"If conservatives become convinced that they can not win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. The will reject democracy.”
Frum said this in his book Trumpocracy, published in January 2018, and it has simply become more prescient every year.
North Carolina is cutting edge for the destruction of democracy by quasi-legal means.
Proving yet again that they are unfit for public office in a democratic republic.
This is not “conservative”. This is an administrative coup.
As Sir Stephen Fry says it is not that the Far Right is succeeding but the Far Left is doing absolutely nothing about it (I’m paraphrasing here).
One of the big bitches of the Techbro Crowd is that there has not been promised progress in their lifetimes, specifically, the US went to the moon and then stopped. Not true, but also sort of true. Beyond flying cars, faster-than-light spaceships or synthetic humans, the world, not just the US, has dropped the ball on environmental degradation, loss of natural services and the changing chemical composition of our atmosphere and oceans. Many countries simply lie and understate the problem, a very short-sighted approach. There is the overshoot school of thought that sees atmospheric carbon as something that can be solved with giant vacuum cleaners, sea acidity by tossing in iron, or artificial cloud cover (cough, see Venus) and space umbrellas to cool the planet. Yet much of urban and social design still harkens back to pre-energy crisis Leave It To Beaver housing and driving everywhere. American children start out taking 11,000 to 16,000 steps a day and sleeping pretty well. Adults are down 3,000-4,000 steps a day on average, meaning half move even less. If the US wants a new moonshot, the focus should be on sustainable communities with roughly 20% of the current carbon footprint. Maybe then we can address such ongoing disasters as collapsing thermohaline circulation in the oceans, species and habitat loss, and atmospheric chemistry. Fire weather days have increased steadily since the 1970s, while precip patterns have become, and amplification of traditional wind phenomena. When my great uncle designed the first freeways in greater LA the population was about 3 million. He planned for growth to around 5 million. Today greater LA has a population over 18 million. The narrative seems to have been lost about 10 million people ago.
Elizabeth Warren thinks that Trump’s land-grab blab is mostly about distracting from the lousiness of his cabinet and other admin picks. Maybe. It is a violation of international law to unilaterally change borders, as we’ve seen with Russia’s annexation ventures in Ukraine. It has set back Russia about 30 years already, and even the Kremlin finds it hard to rationalize. So what’s this really about? Of course it’s about normalizing territorial aggression if, like Reuters reporters, we take him at his word. So sure, a resource grab. But it’s also about setting precedent. What the billionaires behind him may be looking at is exploitation and control of off-planet resources. Under the UN 1967 Space Treaty:
- the exploration and use of outer space shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries and shall be the province of all mankind;
- outer space shall be free for exploration and use by all States;
- outer space is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means;
- States shall not place nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in orbit or on celestial bodies or station them in outer space in any other manner;
- the Moon and other celestial bodies shall be used exclusively for peaceful purposes;
- astronauts shall be regarded as the envoys of mankind;
- States shall be responsible for national space activities whether carried out by governmental or non-governmental entities;
- States shall be liable for damage caused by their space objects; and
- States shall avoid harmful contamination of space and celestial bodies.
If you are somebody like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos running a Weyland-Yutani Corporation, you are the worst possible headache for people like NASA’s planetary protection officers who see that the treaty is followed.
By next year, we will be hearing that all this “border expansion” is a good thing as long as we confine our urges to the solar system.
In the end, the insatiable obsessive quest for money will bring everything down. You need look only as far as the abusive and deranged private equity industry to see the destruction it causes.
It’s only “quasi” if they lose. If they win it’s perfectly legal. But apparently there are no penalties for subverting democracy anyway, so they have nothing to lose. We do.
I don’t usually agree with Robert D. Kaplan, but he’s spot on here in discussing the risk Trump poses to competent bureaucracy.
"In a Wednesday statement, Embry Owens, spokesperson for the Democratic incumbent Justice Allison Riggs’ campaign, blasted state appeals court Judge Jefferson Griffin, Riggs’ challenger, for refusing to accept his electoral defeat. "
… … … … …
Why stop at 60,000 votes?
Why not toss every last vote in the state… except Judge Griffin’ own single vote for himself? That otta do it.
Exactly. It would be “astonishing” if Republicans respected the results of an election.
I believe we are seeing how far they will go. This rogue Rightwing “Legislature” and the voters of NC who are insane drunk on rightwing religion and Fauxnooz have set this once progressive state back over 100 years.
Well, why not? It is working for the Fat Orange Felon.
So what are Democrats going to do about it? Oh file a lawsuit?..that should be ok then.
