I Warned You

 Yes, I warned you.

About abortion? Yes. I warned you back in 2018 it was doomed. I also had warnings for you in 2020 when Mitch McConnell did a complete flip-flop from the 2016 argument he used regarding Merrick Garland and decided to fast-track Amy Coney Barrett as the presumptive nominee.

Then, as now, I scolded all you fellow leftists for not fighting then the way you're suddenly willing to now. Somehow, liberals never seem to get outraged at anything until long after the ship has sailed. (Although this ship has not only sailed, it's arrived in port at the other side of the ocean.)

Hey, all you Jill Stein voters. How does your 2016 vote look now?

But while I'm seeing lots of blame for past Republican screw-ups regarding abortion (and complete inaction from Democrats), I'm seeing none of the same association regarding gasoline.

Nobody blames Biden for the upcoming SCOTUS decision regarding abortion. But by the same token, nobody should blame Biden for high gasoline prices and inflation, either. Because the seeds for those were laid by Republican hands and their corporate lobbyists.

Remember the EV-1? It was an electric car made by General Motors from 1996 to 1999. Corporate interests and Republican politicians killed it. Why? To keep us dependent upon gasoline. And being dependent upon gasoline has disastrous economic consequences, because every time there's a gas crisis, it raises the cost of everything.

I warned you about this consequence back in 2011. And again in 2019.

My main point is that we recognize how the current mess with abortion rights happened because of what Republicans did in years past (and what Democrats failed to do). But the exact same situation is also true of gasoline prices. All our continued dependency upon fossil fuels has come at the behest of Republicans bowing to the special interests of Big Oil and the plastics industry. Yes, Putin's invasion of Ukraine is a big factor.

But no amount of supply chain issues would matter if we weren't so dependent upon supply.

Eric

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In my previous blog post, I pointed out how our very democracy is threatened by the constant barrage of fake news. The Right-Wing Media Cult which generates such fake news goes unchecked, free to do or say whatever it takes to stoke anger, fear, and with them, higher network ratings.

So long as the news remains for-profit, it will forever try to sensationalize, electrify, horrify, or in any other way manufacture outrage. Because that's what sells newspapers. That's what drives up ad revenue.

So, given that freedom of speech is an absolute (as well it should be), how do we fight it?

Here's my proposal, and it's so crazy it just might work.

We go to the Republicans and say, "How would you like to stop liberal media bias?"

And of course, they will say, "Hell, yeah! What can I do?"

Then we sell them a bill which essentially says this: Media which labels itself as "news" must only report factual events. False reporting, opinionating, or disguising op ed or advertisement as news is punishable by fine.

Notice how this does not infringe upon free speech. Any "infotainment" outlet, such as Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, or Rachel Maddow, can continue to say whatever they want, as often as they want, so long as they do so on a non-news platform. They must move to an entertainment platform - where they fucking belong.

The territory known as "news" becomes hallowed ground. As it should always be.

This not only drives the opinionating out of the news, it re-establishes the "separation of church and state" that used to exist regarding advertisement and news items. "Native advertising" becomes a thing of the past. (Thank fuck!)

It is analogous to another law, already on the books, regarding food items. If someone sells a food item, and its contents are not what is described on the list of ingredients, that manufacturer is liable. It is illegal to sell "gluten free" when it contains gluten, or "pesticide-free" if it contains pesticides. By the same token, something cannot call itself "news" if it contains opinion instead.

We have the right to know that what goes into our bodies is safe, according to current law. By the same token, we also have a right to know that what goes into our minds is safe as well.

And arguably, our minds are more important.

Of course, if the label says, "contains MSG" and a consumer buys it anyway, that's on them. By the same token, some will continue to consume fake news anyway, just like some people buy the Lucky Charms which is nothing but marshmallows. It might be bad for you, but that's your choice. You just can't pretend it isn't bad for you. You can't pretend you're eating healthy.

You can't pretend you are an informed citizen after watching Tucker Carlson, either.

