Boise doesn't have to "fly" the Pride flag

Two weeks ago Lisa Needham of Daily Kos reported that Mark Zuckerberg, well, the social media industry, lost two lawsuits. This was in the news a lot so likely this is old news to you. The general complaint of one suits is the design of social media platforms – not the content on the platforms – is what is addictive to preteens. In addition, the platform designers knew that the design is addictive and that is why they chose that design. Both cases prove the companies want maximum profit even if what they do is dangerous to children. In the first suit the woman who brought it was awarded $6 million. In the second, the state of New Mexico was awarded $375 million. A large number of other suits around the country have been waiting for the results of this one. Also two weeks ago Shawn510 of the Kos community discussed an article by Paul Krugman. Krugman’s basic point is that immigration to the US has collapsed and it’s not because of policy, but because of fear. It may be spun as political success, but is actually economic sabotage. The US service industry – hotels, ride shares, landscaping, etc. runs on immigrant labor. In hospitality 31% of workers are immigrants. In agriculture it’s over half. In construction it’s over 30%. This is the backbone of daily life. These workers also pay taxes and support Social Security. When the workforce shrinks, economies shrink. Immigration is about the only thing working against that. We’re sending the message the US isn’t a place of opportunity, but of risk. Workers, students – talent – goes elsewhere. That shift doesn’t reverse easily. We’re not protecting the country, we’re hollowing it out. This is not something the public is asking for. A couple days ago Lisa Needham of Kos reported that the Justice Department is on its way to becoming a ghost town. Because the nasty guy wants it as a tool of vengeance only true believers and new, inexperienced attorneys are still around. The usual stacks of applications aren’t coming in. A lot of Judge Advocate Generals are being called in as replacements. Yes, JAGs are military lawyers who don’t know so much about civilian law. Yes, this is legal, though has never been done on this scale. Having JAGs work on Justice Department cases has an advantage. Because they’re military, they can’t quit. They also can’t refuse to do the nasty guy’s building. But shortages and inexperience means cases get dropped, such as when a defendant demands a speedy trial, which comes with a deadline.

Turns out that when you fire tons of people and demand that the remainder act unethically, you end up short-staffed. Who knew?

Down in the comments of today’s pundit roundup for Kos are a couple cartoons worth mentioning. The first is by Stephen Lillie. It shows a scene similar to the end of the movie Planet of the Apes, though this time those encountering the scene are the Artemis II astronauts and the statue looks like the nasty guy. The astronauts say, “Oh my God, we’re back!” The other cartoon is by Daniel Boris. He shows Putin saying to his smiling generals, “Now we just sit back and let Trump be Trump.” Haadiya Tariq of the Idaho Press reported the Idaho state legislature wrapped up its session last week and included several anti-LGBTQ bills. One demanded that the Pride flag could not be flown on city or county property. Another would require health care providers and schools report children that express interest in gender transition. The Boise City Hall at first kept their Pride flags flying because the bill didn’t include any enforcement mechanism. The legislature quickly changed that. But the city wanted to tell its gay citizens are still welcome. So instead of “flying” the Pride flag they wrapped the flag around the flagpoles. Pictures at the link. There is also a rainbow that clings to windows with the words, “Creating a city for everyone,” that appeared en many city hall windows. And a heart shaped rainbow sticker has appeared in many storefronts. Boise? Cool!

What place guns should have in a functioning democracy

A week ago I wrote about Nyle DiMarco’s book Deaf Utopia. As part of that I noted he had become a movie producer. So for this week’s Sunday movies I took a look at a couple shows he produced. Both are on Netflix. The first I ventured into was the series Deaf U. The cameras follow several students at Gallaudet University as they do what students do when they’re not in class. I watched one episode and was glad it is only 20 minutes. There’s not a whole lot of story – which is true for most people’s lives. I’m not saying the series is bad. Without the structure of a story the lives of college students don’t interest me. The series is important in that it shows deaf students are like other students except in how they communicate. The movie Audible on Netflix was much more interesting. It is a 40 minute documentary of Amaree a senior on the football team at the Maryland School for the Deaf. Being on the team and playing hearing teams was a way for the players to show what they’re capable of doing. Though they had a winning streak of more than 40 games the story opens with a loss. In addition to dealing with the loss they’re also dealing with a teammate who had transferred to a hearing school, couldn’t handle the bullying, and committed suicide. The football coach said his guys are destined for discrimination. Amaree’s father left the family when Amaree lost his hearing to illness at age two. Dad is trying to reestablish a relationship and sees that his son and the team do not skimp on effort. This movie is a good one. I downloaded Michigan’s COVID data, updated yesterday. I haven’t done that in seven weeks. I also updated by graphing program to display only the last year. I can see recent peaks and valleys much more clearly. There is a rise in the number of new cases per day from mid October to about Christmas, where there is a peak of 2150. The numbers have dropped since then. Over the last few weeks the peaks have been 1563, 1060, 904, and 585. Deaths per day were 10 and under from early May until the beginning of December. During that month there were many days above 10, though the highest was 15. Since the end of December deaths per day has been back under 10. Steve Inskeep of NPR talked to Jill Lepore and David Blight, two of several historians who submitted a friend of the court brief in the case before the Supreme Court testing the 14th Amendment clause that says an insurrectionist should be banned from the ballot. A summary of what Lepore and Blight said: The originalist theory the conservative Supremes keep claiming as their way of working means the interpretation of the Constitution should be based on what people of the time thought of it. And when the 14th Amendment was debated and approved it was intended to be permanent, not just for the period after the Civil War to keep former Confederates out of government. Yes, the amendment does include the presidency. Yes, what the nasty guy did was insurrection. Arguing otherwise is nitpicking. And this: Inskeep: “Is it wise to disqualify someone that millions of people apparently want to vote for, rather than defeating him at the ballot box, which is the way that many people would think it ought to work?” Lepore: “He was defeated at the ballot box, and he incited an insurrection.” Blight: “We have representative democracy. Fine. But we also have laws. And I don't think in this case, a degree of popular will should be the only question in the enforcement of the Constitution, which is itself quite clear.” Mark Sumner of Daily Kos reported Texas is threatening civil war and the mainstream media doesn’t think it’s a story. Media (at least NPR) have been reporting Gov. Greg Abbott has put razor wire in the Rio Grande. Children got tangled in the wire and drowned. The border patrol sued to be able to remove the razor wire and save the children. The Supreme Court allowed them to do so. Abbott isn’t backing down. Sumner reported what else is going on. MAGA Republicans are celebrating Abbott’s standoff with the border patrol and are calling for secession or civil war. 25 other Republican governors issued a joint statement supporting Abbott. Putin’s chief deputy has been urging the civil war as a way to distract from Ukraine.

Despite all this, the story has generated exactly zero articles in The New York Times and scant attention anywhere else in the national media. The national press is allowing Republicans to stoke their fabricated border crisis—right down to threats of civil war—even while those same Republicans are doing everything they can to undermine a solution to issues at the border. How do you avoid reporting on the hypocrisy of the Republican position? Leaving off half the story is a good start.

8ackgr0und No15e of the Kos community asks an important question for those considering civil war or secession they seem to have overlooked: “What are you going to use for your new currency?” Some say the Texas economy is comparable to that of Russia. Have you looked at the ruble lately? How’s your infrastructure? The US is helping people blow up Russia’s stuff. You’ve got oil fields? The US government treats oil fields as military objectives. Mia Maldonado, in an article for the Idaho Capital Sun posted on Kos, reported on discussions with librarians across the state.

According to an informal survey conducted by the Idaho Library Association, more than half of Idaho librarians are considering leaving library work as a result of library-related legislation.

Part of it is being the target of legislator and public ire. Another part of it is perhaps having to deal with unworkable demands. Put the challenged book in an “adults only” section? What if the library is a single room? Yeah, the legislature is considering reducing the amounts parents could sue a library for noncompliance from $2500 to $250, but there are also legal fees likely above $1000. And that is a significant impact for a rural library. Add that to the increased stress and librarians are looking for jobs in other states or are considering changing professions. DebtorsPrison of the Kos community runs the online bookstore The Literate Lizard. They also write a weekly column of the latest nonfiction book releases. I don’t think I’ve read the column before, though I did this week. A couple of the book descriptions (I haven’t, of course, read the actual books) caught my attention.

