The Park Service had a display at Vicksburg that explained the Civil War was over slavery. So many visitors wanted to argue the display was wrong the rangers took it down. CorpFlunky wrote:

Before embarking on my quest to visit all the national park units by electric vehicle, I did not fully appreciate how our nation’s history is under daily attack by ‘culture warriors’ everywhere. The state of Alabama is neglecting to tell the story of the Battle of Mobile Bay, leading many students astray. General Grant was subjected to decades of maligning by ‘lost cause’ supporters. Labor history is under-recognized. Black history is under-funded. Women’s history is under-appreciated. Many rangers are frequently subjected to historically inaccurate rants by complete loons. Our political opponents and their followers are actively trying to replace history with fantasy. This is not just simple ignorance; it is part of an organized campaign to supplant reality with their dishonest political narrative.

Guilty! (x34)

Mark Sumner of Daily Kos was one of many news outlets reporting that the jurors of the nasty guy’s election interference trial found him guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying campaign records to illegally influence an election. Yay! We can now call him a convicted felon. So celebrate! Then Sumner gives a few reasons to temper our glee. The nasty guy will appeal. That could take years. Considering that and that he’s been out on bail, don’t look for the photo of him in handcuffs. Since this is the nasty guy’s first conviction (but it’s also his 34th!) he is unlikely to get jail time. He’s more likely to get a fine, community service (which I can’t see him actually doing), and probation (how does a probation officer visit the Oval Office?). Sentencing comes four days before the Republican Convention, where he’ll be renominated. Influencing the sentencing will be extra factors, such as how does the Secret Service protect him in jail (baffles me why they would need to)? Also there is the threat of violence from his minions – but that should be compared to how many times he threatened the judge, prosecutors and their families, and the jury. There have been convicted felons who ran for president. Lyndon LaRouche did it five times, once from prison. The effect of this conviction on the election are unclear. What to think depends on which poll you read. There are three big trials (and, if I did the math right, 54 more charges) to go, though none likely before election day. These convictions are not going to slow the nasty guy down. He’s still a threat to the nation and democracy. In remarks after the verdict he said the only decision that matters is the ballot box in November. And for once he’s right. In a post before the verdict was announced Sumner wrote that the language the nasty guy has been using at the courthouse, and also by his Republican proxies, has hinted of violence. And, as is his way, what he has said was misinformation – about the legitimacy of the trial, that it was a witch hunt, and that Biden was behind it. Republicans have been taking up the call. Though the mob hasn’t shown up at the courthouse (and he had to lie about why they hadn’t) there is still a threat of violence ahead.

Republican allies and right-wing media figures are playing a crucial role in Trump’s effort to erode faith in the trial by spreading false claims about [Judge] Merchan, jurors, and court proceedings. This coordinated attack on the judicial process undermines trust in the legal system and poses a significant threat to public safety.

On to other articles about the nasty guy that have accumulated over the last week. Mark Kreidler, in an article for Capital and Main posted on Kos, discussed why a group of 48 health care leaders are warning about the disasters of a second nasty guy term in the Oval Office. They are speaking out because they feel the consequence are dire and nobody is listening. Their basic argument: Under the nasty guy health care will get more expensive and less accessible, and worst for the marginalized. Their evidence is his repeated attempts to overturn Obamacare (Affordable Care Act) – don’t let his lack of success fool you. There are lots of ways to mess it up even if it isn’t repealed. The nasty guy also wants to defund or bring under political control the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration. They may not have been great during the pandemic, but we don’t want to hear them recommend injecting bleach. Kreidler likes that they wrote the letter, but thinks they need to write more than one. Greg Sargent of the New Republic wrote a couple days ago that the nasty guy’s threats are becoming more aggressive. The nasty guy posted a rant by one of his followers and then commented on it. The rant was directed at liberals in general. This isn’t the first time he has used or elevated violent language, though Sargent says this round is more aggressive through the phrase “get rid” of. It also isn’t the first time he has threatened using state power to persecute the large and not well defined class of his enemies. That class now includes media (the ones not for him), his ideological enemies (presumably liberals and Republicans not sufficiently loyal), immigrants, and even student demonstrators.

What if some subset of Trump supporters continues backing him not in spite of his efforts to place himself above our institutions and the law—not in spite of his threats to unleash punishment and suffering on other large groups of Americans—but precisely because of those things? ... If Trump voters are sticking with him through all these [threats], we should be asking whether these factors are key drivers of some of this support, not credulously treating them as self-evidently incidental to it.

Kerry Eleveld of Kos discussed how we might counteract the media that has a bias against Biden and for the nasty guy. Far right outlets manufacture controversies that support the nasty guy. We can counteract that by talking directly with fellow voters. The tactic depends who you are talking to. If an independent, talk about the nasty guy promising he would never leave office. If their big worry is the economy, talk about what Biden has been doing compared to the nasty guy’s promise of more tax cuts for corporations. If a young voter talks about abortion protections, LGBTQ protections, gun rights, and voting rights and which candidate will do what. Talk about how their issues align with Democrats. Or talk about how scary a second nasty guy term would be. In a pundit roundup Chitown Kev of Kos quoted Cat Zakrzewski, Joseph Menn, Naomi Nix, and Will Oremus of the Washington Post about efforts at neutralizing misinformation leading up to important elections around the world.

Modeled after vaccines, these campaigns — dubbed “prebunking” — expose people to weakened doses of misinformation paired with explanations and are aimed at helping the public develop “mental antibodies” to recognize and fend off hoaxes in a heated election year. In the run-up to next month’s European Union election, for example, Google and partner organizations are blanketing millions of voters with colorful cartoon ads on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram that teach common tactics used to propagate lies and rumors on social media or in email.

Down in the comments are several good cartoons for Memorial Day. I’ll share one by Mike Luckovich. It shows Arlington Cemetery with the caption, “Gave their lives for their country.” Beside it is the Senate GOP with the caption, “Gave their country for Trump’s lies.” Extending my little break from the nasty guy for a bit more on Memorial Day, here is a cartoon posted by missLtoe from WaPo showing a photo of a military cemetery. One of the tombstones says, “Book bans, anti-science, authoritarianism, sexism, loss of bodily autonomy... I thought we already fought a war against fascism.” Aldous Pennyfarthing of Kos wrote the nasty guy is trying to do one better than the Gipper. A week ago...

Trump promised that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who’s currently being detained in Russia and has been jailed for a year, would be released “almost immediately” after the November election—but only if Trump wins.

If this isn’t another lie (likely) it is another violation of the Logan Act, conducting diplomacy outside of official government channels. Putin denied any contact with the nasty guy about Gershkovich. But he’s also known for his lying. The nasty guy may be hinting at a deal once he’s in the Oval Office again. A hostage might be a fair swap for Ukraine’s freedom and independence. So this might be a request to meddle in our elections. Or this clumsy attempt at diplomacy (he announced it to the public) might assure Gershkovich is never released. That mention of the Gipper is about the 1980 election, when the Iranian hostage crisis was in the news every day. A year ago in March the New York Times confirmed that Reagan sabotaged Carter’s efforts to secure the hostages’ release before the election. He did this by sending Ben Barnes and John Connally to several Middle East capitals to pass along the message that if the hostages are released after the election Reagan will win and give them a better deal. The big difference is that Reagan said nothing in public. Please remember the nasty guy is toying with an actual person’s life. In another pundit roundup Greg Dworkin quoted Seth Masket of “Tusk” on Substack, written after Nikki Haley said she would vote for the nasty guy:

So why is Haley backing him now? I doubt there’s any sort of deal that’s been worked out. Trump doesn’t need her support. She’s backing him for the same reason virtually every other public figure in the party does: she wants to still have a career as a Republican, whether in the next Trump administration or otherwise, and she’s seen the very visible examples of what happens to those who fail to bend the knee. And despite all the concerns she’s raised about Trump, she likely still sees another term by him as better than another by Biden. ... Why would Trump be smart to reach out to Haley and her supporters? That requires effort, and she just demonstrated that he would have her vote despite him exerting no effort at all. Haley is repeating a pattern that we have seen time and again from nearly all Republican officials, that despite some modest protestations, there is quite literally nothing he can do that will keep them from supporting him over a Democrat.

