Yesterday, I got to see Virgil, which is always positive. I had spent so much time getting a bit ahead here that I hadn’t read all the comments to see who said to say hello, so I assumed you all would have (I knew, for instance, Pat was with family, and I’m sure she would have [since she always does], along with everyone else who does), and just told him hello from y’all. We weren’t able to get the lone deck of cards this time, but for some reason the TV was on – to football – nnd we caught the end of the Bills vs Jets and the beginning of the Buccaneers vs Rams. We got a few laughs. At one point he noticed the clock on the Bills/Jets said 2 minutes to go, and I said, “That should be about a half hour,” which turned out to be not too far off. I do think I will start going an hour earlier and leaving an hour early. I was fine today – mostly – but my drivers license turns into a pumpkin at sunset, which is now getting earlier every day.
Cartoon –
Short Takes –
The Warning – The hypocrisy of business and media elites
Quote – On Thursday, Axios reported a stunning act of political corruption. The corruption was a direct threat against the U.S. Chamber of Commerce made by House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy. His threat is blatant thuggery. It constitutes a grotesque abuse of power. Leader McCarthy demanded that Chamber president and CEO Suzanne Clark be fired. He promised retaliation if the Chamber of Commerce did not submit to his threat. The Washington, DC, access media ignored the threat, while the business leaders who comprise the Chamber executive board have assumed a posture of flaccid opposition and tepid defiance. Click through for article. I guess you can indeed say the silence is deafening – I had no idea about this. I’m no fan of the Chamber – but this is ridiculous.
Gizmodo – Homeland Security Admits It Tried to Manufacture Fake Terrorists for Trump
Quote – The report describes attempts by top officials to link protesters to an imaginary terrorist plot in an apparent effort to boost Trump’s reelection odds, raising concerns now about the ability of a sitting president to co-opt billions of dollars’ worth of domestic intelligence assets for their own political gain. DHS analysts recounted orders to generate evidence of financial ties between protesters in custody; an effort that, had they not failed, would have seemingly served to legitimize President Trump’s false claims about “Antifa,” an “organization” that even his most loyal intelligence officers failed to drum up proof ever existed. Click through for details. Ron Wyden, Oregon’s other Senator, released the report to the public. I’m inclined to say I’m shocked but not suroprised – which has gotten to be a more or less chronic emotional state around here.
Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”
As important as this topic is, I almost bypassed the article because of the rampant bothsiderism in the introduction and first section. But eventually, the author has to admit that all the actual violence and threats of violence today are indeed coming from the right. And that this violence and threats of violence can be traced to the deliberate manufacture of political delusion. Conservative thinkers appeas to have replaces Descartes (“I think, therefore I am”) with “I think, therefore it is so.”
==============================================================
Political violence in America isn’t going away anytime soon
A warning about the threat of political violence heading into the 2022 midterm elections was issued to state and local law enforcement officials by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Oct. 28, 2022.
The bulletin was released the same day that Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi’s husband was hospitalized after a home invasion by a lone right-wing extremist seeking to harm her.
This incident is the latest in an increasing stream of extremist confrontations taking place across the United States in recent years. These incidents have primarily targeted Democrats, including a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020. But threats from both sides of the political spectrum are up significantly.
And, of course, there was the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, where supporters of a defeated Republican president, acting on a widespread lie he perpetuated, violently attempted to prevent the certification of electoral votes. According to well-documented public evidence, some rioters planned to find and execute both Speaker Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence.
Such incidents reflect a disturbing trend that targets the very fabric, foundation and future of U.S. democracy. But what led to this point?
As a researcher taking a critical and apolitical eye toward security issues, I believe the rise in contemporary right-wing political extremism – and violence – began with an outdated focus in national communications policy.
Police take measurements around House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home after her husband, Paul Pelosi, was assaulted inside the home on Oct. 28, 2022. Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Media-induced slow burn
Until the late 1980s, the Federal Communications Commission’s Fairness Doctrine required traditional licensed broadcasters to offer competing viewpoints on controversial public issues. But these rules did not apply to cable or satellite providers. As a result, the rise of cable news channels in the 1990s led to highly partisan programming that helped divide American society in the ensuing decades.
