Why did Speaker of the House give national security video footage to the insurrectionists and Putin's Russia?

Astonishingly, the Republican Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy has given security footage to pro-Putin, pro insurrectionist, Tucker Carlson of Fox News.  Are you kidding?  This footage includes revelations of top secret protocols and evacuation routes:

"S]ome lawmakers in the closed-door leadership meeting asked whether sensitive security protocols or certain evacuation routes would be exposed 

Theoretically, Carlson is being given restraints on how he can use it.  But, to me, Carlson has been promoting Putin every chance he gets.  And he certainly has been promoting the virtues of the insurrectionists.  He seems to me to be under the control of Putin and Russia. And he seems to me to be all in on a Right-Wing extremist coup. I do not trust that these secrets are safe.  

This is at minimum a propaganda ploy to somehow try to show the insurrectionist violence of the January 6 attempt to overthrow the government was actually a patriotic, peaceful protest.  At a maximum it is a backdoor way for pro-Russian Carlson to provide top secret info to Russia.

Maybe it's not to give this top-secret info to Russia, maybe it's to give it to the next Right-Wing Extremist planners to succeed next time, 2024, when Trump (or a fellow traveler autocrat) once again loses and tries to overthrow the government.  Many of these extremists are already in Congress today.

Fox News, and Tucker Carlson in particular, are completely untrustworthy around this issue, to me. 

The Political divide – which factors?

 New York Times editorialist, Thomas Edsel, is always a good read to try to understand political and demographic forces in America. 

I think there are two big theories of how the country divides. One is that racial resentment is the biggest indicator of Republican loyalty. And the other is that economic prosperity and higher educational level are the biggest factor of Democratic loyalty.  Both are significant, but the balance seems to tip toward race:

“This factor, racial resentment … does a much, much better job of explaining our current political divisions than education polarization.”

So, does the Party of George Wallace ride again?  Yes, to some degree (I do not believe that all Republicans are racists, but racial resentment is the biggest predictor of Republican Party loyalty)

What about education levels?

"The divide is not just educational levels, although the more educated are more likely to be Democrat and the less educated are more likely to be Republican.  However…in contradiction to the education divide thesis, non-college white people who are not racially resentful have become more Democratic, while college-educated white people who are racially resentful have become more Republican."

Maybe a lot of it has to do with the diversity of where you live, and thus the exposure one has to other races:

“Republican districts,” they write… “are some of the least ethnically diverse districts. But voters within these districts have diverse policy views, particularly on economic issues. Democratic districts are some of the most ethnically diverse districts.”

So, it seems that in Republican districts voters have a variety of policy views but unite around racial resentments.  Ouch.

How to solve?  Race mixing looks like the best way forward.  Meet each other.  See each other as fellow humans.  We fear what we don’t know.  Or so it seems to me.

 

Divide and Profit

 Judy Woodruff of the PBS Newshour has stepped down from the anchor post and has started an exploration of how Americans became so divided. The two parties have separated into tribes and are ever more unable to see each other as fellow humans trying just to figure things out on their way to their graves. 

I think a big part of the distrust, anger, and fear of each other is good old fashioned money. Roger Ailes, former boss of Fox News, and Rush Limbaugh, former talk show luminary, saw that the way to enormous wealth and success was to find a niche audience, tell them that the only way to know the Truth was to Tune In to their shows (and buy air mattresses and My Pillows).  They told their audience that other news sources were lying to them so they had to listen to them exclusively.  All this was was simply promotional advertising. But their audience started to believe their nonsensical hype. They may even have believed it (a little) themselves. It was just building a media audience. The more people who tuned in the more money they made. 

So, what’s wrong with that?  What’s wrong with profit?  

Well, making a profit by making a better mousetrap is capitalism.  But making money by attacking and eventually destroying the voting public’s ability to know the news ends up destroying democracy, because we end up with two visions of the news, two visions of the truth.  We live in a world where one political tribe believes in a world of “alternative facts”, as the Trump spokesperson, Kellyanne Conway, so in-artfully exposed herself and the Trump hype machine. 

Caesar knew the way to rule was to Divide and Conquer. Tragically, in today’s world, the new approach is to Divide and Profit. (And Russia jumps in to increase and inflame the Divide, as they are out to Divide and Conquer)

Eventually the actual truth will out, but so much human damage and tragedy happens along the way. 