One Nation Under Guns: How Gun Culture Distorts Our History and Threatens Our Democracy, by Dominic Erdozain. As we parse legislation on background checks and automatic-weapons bans, we fail to ask what place guns should have in a functioning democracy. Taking readers on a brilliant historical journey, Erdozain shows how the founders feared the tyranny of individuals as much as the tyranny of kings—the idea that any person had a right to walk around armed was anathema to their notion of freedom and the peaceful republic they hoped to build. They wrote these ideas into the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, ideas that were subsequently affirmed by two centuries of jurisprudence. And yet the twin scourges of racism and nationalism would combine to create a darker American vision—a rogue and reckless freedom based on birth and blood. It was this freedom, not the liberty promised by the Constitution, that generated our modern gun culture, with its mystic conceptions of good guys and bad guys, innocence and guilt. What We've Become: Living and Dying in a Country of Arms, by Jonathan M. Metzl. Looking closely at the cycle in which mass shootings lead to shock, horror, calls for action, and, ultimately, political gridlock, he explores what happens to the soul of a nation—and the meanings of safety and community—when we normalize violence as an acceptable trade-off for freedom. Mass shootings and our inability to stop them have become more than horrific crimes: they are an American national autobiography.

The false notion that beauty determines worth and success

My Sunday movie was The Worst Ones, another movie from France. It is quite unusual. It’s a movie about making a movie. The film crew goes into the housing projects of a town in northern France to select four teens – Jessy, Lily, Maylis, and Ryan – to feature in the movie to be made. Using the local talent gives the movie gritty authenticity. The title comes from a comment someone else makes that it seems the director chose the worst ones to be in his film. What we see of the movie being made is minimal. Jessy and Lily do a sex scene (that doesn’t get past kissing). Ryan, barely a teen, is a kid with anger issues and is told he really needs to get angry during a fight with other boys. The rest of the time we see what being singled out to do a movie does to their lives. Ryan is facing custody issues because he’s not sure his mother has overcome her mental illness. Lily gets into a fight because she has a reputation of a slut. Gabriel the director has to counsel his charges. The scenes and their preparation are discussed with family and friends. Some of this feels invasive – the families sure put up with a lot to allow film crews to move in with them for the duration. It also feels tangential to making the movie. What’s really going on here? I very much enjoyed this one. If you are interested in unusual movies I recommend this one. Sandhya Dirks of NPR discussed affirmative action with Asian students starting college. Their opinions of it came down to two major points described by Rutvij Holay starting at Stanford University and Andrew Kang starting at Harvard. Dirks summarized:

Holay points to the personality portion of the admissions process at Harvard, where prospective students were rated. Asian Americans consistently scored lower than everyone else. They were seen as quiet, maybe even boring. In other words, they were racially stereotyped, Holay says. And this gets at how he understands racism. ... Kang doesn't think affirmative action was the use of racial stereotypes. He thinks it was an attempt to put a thumb on the scale for communities who have been historically marginalized to help combat the racism embedded in education. Without it, he thinks the system will do what it was set up to do - favor the white and the wealthy. And Kang fears that this is all part of something bigger - a war on diversity. ... Holay sees racism as rooted in stereotypes. For him, removing the use of race in admissions will remove the ability to use stereotypes, removing the racism. But Kang sees racism as reproducing through systems, limited access to generational wealth and education. Affirmative action opened up that access. Now those doors have again been closed. For these two students, the answer to the question of how to combat racism differs radically, based on how they define it.

Kos of Daily Kos discussed the situation in the schools of West Bonner County, Idaho. Yeah, nasty guy country. In the 2021 election they elected a far right school board (well, enough for a majority). They were overwhelmingly recalled last Tuesday. It seems they did what they were voted in to do. Some of those things: They lobbied for the defeat of a supplemental school funding levy and voters bought into it and rejected it. The district lost a third of its budget and improving anything with that size budget cut is impossible. The board hired superintendent Branden Durst who has no educational qualifications but plenty as a culture warrior. He was good at implementing a transphobic bathroom policy. Both candidates, while campaigning to keep their jobs, essentially said vote to keep me or the liberals and their woke agenda will take over again. And after their loss there was commentary was about the failures of the two members, not the MAGA ideology they pursued. And – we’re not at all surprised – there are claims the election was fraudulent with an attempt to overturn it. The whole thing comes down to the MAGA movement is supposed to hurt those people, not us. SemDem of the Kos community discussed beauty pageants. Not the ones we’re familiar with that feature women old enough to be in college (young adults), but teen, preteen, and categories down to infant. The parents of these tykes can get quite pushy and that push includes sexualizing the girls.

It’s also telling where these pageants are being held. The states that hold the most contests are Florida, Georgia, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky. All of these states have passed anti-LGBTQ+ bills, including bans on adult drag shows, for the expressed reason that they are protecting children from “inappropriate sexualized conduct.” ... Child pageants are harmful, even for the children who want to participate, due to the oversexualized nature of these pageants. They are harmful in other ways, as well. Child pageants reinforce the false notion at a very young age that beauty is the primary determinant of worth and success, and children, particularly girls, are taught to prioritize external beauty over other qualities, leading to body image issues and low self-esteem.

Yet another problem: the sexualization of these girls attracts pedophiles. There are thousands of reported sexual abuse incidents each year. “Do you know where there hasn’t ever been a kidnapping or assault? A drag show.” Want to protect kids? Ban child beauty pageants. An antidote to, or maybe subversion of, child pageants is the movie Little Miss Sunshine. Clio2 wrote for the Kos LGBTQ Litarature series about the book Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender by Kit Heyam. It contains stories of people or groups that appear to fall between the genders before the time when the idea of transgender was known. Clio2 discussed six of them. Ahebi was assumed to be female when born about 1880 in what is now Nigeria. After growing up Ahebi became king (not queen) with all the male trappings of the role. That included multiple wives who would sleep with other men to bear children for him. During WWI some 20,000 British men of Germany ancestry were confined in internment camps at Knockaloe on the Isle of Man. A big thing was putting on plays for each other, with about a show a week, with over 1,500 shows by the end of their internment. Women’s roles were played by men. And some of them kept their female roles off the stage with devoted admirers. After the war they resumed their male identities and didn’t want reminders. In the early 1600s Mary Frith used gender nonconformity to facilitate petty crime and in general scandalize London. A millennium earlier in the late 600s in Medina on the Arabian peninsula was an individual called Tuways. This person led a group that was hired to provide music and “cheeky wit” for events. Tuways was categorized as male at birth but presented as female. They were seen as a third gender, neither male nor female. Around 1600 Thomasine Hall was christened in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Hall appears to have alternated genders through life. After accused of fornication there was an attempt to show that Hall was male or female. There was no consensus. In the late 1700s the Ktunaxa people lived along the Kootenay River near what is now the US-Canada border. One among them was born female, then took the name Kauxuma nupika to declare he was now a man with gender tied up with spiritual experience. He became a prophet though most of his prophesies were not welcome. After describing each person or group Clio2 then provides a bit of context (the book provides much more), which I won’t get into. Delving into the lives of people from other cultures reminds us that other cultures think about gender differently than we do, such as having different sorts of pronouns. Also, history tends to assume a person is cisgender until proven otherwise, and many records are sparse, which means queer lives, especially trans lives, tend to be erased.

They don’t need to kill to win the war

I was up earlier than usual on Saturday morning so watched the coronation of King Charles. I missed about 45 minutes of the ceremony, but watched the rest, then stayed for the parade and the appearance of the family on the balcony. The previous coronation was before I was born. If Charles lives as long as his mother did the coronation of William may happen after I’m gone. And, as an announcer said this morning, very few other countries are doing coronations these days. When I started watching there were various items – a sword or two, a cape, a glove, a ring, a scepter or two, an orb, and a few others – that were presented to Charles and he either touched them, put them on, or held them for a while as the Archbishop prayed over them. And while his hands were full the Archbishop placed the crown on his head. As I watched this I thought Jesus was very much into disrupting and subverting social hierarchies and here his name was invoked to bless a king, the top of any social hierarchy. My Sunday movie was Of an Age, an Australian film. The story begins in 1999. Ebony wakes up on a beach and is panicky because she doesn’t know where she is. She calls her good friend and (I think) dance partner young Kol to come get her then get the two of them to a dance competition finals. Kol is able to get Ebony’s brother Adam to drive. It isn’t possible to drive to where Ebony is and get to the competition in time. However, the long drive gives Kol a chance to get to know Adam and to learn Adam is gay. By the next morning, before Adam is to leave town, Kol, who had said he’s not gay, and Adam fall in love. In 2010 on their way to Ebony’s wedding they meet again. It’s a gentle story and I enjoyed it. However, thinking about it afterward I decided there isn’t a lot of story here. Meteor Blades of Daily Kos covered a few topics in his Earth Matters report. Democrats and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse are working to highlight states with thriving renewable energy sectors have thriving economies overall and Republicans don’t like that. There’s a discussion why there is a delay in delivery of electric postal vans and why some of those ordered are not electric. There are a few others. The one that prompted me to share this was the story of a representative of the Tennessee House began by saying, “We're always gonna have climate change because the ice age never came.” What he said after that was worse. Rep. Justin Jones, who was restored after an ouster, replied:

Thank you, Representative, for making the case why we need to fund more money into our education, into our public schools, so we can educate our students and they don't grow up with these conspiracy theories.

