Author: Neon Vincent

Original at Detroit Free Press.

I think John Conyers should retire.  He’s had his term as the longest serving Representative.  Let someone else have the honor.  He doesn’t deserve it anymore.

That was the opening paragraph of a comment I left in an open thread at We Hunted The Mammoth last month.  Well, I got my wish.  WXYZ reported Tuesday Rep. John Conyers officially announces retirement, read resignation letter.

Rep. John Conyers, who has been battling sexual harassment allegations by former female staffers, says he is retiring. Conyers told “The Mildred Gaddis Show” on WPZR-FM Tuesday that this will be his final two-year term. The 88-year-old Democrat says he is endorsing his son to take his seat in Congress. Ian Conyers, the grandson of John Conyers’ brother, earlier said his great-uncle would not run for re-election and that he would run for his seat in Washington, D.C. Conyers, who was first elected in 1964, easily won re-election last year in the heavily Democratic 13th District. The House Ethics Committee has been reviewing multiple harassment allegations against Conyers.

The man did a lot of good over the years, but it was time for him to go.  I that is not a new thought of mine, as I stated it in 2015 on my personal blog.

Conyers almost didn’t qualify for the ballot last year, as too many of his signatures were collected by paid petition circulators, which was illegal at the time (that provision of Michigan’s election law was overturned in the process of getting Conyers back on the ballot).  That’s a sign that Conyers has been losing control of his operation.  Along with other rumors about his age getting to him, it indicates that it might be time for Conyers to retire.

Now that Conyers has not just retired, but resigned, who will replace him and when will that happen?  WXYZ reported on that as well in Gov. Snyder reviewing dates for special election to replace John Conyers.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder is reviewing possible dates for a special election in Michigan’s 13th Congressional district to replace John Conyers. Rep. John Conyers officially announces retirement, read resignation letter The 88-year-old congressman announced Tuesday he is retiring amid sexual harassment allegations. Ari Adler, a spokesman for the governor’s office, said they received his resignation letter and are reviewing potential dates for the special election. Conyers was scheduled to serve out his two-year term, which ends on Jan. 3, 2019, but because his retirement is effective immediately, there will now be a special election for his seat.

In addition to the two younger Conyers, Coleman Young II, who just lost to Mike Duggan for Detroit mayor, the Detroit News listed a long roster of potential candidates.

Democratic activist Michael Gilmore is running for Conyers’ seat. Other names circulating Tuesday as potential candidates included state Sens. David Knezek of Dearborn Heights and Coleman Young II of Detroit, former state Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Detroit, Westland Mayor Bill Wild, Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones and Councilwoman Mary Sheffield.

Counting both Conyers cousins, Young, and Gilmore, four candidates have already declared their intent to run for this now vacant seat in a safe Democratic district.  I fully expect more to throw their hats into the ring.  The one I would root for is Tlaib, who organized protests against Trump last year.  Those got my attention and respect.
I have one last item to note about this entire affair.  While it was past time for Conyers to retire and this scandal got him to do the right thing, I found the catalyst for it to be tainted, as I noted in the rest of my comment at We Hunted The Mammoth.

That written, the Wonkette article noted that a recurring subject of this blog, Mike Cernovich, was the one who broke the story and pointed out that it was reminiscent of how Roger Stone knew that Al Franken was going to be exposed before the news broke.  Josh Marshall noticed this and asked “Why Cernovich?“

This doesn’t mean [Cernovich] and Stone are wrong — even a stopped clock is right twice a day — it just means that they’re motives aren’t pure and they are still not friends of women.  As Wonkette wrote, “beware of ratf*cking.”

It also raises the question of “Why Conyers?”  Yes, the allegations were backed up by evidence and later accounts by other women and I think that Conyers needed to retire before the scandal, but why Conyers and not some other Representative who misbehaved?  I noted two years ago that “According to Voteview, he’s the most liberal member of the Michigan Congressional delegation, as well as one of the oldest.”  I suspect that may be part of the answer to Marshall’s question, “Why Cernovich?”