Just a reminder, Fox News was just exposed as promoting Trump’s ridiculous Big Lie that the election was stolen from him for one reason only - so that they would not lose audience to Right Wing propaganda competition. None of the Fox News Big Lie hypesters believed the big lie. It was Just Business. 

January 6th violence and death was the result, a host of “Election Deniers” are taking over the Republican Party, and the next violent coup attempt is being planned.

Divide and Profit - and everybody else? WATCH OUT!

Fox news - Have you no decency, at long last????

 The legal case of Dominion Voting Systems against the Fox News Corporation has revealed some obvious and terrifying facts.  Fox News knew that the Trump and Trump team's claims that the election was stolen from Trump was nonsense. But they knowingly and dangerously spread that lie. People died because of that lie.  I hope that Fox loses enough money to Dominion that they go out of business.  I hope that any who can show a death of loved ones due to that lie also sue Fox for all they have - not just Fox, but sue the owners, the Murdochs, for all they have, and sue the lying Fox News primetime propagandists for all they have.  There has to be real consequences for lying and trying to violently overthrow American democracy.

On November 16, Carlson wrote to his producer, Alex Pfeiffer, “Sidney Powell is lying.” 

On November 19, FNC chair Rupert Murdoch wrote: “Really crazy stuff.” 

Hannity later testified: “[T]hat whole narrative that Sidney was pushing. I did not believe it for one second.” 

Fox Politics Editor Chris Stirewalt later testified, “[N]o reasonable person would have thought that,” when asked if it was true that Dominion rigged the election.

...its ratings were plummeting as Trump loyalists jumped to Newsmax.

 After a Fox News reporter tweeted something true that the election had not been stolen "...Carlson told Hannity: “Please get her fired. Seriously…. What the f*ck? I’m actually shocked…. It needs to stop immediately, like tonight. It’s measurably hurting the company. The stock price is down. Not a joke.” 

The stock price is down - losing viewers - so goodness gracious what is a company to do?  So puzzling? what to do?  what to do? Welllllll.... you just lie, you keep your audience, you foment violent overthrow of the government and end democracy - because, because, because, you know, well, this is a BIDNESS, you've got to make a PROFIT.  Doncha know....

Walter Cronkite rolling over in his grave - and Vladimir Putin smiling happily.  

The only human response is that given by Joseph Welch to Joseph McCarthy that ended the McCarthy hearings and destroyed that man's lying career:  

"Welch was stunned. As he struggled to maintain his composure, he looked at McCarthy and declared, “Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness.” It was then McCarthy’s turn to be stunned into silence, as Welch asked, “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?” 

And of course, it was blindingly obvious that McCarthy indeed had no human decency.  Same for Fox News, Newsmax, Breitbart News, AON, and the entire autocratic Right Wing extremist propaganda "industry".

Liberal analyst James Carville has called this correctly - Republican voters insist on being lied to.  And there will always be a predator out there to do so.  Special thanks to Putin, by the way.

We see what happens to the human race when the only thing that counts is money, profit, ratings, winning at all costs. You get Trump - you get Fox News - you get spitballs in baseball and deflated footballs in Super Bowls, you get degraded, indecent people in America and the world.

America, and the world, is in a deep spiritual crisis - and not because women and couples want the freedom to use contraceptives and use abortion to choose their own family sizes, and not because people want to read Faulkner, and not because people are fleeing organized religion in the millions.  We are in a spiritual crises because "at long last", so many of us "have no decency".

The Fossil Fuel dinosaur

I have been a flea on the back of the Fossil Fuel Beast for about half a century.  It has given me a career, a home, a living.  And I am grateful for all off that.  But it has been clear to me for some time now that the true name of this beast is Fossil Fuel Dinosaur.  Sorry, but the comet has already hit the earth (metaphorically) and the metaphorical ash is already spreading along the atmosphere.  And some of the dinosaurs are already falling over, and others to follow.

Today, I see an article saying that the European Union has approved a ban on new fossil fuel vehicle sales beginning in 2035, and very significant carbon reductions by 2030. This is needed to respond to the life threatening, city and agriculture destroying climate change that is upon us now, only to get worse before we can make it become better.  

To my fossil fuel industry friends, please note that the dinosaurs never went away.  There are billions of them all around the world today - we call them birds.  Yes, birds are direct descendants of dinosaurs.  See the attached graph.  Avialae descended from two legged Tyrannosaurs about 150 million years ago. They adapted and survived whereas the bigger breeds perished.  

