9 VI 2020: Is fear-mongering an abuse of free speech? Removing monuments.

Like our President, Tucker Carlson will say anything to please his base. Lately, he has been doing a bit of fear-mongering. He is quoted on CNN:

“This may be a lot of things, this moment we are living through, but it is definitely not about black lives … And remember that when they come for you, and at this rate, they will. Anyone who has ever been subjected to the rage of the mob knows the feeling. It’s like being swarmed by hornets. You cannot think clearly.”

I think that perhaps Mr. Carlson, who can think quite clearly in his own self-interest, is trying to incite a “mob” to boost his ratings. What Carlson is doing is, in my view, the equivalent of shouting “fire” in a crowded theater.

When a society has gone terribly wrong, one of the things it is likely to do when it recovers is to get rid of the memorials of the persons and events of its shameful past.

Anyone who has spent any time in Germany has seen evidences of the thorough removal of Nazi symbols from public view. Monuments to the heroes of the Confederacy are not memorials of courage and devotion. They are, rather, the propaganda of unrepentant white supremacism. If the monuments of white supremacism in Germany had to go, so too must the monuments of white supremacism in the United States.

8 VI 2020: Dreadful statistics

There is an article on CNN, “American police shoot, kill and imprison more people than other developed countries. Here’s the data,” and the data are shocking.

The data showing the disproportionate violent treatment of black citizens by police is frightening. Any fool who wants to deny that there is not systemic racism among the American police should look at these data and wake up.

A couple of other especially dreadful stats:

Police shootings: in 2018 the American police shot and killed about 1,000 people. The comparable figures for Germany 11, Australia 8, UK 3, and New Zealand 1 per 1000 people. I’m sure that the American police are more heavily armed than those in these other countries, just as I’m sure that criminals are much more heavily armed that criminals in other countries. Are our cops so much less reliable or our criminals so much more vicious? I don’t think so. We are different from other countries, I think, because they are not steeped in gun culture and gun violence.

We Americans have more guns than anybody. A “Small Arms Survey” of 2017 found that in the U.S. we have 120.5 guns for every 100 persons. Of these, 1,073,743 guns are registered and 392,273,257 are not — so much for gun control. The countries that come closest to us in number of firearms have only half our number, and these are Yemen at 52.8 per 100,000, Montenegro 39.1, and Serbia 39.1. So we are far ahead of any violence-torn country. Conclusion: Yes, the U.S. is violence torn and this is due to gun-culture and racism.

The other set of statistics that amazed me was the size of prison populations: Here are the figures for the number imprisoned per 100,000 people: UK 140 per 100,000, Canada 114, France 100, Italy 98, Germany 75, Japan 41, and the United States of America 655 per 100k. We have 4.6 times more people in prison than any country in the free world. It is Russia that comes closest to us with 615 per 100k while China lags far, far behind with 118 per 100k So some questions arise:

Are our places of confinement prisons or concentration camps?

Can any other statistic so well portray the dysfunctionality of the United States?

And what are the causes of this dysfunctionality?

Among them are these three:

1) racism,

2) unjust distribution of wealth and opportunity,

3) our propensity to violence.

7 VI 2020: Trump’s cowardice spreading

So Trump has various officers of the law hiding their identification as they try to do his dominating. He is making cowards of all of them. “I don’t plan to commit a crime, but if I do, I’ll do it anonymously.” This is just what I would expect from our craven President and his spineless lawyer.

And I read that Trumpist officials, in another attempt to take the “big lie” approach, have been claiming that there is no systemic racism in the American police system. Who the hell is going to believe this?? Well they’ve learned to lie like their Leader. Any honest cop could, I’m sure, identify the racists among her colleagues.

We are not going to get the kind of police we need if we continue to pay the police so little and give them so little respect. The police are, in my view, more important that the courts, because it is by the police that the law is initially administered. Good, sound police are more important to our democracy than the military.

4 VI 2020: The Clown wants to send in the troops

The Battle of Lafayette Park has shown us how Trump would like to handle the current unrest in the United States — he will have a tool, like Wm Barr, unleash violence upon the demonstrators if they don’t do what Trump wants. Trump already has I.C.E. and the F.B.I. deployed around the country, and now I read that Trump wanted 10,000 troops in the streets to suppress the rebellion, not much short of the number of soldiers we have in Afghanistan.

King George’s soldiers managed to kill only 5 colonists at the Boston Massacre of 1755. Napoleon’s soldiers used “a whiff of grapeshot” to kill some 300 rioting royalists in 1795. Czar Nicholas II’s soldiers shot more than 500 demonstrators in St. Petersburg in 1905. And no one knows how many the assault rifles and tanks of the Chinese army killed in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Is Trump trying to live out his monarchical/dictatorial fantasies by emulating despots of the past? I might think so, but Trump is wholly ignorant of history, of world history and of American history. If he knew more about our country he is trying to destroy, more about its Constitution and traditional separation of civilian and military, maybe he would have not been so quick to try to use our Army against us.

