Life = Art = Life?

Today I'm wearing my media commentator hat. Don't let that stop you. The post is germane to our topic, I promise.

I'm not a great fan of television, but I do enjoy good acting and effective drama. In those categories the medium has come a long way from the "vast wasteland" that Newton Minow called it.

The debate whether art imitates life or the other way around has entertained philosophers for more than a century. I've been asking the question a lot lately while watching a couple of Netflix political dramas. 

"House of Cards" (2013-2018) stars Kevin Spacey in a brilliant portrayal of Frank Underwood, a narcissistic politician who, when denied a Cabinet post, vows revenge on everyone. With lies, double crosses, and various crimes, he selects and removes his victims one by one, clawing his way to the presidency over their broken careers.

Underwood is aided and abetted by his wife Claire (Robin Wright), who is no less ruthless than he. She uses guile when she can and sex when she must. Her only allegiance is to Frank and their partnership, and even that is tenuous. Claire is hard as granite.

The series is based on a BBC miniseries that debuted shortly after the Thatcher era. It was always intended as a close look at political intrigue and dirty tricks. The advent of the Trump presidency struck the cast and producers as an eerie déjà vu. Several episodes have Trumpesque story lines, and Robin Wright has complained that Trump pre-empted much of their sixth season material. Who's imitating whom?

It's impossible to watch the last two seasons and not be struck by the similarity to reality. It's not that any character resembles a specific person, but the spirit of corruption, vindictiveness, betrayal and disdain for the public that pervades every episode, that brings the series into accord with the World of Trump. 

The final seasons, which include a sabotaged election, should be required viewing material for the Biden-Warren campaign and the Democratic National Committee as a cautionary tale.

I've mentioned "Madam Secretary" (2014-2018) a few times here. Basically a family drama in a political setting, the series follows the life of the Secretary of State, with Téa Leoni in the title role. 

The series wouldn't have held my interest past the second season if not for the election of DJTrump. Starting with season 3 the series began presenting stories that indirectly criticized White House policies, e.g. the plight of immigrant children, climate change denial, and Russian mischief. The series usually pulls its punches, but Season 5 Episode 1 featured Madeleine Albright, Hillary Clinton, and Colin Powell in cameo roles discussing the threat of white nationalists in a clear reference to a part of Trump's base.

There are other similar series. These just happen to be the two I've followed. "House of Cards" is a distinctly noir view of what goes on at the top, but we've seen so many examples of the same kind of behavior actually taking place in the White House that it might provide some insights into the underlying psychology of the Trump administration.

"Madam Secretary" is light by comparison, but it is important for the instructive way it presents and explains legal, constitutional and statecraft processes, including a forced invocation of the 15th Amendment. These are things the public should know.

Newton Minow would be pleased to see the wasteland blooming.

 

--- Diogenes, 9/12/2020

 

 

   

         

Who Should We Fear? Part 1

"It became necessary to destroy the town in order to save it."* 

There are times when I'm not sure who frightens me more, DJTrump or those who follow him slavishly.

The above quote is one of the most infamous sound bites from the Vietnam War, and is frequently held up as an ideal example of the absurdity of war and a censure of the "military mind." Laying waste the town of Ben Tre cost the lives of as many as 1,000 civilians and had virtually no effect on the ultimate outcome of the conflict.

I can easily imagine the Destroyer-in-Chief saying something similar about Chicago, or California, or the entire country for that matter. There is only one image in DJTrump's excuse for a mind right now, and it is of him as absolute ruler of this nation, with neither laws nor term limits to restrain him.

I genuinely believe he would start a war if he thought it would be to his advantage, destroying the country even if it would mean presiding over a lawless wasteland. He is that ruthless. It is not hyperbole when I say I have an existential fear of his lust for power, which is driven by his extreme narcissism.

As I and many others have pointed out, the unpresident can't abide the thought of someone being greater than he. When he began hobnobbing with tyrants who rule absolutely he knew he had to join their club. On their part, the tyrants of the world saw him coming a mile away and set their sights on his vanity. He is so delusional he thinks Kim Jong-un, perhaps his equal in megalomania, likes him, when in fact the North Korean leader mocks him, calling him "Excellency."

