Democracy is not exported by missile strike

My Sunday movie was Swan Song, a documentary about putting on the ballet Swan Lake. The title has a second meaning in that it was the last production by former ballet star and artistic director Karen Kain. Kain was a big deal in Canadian ballet. She became a principle dancer and a star at a young age, even becoming a protegé of Rudolf Nureyev. She has a painting of herself done by Andy Warhol. After she retired from dancing she joined the leadership of the National Ballet of Canada and rose to becoming the artistic director. Back in 2020 Kain decided the NBC’s production of Swan Lake would be her last. She wanted something different than the standard treatment the ballet usually got. But COVID delayed that for a couple years. This documentary is about what has to happen to get the show from concept to opening night. Swan Lake is a ballet by Peter Tchaikovsky. An evil guy turns women into swans. Through the help of the Swan Queen they try to get their humanity back – and that’s about all I know about the plot. There are principle dancers, though a major part of this ballet is the corps de ballet, the women who portray all those swans. This production might have had a corps of two dozen. And that’s what makes this ballet difficult, these two dozen dancers have to move in synchronization or the critics will pounce. The film shows Kain at work guiding the production. She was in charge, but she wasn’t the choreographer, working out what each dancer did when. That was done by Robert Binet. So there are several scenes where Binet shows Kain what the dancers have done so far and does that meet with her approval. We also see some of the life of principle dancer Jurgita Dronina, who played the Swan Queen. Her life started in the Soviet Union. Her family escaped when it collapsed. We also see Shae Estrada, who is in the corps who faces tensions because she doesn’t fit in. She’s also a lesbian, though that doesn’t seem to be the source of tension. Something this film doesn’t show is the scenery design and what goes into that. We see some of the scenery being made and some of the installation at the theater, but not the design. As opening night approaches and the company shifts from the studio to the stage with scenery, lighting, and costumes, a lot of adjustments need to be made. Kain and Binet hope it all gels by the time they are before an audience. Since the show is so strenuous there are four sets of principle dancers that rotate the roles. But the corps has to rehearse with all four sets. I quite enjoyed it. I’ve written about capitalism needs to be strongly regulated to survive and thrive, and to be compatible with democracy. I did a long post on that based on articles by Trenz Pruca. Daily Kos community member dratler says there is a country that is regulating capitalism quite well so that their economy is thriving and doing all the things that capitalism does best. From my earlier post an easy guess is that country is not the US, where late stage capitalism is making a mess of things. No, this country is China. While democracy is not a part of the Chinese system...

China’s great industrial firms are beating ours, Europe’s and even some in Japan in productivity, price and more recently quality. They are nearly all privately owned and privately run and therefore “capitalistic” in every sense. In this respect, they resemble the robust private firms of the postwar US.

We used to have such a robust economy. That was after WWII when capitalism gave us an amazing array of innovative goods and services. That was also a time when business was strictly regulated and antitrust laws were enforced. Those in control may be the Chinese Communist Party, but their handling of the economy is nothing like the state control of the Soviet Union. Many in US politics see “Communist” in the name and don’t see how it differs from the disastrous Soviet model. The author returns the focus to the US, listing three (out of many) signs that US capitalism is collapsing. The first is “financialization,” which is making money without producing anything. An example is the huge number of private equity firms that buy up property or companies, load them with debt to finance the purchase, then squeeze out all the wealth they can before letting the husk file for bankruptcy. Workers and other shareholders get little to nothing. Another example is cryptocurrencies. Do we really need a replacement for money, credit cards, and internet services like PayPal that already thrive? The only people who benefit from crypto are criminals. The second sign of economic decline is the crash in the rate of real innovation (by this dratler excludes software, which just improves productivity).

During the late nineteenth and the last century, we Americans made or rapidly adopted most of the innovations that make our modern world. They include electric lighting, airplanes, electric grids, voice recording, broadcast radio, antibiotics, television, high-altitude flight (with pressurized cabins), rocket ships for space flight, digital computers, transistors, chips full of tiny transistors, minicomputers, microcomputers/PCs, MRIs, CAT scans, cells phones, smart phones, genomic medicine, and now “designer drugs” conceived by computers analyzing possible chemical compounds. Yet since Apple introduced the first smart phone nearly twenty years ago, I can’t think of any physical invention (except perhaps genomic medicine and designer drugs) that we Americans produced or rapidly adopted that is remotely comparable in economic potential to any of those in the previous paragraph.

