February 23, 2021

The Lincoln Project's implosion: A perfect time for Democratic donors to rethink their spending

The Lincoln Project's implosion: A perfect time for Democratic donors to rethink their spending
If Democrats want to win elections, they need to start thinking bigger than the election cycle

By JON SKOLNIK
FEBRUARY 23, 2021 10:00AM


(Salon) For the past month, anti-Trump super PAC the Lincoln Project –– which promised to bridge America's divides by bringing dignity back to the Republican Party –– has been put through the wringer and hung out to dry. First, allegations of sexual harassment by more than twenty people, including two minors, against Lincoln Project co-founder John Weaver came to light in late January. According to various reports, several of the group's prominent Republican founders knew about the allegations as early as March of 2020, yet no subsequent investigations were ever launched. Two weeks later, it was revealed that over two-thirds of the $90 million raised by the Lincoln Project was paid to firms run by the group's founders, leaving only $27 million spent on the ad campaign in support of congressional Democrats and against Donald Trump it promised to run.

Additional allegations have since accused the Lincoln Project leaders of cultivating a toxic workplace rife with infighting, sexism, and homophobia. The Lincoln Project's co-founders, Steve Schmitt and Jennifer Horn, as well as its senior advisor, Kurt Bardella, have resigned amid the turmoil, throwing the group into a chaotic state of disunity.

....(snip)....

Not only did highly-moneyed liberals rally behind a Republican-backed organization that now appears foundationally rotten; they did so because they erroneously believed its strategy to be new and bold. According to Federal Election Commission filings, here are some of the Lincoln Project's biggest donors:



....(snip)....

Although Abrams' political project benefited from a large pot of grassroots donations, she avoided giving money to specific candidates, instead building out the political infrastructure needed to amass broad support for progressive policies. Needless to say, the remarkable success of her project presents an important question for Democratic donors: Will they continue to bankroll short-term avenues of influence that focus on the success (or failure) of individual political candidates? Or will Democrats finally focus on enfranchising new voters and establishing a broader, longer-term coalition of support? Given how the 2020 election cycle played out, it appears that the latter strategy has more political potential. ...........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/02/23/the-lincoln-projects-implosion-a-perfect-time-for-democratic-donors-to-rethink-their-spending/

February 23, 2021

Now Ted Cruz may be buying his own books through a mystery company

(Salon) One day before the Georgia Senate runoff elections — and two days before the Capitol insurrection — a leadership PAC attached to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to a mystery advertising company that had previously bought copies of Cruz's book, according to recent filings with the Federal Election Commission. The expenses raise questions about whether the controversial conservative senator (and Cancún frequent-flyer) used those political campaigns, and Donald Trump's attempt to subvert the democratic process, to raise money for himself. That could push the FEC to issue a ruling on a pending issue that could have consequences for former President Donald Trump's fundraising.

Over the course of 2020, the Cruz-affiliated Jobs, Freedom, and Security PAC paid $1.2 million — nearly 80% of its operating budget — to a company called Reagan Investments LLC for "sponsorship advertising." The only other committee to register any disbursements to that company was Trump Make America Great Again, for a fundraising promotion for Cruz's books in December, according to The New York Times.

On Jan. 4, 2021, the day Cruz traveled to Georgia before the runoff elections, his leadership PAC reported a $240,000 expense for "sponsorship advertising" to Reagan Investments, which appears to correlate with another series of small-dollar donations that poured into the PAC over the next few days. It isn't clear how much of the funds raised, if any, went to Republican runoff campaigns: Cruz's PAC only spent a few thousand dollars in support of former Sen. Kelly Loeffler. In fact, most of the contributions rolled in after the runoffs were over and as the events surrounding the Jan. 6 insurrection were playing out, while Cruz joined a handful of Republican Senators to object to the counting of Electoral College votes.

Experts tell Salon that if the money was for promotional book sales, as the filings would suggest, then the leadership PAC could be using Reagan Investments as a pass-through to allow Cruz to keep the royalties, which are generally between 10% and 15% for hardcover books, and about half that for paperbacks. Political candidates are not allowed to do that through their campaign committees. But the identity of Reagan Investments itself poses a mystery. ...............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/02/22/now-ted-cruz-may-be-buying-his-own-books-through-a-mystery-company/

February 22, 2021

Cue the orchestra for Lee Chatfield

(Detroit Free Press) The former speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives has resigned as the head of an economic development organization just days after taking the job following significant pushback from community and business leaders.

The objections to Lee Chatfield leading Southwest Michigan First arise from his efforts as speaker to block adding new legal protections for LGBTQ workers and residents into state law. ............(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2021/02/22/lee-chatfield-resigns-southwest-michigan-first/4539895001/

February 22, 2021

Republicans aim to purge anti-Trump officials from state parties in sign of battles ahead

(Guardian UK) Republican state parties have been lashing out at elected officials of their own party in a sign of ongoing fealty to Donald Trump.

The moves by state party officials are highly unusual and an indication of the heated internal battles the Republican party is facing in the months and years to come as it struggles with the legacy of its capture by Trump, his allies and his loyal supporters.

