Who gets to embody national identity

Kos of Daily Kos is finally able to tell the story of his website being subpoenaed by the nasty guy’s Department of Justice. The DOJ wanted information about a particular user who was critical of the nasty guy (sheesh, the whole site is!) though there was no threatening language. The order also said there was a gag order around the subpoena. Of course, Kos fought back, refusing to comply, which confused the US attorneys. But lawyers cost money, so he told the story on the site being very careful not to violate the gag order. Members of the community gave enough to lessen the financial worries. The US attorneys threatened search warrants. But three weeks later they dropped the case. Now that the gag order has expired Kos could explain the details. He wrote:

They were counting on fear doing the work for them. They assumed most organizations would comply quietly rather than endure the cost, pressure, and uncertainty of a legal fight. Send a subpoena. Threaten search warrants and public raids. Wrap everything in national security language. And for Trump, that worked out well in those days, when way too many targets simply folded. That’s how authoritarian systems function—not through constant dramatic displays of force, but by making examples out of a few targets so everyone else learns to preemptively comply. But with us, they picked the wrong target. And we were able to stand firm because this community had our backs. Your donations turned what they assumed would be a routine compliance exercise into a time-consuming, difficult legal fight backed by serious counsel and a community unwilling to be intimidated. At some point, they clearly decided to focus on easier targets elsewhere. And that’s the story. The DOJ came after Daily Kos, and we told them to pound sand until they decided to move on.

Speaking of the DOJ... An Associated Press article posted on Kos reported on the nasty guy’s $1.776 billion slush fund meant to pay the Capitol attackers. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has said the creation of the fund will not move forward. There was rejection by the courts and fierce political backlash, even from Republicans, so they canceled the fund. There were two notable things about the announcement. One, the Blanche wouldn’t put the cancellation of the fund in writing (as I heard elsewhere). Two, a secondary proclamation made along with the fund’s creation that the nasty guy, his family, and his companies would not be investigated by the IRS, that part still stands. Emily Singer of Kos reported that a new acting director of National Intelligence has been named. The job opened up when Tulsi Gabbard resigned. She was pretty bad (such as being way too favorable to Russia). The new guy is worse. He’s Bill Pulte. We in Detroit know him as an heir of Pulte Home construction fortune. He has been and will continue to be the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the federal mortgage assistance agencies. Heading National Intelligence will be an additional gig. This is why Pulte is worse: First, he has zero, repeat zero, experience in Intelligence work. Second, he has used his position at FHFA to harass people, including accusing New York Attorney General Letitia James (in the news because she had successfully prosecuted the nasty guy) and Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook of mortgage fraud. And third, his appointment as “acting” director means he doesn’t face Senate confirmation. His accusations of mortgage fraud mean he has shown he is willing to do the nasty guy’s dirty work. And as the head of National Intelligence he can bend their work from the necessary spying of actual enemies of America and towards spying on the nasty guy’s perceived enemies, as in fellow Americans. Singer wrote: “Pulte’s appointment is so bad that even Republicans are criticizing it.” Singer wished us a happy Pride Month! Then she reported there are a few states that won’t be participating.

But homophobic Republicans are refusing to mark the occasion. Instead, they are replacing Pride with Christian Nationalist-laced celebrations of “fidelity” and the “nuclear family”—which they unsurprisingly declare to be families led by married male-female pairs. At least three states—not surprisingly all of which are in the South—have refused to recognize Pride and instead made their own sad holiday months.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas declare June as “Fidelity Month.” In Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill that says June is “Nuclear Family Month.” And in Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey declared June as “Strong Families Month.” So continues attempts at our erasure. Back in 2011 I wrote about Zach Wahls. At the time he was a 19 year old college student. The Iowa Senate was hearing testimony about their constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage. Wahls, raised by a lesbian couple, spoke passionately and articulately against the ban and became an internet sensation. The Senate voted for the ban anyway. At the time the House was controlled by Democrats, so it died. It would have been overturned in 2015. I wrote about Wahls again just after the 2018 election. Then he was 26 and was elected to the Iowa Senate, yes, the place where he made is passionate debut. Wahls is in the political news again. He’s now 34. He was a Democratic candidate for the US Senate. Alas, he didn’t win the primary. Since Iowa is turning against the nasty guy this year Democrats have a better chance to take that Senate seat. But it won’t be Wahls, at least not this time. Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos, included a tweet from Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York.

Today, I signed an Executive Order temporarily repealing bedtimes in the City of New York so that kids of all ages can watch our team in the NBA Finals. As Mayor, you’re forced to make many difficult decisions. This was not one of them. Go Knicks.

The Obama Presidential Center Museum in Chicago’s South Side will open Juneteenth (June 19th). Kos was invited by a friend to get a preview. He was able to see the whole building (which I’ll let you read about). I will quote some of his impressions.

It was impossible to move through the exhibits without the elephant in the room: the knowledge that everything Barack Obama did, personified, and represented was so deeply offensive to wide swaths of America that the backlash delivered the White House to Donald Trump—twice. And that made the experience disorienting, because the museum itself is a stunning architectural and artistic achievement.

Many museums name wings or galleries after wealthy benefactors. This museum required benefactors to name galleries after someone else. “Wealthy liberal philanthropist Fred Eychaner named his wing after Harold Washington, Chicago’s first Black mayor.” There is also a Worker Appreciation Wall to honor the thousands of people who physically built it. Kos noticed there are many inspiring messages about the nature of democracy placed around the museum.

And somehow, rather than inspiring me, those messages made me angrier. Why would telling people they could improve their communities inspire such hatred? Was it really that offensive to suggest that public service matters? That democracy is participatory? Because this wasn’t simply ideological disagreement. Republicans could have nominated any number of conventional conservatives promising tax cuts and deregulation. Instead, the backlash to Obama became something darker and more existential—a rejection not merely of his policies, but of the broader idea of who fully belongs in America and who gets to embody national identity.

Obama could have placed his museum in downtown Chicago, the polished and safe place. He placed it in the South Side. Kos got the message. This isn’t about reverence for Obama.

Beyond the nostalgia and the optimism was something quieter, but more durable: the belief that ordinary people can help shape the American story.

Brother arrives tomorrow and will stay for the weekend. I’ll post again after he leaves.

He’s still trying to prove his manliness to himself

I was a barely grown lad when Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre occurred on October 20, 1973. Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox was investigating the Watergate scandal. President Nixon ordered him fired. Attorney General Elliot Richardson (Cox’s boss) refused and resigned. Deputy AG William Ruckelshaus also refused and resigned. Solicitor General Robert Bork carried out the firing and intended to resign, but Richardson and Ruckelshaus persuaded him to stay. That started the impeachment process against Nixon. Lisa Needdham of Daily Kos reports in comparison to what happened over the last few days in the DoJ that night in 1973 looks like “a quaint tea party.” I’ll summarize. Deputy AG Emil Bove ordered the criminal charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams be dropped. The reason wasn’t the usual prosecutorial misconduct or insufficient evidence. Rather pending charges meant Adams couldn’t devote enough time to fighting illegal immigration. This would be an illegal quid pro quo arrangement. Yeah, this echoes the nasty guy’s own presidential immunity. Also strange, the charges were to be dismissed without prejudice – they could be refiled at any time, such as when Adams is declared to be insufficiently vicious to immigrants. Bove demanded a federal prosecutor sign the order. Seven refused and resigned. These were not Biden holdovers but included a Federalist Society member and former clerks for Justices Scalia and Kavanaugh. They all recognized when something was downright illegal and they had limits. Since Bove could have signed the order himself he was using it as a loyalty test and to see how far he could push them into acting unethically and illegally.

All of these acts are part and parcel of Trump consolidating power within the executive branch. Demanding federal employees engage in illegal or unethical acts is designed to weed out those who won’t go along with his plans. It’s terrifying that it took such a short time for those demands to be so over-the-top that even people otherwise ideologically aligned with Trump had to tap out. It’s equally terrifying that he’s seeking complete control over agencies that were previously independent. He’s warping the whole executive branch to be nothing but a place where amoral loyalists do his bidding. Now, unvarnished, unrestrained authoritarianism feels right around the corner.