Will Republicans buy it? They just might. Or, they might smell the trap. But even if they don't trust the proposal, the Right-Wing Media Cult will probably take the bait, especially if Democrats sell it well with a well-executed AstroTurf campaign. (Granted, Dems don't have a good track record of doing this, but with our entire democracy on the line, they'd better!) With the masses of Trumpsters firmly behind it, Republicans will have no choice but to capitulate like the cowards they have proven themselves to be over these last several years.

It will undoubtedly come as a surprise to them when Fox News and OANN get smacked down by this new law far more than CNN and MSNBC do. But... them's the breaks, right?

And I wish Rachel Maddow the best of luck on MTV. I wish Tucker Carlson the best of luck on TBN (or whatever luckless network gets stuck with him). He will undoubtedly retain his following. But not on a news network, which makes all the difference in the world, because Tucker Carlson is not a journalist. He hasn't been for some time.

Besides, if I had to lose Rachel Maddow in order to get rid of Tucker Carlson, I'd take that deal in a heartbeat!

Eric

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Jan 6th Will Happen Again

 

The revolt on January 6th will happen again.

This is not me being a prophet. This is an empirical observation about what Republicans are doing right now, in broad daylight, to steal the 2024 election.

It's not like I'm making this up. Anyone, right now, can go to a right-wing radio show, television show, or podcast, and hear them talking about doing so right this minute. As we speak, bills are circulating through state legislatures to take the certification power for vote counts away from attorneys general, and place them in the hands of state legislative bodies instead - almost all of which will be controlled by Republicans.

A more blatant and flippant attempt at subverting democracy has not been seen since the Nazis in the 1930's. And while it's usually true that comparing things to Nazism is a virtual guarantee to not be taken seriously, this time it isn't hyperbole or paranoia.

Go see for yourself. It's absolutely shameless.

They feel justified in this because they have been constantly lied to by a media machine that does not give a damn about the truth. So people end up believing that the 2020 election was somehow stolen from them, and believe that they are justified in using desperate tactics.

Check out this video of a man whose fires have been so stoked that he's getting impatient about when he gets to use his precious firearms against liberals.

"How many elections are they going to steal before we kill these people?" Charlie Kirk gets asked at his Turning Point rally in Boise, Idaho.

Kirk, to his credit, denounces him, but that didn't stop a number of people in the audience whom whooping and cheering

Never mind that Republicans have clearly and unambiguously stolen 2 out of the last 5 presidential elections, one of which was taken by Trump, who LOST the popular vote in 2016, yet got named president anyway by an Electoral College system that refused to do the job it was put in place to do, namely prevent demagogues like Trump from getting in.

The system is so out of balance right now, that any Democrat must win 55% of the popular vote or higher, just to win.

And this fucker wants to know when he and his buddies get to use THEIR guns against US?

Where is the sense of urgency regarding the FACT that the Right-Wing Media Cult wants us all DEAD?

January 6th 2021 was a wake-up call. But clearly, the response of the Left and most Democrats is to hit the snooze button and roll over.

This is the part that scares the living shit out of me. The barbarians are at the gate, and all the guards are fast asleep. Playing cards. Abandoning their posts. Not drugged, just fucking apathetic.

Does nobody else see that America is mother-fucking jeopardy?

This is very much like one of those disaster movies where the expert sounds the alarm about the disaster, and nobody ever listens to him. Except that unlike Towering Inferno, or Volcano, or Jurassic Park, where the cautions of the highly-decorated scientists go ignored, there isn't a highly-decorated scientist or expert.

There's just me. And my little blog.

Thus it is that I am forced to sit on the sidelines, watch the experts miss the point over and over, watch those in charge repeatedly fuck up, helpless to stop any of it.

If only people listened to me like they do other contra-qualified gasbags, like Alex Jones - someone whose skill as an "infotainer" is such that he doesn't deserve, nor should ever have, one single follower.

Actually, a few other people see a glimpse of it. Charlie Sykes on The Bulwark has some inkling of it. But he keeps missing the mark. He reports on the threat daily, never EVER addressing the root cause of it all - the non-stop extremist propaganda that passes for "news" these days.

It's like watching someone trying to bail out the sinking ship - one teaspoonful at a time.

Here's a thought: How about we do something about the GIANT, GAPING HOLE IN THE SIDE OF THE GODDAMNED SHIP?! Maybe if we stop the flood of misinformation from flowing in, we can finally bail the ship out so that we can repair it in the nearest harbor.

