I saw a notice of Trump’s speech to the National Rifle Association, and was reminded of the meeting in the movie 1941 of Wild Bill Kelso (John Belushi) and Col. Madman Maddox (Warren Oates). See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aQhCTC3zfA
The speech and the response to it amounted to an orgasmic celebration of our national disease of firearmania.
UC Berkeley has told Ann Coulter not to come and speak to Young America’s Foundation. This constellation will guarantee a blizzard of bullshit.
UCal Berkeley might more correctly be called the University of California at Indulgence, for almost all the protests there, loudly verbal or loutishly violent, have been enacted by over-age adolescents indulging themselves and being indulged by the academic establishment. Kids just want to have riots, and it does not matter much what the occasion. Ann Coulter is as good as any, along with dissatisfaction with food, losing the big game or winning the big game, springtime, electrical outage on campus, or institutional attempts to inhibit consumption of booze or drugs. The students are not much involved in their studies and do not do other work, so they have a vast fund of pent up energy that finds an outlet in mindless, riotous, trendy outrage.
Ann Coulter, whose profession is cozying up to one group of fools by making another group of fools angry with her, is right in her element here. Of course, she plays any role that will sell, but being martyred for free speech by left-wing campus hooligans is a dream role for her.
Young America’s Foundation is, it seems, represented in academic settings by its affiliate, Young Americans for Freedom, a Newman Club for reactionaries. The capacity here for self-righteous posturing and fuzzy thinking is boundless.
So put some popcorn in the microwave and get ready for what could be a great sitcom.
Current assumption of the epithets “patriot,” “christian,” and “family,” should not go unchallenged. Why should ignorant, xenophobic bigots be able to claim the name “patriot” in their attacks on democratic values. “christian” is now a dog-whistle synonym for reactionary bigot. Authentic christians must speak out against the explicit and implicit exclusiveness, anti-feminism, and anti-intellectualism that are involved in the abusive appropriation of this epithet. “Family values” are patriarchal values, and the many families flourishing outside the patriarchal system should complain about this usage, or, better, start to identify what true family values are.
Well, the U.S. dropped the Massive Ordinance Air Blast, its largest non-nuclear bomb, on I.S. tunnels in Afghanistan, and managed to kill a total of thirty-six I.S. militants, a bargain at only $3250 per kill. Mr. Trump’s foreign policy, or, rather, his thoughtless reactions to events in a world that he does not understand appear to have him spinning like a whirly-gig. But that is not the case, for the M.O.A.B. and the cruise missiles are not part of a foreign policy, but of domestic strategy. Their purpose is to re-direct attention from the incompetence and shady dealings of the Trump regime, and if the irregularities of his campaign and the demolition of the federal government become undeniably apparent, he will start a war.
I read yesterday that Russia has mounted an alternative facts campaign the gist of which is that all the business of Russian collusion in the gassing civilians in Syria is part of a big conspiracy to make Russia look bad. Well, we’ll see how this plays out, but I’m not much worried. The late Soviet Union and its successor state, the Russian Federation, have an historical practice of lying, and, to give credit where credit is due, have succeeded fairly well for amateurs. But now they are going up against the Father of Lies in D.C., and our Liar and his minions can out-lie the Russians any time.
However, I am worried about Bashar al-Assad. Assad, may not be a major player in the world of violence, but he plays like a pro. He is so ruthless that he makes our old enemy Sadaam seem scrupulous. Assad and his gang are fighting for their lives, for if their foes prevail in Syria, they and many of their families will be slaughtered for sure. Some coalition of interests may out-maneuver or overwhelm Assad, but one-on-one he is much tougher than the real-estate agent from N.Y. City.
In Saturday’s paper there was an article from the AP entitled “Israel will curb West Bank construction ‘when possible’.” I suppose Israel’s takeover of the West Bank is becoming a bit of an embarrassment, hence this meaningless concession from the expansionist government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel has for years now been carrying out a colonization of the West Bank, sending in colonists to create new settlements in the wilderness. Of course, as in the case of American colonization, the wilderness is populated by natives. Wholesale relocation of Palestinian populations has been tried, but usually has awkward consequences. So the plan is to build settlements of Israelis newly arrived from the United States in sufficient number that at some point a claim can be made that there is an Israeli majority on the West Bank and/or that there is an Israeli minority in Palestinian lands that Israel must protect. Then Israel will declare itself the “protector” of the West Bank Jews, and make Israeli annexation of the West Bank a pre-condition of any peace agreement in the area.
I was in the check-out line of a local store yesterday. A man was buying a jar of pretzels, simple enough, but he presented clerk a coupon and a couple of other vouchers that entitled him to some discount on the jar of pretzels. The transaction must have taken at least five minutes. This happens so often at the grocery store, where someone presents a handful of coupons that the checker has to enter into the system one-by-one. I am sometimes tempted to ask these coupon clippers for my share of the savings, since the waste of my time enabled them to save money.
We can all feel relieved that Rep. Mickey Gates will no longer be afraid in Arkansas’ Capitol (see blog entry for 7 III 2017). The newspaper reports that Arkansas’ governor has signed a bill that will allow concealed handguns in the Capitol, in public buildings, in state colleges, and certain select saloons. Finally!
The same paper reported another manifestation of Arkansas’ refinement. Next month Arkansas will be executing eight men within a 10-day period. Why the rush? One of the three ingredient chemicals used in executions is about to expire. Some fear that due to the rapid succession of the executions the prison staff is likely to botch a few of them, due to stress or inexperience, and leave the victim on a gurney for a lingering death. No need for all this. They should have Rep. Mickey and his friends in the legislature shoot the prisoners. Surely a bullet in the brain is a quicker and less humiliating death than unreliable chemical injections, with all the ghoulish rites that attend them, and if he has a pistol with an 8-round magazine, just one legislator could do this job, and in a lot less time than two weeks.
I was away and sequestered last week at an ACTS retreat. We were allowed no cell phone, no i-pad, no TV or radio, and were given time and isolation in which to take a new look at our lives, ourselves. So on Sunday I returned to the unreal world predisposed to take a fresh look at it, to see it anew. Well, I checked the news and found that “the world was the old world yet.”
How many more investigations, how many failed lies is it going to take to convince people that Trump is as crooked as a dog’s hind leg? Of course, there is an invincible ignorance among the hard-core Trump cultists. This is common in all kinds of cults: the cult leader can be convicted of crime after crime, caught out in sin upon sin, and the cultists will remain loyal because they choose not to accept simple truths. They know how they FEEL and prayer and fasting cannot exorcise them.
The case of the Republican Party is otherwise. They knew from the beginning that Trump was a stinker and tried to distance from him. But as he grew in popularity and power, one after another somehow found his/her way to get on the Trump bandwagon, heedless of how much they might be shamed and perverted by his company. Now that they have shown the country their true character, they see Trumpism as their only claim to leadership, as the linchpin to their position of power, and they will fight for Trump, just as Republicans of old fought for Nixon, until disgust or fear made them dump him.
Republican Senator James Inhofe has declared that the EPA is “brainwashing our kids.” How, I have to ask, can he call anyone brainwashed? Sen. Inhofe is from Oklahoma. If he wants to avoid appearing ridiculous, he must speak in public only in Oklahoma to the brainwashed folks there.