Kai Ryssdal, host of the NPR show Marketplace, talked to Sarah Binder, professor of politics at George Washington University and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. The topic was the new executive order from the nasty guy saying he is taking over several agencies that Congress designated as independent from the president, even though the prez. nominates the head and the board. The order includes: the Federal Election Commission, the Federal Communications Commission (TV and radio), the Securities and Exchange Commission (stock markets), the Federal Trade Commission, and more. This does not (yet) include the Federal Reserve’s ability to set interest rates, though the Reserve does a great deal more to stabilize the economy and those are affected. Yes, this is illegal. But who in Congress will stop him? It will end up before the courts. Will he abide by their decision? These agencies were set up as independent to they would be insulated from politics and the whims of the president. Having them under the control of the nasty guy affects the ability to control inflation, regulate banks to keep them healthy, keep companies that sell stock honest, decide who does or doesn’t get a radio or TV license, and whether candidates for office play by the rules. What these executive orders are doing is allowing the nasty guy to usurp Congress’ ability to designate how money is spent. And Congress isn’t standing up for itself. Steve Inskeep of NPR took up the same topic, discussing it with Jane Manners, a legal historian at Temple University Beasley School of Law. The discussion was prompted by Russell Vought, author of parts of Project 2025 and now the head of the Office of Management and Budget, has declared the nasty guy administration is rejecting the notion of an independent agency within the Executive Branch. Everything under the nasty guy is under his power. Inskeep and Manners have four key points. First, independent agencies go back to 1887 with the regulation of railroads, which were becoming quite critical to commerce. Because of the importance Congress wanted the agency to be insulated from politics. Second, independent agencies need to be accountable to someone. If not the president, who? But they can’t function properly under presidential pressure. Third, the current system says an agency is responsible to its appointed board. They can be removed only for neglect of duty and malfeasance. That accountability seems ambiguous. Fourth, the Department of Justice is headed by one person, not a board. It’s independence is (again) to shield it from politics. Scott Detrow of NPR started a segment with:

New York Times opinion writer M Gessen lived through much of Russia's slide into autocracy and wrote a book about it. They argue that one of the ways that Vladimir Putin consolidated power was by making a series of arguments that seemed outrageous at the time, like the idea that the LGBT population was a threat to Russian sovereignty.

That book is The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia. Gessen didn’t take that argument seriously, though a couple years later had to flee the country. In the same way the nasty guy has put out a “barrage of unthinkable ideas.” They don’t seem connected, but Gessen says they are. People who are the targets of an autocrat see it as terrifying. But for most people living under autocracy is just dumb. The US buying Greenland? Clearing Gaza? Dumb ideas. But they undermine the idea that people have obligations to one another and that there is a law-based world order. Gessen said:

I think that Americans voted for Donald Trump because there are some really major problems with the system of government as it's constituted. And I think that, basically, the Democratic Party, for at least three election cycles, has now insisted that things are fine just the way they are, that we just have to live in some sort of imaginary normal, really refusing to hear that the normal - whatever that is - isn't working for a lot of people, that they are anxious and miserable. And they would rather throw a grenade at the way things are in the form of Donald Trump than continue living the way they've been living. And the reason it's important to think about that now is that it's still the same sort of dynamic where Trump is taking a sledgehammer to the world as we've known it, and the Democrats are saying, well, you can't do that. That's not how the rules are written. Americans have said that the way that the rules are written and the way that the system functions doesn't work for them. So there has to be a bigger idea. The rules were written for a reason. They were there to perform certain functions. They were there to make sure that our obligations to one another are, in fact, fulfilled, and they haven't been.

I read that and think of the biggest issue Democrats didn’t touch – inequality and curbing the power of the extremely wealthy. Yeah, there have been voices – Sens. Warren and Sanders – but no action by a party supposedly for the worker yet paid off by those wealthy people. People were expecting the nasty guy’s second term to be similar to his first. And it isn’t. Now people may act to give the authoritarian more power over them.

I think that, rationally, people are settling in for the long haul and making decisions about their organizations that will benefit them or at least keep them safer in the short term. And that's really the problem with this kind of abeyance is that it is reasonable, it is well thought through and it is sometimes even values based. People are thinking, I'm protecting my employees. I'm protecting my organization. The problem is that when everyone does that, that is exactly how autocracy is built. It cannot be built without people's cooperation.

As part of a series Explaining the Right on Kos Oliver Willis titled his article, “Why conservatives are obsessed with phony masculinity.” As in at least one other article in the series the question isn’t answered, though several examples of phony masculinity are described. One is Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at the NATO summit. His performance was seen to be quite an embarrassment. There is the nasty guy who posted his criminal mug shot outside the Oval Office. Bush II in his flight suit declaring “Mission Accomplished” when it wasn’t. Then the discussion turned to research that show diversity really does lead to a better armed forces.

But figures like Hegseth and Trump are locked into the worldview that only people who look like them are legitimate, and everyone else must fall to the wayside. That has historically been the path that leads to unwinnable quagmires, claiming the lives of millions of innocent people. History tells us that this time won’t be any different.

I did find an answer to the posed question in the comments. Mystic Michael wrote:

I’m not going to accept any lectures from the likes of Pete Hegseth — and certainly not from the likes of Donald Trump — about what it means to be a man. A real man doesn’t abuse women — as Hegseth does. A real man doesn’t pick on the weak, the underprivileged, the marginalized — as Trump does. A real man doesn’t feel the need to prove his manliness...because it’s obvious. Any man who’s obsessed with demonstrating his masculinity only succeeds in showing how insecure he really is...because he’s still trying to prove it to himself. Not exactly the most manly quality in the world. Spare me from these macho creeps. No wonder so many women are so on guard against their type. They give men a bad name.

