Month: August 2020

Prodigal Son-ism — the tendency of the media to treat conservatives who have changed their minds about Trump or conservative causes as far more important than those of us who were right all along — is one of the most obnoxious of Trump-era tropes.

Case in point: Michael Gerson’s opening to a mea culpa on race(Gerson was a W. Bush speechwriter and a prominent neoconservative):

I had fully intended to ignore President Trump’s latest round of racially charged taunts against an African American elected official, and an African American activist, and an African American journalist and a whole city with a lot of African Americans in it. I had every intention of walking past Trump’s latest outrages and writing about the self-destructive squabbling of the Democratic presidential field, which has chosen to shame former vice president Joe Biden for the sin of being an electable, moderate liberal.

But I made the mistake of pulling James Cone’s “The Cross and the Lynching Tree” off my shelf — a book designed to shatter convenient complacency.

Gerson actually had to turn to a book before he understood that he should never ignore racist speech from the president of the United States?

This is just one of so many reasons why this passage is so appalling.* It would take volumes, probably, to list them all (who exactly are “conveniently complacent?” Not the millions of Black Americans who are the direct target of racist presidential rhetoric).

Let’s be kind and say that Gerson has a lot of learning to catch up on. And that is the problem with Prodigal Son-ism. By paying so much attention to the Gersons of America, we don’t have time or space in the public discourse for the voices of people who don’t have to be taught the basics and really do understand the problems America faces, including race.

Even more serious: Every moment spent on the Gersons of the world is a moment not spent actually pursuing racial justice. We’re too busy getting people like Gerson up to speed on the basics.

Yes, now Gerson gets the basics of racial history. How long will it take before he finally understands why trans rights are so important? Or why, even at the time, opposing the invasion of Iraq was sensible and invading the country insane? Or why the economic system of the United States generates appalling inequality that only federal policies can mitigate and change?

Don’t get me wrong. Just as we should praise an infant who finally learns how to tie his shoes, Gerson deserves a very nice pat on the head here. But while Mike is slowly learning how to count, let’s put the grownups in charge and let them do the work that badly needs to be done.

*Yes, I’m aware that Gerson is using a literary device here — or at least I hope he is — no American should actually be this clueless. The point is that he actually thinks this particular literary device is somehow appropriate for this subject. And that is problematic. Only the Gersons of the world — white, highly privileged, deeply entitled — would start an op-ed about race in such a tasteless and smug fashion.

I am not a scientist or researcher and I’m far from the smartest person I know. Yet I can easily read the chart above, which illustrates exponential growth. I can also easily grasp the implications of the concept of exponential growth for something like — oh, I don’t know — the spread of a highly contagious virus.

Exponential growth and it’s connection to the real world is not rocket science. I thought anyone with a college education understood this.

I was wrong.

Recently, I learned that one of the smartest and most successful people I know, someone with wide national if not international influence, could not grasp, despite repeated explanations, what exponential growth meant in the real world. Worse, that person’s colleagues — people who are equally smart and even more influential — find exponential growth so irrelevant to real life that they persisted in going into their crowded office (even though most of their work could easily be done at home) while tens of thousands in their city and even dozens of their own colleagues fell ill around them.

And so, as the first few cases appeared in their city back in late February, they looked at those early death-soaked statistics from the Wuhan outbreak and thought, “Look around, it’s just three or four people here. Nothing to worry about.” And just kept on keeping on.

The principle reason that over 150,000 Americans are dead today is that Donald Trump and his administration failed utterly in their response. But this breathtaking incapacity to understand the basic implications of a simple quantitative concept was repeated over and over again, not only by people who never went to college but also by some of the most highly educated people around.

To me, this conceptual blindness represents a failure of national educational policy in at least two ways. First, there is a national failure to teach non-STEM students even the basics of statistical analysis. Who needs stats, anyway, if you’re passionate about art history and don’t give a hoot about geology? Answer: you do. Proof? The pandemic.

The second failure is a failure — both in and out of the sciences — to teach even the basics of how to be creative in an effective manner. A technical understanding of exponential growth is one thing. But to understand what such a growth curve could mean in the real world? That takes a trained imagination plus creativity — not much, but enough to connect dots in a reasonable way.

Proof? It’s not just math-phobes who couldn’t understand what those awful charts implied. I know medical students and researchers — not conspiracy theorists but some of the most level-headed people in my circle — who couldn’t connect the 6 or 7 Covid cases they’d heard about in their communities with what they understood from their stats 101 class about exponential growth.

Some time in the future when we have rational leadership again — and let that time begin today with Trump’s and Pence’s immediate resignations — the way in which this country is educated needs a complete and thorough overhaul. All of us need a far better understanding of basic statistical thinking. And all of us also need a far better understanding of how to think imaginatively about how those stats affect our lives.

So Mitch has given the vulnerable Senators leave to go their own way? Are they suddenly less afraid of Trump’s tweets and the reaction of his cult?

Sen. Mitch McConnell is allowing Republican Senate candidates to do whatever it takes to salvage their campaigns ahead of what Republicans increasingly fear could be a devastating election for their party.

In recent weeks, the Senate majority leader has become so concerned over Republicans losing control of the Senate that he has signaled to vulnerable GOP senators in tough races that they could distance themselves from the President if they feel it is necessary, according to multiple senior Republicans including a source close to McConnell.

That could mean breaking with Trump on the administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and the continued efforts by the President to paint an optimistic picture despite rising cases and deaths across parts of the country, especially in many Republican states in the South and Midwest.

While this may give some senators the flexibility to draw a distinction between themselves and the President, it also forces them to walk a tightrope. Trump remains enormously popular with the Republican base, and any attempts to undercut him risks alienating those voters.

“These vulnerable senators can’t afford to explicitly repudiate Trump,” said one senior Republican on Capitol Hill. “They just need to show they are independent on issues important in their states.”

Maybe they figure Trump won’t notice. I have a feeling that their Democratic rivals might bring it to his attention don’t you? It would be foolish not to drive that wedge in as hard as possible.

This has always been the dilemma for GOPers in swing states and swing districts. If they toe the line they alienate the normal people. But they can’t afford to alienate the cult either. So, good luck with that.

There was a time when Republicans might have felt required to treat the recently retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman with a modicum of respect. Today, they celebrate war criminals.

Vindman wrote this for the Washington Post this morning:

After 21 years, six months and 10 days of active military service, I am now a civilian. I made the difficult decision to retire because a campaign of bullying, intimidation and retaliation by President Trump and his allies forever limited the progression of my military career.

This experience has been painful, but I am not alone in this ignominious fate. The circumstances of my departure might have been more public, yet they are little different from those of dozens of other lifelong public servants who have left this administration with their integrity intact but their careers irreparably harmed.AD

A year ago, having served the nation in uniform in positions of critical importance, I was on the cusp of a career-topping promotion to colonel. A year ago, unknown to me, my concerns over the president’s conduct and the president’s efforts to undermine the very foundations of our democracy were precipitating tremors that would ultimately shake loose the facade of good governance and publicly expose the corruption of the Trump administration.

At no point in my career or life have I felt our nation’s values under greater threat and in more peril than at this moment. Our national government during the past few years has been more reminiscent of the authoritarian regime my family fled more than 40 years ago than the country I have devoted my life to serving.

Our citizens are being subjected to the same kinds of attacks tyrants launch against their critics and political opponents. Those who choose loyalty to American values and allegiance to the Constitution over devotion to a mendacious president and his enablers are punished. The president recklessly downplayed the threat of the pandemic even as it swept through our country. The economic collapse that followed highlighted the growing income disparities in our society. Millions are grieving the loss of loved ones and many more have lost their livelihoods while the president publicly bemoans his approval ratings.

There is another way.

During my testimony in the House impeachment inquiry, I reassured my father, who experienced Soviet authoritarianism firsthand, saying, “Do not worry, I will be fine for telling the truth.” Despite Trump’s retaliation, I stand by that conviction. Even as I experience the low of ending my military career, I have also experienced the loving support of tens of thousands of Americans. Theirs is a chorus of hope that drowns out the spurious attacks of a disreputable man and his sycophants.

Since the struggle for our nation’s independence, America has been a union of purpose: a union born from the belief that although each individual is the pilot of their own destiny, when we come together, we change the world. We are stronger as a woven rope than as unbound threads.

America has thrived because citizens have been willing to contribute their voices and shed their blood to challenge injustice and protect the nation. It is in keeping with that history of service that, at this moment, I feel the burden to advocate for my values and an enormous urgency to act.

Despite some personal turmoil, I remain hopeful for the future for both my family and for our nation. Impeachment exposed Trump’s corruption, but the confluence of a pandemic, a financial crisis and the stoking of societal divisions has roused the soul of the American people. A groundswell is building that will issue a mandate to reject hate and bigotry and a return to the ideals that set the United States apart from the rest of the world. I look forward to contributing to that effort.

