Don Moynihan: "The longer the pandemic goes on, the more trust will decline in institutions that have to make visible, salient decisions amidst changing circumstances, information and trade-offs while serving a population with wildly varying preferences."
Be that as it may, ever since Day One every single communication about COVID-19 from the CDC seems to have been bumbling and obtuse, sometimes self-contradictory or in conflict with NIH or FDA, and always barely intelligible
Is there any desire to conjoin the various organizations which have sprung up to defend traditional Republican values? Is anyone confused by the now too similar names of Renew America Movement, Renew America, and the Center for Renewing America. I am sending small donations to Republican Accountability Project, and as well to Lincoln (yes, I am aware of controversies here), as well as to Adam Kinzinger and Country First. Does anyone else believe it would be useful if these organizations joined together? Or, would that just diminish the slightly different missions of each organization?
We often spend more time worrying about what to call something than worrying about the thing, itself.
Yes, words and definitions are important--but at a certain time, they are beyond the point and arguing about it is either about deflection, avoidance, or mental masturbation.
America has, to a large degree, already failed. We are at the tail end of it at this point. Things have been done that can not be undone and the emperor increasingly visibly has no clothes. Government and society have always been enterprises of collective imagination and perception--of the adherence to unwritten rules (that usually exist for very good reasons). Our increasingly materialistic and individualistic culture has led us to this inevitable breaking point--the totalitarian/fascist response we are currently seeing is, to a degree, an inevitable reaction.
Most of life seems to be (within the context of a pandemic world) going on normally. People are worrying about the normal things, doing the normal things, thinking the normal things. Many are willingly and willfully ignorant of a lot of the larger dangers we face--because it hasn't affected them yet... and, indeed, may never really noticeably affect them. The larger questions of politics and philosophy are beside the point--until they aren't (awareness of which usually comes too late).
We have avoided talking about and dealing with a number of things over the last few decades and the chickens are coming home to roost--while we still try to avoid talking about and dealing with them.
RE: Cheap Shots | The 147 Republicans Who Voted to Overturn Election Results - The New York Times
Happy New Year Charlie! The uphill battle begins now. Do you or anyone in The Bulwark community know of a "Liz Cheney" somewhere in AL05? I learned that Alabama is an open primary state. The filing deadline for someone to challenge the AL05 incumbent in the primary is January 28, 2022.
Happy new year, Charlie. We got Covid for Christmas; from ages 8-81. All vacced and eligible boosted. We are fortunate that symptoms were mild and non threatening. As this is the case for *most* vaccinated individuals, it's time for the messaging by the CDC and medical establishment to reflect this. The declining trust in public institutions Moynihan describes will only further erode the longer the CDC and medical establishment mucks along the idea that covid will ever be zero risk. Everyone will get it, but the vaccines are working. An off-road for masking must be paved. A tolerance for this must be discussed. If not, the lost trust may not ever be regained, and the institutions forever undermined. This does not secure our collective good now or in the event of future disasters.
The pandemic was arguably Trump's undoing, and now it is helping to prejudice voters against the Democrats. Moreover, Big Science, like every other institution, has been badly damaged by increasing transparency, as familiarity breeds contempt. The public has lost the childlike faith in government it had after WW2. Normally that would seem desirable, but the dangerous side effect is a belief that there is no such thing as reliable fact, and - go figure - the infantile cult of Trumpism.
I'm reduced to hoping Omicron accelerates the mitigation of COVID allowing voters to regain a degree of the normalcy Biden prematurely promised, in time for 2024, if probably not the midterms.
Can we get Charlie's Bulwark podcast nominated for this? https://www.podcastawards.com/ It's been going on 16 years and there is a politics and news category. Not sure how the nominations are made or when they need to be in.
"Warning: I'm Back" C'mon Charlie, this is the most welcome news yet of the new year!
On whether the Jan. 6 commission will have an effect on the 2022 midterms: Surely Liz Cheney speaks for some small percentage of people on the right. Democrats need to be messaging that they are the party of constitutional governance and Republicans are destroyers of same.
"A year after a pro-Trump mob ransacked the Capitol in the worst attack on the home of Congress since it was burned by British forces in 1814, a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll finds that about 1 in 3 Americans say they believe violence against the government can at times be justified."
Really, the answer should be closer to 100% of Americans believe this, and I suspect that it is; after all, our nation would not even exist if it weren't for a significant percentage of colonists who believed that violence against the government was at times justifiable. And what of the Nat Turners and John Browns? Some find fault with them, but I don't. But, if violence against the government can be justified, that is why swimming in a sea of misinformation is so poisonous. If you believe in your heart that the government is running sham elections, then what recourse is there other than violence? And we're getting close to the point where Republicans are actually eliminating democracy, and justifying it by lying about how Democrats have already destroyed it. But for Republican voters, they don't see their side as the side that's lying, and we're in a bad place.
On the Rotner piece, he concludes by arguing that we need a Constitutional Amendment that requires states to hold elections for president and honor the results, which is pretty clear, and won't happen any time soon, if ever, and certainly not before November of 2024. But really, we just need to get rid of the Electoral College completely, if we're in the business of running elections and honoring the popular will. If we're going for an Amendment, that's the one we need. The EC is ridiculous.
I know you needed the break Charlie....but, I sure missed you...
.
Linda Chavez: "What this poll suggests to me is that the Jan. 6th Committee’s findings will have little to no bearing on the next election."
Depends on what they find
Duh
.
.