Conyers isn’t the only member of Michigan’s Congressional delegation to announce his retirement.  Stay tuned for news about another U.S. Representative leaving under more ordinary circumstances.

Original at Crazy Eddie’s Motie News.

Just this past January, I wrote National monuments, more of Obama’s environmental legacy at my personal blog about Former President Obama creating Gold Butte National Monument and Bears Ears National Monument.  While I reported on the controversy surrounding the designation of Bears Ears, I concluded “the monument will be a good thing and that it will last.”  I should not have been so sanguine.  I still think it’s a good thing, but Bears Ears may mostly go away, surviving in two smaller parts under a different name.  CBS News reports Trump drastically downsizes nationally protected land in Utah.

President Trump announced that he cutting nearly two million acres from the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah. National Geographic’s environment editor, Brian Howard, joins CBSN to discuss the impact and the expected legal response.

As Howard said, this move is unprecedented and will face stiff legal resistance.  I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up in the Supreme Court, which means that it will take years for this move to take effect, if ever.  I expect to be posting updates on this terrible move for the environment, as well as another attempt to obliterate Obama’s legacy, right up to the end of the decade.  It should be fun to watch.

By the way, I had no idea how many paleontological resources there were inside both national monuments until I stumbled across these two images from the Society for Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP).  They’re out of date, as they were designed to prompt people to use them during the comment period, which expired a while ago, but they’re still interesting.

First, Bears Ears, which SVP wrote should be expanded, not reduced.

Next, Escalante-Grand Staircase.

As a paleontologist who worked at Rancho La Brea and gave presentations about Pigmy Mammoths at Channel Island National Park, I’m impressed, as the topic of fossils in National Parks and Monuments is one that is near and dear to my heart.  I wish I had known earlier, but I doubt my input would have made a difference to this administration.  Sigh.  At least I have its space policy, which is cold comfort for all the ill Trump and Zinke have done for the environment.

Modified from Trump declares the downsizing of two national monuments in Utah at Crazy Eddie’s Motie News .

I’m generally positive about minor parties.  However, they will not solve all political problems, as I described in On American political parties held captive by their interest groups and ideologies on my own blog.  One of the problems I did not mention appeared in a video I used in a comment on Republicans Will Have to Make a Choice here at Booman Tribune.

“I await a third party movement.”

I’ll let Ezra Klein of Vox answer that for me.

Here is Third parties are the underpants gnomes of American politics.

Could a third party fix the hellscape of fail that is the United States Congress? Ezra Klein explains.

My summary was “No, although that’s not really what I think you’re after.” My response could have been more pointed.  I could have done for liberals what Pizza Man Cain wants a third party for conservatives, never mind three already exist did for conservatives, pointing out that the Green Party already exists and he could join them.  He could also join the Working Families Party, which exists in the state which he resides.  Because of that state’s fusion ballot, he can actually have an influence on one or the other major party through cross endorsing.  That’s better than in California, where the primary system effectively excludes minor party candidates from the general election ballot for nearly all offices other than President.  It’s also a way to fill in step 2 of the Underpants Gnomes’ business plan.

That’s the con argument.  Follow over the jump for the pro.
For the pro argument, watch Vox’s How to break the two-party hold on American politics as it explains how proportional representation can solve gerrymandering and help minor parties.

Replacing our current system with proportional representation will make more room for the wide range of views in US politics.

Matthew Yglesias expands on this video in The real fix for gerrymandering is proportional representation.

Creating majority-minority districts to ensure racial representation can look a lot like “packing” Democratic voters into lopsided seats. Aiming at fair fights sounds nice but will end up violating communities of interest. Aiming for partisan fairness will necessarily involve some odd squiggles, since neighborhood-level partisanship can be very disparate.

