Today’s Lineup

Here are some of the topics that have caught my attention as I’ve been browsing the internet: Ben Barnes’ delay in revealing what he knew about the 1980 October Surprise harmed our democracy, the rise and threat of white Christian nationalism, California Supreme Court reminds the state’s prosecutors and Attorney General of their responsibilities in turning over evidence to defendants, progress toward California producing its own insulin, Clara Shortridge Foltz deserves more credit for creating public defenders, the rate of stillbirths in the U.S. is shockingly high, TSA says peanut butter is a liquid, Oreo cookie science, floppy disks carry on, the stresses faced by professional soccer referees, call him Sir Brian May, monks create the first powered beer, and a hat tip to Sergio Romo.

Leading Off

Ben Barnes recently told the New York Times about his role in efforts by supporters of Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign to ensure Iran would not release the American hostages that country was holding until after the election. As Peter Baker writes:

“History needs to know that this happened,” Mr. Barnes, who turns 85 next month, said in one of several interviews, his first with a news organization about the episode. “I think it’s so significant and I guess knowing that the end is near for President Carter put it on my mind more and more and more. I just feel like we’ve got to get it down some way.

Mr. Barnes is no shady foreign arms dealer with questionable credibility, like some of the characters who fueled previous iterations of the October surprise theory. He was once one of the most prominent figures in Texas, the youngest speaker of the Texas House of Representatives and later lieutenant governor. He was such an influential figure that he helped a young George W. Bush get into the Texas Air National Guard rather than be exposed to the draft and sent to Vietnam. Lyndon B. Johnson predicted that Mr. Barnes would become president someday.”

I guess it is never too late to tell the truth.

But it should not have taken an announcement about a former president entering hospice to explain what happened in 1980. American citizens were kept prisoner longer than necessary to help a candidate win a presidential election. Barnes owed the nation a response years ago—best, he should have done it in real time.

Barnes’ decision to keep his role a secret—even as there was a Congressional investigation and statements by other elected officials and governments confirming parts of the story—harmed our democracy. It also contributed to a climate where Republican campaigns are willing to take the risk of acting with foreign governments in ways designed to impact our elections.

Because 1980 was not the first time such a thing happened.

As the 1968 election drew near, Richard Nixon was concerned that outgoing President Lyndon Johnson was going to cut a deal with the North Vietnamese. In Nixon’s estimation, such a deal would have boosted Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey in a close election.

So Nixon and his supporters worked behind the scenes to scuttle that potential deal, prolonging the Vietnam War and the deaths of tens of thousands of people on both sides of the conflict. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Will Bunch explains:

“On Nov. 17, 1973, Richard Nixon stood before a room of newspaper editors in Orlando and said, famously, that “people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook.”

But people didn’t know the full story. The 37th president was indeed a crook, and the Watergate scandal he was addressing that night wasn’t even the worst of it.

It’s taken nearly a half-century to unravel the 1968 campaign tale of Nixon and all the future president’s men, their go-between Anna Chennault, and their dirty dealings with the South Vietnamese to put the kibosh on LBJ’s push for a speedy peace deal in Southeast Asia. Experts think such an agreement would have kept the soon-be-be-disgraced Republican out of the White House. But more importantly, an early peace also would have prevented the horrific deaths of more than 20,000 Americans and countless Vietnamese that occurred after Nixon took office.

Even for the Watergate caper, cover-up, and conspiracy, which led to criminal convictions for 48 others, Nixon escaped real justice. Emboldened by his 1974 pardon from successor Gerald Ford, he even had the gall to tell interviewer David Frost that “when the president does it, that means it is not illegal.” But even more outrageous than Nixon’s statement is that decades of high crimes and misdemeanors at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue seem to have proved him right.”

Bunch also reminds us that former President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and other members of that Administration never faced consequences for the lies they told before the invasion of Iraq.

Given this lack of accountability, we should not be surprised that people connected to Nixon, Reagan, and Bush would later work with Russia on behalf of former President Donald Trump. What consequences could they fear?

Barnes owed the country an explanation long before now. I fear our democracy will not survive the authoritarian trends his silence helped to foster.

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White Christian Nationalism’s Rise and Threat

I recently learned that the actor and political activist George Takei had started a Substack. One of his initial posts proved to be one of the best summaries I’ve found about one of the threats to our democracy that worries me the most—the rise of White Christian Nationalism.