And the software improvements – social media and AI – have many undesirable side effects. The third sign is marketing, advertising, public relations, and propaganda all combined into the word promotion or “promo.” In all forms it is the effort of getting people to do thing, not in their own best interest, but in the interest of the information provider. Much (most? all?) is based on things not true. Disinformation rivals facts. An example of promo is web searches. One had been able to used logic operators, such as “this” and “not that” to search directly for something. Now the search results are flooded by paid promotions to prioritize their links, whether the match is close or not. And I’m pretty sure “not that” searching does not work. AI is supposedly free of that promo pressure, but likely won’t stay that way. Besides, isn’t the power and wonderfulness of AI also propaganda?

It’s the capitalism of a self-indulgent, self-regarding, under-educated, over-egoed and exploitive computer/financial class that has no clue about physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, medicine or the histories of successful human societies. It’s a recipe for the most rapid decline of a successful capitalist democracy in human history. ... The essence of today’s China is a vast state-capitalist nation, ruled by smart, practical leaders (many of them trained as engineers) whose main motivators appear to be not their own private wealth, but their nation’s advancement. If you’d ask me to compare the leadership of China’s elite with the “leadership” of our tech-bro class and the likes of Elon Musk, I’d say there isn’t even a contest. Intelligence, experience, practical knowledge, genuine scientific curiosity and real patriotism beat ego, self-regard, self-aggrandizement and self-enrichment as useful character traits and motivations every time.

Before you complain, I’m very aware that China does not permit many rights I hold dear, the top being freedom of speech that includes the freedom to criticize the government. I don’t want to live in such a country. But we can admire and learn from the way the Chinese regulate capitalism. In Sunday’s pundit roundup for Kos Chitown Kev quoted an editorial in El País discussing the nasty guy’s operation to kidnap Maduro of Venezuela.

Donald Trump’s decision caps a year of impulsive, personalistic foreign policy that ignores multilateral norms. Trump is not acting here as a guarantor of democracy, but rather placing force above the rule of law. Other powers will take note of these new rules as they look at Taiwan or Ukraine. Pointing this out is not a defense of the Venezuelan regime, but a warning: democracy is not exported by missile strike, nor imposed from the air —much less when invoked by someone who has repeatedly shown contempt for institutions.[...] Added to this political ambition is another, no less alarming: the announcement that U.S. companies will take over Venezuela’s oil industry to “make money,” reinforcing the perception that the intervention is not aimed at restoring rights, but at managing power and wealth. Even if the reconstruction of devastated infrastructure is invoked, this amounts to the forcible external appropriation of natural resources, blurring the line between aid, investment, and economic domination.

Collette Capriles of the New York Times

For Venezuelans, our situation will not be fixed by Mr. Maduro’s departure, let alone by a foreign occupying force. We are not a nation held together by a government or a social contract, but a collection of individuals trapped in a struggle for survival. Replacing the man at the top will not dismantle the web of bosses, private loyalties, corrupt practices and institutional ruins that have replaced public life here.

Whitney Neulich, Sophie Hills, and Caitlin Babcock of Christian Science Monitor

“If the United States asserts the right to use military force to invade and capture foreign leaders it accuses of criminal conduct, what prevents China from claiming the same authority over Taiwan’s leadership? What stops [Russian leader] Vladimir Putin from asserting similar justification to abduct Ukraine’s president?” asked Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the Democratic vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, following Saturday’s operation. “Once this line is crossed, the rules that restrain global chaos begin to collapse, and authoritarian regimes will be the first to exploit it.”

In the comments there are, of course, many memes and cartoons about Venezuela. That includes a meme posted by exlrrp:

Anyone who has a problem with Maduro being captured and brought to justice should review the following footage of what Maduro did to his own people. THIS IS WHO YOU STAND WITH COMMIES. Free Venezuela!

Mickey Lenin responded:

The city of Portland would like a word.

