On Sunday, November 9, eight Democrats voted with Republicans on a procedural measure to move ahead on funding the government, separating that from continuing tax credits on the Affordable Care Act, which are scheduled to expire January 1. Until this vote, extending the Affordable Care Act credits had been a key condition to Democrats voting to end the 40-day government shutdown. The Democrats voting to begin the process of ending the shutdown were Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.

Democratic social media posters vented frustration, calling for various senators to resign, be replaced, etc. Some went so far as to advocate blatantly counterproductive actions such as changing voter registration from Democrat to independent. But as Princeton history professor Kevin M. Kruse put it, “… the answer isn’t to abandon the [Democratic] party …. The answer is to take it over and transform it.”

The firehosing and resilience targeting continue. Though not always strictly disinformation, the barrage of sometimes contradictory news and announcements about changes to government services and regulations that people rely on has comparable effects. If you haven’t read disinformation researcher Brooke Binkowski’s series on How to Fight Disinformation do yourself a favor and set aside some time to read it. It was written between 2020 and 2022 and its focus is primarily climate-change related, but many of the players and certainly the same techniques make an appearance, and the parallels to the current situation are extensive.

One reason I mention firehosing and resilience targeting is that it is a challenge to choose a topic to focus on in the current information environment. This week the events that probably received the most media attention (news, social, etc.) were the machinations in Congress surrounding the budget.