Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of April 20

Re: Palantir....

20. The pervasive intolerance of religious belief in certain circles must be resisted. The elite’s intolerance of religious belief is perhaps one of the most telling signs that its political project constitutes a less open intellectual movement than many within it would claim.

21. Some cultures have produced vital advances; others remain dysfunctional and regressive. All cultures are now equal. Criticism and value judgments are forbidden. Yet this new dogma glosses over the fact that certain cultures and indeed subcultures . . . have produced wonders. Others have proven middling, and worse, regressive and harmful.

22. We must resist the shallow temptation of a vacant and hollow pluralism. We, in America and more broadly the West, have for the past half century resisted defining national cultures in the name of inclusivity. But inclusion into what?

Hmmmm.

I'm sure someone will defend this as sounding bad but "how do we know what they really mean?!" when really it's incredibly clear to me that this is some white Christian nationalist shit.

Justice Dept. Charges Prominent Civil Rights Group With Financial Crimes

They're charging the Southern Poverty Law Center with financial fraud for paying informants - members of the hate groups they investigate - for infiltrating the organizations and even apparently stealing documents (not clear to me that it's criminal theft if the individual had access to them.)

So this feels like a politically targeted attack on an organization that basically reports on and provides information about hate groups to the general public. I've personally expected the SPLC to get targeted by this administration.

Someone opened fire at/during the white house correspondents dinner. Trump evac'd/not shot, shooter dead, not sure of much else. I'd normally make a topic but fucking hell what's the point right?

https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/crm1gm7ez30o

Virginia voters approve redistricting measure backed by Democrats

Virginia voters have approved a Democrat-backed redistricting plan, according to Decision Desk HQ, greenlighting a new congressional map that could net the party as many as four seats ahead of the midterm elections.

Voters in the Old Dominion cast their ballots in a Tuesday referendum, in which Democratic lawmakers asked them to approve a state constitutional amendment that would temporarily bypass the state’s redistricting commission and redraw maps mid-decade.

The new House map expands Democrats’ 6-5 advantage in the state’s congressional delegation to a 10-1 edge — a significant boost in the battle for control of Congress this fall.

Note also this opinion piece from the Washington Post
Virginia plunges America deeper into the gerrymandering abyss

This kind of piece is more evidence that the Washington Post has been corrupted since Bezos took over. There was no such negative opinion in the Post of the Texas redistricting that favored republicans and that particular gerrymandering exercise was not even put before voters.
(Re: The Post: I'm referring to this recent Tildes thread about Bezos and other billionaires which contained several threads about the effect of billionaires on the free press)

I wasn't sure the most appropriate place to post this article about Palantir's Manifesto that was posted over the weekend. There's nothing particularly surprising here if you've read much about Thiel's particular brand of Yarvinite madness, but it is surprising in how mask-off it is about a number of things.

3. Free email is not enough. The decadence of a culture or civilization, and indeed its ruling class, will be forgiven only if that culture is capable of delivering economic growth and security for the public.

This statement isn't the most extreme or specific, maybe, but it was the most surprising to me in that it seems to state plainly the feeling of this group that they are the "ruling class" of America.

Some good news... Judge’s repeal of Trump ban on gender-affirming care for children ‘a meaningful win for patients’, experts say

Trump fires all 24 members of the U.S. National Science Foundation’s governing body

But it's not like they were being listened to anymore anyway:

The White House’s decision last month to ask Congress to give NSF $900 million next year for a new Antarctic research icebreaker is another example of how the Trump administration’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has prevented the board from meeting its obligations, says Stassun, who until yesterday chaired the group’s committee on large research facilities.

“OMB basically said very directly to NSF’s chief of research facilities that ‘you will build a new research vessel,’ and there was no involvement by the board, which is required to approve and authorize any major infrastructure investment by NSF,” Stassun notes. “And when the board asked, the response was, ‘Well, OMB was very clear in its directive.’”

...

Lofgren worries Trump will “fill the NSB with MAGA loyalists who won't stand up to him.” But Stassun believes it doesn’t matter whether Trump restocks the board or leaves its positions unfilled. As proof, he points to the increasingly awkward conversations in the last year between the board and NSF’s top two officials: Brian Stone, Panchanathan’s former chief of staff and now designated NSF head, and Micah Cheatham, its chief management officer.

“We would ask them, ‘Are you following board governance directives?’” Stassun says. “And their answer would be, in effect, ‘We don't listen to you anymore.’”