MSM on AOC

Matt Bors

Matt Bors editorial cartoons can be found at The Nib.

Can America Survive the Rule of a “Stupified Plutocracy”?

Lewis Lapham, who as editor of Harper's magazine made it essential reading, is without doubt our greatest living satirist, sardonic, erudite, righteous in the tradition of Twain, Mencken, Vidal and Hitchens. As the Times put it, "Lapham's portraits of his country are astute and his dry wit as sharp as a knife."

The occasion for this interview is the 30th anniversary reissue of his book of essays, Money and Class in America (with a new introduction by Thomas Frank), as essential a deconstruction of American political culture today as it was the moment it was first published in the decade that sent us spiraling down our current path.

Incidentally, Lapham Quarterly, the project of his "retirement," is out with a Special Issue: A History of Fake News.

Herding cats: Why being governor or mayor is good preparation for a president

Herding cats: An idiom denoting a futile attempt to control or organize a class of entities which are inherently uncontrollable, such as legislators or city councilors.

I hope the Democrats will look beyond Congress -- especially beyond the handful of self-anointed U.S. Senators banging around the Beltway like so many ego-filled hot air balloons -- at some of the mayors and governors who have expressed an interest in running or might be persuaded to get in the race. Governors and mayors deal with real issues with constrained resources. Mayors are typically very good at retail politics. They have experience handling legislative bodies. And neither is tainted by

association with the Beltway.

Many of the parishes mayors manage are not small-scale operations. For example, only seven states in the nation are bigger than L.A. County (Los Angeles, by far its largest city, is bigger than 23 of the states). The populations of 38 states are smaller than NYC's. Chicago, Houston: these places are huge. Being chief executive in any of theses hamlets is going to give you more relevant experience than you'd get as, say, governor of Arkansas.

Even in smaller cities, mayors are dealing with issues like poverty, housing, immigration, schools, medical services, police and fire protection, infrastructure, utilities, transportation, even massive problems like global warming and international trade, while senators spend most of their time raising campaign dollars and whining that the other side won't let them get anything done.

Several mayors are considering runs, most seriously Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu (a small city with big problems) and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Also being talked up are New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a progressive favorite, and Boston Mayor and former labor leader Marty Walsh.

Only 7 states are bigger than L.A.

Parenthetically, Sens. Booker and Sanders are former mayors.

Governors, too, who deal with political problems at the granular level, need a closer look, although in the wake of the calamitous Obama years, the ranks of experienced Democratic governors are thin. California ex-Gov. Jerry Brown is probably too old (although nowhere has he said he'd turn it down). CA Gov. Gavin Newsom, IL Gov. JB Pritzker, WI Gov. Tony Evers, MI Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and CO Gov. Jared Polis are all too new, and NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo has taken himself out of the 2020 competition. But MT Gov. Steve Bullock and former MA Gov. Deval Patrick are exploring runs; MD ex-Gov. Martin O'Malley will want another shot; WA Gov. Jay Inslee gets high marks from all sectors of the party, especially on climate change; and the party ought to take at least cursory looks at other governors like LA's John Bel Edwards, NC's Roy Cooper and RI's Gina Raimundo, as well as ex-govs like VA's Terry McAuliffe and CO's progressive John Hickenlooper.

Reading list:
✓ Why Democrats should take mayors seriously as presidential candidates: From City Hall to the White House by Alex Shephard (The New Republic)
✓ The bloom has come off the gubernatorial rose in presidential politics and that might be good news for Democrats: Maybe a Democratic mayor should be president by Jamal Simmons (The Hill)
✓ Democrats might need a straight white man from the middle of the country, like Steve Bullock, to win the 2020 election. But do they want one?: Could This Unknown Montana Governor Be Our Next President? by Anne Helen Petersen (BuzzFeed)
✓ As mayor, he has helped usher in Los Angeles's renaissance, most recently by bringing George Lucas's Museum of Narrative Art to the city. Can he work the same magic in a possible 2020 challenge to Trump?: Eric Garcetti Is the Anti-Trump, Pro–Star Wars Man We Need by Chanan Tigay (GQ)
✓ Democratic insiders can’t stand the progressive New York mayor and want him to pipe down, despite his record of real accomplishment back home. What gives?: What’s Bill de Blasio’s Problem? by Edward-Isaac Dovere (Politico)
✓ Can an Obama acolyte be elected after Trump?: Deval Patrick’s Presidential Prospects by Jeffrey Toobin (The New Yorker)
✓ Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is gearing up for an unconventional 2020 presidential run: ‘He’s going to do it … He’s got a theory’ by David Siders (Politico)