This programming fueled increasing polarization in the public and political arenas. Bipartisanship was abandoned in the 1990s, when the Republican Congress under Speaker Newt Gingrich embraced a “scorched-earth” policy of governing. That meant treating the minority party not as the loyal opposition and respected elected colleagues who had differences over policy, but as enemies.
Internet platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and 4Chan allowed anyone, anywhere, to create, produce and distribute political commentary and extremist rhetoric that could be amplified by other users and drive the day’s news cycle.
Political pundits and influencers across the spectrum became less concerned about correctly informing the public. Instead, they stoked outrage in the search for money-generating clicks and advertising dollars. And political parties exploited this outrage to satisfy and energize their voting base or funders.
Philadelphia city commissioners display a voting machine in Philadelphia City Hall on Oct. 24, 2022. Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images
Moderation or censorship?
To combat online extremism, social media companies reluctantly began moderating user posts and sometimes banned prominent users who violated their community standards or terms of service.
In response to what it dubbed “censorship” from Big Tech, the right wing splintered into numerous niche platforms catering to their conspiracy theories and extremist or violent views such as Truth Social – run by former President Trump – Gab, Parler, Rumble and others.
Compared with Democrats, Republicans have mastered this form of gutter politics. One example: Right-wing political figures have mocked Paul Pelosi for being attacked, spread baseless conspiracy theories about his personal life and used the incident for applause lines at campaign rallies.
Accordingly, today’s voters and politicians end up confronting one another in the public sphere not on matters and substance affecting the future of the country, but on fundamental facts and conspiracy theories, or to address distractions often generated by their respective media ecosystems. This is only exacerbated by a prolonged nationwide decline in media literacy and civics education.
Against this backdrop, federal law enforcement has become more vocal in warning about the dangers of domestic political extremism, including a bulletin issued in February 2022. The Oct. 28 DHS bulletin further underscores this concern.
But it’s hard for law enforcement to effectively address political extremism, because speech protected under the First Amendment is a major consideration. Phrases like “I’m fighting for you!” or “Saving our country!” might seem like typical political bluster to one person. But they could be seen by others as an implied call for intimidation or violent action against political opponents, election officials, volunteer poll workers and even ordinary voters.
How does speech turn into violent action? Security specialists and scholars use the term “stochastic terrorism” to capture how a single, hard-to-locate person might be inspired or influenced toward violence by broader extremist rhetoric, as appears to have been the case with the man who allegedly tried to kill Paul Pelosi with a hammer.
Law enforcement’s problem is made worse by right-wing lawmakers who normalize or actively praise the actions of violent extremists, calling them “patriots” and demanding their prison sentences be overturned or pardoned. This helps obscure the actual reasons for such incidents, often by deflecting them into broader conspiracy theories involving their opponents.
Certainly there are controversial left-leaning politicians, pundits, activists and talking points too.
But few – if any – openly disregard the fabric of American government, scheme to overturn democratic elections by force or plot to assassinate politicians.
By contrast, there are over 300 Republican election deniers running for office this year, including many incumbents – the vast majority of whom endorse political violence such as the Jan. 6 attack either by their actions or their silence.
Hope for the best; prepare for the worst
Tensions are high heading into the 2022 midterms. Politicians are making final arguments, and the online messaging machines are spreading campaign information, fundraising requests – and plenty of disinformation as well.
Americans expect a peaceful transfer of political power after elections, but recent history shows we must prepare for the worst. It’s clear that the modern Republican Party is openly and successfully embracing and exploiting misinformation, outrage and attacks on democracy and the rule of law.
Until Republicans actively disavow their extremist rhetoric and the misinformation contributing to it, I believe the likelihood for political violence in America increases with each passing day.
==============================================================
AMT, the fact is, yes, we need the fairness doctrine or something like it. But we need even more to demand truth in journalism – and in education. Truth – facts – speak for themselves. And what they say is often counter-intuitive. Applying a fairness doctrine to interpretations of fact should take a back seat to actual evidence. And the differences between pure fact, interpretations of fact, and pure opinion need to be recognized and clearly delineated. Just how feasible it is to get to that point from where we are today remains to be seen.