I like this guy. In honor of Earth Day a few weeks ago Marine Trébaul tweeted a cartoon drawn by Paresh of a very important guy posing in front of a backdrop of trees while behind the backdrop are stumps, trash, and smokestacks. The caption says “Earth Day, 2035” though Trébaul added world leaders are acting like that today. Mark Sumner of Kos reported on what appears to be a drone attack on the Kremlin early last Wednesday morning. They caused a great deal of consternation before they were shot down. There were claims that this was an assassination attempt on Putin. Did the drones fly the 500 Km from Ukraine through the most secure air corridor? Were they launched from Moscow suburbs by Russian partisans or Ukrainian forces allowed by a strangely lax internal security? Or was this drone attack staged by Russia? If it was staged is it an excuse to cancel the May 9 victory parade (already canceled in other cities due to security concerns)? Or is it an excuse to lob a missile at Zelenskyy’s bedroom? In Sumner’s next report he noted there were lots of social media speculation that Russia was preparing for that last option and some of the preparations included nukes. And on Thursday morning Kyiv was not a crater. The chance Russia would actually use nukes is quite small – though they may threaten a lot.

What could Russia do that would make them a pariah forever, remove any thought about NATO providing immediate and direct military assistance to Ukraine, and ensure that a generation of Russians would grow up in cities administered by U.N. forces? You get one guess.

However, be kind to the open source intelligence community. They explain the war to a lot of people and are a primary source for Sumner. So if they get caught up in the “NUKE!” mania every so often, they’re only human, so cut them some slack. Kos of Kos wrote that a lot of people are trying to guess when Ukraine will begin its counterattack (or trying to urge them to start soon). But Kos counsels we can wait until Ukraine is ready on their own terms. Russia isn’t advancing. It has dug in all along the front, but another two, or six, more months won’t change that situation. Ukraine needs time to integrate all the new gear (including those important tanks) into its training and logistics. So give them time to do what they need to get it right because if they fail a chance to try again may not happen for a while. While waiting is hard whenever the victory comes it will be sweet. Sumner reported on yesterday’s Victory Day celebration and parade in Moscow. It was a much smaller event than in previous years. No military flyover. No Immortal Regiment of family of WWII fighters holding photos of their warriors. The numbered of armored vehicles was only 51, down from 131 last year (which was after the start of the war). And one tank. Putin’s speech was short. Sumner also reported on a growing feud between Prigozhin, head of the Wagner Group attacking Bakhmut, and the rest of the Russian military. After a few days of saying he’s withdrawing, no he isn’t, yes he is, he and his forces are being replace by the 72nd Brigade. In today’s update Sumner reported that as the Wagner group pulled out of Bakhmut they weren’t allowed to talk to their replacements (didn’t want to tip them off about bad their situation was about to become?). That lack of communication meant there was a big opening for Ukraine, which they took. And a lot of the Russians fled or surrendered. A few even surrendered to drones. And that last bit is a sign of Ukraine’s humanity. They don’t need to kill to win the war. Last Friday Charles Jay of the Kos community discussed a way out of the debt ceiling crisis. Because of debt ceiling puts a cap on what the US government can borrow and that cap will be hit in a few weeks, McCarthy and House maniacs have taken it hostage, demanding steep cuts in federal spending. Either option they present would seriously harm the economy. So people are looking for a way out. The one Jay discussed would be for someone affected by the government not paying its bills to sue Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to force her to keep paying bills even though doing so would exceed the cap. That someone could be a holder of a US Treasury bond whose interest would not be paid, or a government employee would could lose income while the situation is sorted out. The law that says the government can’t exceed the set debt limit was passed in 1917. Up until the 1990s the limit was always passed as a routine function of Congress. Then Speaker Newt Gingrich tried to hold it hostage, getting concessions from Bill Clinton. It was held hostage again when Obama was president. The important point in that history is the constitutionality of the law has never been tested. With another, more severe hostage taking it’s time for that test. There are clauses in the Constitution, including in the 14th Amendment, that government debts must be paid. So the plaintiff could choose a friendly district court, in the same way that Republicans chose a friendly court in Texas for its attempt at overturning abortion pill availability. Then comes the nice part. There would be no one to appeal. Yellen, Biden, and the rest of his administration wouldn’t appeal because they would agree with the outcome. Republicans can’t appeal because they aren’t the injured party. So it wouldn’t go to the Supremes – and if it did they probably wouldn’t be willing to crash the economy. On Monday Joan McCarter of Kos reported that 43 Senate Republicans signed a letter to Schumer saying they won’t vote for a “clean” debt ceiling increase – a bill that only increases the debt limit and doesn’t include spending cuts. That’s enough senators to filibuster any bill they don’t like. Moscow Mitch has made it clear he won’t help Biden. McCarter summarized it this way:

That’s the Republican plan heading into 2024: inflict maximum economic pain through default or draconian spending cuts and then pin it on Biden.

On Tuesday Biden had top House and Senate leadership to the White House to talk about how to avert the crisis. The two sides repeated their positions and that was about it. Afterward McCarthy whined that Biden wouldn’t negotiate. On Tuesday Jay reported that a suit has been filed against Yellen challenging the constitutionality of the debt ceiling law.

The lawsuit was filed on Monday by the National Association of Government Employees, which represents nearly 75,000 employees of federal agencies. The union says a default would harm its members who would be at risk of being laid off or losing pay and benefits. It says the debt ceiling law adopted in 1917 violates the U.S. Constitution's separation of powers because it forces the president in the event of a default to cut spending already authorized by Congress.

An article from the Associated Press posted on Kos on May 1 reported that two hospitals that refused to provide emergency abortions, jeopardizing the life of the women, have been found in violation of federal law. The situation is because so many states have banned abortion and doctors are scared of treating patients and then losing their license. But the federal law requiring treating patients in emergency situations supersedes state law, said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. The hospitals were not fined this time but were warned they must correct the problems that led them to turn away patients. KFF Health News for Kos reported that two labor and delivery wards in northern Idaho have closed. People must now travel an hour for pregnancy care. These wards provided much more than abortion care. But the reason for their closure is the state’s abortion ban. Doctors and nurses refuse to work under those circumstances and are leaving. Medical school students are deciding not to practice in a state that won’t let them treat all situations. There was an effort to modify the law for such things as an ectopic pregnancy, which is never viable and may be deadly for the mother. Rep. Mark Sauter had a few things explained to him (things the dudes who wrote the law would never think of) to clarify what is an emergency and what conditions would be exempt from the ban. But Rep. Julianne Young shot down that bill, saying “We want to make sure that health of the mother doesn’t become so broad that everything becomes an exception to take the life of a potential child.” So it will remain not broad enough to protect the mother. Alec Karakatsanis, a civil right lawyer, tweeted (about a month ago):

Every day, it's important to remind people that it will be cops who enforce the planned nationwide ban on abortion, traveling for abortion, and subsequently contraception. There is no conceivable world in which increasing police surveillance tech and budgets is not used for this.

These are coups, a hundred little ones, day after day

After the Nashville shooting students in Tennessee are tired of being the target of gun violence. They heard on the news Rep. Tim Burchett say, “We’re not gonna fix it.” The students went to the state Capitol (many didn’t have to go far) to protest. To highlight what students were saying in the galleries three representatives joined them on the floor and used a megaphone. Walter Einenkel of Daily Kos reported the Republican supermajority responded by holding votes to eject those members for something minor, such as disorderly conduct, or behavior unbecoming of a member, or inciting violence. The actual reason is irrelevant. And two of the three – Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, both black men – were expelled. The third – Gloria Johnson, a white woman – kept her seat by one vote. She said it might have to do with the color of their skin. Yeah, they were expelled for protesting gun violence shortly after the capital city experienced gun violence. After the vote the students outside the House chanted “F--- you fascists!” Yup, they’re pissed. The districts these men are from now appoint a replacement and then hold a special election. Jones and Pearson may very well win those appointments and elections. There have been expulsions from the Tennessee House before – for such things as bribery and sexual misconduct charges from 22 women. Rachel Bitecofer, a political analyst, tweeted:

Now, when I tell people the Republican Party's ulimate goal is to outlaw the Democratic Party, they'll believe me. #TennesseeThree

Brandon Friedman, occasional columnist for the NY Daily News added:

I don't understand why people still don't get this ... To be more specific: The way this works is fascists will "legally" ban, expel and silence the parties and people they don't like. Then they'll start arresting and imprisoning them. Then they'll start killing them. This is well documented. It only stops when people get in the way.

