Hope, Light, and Love

The Democratic National Convention has proved the ancient art of speechifying has evolved and is still lively.

Oratory has softened from bombastic to urbane and antagonism has given way to pointedness, but the barbs are sharper when delivered in the calm context of a virtual auditorium instead of in front of a raucous crowd.

The Biden/Harris campaign has settled on a message of love, hope, and light. Such words are uncommon in political campaigns, but I expect they were chosen because they are exactly opposite the Hater-in-Chief's message. As Joe Biden said toward the end of his acceptance speech, "love is more powerful than hate, hope is more powerful than fear, and light is more powerful than dark."¹

Don't take that to mean the Democrats are floating on a hazy platform of unicorns and rainbows. Before her nomination Kamala Harris may not have been a household word for many of us, but you can bet she's going to become one.

She is nothing if not straightforward: "Donald Trump’s failure of leadership has cost lives and livelihoods. If you’re a parent struggling with your child’s remote learning, or you’re a teacher struggling on the other side of that screen, you know what we’re doing right now is not working."²

And she's not shy about taking on the oligarchy: "I fought against transnational criminal organizations. I took on the biggest banks and helped take down one of the biggest for-profit colleges. I know a predator when I see one." That last sentence was a barely veiled reference to Trump.

Neither is Biden any cream puff. The man has stealth. He'll talk along for a while in an almost conversational style, then, without raising his voice, increase in startling intensity. Consider this:
   "For our seniors, Social Security is a sacred obligation, a sacred promise made that they paid for. The current president is threatening to break that promise. He’s proposing to eliminate a tax that pays for almost half of Social Security, without any way of making up for that lost revenue, resulting in cuts. I will not let that happen." While you could hear the point coming, the last sentence was suddenly stated forcefully, with his finger pointing toward the camera and eyes drilling into it. I was transfixed.

And just a couple of more promises: "I’ll be a president who’ll stand with our allies and friends and make it clear to our adversaries, the days of cozying up to dictators is over. Under President Biden, America will not turn a blind eye to Russian bounties on their heads of American soldiers, nor will I put up with foreign interference in our most sacred democratic exercise, voting." And, "Character is on the ballot, compassion is on the ballot, decency, science, democracy, they’re all on the ballot. Who we are as a nation, what we stand for, and most importantly, who we want to be, that’s all on the ballot. And the choice could not be more clear. No rhetoric is needed. Just judge this president on the facts." This was followed by a long litany of the Loser-in-Chief's failures.

Throughout his address Biden enumerated several policies he intends to put into place, beginning with seriously addressing COVID-19, and including education reform, reinstatement of the Affordable Care Act, and economic restructuring: "it’s long past time the wealthiest people and the biggest corporations in this country paid their fair share."

From the Democratic side this looks to be a lively and well thought out campaign.

And what of the upcoming Trumpalalooza?  As for the Bloviating Gasbag-in-Chief, Shakespeare had him. Everything he says “is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing."³

And plans, or anything like a platform? "The plan is to frighten voters and appeal to any latent racist fears. Since Biden is not a radical, the claim is that he's not really in charge; he's a Trojan Horse. And Harris -- she may seem too tough, too nasty, but she's not tough enough. Got that?"⁴

Expect the same responses to questions--"We're going to take care of that;" "I'll look into that;" "We'll fix that;" "It's going to go away."

And the same string of lies, disinformation, nonsense, lies, horsefeathers, codswallop, lies, drivel, balderdash, flapdoodle, lies, and, ahem, lies.

Would it kill the Boondoggler-in-Chief to tell the truth just once? I'd like to find out.


--- Diogenes, 8/21/2020


Please share.


 ¹ Biden quotes are from the transcript of his acceptance speech, at https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/joe-biden-2020-dnc-speech-transcript
 ² Harris quotes are from the transcript of her acceptance speech, at https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/kamala-harris-2020-dnc-speech-transcript
³ William Shakespeare, "Macbeth," Act 5, scene 5.

⁴ Frida Ghitis, CNN Opinion, "Kamala Harris throws Trump off balance," https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/13/opinions/kamala-harris-throws-trump-off-balance-ghitis/index.html

Not In Our House!

"I Pray Heaven Bestow the Best of Blessings on This House and All that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under this Roof."

So wrote President John Adams on November 2, 1800, in a letter to his wife after spending his first night in the White House. Perhaps to remind future presidents of the expectations placed on them, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had the passage inscribed in the fireplace of the State Dining Room.

Adams, Roosevelt, and all other deceased presidents are no doubt spinning in their graves because the current tenant is neither honest nor wise, nor does he deserve any blessings.

The White House is the oldest government building in Washington, D. C. It is also the most important because it's where we house our president. Yes, "we," not some faceless "they." The government is still of, by, and for us, and we ultimately own it; Blacks have a special claim to it because their ancestors provided the labor to build it.

The Blasphemer-in-Chief has now declared he will deliver his acceptance speech as the Republican presidential candidate from the White House. He is facing a good deal of resistance to this, including from within his party and senior staff. Typically he's giving it no attention. It doesn't matter, because his plan, however distasteful and galling, is legal.

