Annual Repost

I intend to repost this quote every year about this time...just because I can:

"A civilization which for any reason puts a human life at a disadvantage; or a civilization which can exist only by putting human life at a disadvantage; is worthy neither of the name nor of continuance. And a human being whose life is nurtured in an advantage which has accrued from the disadvantage of other human beings, and who prefers that this should remain as it is, is a human being by definition only, having much more in common with the bedbug, the tapeworm, the cancer, and the scavengers of the deep sea."

James Agee,  Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

A Short Post on Don Jr.

I played for hundreds of funerals in Arlington Cemetery when I was in the Army there in the 1970s. It literally turns my stomach to see this brat actually compare anyone in his family to the people buried there. Pardon me while I puke.

Unsolicited Opinions

• The Dems never ask my advice, but here it is anyway. Concerning impeachment: take your time.
• I have been a baseball fan for about 65 years. I am all in favor of new stuff if it is an  improvement to the game. But in my opinion, play-by-play announcers using the phrase "wave and a miss" is NOT an improvement over "swing and a miss". It's not as descriptive.  It's not clever. And it isn't even cute.
• I gave up watching the NFL when the league decided to let Donald Trump set its policies. I don't miss it even a little. And this is from someone who grew up in Wisconsin during the Lombardi years.
• Are troops really going to leave Northern Syria? Soon? I will wait and see.

Sessions, Trump, Brooks

• Jeff Sessions was wrong about most things but I don't believe he ever intentionally broke the law. (Which is really why Trump fired him.)
• Trump and his supporters don't seem to think that impeachment is in the Constitution ("It's a coup!"). That's because the Founders didn't put the provision in the Second Amendment. That's the only thing they read--and then only half of it.
• I have friends and family who are pro-Trump--some avidly so. I am embarrassed that they are not embarrassed about it.
• I tend to be a defender of David Brooks even though he is usually wrong, because I believe he at least tries to argue in good faith. But this latest column about Flyover Guy is just plain dumb, dumb, dumb.

Last Day of September

First post in a while. Random thoughts.

• Some (not all) political commentators misread the polls concerning impeachment. They mistakenly infer that those opposed to impeachment will be more likely to vote for Trump if he is impeached. I doubt that. There may be a handful, but I think there is a significant number of avid Trump opponents who are/were simply not convinced that a strong enough case could be made for impeachment. I believe that because--until a few days ago--I was one of them. I am not anymore.
• The National Rifle Association, Federalist Society, Family Research Council, and RNC have become indistinguishable. These groups have lost everything associated with their original raison d'etre, and have instead become just generic partisan (i.e., Republican, esp, Trumpian) hacks.
• Quote of the Day: "I ask the political economists and the moralists if they have ever calculated the number of individuals who must be condemned to misery, overwork, demoralization, degradation, rank ignorance, overwhelming misfortune and utter penury in order to produce one rich man." --- Almeida Garrett (epigraph to José Saramago's novel, Raised from the Ground).
• The headline for this article in The Washington Post is: "As backlash fears fade, major [Wall Street] firms are returning to Saudi Arabia a year after Khashoggi's killing". Pop quiz: Q. What is the moral difference between Donald Trump and Wall Street? A. Not one single thing.

History Lesson (repost)

[I am reposting this from March 2014, just because I felt like it.]

There are quite a few theories about history and just what it is and what it means.  Here's mine:

Guiding Axiom:  History is the story of the powerful oppressing those less so.

Corollary 1:  The powerful have always been able to convince one or more subsets of the less powerful that another subset of the less powerful--rather than their actual oppressors--is the source of their problems.

Corollary 2:  Throughout much of history (or at least the last 1500 years or so), the church (in all its various forms) has been in bed with the oppressors rather than the oppressed.

Overly simplistic?  You bet.  But pick a time in history and this dynamic is probably playing out.

More Non-Advice from the Center

David Ignatius, in this Washington Post piece, has the same old tired advice from the center about how the Dems are giving the election to Trump if they actually fight for important things. The problem is that--as usual--there isn't much here.

Lots of generic warnings here but nothing really to wrap one's arms around. What is Ignatius recommending? Dems need to be more racist? Support kids in cages? More tax cuts for the 1%? This primary season seems like any other. Every four years we hear how divided the Dems are, but are they really? If every centrist's solution is for the Dems to become more Republican, I have no choice but to continue ignoring them. If the only way to beat Trump is to abandon things we believe in, then God help us. We'll get the government we deserve.

