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Not The Fight We Wanted Or Signed Up For But It’s The One We Got

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A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.

For several months I’ve thought about what I would write for you this morning under these circumstances. As I rolled it around in my head, I kept bouncing around between capturing the emotional weight of the moment and looking ahead to what comes next. I’ll try to do both here. In doing so, I followed my usual practice of not drafting Morning Memo in advance so that it would feel fresh and immediate, not contrived or prepackaged.

What doesn’t seem warranted any longer are the warnings, alerts, and cautions about what lies ahead. You’ve heard those from me for more than a year. The whole country heard similar warnings from multiple quarters. It was loud and clear. The campaign was fought directly over the issues of democracy, rule of law, basic decency and respect, and protection for the marginalized. Those principles and values lost and lost badly.

You might be taken aback by me finding silver linings in this result but I do think there are two of them. First, the dark path ahead was chosen clearly and unequivocally: With 51%, Trump is on track to win a majority of the popular vote. Second, Trump will win without undue reliance on the quirks of our 18th century anti-majoritarian constitutional structure.

There is clarity in that result. This is who we are. Not all of us, but a majority of us. It presents a stark picture of America in 2024, without sugarcoating or excuse. It makes it harder to fool yourself about the task at hand, which is an enormous cultural one more than a political one.

Donald Trump’s win isn’t the product of a constitutional quirk. It’s not the result of a poorly conceived or executed campaign by Kamala Harris. It’s not a messaging failure or a tactical error or a strategic blunder. Other broader dynamics at play – like a post-pandemic revulsion toward incumbents or an anti-inflation backlash – are too limited in their scope and specific in their focus to account for the choice that was made: Donald Trump. It would be a category error to ascribe our current predicament to a political failure.

If politics is merely a reflection of culture, then we get to see that reflection clearly and sharply as the sun comes up this morning. If you don’t like what you see, don’t blame the mirror.

Political change is slow; cultural change is glacial (an anachronistic metaphor in an age of rapidly retreating ice). But it’s doable. We’ve seen remarkable cultural changes in our own lifetimes. Cultural change starts small, with the brave, resolute, and individual choices we make in our own lives and communities. It’s reflected in how we live, where we live, and what we live for. These myriad choices we make over the course of conducting our private lives speak more clearly about who we are and what we’re about than the occasional casting of a ballot in an election.

I don’t feel inspired to rally you to action quite yet, and it feels hollow to try. If you need to decompress and recover, I get it. But in our heightened emotional state this morning, some of us are going to be tempted to cast blame all around us for this electoral outcome. It might make us feel good in the moment. But if you’re looking for a political fix to the cultural problem, I’m not sure you’re going to end up fixing much of anything. Politics alone will not save us.

For those of us who believe in the rule of law, a pluralistic society, and standing up to unkind people who engage in hurting others as public blood sport, we’re going to have to take a long view toward promoting those principles in all aspects of our culture so that they are ultimately reflected in our politics in a way they simply are not now. I recognize that many of us have already been doing this slow and steady work, which makes the overnight result even more discouraging. It remains an enormous, decades-long task, but it is something each of us can engage in without uprooting our lives or changing professions or moving abroad.

None of this is to counsel abandoning politics or the public square. We need to create and sustain a cultural imperative to continue to engage in the political realm, too. The many political battles ahead are essential to fight and to fight well. We will need a fresh crop of reserves to begin to spell those who have been fighting these battles for a long time.

In past elections that led to stinging defeats, you could take some solace in knowing that the pendulum of American political life swings back and forth with some regularity. The latest reversal, while seemingly devastating, could be reversed within the span of one election cycle. We sit here this morning with justifiable fear and trepidation that the mechanisms for such reversals of fortune – free and fair elections, majority rule, the rule of law itself – may not be available to us this time.

Still, the clarity of the present moment is itself a gift. It has already given me a feeling of expansiveness from not having to engage in tiresome talk about optimal campaign messaging, or argue over the shortcomings of the Democratic Party, or spend precious time hoping, wishing, and praying that people in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin will do the right thing.

I didn’t start today’s Morning Memo intending to rally you toward some vague cultural revolution, hand-waving at civic engagement and personal virtue. So let me bring this back down to earth a bit.

There is immediate and hard work to do in politics. The marginalized and the disenfranchised are always hurt first and most with the kind of upheaval that we expect to come, but it is worse this time because hurting them has been advertised as the point. People who have been doing their jobs under the rule of law and in support of democratic and civil society institutions – investigators, prosecutors, judges, the press, government workers, librarians, teachers, opposition party leaders – have been promised retribution. Protecting those under threat will be amongst the most noble work of the coming years.

