Dan Lipka Web Log

The Democrats are feeling pretty good that they didn't get crushed in the mid-term elections. They held onto control of the Senate, but will probably lose control of the House. This is not acceptable and I consider it a overwhelming failure. All of the Democratic leaders should be replaced. Yes, they didn't get crushed, but their opponents were all pledging loyalty to a corrupt, incompetent, treasonous opponent. It is 100% clear (at best) that Donald Trump would have happily throw out the legitimate results of a election and remained in power if given the chance. However, it is much worse than that, he actively inspired and helped people to try and make this happen. This is treason! Trump is a corrupt as they come, surrounds himself is complete loyalists, and promote completely unqualified candidates. Yes, the Democrats can't win over anyway, except their own base. This is the Kansas City Chiefs beating the Jets 30-29 on a fluke play in the 4th quarter. Sure Kansas City won

There is a reasonable chance that after the 2024 elections, that Donald Trump will be President and he will have loyalists in control of both houses of Congress. He will also have a very conservative Supreme Court (although I wouldn't consider them loyalists, yet). If that happens, there is another reasonable chance that he will do everything possible to ensure that every meaningful election moving forward will be corrupt (to ensure that he, his children, or his loyalist remain in power indefinitely). If this happens, it will be devastating for the fundamental principals of democracy, individual freedoms, objective media, and the experiment that is the United States. Although unlikely, this is very possible and similar things have been done, in other countries, a multitude of times over the past decade.  Even if the chances of this are 5% (and I would say they are 30%), the Democrats are doing virtually nothing to ensure avoid this outcome. They NEED to say... "Look, if Trump

The Biden administration is proposing to use approximately $400 Billion dollars to forgive some student debts (up to $20,000). I hate when I'm on the side of the Republicans, but this proposal is madness.  This relief only applies to those with current debts. So if you just paid off your student debt, or worked through college to not have any debt, or if you are set to start college next year, well you are out of luck. The villains here are the colleges who charge ridiculous amounts of money and do not provide the type of education that will realistically give students a manageable way to pay their debts. This program is actually just giving these colleges money. This will give future students a false sense of security to go to unaffordable schools thinking they may get money down the line too.  Why do students get money for their debts, but not other people. This is a subsidy the excludes a vast majority of people.   So what would be a better option: Force colleges to justify thei

Last night, with the support of President Biden, a potential nation-crippling railroad workers' strike was averted. Is this a win for Biden? Well, not in my opinion, as it never should have gotten this far. However, a strike would have been a disaster for him. Let's see how the media is covering this: Washington Post: It is the top story "White House reaches tentative agreement to avert national rail strike" Fox News: Not only is there no article, but the 20th story is "National strike threats loom as labor unions become more emboldened", which is outdated. NYTimes: it is the 3rd story, "Railroad Companies and Unions Reach Tentative Deal to Avoid a Strike" NY Post: it is the 80th story (appox), right below a huge Hunter Biden story, "Biden says 'tentative' deal reached to avoid national rail strike". USA Today: Top story "Biden calls tentative labor deal a 'big win for America' as railroad strike is averted: live upda

President Biden's national address was long overdue. I have no doubt that Donald Trump is a danger to the progress of this country and freedoms of so many of our citizens (including those who currently support him). Trump (with the full support of many long-time and very powerful Republican leaders) is actively creating a new political party that has only one vision, which is to be completely loyal to Donald Trump. Whatever Trump says is the "Truth" and they will go wherever he takes them (regardless of the law or its impact). He has denigrated any opposition as to make it appear that he is the only option. He is following the fascist playbook with general incompetence, but it is still working.  Biden's speech addressed these issues relatively directly, with some details, in a very professional and Biden-esk manner. It was "presidential" and serious, but the call to active was very vague. This speech was years in the making, but I guess it is better late tha

As Donald Trump is being investigated for mishandling classified documents, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) says that there will be “riots in the streets” if former president Donald Trump is prosecuted for this crime. That is an overwhelmingly telling and horrifying statement.  If we look at history, Trump is doing everything imaginable to create an environment for fascism. Discredit the media, discredit the judiciary, discredit the voting system, cult of personality, create alternative truths, demand 100% loyalty, put loyalists in positions of power, and call loyalist to arm themselves. The next step it to have his loyalists act act local police. The only things he hasn't done (yet) is get loyalists in control of the military, create a secret police, and then cull almost everyone who helped him gain power. This last part always happens in the rise of an authoritarian government; once the party leader becomes a dictator they "remove" those powerful people who originally supported

