Voters: Reflections on Race and Class

I would like to see a study asking white voters if they had a long period out of work or lost their homes, or had friends and families which did so and then cross-tabulations between those numbers and their support of Donald Trump and Bernard Sanders.

I would be very surprised if there was no correlation!

What will come after?

If you wish for the downfall of the United States ask yourself: "What will come after?"

AOC: Unifying the Resistance?

Me, slightly over a year ago:

At this point, what it would take to unify the Resistance would be something like a younger female version of Sanders, and I don't see anyone like that on the national stage.

And now we have Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Intersectionality, Economic Anxiety, and Economic Pain

There's a whole strain of argument that economics had nothing to do with Trump's victory, that it was all racism. Certainly the racists are there. But also, the Obama administration had no jobs program, no relief for embattled homeowners, no prosecutions for mortgage fraud or servicing abuse. I do not think there is one of us who does not know someone who has lost their home, or spent years out of work. That's the sort of economic pain that people don't forget, and it affected the election.

I have a friend who is represented by Senator Patricia Murray (D-WA.) Senator Murray made the budget deal with Paul Ryan that cut off my friend’s unemployment benefits on my friend’s birthday. Now (says my friend) my friend voted for Senator Murray during the last election with difficulty. And yet my friend is an educated activist who will determinedly vote for the lesser evil. Someone who had lost their house or had years of unemployment and is not ideological? Why would they vote Democratic? Why would their family, friends, and neighbors? The amazing thing, perhaps, is that the Presidential election was as close as it was.

I'm not going to say that economics was the whole story of that election; many factors came together to bring the Republicans to power. Sexism was a part of it, racism was a part of it, and bad press was a part of it. So was treason. But those memories of long times out of work and losing homes were also part of it.

Jobs matter. Homes matter.

Proof Testing 3-D Printed Firearms

Would you like to be the person to proof test your shiny new 3-D printed gun?

Reputable firearms manufacturers proof test firearms – fire them with a round that is more powerful than usual – to ensure they will operate safely. This is a dangerous procedure. Reputable manufacturers have safety practices in place for it. Most of the 3-D printing processes produce rough parts; they need finishing. Do this wrong with your gun and you will have an explosion when you fire it. (And you may have one anyway, even if you do everything right.)

If you print your own gun you're the tester. It's your hand at risk.

In this bird's view, this whole thing is overblown. It's not hard to make firearms with modern machine tools; hasn't been since the late 19ᵗʰ century. A 3-D printer is just another way of doing that. The hard part is making safe, useful, good-quality firearms through a safe manufacturing process.

On the other hand, the censorship that is imposed on 3-D printed firearms is of concern. Really don't want random officials deciding what designs we can make.

Harm to the Law

(To someone defending the Chicago PD on Twitter, lightly edited.)

When you or I break the law, we do harm, but we do no harm to the law. When the police break the law, they do harm to the law. When prosecutors and judges accept this, and when elected officials do not act, they do harm to the law.

The Party of Treason: Nixon, Reagan, and Trump

On Twitter, someone asked if Nixon was quite that bad. It prompted these reflections.

Richard Nixon was a traitor, responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of US soldiers. His Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, still alive, still lauded, was perhaps equally culpable. Yes, he was that bad.

The Reagan administration also probably committed treason. At least, Reagan broke his oath of office and acted in a disloyal manner. Matters are a little more complex there, since Reagan was apparently demented at the time, so a number of officials (pardoned by his Republican successor, George H W Bush) and Reagan's wife, who was governing in his stead, were responsible. None of them were punished.

I am left thinking that the Republican Party has been disloyal for over 50 years. The foreign policies it advocates fail so desperately and shamefully, and are so unpopular, that they are left undertaking crimes to enable them and to conceal them.

And now we have Trump slamming US intelligence agencies in favor of the dictator of a third-rate power.