27 VII 2020: Saving American History???

Senator Tom Cotton is emerging as a leading apologist for slavery which he called, renewing an earlier scandal, “a necessary evil.” He has introduced a bill, “The Saving American History Act of 2020,” to deny federal funding to any school that would adopt a program linked to the 1619 curriculum that examines the role of slavery in the founding of the United States.

Senator Cotton is from Arkansas, an unrepentant Confederate state, so we should not be surprised to see him stand up for “the way things were.” He mis-named, his bill to conceal its real intent, for its title should read: “The Saving the White Supremacist Version of American History Act.”

This country has two grave sins on its soul, sins for which it has yet to repent: Slavery of the Black People and Slaughter of the Indians. Yet we avoid talking about slavery except to repeat the fiction that the Civil War ended slavery. We boast of pioneers, 49ers, and homesteaders, and never think, let alone admit, that our westward expansion involved one crime against humanity after another.

I fear that Senator Cotton’s “American History” would only perpetuate the self-aggrandizement and falsifications.

24 VII 2020: Trump’s support of the pandemic; Law [sic] and Order [sic]; Never let ethics stand in your way.

1) Trump is not wholly to blame for Americans’ refusing to wear face masks, but he can and must be held responsible for the damage he has done by refusing to wear a mask and belittling the threat posed by COVID19. It occurred to me that his behavior is like that of a senior fraternity boy telling the freshmen “Real studs never use condoms.”

2) I find it paradoxical that our outlaw President, a number of whose close associates are in the clink or ought to be, and his shyster Attorney General are calling for law and order. I’m sure Trump and Barr have their fingers crossed behind their backs when they speak of law and order.

3) We read today that Trump’s ambassador to the U.K., Woody Johnson, has been caught out using abusive speech and trying, as requested by Trump, to persuade Britain to hold the British Open at one of Trump’s resorts. This is hardly surprising. I expect that most of Trump’s nominees use race- or gender-charged abusive language in private and that most of them are only too ready to work a deal for Donald. Anyone Trump selects is very likely to be a crook like him.

22 VII 2020: Trump wishes Ghislaine Maxwell well

To a question about Ghislaine Maxwell and possible involvement of Prince Andrew in Epstein’s misdeeds Pres. Trump replied: “I don’t know. I haven’t really been following it too much. I just wish her well, frankly. I’ve met her numerous times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach. I guess they lived in Palm Beach. But I wish her well. Whatever it is. I don’t know the situation with Prince Andrew. Just don’t know. Not aware of it.” 

This is all very curious. A claim of “don’t know nuttin'” from a man who spends much of his time watching television. Trump has, of course, tried to distance himself from Epstein, but it’s obvious that they were best buds if not partners in crime.

And he wishes Maxwell well, she who ran Epstein’s string of victims. Well, he says he met her “numerous times,” so why shouldn’t he wish an acquaintance well? “I guess they lived in Palm Beach,” so he used to run into her sometimes at the supermarket and liquor store, in the better restaurants and bars. I think a little digging would reveal a much closer relationship than this.

Even if they were close friends, why should Trump make the impolitic statement that he wishes her well? Birds of a feather again! Trump, Epstein, Maxwell, and Roger Stone are all members of the semi-criminal sleaze community for whom the law is a mere inconvenience and the only real crime is getting caught.

20 VII 2020: Trump, the torturer John Yoo, and the return of Nazi rule

It has come out that Trump has been consulting John Yoo, the greatest disgrace to the legal profession in the United States. Why was he not disbarred because of his facilitation of torture in the last Bush administration? Why was he allowed to continue teaching law? He should have sought work with ISIS and others who love torture. But Yoo is probably on his way to becoming Trump’s “Roy Cohn.”

There is also a rumor that Trump is looking into ruling the country by decree. Of course that was the power given to Hitler after the Reichstag fire. That was his real start, and of course, he never gave up ruling by decree until he shot himself in his Bunker. And they say that Trump is unlikely to accept his defeat in the coming election, so I suppose he’ll want to go on ruling by decrees from his Bunker.

16 VII 2020: Barr keeping busy

Another convicted murderer was executed today by our Attorney General, Bill Barr, a noted Roman Catholic, at the behest, I’m sure, of that unbending zealot for justice and candidate for re-election, Donald Trump. Apparently, Wesley Purkey was pretty far gone with progressive dementia, schizophrenia, and severe mental illness, nonetheless justice, delayed since Purkey’s sentencing in 2004, had still to be done. 

Olivia Long, the stepmother of the child he killed, is quoted as saying: “It just took way too long, … We just shouldn’t have to wait this long.” But one Kerri Kupec, a spokesperson for the DOJ, concluded “… Purkey has finally faced justice.”

Could anything mitigate the life-destroying grief of the Long Family? What could calm society’s fears and vent its indignation at sociopathic behavior? So I have to ask: What were the Long Family awaiting for sixteen years? What is that “justice” the DOJ says Purkey finally faced? I would guess that the Long Family were waiting for closure, i.e., vengeance for the murder of their daughter, and the DOJ’s “justice” means simply the conclusion of a murder trial that will be satisfactory to the frightened, vindictive, and self-righteous. 

