Things people do who are too stupid to live:
Believe Donald Trump.
Swim with sharks.
Cross heavy traffic against the light.
Vote for Donald Trump.
Carry a loaded rifle in a crowd.
Turn peaceful protests into riots.
Go maskless in a crowd.
Think Donald Trump is a good president.
Believe humans have never been in space.
Get high on wood alcohol to see what it's like.
Think Donald Trump is a good man.
Get news from the Internet.
Handle poisonous snakes.
Look down the barrel of a gun to see if it's loaded.
Prop an electric fan on an unstable shelf above their bathtub.
Think Donald Trump is a good father.
Sneak up on a mule from the back.
Eat fugu on a bet.
Drive a car into water.
Believe Fox News.
Trust Donald Trump.
Play Russian roulette.
Believe dinosaurs and humans coexisted.
Believe every conspiracy theory they hear.
Rewire an electrical switch with the current on.
Flirt with their boss's wife in his office.
Jump off a roof into a pool.
Think Donald Trump is a good ___________.
--- Diogenes, 8/31/2020
Enumerating the Crimes of Donald Trump:
Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.
18 U.S. Code, Section 2383
U.S. Constitution
The bedrock of the United States of America
31 August 2020
29 August 2020
We Shall Overcome
"Today is the 57th anniversary of a terrific event and a beautiful speech made by a great man."
That's what DJTrump didn't say about the Commitment "Get Your Knee Off Our Necks" March on Friday. In fact he said nothing.
On August 28, 1963, some 250,000 people gathered on the National Mall in what was called The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. I'm sure a great many people remember where they were that Wednesday.
Although the march was a protest action the spirit of the day was one of celebration, brotherhood, and aspiration. Speakers included a bevy of Christian and Jewish clergy and most of the leaders of major civil rights organizations.
The stream of speakers was punctuated with music by the likes of Marian Anderson, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, and Mahalia Jackson. It was at this gathering that "We Shall Overcome" became the civil rights anthem it remains.
And it was where The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr told us about his dream. The "I Have a Dream" speech was inspired. Partially improvised, it speaks of visions Dr. King had for an integrated and free future. It was one of the great addresses of the 20th century, and Dr. King is still held up as one of the century's greatest orators.
Yesterday's rally had much of the same spirit, now carried by a generation new to civil strife, but no less energized to meet it. Dr. King's son, Martin Luther King III spoke. He is an effective speaker, and reinforced the battle cry of the march: "There’s a knee upon the neck of democracy and our nation can only live so long without the oxygen of freedom. . . . The simple challenge before us is that everyone can cast a ballot and everyone who can must cast a ballot."¹
But it was clear that Dr. King's mantle of Chief Orator of the new civil rights movement has fallen squarely on The Rev. Al Sharpton. He has a commanding voice and the intensity and classical cadence of generations of preachers before him: "We need Mitch McConnell and the U.S. Senate to meet on the George Floyd Policing and Justice Act or we’re going to meet you Senators at the polls November 3rd. Whether we’ve got to mail in, walk in, ride in, crawl in, we want our bill passed." And, "It’s time we have a conversation with America. We need to have a conversation about your racism, about your bigotry, about your hate, about how you would put your knee on our neck while we cry out for our lives. We need a new conversation. . . .You act like it’s no trouble to shoot us in the back. You act like it’s no trouble to put a chokehold on us while we scream, 'I can’t breathe' 11 times. You act like it’s no trouble to hold a man down on the ground until you squeeze the life out of him. It’s time for a new conversation."²
His is the voice that will gain followers and grab the attention of the disinterested and disenfranchised. He will need to use it wisely to speak truth to all things Trump and to raise the spirit of revolution in the American people.
Our voices will rise again, and We Shall Overcome.
--- Diogenes, 8/29/2020
¹ https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/2020-march-on-washington-event-transcript (Begins about 26 minutes in)
² https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/al-sharpton-speech-transcript-2020-march-on-washington
* Videos of the event are available on YouTube, MSNBC, and CBS, among others.
That's what DJTrump didn't say about the Commitment "Get Your Knee Off Our Necks" March on Friday. In fact he said nothing.
On August 28, 1963, some 250,000 people gathered on the National Mall in what was called The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. I'm sure a great many people remember where they were that Wednesday.