Oliver Burdick tweeted:

Homosexuality is a different type of evil. The Bible rarely refers to something as “an abomination.”

Dr. Kevin M. Young responded

Sweet Summer Child, the Bible lists at least FORTY-TWO different things as an "abomination" (תּוֹעֵבַה). That isn't a rarity; it's one of the most common words the Bible uses for anything that is taboo. The 42+ include: — Businessmen who lie — Using faulty weights/measures — Divorce — Breaking Fri/Saturday Sabbath — Arrogance Oh, it also lists "those who bring false witness or stir up conflict in a community" as an abomination, like you are here. That, along with your arrogance and (I presume) your lack of keeping the Sabbath each Fri/Sat, YOU ARE AN ABOMINATION THRICE OVER. So you might as well go ahead and have sex with that dude.

Melanie D’Arrigo tweeted:

Trump’s billionaire allies now control X, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok, Truth and Twitch. They own Fox News, CBS, WaPo, WSJ and NY Post — plus 185+ local tv stations and news in 100 markets. They control the AI you're asking for answers, the algorithms feeding you content, your personal data you've given up for access, and the devices you rely on. The news and your privacy are now what Trump and his billionaire pals say it is. This is all by design.

That tweet includes a chart of which rich dude owns what. Larry & David Ellison: CBS News, CBS, Paramount+, plutoTV, TikTok. Mark Zuckerberg: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and a few more logos I’m not familiar with. Murdoch Family: Fox (including News, Business, TV stations), tubi, Wall Street Journal, New York Post. Sinclair Family: 185+ local news affiliates of ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and CW, plus The Baltimore Sun. Jeff Bezos: The WashingtonPost, Prime Video, twitch, Wondery. Alphabet Inc.: Google, YouTube, Android, Google Play, Gemini, Blogger (where these words get posted). Elon Musk: X, XA, Grok. Apple Corp.: Apple, AppleTV, iTunes, Apple Intelligence. Sam Altman: ChatGPT. Every so often I’m reminded Doonsbury by Garry Trudeau is still around. His comic from Sunday is pretty good.

Yup, it’s racism

Hunter of Daily Kos discussed a new study by Larry Bartels of Vanderbilt University. The study sorted through whether ethnic antagonism, economic conservatism, cultural conservatism, or other factors was a better predictor of anti-democratic beliefs. Ethnic antagonism – racism – correlated well, the other factors didn’t. Hunter wrote the study…

suggests that there's a theme to the escalating conservative willingness to upend democracy in America, discrediting election results and advocating for lawbreaking—and even violence, if necessary. It's about whiteness. Specifically, it's about racist conservative fear of nonwhites, and their determination to block nonwhite Americans from upending their "traditional" way of life.

You know: fascism. ... It's not surprising to hear that anti-Black, anti-immigrant, anti-anybody-who-isn't-white sentiment is the defining force behind conservative premises that our laws and elections may no longer be sufficient, and may have to be restructured by force.
…
Trump knows his appeal is based on racism. Trump's campaign is operating under the assumption that his appeal is based on his racism. Republican lawmakers supporting Trump are standing behind his adventures in racism, and adding their own versions. And we've now got yet another study showing that racism, violent racism, is the impetus behind Republican anti-democratic beliefs.
...
In past years, those anti-democratic and authoritarian sentiments manifested themselves through racial gerrymandering and voter suppression efforts. Trump's Republican allies have cut straight to the point, however, with suggestions that a November election that does not return Trump to power might not have legitimacy at all. The suggestions are being opportunistically amplified by foreign anti-democratic groups; they are almost certain, now, to cause post-election violence and terrorism.

You know, from racists. Trump's most devoted—and dangerous—base.

In some people the need to feel superior leads them to be violent and to kill. It is a strong force in some humans.



Jason Stanley, a professor of philosophy at Yale University, wrote the 2018 book How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them. He was interviewed by Christianna Silva on NPR. Instead of a full transcript of the ten minute audio NPR provided a few written highlights of the discussion.

First, Stanley’s definition of fascism:

[It’s] a cult of the leader who promises national restoration in the face of humiliation brought on by supposed communists, Marxists and minorities and immigrants who are supposedly posing a threat to the character and the history of a nation.

