Apologies for my spotty attendance this past week. Life just has a habit of getting in the way of things. By way of recompense I offer a potpourri of weird, silly and sick quotes from the Clown-in-Chief. All but the first and last were uttered during his presidency.
You've likely seen many of these already, but hey, they're still amusing. Think of it as comic relief from the Trumpverse.
So here we go. Hang on.
"I will build a great wall--and no one builds walls better than me,
believe me--and I will build them very inexpensively. I will build a
great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words." CBS News, 6/16/2015
"Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!" Twitter, 3/4/2017
"Let me just say, very simply, I will put it very simply -- the president of the United States has the authority to do what the president has the authority to do which is very powerful. The president
of the United States calls the shots." CNN, 4/14/2020
“If you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations, your house just went down 75 percent in value. And they say the noise causes cancer. You tell me that one, okay?” Washington Post, April 3, 2019
"As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I’ve done before!)." Twitter, 10/7/2019
"Anybody that needs a test, gets a test. We--they're there. They have the tests. And the tests are beautiful." The Hill, 3/6/2020
“Cases are going up in the U.S. because we are testing far more than any other country.” Frequently in many places
“I loved my previous life. I had so many things going. This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier.” Reuters, 8/28/17
“Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me ‘old,’ when I would NEVER
call him ‘short and fat?’ Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend - and
maybe someday that will happen!” Twitter, 11/8/2017
"To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!" Twitter, 7/22/2018
“There is a cooling and there is a heating, and I mean, look: It used to not be climate change. It used to be global warming…That wasn’t working
too well, because it was getting too cold all over the place.” Interview with Piers Morgan, 1/28/2018
"So we have the biggest economy, the greatest economy we have
ever had, the highest employment numbers, the best employment numbers,
best unemployment numbers, also, the best of everything." CNN, 4/14/2020
“Nobody has better respect for intelligence than Donald Trump.” CNN, 11/11/2017
Speaking of his daughter Ivanka: "Yeah, she's really something, and what a beauty, that one. If I weren't happily married and, ya know, her father . . ." Rolling Stone, September 2015
Whew! Are you not entertained?
--- Diogenes, 7/31/2020
U.S. Constitution
The foundation of the United States of America
31 July 2020
27 July 2020
Who Was That Masked Man?
Well, it damn sure wasn't the Lone Ranger.
Just who are those ruffians in battle dress roaming Portland's streets? They wear no identifying insignia or badges and do not identify themselves. Their kind has been seen before, in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. They are grim automatons following the direction of some unknown presence in the pursuit of some unknown goal, and their only duty is to follow orders.
What might that be? Humiliate the Democratic mayor and governor, perhaps? Well, of course, especially since the governor is a woman who had the effrontery to be born in a foreign country.
Embattled streets? In Portland, Oregon, of all places? It's a beautiful city: great zoo, wonderful parks, acres of roses everywhere, clean downtown, and a nifty light rail system connecting all of it. Vanilla Portland, whose population is 80+% white and the largest minority, at 8%, is Hispanic?¹
But I digress. Back to the original question. Who are these thugs in camouflage body armor? The official word is that they are operatives of the Department of Homeland Security, which could mean anything: footsoldiers from one of a half-dozen or so formerly independent agencies, mercenaries, trainees, off-duty security guards, government contractors--black ops at 97201?
We're told they are there to protect federal buildings and property. Protect from what? A raging horde of bicycle-riding, latte-sipping white pacifists wearing Birkenstocks, who have been goaded into action by a direct threat to their Constitutional rights. And don't forget they are protectively fronted by arm-linked human "walls" of veterans, moms, and dads. Ripe targets for our big, bad DHS.
Portland police claim to have found loaded automatic weapon magazines (but no guns) and possible (unused) Molotov cocktails in a park that has been the scene of a lot of protest action, but the cops are trying to look good under the eye of the fed bullyboys, and at this point I don't believe much of anything coming out of either group.
The faceless invaders claim to be using "nonlethal" means of crowd dispersal: rubber bullets, flash-bang grenades, and tear gas. Let's look at this target-friendly ordnance.
Sic semper tyrannis! Let the DHS goons get what's coming to them, rubber bullets, flash-bangs, gas and all.
--- Diogenes, 7/27/2020
¹ https://www.movingtoportland.net/portland-information/portland-demographics/
² Haar RJ, Iacopino V, Ranadive N, et al., "Death, injury and disability from kinetic impact projectiles in crowd-control settings: a systematic review." BMJ Open 2017;7:e018154. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-018154. https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/7/12/e018154
³ U. N. gas protocol: https://unoda-web.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/assets/WMD/Bio/pdf/Status_Protocol.pdf
⁴ Pro Publica: "Hotter than Lava." https://www.propublica.org/article/flashbangs
⁵ National Review: https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/07/the-portland-dhs-operation-is-legal-and-proportionate/
Just who are those ruffians in battle dress roaming Portland's streets? They wear no identifying insignia or badges and do not identify themselves. Their kind has been seen before, in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. They are grim automatons following the direction of some unknown presence in the pursuit of some unknown goal, and their only duty is to follow orders.
What might that be? Humiliate the Democratic mayor and governor, perhaps? Well, of course, especially since the governor is a woman who had the effrontery to be born in a foreign country.
Embattled streets? In Portland, Oregon, of all places? It's a beautiful city: great zoo, wonderful parks, acres of roses everywhere, clean downtown, and a nifty light rail system connecting all of it. Vanilla Portland, whose population is 80+% white and the largest minority, at 8%, is Hispanic?¹
But I digress. Back to the original question. Who are these thugs in camouflage body armor? The official word is that they are operatives of the Department of Homeland Security, which could mean anything: footsoldiers from one of a half-dozen or so formerly independent agencies, mercenaries, trainees, off-duty security guards, government contractors--black ops at 97201?
We're told they are there to protect federal buildings and property. Protect from what? A raging horde of bicycle-riding, latte-sipping white pacifists wearing Birkenstocks, who have been goaded into action by a direct threat to their Constitutional rights. And don't forget they are protectively fronted by arm-linked human "walls" of veterans, moms, and dads. Ripe targets for our big, bad DHS.
Portland police claim to have found loaded automatic weapon magazines (but no guns) and possible (unused) Molotov cocktails in a park that has been the scene of a lot of protest action, but the cops are trying to look good under the eye of the fed bullyboys, and at this point I don't believe much of anything coming out of either group.
The faceless invaders claim to be using "nonlethal" means of crowd dispersal: rubber bullets, flash-bang grenades, and tear gas. Let's look at this target-friendly ordnance.
- Rubber bullets: An extensive study of the use of these projectiles concluded that they kill about 3% of their targets and cause serious permanent injury to about 15%.² Maybe they should be called "mostly nonlethal."Just collateral damage for the Trumpster, right? But 3% of a thousand is 30 human lives lost. Not so collateral to their families.
- Tear gas: Proscribed for use in warfare by the Geneva Protocol of 1926, along with all "asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases, and of all analogous liquids,"³ but not disallowed for riot control. Hm--so it can be used on civilians in street clothes, but not on armed belligerents, presumably with gas masks. Who would have thought the rules of war could be more humane than those of domestic policing?
- Flash-bangs: Not nonlethal, very dangerous, and frequently misused.⁴
Sic semper tyrannis! Let the DHS goons get what's coming to them, rubber bullets, flash-bangs, gas and all.
