Short takes on long topics
March 4-9, 2024 News Notebook
Here are assorted headlines, links and occasional brief comments from news of all kinds this past week.
On Super Tuesday
On North Carolina’s increased (in many ways unwelcome and dubious) status as one of the most-watched swing states in the political year just started:
First, the Moms for Liberty-endorsed, home-schooling, anti-public-school candidate just selected by NC GOP primary voters as their candidate for… State Superintendent of Public Schools. (She unseated an experienced incumbent Republican once well-regarded by… “conservative Republicans.” It’s hopeful that her Democrat opponent is a highly qualified, experienced and widely endorsed. Interesting that amid so much shouting about “defunding police” (which is not what’s happening)… there are crickets on “defunding public schools” (which is. Systematically, with tragic speed, in about every state led by Republiccan legislatures.)
GOP nominee for NC superintendent is a public school critic (The Charlotte Observer)
Gaining national attention far beyond that race, it’s Robinson v Stein for NC governor. Linked here are from The New York Times. (Unfortunately, any political stories co-reported and bylined by partner NC daily newspapers only allow access to readers paying for double subscriptions.)
Josh Stein Wins Democratic Primary for North Carolina Governor
North Carolina’s Race for Governor: Expensive, Closely Watched and Probably Tight
Who Is Mark Robinson, the Republican Nominee for North Carolina Governor?
Republican North Carolinians have thus chosen as their gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson — whose many grotesquely antisemitic public statements against Jews and dismissals of the Holocaust as “hogwash” have been long vetted and widely reported — against Democrat rival, the well qualified and accomplished current Attorney General Josh Stein, who is Jewish.
Meanwhile, here is one of the most important, and frightening, pieces I have read this week. It’s viewed through wider lenses of history and the current devastating crisis in Gaza that has spurred both intense, even violent, protests on behalf of Palestinians… and also all-too familiar, unspeakable violence against Jews, an in the most disturbing of American environments.
Return of the Big Lie: Anti-Semitism is Winning (Essay by Dara Horn in The Atlantic)
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On the 2024 Campaign for the Presidency
Beyond these NC races results of Super Tuesday primaries — and the clear emergence and claiming by Donald Trump as the presumptive Republican candidate —have been thoroughly reported all week. The Trump campaign’s months-long, preemptive volleys have now been answered, bookended this week, by Thursday night’s energetically encompassing State of the Union address by his incumbent campaign opponent, President Joe Biden.
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Trumps promptly take control of national GOP leadership
(Focus on this will return in a newShrink soon, from the standpoint of effects of this unprecedented campaign throughout American communities. Theme is depicted by that metaphoric image lobsters boiling in a pot. The phenomenon is not merely abstract; it has literal, geographic and personal impacts quite close to home here.)
Meanwhile, as of Friday afternoon following the Biden State of the Union address and Trump’s near-sweep of Super Tuesday primaries:
Trump Ally and Daughter-in-Law Officially Take Over R.N.C. Leadership (NYT)
With the installation of Michael Whatley and Lara Trump, Donald Trump tightened his already firm grip on the party apparatus.
Trump Posts $91.6 Million Bond for Defamation Judgment in E. Jean Carroll Case (NYT)
My thoughts:
A branch of insurance-giant Chubb has filed the bond, with terms kept private, as is normal procedure for such bonds on financial settlements that are being appealed. (It’s a process in which plaintiffs receive none of the awarded payments until appeals are exhausted.)
This $91.6 million bond is in addition to Trump bond payments coming due as his lawyers appeal the fraud judgment penalty of more than $450 million he owes in New York due by March 25 — with interest continuing to accrue.
Anything normal about these bonds on jury-awards and judgment penalties owed vanished on Super Tuesday, as MAGA-Republican primary votes made citizen-defendant Trump the presumptive GOP candidate for president. By Friday leadership of the cash-strapped Republican National Committee was replaced by Trump appointees Michael Whatley of North Carolina and the candidate’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump.
All of which raises — or should raise — two enormous questions of grave concern for American voters, particularly self-described fiscal conservative Republicans.
The first involves the private terms of bonds such as the one filed by insurer Chubb. Who signs as guarantors, on what collateral properties or assets — and on whom is the candidate deeply politically beholden and indebted… for what? In past decades that’s been international and domestic oligarchs. For those paying attention, that’s according to decades-long thorough, well-documented and widely reported coverage of Trump’s patterns long before he ran for public office.
Secondly, the RNC reportedly has only a little over $8 million in cash. Trump and family are fundraising and applying pressure for the RNC to finance his gigantic legal penalties — not to mention the attorney fees for which he is a notorious nonpayer.
Is this really where “fiscal conservative, Democrat-overspending & deficit-decrying” Republicans see fit to keep funding an ever-rising dollar tab — a pricetag that’s already around three quarters of a billion?
More pressing than where and from whom such money comes from, who is it benefiting and toward what ends?
And to my long-respected loved ones and friends, who decry and even mourn these things and still identify yourselves as “Republicans,” what does that mean?
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On DEI efforts and backlash — at NC’s Davidson College, in Florida and national trends
(The story discussed in last week’s newShrink.)
Davidson College stands by decision to show athletes ‘divisive’ film on racism
Former NC Gov.: DEI efforts at Davidson College go too far | OpEd from Republican former NC Governor Jim Martin)
Heartening, perspective and context — by Davidson faculty member, author and Charlotte Observer editorial columnist.
The truth behind the misleading conservative outcry over DEI at Davidson College | Opinion by Issac Bailey of The Charlotte Observer)
Meanwhile, larger national context, on Monday
‘Greatest first amendment sin’: appeals court condemns Florida’s Stop Woke Act (The Guardian)
Three-judge panel blocks Ron DeSantis’s 2022 act banning employers from mandatory diversity training in scathing ruling
What the future of admissions at elite schools might look like (AP)
For now, cynicism seems unjustified, at least on this issue. Most justices are neither universally in favor of nor universally opposed to diversity programs. Context matters. As it happens, the court has also chosen a position that matches public opinion: Most Americans support class-based admissions policies and oppose race-based policies.
Widely reported public opinion polls show Americans strongly support diversity-focused efforts “based on class and socioeconomic situation, but not on race.” These two things are of course deeply and mutually entangled across all groups in American society. Focus solely on the socioeconomic allows some progress toward education- and wealth-equity — although it fails to acknowledge or address the many structural, systemic blocks to advancement by several specific groups not limited to racially identified ones.
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About democracy on trial… (and not)
Supreme Court rejects attempts to ban Trump from ballots (AP)
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As we await Georgia Judge Scott McAfee’s ruling about prosecution of the Georgia election-racketeering criminal trials of Trump and multiple defendants:
Fulton County ethics board drops Fani Willis complaints from hearing (The Hill)
This Associated Press story on huge settlement in fake electors case with big documents supporting GA racketeering case before McAfee: