U.S. Constitution
The voice of the people
03 June 2020
Trump the Terrorist
Terrorism: The systematic use of terror (violence or the threat of violence) as a means of intimidation or coercion.
Terrorist: One who uses terror as a means of intimidation or coercion.
Donald Trump is a terrorist.
He does not lead. He controls by instilling fear: fear of job loss or demotion, fear of loss of access, fear of public denunciation.
He has so cowed the Republican Party that even Archdemon Mitch McConnell kowtows to him.
In 2018 alone he threatened other nations with military attacks, including the use of nuclear weapons, nine times.
Even before his election he raised the specter of violence with his inflammatory comments about immigrants and his open pandering to hate groups.
He has directly threatened American citizens with military action if they don't cease and desist protesting. As we all know, "Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."¹
Donald Trump is a tyrant.
He routinely ignores any law that he considers inconvenient, including elements of the Constitution.
He has tried to deny First Amendment rights to news organizations and social media platforms, even while insisting they respect his rights under the amendment.
He has threatened to stop civil disobedience by invading states with the Army, over several governors' protests.
He has acted unilaterally in cases that required approval by Congress or other oversight. Here is a link to a month-by-month list (January, 2017-April, 2019) of his violations of protocol: https://indivisible.org/resource/donald-trump-national-security-risk-here%E2%80%99s-current-trumpthreatlevel
18 U.S. Code § 2339, "Harboring or concealing terrorists," makes "Whoever harbors or conceals any person who he knows, or has reasonable grounds to believe, has committed, or is about to commit" certain acts of terrorism, is subject to a fine and up to ten years' imprisonment.
Ordering an armed military attack on unarmed American citizens in the process of exercising their rights is not one of those "certain acts," but it should certainly be taken as an act of terrorism. It should be possible to say that the Executive Branch of the U. S. Government is harboring a terrorist, who should be arrested.
Here's the dilemma: The president is, God help us, the head of the executive branch, so the harboring and acting are being done by the same person. Moreover, it is an open legal question whether a sitting president can be arrested for anything. Seriously.
"American democracy" should not become an oxymoron.
--- Diogenes, 6/3/2020
¹ Isaac Asimov, Foundation. London, Panther Books, 1960.
02 June 2020
If I Were A Conspiracy Theorist . . .
. . . I would answer "yes" or "probably" to these questions:
Is Trump insane?
Does Trump have burner phones and secret email and Twitter accounts that he uses to communicate with allies?
Do those allies include the KKK, the NRA, and other right-wing terrorists and militias?
Is Trump directing his allies to foment violence and unrest?
Were the "outside agitators" that have been mentioned sent by Trump?
Does Trump use the Dark Web to communicate with his allies?
Were lawful protests over George Floyd's death hijacked by Trump and/or his allies for political gain?
Would Trump commit violence against the American people if it helped his re-election chances?
Has Trump been brainwashed by ex-KGB officer Vladimir Putin?
Was this entire catastrophe engineered by Trump so he could play the hero?
And "possibly" to this one:
Is Trump the Antichrist?
If I were a conspiracy theorist. If I were paranoid.
--- Richard Brown, 6/2/2020
Is Trump insane?
Does Trump have burner phones and secret email and Twitter accounts that he uses to communicate with allies?
Do those allies include the KKK, the NRA, and other right-wing terrorists and militias?
Is Trump directing his allies to foment violence and unrest?
Were the "outside agitators" that have been mentioned sent by Trump?
Does Trump use the Dark Web to communicate with his allies?
Were lawful protests over George Floyd's death hijacked by Trump and/or his allies for political gain?
Would Trump commit violence against the American people if it helped his re-election chances?
Has Trump been brainwashed by ex-KGB officer Vladimir Putin?
Was this entire catastrophe engineered by Trump so he could play the hero?
And "possibly" to this one:
Is Trump the Antichrist?
If I were a conspiracy theorist. If I were paranoid.
--- Richard Brown, 6/2/2020
We Have The Power
". . . whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is
the right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new
Government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing
its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect
their Safety and Happiness… it is their right, it is their duty, to
throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future
security."
--- Thomas Jefferson
"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it."
--- Abraham Lincoln
"Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country."
--- Franklin D. Roosevelt
These words from three presidents across three centuries affirm the American people's ownership of their government. Two of them acknowledge the people's right to overthrow an oppressive regime.
Jefferson and Lincoln wrote during times when the success of our experiment with democracy was in doubt. Both men fought forces that would have returned us to tyranny, dismantled the structure of our government and denied our rights. Yet both men understood that any government can become corrupt and rotten, and defended the right of the American people to take charge and reform it.