He makes no secret that he believes he can be elected to more than the two allowed terms. When he first mentioned the idea most commentators agree he was joking; but in 2020 he's turned serious. He believes he is entitled to more than two terms because--are you ready? This is out-of-the-ballpark bonkers--Barack Obama and Joe Biden "spied" on his first term, thereby "robbing" him of quality time he could have spent doing his usual presidential activity, which is to say, nothing.

As ludicrous as the idea is, he seems to have begun to believe it, and given his penchant for magical thinking that means it must be so. The 22nd Amendment sets a strict limit of two terms on the presidency, but the Traitor-in-Chief has repeatedly demonstrated that he holds the Constitution in contempt. Its only use to him is to fire up his trigger happy supporters by mentioning the Second Amendment from time to time.

He has used the courts to make several unsuccessful attempts to override parts of the Constitution, including a multi-pronged attack on Congressional oversight of the executive branch. He has completely disregarded the First Amendment a number of times, most egregiously by unilaterally sending federal troops to confront protesters in Portland, Oregon and other cities. 

Most dastardly, he has blatantly caused the degradation of the Postal Service's capacity to carry and deliver mail in an open attempt to suppress mail-in voting. As a favor to his buddy Vlad he has further quashed reports about Russia's attempts to disrupt our electoral process and begun highlighting the same kinds of attempts by Iran.

Finally, it has recently been disclosed that the Liar-in-Chief knew a great deal about COVID-19 from very early in the pandemic. He claims he downplayed the virus because he didn't want to create a panic. That is precisely the thinking that caused the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 to be so deadly: governments kept the public in the dark rather than informing them about safety procedures, which might have saved thousands of lives. It is more likely Trump held the information close with the thought of somehow turning it to his advantage, perhaps as a bargaining chip.

I don't fear Trump as a man. He is rather a pathetic specimen, after all. I do fear his madness and the power he wields, because the former could cause him to use the latter recklessly. He could blithely unleash nuclear Armageddon without a second thought if he believed it could keep him in power. 

As long as one person follows the Lunatic-in-Chief's orders we are all in danger.

 
--- Diogenes, 9/10/2020


*The statement from an anonymous U.S. Army officer has been misquoted so many times it's unlikely anyone remembers the actual text. It appears here in the most common version. 

We're silent today in respect of 9/11 victims

Seeking Freedom

Way back in my deep history I dabbled in the Dark Arts: sorcery, ceremonial magic, witchcraft, etc. A friend who was having some problems with a would-be stalker once asked me if it might be possible to put a spell on him. Now, this friend happened to be a deeply religious person on the verge of taking Holy Orders, so I asked the obvious question, "Why don't you pray for help?" Her response was, "It doesn't work that way."

I've long since forsworn and renounced the dark world. Now, notwithstanding my friend's disclaimer, I spend a lot of time praying for some kind of supernatural help that would rid us of the Great Pretender.

At first I thought COVID-19 might be our deliverance, and I've not given up on that thought. It has certainly caused indirect damage to his tyrannical agenda and to his re-election campaign. It has come at the cost of 180,000 American lives, which is Biblical in its scope, but strikes me as excessive collateral damage. It is beyond me and my understanding of statistics why he hasn't contracted the plague, given his tendency to eschew medical advice and safe practices.

My prayer requests are generally of the Old Testament variety. I wish for the unpresident to be attacked by swarms of biting insects, covered with boils, caught in a fiery hailstorm, assailed by an army of skeletons, and faced with water that becomes blood. Occasionally I shift into Revelation and call down the Four Horsemen on him.

I know it was presumptuous, but I've even asked the Almighty to appear to him in all His glory and blast DJTrump into tiny bits.

I think I'm in this apocalyptic mood because I've just read Riot Baby* by Tochi Onyebuchi. The book follows the struggles of a Black family--mother, son, and daughter--to survive life in ghettos, through riots, surrounded by gangs, in an America that is steadily becoming a police state where every Black face is perceived as a threat.

Ella, the daughter, has a Power of destruction that rises with her anger--and she has a lot of anger. Her brother Kev is brilliant and hopes for a future in some technical field, but winds up in jail from being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Their mother, spoken of only as Mama, is one of those indefatigable women whose exceptional strength and strong religious faith keep the family together spiritually, even when they're geographically separated.