Meteor Blades of Kos discussed the gun situation, which is pretty basic. (1) There will be no federal laws passed. (2) The Supreme Court will quite likely overturn any state laws. Blades lays out his evidence quite well. He lays out the history of gun legislation (as in legislation to make citizens safer) in Congress. There was an attempt in 2013. It failed 40-60 in the Senate. Another attempt in 2023 has more support, but not enough and there are no scheduled hearings. As for the Supremes there was a ruling in 2022 overturning a New York law that could withhold a gun purchase. Justice Thomas made up some nonsense that if there weren’t any firearm regulation when the Constitution was ratified in 1791 there can’t be any now. And the first half of the Second Amendment about well-regulated militias is apparently irrelevant. Lower courts are already struggling with how to apply that decision. Two cases about state restrictions are likely to get to the Supremes in a year or two, to fill in any holes from last year’s decision. I’m keeping all that in mind as I applaud the Michigan Legislature for new gun regulations. The Globe and Mail tweeted a cartoon of Uncle Sam with a dozen guns strapped to his back and sitting under a sign saying “Addiction Counselling.” A man beside him says, “So... What bring you here?” Iyad el-Baghdadi tweeted about some unnamed situation in the Middle East. There are several he could have chosen, such as the protests of authoritarian rule in Iran or the protests in Israel to stop the weakening of the judiciary. Even so, it fits what’s going on in Tennessee and elsewhere in the US over the lack of protections from guns.

Our protestations and appeals will change nothing. Power only gives way to power. Our mantra for the next 20 years should be this: Build power. And a good place to start is to understand power.

Ken Klippenstein of The Intercept tweeted a link to a story in Huffpost with:

Idaho Passes Law To Restrict Interstate Travel For Abortion Care For Minors

They’re calling it “abortion trafficking” and it’s punishable by up to five years in prison. In response Umair, author of The New Capitalist Manifesto, tweeted:

Totally normal fascist level stuff

That prompted a response from Cool Mom Jamie, which also applies to the Tennessee legislature’s action:

this is the 2nd stage of the coup in front of us, attack from 1,000 angles legislatively ... how long til phase 3

Umair replied to that:

Yup, everyone should grasp this. These are coups, a hundred little ones, day after day. The point is to consolidate power while they can before democracy gives them the boot for generations

Ben Franklin looked over the whole situation as he tweeted:

it's already started. protest a cop facility being built? they'll shoot you. protest the shooting? they'll charge you with terrorism. protest the terrorism charges? they'll threaten to arrest you. the fascism is not a far off event it is here, happening at the state level now. they are passing extremist abortion legislation, anti gay anti trans legislation, anti anti racism legislation, restriction of internet, they are fabricating pretexts to expel democratic lawmakers, we just had a legislator mysteriously flip to the GOP after getting elected the fact of the matter is that by the time of the 2024 election, large parts of the country are going to be living under regimes that we would call unfree if we saw them anywhere else in the world. so the fascism isn't coming, it's already here it should be noted that all of the effort that is put into crushing and stopping protest before they happen is a very clear indicator that the powers that be ***do not want*** people to protest or act out. they have less control when that happens.

Sometimes these little coups have consequences. Ben Winkler, chair of the Democratic Party in Wisconsin (which just flipped the state Supremes to progressive), tweeted about his colleagues in Tennessee.

Yesterday's expulsions were vile. But there's a path to fight back. The maps creating GOP supermajorities in TN could soon be struck down—which would put many seats in play.

The tweet links to an AP News article saying Tennessee Democrats filed a lawsuit seeks to block new redistricting maps for the legislature. That trial begins in about ten days. Democrats won’t gain a majority, but they can certainly break the supermajority.

The things we do to our kids

When you hear the phrase a dutiful boy what comes to mind? A boy who obeys every command of his Mom and Dad? Sure. One who also obeys the commands of his culture and religion? Possibly. What about a boy who obeys Mom, Dad, culture, and religion at the expense of himself? That last question describes Mohsin [“h” before “s” he reminds another] Zaidi in his book A Dutiful Boy, a memoir of secrets, lies and family love. He was born in England of parents born in Pakistan. They live northeast of London in a suburb with lots of other Paki families who are all Muslim. The secret is by age 13 he has figured out he is gay. He’s well aware that because of his religion his parents would be shamed by a gay son, especially by the eldest son on whom is laid a great deal of expectation – his parent left Pakistan to give him opportunity. And he should be the first to get married. He is assured Allah answers prayers, so he prays for a cure – though 11,000 prayers later he admits that isn’t working. That emotional upheaval happens while he is a student at Oxford University, which comes close to aborting that opportunity. It takes half the book for him to be tolerantly comfortable with himself and the rest of the book for his family to be comfortable with him and the life partner he found. He’s close to his mid thirties by then. The things we (and I mean mostly conservatives) do to our kids in the name of religion. Those kids are spiritually tortured and it takes a great deal of emotional work to recover – if they don’t commit suicide. For about a decade he is afraid that his mother might find out and then another decade after he tells her he treads carefully around her knowing how upset she is. He feels distant and unloved. Zaidi does a few things right. He doesn’t give up on his parents. When he reads a testimonial from a guy who has been through conversion therapy he understands that guy is lying to himself. He rejects his dad’s offer of a cure. He recognizes dating and marrying a woman would be unfair to her. And he finds a competent and insightful therapist. By the end (no, not a spoiler, see the subtitle and prologue) Zaidi is thriving and in love. And he is volunteering to help families like his avoid going through what he endured. I recommend this one. I have a vision of what his parents should have done – and, yes, I’m aware they would have had to step outside their religion and culture and would have had no thought to do so until their son came out. A couple years ago I read the story of a gay youth who wrote a letter to someone saying he is gay. His mother, perhaps mistakenly, intercepted the return letter. She put the letter on his bed. When he came home there was a bit of time between when he saw the opened letter and realized what that meant before his mom came to say she loved her gay son. But in that moment he felt terror. So here’s my vision: well before the child has a sexual awakening all parents say, “I love you. If you are attracted to men, I will love you. If you are attracted to women I will love you.” They can say the same kind of thing about being transgender to a much younger child. Zaidi went through a lot and, thankfully, came out the other side and is thriving with good self esteem and a great relationship between his parents and his lover. There are way too many LGBTQ kids who go through what Zaidi did and many of those don’t make it. And there are still way too many people pushing hard to make sure they don’t make it. About that last point... David Neiwert of Daily Kos has been describing militia groups who have been showing up at LGBTQ, especially drag, events to intimidate the audience or get the event shut down. Neiwert reported lately these stories are ending differently. RuPaul’s Drag Race is touring its show A Drag Queen Christmas and booked the Aztec Theatre in San Antonio, Texas. A Texas militia group and friends came to protest. Some of them brought guns. A significantly larger group of counterprotesters, came as well. And some of them had guns. When the militia saw the size of their opposition they weren’t interested in confrontation. That’s when the LGBTQ supporters turned to what we do best – they turned their show of support into a party. Four days later, A Drag Queen Christmas came to Grand Prairie, Texas. Again, militia groups were there, some wearing swastikas. Again they were badly outnumbered by the community defense crowd. The Idaho Liberty Dogs protested a performance of Drag Santa in Boise. Again, counterprotesters outnumbered them. This festive group added another feature – wings that shielded the militia from the audience. I remember wings being featured in the play The Laramie Project and the scene where the Westboro Baptist Church protested the funeral of Matthew Shepard. I’m glad to see they’re being used again. That play premiered in 2000 and there are videos of performances online. I saw it live and as a movie adaptation. I recommend it. The Liberty Dogs tried to spin their retreat as a stunt to force the “leftists” to freeze in the cold. Those even further to the right weren’t buying that excuse.

