Even before Jon Stewart and the team at The Daily Show pointed it out last night, our staff had been struck over the last few days by a stark contrast in world politics.
Even as the world's largest election in India was beginning, the vote for a new President to replace the outgoing Hamid Karzai was finishing this weekend in Afghanistan. While some journalists were less surprised than others, the election itself was generally without major acts of violence. There were a few reports of scattered violence after the election - including at least one incident that killed some election workers and destroyed some ballots. Even though Afghanistan's citizens were literally threatened by the Taliban with death if they showed up at the polls, their voter turnout rate looks to have exceeded 60%.
We had to ask each other: When was the last time Americans turned out for ANY election like that?
For the record, America hasn't exceeded 60% turnout in a presidential election since 1968 - and we haven't exceeded 40% turnout in a midterm election since 1970. That's an incredibly embarrassing record for a nation that's spent the greater part of the last four decades trying to "promote democracy" around the world - sometimes, at the point of a gun.
With all the technological tools and and experience in voting, logic would tell you that making voting easier, while more accurately reflecting the will of the people, should be easy for Americans. Indeed, at the beginning of 2014, after a six month review, the Presidential Commission on Election Administration released a 112-page report outlining actions that cities, states, and our nation could take to accomplish all of those goals.
Unsurprisingly, Republicans seem to have taken that report as a guide on how to prevent millions of Americans from having their voices heard. From Ohio, to North Carolina, to Wisconsin and elsewhere, for several years now, Republicans have been trying all kinds of unethical and sometimes outright illegal tactics to try and suppress the turnout of those voters unlikely to buy into their propaganda.
As Jamelle Bouie noted last week, it's clear these attempts at voter suppression have been driven by partisanship, an effort to cheat the system in places where Republicans can't compete honestly. Unfortunately, this isn't a new thing for America. As Bouie also pointed out, Americans on the left and right have been trying to rig the system in their favor for most of our history.
Yet, you'd think if Republicans are really as proud of their bare-knuckle political tactics as the blowhards in right-wing media claim, they'd be proud of what they've accomplished. As Dave Weigel of Slate pointed out last week, that's actually the last thing Republicans want to do: Draw attention to how they're trying to rig the system in places like Wisconsin.
With all of the shenanigans by cowardly Republicans, you also might think we'd be mad at the GOP for how they're trying to twist the system - and you'd be partially right on that count.
However, we're also sick and tired of Democrats who won't stand up, get out, reach out, and fight to get every one of their voters to the polls. Sure - you can
Citizens of Afghanistan risked their lives to vote. Americans might have to arrange for a babysitter, or make special travel plans for voting day, or - God forbid - learn how to program the DVR.
Somehow, we don't exactly think of those actions as serious acts of courage.
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Monday, April 7, 2014
Picking Out Hope On Climate Change
While there's some speculation this morning that officials may have finally found the black box flight data recorders from the missing Malaysian airliner, the fact remains that CNN has been getting hammered on their obsession with the missing plane lately, with good reason.
Last week, CNN - one of the world's largest media organizations, that nominally is supposed to be covering news - effectively ignored the latest report from the United Nation's International Panel on Climate Change in favor of almost continual baseless speculation about the missing plane.
The headlines from the IPCC's latest report are indeed dire, with news headlines like 'Climate Change: The Worst Is Yet To Come.' After looking at the report, we tend to agree with the panel's assessment, though: The facts underlying the information contained in the report are terrifying. Siberia is already experiencing mid-summer temperatures and forest fires, in early April. The arctic sea ice cover this winter was the fifth smallest on record - and we have ice core samples that go back thousands of years. If those facts contained in the IPCC's latest report sound scary, it's because they are.
Meanwhile, even as CNN mostly ignored the IPCC's report, at least they didn't lie about it like Fox did.
Still, ignoring the problem won't make it go away, any more than denying the existence of a polar bear standing next to you won't prevent him from having you for lunch. As more than one famous scientist has said, science and facts remain true whether you believe them or not.
In truth, CNN may simply have been a perfect real-time media example of what Ezra Klein pointed out brilliantly in his first major piece at his new venue Vox.com - that while more facts are often helpful for scientific purposes, more facts also often just make our politics and media more stupid.
In an applied sense, that discovery by Yale Law professor Dan Kahan and his team may also mean that some people are too stupid - or more appropriately, too identity-protective - to effectively handle the political responsibilities of taking political action on critical topics like climate change mitigation.
That tendency to remain frozen, due to inherent identity-protection mechanisms, can be seen in the example of the American people. Even when they're not facing voter suppression issues, as so many are this year, thanks to the Republican Party, Americans all-too-often still don't get out and vote. Meanwhile, Afghanistan's citizens - whose lives as well as their identities were quite literally threatened with death by the Taliban if they voted - came out to vote anyway, in record numbers this past weekend.
To us, that difference in voting actions further proves the point, that the courage to act is what's really needed on climate change right now - or as Jedediah Purdy called it recently in The Daily Beast, "the politics of the impossible."
