Friday, October 26, 2018

Can AL experts help AL voters

Issues like health care and tax cuts are hard for voters to understand adequately. It would be good to draw into the public political discourse in Alabama participation by Alabama academics and others with expertise concerning these issues.

In connection with the Senate special election in 2017, I tried to solicit the holding of a health care symposium as described at https://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2017/06/health-care-symposium.html. I was not able to get a response.

Recently I contacted three Alabama academics along the lines of the below inquiry. What kind of response I will get remains to be seen.

From: Rob Shattuck
To:
Cc:
Sent: Sun, Oct 14, 2018 9:33 am
Subject: Inquiry
Dear _____ ,
This is probably part of fruitless efforts on my part to try to draw into the public political discourse in Alabama, participation by academics and others with expertise on issues I wish to get discussed in the discourse.
My experience tells me that those whom I solicit consider participation to be unworthy, growing out of their having dim views of the capacity and willingness of Alabama politicians and voters to gain reasonable understanding of, and to give reasonable consideration to, the political issues in question, and also their feeling constrained by their academic and professional reputations and positions.
To give you an idea of what I would like to obtain, _____ (a fellow Alabamian with whom I have corresponded per below) has academic credentials in the field of U.S. foreign relations and policy. He and I have had conversation about how Trump has been able to achieve with North Korea that Trump says no prior President has been able to achieve.
In conversation, ____ and I have discussed that China and Russia have their own interests regarding North Korea,which are different from U.S. interests, and China and Russia have been enablers of NK nuclear and missile programs. With their own interests re NK, C&R resists U.S. pressures to do what U..S. wants re NK and not what C&R want. If NK is years away from being able to hit U.S. with nukes, U.S.is limited in its ability to pressure China & Russia to do what U.S, wants about NK, such as by imposing sanctions or by U.S. threatening military attack on NK, without severe risk of C&R pushing back and threatening to attack U.S. if U.S. attacks NK.
The foregoing becomes much different when NK is months away from being able to nuke U.S. China & Russia can understand that national security threat to U.S. & U.S.. imperative to protect itself, including imposing severe economic sanctions or attacking NK. To avoid that, China & Russia can decide to help US with NK.
If Obama was President in 2017 when Americans were freaking out with NK bomb and missile tests, and intell assessment was moving from years to months before NK could nuke US, I believe Obama would have done intense pressuring of China (and Russia) as Trump has been doing.
Notwithstanding the foregoing geopolitical realities,Trump is able to get away with saying he has been able to do what no prior President has been able to do about North Korea and attribute it to his personal abilities as President, and without indicating the geopolitical realities that changed, and that such change more explains what Trump has been able to do, and not his personal abilities.
The public political discourse in Alabama is pathetic, and it is virtually impossible to inject into the discourse something like geopolitical realities for understanding and consideration by the voters in evaluating Trump.
I have been ridiculous enough to try via the #alpolitics hashtag on Twitter. If you have a Twitter account, you can read an example of my effort in a thread of mine at https://twitter.com/RobShattuckAL06/status/990635027628163073.
Two other subjects as to which I have endeavored to upgrade the public political discourse in Alabama are the tax cuts and healthcare. I don't have credentials in either of those areas, but I do what I can.
As to the tax cuts, see http://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2017/12/al-experts-re-tax-cuts.html, and as to health care, see https://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2017/06/health-care-symposium.html.
While I know how little effect what I do has, it is nonetheless intellectually challenging and rewarding, and so I do it and continue to do it.
I further observe that election times provide the best opportunity for getting anyone's attention, and the next three weeks are prime for that.
So, let me put this inquiry (solicitation) to you this way:
If any of your Alabama academic colleagues or contacts have, or wish to compose, any writing directed towards any relevant political issue in this election, I would like to tweet links to the writing during the next three weeks and to play up the Alabama connection of the author and the author's credentials.
I know this is an unlikely inquiry (solicitation), but so be it, and I thank you very much for whatever attention you give to it.
Sincerely,
Update 2/13/19
"6 questions with the professor who says Alabama can still reap billions by expanding Medicaid" is an interview with David J. Becker, professor in UAB’s School of Public Health, who is identified as being at the forefront in studying the economics of a Medicaid expansion. In the interview, Professor Becker says:
As a health policy researcher, I recognize that there are partisan issues all around me. Health care reform is difficult not because of disagreements about facts, but because of the fundamental differences in our core values. I’m not uncomfortable doing work on a topic that is partisan, because I accept that my role is to provide facts to an audience comprised of people who don’t all see the world the same way. Our elected officials have been tasked with the responsibility of making important decisions on our behalf. My role is to ensure that those decisions are well-informed.