The power of the Justice Department, FBI, IRS, and CIA

My weekend movie came Saturday afternoon in a showing of Hugo at the Detroit Film Theater. When the film first came out in 2011 it didn’t sound interesting. When I encountered it again a few months ago it sounded intriguing. And when I saw it on the DFT calendar I had to see it. This is one of Martin Scorsese’s films and is set in 1931. The title character is Hugo Cabret, twelve years old. He learned how to fix mechanical things from his father, who also showed him an automaton, a mechanical person, created to write. But his father died before they got it working. Hugo’s uncle takes him to the train station where the uncle lives and tends the clocks. After teaching Hugo how to do it the uncle disappears. So the boy now tends the clocks while living in the maintenance spaces of the station and swiping food from the various vendors. His nemesis is the station inspector, who has sent orphan boys to the orphanage. He also gets on the wrong side of the toy vendor, whose mechanical toys enchant him. Even so, he manages to befriend Isabelle, the toy vendor’s ward, who is ready for adventure. Hugo gets the automaton working, hoping it would write out a message from his father. Instead it draws an image of the Man in the Moon with a spaceship hitting one eye. This is a famous image (one I had seen before) from the movie A Trip to the Moon by Georges Méliès who made fantastical movies before World War I. Of course, that sets Isabelle and Hugo on that adventure to discover how all this ties together. Along the way there is a flashback to watching Méliès make his films. So part of the story is an homage to that early filmmaker and early films in general. Since this story mostly takes place in a train station there are frequently crowds. Hugo and Isabelle of course get caught in them at critical moments. I became impressed at how well the crowd scenes were done. I quite enjoyed this film and recommend it. This was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Actor Asa Butterfield, who played Hugo, did a marvelous job. I may have to see the mini Georges Méliès festival the DFT will host at the end of March. The IMDb trivia page for this movie says it is based on the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick that came out in 2007. Another bit of trivia is the movie was filmed in 3D, though the version I saw was not. IMDb also has a page on Butterfield, who has maintained his acting career and is now 27. Kos of Daily Kos wonders if the nasty guy’s infatuation with Greenland and his desire to invade it is based on how huge Greenland looks on a typical Mercator Projection map. A Mercator map was great for 18th century navigation. But there are big problems when it is used in modern life. Yeah, it makes Google Maps easier. But the farther from the equator a country is the larger it appears. And since much of the world’s land is significantly north of the equator countries in the global south looks much smaller in comparison. @neilrkaye created a Mercator map that also shows the true size of countries. In a Mercator map Russia looks huge (which is why Putin love Mercator maps). But Russia is actually smaller than Africa. Canada looks much bigger than the US, but they’re actually almost the same size. I found the site MapPorn, which, is one I may have visit frequently. Posted in the last couple days is one the compares the size of Greenland to other areas of earth. The US is 4.5 times bigger than Greenland, South America is 8 times bigger, Africa is 14 times bigger (though a Mercator projection shows them about the same size), India is 1.5 times bigger. When trying to represent a sphere with a rectangle something is going to be distorted, usually shape or size or both. Another Greenlander has responded to the nasty guy’s claim on the country. Emily Singer of Kos reported Pipaluk Lynge-Rasmussen, a member of the Greenland Parliament, talked to Politico Europe in response to nasty junior flying there and posing with locals to show they were in favor of the nasty guy taking over. She said the event was staged and a sham. She also said their natives are similar to Alaska’s Inuits and the Greenlanders have seen how America treats the Inuits. So no thanks. The nasty guy’s hush money case was in the news this past week. An Associated Press article posted on Kos reported the Supreme Court narrowly decided the nasty guy could be sentenced on Friday. The case went to the Supremes because his team said the appeals should be allowed to play out during the transition, meaning he wouldn’t be sentenced before getting presidential immunity. So, on Friday the sentence was handed down. Singer reported the details. The case is from New York and is about the 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush money. There could have been jail time, a hefty fine, or simple probation. But Judge Juan Merchan said there was only one lawful sentence, that of “unconditional discharge.” Singer wrote:

The fact that Trump is escaping pretty much unscathed from the legal jeopardy he found himself in is a miscarriage of justice. He was able to escape accountability both because of an unprecedented decision by the right-wing U.S. Supreme Court, which dragged its feet before ultimately ruling in July that Trump was immune from anything deemed an “official act” in office.

There was also foot-dragging by other judges in other courts and by the nasty guy team delaying other cases long enough that he was able to avoid them by being voted back to the White House. This post includes a cartoon by Clay Bennett that shows the nasty guy in prison clothes digging himself out and surfacing in the Oval Office. The way I understand the situation is that a judge or jury may convict a person of a crime, but that conviction isn’t official until the sentencing. So while there was no jail time, fine, or even probation the sentencing says yes, the nasty guy is a felon. He is officially the first felon in the Oval Office. Last week I had lunch with my friend and debate partner. He said surely the judge could have ordered probation. He was hoping for the prospect of the nasty guy having to check in with a parole officer once a month, even if it was through Zoom from the Oval Office. I like his idea. Scott Detrow and Domenico Montanaro of NPR talked to Law Professor Kim Wehle of the University of Baltimore on issues related to the case. First, the Constitution does give immunity to members of Congress. So it’s authors knew about immunity. The Constitution does not give immunity to the president. So when the Supremes said he does have immunity they invented it out of nothing and rewrote a portion of the Constitution. And that essentially turns the president into a king. Of a second issue Wehle said:

Well, law, at the end of the day, is about incentives and disincentives. We have laws and constraints to disincentivize bad behavior, but those constraints don't mean anything if there's no consequences. So the Supreme Court, through this process, has removed any consequences for committing crimes using official power. That's the scary stuff, right? It's not the unofficial private power that is going to lead to some real abuses against individuals. It's the power of the Justice Department. It's the power of the FBI, the IRS, the CIA, the military. It's the stuff that Donald Trump will have at his fingertips that no one else on the planet has. That's the power that needs to be disincentivized to abuse, and that's gone. So we really are moving into a new era of American history and American law.

A third issue: Special prosecutor Jack Smith has been working to get some or all of his report on the nasty guy’s classified document’s case made public. From the effort the nasty guy’s lawyers are putting into blocking release means there is more information and it is likely highly damaging. The big question in that case is about the empty folders that supposedly had contained classified data. “Who got it? Is there a threat to national security that was created in that scenario?” After that discussion was recorded Jack Smith resigned. Singer reported House Republicans have posted a list of federal programs they want to trim or cut. Some of what’s in the list: Letting current subsidies for Obamacare expire. Require work requirement to receive Medicaid, even though many who are cut because of the rule are working. Cut food stamps by redefining what a healthy diet is and how much it costs. Yes, the cuts will make life harder for low income workers and people in poverty. The purpose of the cuts is tax breaks for billionaires. Republicans want to use the budget reconciliation process, which can’t be filibustered and thus cuts Democrats out of the process. However, using that process means the legislation must be budget neutral – tax cuts must be matched by spending cuts. And, on their own, these tax cuts would explode the national debt.

Meanwhile, the document Republicans are circulating that outlines the possible budget cuts is Orwellian as heck, labeling cuts to food stamps as "ending cradle-to-grave dependence;" cuts to Medicaid as "making Medicaid work for the most vulnerable;" and cuts to Obamacare as "reimagining the Affordable Care Act." Apparently to Republicans, war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength.

All that reminds me that the rich don’t measure the greatness by the size of their net worth, but by the difference between that and the (perhaps negative) net worth of those low in the social hierarchy. It isn’t enough to have over $400 billion (as Musk does). They also need to take away the scant resources of those in poverty. Oliver Willis of Kos reported a coalition of over 17,000 doctors sent a letter to the Senate, asking them to not approve Robert Kennedy’s nomination for Secretary of Health and Human Services.

The Committee to Protect Health Care said in its letter that Kennedy is “not only unqualified to lead this essential agency—he is actively dangerous.” The group describes Trump’s decision to nominate him as “an affront to the principles of public health, the tireless dedication of medical professionals, and the trust that millions of Americans place in the health care system.” Chief among the group’s concerns about Kennedy are his years promoting conspiracy theories about vaccines and his activism against vaccination. The letter describes Kennedy’s support for these unscientific notions as “direct threat to the safety of our patients and the public at large.”

Women are choosing to remain single

A few years ago I heard about cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and his sister pianist Isata. They were big news in classical music. I soon learned they had five siblings also highly gifted in music. I’ve since seen a video of Isata performing and watched a livestream of Sheku playing with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. A couple years ago I heard about the book House of Music, Raising the Kanneh-Masons written by their mother Kadiatu. Since it was published in Britain the word was I had to get it through something like Amazon-UK. Since I avoid Amazon I thought getting the book might have to wait until I visited Britain. But a few months ago I checked Barnes and Noble and found they had it for sale. So I bought. And now I’ve finished reading it. The mother spent hear early years in Sierra Leone, the daughter of local man and a Welsh woman. She was and part of a large extended family. Her father died and her mother brought her and her siblings to England and Wales to be with her parents. The grandparents were supportive of mixed-race children, the rest of England – not so much. She recounts some of the racism she experienced and the effect it had on her. She married Stuart, whose family lives in Antigua. Both are reasonably proficient in music. And their seven children are all prodigies. Isata, the oldest, wrote and performed a piano concerto by the age of twelve. Sheku won a prestigious young talent competition at sixteen and was invited to play at Harry and Meghan’s wedding. The mother wrote about recognizing her childrens’ talent and then doing all the family could to nurture and train it properly. The family was not rich and paying for all those lessons, including weekly train trips from Nottingham to London, and keeping the children supplied with good quality instruments that matched their size and talent was difficult. They were amazed with how generous people could be with time and resources. Music became a secret language between the siblings. They practiced together and offered each other suggestions on how to improve. They seemed to mind-read what the others were about to do. They were also quite talented at improvising – one could start a tune and others would add harmony and suggest new melodic ideas the others would take up. When Isata and Sheku are not in front of an orchestra they play duets or add brother Braimah and his violin for a trio. By 2019 the older ones were getting so many concert dates Mom couldn’t attend them all. The book ends with their experience with the COVID shutdown and seven creative people stuck in one house. I quite enjoyed the book. Of course, I quite enjoy classical music. Since the nasty guy won the election the 4B movement from Korea is trending in the US, as tonyahky of the Daily Kos community discussed. The movement is in response to the...

rampant sexism, abuse, and exploitation of women in that country. The term 4B stands for the four Korean words bihon, bichulsan, biyeonae and bisekseu, or the four “no’s” --no marriage, no childbearing, no dating or sex with men.

