To the economists who will (correctly) note that the term "moral hazard" has a precise meaning in economics that does not align neatly with my essay, I agree. But I think the point of moral hazards in politics is directionally correct.
I want to strongly recommend to everyone that you pick up a copy of David Corn's newly-pulbished book, "American Psychosis: A Historical Investigation of How the Republican Party Went Crazy." Corn provides devastating detail for the argument I have been making, citing Harry Truman's 1948 campaign statement, "The only 'good Republicans' are pushing up daisies," and Riochard Hofstadter's 1954 observation citing Theodore Adorno's 1949 research in The Authoritarian Personality that, "From clinical interviews and thematic apperception tests, Adorno and his co-workers found that their pseudo-conservative subjects, although given to a form of political expression that combines a curious mixture of largely conservative with occasional radical notions, succeed in concealing from themselves impulsive tendencies that, if released in action, would be very far from conservative. The pseudo-conservative, Adorno writes, shows “conventionality and authoritarian submissiveness” in his conscious thinking and “violence, anarchic impulses, and chaotic destructiveness in the unconscious sphere. . . . The pseudo conservative is a man who, in the name of upholding traditional American values and institutions and defending them against more or less fictitious dangers, consciously or unconsciously aims at their abolition."
The Republican Party has been playing with extremists for a long time, at least since 1945 and there is a good argument to be made that it's been going on since they abandoned Reconstruction for power in 1876. As Corn says, Trump is not an aberration, he's a culmination of something that's been building to this for a long time.
"Moral hazard" is the least of the things these Enemies of America are.
Just look at the photos from his Saturday night Ohio rally in Youngstown, with the fascist/QAnon salutes being given by the audience. (the extended forefinger is a QAnon thing), the hypnotic music that was being used, the repeated statements of distorted bullshit. He is priming these mental deficients for something terrible.
All these (not so) "Christian" fundamentalists should go back and read up on the Anti-Christ, who appears to them as a very inviting figure and they willingly give themselves over to everything they claim to oppose.
"Migrants, asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants: What’s the difference?" is the title of this short article that helps solidify what these terms actually mean. It remains to be seen whether the media understands the difference when they write their articles.
"Those arriving at the U.S. border are being depicted as 'illegal immigrants,' but in reality, crossing an international border for asylum is not illegal and an asylum seeker’s case must be heard, according to U.S. and international law. 'It doesn’t matter how you enter the country: If you’re in the U.S. or you arrive at a port of entry you can seek asylum. There’s no way to ask for a visa or any type of authorization in advance, you just have to show up,' said the IRC's director of immigration Olga Byrne."
Last night we watched the first of three parts of "The Holocaust" by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein. It was titled "The Golden Door". Yes, it's about the door for immigration and and the nonsense spouted about the Statue of Liberty - "bring me your tired, your poor".
To say that this documentary is timely is an epic understatement. It is in the category of "MUST WATCH" - if you want to know where the new shoots our current hate wave have sprouted from. I am sure the DeathSantis stunt coming during the premier week of this documentary must have stunned the producers. And yet, after learning what they did while researching, I guess they could be numb...
I knew that there was a segment of US citizens during the 1930's that did not want us to help the Jews of Europe. I didn't know that for quite a while it was the vast majority - MOST Americans including many Jews who were established Americans. You begin to understand how and why FDR did as little as he did to help the Jews desperate to leave Europe. That boat of about 900 Jewish people that was turned away was just a symbol of the millions who suffered and died because Americans were so caught up in their misery from the Depression. They chose to look inward. The pain Americans were feeling was legitimate and long lasting. But how fast this "Christian nation" cast aside the teachings of it's prophet.
At the risk of providing a spoiler, my jaw dropped (several times) as the narrator (the perfect voice of Peter Coyote) explained where Hitler got some of his ideas for new laws and how to treat the "others".
I may need to take a one or two night break before seeing the next two parts. The first was sobering and frightening in its parallels with today. When it concluded, we just stared at each other and we were on the verge of tears.
Brace yourself. Prepare to be further disappointed by who we have been. Prepare to be stunned by how similar the themes are between then and now. And prepare to be horrified by us.
- "Moral hazard" and "cascading hazards" are great terms to conceptualize the dangers of the far right extremists, autocrats, white supremacists, corporate-Christian nationalists, MAGAts, Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society, Jones Day law firm, ALEC, Koch Industries, militias, anti-abortion groups, fascists, shareholder-driven exploitative multinational corporations, and on and on.
