Politics and American Democracy – Page 119

China rushes to swap Western tech with domestic options as U.S. cracks down

Reuters

China rushes to swap Western tech with domestic options as U.S. cracks down

Reuters – October 25, 2023

Servers are seen inside Huawei’s factory campus in Dongguan, Guangdong province

BEIJING (Reuters) – China has stepped up spending to replace Western-made technology with domestic alternatives as Washington tightens curbs on high-tech exports to its rival, according to government tenders, research documents and four people familiar with the matter.

Reuters is reporting for the first time details of tenders from the government, military and state-linked entities, which show an acceleration in domestic substitution since last year.

China has spent heavily on replacing computer equipment, and the telecom and financial sectors are probably the next target, said two people familiar with the industries. State-backed researchers also identified digital payments as particularly vulnerable to possible Western hacking, according to a review of their work, making a push to indigenize such technology likely.

The number of tenders from state-owned enterprises (SOEs), government and military bodies to nationalize equipment doubled to 235 from 119 in the 12 months after September 2022, according to a finance ministry database seen by Reuters.

In the same period, the value of awarded projects listed on the database totaled 156.9 million yuan, or more than triple the previous year.

While the database represents only a fraction of tender bids nationwide, it is the largest collection of state tenders publicly available and mirrors third-party data. China spent 1.4 trillion yuan ($191 billion) replacing foreign hardware and software in 2022, marking a year-on-year increase of 16.2%, according to IT research firm First New Voice.

But Beijing’s lack of advanced chip-manufacturing capabilities prevents it from completely substituting products with alternatives that are entirely locally made, analysts say.

Previous domestic substitution efforts stalled because China did not have the “technical chops to pull off localization until now, and to a certain extent they still kind of don’t,” said Kendra Schaefer, head of tech policy research at Beijing-based consultancy Trivium China.

FEAR OF DEPENDENCE

SOEs were instructed last year to replace office software systems with domestic products by 2027, the first time such specific deadlines were imposed, according to five brokerage firms that cited a September 2022 order from China’s state asset regulator. Reuters could not independently verify the order.

Domestic replacement projects this year have targeted markedly sensitive infrastructure, the tenders show.

One partially redacted tender for a “certain government department in Gansu province” assigned 4.4 million yuan to replace an intelligence-gathering system’s equipment, without providing specifics.

People’s Liberation Army units in the northeastern city of Harbin and Xiamen in the south last December meanwhile issued tenders to replace foreign-made computers.

Tech researchers such as Mo Jianlei of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the country’s largest state-run research organization, said the Chinese government was increasingly concerned about Western equipment being hacked by foreign powers.

The state asset regulator did not return a request for comment.

Over the past year, state-linked researchers also called on Beijing to strengthen anti-hacking defences in its financial infrastructure due to geopolitical concerns.

One March research paper highlighted the dependence of China’s UnionPay credit card system on U.S software firm BMC for settlements.

“Beware of security vulnerabilities in hardware and software set by the U.S. side … build a financial security ‘firewall’,” the researchers wrote.

BMC declined to comment.

An article published this year in the journal Cyberspace Security by researchers from the state-run China Telecommunications Corporation concluded the country was overdependent on chips made by U.S. giant Qualcomm for back-end management, as well as on the iOS and Android systems.

“(They) are all firmly controlled by American companies,” the researchers wrote.

As China has not signed World Trade Organization clauses governing public procurement, the substitution effort does not appear to violate international accords, according to the U.S. Treasury. The U.S. has implemented similar rules barring Chinese companies from public sector bids.

Qualcomm, Google and Apple did not immediately return requests for comment.

WINNERS AND LOSERS

China’s effort to build an independent computing system dates back to at least its 2006 five-year plan for science and technology development, which listed the semiconductor and software systems sectors as national priorities.

This effort spawned state-owned companies that are increasingly winning major contracts. Two firms awarded the Harbin tenders were subsidiaries of China Electronics Corporation and China Electronics Technology Group Corporation – both heavily targeted by U.S. sanctions.

The state regulator’s 2022 order pushed SOEs away from U.S. companies such as Microsoft and Adobe, according to an employee of a Beijing-based firm that develops domestic office-processing software

China Tobacco, for example, in July began switching some subsidiaries from Microsoft Windows to Huawei’s EulerOS, according to an employee of a software vendor that services the state-owned manufacturer.

The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss clients and competitors.

For years, Western tech companies have shared their source code and entered into partnerships with domestic firms to address Beijing’s concerns, but prominent computer scientists such as Ni Guangnan of the Chinese Academy of Engineering have said such measures are not sufficient for China’s security needs.