So I asked this scholar: “What about proportional representation?”

She said that when she teaches redistricting law, she does proportional representation last because it solves all the problems and the point of the class is for the students to work through the different complexities and legal doctrines governing the American system. That seems smart as a pedagogical approach, but as an agenda for political reform, solving all the problems is a good idea.

This is a solution that would address several issues I’ve explored on my blog, redistricting/gerrymandering, Duverger’s Law, and minor parties.  It would make the first essentially irrelevant, it would eliminate the conditions for the second (single-member districts with first past the post winners), and would allow people to cast votes for minor parties without “wasting their vote.”*  It’s also a really radical solution by U.S. standards, but a Crazy Eddie like me might just approve of a radical solution to preserve and improve democracy.

As for the result, it might look like this, which could better reflect America’s political diversity.

*I disagree with this characterization.  To me, the person who wastes a vote is the one who stays home.  At least people voting for the Libertarians, Greens, or Constitution Party are making a point.

Modified from Ezra Klein of Vox explains how third parties are the Underpants Gnomes of U.S. politics and Vox explains how proportional representation can solve gerrymandering and help minor parties at Crazy Eddie’s Motie News.

I concluded ‘The President and the People’ wins Outstanding News Special by telling my readers here to “Stay tuned for John Oliver asking “how is voting on Tuesday still a thing?”  Here is the still relevant part of the entry, which was posted on Election Day earlier this month.

Today, I join Last Week Tonight with John Oliver in asking Voting On Tuesday – How Is This Still A Thing?

Tuesday voting is highly inconvenient, so why do we still do it?

I’ve had to answer questions from my immigrant friends about why Americans hold elections on Tuesdays before, and I’m relieved to see that I gave them the right answer.  As for what to do about Tuesday elections, I favor the Puerto Rican solution; declare election day a holiday.  I even have an image for that.

Modified from the original at Crazy Eddie’s Motie News.

I have one more Emmy winner to post that features a President, one that covered a town hall with then President Obama.  Stay tuned.

That’s what I promised my readers at the end of ‘Trump University Fraud’ wins Outstanding Business, Consumer, Economic Report.  Watch Clarissa Ward announce the winner for Outstanding News Special and notice how many of the nominees would have fulfilled that promise.

ABC News has the trailer for the winner, America in Black and White: The President and the People.

President Obama took on the issue of race and policing in a town hall moderated by ABC News’ David Muir.

Just as I did for Frontline’s ‘The Choice 2016’ wins Outstanding Politics & Government Documentary, I am sharing the entire special — President Obama and the People Town Hall: A National Conversation.

President Barack Obama has a national conversation with the people of the United States on race relations, justice, policing and equality by the members of the community. ESPN’s Jemele Hill will join David Muir as the host of this ABC News special.

This show demonstrates some of the many reasons I miss Barack Obama as President.  His calmness, reasonableness, and compassion helped to manage the conversation in order to bridge the two sides.  That’s not happening now.  America badly needs to examine the intersection of racism and what I grew up calling police brutality (back then, that referred as much or more to beatings and other forms of “unnecessary roughness” than police shooting and killing suspects, but that was before the militarization of police).  Unfortunately, the election of Trump has derailed the conversation.  Hillary Clinton might have been better able to manage it, but she will never have the chance.  Americans will have to wait, most likely until the next decade, for someone else at the highest levels of government to resume a productive conversation.  Sigh.

That’s it for the News and Documentary Emmy winners for now.  Stay tuned for John Oliver asking “how is voting on Tuesday still a thing?“

Modified from the original post on Crazy Eddie’s Motie News.

“Stay tuned, as I have at least two more News and Documentary Emmy Winners to post here.”  That’s what I promised to end Frontline’s ‘The Choice 2016’ wins Outstanding Politics & Government Documentary.  Watch Katty Kay present the award for Outstanding Business, Consumer, Economic Report for the payoff.

