Repair the COMMONS

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">new 1019</font><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">SEE RESTORE COMMONS 2&nbsp;</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">includes social safety net and unions</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see me v we</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see buffer resilience</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HTML&nbsp;</font><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">&nbsp;Marantz</span><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">biden dems build back better?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">3rd act 4 23</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Liz Ogbu</font></div><div>Liz is an expert on engaging and transforming unjust urban environments. Her multidisciplinary design and innovation practice, Studio O, operates at the intersection of racial and spatial justice. She collaborates with/in communities in need to leverage design to catalyze sustained social impact.</div><div>
</div><div>From designing shelters for immigrant day laborers in the U.S. to a water and health social enterprise for low-income Kenyans to developing a Social Impact Protocol for housing with university researchers and LISC. Liz has a long history of working on and advocating for issues of spacial and racial justice. Her work blends community-centered research methodologies, dynamic and creative forms of engagement and prototyping, spatially just architecture and planning principles, and tools to build participatory power and community-centered systems. Her clients have included the Oakland Museum of California, Jacaranda Health, Piedmont Housing Alliance, and Pacific Gas & Electric. And her network of collaborators have been equally dynamic including the likes of HealthxDesign, envelope a+d, Ideas + Action, and the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise (Cornell).</div><div>
</div><div>Liz has been actively involved in shaping two of the world’s pioneering public interest design nonprofits. In 2011, she was part of the inaugural class of Innovators-in-Residence at IDEO.org, IDEO’s sister nonprofit dedicated to fostering global poverty reduction through design and innovation. Prior to that, she was Design Director at Public Architecture, a national nonprofit mobilizing designers to improve communities through design.</div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">doh i had seen as escalator/echo source of hype fear</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 7 22</font></div><div><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body css-listicle-body-2657606922"><div class="body-description"><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The

internet and the digital revolution have changed journalism

dramatically in the United States and other countries. What were once

strictly weeklies (Time, Newsweek) now function as dailies on their

websites, and daily newspapers like the New York Times, the Washington

Post and the Chicago Tribune aim for a national audience. Moreover,

something that would have been treated like strictly local news 25 or 30

years ago — for example, two people getting into an angry political

argument in a local convenience store in Nevada — can easily become a

national story in online journalism. </font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the high-tech journalism landscape of 2022, according to <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/07/04/local-newspapers-news-deserts" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">Axios reporter Sara Fischer</a>,

one of the things that is suffering the most is local journalism. And

Fischer, in an article published by Axios on July 4, points out that

this “<b>local news crisis” is aggravating the United States’ political

divisions. </b></font></p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Discussing a new <a href="https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2022/06/newspapers-close-decline-in-local-journalism/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked">report from Northwestern University</a>

in the Chicago area, Fischer explains, “Around two newspapers in the

U.S. are closing every week, according to a new report, suggesting the

local news crisis spurred by the pandemic will worsen in coming years.

Why it matters: Hyperlocal communities are being disproportionately

impacted by the fall of local newspapers compared to bigger cities.”</font></span></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[READ MORE: <a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/ford-foundation-president-americans-absolutism/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_self" title="view post: Ford Foundation president calls for Americans to overcome a ‘toxic culture of absolutism’" class="rm-stats-tracked">Ford Foundation president calls for Americans to overcome a ‘toxic culture of absolutism’</a></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Penelope

Muse Abernathy, a visiting professor at Northwestern’s Medill School of

Journalism, Media and Integrated Marketing Communications and the

report’s primary author, described the<b> shortage of local journalism as

“a crisis for our democracy and our society</b>” in an official statement on

the report. And she elaborated during an interview with Axios.</font></p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Abernathy

told Axios, “While the economic decline in many communities was

occurring prior to the rise of news deserts, <b>the loss of a local news

organization will leave local residents without the critical information

to begin to address those problems.</b> At a minimum, the loss of local

news worsens the political, cultural and economic divisions in this

country."</font></span></p><p><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fischer notes that “news deserts” in the U.S. tend to have more poverty and less education than areas that aren’t news deserts. </font></b></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The

average median annual income of a home in a news desert is $15,000 less

than the average U.S. household,” Fischer observes. “Only 20% of adults

living in news deserts have bachelor’s degrees compared to 38% in the

U.S. The lack of reliable local news compounds governance issues that

make communities less efficient and prosperous.”</font></p><p><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fischer describes the “local newspaper sector” as being “in in a state of terminal decline.”</font></b></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“More

than 360 newspapers shuttered between late 2019 and May 2022, according

to the report,” Fischer explains. “The vast majority of those papers

were printed weekly. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">At this rate, the country is on track to lose more