Some state parties have hit out at Republican senators for voting to convict Trump in his impeachment trial. Others have taken steps to reaffirm their loyalty to Trump in the aftermath of his re-election campaign loss, as other prominent Republicans look to assume larger roles at the head of the party. .............(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/22/republicans-trump-state-parties

February 22, 2021

Why Republicans are keeping Trump's Big Lie alive

Why Republicans are keeping Trump's Big Lie alive
The Big Lie about the stolen election has opened the door for a wave of voter suppression not seen in decades

By HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
FEBRUARY 22, 2021 1:30PM


(Salon) Donald Trump may be spending his post-presidency golfing at Mar-a -Lago but he remains front and center in the hearts and minds of millions of Republican voters, as evidenced by the 46% who said in a new Suffolk University/ USA Today poll released over the weekend that they would join a Trump Party if he decided to split off from the GOP. A whopping 80% of Republican respondents said they support punishing any Republicans in Congress who voted for Trump's impeachment. He is still their Dear Leader even in exile.

So the GOP still has a Trump problem. If it loses 20-30% of its voters, it will prove difficult to win any elections whether it's called the Trump Patriot Party or the plain old GOP. That is because the polarization that powers the extreme right-wing under Trump depends upon having every last self-identified Republican vote their way. There are no more crossovers when it comes to Donald Trump.

....(snip)....

It's impossible to know how any of that will work out but whatever happens, the GOP is taking advantage of one major aspect of Trump's legacy: The Big Lie. A recent Quinnipiac poll found that 76% of Republicans still say they believe there was widespread fraud in the 2020 election and that Trump was the legitimate winner. Republican lawmakers in states across the country are now rushing to pass various draconian vote suppression schemes.

It's not that they haven't been doing that all along, of course. That's conservative electoral strategy 101, about which I've written many times. Having lost the popular vote seven out of the last eight presidential elections, they know very well that they do not have the support of a majority of voters in the country. Now that Trump conveniently persuaded GOP voters that the presidential election was stolen from them in broad daylight, the opportunity to curb voting in some new and ingenious ways has presented itself and they are going for it. ..........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/02/22/why-republicans-are-keeping-trumps-big-lie-alive/

February 21, 2021

Florida man charged with burglary after homeowners return and find him on couch watching TV, police

LAKE CITY, Fla. — A Florida man was charged with burglary on Wednesday after homeowners returned to find him lying on their couch watching TV while wearing their clothes, investigators said.

The homeowners returned at around 7 p.m. and found Jay Knight, 34, on the couch with the TV on, WGFL reported. ...............(more)

https://www.boston25news.com/news/trending/florida-man-charged-with-burglary-after-homeowners-return-find-him-couch-watching-tv-police/YDVWRZVHCFDTZAS7B2OB5HADLE/

February 21, 2021

Most brain activity is "background noise" -- and that's upending our understanding of consciousness

Most brain activity is "background noise" — and that's upending our understanding of consciousness
Consciousness may be an emergent property from a bunch of background chatter. The implications are huge

By THOMAS NAIL
FEBRUARY 20, 2021 7:00PM


(Salon) What are you thinking about right now?

Have you ever wondered why it's so hard to answer this simple question when someone asks? There is a reason. 95 percent of your brain's activity is entirely unconscious. Of the remaining 5 percent of brain activity, only around half is intentionally directed. The vast majority of what goes on in our heads is unknown and unintentional. Neuroscientists call these activities "spontaneous fluctuations," because they are unpredictable and seemingly unconnected to any specific behavior. No wonder it's so hard to say what we are thinking or feeling and why. We like to think of ourselves as CEOs of our own minds, but we are much more like ships tossed at sea.

What does this reveal about the nature of consciousness? Why is our brain, a mere 2 percent of our body mass, using 20 percent of our energy to produce what many scientists still call "background noise?" Neuroscientists have known about these "random" fluctuations in electrical brain activity since the 1930s, but have not known what to make of them until relatively recently. Many brain studies of consciousness still look only at brain activity that responds to external stimuli and triggers a mental state. The rest of the "noise" is "averaged out" of the data.

This is still the prevailing approach in most contemporary neuroscience, and yields a "computational" input-output model of consciousness. In this neuroscientific model, so-called "information" transfers from our senses to our brains.

Yet the pioneering French neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene considers this view "deeply wrong." "Spontaneous activity is one of the most frequently overlooked features" of consciousness, he writes. Unlike engineers who design digital transistors with discrete voltages for 0s and 1s to resist background noise, neurons in the brain work differently. Neurons amplify the noise and even use it to help generate novel solutions to complex problems. In part, this is why the neuronal architecture of our brains has a branching fractal geometry and not a linear one. The vast majority of our brain activity proceeds divergently, creating many possible associations and not convergently into just one. ..............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/02/20/most-brain-activity-is-background-noise-cognitive-flux-consciousness-brain-activity-research/

February 21, 2021

Charles Blow: The key to building Black power is to reclaim the South

Charles Blow: The key to building Black power is to reclaim the South
New York Times columnist argues there's an obvious pathway to empowering Black Americans: Take back the South

By DEAN OBEIDALLAH
FEBRUARY 21, 2021 12:00PM


(Salon) Charles Blow, the New York Times columnist and author of the provocative new book, "The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto," is tired of begging others for justice and is urging Black Americans to empower themselves by moving en masse to Southern states.