I’m not so sure of the communists and Marxists, but the rest of it fits.

Stanley talked about conspiracy theories:

Conspiracy theories destroy an information space. The goal — fascism is based on a friend-enemy distinction, so you're either with them or against them. The enemy is the enemy of civilization. What it does is it destroys the information space. It makes you think that even if your guys are corrupt and lying, it is because [the leader is] facing a mysterious cabal that is controlling things that are trying to foment a race war. This is the basis of the Ku Klux Klan ideology.

And even when they seem respectable they're really being controlled by the Marxists and the minorities. And so that makes you think that your opposition is not legitimate and there's no debating them because they're really in a conspiracy to hide a pedophilic sex ring and advance the interests of Marxism. And so what we find is not just a conspiracy theory but a conspiracy theory that echoes the worst aspects of European history and American history.

Yet, Stanley sees hope. America has a strong history of fighting fascism, starting with WWII and continuing through nonviolent protests that have confronted our own racial history.



Hunter reported that the nasty guy campaign has spent $60 million on lawyers. This seems to be going for settling the nasty guy’s personal vendettas against those who annoy him, such as news outlets who publish harsh critiques. This money isn’t coming from the campaign’s small donors, but from the big ones. Wrote Hunter:

Then again, the lesson of 21st-century America is that the nation’s fabulously rich have, literally, All The Money. There doesn't seem to be any upper limit on how much money fascist-friendly but tax-averse Trump allies are willing to send his way.

Kos of Kos reported that the nasty guy campaign is broke. It has pulled TV advertising from key battleground states with an election less than 60 days away (though this year the opinions are so stable it is doubtful advertising will make a difference).

Kos lists several of the unusual expenses, such as keeping the sons happy, taking the family on trips, various grifting opportunities of the campaign staff, and an amazing $350 million for fund-raising operations. Plus the boss treating the money as a personal piggy bank.

One wonders why those rich people who own All The Money aren’t making sure the nasty guy’s campaign remains flush with cash. Maybe because the amount squandered is $800 million.



Jillian York tweeted:

What if we—hear me out on this—tell Trump he won the 2020 election and then lock him inside a replica of the White House with his family. ...in Siberia.

Various replies wanted clarification on how this would work. Could we get Twitter and Facebook to run fake streams to keep him convinced? We’d need a fake golf course in front of a fake Air Force One. Could we stash the rest of his crooked administration in there with him? Even so, I’m all for it.



Joan McCarter of Kos told us to beware of Republicans bearing gifts. She’s not warning against GOP elected officials, but GOP money outfits that are trying to make sure the nasty guy is not reelected. They are trying to weasel their way into influence among Democrats. And they want to be accepted back into polite society.

But they are desperately trying to hide that they have been big donors to the GOP for a long time and had no problems with Bush II and his unnecessary war and its torture, they supported Sarah Palin and her extremism, they funded the Tea Party, they funded the efforts to block as much of Obama’s agenda as possible, they created the Federalist Society which is helping Moscow Mitch drive federal courts to the right.

They want to continue all the supremacy that the GOP has stood for during the past 30 years, just without the nasty guy at the head of the party. And they are paying to get access to the Biden White House.

McCarter wrote:

And because they are Republicans, they think they can buy their way in without acknowledging or atoning for their complicity with Trump. They built that monster, and they've decided that the way to save their own skins is to pick up torches and pitchforks now and turn against him. ...

What needs to happen is that this iteration of the Republican Party—including all those never-Trumpers who were happy to throw fuel on the fires of racism, of fascism for the past 40 years—this GOP needs to be destroyed. It needs to be defeated at the ballot box and ground into dust. Burned. The ground over it salted.

I hadn’t known that Doonsbury by Garry Trudeau has continued to go strong. It has been years since it’s been in the Detroit paper – the last time I blogged about the strip was 2013. I found out its still going because someone linked to last Sunday’s strip. Here it is.




Leah McElrath tweeted:

If you’re gaining belly fat, it’s not necessarily because you’re eating too much.

It could be due to excess cortisol production because of living in a state of fight-or-flight for months on end due to everything that’s going on.