Although the march was a protest action the spirit of the day was one of celebration, brotherhood, and aspiration. Speakers included a bevy of Christian and Jewish clergy and most of the leaders of major civil rights organizations.
The stream of speakers was punctuated with music by the likes of Marian Anderson, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, and Mahalia Jackson. It was at this gathering that "We Shall Overcome" became the civil rights anthem it remains.
And it was where The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr told us about his dream. The "I Have a Dream" speech was inspired. Partially improvised, it speaks of visions Dr. King had for an integrated and free future. It was one of the great addresses of the 20th century, and Dr. King is still held up as one of the century's greatest orators.
Yesterday's rally had much of the same spirit, now carried by a generation new to civil strife, but no less energized to meet it. Dr. King's son, Martin Luther King III spoke. He is an effective speaker, and reinforced the battle cry of the march: "There’s a knee upon the neck of democracy and our nation can only live so long without the oxygen of freedom. . . . The simple challenge before us is that everyone can cast a ballot and everyone who can must cast a ballot."¹
But it was clear that Dr. King's mantle of Chief Orator of the new civil rights movement has fallen squarely on The Rev. Al Sharpton. He has a commanding voice and the intensity and classical cadence of generations of preachers before him: "We need Mitch McConnell and the U.S. Senate to meet on the George Floyd Policing and Justice Act or we’re going to meet you Senators at the polls November 3rd. Whether we’ve got to mail in, walk in, ride in, crawl in, we want our bill passed." And, "It’s time we have a conversation with America. We need to have a conversation about your racism, about your bigotry, about your hate, about how you would put your knee on our neck while we cry out for our lives. We need a new conversation. . . .You act like it’s no trouble to shoot us in the back. You act like it’s no trouble to put a chokehold on us while we scream, 'I can’t breathe' 11 times. You act like it’s no trouble to hold a man down on the ground until you squeeze the life out of him. It’s time for a new conversation."²
His is the voice that will gain followers and grab the attention of the disinterested and disenfranchised. He will need to use it wisely to speak truth to all things Trump and to raise the spirit of revolution in the American people.
Our voices will rise again, and We Shall Overcome.
--- Diogenes, 8/29/2020
¹ https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/2020-march-on-washington-event-transcript (Begins about 26 minutes in)
² https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/al-sharpton-speech-transcript-2020-march-on-washington
* Videos of the event are available on YouTube, MSNBC, and CBS, among others.
27 August 2020
Will We Never Learn?
Police have killed 766 Americans this year.*
Two hundred fifty-five of those deaths--almost exactly one-third--have happened since George Floyd was murdered by police in Minneapolis.
And now Kenosha. Last Sunday, Rusten Sheskey, a seven-year veteran of the Kenosha police force, shot unarmed 29-year-old Jacob Blake seven times in the back.
Seven times. In the back.
Blake is alive for now, paralyzed from the waist down and with severe internal injuries. He was shot as he was attempting to get into his car. Shesky fired at very close range. Putting seven rounds into a suspect you're actually holding by his shirt is beyond excessive. It speaks of intent to kill.
If anyone thought, in this season of plague and politics, that Kenosha would remain quiet after the needless shooting of a Black man at the hands of police officers, they've been living on a different planet.
Violence begets violence. Senseless violence begets anger and more senseless violence. Of course protests were going to happen, and of course they would turn violent. America is angry.
The target of our anger is, oxymoronically, a vacuum: the vacuum of leadership in Washington that should have offered assistance, supported victims and helped to find a peaceful way to resolve the situation. Instead, the fearmongering, hate-spewing, tyrannical Psycho-in-Chief, knowing nothing of leadership or conflict resolution, blames everyone in reach and makes inflammatory threats to send in troops, which heightens the tension, leading to more violence, and on and on . . .
We will fight back.
I happen to believe that the majority of American police forces are staffed by women and men who take seriously the charge "To protect and defend." But the profession also draws rogues who are attracted by the notion of having control over citizens, and sadists like Derek Chauvin, who killed George Floyd.
One such is 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, a police and/or militia wannabe who showed up with some other rifle-toting terrorists on the third night of protests. At some point, possibly because he had fallen and feared attack, he fired randomly into the crowd, killing two people and injuring one. He was arrested and is being held in Antioch, Illinois. He faces first-degree murder charges.
And he is celebrated. Fools-of-a-Kind Aubrey Huff and Tucker Carlson actually praised Rittenhouse, a terrorist whom on-site videos show to be a cold-blooded killer.
