Catching Up On Politics - Indiana & Further Afield

 I find Todd Rokita an embarrassment for Indiana. Let me just be clear on why I could not let news about him go without remarks. From there, it was all downhill for my writing plans this morning. It got consumed by this post. Why? Because good conscience cannot let me ignore what is going on in the wider world.

Indiana AG sues Indianapolis Public Schools for 'thwarting' federal immigration enforcement (Indiana Capital Chronicle)

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita on Thursday filed suit against Indianapolis Public Schools — with help from a conservative think tank — accusing the state’s largest public school district of “thwarting” federal immigration enforcement.

State law blocks local government entities, including school districts, from limiting cooperation or interfering with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies.

Rokita spends so much time chasing headlines, I have to wonder what job he is seeking. 

We have also seen ICE playing dress-up, we've all seen their brutality. Do we want them invading schools with their guns and tactical gear and tear gas? 

The Republicans have been going on about family values for too many decades, but their actions show their lack of value for children and families.

In a Thursday evening statement, the IPS board of school commissioners affirmed the district’s commitment to “ensuring safe, supportive, and welcoming learning environments for all students.”

“As has always been the case, we will continue to uphold the law while keeping these commitments,” the board added, before knocking Rokita’s intentions.

“While IPS takes all legal obligations seriously, we respectfully hope that all concerned parties will recognize the heavy burden that silly litigation and political posturing places on students, families, and taxpayers,” the statement continued. “Every dollar spent on defensive legal posture is a dollar not spent on instructional support, teacher development, student services, or enrichment. In this case, Mr. Rokita prefers those dollars go to fight gratuitous political battles, as has too often been the case.”

***

“Unfortunately, despite taking six months to craft his opinion on IPS’ policies, Mr. Rokita permitted only five business days from the time IPS received his review to respond, and then refused IPS’ request for any additional time,” they said. “Yet, these important issues deserve thoughtful, deliberative weighing of important legal rights — not impulsive, superficial efforts for political gain.”

Board members also criticized Rokita’s use of the term “aliens” for noncitizen children and their families, saying that he’s “willfully dehumanizing” them and instead calling students “invaluable, unique, and bright human beings.” 

 Oh, Todd Rokita the federal DOJ needs you to protect the Border Patrol from flying sandwiches! How DC thwarts federal law storm troopers law enforcement - Jury acquits D.C. 'sandwich guy' charged with chucking a sub at a federal agent (NBC)

The resident, Sean Dunn, a former Justice Department paralegal, faced a single misdemeanor count after a federal grand jury rejected more serious charges over the encounter, which took place in the nightlife area of U Street in August.

Border Patrol Officer Greg Lairmore received two "gag gifts" related to the incident — a plush sandwich and a patch featuring a cartoon of Dunn throwing the sandwich with the words “Felony Footlong” — which the defense team argued showed this was not a serious event in his life.

Confirmed: ICE Is Arresting American Citizens—and Lying About It (The New Republic )

I have never understood the conservatism behind the “conservatives” anger at public health during COVID-19 pandemic. Public health has always been a duty of government. I will call the response, a radical right-wing libertarian reaction (not that there were not empty-headed morons with the social orientation of toddlers following along).

But the problem continues: Indiana health agency plans furloughs because of federal shutdown (Indiana Capital Chronicle).

The Consumer Services and Healthcare Regulation Commission’s work includes health care facility licensing and certification, health care quality and ensuring radiation safety and protection among health care providers, according to the Health Department’s website.

The Health Department has nearly 900 total employees, according to the Indiana Transparency Portal.

What are we to do when the media does not do its job?

 Money, Trump And The Media (Sheila Kennedy)

Take the reporting about the administration’s refusal to fund SNAP. On the NBC evening news I watched, the lack of funding was attributed to the shutdown; there was absolutely NO reference to the fact that the administration was refusing to release funds that had been appropriated for precisely this purpose–to ensure ongoing funding of a critical program in cases of government shutdown.

That failure to explain the actual reason for the SNAP crisis is journalistic malpractice. It allows partisans to point fingers and distort the political conversation. In a very real sense, it’s participation in a lie.

NBC isn’t the only network or mainstream source to evade this reality, and the question is: why? Why are major networks and news sources “both siding” multiple reports rather than accurately reflecting the fact that one side is primarily responsible? Why are they normalizing so many aspects of a profoundly abnormal Trump administration?

