Category: Politics

What do Democrats dream about now that vaccine passports are passé?

by philg

The big Democrat dream in 2021 was a segregated society in which Deplorables who refused to vaccinate their 8-year-olds against a virus that kills 82-year-olds would be excluded. See, for example, Vaccine papers checks in the Cradle of Liberty (December 2021, regarding Boston’s order that 5-year-olds be imprisoned at home if they weren’t injected with a non-FDA proved medicine (“emergency authorized” only)).

What’s the dream now? Excluding people who refuse to vote from public entertainment. Here’s a Facebook post from a San Franciscan who was previously an advocate for lockdowns, more severe lockdowns, vaccine requirements to hold jobs, and masks:

While Taylor Swift’s endorsement should be quite pleasing for its targets, she should also state that there’s no admission to her next tour without an “I Voted” sticker. Get one from an adult voter if you’re too young to vote or not a citizen. Her fan demographic doesn’t have great voter turnout, and even though most won’t be able to get tickets to see her, all will not want to cut off the chance. Sure, some will get fake ones, and some will lose theirs and need a way to resolve that, but most of them will vote or encourage their adult friends to. Other rock stars could do the same. Even Kid Rock if he wants, it would generally be a good thing.

It’s great that jet owner Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris. It is the perfect illustration of the divide between working class and elite Americans’ interests (2016 economic analysis). Low-skill immigration lowers wages for the working class, including all of the people who set up and clean up after her concerts, so she’ll keep a higher percentage of ticket revenue as profit. Low-skill immigrants aren’t going to move into any of the neighborhoods where Taylor Swift lives or get through her security bubble. If population growth via low-skill immigration clogs the highways, Taylor Swift is unlikely to be inconvenienced because she’ll have police escorts, helicopters, and private jets to get her to the next destination. If a low-skill immigrant does eventually rise into the middle class, that’s another customer for a concert ticket. A pop star can make more money in a larger country even as the daily experience of the typical citizen is degraded by overcrowding.

The original Facebook post as an image:

Full post, including comments

How are Brazilians doing now that they’ve eliminated the biggest threat to their democracy?

by philg

Here’s Jair Bolsonaro, characterized by media elites as “far right”, “authoritarian”, and “a threat to democracy”, in 2023 (from “Exiled Bolsonaro lives it up in Florida as legal woes grow back home” (Guardian)):

The Brazilian masses responded to elite advice and voted to preserve their democracy (50.9:49.1), but the threat wasn’t completely extinguished. “The Big Lie Is Going Global. We Saw It in Brazil.” (New York Times, November 14, 2022), for example:

Donald Trump’s playbook of poisoning the polity with misinformation … is being exported and deployed beyond the United States and becoming a transnational threat to democracy.

Mr. Trump’s methods were energetically adopted in Brazil by his authoritarian, right-wing friend Jair Bolsonaro, who pushed misinformation during his presidency, seeded distrust in the electoral system for years and, eventually, tried to discredit the electoral process in Brazil after losing the presidential election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva last month.

It’s bad enough when a threat to democracy speaks and even worse when he/she/ze/they doesn’t speak:

For more than 44 hours after his electoral defeat, Mr. Bolsonaro maintained a dangerous silence

So long as the government does not control all media and social media, democracy is unsafe:

The attempts of Mr. Bolsonaro and his supporters to create uncertainty about Brazil’s future could be the new global norm as would-be autocrats are embracing the Big Lie as a legitimate political strategy.

NYT, today, “How Brazil’s Experiment Fighting Fake News Led to a Ban on X”:

To combat disinformation, Brazil gave one judge broad power to police the internet.

That justice, Alexandre de Moraes, has since carried out an aggressive campaign to clean up his country’s internet, forcing social networks to pull down thousands of posts, often giving them a deadline of just hours to comply.

It has been one of the most comprehensive — and, in some ways, most effective — efforts to combat the scourge of internet falsehoods.

When his online crackdown helped stifle far-right efforts to overturn Brazil’s election, academics and commentators wondered whether the nation had found a possible solution to one of the most vexing problems of modern democracy.

Then, on Friday, Justice Moraes blocked the social network X across Brazil because its owner, Elon Musk, had ignored his court orders to remove accounts. As part of the blackout order, the judge said internet users who tried to circumvent his measure in order to keep using X could be fined nearly $9,000 a day, or more than what the average Brazilian makes a year.

Justice Moraes has continued to use the threat to democracy as a justification for his actions. In his order on Friday, he said Mr. Musk’s refusal to comply with orders to suspend accounts “represents an extremely serious risk to the municipal elections in October” in Brazil.

