There is a new blog post entitled, “20/20 hindsight on 9/11.”
Donald Trump
Associated Press, “Republicans start election ‘investigation’ in Pennsylvania,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, September 9, 2021, https://triblive.com/news/pennsylvania/republicans-start-election-investigation-in-pennsylvania/
Andrew Seidman and Jonathan Lai, “Pa. Republicans started their ‘forensic investigation’ of the 2020 election. It’s still unclear what that means,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 9, 2021, https://www.inquirer.com/politics/pennsylvania/pennsylvania-republicans-2020-election-audit-20210909.html
Voting rights
The Republican efforts to disenfranchise voters, framed as supposedly ensuring election integrity, and rationalized as any defeat being “proof” of a “rigged election,” remind me of an apparent paleoconservative belief that on some level all white people must actually agree with them, they must all somehow feel threatened by Black and ‘brown’ people, and that any who express disagreement are under some inappropriate influence to be utterly disparaged. That any white people might truly dissent is entirely inconceivable to them.
So it is with Republicans and voting: If you disagree with “us,” you can’t be a “real Amerikkkan,” therefore you cannot be a legal voter and your vote cannot be legitimate. As Kim Messick explained years ago,
the Republican Party’s extremism can be traced to its increased dependence on an electorate that is largely rural, Southern and white. These voters, who figure prominently in the Tea Party, often decline to interpret political conflict as a struggle among interest groups or a good-faith clash of opinion. Instead, they tend to identify the country as a whole with an idealized version of themselves, and to equate any dissent from their values with disloyalty by alien, “un-American” forces. This paranoid vision of politics, I argued, makes them seek out opportunities for dramatic conflict and to shun negotiation and compromise.[1]
There’s some irony here. So-called “socialist” or “communist” regimes were notorious for election results in which ludicrously high proportions of the electorate supported the Communist Party. Republicans who decry “socialism” and who won’t even utter the word communism seemingly expect just these sorts of results in their own favor. Dissent is inconceivable and can’t possibly be legitimate.
Paige St. John, “Election watchers snap photos of workers, challenge voter signatures as recall nears,” Los Angeles Times, September 10, 2021, https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-09-10/election-chiefs-wary-of-california-recall-vote-fraud-claims
Pandemic
National
I don’t see how you argue against the necessity[2] for Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate.[3]
But the follow-on question is whether it’ll stand up in court. At the Los Angeles Times, Michael Hiltzik points to U.S. Supreme Court precedent, suggesting Biden is on ludicrously solid ground.[4] And indeed, he projects confidence.[5] The trouble, according to Hayley Fowler at the Sacramento Bee, is that it might not be so simple.[6] We do, after all, have an especially capricious Supreme Court.
Sharon Lerner, Mara Hvistendahl, and Maia Hibbett, “NIH Documents Provide New Evidence U.S. Funded Gain-of-Function Research in Wuhan,” Intercept, September 9, 2021, https://theintercept.com/2021/09/09/covid-origins-gain-of-function-research/
Annie Linskey et al., “Biden announces sweeping new vaccine mandates for businesses, federal workers,” Washington Post, September 9, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/vaccine-mandate-federal-employees/2021/09/09/1c1ce9dc-116b-11ec-882f-2dd15a067dc4_story.html
Eileen Drage O’Reilly, “Monster risk: Fauci says COVID cases 10x too high,” Axios, September 9, 2021, https://www.axios.com/fauci-no-control-covid-a2572210-dbdb-48b0-aa2e-92e8e9fcd69a.html
Hayley Fowler, “Biden’s COVID vaccine mandate ‘raises more questions than it answers.’ What to know,” Sacramento Bee, September 10, 2021, https://www.sacbee.com/news/coronavirus/article254119523.html
Joan E. Greve and Richard Luscombe, “‘Have at it’: Joe Biden dares vaccine mandate opponents to take him on,” Guardian, September 10, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/10/joe-biden-vaccine-mandates-coronavirus-covid
Michael Hiltzik, “Here’s why Biden’s vaccine mandate is right — and should stand up to legal challenges,” Los Angeles Times, September 10, 2021, https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-09-10/bidens-vaccine-mandate-is-the-right-thing
Lena H. Sun and Joel Achenbach, “Unvaccinated people were 11 times more likely to die of covid-19, CDC report finds,” Washington Post, September 10, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/09/10/moderna-most-effective-covid-vaccine-studies/
Abortion
Devlin Barrett and Ann E. Marimow, “Justice Department sues Texas to block six-week abortion ban,” Washington Post, September 9, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/texas-abortion-justice-lawsuit/2021/09/09/5d3eae0a-117a-11ec-9cb6-bf9351a25799_story.html
Climate crisis
George Monbiot, “Earth’s tipping points could be closer than we think. Our current plans won’t work,” Guardian, September 9, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/09/earths-tipping-points-closer-current-climate-plans-wont-work-global-heating
White supremacist gangs
Rashawn Ray, “How 9/11 helped to militarize American law enforcement,” Brookings, September 9, 2021, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/how-we-rise/2021/09/09/how-9-11-helped-to-militarize-american-law-enforcement/
Computer chips
I wish I had ordered my new car last year. I’m glad I didn’t wait any longer than I did. Because this is looking awful.
Hans Greimel and Naoto Okamura, “Toyota cuts output again on shortage of chips, parts,” Automotive News Europe, September 10, 2021, https://europe.autonews.com/automakers/toyota-cuts-output-again-shortage-chips-parts
- [1]Kim Messick, “Modern GOP is still the party of Dixie,” Salon, October 12, 2013, https://www.salon.com/2013/10/12/modern_gop_is_still_the_party_of_dixie/↩
- [2]Eileen Drage O’Reilly, “Monster risk: Fauci says COVID cases 10x too high,” Axios, September 9, 2021, https://www.axios.com/fauci-no-control-covid-a2572210-dbdb-48b0-aa2e-92e8e9fcd69a.html; Lena H. Sun and Joel Achenbach, “Unvaccinated people were 11 times more likely to die of covid-19, CDC report finds,” Washington Post, September 10, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/09/10/moderna-most-effective-covid-vaccine-studies/↩
- [3]Annie Linskey et al., “Biden announces sweeping new vaccine mandates for businesses, federal workers,” Washington Post, September 9, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/vaccine-mandate-federal-employees/2021/09/09/1c1ce9dc-116b-11ec-882f-2dd15a067dc4_story.html↩
- [4]Michael Hiltzik, “Here’s why Biden’s vaccine mandate is right — and should stand up to legal challenges,” Los Angeles Times, September 10, 2021, https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-09-10/bidens-vaccine-mandate-is-the-right-thing↩
- [5]Joan E. Greve and Richard Luscombe, “‘Have at it’: Joe Biden dares vaccine mandate opponents to take him on,” Guardian, September 10, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/10/joe-biden-vaccine-mandates-coronavirus-covid↩
- [6]Hayley Fowler, “Biden’s COVID vaccine mandate ‘raises more questions than it answers.’ What to know,” Sacramento Bee, September 10, 2021, https://www.sacbee.com/news/coronavirus/article254119523.html↩