We do not seek Constitutional reform, but regime change. It is our responsibility. No one else will do it.
We must take charge, and we cannot wait until November. Trump has crossed the line into tyranny. If he follows through on his threat to use an antique law to set the American armed forces against the American people, the United States of America will join Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China, Iran, Uganda, and North Korea, who are known to have taken the same action.
We must rise up. It is our right. It is our duty.
---Diogenes, 6/2/2020
--- Thomas Jefferson
"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it."
--- Abraham Lincoln
"Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country."
--- Franklin D. Roosevelt
These words from three presidents across three centuries affirm the American people's ownership of their government. Two of them acknowledge the people's right to overthrow an oppressive regime.
Jefferson and Lincoln wrote during times when the success of our experiment with democracy was in doubt. Both men fought forces that would have returned us to tyranny, dismantled the structure of our government and denied our rights. Yet both men understood that any government can become corrupt and rotten, and defended the right of the American people to take charge and reform it.
We do not seek Constitutional reform, but regime change. It is our responsibility. No one else will do it.
We must take charge, and we cannot wait until November. Trump has crossed the line into tyranny. If he follows through on his threat to use an antique law to set the American armed forces against the American people, the United States of America will join Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China, Iran, Uganda, and North Korea, who are known to have taken the same action.
We must rise up. It is our right. It is our duty.
---Diogenes, 6/2/2020
01 June 2020
Genitum Non Factum
The title is borrowed from the Credo of the Roman Catholic Mass. It means "Begotten, not made," and in the context of this post it refers to leaders.
Notwithstanding the claims of military academies and universities, leaders are born, not made. Any idiot can shout orders at other people and maybe coerce them into action, but only a true leader can give orders in full confidence that they will be obeyed. Only a leader can run out ahead of a platoon and know instinctively that the group has her back.
Leadership is a gift that embodies trust, confidence, self-respect, courage, and intelligence. The genuine leader is able, in some way, to impart those qualities to the people she leads. We call it a gift because it is an inexplicable quality that some humans have and most do not.
Leaders, seemingly through the force of their personality, are able to help their followers reach mental or physical goals they once thought beyond them. Perhaps this comes from the trust followers place in leaders--trust that they will be supported and praised for doing the best they can do while being subtly encouraged to do better.
Leaders think on their feet and have the capacity to adapt to fluid situations. They remain confident that their people will follow them because they have earned the trust of their followers and have listened to their input.
Donald Trump is good at many things: shouting, denigrating, diverting blame, pointing, intimidating, hating, insulting, name-calling, belittling, whining, scorning, mocking, taunting, and generally being unpleasant.
Trump has neither the trust of his followers nor any confidence that they will follow him. CNN reports there is a "serious divide" among unpresidential advisers, some of whom urge him "to formally address the nation and call for calm, while others have said he should condemn the rioting and looting more forcefully or risk losing middle-of-the-road voters in November."¹
Doves and hawks, doves and hawks, and not a populist among them. And that's irrelevant because he hasn't the sense to listen to any of them. He will continue
shooting from the hip until he is stopped by someone with the authority to make him stand down. There are such people; they just need to grow a spine.
People who follow Trump do so out of fear. He can't lead because he is not a leader. He can make people do his bidding because he is a bully. But he will never lead.
It's not easy being the Loser-in-Chief.
--- Diogenes, 6/1/2020
¹ https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/31/politics/trump-underground-bunker-white-house-protests/index.html
Notwithstanding the claims of military academies and universities, leaders are born, not made. Any idiot can shout orders at other people and maybe coerce them into action, but only a true leader can give orders in full confidence that they will be obeyed. Only a leader can run out ahead of a platoon and know instinctively that the group has her back.
Leadership is a gift that embodies trust, confidence, self-respect, courage, and intelligence. The genuine leader is able, in some way, to impart those qualities to the people she leads. We call it a gift because it is an inexplicable quality that some humans have and most do not.
Leaders, seemingly through the force of their personality, are able to help their followers reach mental or physical goals they once thought beyond them. Perhaps this comes from the trust followers place in leaders--trust that they will be supported and praised for doing the best they can do while being subtly encouraged to do better.
Leaders think on their feet and have the capacity to adapt to fluid situations. They remain confident that their people will follow them because they have earned the trust of their followers and have listened to their input.
Donald Trump is good at many things: shouting, denigrating, diverting blame, pointing, intimidating, hating, insulting, name-calling, belittling, whining, scorning, mocking, taunting, and generally being unpleasant.