It’s not new as more women are choosing to remain single or staying single after divorce.

Only 38% of single women vs 61% of single men are interested in dating at all. And the reason more women want to remain single is because of the toxic behavior of large numbers of men, especially on dating apps.

Those numbers look quite unbalanced. In the US high levels of women experience rape or severe physical violence. Add to that women are less likely to have access to an abortion or be treated as a criminal if they do and add the possibility of birth control made illegal. And many women want to get their tubes tied (and do it soon while it is still legal).

Unfortunately, most white men in this country voted Republican, showing they have little to no respect for the women of this country at all, along with 53% of white women (who show they have no respect for themselves.) In a country like this, 4B may represent the only way many single women will be able to live their lives with any measure of peace, safety, health, or freedom.

Morgan Stephens of Kos also looked at the movement

And why are American women taking action? Because in Tuesday’s election, a majority of Gen Z men, or "podcast bros," cast their votes for Trump—a man whose handpicked conservative Supreme Court majority stacked the deck against women’s rights and overturned Roe v. Wade. The president-elect is also a textbook misogynist who used sexist language in the weeks leading up to the election when he said he’d “protect” women “whether they like it or not.” He is a serial adulterer who was also found liable for sexual abuse and has been accused of assault by dozens of others—and American women have had enough. With mounting solidarity, they are banding together (with some even shaving their heads in protest so as not to appeal to the male gaze) to adopt the 4B strategy: no more children, no more marriages, no more dating men until women’s rights are restored. Late on Election Day, when it was clear Trump had won his latest bid for president, 26-year-old white nationalist Nick Fuentes posted a short and infuriating statement on X: “Your body, my choice. Forever.” Fuentes, who dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, later went on his show “America First” and said to his 113,000 followers, “Hey bitch! We control your bodies. Guess what? Guys win again, okay? Men win again.”

In South Korea government leaders have noted a drop in the birth rate. They’re panicking over the 4B movement. The solution is simple: Give women the same rights and respect as men. While I applaud women asserting their power, there is a downside. I’ve mentioned the term incel, which stands for “involuntary celibate” – a man who women find so obnoxious they won’t date or sleep with him. Incels have been linked to mass violence. Many feel emboldened with the nasty guy’s election. Will women refusing to date all men increase the number and violence of incels? For that, perhaps we as a society should start dealing with the “loneliness epidemic” as Surgeon General Vivek Murthy wrote about in 2017. Lonely men are more easily radicalized. The threat of incel violence should not be a reason for women to stop their campaign for rights. The description of the 4B movement got me thinking of the play Lysistrata by Aristophanes, first performed in 411 BC. I have not seen a performance. Wikipedia describes the play with:

Lysistrata persuades the women of the warring cities to withhold sexual privileges from their husbands and lovers as a means of forcing the men to negotiate peace.

Yeah, the idea is old – 2400 years old. A couple cartoons in the comments of a pundit roundup for Kos. One posted by Assigned Male starts with a boy saying Fuentes’ line “Your body, my choice.” A girl argues back, ending with...

The wannabe fascist podcasters who told you that other people’s bodily autonomy was a threat you your masculinity forgot to mention how weak it makes you look.

And exlrrp included a tweet from Jack Peat, “Taliban congratulate Americans for ‘not handing the leadership of their country to a woman.’ Donald Trump signed the deal that paved the way for the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, allowing the Taliban to storm to power.” In a second pundit roundup Greg Dworkin of Kos had a few good quotes. First, Steven Benen of MSNBC discussed what retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter said.

After quoting Benjamin Franklin’s admonition about democracy struggling to survive “too much ignorance,” the retired justice added, “I don’t worry about our losing republican government in the United States because I’m afraid of a foreign invasion. I don’t worry about it because I think there is going to be a coup by the military, as has happened in some of the places. What I worry about is that when problems are not addressed, people will not know who is responsible. And when the problems get bad enough ... some one person will come forward and say, ‘Give me total power and I will solve this problem.’ That is how the Roman republic fell.”

Dworkin implied that Democrats didn’t fix the real problems when they had the majority. Stephen Waldman of Politico Magazine discussed polling and suggested one area pollsters didn’t ask about – where did they get their news? Down in the comments Mr. Race Bannon proposed a new map of Canada that includes the US states that voted for Biden (though they left out Illinois, Colorado, and New Mexico). In a third pundit roundup Dworkin had some good quotes. From Andy Beshear, Democratic governor of Kentucky

Yes, there are a lot of big, important issues facing our country, but when families are struggling in these core areas, it’s hard to focus on or reach anything else. If you are staring at the cost of your child’s prescription and wondering how you are going to pay for both it and your family’s dinner, the offense of the day in Washington, D.C. or the latest crazy thing a politician said just isn’t as important.

Dworkin added:

I am reminded of Bertolt Brecht in The Threepenny Opera: Food comes first, then morals.

I’ll summarize a quote from Nicholas Grossman of Arc Digital. Authoritarians want you to quit. Do not accept this is over. Other authoritarian regimes have fallen. This situation is bigger than you. Do something you can control, like rake your neighbor’s leaves. Down in the comments, as a commentary on a meme, exlrrp wrote “The American ‘Justice system’ is broken. Couldn’t put a convicted criminal in jail.” The meme has a picture of AG Merrick Garland and quotes Tristan Snell, former New York Assistant Attorney General:

Our prosecutors completely failed us. They had 4 years to enforce the laws against Trump, and they delayed, and they hesitated, and they were too cautious, and they finally went after him – but it was too little, too late. History will judge them, if there is any history left!

It was too late because the nasty guy was able to delay various proceedings until he was back in power and could dismiss them. A meme posted by exlrrp shows women in red hats working in a garden and says

With Trump’s plan to deport millions of migrants, MAGA cult members can now realized their childhood dreams of spending summers working the fields from dawn to dusk in the scorching heat with few breaks.

And another quotes Senator Sheldon Whitehouse:

The creepy billionaires who put him there will be coming for plunder. It’s a safe bet that epic corruption will stain the Trump years. The plunder of America will be through fat contracts, special interest favors, massive tax cuts, and license to pollute for free. To pull off their plunder, they will try to break America’s democratic institutions. So the fight will not be just against the inevitable individual acts of thievery, but against the degradation of whatever American institutions might stand in the way of their plundering.

David Hayward posted a cartoon of a sinking Capitol building pulling down a church. When the church ties itself to the state the state can pull down the church. And the church can pull down the state. Dr. MacLeod Cartoons posted one that says, “It’s hard to be a political cartoonist when you can’t bear to watch the news.” In one more pundit roundup, this one from just before the election, Chitown Kev included a three minute clip of Harris appearing on Saturday Night Live with the woman who plays her on the show.

