(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: The pelé edition [1] ['Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags', 'Showtags Popular_Tags'] Date: 2023-04-30 Paul Rosenberg of Salon interviews University of North Carolina professor Daniel Kreiss about the idea that political problems in the U.S. go far beyond the issue of “polarization.” [ROSENBERG]: As I read your article I was reminded of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” in which he takes on the flawed centering of superficial cohesion, and the charge that he was a disruptive force of polarization. His argument was basically that he was bringing things to the surface so they could be dealt with, so problems could be solved. Would you relate what you’re saying here to King’s argument? [KREISS]: I think that is 100% consistent with with what we're arguing here. And amazing scholars like Juliet Hooker, who's at Brown, have argued this as well, that white moderates historically have held up this idea of a politics of solidarity as the thing we should always value from a democratic perspective, that idea of cohesion. The political work that that does, however, is to paper over larger differences and discrepancies when it comes to social groups that are positioned very differently in social structures and fight for change in various ways. [...] The broader argument we want to make is that there are many different types of groups located in various ways and social structures, and that can include differences based on gender, class, citizenship status or religion, in addition to race and ethnicity. There's clearly a set of dominant power relations across all these dimensions. A functioning democracy is premised on equality. You certainly need political equality, but also a certain degree of social equality, in order to be a democratic society. The concern should not be that certain groups are fighting for equality. The concern should be that we live in a vastly unequal society. That's really the critique that we want to make front and center. Maya King of The New York Times reports that the South Carolina Democratic Party has named Christale Spain as the first Black woman to become chair of the state party. A longtime organizer in Palmetto State politics, Ms. Spain was widely considered the front-runner in the race, a usually sleepy contest that saw more candidates run than it has in more than 25 years. Her biggest competitor, Brandon Upson, the state Black caucus chair, painted her as an establishment candidate whose connections to the old guard would stymie the party’s progress in an all-important election year. Democrats who supported Mr. Upson were seeking to overhaul a state party they felt had long been dominated by Mr. Clyburn — who helped President Biden win the state primary in 2020 — ahead of South Carolina’s debut as the party’s first presidential primary state in 2024 and in the wake of a down cycle in the 2022 midterm elections. [...] As the next chair, Ms. Spain will be responsible for preparing the state party for its moment in prime time: voting first in the 2024 Democratic presidential primary election. She will also have to rebuild a party in turmoil. Democrats lost several safe State House and Senate seats and had low voter turnout during the 2022 midterms, a year that was otherwise considered positive for the party nationally. Ms. Spain’s leadership will offer Palmetto State Democrats a chance to make up those losses and get ready for the national stage. Nearly one year after the Dobbs decision, a Pew Research Center survey shows (rather predictably) that an increasing majority of people living in states where abortion is now prohibited say that it is more difficult to get one. Today, a 54% majority of Americans nationwide say it would be very easy or somewhat easy to get an abortion in the area where they live, down from 65% in 2019. About four-in-ten (42%) say it would be very or somewhat difficult to get an abortion in areas near them, up 10 percentage points from four years ago. The most striking change has occurred among people living in states where abortion is now prohibited: About seven-in-ten (71%) say it would be difficult to get an abortion, up from the half who said this in 2019. A majority (56%) of those living in states where abortion is restricted or in legal dispute say it would be difficult to get an abortion today, up 15 points from four years ago. [...] The survey finds that Americans are also more likely to say it should be easier to obtain an abortion than they were in 2019. About a third of adults (34%) say it should be easier for someone in the area where they live to obtain an abortion, an 8-point increase since 2019. This shift stems largely from those who live in states where abortion is now prohibited (43% say access should be easier, up from 31% in 2019) and those in states where it is restricted (38%, up from 27%). Lots of data in that survey. Still have to do a deep dive. Delger Erdenesanaa of the Texas Observer reports that the industrial takeover of a small Black community in Freeport, TX is mostly completed. The neighborhood, until recently a vibrant community, was initially formed by segregation of the city’s Black residents in the 1930s into a few square blocks. When Tilley was growing up, the modus operandi was that “you have to live here or nowhere,” she said. She remembers that older African-American residents like her parents felt, “if we have to live here, it’s going to be the best community ever.” They made the best of the situation, and turned the East End into a happy place to live. Back in 2017, lawyers for the nonprofit Lone Star Legal Aid stepped in to help residents make a federal civil rights complaint against Port Freeport, as well as the City of Freeport, to several federal agencies that have provided funding to the port and the city. The Department of Homeland Security finally agreed to investigate the case last