TEN YEARS OF BLOGGING

 

3,654 Days

521 Weeks

120 Months

 

Total Blog Posts: 2,340

Total Page Views Since March 11, 2011: 1,865,000+

Total Page Views from the U.S.A.: 1.39 million

Total Page Views Outside of the U.S.A.: 475,000+

 

Yearly Average: 186,500

Daily Average: 510

 

2011: 27,602 (Daily Average: 93)

2012: 150,261 (Daily Average: 411)

2013: 311,281 (Daily Average: 853)

2014: 221,619 (Daily Average: 607)

2015: 174,027 (Daily Average: 477)

2016: 238,884 (Daily Average: 653)

2017: 192,632 (Daily Average: 528)

2018: 218,493 (Daily Average: 559)

2019: 125,618 (Daily Average: 344)

2020: 180,238 (Daily Average: 492)

 

Notable:

 

From Feb. 10, 2018 – Mar. 13, 2018 (31 Days), there were 50,000+ pageviews.

From Dec. 24, 2017 – Mar. 13, 2018 (79 Days), there were 100,000+ pageviews.

Most pageviews in one day: 5,801 (Mar. 14, 2018)

Most pageviews in one month: 50,751 (March 2018)

A Few Favorite Posts of Mine:

This Retired Teacher's Concerns (August 1, 2020)
…Until this country has a unified and coherent federal, state and local strategy; until the federal government increases its funding for health and safety for all schools across this nation; until there is federal funding for parents to assist with their at-home childcare and technology and federal funding to feed disadvantaged children; until business entrepreneurs and the Trump administration (and not the schools!) solve the false choice they have created for parents of school-age children—all schools and universities across this nation should open only on online this fall and not until this pandemic is totally under control! Furthermore, until the morons among us stop spreading misinformation and conspiracies because of their own gullibility and ignorance; until the Creons among us cease their stubbornness and spitefulness; until the pathological narcissists among us end their gas-lighting, this unabated coronavirus will continue to proliferate, and thousands of Americans will die. For the article: https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2020/08/this-retired-teachers-concerns.html
 

What Really Matters (January 6, 2020)
…What really matters is how we live our lives each day with or without a belief in God; that we accept one another's beliefs (or non-beliefs) as long as they do not advocate terrorism. What really matters is how we live with the most significant questions unanswered or unknowable; that we pursue a life based on logic, reason, critical thinking, justice, solidarity, intellectual honesty and life-long learning; that we live our lives peacefully and with tolerance and mutual respect, and with compassion and love for one another, and that we oppose hatred, racism, bigotry, subjugation, misogyny, xenophobia, hypocrisy and indifference... because "like a boil that can never be cured... but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured" (King), for we are responsible for what happens in our lives, and for what happens in the lives of others. For the article: https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2020/01/what-really-matters.html

America and Guns (February 19, 2018)
…Instead of gun control laws that will affect law-abiding responsible citizens who own reasonable self-defense weapons for protection and may conceal and carry those weapons; instead of more political party accusations and useless prayers for the victims, legislators should focus upon and address the causes of violent crimes: domestic white nationalism, racism, bigotry (power, hatred, revenge, anger, notoriety), religious fundamentalism, economic injustice, poverty, unemployment, gang activity, drug trafficking, inefficient law enforcement in high-crime areas, suicide, mental illness, media's perpetuation of fear, and Trump's demagoguery and xenophobia… For the article: https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2018/02/america-and-guns.html

The Continuing Demoralization of University and College Adjunct Faculty (November 1, 2017)
…There are no due process protections for adjunct faculty. There is no equal pay for equal work. There is no professional advancement. There is no equity in the lack of health insurance and retirement benefits available for adjunct faculty. There is little to no inclusion in the way higher education’s formal decision-making procedures and structures are made. Indeed, adjunct faculty are simply part-time contractors, “lecturers,” or non-essential “marginalized” hires who are disenfranchised from high-level governance and required to carry out most of the responsibilities of the full-time faculty (and sometimes at multiple institutions), but for less than one-fifth of the salary of the full-time faculty and without meaningful job security from one semester to another… For the article: https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-continuing-demoralization-of.html

