[Plura-list] Blue states should play "constitutional hardball"
Cory Doctorow
doctorow at craphound.com
Fri Oct 18 18:00:28 EDT 2024
Read today's issue online at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/18/states-rights/
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Next Wednesday (October 23) at 7PM, I'll be in Decatur, presenting my novel *The Bezzle* at Eagle Eye Books:
https://eagleeyebooks.com/event/2024-10-23/cory-doctorow
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Today's links
* Blue states should play "constitutional hardball": Scooping up medical professionals, teachers, doctors and anyone with a trans kid.
* Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
* This day in history: 2004, 2014, 2019, 2023
* Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
* Recent appearances: Where I've been.
* Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
* Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
* Colophon: All the rest.
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🤿 Blue states should play "constitutional hardball"
Nothing's more frustrating that watching the GOP smash norms and decency to advance policies that harm millions of Americas, unless it's that, plus Democratic officials stamping their feet and saying, "C'mon guys, *play fair*."
The GOP's game is called "constitutional hardball." Think: Mitch McConnell refusing to hold confirmation hearings on Obama's federal judiciary appointments, not never for Merrick Garland's Supreme Court seat - then filling the Federal judiciary with the least-qualified, most FedSoc-addled lunatics in US history, all for lifetime appointments.
As bad as this is at the federal level, it's even worse at in the states, especially the Republican "trifecta" states where the GOP holds the governorship and the state house and senate, where shameless gerrymandering and legislative attacks on hard-won ballot measures are the order of the day. GOP-held state governments engage in rampant interstate aggression, targeting out-of-state abortion providers, publishers, and journalists.
This is a one-sided Cold Civil War, because state Dems, for the most part, are unwilling to play hardball in return (the closest they come is when, say, California sets strict emissions controls and manufacturers adopt them nationwide, rather than making special cars for the giant California market). Republicans engage in constitutional hardball and Dems refuse to fight back, a phenomenon called "asymmetrical constitutional hardball":
https://columbialawreview.org/content/asymmetric-constitutional-hardball/
Writing for *The American Prospect*, Arkadi Gerney and Sarah Knight make the case for *symmetrical* constitutional hardball:
https://prospect.org/politics/2024-10-18-playing-hardball/
The pair argue first, that the best way to get Republican state houses to play fair is to credibly threaten them with retaliatory action. They cite the recent attempt at a last-minute change the way that Nebraska's Electoral College votes are apportioned, which would have given all of five the state's EC votes to Trump. Maine threatened to effect the same change to *its* Electoral College system, which would have given all four of its EC votes to Harris. Nebraska surrendered.
But there's also a second advantage to playing Constitutional Hardball: it makes blue states *better*. For example, Minnesota gives free college tuition to exceptional low/middle-income students. Neighboring North Dakota got tired of losing all its smartest kids Minnesota schools and created its own subsidy. As Gerney and Knight point out, Minnesota (and other blue states) still have a huge advantage when it comes to attracting top talent, because attending university in a state with legal abortion is *vastly* preferable (and safer) than doing a degree in a forced-birth state.
Red states are bent on making life *horrible* for some really *great* people. The hardworking, talented Haitian migrants caught in the Springfield pogroms that Trump incited would be a fine addition to any blue state town - anyone who's got the gumption to haul ass out of a failed state and make their all the way to Springfield is gonna be a *fantastic* neighbor, citizen and worker, just like my refugee grandparents and father, who endured a million times more hardship than their neighbors ever did, getting to Toronto, finding jobs, and starting their family.
Influxes of young, hardworking immigrants are *especially* good for rural towns with dwindling populations. No wonder rural towns with above-average net migration swung for Biden in 2020.
All over America, families are despairing of their lives in red states. Whether you're worried that you or someone you love might need to terminate a pregnancy, or you're worried about gender-affirming care for you or a loved one, you can put your worries to rest in a blue state. Same goes for nurses and doctors who are worried they can't do medicine unless it accords with the imaginary dictates of Bronze Age prophets as claimed by pencil-neck Hitler wannabe Bible-thumper with a private jet and a face from Walmart. Fill the blue states with great schools, libraries and hospitals, and invite everyone who wants to do their job in a free country to come and work at 'em. Line every state line with abortion and mifepristone clinics, and set up billboards advertising the quality of life, the jobs, and the freedom in blue state America.