This is a gripping book with well-developed characters and a realistic mise en scène. Anyone who seeks to better understand the Black experience in America could profit from reading it.

At the end, when Kev finally says, "I see freedom," Onyebuchi's magic realism lets us see it, too.


--- Diogenes, 9/8/2020


* Tochi Onyebuchi, Riot Baby, New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2019.


 

On Hold

Yesterday I spent two hours staring at a blank screen and was able to come up with only a 5th-grade level screed on the Constitution. Maybe I was thinking the Great Pretender could read it.

I finally took the advice of a former mentor: "If you can't write, don't try." It's excellent advice. If it were universally taken the crap on the Internet would probably decrease by about 80%.

I'll be back when my brain decides to work.


--- Diogenes, 9/6/2020

The Bedrock of Democracy

You can tell a lot about a person by the way she speaks of the Constitution. I've noted four general ways that people respond to mention of the document when it comes up in conversation. I refer to them as Affirmative, Objective, Indifferent, and Hostile.

An affirmative response usually comes from a person who has some knowledge of the Constitution and enjoys talking about it.

Objective responders typically have a neutral response. They usually understand the general importance of the Constitution but don't think about it unless some part of it directly affects them.

Those who are indifferent really couldn't care less. Mention the Constitution to them, and their response will likely be something like, "Oh, yeah, that. Whatever."

Then there are those who actively believe the Constitution is a bad thing, usually because it gets in the way of something they want to do, or the way they think things should be. These are people you don't want to know. Police often fall into this group, as do some politicians.

In the present day, the unpresident of the United States and probably most of his Cabinet is firmly in this camp. This is an unprecedented and dangerous situation. The Constitution is the only thing that stands between the ordered society we know and a power-mad would-be tyrant. Or, if you like, between order and chaos.

The first time I visited the Constitution at the National Archives was almost a religious experience for me. It came to me that those few pieces of parchment, faded and wrinkled as they are, represent a pinnacle of accomplishment in humankind's long search for a means of just government.

Since at least the third millennium BC rulers and peoples have sought to establish codes of law that would provide order and protection. Some of them were successful. Others were unbearably severe. Many included practices we consider absurd, and punishments so horrid that we can scarce imagine them. Yet they were all needful experiments leading to the document that gives our society order.

Donald Trump wants to be a supreme autocrat with nothing controlling him but his own whims. He does not want to be limited by a system of laws that will prevent his becoming a dictator. Were it up to him, he would replace the Constitution with the occultist and libertine Aleister Crowley's mantra: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law."

The Constitution of the United States may not be a perfect document. It may not be the last word in the search for and perfection of a just system of laws. Yet it is our system, bought with the blood and sacrifice of our ancestors. We must defend it against Donald Trump, a thug and a pig of a man who already dismisses and dishonors it, and would destroy it if he could.

Four pages of parchment are the bedrock of our country. They must remain inviolate.


--- Diogenes, 9/3/2020

Cowards, Cretins, and Fools

435 Representatives
100 Senators
15 Cabinet members
1 Vice-president

And not a scruple of conscience among them. Not a whiff of courage to call out dishonesty and injustice. Not a shred of evidence that each one of them once swore to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic."

Every day these 551 individuals plus a host of staff watch the alleged leader of the free world lie, scheme, cheat and swindle his bumbling way through life and not one raises their voice to call him out.

Only the press, in their Constitutional position as government watchdog, call him out regularly. The 551 should be listening. There was a time when the editorial boards of major newspapers had the ear of Congress. Now the portion of Congress that isn't deaf listens only to its own voice crying for attention in a masturbatory maelstrom of fear and self-loathing.

Donald John Trump is not special. He is a man, not a superbeing. He is not unstoppable. He puts his pants on one leg at a time. He belches, farts, and picks his nose. He is nobody's Chosen One. He has such little self respect that when he cannot gain praise from others he invents it himself.

His Twitter handle is @realDonaldTrump, but there is nothing real about him. He is a creature of his own imagining, cobbled together from whole cloth into a simulacrum of a leader, but lacking any knowledge or talent for the role. He is material but lacks substance. He is false from the hair on his head and the complexion of his face to the emptiness of his heart. He is the living embodiment of the emperor's new clothes.