To the Sponsors of House Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment 18: An Unconstitutional Attempt to Amend the Pension Protection Clause (March 6, 2017)
…To anyone attempting to amend the Pension Protection Clause: my response to you is to read Article XIII, Section 5: “Pension and Retirement Rights” of the Illinois Constitution. Read Article 1, Section 16: “Ex Post Facto Laws and Impairing Contracts” of the Illinois Constitution. Read Article I, Section 15: “Right of Eminent Domain” (the Takings Clause) of the Illinois Constitution.  Read Article I, Section 2: “Due Process and Equal Protection” of the Illinois Constitution. Read Article 1, Section 10 of the United States Constitution: “No State shall… pass any… ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts…” Read Amendment V, Section 1 of the United States Constitution: “No person shall be... deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” Read Amendment XIV, Section 1 of the United States Constitution: “Due Process and Equal Protection.” To ignore the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution and change laws that protect one group of people is to ignore due process and equal protection of the laws that guarantee contractual agreements as well. Finally, read the Illinois Supreme Court ruling… For the article: https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2017/03/to-sponsors-of-house-joint-resolution.html

Though it is the Anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, we have a very different country “worth saving” today (November 19, 2014)
…We live in a country where breaking a constitutional contract with retirees and public employees is deemed morally and legally justifiable by legislative liars and thieves; where public employees and retirees are victims of plutocratic, concentrated economic privilege and power that accommodates and reinforces an enormous inequality of organizational resources for corporate self-seekers; where public schools are for sale; where public school teachers have been assaulted by a barrage of attacks on their autonomy, dignity and self-respect; where labor unions have lost political power and influence; where there is no pay equity or job security for college adjunct faculty, and where “memories of the university as a citadel of democratic learning have been replaced by a university eager to define itself largely as an adjunct of corporate power.”… For the article: https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2014/11/though-it-is-151st-anniversary-of.html

An Examination of the Illinois “Pension Protection Clause,” or What Part of These Words Do Some Politicians Not Understand? (July 13, 2014)
…If there is anything else, we might examine regarding the Pension Protection Clause and its relationship to a reality that reveals repeated attempts by the wealthy elite, their politicians and the media to steal constitutionally-guaranteed pension benefits and rights, perhaps we should also dispute the relentless attacks on the very intelligibility of the English language by these liars and thieves. We know the Pension Protection Clause is valid because it is understood to be a contractual right and guarantee that public employees have earned… For the article: https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2014/07/another-examination-of-illinois-pension.html

The Pension Protection Clause and the State of Illinois’ “Reserved Sovereign Powers” (June 12, 2014)
…The Illinois General Assembly does not possess "reserved sovereign powers" to diminish a constitutionally-protected pension. The state's chronic underfunding of its public pension systems for decades cannot warrant the impairment or diminishment of public employees' and retirees' pension benefits and rights… For the article: https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-contract-clause-and-state-of.html

Illinois Pension Reform: My address to members of the State Universities Annuitants Association (April 26, 2013)
…Instead of protecting public pension rights and benefits, which have a legal basis under Illinois State Law; instead of restructuring the state’s revenue base to pay for the state’s growth in expenditures and its recklessly-accumulated debts and obligations, current policymakers have chosen to diminish the public employees’ constitutional rights and their benefits, even though revenue restructuring and pension debt re-amortization are the best legal and moral solutions... For the article: https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2013/04/illinois-pension-reform-my-address-to.html

Illinois Pension Reform Is Without Legal and Moral Justification (May 29, 2012)
…What is at stake right now is not a potential adjudication of claims that public employees will have against policymakers who want changes to public employees’ benefits and rights, but to respect the public employees’ contractual and constitutional promises because they are legitimate rights and moral concerns not only for public employees, but for every citizen in Illinois: for any unwarranted act of stealing a person’s guaranteed rights and compensation will violate interests in morality and ethics and the basic principles of both the State and United States Constitutions that protect every one of us… For the article: https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2012/05/sb-1673-is-without-legal-and-moral.html

Reflections on a Philosophy of Teaching and Learning (March 11, 2011)
…With a fundamental commitment to human rights, founded on philosophical principles and ideals, I challenge my students—through literature, philosophy, history, psychology, poetry and science, and through their own writing—to pursue a life based on logic, reason, critical thinking, selflessness, compassion, empathy, humility, integrity, dignity, political and social justice, responsibility, self-restraint, mutual respect, and life-long learning… For the article: https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2011/03/in-my-classroom-students-learn-that-i.html

 

Is this the end of forests as we’ve known them?

 

“…The possibility of worldwide mass forest mortality linked to climate change was flagged in the first Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessments in 1990. But today, many researchers are expressing particular concern about the tree mortality crisis building in California and other parts of the west.
 
“Since 2010, 129m trees are estimated to have died in California’s national forests, as a result of a hotter climate, insects and other factors. Astonishingly, 48.9% of all trees in a comprehensive study of the southern Sierra Nevada mountain range were killed. The effects of a warming planet on trees were already obvious in summer 2016, as California was emerging from its driest four-year period since scientific record-keeping began…
 
“Researchers acknowledge that there is considerable ambiguity in their predictions about tree mortality. For one thing, it is unclear how many of the trees now dying essentially weren’t meant to be there in the first place. Western forests are denser than they were historically because of human influence: the practice of tamping out wildfires, beginning in the early 20th century, has interfered with a natural process in which blazes weed out younger trees and undergrowth…
 
“Around the globe, research has suggested that the tree mortality rate in some temperate and tropical forests has doubled or more in recent decades. While in some places there will be wholesale tree die-offs as a result of climate change, in other places it will alter the very composition and feel of forests. They will not be what they were.
 
“In the Amazon, climate change has lengthened the dry season and caused the rainfall to decline in parts. These shifts are reorganizing the forest: trees that prefer drier conditions are thriving, while those that prefer wetter conditions, and which make up the majority of tree species in Amazonia, are dying off in greater numbers, a study has found.
 
“These changes demonstrate just how far-flung the impacts of climate change can be. The Amazon ‘is one of the most remote places on Earth.’ said lead author Adriane Esquivel Muelbert, a lecturer at the University of Birmingham and researcher at the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research. ‘Humans are managing to change the environment even very far away from where they are living, or most of them are living.’

“With the combined impacts of global heating and rampant logging, some researchers warn that large parts of the rainforest ecosystem could collapse and convert to savanna. ‘Today, we stand exactly in a moment of destiny,’ two leading academics declared in a 2019 editorial. ‘The tipping point is here, it is now.’

“…A great irony of this shift is that trees are dying just as we understand them better than ever. It has become clear that far from being inert and silent, and little more than a backdrop for wildlife, trees are able to communicate with one another and even share resources.

“Forests also absorb around one-quarter of all human carbon emissions annually, and increasingly there are worries that if forests die back they will switch from storing carbon to emitting it, because dead trees will release all the carbon they have accumulated. This helps explain why much-touted proposals to plant millions of trees to suck up carbon and ameliorate the climate crisis are encountering skepticism; they won’t work if conditions on Earth don’t allow for forests to reproduce and thrive.

“It is true that forests could find new footholds in places that were formerly too cold or otherwise unsuited to them. But trees can take centuries to reach maturity, and in terms of global heating, older, large trees store much more carbon than younger, smaller ones. Instead of focusing on new trees, researchers say, the best answer to the mortality crisis is to preserve the forests we already have – by cutting carbon emissions.

“For Camille Stevens-Rumann, the fire ecologist studying tree mortality in the Rockies, watching these changes in places she has known for years – and where she has backpacked and rafted – has required an adjustment. ‘As a person who loves trees and has spent my career so far looking predominantly at trees, it is a bit of a stark difference and a shift of mindset to think about these landscapes as not ‘treed’ for a longer period of time – or indefinitely,’ she said.

“Even so, she is able to find beauty in them, and in what humbler plants are able to make a comeback even if the pine and fir trees cannot. She is a realist. Life marches on. ‘This is the beginning of a new ecological state’” (Alastair Gee, The Guardian).