Every blue state public pension fund should ban investments in fossil fuels, and invest like crazy in renewables, especially in Texas, to hasten the bankrupting of the petro-kleptocracy that controls the state. Blue states should tack surcharges on goods imported from "right to work" states where unions are effectively banned, to compensate for the additional product testing needed to ensure that scab products are safe to use (ahem, Boeing).
Create joint occupational licensure rules across blue states: if you're certified as a teacher, nurse, hairdresser or auto-mechanic in New York, you should be able to carry that certification with you to Minnesota, California, or Maine. Create multi-state funding pools to build public housing. Offer med-school scholarships to the smartest red state kids, at universities where they'll learn evidence-based obstetrics rather than the Lysenokist nonsense taught at the Roy Moore College of Pediatrics and Obstetrics.
Dems have to get over their fear of "states' rights" and start playing state-level hardball. This doesn't mean escalating cruelty. Quite the contrary: every cruel measure enacted as red state red meat is a chance for blue states to extend a kindness, and capture even more of the best, brightest and kindest of the nation, creating a race to the top that Republicans can only win by abandoning their performative cruelty and corruption.
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🤿 Hey look at this
* Organized Money https://www.organizedmoney.fm
* The FTC is finally making it easier to cancel your gym membership https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/16/24271649/ftc-click-to-cancel-subscriptions-final-rule
* EFF and IFPTE Local 20 Attain Labor Contract https://www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-and-ifpte-local-20-attain-labor-contract
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🤿 This day in history
#20yrsago Interview with me on All About Symbian https://web.archive.org/web/20041209231331/http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/features/viewarticle.php?id=110
#20yrsago Weinberger: Photo-organizing infocalypse looms https://web.archive.org/web/20040715000000*/http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/photo.html
#10yrsago Comcast not welcome in Worcester, Mass thanks to bad customer service https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/10/its-a-terrible-company-comcast-not-welcome-in-city-council-says/
#10yrsago Justin Hall at XOXO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE6xyFyv7xk
#10yrsago Umbrella Revolution protesters retake the streets https://web.archive.org/web/20141020034358/http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/content/chaos-hong-kong-protest-camp-police-use-batons-pepper-spray-repel-surge-protesters
#10yrsago CTO of NSA is moonlighting for Keith Alexander’s blue-chip rent-a-cybercops https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/oct/17/senior-nsa-official-moonlighting-private-cybersecurity-firm
#10yrsago If you don’t agree to the new Wii U EULA, Nintendo will kill-switch it https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/10/nintendo-updates-take-wii-u-hostage-until-you-agree-new-legal-terms
#10yrsago Canadian government threatens bird watchers for writing concerned letter about bee die-off https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/revenue-canada-targets-birdwatchers-for-political-activity-1.2799546
#5yrsago Design fiction, politicized: the wearable face projector https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PoudPCevN0
#5yrsago Cable is bullshit, and so is 5G: give me fiber or give me death! https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/why-fiber-vastly-superior-cable-and-5g
#5yrsago Relatives and cronies of Cambodia’s dictator have bought “golden passports” from Cyprus and exfiltrated millions https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/cambodia-hunsen-wealth/
#5yrsago Berkeley city council unanimously votes to ban facial recognition technology https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/victory-berkeley-city-council-unanimously-votes-ban-face-recognition
#5yrsago Greta Grotesk: a font based on Greta Thunberg’s hand-lettered signs https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f6JdU9jG6J69mngi5-xYwbKXtCcnslJo/view
#5yrsago Leaks reveal how creepy, cultish monopolist Intuit lobbied Congress and the IRS to kill free tax-filing https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-fight-to-stop-americans-from-filing-their-taxes-for-free#168905
#5yrsago 6 years after expose revealed docs taking millions from pharma companies, it’s only getting worse https://www.propublica.org/article/we-found-over-700-doctors-who-were-paid-more-than-a-million-dollars-by-drug-and-medical-device-companies#169337
#5yrsago Pacifica Radio ignores injunction, continues to play canned content on NYC’s WBAI https://gothamist.com/news/judge-rules-wbai-can-return-air-owners-refuse-comply
#5yrsago McSweeney’s: sure, Bernie is incredibly popular, but can he sway the “completely hateable assholes, who want what’s worst for everyone?” https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/bernies-policies-are-good-but-how-can-he-appeal-to-the-absolute-worst-people-ever