Extra credit:
✓ Top party donors and operatives are eager to see the Texas congressman jump into the presidential race: Beto O’Rourke blows up the 2020 Democratic primary by David Siders (Politico)

quote unquote: Arundhati Roy

“The trouble is that once you see it, you can’t unsee it. And once you’ve seen it, keeping quiet, saying nothing, becomes as political an act as speaking out. There’s no innocence. Either way, you’re accountable.” -- Arundhati Roy

Happyish Days Are Here Again

Here's how the top scorers in the California Republican delegation on the question "How often a member votes in line with Trump's position" fared in the election:

David Valadao (CA-21), with Trump 98.1%: Still counting, currently less than 2000 votes ahead of Democrat TJ Cox
Stephen Knight (CA-25), 98.1%: Gone - Democrat Katie Hill
Mimi Walters (CA-45) 98.1%: Gone - Democrat Katie Porter
Jeff Denham (CA-10) 98.1%: Gone - Democrat Josh Harder
Ken Calvert (CA-42) 98.1%: Reelected
Paul Cook (CA-8) 98.1%: Reelected against a GOP opponent
Kevin McCarthy (CA-23) 98.1%: Reelected
Doug LaMalfa (CA-1), 98.1%: Reelected
Devin Nunes (CA-22) 98%: Reelected
Ed Royce (CA-39) 96.2%: Quit; replaced by Democrat Gil Cisneros
Darrell Issa (CA-49) 96.2%: Quit; replaced by Democrat Mike Levin
Dana Rohrabacker (CA-48) 92.5%: Gone - Democrat Harley Rouda
Tom McClintock (CA-4) 88.7%: Reelected

Wouldn't be so bad, except most of these GOPers are embarrassments to humanity let alone the good name of California.

Down, Boy

No need to fret over Sen. Lindsey Graham’s expected elevation to chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Even though he's one of President Trump’s most slavish lapdogs and will be in charge of a panel overseeing Robert Mueller's Russian probe, Sens. Kamala Harris and Cory Booker should have little trouble keeping him in a perpetual dither.

It's legislative accomplishment, stupid

A lot of time is being wasted right now gaming the next Congress and 2020 (with ideas good: Sanders-Gabbard; bad: Biden-Murphy; indifferent: "investigate, investigate, investigate"; and ridiculous: Hillary Clinton as Speaker of the House) when what should be happening is making sure the Democrats in the House use the next two years to build a record of achievement by passing meaningful immigration reform; truly affordable, universal health care (Medicare for All); and a massive infrastructure program.

A Short Lesson on Gerrymandering

 

Building Economic Democracy One Worker Co-op at a Time

A worker cooperative is a business that is owned and democratically governed by the people who work in it.

Own the Change, a 22 minute, free documentary produced by TESA Collective and the Laura Flanders Show, is a guide to starting worker co-ops. The video lays out the the real-world challenges of launching a co-op and the transformative benefits co-ops offer to workers. It includes interviews with people who have launched their own co-ops.



Available since 2015, Own the Change has been watched nearly 35,000 times on YouTube, and has been screened in community centers and at organizing events around the country. There is also an accompanying education guide.

TESA collaborates with organizations to develop educational projects big or small from start to finish, and to improve existing programs, tools and curricula. The group can build custom games for a campaign, organization or company, merging cause with play. In addition to making games and programs for others, they design and produce their own games, including Rise up: The Game of People & Power, Co-opoly: The Game of Co-operatives, Loud & Proud: A Fast-Paced Social Justice Word Association Game, and Space Cats Fight Fascism: The Board Game.

Extra credit:
✓ What Is a Worker Cooperative? (Democracy At Work Institute/US Federation of Worker Cooperatives)
✓ When maximizing profits isn’t the only goal, companies can actually work better: Worker Cooperatives Are More Productive Than Normal Companies by Michelle Chen (The Nation)
✓ With new tools and political policies now in place to support them, there could be a boom in employee-owned business ahead as baby boomers retire and sell their companies to their workers: More U.S. businesses are becoming worker co-ops. Here’s why. by Eillie Anzilotti (FastCompany)
✓ Getting Rid of Bosses: Can a company succeed if no one is in charge? by Alana Semuels (The Atlantic)
✓ Why are we told a broken system that creates vast inequality is the only choice? Spain's amazing co-op is living proof otherwise: Yes, there is an alternative to capitalism. Mondragon shows the way Richard Wolff (The Guardian)

A step in the right direction

San Francisco approved a ballot initiative, Prop C, despite opposition by incoming governor Gavin Newsom, aimed at curbing homelessness, dealing a political blow also to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who publicly opposed the measure. It's set to raise up to $300 million to fund housing, mental health and homeless initiatives by taxing large corporations. Dorsey opposed it because, he said, it could prove stifling for smaller corporations, a position that drew him into a public feud with vocal initiative backer Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.

