Politics

The United States presents a paradox: Though the media and public opinion suggest it is a nation deeply divided along partisan lines, surveys reveal that Americans share significant common ground on many core values and political issues.

[...]

For instance, there is widespread support for high-quality health care that is accessible to all and for stronger gun-control regulations.

[...]

There is strong support for fundamental democratic principles, including equal protection under the law, voting rights, religious freedoms, freedom of assembly and speech, and a free press.

On critical issues such as climate change, a majority of citizens acknowledge the reality of human-caused climate change and endorse the development of renewable energy. Similarly, support for women’s reproductive rights, including the right to an abortion, is widespread.

[...]

The perception of division itself can fuel distrust where common ground might otherwise be found among citizens.

Even with substantial consensus on many issues, the perception of polarization often drives public discourse. This misalignment can be exacerbated by partisans with something to gain.

Research shows that when people are told that experts are divided on an issue, such as climate change, it can lead to increased polarization. Conversely, emphasizing the fact of scientific consensus tends to unify public concern and action.

[...]

"If we Americans don’t find ways to recognize our shared values, and even our shared humanity, we won’t be able to defend those values when they are challenged," writes Lawrence Torcello, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Rochester Institute of Technology.

Archived version

[Original version is behind a paywall.]

Elon Musk [who promised to fire government employees en masse through DOGE, the new Department of Government Efficiency to be created by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump] has taken his animus to another level by cruelly singling out an individual federal employee named Ashley Thomas, who works a relatively obscure job at the US International Development Finance Corporation, to be harassed online.

[...]

Things kicked off when a popular right wing account ridiculed Thomas in a tweet, writing, "I don't think the US Taxpayer should pay for the employment of a 'Director of Climate Diversification (she/her).'"

Musk quoted the post with a dunk of his own, effectively inviting his hundreds of millions of followers to join in on harassing this random government worker.

"So many fake jobs," Musk wrote in the tweet, which now has over 200,000 likes.

Seemingly, the billionaire culture warrior saw the word "diversification" and thought "diversity," "DEI," or some other form of "wokeness" — his favorite punching bags — as did his many followers.

"You aren't getting rid of all the good jobs are you?" replied one of his courtiers. "I just applied for Chief Climate Gender Diversification Administrator."

[...]

Aside from the harassment and the abhorrent massacring of comedy on display here, this is a truly bizarre job to single out.

The work of climate diversification, a subset of economic diversification, does not involve sitting around at the office and inventing pronouns or whatever Musk is imagining, but to develop strategies to reduce the impact of climate change on various sectors of the economy, especially agriculture. If certain food crops end up failing, for example, diversifying what we grow ensures that we don't all literally starve. But Musk and his cronies clearly heard the job and thought it sounded like out-of-control wokeness.

[...]

At any rate, Musk clearly knows what he's doing here by making that tweet. And if he doesn't, he's an idiot.

In the past, Musk disparaged Twitter's former head of trust and safety Yoel Roth by more or less implying that he was pedophile, which his followers capitalized on by sending him death threats. So intense was the onslaught of hate that followed that Yoel felt forced to flee his home.

That, and this latest episode, are a testament to the power of even just one tossed-off post by Musk — who now tweets as if it's his job.

Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) introduced a bill this week to legally erase transgender people, entitled the “Defining Male and Female Act of 2024.” He claimed that the bill will stop what he called the Biden administration’s attempt to “replace biological sex with dangerous radical gender ideology.”

The bill is a long list of terms and definitions, where words like “father” and “girl” are defined with the words “male” and “female.” Those two words are then defined as “an individual who naturally has, had, will have, or would have, but for a congenital anomaly or intentional or unintentional disruption, the reproductive system that at some point produces, transports and utilizes [sperm or eggs for male or female, respectively] for fertilization.”

youtube.com/watch?v=I12sLgc6XB…

A ballot measure that would repeal Alaska’s ranked choice voting and open primary system has very narrowly failed, according to final unofficial results released Wednesday by the Division of Elections.