The powers of federal officeholders, we have been told repeatedly and plainly, will be abused to exact revenge against perceived foes, which means anyone who presents a challenge to Trump and MAGA Republicans holding unbridled and absolute power. I take these promises at face value. Countering those efforts, upholding what’s left of the rule of law, fortifying what remains of the democratic system will be similarly noble work.

All of this work will be made infinitely more difficult if Trump is sworn in with Republicans controlling both chambers on Capitol Hill. While he has the Senate, the House may remain too close to call for several more days.

The challenge before us is enormous. It is not a challenge any of us signed up for. It’s been foisted upon us. The past decade has felt like a detour from the lives and aspirations we had hoped to have. I feel a special empathy for those who came of age in the 1960s at the peak of Great Society reforms and have spent their adults lives witnessing their erosion. Those of us with an act or two left, and especially those with their whole lives still to dedicate to making America better than she is presenting right now, owe it to those whose time is ending to summon our essential optimism, roll up our sleeves, and get to down to the hard work that our current predicament demands. That may sound like a rallying cry, but I’m also trying to convince myself.

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Mozilla is eliminating its advocacy division, which fought for a free and open web

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The Firefox logo on a black background
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The Mozilla Foundation laid off 30 percent of its workforce and completely eliminated its advocacy and global programs divisions, TechCrunch reports.

While Mozilla is best known for its Firefox web browser, the Mozilla Foundation — the parent of the Mozilla Corporation — describes itself as standing up “for the health of the internet.” With its advocacy and global programs divisions gone, its impact may be lessened going forward.

“Fighting for a free and open internet will always be core to our mission, and advocacy continues to be a critical tool in that work. We’re revisiting how we pursue that work, not stopping it,” Brandon Borrman, the Mozilla Foundation’s communications chief, said in an email to The Verge. Borrman declined to confirm exactly how many people were laid off, but said it was about “30% of the current team.”

This is Mozilla’s second round of layoffs this year. In February, the Mozilla Corporation laid off around 60 workers said it would be making a “strategic correction” that would involve involve cutting back its work on a Mastodon instance. Mozilla shut down its virtual 3D platform and refocused its efforts on Firefox and AI. The Mozilla Foundation had around 120 employees before this more recent round of layoffs, according to TechCrunch.

In an email sent to all employees on October 30th, Nabhia Syed, the foundation’s executive director, said that the advocacy and global programs divisions “are no longer part of our structure.”

“Navigating this topsy-turvy, distracting time requires laser focus — and sometimes saying goodbye to the excellent work that has gotten us this far because it won’t get us to the next peak,” wrote Syed, who previously worked as the chief executive of The Markup, an investigative news site. “Lofty goals demand hard choices.”

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Can Nintendo’s Alarmo run Doom? You bet it can

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A photo of Nintendo’s Alarmo clock.
This, but blasting demons. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

What do John Deere tractors, Ikea smart bulbs, Lego bricks, and the MacBook Pro Touch Bar have in common? They can all run Doom, and naturally, so can Nintendo’s adorable Alarmo alarm clock. It was only a matter of time before someone pulled that off, but what I didn’t expect was that when it happened, it would be playable.

That’s exactly what hacker GaryOberNicht, who recently figured out how to run custom firmware on the Alarmo, did in a video posted to Mastodon and their X account yesterday. In it, they play by turning or pressing the mushroom-shaped blob on top of the Alarmo to move and pressing the other buttons to shoot or open doors. Here, have a look:

Gary said it’s “possible to load the shareware version of Doom entirely from USB, without modifying the Alarmo.” And they’ve put the software and instructions for running it on Github, so almost any sufficiently knowledgeable and determined Alarmo owner can do it, too. Best of all, it can be done without opening the clock up at all.

How did they pull this off? Gary explains in a blog post that after another person called Spinda hacked the Alarmo (with a Flipper Zero) and dumped the firmware from memory, Gary worked out a method that uses a USB mode and the USB-C port to point the Alarmo to custom external firmware, instead.

Given how easy it appears to be reproduce what Gary has done, Alarmo software modding almost certainly won’t just stop at Doom. Of course, how far any online community efforts to turn the Alarmo into a bizarro game console will get probably depends on how Nintendo, which has been particularly active with its copyright disputes lately, feels about it.

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Yard signs in one Kansas House district suggest Johnson County is getting bluer

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One of five yard signs abortion provider Traci Nauser displays in support of Vice President Kamala Harris.