Takei and Todd Beeton explore the tenants of White Christian Nationalism, who supports the philosophy, and how we see the worldview in the Republican Party’s attacks against abortion rights, LGBTQ people, and people of color. As Takei and Beeton write:

“Indeed, there is a movement afoot to make an American theocracy a reality, and while it may still sound far-fetched to many today, it has earned the support of an alarming percentage of the country, particularly in red states led by Republican legislative majorities and governors.”

…

And a 2022 Pew Research Center survey found 68% of American Christians (and 67% of Republicans) agree the Bible should have “a great deal or some influence on U.S. laws.”

Now, a new survey from the Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution confirms Christian nationalism is a uniquely Republican phenomenon.

54 percent of Republican voters either indicated they are adherents to Christian nationalism (21 percent) or sympathizers (33 percent) of such a movement, as defined by several values-based criteria including:the U.S. government should declare America a Christian nationU.S. laws should be based on Christian valuesGod has called Christians to exercise dominion over all areas of American society”

I previously discussed that study in Issue #33 of this newsletter. But the danger these results highlight requires more conversations, so I welcome the opportunity to return to it.

As Takei and Beeton note, “To Christian nationalists, The Handmaid’s Tale isn’t a cautionary tale at all—it’s an aspirational one.” These are the stakes in all of our elections in the near future—from the April 4 Wisconsin Supreme Court election to the upcoming elections in state legislatures, Governors, Congress, and the Presidency.

We will have to work hard to have any chance to prevent our nation’s descent into such a dystopian future.

Thank you for reading Things I Find Interesting by Craig Cheslog. This post is public so feel free to share it.

Quick Pitches

California

The California State Supreme Court overturned a woman’s manslaughter conviction because the prosecution failed to disclose evidence that could have supported the defendant’s claim that she acted in self-defense. Newly confirmed California Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero wrote in a unanimous ruling that prosecutors and the Attorney General had “an ethical duty to make timely disclosure to the (defense) petitioner of all evidence or information known to the Attorney General that was available but not disclosed at trial that the Attorney General knows or reasonably should know tends to negate the guilt of the petitioner, mitigate the offense, or mitigate the sentence.” It should not have taken a court ruling for the California Attorney General to understand this idea. (Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle)

Governor Gavin Newsom (D) announces a $50 million contract with a nonprofit generic drugmaker as the next step in the state’s efforts to produce its own label of insulin. (Taryn Luna and Emily Alpert Reyes, Los Angeles Times)

Newsom skipped the traditional State of the State address in the State Capitol to tour the state to highlight his 2023 priorities. Here is a look at what Newsom emphasized—helping the unhoused, reforming prisons, mental health, and health care—during his four-day tour of the state. (Sameea Kamal and Alexei Koseff, CalMatters)

The Democrats of Rossmoor in Walnut Creek, California, have been fortunate enough to host the three major Democratic candidates in the race to succeed U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein. Here’s an article examining how the candidates did and all of the work the club does to elect democrats. Several of the club’s members subscribe to this newsletter, and I am glad to see them get this kind of recognition. (Joe Garofoli, San Francisco Chronicle)

Assembly Member Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) has authored legislation to require social media companies like Meta and Google to pay publishers for selling advertising adjacent to news content. The bill is based on successful legislation implemented in Australia in early 2021. (Jaimie Ding, Los Angeles Times)

Older Toyota Prius models are the top targets for catalytic converter thieves, and victims of this crime then find themselves waiting more than six months before a replacement becomes available. (Laura Nelson, Los Angeles Times)

Politics

Clara Shortridge Foltz doesn’t get the credit she deserves for inventing the idea of public defenders—or forcing the California governor at the time to sign a bill allowing women to become attorneys. (Emily Galvin Almanza, Teen Vogue)

Lyz Lenz discusses how Jessa Duggar Seewald, one of the conservative Christian members of the family made famous by the show 19 Kids and Counting, received an abortion procedure to manage her miscarriage, something that is not possible for far too many women and people who can become pregnant today as red states enact bans on the medical procedure. “But the reality is doctors in states with abortion bans with health exceptions are refusing women life-saving care out of fear of violating the restrictive laws.” (Lyz Lenz, Men Yell at Me)