Emojis: Universal language or harbinger of an age of moral illiteracy?

 

“...[I]t’s hard to imagine a more ‘low brow’, seemingly inconsequential topic for discussion than the meaning of — and the meaning of our use of — those ubiquitous digital pictographs known as ‘emojis’. They seem innocuous, but since their invention more than two decades ago, emojis have come to permeate our forms of online communication. They are, in many respects, the perfect expression of what communication has become in a social-media saturated age:

·       they are primarily visual, rather than textual;

·       they can be selected and sent quickly;

·       they are purposefully brief and, in most instances, consumable at a glance (the exceptions, more often than not, prove the rule);

·       their content is both emotional and subject to political trends (from the lobbying that takes place to have new emojis put into circulation, to the old emojis that fall out of fashion);

·       and their use enables algorithms to better “understand”, and therefore target, the mood of their users.

“Thought of in these terms, reflecting on the ubiquity of emojis and the unthinkingness that surrounds their use becomes a helpful means of thinking about our habits of communication. Has the fact that our lives are saturated with words made us, ironically, weary of words, and thus more responsive to glyphs, and gifs, and pictographs, and images? Are we becoming — or, indeed, have we become — effectively morally illiterate, which is to say, incapable of being moved by any but the most emotionally charged, readily consumable forms of communication? Are we growing increasingly inattentive, and incapable of lingering with complexity? If so, is this the product of brevity, or of speed?

“But quite apart from the consumption of emojis, what about their expressive character? Do the really communicate anything meaningful about their users? Or are they just one more form of our careful cultivation of online personas, whose true function is to avoid any real disclosure?”

(ABC Religion & Ethics) 

You can read reflections from our guest, Dr Samuel Shpall, here: some of the implications of our use of emojis.

Samuel Shpall is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Sydney.

U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops vs. the Johnson & Johnson Vaccine: "Four Strategies for a Successful Rollout"

 

More than 50 million Americans have received at least one dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. So far, Americans have been largely brand-agnostic, but that’s about to change as a new vaccine rolls out.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been hailed as a game changer. It requires only a single dose rather than two doses spaced weeks apart, and it does not need freezer storage, making it a natural fit for hard-to-reach rural areas and underserved communities with limited access to health care and storage facilities.

But while many people are excited about the prospects of only one shot, the new vaccine is also getting backlash. Part of that is coming from lack of clarity about the vaccines’ efficacy numbers, and part of it is more nuanced. On March 2, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops urged Catholics to avoid the Johnson & Johnson vaccine because it uses lab-grown cells that are clones of fetal tissue from abortions in the 1980s.

If states don’t plan carefully for how the vaccines are distributed, the result could be a nightmare of frustrated patients and wasted vaccine.

As experts specializing in health care operations, data analytics, and supply chain management, we have been analyzing COVID-19 vaccine rollout policies. While our research shows there is great promise for the one-dose vaccine, we believe biases against the Johnson & Johnson vaccine cannot be ignored in planning and distribution decisions.

The problem with comparing efficacy numbers

The primary factor complicating acceptance of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is in the top-line number: It has an efficacy level of 66%, while the other two U.S.-authorized vaccines, made by Pfizer and Moderna, have efficacy levels of at least 90%.

Trying to compare those numbers is tricky, though. Experts are quick to point out that the clinical trials were conducted at different times – Pfizer and Moderna conducted their trials before several other mutated variants had been reported, whereas Johnson & Johnson’s trials were conducted after that. Consequently, Johnson & Johnson has clinical trial data to show its vaccine can work effectively against variants first reported in the U.K., South Africa and Brazil.

In terms of preventing severe disease, hospitalization, and death, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is comparable to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. With continued shortage of vaccine supply, individuals and vaccinators should take any one of the three vaccines whenever they are available so that they can get sufficient protection sooner.

Yet, the sheer difference in the top-line numbers makes it difficult to look away. According to a February 2021 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey, when offered the choice between a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine, either Pfizer or Moderna, and a one-dose vaccine, Johnson & Johnson’s, nearly 60% of the respondents preferred the two-dose vaccine and only 7% preferred the one-dose vaccine. Among those who preferred two-dose vaccines, 72% said they were willing to wait a month for it rather than get the one-dose vaccine now.