Trump has neither the trust of his followers nor any confidence that they will follow him. CNN reports there is a "serious divide" among unpresidential advisers, some of whom urge him "to formally address the nation and call for calm, while others have said he should condemn the rioting and looting more forcefully or risk losing middle-of-the-road voters in November."¹
Doves and hawks, doves and hawks, and not a populist among them. And that's irrelevant because he hasn't the sense to listen to any of them. He will continue
shooting from the hip until he is stopped by someone with the authority to make him stand down. There are such people; they just need to grow a spine.
People who follow Trump do so out of fear. He can't lead because he is not a leader. He can make people do his bidding because he is a bully. But he will never lead.
It's not easy being the Loser-in-Chief.
--- Diogenes, 6/1/2020
¹ https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/31/politics/trump-underground-bunker-white-house-protests/index.html
31 May 2020
You Say You Want A Revolution*
More than one-quarter of this nation's governors have mobilized their national guard forces in response to rioting.
What's happening in many of our major, and some minor, cities is neither revolution nor protest nor civil disobedience, but violence for the sake of violence that has nothing to do with the death of George Floyd, in whose name many of the protests began.
There is a disturbing historical tendency in the United States for peaceful protest gatherings to become violent uprisings, but what is happening now is beyond anything in memory. The Inciter-in-Chief, who has to blame somebody, is pointing his well-manicured finger at Antifa, a large but amorphous radical left-wing group whose name is short for Antifascism.
We think the finger should be pointed the other way. When a ship's captain loses the respect of the crew or repeatedly puts them and the vessel in danger, mutiny frequently ensues; what we are seeing is mutiny by citizens of a leaderless nation.
In retrospect, we should have seen it coming. We've all been cooped up for months fearing a disease that no one could seem to define, which was denied by our alleged leader, but which was killing people around the world at a frightening rate.
Rather than offering us words of encouragement and comfort, the unpresident spent his time blaming anyone he could think of for the disease, all the while shamelessly trying to elevate his own image in the public eye and ignoring expert advice. He was clearly uninterested in the plight of the American people.
The Ship of State is adrift without a hand on the tiller, and no one is stepping up to get us back on course. We place the fault for this unrest, this mutiny, squarely at Donald Trump's feet. His xenophobia, his disdain for the common people, his racism, and his pandering to groups who espouse hate and anger have come home to roost.
Someone has to get this mess straightened out. The only sure thing is that it will not be Donald J. Trump.
--- Diogenes, 5/31/2020
* The Beatles, "Revolution," 1968.
What's happening in many of our major, and some minor, cities is neither revolution nor protest nor civil disobedience, but violence for the sake of violence that has nothing to do with the death of George Floyd, in whose name many of the protests began.
There is a disturbing historical tendency in the United States for peaceful protest gatherings to become violent uprisings, but what is happening now is beyond anything in memory. The Inciter-in-Chief, who has to blame somebody, is pointing his well-manicured finger at Antifa, a large but amorphous radical left-wing group whose name is short for Antifascism.
We think the finger should be pointed the other way. When a ship's captain loses the respect of the crew or repeatedly puts them and the vessel in danger, mutiny frequently ensues; what we are seeing is mutiny by citizens of a leaderless nation.
In retrospect, we should have seen it coming. We've all been cooped up for months fearing a disease that no one could seem to define, which was denied by our alleged leader, but which was killing people around the world at a frightening rate.
Rather than offering us words of encouragement and comfort, the unpresident spent his time blaming anyone he could think of for the disease, all the while shamelessly trying to elevate his own image in the public eye and ignoring expert advice. He was clearly uninterested in the plight of the American people.
The Ship of State is adrift without a hand on the tiller, and no one is stepping up to get us back on course. We place the fault for this unrest, this mutiny, squarely at Donald Trump's feet. His xenophobia, his disdain for the common people, his racism, and his pandering to groups who espouse hate and anger have come home to roost.
Someone has to get this mess straightened out. The only sure thing is that it will not be Donald J. Trump.
--- Diogenes, 5/31/2020
* The Beatles, "Revolution," 1968.
28 May 2020
Still Trying To Eradicate Stupidity
This
post was originally published on April 7. In light of the attention
recently given to masks and Americans' responses to using them, we have
updated it.
In his 1982 novel "The White Plague" Frank Herbert writes about a mad scientist who develops a pathogen that kills women. Men are asymptomatic carriers. His intended target is Ireland, because his wife and children were killed by an IRA bomb. But viruses don't observe borders, and the virus spreads rapidly and easily, passing through filters with ease. The result is global gendercide.
COVID-19 is far less selective. Its victims include the rich and the poor, the intelligent and the moronic, the religious and the atheistic, the royal and the commoner. It is an equal opportunity pathogen, making no distinction of race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. No one is immune.
But there is one class of Americans who choose to put themselves at increased risk by willfully and deliberately ignoring the best medical advice: There is no word for such behavior other than stupid.