China Tobacco, Microsoft and Adobe did not respond to requests for comment.

In September, Reuters and other outlets reported that some employees of central government agencies were banned from using iPhones at work.

“In certain sectors, customers … are opting for domestic suppliers, with foreign suppliers frequently facing informal barriers,” the European Union Chamber of Commerce in Beijing said in response to Reuters questions.

In a 2023 American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Shanghai report, 89% of the organization’s tech business members named procurement practices favoring domestic competitors as a regulatory obstacle. It was the highest percentage of any sector.

AmCham Shanghai President Eric Zheng acknowledged China’s national security concerns but said he hoped “normal procurement procedures will not be politicized so that US companies can compete fairly and pursue commercial opportunities … to benefit both countries.”

The U.S. Department of Commerce, China Electronics Corporation and China Electronics Technology Group Corporation did not return requests for comment.

HUAWEI PRIZED

Chinese tech conglomerate Huawei has emerged as the leading firm in this replacement cycle, according to three people familiar with China’s enterprise tech industry, who spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the issue.

In 2022, Huawei’s enterprise business, which includes software and cloud computing operations, reported 133 billion yuan in sales, up 30% on the previous year.

One of the people said privately-held Huawei was seen as more nimble than state-owned groups in rolling out products and executing projects.

The other two sources highlighted Huawei’s broad product suite – spanning chips to software – as an advantage.

Clients also prize Huawei for its ability to process data on internal company servers and external cloud networks, as well as its wide offering of cybersecurity products, according to the employee of a China Tobacco tech supplier.

Huawei declined to comment.

The replacement drive has re-drawn entire sub-sectors of the software industry. The combined China market share held by five major foreign makers of database management systems – the majority of which are American – dropped from 57.3% in 2018 to 27.3% by the end of 2022, according to industry group IDC.

Despite heavy spending on domestic substitution, however, foreign firms are still dominant suppliers for banking and telecoms database management. Non-Chinese companies held 90% of market share for banking database systems at the end of 2022, according to EqualOcean, a tech consultancy.

Financial institutions are generally reluctant to switch database systems despite government pressure, said one of the industry sources, adding that they have higher stability requirements than many other sectors and local players cannot yet match their needs.

Even for personal computers, banks that switch from an international brand to China’s dominant supplier Lenovo would still be reliant on critical chip components provided by Western firms, one of the industry sources said.

($1 = 7.3165 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Brenda Goh and Katerina Ang)

Florida attorney general moves to silence voters once again

South Florida Sun Sentinel – Opinion

Editorial: Fla. attorney general moves to silence voters once again

Sun Sentinel Editorial Board – October 24, 2023

Joe Raedle/Getty Images North America/TNS

Attorney General Ashley Moody won’t be satisfied with simply banning abortion in Florida, at which she appears close to success. She also intends to prevent voters from doing anything about it.

Moody has notified the Florida Supreme Court that she will ask it to rule against placing a constitutional initiative guaranteeing abortion rights on the November 2024 ballot.

The drive has collected signatures from more than 400,000 voters toward a required goal of nearly 900,000. Sponsors and supporters have spent more than $9.7 million in anticipation of Florida Supreme Court rulings that would effectively abolish abortion in Florida.

The initiative would change the constitution to say that “No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare providers.” It would not affect an existing provision dealing with parental notification.

A focus on ‘viability’

Moody telegraphed her strategy in an opinion essay to Florida newspapers, arguing that the language of the ballot summary and the amendment is ambiguous and would mislead voters.

“As any mother knows, ‘viability’ has two meanings when it comes to pregnancy,” Moody wrote.

Some women, according to Moody, relate viability to the risk of miscarriage, while others take it to mean when a fetus can survive outside the womb.

She wrote that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which supports abortion rights, “notes the two medical definitions.”

What’s misleading is Moody’s misrepresentation of where the American College actually stands on that definition. There is nothing misleading about the term viability so long as doctors are defining it — and they are the only ones who should.

The full definition

This is precisely how doctors define it: “Viability is the capacity of the fetus to survive outside the mother’s uterus. Whether or not this capacity exists is a medical determination, may vary with each pregnancy, and is a matter for the judgment of the responsible attending physician.” (Emphasis added).

Moody did not quote that.

Most commonly, viability is calculated at 23 or 24 weeks of gestation. It is not, and never should be, a matter for meddling or ambitious politicians like Moody.

Moody has consistently been on the wrong side of a woman’s right to her own body. In a pending case being watched nationally, she has urged the court to repeal its historic 1989 decision that Florida’s constitutional right of privacy protects abortion rights.