Saturday, October 6, 2018

Law profs and undoing Supreme Court damage

As discussed at Living with Supreme Court damage, more than 1,000 law school professors signed a letter saying Judge Kavanaugh should not be confirmed because he "displayed a lack of judicial temperament that would be disqualifying for any court, and certainly for elevation to the highest court of this land" and "he did not display the impartiality and judicial temperament requisite to sit on the highest court of our land."

America has had a media onslaught that Judge Kavenaugh lacks the judicial temperament to be on the Supreme Court.

In the Senate debate yesterday and today, the Democrat Senators pounded that Judge Kavanaugh lacks the judicial temperament to serve on the Supreme Court and that confirming him is an egregious mistake. The Republican Senators  adamantly contended to the contrary.

It remains to be seen what Americans will carry away from the confirmation of Judge Kavanagh.

The combination of the media onslaught and the pounding of the Democrat Senators against Judge Kavanaugh, supported by the letter of the law professors, may greatly undermine the confidence of Americans in the United States Supreme Court and its Justices, and in Americans having confidence in  the United States Senate to perform its advise and consent role to assure that persons who become Justices on the Supreme Court are qualified.

At a minimum, if the extreme contentiousness continues, it will feed the country's polarization, with the two sides' anger augmented by cross accusations by Democrats that the Republicans rammed through a candidate who has no business being on the Supreme Court and the Republicans angrily firing back about the despicable efforts of the Democrats to destroy a good and decent man for partisan power seeking purposes.

Much anger and contentiousness are likely to continue regarding Justice Kavenaugh. The law professors will have a responsibility in the situation that their letter will be available for use by those who don't let go of the attack on Justice Kavanaugh.

Maybe the law professors are fine with their letter being used as ammunition in continuing political warfare between the two political sides and don't mind if they are contributing the country's mounting polarization.

Maybe the law professors don't wish that and would like to contribute to reducing polarization.

Reconsideration of their letter
The law professors need to be presumed to have given careful consideration to what their letter said and they were prepared to stand by their letter at the time of signing it and  in the future (subject to the possibility of the law professors changing their view after they observe for a time how Judge Kavanaugh performs as Associate Justice Kavanaugh).

Reconsideration of their letter would be a very hard thing for the law professors to do.

Nonetheless, it is urged that the law professors reconsider their letter.

One thing for law professors to do (which they may have done before signing the letter) is introspection and doing a personal inventory of instances in which they had angry, antagonistic outbursts, and the circumstances and provocation for same, and have those in mind as they judge Judge Kavanaugh's anger and aggression that were exhibited in the hearing and taking into account the provocation of same.

Remonstration of the Senators
There is much to criticize about how the Senators carried out their confirmation hearings and misunderstandings and distortions that Americans got about the role of the Supreme Court and about Judge Kavanaugh's judicial opinions. These misunderstandings and distortions feed into the country's polarization problem.

The law professors could prepare and publish  a writing that corrects the misunderstandings and distortions that get conveyed to lay viewers of the hearings.

Living with Supreme Court damage

On the assumption that Judge Brett Kavanaugh will be confirmed today by the United States Senate to be an Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court, the country is now confronted with the damage that the confirmation process has done to the Supreme Court.