--- Diogenes, 7/27/2020
¹ https://www.movingtoportland.net/portland-information/portland-demographics/
² Haar RJ, Iacopino V, Ranadive N, et al., "Death, injury and disability from kinetic impact projectiles in crowd-control settings: a systematic review." BMJ Open 2017;7:e018154. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-018154. https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/7/12/e018154
³ U. N. gas protocol: https://unoda-web.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/assets/WMD/Bio/pdf/Status_Protocol.pdf
⁴ Pro Publica: "Hotter than Lava." https://www.propublica.org/article/flashbangs
⁵ National Review: https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/07/the-portland-dhs-operation-is-legal-and-proportionate/
26 July 2020
I Shouldn't Say "I Told You So,"
But I did.
I'm not a prophet, but I watch and listen and pay attention, and if anyone had bet against me a couple of months ago when I said COVID-19 wasn't done with us, they would have lost.
Naturally that would have included the Fool-in-Chief, but he's wrong about everything anyway, so no surprise there.
If the Dolt-in-Chief had even a smidgen of historical knowledge, he would know that plagues have historically lasted for years, and some for centuries. It's been suggested that the last gasp of the Black Death of the 1340s came only in 1955. Pandemics rip through us in waves, sometimes just a ripple, sometimes a tsunami. The first wave had barely passed when Trump and the Booboisie started screaming for everything to open up.
So we opened up. Masks came off, social distancing was forgotten, bars and beaches and other places of frivolity enjoyed some very welcome profitable days, and Americans were finally able to get out and have a good time. July 4 was a blast.
To date, more than 15,000 Americans have paid for that party with their lives.
Following the initial assault by COVID-19, which picked off the low-hanging fruit, the curve of U. S. deaths fell into a slump, which a great many ignoramuses thought was the end. Nope. just warming up for round two.
There were only 273 COVID deaths on July 4 in America, and the dwindling number allowed medical professionals to feel very cautiously optimistic. One week later, on July 11, 729 people died; on July 18, 879; and yesterday, 981. In four weeks the daily death toll quadrupled, and it's still going up.
There is only one possible reason for this increase: lessening preventive measures, including isolation, and the insane rush to dive into traditional holiday activities.
The delusional Megalomaniac-in-Chief is willing to sacrifice anything and anyone to get to the status quo ante; or in words he might understand, "the way it's s'posed to be." Or in Trumpspeak, "The way I want it to be."
He cannot and will not accept that it's not going to happen. Ever. That sense of complete and utter change in the world is something he's not wired to understand.
He does know something is going on. In a recent argumentative interview with Chris Wallace, the Great Pretender disputed Wallace's enumeration of cases, then asked, "how many deaths?" Apparently dead Americans mean more to him than sick ones.
Here's your number, you unworthy lout: since July 4, some 15,000 American families have lost a child, a parent, a spouse, a grandparent, or some other kin because you are too blind and too stupid to even try to improve the situation.
Every one of those deaths lies at your feet, and every bereft family blames you.
--- Diogenes, 7/25/2020
I'm not a prophet, but I watch and listen and pay attention, and if anyone had bet against me a couple of months ago when I said COVID-19 wasn't done with us, they would have lost.
Naturally that would have included the Fool-in-Chief, but he's wrong about everything anyway, so no surprise there.
If the Dolt-in-Chief had even a smidgen of historical knowledge, he would know that plagues have historically lasted for years, and some for centuries. It's been suggested that the last gasp of the Black Death of the 1340s came only in 1955. Pandemics rip through us in waves, sometimes just a ripple, sometimes a tsunami. The first wave had barely passed when Trump and the Booboisie started screaming for everything to open up.
So we opened up. Masks came off, social distancing was forgotten, bars and beaches and other places of frivolity enjoyed some very welcome profitable days, and Americans were finally able to get out and have a good time. July 4 was a blast.
To date, more than 15,000 Americans have paid for that party with their lives.
Following the initial assault by COVID-19, which picked off the low-hanging fruit, the curve of U. S. deaths fell into a slump, which a great many ignoramuses thought was the end. Nope. just warming up for round two.
There were only 273 COVID deaths on July 4 in America, and the dwindling number allowed medical professionals to feel very cautiously optimistic. One week later, on July 11, 729 people died; on July 18, 879; and yesterday, 981. In four weeks the daily death toll quadrupled, and it's still going up.
There is only one possible reason for this increase: lessening preventive measures, including isolation, and the insane rush to dive into traditional holiday activities.
The delusional Megalomaniac-in-Chief is willing to sacrifice anything and anyone to get to the status quo ante; or in words he might understand, "the way it's s'posed to be." Or in Trumpspeak, "The way I want it to be."
He cannot and will not accept that it's not going to happen. Ever. That sense of complete and utter change in the world is something he's not wired to understand.
He does know something is going on. In a recent argumentative interview with Chris Wallace, the Great Pretender disputed Wallace's enumeration of cases, then asked, "how many deaths?" Apparently dead Americans mean more to him than sick ones.
Here's your number, you unworthy lout: since July 4, some 15,000 American families have lost a child, a parent, a spouse, a grandparent, or some other kin because you are too blind and too stupid to even try to improve the situation.
Every one of those deaths lies at your feet, and every bereft family blames you.
--- Diogenes, 7/25/2020
24 July 2020
Taking Action
My first political job was stuffing and licking envelopes for mass mailings supporting our candidate. I hated it. The glue tasted bad and I wasn't allowed to use a sponge for some obscure reason; the room was too hot and the chair too hard and the music too loud.
But it felt good. I was working to affect the electoral process, to make a difference in society, to help elect a candidate we believed would put America on a sensible course away from war.
When I went to the storefront headquarters to volunteer, I was actually hoping for something more active and interesting. I saw myself carrying a sign in a demonstration, or standing with a like-minded crowd shouting slogans.
When I finally did get to the streetfighting part I discovered I would much rather be back in that stuffy office licking envelopes.
That said, if I were reasonably close to any of the cities the Occupier-in-Chief has mentioned as targets* I would throw caution and sanity to the winds, grab my hardhat and gas mask and head once more unto the breach.
Or not. I detest tear gas, to say nothing of being manhandled by thugs in body armor.
The point is, we can all take some kind of action against the unpresident, his administration, and his campaign.
If you have the wherewithal to join a protest, by all means, go. Such actions are the most visible and compelling means we have to draw attention to the public's disgust with the Great Pretender and his actions. Just be careful.
Alternatively, be a documenter. Stay out of the fray but get into the area of the protest carrying your best weapon: your phone, or camera if you have one, and be sure to take a charger. If you have a clip or a holster find a way to tether it to your body. Stay close to the action but try not to get sucked in, and watch for any activity that looks even vaguely sinister. Make photos, videos, audio recordings, whatever you can manage, but never let go of your device. If you see thugs coming for you, turn slowly and walk away. Do not run.
There is absolutely no shame in not taking direct action. Believe me when I tell you it's not for everybody. Do what you can; no action is wasted.
If you're able to be out, volunteer at your local Democratic headquarters. If you're staying at home, write frequently to your Congressional representatives and your state legislators, regardless of party. Focus on one issue and be very clear about your concerns. Be sure to include Speaker Nancy Pelosi in your correspondence--she's a potent force.
If you feel comfortable with it, go public. Contribute to an anti-Trump Facebook site or start one of your own. Develop a blog. You never know who you might reach if you spread it widely enough. You might change one mind; you might change one vote; that is a victory.
Above all, never think that one person makes no difference. A nuclear chain reaction starts with the fission of a single atom.