One of five yard signs abortion provider Traci Nauser displays in support of Vice President Kamala Harris. (Grace Hills/Kansas Reflector)

OVERLAND PARK — An influx of Democrat yard signs could signal a shift toward a bluer Johnson County, even if the signs don’t align with party affiliation.

The potential shift is evident in a seven-block stretch of Overland Park — represented by Republican Rep. Carl Turner — where more than half of the 90 political yard signs favor Democrats.. Only 29% of registered voters in the district are Democrats, compared to 46% Republicans.

Democrat Ace Allen is challenging Turner again this year after losing to Turner by just 60 votes in 2022. Allen said requests for his yard sign have doubled from his campaign two years ago.

“The encouraging thing about a yard sign, as opposed to signs on the street, is that they actually indicate a voter,” Allen said.

Turner did not respond to requests for an interview.

A Columbia University study from 2015 found that the candidate with more yard signs out has an advantage, and yard signs can contribute 1-2% of votes. The study found that yard signs may be the deciding factor in local races.

“It’s not necessarily counting that yard signs equal votes. But, they can impact voters who see them and potentially help candidates,” said Bob Beatty, a political science professor at Washburn University. “They will have positive associations with that name, and if they don’t know that much when they go in the voting booth, they may end up voting for that candidate just because they knew that name.”

Turner and Allen donate their signs to display. Former President Donald Trump sells yard signs for $24 and Vice President Kamala Harris for $20.

Of the houses where political signs were displayed in Turner’s district, it was far more common to see Harris signs than Trump signs. Beatty credits this to a new energy and excitement Harris brought to the campaign.

Traci Nauser, who displayed five Harris signs in her yard, is among the residents of Turner’s district. She is also an abortion provider whose lawsuit led to the Kansas Supreme Court ruling in 2019 that determined the state constitution’s right to bodily autonomy includes the right to terminate a pregnancy.

Nauser’s signs include one from the Harris campaign and some from other sources, like Etsy, with phrases like “Who’s the better role model for your child?” on them. Nauser said she never has had a negative interaction with a neighbor because of her signs and that she has received compliments on them, mostly for the role model sign.

Nauser said she has noticed there are fewer signs in her neighborhood compared to the 2016 and 2020 elections. She noticed more Trump than Clinton or Biden signs in the past, but sees mostly Democratic signs now. She says the shift is because of Trump.

“He’s a pathological liar and a fascist, and he’s taken away women’s reproductive rights,” Nauser said. “I think that’s a huge issue.”

Nobody answered the door at houses where Trump signs were displayed.

Beatty finds the decrease in Trump signs more difficult to explain. He said that for the last eight years, Trump supporters have been proud to display their support.

“Arguably, maybe for the first time since 2016, the Democrats are not shy about doing the same thing,” Beatty said. “It may not be that there’s so much fewer Trump signs — it’s just that for the first time since ’16, the battle has been joined.”

Beatty thinks there’s a “very high” probability that Johnson County goes bluer this election. Clinton lost the county by 2.5 percentage points in 2016, and Biden won it by 8.2 points in 2020. Beatty said abortion rights are a large reason why Johnson County may go blue again.

Signs reading “Love your neighbor,” “Do unto others,” “Unity” and “Kindness” are peppered into the political signs. These are from the Church of the Resurrection — the largest church in Kansas.

Church founder and senior pastor Adam Hamilton has never publicly endorsed a political candidate. He’s been a longtime advocate for LGBTQ+ inclusivity in the church, and declared himself “pro-life with a heavy heart” in 2022. In 2020 he supported the Black Lives Matter movement and used his churches as a vaccination site.

The church’s signs exclusively were paired with Allen and Harris signs.

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To save affordable housing, states promote resident-owned mobile home parks

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Screenshot 2024 10 31 At 114541am

Neighbors Terry Graham and Kristi Peterman show off Halloween decorations at Liberty Landing Cooperative in Liberty, Mo. Residents collectively purchased the mobile home community in 2021 from its longtime owner — a model more state lawmakers hope to emulate to preserve affordable housing (Kevin Hardy/Stateline)

LIBERTY — Over her 25 years living in a quiet suburban mobile home park, Kristi Peterman got to know the neighbors directly next door and a few across the street.

But since she and her neighbors collectively purchased the sprawling park outside of Kansas City from its longtime owner in 2021, she’s gotten to know just about every resident.

“It’s a community, and not just a neighborhood,” she said. “A neighborhood is a group of houses or homes that are in proximity of each other. A community is something entirely different.”