Tired of the meanness, bigotry, and recreational cruelty

Lisa Needham of Daily Kos discussed the 165 page court motion that special counsel Jack Smith filed in the case accusing the nasty guy with interfering in the 2020 election. The accusation needed to be rewritten because of the Supreme Court granting the president broad immunity. Smith countered that the nasty guy’s actions were taken not as official acts of a president, but as a private citizen and candidate. The document is long because Smith carefully detailed every step the nasty guy took to undermine the election. It also includes new evidence, such as the vice nasty trying to tell him, “Don’t concede, but recognize the process is over” and that the election is “just an intermission.” Smith explains the nasty guy, in trying to claim he was protecting election integrity, talked only to Republicans, though in Michigan it is the Secretary of State, a Democrat, who controls elections. The nasty guy claimed he was not allowed to present evidence. So Smith documented the many cases when evidence was promised and never delivered. A clue that the nasty guy and co-conspirators knew they were lying was their claim of the number of fraudulent votes in Arizona kept changing. Needham included the entire text of Smith’s document. I didn’t try to read it. Needham concluded:

Trump’s legal team has now proposed that he get an additional five weeks to file his response, pushing it out comfortably past the election to Nov. 21 instead of the required deadline of Oct. 17, along with a request to file an additional reply brief by Dec. 19. His only real plan is to drag this out past Election Day and hope he wins. That’s just another reason why Trump needs to lose.

Morgan Stephens of Kos described how the nasty guy could weaponize the Department of Justice to harass anyone he deems insufficiently loyal. She worked from an article posted in the New York Times. The steps: + Fill the DoJ with loyalists and family, who would be willing to ignore the department rules and precedents that don’t let a president meddle in what it does. + The nasty guy could pressure (well, “ask”) the DoJ to open investigations on particular people. + Steer cases to the 54 judges the nasty guy appointed the first time around. + Appeal losses to the Supreme Court, already viewed as highly partisan due to the three justice he appointed. + Wield the presidential pardon. If Democrats hold the Senate they could block his choices and force him to pick moderate candidates. If Republicans take the Senate there will be no pushback. The plan the NYT laid out is similar to the Project 2025 call to eliminate checks and balances within the executive branch.

The nation’s founding fathers created three separate and equal branches of government in an effort to instill checks and balances and prevent the misuse of power. These separations are inherent to our national interest and the people’s free will in this democracy.

I’ve written that Liz Cheney and her father former VP Dick Cheney have endorsed Harris. Liz Cheney co-chaired the House Jan 6 Committee and was beaten in her next election by a MAGA candidate. An Associated Press article posted on Kos reports that Cheney took part in a Harris campaign event in Wisconsin. This is part of Cheney’s pledge to do what she can to defeat the nasty guy. Oliver Willis of Kos added that the nasty guy rage-tweeted about Cheney speaking at a Harris event. Then Willis listed some other Republicans who have declared support for Harris. One of them is Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who was the only other Republican on the Jan 6 Committee. Ten days ago Stephens wrote about the origins of the group White Dudes for Harris. One of the organizers is Ross Morales Rocketto. They want to spread the word that not all white dudes are part of the problem. They’re also providing space for other white guys to give their vote and support to Harris. The group will use some of its funds for digital ads in swing states.

As The 19th reported in August, Democrats like Walz may be changing how men—and women—view traditional masculinity. Instead of brawn, shirt-ripping Hulk Hogans and brash Kid Rocks, Democrats offer a son filled with emotion and joy while supporting his father. And hunting-style camo hats, which were sold out for weeks. And second gentleman Doug Emhoff beaming with pride when speaking about his wife’s ambition. “In order to engage people, you need to make sure you can create a space for them where they can feel a sense of belonging, where they’re not going to feel judged,” Morales Rocketto said. “This isn’t anyone else's job to do. White men need to organize themselves to do this work. It’s not Black women’s jobs, not Black men’s jobs, not Latino women’s jobs. It’s our job.”

Another AP article, this one posted two weeks ago, discusses evangelicals who support Harris. Talking about that support is risky. But Rev. Lee Scott, of Butler, PA, can’t be quiet. He was was part of an Evangelicals for Harris call. He doesn’t accept the high level of violence that has been normalized in politics.

“I am tired of watching meanness, bigotry and recreational cruelty be the worldly witness of our faith,” Scott said on the call. “I want transformation, and transformation is risky business.”

While Scott doesn’t like everything in Harris’ policies – he’s against abortion – he does see that Harris is pro-family in her education and tax policies.

Vote Common Good, a similar group run by progressive evangelical pastor Doug Pagitt, has a simple message: Political identity and religious identity are not a package deal.

In August the Harris campaign hired Rev. Jen Butler, a Presbyterian minister, to lead religious outreach. She has reached towards Mormons, Catholics, black church groups, and interfaith groups. Supporting Harris also means if she’s elected evangelicals can “hold the party accountable by being involved.” That could mean push for her to do better on immigration and in Gaza. Alas, far right Evangelicals are quick to brand any who are considering a vote for a Democrat to be “Heretics for Harris.” But the white Evangelical vote isn’t the solid block it might have been. A third AP article, this one from last Tuesday (and now a bit out of date) discusses the devastation from Hurricane Helene. It also discusses the relief efforts underway. The article mentions why western North Carolina had so much damage.

Asheville and many surrounding mountain towns were built in valleys, leaving them especially vulnerable to devastating rain and flooding. Plus, the ground already was saturated before Helene arrived, said Christiaan Patterson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

There was a lot of rain there because the remnants of Helene hit the higher elevations and cooler air of the Appalachian Mountains. I mention that article partly because I haven’t seen another big article since Tuesday, though I have heard the death toll has topped 200 and that Biden and Harris have each visited the area with pledges of assistance. The nasty guy visited too, to accuse Biden and Harris of not helping Republican states (which is a lie). I also mention it because FishOutofWater of the Kos community looked at National Weather Service reports and saw tropical storm Milton has formed in the western Gulf of Mexico and is heading towards Tampa. Before hitting the Florida coast Milton will cross over warm Gulf waters and will perhaps be a category 5 by the time it gets there Tuesday or Wednesday. Before it arrives there will be rain to saturate the ground. That will be followed by the rain of the storm, the storm surge, and strong winds.

They believe democracy has been stolen

Mark Sumner of Daily Kos discussed the nasty guy trying to use the Department of Justice as a weapon to go after his political appointments. Until the nasty guy took office and again under Biden the president kept his hands off the DOJ (other than appointing the head) so that what the DOJ did was not seen as political. Yeah, that changed under the nasty guy, but during his first term he was slowed down because of institutional inertia – enough career employees refused to do his bidding. Even some of the Attorneys General he appointed pushed back. That won’t happen in a second nasty guy term. He will have an AG that wants to do his bidding and he will sweep out all career employees, both in the DOJ and across the federal government, filling vacancies with people willing to say, “Yes, sir!” to whatever punishment he wants to visit on his opponents. Also in the second time around he will have planning already done by Project 2025. And he’s getting help from current Republicans in office. Speaker Johnson introduced a plan on how the House Republicans can launch investigations into state and local prosecutors that didn’t go along with plans to overturn the 2020 election. Republicans will also increasingly pass along criminal referrals, which allows them to pretend they’ve found crimes by political opponents, and then attack the DOJ for inaction. The nasty guy doesn’t have to win in November to cause lasting damage to the rule of law. This isn’t something the nasty guy might do. It’s something he’s already done. And white supremacist Stephen Miller, reportedly on the shortlist to be AG, is already urging Republican District Attorneys at the state and local level to start every investigation that will help their cause. Walter Einenkel of Kos reported Jon Stewart, in “The Daily Show,” talked about why Republicans hate court procedures applied to them. Stewart said:

Courts are the last remaining guardrail that is a standard of evidentiary presentation. It is the last place where you have to prove what you say, and you see the difference in what they say out of court versus what they say in court. ... The difference between in court and out of court is that in court, someone can say ‘prove it.’

And out of court it is all about public opinion and no evidence is needed. Stewart again:

What the courts do really well is look backwards and reconstruct the realities of what happened. The news media could do the same.

Kerry Eleveld of Kos reported the Republican Accountability PAC is investing six figures in billboards with a simple message.

I’m a former Trump voter. I won’t vote for a convicted felon.