- The losses of reproductive rights are a sad example of an issue that is simply an individual's right to make a medical decision, but that has been poisoned by the imposition of others' supposed morality, and now limited by SCOTUS and criminalized by states. The cascading effects will be loss of women in the work force, scaled up experiences of trauma, increases in child abuse/neglect and domestic violence, diminishment of women's healthcare providers, and increased costs of malpractice insurance.
- Thank you, Robert, for naming the Venezuelan victims of DeSantis' abusive political stunt as refugees, rather than migrants.
- Trump's new lawyer, Chris Kise, who got $3 million up front, is a Florida attorney who represented the Attorney General in the government of dictator Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela in 2020--and might still?
"...while the political fallout may be the least important consideration," Politics is an enormously important consideration." Defeating the morally deteriorated representatives of the Republican Party and convicting the perpetrators of illegal acts on behalf of the Party are the two ways to stop the incredibly dangerous mass hysteria Republicans are experiencing. Let's all do what we can to defeat these people who are abandoning democracy and democratic values.
I would like to stray just a bit from today’s message to share my concern about Democratic Party messaging.
I believe, as you and your readers have stated, a woman’s right to choose will be critical in November. What I find missing are young women voices urging, no, commanding, young women to become active and ofcourse to vote. Can you name young women who speak for the Dems?
I asked my grandkids for suggestions. Names such as Serena, Rapinoe, Emily Watson and others were mentioned.
I urged my other 70 plus friends to make sure their kids got active - they replied their 40 year old kids were so busy - I pointed out they had time for yoga and tennis!
Robert - we older folks must motivate our kids to become politically active but they are more likely to respond to people of their generation- the Democrats need to get more young messengers out there.
I think that many of us will continue to identify as "Christian", we will use actions and not words, and we will stop attending churches that have forgotten the concepts of the Gospels.
Many of us also have no "moral hazard" because we are not inherently cruel people..but we are seeing so much of it we have heavy hearts....I am still a work in progress to not allow myself to "hate" ANYONE...but gosh I still make judgements and narrow who I associate with!
Thanks you for naming the most recent humans involved in the DeSantis stunt as victims because that is certainly the case...
Keep the faith people....we still have work to do!
I highly recommend viewing Ken Burns latest doc about the US & the Holocaust. The factors that led to rise of f Nazism and the US refusal to address immigration of refugees shows glaring and gut- wrenching parallels between then and now, and the tactics we are seeing being used by maga republicans. It is a worthwhile lesson in US history.
I am glad the moral choices are so obvious. There is nothing ambiguous. Either Christians can choose Christ or DeSantis and his buddy Abbott. True Christians who happen to be Republicans won't have any trouble knowing how to react to the unkindness being employed for political gain. Christianity isn't vague on how we treat the least of us. What DeSantis and Abbott are announcing is how far astray from God they have wandered. Beto and Abrams will remind them about the path to the Kingdom of Heaven, which is the only Kingdom that really matters to true Christians.
My Rhetoric in Film and Image professor gave us a video to learn on ismonofftv. 12 cognitive biases. I put J. Cannon's possible bias as Choice Supportive Bias - she favors opinions that support choice, she made the choice already. I looked for a link but can't find ismonofftv anywhere.
The shark in Jaws fills in a gap of ideology. The shark doesn't have to appear to have our subconscious engage, in truth it's better if it doesn't. The audience fills in the gaps. Unaware of a bias we are caught, in the story in the film, in the story portrayed by Trump perhaps...the shark is an empty symbol. We misuse the symbol.
My kids watching Jaws were scared I was the woman killed in the very beginning of the film. This has stayed with me. Later, I learned in this class (Rhetoric in Film and Image) that I believed someone I didn't know over my child, who I did know. This was my bias. Everyone has it and it you think you don't then you are in worse shape. Sometimes kids are so interesting because they say, in one sentence the thing that is in the subconscious in the room, in the subject on display. People in power overturn this sometimes as they don't want to acknowledge their bias. That is why children, who have no power structures are underrepresented in topics like gun control.
I suspect but cannot document that the shift in affiliation that Pew surveyed is not away from faith in God and a belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ but is, rather, a movement away from institutional churches whose leadership and public face no longer reflect that faith and respect for those teachings. There is no doubt that many individual churches and clergy remain strongly committed to Christian teaching and behavior but these are increasingly unique situations as opposed to the general attitude of the church hierarchy as reflected in the media.
I was encouraged and inspired reading about Judge Dearie, someone who has a job but continually looks at the far reaching implications of the judgements of our legal system:
To the economists who will (correctly) note that the term "moral hazard" has a precise meaning in economics that does not align neatly with my essay, I agree. But I think the point of moral hazards in politics is directionally correct.