--- Diogenes, 7/24/2020
* Albuquerque, Baltimore, Detroit, Milwaukee, New York, Oakland, and Philadelphia have been mentioned as targets. Chicago, Kansas City, and Portland are already under siege. All these cities are "run by liberal Democrats," according to Trump, which makes all this a political issue.
But it felt good. I was working to affect the electoral process, to make a difference in society, to help elect a candidate we believed would put America on a sensible course away from war.
When I went to the storefront headquarters to volunteer, I was actually hoping for something more active and interesting. I saw myself carrying a sign in a demonstration, or standing with a like-minded crowd shouting slogans.
When I finally did get to the streetfighting part I discovered I would much rather be back in that stuffy office licking envelopes.
That said, if I were reasonably close to any of the cities the Occupier-in-Chief has mentioned as targets* I would throw caution and sanity to the winds, grab my hardhat and gas mask and head once more unto the breach.
Or not. I detest tear gas, to say nothing of being manhandled by thugs in body armor.
The point is, we can all take some kind of action against the unpresident, his administration, and his campaign.
If you have the wherewithal to join a protest, by all means, go. Such actions are the most visible and compelling means we have to draw attention to the public's disgust with the Great Pretender and his actions. Just be careful.
Alternatively, be a documenter. Stay out of the fray but get into the area of the protest carrying your best weapon: your phone, or camera if you have one, and be sure to take a charger. If you have a clip or a holster find a way to tether it to your body. Stay close to the action but try not to get sucked in, and watch for any activity that looks even vaguely sinister. Make photos, videos, audio recordings, whatever you can manage, but never let go of your device. If you see thugs coming for you, turn slowly and walk away. Do not run.
There is absolutely no shame in not taking direct action. Believe me when I tell you it's not for everybody. Do what you can; no action is wasted.
If you're able to be out, volunteer at your local Democratic headquarters. If you're staying at home, write frequently to your Congressional representatives and your state legislators, regardless of party. Focus on one issue and be very clear about your concerns. Be sure to include Speaker Nancy Pelosi in your correspondence--she's a potent force.
If you feel comfortable with it, go public. Contribute to an anti-Trump Facebook site or start one of your own. Develop a blog. You never know who you might reach if you spread it widely enough. You might change one mind; you might change one vote; that is a victory.
Above all, never think that one person makes no difference. A nuclear chain reaction starts with the fission of a single atom.
--- Diogenes, 7/24/2020
* Albuquerque, Baltimore, Detroit, Milwaukee, New York, Oakland, and Philadelphia have been mentioned as targets. Chicago, Kansas City, and Portland are already under siege. All these cities are "run by liberal Democrats," according to Trump, which makes all this a political issue.
23 July 2020
Casus Belli
The Great Pretender needs a war.
He knows this because he had a dream.
In this dream a figure of indeterminate gender wearing a white robe showed him pictures of other white men he vaguely recognized. The figure said they were former U. S. presidents who Americans thought were great because they had won a war. Did he want to be thought great, too? The Dreamer-in-Chief had trouble believing his vision. Had there really been that many wars?
Undeterred by doubt, the apparition went on to say the Faker-in-Chief could have his very own war if he wanted it, but there would be no one left to applaud him if he chose that option.
Alternatively, he could choose to refight a historical war, appointing his own generals, applying his own strategies, and shaping the outcome any way he wished. This option, however, came with a caveat: The chosen war could be fought only in his dream world. Nothing would change in the real world, either past or present.
Hearing that, the Sleeper-in-Chief nearly awoke. "Buh," he half muttered, "who'll say I' great?" His nocturnal interlocuter assured him that if he wanted all the demons of Hell to rise up and cheer him on, he could do so while dreaming. "Uh," he snortled, "Hi'ler 'n' Stal'n too?"
"Just so," affirmed the vision. "Your choice?"
The Civil War of course; the only all-American war.
- He wouldn't have to deal with foreigners;
- He would set things right with the CSA (they'd let him build his wall, by God!);
- He could own slaves who would always call him "Massa;"
- He could talk to everybody because both sides spoke English;
- He could be both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, conflating them into his heroic personality;
- He could rewrite history, claiming the Yankees invaded the South to steal all the slaves and relocate them to Canada;
- Better yet, he could claim there were never any slaves. The Yankees invaded because they were jealous of the Southern aristocratic lifestyle;
- No. Negroes were happy servants, singing, dancing, and eating watermelon when off duty;
- He could finally have the America he so desperately wants: 100% Americans, 100% white, 100% native English speakers, 100% Protestant, 100% adoring him;
- He could be President for Life, like his mentor Vlad.
After about an hour he was informed he had a delivery being sent up. He received it from the agent on duty, locked the door, and carried it into the bedroom. Changing into his best pajamas, he sat on the bed and opened the box from Sunovion Pharmaceuticals, pulling out a month's supply of his favorite sleep aid.
He set the box on the bedside table, swallowed three Lunesta tablets, lay back, carefully cradling his favorite stuffed animal with his left arm, and closed his eyes, smiling.
--- Diogenes, 7/23/2020
21 July 2020
Your Comments Are Requested And Welcomed
Please let us all know, anonymously if you wish, how you think the plague on our nation (i.e. DJTrump) should be handled or removed.
The floor is open. Anyone may add a comment.
Thank you.
--- Diogenes, 7/21/2020
The floor is open. Anyone may add a comment.
Thank you.
--- Diogenes, 7/21/2020
20 July 2020
Invariant, Unteachable, Incapable
Preview:
In 1944 John R. Pierce wrote "Invariant," a science fiction short story about a man whose mind was incapable of change.
A scientist, one Dr. Homer Green, believed he had created a rejuvenation formula that could make people immortal. He tested it on himself and found that it worked. Wounds healed almost immediately and no disease could touch him.
But as Pierce notes, "There is only one catch. Even his brain tissue is invariant - exactly the way it was before he treated himself! He cannot get any more memories or otherwise adapt to environment, because his mind always repairs itself to the state just before the treatment!!"¹
So Dr. Green lives forever, but always in the same ever-repeating and never-remembered day. Groundhog Day forever.
Life imitates art:
Dr. Jonathan Reiner, after watching a Fox News interview in which the unpresident contradicted himself about mask use at least twice and cited outdated information: "He's unteachable, and I can't understand it. His failure to understand this simple public health measure, his reluctance to accept the advice of all his public health experts, makes me wonder whether he really is qualified . . . the fact that the president of the United States can't get this straight raises serious doubts about his competence now."²
Dr. Mary Trump, the Child-in-Chief's niece, and a clinical psychologist:
"Donald today is much as he was at three years old: incapable of growing, learning, or evolving, unable to regulate his emotions, moderate his responses, or take in and synthesize information."³
Well--what else might one say? Here are two medical opinions, one from a psychologist who is a member of the Trump family. Both echo countless other observations and anecdotal evidence that the Great Pretender is delusional, incapable of governing, and a pawn of forces that are inimical to the United States.
I say again, he must be removed from office by any means necessary, before he plunges this nation into war, either civil or international.
--- Diogenes, 7/20/2020
¹ Astounding Science Fiction, April, 1944.
² https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/watch/hes-unteachable-doctor-blasts-trumps-latest-mask-remarks/vp-BB16UvCz
³ Trump, Mary L. Too Much and Never Enough, p. 197.
In 1944 John R. Pierce wrote "Invariant," a science fiction short story about a man whose mind was incapable of change.
A scientist, one Dr. Homer Green, believed he had created a rejuvenation formula that could make people immortal. He tested it on himself and found that it worked. Wounds healed almost immediately and no disease could touch him.