The 551 know this but cannot admit it. They are politicians, hacks, and wonks so entrapped by the system they have built for themselves to ensure a continuing spot at the trough of public money that they can understand nothing else. They are cowards, cretins, and fools who will continue to be accomplices to the crimes and misdeeds of the Poser-in-Chief who squats atop the house of cards they have built. They disagree superficially but know they are totally interdependent, so not one will say "Enough! Stop!" Not one. Not. one. They are beyond shame.

Meanwhile the Traitor-in-Chief who has not betrayed his oath because he never intended to follow it attacks genuine patriots. He defends murderers and domestic terrorists like Kyle Rittenhouse, and the mouth-breathing, tattooed lowlifes who drove into peaceful demonstrators in Portland, Oregon.

Speaking to the National Republican Club in February 1938, Vermont Governor George Aiken said Abraham Lincoln "would be ashamed of his party's leadership today."¹ A plaque with that quote should hang in every Congressional Republican's office to remind them of their responsibility to be a check on executive actions.

Government functionaries don't fear the Bully-in-Chief; they fear the power he wields. That is a small but significant distinction. There is nothing to be feared from Trump the man. He is a small, insignificant entity whose personal power over others is limited to insults and epithets. But he holds the presidency, and with that can cause irreparable damage, if not destruction, of careers. He holds it over his minions like Damocles' sword, threatening them with the worst possible fate: expulsion from a government job and the loss of their place at the trough.

Elected officials are beyond his reach, but cower nonetheless because even after four years he remains a phenomenon foreign to their culture. They fear the unknown and therefore bow before it.

There are 551 of them and not one will stand up. The refusal of every one of them to stand and announce their opposition to the Cretin-in-Chief is disgraceful and cowardly. Bullies respond to being pushed back, but we Americans and our Constitution have no one to push for us.

In a post several weeks ago I said I would not condone assassination as a means of removing Tyrant Trump.

I have reconsidered that position.


--- Diogenes, 9/1/2020


Please share


¹ D. Gregory Sanford, "You Can't Get There From Here: The Presidential Boomlet for Governor George D. Aiken, 1937-1939," Vermont History, Vol. 49, No. 4 (Fall, 1981), p. 204.

Too Stupid To Live, Part Two

Things people do who are too stupid to live:

Believe Donald Trump.
Swim with sharks.
Cross heavy traffic against the light.
Vote for Donald Trump.
Carry a loaded rifle in a crowd.
Turn peaceful protests into riots.
Go maskless in a crowd.
Think Donald Trump is a good president.

Believe humans have never been in space.
Get high on wood alcohol to see what it's like.
Think Donald Trump is a good man.
Get news from the Internet.
Handle poisonous snakes.
Look down the barrel of a gun to see if it's loaded.
Prop an electric fan on an unstable shelf above their bathtub.
Think Donald Trump is a good father.
Sneak up on a mule from the back.

Eat fugu on a bet.
Drive a car into water.
Believe Fox News.
Trust Donald Trump.
Play Russian roulette.
Believe dinosaurs and humans coexisted.
Believe every conspiracy theory they hear.
Rewire an electrical switch with the current on.
Flirt with their boss's wife in his office.
Jump off a roof into a pool.

Think Donald Trump is a good ___________.


--- Diogenes, 8/31/2020

We Shall Overcome

"Today is the 57th anniversary of a terrific event and a beautiful speech made by a great man."

That's what DJTrump didn't say about the Commitment "Get Your Knee Off Our Necks" March on Friday. In fact he said nothing.

On August 28, 1963, some 250,000 people gathered on the National Mall in what was called The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. I'm sure a great many people remember where they were that Wednesday.

Although the march was a protest action the spirit of the day was one of celebration, brotherhood, and aspiration. Speakers included a bevy of Christian and Jewish clergy and most of the leaders of major civil rights organizations.

The stream of speakers was punctuated with music by the likes of Marian Anderson, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, and Mahalia Jackson. It was at this gathering that "We Shall Overcome" became the civil rights anthem it remains.