How do we do that?

Watch this space.

Eric

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Major Harris, Kid Criminals, And Consequences

 

Kids are killing kids here in Milwaukee.

On October 14, Mallory Muenzenberger was found shot to death in the back yard of a home in Milwaukee. Authorities had difficulty identifying her and notifying her family because she was from Onalaska, WI, just outside LaCrosse. But when they finally did reach family members, they discovered that Mallory's three-year-old son, Major Harris, was missing. This prompted an Amber Alert and the entire city of Milwaukee came together in a municipal-wide hunt for the boy.

One week later, the hunt came to a tragic end. The remains of Major Harris were found in a storage bin off 35th Street, one block north of Villard Ave. The boy had been shot in the head.

Officers had quickly developed a suspect in Jaheem Clark. But as police approached his home on N. 41st and Custer Ave., he committed suicide. That was Sunday, October 17th.

Other suspects were arrested in the case, but Jaheem Clark appears (for now) to have been the ringleader, and the oldest among the suspects.

Not even legal drinking age.

Another tragedy took place in Wauwatosa on October 15th. Four juveniles, aged between 13 and 15, jacked a car in front of the Holiday Inn on North Ave. and Mayfair Road. The busted a window on a vehicle, but were scared off. Sunita Balogun, a 47 year-old Nigerian woman from Oshkosh, informed security at the hotel. Later, she spotted the kids from inside her Jeep. She caught up with the group, got out of the vehicle and confronted them, but the youngest of them, a 13-year-old identified as Jayden Adams, got past Balogun, hopped into the driver's seat of her Jeep, punched her in the face, then kicked the door into her. She fell, he hit the gas and ran her down. He then picked up his friends and they took off.

Sherwin Hughes reported that the kids later went shopping with Balogun's stolen credit cards.

When the stolen Jeep was recovered, it was found that the kids were in the process of repainting it. They were going to keep the vehicle!

The driver who struck her was only 13. He is being charged as an adult, and is facing 115 years in jail.

He was born in 2008.

He will never graduate from 8th grade.

These are just a few stories from the police blotter of the City of Milwaukee as of late. And one pattern becomes clear: Our criminals are KIDS!

Right now, there is a plague of car thefts on top of a plague of reckless driving. Often, the reckless drivers are the thieves themselves.

And they are KIDS! Not even old enough to drive, anyway.

Marshall High School has become an epicenter of this. Kids there are introduced to car theft before they're even old enough to take drivers' ed.

Part of this is the system. Kids steal cars, they joyride, they ditch the car afterwards. Even if the police catch them, they are usually let go. Only 2% of car thefts are ever prosecuted, much less convicted.

But the more crucial part is that the schools have failed. People often complain, "Where are the parents?" But when parents are forced to take on two minimum wage jobs to make ends meet, they simply can't raise a teenager responsibly. Nobody can.

This is where good schools are supposed to make up the difference. But in Milwaukee, schools are subjected to the School Choice Program - a positively Darwinian approach which leaves MPS utterly bereft of the resources it needs to teach kids properly.

But do charter schools work better? The numbers seem to say yes. But that's because charter schools bump out the most problematic kids after only three weeks. This boosts their academic numbers and allows them to brag about what a fine job they're doing with education. They also get to keep the school voucher money! But those kids who get booted have no choice but to return to MPS - which then has even less money to deal with. Zero vouchers for those who need them most.

In other words, the very kids who need the most remedial education, the very ones who need the most time, effort, and - yes, I'll say it - money, are the ones most left out in the cold.

Do Republicans really believe that has zero consequences?

Now, suppose you were thrown into that meat grinder as a teenager. Suppose the system failed you that utterly. You know damned well there's no future for you. You know damned well nobody will help you. You also know your best shot at a GED is from inside a jail cell.

Wouldn't you lash out? Wouldn't you steal cars just for kicks, too? Hell, you're headed straight for jail, anyway. Might as well have some fun before you go.