But as Pierce notes, "There is only one catch. Even his brain tissue is invariant - exactly the way it was before he treated himself! He cannot get any more memories or otherwise adapt to environment, because his mind always repairs itself to the state just before the treatment!!"¹
So Dr. Green lives forever, but always in the same ever-repeating and never-remembered day. Groundhog Day forever.
Life imitates art:
Dr. Jonathan Reiner, after watching a Fox News interview in which the unpresident contradicted himself about mask use at least twice and cited outdated information: "He's unteachable, and I can't understand it. His failure to understand this simple public health measure, his reluctance to accept the advice of all his public health experts, makes me wonder whether he really is qualified . . . the fact that the president of the United States can't get this straight raises serious doubts about his competence now."²
Dr. Mary Trump, the Child-in-Chief's niece, and a clinical psychologist:
"Donald today is much as he was at three years old: incapable of growing, learning, or evolving, unable to regulate his emotions, moderate his responses, or take in and synthesize information."³
Well--what else might one say? Here are two medical opinions, one from a psychologist who is a member of the Trump family. Both echo countless other observations and anecdotal evidence that the Great Pretender is delusional, incapable of governing, and a pawn of forces that are inimical to the United States.
I say again, he must be removed from office by any means necessary, before he plunges this nation into war, either civil or international.
--- Diogenes, 7/20/2020
¹ Astounding Science Fiction, April, 1944.
² https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/watch/hes-unteachable-doctor-blasts-trumps-latest-mask-remarks/vp-BB16UvCz
³ Trump, Mary L. Too Much and Never Enough, p. 197.
18 July 2020
RIP John Lewis
Things could soon get interesting in the Peachtree State. Or maybe not.
Representative John Lewis, one of the lions of the Civil Rights movement, and a genuinely great American, has died.
With his death, Brian Kemp, the Trump suckup who is governor of Georgia, may find his 15 minutes of fame. It will be up to him to decide whether to fill Lewis' House seat.
It's a tricky situation. Kemp is Constitutionally bound to hold a special election for the seat, but the Constitution doesn't specify how soon the election is to be held after the seat becomes vacant. (Article I, §2,4)
Kemp could in theory table the special election and let the clock run out until the November general election. He could plead that it could take months to set up a special election, which among other things would require printing a great many absentee ballots due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Neither Trump nor Kemp was a fan of Lewis. He was Black, popular, and powerful, and to their alligator brains that was three strikes. It could be to the Republican advantage to leave the seat empty for a while.
But does Kemp want to leave the 5th District unrepresented for any significant length of time? It's a Black majority district, and such precincts have historically not been of interest to Southern governors. But . . .
The 5th is not just any district. Located in the north central part of the state, it includes the capital Atlanta and its suburbs, the headquarters of the CDC, the headquarters of several major corporations, and Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, a major airline hub. Its population of some 760,000 are largely educated professional types who are unlikely to sit still and let the governor mute their voice in Congress.
It doesn't apply directly to the subject here, but this striking sentence is in Article V of the Constitution: "no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate." So why shouldn't what's good for the Senate not be good for the House? Sounds like a good question for the good folks in the 5th District to ask.
And there's always the old favorite: "No taxation without representation." Well, OK, there's no tax involved here. But no action that could affect the 5th should take place without representation. Keep that in mind, Sycophant Kemp.
RIP, John Lewis. Please assure Dr. King that we're still carrying on the best we can.
--- Diogenes, 7/18/2020
If you read this on Facebook, please share it widely.
Representative John Lewis, one of the lions of the Civil Rights movement, and a genuinely great American, has died.
With his death, Brian Kemp, the Trump suckup who is governor of Georgia, may find his 15 minutes of fame. It will be up to him to decide whether to fill Lewis' House seat.
It's a tricky situation. Kemp is Constitutionally bound to hold a special election for the seat, but the Constitution doesn't specify how soon the election is to be held after the seat becomes vacant. (Article I, §2,4)
Kemp could in theory table the special election and let the clock run out until the November general election. He could plead that it could take months to set up a special election, which among other things would require printing a great many absentee ballots due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Neither Trump nor Kemp was a fan of Lewis. He was Black, popular, and powerful, and to their alligator brains that was three strikes. It could be to the Republican advantage to leave the seat empty for a while.
But does Kemp want to leave the 5th District unrepresented for any significant length of time? It's a Black majority district, and such precincts have historically not been of interest to Southern governors. But . . .
The 5th is not just any district. Located in the north central part of the state, it includes the capital Atlanta and its suburbs, the headquarters of the CDC, the headquarters of several major corporations, and Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, a major airline hub. Its population of some 760,000 are largely educated professional types who are unlikely to sit still and let the governor mute their voice in Congress.
It doesn't apply directly to the subject here, but this striking sentence is in Article V of the Constitution: "no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate." So why shouldn't what's good for the Senate not be good for the House? Sounds like a good question for the good folks in the 5th District to ask.
And there's always the old favorite: "No taxation without representation." Well, OK, there's no tax involved here. But no action that could affect the 5th should take place without representation. Keep that in mind, Sycophant Kemp.
RIP, John Lewis. Please assure Dr. King that we're still carrying on the best we can.
--- Diogenes, 7/18/2020
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17 July 2020
Take your stinkin' paws off my rights, you damn dirty ape!
The Ape-in-Chief is trying to monkey with the Bill of Rights. We all have to act to stop him. He still has 27 weeks in which he can do tons of damage.
When James Madison wrote that "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press," he meant to ensure that news and information important to the public could reach the populace freely, untrammeled by political spin or falsehoods, and without government censorship.
For Madison, "press" meant newspapers. Today it means print, broadcast, and digital media, but the idea remains the same. We the public have the right to straight-up and factual news and information about facts that concern us, and the government has no right to prevent us from getting it.
COVID-19 is, or should be, a subject of interest to everyone who draws breath. Until Tuesday the best place to find detailed information about it was CDC.gov. That was the date (Bastille Day, ironically) when the Department of Health and Human Services, at the behest of the Gorilla-in-Chief, ordered information from the nation's hospitals to be sent to HHS (and some to the White House!) instead of CDC. The next day that information disappeared from the CDC website.
The initial announcement about this displacement of data said tellingly that the data would be in a database inaccessible to the public.
Did that last bit get your attention? The Executive Branch of the government was planning to sequester information about public health, keeping it from the very public who need to have it.
Then, surprise! Two days later the information is back at CDC.gov. There's a lot of speculation about what happened to it in the interim, ranging from the data being bugged so the administration can tweak it at will to HHS personnel realizing they couldn't deal with the data inflow, let alone analyze it.
Of course the data never actually went away. One portal to it was closed, but it's still out there on lots of news, public health, and university websites.
So no harm, no foul, right? Wrong! The fact that the data never went away is irrelevant.
We've not returned to the status quo ante. We've seen an open attempt on the part of the administration to withhold important public health information from the American people. My personal feeling is that they failed because they're so tightly enclosed in the Trump bubble they didn't realize just how accessible the data is.
They will try again, and they will keep trying to deny crucial information to the American people. This administration is capable of acts we can't even imagine.
As election day comes closer and the unpresident becomes ever more desperate, he will become more dangerous. As I've said before, the people have to move to stop him. Our most direct route to accomplishing this is by keeping heavy pressure on our members of Congress to act in some meaningful way to contain DJTrump.
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.¹
--- Diogenes, 7/17/2020
¹ Wendell Phillips, American abolitionist, 1852.
If you read this on Facebook, please share it widely.
