November 21, 2021

Dem turnout was at record highs in the last round of elections. So was the opposition's

...that signals Democrats will need to turn out even more voters in the next round.

The upcoming midterms are dominated by one confounding political dynamic: the party out-of-power will show up in large numbers to try and reverse the previous loss. All midterm elections favor 'anti' vote, and energizes voters looking to stick it to the opposition.

Conversely, the folks who just won and have their pols in office don't have the same energy, especially if they're mostly satisfied with the president and legislators they just elected. There's just not as much steam to generate among them as you would in a sour grapes voter.

Democrats will be challenged to draw more voters to the party in the midterms, and the most consequential parameters of that challenge lie in the dynamics of either advocating for more (progressivism), or moderating those appeals (centrism) to mollify or improbably appeal to republican or conservative voters.

President Biden and the Democratic leadership put forward a broad and ambitious legislative agenda which has been steadily advancing; infrastructure bill passed, and BBB on the way. The opportunity remaining to both further advance the Democratic agenda and elect more Democrats is neatly embedded in what's yet to be accomplished.

Progressive Democrats will unquestionably press for more progress on issues like voting rights, immigration reform, climate change, justice reform, affordable education and healthcare.

Decidedly more 'moderate' Democrats will press the party to limit these initiatives as a political strategy, in favor of interests other than progressive change. Issues like taxing the wealthy to pay for social spending, limiting moneyed influences on our elections, protecting voting rights, and lowering the costs of medicine, are all subject to resistance from moderate Democrats looking to limit or stifle those progressive initiatives.

Will voters be more compelled to come to the polls because Democrats are progressing in what we've promised voters, or will they be motivated to the polls by Democrats moderating or limiting President Biden's and our Democratic leadership's agenda, as recalcitrant Dems like Manchin and Sinema have done throughout?

Or, will it have little to do with legislative initiatives, at all? While Democrats make steady progress for Americans, will demagoguery about what we're trying to accomplish rule the day?

Whatever the direction of the midterms, we'd likely better get cracking on enacting the things we say we want, because anything still in the air can be easily argued down and dismissed in an election. Better to stand behind what we've done, than what we're promising we'll someday accomplish.

November 17, 2021

"Optics" of Rittenhouse judge complaining about clerk picking "a Black, the Black, the only Black"

Rob McDowall FRSA @robmcd85
Ah ok, so Judge Schroeder who is hearing the Rittenhouse case has referred to a juror in another case as "a black, the black, the only black". I kid you not.


Judge Bruce Schroeder made the remark on Wednesday when explaining his decision to allow Mr Rittenhouse to pick the names of the six jurors who would not be joining the final jury of 12.

In a rambling explanation, Judge Schroeder said the last time he allowed a court clerk to pick names was about two decades ago in a trial with a Black defendant.

He said there “a bad optic” after clerk chose “a Black, the Black, the only Black” in the jury pool.

“There were 13 jurors, one of whom was Black. And when the clerk, the government official, drew the name out of the tumbler, it was a Black, the Black, the only Black. There was nothing wrong with it, it was all OK, but what do they talk about – optics, nowadays … That was a bad optic, I thought,” he said.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/kyle-rittenhouse-judge-bruce-schroeder-jury-b1959564.html

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1461020582351364101

Jon Lion Fine Art @jonlionfineart2 6h
“… A black, the black, the only black”

-Judge Rittenhouse

November 11, 2021

Wishing a solemn, comforting, and affirming Veterans Day

Parade in a Small Town

I put together a small gif slideshow of 5 pics from a homecoming parade in Charleston, W.Va. that my father participated in sometime at the later end of the 40's. I think the mix of races in the crowd is fascinating.

Dad told me that on the way home after being shipped to New Guinea and back to the base out West, he had to change train cars on the rest of the way back home to Pennsylvania from the integrated train to the 'colored' rail line when they reached the segregated towns.

This parade and the obviously interested crowd is also notable for the young folks who witnessed this fascinating and pretty unique (for the time) unit of black soldiers. I've always named the one photo with the single soldier strutting out in front 'Proud Soldier' for the one fellow's sense of pride and the apparent appreciation shown by the mix of residents of the town looking on...




(Dad, in stride, third photo)

November 4, 2021

Joe Manchin politics lost us the governorship in Va.

...centrist, moderate policy and politics lost the state, and failed to energize voters with the progressive initiatives most of the nation just voted overwhelmingly to enact in the last presidential contest.