Down in the comments of a third pundit roundup, this one posted a month ago, are a couple cartoons to mention. One by Ted Littleford shows an Arab American saying, “Because of Gaza my conscience simply won’t let me back Biden.” Behind him the nasty guy is tapping his shoulder and holding a deportation order. A cartoon from Canada that would be appropriate here and elsewhere around the world and for a great deal of human history. A man has bottles of rage, fear, malice, spite, blame, and hate. He says, “Hey, I’ll stop selling it, when they stop buying it.” In a fourth roundup Kev quoted Jennifer Ruben of WaPo, discussing historian Ken Burns’ commencement speech at Brandeis University. I think these are Ruben’s words:

The media should collectively recognize that the pretense that “an unequal equation is equal” amounts to an in-kind gift to authoritarians who crave the appearance of normalcy and respectability. Sharp contrasts and moral judgment are kryptonite to MAGA forces, who would love nothing better than months more of fantasy politics (“What if Biden backed out?”) and poll obsession (that only now begin to reflect the views of likely voters). The media would do well to focus on the authoritarian threat. A candidate such as Trump, who lies about his crowd size, the results of past elections and the sentiments of certain voters, intends to convey inevitability, strength and the futility of resistance. Trump assiduously follows the totalitarian playbook to demoralize opponents and condition the public to believe only he can possibly win. (He also sets the stage for election denial: How could I lose with such big crowds?). The false premise that President Biden is destined to lose (because Trump says so? because of premature, irrelevant polling?) is not news; it’s Trumpian propaganda. The press can avoid Trump’s manipulation by explaining the playbook and refusing to present his braggadocio as fact.

In the last couple days of the trial the nasty guy claimed it was so crooked that “Mother Theresa could not beat these charges.” Monty Wolverton has a cartoon imagining her reply:

Well, I don’t remember falsifying business records to conceal criminal activity and damaging information from voters and violating state and federal election laws. But if you say so...”

How can Republicans oppress people if their citizens thwart plans?

I finished the book Magic Season, a Son’s Story, by Wade Rouse. This is a memoir about Rouse trying to understand his father as he is dying. I had read a previous memoir by Rouse, At Least in the City Someone Would Hear Me Scream: Misadventures in Search of the Simple Life. This was about Rouse and his husband moving from the city to a rural area of southwest Michigan. It was funny and I found it quite entertaining. Rouse was born in the Ozarks of southwest Missouri. As a gay boy he did not fit in. His father tried to teach him to play baseball, which was a disaster. All the other things country boys are expected to do – hunt and fish (and handle what they kill), do farm chores – were also a disaster. His father didn’t know what to do with him. Even though Rouse was terrible at baseball and any other sport he fell in love with listening to the St. Louis Cardinals games on the radio with his father, then the two of them soon made the trip to St. Louis to attend games. The book is structured around the innings of a playoff game between the Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs in October of 2015. Rouse was with his father as caregiver. Not being able to play sports was just one way Rouse disappointed his father. Rouse went off to college to major in journalism, which Dad didn’t consider a real job. Rouse applied to Northwestern for his Master’s. When the acceptance call came Dad said he had decided to go elsewhere, without telling his son. I thought that was the worst of the meddling. When Rouse told his dad he is gay Dad didn’t speak to him for two years (Mom was fine with a gay son). When Dad called at the end of those two years all he did was talk about the Cardinals. Rouse’s boyfriend (later husband) Gary was annoyed that no apology was given. Rouse said the call itself, Dad being the one to break the silence, was the apology. Rouse said he didn’t want to blame his father (though there was plenty of reason to do so). He wanted to understand and honor his father. And by the end I think he managed that. He saw his father as the product of his time and place. Men were not taught how to handle their emotions or to deal with change, such as producing a gay son. All the old man knew how to do was rage at the world and drink another beer. By the end of the book I think Rouse did understand his father and through recognizing the good traits he had learned he figured out how to honor his nemesis. I highly recommend this one. Dartagnan of Daily Kos reported on the hostage taking by Republicans and Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio. Republicans say that since the Democratic Convention is after the deadline to put candidates on the state ballot they won’t let Biden be on the ballot unless they get abortion restrictions. There are a couple more things as part of the hostage ransom. This attempt at abortion restrictions comes after Ohio voters approved an amendment to the state constitution to protect abortion rights. There is a bill approving Biden for the ballot – this type of bill passed the Ohio legislature in 2012 and 2020 – but Republicans refuse to advance it. One of those other things is a measure to keep money from “foreign nationals” out of citizen sponsored initiatives. Sounds good, no? The problem is that the new rules for verifying and enforcing whether there is foreign money would so difficult and expensive to navigate that it would end citizen initiatives – which is the point. How can Republicans oppress their people if their citizens keep coming up with ways to thwart them? The other thing is a measure that would immediately funnel challenges to new abortion laws directly to the highly anti-abortion Ohio Supreme Court. One of the justices on that court is Pat DeWine – the governor’s son. Neither of these poison pills, are things the average voter is going to understand. One of them has convoluted reasoning and neither spell out the intended consequences.

What’s transpiring now in Ohio is a textbook example of how Republicans simply do not care about what the majority of their citizens want, and the lengths they’ll go to force their agenda down their voters’ throats.

Silence of the Kos community wrote that the Democratic Party is going to thwart the hostage-taking by doing virtual roll call (like they did in 2020 in the pandemic era) of the delegates well before the Ohio deadline. So Biden’s actual nomination as the Democratic candidate will come well before the convention. Robert Downen and Renzo Downey, in an article for the Texas Tribune posted on Kos, discussed the Texas Republican Party platform recently voted on by delegates. It has such things as: The Bible must be taught in public schools. Statewide leaders (such as secretary of state) must get a majority of votes in a majority of counties, not just overall – with 254 counties, most of them sparsely populated and rural, that would mean a Democrat could never again win statewide office (That would violate the Voting Rights Act? Well, call for repealing the VRA). Abortion is homicide. Gender transition treatment is child abuse. Homosexuality is an abnormal lifestyle choice. Biden was not legitimately elected. Immigration is the “greatest threat to American security and sovereignty.” And many more. Yeah, many of those were in the 2022 platform. And, yeah, the party is moving further right each time it writes a platform.

During a speech on the convention stage on Saturday, former gubernatorial candidate and state Sen. Don Huffines carried a printed version of the platform with him. He noted that Republicans have controlled the Legislature and the governor’s mansion for two decades, but the party still struggles to secure its priorities. “We could get any piece of legislation done anytime we want, but, every session, we struggle to get our platform into law,” Huffines said.

Many of us are glad that turning the platform into law is so hard. In another post from last Friday Downen wrote about the chaos in the Texas Republican Party (though not so much chaos as to stop voting on the platform). It’s a long article that I think is summarized as this: There was a lot of effort to purge Republican members who weren’t conservative enough. That prompted a shrinking of the donor base to there are two major donors left. They are...

Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, who have for years funded attacks by the far right on fellow Republicans, pushed for hardline restrictions on immigration and LGBTQ+ rights, and faced recent scandals over avowed white supremacists and antisemites working for their political network. In the decade before Rinaldi became chair, the party received $310,000 in donations from Dunn, Wilks or their political action committees. Since then, they have given more than $1.2 million to the party — and last year, as Rinaldi increasingly used his position to attack their political enemies, the billionaires made up a quarter of the party’s total donations.

The Texas Republican Party is beholden to only two super wealthy far right dudes. No wonder their platform reads as it does. In an Earth Matters report for Kos Meteor Blades had a few interesting segments. Blades looked at the nasty guy’s request for a bribe from the oil industry, saying he’ll undo all the Biden oil regulations. Thankfully, Rep. Jamie Raskin is asking the Department of Justice to investigate. But since there are so many legal ways to make big donations, being able to document the cash that is part of the bribe will be mighty difficult. To get to net zero carbon by mid century we must triple our investment in renewable energy by the end of this decade. And the chance to get to net zero is “rapidly closing.” The researchers who determined that predict that we’ll hit “peak oil” next year with sharp declines after that. Some industries are fairly easy to decarbonize. Others, such as avation and steelmaking, will be much harder. Millennials and Gen Z are anxious about the planet. As an action they can take they are quitting jobs that aren’t eco-friendly. The State of the World’s Human Rights report now includes the status of the right to a healthy environment. It shows climate impacts people in every country and causes more harm to marginalized groups. Cities are buying EVs in bulk for their government needs. That will speed up acceptance of EVs for personal use. It also gives cities a good way to reduce pollution. They’re also cheaper to run and maintain. Half the pasture lands on earth has been degraded by climate change. That threatens food supply. Two weeks ago Mitch Perry, in an article for the Florida Phoenix posted on Kos, reported that DeathSantis has signed a bill that will erase the phrase “climate change” from state laws. The bill was to be signed in Clearwater Beach, but 15 minutes before the ceremony the Gov’s appearance was canceled because the area was under a severe thunderstorm watch. The next day a poll showed that 68% of respondents say the state government should do more to address climate change.