And it was where The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr told us about his dream. The "I Have a Dream" speech was inspired. Partially improvised, it speaks of visions Dr. King had for an integrated and free future. It was one of the great addresses of the 20th century, and Dr. King is still held up as one of the century's greatest orators.

Yesterday's rally had much of the same spirit, now carried by a generation new to civil strife, but no less energized to meet it. Dr. King's son, Martin Luther King III spoke. He is an effective speaker, and reinforced the battle cry of the march: "There’s a knee upon the neck of democracy and our nation can only live so long without the oxygen of freedom. . . . The simple challenge before us is that everyone can cast a ballot and everyone who can must cast a ballot."¹

But it was clear that Dr. King's mantle of Chief Orator of the new civil rights movement has fallen squarely on The Rev. Al Sharpton. He has a commanding voice and the intensity and classical cadence of generations of preachers before him: "We need Mitch McConnell and the U.S. Senate to meet on the George Floyd Policing and Justice Act or we’re going to meet you Senators at the polls November 3rd. Whether we’ve got to mail in, walk in, ride in, crawl in, we want our bill passed." And, "It’s time we have a conversation with America. We need to have a conversation about your racism, about your bigotry, about your hate, about how you would put your knee on our neck while we cry out for our lives. We need a new conversation. . . .You act like it’s no trouble to shoot us in the back. You act like it’s no trouble to put a chokehold on us while we scream, 'I can’t breathe' 11 times. You act like it’s no trouble to hold a man down on the ground until you squeeze the life out of him. It’s time for a new conversation."²

His is the voice that will gain followers and grab the attention of the disinterested and disenfranchised. He will need to use it wisely to speak truth to all things Trump and to raise the spirit of revolution in the American people.

Our voices will rise again, and We Shall Overcome.


--- Diogenes,  8/29/2020



¹ https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/2020-march-on-washington-event-transcript  (Begins about 26 minutes in)
² https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/al-sharpton-speech-transcript-2020-march-on-washington 
* Videos of the event are available on YouTube, MSNBC, and CBS, among others. 

Will We Never Learn?

Police have killed 766 Americans this year.*

Two hundred fifty-five of those deaths--almost exactly one-third--have happened since George Floyd was murdered by police in Minneapolis.

And now Kenosha. Last Sunday, Rusten Sheskey, a seven-year veteran of the Kenosha police force, shot unarmed 29-year-old Jacob Blake seven times in the back.

Seven times. In the back.

Blake is alive for now, paralyzed from the waist down and with severe internal injuries. He was shot as he was attempting to get into his car. Shesky fired at very close range. Putting seven rounds into a suspect you're actually holding by his shirt is beyond excessive. It speaks of intent to kill.

If anyone thought, in this season of plague and politics, that Kenosha would remain quiet after the needless shooting of a Black man at the hands of police officers, they've been living on a different planet.

Violence begets violence. Senseless violence begets anger and more senseless violence. Of course protests were going to happen, and of course they would turn violent. America is angry.

The target of our anger is, oxymoronically, a vacuum: the vacuum of leadership in Washington that should have offered assistance, supported victims and helped to find a peaceful way to resolve the situation. Instead, the fearmongering, hate-spewing, tyrannical Psycho-in-Chief, knowing nothing of leadership or conflict resolution, blames everyone in reach and makes inflammatory threats to send in troops, which heightens the tension, leading to more violence, and on and on . . .

We will fight back.

I happen to believe that the majority of American police forces are staffed by women and men who take seriously the charge "To protect and defend." But the profession also draws rogues who are attracted by the notion of having control over citizens, and sadists like Derek Chauvin, who killed George Floyd.

One such is 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, a police and/or militia wannabe who showed up with some other rifle-toting terrorists on the third night of protests. At some point, possibly because he had fallen and feared attack, he fired randomly into the crowd, killing two people and injuring one. He was arrested and is being held in Antioch, Illinois. He faces first-degree murder charges.

And he is celebrated. Fools-of-a-Kind Aubrey Huff and Tucker Carlson actually praised Rittenhouse, a terrorist whom on-site videos show to be a cold-blooded killer.

Will we never learn?


--- Diogenes, 8/27/2020

Please share widely


* The Washington Post, "Fatal Force," https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/