That's the lesson out of Va.. Centrist, moderate politics allows republicans victories everytime they block or limit progressive policies Democrats voted to enact. That's the essence of moderate politics; to limit what Congress provides Americans. It's an easy reach from there for republicans to promise to block progress completely.

Centrism is a regression, not a compromise. It's a harbinger of reversion, and in its ultimate, Manchin-inspired form, designed to defeat or stifle what Democratic voters rallied for in the presidential race.

It's no coincidence that regression happened in Joe Manchin's state, at the cynical altar of political moderation. Manchin-like politics failed McAuliffe in Va..


(I totally transposed WVa. here. Sorry for the brain fart)

November 3, 2021

Rinse/Repeat

....this is what the military has done for decades in Afghanistan.

This is how our nation justifies and subsequently ignores the collateral consequences of our military activity abroad.

This is American drone warfare.

Jonathan Lemire @JonLemire
WASHINGTON (AP) — Pentagon watchdog finds no negligence in mistaken drone strike that killed Afghan civilians, official tells AP.

https://twitter.com/JonLemire/status/1455966653771141123

Curious about the language of 'no negligence.' Was it then deliberate?

All In with Chris Hayes @allinwithchris 6m
"All of them have names:" Chris Hayes on the 10 civilians killed in Kabul drone strike. https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-all-of-them-have-names-hayes-on-10-civilians-killed-in-kabul-drone-strike-121212997890



...this is the full extent of how our military has dealt with security issues in Afghanistan for over a decade since they pulled back from patrolling roads and raiding homes with special forces.

When people show pictures of Afghans subjected to Taliban violence or other oppression and insist the U.S. is somehow responsible for protecting civilians there, remember our military forces are a blunt instrument, not a 'precision' tool with 'smart' bombs that can intervene in civil conflict in other nations like characters in a video game.

Can we come to an understanding about what the devastating power of our military is actually good for? Killing Afghans in defense of Afghans has always been our least responsible role there.



I'll keep going...

In May of 2009, after nearly a week of denials and counter accusations, an anonymous U.S. military official admitted their airstrikes in Afghanistan killed at least 50 civilians. Despite that conclusion, local authorities still insisted as many as 140 innocent civilians had died.

Initially, the U.S. military gave their standard denial that civilians were killed, as they have in all of the instances where civilians had been killed by the collateral effects of U.S. airstrikes (deliberately targeted, only to find later 'faulty intelligence' led them astray.

Later, when local police and other Afghan officials protested and produced bodies of the women and children who had been caught in the way of the deliberate bombing, Pentagon officials immediately strained to find some way to blame the Taliban- claiming they killed the civilians.

The airstrikes which destroyed a community of homes was preceded by a fierce firefight between Afghan/coalition forces and Taliban combatants who had gotten the better of the skirmish, managed to destroy some vehicles, and had killed a number of soldiers, including one American.

The Independent: "Airstrikes were neither pinpoint nor brief: "A claim by American officials, was repeated by Defence Sec Gates that Taliban might have killed people with grenades because they didn't pay an opium tax is not supported by any eyewitnesses... US admits it did conduct an air strike at the time & place, but it's becoming clear, going by the account of survivors, the air raid was not a brief attack by several aircraft acting on mistaken intel, but a sustained bombardment in which 3 villages were pounded to pieces."

After reports from the Red Cross and others confirmed that civilians had been slaughtered in the three villages - Gerani, Gangabad and Koujaha - which sustained the brunt of the hours of bombardments, Gates & Sec Clinton in a statement with Karzai did indeed express 'regret.'

Subordinates at Pentagon didn't wait however, to float to the press what they said were "loosely sourced" rumors suggesting combatants had taken time during the hours of bombings to stage killings of villagers in the Taliban stronghold to make it appear a result of US airstrikes.

However, other reports show that civilians took refuge in the homes after news of the 12hr battle. "We know those killed included an Afghan Red Crescent volunteer and 13 family members who'd been sheltering from fighting in a bombed home." ICRC's head of delegation in Kabul said.

Riots broke out that Thursday after the bodies of more than a dozen of newly discovered civilians killed were brought by protesters to Farah City, with angry Afghans throwing stones at police__ who, in return, opened fire on the crowd, wounding several.

Epilogue:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will not end air strikes in Afghanistan as demanded by President Hamid Karzai after two villages were hit by U.S. warplanes last week, White House National Security Advisor James Jones said on Sunday.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-usa-sb-idUSTRE5491EL20090510

...and so it goes.

Rinse/Repeat