I am well aware of my tendency to slide off-message, which is why for this iteration of Vox Populi I persuaded an editor to protect me from myself.
The stated purpose of this blog, which I am downright obsessive about, is to expose, denounce, censure, and anathematize unpresident Donald Trump for lying to the American people, for flouting the Constitution, for making a mockery of the presidency, for failing to take responsibility for anything, for ignoring public health and public safety, for criminalizing victims, for violating more rules, laws and Constitutional clauses than any president in history, for excessive corruption that would make even Boss Tweed blush, and for infecting his entire administration with an attitude inimical to the American people.
Yesterday my editor politely but firmly informed me that I have recently slipped away from that mandate and that I need to get back on track. She was right.
I'm going to take a couple of days off to retool and realign my thinking. The timing is good, I think, as we enter into this unprecedented election season.
We are all going to have to be at our best throughout the next five months.
--- Diogenes, 6/12/2020
U.S. Constitution
The voice of the people
12 June 2020
11 June 2020
Revolutionaries Reading Redux
[Because we've just witnessed the first widespread civil uprising in
quite some time, I'm republishing this list as a reminder of how
important it is to stand up against tyranny] --- Diogenes, 6/11/2020
I hope that none of you have ever or ever will experience tyranny in real life,
but there are people highly placed in government who would very much like to have more power and would like the people to have less. I offer here some reading and viewing material by people who did experience tyranny in some of its worst forms that might help you recognize authoritarianism if it ever rears its ugly head.
These are standard works that will probably be in your local library. K=Kindle
Many of these works are challenging. If you start one and hate it, just grab another.
Bradbury, Ray: Fahrenheit 451 K
Dick, Philip K.: The Man In The High Castle¹ K
Frank, Anne: The Diary Of A Young Girl K
Lockhart, Robin Bruce: Reilly: Ace of Spies K
Marquis, John: Papa Doc: Portrait Of A Haitian Tyrant
Orwell, George: Animal Farm K
Orwell, George: 1984 K
Short, Philip: Pol Pot: Anatomy Of A Nightmare K
Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr: One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich K
Trunk, Isaiah: Judenrat
Webb, William: The Dictator
Wiesel, Elie: Night K
Hitler, Adolf: Mein Kampf K
Mazin, Craig and Johan Renck: Chernobyl (Five-part HBO miniseries)
Powell, William: The Anarchist Cookbook K
¹Also an Amazon Prime series
If you haven't the time to read, then meditate on these quotes:
"The price of liberty is eternal vigilance" Thomas Charlton
"The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naïve and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair." H. L. Mencken
"We have the oldest written constitution still in force in the world, and it starts out with three words: 'We, the people.'" Ruth Bader Ginsburg
"We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution." Abraham Lincoln
--- Diogenes, 5/13/20
I hope that none of you have ever or ever will experience tyranny in real life,
but there are people highly placed in government who would very much like to have more power and would like the people to have less. I offer here some reading and viewing material by people who did experience tyranny in some of its worst forms that might help you recognize authoritarianism if it ever rears its ugly head.
These are standard works that will probably be in your local library. K=Kindle
Many of these works are challenging. If you start one and hate it, just grab another.
Bradbury, Ray: Fahrenheit 451 K
Dick, Philip K.: The Man In The High Castle¹ K
Frank, Anne: The Diary Of A Young Girl K
Lockhart, Robin Bruce: Reilly: Ace of Spies K
Marquis, John: Papa Doc: Portrait Of A Haitian Tyrant
Orwell, George: Animal Farm K
Orwell, George: 1984 K
Short, Philip: Pol Pot: Anatomy Of A Nightmare K
Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr: One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich K
Trunk, Isaiah: Judenrat
Webb, William: The Dictator
Wiesel, Elie: Night K
Hitler, Adolf: Mein Kampf K
Mazin, Craig and Johan Renck: Chernobyl (Five-part HBO miniseries)
Powell, William: The Anarchist Cookbook K
¹Also an Amazon Prime series
If you haven't the time to read, then meditate on these quotes:
"The price of liberty is eternal vigilance" Thomas Charlton
"The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naïve and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair." H. L. Mencken
"We have the oldest written constitution still in force in the world, and it starts out with three words: 'We, the people.'" Ruth Bader Ginsburg
"We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution." Abraham Lincoln
--- Diogenes, 5/13/20
09 June 2020
Cops: Defund Or Defend?
