‘Adherence to societal norms’. According to whom? Rhetorical question.
Negotiation, Or Extortion? We know the answer:
Let’s think about the word “negotiating.” All wars end with it, according to the popular saying, but rarely does the aggressor come to the table demanding territory that it doesn’t actually control. Usually, the belligerents discuss which military gains should be formalized and which should be reversed. Vladimir Putin, however, has consistently demanded more land than his military has been able to bring under its control in the three and a half years since Russia’s full-scale invasion began. During his summit with Trump in Alaska on Friday, Putin appears to have made a small concession: He is still demanding more land than he has occupied, but not as much as he used to demand. But less is still more.
So let’s talk about “land swap.” This phrase seems to refer to Putin’s offer to take a piece of Ukraine in exchange for not threatening an even bigger piece of Ukraine. This is not what we normally think of as a swap. It’s what we think of as extortion.
Let’s also talk about the word “land,” or “territory,” which the leaders gathered at the White House on Monday used a lot. Zelensky referred to a map Trump apparently provided to facilitate discussion of “territory.” Trump promised to get him a copy.
But “territory” is not an outline on a map. It’s cities and towns and villages where people still live — even near the front line, even now. Before the full-scale invasion, the populations of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, the two Ukrainian cities on land Putin is demanding, were 200,000 and 100,000, respectively. We don’t know how many people live there now — some people surely fled, some came from occupied territories, some died — but the number is almost certainly tens and possibly hundreds of thousands of people.
To propose to cede the land to Russia is to propose either subjecting those residents to Russian occupation — which in other cities has involved summary executions, detentions and torture — or displacing them forcibly. Either would be a crime — a crime in which Trump is asking Zelensky to become an accomplice.
Here’s what I’d like to know: That call from Putin that Trump took during European summit–that wasn’t coincidental. WTF is going on?
Not All The News Is Bad:
The conservative cable channel Newsmax has agreed to pay $67 million to settle a defamation lawsuit filed by the voting technology company Dominion Voting Systems over the network’s coverage of the 2020 presidential election, according to a filing Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Dominion sued Newsmax in August 2021, arguing that the network “manufactured, endorsed, repeated, and broadcast a series of verifiable false yet devastating lies about Dominion” that made it out to be guilty in a “colossal fraud” to steal the election for Joe Biden. Dominion claimed that Newsmax did so to improve its business standing and appeal to viewers disaffected with Fox News’ coverage of the election.
Now back to the bad news, already in progress. Rethugs Imprison Democratic Lawmaker In Texas State House:
First, Texas House Democrats refused to meet in their legislative chamber in an act of resistance. Now, one of them won’t leave.
State Rep. Nicole Collier of Fort Worth said Monday she will remain locked in the Austin statehouse chamber until the House reconvenes Wednesday morning.
She is making the move after she refused Republican leaders’ conditions that would have required her to sign off on a law enforcement escort before she would be allowed to go home after Monday’s session.
It’s another dramatic turn in the two-week saga involving state House Democrats who fled to other states this month, with most of them taking refuge in Illinois. The plan denied a quorum for Republicans to move forward during a special legislative session with a redrawing of Texas’ congressional map, an act aimed at padding the GOP’s U.S. House majority.
“I refuse to sign away my dignity as a duly elected representative just so Republicans can control my movements and monitor me with police escorts,” Collier said in a statement that called her a “political prisoner” for refusing Republican “surveillance protocol.”
She’s a political prisoner. Not unusual in a Fascist country.
Time For Blue States To Jointly Exercise Power. Delaware’s doing this, to its credit. Here we’re talking about blue state coalition-building:
Gerrymandering is one tool — controversial, and of uncertain consequence — but it points to a larger truth: states are powerful. For decades, progressive politics has been ambivalent, even resistant, to using that power assertively. But if state leaders are finally ready to wield it, we need more than tactical redistricting. We need a deliberate and coordinated strategy to use state authority to defend democracy, shift national dynamics, serve communities, and re-engage the electorate.
State governments possess an extraordinary range of tools that can be deployed in bold, coordinated ways. And power can be pooled across states for even greater impact. Conservatives are masterful at this. Just recently, 26 right-wing state financial officers signed a joint letter to BlackRock, urging the firm to abandon environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing principles or risk losing state business. And following Trump’s Executive Order last week directing banking regulators to stop “debanking” conservative-led or aligned firms or industries like crypto, the same group issued coordinated support. Such coordinated actions are routine in the tightly-knit conservative governance ecosystem.
Progressive state leaders can also coordinate responses — not as retaliation, but as a legitimate exercise of public power in response to federal dysfunction. The purpose should not be to punish the people living in red states, but to protect democratic institutions, safeguard communities, and improve people’s lives. In the short term, states can do much to counter the unraveling of protective federal programs and unchecked federal overreach. Many of these tools are already in use, though rarely presented as part of a broader strategic vision.
If you’re an elected official, please read this entire article. There are a lot of practical ways to build an effective interstate response to our fascist state. Use them. To be fair, AG Kathleen Jennings is already doing this. The latest example. Time for everyone else to join in.
An Economy Based On Carbon Waste? Take a micro-dose and consider the possibility:
The US government is a big-time hoarder. At last count, in three locations—Denver, Fort Knox, and West Point—it had socked away 248,046,115.696 troy ounces of gold. One might think to round that to the nearest ounce, but at today’s prices, that extra 0.304 ounces of gold would fetch about $1,060 and the entire hoard is worth more than $865 billion. Except it isn’t, because that gold is not for sale.
Sequestration has rendered it priceless.
Why do we keep it? Good question. President Richard Nixon ended the Gold Standard more than a half-century ago—that is, the practice of using gold reserves to backstop the dollar. For 54 years now, the value of our currency has been based on faith—that the United States, like the Lannisters, always pays its debts. There’s not much practical sense in keeping all this treasure around, though. It’s a symbolic, quasi-religious thing. “I think it’s because gold has been an index of power for thousands of years,” says Gustav Peebles, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Stockholm in Sweden. “I think of it as a sacred hoard.”
Peebles, who is American, has been thinking about this a lot. Because if people can unearth vast amounts of a “profane” commodity such as gold, build an economy around it, and then take most of that gold out of circulation and into the realm of the sacred, why couldn’t we do the same thing with other profane commodities—like excess atmospheric carbon? Why couldn’t we collect it, bank it, and then stow it away, harmless?
We’ve tried other tactics. The world’s wealthiest 10 percent are responsible for two-thirds of global carbon emissions, but the comfort class hasn’t shown much willingness to change its behavior. Nor have governments done enough—the Trump administration is now taking us backward—and industrial polluters aren’t about to do the right thing. Tech solutions like direct air capture are pricey and problematic, as this magazine has reported. But if we could convince the masses that waste carbon dioxide is sacred and worth hoarding—like gold—one of our most existential problems might solve itself.
Please don’t scoff. We all have questions. But Peebles is serious. An expert in the history of monetary systems, among other things, he has teamed up with the multi-disciplinary artist Ben Luzatto to develop the idea in depth. The result is a thought-provoking new book, The First and Last Bank, which weaves in aspects of history, monetary policy, philosophy, and religion to make its case. A utopian case perhaps, but Peebles insists that the necessary structures and precedents already exist.
You can’t identify with this? You didn’t micro-dose.
Brandywine School District Adjusts Tax Rates. The other school districts, no doubt, will follow suit:
Frustration has festered in statewide reassessment fallout, as New Castle County realized a much heavier tax burden on its residents post-assessment, over commercial properties. That, in part, sent many school tax bills soaring. And over in Legislative Hall, an emergency session eked out new laws to offer taxpayers payment plans with protections, direct cash rebates on appeals — and to allow school districts to split their tax rates.
Now, each school district in New Castle County has been given 10 days to come back to the drawing board on school taxes. Several are expected to deliver new tax warrants this week, with higher rates placed on nonresidential properties and relief to homeowners.
Brandywine just did.
The northernmost New Castle County school district’s board meeting on Monday night, Aug. 18, offered the first a view on math to come following special session. And, the system also chose to roll back an assessment-allowed increase approved in July.
The board approved two new school tax rates. Mirroring county methodology, that’s one for residential — defined as residential homes and farms — as well as another for nonresidential — defined as apartment complexes with more than four units, commercial properties, industrial and utility parcels.
Brandywine hoped to set the tone, passing the new rates unanimously. But, as Board President Jason Heller cautioned: “There’s no magic pill that fixes this.”
No. But, at first glance, it appears that this will go down easier than what homeowners were initially facing.
What do you want to talk about?