Uncategorized
“New infrastructure projects still threaten communities today, critics say” An occasional hiccup in canvassing neighborhoods near the interstate is having political software direct volunteers to street numbers that don’t exist. The list says to knock at 372 on a block that dead ends at 310. That’s because when planners put through the interstate decades ago, they cut the neighborhood in two. The street numbers pick up on the other side of the interstate. It’s most likely a Black neighborhood. It seems there are plans to “remedy” some of that, Axios reports: In an attempt to reverse the socioeconomic harm of planning decisions made decades ago, the federal government is doling out $1 billion over five years to remove highways that divide communities. Yes, but: That’s a modest sum compared to the billions the government is pumping into new highway expansion projects that critics fear will repeat the same mistakes. Why it matters: Highways and rail lines are supposed to help people get to where they want to go. Yet infrastructure can also be a barrier that divides neighborhoods and cuts residents off from economic opportunity.
‘Crazier and crazier’ supplemental Gov. Wokety-woke DeWoke, the guy who dumps any woman who dares contradict him (see Pt. 1), means to bully Floridians into submission to his (they really are fascist) policies. That’s not BDE, as Kari Lake suggests, it’s a coward compensating (with lift shoes and or/bronzer). “DeSantis says ‘woke’ so often it begins to lose all meaning,” says John Oliver. Clearly. If there isn’t a Misanthropes Anonymous, there should be. With fewer than 12 steps. Digby covered some of this ground last night, but this Florida Man seems dangerous to more people than himself. Anyone ready to follow a guy like him might do anything. Other Florida Men already have.
Is CPAC done? Last Friday I took a look at the first day of this year’s CPAC gathering where it was obvious that the attendees were overwhelmingly Trump followers but the crowds were also thinner than usual, which says something —but nobody can agree on exactly what it is. Since that dispatch reporters and other observers of the event have characterized this CPAC as an unusually desultory affair that didn’t improve much as the days wore on. Speeches were sparsely attended and the presentation was lackluster. Everyone seemed bored with the outrage. Could it be that after seven long years of Trump-style politics, they’re finally getting worn out? According to this report from Laura Jedeed at The New Republic, attendees she spoke with felt that having the event in Washington was a mistake. They suggested that instead it should have been held in Orlando, as it was last year.
Bizarroworld is bigger than we knew They didn’t start the fire? Comments by Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, were met with laughter at an international conference in India, when he said that the Ukraine war had been “launched against” his home country. Speaking at the Raisina Dialogue, a politics and economics event in Delhi, Lavrov also claimed that Russia was trying to stop the war. “The war, which we are trying to stop, which was launched against us using Ukrainian people, of course, influenced the policy of Russia, including energy policy,” he said, briefly stumbling over his words as people in the audience laughed. Lavrov continued: “And the blunt way to describe what changed: we would not any more rely on any partners in the west. We would not allow them to blow the pipelines again,” in a reference to the explosions that damaged the Nord Stream pipeline in the Baltic Sea in September. Contrary to Lavrov’s claim, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, launched an invasion of Ukraine on 24 February last year, in what he called a “special military operation”. Right.
Florida has gone completely around the bend Maybe I’m wrong (I hope not) but I have a feeling that these monsters are going way too fast and are pushing the limits of what normal people will tolerate. If not, we are in big trouble: Florida legislators have proposed a spate of new laws that would reshape K-12 and higher education in the state, from requiring teachers to use pronouns matching children’s sex as assigned at birth to establishing a universal school choice voucher program. The half-dozen bills, filed by a cast of GOP state representatives and senators, come shortly before the launch of Florida’s legislative session Tuesday. Other proposals in the mix include eliminating college majors in gender studies, nixing diversity efforts at universities and job protections for tenured faculty, strengthening parents’ ability to veto K-12 class materials and extending a ban on teaching about gender and sexuality — from third grade up to eighth grade.
Taking ‘national divorce’ seriously Here’s a chilling thought for a Sunday morning: What if Vice President Pence had done what Donald Trump demanded and supported his Jan. 6 coup? David French ponders the consequences in The New York Times: In that moment, American peace and unity depended on the force of will of one single person, a man who stood up to a president, to the lawmakers in his own party who challenged the election, and to the howling mob that was crying out for his head. Just that is enough to make you pull the covers over your head and go back to sleep. French critiques Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s proposed “national divorce” in light of the last attempt at one in the 19th century. Yes, it’s unworkable. And yes, it’s insane. But what’s sanity got to do with it?
Shrinking CPAC wants what Trump wants Donald Trump’s fading star has not kept media outlets from covering him the way he wants to be covered. Almost any attention is good attention. The “deeply wounded narcissist” has a bottomless need for it. Almost as much as his followers’ need for retribution against the citified and nonwhite unworthies slowly eating into their political and cultural supremacy. “I believe former President Trump to be a deeply wounded narcissist, and he is often incapable of acting other than in his perceived self-interest or for revenge,” said Ty Cobb, a White House lawyer during Trump’s administration. “I think those are the two compelling instincts that guide his actions.” Trump said it himself at CPAC: “In 2016, I declared: I am your voice,” he said, speaking for just over 100 minutes from a bright blue and red stage in a cavernous ballroom at the closing speech of the CPAC event in Maryland. “Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed: I am your retribution,” he said.
And he’ll incite his cult to violence if they try it. They asked him if he’d drop out and he says he won’t. It appears he thinks it will actually help him: Former President Donald J. Trump said on Saturday that he would not drop out of the 2024 presidential race if he was indicted in one of several investigations he is facing. Mr. Trump made the comments to a group of conservative media before his speech to the Conservative Political Action Coalition conference in National Harbor, Md. It was the first time Mr. Trump spoke publicly about how he would respond if he was indicted while actively seeking the presidency, an event that would roil the 2024 campaign. Mr. Trump is facing two state investigations — one in New York City and one in Fulton County, Ga. — as well as two federal investigations led by Jack Smith, a special prosecutor. Mr. Smith is investigating Mr. Trump’s attempt to thwart the peaceful transfer of power after losing the 2020 election, as well as Mr. Trump’s possession of hundreds of classified documents and presidential material at his private club, Mar-a-Lago.