Institutionalize racism into our federal government

I don’t pay attention to what goes on in popular music – classical is my thing. A couple interviews in Pridesource prompted me to listen to a couple songs – songs with definitely queer lyrics. Ben Platt became famous as the lead in Dear Evan Hanson that was a big hit on Broadway and ran for long enough that Platt became obviously too old for the teenage character he was playing. He has acted elsewhere and recently released his third studio album. The album cover shows Platt and his soon to be husband in a 1950s convertible making out. The song on this album I listened to is “Andrew.” It is a lament of a gay boy who has a crush on his straight male friend, an Andrew. The friend doesn’t seem aware the gay boy would be delighted with a kiss, but the gay boy knows he won’t ever get one. It’s all a cruel joke with no one to blame. Lyrics here. The other singer is Orville Peck. He sings country and is openly gay. He also just released an album, one of collaborations with other country singers. He’s been performing wearing a mask because it helps him feel more comfortable and vulnerable, though in his interview he said with each album the mask feels less important. The song is “Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other.” This song was written way back in 1981 by Latin country musician Ned Sublette. Willie Nelson sang it as a solo back in 2006 – he’s quite the ally. This version is Peck and Nelson alternating verses – Peck has rich sonorous voice. The first verse, which Peck sings, is:

Well, there's many a strange impulse out on the plains of West Texas There's many a young boy who feels things he can't comprehend And a small town don't like it when somebody falls between sexes No, a small town don't like it when a cowboy has feelings for men

And the second half of Nelson’s verse:

Well, a cowboy may brag about things that he's done with his women But the ones who brag loudest are the ones that are most likely queer

Both songs are easily found on YouTube. I finished the book Dearborn, by Ghassan Zeineddine. Dearborn is the suburb directly to the west of Detroit. The city used to have a highly racist mayor at a time when Detroit was becoming increasingly black. The Detroit metro area has the highest population of Arabs outside the Middle East and many of them moved to Dearborn. The city has such a large Arab population the mayor is now Arab and it was the center of protests against Biden for his support of Israel in the Gaza war. The book is ten stories of Arab-Americans living in Dearborn. The people in these stories came from Lebanon or had ancestors who did, so many stories feature why they left – a civil war and a war with Israel would do it. Some of the newer arrivals are afraid of being caught by ICE. A few are hoping for the big sign of success – their company is successful enough they can put their face on a billboard. Some women tell of when they were a teenager and a young man showed up at the house and proposed marriage. Single men and women are expected to live with their parents, no matter their age, until they are married. After the 9/11 attacks they become wary of the FBI. There is even a story of a transgender person, a father and husband who would rather dress as a woman – and quite glad Muslim women can wear garments that cover all but the eyes. I very much enjoyed these stories. I was surprised to learn in the author’s biography that he probably never lived in Dearborn. When he mentions locations and street names I thought all but one were accurate. The one that wasn’t referenced a nursing home on Ford Rd. at the highway. There are two places where a highway is near or crosses Ford Rd. I don’t see a nursing home at either of them. A few days ago I wrote about the mattering movement, the effort to help children and youth feel they matter. On Saturday on NPR reporter Cory Turner visited one elementary school in the Livingston Union School District in California’s Central Valley. The reason for the visit is a kindergarten class that has exceptionally low absenteeism, not just in the post pandemic era of lots of children missing lots of school days, but for several years before. Sujie Shin of the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence says there is a basic question related to a child’s success in school: “Is there an adult at school that cares about you - yes or no? That's it.” In another kindergarten class across town Diana Dickey greets each child. When one child is not there they move the child’s photo inside a big heart. That tells children when they’re not there they are missed. Another kindergarten cheers when all students are there. When one boy feels apprehensive about coming another boy waits and they walk in together. The parents are delighted with the school and that their children want to go and are disappointed they don’t go on weekends. Turner said:

By building a school culture where the children feel valued, Mrs. Dickey says students also learn to value and help each other.

The children feel valued. They learn to value each other. That’s the mattering movement. It is giving the students a grounding in mental health. My Sunday movie was Absolute Beginners, episodes 1 and 2 out of six. It is a film out of Poland, so Netflix dubbed it and actor’s lips don’t match the English. This time other actors are credited with the dubbing. Niko and Lena are two high school seniors trying to get into film school. They have been friends since quite young, almost brother and sister, and their parents share a cottage at a seaside resort. When the story begins they have a week to make the film that they’ll submit with the application. But as they get to the sex scene Niko refuses. Also at the resort is a basketball training camp. Igor is the captain of the team. He has a troubled past he hasn’t talked about yet. Scouts will be at the weekend game, a chance for him to go on to something better. Igor has a girlfriend Malwina, whom he’s known all of four days. She’s the daughter of the couple who own the restaurant and feels she will get left behind when Igor moves on. As the second episode ends Lena’s parents say they need to sell their share of the cottage and Niko’s parents don’t have enough to buy them out. Also, Lena tells Igor she has just the right part for him in her movie, the obvious implication is that Igor will replace Niko in the sex scene. I wrote about Justice Alito flying two flags as symbols of support for the 2021 Capitol attack. Daily Kos community member davidkc asks the important question: If that flag flying was in 2021 why is the Washington Post reporting it now? WaPo had an article written three years ago. They didn’t publish it. In it they described the upside-down American flag as a “political charged symbol.” Yet, they said the argument between Martha-Ann Alito and a neighbor that supposedly prompted her to display the inverted flag was not clearly “rooted in politics.” Which prompts many of us to say: Huh? My friend and debate partner sent me a link to this article, written by Aaron Pellish of CNN, about Chase Oliver winning the nomination for president of the Libertarian Party. My friend sent it to me because Oliver is gay. A gay presidential candidate! He’s also quite young – 38. This article says Oliver’s win signifies an embrace of “wokeness,” though I can’t tell if the person saying that thinks that’s a good thing or bad thing. Back in 2017, when I was working to collect signatures for the anti-gerrymandering proposal that passed in 2018, I spent an afternoon at a table outside the convention for the Libertarian Party of Michigan. The state chair and a few others signed. The convention as a whole voted to reject it. From what little I could hear from my table and from what I’d read elsewhere my feelings of the Libertarians is quite simple. They are so anti-tax their philosophy comes across as “I got mine. Too bad you don’t got yours.” Dartagnan of the Kos community wrote about one aspect of the proposed nasty guy administration and the Project 2025 document supporting it. This piece would “institutionalize racism and racial bias into our federal government.” It would accomplish that by redefining “racism,” which would redefine all the laws that mention racism and are meant to alleviate oppression of non-white people. Dartagnan wrote:

For them, “racism” is quite literally reimagined and reconfigured as anything that they perceive as a threat to the continued hegemony of white Americans. We are already seeing an implicit reappraisal of “racism” and civil liberties in several Republican-dominated states, as white people seek to preserve and maintain the racial dominance they have enjoyed in this country since the days of its founding.

Racism becomes defined as oppression by non-white people against white people. So “affirmative action” becomes “affirmative discrimination.”

In recent years, the Republican Party has consciously and deliberately abandoned almost all efforts to present itself as anything but a group devoted to maintaining white power and white supremacy. The political weapon they choose to wield: blame. White Americans—particularly middle- and working-class white Americans—are routinely indoctrinated by right-wing media to believe that their inability to make economic headway in American society is due to the encroachment of other races upon their “status” as white people.

Examples of the lies they use in their blame: Other races are willing to accept lower pay so white people’s pay can’t be increased. Black people are blamed for the high cost of health care, Medicare, and Social Security. Racial preferences hold white people back. Corporate DEI programs discriminate against whites. Nothing in those examples are true, though they are still potent. I’ll try a rewrite those examples to be closer to the truth: Corporations underpay non-white people and use that as an excuse to deny wage increases to white people. Corporations insert themselves between patients and their health care. Rich people block being taxed fairly and Social Security is denied enough money. As for racial preferences and DEI programs white people interpret non-whites being treated equal to themselves as discrimination.

Put bluntly, white people do not need such protections. Civil rights laws were not passed to rectify injustice against white people, because white people—particularly white men—are the nation’s most wealthy, most politically dominant, and by far the most privileged American citizens. Anti-discrimination laws will probably never change that dynamic, but they do preserve some degree of equal opportunity and protection from this country’s apparently immutable racism. Nevertheless, emboldened by a right-wing Supreme Court demonstrably hostile to racial equity, Project 2025’s proponents see this as their moment.

Project 2025 establishes white supremacy as national policy. Aldous Pennyfarthing of Kos quoted an Associated Press article:

A new report released Tuesday by States United Action, a group that tracks election deniers, said nearly one-third of the lawmakers in Congress supported in some way Trump’s bid to overturn the 2020 results or otherwise cast doubt on the reliability of elections. Several more are hoping to join them, running for election this year to the House and Senate.

