17 I 2023: Do unregulated guns prop up white supremacy?

Among today’s headlines:

from St. Louis Today: “Guns in St. Louis are increasingly semi-automatic – with higher caliber bullets, too”

from huffpost: “Police: 8 People Shot, 1 Critical At Florida MLK Day Event”

I have read that black Americans make up 12.5 percent of the population, but have been the victims in 61 percent of gun homicides. And I wonder if the laxity or absence of gun regulation is intended to maintain white supremacy in the U.S.

Implementing a policy does not always mean making things happen, but can also involve letting things happen. I have long believed that America’s failure to prevent the importation, manufacture, and distribution of narcotics is not the result of chronic incompetence, but is an intentional neglect meant to disable America’s black communities.

So too I wonder if the laxity of firearm regulations and the utter failure to control the traffic in illegal firearms are similarly part of a plan to inhibit the development of a cohesive, economically strong, and politically powerful black community, and to instill contempt and fear of blacks in the wider population.

Is this paranoia?

10 I 2022: Superficial likeness

Trumpists are making much of the ten five-years-old classified documents found in a private office of Biden. The likeness to Trump’s theft of documents is only superficial, rather like comparing someone who forgets to leave a tip to someone who sneaks out without paying the check.

7 I 2023: Get rid of Gaetz

CNN concluded its account of the election in the House of Representatives as follows:

“Gaetz, however, suggested the historic fight would have a different impact on McCarthy’s speakership. Due to the concessions, Gaetz argued, McCarthy will be governing in a ‘straitjacket’.”

I hope Speaker McCarthy will have the courage (?) and prudence (?) to make void any concessions he is claimed to have made, especially to Gaetz, the class clown cum badboy. Maybe the Republicans are now sufficiently angry and embarrassed to muzzle Gaetz and his fellow defectors. I don’t know. Republicans have seemed, like their Leader, to be immune to embarrassment. Yet the last days have shown that the Republicans, majority or not, are not now capable of governing themselves, let alone the Country. Maybe they will do a bit of housecleaning.

6 I 2023: Second anniversary of the rebellion

A small group of Republicans who call themselves “Freedom Caucus,” but are, in effect, an Anti-democracy Movement, is trying to repeat its rebellion of Jan 6th by obstructing the work of government. 

And what is the unifying principle, the “policy goal,” of this group. This coterie is united not by principle or policy but by a shared passion for self-aggrandizement. These childish obstructionists are often referred to as “far-right Republicans,” but to do so is an insult to conservatives. These people have no authentic political views, but are wholly committed to saying and doing whatever will get them publicity and maintain their attraction to a group of foolish and frightened voters.

Democracy, like the human body, contains within it the causes of its own decay.

29 XII 2022: George Santos: like father like son?

I suppose it would be stretching things if I were to claim for George Santos direct descent from Baron Munchausen. But I have heard it said that perhaps he is one of Donald Trump’s unacknowledged sons. Santos claims Trump as his model in the politics of mendacity, and if one considers his behavior and contempt for the public, Santos does seem to be a con off the old grift.

I suppose theorists might describe Santos’ campaign of lies as just another manifestation of Americans’ drive to re-invent themselves, in the old song from westward expansion: 

What was your name in the States?
Was it Murphy, MacDonald or Gates?
Did you hold up a bank as a juvenile prank
And pack up the money in crates, my friend,
What was your name in the States?

But in the case of Trump and Santos it is not a matter of escaping a former identity, but of polishing it up, or, “embellishing” it. Brazen liars of the past tried to conceal a history of crime, these politicians are trying to conceal a history of hum-drum and failure.

25 XII 2022: What kind of sandwich to eat during insurrection?

Kayleigh McEnany’s testimony to the Jan 6th Committee is consistent with what we have earlier seen of her. She reported learning of the attack on the Capitol while she was eating lunch (a turkey sandwich, she reported) in her office. Her response to this news did not seem as prompt and energetic as one might expect, so Rep. Cheney asked her: “And you were just eating a turkey sandwich and just didn’t – didn’t register?” To this Ms McEnany replied: “I definitely reject the characterization that I was just eating a turkey sandwich and would ignore a text about Capitol Hill office buildings being stormed.” She continued: “I in no way, shape, or form would eat a turkey sandwich if I thought Capitol Hill was being seiged.”

If she would not eat a turkey sandwich if she thought Capitol Hill was under attack, I wonder what kind of sandwich she would have been eating if she did think Capitol Hill was being “seiged.”

20 XII 2022: Ethics Committee, conspirators

The Jan 6th Committee is going to refer Scott Perry, Jim Jordan, Andy Biggs, and Kevin McCarthy to the House Bipartisan Ethics Committee because they refused to comply with the Jan 6th Committee’s subpoena. This is, of course, a naive gesture, for these four representatives probably don’t know what ethics has to do with it, and if they do, I’m sure that they would deny that ethical restraints apply to them and their behavior: “We don’t need no stinking ethics!”.

This referral by the Jan 6 Committee is like complaining because an alcoholic takes an extra sip of cough syrup. These four men are co-conspirators with Donald Trump, and, as such, they are criminals. When Oh when are people in public life going to admit the dimensions of the Trump coup and the grave guilt of all who were involved in it.

8 XII 2022: Comparative coups

News comes today of the thwarting of a planned coup in Germany. We can see here similarities to our Jan 6 experience, and at least one notable difference.

Similarities:

The plotters, who call themselves the Reichsbuerger (= “Patriots”), long for the return of the old German Empire and/or the late Nazi regime.

They plan to install Henrich XIII Prinz Reuss as leader of their new state. Prinz Heinrich, has been working as a real estate developer in Frankfurt.

Those arrested include right-wingers, COVID deniers, and extreme nationalists who deny the legitimacy of the modern German state.

Prosecutors have found that the conspirators are guided by deep state conspiracy theories put forward by these Reichsbuerger and QAnon.

Difference:

The German authorities have acted promptly and decisively to conduct raids and make arrests all across Germany, for they realize the danger of this unanticipated right-wing plot against the German state. Compare this to the sluggish and constrained reaction to the plot to overthrow the American government. The politico-hooligans of Jan 6th are, as all know, only the public and naive manifestation of an extensive plot that included the presidency and associated low-lifes, Republicans, big business, right-wing media, and enthusiasts for racism and fascism generally. Locking up the street-fighters is only the first and easiest step towards bringing this still thriving American conspiracy under control.