Daily Archives: January 7, 2021

Will you be Hamilton or Burr? Major changes to election rules and attempting to launch all-mail balloting just months before the 2020 election was always a setup for a nasty, partisan duel.

And now its moved beyond lawsuits and debate. As I type these words, C-SPAN is showing scenes of protesters breaking into the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.

Wednesday morning (January 6th), the House of Representatives was debating alleged violations of Arizona elections rules. Objections were raised to an extension of the voting registration deadline saying that under the U. S. Constitution, election rules are to be set by the legislature, and the rules were changed without legislative action. It was looking to be a pretty boring day of legal minutiae and grandstanding.

For two months, friends have been sending links with claims of fraud, honestly concerned over election integrity. Dear friends on the other side have resorted to name-calling toward anyone who even dares ask questions. One called me this morning to vent four years of anger. He said hed already had a lot of practice with his family. Brother against brother. The divisions make my heart hurt.

Ignoring questions doesnt make them go away. As Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers said in her statement earlier this week, millions of Americans have questions that have not yet been answered. Letting debate drone on for days might have helped defuse the anger. The optimist in me was hoping so.

Vice President Mike Pence has been solid, following the U.S Constitution and sticking courageously to his appropriate role. He would have kept the debate civil, boring and in accordance with the rules. But President Trump has always been the wild card.

As a conservative with libertarian leanings, I have struggled with the last four years. President Trumps administration has carried out a strong conservative agenda. He has appointed judges committed to the philosophy of judicial originalism. Streamlining regulatory red tape has been a reality. The economy was picking up speed until hit by the pandemic, although no president deserves as much credit as they are given for either the rise or fall of the economy.

Internationally, ISIS has been defeated and weve seen breakthroughs toward normalization of relationships in the Middle East. The U.S. Embassy was finally moved to Jerusalem as Congress directed in 1995, after being ignored by three presidents. We have not become embroiled in any new undeclared wars and were winding down those underway for over two decades.

But then theres the man himself. President Trump is a self-centered party of one who cant resist saying whatever pops into his head. If I had a dollar for every time Ive heard a Republican say if only hed stop tweeting, Id be paying off my mortgage tomorrow.

He has consistently been his own worst political enemy and a threat to the Republican Party. His ranting rhetoric over the last two months has been a tremendous disappointment. Legal maneuvering is the American way but a blustering phone call to a state election official is not. Exhorting a protest crowd to never accept the results of an election is blatantly irresponsible.

And then the fire pager interrupted with an EMS call. National events became irrelevant just as President-elect Biden was saying something civilized while challenging President Trump to fix what hes broken. A half-hour later while kneeling in my neighbors living room, I caught a glimpse of a caption on the TV reading Trump: Leave Peacefully.

Donald J. Trump captured the Republican nomination in 2016 by working the party rules better than any other primary candidate. He needs to follow the constitutional rules now and leave peacefully.

On Tuesday, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers optimistically supported having the discussion and airing the questions, but yesterday she had the courage to change her mind. Her full statement following the break-in at the Capitol soundly condemned the violence, saying in part, What we have seen today is unlawful and unacceptable. I have decided I will vote to uphold the Electoral College results and I encourage Donald Trump to condemn and put an end to this madness.

Take her advice. To Trump supporters, accept the Electoral College results. And to everyone, end the madness of brother against brother. Choose to be Alexander Hamilton, with the courage to pull your shot, confident in your ability to debate another day. Or will you be Aaron Burr, who sings with regret at the end of Hamilton, the Broadway musical:

I was too young and blind to see I shouldve known the world was wide enough for both Hamilton and me

Contact Sue Lani Madsen at rulingpen@gmail.com

Read the original post:

Sue Lani Madsen: End this madness of brother against brother - The Spokesman-Review

Across the globe, 2020 has proved to be one of the most tumultuous years in recent memory. From COVID-19 to the US Election, gain insight into some of the many events of 2020 with our curated reading list from theWhat Everyone Needs to Knowseries:

Presidential elections are the crown jewel of American electoral democracy, but there are some very important issues looming. Is the electoral college the most reliable way to measure a presidential election, or should we be looking at other systems? The primary and pre-primary phases are long, expensive, and arduous. There are several ways our system could be made better. Will we ever create a better system?

Read chapter five, Presidential Elections, from Dennis W. JohnsonsCampaigns and Elections: What Everyone Needs to Know here.

Commentators use few words to describe the American political scene as frequently as they use the word polarized. But unfortunately, the terms polarized and polarization have taken on such a wide variety of meanings among journalists, politicians, and scholars that they often confuse, rather than clarify, the problems that our political system faces.

