“Fights over ideas are the most vicious of all. If it were merely food, or water, or shelter, we could work something out. But in the realm of ideas one can become idealistic. The results can be deadly. The Thirty Years’ War, isn’t that what they called the religious war that Europe was fighting during your time?”
—Galileo’s Dream, Kim Stanley Robinson
1.
Some good news all around this week in this ol’ haggard country. There were two elections on Tuesday that seem to be a significant indicator that maybe, just maybe, people are embracing more progressive ideologies versus the Republican crazy train agendas. Political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen noted: “Republicans are losing across the country, even in historically red areas—Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin. The abortion bans, climate denial, gun idolatry, anti-democratic behavior and extremism has lost them entire generations of Americans.”
In Wisconsin, of all places, the red fever broke when voters elected liberal Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz to the Wisconsin Supreme Court by a ten-point margin over Dan Kelly who has ties to election deniers and the far right. In one the most important swing states, this is big news. Wisconsin is heavily gerrymandered to the right’s benefit and as reported in Politico, Protasiewicz regularly called the state’s political maps unfair on the trail, and Democratic-aligned groups are likely itching to bring a case looking to challenge them as illegal political gerrymanders. Wisconsin Democratic chair Ben Wikler tweeted “This election was a release valve for twelve years of Democratic rage in Wisconsin about Republicans rigging our state and smashing our democracy—and then using that power to rip away our rights.”
The other BIG issue, and one of the reasons Protasiewicz ran for this seat, is that when the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade in June, an 1849 law banning abortion went back into effect in Wisconsin. 1849. With a liberal majority now on the court, the 1849 ban could be overruled. The New York Times reported Her election to a 10-year term for an officially nonpartisan seat gives Wisconsin’s liberals a 4-to-3 majority on the court, which has been controlled by conservatives since 2008. Liberals will hold a court majority until at least 2025, when a liberal justice’s term expires. A conservative justice’s term ends in 2026.
The other significant win was Brandon Johnson, a county commissioner and former teachers’ union organizer, who was elected mayor of Chicago on Tuesday. Paul Vallas, his rival for the seat, embraced a largely pro-police, law-and-order platform while Johnson views crime as a problem with solutions that go well beyond policing. Once again, the more progressive voice came out on top. As the New York Times said, this election will immediately become an important voice in Democratic politics, and the policies that Chicago’s overwhelmingly Democratic population embraces will have the full attention of the party’s leaders heading into 2024.
Politico reported that The twin victories — in the Chicago mayoral race and for an open seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court — had emboldened their belief that voters were more repelled by the GOP brand — colored by anti-abortion politics and personified by former President Donald Trump — than by accusations that Democrats were soft on crime.
2.
This week Finland became NATO’s 31st member country. Finland shares a 832 mile border with Russia and this will more than double the size of NATO's border with Russia; and it will double security on the border. NPR reported that Emma Ashford, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center's Reimagining U.S. Grand Strategy Program, says that the Finnish people "have a long history of self-defense, resilience. They fought a war against Russia in the 1930s and into the 1940s for their own self-defense against the Soviet Union, and they kept that up through the Cold War. As a result they bring a long view to NATO that is a lot of other European states could learn from." Ashford also added that “Adding another member to NATO also makes the alliance more unwieldy. This has always been the case as the alliance has grown in recent years. And finally, there's that risk of, you know, burden sharing, right? As I said, the Finns have this long history of self-reliance, of self-defense. But what we've seen is many European states, as soon as they're admitted to NATO, move away from that and start to rely more and more on U.S. capabilities.”
3.
And in Michigan, Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed a law on Wednesday repealing a 1931 abortion ban, ensuring that Michigan’s laws align with its constitution and solidifying the right to an abortion in the state. Whitmer struck down three laws: one that banned abortion except when necessary to save the life of a woman, and another that made it illegal to advertise abortion drugs. She also signed a law striking abortion-related felonies from the state’s penal code.
4.