By now you've probably heard a lot about the Hatch Act. I love its official title: "An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities." The act is named for Senator Carl Hatch, a New Mexico Democrat, and was signed into law in August 1939. One wants to ask what Senator Hatch was thinking when he inserted the word "pernicious." Perhaps he had a vision of #45, the Pernicious President.

The gist of the Hatch Act is that it prohibits employees of the executive branch from engaging in partisan political activity while on duty or in the federal workplace. The problem is, it exempts the president and vice-president.

It seems to me that that exemption is a fatal flaw. I suppose back in the day it went without saying that people who had the goods to become president were upstanding individuals of wisdom and honesty. We should apologize to history and bow our heads in shame for having allowed such a putz as DJTrump into the White House.

When we finally get out of all this craziness I'm going to propose doing away with that exemption. No one is above the law, and the chief executive and his assistant should not be allowed to do something their employees can't.¹

Theoretically, if the president does engage in political activity on government property he would have to do it as a solo gig. If he involved on-duty employees in any capacity he would be causing them to break the law. Trump does this frequently, especially in press conferences and interviews when he regularly trash talks Biden and Harris. Any federal staff who assist in such activities are automatically in violation of the act. The same goes for travel on Air Force One to political events. And any executive branch employee, for instance a press secretary, who publicly speaks of partisan political matters is also in violation.

Penalties for violation are not terribly severe, but they're nothing to sneeze at:  "The penalty structure for violations of the Hatch Act by federal employees includes removal from federal service, reduction in grade, debarment from federal employment for a period not to exceed 5 years, suspension, reprimand, or a civil penalty not to exceed $1,000."²

The elements of this structure that would hit employees hardest would be removal and/or debarment from federal service. I have said elsewhere that people who work for the government, particularly at the executive level, tend to be power junkies. Removing them from the federal workforce would be like uprooting a plant.

Does the Slavemaster-in-Chief care? No. Those employees are, to use an archaic term, cannon fodder. He is exempt from the act and that is all that matters to him. So in his employees we see yet another sector of the American public that Trump doesn't realize actually exists. They are lives that he can disrupt and molest without a thought as if they were no more than insects.

That is why we have to say to his plan to speak from the White House: Not In Our House!


--- Diogenes, 8/20/2020

Please share.


¹ Perhaps a compromise could be reached in which the president would have to ask permission from the House to hold such an event.
² U. S. Office of Special Counsel: https://osc.gov/Services/Pages/HatchAct-Federal.aspx#tabGroup51

The Vote

As Americans, the most important thing we own is the right to vote. If we were ever to lose that right we would soon lose every other. The United States of America would be on the way to extinction.

Donald J. Trump is attempting to rob us of the vote.

The right to vote is central to our freedom, indeed to the very existence of our country. The popular election of a chief executive was such a new idea in the 18th century that the  Framers spelled out its process at length in Article II, Section 1 (since amended) of the Constitution.

The Constitution itself has been amended no fewer than six times for the purpose of expanding suffrage: 15th Amendment, 1870, allowed voting regardless of race, color, previous condition of servitude; 17th, 1913, provided direct election of senators; 19th, 1920, allowed voting regardless of sex; 23rd, 1961, D.C. residents allowed to vote in presidential elections; 24th, 1964, banned poll taxes; and 26th, 1971, dropped voting age from 21 to 18. Additionally, many Congressional acts expanded the right to vote.

Maintaining a democracy takes work. Everyone has a part to play, and our part as voters is the most important. We decide the shape and makeup of the government.

Our elected officials do the heavy lifting, but we elect them and can remove them from office when we think they're not doing the job we elected them to do.

It all works as long as everyone plays by the rules. It worked until 2016, when the voting public suffered a psychotic break and elected¹ as president a freakish person who has no use for rules and has no history whatsoever of public service.

That person, the unpresident, Donald John Trump, believes he owns everything he controls, and he believes he controls the office of president of the United States of America. He will stop at nothing, and I mean nothing, to remain in that office.

That's why he wants to steal the vote from all of us.

Although he and his family regularly use them, Trump has long criticized mail-in ballots as a source of voting fraud. There is no truth to those claims.

Mail-in ballots are used by people who can't get to their polling place on Election Day. It's also called an absentee ballot because it was first used by Civil War soldiers far from their homes. It's still widely used by members of the armed forces and many others: disabled and/or homebound persons, business travelers, hospitalized people, people with second homes, and the Hypocrite-in-Chief and his family.

Since the beginning of this year it's been anticipated that a greater number of Americans than usual will use it to avoid exposure to COVID-19. That scares the Jackass-in-Chief because he knows a lot of those people won't vote for him, and he can't control or manipulate that part of the vote.

So he's decided to disable the U. S. Postal Service. It's like using a shotgun to kill a fly, but overkill has always been the Trump way.