Like a tacky, cheap, vase hit by a really big hammer

I usually check the Daily Kos blog in the morning and scroll through the posts from the day before. That’s usually enough reading for the day as I try to do other things. Since I did that yesterday morning there were four posts on the progress of Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region I started writing about over the last couple days. This afternoon there was a fifth post (yeah, I read ahead a bit). All of these posts (one, two, three, four) by Mark Sumner and Kos document how quickly Ukraine advanced through Russian held territory. They showed maps of the ground covered, until Sumner said it was useless to keep up, though he drew one more for this afternoon’s post. There are photos of the Ukrainian flag being shown in this city and that town. They show the equipment and ammo the Russians left behind as they fled. There are videos of liberated cities and of Russian commentators and propagandists realizing things have turned decidedly against Russia. And tweets of Russian’s fleeing. At about noon today in the fifth post Sumner felt he had to show a map of the gains. The main thrust was to liberate the railroad hub of Kupyansk. Done. The Ukraine army also moved south to liberate Izyum, essentially from behind. Another thrust appears to have taken Lyman and even Lysychansk, a place that had been bitterly fought over back in May. Yet another thrust appears to have liberated Vovchansk, another key railway town just 7Km from the Russian border. In the fourth post Sumner wrote:

Honestly, I don’t know what to make of this. My first reaction is to say “Vovchansk? How can any Ukrainian force be even near Vovchansk? That’s impossible” You know, like I said about Oskil two days ago.

In the fifth post Sumner wrote about the tankies, those who are convinced all that is bad in the world is because of the US and all the good comes from Russia. Yeah, some are even Americans. They were convinced that the first Ukrainian thrust towards Kupyansk was a Russian trap – Russia allowed them to move at such speed and once the Ukraine army was well on their way the Russians would close in behind and encircle them. Didn’t happen because there were too few (perhaps no) Russians for such a maneuver. And when that was obvious there was the prediction this liberation would lead to a disastrous defeat. The tally is Ukraine liberated over 3,000 square kilometers of territory in about four days which includes three major cities and over 100 towns and villages. Tobias Schneider explained what is going on:

I'm trying not to lap up every rumor circulating around Telegram, but the main challenge in establishing a clear picture of the situation in Kharkiv appears to be that Russian lines are collapsing faster than Ukraine can even advance and clear liberated areas. Astonishing. ... So far events seem to have mostly born out what I thought as was the most likely outcome of a second Russian offensive in the Donbas: Over stretch despite limited success, with no plausible theory of victory, eventually inviting local collapse. Important to maintain perspective: This is a local success on an apparently under-resourced front. But it does reverse the overall dynamic and - if it holds - will surely deny Russia its Donbas breakthru. Maybe they'll rally, but again: towards what end? And all-importantly: This offensive is proof of concept. Ukraine can re-conquer its territory thru deft tactics, smart use of modern weapons, and advantages in morale and cohesion. This encourages Western partners to keep the aid flowing. There is a path.

In the fifth post Sumner explained why Russian lines are collapsing:

Like a tacky, cheap, vase hit by a really big hammer, the Russian occupation of the entire central portion of Kharkiv oblast just … fell apart. Everywhere, Ukrainian forces are moving, and everywhere Russian forces are running away before they even catch sight of a blue and yellow banner.

To me it is telling that Russian soldiers did not stand and fight to protect their territorial gains. Part of that is their forces were so hollowed out there weren’t enough of them to stop Ukraine’s advances. Part of it was also this isn’t their fight. It’s Putin’s fight. A few paragraphs later Sumner wrote:

No. This war isn’t over. Unfortunately, the ego and sheer brutality of Vladimir Putin means that many more people, including thousands of Russians, will die between now and when the last gun is put down. But, as far as Russia’s plans go, it’s very definitely lost.

GQ Magazine wrote about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and how she has become a voice for her generation and a cultural star. I haven’t read it, but did see this excerpt, a quote by AOC, tweeted by Leah McElrath:

My experience here has given me a front-row seat to how deeply…so many people in this country hate women. And they hate women of color. People ask me questions about the future. And realistically, I can’t even tell you if I’m going to be alive in September.

Lauren Sue of Kos reported:

For the first time, 60 schools across the county are piloting an Advanced Placement course in African American studies this fall, with a plan to make the course available to all interested high schools in the 2024-25 school year. "If the pilot program pans out, it will be the first course in African American studies for high school students that is considered rigorous enough to allow students to receive credit and advanced placement at many colleges across the country," New York Times journalist Anemona Hartocollis wrote. Emphasis on “considered rigorous enough.”

Later in the article Sue wrote:

Marlon Williams-Clark, a Florida social studies teacher who helped pilot the new AP course, told NPR the reactions from students, most of whom are Black, have been "very positive." "They have been ready to indulge in conversations, and they don't shy away from it," the educator said. "You know, when we first began the course—on the first day, I said, ‘I cannot offer you a safe space, because, quite honestly, some things that we will talk about in this course could trigger someone, and I wouldn't know that.’” “So I can't offer you a safe space, but I can offer you a brave space—brave to indulge, brave to ask questions, brave to be curious. And so they've really taken that mantra, and they've just kind of gone full blast.”

Rebekah Sager of Kos wrote:

My son’s partner’s mom has recently become acutely interested in the idea that division and hatred in the U.S. can only be combatted when the nation’s two sides (MAGA Republicans and Democrats) sit down and talk with one another. Which all sounds good in theory, except how can there be a coming together of hearts and minds when one side refuses to accept the reality of the past and wishes to redact the parts they don’t like?

Sager briefly mentioned the brutality of stealing land from the natives, the slave trade, and Jim Crow. That’s our history, like it or lump it.

The way I see it, the only way forward is not only to have some acknowledgment of the truth, but as Germany has done with its horrific past, I’d like to criminalize denial. That may sound harsh, but I think it’s the only way for this nation to truly progress.

Yeah, there are some free speech issues there. Sager also discusses the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that was done in South Africa after Apartheid. She concluded:

Our nation is on a precipice. The question is, which way will we go? Will we decide to embrace our reality, or will we become a nation living under a false narrative and refusing to see the truth?

Tim Urban shared maps produced by Alasdair Rae showing population density across the world. The height of each spike shows the population density in that location. Much of North America shows little. The spikes in in South America are only around the edges and only go so far south. Australia barely registers. The big spikes in Africa are (I think) Kenya and Nigeria. The biggest spikes fill India and the southeast half of China. Back in June I wrote about a Pride event in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho that was threatened with violent disruption. Before they could do anything 31 disrupters were arrested. David Neiwert of Kos reported this coming weekend is Boise Pride, a quiet event for 33 years, and it is being threatened by several far right groups. Bill in Portland, Maine, in a Cheers and Jeers column for Kos quoted late night commentary. Here’s one:

Once again, the planet is experiencing record temperatures, wildfires, and droughts. And I know it can't be climate change because Fox News says that's not real, so it's probably pronouns? —Trevor Noah

Draw the audience off the sidelines and into the game

Today’s weather forecast was for afternoon sun and highs up to 95F. Thankfully, my indoor-outdoor thermometer barely cracked 80F and did so late in the day. Tomorrow is supposed to be another hot one, maybe up to 92F. I hope they’re just as wrong. I’m rather enjoying some time without furnace or air conditioner. The January 6 Committee hearings are underway. I’m not watching, though I’m reading live blogging discussions. Brandi Buchman of Daily Kos discussed the three big lies that will be told about the committee and the events they are investigating. Keep these lies in mind while you watch or read summaries. Those passing on this misinformation have, of course, reasons to discredit the proceedings. 1. There was widespread fraud in the 2020 election. This is the lie, now 19 months old, that is the basis of what happened on January 6th and is still being claimed by Republican candidates for various levels of government who want the nasty guy’s blessing. I’ve written about this lie several times and Buchman provides several links to sites that debunk it. 2. It wasn’t an insurrection. A lie. Let’s see – lots of weapons and the intent to revolt against civil authority. And more than 800 people have been charged with crimes of varying degree associated with the effort, including Proud Boys and Oath Keepers charged with seditious conspiracy. 3. The Jan. 6 committee isn’t a real committee and has no power. Again, a lie. Courts have repeatedly affirmed the committee is valid and its powers were approved by the full vote of the House. This lie usually comes with the lie that it is a partisan witch hunt. When the committee was formed Republican members were included and Republican Liz Cheney is vice chair and a driving force. And a bipartisan committee had been shot down by Republicans. Buchman has been doing live blogging during the hearings. Her notes from the second hearing held yesterday showed how many people – including the pandemic price and princess – told the nasty guy that he lost the election and should give up the fight and not start the big lie. Many said there is no evidence for that lie and refuted every claim that the nasty guy tried to make. The nasty guy listened to one person, Rudy Giuliani, who was the only one who said there was fraud and the election could be overturned. Summary: Yes, he was repeatedly told he had lost and there was no evidence for fraud. And 62 cases before various courts were thrown out because they were unsupported by evidence. Joan McCarter of Kos discussed another topic of the hearings. This is a case of following the money. Shortly after the 2020 election the nasty guy sent out dozens of email solicitations a day asking donors to give to his Official Election Defense Fund to fight election fraud. They raised $100 million in the first week and $250 million overall. The committee found no such fund existed. It was a scam. Instead, the money went to a new PAC, various conservative institutes, and various ventures headed by the nasty guy, Paul Manafort, Mark Meadows, and others. And about $244 million unaccounted for. Rebekah Sager of Kos said that Attorney General Merrick Garland has a tough decision on whether to prosecute the nasty guy for the crimes documented in these hearings. She also wonders if he has the guts to do it. Garland has said he is watching the hearings and will follow the facts wherever they lead. That doesn’t say a whole lot. Sager wrote:

Barbara McQuade, an NBC legal analyst and former U.S. attorney warned that filing criminal charges against Trump in his attempt to subvert the elections “will very likely spark civil unrest, and maybe even civil war.” However, “not charging [Trump] is even worse because not charging means you failed to hold someone criminally accountable who tried to subvert our democracy,” she explained. ... The other issue Garland is likely facing is the ethics of whether or not prosecuting Trump is in the best interest of the nation—an issue that essentially pits the two parties against each other. “I don’t think we want to be the kind of country where this happens often,” McQuade told NBC News. Joyce Vance, a former U.S. attorney and NBC News legal analyst said, “Prosecuting Trump destabilizes the country more than it puts it upright.”

Andy Schmookler of the Kos community took on the rebuttal. He started with that quote from Vance.

Really, have we learned nothing? Is it not obvious that whatever the dangers involved in prosecuting a former president — We don’t want to become one of those countries where the law is used to destroy political opponents; The people on the right are going to be up in arms — by far the greater danger is that the rule of law will not be upheld even when a President blatantly attacks the very foundations of the Constitution he swore an oath to protect and defend? Is not the rule of law dangerously weakened, as the whole nation has watched when — again and again — people of power and privilege commit serious crimes and get away with it?

Schmookler discussed Obama deciding not to go after the crimes of the Bush II administration – such as that torture memo. Obama wanted peace to pull the nation together not figuring out Republicans had declared they would do all they could to obstruct his administration.

Lesson learned: the liberals are so afraid of the fight that the Republicans can get away with anything. All of which helped clear the way for someone so unthinkable as Trump to be invested with the powers of the Presidency, which he abused to a degree orders of magnitude beyond Nixon or any other American President. ... If a battle must be fought, what better ground to fight it on than upholding the rule of law, and defending the Constitution against a conspiracy to seize power against the “will of the people”? Something has arisen on the right — in part because of the chronic weakness with which the Democratic side has opposed it — that truly needs to be fought and defeated. It now profoundly endangers the very survival of American democracy.

Mark Sumner of Kos wrote that Putin may be the only world leader outraged at the committee’s investigation of the nasty guy. Sure, there were reports that Putin meddled in the 2016 and 2020 elections, but that was quickly ignored. Even though these hearings have said nothing about Putin (so far?) ...

But for Putin, there’s one thing that really stands out as a disappointment—Jan. 6. After all, Trump may have been this close to becoming dictator for whatever remains of his life, but Putin was about to really win it all. If things had gone the other way on Jan. 6, it would have been a victory beyond Vladimir Lenin’s wildest dream. An authoritarian United States that breaks away from democracy, ditches NATO, and embraces an isolationist white nationalist leader with a fondness for big military parades? The effect on domestic politics in the United States might have been shattering; for the rest of the world, it would have been an absolute reset of history. Putin was one moment away from hanging a Soviet banner over an endless empire.

Though Putin is angry at the revelations, he’s staying quiet. He knows his fortunes in Ukraine can change a lot if Republicans control a chamber of Congress – money and support for Ukraine would dry up quickly. So Russian media is contemplating how to meddle to save the nasty guy, or at least flip Congress. That’s their key to winning in Ukraine. Even better (for Putin) would be to get the nasty guy back in the Oval Office. Sarah Binder tweeted:

Public, primetime show offers Jan6 panel chance to socialize the conflict: Draw the audience off the sidelines and into the game. As Schattschneider wrote (1960!):"Watch the crowd, because the crowd plays the decisive role.

A bit of searching showed the book to be The Semisoverign People: A Realist’s View of Democracy in America by Elmer Eric Schattschneider. Binder included this excerpt (and I think it is referring to what Americans call soccer):

Political conflict is not like a football game, played on a measured field by a fixed number of players in the presence of an audience scrupulously excluded from the playing field. Politics is much more like the original primitive game of football in which everybody was free to join, a game in which the whole population of one town might play the entire population of another town, moving freely back and forth across the countryside. Many conflicts are narrowly confined by a variety of devices, but the distinctive quality of political conflicts is that the relations between the players and the audience have not been well defined and there is usually nothing to keep the audience from getting into the game.

So get in the game. About a month ago I wrote about a white nationalist group intending to disrupt and intimidate a Pride event in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Yes, an attempt to make a safe space less so. The event is now history and David Neiwert of Kos reported on what happened. The Pride event took place as planned and several hundred people joyously celebrated. Yeah, there were a few people who wandered around with AR-15s, but did nothing else with them. A few people around the perimeter spouted “groomer” nonsense, but easily ignored. Then late in the day the local police pulled over a U-Haul van. They were a block away from the park entrance. Inside were 31 members of the Patriot Front fascist organization. The Southern Poverty Law Center declares they are a hate group. Police said they came to riot through the Pride celebration, then riot through downtown. Police swarmed them, put on flex cuffs, ordered them to kneel or sit. Then in full public view pulled off their masks and took down names. A resident had spotted the men piling into the van when they were two miles from the park. Though the resident had notified the Kootenai County Sheriff, it was the Coeur d’Alene that did most of the response. Neiwert listed the names and home towns of those arrested. Only a couple of them were from Idaho. Six were from Texas. A few others came all the way from Alabama, Missouri, and Illinois. Those who were released on bail wandered downtown trying to proclaim their innocence and panhandle for money to get home. Neiwert also posted photos of the Pride event, the characters who wandered around with their AR-15s and other weapons, the protesters, and the arrested rioters. Lauren Sue of Kos reported Coeur d’Alene Police Chief Lee White said they got 149 calls after the Patriot Front arrests. Half of them were congratulatory. The other half, anonymous of course, screamed, yelled, and aimed death threats at the police for doing their jobs.

Prince Hal

My Sunday movie yesterday was My Own Private Idaho, a 1991 movie starring River Phoenix as Mike and Keanu Reeves as Scott and directed by Gus Van Sant. Mike and Scott are part of a group of young men who work as hustlers – sex for money. Some of them talk about getting caught in bad situations. Their clients are mostly men. Mike has narcolepsy, meaning he passes out in stressful situations. Scott is the son of the city’s mayor, one that is highly connected. Dad is annoyed that Son appears to be squandering his life. For now, Son is rejecting all that Dad offers. Mike and Scott have been friends for a few years when the story opens. Though Scott frequently quoted Shakespeare, it was only towards the end that I realized Scott’s character is modeled on Prince Hal of Henry IV and V. There is even a Falstaff character. Reading about the movie later confirmed my guess. For part of the movie Mike and Scott head out together trying to find Mike’s mother. Part of that trip is to Idaho. Another part is to Italy, which made me wonder: How did Mike get a passport so fast? I though this one was a bit eccentric. I enjoyed it. I checked Michigan’s COVID data from Friday: The peaks in cases per day for the last three weeks were 2283, 2903, and 3296. This is a steady rise, not one that jumps up quickly. Deaths per day during the last three weeks hit 31 once, 29 twice, and 27 once. This isn’t over. Greg Dworkin, in his pundit roundup for Daily Kos included a couple quotes of interest. In response to a tweet saying that Idaho has issued a universal DNR order, Dr. Noor Bari wrote:

Every adult diagnosed with COVID-19 in Idaho is on a universal do not resuscitate order. Every adult. Don’t try to live with the virus. Get vaccinated if you can. Wear a respirator or well fitted mask, good seal, and ventilate your workspaces/schools.

The second quote is one Dr. Bari added to the one above.

It’s also important to note that the state plan is a framework. It is meant to help hospitals make an impossible choice: decide who gets life-saving care when they don’t have enough for everyone. It is not an order for hospitals or medical workers to withhold medical care when they can adequately provide it.