The final margin for Ballot Measure 2, pending certification, is 664 out of 340,110 votes, with “No” outpacing “Yes” 50.1% to 49.9%.

In Texas, for example, the state school board voted on Tuesday to preliminarily approve a new curriculum that introduces students to Jesus and Christianity, beginning in kindergarten. The K-5 curriculum created by the state, known as Bluebonnet, has been derided by religious studies experts and others. These critics say "the curriculum’s lessons allude to Christianity more than any other religion, which… could lead to the bullying and isolation of non-Christian students, undermine church-state separation and grant the state far-reaching control over how children learn about religion."

The Bluebonnet curriculum, for example, teaches kindergarten students about the biblical story of Genesis and how it has inspired various works of art. Students are asked "to identify the order of creation." Four-year-olds may come away from the lesson believing that it is a fact that God created the world in six days.

While the Bluebonnet curriculum is optional, Texas schools that adopt it receive an additional $60 per student. So, there is a substantial financial incentive to substitute existing lessons for the new Christianity-heavy curriculum.

Archived version

On Tuesday [12 November], exactly two weeks after the November 5 election, the Republican-controlled legislature in North Carolina reconvened in Raleigh, ostensibly to pass disaster relief for areas affected by Hurricane Helene. But, with no public notice, they snuck provisions into the bill stripping power from the state’s incoming Democratic governor and attorney general and dramatically changing how elections are administered. The bill passed the state House Tuesday night, just hours after it was publicly released, and is expected to be approved by the state Senate on Wednesday.

“It’s a massive power grab,” says Melissa Price Kromm, executive director of the pro-democracy group North Carolina for the People Action. “They didn’t like what happened in the election, and they want to overturn the will of the people. That’s not how democracy is supposed to work.”

[...]

This is not the first time Republicans have convened a lame-duck session to strip power from Democrats—and not just in North Carolina. They did so when Cooper beat Republican Gov. Pat McCrory, preventing him from appointing members to boards of University of North Carolina schools, restricting the number of state employees he could hire or fire, and subjecting all of his nominations to confirmation by the GOP-controlled state Senate, which was not previously required.

Back in 2018, after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers defeated Republican Scott Walker in Wisconsin, Republicans also held a lame-duck session before Christmas to strip Evers of power and pass new laws making it harder to vote. Democrats called it a soft coup, and Evers viewed it as a precursor to the January 6 insurrection. “There hasn’t been a peaceful transition of power,” he told me.

The latest power grab in North Carolina could foreshadow the next few years in Washington under GOP control—and how the Republican Party’s antidemocratic tendencies have become more institutionalized, going much deeper than Trump. As Price Kromm puts it, “It’s batshit crazy down here right now.”

Archive.today link

Some key excerpts:

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced Wednesday that transgender women are not permitted to use bathrooms in the Capitol that match their gender identity

The policy [...] will also apply to bathrooms in House office buildings, changing rooms and locker rooms.

Johnson’s statement — which was made on Transgender Day of Remembrance, recognized annually to memorialize trans people who died due to anti-trans violence — comes days after Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) introduced a bill to bar transgender women from facilities on Capitol Hill that match their gender identity, a response to the election earlier this month of Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-Del.).

McBride blasted Mace’s legislation earlier this week, calling it “a blatant attempt from far right-wing extremists to distract from the fact that they have no real solutions to what Americans are facing.”

Mace was threatening to force a vote on the matter prior to Johnson’s decision to formally announce the new policy; the congresswoman wanted the terms to be included in the rules package for the 119th Congress and said she would force a vote on the bill if that did not come to fruition.