Pennyfarthing adds:

More specifically, States United Action found that 170 representatives and senators of the total 535 Congress members are election deniers of some kind. Meanwhile, the group determined that two new Senate candidates and 17 new House candidates fall into the same category.

Clio2 of the Kos community wrote this month’s installment of LGBTQI+ Literature. The topic is autobiographies of intersex women. Amazingly, three such autobiographies were published last year. They are by Pidgeon Pagonis, Caster Semenya, and Alicia Roth Weigel. I had heard of Semenya before, but not the other two. Pagonis described surgeries to “fix” her, to remove the male portions of her anatomy. The surgeries were done without her informed consent (for some of them she was too young to consent). Things were not explained well to her parents either. All of the surgeries were cosmetic and not necessary. Pagonis is not working to get such intersex surgeries banned. While growing up in South Africa Semenya discovered she could run really fast. Soon she was entered into races, which was a big help to her family’s finances. When she began to break records she was subjected to a full gynecological exam. Only then did she learn “she had no uterus, no fallopian tubes, and a pair of undescended testicles that produced an elevated level of testosterone in her blood compared with most women.” And the sports community put her through hell. Even so, she brought home a silver medal from one Olympics and a gold from the next. Weigel also had surgery at a young age to remove undescended testicles. Her parents were told it should be done because they might become cancerous (the truth and logic of that is doubtful). After learning about intersex at 27 she became an advocate against the gender binary. That made her a public figure and a target for threats. Clio2 wrote:

Under the orders of -- perhaps not coincidentally, male -- authority figures, each of them subjected to drastic, involuntary medical interventions designed to remodel their bodies, surgically and/or chemically. In order to conform them more closely to a certain conceptual archetype of female. To render them, in effect, "female enough." ... A notion that also is deployed to buttress "traditional" power relations, including racism and the subordination of women. In line with which interest, exceptions must be erased. While "protecting children" is invoked as cover for "protecting the status quo."

A quote from Pagonis’ book:

We are raised to believe that you should just be able to glance at someone for a split second and know not only what lies between their legs but between their ears....[T]here is also supposed to be an inherent synchronicity between the two.

Weigel noted the contradiction of bills in which trans kids who want gender-affirming care are denied that care and in the same bill intersex kids who haven’t asked for such care yet have it forced on them. The demand to “fix” intersex kids is a piece of the demand to prohibit treating trans kids and the demand to “cure” gay people. And that is all wrapped up in misogyny, racism, and all the other things where one group oppresses another.

A whole nation under threat from Supreme Court justices

A week ago Mark Sumner of Daily Kos reported that for a time just after the Jan. 6 Capitol attack there was an inverted American flag outside Justice Samuel Alito’s home. This inverted flag was originally a signal of an emergency. It became a symbol for supporters of the nasty guy who wanted to overturn the election. Also at that time the Supreme Court was considering whether to hear a case involving the 2020 election results. Alito blamed the flag on his wife Martha-Ann, who he said put it up on response to a neighbor’s anti-nasty guy sign.

Like Thomas, whose wife was directly involved in Jan 6. events, Alito isn’t just conservative; he’s committed to eroding government power to help his billionaire friends. Any pretense that Alito has a judicial philosophy in election matters other than helping Trump is exactly that—pretense. ... As it turns out, an upside-down flag still signals an emergency. In this case, it’s a whole nation under threat from Supreme Court justices putting their support for Trump above the law.

Also last Friday Walter Einenkel of Kos wrote that Rachel Maddow criticized Alito on her program. She doesn’t buy the attempt to blame the wife. Maddow said:

Everybody has different marriage rules, but 'it's my wife's fault' is probably never within the marriage rules, when you are talking to The New York Times about something that you've done that has brought enough scandal upon you and the institution you represent, that it's on the front page of The New York Times. ... Justice Alito has become increasingly unembarrassed about displaying himself as a partisan, as a consumer of partisan narratives and media, and in ruling in ways that are just kind of out loud, all caps disdainful toward a majority of the country, in some cases. And certainly against people who disagree with him. And this fits with that. ... I think Chief Justice Roberts has a problem on his hands in terms of the behavior of some of the more aggressive justices, and those who are really flouting ethics concerns and equanimity concerns with their behavior.

Congressman Jamie Raskin tweeted:

Justice Alito turned the flag upside down. Donald Trump turned the Bible upside down. MAGA turned the Capitol upside down. The Roberts Court turned the Constitution upside down. Let’s set America right side up in November.

Wednesday, two days ago, Kaili Joy Gray of Kos reported there was a second occurrence of Alito flying a “stop the steal” flag. This on was the “Appeal to Heaven” flag and was seen over the Alito’s New Jersey beach house during the summer of 2023. When this one came to light at least Alito didn’t blame his wife. This flag is white with a green pine tree and the words “An Appeal to Heaven.” It was created during the American Revolution and recently adopted by far-right religious fanatics. It also was seen at the Capitol attack. Gray asks the question: How many far-right flags does Alito need to fly before we see it as a problem? Is two enough? In a pundit roundup for Kos Chitown Kev quoted Dahlia Lithwick of Slate. Here’s a bit, which explains what the flag means.

That flag is not merely another January 6 signifier but also rooted in John Locke’s “appeal to heaven,” meaning “a responsibility to rebel, even use violence, to overthrow unjust rule.”

I found the full quote to be: “The people have no other remedy in this, as in all other cases where they have no judge on earth, but to appeal to heaven.” But I’m not linking to the page where I found it. Down in the comments is a cartoon by Dennis Goris. It shows a building with two flags, the inverted American flag and the “Appeal to Heaven” flag. A boy asks, “What are those?” His father replies, “Red flags.” In the comments of another pundit roundup are a couple cartoons worth sharing. Joe Heller posted one of a flag outside the Supreme Court. The man says, “The flag is upside down and at half-staff?” The woman replies, “Yeah. Ethics is dead.” Much farther down is a cartoon from the Dallas Voice related to the United Methodist Church removing its bans on what LGBTQ people were allowed to do. The senior pastor says:

In accordance with new Methodist church policy, I will, if asked, agree to perform same-sex weddings. But I will draw the line at becoming a gay pastor myself.

Back to the Supreme Court. Also on Wednesday Sumner reviewed what Republicans had to say about Alito’s flags. Many blamed the press and Democrats for making a story of the flags. Those who had an actual comment gave Alito as much slack as they could or they commented on how bad it looked. Yeah, what we now expect from Republicans.

The depth of the Supreme Court’s corruption needs to be exposed, and the consequences need to be real. So far, no Republican appears ready to take that step.

On Thursday Einenkel reported a discussion Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of RI had with Lawrence O’Donnell of MSNBC. Whitehouse gave some history. When Bush I had a seat on the Court to fill he chose his own legal counsel Harriet Miers. Bush’s choice was attacked by Leonard Leo, the guy who founded the Federalist Society. Part of his efforts are to influence the Court. It is funded by bllionaires. He proposed Miers be replaced by the billionaire’s choice: Alito. Einenkel reminds us this is Alito’s third scandal in the last twelve months. Alito possibly being the leaker of the draft decision to overturn Roe was more than a year ago. Joan McCarter of Kos reported that pressure is building for Sen. Dick Durban, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to do something. Those two senators, who would love to take over Durban’s job, are Whitehouse and Sen. Richard Blumenthal of CT. So far all Durban has done was to issue stern demands that Alito recuse himself from cases involving the nasty guy or the Capitol attack. And Alito knows he can ignore Durban’s demands. Which is why Whitehouse and Blumenthal are applying more pressure. I had a scary thought...

Alito famously declared himself and the rest of the justices just that in an interview with The Wall Street Journal last year, in which he made a startling assertion of constitutional power: “No provision in the Constitution gives [Congress] the authority to regulate the Supreme Court—period.” That interview was with David Rivkin Jr., a regular contributor to the WSJ who also happens to be a lawyer who was about to argue a major tax case before the court. ... [Blumenthal said] “Justice Alito says the Congress can't regulate, to use his term, the Supreme Court. But the Congress set salaries. It sets rules of procedure. It sets the numbers of justices. The founders didn't want the United States Supreme Court to be above the law.”

