7 V 2021: Is popular irrationality a fad or a permanent threat to national security?

It seems that around 50% of the American population are delighting in the licensed irrationality promoted by the Republican Party and extreme right wing. “Facts? Phooey! Think? Why bother? Let’s raise some hell!” This behavior is, of course, being modeled by our former president and his Republican punks in Congress, in slavish state legislatures, and everywhere dim and angry people assemble. Half the nation has gone on a spree of thoughtlessness and impulse driven speech, acts, and opinions. Insanity has become our pop-culture.

What I wonder is: Is this self-indulgent thoughtlessness and willful stupidity a fad, like Prohibition and the KuKluxKlan, or is it to be a long-lasting feature, if not a determinant, of American life? If the latter, it is more than an embarrassment. It is a grave weakness and internal threat to our national security. For no foreign power antagonistic to the United States is likely to be constrained by any national unity, gravity, and common resolve on our part, but will be encouraged by our current disarray.

18 III 2021: Another creep from Texas

There is an ancient proverb, “Ex Africa semper aliquid novi,” i.e., “From Africa always something strange.” I am prompted to substitute the Texas of today for the Africa of old, for Texas regularly is always bringing something weird into the nation’s politics. Recently, Texas has given us the likeable and steadfast Senator Ted Cruz. Then there’s Rep. Louis Gohmert, a perennial embarrassment to the Congress, who did his own little bit to cause the 6th of January attack on the government. And one cannot forget Texas’ Attorney General, Mr. Ken Paxton, who files one foolish suit after another so he can keep moving and stay one jump ahead of federal law enforcement. 

And today yet another Texan monstrosity blundered his way to national attention. The incoherence and insensitivity of Rep. Chip Roy’s remarks at the House hearing about the Atlanta killings were the equal of anything we used to hear from our former president. Roy denounced China and the Chinese government. He denounced criticism of extremist rhetoric as an attempt to stifle free speech. He pledged his devotion to the “rule of law.” And then topped it all off with positive remarks about lynching, quoting “old sayings in Texas about find all the rope in Texas and get a tall oak true.” These “old sayings in Texas” were derived from a 2002 song written by Oklahoman Toby Keith.

I have heard there is a movement in Texas to secede again from the United States. I can only applaud this initiative and wish its advocates all success.

17 II 2921: Can Ron Johnson fill Trump’s shoes?

As one might expect, various Republican politicians entertain ambitions to take over Donald Trump’s voter base. They are re-using one of Trump’s more successful game plans, namely, keep yourself in the public eye and do whatever it takes, however degrading, to stay there. Trump kept himself in the media spotlight for four plus years by continually saying something stupid or vicious and by behaving in novel brutish and criminal ways.

Now the leading competitors for the throne they hope Trump will soon abandon are Ted Cruz, the lounge-lizard of Cancun, and Josh Hawley, whose elite heart bleeds for the common man. But at this time the figure who seems most regularly to be copying Trump’s plan is Trump’s sycophantissimus, Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. Ron cannot open his mouth without making a fool of himself and he seizes every opportunity to open it. He is afraid that he cannot be re-elected, and so he keeps forcing himself into public consciousness by acting the fool. This ongoing campaign of outspoken foolishness plays well with the Trumpian base, as it must with Trump himself. But it is also attractive to the news media that report Johnson’s every embarrassing utterance, because, I suppose, he creates a kind of scandal with statements that are outrageous, borderline screwy, and offensive to good sense. A senator’s saying or doing something stupid is hardly surprising, but really transcendent stupidity is, I suppose, newsworthy.

But I keep asking why the media cannot refuse to play along with “no such thing as bad publicity” campaigns of Trump and his epigonids? How can they refuse? Good editing is not the same as censorship, and if right-wingers complain that they are edited out of the news coverage, they should be told that responsible reporting is not a venue for nutty ideas, lies, and political melodrama. 

