Here are five things I have found interesting since my last post.
1. It is hard not to make a connection between the failed insurrection in Brazil on Sunday and what supporters of former President Donald Trump attempted at the United State Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, writes in Brazil’s Insurrection Reminds Us of the Power of Strongman Personality Cults: “In the Brazilian case, as in the U.S. of Donald Trump, the leader and his allies invested in years-long relentless disinformation campaigns designed to discredit their country’s electoral systems in the public mind. Personality cults create images of the leader as infallible, and preparing followers to see any setback to their hero as the result of nefarious external forces rigging the system against him is part of preserving his competency in their eyes. Having someone or something to blame—President Joe Biden or Lula as it may be—also keeps the personality cult alive by letting followers avoid acknowledging that their hero is a loser.”
And Trump’s personality cult is in some trouble after the losses suffered by his candidates in the midterm elections. As Ben-Ghiat explains, this photo of Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) refusing to take a call from the former president—facilitated by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA)—during the Speaker of the House voting would have been hard to imagine just a few months ago.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, holds her smart phone with former US President Donald Trump on the line, as Rep. Matt Rosendale, a Republican from Montana, waves it off during a meeting of the 118th Congress in the House Chamber on Friday.
#SpeakerVote
— Al Drago (@Al_Drago) 4:28 AM ∙ Jan 7, 2023
The Guardian’s Moira Donegan notes that while many in the United States look to Europe for analogies to our history, we share more in common with the Latin American democracies to our south.
She writes, “Like us, they were founded on early violence that casts long shadows over our subsequent attempts at equality and pluralism: chattel slavery and the dispossession and genocide of indigenous peoples. Like us, they are host to racially and religiously heterogenous populations, aspiring to national projects based not so much in shared ethnic identity as in shared ideals. And like us, these Latin American nations have an authoritarian streak, one that has historically been encouraged, both tacitly and explicitly, by the US itself.”
Donegan notes one key difference between how the United States and Brazil handled the insurrections sparked by their recent authoritarian presidents: Brazil is taking quick action to hold those responsible accountable.
“But one massive difference is in how the Brazilians have responded to this threat to their democracy. In the aftermath of the January 6 violence, the Biden administration reportedly balked at pursuing an actual impeachment of Donald Trump, stymying Democrats in the House who wanted to pursue an aggressive accountability strategy; in the years since, the Department of Justice has repeatedly dragged its feet, passed the buck, and seemed unable or unwilling to do anything other than passively allow Trump and his inner circle to sabotage the democratic process with impunity.
Not so with the Brazilians. The new leftist president, Lula de Silva, immediately denounced the mob as “neo-fascists,” and was willing, with clarity and candor that would be unthinkable in an American politician, to honestly tell his countrymen that they cannot trust all of the police forces.”
The memory of a recent violent dictatorship does clarify what’s at stake when there is an attack on democracy. I hope people in the United States understand that the danger here is not over.
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2. The Hoarse Whisperer shared a remarkable piece of writing, using a toothache to open a conversation how financial hardship doesn’t just change the way one thinks—it rewires the mind.
In this initial post, the writer explains how his life changed after he left a high-paying but unsatisfying career and was left to try to support a child after a 75 percent cut in income.
“I postponed and canceled and postponed and canceled. Anything that could wait which affected only me waited. And “It can wait.” meant it would wait forever. There would never be a time when something that wasn’t a crisis when it arose and hadn’t become one would suddenly move to the front of the line.
If you have never had a protracted period of deep, serious, financial struggle, this may not make sense to you as a concept:
Those decisions start as financial and then become psychological. Not emotional. Psychological.
Barely getting by is at first a process – a budget exercise – but then it becomes a mindset until it literally rewires your very brain.
In the early going, you’re trying to spin plates while thinking you may be able to keep any from dropping. And then some drop. And them some more drop. And then something big and unexpected happens and you realize you have to choose a bunch to let drop.
And it is that last moment, the unexpected thing that forces you to have to choose a whole bunch of plates to let fall that changes things.”
The writer followed up with a postscript that responded to the comments responding to his initial article. People wanted more of the story. People wanted to know why the writer hadn’t made “better” choices. That question misses the point.