One of the duties of the Supreme Court is to examine laws passed by Congress and decide if they are unconstitutional. Consider this scenario: Congress passes a bill that specifies a code of ethics with consequences for violating it and a way to enforce it. The president signs it. And then Alito and colleagues declare the law to be unconstitutional. What happens then? Stephen Wolf of Kos Elections described a recent Court ruling that shows why an ethical court is necessary. The Court had previously ruled that they will do nothing about gerrymandering for partisan purposes, though they could demand maps be redrawn if gerrymandering was for racial purposes, as in limiting minority members of Congress. The just issued ruling from the conservatives on the Court was for a South Carolina case of gerrymandering. It sure looked like a case of districts drawn for racial purposes. But in much of the South party affiliation is very much aligned with race. That allows Alito to reinterpret the motives of those who drew the maps to say, nope, this was for political purposes and we can’t touch it. The effect is to mostly remove race as a reason for a gerrymandering remedy.

He isn’t preparing to win, he’s preparing to lose

No movie on Sunday because it was a performance day. I finished the book Priddy’s Tale by Harper Fox. According to the Forward (which is as fictional as the rest of the book) “Priddy” is Cornish slang for a man one never sees working, implying he has a job but does very little. There is a second possibility, that the economy in Cornwall is so slow that many men can’t find work. In this story the main character is Jem Priddy and he doesn’t have a job. I’d like to say this is the gay version of Disney’s The Little Mermaid. But they’re more different than alike. They both have a merperson falling in love with a human. Instead of Ariel falling in love with Prince Eric we have merman Merou falling in love with Priddy. And that’s the end of the similarities. The rules on how a merperson can become human are completely different – Merou does not need a sea witch for the transformation and doesn’t lose his voice in the process. There is no three day deadline, though the core story is only about four days long. Priddy is recovering from using party drugs that were stronger than they should have been. Useless for any other job he is offered the job of lighthouse keeper, which includes a room where he can live and recover. It’s not a hard job – most of the lighthouse functions are automated. During storms Priddy does have to use binoculars to check the rocks near the base of the lighthouse in case a boat hits them. If he does see a problem he should alert the professional Search and Rescue team and attempt a rescue. During one storm he sees a boat on the rocks and a guy in the water who smiles and waves. Of course, it is Merou. From that meeting they fall in love. In comes researcher Geoff Blades. He’s heard Cornish tales of merpeople and he deduces that creatures that can change form have something that humans could use to heal diseases, so he wants to capture one. He also isn’t concerned with the destruction his efforts may cause. At times I got a bit tired of all the wonderful talents the merpeople in this story have. The worst was their ability to “swim through time” – to time travel. Thankfully, that actually had very little to do with the story (so why include it?). As for the other talents, such as the way the merpeople can rescue drowning humans, I wonder how much the author conjured up and how much of it comes from Cornish tales told over pints at the pub. I enjoyed the story. But it isn’t a recommendation. Kerry Eleveld of Daily Kos wrote the nasty guy “isn’t preparing to win, he’s preparing to lose.” Here are the reasons for that observation: All of his apparent VP choices have avoided committing to accepting the results of the election. Nasty guy allies, such as Steve Bannon are pushing rigged election fears early and often. They declare Biden can’t possibly win fairly. The only way to defeat the nasty guy is steal the election. Congressional Republicans are pushing voting conspiracy theories. The claim pushed the most is that immigrants are brought across the border to vote for Democrats. Of course, no evidence. There are also laws that ban non-citizens from voting. But it lets racist Americans believe “their vote is being nullified by someone who isn’t a citizen.” The nasty guy is telling the Republican National Committee, the group co-chaired by his daughter-in-law, don’t worry about get out the vote efforts, concentrate on poll monitoring. He believes adoration of himself is enough to drive voting. The RNC is planning a “massive” election integrity program to “focus on the cheating.”

Trump doesn't seem nearly as concerned with resourcing the front end of his campaign because he likely believes he has less control over the election’s outcome than he does over how his supporters respond to those results. Instead, Trump is pouring time and energy into cultivating an insurance policy for losing—a way to agitate and animate his most loyal followers in the event things don’t go his way. In Trump's view, if he wins, great. But if he loses, he is laying the groundwork for months of mayhem, protests, and election denialism that could easily surpass the scope of the violent 2021 insurrection he incited the last time he lost a presidential election.

I had mentioned VP candidates refusing to commit to accepting election results. Walter Einenkel of Kos reports Sen. Marco Rubio is the latest. He joins Doug Burgum, Kristi Noem, Elise Stefanik, and Tim Scott. Mark Sumner of Kos discussed that Burgum could be what the nasty guy wants in a VP candidate. First qualification: he’s rich, though maybe not in the billionaire category. And...

In the end, Trump’s favorite thing about Burgum might not be his money. It could be his utter lack of charisma and memorability. As The New York Times reported, the No. 1 rule for Trump’s vice president pick is to never hog the spotlight. Burgum is a guy who will never threaten to replace Trump or challenge him for the hearts of the MAGA faithful. His utter blandness just might be his selling point. Doug Burgum is like Mike Pence 2.0: unthreatening and uninspiring, only this time with $100 million and 100% less concern about upholding the Constitution.

Last week I wrote that the nasty guy asked for a bribe from Big Oil, by saying if they gave him a billion dollars he would overturn oil regulations (what the rest of us would call human and environment protections). Pakalolo of the Kos community reported the request has been accepted. And that acceptance is happening in Houston, which had a heat wave followed by record-breaking rainfall. That crippled the city and left 800K without power. Jeremy Schwartz, in an article for the Texas Tribune posted on Kos, told the story of Courtney Gore. Back in 2021 she ran for the school board of Granbury Independent School District, southwest of Fort Worth. She pledged to inspect every bit of curriculum for messages inappropriate for “small town, conservative Christian values.” Yeah, we know what that means – messages of sexuality and race, or more accurately messages that said anything other than man-woman sex and also anything discussing an alternative to white supremacy. The result of all her searching...

The pervasive indoctrination she had railed against simply did not exist. Children were not being sexualized, and she could find no examples of critical race theory, an advanced academic concept that examines systemic racism. She’d examined curriculum related to social-emotional learning, which has come under attack by Christian conservatives who say it encourages children to question gender roles and prioritizes feelings over biblical teachings. Instead, Gore found the materials taught children “how to be a good friend, a good human.” Gore rushed to share the news with the hard-liners who had encouraged her to run for the seat. She expected them to be as relieved and excited as she had been. But she said they were indifferent, even dismissive, because “it didn’t fit the narrative that they were trying to push.” So, in the spring of 2022, Gore went public with a series of Facebook posts. She told residents that her backers were using divisive rhetoric to manipulate the community’s emotions. They were interested not in improving public education but rather in sowing distrust, Gore said.

She had been a part of accusing others of not being conservative enough. She is now accused of the same thing by the people who backed her race. After board meetings school marshals escort board members to their cars. She’s received threats to her home.

Gore said she feels that she was unwittingly part of a statewide effort to weaken local support of public schools and lay the groundwork for a voucher system.

Gov. Greg Abbott is pushing hard for a voucher system. Gore is speaking out so that she isn’t complicit in damaging public schools. Since then two conservative board candidates lost by wide margins. And Nancy Alana, the woman Gore defeated to get on the board, is back. Alana and Gore are now friends and allies. Now the effort is to get the community to trust the board again. A big step towards that was Gore saying “I was wrong.” An Associated Press article posted on Kos discussed the state of school integration as we pass the 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. That case, decided in 1954, found that in education separate but equal was a lie. “Students who attend high-poverty schools, regardless of their family’s finances, have worse educational outcomes.” And high-poverty schools strongly correlated to high percentages of non-white students. The ruling was followed by a decade of delay and avoidance. Only in 1964 did court rulings, monitoring, and enforcement lead to improved integration. Starting in 1974 a series of rulings by the Supremes weakened Brown. And by 2007 the last of the tools of integration were taken away. Some of those rulings came from white parents who sued because a black student got something better than their white child.

At its peak, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools was considered such a success at integrating classrooms and closing the gap between Black and white students that educators around the country came to tour the district. Today, more than 20 years after a court ruling overturned busing students on the basis of race, CMS is the most segregated district in North Carolina. ... Efforts to integrate schools can take two paths, Stefan Lallinger, executive director of Next100, a public policy think tank, says. They either fight around the margins, creating slightly less segregated spaces, or they address the problem head on, which in many parts of the country would mean tackling boundaries deliberately drawn to separate rich from poor.