In retirement from the Army, I will continue to defend my nation. I will demand accountability of our leadership and call for leaders of moral courage and public servants of integrity. I will speak about the attacks on our national security. I will advocate for policies and strategies that will keep our nation safe and strong against internal and external threats. I will promote public service and exalt the contribution that service brings to all areas of society.

The 23-year-old me who was commissioned in December 1998 could never have imagined the opportunities and experiences I have had. I joined the military to serve the country that sheltered my family’s escape from authoritarianism, and yet the privilege has been all mine.

This person’s family history is what gave him such moral authority when he testified and put his career on the line. I don’t know how many in the military backed Trump and helped to chase him out of the military but I’d guess it’s more than a few. I would hope that a new Secretary of Defense under a President Joe Biden (knock on wood) will look into what happened with Vindman.

And he or she needs to look at what happened with Trump’s pet war criminals too. Something needs to be done about that too.

It appears that there’s some effort at damage control by acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf:

A senior Department of Homeland Security official whose office compiled “intelligence reports” about journalists and protesters in Portland, Ore., has been removed from his job, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Brian Murphy, the acting undersecretary for intelligence and analysis, was reassigned to a new position elsewhere in the department, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter.

Acting homeland security secretary Chad Wolf made the decision on Friday, one person said.

Murphy’s removal follows revelations in The Washington Post that the Intelligence & Analysis Office (I & A) at DHS compiled Open Source Intelligence Reports about the work of two journalists who had published leaked department documents. In a separate intelligence report, the office also analyzed the communications of protesters in Portland.

Wolf, ordered I & A to stop collecting information on journalists after The Post article was published on Thursday.

Murphy had previously told Senate committee staff that his office did not collect, analyze or exploit information on the electronic devices or accounts of protesters. On Friday, Democratic senators sent Murphy a letter asking him to confirm that was true.

Murphy is a former FBI agent who worked on the bureau’s efforts to combat radicalization. Current and former colleagues have described him as hard-charging and driven and said he has a history of defying managers and bosses.

Some current officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly, said that Murphy has earned a reputation at DHS for aggressively trying to expand the operations of the intelligence office. Although it is technically an element of the broader intelligence community, I & A publishes reports largely based on unclassified or public sources and isn’t designed to engage in clandestine operations like the FBI or the CIA.

Murphy tried to fashion the office into more of an operational player, akin to those larger agencies, and drew scrutiny and criticism internally over his efforts, some officials said. One noted that I & A’s collection of information involving journalists was effectively the last straw and led to his ouster.

Officials have also worried Murphy was misapplying the authorities of I & A.

For example, the intelligence reports about the journalists’ work appeared to justify collecting the information under a standing requirement for intelligence about cybersecurity threats. It was unclear how tweets by journalists constituted a threat to cybersecurity, which the department usually interprets as hackers trying to disable critical infrastructure or break into classified computers.

Recently, Murphy tried to broaden the definition of violent protesters in Portland, in a way that some officials felt was intended to curry favor with the White house.

In an internal memo, Murphy announced that the label “violent opportunists,” which his office had used to describe people who were attacking law enforcement personnel and property, would be changed to “violent antifa anarchists inspired,” according to an internal memo.

Murphy argued that the violent protesters weren’t merely taking advantage of a moment but had “overwhelmingly” been linked to radical ideologies “driving individuals toward violence.” That conclusion was undercut by an earlier DHS analysis that found there wasn’t enough information about the Portland protesters for the department to know how they might be connected to anti-fascist or anarchist groups and what precisely was motivating them. Many of the protests in Portland have been peaceful and in response to police violence around the country.

This guy sounds like a real Bill Barr clone. I’m surprised they cut him loose and I’d guess Trump won’t like it when he hears about it.

It’s interesting watching these small reversions to semi-normal behavior by various GOP players. They are seeing the writing on the wall.

But it’s too late for them. We know that Chad Wolf is a fascist Trumper and it’s going to take a lifetime of good works for him to save his reputation.

The year 2020 has been a perfect storm of death, dysfunction, propaganda, no-nothingism, cultishness, racial struggle, conspiracy theories, social unrest, economic collapse, and who knows what else. Amidst the multiplying stresses, large segments of us seem to be tuning out or losing our minds. All while those not worrying about losing their homes worry about losing their lives.