The January 6th Commission has brought to light incredibly damming evidence against Dr. Trump and his staff/supporters. There is overwhelming evidence that he tried to illegally retain power, in what amounts to a coup. He knew his claims of voter fraud were not true and he repeatedly tried illegal ways to stop the certification of the election (including inciting a riot). However, for as professional as the commission has been, they are extremely boring.  They need somebody to translate for them. One person to translate to from boring political and legal terms into what is all means. This person needs to be use the word "treason" and hold collaborators to the highest standards. Than they need another person to translate what is happening to Trump supporters, "Trump doesn't care about the rule of law, will kill police or anyone else to maintain power. He thinks his you should obey anything he says without thinking. He answers to no one, especially not Jesus, and is pl

The House committee that has spent a year investigating the Jan. 6 attacks is focused too much on the actual attack on the capitol and not on protecting the country from a tyrant. 1) They should ask every person, under oath, "did you see direct evidence that there was any amount of fraud that possible  could   have changed the results of the election". Since all the Trump supporters refused to testify (and the fact that this evidence does not exist), they will all say "no". They should just play them saying that over and over again.  2) They should lay out that the attack on the capitol was just one small part of Trump's plan to overthrow the will of the people and keep power. And that his plans started months before the election and continued past January 6th.  3) As for the actual attack, it was only partially the fault of the people on the ground, as they were manipulating into believing that the election was stolen. Trump put that into their heads even throu

COVID is very contagious . COVID is still in our communities . Natural Immunity will wear off . Vaccine Immunity will wear off . Using generally accepted logic and reason, COVID will be back, just the same as it has after other past lulls. The arguments against this usually involves wishes and knocking on wood.  Both reported cases and deaths between May 2021 and May 2022 are extraordinarily similar (cases are higher this year, but deaths are down). It is important to note that people are masking and going out significantly more now than a year ago, so it isn't apples v apples.  However, there is hope that our treatments are getting better, hospitals are more prepared, and not as many people are dying and in the past (of course many of the most at risk people may have already died). That being said, 500 people are still dying everyday. That is 5X more than die from the flu, and current deaths are at a seasonal low. So unless there is a better vaccine (unlikely because it's not

Of course the conservative Supreme Court Justices are going to overturn Roe v Wade. This was one of their most important issues and there is literally nothing in the law that says they can't do this. There are plenty of precedents for overturning precedents. And if a Justice thinks abortion is murder than how could they not overturn. It's not like the original decision was unanimous, it was a one vote decision either way. Likewise, if the Justices have been telling their closest friends and inner circle that they would oppose Roe v Wade, how (or why) would they not do act on that. They would be outcasts if they didn't (that shouldn't matter, but it does). I've been saying for years that this is inevitable and that the Democrats should make a deal before it is too late. The deal is that abortions laws are left to the states (without any interstate restrictions), and in exchange they cannot be any nationwide federal law that outlaws abortions. The Congress and the Pre

 "White House logs from Jan. 6 show 7-hour gap in Trump calls" is the basic story. Seems pretty important who the President was talking to during an attack on the capitol (while they were trying to certify a newly elected President). Let's see who is covering this on their webpage. Washington Post - 2nd Story (after Ukraine) Fox News - Literally nowhere on the home page (there was an article on the politics page, it was the 14th article listed New York Times - There is nothing Brietbart.com - There is nothing The Guardian - 2nd major story (after Ukraine) Boston Globe - 4th story Yahoo news - Nothing National Review - Nothing AP News - 3rd article Newsmax - Nothing (although there was an article on him hitting a hole-in-one USA Today - 2nd article I'm just saying it takes a lot of effort to read all the news, from all the sources, and it is amazing how a "well-informed" person, who reads the news from one source, could still be missing out on a lot.

 Racism in the Criminal Justice System exists. Why not implement some simple solutions: The defendant is never shown to the judge to the jury. They can be in the room (hidden) or attend virtually. Their face, attitude, clothing, or demeanor are completely irrelevant and should not be part of the trial. If the case specifically has to do with the size of a person, a similarly sized person can be brought it. Note that the defendant being hidden isn't an option that they can choose to hide or not, it is mandatory. The lawyers should never see the jury, either during selection or during the proceedings. Questions can be asked during the jury selection process, but they can't actually see the person. This will also stop lawyers from trying to specifically manipulate a juror based on their reactions to what it said during the trial. I'm not sure if the jury should be able to see the face of the people who take the stand. Obviously, if a defendant's sister is a witness and tak