What seems to work towards more integration is more litigation. This time from parents of color trying to place their children in better schools and facing long waitlists. In this week’s edition of “7 stories to know” Sumner included a few that are of interest to me. Both major parties are reaching out to new voters. But the youngest voters are strongly Democratic. The young ones are also the ones most likely reached by voter registration drives. So Republicans have shifted tactics a bit. Rather than (or maybe in addition to) putting up barriers to individuals registering to vote, they are putting up barriers to registration drives. The penalties are strong enough that many groups that run drives have shut down that work. To justify it they spread unfounded claims about registering undocumented immigrants. The Los Angeles Times reports that because of the overturning of Roe more young men are seeking vasectomies. It is a lot easier and more dependable than other forms of birth control. In North Carolina Republicans passed a bill to restrict wearing masks in public. The stated reason was because of masks being worn by pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses. But the bit that exempted wearing masks for health and safety reasons was removed. Yeah, that means it is illegal in North Carolina to wear a mask to protect yourself from COVID or any other pandemic virus. And down at the bottom is a video by British linguist Rob Watts, who uses the name Rob Words when he explains interesting things about English. This 15 minute video talks about why English spelling is such a mess – two words spelled similarly (foot and boot) are pronounced differently and two words spelled differently are pronounced the same (break and brake). The reason is over a few hundred years in the middle of the last millennium there was a Great Vowel Shift, which affected many words but left many untouched. There are a few possible reasons for the shift. At the same time the printing press was came into use, which standardized spelling as vowel sounds were changing.

A regular old, boring, wonderful, can't-live-without-each-other marriage

I finished the book The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers. This is the fourth and final book in her Wayfarer series and I enjoyed it as much as the other three, which is quite a lot. Gora is a planet near the entrance to five wormholes that allow spaceships access to other parts of the galaxy. Even though Gora has no life of its own the wormhole portals mean there will be weary travelers who will need a chance to get out of their ship to rest and resupply. One of the lesser quality rest stops on Gora is run by Ouloo and her child Tupo. They are of a shaggy species with long necks. The child hasn’t matured yet and so hasn’t chosen a gender and uses pronouns xe/xyr. Tupo very much acts like a preteen even as xie is given the task of welcoming each landing shuttle. On this particular day three shuttles arrive. One holds Roveg, who is a male of a species with a hard shell and many legs. Another is Speaker, who breathes methane instead of oxygen so roams the ground sealed in a mechanized suit much larger than she is. The third is Pei, who has scales instead of skin. We soon learn she is the secretive cross-species lover of Ashby, the captain of the ship we met in the first book, and she is on her way to meet him. As they settle in the garden eating desserts prepared by Ouloo they see explosions in the sky. A communications satellite has exploded and the shrapnel from it took out nearby satellites and the shrapnel from those took out more. By the time all is done three-quartes of the communication network is gone and the sky is so full of junk flights off the surface are not safe. The authority over the portals needs time to clear the junk. What was expected to be a layover of a few hours now extends to five days. The five beings spend time talking and getting to know each other. And that’s essentially the plot. But the discussions are fascinating. How does on describe tickling to a being whose outer surface is a shell? How does lifespan affect what one does? – Speaker expects to live only eight years while Tupo is far from mature at seventeen. How does reproduction work and who cares for the offspring? How has the species been affected by joining the Galactic Commons? How does having a species homeworld, even if one has never seen it or can’t go back, affect a person? How does the idea of a homeworld affect those who don’t have one? What is the affect of loving a person of another species when it is taboo by both cultures? And much more. Along the way we see that Roveg is quite the gentleman. Ouloo is good at interrupting heated discussions with the offer of more cake. And Tupo has intriguing ideas about the history of Gora xie displays in xyr natural history museum. Chambers is a marvelous storyteller and builds an intricate galaxy in these books. I recommend them. As I was reading the book DrLori of the Daily Kos community posted a discussion of the whole series as part of her weekly series of science fiction and fantasy (which I’m just now finding). That included her link to her discussion of this book. I didn’t read it until I had completed my own review above. Here is a bit of what she wrote:

The Galaxy’s set-up is a classic: a handful of strangers marooned in a saloon, or diner, or a tavern at the end of the world, or a hotel, while outside a storm rages, one that keeps everyone from leaving. With nothing else to do, the strangers talk — prejudices are encountered, mutual dependence develops, there’s a crisis that brings everyone to work in common purpose, and all depart much the wiser.

Even if it seems to follow a formula DrLori agrees it is done quite well. In the comments DrLori added:

One thing to mention is that none of the characters are human, so we can’t call it an exploration of human nature, but of universal sapient values. Correction: there is a human who is a very minor character and who arrives very late in the narrative. Still, how much of the behavior is human and how much is humane?

A week ago Aldous Pennyfarthing of Kos wrote, based on reporting from the Washington Post:

As Donald Trump sat with some of the country’s top oil executives at his Mar-a-Lago Club last month, one executive complained about how they continued to face burdensome environmental regulations despite spending $400 million to lobby the Biden administration in the last year.

They spent $400 million and got nothing? Poor dears. But it’s a sign that they believe money should get them what they want.

Trump’s response stunned several of the executives in the room overlooking the ocean: You all are wealthy enough, he said, that you should raise $1 billion to return me to the White House. At the dinner, he vowed to immediately reverse dozens of President Biden’s environmental rules and policies and stop new ones from being enacted, according to people with knowledge of the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation. ... The Washington Post reported that according to those Mar-a-Lago attendees, Trump said the it would be a “deal” for those Big Oil executives because of all the taxes and regulations they’d be spared under another Trump presidency.

Yes, the nasty guy is soliciting a bribe. The oil industry is now writing executive orders for the nasty guy to sign, should he win a second term. They’re doing it because the nasty guy is likely to forget to draft something to their liking as he campaigns (and hopefully spends time in courtrooms) this summer and fall. Considering all the steps Biden has taken to help the environment and all the steps the nasty guy took to undo actions that would help the environment one can easily conclude the nasty guy would gladly destroy the environment for $1 billion. As for those billionaires... Mark Sumner of Kos discussed a New York Times article that reported billionaires are returning to support the nasty guy. They had turned away because of his fascism. The reason for the return is quite simple: taxes. Though the economy is humming (which includes more people having money to buy what the billionaires are selling) billionaires see a stark and simple choice. The nasty guy’s tax cuts cost the nation $1.9 trillion. This money went straight into their bank accounts. Those tax cuts expire next year. The nasty guy has promised to renew them. In contrast Biden has vowed to not renew them and has proposed additional taxes on the super rich so their share of taxes is the same for average workers. The billionaires response is: The horror!

The wealthy Trump donors aren’t worried about Wall Street, and they’re not worried about what’s best for the nation’s economy or even what drives the stock market. They’re facing a choice between a man who wants to give them trillions of dollars, and a man who wants them to pay their fair share. What’s a little fascism next to an offer like that?

A week ago Sumner looked at a Congressional Budget Office estimate of the nasty guy tax cuts. When it was signed Republicans claimed the tax bill would generate so much growth it would lead to $1 trillion in additional revenue. The CBO now estimates the cuts will actually cost the government $1.9 trillion.

Now the CBO is back with a new estimate of what it would cost to keep Trump’s tax cut in place over the next decade, and that estimate is more than double the original cost. Keeping Trump’s tax cuts would cost a whopping $4.6 trillion and send the nation on a path to a level of deficit only seen during the Great Depression, World War II, and … Trump’s bungling of the pandemic.

Back in 2017 Republicans made one set of claims about the cuts. Brookings, in 2018, also predicted what would happen. Not surprisingly, the Republican prediction was not the correct one. The American Enterprise Institute looked at Biden’s tax plan. That plan would increase government revenue by $3.8 trillion and make the tax system more fair.

There are many reasons to reelect Biden in the fall; so many that tax policy may not be getting as much attention as it usually receives. But that $8.4 trillion difference in revenue over the next ten years is the difference between a government that is capable of responding to issues like the climate crisis and other new threats as they arise, and one that is designed only to set back and provide a constant stream of cash for those who need it least.