Also included is the person’s photo and name. The billboards are being placed in tossup states. Back on May 22 Andy Kroll of ProPublica posted an article about the Republican Party and MAGA in Michigan. The article begins with a campaign event by Peter Meijer of western Michigan running for the US Senate. The event went well – until Meijer insisted the 2020 election was not stolen. Shortly after that Meijer dropped out of the race. Then Kroll gets into the big issue.

What divides the Republican Party of 2024 is not any one policy or ideology. It is not whether to support Donald Trump. The most important fault line in the party now is democracy itself. Today’s Republican insurgents believe democracy has been stolen, and they don’t trust the ability of democratic processes to restore it.

The “America First” movement treated party leaders and big donors as the enemy because they denied the nasty guy a rightful second term. They did that by not supporting the allegations that Democrats had committed widespread election fraud (note that Republicans in Michigan investigated those allegations and Republicans determined there was no evidence of fraud). Therefore the old elites needed to be purged from the party. The America First group – yes, the ones who believe all the conspiracy theories – used the “precinct strategy” promoted by Steve Bannon. Each precinct elects at least one delegate to county conventions, which go on to elect state party positions. Many times no one runs for the precinct positions and they remain empty. American First people easily won many of them just by saying they were willing to run. In August 2022 this new majority nominated candidates Matthew DePerno for Attorney General and Kristina Karamo for Secretary of State. It was impressive for the state convention. It was disastrous in November. Both lost. A few months later DePerno and Karamo ran against each other for party chair. Karamo won. The old party leadership said they let Karamo win because they thought they could make her fail faster than DePerno. They were probably right. Karamo didn’t emphasize traditional party operations. She instead focused on “election integrity” which we now know is code for disrupting the election. She pushed for a revised Republican Party constitution that replaced primary elections with closed caucuses – which mean only precinct delegates (the people they just installed) chose candidates. No democracy here. In January 2024 there began an attempt to remove Karamo and restore the elites. It was a contentious and complicated process (which Kroll describes). The nasty guy recognized she wasn’t doing the things he needed the party to do to win the state, so he endorsed Peter Hoekstra, the elite whom the elites of the party voted as Karmano’s replacement. She was gone by March 2. There is still a division in the party between the elites and the American First people. A couple cartoons in the comments of a pundit roundup on Kos. Many of the other cartoons feature the nasty guy and prison. A cartoon by Garth German shows a man in a MAGA hat explaining to a dubious woman, “If they can convict Trump for falsifying business records when paying off a porn start to hide an affair in an attempt to influence a presidential election, they they can get me for doing that, too!!” A cartoon by Fiona Webster has a caption “If things were fair...” It shows a father with his hand on his son’s shoulder. They stand before a vasectomy clinic that has posted signs saying, “Mandatory at puberty for everyone with male reproductive organs. Reversed only with written consent from someone with a uterus.” In the comments of another pundit roundup is an image posted by Irena Buzarewicz. It shows the sleeping Snow White. Prince Charming is approaching – to throw a bucket of water on her. At the top of the comments are many cartoons appropriately commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the largest amphibious landing ever, which started the last phase of World War II. They’re worth a look.

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.

Goals that the right cannot achieve through the ballot box

Joan McCarter of Daily Kos wrote:

The U.S. Supreme Court heard Donald Trump’s immunity claim in his federal criminal trial for trying to overturn the 2020 election Thursday, and the conservative majority is likely going to give Donald Trump what he wants: a delay of the trial until after the election. If Trump wins again, the conservatives have essentially signaled that they would be open to blanket immunity for him against any future criminal charges. The fact that Supreme Court justices are suggesting that the president is above the law proves why the court must be reformed. Four of the justices—Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, and Neil Gorsuch—even went so far as to suggest that special counsel Jack Smith’s entire prosecution is unconstitutional, and they reinforced Trump’s argument that the president is immune.

Reform of the Supremes should be a top priority of the next Congress. In a pundit roundup for Kos Chitown Kev quoted Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times who looked into a disturbing question asked by Alito in the oral arguments of the presidential immunity case:

“Now,” Alito continued, “if an incumbent who loses a very close, hotly contested election knows that a real possibility after leaving office is not that the president is going to be able to go off into a peaceful retirement but that the president may be criminally prosecuted by a bitter political opponent, will that not lead us into a cycle that destabilizes the functioning of our country as a democracy?” The implication of Alito’s question is that presidential immunity for all official acts may be a necessary concession to the possibility of a politically motivated investigation and prosecution: Presidents need to be above the law to raise the odds that they follow the law and leave office without incident. If this sounds backward, that’s because it is.

Dartagnan of the Kos community wrote that conservative judges are issuing rulings to take away rights, not expand them. The opinions are lengthy and complex, which nearly all citizens will never read or understand if they did. But they have real consequences.

This transformation is deliberate. It’s the desired byproduct of a concerted, far-reaching strategy by the political right to achieve unfair and unpopular goals, spanning social, cultural, and economic sectors—goals that the right cannot achieve through the ballot box. Operating through the institutional mechanism of lifetime appointments which cannot be reversed, this political bastardization of the judiciary—most particularly at the federal level—by a virulent and reactionary “movement conservatism” is approaching its apotheosis. It now openly ignores its own precedents in favor of exalting paeans to “originalism”—and most recently, “history” and “tradition.” These amount to opportunistic exercises in cherry-picking, designed to achieve the results conservatives want, rather than what the law and modern society plainly demand. ... It’s a strategy mostly created to serve the country’s ultra-rich, who have carefully planned for decades to achieve their goals of cementing into law a continuous spigot of multi-generational wealth... But none of this is occurring for the good of the American public. Rather, it’s intended to serve the needs and desires of a tiny minority at the expense of the rest of the country.

For an example of how bizarre some of these opinions can get to pull out the desired outcome Emily Bazelon of the NYT says to look at Alito’s decision to end abortion rights in the Dobbs case. Lower courts are taking their cue from the Supremes to pursue the conservative agenda. They’re also using “history and tradition” to justify their desired outcomes. Another component in these opinions is to pretend they aren’t really endorsing the conservative view, that’s just where the evidence takes them.

As [Reva] Siegel [of the Texas Law Review] emphasizes in a forthcoming analysis of this trend, these types of judicial “memory games” are really efforts to hide the fact of their agenda from Americans who lack the expertise to call them out. She notes that the only instances where these historical exercises are used appear to be instances where the court is intent on changing the law from what it actually is to what conservatives want it to be.

Who you elect for the Senate and for president in November matters a great deal. Tom Dreisbach and Carrie Johnson reported on an investigation by NPR into federal judges. The Supremes aren’t the only ones that don’t report luxury trips. Dozens of federal judges don’t either. These trips aren’t just pleasure. They are built around conferences for the judges. And, yeah, they’re at luxurious resorts (such as outside Yellowstone), a few thousand in expenses are paid for, and the speakers at the conferences might include corporate CEOs, which would create a conflict of interest. That these judges are offered and take these trips is bad, though apparently not illegal. Neglecting to report these trips is both bad and illegal. The full article spells it all out in much more detail, including listing some of the judges. The problem isn’t just the judges. Walter Einenkel of Kos discussed a segment from Rachel Maddow’s show. Said Maddow:

There are at least 53 Republican officials and lawyers and activists who are facing felony criminal counts other than Donald Trump himself.