They sent the fire trucks home while the buildings were still on fire

Mark Sumner of Daily Kos discussed the current state of hospitals. Before getting to the COVID situation Sumner reminded us that health care conglomerates, which own hospitals, have been working to make sure there are just enough hospital beds for the patient load. Empty beds can’t be billed. That means 60-75% of hospital beds were full before COVID arrived. The goal is to maximize profit, which is distinct from taking care of people.

It is not a system designed to deal with a crisis in which tens of thousands of people need hospital care for a single disease every day. It’s especially not a system designed to deal with such a crisis for months on end. It’s not built for it. It’s not staffed for it. It’s not supplied for it.

Alabama doesn’t have any open ICU beds. Hospitals in Houston set up overflow tents, which is not good with Hurricane Nicholas bringing heavy rains. And Idaho has such a rise in cases that it is a problem ... for Washington state, Spokane in particular. That is a big problem for Washington residents who have a non COVID need for a hospital. Also annoying because Washington’s vaccination rate is one of the highest while Idaho’s rate is close to the bottom. In a second post Sumner reported that in places such as Texas and Florida, well, in half the nation, have permanently weakened the powers of public health officials to control any pandemic. These laws or executive orders block mask and vaccine (not just COVID) mandates, bock imposing quarantines, or block the close of businesses and schools. Sumner wrote:

Republicans didn’t just limit the powers of officials to deal with the raging pandemic. They did it while the disease was still spreading, hospitals overflowing, and thousands still dying. They didn’t just close down the fire department; they sent the trucks home while the buildings were still on fire.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted that Biden’s vaccine mandate was an assault on private businesses and a power grab. That prompted Bill Scher to riff on the state’s new abortion ban.

Under Texas rules, your right to choose the vaccine exists for six weeks after which if you remain unvaccinated any vaccinated American can sue you.

I like that idea. Larry Elder was the lead Republican candidate in the bid to remove California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Before the recall election Elder started saying that if Newsom kept his seat it was because of election fraud. Then Newsom kept his job, winning 67% of the vote. SemDem, of the Kos community reported that Elder is singing a different tune.

Elder lost by so much, however, that he realized he didn’t want to look like the sore loser Trump is. Elder rejected Trump’s statement that the election was rigged and asked his supporters to be “gracious in defeat.” This is something Trump is literally incapable of doing.

It’s about using this moment to destroy public education

Mark Sumner of Daily Kos laid out his conclusion that opposition to school mask mandates isn’t about masks, it’s about an attempt to end public education. School boards across the country see their meetings, previously sparsely attended, now full of people screaming at them, demanding they not require masks nor require vaccination, even though those are two simple steps to protect against the virus.

But if the people behind these verbal and physical attacks seemed unfamiliar to board members, it’s because they are. Not only are these meetings being crammed with people who have no students or stake in local districts, they’re following scripts for creating disruption and fear that were crafted on a national level. Because this isn’t just about blocking masks, it’s about using this moment to destroy public education. ... That these men would immediately shift to violence is completely in line with the behavior seen at schools and school board meetings across the country. That’s because what’s happening in school board meetings isn’t a spontaneous movement of local parents concerned over the nonexistent threat posed by masks, it’s a coordinated attack by right-wing “think tanks” and media that have been coordinating this assault for months, driving home messages that masks are signs of oppression, not tools in blocking the spread of disease. Those messages make it clear that those coming to make threats don’t have to be a parent, and that if they don’t know what to say, they will be told. ... Conservative groups, including white supremacist militias, are bringing in people to disrupt local school board meetings and to generate fear among board members. ... The goal is to overwhelm these meetings, making ordinary school business impossible to conduct, as well as making board members fearful about staying in their positions. ... That doesn’t look like conservatives being concerned about masks. It doesn’t look like conservatives being upset about vaccines. What it looks like is conservatives seizing this moment to assault school boards and make the operation of public schools difficult, if not impossible. Schools will come out of this situation starved for cash by restricted funding and a series of fines. School boards will emerge fearful and fractured, as well as finding themselves subject to concerted efforts to replace members with MAGA hardliners. The whole of public education will emerge battered and diminished.

In a second post Sumner wrote that hurricanes and diseases are a tragedy, but are not evil.

Evil is when someone displays indifference or experiences pleasure in the face of suffering. The worst sort of evil comes when empathy and consideration are replaced with a perverse joy, one that doesn’t just refuse to acknowledge someone else’s pain, but takes pride in dismissing the thought that others deserve consideration.

Sumner’s examples are about states and school boards that ban mask mandates. Putting on a mask is about social responsibility. It is taking action to protect yourself, your family, and everyone in the greater society. Evil is pretending social responsibility does not exist. Michael Harriot, a black man writing for The Root, noted that when news articles say people did something they usually mean white people.

Every Black writer or journalist can tell you a story about when they were accused of “race-baiting” or “being divisive.” White journalists don’t have to face that same critique—not because they don’t talk about race—but because they almost never talk about the white race. White people are just “people.” The concept has become so accepted that the utter mention of white people is not just unnecessary, it’s considered divisive. For instance, almost every media outlet in America has reported on the protests and antipathy against mask mandates. It is one of the biggest stories in the news. However, if objective journalism existed, wouldn’t it be more accurate for outlets to point out that the anti-mask movement is composed almost entirely of white people?

More examples: People arrested for the Capitol attack are 93% non Hispanic white. People ranting about Critical Race Theory aren’t just parents, they’re white parents. Why is LeBron James inundated with questions of social justice and Tom Brady is not? Why are TV shows with predominantly black actors marketed as a “black show” and shows with all white casts not marketed as a “white show?”

There is nothing controversial about pointing out factual evidence. In fact, one could argue that withholding or obscuring the most common characteristics of the people who hold these views actually enables them to maintain their power.

Marissa Higgins of Kos reported public health leaders in Idaho enacted a Crisis Standards of Care Plan. It allows hospitals in northern and central Idaho to base care on who is more likely to survive. If the care team determines a patient is less likely to survive, care may be reduced to keeping them comfortable and pain free until they recover or don’t. It didn’t have to be this way – see masks and vaccine. Clearing out old browser tabs today. Here’s one from Mimolette, crediting her friend Avi:

The irony of antivaxers saying they “don’t want to be part of an experiment” without realising they are now the control group.

Higgins also reported that 40 election workers in eight battleground states have reported 100 incidents of threats of violence or death. These threats were made during a time that Republican officials still claim the 2020 election was stolen (it wasn’t) and while these same officials work to make voting harder and give more power to poll watchers. In a tweet that’s been in my browser tabs for a month Sarah Posner said much the same thing and included a link to an article in the Washington Post. Posner wrote:

I cannot emphasize enough what an emergency this is. Public servants, health care workers, ordinary citizens--the very fabric of our society and our democracy--are under attack by crazed conspiracy theorists and bad actors looking to make a buck on division and hate. How much longer are we going to tolerate this? It's not only dismissed, but *encouraged* by one of our two political parties. It's a goddamn bona fide emergency

I haven’t been following Sarah Kendzior lately and haven’t been reading her Gaslit Nation podcast transcripts. The reason is simple – I can feel overwhelmed. So while I’m cleaning out browser tabs I’ll mention her Twitter thread from early July with choice quotes from that week’s podcast, titled The United States of Exxon.

On Dem refusal to prosecute criminal elites for Jan 6: "There is an instigator and an accomplice, and after six months if you cannot clearly see the complicity of the accomplice, it’s because you do not want to." "What kind of a country does not defend itself against an open attack against its own Capitol, an attack where bombs were planted and the attackers openly declared their intent was to murder members of Congress?" "What kind of government does nothing to prosecute a Kremlin asset backed by a transnational crime syndicate who has been actively, and successfully, trying to destroy this country from within for personal profit and to appease foreign backers?" "What kind of country does nothing when its elections are attacked by that same syndicate and when voting rights are destroyed by that syndicate’s court appointees? "The kind of country whose elites do not care if it exists anymore."

Yeah, since then the House has created a special committee to investigate the Capitol attack. But we’ll see whether they touch the elite leadership or the crime syndicate, such as the nasty guy and Republican members of Congress. And the other points still hold. In another tweet that got lost in my browser tabs Harriot, responding to a news report that Ida was growing stronger and would soon hit Louisiana (yeah, I said it was old), wrote:

That's why I'm not worried about Bill Gates, the Illuminati or "The gubbment." The earth doesn't need any help with population control.