Will we never learn?
--- Diogenes, 8/27/2020
Please share widely
* The Washington Post, "Fatal Force," https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/
Two hundred fifty-five of those deaths--almost exactly one-third--have happened since George Floyd was murdered by police in Minneapolis.
And now Kenosha. Last Sunday, Rusten Sheskey, a seven-year veteran of the Kenosha police force, shot unarmed 29-year-old Jacob Blake seven times in the back.
Seven times. In the back.
Blake is alive for now, paralyzed from the waist down and with severe internal injuries. He was shot as he was attempting to get into his car. Shesky fired at very close range. Putting seven rounds into a suspect you're actually holding by his shirt is beyond excessive. It speaks of intent to kill.
If anyone thought, in this season of plague and politics, that Kenosha would remain quiet after the needless shooting of a Black man at the hands of police officers, they've been living on a different planet.
Violence begets violence. Senseless violence begets anger and more senseless violence. Of course protests were going to happen, and of course they would turn violent. America is angry.
The target of our anger is, oxymoronically, a vacuum: the vacuum of leadership in Washington that should have offered assistance, supported victims and helped to find a peaceful way to resolve the situation. Instead, the fearmongering, hate-spewing, tyrannical Psycho-in-Chief, knowing nothing of leadership or conflict resolution, blames everyone in reach and makes inflammatory threats to send in troops, which heightens the tension, leading to more violence, and on and on . . .
We will fight back.
I happen to believe that the majority of American police forces are staffed by women and men who take seriously the charge "To protect and defend." But the profession also draws rogues who are attracted by the notion of having control over citizens, and sadists like Derek Chauvin, who killed George Floyd.
One such is 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, a police and/or militia wannabe who showed up with some other rifle-toting terrorists on the third night of protests. At some point, possibly because he had fallen and feared attack, he fired randomly into the crowd, killing two people and injuring one. He was arrested and is being held in Antioch, Illinois. He faces first-degree murder charges.
And he is celebrated. Fools-of-a-Kind Aubrey Huff and Tucker Carlson actually praised Rittenhouse, a terrorist whom on-site videos show to be a cold-blooded killer.
Will we never learn?
--- Diogenes, 8/27/2020
Please share widely
* The Washington Post, "Fatal Force," https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/
26 August 2020
A Brief Study in Gentility
The only thing within lightyears of being slightly positive about DJTrump's unpresidency is that it affirms what we were told as children: anybody can become president.
The first 44 American presidents had experience in military and/or public service.
Not only does #45 no have such experience, he has no idea what "service" means. He does get "public." It's the rabble that he governs. The American people, via the obsolete and archaic Electoral College, have put a buffoon who knows nothing about government in charge of it.
Robert Heinlein once quipped that "Vox populi vox dei" best translates as "My God! How did we get in this mess?" How very apt.
The Framers were Gentlemen, a term from British society designating a land-owning, low-ranking nobleman. In America it signified a man worthy of respect by reason of his honesty, good character, and integrity.
Signing the Declaration of Independence they swore, "we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." In an age when honor was everything, prized even more highly than one's life, that was saying something.
We still use the term "gentleman," but it has become degraded. As wealth in the United States came to be prized more than ancestry, America's richest men began to fancy themselves the nation's gentry. They built mansions in cities and summer "cottages"--palaces to the rest of us--in places like Newport, Rhode Island, and Hyde Park, New York.
Then came the trustbusters, WWI, the Great Depression, and WWII. Wealth was redistributed, redefined, and reallocated. New species of moneyed classes appeared: Hollywood actors, professional athletes, "celebrities."
Few vestiges of gentility remain in this country, and certainly not in the White House. The Poser-in-Chief can put on the trappings of fancy dress and ceremony, but he's still obviously a schlub. He has bad posture, looks terrible in a tuxedo, and doesn't know how to shake hands. His social skills are nonexistent, and polite conversation is beyond him. Completing sentences in extemporaneous speech is a skill his expensive schools never taught him.
Facing an interviewer he leans forward, mouth agape, hands clasped between spread knees, far more resembling a horny adolescent watching a striptease than anything vaguely gentle or manly.
And this is the chief executive of these United States.
--- Diogenes, 8/26/2020
The first 44 American presidents had experience in military and/or public service.
