“Before he gets his position, his only fear is that he might not get it, and once he gets it, his only fear is that he might lose it. And when he fears to lose it, he becomes capable of anything.” (Analecta 17.15)
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.
6 I 2023: Second anniversary of the rebellion
A small group of Republicans who call themselves “Freedom Caucus,” but are, in effect, an Anti-democracy Movement, is trying to repeat its rebellion of Jan 6th by obstructing the work of government.
And what is the unifying principle, the “policy goal,” of this group. This coterie is united not by principle or policy but by a shared passion for self-aggrandizement. These childish obstructionists are often referred to as “far-right Republicans,” but to do so is an insult to conservatives. These people have no authentic political views, but are wholly committed to saying and doing whatever will get them publicity and maintain their attraction to a group of foolish and frightened voters.
Democracy, like the human body, contains within it the causes of its own decay.
3 I 2023: Pigs taking over GOP House
The news about the Republicans in Congress sounds like developments in Orwell’s Animal Farm: the pigs are taking over. People you wouldn’t want to have a meal with are in the ascendent.
29 XII 2022: George Santos: like father like son?
I suppose it would be stretching things if I were to claim for George Santos direct descent from Baron Munchausen. But I have heard it said that perhaps he is one of Donald Trump’s unacknowledged sons. Santos claims Trump as his model in the politics of mendacity, and if one considers his behavior and contempt for the public, Santos does seem to be a con off the old grift.
I suppose theorists might describe Santos’ campaign of lies as just another manifestation of Americans’ drive to re-invent themselves, in the old song from westward expansion:
What was your name in the States?
Was it Murphy, MacDonald or Gates?
Did you hold up a bank as a juvenile prank
And pack up the money in crates, my friend,
What was your name in the States?
But in the case of Trump and Santos it is not a matter of escaping a former identity, but of polishing it up, or, “embellishing” it. Brazen liars of the past tried to conceal a history of crime, these politicians are trying to conceal a history of hum-drum and failure.
25 XII 2022: What kind of sandwich to eat during insurrection?
Kayleigh McEnany’s testimony to the Jan 6th Committee is consistent with what we have earlier seen of her. She reported learning of the attack on the Capitol while she was eating lunch (a turkey sandwich, she reported) in her office. Her response to this news did not seem as prompt and energetic as one might expect, so Rep. Cheney asked her: “And you were just eating a turkey sandwich and just didn’t – didn’t register?” To this Ms McEnany replied: “I definitely reject the characterization that I was just eating a turkey sandwich and would ignore a text about Capitol Hill office buildings being stormed.” She continued: “I in no way, shape, or form would eat a turkey sandwich if I thought Capitol Hill was being seiged.”
If she would not eat a turkey sandwich if she thought Capitol Hill was under attack, I wonder what kind of sandwich she would have been eating if she did think Capitol Hill was being “seiged.”