If you have been in favor of school choice, you have been in favor of exactly this. You have been in favor of letting public schools fail. But what you ignored was that when a school fails, all the kids in that school fail also. That comes back to us in the form of crime, crime, and more crime, and all it takes is one abandoned kid to make a troublemaker out to make our streets unsafe. Multiply that times the hundreds upon hundreds of kids whom MPS is forced to let down, and you get the hideous situation on the city's north and northwest sides.

If you backed school choice, you have some of Major Harris' blood on your hands. You have some of Sunita Balogun's blood on your hands. You have some of the blood of the 167 Milwaukee homicides on your hands.

You should have known this would inevitably happen. Fuck you.

It's absolutely clear what the solution is: FUND THE SHIT OUT OF OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS!

You want to end crime? Are you "tough" on crime? Then give kids a reason to believe they can make it without going to jail! That means FUNDING THE LIVING SHIT OUT OF OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS!

You want reparations? Or at least, the beginnings of reparations? FUND THE ABSOLUTE SHIT OUT OF OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS!

You want to end segregation in Milwaukee? FUND THE UTMOST SHIT OUT OF OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS! You'll be amazed how quickly quality education brings white people back into the city!

And if Republicans say, "But that's too expensive," the only proper response is that it got that way because YOU refused to pay the piper before. And now the interest on that account has grown!

It's time to pay the piper. And if I had it my way, I would seize Scott Walker's assets as a down payment. But barring that, I'll settle for the willingness of city officials to pony up, and white people generally shutting the hell up about the price tag.

It is not just the solution, it is the only solution.

Eric

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Cancelling Dave Chapelle

I've realized something about cancelling people. It doesn't work.

I mean, if the general idea is to shame people into changing their minds, canceling does exactly the opposite.

Case in point, Dave Chapelle, who has built his career by being boldly offensive. He's also made a career making jokes out of uncomfortable truths. But in his latest Netflix special, "The Closer," he is being decidedly transphobic, and even highlighting some of his own past transphobic humor. As a result, many of my fellow Leftists are calling for The Closer to be canceled from Netflix. So far, Netflix is standing its ground, and for good reason - it's reached #3 on Netflix's Top 10. Chappelle remains popular despite, or perhaps even because of, his transphobia.

But Chappelle is no fool. He has an unusual clarity of insight which makes him good at his job, and sooner or later (I believe), this will make him see things differently.

IF we back off.

Don't get me wrong. I side with transgender issues. I'm all for trans rights. But canceling doesn't convince anyone of anything - other than that we are the Parisian mob of 1799, beheading anyone we disapprove of without scruple or supplication.

When I was a teenager, I was a Bible-thumper. I berated certain people all the time, usually classmates or family. They, in turn, tended to double-down on being rebellious, often rubbing it in my face.

Then I questioned my faith, and eventually left Christianity. And the people I used to berate all became responsible citizens. Some even embraced the Church!

Often, backing off is the best way to let people change their minds on their own.

I'm convinced that J.K. Rowling might have come around if people had backed off on her. I'm equally convinced that Richard Dawkins might not have dug in his heels if we'd "discussed" things with him beforehand instead of merely writing him off. But people hit back hard if you hit them first. Doubly so if they're hit by an Internet flash-mob! After that, it becomes personal, and changing one's mind becomes nearly impossible.

Is it too late for Rowling or Dawkins? I don't know. But as I've said repeatedly on this blog, forgiveness is not just for religious people.

What really gets me is the outrage. It's not the outrage regarding Chapelle's transphobia that's the problem. In fact, I think the trans community has a legitimate gripe. No, the problem is that the outrage is HERE, surrounding Chappelle, and similar outrage is NOT to be found regarding the impending fall of our Republic!

Doesn't anybody care that our Democracy is about to DIE? Doesn't anyone care about that MORE than they do about Chappelle's antics?

I'm sorry, but Trump attempting ANOTHER steal is way, way more important than Chappelle or Rowling. Because if we lose our Democracy, trans rights go with it, and bad shows on Netflix will be the least of our problems.

If ANYONE trying to cancel Dave Chappelle stays home for the 2022 election, I will personally cancel that fool right back. And if Chappelle somehow gets cancelled and Tucker Carlson isn't? I will go full-on Jesus-in-the-temple, throwing over every table I can find among my fellow Progressives!