Yesterday, the radio opera was “L’Amant Anonyme,” the only surviving opera by Joseph Bologne {Chevalier de Saint-Georges) whom I assume no one here has ever heard of. He was a close contemporary of Mozart (10 years older and lived for 8 years after Mozart died.) History has forgotten a number of competent composers who were contemporaneous with Mozart, simply because he was such a towering fugure, but in the case of Saint-Georges there was more to it. But he was an interesting guy. He was born in Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, the son of a wealthy plantation owner and his wile’s maid, a Senegalese enslaved girl. When he was 7, his father was falsely accused of morder, and he was sent to Paris and enrolled in school there to prevent him from being sold into slavery should the accusation stick. Apparently it didn’t, because when he was 13 his father came to Paris with his mother, at which time he was enrolled in fencing school, in which he excelled perhaps even more than he did in music, and which probably kept him alive. It also got him appointed to the king’s personal guard and named a “Chevalier” (i.e. knighted) in his own right (as an illegitimate son, he could not inherit his father’s title.) In 1769 he joined a newly organized orchestra, of which he later became concertmaster and then conductor. in 1776 the Paris Opera needed new direction, and he was the obvious choise (and Marie Antoinette’s choice) to be the new Director. But three divas petitioned her not to appoint him on racial grounds, and he withdrew his name from consideration in order not to embarrass her. (Apparently, whatever her failings, she was not a racist, as so many philosphers of the French Enlightenment {I’m looking at you, Voltaire}, were.) He did, however, with backing from Count D’Ogny, commission Haydn to composed 6 symphonies (known as the Paris Symphonies), and he conducted their premiere. When the French Revolution began, he bcame the commanding officer of the first “citizens’ army” recognized in history (no one seems to want to count Wat Tyler’s fighters or William Wallace’s fighters as “citizens’ armies.”) I apologize for getting carried away by the composer, but I assure you, all this barely scratches the surface of his amazing life and accomplishments. The opera itself is reminiscent of Mozart, though perhaps not as complex musically – but a bit easier to follow on that account. It was recorded by Chicago’s Haymarket Opera Company, which specializes in baroque and early classical opera. It tells a sweet little story with a happy ending for all the characters. Next week – actually for the next four weeks – it’s back to China for one French and three Italian operas, and then, on December 10, the Met season begins.
Also – We can hope (I certainly hope) that this is the last time we will have to upend ourlives (and those of our animals – those who have them) but “falling back.” Just one more “spring forward” and then we get to set it and forget it. (as Arizona, for one, already does.” Although , since stats are allowed to deviate, who knows. Another reason to vote. As if we needed one.
Cartoon –
Short Takes –
The Daily Beast – Your Uber Data Is Being Mined to Prevent Bridge Collapses
Quote – Overall, even with relatively few trips, the researchers found that just 10 datasets were 90 percent accurate at predicting bridge vibrations, and about 80 datasets increased the accuracy to 97 percent. Matarazzo and his team had specifically designed the system to distinguish vibrations pertinent to a bridge’s health from statistical noise that might be caused by variables like potholes and traffic. The more than 100 trips considered in the study amounted to less than 0.1 percent of the trips made on the Golden Gate Bridge daily, indicating that smartphone data represent “an enormous sensing potential,” the authors wrote in the study. “When fueled with long-term monitoring data, artificial intelligence has the potential to provide bridge engineers and owners with unprecedented information for maintenance and operation at virtually little to no extra cost.” Click through for article. There is no Uber data on me personally, since I’ve never used it. And, if there were, I would have zero hesitation about it being used to prevent bridge collapses, especially collapses like the one in India this week. But God help anyone whose data Republicans get their hands on.
Wired – When Your Neighbor Turns You In
Quote – “If the rule of law starts breaking—and especially if there’s a regime that is supportive of those actions—that’s really giving space for people to take actions that are illegal,” Amat says. “Knowing you will not be prosecuted is a big thing.” All of these sorts of things create a culture of fear in authoritarian countries. People are afraid of their neighbors, afraid to speak freely, and afraid of what might happen next. This fear is made worse by the fact that the citizens dealing with oppressive forces have no ability to hold those in power accountable when they go too far. CLick through for details. I don’t suppose anyone here needs any more incentive to vote – in fact, you probably already have voted. But I wish there were a way to get this knowledge to every indecidid voter in the nation in the next two days.