How else are Brazilians being protected from threats to their democracy? The current government has the opposition leader more or less under house arrest: “Brazil’s Bolsonaro must hand in his passport for coup investigation” (state-sponsored NPR, February 2024). Brazil is on the right side of history, according to the best minds of Harvard, Columbia, and Berkeley: “Brazil president withdraws his ambassador to Israel after criticizing the war in Gaza” (state-sponsored PBS, May 2024; “Lula has been a frequent critic of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, which he compared to the Holocaust earlier this year.”). [Note that the “Holocaust” is being exacerbated by a population explosion.]

Some additional warnings that Brazilian voters heeded:

Full post, including comments

Jewish Democrats in Illinois

by philg

Who’s been following the Democrats’ convention in Illinois? What have you learned? Here’s my favorite part:

I think the tweet to which I am responding is inaccurate, incidentally. The Obamas have at least four houses, not three, though one of them is a house in Chicago that might not qualify as a “mansion”. So my response:

“What do I have three mansions?” asked the expert on not consuming more than she needs, “Because I couldn’t afford four.”

perhaps should be

“What do I have four mansions?” asked [Michelle Obama,] the expert on not consuming more than she needs, “Because I couldn’t afford five.”

Related… On the way out of Oshkosh in July, I stopped to visit cousins who live in the northern suburbs of Chicago. They consider their biggest enemies to be white American Republicans, with Donald Trump as the worst of the worst. They spontaneously expressed disappointment that Trump hadn’t been killed earlier in July in Pennsylvania and certainly agreed with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris that Trump was an existential threat to America, Americans, and American democracy. They were afraid to go into Chicago due to crime (see Keeping the faith in Chicago for my report on the 2023 visit), but don’t blame the Democrats who run the state and city for what they perceive as a decline. They refuse to go to a Democrat-run city in Texas where a grandchild lives because they’re afraid of encountering a Republican there. The synagogue around the corner from their house has the following sign on the front lawn:

They had been all-in for the not-senile-at-all Joe Biden a week prior to our visit, but were all-in on Kamala Harris while we shared coffee (outdoors, of course, because their level of coronapanic is still at least Code Yellow; they were refraining from seeing an elderly parent, even outdoors, because there had been some recent positive COVID tests in his senior community).

What I found most interesting was that the groundswell of Democrat support for the Islamic Resistance Movement (“Hamas”) and the destruction of Israel hadn’t shaken their faith in white native-born Republicans as their biggest and most dangerous enemies. As we got closer to Chicago, the percentage of people wearing Islamic headgear steadily increased. Yet these senior citizen Jews didn’t see the young rapidly growing Muslim population of the Midwest as a sign that Jews would one day be as unwelcome in Illinois as they are in the typical Muslim country. (If present demographic trends continue, their neighborhood will become majority Muslim. How would the neighbors feel about having to drive/walk by the above Rainbow Flag with Star of David while on their way to the mosque? See “‘A sense of betrayal’: liberal dismay as Muslim-led US city bans Pride flags” (Guardian) for a story about Hamtramck, Michigan)

Separately, speaking of coronapanic, here are a couple of photos from the O’Hare airport:

We see the apparently young and healthy wearing masks. We see a Follower of Science wearing an N95-style mask over his/her/zir/their full beard, contrary to the manufacturer’s instructions. We see a slender youth wearing a basic mask in hopes of avoiding an infection that kills obese Americans at a median age of 82.

Related:

  • “New Study Looks into Strengths, Needs of Muslims in Illinois” (WTTW, 2022): Illinois is home to more than 350,000 Muslims. According to a new study, that makes the state No. 1 in the country for Muslims per capita. … Researchers found that Muslims in Illinois were the youngest and most diverse faith community in the state and the country. The sample in the study were racially and ethnically diverse. About half of the sample was born outside of the U.S. and a sizable number speak languages other than English at home. … Researchers also found that Muslims in Illinois were also highly politically active and civically engaged. 75% of the sample is registered to vote with an additional 16% expressing an intention to register.
  • “For Convention Goers in Chicago, the Issue of Migrants Comes Into Full View” (New York Times): Around downtown, migrants are not sleeping overnight on the sidewalks, they say, and some are staying in hotels that have been converted into shelters. A large number appear to be living in apartments that they obtained with government housing assistance, commuting downtown each day to sell candy and earn cash. Very few have English skills or official work authorization, leaving them in a limbo of illegal street vending that is often ignored by police officers. “It’s a totally different look for downtown,” said Annie Gomberg, a volunteer who works with migrants. “We’re not used to seeing mothers and children standing on the street selling candy and water.” … “We have had issues that involved having a lot of single males without a whole lot to do outside,” he said. “So we certainly have gotten lots of complaints involving drug use, catcalling, as well as some prostitution.”
Full post, including comments