#5yrsago The first book collecting the new Nancy comic is incredibly, fantastically, impossibly great https://memex.craphound.com/2019/10/17/the-first-book-collecting-the-new-nancy-comic-is-incredibly-fantastically-impossibly-great/
#1yrago Deb Chachra's "How Infrastructure Works" https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/17/care-work/#charismatic-megaprojects
#1yrago What Americans want https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/18/the-people-no/#tell-ya-what-i-want-what-i-really-really-want
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🤿 Upcoming appearances
* SOSS Fusion (Atlanta), Oct 22
https://sossfusion2024.sched.com/speaker/cory_doctorow.1qm5qfgn
* Eagle Eye Books (Decatur), Oct 23
https://eagleeyebooks.com/event/2024-10-23/cory-doctorow
* TusCon (Tucson), Nov 8-10
https://tusconscificon.com/
* International Cooperative Alliance (New Delhi), Nov 24
https://icanewdelhi2024.coop/welcome/pages/Programme
* ISSA-LA Holiday Celebration keynote (Los Angeles), Dec 18
https://issala.org/event/issa-la-december-18-dinner-meeting/
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🤿 Recent appearances
* Speciale intervista a Cory Doctorow (Digitalia)
https://digitalia.fm/744/
* Was There Ever An Old, Good Internet? (David Graeber Institute)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6Jlxx5TboE
* Go Fact Yourself
https://maximumfun.org/episodes/go-fact-yourself/ep-158-aida-rodriguez-cory-doctorow/
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🤿 Latest books
* The Bezzle: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about prison-tech and other grifts, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2024 (the-bezzle.org). Signed, personalized copies at Dark Delicacies (https://www.darkdel.com/store/p3062/Available_Feb_20th%3A_The_Bezzle_HB.html#/).
* "The Lost Cause:" a solarpunk novel of hope in the climate emergency, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), November 2023 (http://lost-cause.org). Signed, personalized copies at Dark Delicacies (https://www.darkdel.com/store/p3007/Pre-Order_Signed_Copies%3A_The_Lost_Cause_HB.html#/)
* "The Internet Con": A nonfiction book about interoperability and Big Tech (Verso) September 2023 (http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org). Signed copies at Book Soup (https://www.booksoup.com/book/9781804291245).
* "Red Team Blues": "A grabby, compulsive thriller that will leave you knowing more about how the world works than you did before." Tor Books http://redteamblues.com. Signed copies at Dark Delicacies (US): and Forbidden Planet (UK): https://forbiddenplanet.com/385004-red-team-blues-signed-edition-hardcover/.
* "Chokepoint Capitalism: How to Beat Big Tech, Tame Big Content, and Get Artists Paid, with Rebecca Giblin", on how to unrig the markets for creative labor, Beacon Press/Scribe 2022 https://chokepointcapitalism.com
* "Attack Surface": The third Little Brother novel, a standalone technothriller for adults. The *Washington Post* called it "a political cyberthriller, vigorous, bold and savvy about the limits of revolution and resistance." Order signed, personalized copies from Dark Delicacies https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1840/Available_Now%3A_Attack_Surface.html
* "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism": an anti-monopoly pamphlet analyzing the true harms of surveillance capitalism and proposing a solution. https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59?sk=f6cd10e54e20a07d4c6d0f3ac011af6b) (signed copies: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2024/Available_Now%3A__How_to_Destroy_Surveillance_Capitalism.html)
* "Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new introduction by Edward Snowden: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583; personalized/signed copies here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1750/July%3A__Little_Brother_%26_Homeland.html
* "Poesy the Monster Slayer" a picture book about monsters, bedtime, gender, and kicking ass. Order here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627. Get a personalized, signed copy here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2682/Corey_Doctorow%3A_Poesy_the_Monster_Slayer_HB.html#/.
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🤿 Upcoming books
* Picks and Shovels: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books, February 2025
* Unauthorized Bread: a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025
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🤿 Colophon
Today's top sources:
Currently writing:
* Enshittification: a nonfiction book about platform decay for Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Today's progress: 768 words (66349 words total).
* A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING
* Picks and Shovels, a Martin Hench noir thriller about the heroic era of the PC. FORTHCOMING TOR BOOKS FEB 2025
Latest podcast:
Spill, part one (a Little Brother story) https://craphound.com/littlebrother/2024/10/06/spill-part-one-a-little-brother-story/
This work - excluding any serialized fiction - is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution.
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"*When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla*" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla
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