Were the court to do that, it would effectively limit privacy protection to the release of public records — a faint shred of how the court defined it in 1989.

The court, then and now

“Florida’s privacy provision is clearly implicated in a woman’s decision of whether or not to continue her pregnancy,” Justice Leander Shaw wrote at the time. “We can conceive of few more personal or private decisions concerning one’s body that one can make in the course of a lifetime.”

Restricting the provision, as Moody and the Legislature want the court to do, would expose almost any personal conduct to political control, from end-of-life decisions to the availability of contraception. Parental rights could, and likely would, be subject to unlimited interference by the state.

The pending case involves the constitutionality of Florida’s current ban on abortions past 15 weeks, but a law the Legislature passed this spring automatically caps the procedure at six weeks, a time when many women don’t know they are pregnant, if the court upholds the 15-week ban.

In what appears to be a clear breach of judicial ethics, Justice Charles Canady has been participating in the case despite the interest of his wife, state Rep. Jennifer Canady, R-Lakeland, as a co-sponsor of the six-week abortion ban, which passed as SB 300.

Moody and the Legislature are contemptuous of how the voters spoke nine years ago on a ballot proposal by lawmakers that would have expressly overruled the 1989 precedent. It would have narrowed privacy rights to those determined by the U.S. Supreme Court under the federal constitution. The vote was 4.3 million against and 3.5 million in favor. Had it passed, there would be no privacy rights in Florida because of the high court’s subsequent decision repealing Roe v. Wade.

Hostility toward voters

Moody’s quibbling over “viability” is in line with her hostility to giving voters a voice on other controversial citizen-sponsored amendments. She opposes those dealing with marijuana. Even after Parkland, she sided with the gun lobby in persuading the court to not allow a statewide vote on banning assault weapons.

The attorney general is required to petition the court to rule on proposed initiatives when they hit a threshold of verified signatures. The abortion question qualified with 222,881. Moody is not required to oppose them. It is difficult to conceive of any dealing with abortion rights, marijuana legalization or guns to which she would not manufacture an objection.

The job of Florida attorney general has long been called “the people’s lawyer.” Moody is not.

The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writer Martin Dyckman and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.

Climate scientists warn Earth systems heading for ‘dangerous instability’

ABC News

Climate scientists warn Earth systems heading for ‘dangerous instability’

Daniel Manzo – October 24, 2023

Forecasts about the negative effects of human-caused climate change are not uncommon, but new research published Tuesday makes even more dire claims, declaring that “life on planet Earth is under siege” and that “we are pushing our planetary systems into dangerous instability.”

The study, titled “The 2023 State of the Climate Report: Entering Uncharted Territory” and published in the journal Bioscience, points to specific climate events in 2023 to support its findings, including exceptional heat waves across the globe, historic and record-breaking warm ocean temperatures, and unprecedented low levels of sea ice surrounding Antarctica.

The 12 international scientists who created the report indicated that in so far in 2023, there have been 38 days with global average temperatures more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service earlier this month indicated that 2023 will likely go on record as the hottest year ever recorded.

MORE: July set to be Earth’s hottest recorded month

What’s more, the highest average Earth surface temperature ever recorded was in July, according to the report, which also notes that may be the highest surface temperate the Earth has experienced in the last 100,000 years.

The research team, which included scientists from the United States, Australia, Germany, Brazil, the United Kingdom, China, and the Netherlands, says that anthropogenic global heating – meaning global heating caused or amplified by humans – is the key driver in recent extreme climate events. The team also took into account that some of these events are complex and are at least partially driven by non-human factors, including water vapor effects from an underwater volcano, as well as dust from Africa, and the El Niño global climate pattern.

PHOTO: In this July 13, 2023, file photo, a man wipes his face as he walks under misters in downtown Phoenix. (Matt York/AP, FILE)

The researchers also point to “minimal progress” by humanity to stop the impacts of anthropogenic climate change. “Although the consumption of renewable energy (solar and wind) grew a robust 17% between 2021 and 2022, it remains roughly 15 times lower than fossil fuel energy consumption,” the report states.

“Without actions that address the root problem of humanity taking more from the Earth than it can safely give, we’re on our way to the potential partial collapse of natural and socioeconomic systems and a world with unbearable heat and shortages of food and fresh water,” declares report co-lead author William Ripple, from the Oregon State University College of Forestry.

MORE: The Power of Water

“Life on our planet is clearly under siege,” said Ripple.

The authors says action must be taken now to avert further extreme climate impacts: “[T]o mitigate these past emissions and stop global warming, efforts must be directed toward eliminating emissions from fossil fuels and land-use change and increasing carbon sequestration with nature-based climate solutions.”