Our democracy is threatened by Democrats (says Cori Bush)

by philg

For at least eight years we have been informed for by Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, the New York Times, et al., that Republicans will end our democracy (see Why do the non-Deplorables deplore the Trump shooting?). Yesterday, however, I saw something new. A Democrat in a primary election says that if a fellow Democrat is elected that will end our democracy:

Unfortunately, democracy lost yesterday and it will be a different Democrat representing this district in Congress (at least until democracy is ended, as predicted, and Congress is dissolved). The Hamas-supporting politician says that the loss will “radicalize” her:

(Click through to Mona Eltahawy’s profile: “she/her” and “Cairo/New York”)

What does a radicalized ex-member of Congress do next? Can she become a lobbyist as so many former politicians have? Her job would be highlighting to Ilhan Omar, AOC, and Rashida Tlaib some additional progressive causes to fund?

Here’s her successful opponent, Wesley Bell, on the most impactful issue of our time:

The St. Louis region has been enriched and strengthened by generations of immigrants choosing to start new lives in our community. But for decades, Washington politicians have kicked the can down the road instead of actually coming together and tackling this issue. It’s time for comprehensive immigration reform that addresses current challenges and prepares for the future as well.

We need to work toward finding the appropriate balance in creating a system that ensures safety and security at the border, while also treating people with dignity and respect, and honoring the rights of asylum seekers. A pathway to citizenship must be established for those who are already here, working hard, and paying taxes. We need to ensure that our country is protected from MS-13 gang members, drug traffickers, and terrorists. You can count on me to fight to ensure that the Department of Homeland Security has adequate funding to serve our country.

I can’t figure out how this kind of statement, which seems to be standard at least for Democrats, is convincing to American voters. He implies that he will limit the number of low-skill migrants (“appropriate balance”) and in the same sentence talks about “honoring the rights of asylum seekers”. Yet under our present laws, the right to seek asylum is without limit and, thus, the only way to honor the rights of asylum seekers is to have unlimited low-skill immigration.

Full post, including comments

A Constitutional amendment to impose an age limit of 67 on the President?

by philg

An immigrant physician friend, simply based on videos that she watched in 2020, diagnosed Joe Biden with dementia four years ago and referred to him as “the senile puppet” long before the New York Times editorial board noticed that anything was wrong. Democrats now believe that Joe Biden’s cognitive abilities are insufficient to handle the job of U.S. President. Democrats also hate Donald Trump and there are at least some Republicans who prefer Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley to Mr. Trump.

I wonder if these groups could get together and do a quickie amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would impose a mandatory retirement age of 67 (the current Social Security full retirement age for those born after 1960) on the job. We need three-fourths of the states to ratify such an amendment and then both the Republicans and Democrats would have to nominate younger politicians for the November election.

We’ve already got a minimum of 35:

Why not a maximum?

Full post, including comments

Jamaal Bowman, art, and Hitler

by philg

International Jewry is responsible for Dr. Jamaal Bowman, Ed. D.’s recent defeat in New York. The Hill:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) slammed American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) for pouring tens of millions into fellow Democratic New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s divisive primary race Wednesday after Bowman lost the primary to a more moderate Democrat.

Bowman, a second-term progressive, faced tough opposition from the pro-Israel political advocacy group AIPAC because of his criticism of the Israeli government.

Who else had superior ideals and blamed International Jewry for obstructions to their implementation? From The Women Who Flew for Hitler:

Over tea that afternoon, Hitler once again ‘leapt up in a fit of frenzy, with foam on his lips, and shouted that he would have revenge on all traitors’. Interrupted by a call from Berlin, he screamed orders ‘to shoot anyone and everyone’ before announcing, ‘I’m beginning to doubt whether the German people are worthy of my great ideals.’ [this was following the aristocratic assassination and military coup attempt against Germany’s democratically elected leader]

Blaming the war on Jewish incitement, and defeat on the betrayal of his officers, Hitler ended his last statement with the injunction that his successors should ‘above all else, uphold the racial laws in all their severity, and mercilessly resist the universal poisoner of all nations: international Jewry’. [from the bunker]

In one of the few parts of Porto that isn’t mobbed with tourists, maybe due to the outrageous-by-Portuguese-standards 24 euro entry price for the Serralves Foundation (mercifully free for the kids), I found the following artistic collaboration between Yayoi Kusama and Dr. Jamaal Bowman, Ed. D.:

Kusama is 95. It’s a shame that she wasn’t born in the U.S. or she could run for President.

Circling back to Dr. Jamaal Bowman, Ed. D., could the reason that progressive Democrats haven’t managed to take control of the entire U.S. be that Americans aren’t worthy of great ideals, e.g., stopping climate change, providing asylum to 8+ billion humans if they want it, ending homelessness, liberating Al-Quds and establishing a river-to-the-sea Palestinian state, a living wage for everyone who attempts to work, eliminating the acquisition of unnecessary wealth, etc.?