In a White House press briefing on April 3, the Great Pretender discussed the CDC advisory that all Americans wear face masks when around others to help stop the spread of the virus.
That was when a true leader would have pulled out a mask and put it on.
But after repeatedly assuring Americans that wearing a mask is voluntary because he doesn't want us to think the CDC has any authority, he went on to say that he would not be wearing a mask because "I think wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens. I don’t know, somehow I don’t see it for myself."¹
Excuse me? There hasn't been a state visit to the White House since before COVID-19 appeared. His excuses range from silly to petty, like saying he "didn't want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it"² during a visit to a Ford plant in Michigan.
As Biden aide TJ Ducklo noted, "Presidents lead by example, and wearing a mask helps protect others, . . . Donald Trump should try it, because his failure to act early on producing [personal protective equipment], on ramping up testing, and implementing a coherent national response to this crisis has cost thousands of Americans their lives."As if the Unspeakable Unmasked cared.
Unfortunately, the Chucklehead-in-Chief's "do as I say, not as I do" attitude will no doubt be adopted by those who accept him as a role model, needlessly increasing the death toll. His followers, who seem to tend to blind allegiance, either to the GOP or to Trump, as opposed to independent thought and decision making, may well be hit the hardest.
With COVID-19 we might finally have a cure for stupidity--dare we hope it begins at the top?
---Diogenes, 4/7/20; republished 5/28/20
¹https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-coronavirus-briefing-transcript-april-3-new-cdc-face-mask-recommendation
²https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-mocks-joe-biden-wear-face-mask-public/
³https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-mocks-joe-biden-wear-face-mask-public/
In his 1982 novel "The White Plague" Frank Herbert writes about a mad scientist who develops a pathogen that kills women. Men are asymptomatic carriers. His intended target is Ireland, because his wife and children were killed by an IRA bomb. But viruses don't observe borders, and the virus spreads rapidly and easily, passing through filters with ease. The result is global gendercide.
COVID-19 is far less selective. Its victims include the rich and the poor, the intelligent and the moronic, the religious and the atheistic, the royal and the commoner. It is an equal opportunity pathogen, making no distinction of race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. No one is immune.
But there is one class of Americans who choose to put themselves at increased risk by willfully and deliberately ignoring the best medical advice: There is no word for such behavior other than stupid.
In a White House press briefing on April 3, the Great Pretender discussed the CDC advisory that all Americans wear face masks when around others to help stop the spread of the virus.
That was when a true leader would have pulled out a mask and put it on.
But after repeatedly assuring Americans that wearing a mask is voluntary because he doesn't want us to think the CDC has any authority, he went on to say that he would not be wearing a mask because "I think wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens. I don’t know, somehow I don’t see it for myself."¹
Excuse me? There hasn't been a state visit to the White House since before COVID-19 appeared. His excuses range from silly to petty, like saying he "didn't want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it"² during a visit to a Ford plant in Michigan.
As Biden aide TJ Ducklo noted, "Presidents lead by example, and wearing a mask helps protect others, . . . Donald Trump should try it, because his failure to act early on producing [personal protective equipment], on ramping up testing, and implementing a coherent national response to this crisis has cost thousands of Americans their lives."As if the Unspeakable Unmasked cared.
Unfortunately, the Chucklehead-in-Chief's "do as I say, not as I do" attitude will no doubt be adopted by those who accept him as a role model, needlessly increasing the death toll. His followers, who seem to tend to blind allegiance, either to the GOP or to Trump, as opposed to independent thought and decision making, may well be hit the hardest.
With COVID-19 we might finally have a cure for stupidity--dare we hope it begins at the top?
---Diogenes, 4/7/20; republished 5/28/20
¹https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-coronavirus-briefing-transcript-april-3-new-cdc-face-mask-recommendation
²https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-mocks-joe-biden-wear-face-mask-public/
³https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-mocks-joe-biden-wear-face-mask-public/
26 May 2020
Gimme Shelter
We live in a county which the board of supervisors has declared a "Second Amendment Sanctuary."
What's happened to the Second Amendment that it needs sanctuary? Does it fear editing? Has it tired of being abused by Boobus Americanus Militante and gone into hiding? What on earth could have made a short paragraph seek shelter?
If I were the Second, I just might have taken it on the lam after all the misuse I had suffered at the hands of the gun lobby. And this nonsense about Second Amendment "sanctuaries" might have been the last straw.
Of all the subspecies of Boobus Americanus, the gun-toters who think they should be able to carry openly any firearm they can lift are by far the least evolved. Unable to make their case to most legislatures, they have brought their scare campaign to local and county governments, urging them to adopt a "sanctuary" measure to ensure the safety--or as they would probably say, the sanctity--of the Second Amendment.