Time Is Up’: Scientists Warn Earth Has Entered ‘Uncharted Climate Territory’

HuffPost

‘Time Is Up’: Scientists Warn Earth Has Entered ‘Uncharted Climate Territory’

Chris D’Angelo – October 24, 2023

If Earth were a human, it would already be in the emergency room.

An international team of scientists on Tuesday issued a new assessment of planetary health that says the world has entered “uncharted climate territory” and that “life on planet Earth is under siege.”

The report, published in the journal BioScience, found that 20 of 35 identified “vital signs” of the planet — from human population and greenhouse gas emissions to sea level rise and ocean acidity — have reached record extremes.

The analysis, authored by a dozen expert scientists, is as much a desperate warning as an urgent call for action.

“For several decades, scientists have consistently warned of a future marked by extreme climatic conditions because of escalating global temperatures caused by ongoing human activities that release harmful greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere,” the report states. “Unfortunately, time is up. We are seeing the manifestation of those predictions as an alarming and unprecedented succession of climate records are broken, causing profoundly distressing scenes of suffering to unfold. We are entering an unfamiliar domain regarding our climate crisis, a situation no one has ever witnessed firsthand in the history of humanity.”

This year has truly been one of extremes — unprecedented heat waves, record-shattering land and sea surface temperatures, record-low Antarctic sea ice extent, and a Canadian wildfire season that has so far torched over 45 million acres, more than 2.5 times the previous record.

A forest fire rages in British Columbia, Canada, in July.

Tuesday’s stunning, unfiltered assessment comes as many scientists are still trying to make sense of the climate anomalies documented in recent months.

“The truth is that we are shocked by the ferocity of the extreme weather events in 2023,” the report reads. “We are afraid of the uncharted territory that we have now entered.”

The changes have been so rapid that they’ve “surprised scientists and caused concern about the dangers of extreme weather, risky climate feedback loops, and the approach of damaging tipping points sooner than expected,” the report states. And they occurred against a backdrop of what the authors described as “minimal progress by humanity in combating climate change.”

Human activity, primarily the world’s addiction to fossil fuels, is the main driver of planetary warming and the extreme weather events causing devastation around the globe. Despite a steady drumbeat of warnings from the world’s scientific community, global carbon emissions are forecast to hit an all-time high in 2023. In just a single year, from 2021 to 2022, global fossil fuel subsidies more than doubled, from $531 billion to $1.01 trillion, which the report’s authors linked to rising energy costs stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

A gas flare from a Shell Chemical LP petroleum refinery illuminates the sky in Norco, Louisiana.

The paper warns that “massive suffering due to climate change is already here” and highlights several deadly, climate-fueled disasters over the past year, including extreme heat waves in Asia, catastrophic wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui, and devastating flooding in Libya. By the end of the century, between 3 billion and 6 billion people — as much as half of the planet’s population — could “find themselves confined beyond the livable region,” according to the analysis.

“Without actions that address the root problem of humanity taking more from the Earth than it can safely give, we’re on our way to the potential collapse of natural and socioeconomic systems and a world with unbearable heat and shortages of food and freshwater,” Christopher Wolf, a lead author of the paper, said in a statement.

The report advocates for much more than minimizing planet-warming greenhouse gasses, calling specifically for reducing overconsumption of the world’s resources, phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, increasing forest protection, shifting toward plant-based diets and transforming the global economy to “prioritize human well-being and to provide for a more equitable distribution of resources.” Additionally, it urges humanity to “stabilize and gradually decrease the human population with gender justice through voluntary family planning and by supporting women’s and girls’ education and rights, which reduces fertility rates and raises the standard of living.”

The recommendations go beyond the normal scope of climate science, but underscore how serious the researchers believe the crisis to be.

“Rather than focusing only on carbon reduction and climate change, addressing the underlying issue of ecological overshoot will give us our best shot at surviving these challenges in the long run,” the authors conclude. “This is our moment to make a profound difference for all life on Earth, and we must embrace it with unwavering courage and determination to create a legacy of change that will stand the test of time.”

Negligent builders and developers might be responsible for hidden peril underneath Florida: ‘Some shady folks still used them’

The Cool Down

Negligent builders and developers might be responsible for hidden peril underneath Florida: ‘Some shady folks still used them’

Rick Kazmer – October 23, 2023

Recently released government data about the Sunshine State could provide a new moniker for Florida — the Lead Pipe State.