Glenn Kirschner – This would have been the October recap – I’m using an interview with Lawrence instead.
The Lincoln Project – Denial
Meidas Touch – DOJ gives top Trump aide Kash Patel USE IMMUNITY and COMPELS his testimony on Trump CRIMES (Too long, but very explanatory of a rare situation)
Tim Ryan on Twitter
Pretty impressive to watch @TimRyan take a clearly stacked Fox audience from boo’s after he brought up January 6th—to loud applause after not backing down at all.
Yesterday, it was pretty quiet, but I didn’t have alot of ambition. Previouslt I had made up the cartoons needed through the 10th, and update the one for the 15th because that was simple, but I still need to make them for the 13th, 18th, 21st, 24th, 27th, 28th, and 29th. i have the content ans artwotk, I just have to put them all together, but I really didn’t feel up to it. Oh well, there’ll be time next week. Today, of course, I have an opera to listen to, and will get ready to go see Virgil tomorrow.
Cartoon –
Short Takes –
Daily Beast – Republicans Are Bad for the Economy. Here’s Why.
Quote – The poll indicated that concerns about the economy and inflation are “much more likely to drive voters towards Republicans.” But that impulse is not only ill-considered, every bit of available evidence makes clear that the GOP is the wrong party to which to turn if you seek better U.S. economic performance in the future. In fact, it is not close. When it comes to the economy, the GOP is the problem and not the solution. If anything, it is a greater obstacle to our economic well-being today than it has ever been. Click through for article. It drives me crazy that this is not obvious to every man, woman, and child in America. I learned it at mo mother’s knee (Yes, it’s been true that long.)
Robert Reich – Why I still think John Roberts is the worst Chief Justice since Roger Taney
Quote – I do not expect this Court to uphold affirmative action, notwithstanding the clear precedent for doing so. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. — the conservative least likely to champion dramatic change in the court’s precedents — has for his entire legal career opposed what he has called the “sordid business” of dividing Americans by race, including affirmative action As Special Assistant to the Attorney General in the Reagan Justice Department, Roberts argued that affirmative action was bound to fail because it required the “recruiting of inadequately prepared candidates.” Click through for full opinion. Taney is infamous for the Dred Scott decision. But that wasn’t all.
Yesterday, PolitiZoom reported that Trump** has filed a new lawsuit against Letitia James, the Attorney General of New Yourk. He filed it in FLorida, because reasons. He refers to hmself throughout as “President Trump” as if “President” were his first name. But none of that is the punch line. The punch line is that, in footnote 12, beginning on page 32, he complains about the cost to society of “frivolous lawsuits.” My heart goes out to comedians and cartoonists. How in the world can anyone compete with that level of whatever it is? Also, Paul Peliso was released from the hospital after surgeries to mend his injuries. Good news.
Cartoon –
Short Takes –
Washington Post (free link) – Capitol Police cameras caught break-in at Pelosi home, but no one was watching
Quote – The 911 call and the struggle inside the home that followed have led to charges of attempted homicide of the speaker’s husband, and attempted kidnapping of the speaker, who is second in line to the presidency. The incident has also put a spotlight on the immensity — and perhaps the impossibility — of law enforcement’s task to protect the 535 members of Congress at a time of unprecedented numbers of threats against them…. An external review ordered by Pelosi shortly after the January 2021 attack found that there were more than 230 vacancies in the two months after the insurrection and recommended that the Capitol Police eventually increase the size of its force by roughly 850 officers. That would take years, given that about 100 officers leave or retire each year, and the force is now accepting only about 1 in every 16 candidates. Click through for article. I am not slamming the Capitol Police. They have 1800 cameras, and while they are not completely unsupervised all night, mu understanding is that the supervision staff consists of two pwople. At lest the cameras providid evidence.
Letters From An American – November 2, 2022
Quote – “Anecdotal data point,” conservative commentator Tom Nichols tweeted this afternoon, “Had lunch with an old friend, a fellow former [Republican] (but not in politics or media or anything) and he said that things feel different after the Pelosi attack. Not sure why. I feel the same thing; not sure that it’ll matter, but have that same sense.”… Nichols is right: something feels different. Click through for full letter. We need some hope – I hope Heather and Tom are right – but at least the excerpts from President Biden’s speech may help