Be gentle with yourself.

Robin J. Schwartz responded:

Leah’s right. On a primal level, our bodies perceive excruciating, ongoing stress as the equivalent of famine, and try to “save” us by holding onto belly fat.

Insomnia is also a result of horrific stress (she types at 3am)...

Georgia Logothetis, in her pundit roundup for Kos quoted David Frum of The Atlantic about scandal of the nasty guy calling soldiers “losers” and the condemnation that has drawn from military people.

Amid the clamor, it’s easy to overlook those who are not yelling, those who are keeping silent. Where are the senior officers of the United States armed forces, serving and retired—the men and women who worked most closely on military affairs with President Trump? Has any one of them stepped forward to say, “That’s not the man I know”?

How many wounded warriors have stepped forward to attest to Trump’s care and concern for them? How many Gold Star families have stepped forward on Trump’s behalf? How many service families?

I listen to podcasts of Radiolab, which has an unusual way of looking at things, though I’m six months behind. At the start of the pandemic lockdown they did a series of shorter episodes. The second of these, under 40 minutes, took a look at handwashing. It was Ignaz Semmelweis, back in the middle of the 19th century, who figured out the importance of doctors having clean hands. Alas, since the idea of viruses and bacteria wasn’t known yet many other doctors were resistant to his calls. In the present age we know that a virus is held together with oils and that soap breaks up those oils, which kills the virus. So honor Dr. Semmelweis and wash your hands.

Can't allow them to challenge our position

Almost a week ago I wrote a post about conservatives who consider building community with the poor to be immoral. Since then I've been pondering the question, Why? I was able to organize my thoughts while on my bicycle this afternoon -- yes, it was warm enough (about 60F) and dry enough to pump up the tires and head out.

The question again: Why do conservatives believe that building community is immoral?

Let's first dispense with Christianity being a reason. More than a year ago I examined the issue of a tax structure designed to specifically underfund schools in minority communities. Author Susan Pace Hamill documented the problem, then listed all the verses in the Bible that command rich believers to take care of the poor. It is a long list. While Christianity (as it is supposed to be practiced) isn't a reason the rich could be following a version of Christianity corrupted by some outside force. Which means we should look at that outside force.

A slight detour before proceeding. Back in October I wrote about some versions of Christianity focus on the confession of sins, making adherents feel rather disgusted with themselves. A way of alleviating that pain is to say, "At least we aren't as bad as them." That forms the foundation of a great deal of prejudice. Warning: my friend and debate partner found that post to be confusing (rare for my writing, he says). Then again, it dealt with Christian concepts with which he isn't familiar.

Prompted by the writings of Terrence Heath I've written that many conservatives believe that one's moral worth matches one's wealth. The richer you are, the more moral you are. If you are poor, it is because of a failing in morality. I've written about this more than once, but don't have a handy link.

One reason why the link between money and morality sticks around is that it helps rich people cope with having so much money. They have it (they say to themselves) because they deserve it. They are a better person than those who don't have money. And the poor don't have it because they don't deserve it.

But labeling the poor as immoral is not the same as saying it is also immoral to help them not be poor. To take that step we turn to what I've been calling a Power. This is an institution or a group of people who wield influence, privilege, or control over others and will use violence (physical, mental, spiritual, economic) to maintain that control. Here's a shortcut: If violence is involved, there is a Power trying to maintain its position.

The upcoming Conclave in Rome highlights the Catholic Church as a Power, using spiritual violence (believe as we tell you or you go to Hell) to maintain their position (yes, other Christian denominations also act as Powers). The Power that is of concern in this discussion is (as you expect) conservatives. They have long believed they are supposed to be in charge. and the current GOP embodies that belief.

And through that recognition we answer my big question. It is immoral for us (or the federal gov't) to help the poor because that will allow them to challenge our position as top dog, which was given to us by (our) god.

Some more examples of Powers:

On Friday evening I finally went to a movie theater to see the movie Lincoln. It was a satisfying cinematic experience. I hope it becomes well used in classrooms across the country. If you haven't seen it, do so soon (then look it up on imdb.com and check out the goofs). The story is about Abe Lincoln challenging the Power of white supremacy. Though he gets the 13th Amendment to outlaw slavery, that Power kills him (though that link isn't explored in the film).