When James Madison wrote that "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press," he meant to ensure that news and information important to the public could reach the populace freely, untrammeled by political spin or falsehoods, and without government censorship.
For Madison, "press" meant newspapers. Today it means print, broadcast, and digital media, but the idea remains the same. We the public have the right to straight-up and factual news and information about facts that concern us, and the government has no right to prevent us from getting it.
COVID-19 is, or should be, a subject of interest to everyone who draws breath. Until Tuesday the best place to find detailed information about it was CDC.gov. That was the date (Bastille Day, ironically) when the Department of Health and Human Services, at the behest of the Gorilla-in-Chief, ordered information from the nation's hospitals to be sent to HHS (and some to the White House!) instead of CDC. The next day that information disappeared from the CDC website.
The initial announcement about this displacement of data said tellingly that the data would be in a database inaccessible to the public.
Did that last bit get your attention? The Executive Branch of the government was planning to sequester information about public health, keeping it from the very public who need to have it.
Then, surprise! Two days later the information is back at CDC.gov. There's a lot of speculation about what happened to it in the interim, ranging from the data being bugged so the administration can tweak it at will to HHS personnel realizing they couldn't deal with the data inflow, let alone analyze it.
Of course the data never actually went away. One portal to it was closed, but it's still out there on lots of news, public health, and university websites.
So no harm, no foul, right? Wrong! The fact that the data never went away is irrelevant.
We've not returned to the status quo ante. We've seen an open attempt on the part of the administration to withhold important public health information from the American people. My personal feeling is that they failed because they're so tightly enclosed in the Trump bubble they didn't realize just how accessible the data is.
They will try again, and they will keep trying to deny crucial information to the American people. This administration is capable of acts we can't even imagine.
As election day comes closer and the unpresident becomes ever more desperate, he will become more dangerous. As I've said before, the people have to move to stop him. Our most direct route to accomplishing this is by keeping heavy pressure on our members of Congress to act in some meaningful way to contain DJTrump.
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.¹
--- Diogenes, 7/17/2020
¹ Wendell Phillips, American abolitionist, 1852.
If you read this on Facebook, please share it widely.
16 July 2020
Excuses, excuses
Reasons not to wear a mask during the COVID-19 pandemic:
- Trump says I don't have to. Trump lies. If he says you don't, it means you do.
- It's uncomfortable. Tell me that when you're intubated so you can breathe.
- My breath smells bad. Get a breath mint.
- My emphysema makes it hard to breathe. You're high risk. Go home.
- The governor says I don't have to. The governor is an idiot.
- I can't drink with it on. Use a straw.
- I don't like the way I look. Tell me that when you're lying in your casket.
- None of my friends do. You know what your mother would say, don't you?
- No one can make me. They can if you're in one of the states requiring it.*
- My asthma makes it feel stuffy. See answer #4.
- I feel claustrophobic. Inhale deeply before putting it on; exhale slowly.
- I'm healthy. Look up the definition of "asymptomatic."
- I can't smoke with it on. You can't smoke inside anyway, numbnuts.
- I can't tie it behind my head. Get one that goes around your ears.
- It hurts behind my ears. Give it time; you'll get calluses.
- The pandemic is a hoax. Shall I call you an ambulance now?
- I social distance; don't need one. Get the hell away from me!
- Sean Hannity says I don't need one. See answer #5.
- I cough and sneeze a lot from allergies. All the better to be wearing one.
- It's against my religion. I hope you're praying a lot.
* California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New York, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia.
15 July 2020
Life Matters, Part 3
We were once called the melting pot of nations for the millions of immigrants from myriad nations who came to the United States during the 19th century in search of a better life. Polish, Germans, Chinese, Italians, Dutch, Swedes, Russians, Jews, and a variety of Eastern Europeans landed in New York. After 1849 hundreds of thousands of Chinese came through San Francisco in search of gold and to work on the western railroads.
All were discriminated against and persecuted until they found niches in American society. All but one race ultimately assimilated. The Chinese were considered too alien. Their culture, dress, physical appearance, cuisine, religion, language, and several other factors worked against them. They were denied immigration for 61 years by a string of measures beginning with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
Members of one foreign ethnic group, however, had been here long before all others. The institution of slavery had been established in 1619 with the arrival of 20 African captives in Jamestown, Virginia. Of all the peoples who came to these shores, only Africans came involuntarily, only Africans were forced into slavery, and only Africans were bought and sold as chattel in marketplaces.
Black lives matter and Black deaths matter. Not because they are inherently more important than those of other races, but because they have been disregarded for so long. For more than two centuries millions of African men and women lived, worked, and died in appalling conditions, first in the American colonies and then in the American states. Few of their names are known.
Emancipation brought an end to enforced slavery, but the plight of Black people, particularly in the South, was little improved. They continued to be harassed, beaten, taunted, persecuted, murdered, raped and lynched well into the 20th century. Systemic victimization, frequently by police, continues today, due in no small part to the rabble-rousing rants of the Racist-in-Chief, DJTrump.
We must learn that if we are to have a truly just and equal society we have to acknowledge the pain, torment and misery our ancestors visited on generations of ancestors of our Black sisters and brothers.
Black lives do matter, We have to speak it.
--- Diogenes, 7/15/2020
If you read this on Facebook, please share it widely.
All were discriminated against and persecuted until they found niches in American society. All but one race ultimately assimilated. The Chinese were considered too alien. Their culture, dress, physical appearance, cuisine, religion, language, and several other factors worked against them. They were denied immigration for 61 years by a string of measures beginning with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
Members of one foreign ethnic group, however, had been here long before all others. The institution of slavery had been established in 1619 with the arrival of 20 African captives in Jamestown, Virginia. Of all the peoples who came to these shores, only Africans came involuntarily, only Africans were forced into slavery, and only Africans were bought and sold as chattel in marketplaces.
Black lives matter and Black deaths matter. Not because they are inherently more important than those of other races, but because they have been disregarded for so long. For more than two centuries millions of African men and women lived, worked, and died in appalling conditions, first in the American colonies and then in the American states. Few of their names are known.
Emancipation brought an end to enforced slavery, but the plight of Black people, particularly in the South, was little improved. They continued to be harassed, beaten, taunted, persecuted, murdered, raped and lynched well into the 20th century. Systemic victimization, frequently by police, continues today, due in no small part to the rabble-rousing rants of the Racist-in-Chief, DJTrump.
We must learn that if we are to have a truly just and equal society we have to acknowledge the pain, torment and misery our ancestors visited on generations of ancestors of our Black sisters and brothers.
Black lives do matter, We have to speak it.
--- Diogenes, 7/15/2020
If you read this on Facebook, please share it widely.
14 July 2020
Life Matters, Part 2
The Grand Dragon and High Wizard of the Kaka Klan, a.k.a. Racebaiter-in-Chief DJTrump, says we shouldn't think that all whites are racists.
No, we shouldn't. Not any more than we should think all Blacks are criminals and all Mexicans are rapists and murderers, which he not only believes, but on which he built a political campaign.
As I said in my "True Confessions" post yesterday, I am the product of a racist culture, which I have struggled all my life to cast off, yet I still have to ask myself if I am a racist.
Certainly not in any overt way. Individuals of many ethnicities have passed through my life as teachers, friends, colleagues, students, and lovers. As far as I have been concerned, they are just human beings, period.
At the same time, I occasionally have a twinge of something ugly when I meet certain Black men on the street. I can't consciously say what it is. It's almost as if I perceive an aura of threat. Like Jimmy Carter, who admitted to committing adultery in his heart, I feel I'm committing some kind of hate crime in my subconscious.