What is this supposed mainstream solution? I keep hearing about it, but no one tells me what it is? Mainstream solution for universal health care? living wage? climate change? income inequality? racism? support of unions? Warren and Sanders have been pretty detailed in many of their policy proposals. All I've heard from the center is that these are bad. I have yet to hear what the "centrist" solutions are other than something like "we believe the same things that Republicans do, we'll just do them better". Believe me, I would love to be convinced otherwise.

Two Clowns

Donald Trump and Arthur Laffer: two clowns for the ages.

Monday

A few things crossing my mind on Monday:

• One of the more ridiculous arguments against Medicare for All is that it will make "lines longer". Well, I suppose if universal health care means that 30 million more people have coverage, then I suppose the wait times might be a little longer. I, for one, am okay with that.
• Mueller was appointed by the Trump administration. Why doesn't the media reference this fact in every story about Mueller?
• Democratic presidents have been better than Republican presidents. Having said that, Democratic presidents have also been at the center of things like the Vietnam War, welfare "reform", stop and frisk, draconian and racist crime laws, the deregulation of the banking and securities industries, the weakening of labor law enforcement, and support of Israel no matter what it does. This list could go on and on. And all these things were supported by the centrists of the party, the same centrists we are being told are the only hope of saving us from Donald Trump. Pardon me if I am hesitant.

The Hate Business

Franklin Graham is at it again, in this Washington Post article today. (Spoiler alert: he doesn't like Buttigieg.)

The Religious Right--of which Graham has become the chief spokesperson--has nothing much to do with religion. It's just a big business, and its business is hate. And for Graham, business has never been better (nor more profitable). He goes out of his way to express this hatred in new ways whenever he can. Very "innovative". Kind of the Steve Jobs of hate.

It's almost comical to see him act out his pseudo-morality. Moral absolutism for LGBTQ, moral relativism for Trump and the rest of the right-wing hate brigade. Graham can't even get his own beliefs right.

In short, he has become a pretty disgusting human being. If there is any positive use for the guy, it's that he's so obviously on the wrong side of morality, history, and politics, that he is a useful gauge to know where the right side is.

Democrat?

I have pretty much considered myself a socialist of some sort ever since I read Michael Harrington's Socialism back in the 1970s. But unlike many of my socialist comrades, I pretty much also considered myself a Democrat.

After the last few days, watching the Democratic establishment/leadership (at least in both houses of Congress and DNC) fail to explicitly defend Ilhan Omar, I think my days of calling myself a Democrat are over. These same leaders (Pelosi, Hoyer, Schumer) were very quick to throw Rep. Omar under the bus with false accusations of anti-Semitism. Now they are largely silent.

As Rep. Tliab accurately tweeted:

They put us in photos when they want to show our party is diverse. However, when we ask to be at the table, or speak up about issues that impact who we are, what we fight for & why we ran in the first place, we are ignored. To truly honor our diversity is to never silence us.

In fairness, with a few disappointing exceptions, most of the Democratic presidential candidates came out strongly in support of Omar, some quicker than others. Even the Third Way came out with a stronger defense than Pelosi, Schumer, Hoyer, and Perez. So much for solidarity.

One of the ironies of this affair is that many establishment Dems and HRC supporters are consistently telling me that Bernie Sanders is not a real Democrat. But Bernie, along with Elizabeth Warren, was among the first to strongly and unequivocally stand behind Omar. Maybe he's not a "real" Dem, but he is usually way ahead of the supposed "real" Dems when it comes to doing the right thing and pushing the right policies. As I said elsewhere, the Speaker of the House may not have Rep. Omar's back, but Bernie does.

It's pretty embarrassing.

Rules of Thumb in Relation to the Cheney Clan

Liz Cheney's recent ridiculous statements allow us to recall that the Cheney family provides us with some useful rules of thumb that can be quite confidently applied:

• If a Cheney says "X" is true, then it's almost certain that "not-X" is true.
• If a Cheney says "X" is bad, then it's almost certain that "X" is good.
• If a Cheney says "X" is good, then it's almost certain that "X" is bad.
• If a Cheney says "X" is right, then "X" is almost certainly wrong.
• If a Cheney says "X" is wrong, then "X" is probably right.

It saves a lot of time, not having to Google or do research. Just follow these rules.

Postscript: apologies to any Cheneys who aren't related to the war criminal/profiteer.

