US Politics: them's indictin words

[The Anti-Targ]

How the flock did a Massachusetts air national guard service person get their hands on secret govt documents. If this is the only guy that gets arrested and charged for this leakage that's some real bullshit. Someone deeper on the inside fed those docs to this kid.

[Varysblackfyre321]

1 hour ago, mormont said:

it's not at all clear how a medical professional can in fact prove they've 'screened' for these things. In effect, then, that rules out treatment for most trans adults.

Honestly possibly every trans adult. Most Medical professionals even if they think someone fits the impossible standard won’t do anything out of fear of their life getting wrecked.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

3 hours ago, mormont said:

Read a little further. The bill requires that you be 'screened' for 'social media addiction' and 'social contagion' before treatment. Now, since the former is a very ill-defined condition whose diagnosis is not agreed and the latter has never been shown even to exist, it's not at all clear how a medical professional can in fact prove they've 'screened' for these things. In effect, then, that rules out treatment for most trans adults.

It's almost like bad faith actors are unserious and don't care. 

[James Arryn]

5 hours ago, mormont said:

Read a little further. The bill requires that you be 'screened' for 'social media addiction' and 'social contagion' before treatment. Now, since the former is a very ill-defined condition whose diagnosis is not agreed and the latter has never been shown even to exist, it's not at all clear how a medical professional can in fact prove they've 'screened' for these things. In effect, then, that rules out treatment for most trans adults.

Hey, if nothing else, it looks like maybe we…and definitely our children…will get to see which famous dystopian novel/film was the most accurate. I think probably every parent wonders what kind of world they’ve brought their children into, but it’s really starting to feel grim.

Probably mentioned it before, but anyways back in undergrad had two profs I got to know, we’d grab a beer together every week or so, spend the night debating if not declaiming, but light-hearted, and also talk of other non political issues, really good people. He was almost a generation older, she had almost a decade on me (this will come into play in a sec) and we’d ~ shoot the shit until the wee hours some nights. And he would constantly tell me fascism would make a comeback.

I always argued he was wrong. I thought it was too…defined, too known, too…campy and cliched, farcical, and in short too specifically and generally discredited to ever come back in any recognizable form. I acknowledged other terrible, authoritarian ideologies would evolve, just none of them would be Nazis, it was just too on the nose if you get me. We would never see actual nazi flags flying about major capitals again.

His argument went mostly like this: fascism did not fall out of the sky, it came about in several nations ~ the same time for a reason, because it appealed to certain types of people in society. People who wanted a strong man, people who thought national pride is best demonstrated through military might, bigots, rabid anti-communists, xenophobes/nativists, people who distrust cities, the media and intellectuals, etc. He said that yes, at present, it was too ~ ridiculed and associated with being the baddies to come back in any identifiable form…but that was largely dependent on enough people being alive who either saw what fascism looked like personally or were raised by people who did. Fought in wars against it, experienced it grow up around them, survived the camps, maybe, or had parents or grandparents who did not. 

He said that was once enough of these witnesses die off, all that remains is the ideology, and that (or a very close facsimile) will still attract the same types of people as it had previously, for the same reasons. He said the US was the most likely based on history and repeated evidence of extremism that ran along the lines highlighted above, but it could come up a lot of places and anyways was likely to make a resurgence to varying degrees several places. They both were ~ believers in idealogical cycles, and they said every 40-60 (ie around 50) years nativist militaristic authoritarianism regains a lot of momentum, but that fascism itself had been mostly skipped, but that even still, the Reagan/Thatcher era was the watered down version because too many of those people with memories of WWII/etc. or their children who were raised in households whose older generation had and talked about it with their children. 

But he said when the next cycle came, sometime between the 2020s and 2040s, that would no longer be the case. Almost no direct witnesses would still be alive, and fewer and fewer of the generations that followed them and absorbed their direct experiences of those times and how fascism arose, what that looked like, etc. and elections would be predominantly be decided by people for whom it was just another thing you read about in history class, or see depicted in (especially older) movies, etc. It would be just another ideology that had appealed to many way back when, similar in scope to how people in the Reagan/Thatcher cycle would perceive historical anarchism, for example. Ie, discredited way back when, but containing ideas later generations without first or second hand knowledge of how and why it was discredited would find interesting.