This is without doubt one of the most ludicrous, absurd, harebrained, risible, ridiculous, foolish, silly, puerile, goofy, and preposterous schemes ever foisted on the American people. It's appalling that anyone, let alone elected officials, who are supposed to have some semblance of intelligence, could fall for it. As P. T. Barnum may have said, "There's a sucker born every minute."
First, the Second Amendment doesn't need a sanctuary. It is safely embedded in the root and base of our legal system, the Constitution. If it needs sanctuary from anyone, it is the leadership of the NRA, who have the gall to call themselves a civil rights organization, and have somehow brainwashed hundreds of thousands of Americans into the idea that their rights--well, specifically their rights to gun ownership--are in danger. Hogwash.
The NRA claims their rights are endangered because there is a move afoot to repeal the Second Amendment. No, there isn't. I have to seriously doubt that any of them have ever read the Constitution. If they had, they would have an idea just how difficult it is to repeal an amendment.
Since the first ten amendments were published in 1791, only one amendment has been repealed. That was the 18th, which established Prohibition, and getting it out of the way was a cakewalk. It wouldn't be so for any others, and especially not for those first ten, enshrined as the Bill of Rights.
The portion of the Second that the NRA sometimes speaks of as God-given is the sentence fragment that goes " . . . the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed," written by James Madison, not the Almighty.
Rehearsing all the reasons why the NRA is wrong on this issue will be the content of another blog when I can get it down to manageable size. I started on the idea of sanctuary and got carried away.
Should your local government look into the idea of becoming a "sanctuary", please bring them to their senses and remind them that anything they pass in opposition to any existing state law will be quickly overturned.
The United States of America is the home and sanctuary of the Constitution and its Amendments, and it's all that is needed.
--- Diogenes, 5/26/20
What's happened to the Second Amendment that it needs sanctuary? Does it fear editing? Has it tired of being abused by Boobus Americanus Militante and gone into hiding? What on earth could have made a short paragraph seek shelter?
If I were the Second, I just might have taken it on the lam after all the misuse I had suffered at the hands of the gun lobby. And this nonsense about Second Amendment "sanctuaries" might have been the last straw.
Of all the subspecies of Boobus Americanus, the gun-toters who think they should be able to carry openly any firearm they can lift are by far the least evolved. Unable to make their case to most legislatures, they have brought their scare campaign to local and county governments, urging them to adopt a "sanctuary" measure to ensure the safety--or as they would probably say, the sanctity--of the Second Amendment.
This is without doubt one of the most ludicrous, absurd, harebrained, risible, ridiculous, foolish, silly, puerile, goofy, and preposterous schemes ever foisted on the American people. It's appalling that anyone, let alone elected officials, who are supposed to have some semblance of intelligence, could fall for it. As P. T. Barnum may have said, "There's a sucker born every minute."
First, the Second Amendment doesn't need a sanctuary. It is safely embedded in the root and base of our legal system, the Constitution. If it needs sanctuary from anyone, it is the leadership of the NRA, who have the gall to call themselves a civil rights organization, and have somehow brainwashed hundreds of thousands of Americans into the idea that their rights--well, specifically their rights to gun ownership--are in danger. Hogwash.
The NRA claims their rights are endangered because there is a move afoot to repeal the Second Amendment. No, there isn't. I have to seriously doubt that any of them have ever read the Constitution. If they had, they would have an idea just how difficult it is to repeal an amendment.
Since the first ten amendments were published in 1791, only one amendment has been repealed. That was the 18th, which established Prohibition, and getting it out of the way was a cakewalk. It wouldn't be so for any others, and especially not for those first ten, enshrined as the Bill of Rights.
The portion of the Second that the NRA sometimes speaks of as God-given is the sentence fragment that goes " . . . the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed," written by James Madison, not the Almighty.
Rehearsing all the reasons why the NRA is wrong on this issue will be the content of another blog when I can get it down to manageable size. I started on the idea of sanctuary and got carried away.
Should your local government look into the idea of becoming a "sanctuary", please bring them to their senses and remind them that anything they pass in opposition to any existing state law will be quickly overturned.
The United States of America is the home and sanctuary of the Constitution and its Amendments, and it's all that is needed.
--- Diogenes, 5/26/20
25 May 2020
Too Stupid To Live?
"Some people are too stupid to live" was a favorite saying of a former coworker.
It was the first thing that came to mind when I saw a photo this morning of people crowded into a swimming pool at a Lake of the Ozarks venue.