The good news is, the impossible is already happening in a few places around the world.
For example, China's closing nearly two thousand coal mines this year and replacing them with solar, wind, and hydroelectric plants instead. Not to be outdone, India is boosting their solar output by thirty percent by next year. Both of these actions prove that the politically impossible is already becoming possible, in measurable degrees. What's even better is that the IPCC's report notes that the effects of climate change can still be reduced, so long as the world acts now.
That, in fact, appears to be the best bet for wise Americans right now who care about the very real future of life on Earth: Push and support those politicians favorable to fighting climate change to do everything they can to act, right now, over the wailing and crying of the ignorant deniers.
Later, when the polar bears are picking the remains of some climate change deniers out of their teeth, or the National Guard is rescuing climate change deniers from the latest costal flooding, we'll be more than happy to engage those climate deniers in a discussion about where and how to use our government resources.
We have a feeling they may be slightly less protective of their identities - and slightly more receptive of facts - at that point in time.
Last week, CNN - one of the world's largest media organizations, that nominally is supposed to be covering news - effectively ignored the latest report from the United Nation's International Panel on Climate Change in favor of almost continual baseless speculation about the missing plane.
The headlines from the IPCC's latest report are indeed dire, with news headlines like 'Climate Change: The Worst Is Yet To Come.' After looking at the report, we tend to agree with the panel's assessment, though: The facts underlying the information contained in the report are terrifying. Siberia is already experiencing mid-summer temperatures and forest fires, in early April. The arctic sea ice cover this winter was the fifth smallest on record - and we have ice core samples that go back thousands of years. If those facts contained in the IPCC's latest report sound scary, it's because they are.
Meanwhile, even as CNN mostly ignored the IPCC's report, at least they didn't lie about it like Fox did.
Still, ignoring the problem won't make it go away, any more than denying the existence of a polar bear standing next to you won't prevent him from having you for lunch. As more than one famous scientist has said, science and facts remain true whether you believe them or not.
In truth, CNN may simply have been a perfect real-time media example of what Ezra Klein pointed out brilliantly in his first major piece at his new venue Vox.com - that while more facts are often helpful for scientific purposes, more facts also often just make our politics and media more stupid.
In an applied sense, that discovery by Yale Law professor Dan Kahan and his team may also mean that some people are too stupid - or more appropriately, too identity-protective - to effectively handle the political responsibilities of taking political action on critical topics like climate change mitigation.
That tendency to remain frozen, due to inherent identity-protection mechanisms, can be seen in the example of the American people. Even when they're not facing voter suppression issues, as so many are this year, thanks to the Republican Party, Americans all-too-often still don't get out and vote. Meanwhile, Afghanistan's citizens - whose lives as well as their identities were quite literally threatened with death by the Taliban if they voted - came out to vote anyway, in record numbers this past weekend.
To us, that difference in voting actions further proves the point, that the courage to act is what's really needed on climate change right now - or as Jedediah Purdy called it recently in The Daily Beast, "the politics of the impossible."
The good news is, the impossible is already happening in a few places around the world.
For example, China's closing nearly two thousand coal mines this year and replacing them with solar, wind, and hydroelectric plants instead. Not to be outdone, India is boosting their solar output by thirty percent by next year. Both of these actions prove that the politically impossible is already becoming possible, in measurable degrees. What's even better is that the IPCC's report notes that the effects of climate change can still be reduced, so long as the world acts now.
That, in fact, appears to be the best bet for wise Americans right now who care about the very real future of life on Earth: Push and support those politicians favorable to fighting climate change to do everything they can to act, right now, over the wailing and crying of the ignorant deniers.
Later, when the polar bears are picking the remains of some climate change deniers out of their teeth, or the National Guard is rescuing climate change deniers from the latest costal flooding, we'll be more than happy to engage those climate deniers in a discussion about where and how to use our government resources.
We have a feeling they may be slightly less protective of their identities - and slightly more receptive of facts - at that point in time.
Friday, April 4, 2014
Journalism: Why We Do It
It's been a long week for our staff - and a new baby in our editor's house, the horrendous news of the McCutcheon decision by the Supreme Court, and the shooting at Ft. Hood didn't make it any shorter.
When you add in stories from this week about pure political stupidity - like Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King's latest affront to immigrants willing to give their lives in the U.S. military, or the insanely stupid idea of "Cuban Twitter" attempted by the USAID organization - we sometimes wonder why we fight so hard to work in the media.
We draw cartoons, write, edit, publish, and produce at least five days a week, and someone on our staff is usually working 18 hours of every day. Even in our off time, we're often thinking of what we'll do next, reaching out to professional contacts, working for our next contract, or practicing and improving our skills.
So when we read about a talented media figure like David Letterman retiring in 2015, our initial reaction is usually, "Well done," often followed closely by, "Must be nice to retire." Retiring, however, is different than losing your job because some corporate executive idiot somewhere has absolutely no idea how to run a media business.