Not only does #45 no have such experience, he has no idea what "service" means. He does get "public." It's the rabble that he governs. The American people, via the obsolete and archaic Electoral College, have put a buffoon who knows nothing about government in charge of it.
Robert Heinlein once quipped that "Vox populi vox dei" best translates as "My God! How did we get in this mess?" How very apt.
The Framers were Gentlemen, a term from British society designating a land-owning, low-ranking nobleman. In America it signified a man worthy of respect by reason of his honesty, good character, and integrity.
Signing the Declaration of Independence they swore, "we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." In an age when honor was everything, prized even more highly than one's life, that was saying something.
We still use the term "gentleman," but it has become degraded. As wealth in the United States came to be prized more than ancestry, America's richest men began to fancy themselves the nation's gentry. They built mansions in cities and summer "cottages"--palaces to the rest of us--in places like Newport, Rhode Island, and Hyde Park, New York.
Then came the trustbusters, WWI, the Great Depression, and WWII. Wealth was redistributed, redefined, and reallocated. New species of moneyed classes appeared: Hollywood actors, professional athletes, "celebrities."
Few vestiges of gentility remain in this country, and certainly not in the White House. The Poser-in-Chief can put on the trappings of fancy dress and ceremony, but he's still obviously a schlub. He has bad posture, looks terrible in a tuxedo, and doesn't know how to shake hands. His social skills are nonexistent, and polite conversation is beyond him. Completing sentences in extemporaneous speech is a skill his expensive schools never taught him.
Facing an interviewer he leans forward, mouth agape, hands clasped between spread knees, far more resembling a horny adolescent watching a striptease than anything vaguely gentle or manly.
And this is the chief executive of these United States.
--- Diogenes, 8/26/2020
25 August 2020
Mr Mxyztplk
Here's what I've taken away from the Tumpalalooza so far:
I I I I I I I I--AM GREAT!! I AM THE GREATEST, NOT WHATSISNAME THE BOXER. MEHRR,T BIDENN JSOTHW OMD I HAVE NO SKY FALLING HSIWRHVUENWN APOCALYPSE WITH HARRIS NASTYU C B,,WITCH IS HE STILL ALIVE? NO NOT BIDEN, WHATHISNAME YOU KNOW THE COL--B-B-BLACK BOXER--ALLEY/ ALI, HE'S NOT--THEN I AM THE GREATEST! AND YOU KNOW WHO I AM.
HERE'S--WHATSYERNAME, SWEETIE? OH YEAH--K-K-KIMBERLY, ONE OF MY SON'S GIRLFRIENDS, (WINK, WINK) TO TALK ABOUT ME--WELL, OF COURSE ME, WHO ELSE.
HEY, EVERYBODY--WHERE ARE YA? I CAN'T SEE ANYBODY? WELL, ANYWAY, I JUST WANNA SAY WHAT A GREAT GUY DONALD IS. OH, YEAH, I KNOW HE'S THE PREZ, BUT HE LETS ME CALL HIM DONALD. ISN'T THAT JUST ADORABLE? AND HE'S A GREAT GUY, YA KNOW--I MEAN HE'S JUST GREAT, AND HE'S DONE A LOT OF STUFF AND HE'L KEEP DOIN MORE--SO GOODNIGHT.
BACK TO THE PREZ: YEAH, THAT'S RIGHT--I'VE DONE SO MUCH GOOD STUFF I CAN'T EVEN REMEMBER MOST OF IT BUT I KNOW IT WAS GOOD. DKMSDPKPF A LOT BET--BET--BETTER THAN OBAMA EVER DID, AND HJHDU SLEEPY JOE WON'T EVEN COME CLOSEKKDJBI I'M GOING TO M CJB BE PRESIDENT FOREVER. HUH?
