Gov't shutdown, not over runaway spending, but abortion

Kerry Eleveld of Daily Kos reported that Republicans are seeing two in three counties with major universities are trending much more Democratic. And they’re getting worried. They wonder how to quash college voters. The big example is in Wisconsin. Dane County, home of Madison and the University of Wisconsin, cast more ballots in the recent state Supreme Court election than the most populous Milwaukee County. And 82% of Dane County’s votes went to the pro-choice Judge Janet Protasiewicz. She won by 11 points in a 50-50 state. Yeah, the problem is these younger voters – not the policies that are ticking them off. See... Joan McCarter of Kos reported that while Republicans can’t get a national abortion ban through Congress and past Biden right now, they are forcing anti-abortion (and anti-trans) poison pills into every must-pass legislation. The big agriculture bill has an amendment that would force the FDA to stop allowing abortion pills be sent by mail (as they prevent the FDA from regulating nicotine in cigarettes). Bills to fund bank regulators, the IRS, and other government departments have amendments to deny coverage of abortion service and gender-affirming care to federal employees and their families. And that’s just the start. The method is to overwhelm the Senate. If the majority Senate doesn’t go along, Republicans are fine with forcing a government shutdown. This maximizes disruption (which they want) and maybe some of their efforts succeed. There’s a convoluted reasoning that any federal support of abortion is an attack on states’ rights – even where abortion is legal. But since their goal is a federal ban on abortion to supersede states rights no need to try to wrap your head around their reasoning.

All of these poison pill amendments are a means of softening the ground for what comes next from Congress. If Republicans keep the House and get the Senate, then get the trifecta by winning the White House, that national ban will be job one. That is where Republicans are playing with electoral fire. By injecting abortion into every single funding bill, they’re going to make the shutdown fight about our reproductive rights and their push for a de facto national abortion ban. Republicans won’t be able to put the gloss of the deficit or “out-of-control spending” on a shutdown. It will be all about abortion. Government shutdowns are never popular, but when the issue threatens a fundamental right, it will be disastrous for Republicans.

The new movie Barbie set a record for the largest opening weekend of female-directed movie. Which means, as Laura Clawson of Kos reported, all the conservative angst trying to get people to boycott the movie didn’t work. There were complaints of “disappointingly low T from Ken.” Meaning he wasn’t macho enough. Another called it a “man-hating Woke propaganda fest.” Since “doctor Barbie” is played by a trans woman there is a complaint the movie was taken over by the trans mafia.

It’s important not to lose sight of what this is about: It’s part of an effort to enforce gender roles according to right-wing preferences, a backlash against the movie’s undermining of the ways Barbie has represented femininity for generations now. Although interestingly, they’re really upset about the representation of Ken, as if Ken had ever been some major figure in American visions of masculinity. ... One reason for the frenzied rage over the movie’s message about gender as a whole is the sense that masculinity and femininity as universal, unchanging truths are being undermined. The idea that Ryan Gosling as Ken is not a rippling specimen of dominant manhood links to anti-trans bigotry. The anger about both is rooted in the belief that a rigid gender binary is sacred and in the fear that it’s slipping away from them as the kids these days move away from strong adherence to said binary.

