About the polarization of America

The WaPo reports about an in-depth analysis of factors that have driven American polarization to the unhappy, dysfunctional place we are at today. The core finding is quite interesting:

New report outlines the deep political polarization’s slow and steady march

Urban-rural division has grown dramatically over the past 25 years, according to data from the Cook Political Report

David Wasserman, senior editor of the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, highlights the Kentucky district in a new deep dive into all 435 House districts to explain the geographical roots of political polarization and how hollowed-out the political middle has become.

Although legislative gerrymandering plays a key role in letting representatives choose their constituents, the nation’s “urban/rural polarization” has been a much bigger factor over the past 25 years, Wasserman wrote.

“The electorate has simply become much more homogenous than it used to be,” he wrote in the newly released analysis.

It’s part of a nationwide realignment highlighted by the new rankings of the “Cook Partisan Voting Index,” which operatives in both parties have examined for years to help determine which districts are truly up for grabs every two years.

Districts like Rogers’s in Appalachia now have more in common with a rural district nearly 900 miles away in eastern Oklahoma — in terms of income and education levels, home property values and the number of people living in poverty — than Kentucky’s 6th District directly to the north and west.  

In 1999, 164 seats fell into that Cook PVI margin to qualify as swing seats. Now, just 82 fit that statistical data point.

There’s a real-world impact, on policy issues, that happens through all of this political sorting. As fewer members of the House need to worry about the general election, more and more grow concerned about losing primaries to ideological challengers from their left or right flanks.

Data like that leads one to wonder if anything at all could reverse America's continuing slide into extremism. The forces fostering polarization are powerful and not going to go away. Nearly all House seats are safe, so incumbents move farther toward the safety of their activist base to avoid being outflanked by someone more extreme. 

One experiment that at least some red and some blue states could try is imposing a mandatory requirement to vote. There voting means at least returning a ballot. It does not mean voting for anything or anyone you don't want to vote for. Would that affect deep polarization in gerrymandered districts where one side or the other is safe? Since red states are hell-bent on neutering elections, there's no chance of the experiment being tried in any of those states. And, Dems who control blue states may not be interested in such an experiment either.

News bit: Clarence Thomas reported his gifts until the press wrote about it

Yahoo! News writes:

It was 2004 when the Los Angeles Times disclosed that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas had accepted expensive gifts and private plane trips paid for by Harlan Crow, a wealthy Texas real estate investor and a prominent Republican donor.

The gifts included a Bible that once belonged to abolitionist Frederick Douglass — a gift Thomas valued at $19,000 — and a bust of Abraham Lincoln valued at $15,000.

"I just knew he was a fan of Frederick Douglass, and I saw that item come available at an auction and I bought it for him," Crow explained at the time.

He also flew Thomas on his personal plane to Northern California to be his guest at the Bohemian Grove, which held all-male retreats for government and business leaders.

Thomas refused to comment on the article, but it had an impact: Thomas appears to have continued accepting free trips from his wealthy friend. But he stopped disclosing them.

Yesterday, Thomas released a statement saying that he had been advised that he did not have to disclose gifts. But one time he did disclose. So either Thomas is a liar and just stopped disclosing gifts he wanted to keep secret illegally, ~98% chance, or someone did tell him that he didn't have to disclose gifts and he stopped disclosing, ~2% chance.

Big, fat, corrupt liar

News bits: Christofascist judge bites nationwide abortion access hard: Etc.

By now, we are all very familiar with US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in the fascist state of Texas. He has become a favorite forum for American Christofascist theocrats seeking to desecularize America by ramming God's fv#!ed-up rules into our unwilling lives. I've been watching this case and now, as I confidently expected, the Christian nationalist poison flows out into the light. 

Multiple sources are reporting on this major, unwarranted intrusion of Christian Sharia law into American society. Bloomberg reports:

Abortion Pill to Be Blocked Nationwide Under Judge’s Order

Trump-appointed judge upends FDA approval of mifepristone

A federal judge in Texas issued a ruling Friday on the medication abortion drug mifepristone, saying he will suspend the FDA’s two-decade-old approval – but paused his ruling for seven days so the federal government can appeal.

Less than two hours later, a federal judge in Washington state ruled the FDA must keep medication abortion drugs available in more than a dozen Democratic-led states.

The two decisions mark the most significant abortion-related rulings since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year.