I always thought he, well they…she agreed with him in theory, or at least that IF you accept the premise of political cycles that include periods where reverence of military, xenophobia and general bigotry, dissatisfaction with progressivism, love of a strong man, etc. gain significant following, rise to the top in many nations, and then rule for an indeterminate period before Boethius does his thing yet again. She was somewhat less convinced that this cycle was as inevitable and would reclaim so many specific elements, but she was still more in agreement with his premise than my overconfident rejection of the idea.

For a while now I have been seeing him begin to be proven right. Moreover in the intervening years I have gotten to read more and more about how far down those lines Reagan, Thatcher at al went and see that even then a lot of fascism core values had come back to power, if never with recognizable terminology or some of the more easily identifiable elements present…and more I can see how just like for the originals, these fascism-lite types primarily used fear/rejection of communism/socialism as their primary means to define their political priorities, brand their opposition, and rationalize their most otherwise unsupportably extremist actions (including that lovely undying sophomorism about the Nazis actually being socialist/left wing which is still swallowed whole by many on the right to this day) 

So now, being ourselves seemingly in the rising foothills of rejuvenated fascism, seeing old Frankfurt school predictions coming true that I used to dismiss as too centred in their personal experience of it to understand how beyond-the-pale fascism was and ~ always would be, I wish I had kept in touch with those two so I could take back most of my objections and all of my ignorant certainty. And of course I really worry about what kind of world my daughters will face. 

[Zorral]

10 hours ago, Darzin said:

I concede the NPR thing I was under the impression a majority of their funding came from government sources. 

The majority of the funding for our local public radio stations (NYC, New Jersey, upstate) comes from us, i.e. the listeners.  The stations never stop fund-raising so they never stop reminding us of this. Beyond that, the universities that still have radio stations (yes, that used to be a Thing, all right) may or may not also subscribe to (pay for) some of the programming produced by Public Radio International or NPR.  Moreover our very particularly NPR affiliate station in NYC, bought itself out from ownership of its broadcasting license from the City of New York, when Giuliani went to war against it.  Radio is more complicated than most people, particularly now, generally understand.  And certainly far more complicated than the reichs who think They are capable of running a nation and our personal lives are capable of understanding. In the meantime, like all the small, local newspapers, big media conglomerates have systematically been buying them out, which means there is no outlet for local weather news and disaster warnings -- just like there are no hospitals and medical care in these communities either -- not profitable!  (Yet, They demand be pregnant and giving birth, while not caring for them or the infants and children -- riiiiiiiiiiiiiight.  Yet They fume that women keep getting educations, leaving these hinterlands, and not shackling themselves for life to men who can't be bothered to even finish high school)

The National Public Radio organization has received some hefty trusts left to them in the wills of wealthy private individuals, and receives other endowments from public minded corporations. When NPR was created its funding was from the government, in same way that the funding for the National Endowment for the Arts etc. came from the government.  However, ever since Reagan, that funding, for arts and information and education has systematically been cut and cut and cut and cut.  Without the trusts and endowments NPR received it would not longer exist.  It really and truly is NOT federally funded.

[Martell Spy]

Billionaire Harlan Crow Bought Property From Clarence Thomas. The Justice Didn’t Disclose the Deal.

https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-harlan-crow-real-estate-scotus

Quote

 

In 2014, one of Texas billionaire Harlan Crow’s companies purchased a string of properties on a quiet residential street in Savannah, Georgia. It wasn’t a marquee acquisition for the real estate magnate, just an old single-story home and two vacant lots down the road. What made it noteworthy were the people on the other side of the deal: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his relatives.

The transaction marks the first known instance of money flowing from the Republican megadonor to the Supreme Court justice. The Crow company bought the properties for $133,363 from three co-owners — Thomas, his mother and the family of Thomas’ late brother, according to a state tax document and a deed dated Oct. 15, 2014, filed at the Chatham County courthouse.

The purchase put Crow in an unusual position: He now owned the house where the justice’s elderly mother was living.

 

 

[Zorral]

Jim Jordan is coming here to confront 'woke' Alvin Bragg and demand he stop the court case against tRumper, etc.

These antiwoker crter tRumpers must be anxious as heck at this point with the neolib xtian racist kid's arrest for revealing top security documents.  It's so much like what the orange tUrd is being investigated and probably shall be indicted for doing.

[Wilbur]

Finally, a state legislator expulsion I can really get behind:

Expelling Rep. Liz Harris almost restores my faith in the Arizona Legislature (almost) (msn.com)

[ThinkerX]

8 hours ago, Zorral said:

Jim Jordan is coming here to confront 'woke' Alvin Bragg and demand he stop the court case against tRumper, etc.