Housing prices are soaring across the country, and the shortage of affordable housing is a primary concern for many voters. As the crisis continues, an increasing number of policymakers are championing laws that promote the type of collective ownership at Liberty Landing Cooperative. Manufactured homes, long known as mobile homes, are widely viewed as the last bastion of affordable housing.

Millions of Americans own mobile homes but rent the ground beneath them. And despite the “mobile” moniker, these factory-built homes are difficult and costly to relocate. That makes owners of such homes particularly susceptible to rent hikes — especially as longtime communities get bought up by big investors.

Residents at Liberty Landing were “phenomenally lucky,” Peterman said. The park’s longtime owner was looking to get out of the business and suggested the resident-owned model. Working with a nonprofit organization, residents bought the park by securing a $9.5 million loan — debt that is being repaid by monthly lot rents.

Though they hired a property management firm, co-op board members, including Peterman, are now responsible for the finances and upkeep of the park. Like a homeowners association, they ensure residents are maintaining their lawns and homes. And the board evicts those who neglect their property or don’t make rent payments.

The co-op requires more work from residents, Peterman said, but assures they will control their own destiny.

“We really try hard not to have people come in with a renter’s mentality, because it’s a lot different than just going in somewhere and paying your rent,” she said. “You’re an owner here.”

Earlier this year, the federal government made available $225 million in grants for improvements at mobile home communities, including those owned by residents, and announced plans to allow resident-owned parks to access federally insured financing to keep rents low or make improvements.

But park owners and a leading trade organization for manufactured homes and park owners question the actual benefits of resident ownership and have expressed concern over governments tipping the scales in favor of the model over private ownership.

States embrace resident ownership

Because they don’t own the land beneath their homes, mobile home residents are at the mercy of the park’s owners, who could raise their rents or even shut down the park altogether as the land is redeveloped.

Currently, 12 private equity funds own more than 1,300 American mobile home communities, home to more than 250,000 lots, according to the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, a nonprofit watchdog group that tracks the impact of private equity investors.

It can cost thousands of dollars to move a manufactured home, and some older models are essentially considered immobile. Without long-term land leases, that leaves many residents vulnerable, said Carolyn Carter, deputy director of the National Consumer Law Center.

“Residents in manufactured home communities, while they’re subject to a lot of the same abuses as apartment renters, they need even more protection,” she said.

Currently, 22 states have laws requiring or encouraging owners of manufactured home parks to give homeowners the opportunity to purchase their land collectively. Those laws can vary wildly, with some requiring that the residents be given the right of first refusal, while others simply require park owners to provide notice of their intent to sell.

“There’s lots of interest in the states,” Carter said. “More than I’ve ever seen.”

Last year, six states enacted or strengthened laws encouraging resident ownership, Carter said. This year, Illinois passed legislation requiring community owners to give residents advanced notice of potential sales and an opportunity to purchase the park collectively.

Last week, New Jersey Democratic Assemblyman David Bailey Jr. introduced a bill to strengthen the state’s resident ownership law after visiting several mobile home communities.

“This model works. It has worked. It’s extremely successful,” Bailey said.

A bill passed in Maine last year requires park owners to give residents and the state 60 days’ notice of a potential sale. The owner also must disclose the sale price and give residents the option to make their own offer and “negotiate in good faith.”

“For me, it was a matter of fairness and providing an option for people in that situation, so they don’t lose their home,” said Maine Democratic state Rep. Traci Gere, who sponsored the bill.

Residents in Brunswick, Maine, were the first to benefit from the new law. They paid $26.3 million, raised through loans and grant money, to purchase the Linnhaven Mobile Home Center, which has nearly 300 homes.

“It’s an example to others — not only in Maine, but across the country — that you can do this and you can take control of your own futures,” Gere said. “And it’s such an empowering feeling for everybody.”

But park owners have pushed back on some of these laws, which they argue can complicate sales. Another mobile home community owner in Maine, for example, told The New York Times that the notification and negotiation process can drag out the sale, creating a “horrible, horrible experience.”

And the industry doesn’t necessarily agree that resident ownership is good for homeowners.

“In some cases, it could be beneficial to the residents, and there are other cases where a lot of problems can come from that,” said Lesli Gooch, the chief executive officer of the Manufactured Housing Institute, a trade group that includes manufacturers, retailers and community owners.

She said cooperatively owned communities may not have the same resources available to private owners to invest in long-term maintenance and infrastructure needs. And many residents just don’t want to be in the business of property management.

There are various structures of resident-owned communities involving assistance from nonprofits or government groups. And homeowners may never see a financial return on the purchase of land.