Am I saying we have bigger fish to fry? No. 

I'm saying there's a goddamned SHARK on our ass! We might want to look to that.

I mean, if we want to be alive long enough to cancel Chappelle.

Eric

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Let's Cancel Nicki Minaj

For those who haven't heard, Nicki Minaj recently made a bizarre claim on Twitter regarding the Covid-19 vaccine. According to her, her cousin's friend received the vaccine on the Caribbean island of Trinidad and became impotent, suffering from swollen testicles.

After everyone from health officials to free media scrambled to try and verify this story, it was finally confirmed to be 100% false. Yet the claim went so viral that Trinidad's own health minister, Terrence Deyalsingh, had to make a press conference to debunk it.

Now, I'm a fan of Nicki Minaj. Not of  her music. That stuff isn't my style. But I'm a fan of her dancing. I'm a fan of her giving voluptuous women a place in celebrity fandom. And I'm a fan of her generally.

So when I say this, understand that I'm making a personal sacrifice: We need to cancel her.

For all Richard Dawkins' faults, his remarks on Twitter didn't kill anyone, and never will. For all Harvey Weinstein's abuses, he didn't kill anyone, either. Even Bill Cosby didn't kill anyone. 

But Minaj? Her Tweet will KILL. It likely already has killed. It will go on to kill thousands. And no, she doesn't get a free pass because she's black, or even a black sex symbol, because in the end, her bullshit will likely have killed more than Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, Timothy McVeigh and the 9/11 terrorists - combined.

Yes! Cancel her! Because if someone like Richard Dawkins deserves to be cancelled, Minaj deserves to be cancelled. If comparative teddy bears from Minnesota like Garrison Keillor and Al Franken deserve to be cancelled, so does Minaj.

If we are to be logically consistent at all, Minaj needs to go the way of Joss Whedon.

If we are to be logically consistent, the American Humanist Association should issue a statement of condemnation against Nicki Minaj. (Hint, hint.)

OR...

We could find a little bit more forgiveness in our hearts. We could understand that Minaj's cousin likely misinformed her. Or worse, pulled the story out of his ass. Or maybe his friend lied to him. (Maybe his balls are just fine.) We could finally learn that we all need forgiveness as an element of everyday life.

We could forgive Minaj, and Keillor, and Franken, and Whedon, and Dawkins. Because we all make mistakes. We all fuck up!

And we all need forgiveness. It's not just a religious thing.

Eric

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The Most Effective Advertising Method: Hatred

I've recently gone back to read an old classic: Future Shock by Alvin Toffler. In it, Toffler discusses various aspects of Future Shock as an extension of the concept of culture shock. One experiences culture shock when one finds oneself suddenly in a different culture, but it can also happen if culture changes faster than one can adapt to the change. By the same token, future shock happens when changes in technology happen faster than one can adjust to the changes those technologies bring about. It was an important insight at the time, which was 1970.

Well, his predictions for the post-1970 future were interesting, but it's enlightening to see what he got spectacularly wrong. The one thing he got most obviously wrong (to me) was the prediction that companies would never be able to achieve lasting brand loyalty - because brands changed so rapidly. Noting that consumers regularly couldn't find their favorite brand on the store shelves anymore, Toffler concluded that brand loyalty was impossible in such a shifting environment.

This is laughable given what we know today, because we know that these brands disappeared from store shelves not due to consumers' choices but through corporate takeovers. Products were consolidated, and consolidated, and consolidated again until every variety of product was left with only two or three super-brands competing with each other. By the 1980's, there were almost no independent brands left. All one could find was Coke vs. Pepsi. McDonald's vs. Burger King. Nike vs. Reebok. And where there seemed to be some sub-brands beneath these behemoths, those sub-brands turned out to be mere subsidiaries of the larger corporations. There might be 30 different brands of soap, but they all boiled down either Procter & Gamble or Colgate Palmolive. Try to find something outside the giant corporations, and the options were all but nonexistent.

So a kind of brand loyalty was achieved at last - not by brands truly putting preferred products on the shelves, but by corporations eliminating the competition one by one, until finally, only one giant competitor remained - and anti-trust laws prevented them from eating that one as well.