Don Moynihan: "The longer the pandemic goes on, the more trust will decline in institutions that have to make visible, salient decisions amidst changing circumstances, information and trade-offs while serving a population with wildly varying preferences."
Be that as it may, ever since Day One every single communication about COVID-19 from the CDC seems to have been bumbling and obtuse, sometimes self-contradictory or in conflict with NIH or FDA, and always barely intelligible
.
Quano sniffing!
Is there any desire to conjoin the various organizations which have sprung up to defend traditional Republican values? Is anyone confused by the now too similar names of Renew America Movement, Renew America, and the Center for Renewing America. I am sending small donations to Republican Accountability Project, and as well to Lincoln (yes, I am aware of controversies here), as well as to Adam Kinzinger and Country First. Does anyone else believe it would be useful if these organizations joined together? Or, would that just diminish the slightly different missions of each organization?
We often spend more time worrying about what to call something than worrying about the thing, itself.
Yes, words and definitions are important--but at a certain time, they are beyond the point and arguing about it is either about deflection, avoidance, or mental masturbation.
America has, to a large degree, already failed. We are at the tail end of it at this point. Things have been done that can not be undone and the emperor increasingly visibly has no clothes. Government and society have always been enterprises of collective imagination and perception--of the adherence to unwritten rules (that usually exist for very good reasons). Our increasingly materialistic and individualistic culture has led us to this inevitable breaking point--the totalitarian/fascist response we are currently seeing is, to a degree, an inevitable reaction.
Most of life seems to be (within the context of a pandemic world) going on normally. People are worrying about the normal things, doing the normal things, thinking the normal things. Many are willingly and willfully ignorant of a lot of the larger dangers we face--because it hasn't affected them yet... and, indeed, may never really noticeably affect them. The larger questions of politics and philosophy are beside the point--until they aren't (awareness of which usually comes too late).
We have avoided talking about and dealing with a number of things over the last few decades and the chickens are coming home to roost--while we still try to avoid talking about and dealing with them.
RE: Cheap Shots | The 147 Republicans Who Voted to Overturn Election Results - The New York Times
Happy New Year Charlie! The uphill battle begins now. Do you or anyone in The Bulwark community know of a "Liz Cheney" somewhere in AL05? I learned that Alabama is an open primary state. The filing deadline for someone to challenge the AL05 incumbent in the primary is January 28, 2022.
Happy new year, Charlie. We got Covid for Christmas; from ages 8-81. All vacced and eligible boosted. We are fortunate that symptoms were mild and non threatening. As this is the case for *most* vaccinated individuals, it's time for the messaging by the CDC and medical establishment to reflect this. The declining trust in public institutions Moynihan describes will only further erode the longer the CDC and medical establishment mucks along the idea that covid will ever be zero risk. Everyone will get it, but the vaccines are working. An off-road for masking must be paved. A tolerance for this must be discussed. If not, the lost trust may not ever be regained, and the institutions forever undermined. This does not secure our collective good now or in the event of future disasters.
2022’s burn of choice is definitely “Guano Sniffers.” 😂 Missed you, Charlie!
The pandemic was arguably Trump's undoing, and now it is helping to prejudice voters against the Democrats. Moreover, Big Science, like every other institution, has been badly damaged by increasing transparency, as familiarity breeds contempt. The public has lost the childlike faith in government it had after WW2. Normally that would seem desirable, but the dangerous side effect is a belief that there is no such thing as reliable fact, and - go figure - the infantile cult of Trumpism.
I'm reduced to hoping Omicron accelerates the mitigation of COVID allowing voters to regain a degree of the normalcy Biden prematurely promised, in time for 2024, if probably not the midterms.
Can we get Charlie's Bulwark podcast nominated for this? https://www.podcastawards.com/ It's been going on 16 years and there is a politics and news category. Not sure how the nominations are made or when they need to be in.
Glad you're back!
I beg2differ; fascism is a word journalists have been too hesitant2use … #TrumpismIsFascism
"Warning: I'm Back" C'mon Charlie, this is the most welcome news yet of the new year!
On whether the Jan. 6 commission will have an effect on the 2022 midterms: Surely Liz Cheney speaks for some small percentage of people on the right. Democrats need to be messaging that they are the party of constitutional governance and Republicans are destroyers of same.
Thank god you’re back!
"A year after a pro-Trump mob ransacked the Capitol in the worst attack on the home of Congress since it was burned by British forces in 1814, a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll finds that about 1 in 3 Americans say they believe violence against the government can at times be justified."
Really, the answer should be closer to 100% of Americans believe this, and I suspect that it is; after all, our nation would not even exist if it weren't for a significant percentage of colonists who believed that violence against the government was at times justifiable. And what of the Nat Turners and John Browns? Some find fault with them, but I don't. But, if violence against the government can be justified, that is why swimming in a sea of misinformation is so poisonous. If you believe in your heart that the government is running sham elections, then what recourse is there other than violence? And we're getting close to the point where Republicans are actually eliminating democracy, and justifying it by lying about how Democrats have already destroyed it. But for Republican voters, they don't see their side as the side that's lying, and we're in a bad place.
On the Rotner piece, he concludes by arguing that we need a Constitutional Amendment that requires states to hold elections for president and honor the results, which is pretty clear, and won't happen any time soon, if ever, and certainly not before November of 2024. But really, we just need to get rid of the Electoral College completely, if we're in the business of running elections and honoring the popular will. If we're going for an Amendment, that's the one we need. The EC is ridiculous.