than one-third of its total newspapers by 2025. It's already lost more

than a quarter, 2500, since 2005.”</span></font></p></div>

    </div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://theconversation.com/biden-restores-protection-for-national-monuments-trump-shrank-5-essential-reads-169573">https://theconversation.com/biden-restores-protection-for-national-monuments-trump-shrank-5-essential-reads-169573</a></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></font></div></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">doh human health depends on enviro/planet health</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1021 an comm dr</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>Just ahead of a</strong>&nbsp;major United Nations summits on biodiversity and the climate—and amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic—a global consortium has launched a planetary health declaration in which they "raise an alarm that the ongoing degradation of our planet's natural systems is a clear and present danger to the health of all people everywhere" that must be countered with a fundamental paradigm shift transforming nearly every aspect of society.</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The planetary health science is clear," the São Paulo Declaration on Planetary Health, published Tuesday at<b>&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02181-4/fulltext" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">The Lancet</a>,&nbsp;</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">states. "We can no longer safeguard human health unless we change course."</span></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Authored by the Planetary Health Alliance, a global coalition hosted within the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the declaration is endorsed by over 250 organizations representing 47 countries.</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>"The urgency of this moment is hard to overstate," said declaration lead author Sam Myers, director of the Planetary Health Alliance and research scientist at Harvard, in a statement ahead of the launch.</b></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The document centers on what various stakeholders—from urban planners to governments to artists—must urgently do as part of the "Great Transition," what the declaration authors frame as the necessary "fundamental shift in how we live on Earth."</b></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To the agricultural sector, the document recommends utilizing "all ways of knowing, including the latest science and millennia of traditional and Indigenous knowledges, to implement agricultural systems that meet demand and reduce pressure on natural systems."</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Economists, meanwhile, are urged to reject a focus on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in favor of "metrics and investments that support preservation and regeneration of Nature, human well-being, equity, and happiness—the things we truly value.</b>"</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Numerous recommendations are laid out for governments with "an urgent first step" being promoting "public access to health services as a human right." Covid-19 recovery plans must also focus on decarbonizing the energy sector and ensuring equity for the most disenfranchised and marginalized communities.</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The general public is also called to action.</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We invite you to consider yourself a partner in planetary healing," states the declaration. "We all live together in an interconnected world and the actions of each of us inspire others. Therefore, together, we pledge to dedicate our lives to the service of humanity, and to the protection and restoration of the natural systems on which humans and all other species who share our home depend."</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Put together, the document says its recommendations should serve as "a compass guiding us towards the most promising pathways to support a more just and resilient post-pandemic world."</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Courtney Howard, an emergency physician in Canada and a contributor to the declaration, put the document in the context of global vaccine inequity.</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"In the midst of Covid, disparities in vaccine accessibility must be part of the same conversation as addressing planetary emergencies," Howard said in a statement.</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>"On an interconnected planet, no one is safe until everyone is safe," she added. "We need vaccine equity, and in the long run, protecting nature will be the true vaccine against future pandemics and other planetary emergencies."</b></font></font></p><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha social media is synthetic community</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/07/american-authoritarian-mind/">https://www.alternet.org/2021/07/american-authoritarian-mind/</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div><br /></div><div>to understand the American authoritarian mind, look to evangelical Christianity</div><div>no lnx</div><div>John Stoehr July 21, 2021</div><div><br /></div><div>Michelle Goldberg is a superlative Times columnist. To my way of thinking, she's a quintessential liberal. I mean that in ways positive and negative. Positive in that she's a warrior for liberty, morality and self-government. Negative in that Goldberg does not, and probably cannot, understand the authoritarian mind, nor its perennial threat to us. Liberals are right to have sympathy for the devil. But there's such a thing as too much.</div><div><br /></div><div>In her newest column, Goldberg talked about her experience reading Michael Bender's book about the 2020 presidential election, Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost. Bender, who's a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, recounts not only "White House disarray and Trump's terrifying impulses," Goldberg writes, but "the people who followed Trump from rally to rally like authoritarian Deadheads."</div><div><br /></div><div>Bender's description of these Trump superfans, who called themselves the "front-row Joes," is sympathetic but not sentimental. Above all, he captures their pre-Trump loneliness. … There are many causes for the overlapping dysfunctions that make contemporary American life feel so dystopian, but loneliness is a big one.</div><div>Goldberg suggests strongly that loneliness might be the cause of the current drift in the United States toward authoritarianism. She quotes The Week's Damon Linker, who cites Hannah Arendt: "Lonely people are drawn to totalitarian ideologies." "'The chief characteristic of the mass man is not brutality and backwardness, but his isolation and lack of normal social relationships,' Arendt said in The Origins of Totalitarianism, describing those who gave themselves over to all-encompassing mass movements."</div><div><br /></div><div>I love Arendt, but she's wrong here. She has things in reverse. I don't know if the chief characteristic of the mass man is brutality and backwardness, but I do know that loneliness is the result of brutality and backwardness. In other words, authoritarianism causes alienation, not the other way around. Democracy does not, and cannot, constitute "normal social relationships" to the authoritarian way of thinking, because democracy, to the authoritarian way of thinking, is a moral perversion of the natural order of things, which is to say, "normal social relationships": God over Man, men over women, black over white, etc. Democracy always runs against the grain of "God's law." The authoritarian is always already alienated—from her nation but mostly from herself.</div><div><br /></div><div>Goldberg cites the American Enterprise Institute's Daniel Cox, who found a link between loneliness and support for the disgraced former president. The "share of Americans who are more socially disconnected from society is on the rise," Cox said. "And these voters disproportionately support Trump." His survey found that "17 percent of Americans said they had not a single person in their 'core social network.'" He added that these "socially disconnected voters were far more likely to view Trump positively and support his re-election than those with more robust personal networks."</div><div><br /></div><div>Like I said, Michelle Goldberg is a quintessential liberal. She's reading Cox's findings as loneliness causing authoritarianism. It's the reverse, though. How can I be so sure? If loneliness causes authoritarianism, what are potential solutions? Among them would be more social networks, more community, more human bonding, and so on, right?</div><div><br /></div><div>Guess what? White evangelical Protestants are very social, very communal and very bonded by religion and conviction. God over Man, men over women, black over white, etc.—God's law is the basis for their "normal social relationships." White evangelical Protestants are, moreover, united by their collective authoritarian belief that they have been chosen by God to rule America in God's name for the purpose of hastening the End Times, so that anything is justified as long as it serves Him. Put more plainly, nothing matters but authority and power. There are plenty of lonely people in this world, but making them less lonely isn't going to make many of them less fascist.</div><div><br /></div><div>How can the authoritarian be alienated from her nation but especially herself while at the same time appear to find connection in communities like white evangelical Protestants? That's a very good question! It gets to the heart of the real problem. The authoritarian mind is taught to never ever ever come to its own conclusions about the world. Truth is whatever Dear Leader says, not what your eyes and ears tell you. This "education" begins before birth and lasts a lifetime. As a consequence, there's no such thing as independent thinking. There's no such thing as freedom of choice. In the collective, there's no such thing as you. As a result, you will always be lonely. Big rallies might seem communal, but they're illusory. You're filling a hole that can't be filled.</div><div><br /></div><div>Goldberg again cited Hannah Arendt who "described people shaken loose from any definite place in the world as being at once deeply selfish and indifferent to their own well-being: 'Self-centeredness, therefore, went hand in hand with a decisive weakening of the instinct for self-preservation.'" Goldberg said the pandemic did that. It shook people loose from "any definite place in the world." No, it didn't. The covid, the lockdowns, the isolation—these did affect authoritarian minds like they did all other minds. The difference, however, is that the authoritarian mind was already shaken loose from its definite place. And their always already-present anxiety rose to ever more feverish pitches the more democracy prepared to overthrow their fuhrer. We should not ease this mind with sympathy. We should break it with more democracy.</div><div><br /></div><div>Again, it's the reverse. Being "shaken loose from any definite place in the world" does not necessarily make you "deeply selfish and indifferent to their own well-being." Not if you're already there. If so, already being "deeply selfish and indifferent to their own well-being" is what shakes you loose "from any definite place in the world." Indeed, you aren't selfish so much as selfless in the most literal sense, as in there's no daylight between you and the collective. You have no sense of self-preservation because you never developed a self to preserve. This makes it very easy for authoritarian people to throw their lives away for the leader. And that's what Michael Bender's reporting shows.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Toward the end of Bender's book, Saundra reappears," writes Goldberg, referring to a Trump supporter mentioned earlier. "She'd just been at the Capitol for the Jan. 6 insurrection and seemed ready for more. 'Tell us where we need to be, and we just drop everything and we go,' she says. 'Nobody cares about if they have to work. Nobody cares about anything.'1 If you give people's life meaning, they'll give you everything." I don't know why we should read this in any way that's not literal. Saundra says she doesn't care about anything, because she doesn't. Sympathy won't change that.</div><div><br /></div><div>The thing about quintessential liberals like Michelle Goldberg is they don't imagine, probably because they can't imagine, human relationships completely devoid of the principle of political equality between and among individuals. They can't imagine being uncertain of who they are in the absence of authority. When you don't or can't imagine such a life, the authoritarian mind can seem so confounding that you search for some concrete reason for its suicidal behavior. To the liberal, loneliness seems to be rational cause for authoritarianism. The truth, however, is far uglier, scarier and more dangerous to democracy than most people, not just liberals, seem to know. Nothing causes authoritarianism. It has always been here. It always will be here.