But removal of choice was not the only way they achieved brand loyalty. For most, additional brand loyalty was achieved by appealing to the emotional center of the human brain - creating a sense of belonging to a "tribe" that was critical to one's identity. In this way, consumers which bought into the identity also bought the product. "We're the Pepsi Generation!" cried Pepsi in the 80's, while Coke marketed itself as "The Real Thing." Dr. Pepper was even more brazen in this tactic advertising, "I'm a Pepper! Wouldn't you like to be a Pepper too?" McDonald's achieved amazing success by recognizing that customers saw eating there as taking a break. Their resulting ad campaign, "You deserve a break today," caused millions to identify with McDonald's as their place to take a break, and sales soared. Wheaties marketed itself, thanks largely to Bruce Jenner (back when she was "Bruce"), as "The Brand of Champions," meaning if you wanted to be a winner (and who doesn't?), then logically that had to be your cereal. Sales responded accordingly.

There is, however, another way to appeal to the emotions of consumers, and it can't be done with most products. One can create fierce brand loyalty by demonizing the competition.

We see this in a limited way in sports. Chicago Bears fans refer to their team as "Grizzlies" and the Green Bay Packers as "fudge packers." Green Bay fans counter by calling their team "Packerderms" and the Chicago team as "teddy bears." There are innumerable similar examples: Philadelphia Eagles vs. New England Patriots, Boston Red Sox vs. New York Yankees... the rivalry list goes on and on, with fans utterly demonizing the competition, and lionizing their own team.

Of course, these fans haven't done a damned thing to help their team win, other than buy tickets and cheer. But they see "their" team as a sense of identity - and that's the point. Even though they haven't stepped one foot on the playing field, they refer to "their" team as "us" and "we." And if they win, they then get to say, "we won!" as if they lifted one finger.

Also, the NFL stops short of outright endorsing demonizations of the other team. After all, at the end of each game, fans must go home peacefully.

When it comes to store-bought products, if corporations try to demonize their competition, they quickly find themselves on the wrong end of an expensive lawsuit. The plaintiff can claim that the negative ad is libel, and unfairly damages their ability to do business. Such a plaintiff invariably wins these lawsuits, and so corporations have learned to compete fairly, or at least be subtle about their slander.

And here's my major point: Such restrictions do not exist in politics. In fact, demonizing one's opponent while on the campaign trail is considered to be one of the most time-honored versions of free speech. So political demonization does not have the legal backlash that product demonization has. Oh, libel suits abound in politics, to be sure, especially if a slanderous claim has no basis whatsoever in fact. But on the whole, inciting hatred of the political opposition is not frowned upon in law. In fact, it is openly called for.

This would be just fine, except it has taken a sharp turn for the worse, because the NEWS has now been drafted into this war of words. There's always been bias in newspapers and media, but media networks have now been bought out by corporate consolidators who are experts in building brand loyalty, and they are not above using demonization to do it! On the contrary, they rely on it to drive up ratings! The op-ed page, once relegated to the back page of every newspaper, has now been made prime-time television on Fox News and its more right-wing cousins, OANN and NewsMax. Full-throated demonization has now been disguised as an official news broadcast - and millions buy into it! Democrats are demonized, 24-7, on millions of networks, everywhere. On the more liberal side, there is some bias to be sure, but news is still essentially news. The demonization is largely one-sided towards Democrats.

And this demonization is why millions are willing to attack the very Capitol itself rather than allow one little old fart of a Democrat to be sworn in.

They are literally generating Alvin Toffler's "Future Shock" on purpose.

The greatest need in our nation, right now, is for this ongoing travesty to stop!

We can't stop free speech - that's an absolute - but we can insist that news be news! You can lie and demonize anywhere else, but not there. No one must engage in KLONNING any more. No more featuring op ed without a countering voice on the other side. No more featuring op ed in a prime time slot! In fact, no more passing op ed off as news at all!

Lying on a news network IS shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater. There is fundamentally no difference.

At long last, the shellac must be scraped off of the polished turd! The stink must permeate the nostrils of everyone who was wrongly convinced that Trump was even remotely an option!

We need this more than we need oxygen. At long last, let news be news and nothing else!

Eric

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