US politicians hide their nonbelief

It should be no surprise that in the US, politicians are wary of saying that they do not believe in any god. They definitely shy away from the label of ‘atheist’ since that is viewed negatively and saying that they are humanist or not being willing to answer about their religious beliefs is as far as they seem to think it is safe to go, even as public acceptance of nonbelief is on the rise.

Non-believers remain few and far between in American politics. In Congress, the only one to publicly “come out” as such is Jared Huffman, a Democrat representing California’s second district and a leading proponent of impeachment of Donald Trump.

Huffman announced in late 2017 that he is a humanist, not an atheist. In an interview at his Capitol Hill office, he characterized himself as “non-religious, humanist, spiritual albeit without any particular dogma. I’m a spiritual drifter. ‘Seeker’ would be a perfectly good word, too.”
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“Atheism seems to bring with it the notion of being anti-religion as opposed to non-religious,” he said. “I prefer non-religious because I just want everyone to make their own religious choices. I’m not against them having religion.
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“I have many fellow travellers, very few publicly. I think there’s still fear of this conventional wisdom that being an atheist or agnostic or a non-believer is somehow the worst possible thing in politics. My experience has been that that’s not the case, but how you do it matters.”
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In Congress, too, Christians are still overrepresented when compared with the general public, according to the Pew Research Center. About 23% of the public say they are atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular”.

The number of non-Christian members of Congress is now 63, Pew says, made up of 34 Jews, three Muslims, three Hindus, two Buddhists, two Unitarian Universalists, and 19, including the Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema, who decline to specify a religious affiliation.

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Negative endorsements

When deciding which candidates to support, one looks to see positive endorsements, i.e., support and contributions from people and organizations whom one respects. But negative endorsements (i.e, if they are supported by people and organizations one detests) can also be useful

And on the latter score, we see Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Pete Buttigieg get big donations form Wall Street executives and Harris also gets from the pharmaceutical industry executives even after she claims she rejects them.

I am not surprised about Biden and Harris because they are the Democratic party establishment candidates and so cater to the big business interests but the news about Buttigieg is disappointing.

The ‘liberal’ media at work

Once again, we see the New York Times falling over itself to paint Trump in as good a light as possible, like it did earlier when it refused to use the term ‘racist’ to describe his nakedly racist tweets. It is part of its long-standing policy of deference to the powerful and wealthy.


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Teach your children well

The family of Parker Mustian clearly had not heard that great song by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young (see below). PZ brought this young man’s story to my attention.

Parker Mustian, a 16-year-old former student at Cardinal Newman high school in Columbia, South Carolina was arrested by local law enforcement officers last month after he appeared in a pair of racist “public service announcements” that were circulated among students at his school.

Mustian is further alleged to have threatened to “shoot up” the Catholic school following his expulsion last month.

“Howdy, I’m Parker Mustian and I hate black people,” the teen begins in the first clip. “They’re the worst. They’re stinky and they just suck. They’re just bad people.”

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Trump, Fox News, and white nationalists

Robert Mackey connects the dots that form a deadly triangle.

Indeed, the steady drumbeat of invasion rhetoric from the network and the president over the past two years suggests that they are locked in a feedback loop, working together to generate an ever-intensifying level of paranoia and frenzy in their shared fan base.

Brandon Friedman looked at the El Paso shooter’s manifesto and draws straight lines between his words and Fox News and Trump.

High-rise suburb

This is not a suburb consisting of high-rise buildings. It is a suburb that is itself in a high-rise location.

In Djakarta, Indonesia there is a small town of 78 identical two storey homes that is located ten storeys high on the roof of of a parking garage.

It’s Thursday and the residents of Jakarta’s Cosmo Park are out jogging, watering their plants or walking their dogs along neat asphalt roads.

Neighbourhood kids pedal their bikes under frangipani trees and peach-coloured bougainvillea to the pool and tennis court. Apartments, comfortable and modern, sit side by side, with barbecues and toys stacked outside.

Quiet and orderly, it feels like any other suburban idyll – but there is one difference. Cosmo Park is a village in the sky, perched 10 storeys up on top of a shopping centre and car park, a world away from the heaving megalopolis below.

It is a surreal urban bubble, where normal life unfolds at an abnormal altitude. To access ground level, resident drive their cars down a ramp. A tall metal fence runs around the perimeter to make sure no one falls or drives off. Peer beyond the fence and you can spot the city’s landmarks below.

George Conway has Trump’s number

The husband of devoted Trump aide and supporter Kellyanne Conway knows exactly how this latest mass murder atrocity will play out when it comes to Trump’s response.

  1. Trump will go on TV and give a speech. On paper, the speech may say some of the right things. It will look somewhat presidential. There’s an off chance it might even be good (grading on a curve).
  2. But the problem will be that it was given by Trump, who’s incapable of sincere empathy. So it’ll be hard to believe that he believes the words he said. And his speech won’t address his own hateful, racist rhetoric.
  3. So he’ll be roundly criticized for that. And he’ll also be criticized on policy grounds, because whatever he says on that score will not suffice for many people.
  4. He’ll see and hear all this criticism on TV, and he’ll stew. And stew. He’ll grow angry and resentful that he was forced to give the speech in the first place.
  5. Finally, perhaps within 24 or 48 hours, the narcissistic pressure will break the dam, and his anger and frustration will gush forward.
  6. He’ll tweet, otherwise say, or do something that’ll completely undo whatever positive benefit came from the speech.
  7. We’ve seen this movie before how many times?

Conway is right. Trump obviously does not care at all about the victims of his inciting rhetoric. He will only care about how people are so ungrateful for not fawning over his obviously phony gestures of sympathy.

Republicans seeking absolution from Trump’s racism

As Donald Trump’s nakedly racist rhetoric feeds the flames of white supremacist violence, and the support he is getting from the Republican party and his base of supporters just adds fuel to the fire, this places some Republicans in an awkward situation. If they continue to support him, will they also be seen as racist? And is it fair to be tarred with guilt by association? Some of them are desperately looking for absolution, that they can still view themselves as good people while supporting a racist president.
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