Among other things, there is on the record that more than 1,000 law school professors signed a letter calling for the United States Senate not to confirm Judge Kavanaugh. See Newsweek article
MORE THAN 1,000 LAW PROFESSORS SIGN LETTER CALLING ON SENATE NOT TO CONFIRM KAVANAUGH

The full text of the letter can be found here. Two particular statements from the letter are:
. . .Judge Brett Kavanaugh displayed a lack of judicial temperament that would be disqualifying for any court, and certainly for elevation to the highest court of this land.
 . . . . .
But we are united, as professors of law and scholars of judicial institutions, in believing that he did not display the impartiality and judicial temperament requisite to sit on the highest court of our land.
This law professors' letter sits in the middle of a media barrage of the past week opposing Judge Kavanaugh and slamming him with numerous reasons why he should not sit on the Supreme Court.

This creates a significant problem for the country in how the United States Supreme Court is undermined in the eyes of the people.

This damage to the Supreme Court could last for years, and it is unclear what, if anything, the country can do to mitigate the damage.

I will offer exploring possible ways for mitigating the damage.

First, Law profs and undoing Supreme Court damage.

[N.B. I am currently shadow banned by Twitter (see Shadow banned by Twitter) and will be using Facebook messaging and email to communicate on this subject.]

Friday, October 5, 2018

Twitter shadow ban follow up

[Update 5/4/19  This week it was reported Facebook banned a number of far-right commentators, including Alex Jones and Milo Yiannopoulos, as well as Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, for violating Facebook's policies on “dangerous individuals and organizations.” Yesterday, Trump tweeted about Conservative thinkers like James Woods being banned from Twitter, Paul Watson being banned from Facebook, and Diamond and Silk being treated horribly by Facebook.
Twitter shadow banned me for about a day earlier this week, and Twitter shadow banned me for about two days a couple of weeks ago.
As with earlier shadow banning I have experienced from Twitter, Twitter did not notify me these two recent times that I had been shadow banned. Also, I have been unable to find out from Twitter exactly what I did wrong in my tweeting that got me shadow banned.]


Twitter shadow banned me last night. For more information, see Shadow banned by Twitter.

This is impairing  my efforts to quell the Kavnaugh furies. See Proposed letter for Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh to sign.

I am using Facebook to complain to Alabama media about Twitter's shadow ban of me. In particular I am sending private messages to the media on Facebook, saying as follows:
Twitter has shadow banned me and I wish to complain to the media. http://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2018/08/shadow-banned-by-twitter.html
Also I am using Facebook to request the Alabama representatives in Congress to investigate shadow banning by Twitter. I am doing this by posting a public comment on their Facebook pages as follow:
Please investigate shadow banning by Twitter. http://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2018/08/shadow-banned-by-twitter.html
Further, I used Facebook to post public comments on the Facebook pages of the #aldems Congressional candidates reading as follows:
If you get into office, please investigate shadow banning by Twitter. http://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2018/08/shadow-banned-by-twitter.html
After I posted the above public comment on the Facebook pages  of the #aldems Congressional candidates, it appears that those public comments were removed from the Facebook pages, except the public comment remains on the Facebook page of  #al01 candidate Robert Kennedy, Jr. I am following up by sending the below private message on Facebook to those #aldems candidates who have removed my public comment.
It appears that my public comment on your Facebook page about Twitter shadow banning has been removed from your page. I am sending this private message to memorialize the situation. See  http://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2018/10/twitter-shadow-ban-follow-up.html. Thank you.
I have attempted to send the above private message on Facebook to the #aldems Congressional candidates who removed my public comment on their Facebook pages. I could not send the private message to any of them and got the below error message.
The content you requested cannot be displayed right now. It may be temporarily unavailable, the link you clicked on may have expired, or you may not have permission to view this page.
The above message in question that did not go through to #aldems Congressional candidates who had deleted my public comment may have been because the message was too long. I sent a message again consisting of just the link http://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2018/10/twitter-shadow-ban-follow-up.html, and it went through, except Mallory Hagan had only a "Contact" button and not a "Message" button, so she has not gotten a message on Facebook from me.

Update 10/6/18
An immediate public issue is, assuming Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed today by the United States Senate, exactly what the country is going to do about the damage that the confirmation process has done to the United States Supreme Court. See Living with Supreme Court damage.
Because Twitter's current shadow ban impairs by regular way of communicating via Twitter, I will use Facebook messaging and email to communicate and will indicate here the communicating I do.