Criminal Defendant #4913961R, Florida Man indicted on 34 felony charges. All of the charges are for falsifying business records in the first degree in violation of Penal Law §175.10. And those charges are JUST for the woman-on-the-side hush-money payments. Heh.
5.
This was published in late March but thought it may be of interest and goes well with the GOOD NEWS theme. The Conversation reported that Researchers turned superglue into a recyclable, cheap, oil-free plastic alternative. In a nutshell, Most plastics are made from petroleum-derived feedstocks, and the recycling and reuse of these plastics are energy intensive, time intensive, and inefficient, thus leading to both pollution and the accumulation of plastic waste in landfills. To address these drawbacks, we have developed a plastic based on poly(ethyl cyanoacrylate) (PECA), which is prepared from the monomer ethyl cyanoacrylate (more commonly known by the trade names Super Glue and Krazy Glue). This PECA plastic is derived from nonpetroleum starting materials, is scalable and economically competitive with existing petroleum-based products (i.e., the monomer is commercially available in large quantities and is low cost), and has mechanical properties that are commensurate with commercial plastics. Furthermore, recycling is easily performed in a closed-loop process by thermally cracking the polymer and distilling the monomer.
6.
A couple quick stories of the rich and powerful plundering and benefiting from their wealth and status. The way it’s supposed to work, right? Buckingham Palace has been showing off plundered riches from the their time of rule over the Indian subcontinent. A report from the Guardian has uncovered a remarkable 46-page file in the archives of the India Office, the government department that was responsible for Britain’s rule over the Indian subcontinent. It details an investigation, apparently commissioned by Queen Mary, the grandmother of Elizabeth II, into the imperial origins of her jewels. The report, from 1912, explains how priceless pieces, including Charles’s emerald belt, were extracted from India as trophies of conquest and later given to Queen Victoria. The items described are now owned by the monarch as property of the British crown. And ProPublica reports that Justice Clarence Thomas has violated financial disclosure rules when he failed to disclose travel on yachts and jets and other gifts funded by the property billionaire and Republican mega-donor Harlan Crow. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democratic congresswoman from New York, tweeted: “This is beyond party or partisanship. This degree of corruption is shocking – almost cartoonish. Thomas must be impeached. Barring some dramatic change, this is what the [chief justice John] Roberts court will be known for: rank corruption, erosion of democracy, and the stripping of human rights.”
7.
And you already have heard that The Tennessee House voted yesterday to expel two Democrats one week after they interrupted debate by leading protesters in a call for stricter gun laws. There were three that protested by they only expelled two of them: The Black dude and the Black and Filipino descent dude. The white woman can stay. The Tennessee House had only expelled members three times previously, according to a report from the office of the state’s attorney general. In 1866, six members were expelled “for the contempt of the authority of this House.” In 1980, a member was expelled for seeking a bribe in exchange for tanking a piece of legislation. And in 2016, a representative was expelled amid state and federal investigations of sexual misconduct. Somehow, I think all of the shenanigans that the Republicans are pulling will come back to bite them in the ass. JUST. VOTE. BLUE.
8.
A short story.
Spook Waltz (Gesture Pie) is the last cut on my second CD Lost In the Graveyard released in 2005 or thereabouts. A writer for Pop Matters said, 'The biggest disappointment is the closing “Spook Waltz (Gesture Pie)” which heads downhill fast.'
Do you remember the French Quarter on Grant? I was on stage setting up for a gig (who knows who) sometime in the aught 2000s and noticed they kept their CD player on the side of the stage for playing music for the venue. Lost In the Graveyard was in rotation on one of those 5-banger devices. Spook Waltz came on and the woman bartender rushed the stage, pounded open the player, grabbed the CD and smashed into a million pieces. You can’t say my music doesn’t illicit a response. Listen if you dare.
BTW, today is Bandcamp Friday! Today Bandcamp waives their fee so that the artist actually makes the revenue generated today. Pennies! The cool thing is, you can download single songs from various CDs if you want. Give it a try!
And now…
I really like your music, Gary. I also like your ability to eat humble pie when fed by less enlightened musical afficiondos.