</div><div><br /></div><div>===</div><div><br /></div></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;===</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">big aha:</font></p><p style="font-size: small; margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ppl need help b/c of globalization defund soc safety net, but are abandoned by neighbors? church? am indiv macho i only need a gun to protect what's mine from brn horde? nb weyrich wedge issue answer how to brk working class solidarity and vote ~ own interest (plus magical thinking entrepreneur [art brooks magic mantra]lotto dream)</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha fundamental/systemic:&nbsp; putnam bowl alone esp rural wht ppl marginalized by globalization, digital divide, outsourcing by corps,<b>&nbsp;some hype fear historical trend to blame immigrant other coming to steaL YOur jobs, daughters (rapists) and culture/country, so fill in public swim pool and make it harder for THEM to vote [plus gerrymander so can minority rule anyway; inequality</b>&nbsp;(tax dodge/brk subisdy for rich/coprs b/c buy election w/ dark money so defund public school, health care, pvtize everything which makes it harder and more expensive to be poor, then demonize govt RR /koch libtard GOP TP so not ask them for help/justice/equity GI Bill VA homes mort) but build that wall</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">sparked by chomsky 521</font></p></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha, 2 aspects, we need to fix pol sys to make right decision/investment/ story me vs we</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">#1:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">// restore democracy/norms:</font></div><div><div><br /></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 221 robt r</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">1. In presidential elections, they'll continue to try to win enough swing states to dominate the Electoral College and win the presidency.</span></font></div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The answer is to make the Electoral College irrelevant by having states join the growing movement to pass laws giving all their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2. In the Senate, they'll continue to try to win enough seats in mostly white, sparsely populated rural states to outvote highly populated urban states.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The answer here is for Congress to grant statehood to Washington D.C., and to work with Puerto Rico, which recently voted in favor of statehood, on a concrete path to self-determination.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">3. They also aim to use the Senate filibuster to block the majority. The answer is to eliminate the filibuster, which Senate Democrats can do without a single Republican vote.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">4. Finally, the GOP will use its control over state governments to gerrymander congressional districts and gain disproportionate power in the House. And they will pass even more laws making it harder for Democrats to vote.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The answer is to prevent gerrymandering and voter suppression by passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act – which Democrats can do with a simple majority of 51 votes once they eliminate the filibuster. The values of the Republican Party do not reflect the values of most Americans. It should not be allowed to silence the voices of the majority.</font></p><div class="around-the-web" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="from-your-site__headline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</font></div><ul class="around-the-web__list" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><li class="from-your-site__item"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/pennsylvania/" class="from-your-site__link" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">'Shameful power grab': Pennsylvania GOP state senators slammed ... ›</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></li><li class="from-your-site__item"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/republicans-naked-power-grab-will-unwind-the-legal-framework-of-the-majority-and-replace-it-with-minority-rule/" class="from-your-site__link" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Republicans' naked power grab will unwind the legal framework of ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-site__item"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/gov-brian-kemp-cancels-georgia-supreme-court-election-in-a-blatant-gop-power-grab/" class="from-your-site__link" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Gov. Brian Kemp cancels Georgia Supreme Court election in a ... ›</a></li></ul><div class="around-the-web__headline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase; margin-top: 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</font></div><ul class="around-the-web__list" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><li class="around-the-web__item"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/opinion/2020/09/27/goodman-republicans-power-grab-wont-end-well/3533492001/" class="around-the-web__link" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Goodman: Republicans' power grab won't end well ›</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></li><li class="around-the-web__item"><a href="https://apnews.com/article/308ae16f3260dfe026f3b050302db5bf" class="around-the-web__link" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">GOP in power grab to rein in Dem governors on virus response ›</a></li><li class="around-the-web__item"><a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/6/18127332/wisconsin-state-republican-power-grab-democracy" class="around-the-web__link" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">The Wisconsin power grab is part of a bigger Republican attack on ... ›</a></li><li class="around-the-web__item">----</li><li class="around-the-web__item">#2:</li><li class="around-the-web__item"><p style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">doh/belated: enough fails of right kind and magnitude (or inter-lock/ cascade) can lead to systemic failure/crisis?&nbsp; texas is failure to think sys b/c we know weather chaos coming, cold as well as warm; free mkt dereg bs is reductive sys theory; naomi k says texas // to covid fail, mkt see "excess" capacity as inefficiency so no resilience to bigger shocks sys tell us are coming; me vs we, short vs long term; RESTORE THE COMMONS, BUILD BACK BETTER</font></p><p style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">who said small price to pay to keep gubmint out of our business?</font></p><p style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/02/green-new-deal/">https://www.alternet.org/2021/02/green-new-deal/</a></font></p><p style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Author and environmentalist Naomi Klein argued in a&nbsp;<em>New York Times</em>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/21/opinion/green-new-deal-texas-blackout.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">column</a>&nbsp;Sunday that Republicans&nbsp;<a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/02/17/he-lying-people-are-dying-calls-texas-governor-resign-he-blames-power-outages-wind" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">rushed to attack</a>&nbsp;the Green New Deal as disaster struck in Texas because the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.dataforprogress.org/the-green-new-deal-is-popular" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">popular</a>&nbsp;push for a sweeping transformation of the U.S. energy system poses a genuine threat to the deregulated, fossil-fuel dependent status quo that left the Lone Star State vulnerable to extreme weather driven by the climate crisis.</b></font></p><p style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Texans are living through the collapse of a 40-year experiment in free-market fundamentalism, one that has also stood in the way of effective climate action," Klein wrote. "Fortunately, there's a way out—and that's precisely what Republican politicians in the state most fear."</font></p><p style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Klein characterized the ongoing power, water, and food crises in Texas as the consequence of "an energy-market free-for-all" stemming from "a fateful series of decisions [that] were made in the late-'90s, when the&nbsp;<b>now-defunct, scandal-plagued energy company Enron led a successful push to radically deregulate Texas' electricity sector."</b></font></p><p style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>"As a result, decisions about the generation and distribution of power were stripped from regulators and, in effect, handed over to private energy companies</b>," Klein wrote. "Unsurprisingly, these companies prioritized short-term profit over costly investments to maintain the grid and build in redundancies for extreme weather. Today, Texans are at the mercy of regulation-allergic politicians who failed to require that energy companies plan for shocks or weatherize their infrastructure (renewables and fossil fuel alike)."</font></p><p style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the aftermath of Winter Storm Uri, ordinary Texans are beginning to see the direct impact of the deregulatory push on their material wellbeing as electric companies hit them with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/02/22/demands-grow-texas-forgive-all-utility-bills-price-gouging-energy-companies-sparks" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">bills topping $17,000</a>—"a consequence," Klein argued, "of leaving pricing to the whims of the market."</font></p><p style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Alluding to her previous work on "the shock doctrine"—a term she coined to describe how the right has exploited past disasters to force through unpopular privatization and austerity agendas—Klein noted that "large-scale shocks... become ideal moments to smuggle in unpopular free-market policies that tend to enrich elites at everyone else's expense."</b></font></p><p style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I often quote a guru of the free market revolution, the late economist&nbsp;<b>Milton Friedman," Klein wrote. "In 1982, he wrote about what he saw as the mission of right-wing economists like him: 'Only a crisis—actual or perceived—produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable."[gop sez BO cos chic guy]</b></font></p><p style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The difference between past shocks such as the 9/11 attacks, Hurricane Katrina, and the 2008 financial crisis and the current emergency in Texas, Klein argued, is that "Republican ideas are no longer lying around—they are lying in ruin."</b></font></p><p style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Texas' Republican Gov. Greg Abbott attacked the Green New Deal</font><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">—a proposal that has not even been implemented—in an appearance on&nbsp;<em>Fox News</em>&nbsp;last week because he knows its promise to "create millions of union jobs building out shock-resilient green energy infrastructure, transit, and affordable housing" is "extremely appealing" to Texans as they "suffer under the overlapping crises of unemployment, houselessness, racial injustice, crumbling public services, and extreme weather," Klein wrote.</font></p><p style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>"All that Texas' Republicans have to offer, in contrast," Klein added, "is continued oil and gas dependence—driving more climate disruption—alongside more privatizations and cuts to public services to pay for their state's mess, which we can expect them to push in the weeks and months ahead." [death spiral]</b></font></p><p style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">As&nbsp;<em>The Houston Chronicle&nbsp;</em><a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/Responding-to-energy-crisis-Texas-lawmakers-call-15961016.php" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">reported</a>&nbsp;last week, Republican members of the Texas state legislature are already signaling that "one of the most immediate reforms they will push for is recalibrating the state's electricity grid to ensure more fossil fuels are in that mix and fewer renewables."</font></p><p style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>But Klein contended that "unlike when the Republican Party began deploying the shock doctrine, its free-market playbook is no longer novel."