Such biases can have real consequences. In the European Union, 80% of the COVID-19 vaccine doses made by AstraZeneca – which also has lower reported efficacy and isn’t authorized in the U.S. – were sitting on the shelves. Many people, including some clinicians, reportedly believe it to be inferior to the Pfizer vaccine.

Four strategies for a successful rollout

A one-dose vaccine would be ideal for hard-to-reach rural areas and underserved communities. Meatpacking companies have reached out to officials in North Carolina, for example, and the state plans to target agricultural workers. But distributing only the Johnson & Johnson vaccine now could compound the already deep-seated vaccine hesitancy in some regions.

Policymakers must acknowledge these fears and develop a plan. Here are four strategies for creating as smooth a rollout as possible.

1) Let people know which vaccine they will be getting when they book the appointment. That can avoid people rejecting vaccines at the distribution site, which leads to wasted appointment time slots and potentially wasted vaccine doses. When only the two mRNA vaccines were available, many states did not reveal the vaccine brand when offering appointments, and the public largely perceives the two as interchangable products.

2) Have each vaccination site focus on one type of vaccine, either the Johnson & Johnson vaccine or the Pfizer or Moderna two-dose vaccines to avoid confusion for recipients. Separating vaccine offerings can respect people’s legitimate preferences and avoid last-minute cancellations. Operationally speaking, focusing on a single type of vaccine also simplifies the administration process and prevents handling errors.

3) The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is suitable for small-scale and mobile vaccination sites in rural areas and underserved communities, as well as individuals. However, health officials can help avoid some backlash if they ensure people are offered the option to travel a reasonable distance to larger vaccination sites that offer the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Letting people make informed decision can avoid public mistrust.

4) Instead of avoiding comparing the three vaccines, public health experts should be more transparent in educating the public about the effectiveness of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. For example, the single-dose vaccine is believed to be 100% effective in preventing hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is a strong boost to the COVID-19 vaccination effort in the U.S. However, it may well lead to frustration and waste if vaccine planners don’t prepare for potential biases against this new vaccine. The focus should be to leverage the three vaccines to achieve herd immunity rapidly so that the U.S. can finally leave the prolonged pandemic behind.

The Conversation:

Tinglong Dai

Associate Professor of Operations Management & Business Analytics, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing

Christopher S. Tang

Distinguished Professor and Edward W. Carter Chair in Business Administration, University of California, Los Angeles

Ho-Yin Mak

Associate Professor in Management Science, University of Oxford

Wisconsin hunters kill 216 wolves in less than 60 hours, sparking uproar (The Guardian)

Hunters and trappers in Wisconsin killed 216 gray wolves last week during the state’s 2021 wolf hunting season – more than 82% above the authorities’ stated quota, sparking uproar among animal-lovers and conservationists, according to reports. 

The kills all took place in less than 60 hours, quickly exceeding Wisconsin’s statewide stated limit of 119 animals. As a result, Wisconsin’s department of natural resources ended the season, which was scheduled to span one week, four days early.

While department officials were reportedly surprised by the number of gray wolves killed, they described the population as “robust, resilient” and expressed confidence in managing the numbers “properly going forward”. Most of the animals were killed by hunters who used “trailing hounds”, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

The state’s overkill was exacerbated by Wisconsin law that mandates 24-hour notice of season closure, rather than immediate notification.Natural resources department officials also sold 1,547 permits this season, about  13 hunters or trappers per wolf under the quota’s target number. This equated to twice as many permits as normal – and marked the highest ratio of any season so far.

State authorities had a total culling goal of 200 wolves, in an attempt to stabilize their population. As Native American tribes claimed a quota of 81 wolves, this left 119 for the state-licensed trappers and hunters. Because the tribes consider wolves sacred, they typically use their allotment to protect, not kill, them.