I want to strongly recommend to everyone that you pick up a copy of David Corn's newly-pulbished book, "American Psychosis: A Historical Investigation of How the Republican Party Went Crazy." Corn provides devastating detail for the argument I have been making, citing Harry Truman's 1948 campaign statement, "The only 'good Republicans' are pushing up daisies," and Riochard Hofstadter's 1954 observation citing Theodore Adorno's 1949 research in The Authoritarian Personality that, "From clinical interviews and thematic apperception tests, Adorno and his co-workers found that their pseudo-conservative subjects, although given to a form of political expression that combines a curious mixture of largely conservative with occasional radical notions, succeed in concealing from themselves impulsive tendencies that, if released in action, would be very far from conservative. The pseudo-conservative, Adorno writes, shows “conventionality and authoritarian submissiveness” in his conscious thinking and “violence, anarchic impulses, and chaotic destructiveness in the unconscious sphere. . . . The pseudo conservative is a man who, in the name of upholding traditional American values and institutions and defending them against more or less fictitious dangers, consciously or unconsciously aims at their abolition."
The Republican Party has been playing with extremists for a long time, at least since 1945 and there is a good argument to be made that it's been going on since they abandoned Reconstruction for power in 1876. As Corn says, Trump is not an aberration, he's a culmination of something that's been building to this for a long time.
"Moral hazard" is the least of the things these Enemies of America are.
Just look at the photos from his Saturday night Ohio rally in Youngstown, with the fascist/QAnon salutes being given by the audience. (the extended forefinger is a QAnon thing), the hypnotic music that was being used, the repeated statements of distorted bullshit. He is priming these mental deficients for something terrible.
All these (not so) "Christian" fundamentalists should go back and read up on the Anti-Christ, who appears to them as a very inviting figure and they willingly give themselves over to everything they claim to oppose.
Hi, Robert.
"Migrants, asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants: What’s the difference?" is the title of this short article that helps solidify what these terms actually mean. It remains to be seen whether the media understands the difference when they write their articles.
"Those arriving at the U.S. border are being depicted as 'illegal immigrants,' but in reality, crossing an international border for asylum is not illegal and an asylum seeker’s case must be heard, according to U.S. and international law. 'It doesn’t matter how you enter the country: If you’re in the U.S. or you arrive at a port of entry you can seek asylum. There’s no way to ask for a visa or any type of authorization in advance, you just have to show up,' said the IRC's director of immigration Olga Byrne."
https://www.rescue.org/article/migrants-asylum-seekers-refugees-and-immigrants-whats-difference
https://www.rescue.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Rescue_Committee
Last night we watched the first of three parts of "The Holocaust" by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein. It was titled "The Golden Door". Yes, it's about the door for immigration and and the nonsense spouted about the Statue of Liberty - "bring me your tired, your poor".
To say that this documentary is timely is an epic understatement. It is in the category of "MUST WATCH" - if you want to know where the new shoots our current hate wave have sprouted from. I am sure the DeathSantis stunt coming during the premier week of this documentary must have stunned the producers. And yet, after learning what they did while researching, I guess they could be numb...
I knew that there was a segment of US citizens during the 1930's that did not want us to help the Jews of Europe. I didn't know that for quite a while it was the vast majority - MOST Americans including many Jews who were established Americans. You begin to understand how and why FDR did as little as he did to help the Jews desperate to leave Europe. That boat of about 900 Jewish people that was turned away was just a symbol of the millions who suffered and died because Americans were so caught up in their misery from the Depression. They chose to look inward. The pain Americans were feeling was legitimate and long lasting. But how fast this "Christian nation" cast aside the teachings of it's prophet.
At the risk of providing a spoiler, my jaw dropped (several times) as the narrator (the perfect voice of Peter Coyote) explained where Hitler got some of his ideas for new laws and how to treat the "others".
I may need to take a one or two night break before seeing the next two parts. The first was sobering and frightening in its parallels with today. When it concluded, we just stared at each other and we were on the verge of tears.
Brace yourself. Prepare to be further disappointed by who we have been. Prepare to be stunned by how similar the themes are between then and now. And prepare to be horrified by us.
- "Moral hazard" and "cascading hazards" are great terms to conceptualize the dangers of the far right extremists, autocrats, white supremacists, corporate-Christian nationalists, MAGAts, Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society, Jones Day law firm, ALEC, Koch Industries, militias, anti-abortion groups, fascists, shareholder-driven exploitative multinational corporations, and on and on.
- The losses of reproductive rights are a sad example of an issue that is simply an individual's right to make a medical decision, but that has been poisoned by the imposition of others' supposed morality, and now limited by SCOTUS and criminalized by states. The cascading effects will be loss of women in the work force, scaled up experiences of trauma, increases in child abuse/neglect and domestic violence, diminishment of women's healthcare providers, and increased costs of malpractice insurance.