One important point to know is that this is the first time ever that a federal judge has forced a drug the FDA approved as safe and effective off the market for no reason. Mifepristone has been on the market for about 20 years. There is no valid reason for any federal judge to make such an outrageous, clearly illegal decision. 

Another warning about Christian nationalism (CN)

I keep providing rock solid evidence showing the very real power and obvious intent of American Christofascism. I will keep warning about how dead serious the CN movement is about getting rid of secular Constitutional law and replacing it with Christian Sharia law. The CN movement holds secular law in open contempt and refuses to acknowledge its validity. God's law trumps the Constitution, settled law and public opinion. This is another warning about the rise and power of toxic Christofascism in American government, law, society and commerce.

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Regarding ignorance of the law: The NYT writes:

Justice Clarence Thomas said on Friday that he had followed the advice of “colleagues and others in the judiciary” when he did not disclose lavish gifts and travel from a wealthy conservative donor.

In a statement released by the Supreme Court, the justice said he believed he was not required to report the trips.

In a statement, the justice said that he had followed past guidance from others at the court, but that he would now comply with new guidelines and disclose gifts and free travel.

How is it possible that a US Supreme Court justice could not know his legal obligation to disclose gifts? It is easily possible if the judge feels he is above the law. Here, Thomas really is above the law. He will face little repercussion for his law breaking, just like T**** has faced little legal repercussion throughout his adult life.

Also note that those sources of legal advice that Thomas claims to have followed are unnamed. They are unnamed because they probably don't exist. Even if someone comes forward now and says, ‘I gave Clarence bad advice 20 years ago’, I would not believe it unless (i) the bad advice was recorded or in writing, (ii) made public, and (iii) the authenticity of the evidence independently verified as genuine. Genuine verification means not verified by Mike Lindell, Ginny Thomas, Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, any Republican federal judge, Tucker Carlson, Donald T**** or any other Republican elite. 

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Regarding American fascism in Tennessee: One of the outrageous things about Republicans in the Tennessee legislature is their blatant, insulting irrationality about their fascism. Yesterday, NPR broadcast comments by a radical right Republican legislative leader who justified expelling two Black lawmakers. His justification was stupid and ridiculous. It was an outrageous insult.

In essence, the fascist excuse for expelling the two Black guys, but not the White lady, was that they disrupted legislative proceedings on the very topic, gun safety legislation, that the expelled lawmakers wanted to see progress on. What??? Impeding progress on gun safety legislation?? In Tennessee?? Oh for Fv#^'s sake. No one outside an insane asylum is that mentally impaired.

What an outrageous insult. The Tennessee legislature is controlled by radical right Republicans. They have no intention of ever passing a meaningful gun safety law. It has had decades to pass meaningful gun safety law. Why is a short peaceful protest somehow any impediment to the legislature not doing what it had no intent to ever do?

Equally insulting is fascist Tennessee Republican propaganda comparing the peaceful protest to the 1/6 coup attempt. Fascist arrogance here just takes one's breath away. 

The insults and contempt of the fascists is what finally led to switching from calling it and them radical right authoritarian to calling to what it is, i.e., fascism, Christofascism, American fascism and the like. Divisive or not, it's just a matter of calling a spade a spade.

From the pro-life Republican Party…

North Dakota Senate Votes to Increase Its Own Meal Budget After Rejecting Free School Lunch Bill

Just over a week ago, North Dakota lawmakers voted to prevent giving free school lunches to low-income students. Then, on Thursday, they voted to increase the amount of money they get to spend on their own lunch.

Debating free school lunch for low-income kids, North Dakota State Sen. Mike Wobbema (R) says families are to blame for their hunger: "It’s really the problem of parents being negligent with their kids, if their kids are choosing to eat in the first place."

The bill died, 23-24.

— Heartland Signal (@HeartlandSignal) March 29, 2023 Link here.

On Thursday, the Senate voted 26–21 to pass a bill to raise per diem meal reimbursements for state employees traveling within the state, from $35 to $45.

Now I don’t know all the ins-and-outs of these bills.  And I do know politics and the media can be overly dramatic in presenting the so-called facts.  But on its face, this stinks to their high heaven. 

If there is a problem with parents abusing the allowances for their kids lunches, work on fixing that.  Don't scrap the allowance altogether for such kids in need.

Q: Do you agree that there is something wrong with this picture?  What’s the justification for decreasing meals for kids, while increasing meal allowances for your own meals?  Explain that to me.