These passing encounters are always anonymous. I have no doubt that if I were introduced to the same men socially I wouldn't feel a thing. I can only think what I experience is some nasty thing bubbling up from my early years.
I have been victimized by Blacks, roughed up by white cops, and spat upon by Asians. I hold no grudges about those incidents, and I certainly have developed no racial hatred. I sometimes wonder if it's a generational thing. Perhaps people in Generation X or Z are truly color blind. I certainly hope so.
Our so-called leaders, however, are largely Baby Boomers. I hate sharing a generation with them. It is they who fire up the racists, who have hate in their hearts and who pulled out every dirty trick in the book to scuttle the Obama presidency because they couldn't stand the fact that America had elected a Black president.
It's because of their hatred that we all must understand why Black lives matter.
Tomorrow.
--- Diogenes, Bastille Day, 2020
No, we shouldn't. Not any more than we should think all Blacks are criminals and all Mexicans are rapists and murderers, which he not only believes, but on which he built a political campaign.
As I said in my "True Confessions" post yesterday, I am the product of a racist culture, which I have struggled all my life to cast off, yet I still have to ask myself if I am a racist.
Certainly not in any overt way. Individuals of many ethnicities have passed through my life as teachers, friends, colleagues, students, and lovers. As far as I have been concerned, they are just human beings, period.
At the same time, I occasionally have a twinge of something ugly when I meet certain Black men on the street. I can't consciously say what it is. It's almost as if I perceive an aura of threat. Like Jimmy Carter, who admitted to committing adultery in his heart, I feel I'm committing some kind of hate crime in my subconscious.
These passing encounters are always anonymous. I have no doubt that if I were introduced to the same men socially I wouldn't feel a thing. I can only think what I experience is some nasty thing bubbling up from my early years.
I have been victimized by Blacks, roughed up by white cops, and spat upon by Asians. I hold no grudges about those incidents, and I certainly have developed no racial hatred. I sometimes wonder if it's a generational thing. Perhaps people in Generation X or Z are truly color blind. I certainly hope so.
Our so-called leaders, however, are largely Baby Boomers. I hate sharing a generation with them. It is they who fire up the racists, who have hate in their hearts and who pulled out every dirty trick in the book to scuttle the Obama presidency because they couldn't stand the fact that America had elected a Black president.
It's because of their hatred that we all must understand why Black lives matter.
Tomorrow.
--- Diogenes, Bastille Day, 2020
13 July 2020
Life Matters, Part 1
All lives matter. African-Americans have lives. Therefore black lives matter.
Nice little syllogism, that, proving the facts of a major national issue in eleven words.
Logically speaking it's a sound argument with a valid conclusion. I never thought it would lead me to a long silence, let alone a crisis of conscience.
Recently the editor of Vox Populi called me out for a post I had submitted on this subject. It was, she declared, superficial and inadequate to the importance of the question.
She was right.
I am a white man of the Baby Boomer generation. I was raised in a middle-class racist family in an all-white, very small mostly racist town in a largely racist Midwestern state. By racist I mean that people of other races, ethnicities and nationalities were habitually spoken of disparagingly. A variety of epithets were used, depending on the background of the subject. I don't think anyone wished harm to any of those they spoke of--it was just the language one used.
My thoughts and speech echoed those of my family until I was about 13 and had a personal view of segregation during a visit to the South. My most persistent memory of that trip is of the "Colored only" and "White only" signs. They were everywhere: On drinking fountains, public restrooms, theater entrances, swimming pools--I clearly remember an arcade in an amusement park where side-by-side pinball machines were racially labeled.
It troubled my naive teenaged brain. I decided to experiment and started using "Colored" facilities whenever I could. Nothing happened. But I learned there could have been serious repercussions had I been "colored" and used "white" facilities. I could only ask why skin color made such a difference--and I'm still asking.
It's easy to say "Black lives matter." We can shout the slogan, wave it on a sign, wear it on a T-shirt, put it on our Facebook page, and feel virtuous. But do we mean it? Do we feel it? Or are we just being politically correct?
We need to remember that throughout much of American history black lives didn't matter. Or didn't matter much. After long debate in the Continental Congress on how to determine the number of persons in each state for the purposes of representation and taxation, it was decided that each Negro, i.e. slave, would count as 3/5 of a person.
We also need to consider that black deaths matter. How many of us remember that the first person to die in the struggle for American independence was an escaped slave named Crispus Attucks, who was given a hero's burial in Boston? How many slaves lie in unmarked graves throughout the South? How many were innocent victims of lynching? How many were never mourned?
I for one cannot come close to imagining how alienated African-Americans must feel from American history. It has been common knowledge for a very long time that many, if not most, of our Founders were slave owners. We even know some intimate details of slave/master interaction thanks to Thomas Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemmings.
The journals of the Continental Congress are full of matter-of-fact debates about how to treat "negroes" (the world is usually not capitalized)--not as people, but as property. Samuel Chase of Maryland, a signer of the Declaration and member of Congress for 20 years, put it plainly: "The negroes are wealth,"¹ i.e. chattel.
How do we reconcile the fact that some of the greatest men in the early history of our country contributed to its most infamous institution? Were they hypocrites, or pragmatists, or did it enter their thoughts at all?
Does the greater good offset the injustice?
--- Diogenes, July 13, 2020
¹ A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: Journals of the Continental Congress, July 30, 1776: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?hlaw:2:./temp/~ammem_Jvz3::
Nice little syllogism, that, proving the facts of a major national issue in eleven words.
Logically speaking it's a sound argument with a valid conclusion. I never thought it would lead me to a long silence, let alone a crisis of conscience.
Recently the editor of Vox Populi called me out for a post I had submitted on this subject. It was, she declared, superficial and inadequate to the importance of the question.
She was right.
I am a white man of the Baby Boomer generation. I was raised in a middle-class racist family in an all-white, very small mostly racist town in a largely racist Midwestern state. By racist I mean that people of other races, ethnicities and nationalities were habitually spoken of disparagingly. A variety of epithets were used, depending on the background of the subject. I don't think anyone wished harm to any of those they spoke of--it was just the language one used.
My thoughts and speech echoed those of my family until I was about 13 and had a personal view of segregation during a visit to the South. My most persistent memory of that trip is of the "Colored only" and "White only" signs. They were everywhere: On drinking fountains, public restrooms, theater entrances, swimming pools--I clearly remember an arcade in an amusement park where side-by-side pinball machines were racially labeled.
It troubled my naive teenaged brain. I decided to experiment and started using "Colored" facilities whenever I could. Nothing happened. But I learned there could have been serious repercussions had I been "colored" and used "white" facilities. I could only ask why skin color made such a difference--and I'm still asking.
It's easy to say "Black lives matter." We can shout the slogan, wave it on a sign, wear it on a T-shirt, put it on our Facebook page, and feel virtuous. But do we mean it? Do we feel it? Or are we just being politically correct?
We need to remember that throughout much of American history black lives didn't matter. Or didn't matter much. After long debate in the Continental Congress on how to determine the number of persons in each state for the purposes of representation and taxation, it was decided that each Negro, i.e. slave, would count as 3/5 of a person.
We also need to consider that black deaths matter. How many of us remember that the first person to die in the struggle for American independence was an escaped slave named Crispus Attucks, who was given a hero's burial in Boston? How many slaves lie in unmarked graves throughout the South? How many were innocent victims of lynching? How many were never mourned?
I for one cannot come close to imagining how alienated African-Americans must feel from American history. It has been common knowledge for a very long time that many, if not most, of our Founders were slave owners. We even know some intimate details of slave/master interaction thanks to Thomas Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemmings.