That strong adherence to the gender binary is because of their belief that men are supposed to be superior to women. A guy who isn’t sufficiently dominant or a person who defies their gender role gets their swift condemnation. In the comments of a pundit roundup for Kos is a cartoon by Michael Franklin showing Lisa Simpson in front of a screen that says, “If felons can’t vote... then felons should not be allowed to run for president.” We’re familiar with the big guys of renewable energy, wind and solar. Mark Sumner of Kos discussed a little brother – geothermal. There may be a breakthrough to expanding what it can deliver. Geothermal can work even when the wind blows and at night and doesn’t need the storage. The way it works is simple: pump cold water into the ground, hot water comes out. That gain in energy can drive a turbine. To make that happen the heat source has to be within a reasonable drilling distance and the rocks have to be permeable to allow water to be pumped through them. The breakthrough is in the case where the rocks are hot but are too dense and impermeable. Fervo Energy has a demonstration system that showed that problem can be fixed through ... fracking. This should – in theory – have much less environmental impact than the fracking used to extract natural gas. There are fewer wells and since they are much deeper there should be less threat to polluting or depleting ground water. Even so there is still the risk of small earthquakes. This has exciting possibilities to our energy hungry world. We need that alternate energy source because... Pakalolo of the Kos community reported that the Antarctic ice has melted to an all time low. One might think with the heat dome over Phoenix this might be expected. But Antarctica is in winter – and a very cold winter this year. How cold? Today’s reading was -82.9C (about -117F). Yeah, that cold. Yet the sea ice is melting due to the warmth of the surrounding oceans. A chart of sea ice extent over the last few decades shows 2023 way lower than other years. In the comments of another pundit roundup is a cartoon by Peter Kuper. It shows two men sitting on a park bench. Both wear masks because of the swirling smoke. One tells the other, “...But it’s a dry smoke.” Just a bit further down is one by Matt Golding. A parent and child look at a blazing hillside. The parent says, “One day, all this will be yours...cough!...to deal with.” Charles Jay of the Kos community had, as part of a previous gig, did a few interviews with Tony Bennett, who died recently. In amongst the stories is this, first Jay, then Bennett:

“I Left My Heart in San Francisco” was released as the B-side on a single, but it would earn Bennett his first two Grammys, including Record of the Year, and become his theme song. But Bennett said the song impacted him in another way:

“The greatest thing that ever happened to me as an entertainer was hearing how the soldiers waiting to come home from Vietnam were sitting around the fire and singing ‘I Left My Heart in San Francisco’ because when they came home they’d first have to come through San Francisco. Even today because of the Iraqi war, every time I sing … ‘When I come home to you San Francisco,’ I think of the boys coming home.”

They’re not even really bothering with the “thoughts and prayers”

Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Thanksgiving Day edition of Cheers and Jeers for Daily Kos, has a good list of things to be thankful for. David Neiwert of Kos reviewed the far right media response to the mass shooting at the LGBTQ Club Q in Colorado Springs. Excerpts:

They’re not even really bothering with the “thoughts and prayers” or expressions of regret at the violence after the mass shootings they inspire any longer. No, the people who have been targeting the LGBTQ community with classic stochastic terrorism—dehumanizing and demonizing them, describing them as worthy of violent expulsion, and then leaving the violence to the angry extremists they inspire—are just making the briefest of nods before moving straight ahead with the narrative that really, the victims had it coming, and the perpetrators were entirely justified. ... “Put them to death. Put all queers to death. They die,” proclaimed one fundamentalist preacher, adding: “When they die, that stops the pedophilia. It’s a very, very simple process.” ... That’s their position: Either stop providing children with material that might make them think of LGBTQ people as normal, and stop providing gender-affirming care to children who need it, or expect to be mowed down at random by one of the terrorists who agrees with us that you’re a bunch of pedophiles by nature. Fall into line with us or prepare to face the consequences. ... This is, again, how stochastic terrorism has always worked: Announce and identify the target with eliminationist rhetoric, and then let random actors inspired by the surrounding hateful rhetoric conduct the acts of violence it’s intended to inspire. Statistically predictable, but individually unpredictable. “The way they soften up the support for this kind of violence is essentially by making it seem morally justified in the minds of people who believe this,” Alejandra Caraballo of Harvard Law School told NBC News. “The way they do this is by constantly painting LGBT people as pedophiles and ‘groomers,’ and so people feel morally justified in carrying out this violence.”

Kevin Kallaugher of The Economist tweeted a cartoon from 2012. It shows a service of the American Church of the Firearm. In the corner one guy asks, “Attendance seems low lately... Where is everybody?” His neighbor replies, “Funerals.” Deep within the reader comments for a pundit roundup on Kos, rebel ga included a meme that says, “Fox News: Rich people paying Rich people to tell Middle Class people to blame Poor people.” I hear about the World Cup soccer matches only because news reports include the score of the US team’s latest match or there is a human interest story of one of the players. There is a lot of chatter of what Qatar did to get the rights to host the games and how they’re treating fans who showed up to watch. Val Katayev tweeted a thread about how much Qatar spent to host the games:

Qatar spent $220 BILLION on the 2022 World Cup. Their GDP is just $180B. Is this investment a money pit? Or a catalyst for a nation to thrive?

