25 II 2023: Another sleaze seeking attention 

We have heard from a Rep. Lance Gooden from Texas who is accusing his fellow representative Judy Chu of disloyalty to the U.S. and collusion with Communist China because of her defense of a Biden appointee.

Good Ole Lance is quoted as follows: “Gooden said in the interview, “I think that Judy Chu needs to be called out. … I question her either loyalty or competence. If she doesn’t realize what’s going on, then she’s totally out of touch with one of her core constituencies,” he said. “I’m really disappointed and shocked that someone like Judy Chu would have a security clearance and entitled to confidential intelligence briefings until this is figured out.”

“He’ll huff and he’ll puff ….” He says “Judy Chu needs to be called out,” but what he is really saying is “I need some attention paid to me, so I’ll do what the rest of the Republicans are doing and claim there is scandal where there is none.” He says he is “really disappointed and shocked that someone like Judy Chu ….” Is he “really” disappointed and shocked or isn’t he imitating the theatrical indignation of other Republican wannabe muckrakers? And I’ve got to wonder if a Republican congressman from Texas can really be disappointed or shocked by anything at all?

12 II 2023: Nuts and crooks own the news

I looked at the Huffpost website this morning with some disgust. Admittedly, Sunday is a poor news day, but instead of news of cute children, local tragedies, rescued pets, and little known facts, I find, instead, that the webpage is a fascist news sheet manipulated by rightwing nutters to keep themselves before the public eye. Reports about these monsters are rarely complimentary to them, but that does not matter, for they know they are winning so long as their photo and name make the frontpage.

So, in today’s Huffpost I found the following children of notoriety (I give the number of their mentions in parentheses): Donald Trump (5), Marjorie Taylor Greene (4), George Santos (3), Ron DeSantis (3), and one mention each for Mike Lee, Jim Jordan, Ron Johnson, Matt Gaetz, Sarah Huckaby Sanders, Kari Lake, and of two salaried fonts of misinformation, Lisa Kennedy Montgomery and Tucker Carlson from Fox News.

Why is this? Well, scandal sells, and the behavior of these figures is scandalous by design. Indeed, some of them compete in conjuring up ever new and more shocking scandals. And the media, keen to maintain their own notoriety at any cost, keep playing right into the hands of these bogus people, become less and less trustworthy, and provide some credibility to the accusation of “fake news.”

8 II 2023: Government or entertainment?

Reactions of Republicans in Congress to President Biden’s State of the Union address revealed, I think, something about the way many of them view government. There were shouts, boos, and other interruptions. I guess the standard was set by Marjorie Taylor Greene with her outcries and other attempts to draw attention to herself, but many other Republicans also joined in the fun.

Let’s not consider the impropriety of this kind of behavior at a formal government event. Rather, let’s ask at what kind of event such behavior would be expected. We see fans at sporting events let it all hang out in cheering their favored team and reviling their opponents. In another setting, the old Golden Rod showboat in St. Louis advertised its old melodramas by inviting playgoers to “Cheer the hero, hiss the villain!”

I think many Republicans, especially the MAGA and semi-MAGA types, view political life and government as a highly competitive game in which mindless support of their “side” and unrelenting denunciation of the other are all that matters. We could also say that very many Republicans in Congress view government as a melodrama in which they are the heroes and their opponents the villains. In both cases, government is not about real life, but is a game or drama that is a faint copy of real life.

2 II 2023: Bowdlerized history

De Santis has blocked African-American studies from the Florida schools. His mindless slogan is “We want education, not indoctrination,” as if the bowdlerized version of American History he wants to inflict on the children is not a mendacious indoctrination. If De Santis were a German demagogue, he would want to exclude the Nazi period from German history courses.

24 I 2023: “released to their parents”

Gangs of thieves are swarming over the parking lots around the Armory and City Foundry in midtown St. Louis, both part of St. Louis’ aspiration to become a real city again. These thieves steal cars, of course, but they particularly like to steal firearms from poorly secured vehicles.

Lately the St. Louis Police caught some teenagers there armed with automatic weapons. A 16-year-old had a Glock 19 and a 15-year-old a Glock 29 that was equipped for automatic fire.

The upshot? The report reads: “Police initially ‘took the boys into custody,’ but a juvenile judge later ordered them to be ‘released to their parents’.” 

If teenagers are running around the city better armed than most policemen, it seems to me that functionally they have no parents.

The culture of much of St. Louis is utterly different from the American mainstream. Thus, “released to their parents” is laughably meaningless. I think I know what the judge meant by “parents,” but I doubt there are any people in the lives of these teenagers who are at all like what the judge has in mind.

18 I 2023: Texas and Florida: Permanently ignorant and diseased

The governors of Texas and Florida are working to maintain the GOP’s strong appeal as the party of frightened, stupid, and resentful voters.

CNN reports: “Texas Gov. Greg Abbot previewed a push for school vouchers and more parental influence over curriculum as part of an effort to ‘empower parents’ in his inaugural address Tuesday in Austin.”

and “DeSantis proposes policy permanently banning Covid-19 vaccine and mask requirements and other pandemic mitigation measures in Florida.”

Abbot wants to guarantee parents the right to clone their own ignorance and bigotry. DeSantis wants to codify the preference for foolish resentment over medical science and common sense.

17 I 2023: Do unregulated guns prop up white supremacy?

Among today’s headlines:

from St. Louis Today: “Guns in St. Louis are increasingly semi-automatic – with higher caliber bullets, too”

from huffpost: “Police: 8 People Shot, 1 Critical At Florida MLK Day Event”

I have read that black Americans make up 12.5 percent of the population, but have been the victims in 61 percent of gun homicides. And I wonder if the laxity or absence of gun regulation is intended to maintain white supremacy in the U.S.

Implementing a policy does not always mean making things happen, but can also involve letting things happen. I have long believed that America’s failure to prevent the importation, manufacture, and distribution of narcotics is not the result of chronic incompetence, but is an intentional neglect meant to disable America’s black communities.

So too I wonder if the laxity of firearm regulations and the utter failure to control the traffic in illegal firearms are similarly part of a plan to inhibit the development of a cohesive, economically strong, and politically powerful black community, and to instill contempt and fear of blacks in the wider population.

Is this paranoia?

10 I 2022: Superficial likeness

Trumpists are making much of the ten five-years-old classified documents found in a private office of Biden. The likeness to Trump’s theft of documents is only superficial, rather like comparing someone who forgets to leave a tip to someone who sneaks out without paying the check.

7 I 2023: Get rid of Gaetz

CNN concluded its account of the election in the House of Representatives as follows:

“Gaetz, however, suggested the historic fight would have a different impact on McCarthy’s speakership. Due to the concessions, Gaetz argued, McCarthy will be governing in a ‘straitjacket’.”

I hope Speaker McCarthy will have the courage (?) and prudence (?) to make void any concessions he is claimed to have made, especially to Gaetz, the class clown cum badboy. Maybe the Republicans are now sufficiently angry and embarrassed to muzzle Gaetz and his fellow defectors. I don’t know. Republicans have seemed, like their Leader, to be immune to embarrassment. Yet the last days have shown that the Republicans, majority or not, are not now capable of governing themselves, let alone the Country. Maybe they will do a bit of housecleaning.