These antiwoker crter tRumpers must be anxious as heck at this point with the neolib xtian racist kid's arrest for revealing top security documents.  It's so much like what the orange tUrd is being investigated and probably shall be indicted for doing.

Saw a video clip claiming Braag had received a truly impressive number of death threats, many of them racist (and only semi coherent) as a result of indicting Trump. The clip implied FOX was deliberately fanning the flames here and that it was only a matter of time until some of these people attempted to act on these threats.  

 

[Zorral]

Racists hate to be called racist as much as They hate people who aren't racists.  Then They shed tears for how mean people are to Them for doing, you know, racist shyte.

“You gotta do what’s right, even if you think it might be wrong,” he continued, raising his voice.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/leaked-audio-shows-tennessee-gop-infighting-after-being-labeled-racist-for-expulsion-vote

Leaked Audio Shows Tennessee GOP Infighting After Being Labeled ‘Racist’ For Expulsion Vote

Quote

 

.... During the recording, which TPM did not independently verify, Republican lawmakers can be heard aggressively confronting their caucus members who voted against the Johnson expulsion, complaining that their refusal to expel her led to the party as a whole being tagged as “racist” and “white supremacist.”

“I think now more than ever everyone should recognize that Democrats are not our friends,” one member said on the recording. “I listened for the last three days to Democrats… trash us as racists. I’ve never had anybody call me a racist… Good Lord, we have to realize they are not our friends.”

“I feel like we were hung out to dry by a couple of members,” the member continued, referring to the handful of Republicans who voted against the expulsions.

“If we don’t stick together, if we don’t believe we’re at war for our republic, with all love and respect to you, you need a different job,” another member said, once again referring to the members who did not vote with the GOP. ”The left wants Tennessee so bad… We’re fighting for the republic of our country right now.” ....

 

 

[DMC]

So..maybe this should go in that education thread we have but I'm too lazy to find it.  Anyway, do think it is relevant enough to put this in US politics...

There have been many concerns about how DeSantis and the Florida state legislature have been dealing with higher education.  Thus far, the only difference for me is I had to make my syllabus public.  Not a big deal - not like I put "Fuck Republicans" in my syllabi.  Now, for the coming summer/fall semesters, I have to post most of the aspects of my syllabi on Canvas.

This may seem like a pointless difference - because it is - but throughout my teaching career, I just write up the syllabus, save it as a pdf, then post the pdf.  Now, I actually have to put the first four sections on course objectives/descriptions, attendance policy, and grading policy within the Canvas shell of each course I'm teaching. 

If it sounds like it's just a lot of copy and pasting, again, that's cuz it is.  But it's also annoying as fuck.  I teach three different types of courses, so the attendance and grading policy are different.  Which means when I do this tomorrow, it will probably take me a while to make sure the copying-and-pasting aligns with the appropriate eight shells between the summer and fall semesters.

Anyway, this IS mandated directly from the Florida legislature, and it obviously IS a message they're sending that they're watching us.  Again, I don't give a shit...kinda want to put a "the Florida state legislature is corrupt" in the course description, but that'd just confuse my students.  But still, yeah, this is how fascism starts.

[Zorral]

The amount of work doing syllabi etc. these days, and all the passwords and everything else -- and if somehow for some godless reason MS One Drive gets involved as well -- one gets the urge on occasion to break down and cry into one's   It's endless.  And they are surveilling, and not only the state -- the school administration too, if they get the urge.

Strike at Rutgers, which the governor thinks he's resolved.  At least four higher education institutions in IL are or were on strike.  But the IL governor was all about crushing the faculty, which Gov. Murphy wasn't, so much.  A friend of mine who is the director of her university's library -- which meant she too was on strike, and will have some of her pay docked due to not working -- said what kept them going was the students, who came out on their side, particularly the student newspaper, including joining the faculty and staff on the picket lines.

[DMC]

5 minutes ago, Zorral said:

At least four higher education institutions in IL are or were on strike.  But the IL governor was all about crushing the faculty

The Illinois Governor is JB Pritzker.  He may be a fat billionaire whose family owns the Hyatt, but he's also quite progressive.  I have a hard time believing he would attack secondary education in the same way DeSantis is.  What specifically are you referring to?