Also a week ago Mary Louise Kelly of NPR talked to Anne Applebaum of The Atlantic about her cover story, “The New Propaganda War.” At the start of their discussion Kelly reminds us of the repressive tactics of the 1989 killings at Tiananmen Square in China, where protesters were calling for democracy. China’s response was to kill lots of people in an attempt to eliminate the ideas that had motivated the protesters. China, with growing help from Russia, is now switching the conversation from getting rid of the discussion of democracy (which they saw they can’t do) to describing the dangers of democracy. They’re talking about those dangers within China and also in Africa, Latin America, and inside the United States. And they’re spending billions to get that message out. The core of the message is, “authoritarian countries are safe and secure, that democracies are divided and degenerate, and above all, that the United States is a special danger to the world.” Russia added, and China is amplifying, that Ukrainians are Nazis. One would think young Africans would see the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a colonial war. As former colonies they should be on Ukraine’s side. But all they’re hearing in the news is the Russian side amplified by China. They don’t hear counterarguments and they don’t hear the US view. Inside the US this authoritarian propaganda is being spread by Republicans. And they are attacking democracy in this way because they want to get rid of democracy. China’s talking points about democracy being degenerate (how many minutes have passed since you last heard a Republican talk about the decline in American values?) and leading to chaos will serve nicely. To protect democracy in America we could be doing things such as: Recognize this is a problem. Recognize democracy is not automatic. Start spreading narratives promoting democracy, which we tend to assume is a given. Regulate social media (which starts with conversations about how bad it is). On the same day as that NPR discussion there was a segment on Marketplace with host Kay Ryssdal talking to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. A transcript is at this link. This is what caught my attention:

I think it’s important for Americans to understand how critical democracy is to economic performance. Of course, democracy is important in and of itself. But I thought what I can add is to elucidate the relevance of democracy to good economic performance and to fight back against the idea that democracies just aren’t an efficient way to help people get ahead. And you sometimes hear this in countries like China that say, “Well, you know, we have an authoritarian government. We decide to do something and we can move quickly. And look how slow it is for, sometimes, democracies to move.” But the research suggests that democracy is actually critical to high living standards, on average, other things equal. Income is 20% higher in democracies, and there are very good reasons. And it’s important for Americans to understand that.

Billionaires don’t want “high living standards, on average.” They want high living standards for themselves. There is an anniversary worth marking, even though I’m a couple days late. Twenty years ago just after midnight on May 17, 2004 same-sex couples were able to fill out marriage licenses at city hall in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This story by Steve Inskeep of NPR included the phrase that brought me chills and tears when I first heard it twenty years ago and still does. Someone captured a wedding officiant saying “By the power vested in me by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts...” That was followed by a big cheer. Inskeep then talked to Michelle Coleman and Pam Waterman, who married later that year (a big wedding needed some planning). Waterman said:

I don't feel like our hardships or our joys, even, have been any different than any other marriage that I saw growing up - you know, the heterosexual couples - except that we might get some drama because we're same-sex, which I think has lessened considerably over the years. But it's just been a regular old, boring, day-to-day, lovely, she gets on my nerves, I get on her nerves, wonderful, can't-live-without-each-other marriage.

A balanced life instead of gilded pressure cooker

I heard part of this story on the radio and was intrigued. So I found it online. As part of the NPR show Here & Now host Deepa Fernandes (I think, she didn’t say her name) talked to Jennifer Wallace about her book Never Enough, When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic – and What We Can Do About It. The audio is ten minutes. We can pressure our kids too much. Achievement becomes toxic when a child believes they’re only lovable when they’re achieving. Setbacks aren’t seen as a setback but as proof to the child that they’re worthless. It’s harmful to mental health. Parents think that things like achievement test coaches are a help but each achievement bumps the child into harder challenges and life becomes only about achievement. It can lead to high rates of anxiety and of substance abuse. Kids refer to it as the gilded pressure cooker. Back in the 70s there was more slack in the system. A parent didn’t need to demand perfect performance from their child to be sure the child could do at least as well as themselves. In contrast, modern parents see the middle class eroding with a lot of economic uncertainty. So they try to give their child, starting from a very young age, all the economic advantages they can. That includes everything that might look good on a college application – extra curriculars, sports, volunteer work, and more. The child has no time to be a child. They learn their mental health can be sacrificed on the altar of achievement. Parents of healthy youth recognize they needed teach their children about how to have a balanced life, one without the need to escape through drugs or alcohol. They insist on down time, family time, and outside time. They teach their children they matter outside of their achievements. There is a “mattering movement” that teaches children have value in their core, outside of their achievements. A second component is children are taught to also add value. This protects the children from the anxiety that comes from stress. Some children were never taught that they matter. Others were never taught to add value to people other than themselves. The second part is social proof that they matter. Too many youth associate a good life with going to a top tier college. Parents need to reject that myth. Instead, they need to talk about the components of a good life – good relationships, purposeful work, and a feeling of making a positive impact in their world. Of course, I did a search for “mattering movement” and found it at thematteringmovement.com. It says it is co-founded by Wallace and inspired by her book, mentioned above. The site offers, new in 2024, curriculum for grades 6-12, professional development for teachers, and will soon have a guide for parents. What I saw looks like it is well supported by scientific studies. I went to one of the articles in the curriculum. This one is by Zach Mercurio. It explains what mattering is and why it is important. Then it explains three broad things one can do to help others see that they matter. First, notice them. Make eye contact. Ask how they’re doing. Don’t brush past them on the way to the coffee pot, instead ask if they want a cup. Second, acknowledge their unique strengths and talents. Instead of saying “good job,” describe how their strengths they showed and what the impact those strengths had on the situation. Third, make sure others know they aren’t disposable, that they and their talents are essential to the whole. The radio segment and the movement caught my attention because of how much I’ve been thinking about the social hierarchy and how much effort those higher in the hierarchy put out to maintain their position or to climb higher. A big part of the hierarchy is comparing oneself to others – I’m better than those people. A big part of maintaining their place in the hierarchy is by making the lives of those in lower positions to be worse, also known as oppression. When parents are frantic to make sure their children do as well as they do part of the reason is they don’t want their children to fall lower in the hierarchy. From the audio I got the impression that the anxiety tends to come from families on the upper side of middle class. These tend to be parents more concerned about their position in the hierarchy. So the big question is what does our society need to teach everyone so people don’t need to compare themselves to others, that each person feels they are valued for who they are and what they can do without basing their identity on whether they are better than someone else. People need to learn how to be complete within themselves. This mattering movement sounds like it is a good start. Some fun stuff. A cartoon by Zachary Kanin, posted to New Yorker Humor, shows a king lamenting, “I want to be feared as a tyrant, loved as a father, and revered as a god, but I also want them to think I’m funny.” Tom Gauld of New Scientist posted a cartoon with the caption, “Every Friday, a truck pulls up at the Mathematics Department to collect all the used numbers. They will be cleaned, sorted, and sold on to manufacturers of calendars, rulers, and clocks.” Matt of the Political Cartoon gallery of London posted a cartoon of a couple coming out of a restaurant. The man says, “It was delicious, but the Chinese fortune cookies were alarmingly well informed.” Massimo poses if a person on one side of the world puts a piece of bread on the ground at the same time as someone on the exact opposite side of the world does the same have they made an earth sandwich? What’s the ratio of bread to filling?

Rambling praise for criminals and serial killers

My Sunday movie was The Swimmer (don’t confuse it with The Swimmers). This is an Israeli drama from 2021 about Erez at the tryouts to be the swimming contestant for the Olympics. There are five guys at the camp, only one will go to the Games. We see what they go through to get into condition. For those that enjoy this sort of thing this movie has plenty of eye candy. The lads are quite fit – they are Olympic athletes – and much of the time they wear only a Speedo. Between that and hanging out with Nevo, another competitor, Eraz sees he is aroused by it all and begins to understand he is gay. At the same time Erez feels the pressure building. The coach sees him as a leading contender. His dad is a former swimming colleague of the coach. And the coach (and nearly everyone else) reminds him that swimming is a solo sport and at camp one must focus on the training. At the end there is, of course, a race to determine which one will go to the Olympics. Though some of the race is shown, much more of it is represented by the five guys doing a dance on the bottom of the empty pool to suggest the progress of the race. That was pretty cool. At a couple of movie sites I don’t think the movie is accurately described. On Fandango, where I watched it, the end of the description is, “However, their swimming coach does not believe in friendship between competitors.” But it isn’t their friendship that is the problem, it’s their being late for practice. And IMDb says, “Sees the discriminative tendencies in sports against LGBTQ people, and how a sportsman learns to accept and love himself despite that.” But discrimination against LGBTQ people in swimming or any other sport is never mentioned or shown – unless one counts Eraz dying his hair yellow and the coach telling him to cut it. Which I don’t count. Aldous Pennyfathing of Daily Kos wrote:

Florida Sen. Rick Scott has bitter complaints about the alleged persecution of Donald Trump, and he’s using his own trials and tribulations to illustrate his point. Trump himself loves to claim he’s been treated more unfairly than any politician ever... But instead of proving that Trump is being unfairly targeted, what Scott really demonstrated is how unnervingly easy it still is for rich white men to get away with egregious s--- in America.