3 III 2021: Who sabotaged the Nat’l Guard on January 5th

It took the Trump Defense Dept. three hours and nineteen minutes to respond to requests that the National Guard come and defend the Government. The Guard had been on stand-by before the Black Lives Matter event in D.C., but someone decided they should not be ready to respond quickly on January 6th. The D.C. Chief of Police sent a frantic call for the assistance of the National Guard at 1:49 and he and the National Guard heard nothing from the Defense Dept. higher-ups until 5:08. Why?

Either the Army high command and the Defense Dept. are stumble-bums or someone did not want the National Guard to help the D.C. police to quell the riot before an appropriate amount of criminal behavior had taken place in the Capitol. I am wondering if this delay was part of a plot by Trump & Co. to let the riot they had started continue long enough to do serious damage.

28 II 2021: The idol of gold at CPAC

I read of the display of a golden idol of Donald Trump at the CPAC meeting and thought at once of Psalm 113:12-16:

The idols of the nations are silver and gold, 

   the works of the hands of men.

They have mouths, and do not speak; 

   they have eyes, and do not see.

They have ears, and do not hear; 

   they have noses, and do not smell.

They have hands, and do not feel; 

   they have feet, and do not walk. 

Neither will they cry out with their throat.

Let those who make them become like them, 

   along with all who trust in them.

It is altogether appropriate to have a statue of Trump at a gathering where most of the GOP has come to bow down before him and his idol (that is on sale for $100,000). The prayer of the Psalmist, “Let those who make them become like them,” has been fulfilled abundantly in the Republican Party that made this idol and has become like it, wholly corrupt.

I also thought at once of Psalm 95:5, “For all the gods of the gentiles are demons, but the Lord made heaven and earth.” In The City of God, St. Augustine asserts that what the demons most crave is to receive the worship due to God. Is Trump demonic? I’m inclined to say that he is. For how else can we explain his preternatural reduction to servitude of half the country and most of the Republican Party? He has made every effort to undo what is good in government and to replace it with greed and malice. He is also a thoroughgoing liar, and Trump brings vividly to mind the Lord’s description of the Devil in John 8:44: “When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

26 II 2021: Public confessions

We’ve seen various cases of outrageous behavior in the Republican Senate. To mention only a few examples: Ron Johnson (what a mind!) is trying to find a place for himself on the conspiracy bandwagon. Rand Paul gave an exemplary demonstration of what it is to be a brute, bigot, and idiosyncratic show-boater. And Old Mitch has shown yet again that he can almost literally talk out of both sides of his mouth at once. We’re seeing a lot of rightwing acting-out at the CPAC gala. Ted Cruz has taken a well-deserved early lead in the sycophant sweepstakes and we are, of course, looking forward breathlessly to the re-emergence as to the center of attention of the Father of lies Mr. Trump.

We can view these instances as, at best, a national embarrassment, at worst, as a sign of how close to ruin the United States has come. But let’s look on the bright side. There’s no need for eavesdropping or for leaked confessions. These Republicans are confessing their perverted ambition, abuse of position, devotion to manipulation, misanthropy, and irrationality out loud and in the light of day. But no need for penance, they are by no means ashamed of themselves, and are quite ready to congratulate themselves even if no one else will.

18 II 2021: Another polluter leaves the American scene

So I’ve learned of the death of Rush Limbaugh. 

We are told that we should say only what was good about the dead, and the right-wing media are full of encomia, eulogies, etc., about old Rush. I am sure there must be something good to say about him, but I cannot imagine what that would be.

Mr. Limbaugh was a huckster, just like our ex-president, or, maybe not just like. You see, I could never decide whether the divisive opinions Trump pedaled were truly his own or were selected from a menu of offensiveness because of their appeal to his people.

Not so with Rush. I had no doubt at all about his sincerity. He spoke from the heart. He did not affect hatred, he embodied it, and poisoned America with his lies and misrepresentations for decades. He had a “God-given talent” for giving voice to the immense resentment, bigotry, and envy that he shared with his listeners.

