News bits: My path to political clarity; A really big court fine; Gaza; Trump's list of stolen election lies

Briefly, it took years for clarity about politics to come to me. The depth and breadth of the authoritarian threat was not at all clear to me in the 1970s or 1980s. I didn't start to wake up until about 1997 or 1998. In 1998 I started studying the science of politics and engaging in online politics. By about 2000-2002 it was sinking in that the GOP leadership was radicalizing and drifting into authoritarianism. By about 2006, it became clear to me that authoritarian radicalization mostly (~90% ?) contained in years of ruthless dark free speech was spreading to the rank and file and seriously taking hold. I'm a slow learner.

☹️

It is now also clear that most humans tend to be slow unlearners. Specifically, it will take decades to unlearn the authoritarianism that  decades of authoritarian radical right propaganda taught millions of Americans. Neutralizing the authoritarian threat is going to take a mountain of unlearning by the radicalized public. I don't know how to do that. Maybe it is impossible under current circumstances. A heck of a lot of adult Americans think us non-authoritarians need to unlearn what we believe.

What does the non-radicalized pro-democracy public need to learn and unlearn? Probably some things, but I don't know what they are.

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A Russian court has fined Google $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 for blocking the content of Russian media sources:

To put that into perspective, the World Bank estimates global GDP as around $100 trillion, which is peanuts compared to the prospective fine. Google would therefore have to find more money than exists on Earth to pay Moscow - but on Tuesday fell a little short of that mark when it posted $88 billion quarterly revenue.

The bizarre amount has been calculated after a four-year court case that started after YouTube banned the ultra-nationalist Russian channel Tsargrad in 2020 in response to the US sanctions imposed against its owner. Following Putin's illegal invasion of Ukraine in 2022 more channels were added to the banned list and 17 stations are now suing the Chocolate Factory, including Zvezda (a TV channel owned by Putin's Ministry of Defence), according to local media.

"Google was called by a Russian court to administrative liability under Art. 13.41 of the Administrative Offenses Code for removing channels on the YouTube platform. The court ordered the company to restore these channels," lawyer Ivan Morozov told state media outlet TASS.

The court imposed a fine of 100 thousand rubles ($1,025) per day, with the total fine doubling every week. Owing to compound interest (Einstein's eighth wonder of the world), Google is now on the hook for an insane amount of money, or what the judge on Monday called “a case in which there are many, many zeros.”

Dang, the fine doubles every week! 

😮

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Florida sent a reminder to the U.S. Department of Justice that they are not allowed to send monitors to polling locations after the DOJ sent a press release announcing the planned visits.

The Justice Department announced Friday that it “plans to monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws in 86 jurisdictions in 27 states for the Nov. 5 general election.”

The DOJ said they “regularly deploy” staff to “monitor for compliance with federal civil rights laws in elections in communities all across the country.”

Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd wrote an email to the Deputy Chief at the U.S. Department of Justice Voting Section, Jasmyn Richardson, that said: “As a reminder, Department of Justice monitors are not permitted inside a polling place under Florida law.”

He cited 102.031 (3)(a) of the Florida statutes, which lists those who are allowed inside of a polling place.

“Department of Justice personnel are not included on the list,” he wrote.  

“Even if they could qualify as ‘law enforcement’ under section 102.031 (3)(a) of the Florida Statutes, absent some evidence concerning the need for federal intrusion, or some federal statute that preempts Florida law, the presence of federal law enforcement inside polling places would be counterproductive and could potentially undermine confidence in the election,” he said.

Florida calls federal election monitors a "federal intrusion." What they are actually thinking is that federal election monitors constitute a federal invasion and declaration of war against their precious tyranny. That is how authoritarians see their sacred right to undermine elections. American authoritarian tyranny supporters are now just itching for excuses to pick fights and file lawsuits.  

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No good news comes from Gaza:

All those who remain in northern Gaza — especially children — are “at imminent risk of dying” from disease, famine and ongoing bombardments there, UNICEF’s executive director warned.

The World Health Organization reported an attack Saturday on a health-care center in Gaza City, where a polio vaccination drive was taking place. At least six people, including four children, were injured, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, adding that the attack took place during a humanitarian pause that Israel agreed to.

The IDF said that it was “aware of claims” that civilians were injured at the clinic, but that “an initial review determined that the IDF did not strike in the area at the specified time.”

There we have it. The IDF didn't do it. Someone else did blew up the health-care center where polio shots were being administered to children. Since he is a rabid anti-vaxx crackpot, I think RFK Jr. did it. 

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The WaPo published a long analysis article (not paywalled) including quotes by DJT listing ways the Dems intend to steal the 2024 election:

13 ways Democrats will steal the election 

(according to Trump)

“It’s the only thing they do well, they cheat. Their policies are no good. Their government is no good. Their management is no good, but they cheat like nobody can cheat.” — Former president Donald Trump, remarks about Democrats in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Sept. 21

Here’s an assessment of the claims made by Trump and his allies — some repurposed from those he made in 2020, and some newly conjured for 2024. Be alert for projection, a hallmark of Trump claims: He likes to accuse others of what he himself has done or would try.

1. Migrant noncitizens will vote in droves

2. Polling places will have lax rules

3. Media coverage will favor Democrats

4. Prosecutions are election interference

5. ‘Americans’ abroad will cast illegal votes

6. Democrats will harvest ballots

7. GOP poll watchers will be obstructed

8. Voting machines will be rigged and hacked

9. Private money will favor Democratic voters

10. Dead people will vote (my favorite!!)

11. The weather will be used against Trump (yeah, go figure that one out)

12. The Fed’s rate cut is election interference

13. The Democratic nomination was a coup

Two points, if I may.

• In my firm opinion, that list is solid evidence of how powerful America's RRA (radical right authoritarian) infrastructure has become. Even just 30 years ago, a Republican candidate for president spewing that list of blatant lies, even without Trump's public record of horrors, would not have had any chance of being nominated by the Republican Party. That list would have been laughed out of the GOP and relegated to the crackpot RRA fringe where it came from. But now, that crackpottery and extremism have been normalized and accepted as mainstream RRA dogma among GOP elites and most of the rank and file.

• I take that list of lies, slanders, crackpottery and cynical ill-will as deeply insulting. It is insulting to see all Democrats smeared as crooks, traitors and liars by a lying jackass who actually is a convicted felon, a traitor, a sex predator and a chronic liar.  And when I hear the defense, but all politicians lie, it sickens me. Trump's lies are in support of authoritarianism, deep corruption, bigotry, oppression and some other Dark Ages horrors. He is not anywhere close to pro-democracy, pro-civil liberties or pro-honest government. He is not a regular politician. He is a morally rotted, enraged, vengeful demagogue. It is unpersuasive to cite lies by all politicians as justifying any lying at all. Lies by authoritarian politicians and partisans seeking to kill democracy and civil liberties by deceit, mendacity, stealth, coercion and any other tactic, immoral or not, are not the same as lies by pro-democracy politicians and partisans.