The DOJ and pseudo-christian enthusiasts for the death penalty will quote to us Exodus 21:23-25: “… thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth” etc. They will not quote the rescinding of this law in the Sermon on the Mount Mt 5:38-39: “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist one who is evil. But if any strikes you on the right cheek ….” or in Romans 12:19: “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

So the capital-punishment crowd choose the Old Law over the New and claim for themselves a divine prerogative. But we must challenge their use of the term “justice.” Human justice is too often the creation of limited minds confused by unrealized fears and of that ancient enemy, the libido dominandi, the desperate craving for dominance over other human beings. So let’s do an experiment and in our discourse substitute “revenge” for “justice.” I predict that we would be amazed at the number of instances in which “revenge” is clearly the correct term to use.

14 VII 2020: Billy “the Hangman” Barr

Finally, finally, Billy Barr has “got his man,” “made his bones,” or whatever gangland expression might apply to judicial murder. Billy and others like him have shown amazing patience. They’ve waited 17 years to execute a federal prisoner. Authoritarians with less self-control would have been unable to endure so long a delay and would by now have hosted any number of semi-official lynchings. But Billy the Hangman and Sheriff Trump have waited patiently, using the delay to build up their supply of lethal injections. And now, at last! The only flaw I can see is that the victim was not electrocuted, for if he were to be electrocuted, Billy and Trump could have thrown the switch from the Oval Office. 

To prolong the execution high, Billy has scheduled two more executions for this week. Off course, Billy and Trump are not the only ones getting off on the prospect of future executions. A very considerable portion of Trump’s base has been longing for a return to the good old days of capital punishment, for in these times of sudden and unpredictable change it’s so comforting to get back to “the way we used to do it.” Trumpists everywhere are rejoicing, so we can be sure that Trump will look for ways to stoke this grassroots enthusiasm. Public executions at a Trump rally would be ideal, but are not feasible because of bogus social distancing. However, executions could be shown on real-time television using the protocols of professional football coverage, and there would be no shortage of Trumpists who would want to do the play-by-play.

11 VII 2020: Long live death??

Fascists took over a celebratory meeting at the University of Salamanca on 12 – X – 1936. A conspicuous presence among them was General Millán Astray, founder of the Spanish Foreign Legion. The General, with his supporters, was shouting the Spanish Legion’s motto: Viva la muerte! i.e., “Long live death!” He was vigorously rebuked by the meeting’s chair, Miguel de Unamuno, Rector of the University. Astray then shouted in reply “Death to intelligence!” (or, in other versions, “Death to traitor intellectuality!”), “Long live death!” 

Trump’s Department of Justice has been given the go-ahead to resume administration of the death penalty, and the Trumpists are salivating at the prospect of killing criminals. A series of executions is sure to boost Trump’s popularity with the barbarians in his base. As for intelligence, it, along with truth, has been under unrelenting attack since Trump’s nomination, an attack that has intensified lately in the Trumpist response to the pandemic, so “Death to intelligence! Death to truth!’

Is it, or is it not a coincidence that the while the Department of Justice is itching to kill criminals Trump is giving a pardon to Roger Stone, his friend and fellow criminal. I find it hard to believe that Trump was motivated solely by friendship. Trump doesn’t do friendship. I think Trump was motivated by a desire to show his dictatorial power, to undo the results of the Mueller investigation, and to ease his nervousness at seeing someone like himself go to prison just for lying. People for whom lying is their way of life are, of course, appalled at the injustice of punishing someone for lying under oath, so “Death to truth!”

10 VII 2020: Gee, Tucker, those women are really scary!

I’ve been reading about Tucker Carlson’s attempts to vilify Senator Tammy Duckworth. Carlson is following the now-traditional Trump method, i.e., use only short words to accuse your critics of the very faults of which you are yourself guilty. So in this case, Carlson, who if he doesn’t suffer from bone-spurs, surely could suffer from bone-spurs if needed, has called Sen. Duckworth a coward. That makes me think that cowardice is something he knows a thing or two about. Likewise, Tucker, a comedian who does a prime-time burlesque of political commentary, has called Sen. Duckworth a fraud. Again, that makes me think that this preppy-pseudo-populist-pundit knows a good deal about fraud. Finally, he denounced her as one who “hates America.” Here too he is closely imitating his Leader, for Trump has said that the members of the so-called Squad in the House of Representatives “hate America.” I’m guessing Carlson seized on this particular canard because Sen. Duckworth and members of the Squad share some notable features that are sure to make reactionaries pee in their pants. They are all courageous women, they’ve all been elected to high office, they are all terrifyingly smart, they are all women of color, and are all effective critics of the right-wing fraudsters whose camp-followers tune in to Tucker’s show. They are, for people like Carlson, menace incarnate.

8 VII 2020: Re-run of Massacre of the Innocents?

Donald Trump, the Pig Of The United States, is demanding that schools re-open in the Fall, regardless of the COVID-19 situation. His neglect and stupidity have already contributed to the deaths of many, many Americans, and now he’s ready to sacrifice schoolchildren in his futile attempt to force a diseased population “back to normal.” Makes me think of King Herod who, with plenty of blood on his hands already, organized a massacre of children to make his political position more secure.