[Zorral]

My friend, naturally, spoke to his determination the faculty and adjuncts haven't a beef to stand on -- he would not give in to better pay, reducing the piles of unpaid administrative work they are expected to do for their universities, or even better conditions for adjuncts.  The attitude is they had no right to strike. One of them has given notice the week they've scheduled to go out is the week that starts finals.

[DMC]

13 minutes ago, Zorral said:

he would not give in to better pay, reducing the piles of unpaid administrative work they are expected to do for their universities, or even better conditions for adjuncts.

Oh, yeah, this is an ongoing thing throughout the country.  That wasn't what I was mentioning, but sure.  "Even better conditions for adjuncts" is a pretty big caveat.  The adjuncts are the ones who are getting most fucked.  Why?  Because it's cheaper to hire adjuncts per class than hire full-time faculty with, ya know, benefits. 

This is a way universities/colleges are using to cut costs, and it's hardly a new thing.  There's a numbers crunch?  Fuck over the lowest on the totem-pole - which are adjuncts and/or grad students.  It's gross, but that's capitalism!  Or at least as much as using endowments to distribute funds resembles capitalism.  Which is...well, pretty close.

[Zorral]

Students are getting wise to this adjunct grift that also effs them over.  It's pretty hard for NYU students, graduating with mountains of debt to have the school and its programs on their job hunts to ignore by then how seldom, if ever, they never saw the stars they believed they would get to study with. Instead -- postgrads who didn't get hired to a faculty, much less tenure track position.  IOW, why gee whiz, NYU is a massive real estate corporation first, before anything else it is, though those other functions allow them to wiggle out of paying a whole lot of tax.

[Zorral]

Florida teacher shows pro-Confederacy video that rebrands Civil War as 'War To Prevent Southern Independence'

Parents in Naples, Florida are calling foul after a teacher at their children's school showed their class a video that they are decrying as propaganda for the Confederacy.

Local news station NBC 2 

https://nbc-2.com/news/local/collier-county/2023/04/14/collier-teacher-under-investigation-for-showing-confederate-history-month-video-to-school/

Quote

 

reports that an unidentified teacher at the Manatee Middle School is under investigation for showing students a video that gushes about the "valiant, brave fight and the countless sacrifices by our men and women during that known as the Civil War."

What's more, the video rebrands the American Civil War as "the War To Prevent Southern Independence," which is a decidedly pro-Confederacy framing for a conflict that centered on Southern states' attempts to preserve the practice of slavery.

“To me, it looks like straight out of a Confederate sympathizer playbook,” local parent Annie O’Donnell told NBC 2.

“It was very biased seeming,” local parent Casey Smith told NBC 2 about the video. “The confederacy, as far as I’m concerned, has always been a stain on American history.”

Collier County Public Schools emphasized that the pro-Confederacy video is not part of its official curriculum, although the state of Florida does officially recognize April as Confederate History Month.

 

 

[DMC]

44 minutes ago, Zorral said:

Florida teacher shows pro-Confederacy video that rebrands Civil War as 'War To Prevent Southern Independence'

Frankly at this point I figured this was the Florida K-12 curriculum.

[hauberk]

4 hours ago, Zorral said:

The amount of work doing syllabi etc. these days, and all the passwords and everything else -- and if somehow for some godless reason MS One Drive gets involved as well -- one gets the urge on occasion to break down and cry into one's   It's endless.  And they are surveilling, and not only the state -- the school administration too, if they get the urge.

Strike at Rutgers, which the governor thinks he's resolved.  At least four higher education institutions in IL are or were on strike.  But the IL governor was all about crushing the faculty, which Gov. Murphy wasn't, so much.  A friend of mine who is the director of her university's library -- which meant she too was on strike, and will have some of her pay docked due to not working -- said what kept them going was the students, who came out on their side, particularly the student newspaper, including joining the faculty and staff on the picket lines.

@TerraPrime would likely have better info but the most recent statement I’ve seen in the media from Pritzker is from 3 days ago:

Quote

“Through these talks, we are confident a fair contract agreement can be reached in a timely manner," said Pritzker.

Perhaps a position is being ascribed to the Governor that is actually from University admin?  Certainly, I’ve seen reports of universities looking for him to intervene.

It also appears that there is a tentative agreement at EIU. 

[DMC]

Looks like Sinema is gonna run.  Or at least she's fundraising enough, with $10 million cash-on-hand.  Albeit still being outraised by Gallego.  Should be an interesting three-way race.  The only poll this year has Gallego winning every hypothetical contest.  This is backed up by a Democratic firm as well.