From the Philobiblon of Richard de Bury (d1345):
Almighty Author and Lover of peace,
scatter the savages who crave wars
that are above all plagues damaging to books.
For wars, wanting the direction of reason,
make frantic assaults on everything in their way,
and, without the use of reason’s restrain,
advance with no discernment at all
and destroy the very vessels of reason.
The PARC division of the Trumpublican Party is in the news. The Supreme Court has kept faith with imperialism and colonialism. Justice Kavnaugh tells us, and seven other justices agree, that Puerto Ricans and residents of other U.S. territories need not be extended the same federal benefits as other citizens of the United States. This should come as no surprise if one realizes that the current legal and moral ethos of the Supreme Court is stuck in 1900 or 1857 or 1776 or 1526.
In a lower court that is also a Trumpublican creation, the recently appointed (2020) federal District Judge Kathryn Kimbell Mizelle has struck a blow for absurdity in her ruling against the mask mandate for interstate passengers. Judge Mizelle’s background in jurisprudence is so slight that the American Bar Association rated her as “Not Qualified” to serve as a federal trial court judge. But that did not matter at all to the Trumpublicans who forced her confirmation through the Senate. Why? Whatever the Trumpublicans actually believe (if believe they do), their image is fiercely anti-intellectual and reactionary, and so they maintain their appeal to the ignorant, reactionary, and resentful voters of their base.
So, you see, Judge Mizelle, like Justice Amy Coney Barrett, is their kind of gal. Judge Mizelle does not come from a reactionary Catholic background, like Justice Barrett, but from an Evangelical background. She is a graduate of Covenant College in Lookout Mountain GA whose website proudly declares: “Our motto, ‘In all things, Christ preeminent,’ says it all: We exist to glorify and make known the name of Jesus Christ.” Covenant College asserts its devotion to what they call “Reformed Theology,” stating: “Reformed Theology: We are committed to the Bible as the inerrant Word of God, and everything we do is grounded in our Reformed theology.” Covenant’s motto should be inoffensive to the sympathetically minded. However, while a belief system that is founded on biblical inerrancy may be a fine guide to life, it must not guide the rulings of federal judges.
The American polity is in part based on the delusion that one’s religion can be a wholly personal matter, separated as if by a firewall from political life. This is a big topic, and all I will say about it now is this: How much of a stretch is it to go from a shared belief in the doctrine that God created the universe in six days to a shared belief in the doctrine that Donald Trump actually won the 2020 election?
Populism without a strong sense of civic responsibility panders to the worst in people.
Headline from Vanity Fair: OF COURSE TRUMP ENDORSED A GOP CANDIDATE ACCUSED OF GROPING MORE THAN HALF A DOZEN WOMEN
Of course, Trump cannot change.
A report on CNN bears the headline “Nearly 1,000 Civilians Found Dead Near Kyiv — Most Simply Executed”
Of course, the Russians cannot change.
From the report on CNN about Frank James, the ‘alleged’ N.Y. subway shooter:“James is suspected of setting off smoke grenades and firing a handgun 33 times on a crowded N train … The motive of the shooting is not yet known.”This man, I think, is an obvious nutcase, and should not be allowed to have a firearm under any circumstances.
From a CNN article by Paul Leblank:
“Many Americans hold their right to bear arms, enshrined in the US Constitution, as sacrosanct.”
It can’t be “sacrosanct” because it is a man-given right, and so can be taken away.
But some really do regard gun rights as sacrosanct.
These people are nutcases.
From the same article by Paul Leblank:
“Underscoring this trend on Tuesday was Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who signed a new lawthat allows eligible residents to carry concealed guns in public without licenses.
I do not know whether Gov. Kemp is a nutcase or simply cunning … probably the latter.
Right-wing politicians enable the firearms industry, at home and abroad, and pander to gun-crazed voters by stretching the so-called “right to bear arms” in ever more novel and absurd ways. We allow these people to remain in office. Are we too nutcases?