Democratic Party Unity

Progressives are supposed to swallow all that they believe in and vote for/with the party in order to prove they are real Democrats. But when Centrist Democrats vote against progressive candidates (e.g., Ben Jealous) they are given benefit of the doubt. In one case the progressives are blamed; in the other case, it's the fault of the progressive candidate. Either way, progressives are to blame. Hillary lost? It's those damn progressives. Jealous lost? Bad (progressive) candidate.

Screw you Third Way.

The Truth Hurts

This is a great essay in n+1 magazine by Lyle Jeremy Rubin, a combat Marine veteran in Afghanistan. This paragraph from the essay is chillingly descriptive and true. (I don't think this is behind a paywall, if it is I apologize.)

I’ve had exchanges with each that imply recognition of the porousness of authorized propaganda. The linguist, for example, admits the war in Afghanistan has been a disaster and there is no hopeful path forward. But both, despite their time spent on the edge of the abyss, remain beholden to a colonial logic. For them the United States and Israel are flawed but necessary bulwarks against barbarism. For me the empire is rooted in the barbarism it pretends to oppose. It is exhausting having to declaim the same talking points over and over again: That the majority of the United States’ official adversaries were once clients and allies. That almost every intervention comes with an ex post facto assessment from the government acknowledging the failure of the mission. That investigative reporters and historians almost always unearth internal documents betraying motives that not only run counter to public rationales but undermine all claims to humanitarian intent. That the United States supplies the world with a preponderance of its weapons and fuels a plurality of its animosities. That the United States is the only power to have ever dropped the bomb, that it did so twice, and that it did so not to end a world war (a war that was about to end anyway) but to launch what became a half-century-long cold war on superior footing. While not alone as a global malefactor, the United States is the world leader in conventional foreign invasions since 1945, with 12; has engineered at least 38 coups or regime changes since the Spanish American War of 1898; and has offered direct military support and training to dozens of governments with no regard for human rights. The United States incarcerates the most people today, both in absolute and relative terms. It has incarcerated the most people for at least thirty-some-odd years, and it either led the world in its incarceration rate or trailed closely behind the Soviet Union and South Africa for the preceding decades. As early as 1976, one study described America’s rate as the “highest in the world and still rising.” By any standard, the United States empire ranks among the world’s most formidable producers of violence, and one would be hard-pressed to defend such all-consuming production on liberal democratic grounds.

One Reason I'm a Progressive (Socialist)

Republicans: We believe in capitalism, low taxes, weak unions, fiscal austerity, entitlement "reform", strong borders, privately-run health care, militarist foreign policy. We also support Israel no matter what it does.

Liberal Democrats: We believe all those things too, but we'll take the rough edges off, so everyone will be happy. Trust us, we'll do those same things but we'll do them better. 

That's not for me anymore.

Reading List 2018

Books I read in 2018.

They keep writing them faster than I can read them.

Eimear McBride, A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing

Alice McDermott, That Night

Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea

Phil Klay, Redeployment

Kenzaburo Oe, Death by Water

Michelle de Kretser, The Lost Dog

Toni Morrison, Jazz

Hernan Diaz, In the Distance

Jesmyn Ward, Sing, Unburied, Sing

Philip Roth, The Human Stain

James Baldwin, Giovanni's Room

Yuko Taniguchi, The Ocean in the Closet

Chris Hayes, A Colony in a Nation

Kishwar Desai, Witness the Night

Katrina Kittle, The Kindness of Strangers

Jon Mooallem, Wild Ones

Gerald Griffin, The Collegians

Bruce Feiler, Abraham

George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo

Norah Labiner, Our Sometime Sister

Larissa MacFarquhar, Strangers Drowning

William Hoffman, Wild Thorn

Orhan Pamuk, Snow

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Purple Hibiscus

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun

Louise Erdrich, The Round House

Katherine Kilalea, OK, Mr. Field

Zadie Smith, White Teeth

Stuart Rojstaczer, The Mathematician's Shiva

Jonathan Franzen, Freedom

Téa Obreht, The Tiger's Wife

Timothy Egan, The Worst Hard Time

Per Petterson, Out Stealing Horses (trans. Anne Born)

Phyllis Alesia Perry, Stigmata

Annie Dillard, An American Childhood

Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger

N. Scott Momaday, House Made of Dawn

J.M.G. Clézio, Wandering Star

Rachel Cusk, Kudos

Carlos Eire, Waiting for Snow in Havana

Mathias Énard, Compass