As we read yesterday afternoon, 167 more members of the media, are facing unemployment at the Newark New Jersey Star-Ledger newspaper and their nationally-known news website, nj.com. As Paul has of lampooned in multiple cartoons over the years, editors who know how to write and do layout had better learn to draw and take photos too.
Thousands of employees of Barnes & Noble, the nation's only remaining large-scale bookseller, can also expect to receive similar news over the next few years. For people who love books, magazines, newspapers, and physical media of nearly every kind - most of our staff included - the fact that there is only one major bookseller left nationwide is almost too painful to contemplate.
If you want to know why we still do what we do, why we fight so hard to work in media, to do it right, our reasons are really quite simple.
Our reasons include a young lady who's a hell of seamstress, a young man who's a lawyer and also writes great fiction, and a young woman with an eye for interior design. We've got dogs, and kids, and fantastic neighbors and friends, some of whom do crazy things - like throw a grand Husker picnic in South Florida, at the cusp of spring, complete with Runzas and Valentino's pizza, and other tastes of home.
We also still keep working in this industry, after many years, because we know that, as members of the media, we make a difference for all those people we care about. The McCutcheon decision by the Supreme Court this week moved America dangerously far into the political territory of oligarchy. But folks like Clarence Thomas and the Koch Brothers still didn't get their wish this week that all regulations on campaign finance be removed.
It's also important that 80% of Americans agree that Americans should get rid of as much money from politics as possible. That's a statistic reported by the New York Times, and collected from multiple independent media polls. That's also the kind of journalism that reminds both us and oligarchs like the Koch Brothers that Americans overwhelmingly side with us, not them.
As long as people like us help people like you fight for what's right, those people who wish to be the new American oligarchs may keep trying to pile on the work, and make the rest of America their indentured slaves - but they'll never fully reach their goal. Which means people like that seamstress, that lawyer, that interior designer, and our other neighbors and friends can enjoy life - and those kids can have a future.
Getting a chance to make that much of a positive contribution to the world everyday, just by showing up for work? And getting to generate a few laughs along the way? Yeah… We'll be back to work on Monday.
When you add in stories from this week about pure political stupidity - like Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King's latest affront to immigrants willing to give their lives in the U.S. military, or the insanely stupid idea of "Cuban Twitter" attempted by the USAID organization - we sometimes wonder why we fight so hard to work in the media.
We draw cartoons, write, edit, publish, and produce at least five days a week, and someone on our staff is usually working 18 hours of every day. Even in our off time, we're often thinking of what we'll do next, reaching out to professional contacts, working for our next contract, or practicing and improving our skills.
So when we read about a talented media figure like David Letterman retiring in 2015, our initial reaction is usually, "Well done," often followed closely by, "Must be nice to retire." Retiring, however, is different than losing your job because some corporate executive idiot somewhere has absolutely no idea how to run a media business.
As we read yesterday afternoon, 167 more members of the media, are facing unemployment at the Newark New Jersey Star-Ledger newspaper and their nationally-known news website, nj.com. As Paul has of lampooned in multiple cartoons over the years, editors who know how to write and do layout had better learn to draw and take photos too.
Thousands of employees of Barnes & Noble, the nation's only remaining large-scale bookseller, can also expect to receive similar news over the next few years. For people who love books, magazines, newspapers, and physical media of nearly every kind - most of our staff included - the fact that there is only one major bookseller left nationwide is almost too painful to contemplate.
If you want to know why we still do what we do, why we fight so hard to work in media, to do it right, our reasons are really quite simple.
Our reasons include a young lady who's a hell of seamstress, a young man who's a lawyer and also writes great fiction, and a young woman with an eye for interior design. We've got dogs, and kids, and fantastic neighbors and friends, some of whom do crazy things - like throw a grand Husker picnic in South Florida, at the cusp of spring, complete with Runzas and Valentino's pizza, and other tastes of home.
We also still keep working in this industry, after many years, because we know that, as members of the media, we make a difference for all those people we care about. The McCutcheon decision by the Supreme Court this week moved America dangerously far into the political territory of oligarchy. But folks like Clarence Thomas and the Koch Brothers still didn't get their wish this week that all regulations on campaign finance be removed.
It's also important that 80% of Americans agree that Americans should get rid of as much money from politics as possible. That's a statistic reported by the New York Times, and collected from multiple independent media polls. That's also the kind of journalism that reminds both us and oligarchs like the Koch Brothers that Americans overwhelmingly side with us, not them.
As long as people like us help people like you fight for what's right, those people who wish to be the new American oligarchs may keep trying to pile on the work, and make the rest of America their indentured slaves - but they'll never fully reach their goal. Which means people like that seamstress, that lawyer, that interior designer, and our other neighbors and friends can enjoy life - and those kids can have a future.
Getting a chance to make that much of a positive contribution to the world everyday, just by showing up for work? And getting to generate a few laughs along the way? Yeah… We'll be back to work on Monday.
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