Here are some headers from today’s CNN that are true, but can hardly be considered to tell of something new. All are familiar, all quite predictable. Do these mean “the end is near”? I think I hope so.
“UN warns of rape and sexual violence against women and children in Ukraine”
“Eight people were shot and eight others were injured at a Brooklyn subway station this morning”
“Buffalo Police officers who pushed 75-year-old during Black Lives Matter protest cleared of wrongdoing”
“Trump-style populism rises in US and Europe as Putin assaults world order”
“Attacks on voting rights aren’t slowing down and Black Americans are in the cross hairs, new report finds.”
“Adolescent overdose deaths in the United States more than doubled from 2010 to 2021, jumping from 518 to 1,146 deaths annually, according to the study published in JAMA.”
“Blizzard conditions with 1 to 3 feet of snow and volatile severe storms, including tornadoes, are on tap today”
“Kim Kardashian ‘wasn’t planning on’ a relationship with Pete Davidson”
“I’ve got to be the cleanest, I think I’m the most honest human being, perhaps, that God has ever created,” Trump said.
2 people are dead and 10 hospitalized after Iowa nightclub shooting
An overnight shooting in a residential part of Elgin, Illinois, has left six people injured
Hardly a weekend goes by without an overnight mass shooting.
brought to you by our “gun rights.”
Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affeck are engaged again
How many really care about this hyped soap opera?
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich flips endorsement in House race — and then flips it back.
JLo and Ben are not the only flippers. Newt, still somehow running on the fumes from his speakership that ended thirty-five ago, has flipped to align his choice with Donald Trump’s. Two statesmen agree.
Abortion access under renewed threat in Oklahoma and Missouri
These two state legislatures lead the race in all around stupidity, but there are others striving to catch up.
State Department unable to provide a full account of foreign gifts given to Trump and officials
This is not news, but a confirmation of what was long assumed.
Josh Hawley, former resident of Missouri, knows that there is no such thing as bad publicity. After pissing himself at the Jackson hearing, he is now trying another stunt to get the attention he so desperately craves. He will block confirmations of high-level appointments to the Dept. of Defense until his complaints and hurt feelings receive some grown-up attention. He is the poor little rich boy who is trying by bad behavior to get the attention he cannot get otherwise. So Josh runs from house to house ringing doorbells, overturning trash cans, turning on sprinklers, and letting air out of tires.
I used to assume that ivy-league Josh’s puerile persona was mere playacting for the base, but now I’m thinking his melodramatic immaturity is for real.
It’s reported that only one Republican senator, Mr. Romney, remained to applaud the confirmation of justice-elect Jackson, while the rest of the Republicans in attendance stampeded out of the room. The great division in our country has many causes, but downright surly childishness is one of them for sure. These Republicans, whose passage into puberty is indicated only by their prurience, are like a gang of boys whose political philosophy is no more sophisticated than “Us good, them bad.” If the future of our country is in the hands of legislators like this, our prospects are pitiable.
My pessimism is reinforced by Republican-controlled state legislatures that are passing one regressive law after another. The Democratic governor of Kentucky, Mr. Andy Beshear, has had to veto a bill passed by the Republican legislature that would ban from Kentucky’s schools honest study and discussion of the role of race in American history. Several Republican legislatures are passing laws like this that sometimes even use the buzzword “critical race theory,” though they obviously have no idea of what “critical race theory” really is. But whether they name “critical race theory” or only imply it, it is clear that what they intend to keep out of the schools is the truth of America’s atrocity-filled history in race relations, our legalized slaughter, deportation, and confinement of native Indians and virtually unending enslavement of kidnapped Africans. But these legislators are like adults determined to keep the children ignorant of horrific features of family history, though for all their efforts, the truth will come out or, if suppressed, will have its horrible effects.
Does anyone know how much money, or, what favors Alvin Bragg is receiving or going to receive for wrecking the prosecution of the criminal Donald Trump? I and many other would like to know.