The journals of the Continental Congress are full of matter-of-fact debates about how to treat "negroes" (the world is usually not capitalized)--not as people, but as property. Samuel Chase of Maryland, a signer of the Declaration and member of Congress for 20 years, put it plainly: "The negroes are wealth,"¹ i.e. chattel.
How do we reconcile the fact that some of the greatest men in the early history of our country contributed to its most infamous institution? Were they hypocrites, or pragmatists, or did it enter their thoughts at all?
Does the greater good offset the injustice?
--- Diogenes, July 13, 2020
¹ A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: Journals of the Continental Congress, July 30, 1776: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?hlaw:2:./temp/~ammem_Jvz3::
08 July 2020
The China Connection
A farmer in China's province of Inner Mongolia was recently diagnosed with Bubonic Plague.
That's shocking to us, but hardly surprising. China has been exporting plagues for millennia.
Of the more than 20 pandemics in recorded history, and even a few prehistoric plagues discovered by science, the great majority have originated in China. The path of contagion into Europe typically followed trade along the Great Silk Road.
Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes Plague, is endemic to China. Three major outbreaks, in 541, 1432, and 1855, killed millions. The second, a.k.a. the Black Death, may have killed as much as one half the population of Europe. The 1855 outbreak, which killed at least 12 million people, was finally only declared inactive in 1981, but remnants still pop up from time to time.
Since the 1890s new kinds of zoonotic diseases have come out of China. The newcomers have been associated with swine, birds, and now bats. They generally tend to be types of influenza passed from animals to humans. Because they originate in other species we have no natural immunity to them. Because they mutate often, a vaccine developed one day may not work the next. And because they spread quickly and easily, treatment programs tend to lag a few steps behind the contagion.
So, Diogenes, why this textbook-dry commentary on disease?
Because, dear reader, even though plagues have indeed killed an untold number of people, the "primitive" cultures that dealt with them, having no medicine, no idea of germ theory, and little idea of hygiene, were many times able to slow and even stop the spread of disease. How?
Isolation. The doctors of ancient and medieval times, having no means to cure their patients, watched them closely. They discovered that people who congregated in groups tended to become infected, while non-social individuals did not. They advised families and heads of villages to watch for symptoms and as quickly as possible when a symptom appeared, to close the afflicted person away from others. It took years for the information to get out and for it to spread, but it proved an effective technique.
This is a lesson we have only just relearned; we call it social distancing. There is no indication that medieval doctors suggested wearing masks, but people in the presence of illness frequently covered their mouths and noses against the stench, which may have had some prophylactic effect.
We know about germs, and anyone who has had an 8th-grade health class knows how diseases can be spread. The unpresident clearly missed that lesson.
The Dolt-in-Chief wants schools to open in the fall. He and his Republican minions want to pretend there is no contagion. In the midst of a pandemic that has infected 3 million Americans, he gathers or hires groups of people to sit in close proximity, without masks, to listen to him speak drivel and blather. He continues to deny the reality of this plague.
Someone should sneeze on him.
--- Diogenes, 7/8/2020
That's shocking to us, but hardly surprising. China has been exporting plagues for millennia.
Of the more than 20 pandemics in recorded history, and even a few prehistoric plagues discovered by science, the great majority have originated in China. The path of contagion into Europe typically followed trade along the Great Silk Road.
Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes Plague, is endemic to China. Three major outbreaks, in 541, 1432, and 1855, killed millions. The second, a.k.a. the Black Death, may have killed as much as one half the population of Europe. The 1855 outbreak, which killed at least 12 million people, was finally only declared inactive in 1981, but remnants still pop up from time to time.
Since the 1890s new kinds of zoonotic diseases have come out of China. The newcomers have been associated with swine, birds, and now bats. They generally tend to be types of influenza passed from animals to humans. Because they originate in other species we have no natural immunity to them. Because they mutate often, a vaccine developed one day may not work the next. And because they spread quickly and easily, treatment programs tend to lag a few steps behind the contagion.
So, Diogenes, why this textbook-dry commentary on disease?
Because, dear reader, even though plagues have indeed killed an untold number of people, the "primitive" cultures that dealt with them, having no medicine, no idea of germ theory, and little idea of hygiene, were many times able to slow and even stop the spread of disease. How?
Isolation. The doctors of ancient and medieval times, having no means to cure their patients, watched them closely. They discovered that people who congregated in groups tended to become infected, while non-social individuals did not. They advised families and heads of villages to watch for symptoms and as quickly as possible when a symptom appeared, to close the afflicted person away from others. It took years for the information to get out and for it to spread, but it proved an effective technique.
This is a lesson we have only just relearned; we call it social distancing. There is no indication that medieval doctors suggested wearing masks, but people in the presence of illness frequently covered their mouths and noses against the stench, which may have had some prophylactic effect.
We know about germs, and anyone who has had an 8th-grade health class knows how diseases can be spread. The unpresident clearly missed that lesson.
The Dolt-in-Chief wants schools to open in the fall. He and his Republican minions want to pretend there is no contagion. In the midst of a pandemic that has infected 3 million Americans, he gathers or hires groups of people to sit in close proximity, without masks, to listen to him speak drivel and blather. He continues to deny the reality of this plague.
Someone should sneeze on him.
--- Diogenes, 7/8/2020
06 July 2020
Putting The Hate On Trump (Repost)
(Diogenes is temporarily involved in other pursuits. In his absence we will be reposting some of his more popular pieces.) ---RB
I hate Donald Trump because he makes me want to do violence.
I have held to a nonviolent philosophy for my entire adult life. I have never aimed a weapon at anything more threatening than a field target; I was last drawn into a fistfight when I was 17; I have no wish to harm anyone.
And I want to punch Trump's lights out.
I have dreams of throttling him, my hands around his neck, beating his head against the wall while he sings The Beatles' song "I'm A Loser." I want to rip that orange obscenity from his head and shred it with my teeth. I want to throw him into a pool full of crocodiles. I want to wash his lying, profane mouth out with lye soap. I want to tie him to a chair, tape his eyes open, and force him to watch a video loop of President Obama scolding, "Donny, you've been a bad boy." I want the Statue of Liberty to spank him, and the ghosts of Lincoln and Jefferson to haunt him forever. I want a personification of the COVID-19 virus to chase him naked through the streets of Manhattan. I want him to know himself for the fraud and freak show he is, no more worthy to sit in the Oval Office than slime mold. I want him reincarnated to a place where he is the only white person and the rulers are violent, misanthropic women. I want him to know the bone-chilling, knee-collapsing, bladder-emptying fear of authority felt by the oppressed, the disenfranchised, and the marginalized. I want a hundred afarit to drag him into the earth. I want him to know exactly what Putin, Xi Jinping, and Erdoğan actually say about him. I want him tarred and feathered and ridden out of DC on a rail. I want to tattoo 666 on his ass. I want him to know his biography is full of blank pages. I want him afflicted with boils and unscratchable itches. I want the unspeakable beasts of Chthulu to find him. I want the Holy Bible to burn his blaspheming hands. I want his libelous tongue to cleave to the roof of his mouth. I want him placed among the traitors in the mouth of Satan in the deepest pit of Hell. I want him mute. I want his image expunged from every public place and his portrait never placed in the Gallery of Presidents. I want him forgotten. I want his legacy to be shame. I want him to know just how much he is hated. I want him to be bullied and intimidated. I want him ostracized. I want him humiliated. I want him to cry.