Read chapter two, What is Political Polarization?, from Nolan McCartysPolarization: What Everyone Needs to Knowhere.

How is the word immigration defined? TheOxford English Dictionarystates that [immigration] is the action of entering into a country for the purpose of settling in it. The definition conveys a sense of individual freedom. What are the meanings of exile and refugee? Are all Latinos Immigrants? What is the overall position of Latinos on Immigration?

Read chapter four, Yearning to Breathe Free, from Ilan StavanssLatinos in the United States: What Everyone Needs to Knowhere.

Somewhere between one-tenth and one-third of Americans are libertarians. Many libertarians do not self-identify as libertarian. They call themselves liberals, moderates, or conservatives. Many of them vote Democrat or Republican. Thus, to know what percentage of Americans are libertarian, we cant just ask people if they are libertarians.

Read chapter nine, Politics: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, from Jason BrennansLibertarianism: What Everyone Needs to Knowhere.

The worlds wealthy democracies all have relatively honest governments. However, that wasnt true a hundred or two hundred years ago, when they looked like governments in todays poor countries. How did they do it? How do countries escape a high-corruption equilibrium?

Read chapter eight, How do Countries Shift from High to Low Corruption?, from Ray Fisman and Miriam A. GoldensCorruption: What Everyone Needs to Knowhere.

When we move toward an analysis of inequalities in the wider world, we are required to cope with far more complex and uncertain data, and at the same time to seek simpler and more abstract theories. But to come up with a theory that has common application across many countries, we need measurements of inequality across countries and through time that are reasonably comprehensive and reasonably reliableand this is a major challenge.

Read chapter seven, Causes of Changing Inequality in the World, from James K. GalbraithsInequality: What Everyone Needs to Knowhere.

Politics in authoritarian regimes typically centers on the interactions of three actors:the leader, elites, and the masses. What are the major goals of these actors? What is the difference between an authoritarian leader and an authoritarian regime? What is the difference between an authoritarian regime and an authoritarian spell?

Read chapter two, Understanding Authoritarian Politics, from Erica FrantzsAuthoritarianism:What Everyone Needs to Knowhere.

Environmental protection is a relatively new idea. Today, environmental protection, however one defines it, has taken root around the world. Why does the environment need protection? How did protecting the environment become a societal concern?

Read chapter one, Environmental Protection, from Pamela HillsEnvironmental Protection:What Everyone Needs to Knowhere.

What climate change policies are governments around the world using to fight climate change? What is a carbon tax? What are cap-and-trade and carbon trading? This chapter will explain the most commonly used or discussed climate policies around the world. It will also explore some of the issues involving climate politics.

Read chapter five, Climate Politics and Policies, from Joseph RommsClimate Change:What Everyone Needs to Knowhere.

The marine environment covers not only the ocean, but estuaries (e.g., bays), which are coastal areas where the seawater is diluted with freshwater coming from rivers and streams, or sometimes groundwater. Much of the pollution is concentrated in these shallow coastal areas, which are often next to urban centers and other concentrations of humans who are responsible for the pollution.

Read chapter one, Introduction to marine environment and pollution, from Judith S. WeissMarine Pollution: What Everyone Needs to Knowhere.

A vaccine is a substance that is given to a person or animal to protect it from a particular pathogena bacterium, virus, or other microorganism that can cause disease. The goal of giving a vaccine is to prompt the body to create antibodies specific to the particular pathogen, which in turn will prevent infection or disease; it mimics infection on a small scale that does not induce actual illness.

Read chapter one, What is a Vaccine and How Do Vaccines Work?, from Kristen A. FeemstersVaccines: What Everyone Needs to Knowhere.

A novel infectionnew and previously unconfrontedthat spreads globally and results in a high incidence of morbidity (sickness) and mortality (death) has, for the past 300 years or more, been described as a pandemic. Who declares a pandemic? Should the pandemic classification system be refined?

Read chapter two, Pandemics, Epidemics, and Outbreaks, from Peter C. DohertysPandemics:What Everyone Needs to Knowhere.

Fear and anxiety are normal in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. We do not want to pathologize this normal fear and anxiety. We hope that people can use their good coping skills to deal with this unprecedented situation. We know we are in the thick of it, but we do not know exactly where we are in it.

Read the final chapter, Afterword in the Face of the COVID-19 Pandemic, from Barbara O. Rothbaum and Sheila A. M. RauchsPTSD: What Everyone Needs to Knowhere.

As we reach the close of 2020, we look ahead to a hopeful 2021. With the forthcoming events of 2021, stay up-to-date on the most important topics leading the discussion today in politics, health, global affairs, and more with theWhat Everyone Needs to Knowseries.