“The residents need to make sure that they understand what they’re getting into,” Gooch said. “And so, if there’s legislation that puts the finger on the scale toward one form of ownership over another, we are concerned about that.”

‘The stigma is changing’

Manufactured homes face unique financing and land use challenges — not to mention growing concerns over their ability to withstand disasters in the face of climate change. But many site-built homes face the same issues as those built in factories, said Arica Young, an associate director at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, a research organization that studies the issue and advocates for the use of manufactured homes.

“Given how critical our housing issue is, we need everything on the table,” she said.

On a square-foot basis, manufactured homes cost 45% less to build than site-built homes, according to Freddie Mac.

But many communities have resisted their use, either with outright bans or with more subtle regulations on design features such as roof pitch or windows that effectively keep out factory-built homes, Young said.

“A lot of the regulations, a lot of the unease around it, comes from stigma,” she said. “That is the underlying problem that I think not a lot of people are willing to talk about.”

Local opposition has pushed some legislatures to step in.

This year, Maine and Maryland enacted laws allowing manufactured housing in any location that allows single-family homes. And in New Hampshire, a bill was signed into law that requires municipalities to provide “reasonable and realistic” opportunities for new manufactured housing parks and blocked zoning codes that effectively bar housing parks.

“I think the stigma is changing, but slowly,” said Republican state Rep. Joe Alexander Jr., who sponsored the New Hampshire legislation.

Alexander views manufactured homes as a viable option for many young people, who simply can’t afford to purchase a site-built home in a high-cost state such as New Hampshire.

Aside from their affordability, he said, manufactured homes are more energy efficient than many other homes. He hopes to bring a manufactured home to the statehouse lawn in Concord next year to show off their benefits.

“These units are a lot nicer than some of the old trailer park ideas from the past,” he said.

‘What’s the goal?’

In Massachusetts, mobile home park owner Tom Lennon came under fire for raising mobile home lot rent by nearly 150%. In February, the monthly rent at his West Street Village Mobile Home Community in Ludlow rose from $207 to $503.06.

That move was sanctioned by the town’s mobile home rent review board — a decision being challenged in court.

Lennon, who owns eight mobile home communities, said that increase was needed because the previous owner was charging too little for too long — the park has only seen two rent hikes over the last five decades, he said. That left the park poorly maintained, he said, with a backlog of costly upgrades needed. Since his purchase, Lennon has paved roads, added fencing and installed new mailboxes, among other improvements.

Lennon, who also sells mobile homes, noted they offer big cost savings compared with other types of housing.

But residents in co-ops are not building long-term wealth on their investment in the land because they’re still paying rent on their lot, he said.

“What’s the goal for these people?” he said. “There isn’t one.”

Mike Bullard, vice president of communications at ROC USA, an organization that works with mobile-home owners across the country, acknowledged that owners generally don’t buy their parks with hopes of a big financial return. They do it to keep their rents affordable and ensure stability over the long term, he said.

The mobile home park in Missouri, for example, doesn’t expect residents to ever fully pay off its debt. Rather, the co-op plans to refinance over time and draw on equity to fund needed infrastructure improvements.

ROC USA has helped create more than 330 resident-owned parks across the country. Bullard said the organization generally helps communities secure a 10-year loan with a balloon payment toward the end. The idea is that communities build a financial track record within a few years of conversion and can refinance in traditional lending markets.

“They have the equity, so they can pull some equity out and repave their roads or replace their, you know, septic systems,” he said. “That’s a sound and smart approach.”


Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org. Follow Stateline on Facebook and X.

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Nintendo made a music streaming app for Switch Online subscribers

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A screenshot of the Nintendo Music app.
Image: Nintendo

While we all wait for the reveal of Nintendo’s next console, the company has once again announced something very different. This time, it’s a mobile app called Nintendo Music, which lets users listen to classic gaming tunes from Nintendo games spanning the last few decades, including Splatoon, Animal Crossing, and The Legend of Zelda. It’s only available to Switch Online subscribers, and it’s launching today on both iOS and Android.

The app features curated playlists themed around games, moments, moods, or characters, though you can also build your own. It also supports streaming as well as downloading tracks for offline listening. Curiously, it includes a spoiler feature that lets you filter out tracks that, somehow, might spoil a game you haven’t played or finished yet. And if you just want some Hyrule white noise, the app also lets you “loop songs or extend select tracks to 15, 30, or 60 minutes for uninterrupted listening.”

Here’s a list of all the regions the app will be available in.

The announcement of Nintendo Music comes not long after a handful of other surprise, non-Switch 2 reveals from Nintendo, including the launch of an alarm clock and a mysterious MMO that’s currently in testing.

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