In the wake of the documented killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer and the subsequent protests, a number of cities across America are moving to reform their police forces. Even Congress is getting into the act.
This is generally a good thing, but it must be done carefully and reasonably. Above all, it should not be done as a knee-jerk reaction to one case, however horrific, of police brutality.
It must be done in consideration of the public's safety. All the public: black, white, Asian, Latino, straight, gay, Christian, Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist, Hindu, rich, poor, homeless, addicted--the entire panoply of this remarkably diverse nation.
Unlike several other countries, the United States does not have a paramilitary national police force. Instead, we have insanely over-armed local forces who routinely deploy battlefield weapons on the streets, including their favorite, tear gas, which was outlawed as a weapon of war by the Geneva Protocol of 1925. But it's OK to use on civilians.
Following the 1965 Watts riot, some larger police forces began increasing their armamentaria to include heavy automatic weapons and grenades, armored personnel carriers, and adopting military-style gear and tactics. This militarization increased during the 1980s drug wars, which saw the proliferation of SWAT forces. Since the late 1990s, police departments have been able to acquire excess military equipment of all kinds, bulking up their arsenals sufficiently to fight a small war. And they've been getting away with murder.
Since 2003, more than 1,000 Americans have been killed by police each year,¹ and the vast majority of them were not criminals. There is ample evidence that militarization is both ineffective and unequal. One study from 2018 showed that "militarized 'special weapons and tactics' (SWAT) teams are more often deployed in communities of color, and—contrary to claims by police administrators—provide no detectable benefits in terms of officer safety or violent crime reduction, on average."²
Not surprisingly, there are very few government programs that keep track of civilian deaths by police. There are a few in the private realm, but none of them agree exactly just how many non-criminals have been killed by police. One thing they do agree on is that people of color are disproportionately at risk, and that about 90% of such deaths are caused by gunshot.
I do not agree with any action that would abolish a police force or reduce it to ineffectiveness. That would invite chaos and vigilantism. But reform is unquestionably needed in many American police organizations.
Police officers are not soldiers, and police forces should not look at their communities as battlefields. Many police forces have adopted the "Protect and Defend" motto. They should take it seriously. They should know the people they claim to protect and defend. They should pay attention to the dynamics of their neighborhoods.
Needless to say, the Warmonger-in-Chief wants the police to go out and "dominate the streets." And of course he thinks they're all "great, great people."
Police should be our neighbors, not an occupying force. In the past couple of weeks we've seen the enmity that exists between communities and the forces who are supposed to be protecting and defending them. Too many Americans view the police as an enemy, in some cases with good reason.
Attitudes on both sides need to change. If an improvement in police-community relations can emerge from the recent strife, we will all be winners.
---Diogenes, 6/9/2020
¹ https://fatalencounters.org/
² Jonathan Mummolo, "Militarization fails to enhance police safety or reduce crime but may harm police reputation," https://www.pnas.org/content/115/37/9181.
This is generally a good thing, but it must be done carefully and reasonably. Above all, it should not be done as a knee-jerk reaction to one case, however horrific, of police brutality.
It must be done in consideration of the public's safety. All the public: black, white, Asian, Latino, straight, gay, Christian, Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist, Hindu, rich, poor, homeless, addicted--the entire panoply of this remarkably diverse nation.
Unlike several other countries, the United States does not have a paramilitary national police force. Instead, we have insanely over-armed local forces who routinely deploy battlefield weapons on the streets, including their favorite, tear gas, which was outlawed as a weapon of war by the Geneva Protocol of 1925. But it's OK to use on civilians.
Following the 1965 Watts riot, some larger police forces began increasing their armamentaria to include heavy automatic weapons and grenades, armored personnel carriers, and adopting military-style gear and tactics. This militarization increased during the 1980s drug wars, which saw the proliferation of SWAT forces. Since the late 1990s, police departments have been able to acquire excess military equipment of all kinds, bulking up their arsenals sufficiently to fight a small war. And they've been getting away with murder.