“Should we, would we, could we have [closed the season] sooner? Yes.” Eric Lobner, DNR wildlife director, said, according to the Journal Sentinel. “Did we go over? We did. Was that something we wanted to have happen? Absolutely not.”

The overshoot, which has never exceeded 10 wolves in prior seasons, spurred criticism. Megan Nicholson, who directs Wisconsin’s chapter of the Humane Society of the United States, commented in a statement: “This is a deeply sad and shameful week for Wisconsin.”

She added: “This week’s hunt proves that now, more than ever, gray wolves need federal protections restored to protect them from short-sighted and lethal state management,” Nicholson also said. This hunt comes in the wake of federal policy, and local litigation, that stripped gray wolves of protection.

In the 1950s gray wolves, which are native to Wisconsin, were extirpated from the state due to years of unregulated hunting. Heightened protections, such as the federal 1973 Endangered Species Act, helped the population rebound. Following the implementation of these protections, gray wolves emerged and spread from a northern Minnesota “stronghold”, the Journal Sentinel said.

The implications of these protections were sweeping: while the gray wolf population had dropped to about 1,000 by the 1970s, the number now totals about 6,000 in the lower 48 states. The gray wolf was delisted for protection in 2012, however. Wisconsin officials subsequently provided three hunting and trapping seasons. In 2012, 117 wolves were killed; in 2013, 257; and in 2014, 154.

A federal judge, in response to a lawsuit from wildlife advocates, decided in December 2014 that the gray wolf must be put back on the Endangered Species List. In October 2020, the Trump administration removed the gray wolf from the Endangered Species List.

A Kansas-based hunting advocacy group filed suit against Wisconsin’s department of natural resources in January over its decision not to provide a gray wolf hunting or trapping season this winter. This legal action reportedly “forced” the department to hold a season before February ended.

The season was also the first to take place in February, the gray wolf’s breeding season. Advocates have worried that killing pregnant wolves could have an even greater impact on their population, possibly disrupting packs.

Because officials rushed to open the season, there was dramatically limited opportunity for legally mandated consultation with Native American tribes, the newspaper also notes. “This season trampled over the tribes’ treaty rights, the Wisconsin public and professional wildlife stewardship,” a representative for the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission reportedly said.

 

"This big lie threatens the survival of our democracy"

 