On Tuesday [5 November], nonpartisan watchdog American Oversight filed a motion for preliminary injunction in its ongoing lawsuit for the release of interview records from the federal investigation of attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz. The requested records, known as “302s,” are FBI summaries of witness interviews conducted during the reported investigation into Gaetz for serious criminal allegations, including sex trafficking of a minor.

This action is sponsored by: Civic Shout, Common Cause, DemCast USA, Democracy for America Advocacy Fund, Food & Water Watch, National Campaign for Justice, Progress America, TakeItBack.Org, The Juggernaut Project, The Workers Circle, and Voter Action Project.

Archive.org link

Some key excerpts:

House Speaker Mike Johnson signaled support Tuesday for a Republican effort to ban Democrat Sarah McBride — the first transgender person to be elected to Congress — from using women’s restrooms in the Capitol once she’s sworn into office next year.

A resolution proposed Monday by GOP Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina would prohibit any lawmakers and House employees from “using single-sex facilities other than those corresponding to their biological sex.” Mace said the bill is aimed specifically at McBride, who was elected to the House this month from Delaware.

At least 11 states have adopted laws barring transgender girls and women from girls and women’s bathrooms at public schools, and in some cases other government facilities.

[Mace] added that Johnson assured her the bathroom provision would be included in any changes to House rules for the next Congress.

Texas’ legislative session doesn’t start until January. But Republicans are frothing at the mouth to make abortion somehow even less accessible. Last week, lawmakers filed two key anti-abortion bills: one inspired by Louisiana’s law that reclassifies the pills as dangerous “controlled substances” without any basis, except to further restrict them, and another that would ban internet providers from hosting the websites of abortion funds or sites that offer any information on abortion, including abortion pills. Mind you, this is a state that already imposes a total ban that threatens abortion providers with life in prison.

Texas Republicans also introduced the “Women and Child Safety Act,” a 41-page bill that would allow citizens to sue internet service providers for at least $10,000 if they host pro-abortion rights websites. The bill seems modeled, in part, after Texas’ SB 8, the state’s six-week abortion ban from 2021 that’s enforced by civil lawsuits. Eerily enough, the new Texas bill specifically identifies abortion funds and websites that offer information on abortion pills. It names sites like Plan C Pills, Aid Access, and Hey Jane, which help people get medication abortion by mail.

An absolutely wonderful and deep insight into all the problems with revolutionary and other social movements, from the self serious martyrs that base their ideas on being the hero and get burned out to the rejection of rest, older wisdom and other such things it is a very much necessary message in this time of so much uncertainty.

Know where you are going, not just what you're trying to move away from.

With each one of Trump's announced appointments, it looks like the situation in the Federal government is getting worse. Even before the gutting of our Federal agencies occurs, we're still dealing with the court system stripping away sound policies both at the highest levels and in backward districts, often seeming to come down to a decision by a single judge in Texas.

So what can we do in states that actually want to make things better to either work on our own or even begin to pull away from the decision making of the backward parts of our country that keep making these decisions for us? How can we act without their input? How can we pull back the money that blue states that are doing well funnel into red states that could scarcely afford paved roads without our tax dollars? Is pulling out of the US or creating a smaller state-to-state coalition to consolidate our collective financial power reasonable or possible?

In Massachusetts we have a ballot initiative process, but it takes years to get it together to get a question on a ballot, and by then we're likely to be much further down this road.

What can we do today? How do we petition our representatives to pull us out of this absolute mess as much as possible? How do we maintain the protections, freedoms, and quality of life that our own local and state governments and the voters that put them into power have signaled their desire to secure in the face of a Federal government where RFK decides the health care policy and Elon Musk literally gets his own meme department?

Sounds like reeducation to me.

Apologies if this is a repost. I feel like people need to see this.

https://futurism.com/neoscope/rfk-jr-adderall-labor-camps

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/rfk-jr-kennedy-addicts-wellness-farms-b2585835.html

Albuquerque created its Community Safety department in 2020. Community Safety is its own city department, like the fire department or the police department, and is considered the city’s third branch of public safety, Ruiz-Angel said. It is one of the largest crisis response programs in the country, with 130 employees. When a call comes into 911 that the Community Safety department is eligible to respond to, dispatchers will send one of three types of Community Safety teams.