Hunter of Kos, because he was tired of writing about politics, wrote two posts about what he remembered of TV shows he watched as a child when sick and staying home from school and had only six stations available. He adds perspective from forty years later. These were shows that were in syndicated reruns in the late 1970s. Gilligan’s Island: Mary Ann got things done. Ginger had skills related only to acting, so was dead weight. How could Thurston and Lovey Howell get people to do things with only the promise of paying them once they returned to the mainland? A promise not likely to be kept. Yet it kept the rest in line. The show showed rich people were a drain on society and this show might have been a precursor of Occupy Wall Street. Beverly Hilbillies: The basic premise was that poor people are stupid and the rich are evil. The schemes of the rich were repeatedly foiled by staff at the bank that held the Clampett’s money – not because they actually liked the Clampetts, but to make sure the Clampett’s money stayed in their bank. Munsters: a never-ending parade of normal people fleeing a family that had different norms, customs, and foods. The Brady Bunch: Mildly positive view of the show, though it seems a lot of problems tend to go away if you’re rich enough to afford domestic help. The Partridge Family: Way too cringe worthy. This seemed to be the blandest music possible while insisting this was as edgy as America was allowed to go. My Three Sons: Way too dark. What suburbia would be like if June Cleaver had died. The Courtship of Eddie’s Father: It’s rather strange for a boy trying to convince women to date his father. Family Affair: Rich jerk inherits a couple cute kids and they’re saved from emotional catastrophe because of the butler. Why was TV land so into killing off parents for comedy? A dead parent was a feature in all of the last five.

He fudged the truth

Between a touch of cabin fever and getting tired of the same food every day I decided I needed to do a grocery run today. Yeah, I have always made lots of whatever I’m cooking and eat the same thing several days in a row, but that’s usually interrupted by 2-3 meals at restaurants with friends. But not this week.

I usually shop at three places and stopped at two of them today. At one store the prepared foods, deli, and produce looked well stocked, while the mayonnaise shelf and the meat counter were in low supply. I talked briefly with the meat person who waited on me. She said yesterday, especially in the evening, was extremely busy. They sold out of practically everything, even when restricting how much could be sold to each person.

I did find the mayo at the other store, chicken too, though couldn’t get as much peanut butter as I would have liked.

The other thing I’m doing today is my taxes. I know the deadline has been delayed. But they still need to be done.



Some brief mentions before getting to the major story. And I’m going to mention a lot less than I might because I skimmed a lot more articles than I usually do.

Back when the US had only 15 cases of COVID-19 and the nasty guy was telling us the whole problem was going to disappear, Sen. Richard Burr addressed a group of top donors that the virus was going to be pretty bad. One of the things he told the group was to cancel travel to Europe. Strange that Burr’s other constituents and the public at large got no warnings. Kerry Eleveld of Daily Kos wonders how many other GOP lawmakers also warned donors while being too fearful to contradict the nasty guy in public?



Mark Sumner of Kos reminds us the daily briefings of the coronavirus task force are not about the virus, but about stroking the nasty guy’s ego. Which means every time Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health is called on to speak he has to tread a very fine line between telling the public actual useful information and not pissing off his boss. Be too helpful and Fauci could be fired.



Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan has worked out a deal with a Safeway to give out $5 million in grocery vouchers, or about $800 to each of over 6,000 families who are hard hit by the virus. Seattle is one of the worst hit areas.



While the country and legislators at state and federal levels are focused on the coronavirus, how to slow it down, and how to lessen the economic impacts, GOP legislators in Idaho think this is a fine time to slip through a couple anti-transgender bills while nobody is looking. Both are likely unconstitutional, so they’re using up time and money to just be mean.



Leah McElrath tweeted:

A physician with a hospital in NYC tells me they feel “gaslit” every day by the White House briefings because the resources on the ground are not what the White House is claiming.

This is a problem of a lack of government response.



Twitter user Benjamin Franklin suggests that all those concert venues that are now dark should be rented by the state as field hospitals. A reply suggested using abandoned malls as well.



A couple things from Mark Sumner’s daily status of the virus. Washington state is stepping up testing, now up to 5,000 a day, a big improvement but still low. The US added 4,000 cases today (again, because of better testing) and now has more than 13,500 cases.

And Italy. Normally, a country going through this would prompt the rest of the world to send help. Except all that help is needed at home. Italy marked another 427 deaths today, surpassing China. Its medical system is much more stressed than China’s ever was. There is a video of a line of military trucks transporting coffins from the overloaded cemeteries in the city of Bergamo, one of the hard hit areas.



Follow the link just for a laugh. You’ll need one about now.



Somewhere in my online reading I came across and followed a link to an article about the 1918 flu pandemic that was written by John Barry for the November 2017 issue of Smithsonian Magazine. The article lays out the history of the disease. It started in Haskell County, Kansas early that year. It spread to a couple military bases in the state and from there around the world. About 670,000 Americans died. Between 50 and 100 million died around the world. The virus came in three waves, the second one in the fall was the deadliest.

Several times in the story Barry explains how various government officials played down the severity of the pandemic or even lied about it. Part of it was because WWI was still going on and detailed news of the sick citizens or troops would be nice information for the enemy to have. But each time the government or newspapers did this the situation became significantly worse.

Citizens could see the lies. The could see it in the sick and dead around them. They could see death happen within hours. They could see that towns and cities ran out of coffins.

People could believe nothing they were being told, so they feared everything, particularly the unknown. How long would it last? How many would it kill? Who would it kill? With the truth buried, morale collapsed. Society itself began to disintegrate.

After other disasters, such as hurricanes people helped each other out. But during the flu people looked after only themselves. When someone got sick people refused to help.

The third wave in early 1919 was pretty bad, though not as bad as the second. After that it became less lethal and a part of seasonal flu. Though it appears to have contributed to the start of WWII.

On April 3, 1919, during the Versailles Peace Conference, Woodrow Wilson collapsed. His sudden weakness and severe confusion halfway through that conference—widely commented upon—very possibly contributed to his abandoning his principles. The result was the disastrous peace treaty, which would later contribute to the start of World War II. Some historians have attributed Wilson’s confusion to a minor stroke. In fact, he had a 103 degree temperature, intense coughing fits, diarrhea and other serious symptoms. A stroke explains none of the symptoms. Influenza, which was then widespread in Paris and killed a young aide to Wilson, explains all of them—including his confusion. Experts would later agree that many patients afflicted by the pandemic influenza had cognitive or psychological symptoms. As an authoritative 1927 medical review concluded, “There is no doubt that the neuropsychiatric effects of influenza are profound...hardly second to its effect on the respiratory system.”

This flu was unusual in that it killed mostly young people. Their strong immune systems attacked the virus with everything, including chemicals called cytokines. So much cytokines in the lungs had the same effect as breathing poison gas.

Barry gets into lessons for the next pandemic. There are many ways to slow down a virus – hand washing, staying home, and all the rest we’ve been hearing about over the last couple weeks.

But the effectiveness of such interventions will depend on public compliance, and the public will have to trust what it is being told.

That is why, in my view, the most important lesson from 1918 is to tell the truth.

Barry participated in a pandemic “war game” in Los Angeles with public health officials. He talked about the 1918 epidemic and urged “You don’t manage the truth. You tell the truth.”

So then they ran the simulation. A top health official was called on to explain the situation to the public.

And he didn’t tell the truth. He fudged it.

I was stunned. This official had not actually told a lie, but he had deliberately minimized the danger; whether or not this particular patient had the disease, a pandemic was coming. The official’s unwillingness to answer questions from the press or even acknowledge the pandemic’s inevitability meant that citizens would look elsewhere for answers, and probably find a lot of bad ones. Instead of taking the lead in providing credible information he instantly fell behind the pace of events. He would find it almost impossible to get ahead of them again. He had, in short, shirked his duty to the public, risking countless lives.

And that was only a game.

So what is the nasty guy doing?

Let's all watch you

Social conservatives are calling on GOP candidates, especially those for President to be very clear of their stance on same-sex marriage and abortion. And that clarity had better be they're against both. They're not the GOP to quietly declare the marriage issue over and tiptoe away from it. Oh, goody!



Senator Mark Rubio is a big fan of gov't surveillance and wants to make the provisions of the Patriot Act permanent, without need for periodic renewal by Congress. Rep. Jared Polis proposes the American intelligence community begin a constant watch of Rubio. Once Rubio finds out what gets swept up hopefully he'll change his mind.



Idaho may have same-sex marriage forced on them, but a bill to add "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" to the state's Human Rights Act died in a House State Affairs Committee. The 13-4 vote was along party lines. There was 21 hours of public testimony before the vote. So no gay rights for Idaho. Just like Michigan.



The judge in Alabama who declared the state's ban on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional has responded to the Alabama Probate Judges Association by declaring her decision is for the entire state, not just the couple named in the suit. If no new stay is in place by Feb. 9 same-sex couples across the state may begin to get married.