Yes, the winner really was “Trump University Fraud,” a segment on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360.  CNN has all of the clip used in the awards ceremony: Trump University instructor: What I did was sales.

As Donald Trump’s Trump University lawsuit moves forward in court, CNN’s Drew Griffin sits down with a former instructor and real estate expert who said he was the best salesman at the school.

The most damning part of the interview was used again in New motion filed in the Trump University case.

President-elect Donald Trump faces three lawsuits surrounding Trump University. CNN’s Drew Griffin investigates.

Judge Curiel advised the parties in the case he’s overseeing to settle the suit.  That happened a few days later, as Trump University lawsuits settled for $25M.

New York’s Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced his lawsuit against Trump University will be settled for $25 million, calling it a “stunning reversal” of President-elect Donald Trump’s position. Two class action lawsuits are also covered by the settlement.

That should have taken care of the suit except that Sherri Simpson is appealing the settlement so she can sue independently.  This case is not over.

I have one more Emmy winner to post that features a President, one that covered a town hall with then President Obama.  Stay tuned.

Originally posted at Crazy Eddie’s Motie News.

I twice promised I would post more diary entries covering the winners of the News and Documentary Emmy Awards.   Today’s entry is about the winner of Outstanding Politics & Government Documentary, Frontline’s “The Choice 2016.”  Watch as Byron Pitts announces the winner and presents the trophy.

Yes, Omarosa sounded ridiculous then, but she doesn’t sound quite as mockable now.  It doesn’t help that I used to be a big reality competition show fan, enough so that I was a moderator on a reality TV discussion forum back in 2005 and 2006, so I became familiar with her as a villainous contestant on “The Apprentice.”  That made it difficult for me to take her seriously.  I’m sure I’m not alone.  Now, Americans have to take her much more seriously, which is a frightening thought.

Speaking of Omarosa, here she is along with Roger Stone and others in the full trailer for “The Choice.”

FRONTLINE’s dual biography investigates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, and what has shaped them.

FRONTLINE’s acclaimed series “The Choice” returns this fall with a two-hour film investigating what has shaped Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, where they came from, how they lead and why they want to take on one of the most difficult jobs imaginable. From veteran FRONTLINE filmmaker Michael Kirk, “The Choice 2016” premieres Tues., 9/27 on PBS and online at pbs.org/frontline.

That made me want to watch the whole program, even though it wouldn’t be as useful now as it would have been a year ago.  In case my readers and I ever do, Frontline has it on YouTube and has allowed it to be embedded.  Here is The Choice 2016 (full film) | FRONTLINE.

The dueling stories of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump as they battle for the presidency.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are two of the most polarizing presidential candidates in modern history. Veteran FRONTLINE filmmaker Michael Kirk goes beyond the headlines to investigate what has shaped these two candidates, where they came from, how they lead and why they want one of the most difficult jobs imaginable.

While it will no longer influence the election, this documentary can still help people understand what happened and why, as well as gaining greater insight into Trump, who is still the President of the United States, whether my readers and I like it or not.

Stay tuned, as I have at least two more News and Documentary Emmy Winners to post here.

Originally posted at Crazy Eddie’s Motie News.

I promised I would post up to four more diary entries covering the winners of the News and Documentary Emmy Awards.  To introduce today’s installment, here is the paragraph I wrote about the nomination for today’s winner in ‘Body Team 12’ and ‘Extremis’ both nominated for Outstanding Short Documentary plus other science, health, and environment nominees on my personal blog.

The Rachel Maddow Show’s “An American Disaster: The Crisis in Flint” from MSNBC makes for a perfect transition from health to the environment with dashes of politics and crime to spice it up.  It is nominated for Outstanding News Discussion & Analysis along with three other MSNBC news segments, which collectively account for four of MSNBC’s five nominations, the fifth being Rachel Maddow’s interview of Kellyanne Conway.  Analysis and interviews are the two things MSNBC does well.  I’ve written a lot about the Flint Water Crisis, but nothing since April.  A trial of at least one of the officials responsible is going on now, so I should probably cover that.