Many are election deniers and some are in court for fake elector schemes. What prompted this segment is a couple of those indicted Republican officials in Arizona were elected to represent the state in the Republican National Committee. They want the criminals in control. There is good news out of Arizona. An Associated Press article posted on Kos reports the state Senate has approved a bill to overturn the state’s 1864 abortion ban. Two Republicans voted with the Democrats. It has already passed the House and will go to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, who is expected to sign it. The state’s Supreme Court ruled the 1864 law can be enforced. But it will be a while before the ruling goes into effect. This bill doesn’t go into effect right away either. So the question is which one goes into effect first? And will there be a period in which abortions in Arizona are banned? When the 1864 law is overturned a 2022 law comes into effect that bans abortion after 15 weeks. And then it is on to dueling proposals on the November ballot. Mark Sumner of Kos discussed the state of the National Rifle Association. Back in January its chief executive Wayne LaPierre resigned as he faced a trial for using NRA funds to treat himself. At the trial he was ordered to pay back close to $4.4 million. The leadership has descended into infighting. Their bank accounts are low – they donated $50 million for the 2016 election and only $11 million this year. Membership is down a million, to about 5 million. And gun sales have declined – down 5% in March 2024 compared to March 2023. Yeah, Republicans like to pose for Christmas cards with every member of the family holding a gun. But only 6% of Americans hunt. And while an assault rifle is good for war, it is bad at defense. It’s also expensive. There are other gun lobby groups who would love to be more influential. But they haven’t spent decades connecting politicians and deep-pocket donors. Perhaps we’ve passed Peak Gun? Which means now is the time to push for more gun control legislation. Bill in Portland, Maine, in a Cheers and Jeers column for Kos, listed a few things he has come to know:

Trump locked up the nomination so quickly because the party of personal responsibility and family values prefers the candidate who has committed more crimes, sexually assaulted more women, swindled more vulnerable people, plotted more insurrections, stiffed more clients, and broken more commandments. The red-hatted cult's attempt to smear gay people as "groomers" can't help but backfire. Everybody already knows they're groomers. They've dominated the hair care industry since forever.

Underprivileged is not unqualified

My Sunday movie was Young Royals, season 3, episodes 3 & 4. And, yes, here be spoilers. The school is a month or so from graduation. Simon is seeing a lot more clearly what dating a royal means (though I think the palace should still give him a class). Simon attends, as he has before, the May 1st demonstrations for worker rights and that doesn’t sit well with the palace. Someone threw a rock through a window of Simon’s home, so palace security has to get involved. Wilhelm and Simon are seeing how different they and their backgrounds are. Wilhelm’s mother the queen is having a nervous breakdown and he’s afraid he’ll have to start fulfilling her duties. And August is still playing his mind games. Late in episode 4 some dialogue implied that August was at the school much longer than Wilhelm was, yet they’re graduating in the same year. That dialogue was another of August’s mind games. This week is Holy Week, the time between Palm Sunday and Easter, with a few extra worship services, if that’s your thing. My performance group won’t rehearse this week because so many members are church musicians. My own church bell group isn’t rehearsing tonight because half the group had other commitments. So I don’t have any evening rehearsals this week. Which gives me time to blog – or finish off Young Royals. Or both. So, episode 5. Some of the timeline issues were cleared up. Simon brought Wilhelm a birthday cupcake and it had a 17 on it. I had expected 18. There was also a graduating class dinner and many of the girls who I thought were graduating were servers at the meal. I realized it is August’s graduation, but not Wilhelm’s or Simon’s or the girls who were serving. A big part of this episode is a birthday party for Wilhelm at the palace. Simon was invited, partly to support Wilhelm and partly to meet the parents – the queen and duke. Simon got a suit for the occasion and I could tell it was too big for him. Was the a way for the costumers to say Wilhelm as a royal gets well fitting suits and Simon as a commoner gets badly fitting suits? That birthday party did not go well. Thankfully, it wasn’t because the parents were upset that their son’s lover was another boy. But there were a lot of unresolved issues around Wilhelm not liking being a royal and his parents seemed to be handling it in a passive-aggressive manner. I plan on watching episode 6, the finale of the whole series, tomorrow. Last Friday I wrote about the nasty guy’s options on meeting the $454 million judgment against him in the civil fraud case. At the top of the list I wrote:

An appeals court could step in because in the current American legal system “courts generally despise the thought of handing out big penalties to wealthy financial crooks.”

I mention it because, as reported by Hunter of Daily Kos, (of course) the Appellate Division of the Manhattan Supreme Court said the nasty guy has to pay (or have bonds for) $175 million instead of the full amount before he can appeal the case. He now has ten days to cover the smaller amount. The nasty guy had claimed he can’t pay the $454 million. The $175 million is an amount he has been saying he can come up with. How convenient. And yes, the court gave him a big favor. What’s next is the nasty guy pays (or has bonds for) $175 million. He can then file an appeal. So far the nasty guy’s lawyers can’t explain what parts of the ruling they plan to appeal. If he doesn’t have an appealable case, then he’s back to owing $454 million, plus interest. More likely is the process drags out beyond the election, as appears to be happening with many of his trials. His hope is to get back to the Oval Office and use his authoritarian power to make even this state case go away. In an Earth Matters column for Kos Meteor Blades included a couple interesting topics. First, Republicans are, as they have always been, saying they don’t believe the climate scientists and they are trying to limit the Inflation Reduction Act, with all its goodies to protect the climate (though not nearly enough for what’s needed). As examples, Blades listed several bills taken up by the House that undo IRA provisions. Some have passed the House (alas, some with a few to several Democratic votes), others are still in committee. Getting past the Senate is doubtful. They won’t get past Biden. Even so, this shows what Republicans intend. The other interesting story starts off this way:

The Environmental Integrity Project published its “Feeding the Plastics Industrial Complex” in mid-March. The key findings: 64% of plastics manufacturing plants built or expanded since 2012 received tax subsidies totaling $9 billion, and 84% violated federal air pollution limits. These subsidies cost nearly twice as much as the combined budgets of the state agencies in Texas and Louisiana tasked with regulating most plastics plants in their jurisdictions.

In a thread on Threadreader, Michael Harriot discusses diversity, equity, and inclusion policies at Duke Medical School. Some say DEI initiatives lower standards, others say that’s false. Who is right? First, DEI policies aren’t about lowering standards, they’re about inviting more diverse students to apply and then helping them stay in the program. Under the program the applicants’ GPA increased and the total number of white students also increased (so who is taking spots away from white students?). Duke also found the admission process favored the privileged (children of doctors who know how to navigate the system) and the rich. So they changed it. The “underprivileged” students may not do as well in the first year – but they did better than the privileged students starting in the second year. One more thing. If Duke lowered it standards its graduates – including the white ones – would have a harder time finding jobs. Also, the rich and privileged would stop sending their kids to an inferior school. Underprivileged is not unqualified. In a pundit roundup for Kos Chitown Kev had a couple interesting quotes. George Makari and Richard Friedman of The Atlantic wrote that we as a nation (perhaps the whole world?) have not dealt with the effects of COVID that is still killing hundreds a week.

Almost overnight, most of the country was thrown into a state of high anxiety—then, soon enough, grief and mourning. But the country has not come together to sufficiently acknowledge the tragedy it endured. As clinical psychiatrists, we see the effects of such emotional turmoil every day, and we know that when it’s not properly processed, it can result in a general sense of unhappiness and anger—exactly the negative emotional state that might lead a nation to misperceive its fortunes.

Perhaps that is why so many people believe the economy isn’t doing well in spite of the data saying it is doing great? Makari and Friedman added:

We are not suggesting that the entire country has PTSD from COVID. In fact, the majority of people who are exposed to trauma do not go on to exhibit the symptoms of PTSD. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t deeply affected. In our lifetime, COVID posed an unprecedented threat in both its overwhelming scope and severity; it left most Americans unable to protect themselves and, at times, at a loss to comprehend what was happening. That meets the clinical definition of trauma: an overwhelming experience in which you are threatened with serious physical or psychological harm.

Kev also quoted Nick Paton Walsh of CNN discussing Russia and the terrorist attack at the concert hall.

It exposes how far adrift and overstretched Putin now is. The safety of his muted, urban electorate in the capital has been entirely sacrificed to his war of choice in Ukraine. Special forces did not race in; they are dead, or busy elsewhere. Even some police have been deployed to the frontlines. ... There is so much the Russian system of authoritarianism cannot quash. It relies on patriarchy, fealty, corruption and a curious sense that the tsar, in this case Putin, will intervene to right palpable wrongs. But he does not. He does not always know how badly his state is functioning. And so, four young men can just roll up with automatic weapons to a vast Moscow mall and set fire to it, after shooting dozens dead.