Rush Limbaugh called it the lame-stream media. Conservatives have whined for decades about the liberal media. The liberal media is a corporate entity, heeled by its corporate owners economic interests.  

There has already been far too much consolidation, too much transformation of journalism into just another business, where owners worry more about official reprisals for stepping out of line than providing first-rate reporting.

This piece from The Feral Historian about Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers seems appropriate here:

 It has been decades since I read the novel, so I will not take issue with the description of the novel in the video. The interpretation is that voters need to be selected from the virtuous, rather than assuming some voters may possess the virtues necessary for self-government.  But if it is an accurate interpretation, it is a wholly irrelevant idea if the information given to the virtuous voter is garbage. Garbage in, garbage out. 

It was not unknown that unfettered capitalism is dangerous. If I recall what I have read about Adam Smith, he warned about businessmen joining together in monopolies. Others made the same warning about capitalism.

In Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy revisited (Engelsberg ideas) Niall Ferguson (not a left-winger) writes:

Joseph Schumpeter was pessimistic. ‘Can capitalism survive?’ he asked in his book Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (1942). His answer was stark: ‘No. I do not think it can.’ He then posed and answered a second question: ‘Can socialism work? Of course it can.’ Perhaps the Austrian-born economist’s pessimism was simply the effect of teaching at Harvard. Yet Schumpeter offered four plausible reasons for believing that socialism’s prospects would be brighter than capitalism’s in the second half of the twentieth century, even if he signalled his strong preference for capitalism in his ironical discussion of socialism.

 First, he suggested, capitalism’s greatest strength — its propensity for ‘creative destruction’ – is also a source of weakness. Disruption may be the process that clears out the obsolescent and fosters the advent of the new, but precisely for that reason it can never be universally loved. Second, capitalism itself tends towards oligopoly, not perfect competition.

The more concentrated economic power becomes, the harder it is to legitimize the system, especially in America, where ‘big business’ tends to get confused with ‘monopoly’. Third, capitalism ‘creates, educates and subsidizes a vested interest in social unrest’ — namely, intellectuals.

Finally, Schumpeter noted, socialism is politically irresistible to bureaucrats and democratic politicians.

Now, I am nowhere as well-educated as Niall Ferguson; anyone reading this knows I am not all that smart, either. However, Mr. Ferguson is cherry-picking his history. He notes socialism predates Marxism, then he proceeds to subsume socialism under the rubric of Marxism. On the other hand, he does a very good job of showing what Marx got wrong as a prophet. Socialism did not lead to mass murder in Europe (or America); Marxism as a secular religion has a bloody history. It might be good to remind (or inform) people that in the Weimar Republic, the Communists were trying to overthrow the Social Democrats.

I still think the best rebuke to Marxists was in the movie Reds, given to Jack Nicholson as Eugene O'Neill. I paraphrase: Americans want to get rich.

Democratic socialism does not bother me. People can still get rich. Maybe not trillionaires, but trillionaires are sociopathic and, therefore, a threat to the community. The government is not just a state, but representative of the community. Economics exists to benefit the community and must be subject to that community through government. 

Let Them Eat AI-Generated Cake (William Kristol, Andrew Egger, and Jim Swift; The Bulwark) came in after I wrote the above paragraphs. They refer to The French Revolution; having just read Ferguson, I go for the Russian Revolution.

The current state of American capitalism isn’t sustainable. It doesn’t deserve to be sustained. And the best way to avoid an American version of “eat the rich” is to fix the current “let them eat cake” distortion of capitalism into which we’ve fallen.

One person who doesn’t begin to understand this is Elon Musk. His solution to income inequality, he said yesterday, was for people to buy humanoid robots—specifically the one he’s developing. “People often talk about eliminating poverty, giving everyone amazing medical care. Well, there’s actually only one way to do that, and that’s with the Optimus robot,” he proclaimed, according to the New York Times. How convenient.

One man who does seem to grasp the character of the current moment is Pope Leo XIV. In an interview in September, Pope Leo cited Elon Musk’s pay package in the course of arguing that “we’re in big trouble” when it comes to the “continuously wider gap between the income levels of the working class and the money that the wealthiest receive.” More recently, he commented on “the growth of a wealthy elite, living in a bubble of comfort and luxury, almost in another world compared to ordinary people.” We might take guidance from the first American pope.

And there I have used up my morning on politics - 2 hours writing and reading are represented here. I need to get ready to leave from the group session. Back to using buses again.

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