Watch Katy Tur present the award to her colleagues at MSNBC for Outstanding News Discussion & Analysis.

It’s time for a look at the awarded show.  First, here is the promotional segment on the Andrea Mitchell Show to introduce the town hall.

The contamination of the water supply in Flint, Michigan has sparked outrage across the country. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow is holding a town hall Wednesday night to discuss this problem. She joins Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC.

Follow over the jump for three segments from the town hall Rachel held in Flint.
First, Rachel Maddow Examines Damaged Flint Pipes.

Rachel Maddow compares normal galvanized pipes to Flint’s corroded pipes during the MSNBC town hall “American Disaster: The Crisis in Flint.”

Next, Who’s Really At Fault For Flint Water Crisis?

Rachel Maddow and panel discuss the contributing factors that led to Flint, Michigan’s water crisis, and what state and federal authorities must do to help the city’s residents.

Yes, the lead in the water is the immediate cause of damage, but the ultimate cause is the Emergency Manager Law and the attitude to local government in Michigan’s poorer communities that it represents.

Finally, Tragic Impact Of Lead Poisoning On Kids: Flint Water Crisis.

NBC News’ Stephanie Gosk reports on how lead poisoning has taken a catastrophic toll on Flint, Michigan’s children. Plus: Rachel Maddow and panel discuss the dearth of resources in Flint for the city’s children, and how to solve that problem.

I should have posted this last year.  Better late than never.

The Rachel Maddow Show also won Outstanding Live Interview for interviewing Kellyanne Conway.  Congratulations to Rachel and her crew for winning both awards.  Keep up the great work!

Originally posted at Crazy Eddie’s Motie News.

The opioid epidemic, which I mentioned on my own blog in U.S. life expectancy falls prompting Russian analogies, inspired four nominees at last month’s News and Documentary Emmy Awards. “Hooked: America’s Opioid Epidemic” from NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt was nominated for Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story in a Newscast.  Vice News Tonight’s “The Rise of Carfentanil” was nominated for Outstanding Hard News Feature Story in a Newscast.  “Chasing Heroin” from Frontline on PBS earned a nomination for Outstanding Social Issue Documentary.  Yes, health is a social issue.  Finally, “Generation Addicted” from WCAU, NBC 10 in Philadelphia, earned a nomination for Outstanding Regional News Story: Investigative Report.  

The local story won.  Watch as its producers receive the Emmy.

When I searched for the segment, I found three copies of the entire report online.  Here is the one from the station itself: Generation Addicted: An NBC10 Exclusive Presentation.

NBC10’s Digital Team spent five months investigating the issue of opioid addiction in the Philadelphia region and beyond. They discovered a generation of addicted people and a public health and law enforcement system ill-equipped to save them.

I’m sure that I’ll have more to write about the opioid epidemic in the future at my own blog, most likely about the prescription pill side of it.  When I do, I’ll post it here, too.  In the meantime, stay tuned for at least four more diary entries featuring News and Documentary Emmy Award winners that are on-topic here.

Modified from ‘Generation Addicted’ wins Outstanding Regional News Story: Investigative Report at Crazy Eddie’s Motie News.

Last month, Talking Points Memo published three letters from its readers about guns and gun culture.  Two of them deal with guns in a post-apocalyptic world, one of them specifically about the zombie apocalypse.  The first was Readers on Guns #2, which deals directly with a theme I explored in Zombies meet preppers on ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ Season 3 on my own blog — racism as a motivation behind prepping for the zombie apocalypse.