It's true that COVID-19 doesn't spread in water, as far as anyone yet knows. But in a pool environment people pop up snorting, spitting and blowing. That's a lot of potentially infected air moving around, and the chlorine in the water will have no effect on it.
"Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die" has been another phrase running around my head since the well-publicized opening of bars in Wisconsin on May 14. Just about a week later, Wisconsin saw a spike in new COVID-19 cases almost doubling the number before the opening, and the state's numbers remain high.¹
This Memorial Day weekend will be another key date to watch. The traditional opening day of summer is bringing Americans out in droves where weather permits. One can hardly blame them after months of isolation, but one can at least hope they wear masks and keep their social distance. But we know they won't.
People who seek out beaches, bars, and other crowd-oriented venues tend to be gregarious. It is not in their nature to stand apart. They like to congregate, mix, and mingle. That isn't a judgment, just a statement of fact. They can do so masked, but it's hard to drink wearing a mask, and dancing wouldn't be much fun, either. They also enjoy physical contact--the "rubbing elbows" effect. Despite best intentions, after trying to sip a drink around a mask, almost anyone would ditch the mask.
It's difficult not to have some sympathy for governors who are doing their best to manage this mess. Absent any guidance--indeed, with contrariness--from the alleged chief executive they have to rely on the best teams they can put together.
We're Americans, and we don't like being told we can't carry on as usual. As the saying goes, this is a free country. But we are not free to shout "Fire!" in a crowded auditorium or to bring a valise labeled "BOMB" onto an airliner, which I have actually seen.
We should be savvy enough to know that endangering public health is tantamount to endangering public safety. Adapting to a new status quo isn't easy. It's inconvenient and uncomfortable and weird in some cases, but we have to get it through our heads that there is a potentially deadly pathogen floating around everywhere, and it's easy to catch.
COVID-19 kills about 6% of the people who get it.² By contrast, the annual flu that the Pretender-in-Chief likes to compare it to kills only about 2/10 of one percent of its victims.³ That makes COVID-19 about 54 times more deadly than any garden variety flu.
If we can keep those numbers in mind, maybe we can be smart enough to live.
--- Diogenes, 5/25/20
¹ Disclaimer: The numbers in this paragraph are based on a New York Times database of Wisconsin cases. Other sources differ in the actual numbers but not in the shape of the curve. The spike may be coincidental and/or may be the result of factors other than tavern attendance.
² https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/?utm_campaign=homeAdvegas1?
³ https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/preliminary-in-season-estimates.htm
It was the first thing that came to mind when I saw a photo this morning of people crowded into a swimming pool at a Lake of the Ozarks venue.
It's true that COVID-19 doesn't spread in water, as far as anyone yet knows. But in a pool environment people pop up snorting, spitting and blowing. That's a lot of potentially infected air moving around, and the chlorine in the water will have no effect on it.
"Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die" has been another phrase running around my head since the well-publicized opening of bars in Wisconsin on May 14. Just about a week later, Wisconsin saw a spike in new COVID-19 cases almost doubling the number before the opening, and the state's numbers remain high.¹
This Memorial Day weekend will be another key date to watch. The traditional opening day of summer is bringing Americans out in droves where weather permits. One can hardly blame them after months of isolation, but one can at least hope they wear masks and keep their social distance. But we know they won't.
People who seek out beaches, bars, and other crowd-oriented venues tend to be gregarious. It is not in their nature to stand apart. They like to congregate, mix, and mingle. That isn't a judgment, just a statement of fact. They can do so masked, but it's hard to drink wearing a mask, and dancing wouldn't be much fun, either. They also enjoy physical contact--the "rubbing elbows" effect. Despite best intentions, after trying to sip a drink around a mask, almost anyone would ditch the mask.
It's difficult not to have some sympathy for governors who are doing their best to manage this mess. Absent any guidance--indeed, with contrariness--from the alleged chief executive they have to rely on the best teams they can put together.
We're Americans, and we don't like being told we can't carry on as usual. As the saying goes, this is a free country. But we are not free to shout "Fire!" in a crowded auditorium or to bring a valise labeled "BOMB" onto an airliner, which I have actually seen.
We should be savvy enough to know that endangering public health is tantamount to endangering public safety. Adapting to a new status quo isn't easy. It's inconvenient and uncomfortable and weird in some cases, but we have to get it through our heads that there is a potentially deadly pathogen floating around everywhere, and it's easy to catch.
COVID-19 kills about 6% of the people who get it.² By contrast, the annual flu that the Pretender-in-Chief likes to compare it to kills only about 2/10 of one percent of its victims.³ That makes COVID-19 about 54 times more deadly than any garden variety flu.
If we can keep those numbers in mind, maybe we can be smart enough to live.