That’s because the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found that Florida has more lead pipes in its water systems — 1.16 million of them — than any other state, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Florida highlights a national problem, as some 9.2 million lead pipes carry drinking water to households around the country, the Times reports. It’s a concern that has lingered for decades with severe health implications.

As a result, the government plans to pump billions of dollars into lead-pipe-heavy states to tackle the problem.

“Every community deserves access to safe, clean drinking water,” EPA administrator Michael Regan told the Tampa Bay Times.

Why are lead pipes dangerous?

Drinking water contaminated with lead can cause heart problems, lower IQ rates among children, and anemia, among a list of other serious health problems, according to the EPA.

Lead was spotlighted in 2014 during the Flint, Michigan, water crisis. Lead leached into the water supply, causing severe health problems for the community.

Why are lead pipes still a concern?

Craig Pittman has been following the lead pipe story for Florida Phoenix, a nonprofit news site. In a recent column, he said that the building and development industry is partially to blame for lingering lead concerns.

Despite increased regulations during the decades, he wrote, lead solder, flux, and pipes were still being used. The government ramped up regulations on lead pipes in 1986.

“Even after lead pipes were banned … some shady folks still used them, figuring they wouldn’t get caught because the evidence was literally buried out of sight. Meanwhile, a lot of lead pipes were already in use all around the country,” Pittman wrote.

He talked to civil engineer Alison Adams, who works for the utility company Tampa Bay Water. Adams said the lead is often found after the public utility hookup, because it’s in the materials the builders used.

“Lead pipes were used in the building industry, not in public water supply,” she said. “A utility’s responsibility ends at the meter to a home. Lead pipes were used between the meter and in homes or businesses, including schools, as a matter of construction.”

What’s being done about lead in the water?

The EPA highlighted the lead problem as part of a survey of 3,500 water systems around the country. The Times reported that about $625 billion is needed to upgrade the systems.

President Joe Biden has promised $15 billion to clear out all of the nation’s lead pipes, according to the Times.

It’s a lofty goal that will target states with the most lead. After Florida, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York have the most lead pipes, the Times reports.

How can I test for lead at home?

The EPA has a guide that outlines how to test your service line for lead. It includes details on the different faucets and fixtures that commonly contain the heavy metal.

Join our free newsletter for cool news and actionable info that makes it easy to help yourself while helping the planet.

“Built his empire on lies”: Trump Org appraiser calls out “inaccurate” statements as Trump watches

Salon

“Built his empire on lies”: Trump Org appraiser calls out “inaccurate” statements as Trump watches

Gabriella Ferrigine – October 18, 2023

Donald Trump Andrew Kelly-Pool/Getty Images

Former president Donald Trump ventured back to Manhattan on Tuesday as part of his civil fraud case, which came about after New York Attorney General Letitia James argued that Trump, along with his sons Donald Jr. and Eric and the Trump Organization, had inflated the value of more than a dozen assets by hundreds of millions, subsequently using those phony values to defraud banks and insurers in order to secure more advantageous deals and secure loans.

As he entered the court, Trump chastised the case as “a witch hunt by a radical lunatic attorney general.”

“We built a great company — a lot of cash, it’s got a lot of great assets, some of the greatest real estate assets, anywhere in the world,” the ex-president added.

A key part of Tuesday’s trial proceedings came in the form of testimony from a real estate appraiser for the Trump Organization, who harshly criticized the company’s “inaccurate and inappropriate” behavior in attributing the faulty numbers to him.

The New York Daily News reported that former Trump organization executive Jeff McConney, in statements shown in court accounting for Trump’s value between 2013 and 2018, said that the appraiser — Cushman & Wakefield executive director Doug Larson — had advised him via phone in the specifics of assigning swollen values to assets such as Trump’s Wall Street tower.

Larson vehemently denied that the call took place, however, also rejecting McConney’s claim that he had worked “in conjunction” with the former president of any affiliates of the Trump Organization to appraise assets. “It’s inappropriate and inaccurate,” Larson said. “I should have been told, and an appraisal should have been ordered.”

At one point, Mark Ladov, a lawyer for the attorney general’s office, cited an instance in which the Trump Organization ignored the numbers Larson crunched, adding a whopping 35 percent to 40 Wall Street in 2016, which Larson had valued at $540 million. In that year’s financial statement, the skyscraper was listed by Trump’s company at $735.4 million. And in 2013, the Trump Organization tacked on a 3.12% capitalization raise to 1290 Avenue of the Americas, attributing the rise to Larson’s input and increasing the building’s value to just shy of $1 billion.

Following Tuesday’s events, Attorney General James said that while the former president could “rant and rave” all he wanted, it would not alter the fact that he “built his empire on lies.”