A billion here, a billion there, etc.

There may be a door opening to opponents of military adventurism and unbridled military spending. Politico says that House Armed Services ranking Democrat Adam Smith from Seattle is poised to take over as chairman and likely give the Pentagon some heartburn.

The Washington state congressman has often decried his fellow lawmakers for ducking tough choices on the defense budget and big ticket military programs and has said he'll take a skeptical eye to historically high military spending enacted by Republicans over the past two years.

He's also made clear he'll beef up the panel's oversight of U.S. military operations abroad, including our support for the Saudi-led coalition battering Yemen, and work to roll back Trump's plans to modernize and expand the nuclear arsenal.

Stay tuned.

Grab this.

 

Headline of the day: "Man Who Was Shot By His Dog Insists He Is Still A Good Boy."

The perp, Charlie, a 120-pound Rottweiler mix, was one of three dogs literally riding shotgun in a pickup truck when the shooting occurred.

Vote like your Medicare and Social Security depend on it

In recent years, almost two dozen states have implemented laws that impose new restrictions on voting. Here's what to do if you're turned away at the polls by Christina Maxouris and AJ Willingham (CNN)

Congressional wit, dim division

“Rep. Steve King says he hopes Supreme Court Justices [Sonia] Sotomayor and [Elena] Kagan ‘will elope to Cuba.’” (WaPo)

Good one, Steve.

Also, with any luck today, your last one.

Political news from wherever

Exciting news for the Red Tide State today. Maine's governor and chief right wing crank Paul LePage “said Monday that he plans to move to Florida for tax reasons and teach at a university there regardless of who Mainers elect to succeed him.”

School Bus Safety Not Involving Arming Teachers

According to Politico, safety advocates are asking Congress to take up a bill aimed at making school buses safer in the wake of recent crashes in several states that have killed five children and injured dozens of people. Introduced in September, the legislation, S. 3432 (115), would require buses to have seat belts in every seat, use technology like automatic emergency braking and electronic stability control, and carry an event data recorder. "We laud the leadership of Senator Tammy Duckworth and Representative Steve Cohen [both Democrats] for introducing this lifesaving, commonsense bill and urge Congress to take action on it immediately," said Cathy Chase, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, in a statement. The bill, which is based on recommendations from NTSB, has not advanced in either the House or Senate, but a Democratic win today will get it moving.

From the Winning! desk:

U.S. pork exports to Mexico have fallen in value in the face of Mexico's retaliatory tariffs, while European and Canadian pork producers are seizing the opportunity.

Can we have less "lesser"

Good candidates are running across the country, and pretty much every Democrat is better than his or her opponent. But the national leadership has not crafted a compelling program comparable to the New Deal or the Great Society (to say nothing of MAGA). They haven't even tried, the closest thing being the proposal to use the tax cut to pay teachers, a pr stunt not a program.

Many of the most compelling candidates (in Texas, Florida and Georgia, for example) owe little or nothing to the national party. In many cases, the "great candidates" the DNC and DCCC did recruit are ex-military and veterans of the security state apparatus, which means they will not be of great help in turning swords into plowshares, an essential project if we are to find solutions to our festering problems in such areas as poverty, infrastructure, housing, education, and health care.

When Republicans got the polls, they know what they're going to get, as awful as that is. The same cannot be said for Democrats, who once again are being asked to vote against rather than for something. Will the Democrats as a party fight for infrastructure spending, progressive taxes, Medicare for All, a living wage and universal basic income? Who can say? Are they going to take on the military-industrial giants and the security state? Not likely, but who really knows.

The House and maybe the Senate are at stake; it would be helpful to know what the stakes really are.

And, parenthetically, in a census year, the outcomes in races for governor mansions and state legislatures will determine the makeup of the House for at least a decade.

Just sayin'

Election of 1800.

Thomas Jefferson: John Adams has a “hideous hermaphroditic character.” 