</b></font></p><p style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"The horrors currently unfolding in Texas expose both the reality of the climate crisis and the extreme vulnerability of fossil fuel infrastructure in the face of that crisis," Klein wrote. "So of course the Green New Deal finds itself under fierce attack. Because for the first time in a long time, Republicans face the very thing that they claim to revere but never actually wanted: competition—in the battle of ideas.</span>" twt</font></p><p style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">in recent days, as&nbsp;<em>Common Dreams</em>&nbsp;has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/02/18/forget-ted-cruz-whats-really-missing-texas-green-new-deal" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">reported</a>, progressive advocacy groups such as the youth-led Sunrise Movement and Greenpeace USA have made the case that—contrary to the GOP's bad-faith attacks—a Green New Deal is precisely what's needed to help Texas equitably recover from the present emergency and build the resilience necessary to withstand future climate-driven disasters.</font></p><p style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>"Many people across the country are realizing for the first time that fossil fuels are not only polluting, they are unstable. Millions of Texans are being let down by coal, oil, and gas right now</b>," Greenpeace climate campaigner Ashley Thomson said last Thursday.</font></p><p style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Monday, activists with the Sunrise Movement of Texas are expected to rally at the state capitol in Austin to demand immediate relief for struggling Texans, the resignations of Abbott and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas.), and passage of a Green New Deal that would "make our state and country more resilient to future disasters, and create millions of good union jobs in the process of transforming these necessary structures."</font></p><p style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Texas is the perfect example of what happens when our politicians cater to fossil fuel executives instead of the young people who have been shouting from the rooftops for years, warning of an impending climate emergency like this," said Chante Davis, a 17-year-old Sunrise Movement leader and Houston resident.</font></p><p style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>"I've survived three once in a lifetime storms in my 17 years of life," added Davis, whose family moved to Texas in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. "We need change, and the Green New Deal is the obvious, urgent solution. As our communities come together to fill the void of our government, our leaders must invest in us to provide jobs that directly address the crises we face."</b></font></p><div class="around-the-web" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><div class="from-your-site__headline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</font></div><ul class="around-the-web__list" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><li class="from-your-site__item"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/02/the-green-new-deal-can-work-heres-how/" class="from-your-site__link" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">The Green New Deal can work — here's how - Alternet.org ›</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></li><li class="from-your-site__item"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/green-new-deal-champion-chloe-maxmin-unseats-powerful-gop-incumbent-in-rural-maine/" class="from-your-site__link" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Green New Deal champion Chloe Maxmin unseats powerful state ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-site__item"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/01/the-sunrise-movement-warns-pelosi-your-actions-on-climate-fall-inexcusably-short/" class="from-your-site__link" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">The Sunrise Movement warns Pelosi: Your actions on climate fall ... ›</a></li></ul><div class="around-the-web__headline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase; margin-top: 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</font></div><ul class="around-the-web__list" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><li class="around-the-web__item"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.congress.gov/116/bills/hres109/BILLS-116hres109ih.pdf" class="around-the-web__link" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Green New Deal ›</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></li><li class="around-the-web__item"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/21/climate/green-new-deal-questions-answers.html" class="around-the-web__link" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">What Is the Green New Deal? A Climate Proposal, Explained - The ... ›</a></li><li class="around-the-web__item"><a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-resolution/109/text" class="around-the-web__link" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Text - H.Res.109 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): Recognizing the ... ›</a></li></ul></div><p style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></p></li></ul></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha: when rw wacko students in wr 2 had to use legit src, thier position had to modulate, at least on paper, no telling wghat's in head, jump thru hoop BS scam move.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">think piece SOLUTIONS REPAIR COMMONS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/02/gop-history/">https://www.alternet.org/2021/02/gop-history/</a></font></div><div><br /></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A few minutes later,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/sicknick-honor-capitol/2021/02/02/3878d5ae-6578-11eb-8c64-9595888caa15_story.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">President and First Lady Biden arrived</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">at the rotunda to pay their respects.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;</span><em>MSNBC</em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">and</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;</span><em>CNN</em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">were there.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;On<b>&nbsp;<em>Fox</em>, Laura Ingraham briefly acknowledged the Bidens' presence&nbsp;</b>but spent most of her airtime not honoring the slain policeman but trashing Dr. Anthony Fauci and beginning a story about homicides in Chicago with the phrase, "<b>The BLM-fueled crime wave…</b>" Black Lives Matter, you see, is just one more manifestation of the imaginary socialist plot to take over America. No wonder their viewers think the world's aflame, a cynical awful place where progressives plotting evil lurk at every corner pizzeria.</span></font></div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By the way, Officer Sicknick, a 12-year veteran of the force, was a Trump voter in 2016, although&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/brian-sicknick-capitol-police-officer-dies/2021/01/08/5552e036-51bc-11eb-83e3-322644d82356_story.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;"><em>The Washington Post</em>&nbsp;reports</a>, "Those who encountered Sicknick said his political views did not align neatly with one political party." He was against impeachment but supported gun control.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There hasn't been an official explanation yet as to exactly how Sicknick died but he was attacked and killed while resisting the crazed crowd brainwashed by Trump</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Meanwhile, the rest of us are supposed to buy into the GOP's big con because, you know, unity. Every time truths are spoken that Republicans don't like, they claim that it's for sure dividing the country further.</span></font></div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So brazen are the attempts at manipulation of truth whether present or past, that in the last months of his term, President Trump and his sycophantic crew appointed a&nbsp;<b>Presidential Advisory 1776 Committee</b>, charged with creating "a definitive chronicle of the American founding." The report partly was a response to&nbsp;<em>The New York Times</em>' award-winning&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">1619 Project</a>, charting the history of slavery in the United States and our continuing record of racial discrimination.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With little regard for the facts and not a single professional historian on the panel (but with plenty of conservative activists and educators), and with time quickly running out for the Trump White House, it was decided to release their findings on the Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday, months before the report was supposed to be completed and just two days before the Biden inauguration—timing that was either a stroke of haste, pure ignorance or malign spite—you make the call.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In any case, much of what the commission had to say was lost in the shuffle of last-minute Trump pardons and inauguration news but as per&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Sarah Ruiz-Grossman at&nbsp;The Huffington Post</a>:</font></p><blockquote style="margin: 1em 40px 1em -5px; border-left: 4px solid rgb(11, 13, 101); line-height: 32px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; width: 602.543px; background: rgb(245, 245, 245);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The 45-page report reads in places like a right-wing manifesto: It&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/evanmcmurry/status/1351287631334801408" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">makes excuses for slavery</a>&nbsp;and the Three-fifths Compromise that declared slaves counted as less than full humans. It decries socialism and "identity politics," celebrates the right to bear arms and calls the anti-abortion movement one of the nation's "great reforms…"<br />"The Trump commission's report also rails against socialism as leading people down a "dangerous path" of wealth redistribution and cites '"anti-Communism" and "the Pro-Life Movement"— or anti-abortion movement — as some of the "great reforms" of the country's history."<br /></font></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The report compares progressivism to fascism, seeking to "centralize power under the management of so-called experts." There are twice as many references to Christianity as of racism, no footnotes or citations, and not a single mention of Indigenous people, especially not the notion that upon our arrival, ninety percent of them quickly were wiped out by disease, murder, forced relocation, and other assorted territorial encroachments.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Many wondered what President Biden would do with the report. It didn't take long to find out. Within minutes of his swearing-in, an executive order wiped out the 1776 Committee. And shortly after, all evidence of its existence, including the panel's preposterous report, was removed from the White House website.</font></p><p><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Via his Department of Education, the new president should lead an effort figuring out how to restore civics classes and revive the history curriculum that once taught young Americans how to be thoughtful, participating citizens by learning their past. This also should help them <b>develop the kind of critical thinking</b> that, when presented with the facts, responds with skepticism and debate but not in the belief of every crackpot version of reality that beckons to them from their televisions, radios and laptops. As we've seen, such an alternative truth—the real fake news as it were—can only lead to the violent end of American democracy.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For a party that used to preach responsibility and reason, the Republicans have devolved into an asylum for the proponents and hangers on of screwball revisionism fraudulent theories and the vicious overthrow of government. Don't know much about history but I do know that if the GOP have their way there will be little room for rational solutions that can help us...