SO NOW---KEEP REMEMBERING THAT I'M THE ONE WHO KEEPS YOU---FJEOM WHO KEEPS YOU SAFE AND WILL NOT LET UNDESIRABLES MOVE INTO YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD. HOLD THE DAMN TELEPROMTER F'KNIJO SDTILL! YES, I PERSONALLY WILL KEEP UNDESIRABLES--YOU KNOW WHO I MEAN, RIGHT? THEY'RE NOT WHITE. THEYVE GOT DE PLACES TO GO AND ITS NOT YOUR NEIGHBOR----HUH? CNN TURNED OFF? WELL, FUCK 'EM I AM THE GREATSOKMK M F AND FOX IS THERE. I KNOW--I BOUGHT 'EM ALLF JJNVNKJFP
Diogenes --- 8/25/2020
I I I I I I I I--AM GREAT!! I AM THE GREATEST, NOT WHATSISNAME THE BOXER. MEHRR,T BIDENN JSOTHW OMD I HAVE NO SKY FALLING HSIWRHVUENWN APOCALYPSE WITH HARRIS NASTYU C B,,WITCH IS HE STILL ALIVE? NO NOT BIDEN, WHATHISNAME YOU KNOW THE COL--B-B-BLACK BOXER--ALLEY/ ALI, HE'S NOT--THEN I AM THE GREATEST! AND YOU KNOW WHO I AM.
HERE'S--WHATSYERNAME, SWEETIE? OH YEAH--K-K-KIMBERLY, ONE OF MY SON'S GIRLFRIENDS, (WINK, WINK) TO TALK ABOUT ME--WELL, OF COURSE ME, WHO ELSE.
HEY, EVERYBODY--WHERE ARE YA? I CAN'T SEE ANYBODY? WELL, ANYWAY, I JUST WANNA SAY WHAT A GREAT GUY DONALD IS. OH, YEAH, I KNOW HE'S THE PREZ, BUT HE LETS ME CALL HIM DONALD. ISN'T THAT JUST ADORABLE? AND HE'S A GREAT GUY, YA KNOW--I MEAN HE'S JUST GREAT, AND HE'S DONE A LOT OF STUFF AND HE'L KEEP DOIN MORE--SO GOODNIGHT.
BACK TO THE PREZ: YEAH, THAT'S RIGHT--I'VE DONE SO MUCH GOOD STUFF I CAN'T EVEN REMEMBER MOST OF IT BUT I KNOW IT WAS GOOD. DKMSDPKPF A LOT BET--BET--BETTER THAN OBAMA EVER DID, AND HJHDU SLEEPY JOE WON'T EVEN COME CLOSEKKDJBI I'M GOING TO M CJB BE PRESIDENT FOREVER. HUH?
SO NOW---KEEP REMEMBERING THAT I'M THE ONE WHO KEEPS YOU---FJEOM WHO KEEPS YOU SAFE AND WILL NOT LET UNDESIRABLES MOVE INTO YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD. HOLD THE DAMN TELEPROMTER F'KNIJO SDTILL! YES, I PERSONALLY WILL KEEP UNDESIRABLES--YOU KNOW WHO I MEAN, RIGHT? THEY'RE NOT WHITE. THEYVE GOT DE PLACES TO GO AND ITS NOT YOUR NEIGHBOR----HUH? CNN TURNED OFF? WELL, FUCK 'EM I AM THE GREATSOKMK M F AND FOX IS THERE. I KNOW--I BOUGHT 'EM ALLF JJNVNKJFP
Diogenes --- 8/25/2020
23 August 2020
America v. Америка
There was a time when "America" was synonymous with strength, justice, freedom, opportunity, enlightenment, peace, cooperation, fairness, and understanding.
Other nations looked to us for leadership, for assistance, for intervention, for friendship, for alliances.
Now we are shunned by many other countries. We have become an outlier, indeed a pariah of the community of nations where we were once a major player.
Once when we spoke, nations listened; now they snicker.
This downfall of America's reputation has been brought about single-handedly by the ill-begotten president, Donald Trump. Tyrannis Trump has spent his term trying to change America into what he thinks it should be.
The unpresident's psychopathy dictates that the world has to be Trumpcentric. Whether he'll manage to make the world in his own image is doubtful, but he's been working hard to transform this nation into something he may have seen in a dream.
Trump's ultimate delusional goal is an America for Americans only, by which he means white English-speaking non-Catholic Christians. There is no place in his philosophy for people of any color or ethnicity, including the indigenous nations who were here long before Europeans arrived.
He was elected on a platform of racism, xenophobia, and paranoia. His only clearly stated plan was to build a wall to keep Mexicans out. By May 2020, only 3 miles out of 194 miles of wall constructed or replaced under the Trump administration was new fencing. The border is 1,954 miles long.
After almost 4 years of boasting about the wall and its progress the Bricklayer-in-Chief has only managed to add one-tenth of one percent to what already stood before he was elected. And everything that stands is only 10 percent of the length of the border.