After the initial lockdowns from COVID, states had very different strategies to manage the risks of increased infections vs risks to the economy vs risks to mental health. Two years later, we can look back at the states and see if there were significant changes in infections and deaths from COVID. Of course, the data is flawed, as cases don't include people who didn't want to get tested and states did have differences on which deaths counted as "COVID deaths", etc.  I choose to look at the four big states, based on size and politics. Two very liberal states and two very conservatives states. Before, I go on, it is worth noting that nobody knew at the time exactly what COVID was and what the future would hold. Nobody knows what the next variant will be or how it will impact people. However, with the miracle of retrospect, we can see who was right based on the reality that actually occurred. Based on the charts below, it doesn't seem like the conservative states had

Yesterday's post was a little depressing, but the real depressing thing is that over the past 1,000 years [with the exception of weapons of mass destruction] life has gotten better for almost the entire human population. Extreme poverty and food insecurity are way down, medicine is doing amazing things, there is literally access to almost all the information in the history of the world at our fingertips, people have quality-of-life items that would be inconceivable 100 years ago (air conditioners, dish washers, laundry machines, phones, internet), we can communicate or travel easily to anywhere in the world, there are fewer and fewer dangerous jobs, child labor, slavery, etc. Of course, this doesn't apply to everyone in the world, but on average, people are much, much better off. And we put it all at risk with two very specific and avoidable things: war and destroying our environment. As for war, 99% of people are against it, and it only serves the elites, as they are literally

I didn't live through the real nuclear scares of the cold war. In my lifetime, I haven't actually been scared of dying in a war or the end of days. The idea of a "mutual assured destruction" seemed to prevent the major militaries of the world from fighting each other (at least fighting directly). But "mutual assured destruction" only works if those in charge are either thinking rationally, morally, or selfishly. Personally, I think the "selfishly" one is the most important, as leaders of countries have the most to lose (power, money, prestige, etc.). But if there was an autocratic head of a nuclear power, who has nothing to lose (perhaps, he is dying of something else), than there is very little standing in the way of the end of civilization. And I am not overexerting, there are 8 (maybe 9) countries in the world that have enough nuclear weapons to destroy every major city in the world (with the resulting radiation affected every person on earth).

The longer Russia waits on the Ukrainian boarder, the richer they are getting. Oil and gas are responsible for more than 60% of Russia's exports and provide more than 30% of the country's gross domestic product and those prices are skyrocketing. It is the highest its been in 8 years and up 40% of the pre-covid levels. And they can bargain for even better deals, as they have a lot of leverage now. Whatever they get is a bonus, and they can move their troops off and blame the war-crazy, corrupt Americans for trying to start a war. Than they can come back in six months and do this again. Or maybe just wait until there is a different US President, who might not care as much about NATO or protecting foreign democracies (and perhaps keeping oil prices high will increase the likelihood of a different US president in just two years). 

When Donald Trump is re-elected President in two years, Barack Obama is going to think to himself, "maybe I should have done more". Yes, of course he should be doing more. He is literally the only likeable Democrat on the national stage. Sure he is raising money, but is he changing minds? He needs a highly promoted monthly, 30-minute TV show to talk about a very specific issue. Keep it simple. Have last month's episode only about the people who are in hospitals for COVID and if they are vaccinated or not. This month, try to explain why inflation happens, what can be done about it and what can't. Have a episode on why its important to have an organized person as President, and not just someone who shares your ideas. One episode, on primetime, on every streaming service. I don't know if it will be enough to stop Trump, but at least he will be able to live with himself after 2024.

Republican elected officials are blatantly lying. Democrats may also be blatantly lying, but they should trade both sides telling the truth vs the status quo. All Democrats should be pushing for a law that makes anything that an elected officials says (in their capacity as an elected official or on any government property) as a statement made under oath. Lying would be perjury. It is simple at that. Of course, they have to know they are lying so it will be up to the public to provide their elected officials with documentation disproving what they say (or would say). Would this new regulation ever pass? Probably not, but it would look terrible for anyone opposing it.  Right now people are faced with differing accounts of reality and it is almost impossible to convince someone to accept a view different from the one they have. They only way to achieve this is by bringing back objective facts. And the only way to do that is to punish those who lie. How would this hurt Democrats to be the

For the second time, Nancy Pelosi is leader of the House of Representative (with a Democratic President) and for the second time she (and all the Democrats) have completely failed to communicate with the public in any meaningful way. Senate Democrats and President Biden have failed just as much. This will most likely lead to Republicans taking over Congress this year and significantly empowering radical right leaders. There are two main problems. 1) There is no spokesperson, no leader, and no branding. Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and Joe Biden might be great people and expert legislators, but there are not leaders, they cannot communicate or inspire. Trump is the exact opposite. Obama could do it all. The Democrats needs to beg, beg, beg Obama to come back and have monthly fireside chats with America. If not, "the Rock" would be as effective (get him a Congressional seat asap). 2) The Democrats' message, when there is one, skips huge parts of why their arguments make sen