In Dayton, Ohio, the city established a Mediation Response Unit (MRU) in 2022 to respond to low emergency 911 calls, such as calls involving disputes between neighbors, child custody exchanges, or barking dogs, Raven Cruz Loaiza, a coordinator for the program, said in an interview. The MRU is small—just seven members—and is a program under the umbrella of the Dayton Mediation Center, a city agency. MRU members are unarmed and wear black pants and maroon polos with “Mediator” written on the back. The goal is to resolve conflicts between community members without police involvement.

While many crisis response programs are new, they’re already delivering results. Since it began operating two years ago, the Albuquerque Community Safety (ACS) department has diverted more than 33,000 calls from the city’s police department, according to data shared with The Appeal. In a significant portion of ACS calls, the department connected the person in crisis to service providers—such as shelters or substance use programs—instead of jail cells. A 2022 Stanford University study of Denver’s crisis response program found that reports of low-level crimes fell by 34 percent in neighborhoods where the city’s Support Team Assistance Response (STAR) program operated. The study also suggested that the crisis-response team saves taxpayers money, as incarceration is more expensive than treatment and support services.

The column actually backs up the hed, as abhorrent as it is at first, second and third glances.

Nov 15 (Reuters) - A federal judge in Texas on Friday permanently blocked a Biden administration rule that would have made about 4 million more salaried U.S. workers eligible for overtime pay.

U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan in Sherman, Texas, said the U.S. Department of Labor rule that took effect in July improperly bases eligibility for overtime pay on workers' wages rather than their job duties.

The state of Texas and business groups representing a range of industries had filed lawsuits challenging the rule, which had been consolidated.

His attacks have grown more sweeping, with Kennedy suggesting he will clear out "entire departments" at FDA, including the agency's food and nutrition center. The program is responsible for preventing foodborne illness, promoting health and wellness, reducing diet-related chronic disease and ensuring chemicals in food are safe.

If confirmed, Kennedy in principle could overturn almost any FDA decision. There have been rare cases of such decisions in previous administrations. Under both George W. Bush and Barack Obama, HHS overruled FDA approval decisions on the availability of emergency contraceptives.

Unwinding FDA regulations or revoking approval of longstanding vaccines and drugs would likely be more challenging. FDA has lengthy requirements for removing medicines from the market, which are based on federal laws passed by Congress. If the process is not followed, drugmakers could bring lawsuits that would need to work their way through the courts.

Kennedy, who has said "there's no vaccine that is safe and effective," would be in charge of appointments to the committee of influential panel experts who help set vaccine recommendations to doctors and the general public. Those include polio and measles given to infants and toddlers to protect against debilitating diseases to inoculations given to older adults to protect against threats like shingles and bacterial pneumonia as well as shots against more exotic dangers for international travelers or laboratory workers.

— "We need to act fast," Kennedy was reported to have said during an a Scottsdale, Arizona event over the weekend. "So that on Jan. 21, 600 people are going to walk into offices at NIH and 600 people are going to leave." [...] Kennedy wants half of the NIH budget to go toward "preventive, alternative and holistic approaches to health," he wrote in the Wall Street Journal in September. "In the current system, researchers don't have enough incentive to study generic drugs and root-cause therapies that look at things like diet."

Kennedy has not focused as much on the agency that spends more than $1.5 trillion yearly to provide health care coverage for more than half of the country through Medicaid, Medicare or the Affordable Care Act. [...] Instead, he's been an outspoken opponent of Medicare or Medicaid covering expensive weight-loss drugs, like Ozempic or Zepbound. Those drugs are not widely covered by either program, but there's some bipartisan support in Congress to change that.