</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">====</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div><div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/pulitzer-winning-author-chris-hedges-warns-biden-and-the-democrats-will-dig-themselves-deeper-fueling-a-fascist-comeback/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/pulitzer-winning-author-chris-hedges-warns-biden-and-the-democrats-will-dig-themselves-deeper-fueling-a-fascist-comeback/</a></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">note nuance compassion:</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div style="font-size: small;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: medium;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Watching the reaction from the mainstream media has been very instructive. They appeared to be shocked by the deep levels of support for Donald Trump. The polling errors appeared to flummox them. For me, as a working-class black person in America, nothing surprises me about this country and its reservoir of white supremacy. I also grew up with these Trump voters. I know and understand them. How do the commentariat and mainstream media types convince themselves of things about America which are simply not true?</font></strong></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: medium;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">I know them. I hate to admit it. But I was at their prep schools as a scholarship student. I went to their elite universities. I've sat in their elite newsrooms. As a class they are smug, arrogant, self-referential and so out of touch. They look down on the entire working class, and that includes the white working class. The Democrats under Bill Clinton thought, "We'll take the corporate money, because labor, and in particular people of color, do not have anywhere else to go. They are not going to the Republicans." Democrats took those voters for granted, and as exit polls show, the Democrats have made a fatal mistake in that regard. The Democrats' strategic calculation about those voters may have been true then, but it is not true anymore.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I think they were in fact really shocked. In many ways the elite class is clueless. The pundits and the commentariat and others in the establishment news media were just as off with their predictions as they were in 2016. They do not spend time in these communities. They do not speak to these people at all. They move from one exclusive bubble to another. They're not in touch with the suffering and the angst.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donald Trump, at least, is completely transparent as to who he is. He doesn't hide it. He's as repugnant as he looks. And yet all sorts of groups, including white women, voted for him. And I think they voted for him knowing full well who he is, but also confident in the fact that the two ruling parties — and in particular the <b>Democratic Party, which at one time pretended to watch out for their interests — have sold them out.</b></font></p><p style="font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The two main parties have lost credibility, the Democrats in particular. The press has lost credibility. And once democratic institutions no longer have any credibility left, then people just start believing whatever they want to believe</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;That is how you get conspiracy theories such as</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">&nbsp;QAnon</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;Too many Americans do not have social and political institutions they believe in and see as trustworthy.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">&nbsp;On that point, they are not wrong. Ultimately, I do not see how where we're going in the United States at present is anywhere good. The result will be a type of corporate totalitarianism.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: medium;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There was this widely circulated image of three white women who were praying and laying hands on the door of one of the locations where the votes were being counted. There are also these "Christian" right-wing con men (and women) trying to summon angels to defend Donald Trump, their anointed and chosen savior. These people are widely mocked, as they should be. They are laughed at by rational people. But when I see such deranged behavior, I also take it seriously. Such people are deadly sincere in their beliefs. Trump's followers view him as a deity.</font></strong></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: medium;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">As I learned doing research for and writing my book "American Fascists," what happened in essence is that the world of "secular humanism," as such people call it, almost destroyed them. It is deeply personal. "Secular humanism" destroyed them because they became alcoholics, or they became crack addicts or opioid addicts or gambling addicts, or they lost their jobs and were evicted. A number of women in the Christian right that I interviewed had also suffered either sexual or domestic violence. So they entered a world of magic, the figure of magical Jesus, what anthropologists call a<b>&nbsp;crisis cult. One cannot try to free them from the cult by using rationality and reason.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: medium;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The only way to break the back of such a movement is to reintegrate such people into the economy, to give them stable jobs, a place where they can have a sense that through work and their societal position they can have hope for themselves and their children's lives.</font></p><p style="font-size: medium;"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">And of course, the whole situation for such people has only gotten worse. Once they become hermetically encased in that ideology, you cannot really break them out of it unless you are going to create a society where they have a place, and</span><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">&nbsp;rebuild the social bonds which were ruptured</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">.</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;That is not going to happen under Joe Biden. Such people on the Christian right, the praying-for-Trump types, will become more common especially as the country reels under the effects of a pandemic that is out of control and all the economic consequences of the crisis.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: medium;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The other dynamic that the mainstream news media was not prepared for is that in places where the pandemic is worse, Donald Trump is more popular. This is an example of Trumpism and conservatism more generally being a type of political religion,&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">a death cult</span>. The more death and suffering that takes place in America, the more popular and powerful Trumpism and its variants will become.</font></strong></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: medium;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">It is a death cult. With the rupturing of social bonds and a sense of place within society, Trump's followers and the Christian right invest their energy in self-destructive behaviors, both as individuals and societies. The sociologist Émile Durkheim made an astute observation about right-wing groups, that those types of groups which seek the annihilation of others are really at the core driven by a desire for self-annihilation.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We see that throughout American society with the opioid crisis, the suicides, which are highest among white middle-aged men, and other types of addictions such as morbid obesity and gambling and the like. Those types of behaviors are all in response to the breakdown of social bonds and a sense of place and meaning within a society.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: medium;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What springs forth from this moment?</font></strong></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What springs forth is that half of this country, who to this point have been treated by the ruling elites, and tacitly by the liberal class, as if they are human refuse, are going to strike back. We have already witnessed them trying to do this. They have not been particularly successful. People in this country are going to start getting killed. It is going to get worse especially as the ruling elites display the kind of paralysis that I expect Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell to display.</font></p></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">reparations?</font></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/citi-report-sees-16-tn-drag-on-us-economy-from-racism/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/citi-report-sees-16-tn-drag-on-us-economy-from-racism/</a></font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">****</font></div><div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/heading-off-the-prospects-of-a-dark-and-tumultuous-future">https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/heading-off-the-prospects-of-a-dark-and-tumultuous-future</a></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><br /></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">quite long, see post-trump</div></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/ralph-nader-heres-how-to-fight-americans-inclinations-to-relinquish-control-to-corporations/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/ralph-nader-heres-how-to-fight-americans-inclinations-to-relinquish-control-to-corporations/</a></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">American people own most of the wealth—private and public—and most of the information in the country. The top one percent do not.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The American people have most of the power in the country. The top one percent do not.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="pullquote" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The sovereign authority under the Constitution is us; we the people are the bosses. But we give our power away to the Big Boys who run the big companies that control most of our elected politicians.</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These assertions may surprise you, because the top one percent and the giant corporations work overtime to control what you own.&nbsp;<b>This means they do not have to seize what you own so long as their control provides them with both riches and power over you.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Let’s spell this out with specifics. Our Constitution starts with the words, “We the People…”; it doesn’t start with ‘we the corporations’ or ‘we the Congress’ or ‘we the super-rich.’ The sovereign authority under the Constitution is us; we the people are the bosses. But we give our power away to the Big Boys who run the big companies that control most of our elected politicians. The politicians in turn proceed to corrupt our elections with campaign money, gerrymandering, deceitful ads, voter obstructions, and a totally dominant two-party duopoly.&nbsp;<b>This corporate state destroys competitive democracy which would give our votes meaning, choices, and effectiveness.</b></font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shouldn’t we be discussing why, when we own the vast federal public land, one-third of America—and the vast public airwaves, do we give control of these resources to corporations every day of the year to profit from at our expense?</font><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;We give the television and radio stations, that block our voices, free control and use of the airwaves, 24/7.</font><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">We receive very little in royalties from the energy, mining, timber, and grazing companies&nbsp;<b>extracting huge wealth from our federal lands.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>We send our tax dollars to Washington, D.C., and the federal government gives trillions of these dollars to companies in the form of subsidies and bailouts.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trillions of dollars are devoted to government research and development (R&D), which has built or expanded private companies. These include such industries as aerospace, pharmaceuticals, military weapons, computers, internet, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and containerization.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Our taxpayer-funded R&D is essentially given away free to these for-profit businesses. We the People receive no royalties nor profit-sharing returns on these public investments. Worse, we pay gouging prices for drugs and other products developed with our tax dollars.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We have trillions of dollars in savings and retirement money placed in giant mutual and pension funds. The managers of these institutions make big profits by investing your money in the stock and bond markets. If you controlled these trillions of dollars in stocks and bonds that you own, that is if there was real shareholder and bondholder power, you would control the ownership of all the big companies and turn the tables on the Big Bosses. Polls show a big majority of people think Big Business has too much power and control over us. Nonetheless, we regularly give these plutocrats control over what we own<b>.