Here are some of the topics that have caught my attention as I’ve been browsing the internet:
The State of the Union Is Self-Owned
Optics matter in politics. And I don’t think Republicans will like how people outside of their hardcore base react to what happened last night during President Biden’s State of the Union address.
As someone who watches the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister’s Questions, I love it when speakers can take a heckling crowd and turn it into an opportunity to gain an advantage. So the moment of the night for me happened when Biden drew the Republicans into a trap about what Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) has proposed (click here to see the pdf) around five-year sunsets of all federal legislation, which would include Social Security and Medicare.
Heather Cox Richardson describes what happened: “Biden asked Congress to “commit here tonight that the full faith and credit of the United States of America will never, ever be questioned.” This, of course, is an issue that has bitterly divided Republicans, many of whom want to hold the country hostage until they get what they want. But they can’t agree on what they want, so they are now trying to insist that Biden is refusing to negotiate the budget when, in fact, he has simply said he will not negotiate over the debt ceiling. Budget negotiations are a normal part of legislating, and he has said he welcomes such talks. Tonight, once again, he asked the Republicans to tell the American people what, exactly, they propose.
And then Biden did something astonishing. He tricked the Republicans into a public declaration of support for protecting Social Security and Medicare. He noted that a number of Republicans have called for cutting, or even getting rid of, Social Security and Medicare. This is simply a fact—it is in Senator Rick Scott’s (R-FL) pre-election plan; the Republican Study Committee’s budget; statements by Senators Mike Lee (R-UT), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Ron Johnson (R-WI); and so on—but Republicans booed Biden and called him a liar for suggesting they would make those cuts, and they did so in public.
Seeming to enjoy himself, Biden jumped on their assertion, forcing them to agree that there would be no cuts to Social Security or Medicare. It was budget negotiation in real time, and it left Biden holding all the cards.”
I also want to note the mental acuity and courage it took for Biden to engage with the hecklers here. Anyone who has been interrupted during a speech or presentation should understand just how challenging those moments are. Biden may decide not to run for another term, but this demonstrates his current ability to do the job.
I will be watching for voters’ reactions to all of the times Republicans—and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)—failed to applaud popular policies. Aaron Rupar at Public Notice does an outstanding job of clipping political events, so you can see all of the examples he describes below:
“Here’s just a partial list of Biden accomplishments and priorities that McCarthy conspicuously refused to applaud (if you want to see the receipts, scroll through my thread): Two years of historic job creation, economic fairness, low unemployment, affordable insulin, investments in climate sustainability, billionaires not paying a lower tax rate than teachers or firefighters, a tax hike on stock buybacks, the wealthy paying their fair share in taxes, family leave, the child tax credit, expanding access to preschool, teacher raises, immigration reform, protecting reproductive rights, and shooting down the Chinese spy balloon.”
The Editorial Board’s John Stoehr also encourages us to note how Biden is working to reframe the contours of the political debate in this country:
“Joe Biden’s State of the Union address last night reflected, in terms of policy and politics, a reversal of the last 40 years, a period beginning with Ronald Reagan and ending with Donald Trump. With a single speech, he swapped hot-rocks fascism for stone-cold liberalism.
That reversal will take time to finish, as the last reversal took time. America’s transition from demand-side economics to supply-side economics dragged on over several presidencies, only coming to completion with Bill Clinton. But make no mistake: that reversal, rooted in chaos and crisis, is well underway.”
Even if Biden can’t accomplish all of the policy goals I would like, his would be a historic presidency if he can achieve what Stoehr describes.
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Biden Misses on Reproductive Rights
That said, I agree with Jessica Valenti that President Biden inexcusably failed to make more of an emphasis about how more than half the population lost a fundamental right last year when the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade. This issue isn’t a box to check—so it demanded more than 30 seconds of focus.
“For over six months, Americans have been suffering under abortion bans that they didn’t vote for and don’t want. Women left bleeding for days. Cancer patients and raped children denied care. Burst ectopic pregnancies. All of that suffering—and we got thirty seconds?