John Adams: Thomas Jefferson is “the son of a half breed Indian squaw.”

Where's the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act when you need it?

Here's an account, from a judicial ruling, of the experience of a citizen trying to vote in Georgia:

"Prior to voting early in the November 6, 2018 election, Mr. Oren checked Defendant Kemp’s Secretary of State website, which informed Mr. Oren that he could vote if he brought proof of citizenship to the polling station. On October 16, 2018, Mr. Oren went to his designated early-voting polling location in Fulton County. He checked in with a poll worker and showed her his valid United States passport as proof of citizenship. The poll worker directed Mr. Oren to another election official, who informed Mr. Oren that she would need to call yet another person to change his status from 'pending' to 'active' so that he could vote. While Mr. Oren waited, the official was unable to reach the intended person on the phone and informed Mr. Oren that he could continue to wait or come back another time to vote. No one offered Mr. Oren an option to cast a provisional ballot. Mr. Oren did not want to wait any longer and left."

It seems to me clear that Brian Kemp and his associates are engaged in a criminal conspiracy. RICO laws should be applied.

SNAFU

We spent $13 billion on a naval vessel that can't access its own bombs. "The $13 billion Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, the U.S. Navy’s costliest warship, was delivered last year without elevators needed to lift bombs from below deck magazines for loading on fighter jets."

So tell me again how we can't afford Medicare for All.

The rest of the story:
U.S. Navy’s Costliest Carrier Was Delivered Without Elevators to Lift Bombs: Futuristic elevator’s ‘uncommanded movements’ among problems by Anthony Capaccio (Bloomberg)

The Caravan: A Donald J. Trump Film

 

If you hear the word "reform," reach for your gun.

Term limits are on the ballot in Santa Monica and, I suspect, in other places where voters are frustrated. To put it as positively as possible, term limits are intended to bring new ideas and put a brake on entrenched interests. But there is no evidence that either of these outcomes occur.

In 2004, the Public Policy Institute of California published a research paper about the state legislative term limits that California voters enacted in 1990. The analysis found that rather than representing a new breed of "citizen legislator," "new members after term limits behave a great deal like their precursors.”

Term limits are a terrible idea. Here are some reasons why:

1. Term limits are anti-democratic. A fundamental principle in our system of government is that citizens get to choose their representatives. Term limits curtail that fundamental right. Voters should be able to vote for whomever they want to represent them.

2. Like it or not, politics is a profession. We ask our representatives to find solutions to pressing problems, often problems with no simple answers. Political representation is a learned skill; as with any profession, experience matters. The public is not well served by inexperienced people making policy choices with widespread, lasting consequences. In effect, term limits deny voters expert representation. Government is complicated. Just when representatives begin to learn their job, they are termed out.

3. Representative government is dependent on compromise. Term limits severely hamper the opportunity for understanding and trust to develop between council members. Strangers in a new environment can't know whose judgement to accept and which colleagues know what they're doing. Also,decreasing the number of seasoned elected officials results in greater deference to bureaucrats, especially in cases like Santa Monica's where elected officials have no independent staff of their own.

4. Term limits discourage the development policy expertise: members who know their time on the city council (or any office) is limited will be disinclined to spending the time and effort necessary to acquire expertise on specific issues knowing that, in most cases, that difficult-to-acquire knowledge won’t be nearly as valuable or useful in the assembly or state senate or wherever they're forced to head next. Also, special interests are always ready to jump in to help elected officials bone up on an issue, which distorts policy in favor of those interests.

5. Term limits empower bureaucrats and the special interests. Institutional memory is in the hands of staff: it is difficult to know when you are being manipulated or misled if you don't know the history of the issue being considered. By the same token, if lobbyists don't like an outcome, they don't have to wait long before they can take another shot at new arrivals. The people's representatives will soon be gone; the bureaucrats and special interests will be around forever.

6. Inevitably, there will be the temptation to defer to individuals, groups, and lobbies with matters before the council that may be helpful in getting the next political job.

7. Special interests are empowered at election time: campaign spending becomes all important when new faces need to be sold at every election.

8. Knowing they are going to be termed out, incumbents spend their time running for their next job instead of doing the job they have now.

9. We already have term limits. They're called elections.

Term limit campaigns are often cynical attempts by politicians to exploit voters' frustrations by appearing to favor a "reform." They often reveal a deep distrust of the democratic process. If you're unhappy with the government you have, you have the power to change it. Get involved. Vote.

Vote no on Prop TL.