[divestment]</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We own our personal information. Yet, we give it totally free to the likes of Facebook, Google, Instagram, and YouTube, etc. so they can make trillions of dollars selling data on what we buy, what we like, what we think, and what we’re addicted to in the marketplace. The advertisers then pester us 24/7 and even betray our trust. Imagine Alexa eavesdropping in our homes and businesses. High-tech companies should not be privy to our personal information.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Unfortunately, giving companies our personal information, from which they profit immensely and gouge and penalize us profusely, started long ago. The moment we took out credit cards, for example, we began to lose control of our money and our privacy. With the internet, companies are generating new payment-system controls, with their dictatorial fine-print agreements and never-ending additional surcharges, driven by their greedy overreaches.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">People spend lots of time just trying to get through to these companies for refunds, adjustments, corrections, and simple answers to their questions.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Why have we handed over the enormous assets we own to this expanding corporate state? Why have we surrendered to statism or corporate socialism? The corporate “Borg” is sucking the ready availability of the good life, decent, secure livelihoods assured by our collective self-reliance, and the freedom to shape our future out of our political economy.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Why are we allowing the United States—this rich land of ours—to have so many impoverished, powerless people, dominated by the few? With ever greater concentration or powers under corrupt Trumpism and its corporate supremacists, control of our lives is getting worse.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">It starts with us being indoctrinated into being powerless (civic skills and practice are not taught in schools). This leads to the people not taking control of Congress (only 535 of them). We are allowing elections and debates to ignore raising these basic democratic issues of who owns what and who should control our commonwealth.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">David Bollier and his colleagues are working to have adults and students learn about the<b> commons</b></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">—owned by all of us—and the few examples of people sharing in our commonwealth. Through the Alaska Permanent Fund, every Alaskan gets about $2000 a year from the royalties’ oil companies pay for taking the people’s oil from that state.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If you’re interested in reading further about the “commons” we own but do not control go to&nbsp;<a href="https://nader.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c5cfd22327c3214afb5955d02&id=bfcacc5bcd&e=8e411e9705" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://nader.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3Dc5cfd22327c3214afb5955d02%26id%3Dbfcacc5bcd%26e%3D8e411e9705&source=gmail&ust=1600562476090000&usg=AFQjCNFqfgoAQiHq9XN75wEgOCQNCGAVrg" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">bollier.org</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://nader.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c5cfd22327c3214afb5955d02&id=28b19fc1f9&e=8e411e9705" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://nader.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3Dc5cfd22327c3214afb5955d02%26id%3D28b19fc1f9%26e%3D8e411e9705&source=gmail&ust=1600562476090000&usg=AFQjCNFJPxEUymKMVV3h920QXee76AbG5A" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">breakingthroughpower.org</a>. It’s in our hands!</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ref</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.breakingthroughpower.org/</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></p></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha: who broke America:&nbsp; RR, gramms, gingrich---> REPAIR THE COMMONS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RR: fairness doctrine kill --> Rush, Fox&nbsp; anti-trust --> FANG&nbsp; 1 plus 2 --> Qanon</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">gubmint useless/wasteful if not evil --> aGENDA 21, 2 santas , militias boogaloo</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">attack unions air traffic controllers</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">student debt</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">libtard financialization, militarization, criminalization War on Drugs</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">death squads MS13</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CU, cheney</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">graham OIRA tozzi DQA, DEREG PVT</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">xian</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">gang of 5 manafort, atwater</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">wise use</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">risk assess</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">vigurie direct mail</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">yaf/leadership inst?</font></div></div></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>aha-let: any number of smart ppl say we need to restore unions are ctr-balance to corp power,</b> but teachers are often women and not terribly well paid, so trad workers w/o power/leverage but Red for Ed; teacher union longtime target;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> workers MOST in danger of covid are undoc immigrant meatpackers w/ NO UNION?</span></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/mark-levin-likens-teachers-unions-want-covid-19-protections-schools-segregationists-orval">https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/mark-levin-likens-teachers-unions-want-covid-19-protections-schools-segregationists-orval</a></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">trump threatened pull fed $ from schools if not reopen</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></p></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/trumps-s-on-the-postal-service-are-hurting-democracy-and-thats-the-point/https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/trumps-s-on-the-postal-service-are-hurting-democracy-and-thats-the-point/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/trumps-s-on-the-postal-service-are-hurting-democracy-and-thats-the-point/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/we-had-a-better-social-safety-net-then-we-busted-unions/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/we-had-a-better-social-safety-net-then-we-busted-unions/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...1935 act...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Uni<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">ons became a lynchpin to a robust social welfare system during World War II. They&nbsp;built on what they had won at the bargaining table, and began to accept employer-provided benefits in lieu of wage increases, which were restricted by the National War Labor Board.&nbsp;&nbsp;After the war, it was not clear whether the country would increase or decrease the government’s role in the safety net. Many unions demanded a more robust state presence and pushed (unsuccessfully) for universal health coverage, full employment legislation that would guarantee all workers a job, and even legislation that would link wages to prices. When they lost these legislative battles, the United Mine Workers of America (UMW), the United Auto Workers (UAW), and other unions began to push for employer-provided health care and retirement plans in labor contracts. Workers and employers struggled over the developing employer-provided social safety net.&nbsp;&nbsp;In the early 1950s, up to three-quarters of strikes were over health and welfare issues....</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></div></div><div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">ctr-pt: to covid bailout bill as dis cap'l NEW STORY? WE CAN SAVE $ AND PPL BY GOING GREEN&nbsp;</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-crisis-economic-growth-2645724784.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-crisis-economic-growth-2645724784.html</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body js-update-url css-listicle-body-2645724784" data-elid="2645724784" data-post-url="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-crisis-economic-growth-2645724784.html" data-authors="Jordan Davidson" data-headline="Addressing the Climate Crisis Strengthens Economies, New Research Finds" style="margin-top: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><div class="body-description" style="clear: both;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Every country around the world would see economic gains from combating the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">climate crisis</a>&nbsp;and trying to keep global heating within the bounds of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/paris-agreement" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">Paris agreement</a>, according to a new&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-15453-z" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">study</a>&nbsp;published in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-15453-z" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">Nature Communications</a>.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 10px 0px;" /><div class="rebellt-item col1" id="rebelltitem1" data-id="1" data-reload-ads="false" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-crisis-economic-growth-2645724784.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1" data-basename="particle-1" data-post-id="2645724784" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 10px 0px;" /><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The straw man argument against taking action on the climate crisis is that the cost of limiting emissions and investing in green infrastructure is too steep and would cripple economies. It turns out, according to the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-15453-z" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">research</a>, that the opposite is true.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In fact, the study found that if nations around the world fail to curtail greenhouse gas emissions within the bounds of the Paris agreement, the global economy will lose anywhere from $150 trillion to nearly $800 trillion by the year 2100,</span>&nbsp;as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-action-economic-benefit-study-finds/" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">CBS News</a>&nbsp;reported.&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The upper end of the range is if countries fail to meet their current commitments, which are inadequate to meet the Paris agreement as they are expected to lead to 3 degrees Celsius in warming</span>.</font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;" /></div><div class="rebellt-item col1" id="rebelltitem2" data-id="2" data-reload-ads="true" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-crisis-economic-growth-2645724784.html?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2" data-basename="particle-2" data-post-id="2645724784"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 10px 0px;" /><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The study's authors, from the Beijing Institute of Technology and other Chinese institutions, billed their findings as a self-preservation strategy for government, according to&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">The Guardian</span>.GUK</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The researchers calculated the potential benefits of emissions reductions by looking at the social welfare aspects of cutting greenhouse gases and its affect on economic growth.</b>&nbsp;They found that the benefits from cutting emissions would provide the largest boost to developing countries with large populations of poor and vulnerable people, who are most likely to be negatively affected by droughts, floods, fires, storms and food shortages, as&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">The Guardian</span>&nbsp;reported.</font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">While all countries would benefit in the long term, the most immediate benefits would go to developing countries with high emissions, such as India, Indonesia, Nigeria and China, according to&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">The Guardian</span>.