The same with fossil fuels.  Interestingly, the former Shah of Iran, deposed by the Iranian Revolution in 1979, once said that oil was too precious to be wasted by burning it for fuel - makes clothing for example.   The point I make is that those parts of the fossil fuel dinosaurs that can adapt to the changing world will survive, but the monsters will not.  

Econ 101 states the most obvious of all economic truths - with the rise of the horseless carriage, the demand for buggy whips declined dramatically.  Much of the fossil fuel industry will find themselves in a metaphorical buggy whip industry eventually.  It is up to them to learn how to move into the future rather than just try to stop the future from happening.

The enormous political power of fossil fuels can hold off the inevitable for only so long.  I am confident that the smartest kids in MIT, Stanford, Cal Tech, England, India, China, and around the world are not dreaming of making their fortunes and legacies by designing more powerful engines or more efficient gas turbines. They are dreaming of revolutionary green energy solutions that save the human race on this precious planet. 

What starts out as impossible becomes dreams which become creative, world changing science and technology. Today’s kids understand this and are eager to push us old fogies aside and get on with creating a livable world rather than just watching it be destroyed by old, dying paradigms. 

The future belongs to them, and I trust them to rise to this enormous challenge.

A heartfelt man

 President Joe Biden gave his State of the Union speech. He was an energetic, forceful, caring man. He stammered a few times, as he has all of his life, but he was not a stumbling old fool that Fox News likes to pretend. 

He took his message to the nation and to the Congress.  He wasn’t reciting a speech.  He was talking to us.  He spoke with passion and force.  He was captivating. Heartfelt.  He was engaged with the lawmakers.  I was impressed.  I was moved.  

He’s up to it.  

The need for regulations

 It is a conservative dogma that all regulation does is stop good men from Getting Things Done. They see regulations as Inhibiting the Free Market. They see regulation as Burdensome Socialism that interferes with and Restricts the Economy.

Well, I see regulations as necessary protections and safeguards against shoddy, or unprincipled, corrupt work.

The terrible earthquakes in Turkey show us what happens when buildings are not built to good earthquake codes and regulations.  There was a huge apartment building in Florida that collapsed for no reason other than corrupt building practices.  I have a friend who had a large, heavy tree branch fall on his roof - and the roof held because it was built to code - annoying, expensive code - that saved their home and perhaps their lives. 

I like regulations that have buildings built to code, that have drugs made that are actual drugs, that protect against air and water pollution and filth, etc.  I am all for good regulations and codes.

The tragedy in Turkey is beyond imagination and belief.  Unfathomable pain.

Xenophobic self destruction

 What can one expect from xenophobic extremism?  In Britain, you got Brexit.  In America, you got Trump and the MAGA Cult. In short, you get self destructive catastrophe.

How did that Brexit thing work out? It cratered the British economy. The obvious outcome. As Farid Zakaria wrote:

“ This year, the British economy will do worse than all of the world’s major economies — including Russia.”

And how is MAGA working out in America?  It has imprisoned a host of extremist fools and traitors, with the long arm of the law reaching out for more.  And, oh yes, it is losing elections and is on the way to destroying the Republican Party.  Let us hope it doesn’t destroy America and the world as well. 

It’s not just xenophobia, of course, it is also bigotry, misogyny, homophobia, fundamentalist fanaticism, and targeted violence and cruelty.  It seems sad to me that what used to be a functioning political party has been taken over by such backward and spiritually ugly fanatics and con-artists. 

It’s all being driven by huckster propagandists cashing in on people’s real pain, fear, and confusion to build their own fame and fortunes - whose ethos seems to be “What’s good for me is - good for me - too bad for anyone else”

I see MAGA as lost souls who need to find their way back to decency and reality. Or so it seems to me. 

DeSantis political stunts

 Ron DeSantis, Republican presidential hopeful, just came up with another political stunt - proposing tax breaks for gas stoves - a stunt supposed to show the extremist gullibles that he is Fighting The Deep State in their endless culture wars.  James Carville, liberal political strategist, astutely pointed out recently that DeSantis’s Achilles tendon is his reliance on stunts, and the problem with stunts rather than plans is that you have to keep coming up with stunts.  And that will eventually Peter out. 

Ho hum….