“Mr. Trump may lie, but numbers don’t lie,” she said. “Mr. Trump’s entire empire is built on nothing but lies. Sinking sand.”

James has asserted that Trump routinely overstated his net worth to financial institutions by between $812 million to $2.2 billion, depending on the year and the specific applications he filed. She is seeking a penalty of about $250 million. Late last month, New York Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron, in a summary judgment, ruled that Trump had committed fraud in the state for years by misrepresenting his financial status while steadily expanding his real estate.

Engoron’s decision effectively barred Trump and his adult sons from conducting business in New York ever again. The judge also ordered punitive measures, including that some of Trump’s business licenses be rescinded — meaning he will lose control of key real estate if upheld following appeal — and ordered that an outside “receiver” must be appointed to supervise the management of those Trump properties.

“The next borrower, or the one after that, might default, and if its (financial statements) are false, the lender might unfairly be left holding the bag,” Engoron wrote. “This will distort the lending marketplace and deprive other potential borrowers of the opportunity to obtain loans and create wealth.”

Trump at the hearing also took shots at his former personal attorney and fixer Michael Cohen, saying he “didn’t have the guts” to show face. Cohen has acted as a key witness in 2019, providing pivotal testimony that catalyzed James’s investigation.

“If I was afraid of Donald, I wouldn’t have written 2 NYT bestsellers, testified before the Mueller team, seven congressional committees, 23 appearances before the Manhattan DA, and provided information to the NYAG that is the basis of this trial,” Cohen told the Daily News.

“Looking forward to seeing you in court very soon!” he quipped to his old client.

Large portion of Americans doubt democracy and view violence as acceptable, poll finds

Miami Herald

Large portion of Americans doubt democracy and view violence as acceptable, poll finds

Brendan Rascius – October 18, 2023

A large portion of Americans on both sides of the aisle favor getting rid of democracy and imposing violence on their political opponents, among other authoritarian measures, according to a new poll.

Thirty-one percent of Donald Trump supporters and 24% of President Joe Biden supporters said democracy is “no longer viable” and an alternative system should be tried, according to an October poll from the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.

The poll surveyed 2,008 registered voters from Aug. 25 to Sept. 11 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.

Other key findings:

When asked whether it is acceptable to employ violence to stop political opponents from attaining their goals, 41% of Biden supporters and 38% of Trump supporters said yes.
30% of Trump supporters and 25% of Biden supporters said elections should be suspended in times of crisis.
41% of Trump supporters and 30% of Biden supporters said they favor either conservative or liberal states seceding from the union.
Nearly half of Biden supporters, 47%, and 35% of Trump supporters said the government should restrict the expression of views “considered discriminatory or offensive.”

The polling comes as Trump, the leading contender for the GOP nomination, continues to claim without evidence that the 2020 election was rigged against him.

The results, which signal a desire for an authoritarian crackdown, come at a time when public trust in government is at a near-record low, according to the Pew Research Center. In a 2023 poll, only 16% of Americans said they trusted the government to do what is right at least most of the time.

The poll reveals “really troubling findings about democracy and the potential for violence,” Rick Hasen, the director of UCLA’s Safeguarding Democracy Project, said on X.

Premiums for family health insurance at work jump to nearly $24,000 this year

CNN

Premiums for family health insurance at work jump to nearly $24,000 this year

Tami Luhby, CNN – October 18, 2023

Natalia Gdovskaia/Moment RF/Getty Images

Workers and their employers are paying a lot more for job-based health insurance this year.

The annual cost of family health insurance coverage at work soared to an average of nearly $24,000 this year, according to KFF’s Employer Health Benefits Survey, released Wednesday. That’s up 7% from last year.

Employees are shelling out an average of $6,575 for their share of the premium, up almost $500, or close to 8%, from last year, the annual survey found. Their companies are footing the rest of the bill.

“We have a huge premium increase this year. There’s just no other way to cut it,” said Matthew Rae, who co-authored the survey. “There are lots of affordability challenges for employer coverage.”

For single coverage, the average annual premium rose to $8,435, also up 7% from last year. Workers are picking up just over $1,400 of the tab, about $75 more than last year.

Though large, the jump in premiums is roughly in line with the rise in wages and inflation since 2022, as well as over the past five years, according to KFF. This is different from in the early 2000s, when premiums were soaring by double digits, but inflation and wage growth were relatively muted.

The tight job market has prompted companies to avoid watering down their health insurance coverage since it can be a recruiting and retention tool.

Deductibles remained essentially flat this year, which may reflect employers’ concerns about how much workers have to shell out when they need medical care, KFF said. The average annual deductible is roughly $1,735 among workers who have a deductible for single coverage.