Scott presided over one of the worst Medicare frauds in American history, yet was still able to get elected as Florida’s governor, then its junior senator. “In other words, criming is okay if you’re a Republican—especially if you’re a rich, white, male one.” Pennyfarthing has details on Scott’s scandal. Kerry Eleveld of Kos reported that Rep. Scott Perry of PA has been pushing the Great Replacement Theory, which claims that Democrats are letting in all these brown people so they can register to vote and drown out the white vote. Yeah, they can’t be registered that fast. Perry isn’t the only one and the word “invasion” is being used by lots of Republicans to scare people about the southern border. But that has consequences. The El Paso shooter in 2019 said he acted because of the “Hispanic Invasion.” And two years ago the Buffalo shooter mentioned invasion or invaders 39 times in his screed. Only a few Republicans will use the term “replacement theory.” But so many are using “invasion” it becomes a way to track the escalation of this theory. Mark Sumner of Kos reported that the nasty guy, in his election fraud case, can’t attack the judge, jury, or witnesses. He’s already been fined for contempt of court for violating the gag order. Though the nasty guy can’t, his surrogates can and are. One of those surrogates is Gov. Doug Bergum of ND. This may be part of his bid to be the new vice nasty. Don’t “be surprised if ‘who can craft the best social media attack’ becomes the new test for Trump's would-be VPs.” An Associated Press article posted on Kos lists the major events of the case, going all the way back to 2005 when the “Access Hollywood” tape was made. It didn’t become public until 2016, just before the election. The list goes up to the start of the trial. Joan McCarter of Kos reported Speaker Mike Johnson was the latest Republican to show up at the nasty guy’s trial and speak to the cameras outside to declare how terribly unfair the trial is. That news prompted a tweet from Liz Cheney:

Have to admit I’m surprised that @SpeakerJohnson wants to be in the “I cheated on my wife with a porn star” club. I guess he’s not that concerned with teaching morality to our young people after all.

McCarter concluded:

None of this is surprising, as Johnson was an architect of Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. But his standing by Trump and declaring a court of law illegitimate is definitely taking it a step further. Johnson is doing all of this in an attempt to consolidate his support in the fractious House GOP conference—and he’s going to need it. After these antics, he can kiss goodbye to any help from Democrats to save his ass again.

Recently there was news that Biden awarded 19 Presidential Medals of Freedom. Congress can hand out awards too, the Congressional Gold Medal. These are awarded much less often. Sumner reported six Republicans want to award one to the nasty guy as a way to suck up to him. The award would be for “dedication to strengthening America’s diplomatic relations,” apparently as in abandoning allies, enabling Putin, verbally sparring with Canada, and insulting G20 leaders. Don’t worry, the nasty guy isn’t going to get this nugget anytime soon. It’s a rough route to the House floor and when it gets there, it must get a two-thirds vote. In a pundit roundup for Kos, Chitown Kev quoted Hannah Knowles and Marianne Levine of the Washington Post:

Ambitious Republicans are eagerly parachuting onto the sidelines of the first criminal trial of a former president, with a lineup that includes former Trump critics plunging themselves into the proceedings. The pilgrimages demonstrate the imperative in today’s GOP to show loyalty to Trump and his fervent base in the midst of a case that has become a showcase of salacious scandal. ... The visits show how the party has changed in some respects since 2016, when Republicans initially scrambled to distance themselves from Trump’s suggestion on the “Access Hollywood” tape that, as a celebrity, he could kiss and grope women whenever he wanted. Now, they have provided a small army of surrogates arguing that the charges are unfair and unusual, and amplifying his often exaggerated or baseless claims about the case and the legal system.

Notably missing from the court are the nasty guy’s wife and daughter. Down in the comments are a cartoon and a meme. The first is the editorial cartoon for the West Central Tribune. It shows a man talking to a woman wearing a “MAGA” hat and “Freedom” shirt.

Man: We are going to mandate that everyone wear a mask until this pandemic is over. Woman: What?! The government can’t tell me what to do with my body! Man: We’re going to force you to have a baby whether you want to or not. Woman: Okie-dokie!

The meme was posted by user exlrrp. It shows a photo of the nasty guy, his wife, and Stormy Daniels. The text says, “A Bible salesman, his pregnant wife, and the woman he never ever ever ever met, but paid her $130,000 for something they never ever ever ever did...” Eleveld reported the nasty guy’s campaign is trying to say they are focusing on quality over quantity. I’m not sure what that means. Quality of what? Votes? How does one get higher quality votes? What it probably means is quality of field offices. Lots of Republican state strategists are wondering why there are so few of them, especially in battleground states. Perhaps it is because so much of his and RNC campaign dollars are going to legal fees? Sumner wrote about the New York Times coverage of the nasty guy’s speech in Wildwood, New Jersey. Sumner wrote that few news outlets reported what the nasty guy actually said.

That was certainly true of The New York Times, which breezed through 99% of Trump’s speech: “Mr. Trump’s speech largely consisted of what has become his standard fare.” This oversimplification of Trump’s speech failed to mention Trump’s comparing himself to Al Capone, praise for fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter, or his bizarre series of statements that an unidentified “they” were “emptying out their mental institutions into the United States.” Instead, The New York Times edited down Trump’s speech to create the candidate they want to exist: one who is romping to victory and threatening to win a solid blue state.

The parts left out included: Grade-school insults aimed at perceived enemies. His attacks on the trial judge. His tossing off a series of nonsensical statements. That thousands walked out as his rambling included praise for criminals and serial killers.

As Esquire points out, the Times coverage is a masterclass in how not to cover an event. “The only story to be written about this event is that a huge crowd gathered to see and hear the presumptive presidential candidate have some sort of episode in public,” wrote Esquire’s Charles P. Pierce.. Instead, the Times created such an object lesson in normalization that it “ought to be taught in journalism schools as an example of what never to do.”

I’ve heard that Biden challenged the nasty guy to a couple debates and the challenge was accepted. If the nasty guy is tossing off series of nonsensical statements I think Biden will have no trouble eating his lunch – and drawing a strong contrast between a competent and a senile mind. But I’d be torn between avoiding debates as I usually do and wanting to watch the takedown. Popcorn, anyone? Sumner used Colorado and Tennessee as examples of what a state controlled by Democrats can accomplish compared to one controlled by Republicans. Colorado: Two free years of college, making school funding less dependent on community property wealth, tax credits to reduce child poverty, zoning changes to increase affordable housing, and fees on oil and gas to promote transit, conservation, and renewable energy. Tennessee: A bill to arm teachers, another to fortify campuses, a third to require age appropriate firearms training starting in pre-kindergarten. And a law requiring teachers to out trans students. An article by Piper Hutchinson of the Louisiana Illuminator posted on Kos reported state Rep. Beau Beaullieu (R), on behalf of Gov. Jeff Landry (R), is preparing legislation to call for a constitutional convention. The primary purpose is to take things out of the state constitution and turn them into ordinary laws that are a lot easier for legislators to change. Since many things, especially rights, are put into constitutions to protect them from meddling legislators we know what this is all about. A big reason why this news is getting a lot of exposure is because of a piece that is reportedly to be left in the new constitution. That is the ban on same-sex marriage. That’s even though 62% of residents support same-sex marriage. Half of Republicans nationwide also support it. That piece is currently not operational because of the Supreme Court decision back in 2015 that declared such bans as unconstitutional. But Republicans want to leave it in the state constitution because of all the talk from various Supremes that they’re looking for a case to overturn the 2015 decision. Even if Beaullieu’s bill passes, convention delegates may decide on their own what to leave in and take out. And even if a new constitution is written it must be approved by voters. But this is Louisiana. I’ve written a few times about Project 2025, the 920 page Kos document of how to implement Christian Nationalism when the next Republican becomes president. Dartagnan of the Kos community reported Republican senators are laying groundwork by introducing ...

an Orwellian bill that would establish a federal website, Pregnancy.gov. The website would enable the Department of Health and Human Services to solicit and collect personal identifying information on pregnant women and others, ostensibly for the purpose of providing them with prenatal advice on how to proceed with their pregnancies... Innocently termed the MOMS Act, the explicit purpose of the legislation is to “support, encourage and assist” women in “carry[ing] their pregnancies to term,” by directing them to so-called pregnancy crisis centers whose purpose is to discourage—and often intimidate—women and others from terminating their pregnancies. The proposed law provides for direct, personal contact to be initiated by a cadre of newly installed, theocratic government employees toward pregnant patients who register their contact information with the site in order to pressure them in their reproductive decisions. It also implements a federalized regimen for child support payments that commences at the moment of pregnancy, laying the groundwork for governmental regulation that treats “fetal personhood” as a recognized status under U.S. law. This legislation is being touted by Republicans—stung by recent electoral defeats by voters who abhor their forced-birth policies—as an example of their compassion toward women and others who become pregnant. What it reveals, however, is not compassion, but coercion, harassment, and ultimately, control.