Why won’t reporters and editors discuss the radical religious conservative background of the Trump-appointed judge who may try to overrule the Food and Drug Administration? “In coverage of a case that could take a crucial abortion medication off the market, more than half of the leading mainstream newspapers and news wires neglected to explain that the anti-abortion plaintiffs hand-picked an anti-abortion judge who has a history of working for the religious right to increase their chances of getting a favorable ruling.” (Jasmine Geonzon & Audrey McCabe, Media Matters for America)

Two mothers sued the New Jersey hospitals where they gave birth for taking drug tests without their consent. Medical privacy is also a problem in so-called blue states. (Erum Salam, The Guardian)

The Transportation Security Administration has ruled that peanut butter is a liquid that falls under its security theater recommendations. So get those small jars for travel. Whew. I feel safer already. Now when can we discuss how having large bins for dumping and mixing excess liquids adjacent to the crowded security checkpoints is a good idea? (Natalie B. Compton, Washington Post)

Science

Scientists could not find a perfect way to twist an Oreo cookie made in the United States to ensure both sides get some of the creme filling. As with so many things (hi, Cadbury chocolate), the European version of the cookie appears to be manufactured differently (better?), making it possible to get filling on both wafers. (Aylin Woodward, Wall Street Journal)

A new study concludes that the stillbirth rate in the United States is unacceptably high. “The National Institutes of Health report, titled “Working to Address the Tragedy of Stillbirth,” mirrored findings of an investigation by ProPublica last year into the U.S. stillbirth crisis, in which more than 20,000 pregnancies every year are lost at 20 weeks or more and the expected baby is born dead.” (Duaa Eldeib, ProPublica)

Technology

The floppy disk won’t die, as businesses ranging from small embroidery businesses to airlines needing to apply critical software updates to older planes still need to use what’s left of the world’s supply of 3.5-inch floppy disks. (Jacopo Prisco, Wired)

Last year, vinyl record sales surpassed compact disk sales for the first time since 1987. (Bethany Biron, Business Insider)

The lie detector was never very good at identifying whether or not a person was telling the truth. It’s time to stop using this junk science in our courts and security reviews. (Amit Katwala, Wired)

The San Mateo County Board of Education added Meta to its lawsuit against social media companies for allegedly addicting students and contributing to a mental health crisis. (Joel Rosenblatt, Bloomberg News)

Culture

King Charles III knighted Queen guitarist and astrophysicist Brian May as a member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in recognition of his service to the music industry and charity. (Jeff Spry, Space.com)

“A monastic brewery in East Germany says it’s created the first powdered beer. Just add water, and it’ll froth up, complete with a foamy head and full flavor. The result promises massive savings on transport, because it can be shipped at 10% of the weight.” (Loz Blain, New Atlas)

Scooter’s Coffee in Omaha, Nebraska, broke a Guinness World Record by assembling an 848-pound cake ball in celebration of its 25th anniversary. (Ben Hooper, United Press International)

This is quite a lede: “Bulgarian authorities said Thursday they were investigating a painting seized by police that could be a little-known work by the American abstract artist Jackson Pollock. Clues indicate the roughly six-foot-tall painting may have been a gift to Hollywood star Lauren Bacall — and could have been held in the extensive private collection of Romania’s former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.” (AFP via CBS News)

Sports

I learned quite a bit about the stresses of professional officiating in this story about English Premier League referees. It is such a demanding job, and The job inevitably leads to criticism, and the leagues and fans must do more must be done to stop the abuse from the grassroots level through the professional ranks. (William Ralston, The Guardian)

As we prepare for Major League Baseball’s Opening Day, here’s a history of presidential first pitches. Thank you, President Taft. (Andrew Sharp, Here’s The Pitch)

The Closer

Here’s a tip of my hat to how well the San Francisco Giants and Sergio Romo handled the pitcher’s retirement announcement.

Every time a kid asked Sergio Romo for an autograph in spring training he asked them to sign his hat first. He wore this to the mound tonight:

— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) 5:19 AM ∙ Mar 28, 2023

Post-Game Comments

Today’s Thought from my Readwise collection:

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back. So the old bamboozles tend to persist as the new ones rise.” (Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark)

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