--- Diogenes, 5/25/20
¹ Disclaimer: The numbers in this paragraph are based on a New York Times database of Wisconsin cases. Other sources differ in the actual numbers but not in the shape of the curve. The spike may be coincidental and/or may be the result of factors other than tavern attendance.
² https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/?utm_campaign=homeAdvegas1?
³ https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/preliminary-in-season-estimates.htm
23 May 2020
Smite The Unbeliever!
Unbeliever-in-Chief Donald Trump says he will order churches to open. Ha!
He knows his base is heavily peopled with conservative Christians. He has also no doubt received heavy pressure from the likes of Jerry Falwell jr., Steve Pettit, and Franklin Graham, who will show us the way according to them, in return for our personal check, to paraphrase Mary Chapin Carpenter.
He plays to that audience not because he shares their beliefs, but because they comprise a large chunk of the white conservative vote. He couldn't care less what they believe, but they will support him come hell or high water, and he is desperate for their help.
That pesky First Amendment gets in his way of trying to strongarm the churches directly, so he wants governors to declare churches essential: “The governors need to do the right thing and allow these very important, essential places of faith to open right now for this weekend, . . . if they don’t do it, I will override the governors. In America, we need more prayer, not less.”
Right. Good luck with that. We have plenty of prayer, thank you. What the preachers are missing is hands dropping money into offering baskets.
There is no hierarchical structure outside martial law that compels governors to obey the president. And considering that the president left the governors leaderless and swinging in the wind early on in the pandemic, few are likely to be amenable to his "orders."
In any event, I'm pretty sure the governors' actions are supported by the Tenth Amendment, and not subject to override by federal power.
The lockdown hasn't put a damper on prayer or praise. Christians of faith know they don't need buildings, or crowds, or even ministers, to worship. They can commune with their Lord singly and quietly, anywhere.
The Unbeliever-in-Chief should try it.
--- Diogenes, 5/23/20
¹ https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/22/us/politics/trump-churches-coronavirus.html
He knows his base is heavily peopled with conservative Christians. He has also no doubt received heavy pressure from the likes of Jerry Falwell jr., Steve Pettit, and Franklin Graham, who will show us the way according to them, in return for our personal check, to paraphrase Mary Chapin Carpenter.
He plays to that audience not because he shares their beliefs, but because they comprise a large chunk of the white conservative vote. He couldn't care less what they believe, but they will support him come hell or high water, and he is desperate for their help.
That pesky First Amendment gets in his way of trying to strongarm the churches directly, so he wants governors to declare churches essential: “The governors need to do the right thing and allow these very important, essential places of faith to open right now for this weekend, . . . if they don’t do it, I will override the governors. In America, we need more prayer, not less.”
Right. Good luck with that. We have plenty of prayer, thank you. What the preachers are missing is hands dropping money into offering baskets.
There is no hierarchical structure outside martial law that compels governors to obey the president. And considering that the president left the governors leaderless and swinging in the wind early on in the pandemic, few are likely to be amenable to his "orders."
In any event, I'm pretty sure the governors' actions are supported by the Tenth Amendment, and not subject to override by federal power.
The lockdown hasn't put a damper on prayer or praise. Christians of faith know they don't need buildings, or crowds, or even ministers, to worship. They can commune with their Lord singly and quietly, anywhere.
The Unbeliever-in-Chief should try it.
--- Diogenes, 5/23/20
¹ https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/22/us/politics/trump-churches-coronavirus.html
22 May 2020
Boobus Redux
Boobus Americanus was H. L. Mencken's pet name for the American people.
Of the "plain people," the middle class, he said, "No one . . . has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.”
He was right.
Yes, I said that.
Few people outside journalism and academia spend much time on Mencken. For most, his writing is too predictable and his personality too prickly. He had deeply held views on almost everything, was critical and/or intolerant of almost everything, and he was a snob.
He was also probably a genius. Mencken wrote nearly 30 books including the first English language study of Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy in 1907. In 1919 he published The American Language, a study of the dialects of English spoken by Americans. He wrote in many genres including drama and poetry, and was an exceptionally prolific journalist.
Throughout his work he held to a belief in Social Darwinism: the doctrine that the rich are rich precisely because they are smarter and/or harder working than the poor.¹ Mencken saw society in layers of castes to which one belonged by virtue of birth. The poor were poor, the rich were rich, and that was that. Being of privileged birth, Mencken naturally saw himself in the upper layer.
We at Vox Populi hold to a narrow and specific message: we promote and support the overthrow of Donald Trump as president of the United States. We assume that our readers share the same view, which leads us to assume that we share the same demographic.