Since 2003, more than 1,000 Americans have been killed by police each year,¹ and the vast majority of them were not criminals. There is ample evidence that militarization is both ineffective and unequal. One study from 2018 showed that "militarized 'special weapons and tactics' (SWAT) teams are more often deployed in communities of color, and—contrary to claims by police administrators—provide no detectable benefits in terms of officer safety or violent crime reduction, on average."²
Not surprisingly, there are very few government programs that keep track of civilian deaths by police. There are a few in the private realm, but none of them agree exactly just how many non-criminals have been killed by police. One thing they do agree on is that people of color are disproportionately at risk, and that about 90% of such deaths are caused by gunshot.
I do not agree with any action that would abolish a police force or reduce it to ineffectiveness. That would invite chaos and vigilantism. But reform is unquestionably needed in many American police organizations.
Police officers are not soldiers, and police forces should not look at their communities as battlefields. Many police forces have adopted the "Protect and Defend" motto. They should take it seriously. They should know the people they claim to protect and defend. They should pay attention to the dynamics of their neighborhoods.
Needless to say, the Warmonger-in-Chief wants the police to go out and "dominate the streets." And of course he thinks they're all "great, great people."
Police should be our neighbors, not an occupying force. In the past couple of weeks we've seen the enmity that exists between communities and the forces who are supposed to be protecting and defending them. Too many Americans view the police as an enemy, in some cases with good reason.
Attitudes on both sides need to change. If an improvement in police-community relations can emerge from the recent strife, we will all be winners.
---Diogenes, 6/9/2020
¹ https://fatalencounters.org/
² Jonathan Mummolo, "Militarization fails to enhance police safety or reduce crime but may harm police reputation," https://www.pnas.org/content/115/37/9181.
07 June 2020
The State Of Trump
"He is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature."*
I am shamed by forgetfulness.
It had gone out of my head that the District of Columbia lacks a governor. Our seat of government has Congress for its legislature and the president as its governor. Poor DC.
So the National Guard, forced to "defend" the Bully-in-Chief's own little fiefdom, was apparently following legitimate orders to commit highly questionable, if not unlawful, acts when it cleared the way for him to waltz over to St. John's church with his posse in tow.
That neither excuses nor legitimizes anything the Guard did. The actions of helicopter pilots in battering the crowds with rotor wash are at least under investigation, but given the players I have to question the rigorousness of the inquiry.
The notion of the president using his "gubernatorial" powers to direct military action could be a dreadful precedent. I mean, think of it: an overgrown, self-absorbed child with 69 square miles of territory to play with real soldiers in.
Imagine--Bayonet charges on The Ellipse; Nighttime exercises in Rock Creek Park; Amphibious landings on Roosevelt Island. The Barbarian Duke of DC could see the first and last of these, surveying his demesne from the roof of the White House.
I suggest we urge the governors of Maryland and Virginia to build a high wall along their borders with DC, allowing only helicopter access, and let the games begin.
---Diogenes, 6/7/2020
* George Bernard Shaw: Caesar and Cleopatra.
I am shamed by forgetfulness.
It had gone out of my head that the District of Columbia lacks a governor. Our seat of government has Congress for its legislature and the president as its governor. Poor DC.
So the National Guard, forced to "defend" the Bully-in-Chief's own little fiefdom, was apparently following legitimate orders to commit highly questionable, if not unlawful, acts when it cleared the way for him to waltz over to St. John's church with his posse in tow.
That neither excuses nor legitimizes anything the Guard did. The actions of helicopter pilots in battering the crowds with rotor wash are at least under investigation, but given the players I have to question the rigorousness of the inquiry.
The notion of the president using his "gubernatorial" powers to direct military action could be a dreadful precedent. I mean, think of it: an overgrown, self-absorbed child with 69 square miles of territory to play with real soldiers in.
Imagine--Bayonet charges on The Ellipse; Nighttime exercises in Rock Creek Park; Amphibious landings on Roosevelt Island. The Barbarian Duke of DC could see the first and last of these, surveying his demesne from the roof of the White House.
I suggest we urge the governors of Maryland and Virginia to build a high wall along their borders with DC, allowing only helicopter access, and let the games begin.
---Diogenes, 6/7/2020
* George Bernard Shaw: Caesar and Cleopatra.
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