Understanding the current madness

In the August 9, 2021 issue of The New Yorker, investigative reporter Jane Mayer has a long article titled The Big Money Behind the Big Lie that looks at how “Donald Trump’s attacks on democracy are being promoted by rich and powerful conservative groups that are determined to win at all costs.” These conservative groups, formerly more focused on issues like abortion, seem to have coalesced around efforts to pass voter suppression laws nationwide. It is an interesting article that focuses on what is going on with the so-called ‘election audit’ in Maricopa country in Arizona that went heavily for Joe Biden, but embeds that in the larger national context of undermining belief in the integrity of elections as a way of overturning results that they do not like. If they succeed in overturning the Arizona result, the plan is to mount similar challenges in Colorado, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Virginia.
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The worst member of the House Democratic caucus

And the award goes to … Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey.

Ryan Grim and Sara Sirota describe why this barely-a-Democrat is so despised by his fellow Democrats in the House of Representatives and why the revolt he tried to organize to prevent the passage of measures that would help people in general but upset his corporate backers is likely to fail.

THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES is often compared to a high school, and it’s a useful metaphor. Both have overlapping hierarchies that are at once defined and undefined, official and unofficial. There are official positions, like captain of the varsity basketball team or chair of the Ways and Means Committee, but there are also social hierarchies: who’s cool and who’s not; who has genuine power and who doesn’t.
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Gottheimer and eight of his colleagues have been facing off with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., insisting in a letter sent last week that she bring the bipartisan package for a vote “immediately,” rather than holding it back as leverage to pass the bigger piece. The not-so-veiled goal is to strip progressives of the leverage they have to enact a big reconciliation package, making it more vulnerable to being cut down to size or stopped entirely. Gottheimer worries the larger legislation will mean painful tax hikes on corporations and the wealthy — many of whom have supported his political ambitions.
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Great moments in democracy: California’s stupid recall election system

I have just received my ballot for California’s recall election for governor Gavin Newsom to be held on September 14th. The system governing recall elections of California’s governor has to be one of the stupidest ever devised. Basically, the ballot consists of two parts. In the first part you are asked to vote yes or no on whether he should be recalled. That is straightforward enough.

In the second part you are asked to vote for one of the candidates vying to hold the office in the event that a majority should vote in the first part to remove him. There are 46 candidates. Nine of the 46 have listed their party preference as Democrats, 24 as Republican, one Libertarian, 2 Green, and 10 as none. but this is meaningless since anyone can put anything as their preference on the ballot. Neither the Democratic or Republican parties have endorsed a candidate. So right now, there is a scramble among the 46 to claim that they would be the best person to assume the office if Newsom is recalled.
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The worst member of the House Democratic caucus

And the award goes to … Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey.

Ryan Grim and Sara Sirota describe why this barely-a-Democrat is so despised by his fellow Democrats in the House of Representatives and why the revolt he tried to organize to prevent the passage of measures that would help people in general but upset his corporate backers is likely to fail.

Gottheimer and eight of his colleagues have been facing off with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., insisting in a letter sent last week that she bring the bipartisan package for a vote “immediately,” rather than holding it back as leverage to pass the bigger piece. The not-so-veiled goal is to strip progressives of the leverage they have to enact a big reconciliation package, making it more vulnerable to being cut down to size or stopped entirely. Gottheimer worries the larger legislation will mean painful tax hikes on corporations and the wealthy — many of whom have supported his political ambitions.
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How politicians’ books become best sellers

Prominent politicians write books and, despite the fact that the books may not contain a a single interesting or original thought, or indeed may not have been even written by them at all but instead by a ghostwriter, they usually end up on a best seller list. It is an open secret that politicians and their parties are the ones who buy many books in bulk and then give them away as gifts to party faithful, thus boosting their sales numbers. But who exactly ends up footing the bill for the purchases? It is the suckers who donate to their political campaigns.
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Sackler exploitation of bankruptcy laws

In an earlier post, I linked to an episode of Last Week Tonight where John Oliver explained how the odious Sackler family are trying to use the bankruptcy laws so that, while they claim that they will be paying $4.5 billion, they will end up with total immunity frrom future lawsuits, will not have to admit guilt, and likely end up even more wealthy than they are now. This article explains why this is such a bad deal for the public and how it lets the Sacklers off the hook.
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Where non-white majority counties are concentrated

The new census reports confirms the trend of the US moving towards becoming a majority non-white country, providing more fuel to the fears of white nationalists who see themselves losing what they think is their God-given right, to be the dominant group that runs the country for their own benefit.

But I was interested in the graphic that can be seen here that plots the demographic changes by counties for every decade starting from 1980.

Interestingly, most of rapidly growing majority-minority counties are in the south and southwest, the places that are commonly associated with fear-mongering about immigrants and xenophobic attitudes. Could that be because they can actually see these changes occurring all around them?

 White, non-Hispanic Americans are about 58% of the U.S. population, according to data from the 2020 census released on Thursday. That’s lower than the estimates of 60%, and it compares with about 64% in 2010.

They are no longer the racial-ethnic majority in 400 of the nation’s 3,100+ counties and county equivalents, up from 340 a decade ago.
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Nonwhiteness and diversity are actually two different measures. The Census also has developed a way to calculate diversity based on how likely it is that two people chosen at random within a boundary will be of different races or ethnicities.

The least diverse state, by this measure, is Maine, at 19%. The most diverse is Hawaii, at 76%.

The problem of Facebook and mission statements

We know that misinformation via social media runs rampant around the world and has been the vehicle for creating massive amounts of conflict among various groups. But up to now, the havoc created worldwide has been localized, such as in Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Ethiopia, where it has fueled murderous conflicts between different ethnic, religious, and language groups in those countries. But the pandemic has more clearly revealed the global scale of the problem as lies and distortions about the virus and vaccines and masks have spread around the globe, hampering efforts to suppress the spread of the pandemic.
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When even fear of death is not enough

This video from Vice News shows how deeply some people have become buried in the anti-vaccine propaganda that even almost dying from covid-19 does not persuade them to get the vaccine. Instead they babble about how they have heard about vaccines changing their DNA and that they are not sure whom to believe. It is a frightening display of ignorance masquerading as knowledge.


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