A cartoon posted by Marian Kamensky shows Putin chasing Zelenskyy while a mob chases Putin. Biden says, “Be careful, Vladimir, ISIS-Terrorists!” And Putin responds, “Oh Joe, is that your cheap distraction?”

Raking in huge profits and pretending needing to be rescued

Mark Sumner of Daily Kos, in this week’s edition of stories to know series included:

On March 8, the NOAA announced that this has been the warmest winter in U.S. history, with overall temperatures 5.4 degrees above average. The winter was also wetter than usual. That may generate temporary relief in some drought areas, but it's unclear if this will continue into summer, when more record heat is expected.

Sumner also included a video created by Steve Shives who discusses how comics are important to life. In this 23 minute video Shives talks about an edition of DC Comics Superman from 20 years ago and why this particular story is relevant to today. I’ve watched an occasional movie based on DC and Marvel comics. It’s been many years since I have, mostly because there is too much violence. In this story Superman faces some bad guys that act like good guys in that they get rid of other bad guys. The reason why Superman considers them bad is they are unconcerned with collateral damage and they think killing the actual bad guys is a good thing. Superman responds with why disabling the bad guys, yet keeping them alive, is better. The story also include Superman listening to why people are drawn to his new enemies (as people are always drawn to strongmen). Yes, there are a lot of intentional parallels to authoritarians, even though this was published before the current batch. Superman’s way allows the author to explain to the characters and to us why Superman’s way is preferable. Back to the climate. In an Earth Matters column for Kos, Meteor Blades, had a few interesting stories. Rebecca Burns of Sierra magazine wrote about the latest tricks the climate deniers are using. Blades wrote about a couple of them. One is going into rural communities and get the residents riled up against wind turbines. Of course, the reasoning they use is mostly lies (I’m not familiar with how loud a wind turbine actually is and whether the claimed noise is a lie). They also go to state legislatures to restrict spending on climate action. When visiting my aunt and uncle in Ohio several months (or maybe a couple years) ago I saw small signs by the road at some farms saying the owner was against a wind project. My aunt lamented the appearance of these signs and said they were because of what the Sierra magazine discussed. Blades also wrote about a study from the Environmental Protection Agency about the life cycle emissions of electric vehicles. There are claims that EVs are as bad or are worse that ICE (internal combustion engine) cars. The claim says one must add in the emissions during manufacturing, especially of batteries, and the emissions of generating the electricity. The EPA looked at EVs in five countries. In France EVs are cleaner (even considering all sources of emissions) after 25K kilometers (15K miles), while in China the breakeven point is 153K km (92K miles). But as manufacturing of batteries becomes more efficient and power plants switch to cleaner sources the breakeven point will drop. FishOutofWater of the Kos community posted the Atlantic heat anomaly map for March 12. Yeah, the water is warm and has set a new record. Last year the sea surface temperature started heading higher than previous readings at the end of April. It set a record in mid August. This year the readings are way above previous readings for this time of year and earlier this month topped August’s reading. The rest of the post gets rather technical, but it leaves with this thought: The 2024 hurricane season could be nasty. Sumner looked at the nasty guy’s claim (threat?) to “Drill, baby, drill” if he gets back to the Oval Office. But...

The idea that President Joe Biden is holding back American energy production and has “destroyed U.S. energy independence” is being spread not just by Trump but also by Republicans in the House and Senate. Claims of a Biden “war on energy” are front and center in Republican campaigns, in claims by the conservative Heritage Foundation, and in Trump’s dictatorial ambitions. But all of this is just lies, baby, lies.

The US is in the middle of a record oil boom. It hasn’t needed to import oil since about 2020 and now produces enough to export. That’s while the US had a record year for renewable energy and installing renewable capacity. While the nasty guy’s – and Republican’s – claims are easily disproved, energy is supposed to be one of the issues Republicans are good at. That “drill, baby, drill” line has been used by Republicans since at least 2008. Republicans are making energy an issue because the oil and gas industry is a significant donor – and because Biden keeps calling for immensely profitable companies, like oil and gas companies, pay their fair share in taxes.

It also helps that Republicans are still calling both renewable energy and the climate crisis is a hoax. Fossil fuel companies really like that. Give them lower taxes, lower regulations, cheap public land, and cripple their competition? They’ll take that any day. So they’re both raking in huge amounts of money and pretending that they need to be rescued from mean old Biden.

A week ago I thought I’d soon be writing about my forsythia blooming. A few years ago I posted that it bloomed at the end of March, which was rare. And now I’m looking at it blooming in mid March. Except we are having a cold snap and maybe snow tomorrow. So instead of blooming it looks like most of the buds on a few of the shrubs were killed by the cold. This is the second time my forsythia didn’t bloom because early warm days were followed by cold ones. Dartagnan of the Kos community wrote about the practice of judge shopping. Conservative ideologues would file their case in the court of a judge they knew would be friendly to whatever cause they wanted to enforce across the country that they knew would never be approved through the ballot box. Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of Amarillo has gained fame for being the judge of choice for the forced-birth movement. He’ll give them what they want, no matter hour convoluted his ruling. Since Kacsmaryk is the only federal judge in Amarillo he handles all cases. If they’re appealed (and they are) they go to the conservative 5th Circuit Court. So last week the Judicial Conference of the United States, which creates policy for the federal courts, unveiled a plan to end judge shopping. The plan was that cases would be randomly assigned to one of the federal courts in a state (or region) so plaintiffs couldn’t pick their judge. There was joy that such anti-democracy practices would be ended. That joy lasted about three days. Then far right judges, as well as members of Congress who installed them (like Moscow Mitch), started complaining. And quite quickly the Judicial Conference said the plan is only “guidance” (which can and will be ignored).

It’s telling that nearly all of the objections cited by The Washington Post come from Republican-appointed judges and their backers. But as corrosive to the legal system as the practice of judge shopping is, thanks to the seeding of the federal judiciary with these transparent ideologues, the entire institution is now appearing more and more tainted. ... Due to this rampant ideological corruption—from the top on down—conservatives are gradually transforming the federal judiciary into an institution that many Americans sensibly fear, especially since it can take away established rights without being held accountable. It is a judiciary that does not foster the notions of fairness that Americans have every right to expect from it. It is a judiciary that is becoming increasingly illegitimate in the eyes of the public, because its application of the law is increasingly seen as selective, arbitrary, and politically infused. No ham-handed public relations campaign from the Supreme Court is going to change that, particularly in a system where constitutional law professors can no longer even look their students in the eye and assure them that the nation’s founding principles are being fairly interpreted and applied. Americans should not have to live in dread of how some unelected judge in Amarillo or Fort Worth may decide to rule on an issue that could seriously alter their lives. They shouldn’t have to put up with the arrogance of an unaccountable judiciary that has been deliberately manipulated to fast-track the rabid dreams of domination by a tiny minority.

Mark Ira Kaufman of the Kos community looked at the Jewish Bible (the Christian Old Testament) and showed – contrary to the strong emphasis of Christian evangelicals – the Bible does not command belief in God. Instead, what is commanded is to do what God wants us to do. And what he wants is for us to help and love each other.

The flawed human heart is especially problematic for those whose reliance is on faith to be right by God. Why? Faith, unfettered by reason, is a product of that messed up heart. But if faith doesn't impress God, what is there that can? The answer is offered in the very next verse, calling for righteous conduct. So for those of you pious reprobates who think you're hot stuff in God's eye because of your faith, think again. And don't blame me that your faith might not mean anything to God. I didn't write the Bible.

That “very next verse” is at the top of the Ten Commandments (which Jews call the Ten Utterances), in which God says don’t worship anything else. But why do we need to “impress” God? Doesn’t He love us anyway?