First Lady Jill Biden brought Amanda Zurawski as her guest tonight—a Texas woman who ended up in the ICU with sepsis after being denied an abortion for a doomed pregnancy. Didn’t she deserve more than four sentences?
There was no mention of the conservative efforts to ban abortion medication, or the fact that a court decision could come down this week that would strip even pro-choice states of the right to offer those pills to patients. There was nothing about the twenty Attorneys General who threatened retail pharmacies to keep the medication out of their states, even though they’re standard treatment for miscarriages.
No words spoken about the doctors forced to choose between giving their patients adequate care or prison time. No time spent on the pregnant women kept in an Alabama jail in order to ‘protect’ their fetuses.”
Biden comes from a generation of Democratic leaders who supported reproductive rights but tried to do it as quietly as possible. We needed more from him last night during this emergency.
Austin Near-Miss Another Warning
James Fallows examines what we know about the near-collision of two airplanes at the Bergstrom Airport in Austin, Texas, last Saturday.
“—A Boeing 767 flown by FedEx was cleared to land, on a “Cat III” approach that allows an airliner to touch down safely even if the pilots cannot see the runway. Meanwhile a Boeing 737 flown by Southwest was cleared to take off from that same runway, directly in the descending airplane’s path.
—It appears that quick action and situational awareness by the FedEx crew prevented a mass-casualty disaster.
I’m writing today to highlight two online assessments of the incident. The first one greatly clarifies what happened and how things went wrong. The second argues that this should be seen not as an isolated mishap but as a warning sign.”
Fallows details what we know about the series of events that nearly led to a calamity. But the real question is what needs to be fixed with the safety protocols because these near misses are happening with increasing frequency. He introduces and then quotes a former air traffic controller’s assessment:
“On his site “WWVB: What Would Vannevar Blog?”, a retired air traffic controller argues that these recent runway incursions are signs of deeper and more dangerous problems.
I encourage you to read the whole thing. But the gist is below.
The “Tenerife” he refers to is the deadliest disaster in aviation history, when one 747 ran into another on a foggy runway.
This Austin situation is awful. As bad as it gets without body bags….
This was a total system failure. These airplanes were not separated by any good fortune of serendipitous timing. The only thing preventing another Tenerife was the FedEx crew’s situational awareness and the breath of god.”
The Captain Speaks Out on Behalf of Trans Athletes
United States Women’s National Soccer Team Captain Becky Sauerbrunn wrote an op-ed speaking out against proposed legislation targeting trans athletes in her home state of Missouri.
“The bills don’t consider any of the actual challenges to women and girls in sport. The proposed “Save Women’s Sports Act” does nothing to protect or support girls and women in sports. If those putting forth this legislation actually listened to the needs and concerns of women in sports, they would outline clear steps to protect women and girls from the rampant sexual assault and harassment plaguing sports — issues we’ve been fighting in the NWSL. They would clarify what’s being done to ensure all institutions in Missouri are Title IX compliant. They would outline a plan to promote equal pay for women athletes. They would ensure young women and girls have equitable resources in sport, especially young women and girls of color. Instead, they’re pushing kids away from the life-changing power of sports, forever depriving them of the invaluable lessons sport teaches, and the best friends they would find on their teams.
I have been championing gender equity in sport for a long time, and I am done seeing transgender youth being cruelly targeted to score political points. Transgender people are exactly that, people — not tools to be wielded in a climb up the political ladder. I’m not alone ― hundreds of other elite women athletes from Billie Jean King to Candace Parker have consistently expressed loud opposition to bills almost identical to the ones being heard in the Missouri Senate. Thousands of college athletes have signed letters supporting transgender athletes and against discriminatory bills like these.”
What is happening around the country to trans people is an outrage. There are life-and-death consequences involved here. I appreciate when people use the platforms they may have to fight back against it.
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The Internet Server Targeting Trans People for Death
Trigger warning: this section contains mentions self-harm and suicide.
Mother Jones’ Ali Breland writes—at significant personal risk—about Kiwi Farms, a website known for attacking trans people and other people at risk.