3 VI 2020: Insurrection act applies to all

Trump is talking about launching an armed invasion of our cities based under the pretext of the Insurrection Act from 1807 – he does love to shoot the shit! Do you think Trump dug up this statute on his own? How could he? It was probably one of the semi-fascist amateurs who infest the White House.

If Trump wants to invoke the Insurrection Act, he should go after some genuine insurrectionists who will fight back. All around the country gun nuts have banded together into boys clubs that call themselves “militias,” playing at being “tactical” and itching to defend what they call their rights. There are militant white supremacists who bring AK47s to every event. I don’t know whether this is a requirement of their dress-code or they are afraid to go out into the public without their AKs. In any case, one day they are going to succumb to their urge to shoot something. I read a report today on the Boogaloogers, another group of pseudo-soldiers looking for a fight. The internet is crawling with people like these to whom the term “insurrectionist” applies very well. Will our wannabe dictator get out of his bunker and take on these tough guys? No, because these are the basest of his base.

3 VI 2002: Does Trump want to start a war??

This question has occurred to me several times in the last few days. He might want to start a civil war, any war, because he is a son of Satan who will do anything to be re-elected. Why? Because not to be re-elected would be an unendurable rebuke that would strip him of his immunity and disclose a lifetime of embarrassing secrets.

What has war to do with it? Well, there is a naive tendency to refrain from criticism of even bad government in time of war. That might mute his critics. Then, war is big news and would be a distraction from the malfeasance and foolishness of Trump’s government. Moreover, if there is a war, it would be much easier for the Trumps to postpone, perhaps permanently, the next election, and we might have Emperor Donald the First.

I fear I see another connection between Trump and the satanic.

I believe that President Trump, a compulsive and resourceful liar, would not hesitate to shed the blood of soldiers, demonstrators, and corona virus patients to hang on to the presidency. Jesus calls the Devil “a liar and the father of lies.” That is in John 8:44, just after He has said that Satan “was a murderer from the beginning.” Deceit and murder are not necessarily associated, at least not in the day to day lives of ordinary people. But when a desperate megalomaniac plays on the greater stage of political life, deceit and murder too often go hand in hand.

2 VI 2020: Trump at church

Trump is not hiding his light under the bushel of the Führerbunker. His deep faith and intimate knowledge of Scripture summoned him forth to confront the sinfulness besetting America. His assertion of Christian empathy and hope had to be given a suitable frame for photographs, and left-wing radicals in Lafayette Square tried to prevent his getting to church. But they were cut down by the sword of divine wrath, and God’s Anointed won through to the church steps to pose there with his Bible. We do not know whether that Bible was the copy given him by Roy Cohn or an older family heirloom. He did not open the Bible because he did not need to since he knows it so very well. Claims from Antifa media that he did not open his Bible because it was hollow and concealed an automatic pistol and cyanide pill can be rejected out-of-hand, since he has Secret Service agents to carry those things around for him. Let the world see that Our Leader is not hiding from trouble but, full of faith, is demanding that that others dominate it head on. And so, as always, we must D U M P T R U M P

31 V 2020: The futility of violence

News films of the riots that are everywhere taking place report the presence of among demonstrators of white people bent on causing violence and damage. I’ve read that some think these are white supremacists at work, and I find that easy to believe, for the riots present the black community in a very unfavorable light. In any case, demonstrations seem to get out of hand easily and descend into vandalism, attacks on law enforcement, and looting. What is a naive middle-class elder from St. Louis to make of this?

In the days of Ferguson, it seemed to me that media coverage of the riots might as well have conspired to present the black community there as lawless, destructive, divided against itself, and ignorant. White supremacists could not have contrived to present blacks more prejudicially light than the images of black “youths” hurling things against a backdrop of buildings in flame, scenes of frantic looting, and reports of mobs bent on destruction in an atmosphere that looked more like a vandals’ block party than a demonstration. And I had to wonder why the black community is, apparently, so often complicit in events and activities that make them look so bad. Why did we not hear stern denunciations of this behavior from black leaders and see the black community collaborate to bring its destructive and criminal elements under control? Anyway, Ferguson came, and Ferguson went, and nothing at all of lasting value was accomplished by it. And now the nation is playing re-runs of Ferguson.