He is attempting, through his puppet Postmaster General Louis Dejoy, to gut the Postal Service, making it impossible for it to get ballots to people who want them and for mail-in voters to get their ballots to their election officers by the deadline. He has removed sorting machines and other equipment and technology central to mail delivery from post offices and other stations, taken away curbside mailboxes, and will no doubt begin closing post offices wholesale if he isn't stopped.

Dejoy is a toady who essentially bought his position with a $2 million donation to the Trump campaign, and now he's doing his master's bidding: Doing his best to slow down, if not stop, mail delivery, and lying through his teeth about the state of the Postal Service.

Ten states now have universal mail-in voting: California, Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Washington. Need I say that nine of them are "blue" states? Denying the vote to those states alone will disenfranchise approximately 29 million Americans.

Then there are the approximately 650,000 military personnel whom Trump claims to value who won't be able to vote.

The most bizarre thing about this is that Trump seems not to understand that he's disenfranchising members of both parties. He doesn't care. when he has an idea in his diseased mind he pursues it relentlessly.

Congress might be able to do something about the situation, but they're treating it all as business as usual, and have all gone home for their summer break. That, I say, is unconscionable. The economy is in a mess, people have no money, our most important right is at peril, and they're on vacation.

I don't know about you, but that's not what I voted for them to do.

And every day they're out of their offices the Idiot Child-in-Chief is running amok in Washington, looking for other institutions to destroy.

Someone needs to be finding a way to invoke the 25th Amendment, and I sure as hell don't think it's going to get done on vacation.

Messing with our right to vote is the most dangerous thing Trump has yet done.

I truly don't understand why someone hasn't shot him before now. He is guilty of treason and bribery, both impeachable offenses according to the Constitution. He lied when he took the oath of office because he never intended to respect it. He is clearly out of his mind, as many of us have now said for months.

Congress is on vacation. And they wonder why their approval rating is approaching single digits?

The Postal Service Inspector General has reportedly begun an investigation, but someone needs to be holding their feet to the fire if there are going to be results in time to help the situation.

We in turn have to hold our Congressional representatives' feet to that fire. Call them, email them, be a pain in their ass until you can get assurance from them that they will put the Postal Service scandal at the very top of their agenda and not check it off until we can all see some demonstrable and acceptable progress.

1,000 Americans are dying daily from COVID-19 and Congress can't figure out how to get money to those who need it. And they go on vacation?

I think we need to take a hard look at who's paying for that vacation.


--- Diogenes, 8/16/2020


¹ I know Hillary won the popular vote; the Electoral College elected Trump.

Ship Of Fools

"The Ship of Fools" was a 1965 Stanley Kramer film based on the 1962 novel of the same title by Katherine Anne Porter. The plot followed the stories and interactions of passengers on an ocean liner traveling from Mexico to Germany in 1931. Porter intended the book to be a microcosm of human foibles in the years prior to WWII.

She took her title from a late 15th-century satirical poem by Sebastian Brant that concerned a ship sailing to the Fools' Paradise. Brant in turn based his poem on a section of Book 6 of Plato's Republic. Plato tells an allegorical story of a dysfunctional and incompetent crew trying to sail a ship. The allegory refers to the difficulties experienced by a society trying to develop and live with democracy, a new concept of governance at the time.

Here is that allegory, in a contemporary translation by Tom Griffith. I think it closely resembles the Trump administration:

There’s the shipowner, larger and stronger than everyone in the ship, but somewhat deaf and rather short-sighted, with a knowledge of sailing to match his eyesight. The sailors are quarrelling among themselves over captaincy of the ship, each one thinking that he ought to be captain, though he has never learnt that skill, nor can he point to the person who taught him or a time when he was learning it. On top of which they say it can’t be taught. In fact they’re prepared to cut to pieces anyone who says it can. The shipowner himself is always surrounded by them. They beg him and do everything they can to make him hand over the tiller to them. Sometimes, if other people can persuade him and they can’t, they kill those others or throw them overboard. Then they immobilise their worthy shipowner with drugs or drink or by some other means, and take control of the ship, helping themselves to what it is carrying. Drinking and feasting, they sail in the way you’d expect people like that to sail. More than that, if someone is good at finding them ways of persuading or compelling the shipowner to let them take control, they call him a real seaman, a real captain, and say he really knows about ships. Anyone who can’t do this they treat with contempt, calling him useless. They don’t even begin to understand that if he is to be truly fit to take command of a ship a real ship’s captain must of necessity be thoroughly familiar with the seasons of the year, the stars in the sky, the winds, and everything to do with his art. As for how he is going to steer the ship - regardless of whether anyone wants him to or not - they do not regard this as an additional skill or study which can be acquired over and above the art of being a ship’s captain. If this is the situation on board, don’t you think the person who is genuinely equipped to be captain will be called a stargazer, a chatterer, of no use to them, by those who sail in ships with this kind of crew? ¹ 

This is America today: Adrift with no one capable of steering on board.


--- Diogenes, 8/16/2020

^¹ Plato, The Republic, Tom Griffith, trans., Cambridge University Press. p. 191-192.