What Qatar spent is 15 times more than what Brazil spent 8 years ago, which was $15B. Even if that is spread over ten years that is still 10% of GDP each year. It built 8 stadiums of which 7 are temporary. For 1.3 million visitors it built 108 hotels, plus luxury tents in the desert and has cruise ships offshore, plus a new metro system. It spent $220B in hopes of taking in $17B. Also, to build all that somewhere between 6,500 and 15,000 lives, mostly migrant workers, were lost. Qatar did this for the world’s attention. It is getting it, but in a bad way. I looked at a map and guess the peninsula Qatar is on is about 120 miles by 40 miles. Katayev says there are about 300K citizens. So the country spent almost $1 million per citizen. I heard stories that Qatar offered bounteous goodies to a head of state, who called in their FIFA member and demanded their vote go a particular way. I’m sure those goodies are not included in the $220B price tag. Several European soccer teams had been wearing armbands showing solidarity for LGBTQ rights. Laura Clawson of Kos has a picture of the armband, then reported Qatar demanded the armbands be removed. Alas, players from seven countries complied. FIFA is making it clear that it is buckling under Qatar’s demands. Since the World Cup is such a high point in a player’s career, they caved too. The Iranians showed they have a spine. When the Iranian national anthem was played before the match the team members kept their mouths shut. Fans in the stands also didn’t sing or booed their own national anthem. This is in solidarity with the protests that have continued for two months. Aysha Qamar of Kos reported on those continuing protests in Iran and the continuing attempts by the government to crack down. The German team redeemed themselves a bit. In a photo before a match, they hold their hands over their mouths to show they’re being silenced. Aldous Pennyfarthing of Kos quoted an article from CNN:

The US has intelligence that Russia may have delayed announcing its withdrawal from the Ukrainian city of Kherson in part to avoid giving the Biden administration a political win ahead of the midterm elections, according to four people familiar with the intelligence.

While there seems to be a pause in the action Kos of Kos discussed the Kremlin’s propaganda. Russia says countries should want to join us. It is proclaiming an anti-Western message, one of excessive consumption, of false happiness and illusory freedom, all based on allowing the gay parade. But what does Russia really have to offer? At the bottom of a chart showing the GDP of European countries are countries in Russian’s sphere or in the sphere of Serbia, which had been in Russia’s sphere. Wrote Kos:

This has always been Russia’s biggest PR problem—not their brutality and imperialism. The United States and Europe have their own legacy of brutality and imperialism, yet the world gravitates toward them because in the end, economic prosperity is more attractive than s---ing in a hole in an outhouse in the middle of winter.

The Russian people, and all other people in their influence, aren’t concerned about excessive consumption. They are worried about insufficient consumption. In another post Kos explained why there seems to be a pause in the battle action – mud. We rejoiced in mud season last spring because it stalled Russian advances. Alas, this mud season affects Ukraine too. Russia has been brutally bombing Ukrainian infrastructure so residents are without electricity and heat during the winter. I’ve heard several stories of Ukrainians coping in a variety of ways. But making non-combatants suffer is terrorism. In a third post Kos reported the European Parliament adopted a resolution recognizing Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. The US hasn’t approved a terrorist designation because doing so requires sanctions with those who do business with Russia. Which includes Europe. Russia is furious at being labeled a terrorist. So they responded with more terror. And Ukraine responded by holding a concert by the National Philharmonic of Ukraine in Kyiv illuminated by candles and the lights from smartphones. And the country is getting pretty good at restoring electricity within a day or so. A tweet from Amazing Maps shows “None of the countries that bordered Poland before 1990 exist today.” In 1989 Poland was bordered by East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and the USSR. In 2022 Poland is bordered by Germany, Czechia, Slovakia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, and the Kaliningrad region of Russia. I checked a detail – that change didn’t happen between 1989 and 2022. It happened between 1989 and 1993, which is when Czechoslovakia split. Amazing Maps also tweeted what Antarctica without ice would look like. There are a few mountain ranges and then huge bays, several big lakes, and lots of islands. And looking a lot smaller than we think it looks now. We don’t need to find out if this realization is accurate.