The sufferings of the black community have been unrelenting and grievous. The white community must accept responsibility for these and collaborate with a sense of urgency for their remediation. But the black community must collaborate too. We hear demands for more investment in black schools, but more money would not make a difference if black parents remain indifferent or unsupportive of education. There are demands for more jobs for blacks, and this would help, but it is becoming ever more difficult to introduce uneducated, unskilled people, white or black, into today’s workforce. The police are often ineffective at dealing with black crime and often enough exacerbate it by their bigotry and brutality. We need better police, no doubt. But would better police help if the black community remains tolerant of criminal behavior and refuses to cooperate with law enforcement to contain it? The disproportionate number of deaths in the black community due to corona virus is compelling evidence of society’s failure to deliver health care to the black community. Public health has not been effective in reaching out to the black population, but I have to ask where is the black leadership that would enculturate their community to contemporary ideals of health and summon it to greater participation in available health care.

I think we may have reached a crucial juncture. It is not likely that the majority community will be swayed by black violence. Martin Luther King did not succeed through violence but changed white society by his measured reaction to injustice and creative, non-violent response to institutionalized repression. The white community will decide whether it will continue its indifference to oppression and violence against blacks or will make the current troubles the occasion for honest reflection and determination to dismantle and rebuild those institutions that cannot adjust to racial equality.

29 V 2020: The right-wing’s share of media despair

I read a piece on Huffpost by Nick Robins-Early about the right-wing media entitled “Right-Wing Radio Reaches Tens of Millions. Coronavirus Conspiracies Are Out of Control.” It reported that among conservative Republicans the most trusted sources for news are Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity. These are only the cream on the top, for there is a crowd of people making their livings by tricking and riling up the ignorant. I have long said that the election of Donald Trump is the most prominent evidence of the failure of American education. Our country is peopled with born suckers who remain that way because they’ve not been taught to think critically and are ready buy the Brooklyn Bridge (if they’re not asking too much for it).

Trump has complained about the social media, that they suppress “conservative” thought. Let me say first, that I do not think there are any authentic conservatives left in the U.S., for it seems that all on the right are marked with the sign of the bestial Trump. Secondly, the internet is crawling with right-wing websites, some of them virtually criminal. The far-right also commands far greater and more effective outlets on TV and especially talk-radio. Distributing information or even “conservative thought” is not the goal of right-wing radio (including many radio evangelists). Misinformation is their game, and first the anti-vaxers and then the corona virus deniers have spread misinformation that will prove lethal.

What is the goal, then, of Fox News, Limbaugh, and Hannity and all the lesser liars. They spread misinformation and misunderstandings to inflame the hatred of those who feel excluded, of the uneducated and of bigots against rationality and authentic freedom. They weaponize the unthoughtful against whatever target their owners tell them. Yes, their owners, for I do not think that any of these voices of the right is underpaid, and I do think that many of them are cynical actors well paid to act out resentment, indignation, hate, and bigotry. Moreover, the many vehicles available to them for spreading their message would excite the envy of, e.g., the Nazis who had to get by with only print, film, and radio.

But, all the people whom they manipulate and arouse are allowed to vote. Ignorant, biased, and resentful voters can be used to murder democracy. A skilled con-man, like Mr. Trump, can work them like silly-putty. And when, as in the United States, the supreme con-man has the backup of sources of money who finance the manipulation of the public on a vast scale, does true democracy have a chance?

D U M P T R U M P

27 V 2020: Not good enough for Trumpy

Trumpy is now complaining about social media because Twitter recommended a fact check on his recent tweets. Of course, the fact check reveals that either he did not know the facts or, more likely, was misrepresenting the facts, that is, lying. Is a Twitter account a license to lie? Can I use twitter to recommend potentially dangerous drugs? Is Twitter to be used for character assassinations that are little more than the late-night flatulence of a dotty old man? And if you do tell lies on Twitter, do you have any right to prevent anyone from saying that they are lies?

Trumpy is angry with the social media because he does not like the coverage of him that he finds there. He would die, of course, if people stopped paying attention to him, but it has to be the attention-with-adulation that he has to have.

Trumpy is angry with Twitter and with all the other mainline social media companies also because “Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservative voices,” and he’s threatening “big action” against the social media.

If you take your ideas to the market to sell and they won’t sell, you might conclude that your product is not good enough or you might claim that the market is “rigged” against your product. As we have seen again and again, Trump accuses his critics of the faults of which he is most guilty. Trump complains that everything is rigged against him. I think it is rather the case that he tries to rig everything in his favor.

As to silencing conservative voices: The far right, neo-Nazis, gun nuts, Klansmen, pseudo-patriots, pseudo-Christians and rebels against the U.S. Government crowd the internet with their conspiracy theories and hate-speech. The internet has given them the biggest boost since hate was invented. Does the internet fail to show true conservatives the respect they think is their due, fail to glamorize their bad ideas? Maybe they could think about how to make themselves more respectable and try to come up with ideas that are more than the directives of their plutocrat supporters.