year. But the process has taken so long that almost everybody from this close-knit community is already gone. It was like being “one of the last on the planet,” Tilley said. Only one other family from her tight-knit African-American community remains at home. A few East End families still have individual lawsuits pending against Port Freeport. Tilley and her family were set to go to court earlier this month in an effort to dispute the port’s valuation of Henry Jones’ home. Instead, after years of contentious negotiation, the family and the port recently reached a settlement, which Tilley called “forced.” She would have preferred to be heard in court, but her family was worn out from years of fighting. An eight-reporter team from Der Spiegel reports that Germany is making necessary preparations for the re-election of Donald Trump in 2024. Michael Link is the German government's coordinator for trans-Atlantic cooperation. If Trump were to be re-elected, it would make his job a lot tougher. "Trump would be a greater challenge for Germany, Europe and the world in a second term than he was in his first term," says the politician, who is a member of the business-friendly Free Democratic Party (FDP). "He would probably govern in an even more unrestrained, unpredictable and defiant manner." Preparations for the 2024 U.S. elections have already become a significant component of his job, and he is planning on traveling to the U.S. more often in the near future. "In the end, what counts are steady contacts in the executive and legislative branches of government," he says. "Individual senators can have a decisive influence on whether and how a bill is passed. If the going gets tough, they can be important allies." Agnieszka Brugger, deputy head of the Green Party group in Germany parliament, also argues that preparations must be made for the possibility of Trump 2.0. She says the Europeans need to be more self-reliant and less vulnerable, regardless who is the current president of the U.S. "Even though we in the EU have become better in the technological, economic and security fields with regard to the crises of this world, we are still too slow," Brugger says. She says Germany and the EU should broaden their horizons and expand partnerships and alliances, "especially with countries of the Global South." I can’t blame any country for making these preparations. In anticipation of the visit of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to the White House next month, Adam Keith of Just Security notes that while the U,S. gets along better with Marcos than with former president Rodrigo Duterte, many of the human rights abuses that existed under Duterte have continued under Marcos. On the eve of Marcos’s visit, the current mood in Washington around U.S.-Philippine relations is just short of exuberant, as the Marcos administration is proving to be quite committed to the countries’ security alliance. Marcos has offered expanded access to military bases after his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, had flirted with scrapping a key U.S. treaty and realigning his country with China. U.S. counterparts nonetheless need to convey that U.S. security assistance will depend at least in part on progress on human rights. During the six-year term of Duterte’s administration, which ended in 2022, the brutal “war on drugs” that the Philippine police carried out consumed most of the attention that U.S. officials gave to human rights in the Philippines. But Filipino human rights groups like Karapatan have made clear that the transition to the Marcos administration did not stop extrajudicial killings and other abuses. Such abuses have not been limited to the police, but rather include killings of human rights defenders and other civilians by security forces engaged in an armed conflict with a communist rebel group. The U.S. government is well aware of these trends. The State Department noted in its latest human rights report that, for example, the often-deadly practice of “red-tagging” (labeling critics or activists as communists or terrorists) has continued under the Marcos administration. U.S. diplomats stress that they always raise the issue of human rights in meetings with Philippine counterparts, and the readouts of recent high-level meetings do mention it. But the abuses have continued, and impunity still prevails. Finally today: x O REI OFICIALMENTE ESTÁ NO DICIONÁRIO! Ele é o pelé do Basquete. Ela é a pelé do Tênis. A expressão que já era usada para se referir ao melhor naquilo que faz está eternizada nas páginas do dicionário! Juntos fizemos história e colocamos o nome do Rei do futebol na nossa língua… pic.twitter.com/Yy5RwWjq8J — Pelé (@Pele) April 26, 2023 Vanessa Buschschlüter of BBC News reports that the Portuguese language has a new adjective: pelé The Portuguese-language Michaelis dictionary, one of the most popular in Brazil, added "pelé" as a new adjective to its online edition. The inclusion came after a campaign by the Pelé Foundation to honour the football star gathered more than 125,000 signatures. [...] On Wednesday, the publishers behind Michaelis dictionaries announced the word would be included in the digital edition of their Portuguese-language dictionary immediately and in the printed version once the next edition was published. The entry reads: "pe.lé adj. That or someone who is out of the ordinary, who or who by virtue of their quality, value or superiority cannot be equalled to anything or anyone, just like Pelé, nickname of Edson Arantes do Nascimento (1940-2022), who is considered the greatest athlete of all time; exceptional, incomparable, unique." Can anyone think of any American athlete (living or dead) deserving of this type of honor? I can’t. Have the best possible day, everyone! [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/30/2166665/-Abbreviated-Pundit-Roundup-The-pel-edition Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/