The dead and those caring for the sick have become footnotes to the drama going on outside our hospitals. Battles in the streets between civil rights protesters and the new “secret police” make more eye-catching footage. The acting president, never the sharpest tool, is decaying mentally and physically before our eyes. The press does what the press does, reflexively documenting the political atrocities for a populace by now numbed to them. The dead and dying become abstractions. The national death count rolls up like counters tracking the national debt, an abstraction until the coronavirus takes someone you love.

CNN profiles Dr. Joseph Varon who heads the coronavirus unit at Houston’s United Memorial Medical Center. He has worked for 134 days straight and is “running on fumes.”

While new coronavirus cases there are declining for now, Texas has seen the highest number of deaths per 100,000 over the last seven days, a total of 2,389. For Varon and his team, those numbers are no abstraction. Last week, he signed more death certificates than in his entire career.

Beginning at 4:30 or 5 a.m., he gets home most about midnight. But his entire team is just as spent:

“The nursing life inside a Covid unit is tough,” he said. “Every time they go in and they wear those spacesuits, they come out sweating like there’s no tomorrow. It’s like a mini sauna for them.”

The work is physically exhausting, with everyone on staff wearing several layers of personal protective equipment, or PPE. Varon has seen nurses slip on their own sweat.

It’s also emotionally draining.

“I have seen nurses, in the middle of rounds, just start crying,” Varon said. “Crying because they just can’t handle it anymore.”

One of Varon’s nurses, Christina Mathers, tested positive for the virus last week. Varon doesn’t know where she contracted it. In his layers of PPE, he is more comfortable on his unit than outside.

“That’s the hardest thing to ever hear. … It messes with you,” said Mathers, who had been working every other day since April 29. “But I wouldn’t go anywhere else but here.”

Perhaps the most frustrating is seeing the carelessness of people outside. While Varon’s team fights to save lives inside the hospital, people in the community treat the contagion as an economic or personal nuisance. Asking them to wear masks is an affront to their political beliefs:

“People are calling my office and leaving threats because of all the media I’ve been doing, because they don’t believe that what we’re doing is real,” he said.

Varon wants people to see: This is not a hoax. This is a real thing. People are dying.

“You have no idea my frustration when I leave the hospital, I’m heading home, and then in one of these outdoor malls I see a hundred cars, a bunch of young guys or young women having a party — no face masks, no nothing. That kills me,” he said. “People are not listening.”

When New York City was the outbreak’s epicenter, there were at least occasional images of mass graves and portable morgues to remind us there were bodies behind the statistics. Now, those are largely replaced with statistics. The Midas cult shovels the dead into the economy’s furnaces without even crediting them for giving their lives for it. Confederate generals landed on pedestals. The COVID-19 dead land on graphs.

There’s little overlap in the plans released by Democrats and Republicans for another round of federal aid to address the coronavirus pandemic.

Here’s a look at how the 2 parties’ proposals compare: https://t.co/IbwSwIGXXR pic.twitter.com/gf5GkNaNeT

— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 31, 2020

In Congress, Senate Republicans led by sociopaths in the White House cannot simulate enough compassion to keep the living afloat financially much less provide the resources to keep them from dying. More than a third of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s caucus “are not going to vote for anything,” he said. The $600 a week in unemployment insurance passed in March expired Friday at midnight. That money kept millions of struggling families’ heads above water.

Meanwhile, cultists out in the streets gather without masks to protest a Deep State cabal of Satan-worshipping, covid-hoaxing, Hollywood pedophiles who secretly run the planet when they are not eating babies. QAnon imagines these threats are more real than a microscopic virus.

Doctors and nurses in local hospitals will risk their lives to save them when Trump/QAnon cultists find out otherwise.

There’s a QAnon/Pizzagate protest in Hollywood right now. The signs are absolutely wild. And no masks. Something is deeply wrong with this country.

🎥: @williamg1 pic.twitter.com/CqT1LMF6zv

— Read Let This Radicalize You (@JoshuaPHilll) July 31, 2020

One wonders if QAnon is an enormous practical joke by Russian President Vladimir Putin, if less deadly than his Donald Trump prank.

● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

For The Win, 3rd Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free countywide GOTV mechanics guide at ForTheWin.us. This is what winning looks like.
Note: The pandemic will upend standard field tactics in 2020. If enough promising “improvisations” come my way, perhaps I can issue a COVID-19 supplement.