- Thank you, Robert, for naming the Venezuelan victims of DeSantis' abusive political stunt as refugees, rather than migrants.
- Trump's new lawyer, Chris Kise, who got $3 million up front, is a Florida attorney who represented the Attorney General in the government of dictator Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela in 2020--and might still?
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/317253-kise-maduro-us-sanctions/
"...while the political fallout may be the least important consideration," Politics is an enormously important consideration." Defeating the morally deteriorated representatives of the Republican Party and convicting the perpetrators of illegal acts on behalf of the Party are the two ways to stop the incredibly dangerous mass hysteria Republicans are experiencing. Let's all do what we can to defeat these people who are abandoning democracy and democratic values.
I would like to stray just a bit from today’s message to share my concern about Democratic Party messaging.
I believe, as you and your readers have stated, a woman’s right to choose will be critical in November. What I find missing are young women voices urging, no, commanding, young women to become active and ofcourse to vote. Can you name young women who speak for the Dems?
I asked my grandkids for suggestions. Names such as Serena, Rapinoe, Emily Watson and others were mentioned.
I urged my other 70 plus friends to make sure their kids got active - they replied their 40 year old kids were so busy - I pointed out they had time for yoga and tennis!
Robert - we older folks must motivate our kids to become politically active but they are more likely to respond to people of their generation- the Democrats need to get more young messengers out there.
I think that many of us will continue to identify as "Christian", we will use actions and not words, and we will stop attending churches that have forgotten the concepts of the Gospels.
Many of us also have no "moral hazard" because we are not inherently cruel people..but we are seeing so much of it we have heavy hearts....I am still a work in progress to not allow myself to "hate" ANYONE...but gosh I still make judgements and narrow who I associate with!
Thanks you for naming the most recent humans involved in the DeSantis stunt as victims because that is certainly the case...
Keep the faith people....we still have work to do!
I highly recommend viewing Ken Burns latest doc about the US & the Holocaust. The factors that led to rise of f Nazism and the US refusal to address immigration of refugees shows glaring and gut- wrenching parallels between then and now, and the tactics we are seeing being used by maga republicans. It is a worthwhile lesson in US history.
I personally am finding it hard not to hate DeSantis.
The folks in Martha’s Vineyard are behaving like decent human beings. It is so heartening to know the hatred is not universal.
I am glad the moral choices are so obvious. There is nothing ambiguous. Either Christians can choose Christ or DeSantis and his buddy Abbott. True Christians who happen to be Republicans won't have any trouble knowing how to react to the unkindness being employed for political gain. Christianity isn't vague on how we treat the least of us. What DeSantis and Abbott are announcing is how far astray from God they have wandered. Beto and Abrams will remind them about the path to the Kingdom of Heaven, which is the only Kingdom that really matters to true Christians.
As a calligrapher I am already conjuring the craftiness and utility of these words. Thanks, Robert!
My Rhetoric in Film and Image professor gave us a video to learn on ismonofftv. 12 cognitive biases. I put J. Cannon's possible bias as Choice Supportive Bias - she favors opinions that support choice, she made the choice already. I looked for a link but can't find ismonofftv anywhere.
The shark in Jaws fills in a gap of ideology. The shark doesn't have to appear to have our subconscious engage, in truth it's better if it doesn't. The audience fills in the gaps. Unaware of a bias we are caught, in the story in the film, in the story portrayed by Trump perhaps...the shark is an empty symbol. We misuse the symbol.
My kids watching Jaws were scared I was the woman killed in the very beginning of the film. This has stayed with me. Later, I learned in this class (Rhetoric in Film and Image) that I believed someone I didn't know over my child, who I did know. This was my bias. Everyone has it and it you think you don't then you are in worse shape. Sometimes kids are so interesting because they say, in one sentence the thing that is in the subconscious in the room, in the subject on display. People in power overturn this sometimes as they don't want to acknowledge their bias. That is why children, who have no power structures are underrepresented in topics like gun control.
I suspect but cannot document that the shift in affiliation that Pew surveyed is not away from faith in God and a belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ but is, rather, a movement away from institutional churches whose leadership and public face no longer reflect that faith and respect for those teachings. There is no doubt that many individual churches and clergy remain strongly committed to Christian teaching and behavior but these are increasingly unique situations as opposed to the general attitude of the church hierarchy as reflected in the media.
I was encouraged and inspired reading about Judge Dearie, someone who has a job but continually looks at the far reaching implications of the judgements of our legal system:
https://www.npr.org/2022/09/16/1122725989/judge-raymond-dearie-mar-a-lago-special-master-trump