He has steadily worked to isolate the United States from the rest of the world. He has used flimsy and nonsensical reasons to remove the U.S. from several organizations and agreements, including:
The Bumbler-in-Chief has never set out any coherent plan or policy, but the actions above reveal a sort of stream-of-consciousness approach to distancing the United States from the general community of nations.
Isolationism has never worked for the United States. Had Trump ever looked at the history of his own country, he might have come across Thomas Jefferson's 1801 inaugural address, in which he described his vision of American isolationism: "peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none…”¹
American presidents have never been able to avoid those entangling alliances. Whether coming to the defense of fellow republics or defending America's own interests, presidents and Congresses have become entangled, usually because it was the right thing to do.
That is a foreign concept to Trump. Everything he does is for his own personal gain and interest, and if anyone else can decipher what that is, they're not talking.
Isolationism is impossible when every citizen has access to worldwide communication. Citizens of the isolationist countries North Korea, China, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, among others, don't have this access.
Don't let the Isolator-in-Chief add the United States of America to that list.
--- Diogenes, 8/23/2020
Please share widely
¹ Robert Longley, "The Evolution of American Isolationism," https://www.thoughtco.com/the-evolution-of-american-isolationism-4123832
Other nations looked to us for leadership, for assistance, for intervention, for friendship, for alliances.
Now we are shunned by many other countries. We have become an outlier, indeed a pariah of the community of nations where we were once a major player.
Once when we spoke, nations listened; now they snicker.
This downfall of America's reputation has been brought about single-handedly by the ill-begotten president, Donald Trump. Tyrannis Trump has spent his term trying to change America into what he thinks it should be.
The unpresident's psychopathy dictates that the world has to be Trumpcentric. Whether he'll manage to make the world in his own image is doubtful, but he's been working hard to transform this nation into something he may have seen in a dream.
Trump's ultimate delusional goal is an America for Americans only, by which he means white English-speaking non-Catholic Christians. There is no place in his philosophy for people of any color or ethnicity, including the indigenous nations who were here long before Europeans arrived.
He was elected on a platform of racism, xenophobia, and paranoia. His only clearly stated plan was to build a wall to keep Mexicans out. By May 2020, only 3 miles out of 194 miles of wall constructed or replaced under the Trump administration was new fencing. The border is 1,954 miles long.
After almost 4 years of boasting about the wall and its progress the Bricklayer-in-Chief has only managed to add one-tenth of one percent to what already stood before he was elected. And everything that stands is only 10 percent of the length of the border.
He has steadily worked to isolate the United States from the rest of the world. He has used flimsy and nonsensical reasons to remove the U.S. from several organizations and agreements, including:
- The Paris Climate Agreement
- The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade bloc
- UNESCO, the UN's culture and education body
- The UN Human Rights Council, responsible for the promotion and protection of all human rights around the globe
- The UN Relief and Works Agency, which provides aid to Palestinian refugees in the Near East
- The Iran nuclear accord
- The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty required the U. S. and the Soviet Union to eliminate all nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers
- The Open Skies Treaty allows member nations to overfly other members' territory to collect data on military forces and activities
- and others, including a possible withdrawal from the World Health Organization; he has threatened to withdraw but not carried through
The Bumbler-in-Chief has never set out any coherent plan or policy, but the actions above reveal a sort of stream-of-consciousness approach to distancing the United States from the general community of nations.
Isolationism has never worked for the United States. Had Trump ever looked at the history of his own country, he might have come across Thomas Jefferson's 1801 inaugural address, in which he described his vision of American isolationism: "peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none…”¹
American presidents have never been able to avoid those entangling alliances. Whether coming to the defense of fellow republics or defending America's own interests, presidents and Congresses have become entangled, usually because it was the right thing to do.
That is a foreign concept to Trump. Everything he does is for his own personal gain and interest, and if anyone else can decipher what that is, they're not talking.
Isolationism is impossible when every citizen has access to worldwide communication. Citizens of the isolationist countries North Korea, China, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, among others, don't have this access.
Don't let the Isolator-in-Chief add the United States of America to that list.
--- Diogenes, 8/23/2020
Please share widely
¹ Robert Longley, "The Evolution of American Isolationism," https://www.thoughtco.com/the-evolution-of-american-isolationism-4123832
22 August 2020
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.
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
20 August 2020
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
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
16 August 2020
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.
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.
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.
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