“Employers want to keep offering good benefits to keep good people,” said Rae.

Still, workers should prepare for premiums to take a bigger bite out of their paychecks in coming years. Nearly a quarter of companies said they will increase employees’ premium contributions in the next two years, KFF found.

Higher costs at smaller firms

Workers at smaller firms typically pay much more for coverage than their peers at companies with at least 200 workers.

KDC Mailing & Bindery had to contend with an overall premium increase of about 13% for this year, said Steve Van Loon, director of operations at the Tempe, Arizona, firm, which has 42 workers.

The company, which only started offering health benefits in 2019 to be more competitive, raised workers’ premiums by 3% but had to hike its prices by as much as 5% to help it afford the increased cost. KDC covered the rest.

Next year, the company likely won’t be able to be as generous to its staff, Van Loon said.

“Our profit margins do not allow us to absorb these costs,” he said. “We would be out of business.”

Limits on abortion coverage

Large employers with workers in more than one state may face challenges in offering abortion coverage after the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision that ended the federal constitutional right to an abortion. Multiple states have adopted laws that prohibit or restrict abortion access.

One in 10 large firms with at least 200 employees said their largest plan does not cover legal abortions, KFF found. Another 18% said they only cover abortion under limited circumstances, such as rape, incest or health or life endangerment.

Nearly a third of large firms said they cover abortion in most or all circumstances, while 40% said they were unsure of their coverage policy, possibly because it was in flux or they were unaware of the details.

After the Supreme Court ruling, several companies said they would offer financial assistance to employees who had to travel to others states for abortions. Some 7% of large employers -— and 19% of companies with at least 5,000 workers — provide or plan to provide such reimbursement.

KFF did not ask these questions on abortion in prior surveys.

‘The View’: Rachel Maddow Says Jim Jordan Winning Speaker Would Be Like Trump Putting ‘Rudy Giuliani on the Supreme Court’

The Wrap

‘The View’: Rachel Maddow Says Jim Jordan Winning Speaker Would Be Like Trump Putting ‘Rudy Giuliani on the Supreme Court’

Andi Ortiz – October 18, 2023

Rep. Jim Jordan remains in the running to become the next Speaker of the House, but he is struggling to come up with the necessary votes to win the job. But Rachel Maddow isn’t looking forward to that possibility, comparing it on Wednesday to Rudy Giuliani getting a spot on the Supreme Court.

Stopping by “The View” on Wednesday, the MSNBC host admitted she was glad that Jordan lost the first vote, and worried what his speakership might actually look like.

“I think that had Mr. Jordan been chosen, it would have been a big deal for the country,” Maddow said. “It would be like if Trump was president and put Rudy Giuliani on the Supreme Court, you know what I mean?”

That comparison earned a full belly laugh from Whoopi, as Sunny Hostin and her co-hosts conceded it was “a very good example.”

“I mean, there was nobody who was more important in Congress to Trump’s effort to overthrow the lawfully elected government of the United States than Jim Jordan,” Maddow added.

“So then, to make him second in line to the presidency? And in charge of congress certifying the election results in 2024? I mean, he’s still in the running, maybe it’ll still be him. That’ll be a big deal if it happens, in all the wrong ways.”

All that said, Maddow was pretty confident that, no matter who ends up with the gavel, they aren’t going to enjoy their time with it.

“Even if you could fast forward to the end of this process, whenever it ends, with whoever wins, what does that person win? The worst job in America!” she said. “And they get to hold it for five minutes, and then get fired, and then we start again. I mean, there’s nothing to look forward to for anybody here. It is a sad thing.”

Trump is slamming Israel and babbling about Barack Obama. Who would vote for that mess?

USA Today – Opinion

Trump is slamming Israel and babbling about Barack Obama. Who would vote for that mess?

Rex Huppke, USA TODAY – October 13, 2023

Former president and current criminal defendant Donald Trump, the front-runner in the GOP presidential primary, is getting worse.

I realize that’s a mighty high bar for him to clear, but he’s doing it, each day showing independent voters and Republicans who still value sane leadership why he should never be allowed within 10 square miles of the White House.

In the wake of the hideous Hamas attack on Israel, with American lawmakers and both sides of the aisle pledging full support for our ally, Trump’s political instincts told him to slam Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and say: “Israel was not prepared.”

Former President Donald Trump greets supporters at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida on October 11, 2023.

Trump criticizes Israel then praises Hezbollah. Whose side is he on?

Trump then praised the terrorist organization Hezbollah, which on Wednesday was attacking Israel along its northern border.