13 II 2021: Something you can count on


In these difficult and confusing times, in the midst of accelerating change and a plague that is turning American society topsy-turvy, it is good, I suppose, to have something you can count on. All but seven Republicans in the Senate voted to acquit Boss Trump. Trump’s being out of office has made no difference. Whenever Trump is around it’s still BOHICA time (bend over, here it comes again) for the GOP. I think some of them will throw themselves on Trump’s funeral pyre (if they think that is to their political advantage).

One of his criminal lawyers claimed that the impeachment was part of a “campaign of hate” against Trump. That was when all the really serious ass-lickers put down their newspapers and raised their handkerchiefs to their eyes. Poor Donny being pushed around by all the “popular” students, by all the people with any social standing, by the really serous people in the world of finance, by any who love their country.

My response is: What’s not to hate?

11 II 2021: Sure, and Abel killed Cain!

Why don’t the Republicans get some new, less boring official liars. I’m weary of Lindsey Graham and that old gas pipe Newt Gingrich.  

Newt is a liar with decades of experience, but he’s gone on too long without changing his act. Do you suppose Newt has ever had a thought about the common good? Anyway, he’s telling us that the Democrats are responsible for the atrocities at the Capitol. Make up the lie and keep telling it. We’ll hear lots more along these lines in days to come.

And Lindsey is, of course, indignant at having his time wasted, having to sit and view tasteless movies of an attack on the government of the United States.

And I’ve heard other Republican senators, in particular a guy from the West, North or South Dakota, who gave clear evidence that he had worked hard to memorize the party line.

These creeps are worse than ad men, because if an ad man were to tell as many lies as they, he would be in jail. 

They remind me of arrogant fraternity boys trying to cook up an explanation for the fact that one of their pledges died of alcohol poisoning or that a visitor was raped in the frat house. Yeah, it was his own fault. And he did seem kind of unstable. And, yeah, she was askin’ for it, coming here, dressed like that. What’s a man to do?

No, it’s going to require a criminal court to put Trump away. We should prosecute this crime boss a.s.a.p. As for these Republicans, I don’t think the American people are as unaffected by the films shown at the impeachment trial as the Republicans pretend to be. The films make it clear that this was a real, not a metaphorical attack on the United States, and now we know who are the “enemies of the people” in Congress.

28 I 2021: Republican Party, a petri dish for demagogues

Speaker Nancy Pelosi rebuked the Republican “leadership” in the House for putting the infamous Marjorie Taylor Greene on the House Education Committee. Here is a quotation from the news report:

 …what could they be thinking?” Pelosi asked Thursday. “Or is thinking too generous a word for what they might be doing? It’s absolutely appalling, and I think the focus has to be on the Republican leadership of this House of Representatives for the disregard they have for the death of those children.”

Well, the Republicans in Congress are, in fact, thinking all the time, but only of themselves and about how anything they say or do might affect their chances of re-election. For them, it is indeed “all about me.” 

Ms Greene is both a nutcase and deeply cynical, with a long record of bizarre and indefensible statements. Her recent election was assured by the attractiveness of her lies to the conspiracy swallowing-proletariat of Republican voters to whom she has been pandering for years by signing on to almost any conspiracy theory that has come along. And Republicans are wary of alienating the bigoted, ignorant, and manic in the Trump base.

Embarrassment should be far too mild a word for Ms Greene’s effect on the Republican Party. Her presence in Congress is a damning judgement on the Party that has winked at and encouraged the delusions of the whole spectrum of the violent right. This kind of thing goes back at least as far as Nixon’s “Southern strategy” whereby he welcomed segregationists into the Republican Party.

Though Ms Greene’s documented statements from recent years should have made her an utter pariah with anyone of sense, the Republican Party has welcomed her into Congress and will now fight as mindlessly for her as they did for the liar Trump.