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 10px 0px;" /></div><div class="rebellt-item col1" id="rebelltitem3" data-id="3" data-reload-ads="true" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-crisis-economic-growth-2645724784.html?rebelltitem=3#rebelltitem3" data-basename="particle-3" data-post-id="2645724784" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 10px 0px;" /><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Paris agreement is composed of voluntary commitments known as Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs, made by each country in the accord. The main aspect of the commitments is to reduce greenhouse emissions by cutting the burning of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">fossil fuels</a>, thus reducing global warming and the adverse impacts of warming. However, many countries are witnessing economic damage from the coronavirus lockdowns and are rethinking their commitment to their NDCs. Already, government bailouts for the fossil fuel industry and the airline industry are in the works, as well as a rollback of their carbon emission reductions, as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-action-economic-benefit-study-finds/" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">CBS News</a>&nbsp;reported.</font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"A number of studies have proved that current [NDCs] are not enough to achieve the global warming targets," said Biying Yu, from the Beijing Institute of Technology and a co-author of the study, as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-action-economic-benefit-study-finds/" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">CBS News</a>&nbsp;reported.</font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The research shows that the choice between climate action and economic growth is in fact a false dichotomy. The authors' work concludes that countries could reach their climate goals and at the same time see an increase in their net income.</font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;" /></div><div class="rebellt-item col1" id="rebelltitem4" data-id="4" data-reload-ads="true" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-crisis-economic-growth-2645724784.html?rebelltitem=4#rebelltitem4" data-basename="particle-4" data-post-id="2645724784" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 10px 0px;" /><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-action-economic-benefit-study-finds/" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">CBS News</a>, Yu and her team calculated ideal strategies for countries to improve their NDCs, minimize economic losses and maximize gains. They found that if nations are able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, then the net global economic benefit would range between $127 trillion and $616 trillion by the end of the century.</font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Early and quick action will provide a better chance to close the widening emissions gap, even though a large amount of abatement cost would occur in the short term," said the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-15453-z" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">study</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The literature overwhelmingly shows the economic benefits of serious mitigation efforts exceed the costs in the long run," said Noah Kaufman, a climate and energy economist from Columbia University, to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-action-economic-benefit-study-finds/" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">CBS News</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">However, Yu is concerned that governments will be short-sighted and balk at the upfront cost of investing in infrastructure to combat the climate crisis. She also sees that the climate emergency takes commitments from every country.</font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Combating climate change is not a matter for one country. It requires collective action and cooperation from all countries around the world," Yu explained, as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-action-economic-benefit-study-finds/" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">CBS News</a>&nbsp;reported. "Let's work together and save ourselves"...</font></p></div></div></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>aha:</b>&nbsp;recall family foundations were formed in the 1st place as a tax shelter and their primary/initial purpose was to undermine the estate tax (eg mars); kochs weaponized/politicized $;&nbsp; at odds with self made man free mkt MERITOCRACY BS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">kochs built a shadow GOP (then rented out trump admin, more progress in X years than y years;)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>waltons #1 in charter schools, // devos:&nbsp;</b>public schools the great equalizer, source of meritocrisy); betsy supports scam colleges and stops debt relief.</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">11/19<b> public schools are the commons</b>; they are human infrastructure; JC CC allow MC or level up to 4 yr college MODERATION vs 1119 riots in multiple countries b/c young ppl do not see a future/shot</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">mercers gave us trump and brexit (the end of the brit empire?!)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">scaife gave us crooked hillary</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div></div><div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha: typically gop does exactly what they accuse dems of, wishlist:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/how-the-coronavirus-crisis-revealed-the-danger-of-the-decades-long-conservative-movement/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/how-the-coronavirus-crisis-revealed-the-danger-of-the-decades-long-conservative-movement/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>How the coronavirus crisis revealed the danger of the decades-long conservative movement</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Amanda Marcotte / Salon March 13, 2020</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell smelled an evil liberal conspiracy on Thursday, one designed to steal away his decades of tireless work to kneecap the federal government. The Democratic-majority House had passed a large emergency bill, designed to combat the coronavirus pandemic, and McConnell was absolutely certain Democrats, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, were trying to pull one over on him.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Unfortunately, it appears at this hour that the speaker and House Democrats instead chose to produce an ideological wish list that was not tailored closely to the circumstances,” McConnell said. He accused Democrats of exploiting this situation, saying the bill addresses “various areas of policy that are barely related, if at all, to the issue before us.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>There’s a lot at stake here, but apparently the big sticking point for McConnell was a provision requiring employers to offer paid sick leave to employees, which McConnell claims would “put thousands of small businesses at risk.”</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">In reality, of course, this is just common sense. As the New York Times editorial board noted, companies that don’t offer paid sick leave “are endangering their workers and customers.” A lot of workers with public-facing jobs — such as food service workers and retail employees — come into close contact with dozens or hundreds of people a day. But they are the people least likely to be allowed to stay home without losing their jobs, or at least losing a paycheck.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>McConnell is so poisoned by his right-wing ideology that he can’t see this, or chooses not to. Instead, he’s standing firm on the long-standing Republican tendency to view employers as feudal lords who should be allowed to treat employees however they wish — even, apparently, if that means allowing a deadly disease to rip through the population, potentially killing hundreds of thousands of people if it is not checked.</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So far, most of the panic over the coronavirus outbreak has been driven by the undeniable incompetence of Donald Trump. At every turn, Trump has made this situation worse — even going so far as to try to discourage testing to bamboozle the public and, I suspect, tanking the markets by screwing up an Oval Office address because he’s too vain to wear glasses so he can see well enough to read a teleprompter.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style=""><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That’s</span><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;all true. But it’s also important to understand that the larger Republican Party, even without Trump, is also to blame for what looks to be a serious public health crisis. Right-wing ideology, often</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">&nbsp;marketed as “</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">rugged individualism</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">” but perhaps better understood as an aversion to the very concept of a common good,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;is one major reason why the U.S. government, hamstrung for decades by Republican power, isn’t better equipped to handle a crisis.</span></b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">This isn’t just a Trump problem. This is a widespread Republican problem. For decades, GOP strategy has been consistent: Whenever they get power, they slash regulations and gut spending, with the goal of making government less effective. This is a deliberate strategy to make the public broadly distrustful of government, and therefore increasingly open to shifting more and more power to the wealthy individuals who control the private sector.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This ideological commitment to an every-man-for-himself ideology, which is terrible in any circumstances, is exposed as particularly dreadful in the face of a pandemic. Disease is a reminder that humans are a herd species, wholly dependent on each other for survival, and that government must be a way to formally organize that joint survival pattern. It’s not some villain in a racism-inflected right-wing morality fable about the importance of “personal responsibility.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Simply put, we need our government to be able to protect us from disease. Republicans have spent years tearing it down, and even in a crisis are incapable of accepting that “small government” is not always a good thing.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As Max Moran at Talking Points Memo argued, the fact that Vice President Mike Pence — deemed a “normal” Republican — is in charge of the coronavirus comforts some people, because they believe he is more adult and responsible than Trump. Pence’s track record suggests otherwise. As governor of Indiana, he oversaw an HIV outbreak that led to 10% of the population people in a single county becoming infected because Pence thought preaching the value of personal responsibility was better than following the recommendations of public health experts.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“[A] Pence-led response is dangerous, not in spite of, but precisely because he is a typical Republican,” Moran writes, because normal Republicans “apply their competence and considerable resources” to the task of “protection for the powerful, callousness for the afflicted, and a special disdain for the ‘other.'”</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The right-wing idiocy that is going to get people killed is all over the Republican response to this situation</font><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy joined McConnell in denouncing the Democratic bill, even though everything in it — including expanding food-stamp spending — will either help slow the spread of the disease or stimulate the American economy to offset the inevitable slowdown caused by this epidemic.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Instead, McCarthy is resorting to&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">racism</span>&nbsp;instead of sensible public health measures, calling the coronavirus the “Chinese coronavirus” for no apparent purpose except to feed the assumptions of the Fox News base than their whiteness and their racist attitudes will somehow protect them</b>. (This assumption, by the way, is leading many older Americans to take serious and completely unnecessary risks with their health.)</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The right-wing ideology poisoning is so bad that the coronavirus bill was held up in part because</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">&nbsp;Republicans wanted to inject some anti-abortion language into it.