“This morning, conservative pundit William Kristol wrote in The Bulwark what a number of us have been saying for a while now, and it dovetails cleanly with the current Republican attempt to suppress voting. “Kristol warns that our democracy is in crisis. For the first time in our history, we have failed to have a peaceful transfer of power. The Republican Party launched a coup—which fortunately failed—and ‘now claims that the current administration is illegitimately elected, the result of massive, coordinated fraud. The logical extension of this position would seem to be that the American constitutional order deserving of our allegiance no longer exists.’ So, he notes, ‘we are at the edge of crisis, having repulsed one attempted authoritarian power grab and bracing for another.’ “Claims that American democracy is on the ropes in the face of an authoritarian power grab raise accusations of partisanship… but in this case, the person making the claim is a conservative, who goes on to urge conservatives to join behind President Joe Biden to try to save democracy. Kristol warns that ‘a dangerous, anti-democratic faction’ of the Republican Party ‘is not committed in any serious way to the truth, the rule of law, or the basic foundations of our liberal democracy.’ “Kristol’s call is notable both because of his position on the right and because he warns that we are absolutely not in a moment of business-as-usual. Perhaps because it is impossible to imagine, we seem largely to have normalized that the former president of the United States refused to accept his loss in the 2020 election and enlisted a mob to try to overturn the results. Along with his supporters, he continues to insist that he won that election and that President Joe Biden is an illegitimate usurper. “This big lie threatens the survival of our democracy. “At the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) conference this weekend in Orlando, Florida, Trump supporters doubled down on the lie that Biden stole the 2020 election. From a stage shaped like a piece of Nazi insignia, speakers raged that they were victims of ‘cancel culture’ on the part of Big Tech and the left, which are allegedly trying to silence them. To restore fairness, they want to stop ‘voter fraud’ and restore ‘election integrity,’ and they want to force social media giants to let them say whatever they want on social media. “In the Washington Post, commentator Jennifer Rubin said the modern conservatives at CPAC had no policy but revenge, ‘resentment, cult worship and racism,’ and no political goal but voter suppression. It is ‘the only means by which they seek to capture power in an increasingly diverse America,’ she notes. A poll showed that ‘election integrity’ was the issue most important to CPAC attendees, with 62% of them choosing it over ‘constitutional rights’ (which got only 48%). “Trump himself packaged this lie in words that sounded much like the things he said before the January 6 insurrection. He claimed that he had won the election, that the election was ‘rigged,’ and that it was ‘undeniable’ that the rules of the election were ‘illegally changed’—although none of his many court challenges stuck. He attacked the Supreme Court in language that echoed the attacks on his vice president, Mike Pence, that had rioters searching him out to kill him. ‘They didn’t have the guts or the courage to make the right decision,’ Trump said of the justices. “The purpose of this big lie is not only to reinforce Trump’s hold on the Republican Party, but also to delegitimize the Democratic victory. If Democrats cheat, it makes sense to prevent ‘voter fraud’ by making it harder to vote. ‘We must pass comprehensive election reforms, and we must do it now,’ Trump said. “Republican reforms, though, mean voter suppression. Currently, Republican legislators in 43 states have introduced more than 250 bills to restrict voting. They want to cut back early voting and restrict mail-in voting, limit citizen-led ballot initiatives, and continue to gerrymander congressional districts. Arizona is trying to make it possible for state legislatures, rather than voters, to choose the state’s presidential electors. Rather than try to draw voters to their party’s candidates by moderating their stances, they are trying to win power by keeping people from voting. “I cannot emphasize enough how dangerous this is. We have gone down this road before in America, in the South after 1876. The outcome was the end of democracy in the region and the establishment of a single, dominant party for generations. In those decades, a small body of men ruled their region without oversight and openly mocked the idea of justice before the law. A member of the jury that took only 67 minutes to acquit Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam for murdering 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955 famously said, ‘We wouldn’t have taken so long if we hadn’t stopped to drink pop.’ White men dominated women and their Black and Brown neighbors, but their gains were largely psychological, as the one-party system created instability that slowed down economic investment, while leaders ignored education and infrastructure. “Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in a lawsuit concerning Arizona election laws. The case is from 2016, when Democrats argued that two Arizona voting laws discriminated against Hispanic, Black, and Indigenous voters in violation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which prohibits laws that hamper voting on the basis of race. The laws called for ballots cast in the wrong precinct to be thrown away and allowed only election officials, letter carriers, household family members, or caregivers to return someone else’s mail-in ballot. A violation could bring a $150,000 fine. The court’s decision in this case will have big implications for the legitimacy of the restrictions Republican legislatures are trying to enact now. “Meanwhile, Democrats are trying to shore up voting rights with H.R. 1, the For the People Act of 2021. This sweeping measure would make it easier to vote, curtail gerrymandering, make elections more secure, and reform the campaign finance system. “They are also proposing the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act, H.R. 4, which would restore the parts of the Voting Rights Act the Supreme Court gutted in 2013 in the Shelby v. Holder decision, limiting changes to election laws that disproportionately affect people of color. After Shelby v. Holder, a number of states immediately enacted sweeping voter suppression laws that disproportionately hit minorities, the elderly, and the young, all populations perceived to vote Democratic. “Neither of these bills will pass the Senate unless the Democrats modify the filibuster rule, which permits Republicans to stop legislation unless it can muster not just a majority, but a supermajority of 60 votes…” –Heather Cox Richardson

Notes:

https://thebulwark.com/the-facts-of-life/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/cpac-trump-election/2021/02/27/669c1ab2-791f-11eb-948d-19472e683521_story.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/03/01/jordans-false-claim-that-pelosi-denied-request-national-guard-troops/

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/28/trump-gop-cpac-voter-integrity-restrictions-471831

https://www.vox.com/2021/2/28/22306318/trump-cpac-2021-speech-election-lies

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/03/01/trumps-biggest-cpac-lie-unmasks-vile-truth-democrats-ignore-it-their-peril/