During the Thug-in-Chief's first campaign I sometimes asked rhetorically, "Will someone take this bastard out and shoot him?" I was advised by cooler heads to tone it down, and I did. No more. There are not enough denunciatory, damning, condemnatory, insulting, judgmental, censorious, reproaching, disparaging, derogatory words in all the English language sufficiently to describe him, nor any punishment he does not deserve.
He has defiled, flouted, soiled, profaned, fouled, besmirched, sullied and dishonored the office of President, the laws of this country, the Constitution, the legacy of the Framers, and the idea of democracy itself.
He is a cancer and a plague on freedom and on our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
He must be stopped, deposed, and extirpated.
--- Diogenes, 7/6/2020
05 July 2020
One Angry Man
Here we are in the silly season, when political campaigns begin ramping up and candidates strive to present their best sides and demonstrate their good qualities.
Alas for unpresident Donald Trump, who has neither a good side nor any good qualities. He lacks jollity, folkishness, charm, and he sure as hell lacks presidentialness.
All evidence suggests he has only one emotion: anger. He seems incapable of responding to anything positively. He can bring anger out of an audience like a camp meeting preacher can bring out the spirit.
The problem is, you can't build on anger. Anger builds on itself with no mitigation, manifests as hate, and will ultimately always end in violence, the last resort of the incompetent.¹
We should be concerned about where that anger goes. It obviously gets poured out on those around him--the press, his staff, even COVID-19, which he hates because he can't control it. He carries so much anger that he radiates it.
Some of that anger must surely be turned inward, and that is Freud's definition of depression. If Trump is angry with himself and has become depressed he is far more dangerous than your everyday angry man.
On July 3 and 4 he delivered similar speeches at gatherings meant to observe Independence Day. They were, of course, campaign speeches and were of such hyperbolic demagoguery as to stagger the mind.²
Both presentations were belligerent in nature, effectively declaring war on his newest shadow enemy, the "Fascist Left." In both speeches he reached astounding new heights of hypocrisy, reflecting his acts and policies back on this ghost entity, shamelessly blaming the left for his own bad deeds, and attributing the effects of his policies, his racism, and his xenophobia to this phantom fifth column.
The Hypocrite-in-Chief has finally found a speechwriter who can make him sound almost knowledgeable about American history. He merged bellicose harangues with attempts to show his understanding of American history and diversity, peppering both addresses with names of African Americans and women, gracing a few with his only adjective, "great."
Military power was a major focus of both speeches, as he read off lists of America's increasing military arsenal. All that was missing was a parade of weapons, à la Soviet May Day parades.
Lacking the intellectual capacity to channel his anger into something non-destructive, a depressed Trump is likely to strike out at virtually no provocation, and he has lots of weapons to play with.
We should be very concerned indeed.
--- Diogenes, July 5, 2020
¹ Attributed to Isaac Asimov.
² July 3 transcript: https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-speech-transcript-at-mount-rushmore-4th-of-july-event
July 4 transcript: https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-salute-to-america-speech-transcript
Alas for unpresident Donald Trump, who has neither a good side nor any good qualities. He lacks jollity, folkishness, charm, and he sure as hell lacks presidentialness.
All evidence suggests he has only one emotion: anger. He seems incapable of responding to anything positively. He can bring anger out of an audience like a camp meeting preacher can bring out the spirit.
The problem is, you can't build on anger. Anger builds on itself with no mitigation, manifests as hate, and will ultimately always end in violence, the last resort of the incompetent.¹
We should be concerned about where that anger goes. It obviously gets poured out on those around him--the press, his staff, even COVID-19, which he hates because he can't control it. He carries so much anger that he radiates it.
Some of that anger must surely be turned inward, and that is Freud's definition of depression. If Trump is angry with himself and has become depressed he is far more dangerous than your everyday angry man.
On July 3 and 4 he delivered similar speeches at gatherings meant to observe Independence Day. They were, of course, campaign speeches and were of such hyperbolic demagoguery as to stagger the mind.²
Both presentations were belligerent in nature, effectively declaring war on his newest shadow enemy, the "Fascist Left." In both speeches he reached astounding new heights of hypocrisy, reflecting his acts and policies back on this ghost entity, shamelessly blaming the left for his own bad deeds, and attributing the effects of his policies, his racism, and his xenophobia to this phantom fifth column.
The Hypocrite-in-Chief has finally found a speechwriter who can make him sound almost knowledgeable about American history. He merged bellicose harangues with attempts to show his understanding of American history and diversity, peppering both addresses with names of African Americans and women, gracing a few with his only adjective, "great."
Military power was a major focus of both speeches, as he read off lists of America's increasing military arsenal. All that was missing was a parade of weapons, à la Soviet May Day parades.
Lacking the intellectual capacity to channel his anger into something non-destructive, a depressed Trump is likely to strike out at virtually no provocation, and he has lots of weapons to play with.
We should be very concerned indeed.
--- Diogenes, July 5, 2020
¹ Attributed to Isaac Asimov.
² July 3 transcript: https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-speech-transcript-at-mount-rushmore-4th-of-july-event
July 4 transcript: https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-salute-to-america-speech-transcript
04 July 2020
Celebrate treason! Redux
Reposted due to the Great Pretender's outrageous acts of militarism and tyranny.
Originally published July 4, 2020
Today we celebrate a unique and momentous act of treason. Two hundred and forty-four years ago today representatives of thirteen upstart American colonies approved and adopted a document announcing their secession from the world's most powerful empire.
When the signers of the Declaration of Independence gathered in Philadelphia to take their historic action, they did so pledging "our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." In a time when one's honor was everything, that was a mighty oath, which they knew would cost their lives if their uprising failed.
At the time of the signing, hostilities between Great Britain and the colonies had been underway for more than a year. In a letter dated July 1, 1775, King George III wrote: "I am of the opinion that once these rebels have felt a smart blow, they will submit."
Well, Your Majesty, here we still are, and your rebels and traitors are our Patriots.
It would be fitting if, on this day when we honor our patriot forebears, we forcefully declare our own independence, forsaking and forswearing any link or allegiance whatsoever to unpresident Donald Trump, and pledge to do everything in our power to bring about his fall, to remove him from office, and to assign him to the dustbin of history.
Let us be traitors; let us be patriots; let us be Americans, speaking truth to lies, concord to divisiveness, and denouncing Trump to the world.
---Diogenes, Independence Day, 2020
Originally published July 4, 2020
Today we celebrate a unique and momentous act of treason. Two hundred and forty-four years ago today representatives of thirteen upstart American colonies approved and adopted a document announcing their secession from the world's most powerful empire.
When the signers of the Declaration of Independence gathered in Philadelphia to take their historic action, they did so pledging "our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." In a time when one's honor was everything, that was a mighty oath, which they knew would cost their lives if their uprising failed.
At the time of the signing, hostilities between Great Britain and the colonies had been underway for more than a year. In a letter dated July 1, 1775, King George III wrote: "I am of the opinion that once these rebels have felt a smart blow, they will submit."
Well, Your Majesty, here we still are, and your rebels and traitors are our Patriots.
It would be fitting if, on this day when we honor our patriot forebears, we forcefully declare our own independence, forsaking and forswearing any link or allegiance whatsoever to unpresident Donald Trump, and pledge to do everything in our power to bring about his fall, to remove him from office, and to assign him to the dustbin of history.
Let us be traitors; let us be patriots; let us be Americans, speaking truth to lies, concord to divisiveness, and denouncing Trump to the world.
---Diogenes, Independence Day, 2020
03 July 2020
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