</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;There is absolutely no reason to believe that helping people protect themselves against a viral epidemic will lead to more abortions, but that’s the modern GOP for you: They’re always worried that somehow or other the Democrats have a sneaky agenda to “let” women have sex. (Which women will undoubtedly do, whether the Democrats authorize it or not.)</span></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><br /></span></font></div><div style=""><a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/03/12/gop-delays-coronavirus-bill-in-part-over-complaints-that-it-doesnt-bar-federal-funds-for-abortion/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.salon.com/2020/03/12/gop-delays-coronavirus-bill-in-part-over-complaints-that-it-doesnt-bar-federal-funds-for-abortion/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Even the so-called Republican “moderates” are to blame for this situation. For instance, Politico reporter Michael Grunwald uncovered this little tidbit about Sen. Susan Collins of Maine from his book about the Obama era.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Michael Grunwald</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@MikeGrunwald</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I had forgotten my own reporting that @SenatorCollins stripped $870M for pandemic preparations out of the 2009 stimulus.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Zooming out, it’s easy to see how decades of damage to our government are likely to make this epidemic worse. Republicans have been stingy about health care spending and have blocked Democratic efforts to increase access, especially when it comes to the Medicaid expansion under the Obama administration. The result is that we have fewer doctors and hospitals ready to handle what we know is coming, and we will probably have a lot of infected people who won’t get tested, either because they can’t afford it or don’t even know where to go for testing and treatment.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By all means, blame Trump for the current crisis. His incompetence is especially central to the panicked reaction of the financial markets. Even a slightly steadier president, whatever his or her party or ideology, would bolster investor confidence a whole lot more.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But this isn’t just about Trump. Republicans have a profound hostility to good government, and whatever slapdash response they may grudgingly accept in an effort to save their skins at the ballot box this November will be hamstrung by the fact that they refused, for decades, to invest in the infrastructure necessary to weather the big shock that is hitting us right now. Viruses are the ultimate reminder that humans are interconnected and need each other, and that the ideal of “rugged individualism” is childish and often racist nonsense.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx ref</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>GOP delays coronavirus bill in part over complaints that it doesn't bar federal funds for abortion</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><br /></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"Very on-brand for pro-lifers to refuse to save a whole bunch of lives," feminist writer Jill Filipovic says</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">IGOR DERYSH</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">MARCH 12, 2020&nbsp;</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The White House and congressional Republicans refused to support House Democrats' coronavirus relief bill, in part over claims that it does not safeguard against federal funds being used to provide abortions.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced Thursday that the Senate will not go on its scheduled recess next week to continue negotiations on the legislation. The announcement came after McConnell rejected the bill proposed by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., calling it an "ideological wish list." President Donald Trump also objected to what he claimed were Democratic "goodies" in the bill.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Among the Republicans' hangups are a provision that would provide paid sick leave to workers,&nbsp;</b>NBC News reported, and a complaint about an unrelated issue: abortion.</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"The White House believes provisions in the Pelosi bill that pertain to the Violence Against Women Act could open the door to federal funds for abortion," the network reported." In response, the White House wants to add Hyde Amendment language to the bill — restricting the use of federal funds for abortion."</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Several senior White House officials told the far-right outlet The Daily Caller that Pelosi lobbied for up to $1 billion in reimbursements for laboratory claims, which the officials claimed "would set a precedent of health spending without protections outlined in the Hyde Amendment."</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"A new mandatory funding stream that does not have Hyde protections would be unprecedented," a White House official told the outlet. "Under the guise of protecting people, Speaker Pelosi is working to make sure taxpayer dollars are spent covering abortion — which is not only backwards, but goes against historical norms."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Another White House official not named in the report went a step further, accusing Pelosi of pushing for an abortion "slush fund."</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But The Daily Caller acknowledged in its story that Politico had already reported that the "two sides resolved issues over federal funding of abortion in a separate bill."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Ilyse Hogue, the head of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said the White House claims were a "straight up lie."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"The fact that the GOP would use the [coronavirus pandemic] to spread more falsehoods and grind an ideological ax is sickening and perverse," she said.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Planned Parenthood accused Republicans of using the COVID-19 pandemic to score political points.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"Using this very real public health emergency to attack abortion coverage shows a despicable lack of concern about the severity of this crisis," the organization said. "These politicians will do anything to advance their anti-abortion agenda."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"Yet again, Republicans prove they'll do anything to attack abortion – including co-opting a public health crisis to further their agenda," the National Women's Law Center said in a statement. "People need care – not to be used as political bargaining chips."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Democratic-led House is expected to approve the bill Thursday, but the Republican-led Senate will hold off until Pelosi negotiates an agreement with the White House.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"I am glad talks are ongoing between the administration and Speaker Pelosi," McConnell said. "I hope Congress can pass bipartisan legislation to continue combating the coronavirus and keep our economy strong."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Pelosi said at a news conference that Democrats were "addressing" some Republican concerns as she pushed back on Republican plans to delay the negotiations into next week.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"We need to just make a decision to help families right now," she said. "We are responding to their concerns, we don't want them moving the goalposts and that's it. I'm not sticking around because they don't want to agree to language."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But Republicans' attempts to delay the funding bill over an unrelated issue like abortion left Democrats apoplectic amid the administration's bungled response to the pandemic.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"I'm enraged beyond words right now," Hogue said.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"Very on-brand for pro-lifers to refuse to save a whole bunch of lives," feminist writer Jill Filipovic added, "[and] put millions of people at risk so they can do a little performative politicking that won't actually prevent a single abortion."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">IGOR DERYSH</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Igor Derysh is a staff writer at Salon. His work has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Boston Herald and Baltimore Sun.</div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...<span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">TOO MUCH INFORMATION</span></font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Phillips wants to make it clear that it’s not just Facebook or Twitter’s fault.&nbsp;<b>It’s not just the fault of Alex Jones or Donald Trump or 4chan. It’s your fault, too.</b></font></span></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></span></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“A lot of the misinformation being spread is not the result of bad actors,” Phillips says. “It’s everyday people doing everyday things.”</font></span></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></span></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">She thinks of it in terms of an ecological metaphor, where pollution is the accumulation of a billion little actions from individuals. All of the tweeting, retweeting and Facebook posting adds up.</font></span></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We’re sort of at the whims of everyday folks, disinformation agents, algorithms, white supremacists,<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;all jockeying to win the attention economy</span>,” Phillips says. “The result is an air that is so clogged that we can barely breathe.”</font></b></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In that environment, with so many different competing and contradictory claims, people “don’t even necessarily trust there is such a thing as truth.”</font></span></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></span></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Phillips doesn’t necessarily agree that more information is the answer. Journalists like to say that sunlight is the best disinfectant. But Phillips argues that sometimes the<b>&nbsp;sunlight simply heats up the petri dish and spreads the disease&nbsp;</b>— especially when people are liable to believe a hoax is true because a journalist says it isn’t.</font></span></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The truth can contribute to pollution as much as falsehood can,” Phillips says. “It is easy to feel like you are pushing back against a story when you are saying, ‘This story’s terrible.’ But the algorithm doesn’t care about your righteous indignation. The algorithm cares that you’re engaging with content.”</font></span></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">She urges journalists and everyday people to shift the lens, focusing less on the liars and more on how lies and ideologies have impacted communities.</font></b></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Warzel, meanwhile, also urges social media users to slow down. Be wary about clicking that retweet button. If a story seems too perfect, doubt it. If a crazy news story doesn’t come from an established media outlet, wait until at least one outlet covers it — ideally two.</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Marantz, the expert on online trolls, says</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> the<b> long-term solution to the disinformation crisis is a deep and philosophical one</b> that he’d explain at length with phrases like “reaffirming our commitment to epistemic depth</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">.” But for now, the simpler way to react to disinformation is to rely a little bit more on the old gatekeepers.</span></font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“If you read the New York Times or the BBC or the alt-weekly in your town or the New Yorker, you’re going to be better informed than if you read Facebook,” Marantz says.</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Not because they’re perfect — there’s a billion reasons to complain about mainstream journalists, he says — but because, for all their flaws, right now they’re the best we’ve got.</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“It’s the best short-term solution,” he says, “as opposed to just living a world where no one knows anything.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div></div></div>