“Most websites aren’t known for having a “kill count.” Kiwi Farms is. Its victims reportedly include Julie Terryberry, who in 2016 took her life after being targeted by users of the site. Two years later, after years of harassment from Kiwi Farms trolls, Chloe Sagal lit herself on fire in a public park. In June 2021, an American video game developer based in Japan, named David Ginder, took their life amid a campaign of Kiwi Farms abuse.
Kiwi Farms is a forum similar in design to 4chan or 8chan, where anonymous posters gather. But instead of just spreading noxious discourse, Kiwi Farms users turn to the site to plan and coordinate. They work to make the lives of their targets a living hell. Their tactics include doxxing, SWATing, defaming, encouraging self-harm, and stalking, online and sometimes off.
Kiwi Farms harvests anguish. It thrives on pain and revels in death. Users of the innocuously named forum prey on the vulnerable and marginalized—people who are transgender, neurodivergent, disabled, financially struggling—with persistent and twisted harassment campaigns. Despite its penchant for destroying lives, Kiwi Farms has been mostly overlooked by the media for much of the site’s existence. That is partly because of who it attacks, but also because reporters are wary of becoming targets themselves.”
Exposing this kind of abuse is necessary as part of a process to protect people.
Quick Pitches
After winning a Grammy Award for the audiobook of her memoir, Viola Davis became the 18th person to achieve the EGOT—winning Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards. (Jazz Tangcay, Variety)
LeBron James became the NBA’s all-time leading scorer last night, breaking a record Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had held for nearly four decades. But as The Nation’s Dave Zirin explains, James had to achieve everything while facing rare pressures off the court: “We’ve also witnessed someone who has accomplished this under a “double burden.” LeBron has had to live the last 15 years not only as a player expected to bring his team to the finals every single season but also as someone under the added pressure of being expected to have an opinion on the issues dividing this country, most prominently racist police violence and the presidency of Donald Trump.” (Dave Zirin, The Nation)
Kareem 🤝 LeBron
What a moment
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) 5:04 AM ∙ Feb 8, 2023
Here’s what it would look like if the Jedi Academy followed the lead of Republican governors like Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-AR) in seeking to hide the negative aspects of our history from students. “I sense a great disturbance in the Force. Cynical academics are attempting to corrupt our society with their inaccurate revisionist history. In order to protect our Padawans from being indoctrinated in the Dark Side’s ideology, the Council has decided to excise certain ugly chapters from the ancient Jedi texts. The revised curriculum will not cover Order 66, the minor instance in which the Jedi Council misinterpreted a prophecy, chose the wrong chosen one, and allowed the Sith to infiltrate our ranks, which all culminated in Anakin Skywalker murdering the younglings in cold blood and then proceeding to enslave the entire galaxy. This isolated incident does not reflect who we are as a modern society and does not need to be taught to our youth.” (Max Davison, McSweeney’s)
“A class of molecules produced by bacteria of the genus Pseudomonas has proven to be so effective at killing bacteria that researchers have dubbed them “keanumycins” after Keanu Reeves.” (Hadi Khan, Mashable)
Harry Whittington, the man former Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot in 2006, has passed away. “Whittington’s reluctance to talk about his one moment of planetary fame was a mark of graciousness and gentlemanly propriety. Whittington, who died Saturday at 95, never blamed Cheney for nearly killing him, nor the White House for distorting the events of that late afternoon in 2006. After emerging from a Texas hospital, Whittington even seemed to blame himself.” (Paul Farhi, The Washington Post)
“But it turns out that, mathematically, the answer to these questions — or any question where you want to match up the day of the week with the day/month combination in a year — are extremely predictable, straightforward, and simple to figure out. If, that is, you don’t restrict yourself to using a conventional 12-month calendar, but rather use this one-page calendar that not only lasts the whole year, but that’s extremely easy to adjust for any/all years into the future.” (Ethan Siegel, Big Think)
I am so shocked that the people behind the proposed deal to build a new stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays are being deceptive about how much it will cost taxpayers. So. Shocked. (Neil deMause, Field of Schemes)
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