Blow candidly told me during our "Salon Talks" conversation this week why his radical reverse migration idea is a mechanism for Black people to seize power on a legislative level. Currently, Black people "have to convince the people who hold the power — predominantly white people — to see you, acknowledge your equality, and grant you justice," Blow said. "I keep saying to Black people, "Aren't you tired? Aren't you tired of that? Aren't you tired of begging them and them still saying, 'No'?"

Blow's overall goal is to elect officials in Southern states who are focused on solving problems that bedevil Black communities, like gerrymandering, but I wanted to go deeper and understand the root of his argument, which he agrees is a matter of life and death. "There's white supremacy and also anti-Blackness. You're fighting both of those things," Blow said. And waiting on the browning of America relies on the premise that everyone who is not white shares a common sense of objectives, which, Blow argues, they simply do not.

....(snip)....

What is preventing that power from happening in the framework we have now?

If Eric Garner is killed in New York and you're only 11, 12, 15, 19 percent of the population, you don't have the power to change it. You are still in a pleading position. You have to convince the majority of people in New York state to do something about that. You know, if you are in California and someone is killed, you are 5 or 6 percent of the population of California. You don't have the power yourself to say, "This must stop." You have to convince the people who hold the power — predominantly white people, predominantly white, rich men — to see you, acknowledge your equality, and grant you justice. I keep saying to Black people, "Aren't you tired? Aren't you tired of that? Aren't you tired of begging them and them still saying, 'No'? 'Please see me and recognize my equality and my humanity,' and them still saying no?" ...................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/02/21/charles-blow-the-key-to-building-black-power-is-to-reclaim-the-south/

February 20, 2021

Airport Tunnel Project in Southern California Going Forward

Feb. 16—A project in Southern California to connect an airport with a rail station using a tunnel to accommodate autonomous vehicles is moving forward.

The San Bernardino County Transportation Authority (SBCTA) will contract with The Boring Company, an Elon Musk-affiliated company, to construct a four-mile tunnel to serve a commuter rail station and Ontario International Airport with zero-emission — and possibly autonomous — vehicles to ferry passengers from one station to the other.

"It's exciting for the entire region that this board is working on providing options for our residents, for transit," said Frank Navarro, mayor of the city of Colton, Calif., and president of the SBCTA Board, speaking at the organization's Feb. 3 meeting.

Ontario International Airport is located in Ontario, Calif., about 40 miles east of Los Angeles International Airport, and serves Riverside County, the region known as the Inland Empire. The project would connect the airport with a Metrolink station in Rancho Cucamonga. ............................(more)

https://www.masstransitmag.com/rail/infrastructure/news/21210733/ca-airport-tunnel-project-in-southern-california-going-forward

February 20, 2021

COVID-19 has shown how Big Pharma is broken

COVID-19 has shown how Big Pharma is broken
Though they were warned, pharmaceutical companies refused to invest in coronavirus research until it was too late

By CHARLOTTE KILPATRICK
FEBRUARY 20, 2021 3:00PM


(Salon) In 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a report highlighting sixteen pathogens that posed a serious threat to global health, and which were desperately underfunded when it came to research. One of the sixteen pathogens was, of course, coronavirus — meaning, not the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), which didn't exist yet; but the class of coronaviruses generally, which includes the viruses that cause SARS and MERS.

The prophetic report was intended to be a call to arms for the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, who collectively invest billions every year in R&D for pathogens that already pose a threat to humanity or which soon will. Yet, despite WHO's warning, Big Pharma did not listen. Two years later, in 2018, the pharmaceutical giants had zero research projects in development to fight coronaviruses.

Clearly, the WHO was right; and understandably, by 2020, pharmaceutical companies were throwing money at studying coronaviruses. Yet still, they have done little to heed the WHO's warnings about the other sixteen pathogens: a report released last month by the Access to Medicine Foundation shows that by 2020, only 6 out of the 16 pathogens had any research in the pipelines. Of those research projects, the vast majority – 63 out of 76 – were for COVID-19. Because the other pathogens hadn't killed enough people in the west (though the mosquito-borne chikungunya virus, one of the sixteen pathogens, is sweeping its way through Africa and India) Big Pharma was reluctant to cough up money for the R&D.

It might be strange from where the world is sitting now to imagine that the pharma industry once thought it had nothing to gain from researching coronavirus. After all, COVID-19 is the gift that will keep on giving to Big Pharma for years to come. There are booster shots to be delivered and very lucrative monoclonal antibodies to be made. Given how profitable COVID-19 has been for the industry, one might think it would warrant more attention from savvy for-profit corporations looking to profit off of the next pandemic. ................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/02/20/covid-19-patent-system-pharmaceutical-industry-delinkage/