Full post, including comments

30 years of Republican cuts to the food stamp (SNAP/EBT) program

by philg

From the member of the U.S. Congress who called for “river to the sea” liberation of Palestine after the October 7 Hamas/UNRWA/Palestinian Islamic Jihad victory:

There have been previous cuts. The program has been gutted. A yet larger cut is forthcoming unless everyone votes for Democrats.

After 30 years of “cuts” to this program that is part of what used to be called “welfare”, how has the number of beneficiaries changed?

USDA publishes data from 1969 through 2023 regarding the number of Americans who are dependent on their brothers, sisters, and binary-resisters who pay taxes. Based on the table below, the number of dependents has grown from 2.9 million in 1969 to 42 million in 2023:

How does it work in practice? Here’s a tutorial video:

Note that this post is not an argument against taxpayers being forced to provide for those who wisely elect to refrain from work. It is about the subtlety of the American progressive mind, in which people can believe and say that a government program has been “cut” or “gutted” while spending on that program grows.

Full post, including comments

God’s principal gifts to Americans: elderly Democrats

by philg

It’s Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week for observant Christians. In the old days, the majority of Americans believed that Jesus was God’s greatest gift to humanity. What or who has replaced Jesus? “Marilynne Robinson Considers Biden a Gift of God” (New York Times, February 15, 2024):

I’m less than a year younger than Joe Biden, so I believe utterly in his competence, his brilliance, his worldview. I really do. You have to live to be 80 to find this out: Anybody under 50 feels they’re in a position to condescend to you. You get boxed into this position where people who deal with you are making assumptions about your intellect. It’s very disturbing. Most people my age are just fine. What can I say? It’s a kind of good fortune that America is categorically incapable of accepting: that someone with a strong institutional memory, who knows how things are supposed to work, who was habituated to their appropriate functioning is president. I consider him a gift of God. All 81 years of him.

Full post, including comments

Democracy in Florida today

by philg

Today was our presidential primary. From CNN, an example of how democracy is supposed to work from the party that says its sacred mission is to preserve our democracy:

And a baffling result from the Party of Tyranny (TM):

How does Nikki Haley, who has never tried to do anything for Florida, get more votes than Ron DeSantis, who has worked hard (and, if we believe the meager net worth on his financial statements, honestly) on behalf of Floridians for about 10 years (first in Congress, then as governor)?

I went to the local branch of the Palm Beach County public library system to vote today. The parking lot was packed at 1:45 pm and I took this as a sign of citizen engagement. It turned out, however, that the cars were parked at the library because people were using the library part of the library (despite CNN and NYT informing us that books are banned in Florida). Voting was in a community room and there were booths sufficient to accommodate more than 20 voters in parallel. The three poll workers told me that I was Voter #25… for the day. I’m grateful for the work that Ron DeSantis has done in his job as our governor, so I put in a thank-you vote.

For Irish readers, a snapshot from Sunday evening’s St. Patrick’s Day block party in our MacArthur Foundation-created development (Abacoa):

A week earlier, Abacoa hosted the Jupiter Irish Fest, complete with about 25 performers from the local Irish Dance school.

Full post, including comments

Super Tuesday nostalgia for Ron DeSantis

by philg

Today is Super Tuesday, an important milepost in what is shaping up to be a fight among two guys in Memory Care (and one gal for whom Americans don’t seem to share my own enthusiasm (and even I have been put off by Nikki Haley’s seeming lack of coherent philosophy)).

A bit of nostalgia for Ron DeSantis, then! He lacked the ability to project empathy that Americans cherish, but he was the only candidate in the race with a coherent philosophy of government combined with a reasonable age for handling a demanding job. A mailer we got in November 2022, when Mr. DeSantis was running for reelection as governor:

(I don’t understand how a governor can take credit for having “raised teacher pay”. Counties negotiate with teachers’ unions and the U.S. Congress no doubt did the most to raise teacher pay in nominal dollars by generating raging inflation through deficit spending.)

In other news, let’s check the political diversity in the center of our empire…

There were just over 2,000 people who were willing to identify as Republican and vote in the primary a couple of days ago (total D.C. population is over 700,000; more than 500,000 should be eligible to vote (source, which notes that D.C. has “the most diverse and educated voting population in the U.S.”)).

Finally, what about the project that state-level Democrats have been engaging in around the nation to preserve democracy by preventing their subjects from voting for Donald Trump? The Supreme Court has ruled this was illegal and unconstitutional and not just the Republican-appointed justices who are characterized by Democrats as corrupt and illegitimate. All 9 justices. Will there be any apologies from Democrats for violating the U.S. Constitution? From the Newspaper of Record (TM):

Full post, including comments