Last week Nihad Sirees wrote a history of Bashar Al-Assad for Newsweek. The current tyrant's father, Hafez, came to rule by constructing a far-reaching Power. All that Power was supposed to Bashar's brother, but the guy died before the father did. So the Power was pushed into Bashar's hands. According to this article Bashar didn't particularly want it and didn't want the brutality that came with the job. But he is stuck. Soften the Power and he loses all the privilege that comes with the Power -- his party and ethnic group are a minority. Just as important, the other members of the party lose their privilege if Bashar softens the Power. He is either a brutal dictator, or he is nothing.

Doonesbury takes a look at Power through a discussion with character Jim "Honest Man" Andrews. Can voter suppression, gerrymandering, roll purges, ID laws, early voter cutbacks, and unequal funding get the job done for the GOP or will they have to double down on election rigging?

On behalf of democracy

Over the last couple weeks Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed a deal with various officials from Ontario and Canada to build a second bridge across the Detroit River. Snyder did it in a way that circumvented the state legislature, which has refused to agree to the bridge.

The existing bridge is privately owned by Matty Maroun. A new bridge would cut into his profits. The legislature wouldn't agree with Snyder because Maroun had bought them off. Maroun offered to pay for the new bridge himself (he's part of the 1%) but Canada flatly refused Maroun's requirements.

Maroun is now furious with Snyder and promptly started collecting signatures (he is able to pay for a large army of gatherers) to force the issue onto the November ballot. It took him less than a week to do so. The committee that collected the signatures is named "The People Should Decide."

Hold that thought.

I wrote about Michigan's Emergency Manager Law and how it is used by the 1%. A proposal to repeal it is now on its way to the November ballot. A group with the title "Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility" are fighting hard to keep the proposal off the ballot.

The GOP has been trumpeting lately -- such as every vote on marriage equality -- that the people should decide. And here we have a case of two issues backed by the GOP, the 1%, the Tea Party, or general fiscal conservatives (take your pick) where they feel one should go before the voters and one should not.

Let's be clear: Neither conservative effort is on behalf on democracy.

Maroun wants his bridge proposal to go before voters because he paid for the work to make it qualify and he is convinced he has the financial muscle to lie to voters in such a way to get them to vote for what he wants.

But the EM repeal proposal was brought by the 99%. It would have strong backing. The 1% doubt they would be able to convince the rest of us to vote it down. So better to keep it off the ballot.



Jack Lessenberry, political analyst for Michigan Radio and Metro Times, says there are at least four, likely eight, and perhaps eleven big proposals on the November ballot. Add in the candidates for president, Senate, House, state legislature, judges and justices, university regents, and dog catcher and the whole thing will be "as long as the proverbial bedsheet." Which makes it too long to fill out in the voting booth (especially after standing in line). "In other words, today’s ballot is like a complicated take-home test -- except that for most of us, it is illegal to take it home." Lessenberry's advice: plan to be away from home all day so you can legally apply for an absentee ballot.



The Doonesbury comic strip today explained the difference between Obama and Romney. Real easy to do.

You're too smart for the job

Yeah, I know I'm about to comment on a posting several weeks old (it predates Joe the Plumber). But since then I've seen two comic strips that fit this theme well. If you must skip my blathering, at least check out the links below.

We have Palin full of folksy charm and simple language attracting lots of attention. We have Joe Biden who has a command of the issues and is dismissed as boring and professional. Huh? Haven't we been down this road before with Bush?

Perhaps intellectualism is a new wedge issue being waged by the GOP. McCain decries Obama celebrity status yet offers no facts to back up his claims or his policies. Palin stumbles through interviews and is praised as a "breath of fresh air." The claim Obama and Biden are "out of touch" because they are so smart and thoughtful on issues they don't understand your life. Proof? They eat fancy salads with arugula. I agree that I'd prefer a president who is smarter than me.

And now for the comics:
Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller on Sunday, Oct. 12.

Doonesbury by GB Trudeau on Sunday, Oct. 26.