Featured image by Kelly Sikkema

Read more:

What everyone needs to know about 2020 | OUPblog - OUPblog

When Boris Johnson addressed his party this week on a Zoom call, it had all the makings of a horror show. The prime minister had, the day before, announced a third national lockdown for England an action he had once likened to a nuclear deterrent and one that his lockdown-sceptic backbenchers had previously said would lead to a huge three-figure rebellion.

Over the past six months, Johnsons relationship with his party has come under severe strain over the Covid restrictions, which are opposed by the Conservatives libertarian wing. At the last lockdown, in November, he was accused by MPs of pushing the UK closer to an authoritarian coercive state as well as failing to live up to his supposed Churchillian values.

Yet on this weeks 45-minute call something unusual happened. Not a single Tory MP used the Q&A session to quibble with the proposed seven-week lockdown, which will be nearly as strict as the one imposed last March. Instead, the questions were focused on whether it could run longer without parliamentary consultation, the vaccine rollout, and mitigating the consequences of shutting schools.

It was a different world compared to how these sessions went a few months back, says one attendee on the call.

The conventional wisdom in November was that rebellions on the issue already big enough to demolish the prime ministers majority of 80 would only grow in size. But ahead of last nights vote, aides in No 10 were the most relaxed over the numbers they have been for some time.

A combination of factors, from the vaccine to new insight on the spread of the virus, has led to a step-change in how Tory MPs view lockdown measures. While theres still no love for the restrictions, there is a sense that this time around they could be necessary.

Dont expect many speeches on freedom in the coming weeks, one Conservative MP tells me. In a pandemic when a million people are infected, there are fewer diehard libertarians.

The vaccine had not initially been enough to convince party backbenchers that hard suppression was the right approach. The new variant has changed that.

The data that is coming in is hard to argue with, says a minister. While in the past, meetings of cabinet ministers featured debates between the lockdown hawks and doves over the severity of restrictions, this has now changed. In the Covid-O meeting on Monday and the subsequent conference call with MPs, there was unity.

The figures comparing now to where we were in March were seen as particularly alarming. Those who have pushed for strict measures from the beginning are keen to point out that the chancellor, Rishi Sunak formerly seen as the chief anti-lockdown hawk has been comparatively quiet of late.

This change is reflected, too, in the parliamentary party. While there are still MPs opposed to the new lockdown they are, according to one colleague, the hardliners. And even they admit they dont have the numbers to bring about any change in policy.

Those MPs who support restrictions have often been the quieter section of the Tory party. But they have grown louder in recent weeks. Neil OBrien has become a vocal critic of those dismissive of Covid, taking his party colleagues to task on social media. While thats gone down badly with some Tories, few are in the mood for a Twitter spat.

The pragmatists can see that the situation has changed and that means our position has to as well, says an MP who voted against the second lockdown. Others put it more bluntly. Were not headbangers, one explains. The data in the past has been dubious but this time things do appear different and theres also a vaccine route out of indefinite lockdowns.

Its for these reasons that the anti-lockdown MPs are in large part turning their attention to the next battle rather than fighting the old one. Their new priority is to make sure their voice is heard in the upcoming debate on when restrictions should end.

Mark Harper the chair of the Covid Recovery Group has issued a call for the government to start relaxing restrictions next month. The questions over Zoom to Johnson from this group focused on what the UK could learn from Israels fast rollout, and when two vaccinated people can meet.

Lockdown-sceptic Tories view the prime ministers commitment to publish daily vaccine numbers as a way to keep his feet close to the fire on his mid-February vaccination pledge for the most vulnerable groups. Their hope is that granular data on those receiving it will allow informed interventions that No 10 will find hard to ignore.

However, in government the most imminent concern is to protect hospitals over what one minister describes as scary numbers of patients in the coming weeks. Theres a sense that there can be no early freedom until that pressure has passed and there is no sense yet of when it will. This is where the friction will come.

The lockdown sceptics are also keen for a roadmap to ditch all restrictions in the coming months rather than a gradual relaxation with no clear endpoint. However, in yesterdays Commons debate on the lockdown, Johnson said there would be no big bang moment he is reluctant to set any firm date for the freedom his party craves. No 10 is also braced for warnings from scientists over the risks to the non-vulnerable from lifting restrictions.

Its this argument that the lockdown sceptics are looking ahead to. Fight the third lockdown? No. For them the real debate is how many need to be vaccinated before all restrictions go.

The rest is here:

Boris Johnson's lockdown rebels have gone quiet. But it won't be for long - The Guardian