“You know, Hezbollah is very smart,” Trump said. “They’re all very smart.”

MAGA loyalists’ minds won’t be changed by anything, but those voters also won’t be enough, should Trump win the GOP nomination, to get him back into office. He’ll need to win over independents and even some moderate Republicans who put country over party while making headway with the ever-growing number of Generation Z voters who, based on recent elections, broadly reject Trump’s MAGA movement.

How is he going to do all that when he’s running around the country insulting an ally reeling from an unspeakable terror attack and generally sounding like his brain has turned to oatmeal?

After horrific Hamas attack on Israel, Biden acts presidential while Republicans act like fools.

Trump’s insensitive Israel comments are just the start of his recent madness

Consider an assortment of baffling/disturbing comments Trump has made in speeches and on social media just in recent weeks.

He has repeatedly misidentified President Joe Biden as former President Barack Obama, recently saying at a rally “you take a look at Obama and look at some of the things he’s done” and then, in an interview this week about Biden’s response to the attack on Israel, saying, “It’s all coming through Iran, and Obama, he doesn’t want to talk about it. … He doesn’t even mention them in a statement.”

The Fox News interviewer had to correct him afterward.

Trump can’t keep Jeb Bush and George W. Bush straight …

In another recent interview, Trump said: “We have the worst education almost in the large world, the world that people know about.” As opposed to the large world people don’t know about?

He said at a rally that the U.S. Capitol “looks like sh-t.”

Referring to Jeb Bush, Trump said: “He got us into the Middle East. How did that work out?” It was President George W. Bush who “got us into the Middle East.”

… much less Joe Biden and Barack Obama

In a Sept. 15 speech in Washington, D.C., Trump suggested Biden will lead America into World War II, which ended in 1945: “We have a man who is totally corrupt and the worst president in the history of our country, who is cognitively impaired, in no condition to lead and is now in charge of dealing with Russia and possible nuclear war. Just think of it, we would be in World War II very quickly if we’re going to be relying on this man.”

When questioning someone’s lucidity, it’s generally best to sound lucid yourself.

Donald Trump, if you're reading this, the photo is of Joe Biden, not Barack Obama.

Do independent voters want a president echoing the words of Hitler?

Late last month at a rally, Trump mocked Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and her husband, who was brutally attacked and beaten in their home last year.

“We’ll stand up to crazy Nancy Pelosi, who ruined San Francisco – how’s her husband doing, anybody know?” Trump said as the crowd laughed. “And she’s against building a wall at our border, even though she has a wall around her house – which obviously didn’t do a very good job.”

Biden is too old. And so is Trump. As a Gen Z voter, I want younger candidates.

Speaking of immigrants, Trump said in an interview earlier this month: “It is a very sad thing for our country. It’s poisoning the blood of our country.”

That language mirrors lines in Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” and is in line with the way white supremacists discuss immigrants.

Face it, the drunk at the end of the bar is making more sense than Trump

Trump has said recently that forest fires could be prevented “if you dampen your forests.”

He said anyone who robs a store should be shot – “If you rob a store you can fully expect to be shot as you are leaving that store. Shot!”

Former President Donald Trump arrives to speak at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida on October 11, 2023.

And in a Florida speech this week, he went on this rant (I’ve used all-caps and phonetic spelling to illustrate the pronunciation of words he loudly emphasized): “Instead of keeping terrorists and terrorist sympathizers out of America, the Biden administration is inviting them in. You know why, because he’s got a boss. Who’s his boss? Barack HOO-SANE Obama. Barack Hoo-sane Obama. You remember the great Rush Limbaugh, Barack Hoo-SANE Obama. He’d go, Barack Hoo-SANE Obama.”

While Republicans question Biden’s age, Trump appears to be losing it

Petty criticism of Israel (Trump remains mad at Netanyahu because the prime minister accepted that Biden won the 2020 election), violent rhetoric, mixing up the names of political rivals, mocking an attack on a lawmaker’s spouse and generally sounding like the town drunk slouched at the end of the bar airing conspiratorial grievances. And that’s only a small sample of Trump’s madness over the past few weeks.

Setting aside his two impeachments, his incitement of an attack on the U.S. Capitol, his election denialism and the 91 state and federal felony charges he faces, I have to ask independents and on-the-fence Republicans alike: Would you actually vote for that mess? Is that really the best the Republican Party can offer America and the world?

People will keep taking swipes at Biden’s age, though Trump is only three years younger. But if you listen and pay attention to the former president, you’ll see a profoundly unhinged man teetering on a full separation from reality.

The ham has slipped off his sandwich. It’s time to stop pretending otherwise.