I know that a lot of the rhetoric from the pro-gun crowd revolves around “protection from tyranny,” but my sense is that the “tactical situation” they are mostly thinking about is more lurid than that. You sometime hear them talking about the “zombie apocalypse” or more generally some sort of “social breakdown,” where their stockpiles might form the basis of a protective arsenal. Are they really worried about zombies? Of course not. That’s just a wink-wink, nod-nod.

Follow over the jump for the rest of this letter and all of the next.
The worry is even worse than anything the writers of “Fear the Walking Dead” writers came up with as a motivation for the Ottos and the rest of the survivalists at Brokejaw Ranch.

The tactical scenario the gun-crowd is thinking about is swarms of n___ers flooding out of the cities — perhaps after a natural disaster or some riot promoted by the Black Panthers or BLM or something. Their vision is some combination of Nat Turner’s rebellion, the Watts riots, and gangs engaged in “wilding.”

Obama’s election resulted in a frenzy of gun-buying, not because they suddenly thought the government would seize their guns, but rather because of a vision of Obama leading an army of “inner city” people to loot, rape, and otherwise dispossess whites.

Anyway, that is the “tactical scenario” they are planning for.

Not only are these guys racists, they’re dumb racists with lurid imaginations.  

Readers on Guns #3 riffs on the use of “tactical” while describing a post-apocalyptic or post-collapse world, with or without zombies.

Creative Writing MFA candidate here, with some further thoughts on the word `tactical’ as it seemst o be used/intended in current gun culture. These are mostly implicit in the point made by your earlier reader but:

`Tactical’ is, as your reader points out, something of an epidemic usage in modern gun culture. Partly this just looks like an infectious marketing usage-it’s easier to sell a Tactical Widget than a regular old widget, and once your competitor is selling Tactical Widgets you’d better be selling them too. But it’s precisely these kind of seemingly-dead usages we’ve got to be most careful of-thoughtless language fills in gaps where we prefer not to have to think about our thinking.

So what’s really happening with `tactical’-well, for starters `tactical’ is fundamentally an oppositional term. A tactic is an action you take in contact with an enemy. It’s supposed to give you some kind of an advantage relative to their movements or operations. It’s notable that we’re almost always thinking of a human-or at least a reasoning-enemy. One doesn’t need tactics to shoot ducks or deer-only humans. It’s also worth noting that the conventional (and marketing) usage of tactics refers to situations that are more or less evenly matched-situations where a different type of stock or sight might make a difference. What specifically isn’t tactical is the common fantasy of armed revolt: a tactical widget isn’t much use against a bombing run. Or maybe it’s better to say that the fantasy of armed revolt only becomes tactical when it also recruits the fantasy of mass military mutiny. A tactical conflict-a tactical society-is a society where the social contract has completely collapsed. It’s a society that consists entirely of competition between consumer-sized groups of vigilantes.

But in addition to referring to a human opposition, the idea of the tactical refers to the idea that violence between these human factions is basically meritocratic-a tactic, after all, is a good idea. It’s a maneuver, a stratagem. `Luck is the residue of design,’ a tactics-consumer might say-and by buying so many tactical widgets they intend to be the luckiest. A world defined by tactics is a Darwinian world. The smartest and best-practiced survive (become warlords?) and the soft, secular liberals get what they deserve. This is a desire that’s increasingly prominent in modern right politics-the sense (wrong or right) that Our Tribe is the best and most deserving, and that all society is doing is keeping us from expressing the dominance we really ought to. This is the same thread that’s behind Trump’s GOP-standard `That makes me smart’ attitude about tax evasion, and probably that underlies much of the recent private-jet contretemps.

It’s unclear whether `tactical’ as a marketing term predates the (seemingly recent) prominence of these associations with `tactical.’ But it is clear that the world we’re ushered into by this use of tactical is one we probably don’t very much want to live in.

Not only do these people want to shoot their fellow Americans, they want civilization to collapse as well so they can reduce human organization down to a size they can manage.  This Crazy Eddie does not approve.

Originally posted at Crazy Eddie’s Motie News.