Government

KunstlerCast 339

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KunstlerCast 339

1/5/21

Web player: https://podcastaddict.com/episode/117388740
Episode: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/kunstlercast/KunstlerCast_339.mp3?dest-id=14822

Adam Ellwanger is a professor of English at the University of Houston – Downtown, where he teaches rhetoric and writing. In addition to those topics, his varied research interests include popular culture, political philosophy, media studies, and the American Mess writ large. Check out his dangerous new book on the modern politics of identity, entitled Metanoia: Rhetoric, Authenticity, and the Transformation of the Self. You will also like his essay on the Human Events website: Toward a Woke Metaphysics. Recently, he authored an open letter signed by over 180 professors that outlines forms of non-compliance that signatories will undertake in an effort to resist the current ideological trends on campus. Ellwanger also offers regular commentary at sites like Human Events, New Discourses, American Greatness, Quillette, and more. In his free time, he writes, plays guitar, drinks beer and ruby port, and listens to music. Follow him @DoctorEllwanger on Twitter. The KunstlerCast theme music is the beautiful Two Rivers Waltz written and performed by Larry Unger.

We Just Witnessed the Dangers of the Autocratic Disinformation Playbook – Union of Concerned Scientists

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We Just Witnessed the Dangers of the Autocratic Disinformation Playbook – Union of Concerned Scientists

We have seen those same tactics employed by President Trump and those in his administration to bury evidence about the dangers of COVI-19 and fuel distrust in election integrity. The goal of disinformation, regardless of its source, is the same: to confuse the public and control the narrative for financial, political, or ideological gain.

rom the start of President Trump’s term, he actively worked to erode trust in the wheels that turn our democracy: the free press, science-based agencies, state election boards, even the Postal Service. By giving his audience no hope in the integrity of our institutions, he positioned himself as the only hope, an autocratic ruler, rather than the person who governs three branches of government and does the bidding of the electorate.

Insurrection At The Capitol: Live Updates : NPR

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How The U.S. Capitol Mob Was Treated Differently Than Earlier Black Protesters : Insurrection At The Capitol: Live Updates : NPR

When a pro-Trump mob attacked the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, surprisingly few police stood in the way. Protests had been expected for days, but police appeared unprepared for an actual insurrection and not even prepared to keep all the doors locked. Video showed police calmly talking with attackers after they moved into the building.

This came after a year of protests and confrontations with police after police shootings and other kinds of killings across this country. Many of those protests were put down more harshly, including those in Washington, .C. Officials often responded with tear gas or Tasers or stun grenades.

Turning on the five o’clock news briefly

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Turning on the five o’clock news briefly … 📻

And then I turned it off. All I can think, is I am so glad that I stopped following all of those political Facebook pages and activists. I think politics has gone too far in our country, replacing basic humanity and respect for one and another. While politics may be somewhat important, for most of us, it really isn’t — and it’s not something to get angry about or have hatred directed to our fellow man and women. I think it’s the fault of a national media and social media, ginning up the body public for a buck. Plus that asinine incumbent of the White House, who will be replaced in two weeks.

There is really so much more to life then politics. Get outside, enjoy the wilds. Learn more about the scientific underpinnings of our world, how biology, ecology, and physics work. How much do you know about cattle or whitetail deer? We need more people who are thoughtful about their consumption and their impacts on their world around them. We need people who aren’t blind to their impacts, who are humble and try to understand how things really work in the systems that support us all. How can you be angry about something in politics, if you don’t understand the scientific underpinnings of the things that impact us directly?

Protests are important and the public’s voice should be heard. I don’t really care that much about broken windows, trashed or burned buildings. In the grand scheme of things compared to all the consumption going around us, a little damage to get out an important civic message isn’t a terrible thing. Sometimes trashed buildings awaken ears. And it’s important that oppressed voices are heard. Riots, going back to founding of our nation are deep in our blood, and they’re a feature of a messy democracy. But you have to wish calmer voices would prevail and more would be discussed in a calm and rational way, rather then violence that feeds the reactionaries on left and right.

The protests are idiotic — Donald Trump is a rather sore loser, and his loss shouldn’t be something people are belaboring. Winners cut their losses, and move on to the next chapter in their lives. I am sure there are other causes and concerns in the future. Government isn’t about one man or women, the president is supposed to be replaceable, a temporary occupant of the White House for 4-8 years. If you don’t like the outcome of the election, then there is another local primary election in all of 5 1/2 months from now. Change doesn’t occur in one direction, and who we elected now won’t necessarily be who is elected in five years. In these troubled times, with the pandemic ranging around us and climate change out control, I’m glad we elected Joe Biden, as I think he’s a much more mature, experienced and thoughtful leader. Sometimes, we need a technocrat and not a politician. Does he deserve re-election in 2024? We will cross that bridge then, and it will ultimately be the voters, not I who decides.

Honestly though, I don’t really care. What is happening hundreds of miles away has very little impact on my life in a day-to-day basis. I think there is too much of an emphasis on the federal government and not enough on what is happening in local communities. I also often think politics is a distraction from taking care of one’s own life and family, an excuse of personal failings. Not doing well in your own life? People want to blame the government and not their own choices.

And I think the protestors shouldn’t really care so much either. If you have failings in your own life, look inwards, don’t blame the government. Unhappy with your community? You could consider moving. Unhappy with your finances? Revise your budget, cut expenses, look for a better paying job. I do follow North Country Off-Grid from Northern Idaho and my III%-er homesteading friend who fled to North Carolina with his AR-15 fairly closely, but honestly I think they should stop dallying in politics, and instead more time invested in their families, crops and livestock, and less on politics. The government isn’t in your bedroom or on your land, or checking what guns you have in your home, and if you are unhappy with your local community’s polices, then shut up and move. There are thousands of other communities and 49 other states.

… You don’t have to be an agent of change to live a good life.

No, Pence can’t overturn the election results

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Fact check: No, Pence can’t overturn the election results

Pence, in his role as president of the Senate, is scheduled to preside over Congress' certification of the results Wednesday, as detailed by the 12th Amendment. But he can't intervene in the process.

The law governing the certification process, the Electoral Count Act of 1887, specifically limits the power of the president of the Senate precisely because a president of the Senate had intervened in the count previously. In 1857, after James Buchanan's win, the Senate president overruled an objection against Wisconsin electors who had been delayed in their certification process by a snowstorm in 1856.