“My list is not the worst in the world. Worse than some. Not as bad as others.
But misery is not an Olympic event. No one needs to earn a gold medal in hardship to prove they have been sufficiently “hard done by” (as my late British mother-in-law would say) to have bottomed out.
We are all one phone call away from our lives coming apart at the seams. We are all – every one of us – just one single domino away from a cascade over months or years that pulls all of the gravel from under our feet.”
3. Adam Johnson at The Column reacts to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ decision to appoint Christopher Rufo to the board of trustees of the New School in Florida. Rufo is one of the nation’s leading homophobes and transphobes and is also the person who created a fake—but electorally effective—controversy about critical race theory.
Johnson shows how the mainstream media uses euphemisms to avoid having to discuss the genocidal campaign conservative activists are waging against members of the LGBTQ community. He explains:
“One popular way of obscuring the power dynamics and harm being waged against vulnerable populations is to discuss not humans, or victims, or those under assault, but “issues” to be “opposed.” Transgender people’s identity is an “issue” to be “debated” and, thus, abstract; its victims are not people with lives and parents and friends and partners and humanity—they are simply the battlegrounds for these so-called “gender wars.” No one is subject to incitement campaigns, attacks in the public sphere, or discrimination. There’s no oppressor and oppressed, there is simply a debate club with differing opinions. The human stakes are lost, and the cruelty and dehumanization being promoted by the likes of DeSantis and Rufo is obscured in favor of anodyne-sounding policy “issues.”
Johnson explains four ways reporters obscure the power dynamics and removes the humanity of the people targeted from this conversation. We must remember the lives at stake here.
4. The World Meteorological Organization announced that the “ozone layer is on track to recover within four decades, with the global phaseout of ozone-depleting chemicals already benefitting efforts to mitigate climate change.”
This outcome was not inevitable. It was possible only because of the efforts of activists to get governments to take decisive action to phase out the use of the substances that were harming the ozone layer.
Yes! Collective action can work to solve major global problems. As the Intelligencer’s Chas Denner writes, “The saving of the ozone layer can and should give everyone hope that such movements (and international treaties) are possible, worthwhile, and effective, particularly as the world faces a far more complex and intimidating threat with human-driven climate change.”
5. The Atlantic Hockey Association, a Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Conference, named Army West Point Senior Associate Athletic Trainer Rachel Leahy as its Player of the Week. Non-players don’t usually receive this kind of recognition, but Leahy saved the life of Army forward Eric Huss during a game against Sacred Heart last week.
As Atlantic Hockey’s press release explains, “Army West Point Athletic Trainer Rachel Leahy’s quick actions when Black Knight junior Eric Huss suffered a throat laceration in Thursday’s Army-Sacred Heart game prevented a serious injury from becoming catastrophic. Leahy was the first person to Huss after the forward was cut by an inadvertent skate blade and remained by his side to control the bleeding from the time they left the ice until Huss arrived at the hospital and entered the emergency room. Huss underwent surgery Thursday evening to close the wound and is expected to make a full recovery from his injury.”
College Hockey News provides more details about the incident and what Leahy had to do to save Huss’ life on the ice. Kudos to those at Atlantic Hockey who thought to recognize Leahy in this fashion.
Quick Pitches:
The United Nations reported that in 2021 five million children died before age five, with 47 percent before one month of age. Activists believe better healthcare access and support for pregnant people could significantly lower this rate. (Sarah Johnson, The Guardian)
Puck’s Teddy Schleifer reports about his in-person interview with FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried. It’s a fascinating conversation, but why is he still talking to reporters? (Teddy Schleifer, Puck)
Judd Legum offers more information about the landmark Federal Trade Commission proposed rule to ban noncompete clauses. (Judd Legum, Popular Information)
California has gotten a bit of snow the past couple of weeks. But the drought isn’t over.
Snow continues to pile up across the #Sierra during these series of storms since Christmas Day, now sitting at 215% of avg for this date. Also, the snowpack typically peaks April 1st across the Sierra, and the state now sits at 94% of its April 1st avg! Data from: @CA_DWR #CAwx
— NWS California-Nevada RFC (@NWSCNRFC) 11:21 PM ∙ Jan 10, 2023
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