Let's consider the circles of friends and acquaintances with whom we share social activities. Ours includes academics, educators, lawyers, funeral directors, pastors, musicians, journalists, writers, artists, physicians, etc. Are we similar? If so, we're all snobs--that's our caste.
We, and most of you, I expect, value learning, knowledge, and professional expertise. I submit that many of the people who support Trump do not. They think those values are elitist and they distrust them. It was no accident that intellectuals and artists were targeted by Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Educated and creative people question authority and don't do as they're told. They look for options to the status quo, and those options might include unfriendly systems of government. They tend to upset the apple cart.
Trump's brashness, his affected "plain guy" attitude, his disrespect of the press and of his staff, his disdain for any rule he doesn't like, his open anger and abrasiveness, are embraced by those who think such behavior is somehow masculine, American, and therefore admirable.
Mencken foresaw how a real estate salesman could be elected president with no political experience: "In small areas, before small electorates, a first-rate man occasionally fights his way through, carrying even the mob with him by force of his personality. But when the field is nationwide, and the fight must be waged chiefly at second and third hand, and the force of personality cannot so readily make itself felt, then all the odds are on the man who is . . . the most devious and mediocre—the man who can most easily adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum."²
We admire intellect, poise, erudition, and eloquence. As a class we tend to political correctness and conflict avoidance. We drink artisanal beer with our panini while discussing Annie Proulx's latest book. We bemoan having a fatuous idiot as president.
If we don't push back hard, if we don't call out Trump on every lie, if we don't back the Democratic nominee 100% with no defections, if we don't find ways to convince Trump's supporters of the real truth, we'll be doing the same things for four more years.
Boobus Americanus will prevail again.
--- Diogenes, 5/22/20
¹ https://seesharppress.wordpress.com/2014/02/20/nietzsche-and-mencken/
² https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._L._Mencken#Books
Of the "plain people," the middle class, he said, "No one . . . has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.”
He was right.
Yes, I said that.
Few people outside journalism and academia spend much time on Mencken. For most, his writing is too predictable and his personality too prickly. He had deeply held views on almost everything, was critical and/or intolerant of almost everything, and he was a snob.
He was also probably a genius. Mencken wrote nearly 30 books including the first English language study of Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy in 1907. In 1919 he published The American Language, a study of the dialects of English spoken by Americans. He wrote in many genres including drama and poetry, and was an exceptionally prolific journalist.
Throughout his work he held to a belief in Social Darwinism: the doctrine that the rich are rich precisely because they are smarter and/or harder working than the poor.¹ Mencken saw society in layers of castes to which one belonged by virtue of birth. The poor were poor, the rich were rich, and that was that. Being of privileged birth, Mencken naturally saw himself in the upper layer.
We at Vox Populi hold to a narrow and specific message: we promote and support the overthrow of Donald Trump as president of the United States. We assume that our readers share the same view, which leads us to assume that we share the same demographic.
Let's consider the circles of friends and acquaintances with whom we share social activities. Ours includes academics, educators, lawyers, funeral directors, pastors, musicians, journalists, writers, artists, physicians, etc. Are we similar? If so, we're all snobs--that's our caste.
We, and most of you, I expect, value learning, knowledge, and professional expertise. I submit that many of the people who support Trump do not. They think those values are elitist and they distrust them. It was no accident that intellectuals and artists were targeted by Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Educated and creative people question authority and don't do as they're told. They look for options to the status quo, and those options might include unfriendly systems of government. They tend to upset the apple cart.
Trump's brashness, his affected "plain guy" attitude, his disrespect of the press and of his staff, his disdain for any rule he doesn't like, his open anger and abrasiveness, are embraced by those who think such behavior is somehow masculine, American, and therefore admirable.
Mencken foresaw how a real estate salesman could be elected president with no political experience: "In small areas, before small electorates, a first-rate man occasionally fights his way through, carrying even the mob with him by force of his personality. But when the field is nationwide, and the fight must be waged chiefly at second and third hand, and the force of personality cannot so readily make itself felt, then all the odds are on the man who is . . . the most devious and mediocre—the man who can most easily adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum."²
We admire intellect, poise, erudition, and eloquence. As a class we tend to political correctness and conflict avoidance. We drink artisanal beer with our panini while discussing Annie Proulx's latest book. We bemoan having a fatuous idiot as president.
If we don't push back hard, if we don't call out Trump on every lie, if we don't back the Democratic nominee 100% with no defections, if we don't find ways to convince Trump's supporters of the real truth, we'll be doing the same things for four more years.
Boobus Americanus will prevail again.
--- Diogenes, 5/22/20
¹ https://seesharppress.wordpress.com/2014/02/20/nietzsche-and-mencken/
² https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._L._Mencken#Books
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)