27 II 2019: “It’s beginning to look a lot like Watergate, everywhere you go”

Current developments in the Trump case remind me of two features of the Watergate investigations: 1) initial stonewalling made it like pulling teeth to obtain the evidence of Nixon’s misdeeds, but eventually the evidence came in a  gush and 2) the Republicans now are as vociferous and hypocritical as the Republcans at the time of Watergate.

How about the histrionics today from some Republicans on the Committee? Self-righteous sinners denouncing a fellow sinner whose offenses are probably much less severe than their own! And they really should sign up for some acting lessons because they surely flopped in today’s opera.

And how about “Matt the Mouth” Gaetz? His assertions of innocence with attached apology is insignificant. I apologize has become D.C. talk for “I’m sorry that you caught me.” His tweet makes it clear that he was trying to intimidate a witness.

25 II 2019: Right-wing “commentators” embarrass themselves again.

I read that someone called Pete Hegseth who does something on Fox (really fake!!) News has joined his voice to the chorus of reactionaries who are straining and lying in order to find fault with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Hegseth has denounced her raising the minimum wage for her Congressional office staff, and with a voice from the twentieth century has called this step “socialism and communism on display.” 

I would like to be able to tell Mr. Hegseth that Joe McCarthyisms are no longer a part of our political discourse, but alas, they are there, floating in the sewers and cesspits of America. But I do take heart at the massive expenditure of right-wing commentators’ air on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She really frightens these gas-bags and their listeners, because they know that they are being tried in the balance and found wanting.

10 II 2019: A new axis?

I read on the internet of a Steve Bannon + Raymond Burke axis. They are both patrons of the Dignitatis humanae institute, a reactionary program run by a former minion of Bannon.  I cannot figure out what the title Dignitatis humanaeinstitute could mean. Anyway, it looks like just another cell of the kind that tries to justify present-day reactionaries who have never accepted democracy by an appeal to an ideologically correct “Western Tradition” that never was.

Bannon, of course, recalls Mussolini, and Burke wants to be an anti-pope. This partnership seems likely to please many in this era of Trump. It is, in one way, a union of opposites, for Cardinal Burke is a notable clotheshorse (I’m sure his tailors’ bill would evoke a gasp) and a by-the-book ceremonialist, while Steve Bannon cultivates skid-row chic and is a leading figure of the New Rudeness. But shared resentment can easily bring opposites together.

We can get an idea of what this coupling can produce from Bannon and Burke’s willing tool, Archbishop Viganò. I have wondered of what see Viganò is the archbishop, probably somewhere in partibus infideliumwhere he can fit right in.

I wonder if these two could add to their team that leading Catholic and ubiquitous reactionary apologist Newt Gingrich. Newt simply oozes with long-standing resentment and has useful connections at the Vatican through his spouse, Callista, Trump’s ambassador to the Holy See, and to Opus deithrough Fr. John McCloskey who brought him into the Church.

What more mischief is the Bannon + Burke combination planning? One cannot know, but can probably guess that it will be hypocritical and well-supported financially.

18 II 2019: Lindsey Graham and King Trump

The statements of the once prudent Lindsey Graham become in recent months an unrelieved series of deceits. Ever wonder what embarrassing information Trump has on him? Maybe he is just acting Republican, for the Republicans are like a weathervane with a pig, not a cock, at the top. Whichever way the pig turns they follow at once.

14 II 2019: Trump follows Hitler’s gamebook

So King Donald is going to circumvent the Constitution and build Trump’s Folly by adding to his already endless series of lies the claim of a “national emergency.” The only pressing national emergency is having Trump and his Dauphin, Mike Pence, still in office.

I seem to recall that Hitler’s first step in dismantling democracy was to have a willing Reichstag [in our case, Mitchie and the Trumpettes] vote him power to govern by decree to deal with a bogus national emergency, and he went on governing by decree ever after.

11 II 2018: Whose stereotype?

So much for tolerance and diversity!! Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib are being denounced as anti-semitic by Jewish colleagues and various others who, for their own reasons, are hurrying to jump on this bandwagon. The majority of critics seem to be especially incensed by the suggestion that Republican support for Israel is maintained by the Israel Lobby’s healthy donations to Republican politicians. What an idea!

It is a fundamental misrepresentation of Israeli foreign policy to fashion an identification between all Jews and the nation-state of Israel. If this deception succeeds, then opinion must declare any criticism of Israel, any support for Israel’s oppressed minority to be anti-semitic. What if we were to substitute another American proxy, Saudi-Arabia, for Israel in this formula, would politicians denounce any criticism of Saudi-Arabia as anti-islamicism? 

In American political discourse, “anti-semitism” has become, like “racism,” a vague, default denunciation that is based on a stereotype whereby any criticism of any Jewish person(s) for whatever reason can be called anti-semitism. And, as with racism, those who promote charges of anti-semitism are employing a concept now so vague as to prevent honest discussion of the phenomena to which this term may allude, but conveniently cannot precisely describe.

8 II 2019: Who is not a racist?

Virginia’s Governor, Ralph Northam, is being urged to resign because of the blackface photo. Isn’t this ridiculous? That was 30+ years ago. I don’t think he’s the same man he was then any more that Brett Cavanaugh is, any more than all of us are. “Racist” has become one of our default epithets. Though racism is still very much with us and must be identified and called out, use of the term “racist” has come to be used mindlessly, thoughtlessly, viciously, and if things continue as they are going, the charge of racism will become meaningless. 

I firmly believe that we are all of us racists to some extent, in some way, however one may be unaware of his racism, however well he may mask it. If we could create a litmus test to detect racism, I think very few could pass.

Some Virginians want to take down the statues of Confederate heroes, as frolicking students at the University of North Carolina took down Silent Sam. I do not think that the present can be saved by naively effacing the past. However painful the past, we cannot, must not make it go away. If we were to cater to everyone’s anger and resentment and tear down all monuments that are found somehow offensive to someone, we will very soon have no monuments left.

3 II 2019: Barbarous Christians

Father Edward L. Beck posted a tweet critical of the behavior of the Covington adolescents in Washington, D.C. He posted on CNN this account of the reception of his tweet: “The hate mail and threats I have received since my tweet and my on-air appearances about this issue on CNN and HLN have astounded me. Supposed Christians have said the most vile and uncharitable things imaginable. It is further indication of the vast political, racial and religious divides that still exist in our country.” 

I think it is, rather, a further indication of the division in our country between barbarism and civilization.

Everyone has a right to her/his own opinion. NO!

Trump’s peculiarities

I read two impressive lists on line. The question of how many of these attitudes and behavior can be found in Donald Trump I will leave to the reader.

Nigel Barber, PhD. “Does Trump Suffer from Narcissistic Personality Disorder?” lists the following as possible symptoms in a person suffering from narcissism:

  • Grandiosity with expectations of superior treatment by others.
  • Fixated on fantasies of power, success, intelligence, attractiveness, etc.
  • Self-perception of being unique, superior, and associated with high-status people and institutions.
  • Needing constant admiration from others.
  • Sense of entitlement to special treatment and to obedience from others.
  • Exploitative of others to achieve personal gain.
  • Unwilling to empathize with others’ feelings, wishes, or needs.
  • Intensely jealous of others and the belief that others are equally jealous of them.
  • Pompous and arrogant demeanor.

The Wikipedia article “Demagogue” lists the following as the “methods by which demagogues have manipulated and incited crowds throughout history”:

  • Scapegoating
  • Fearmongering
  • Lying
  • Emotional oratory and personal charisma
  • Accusing opponents of weakness and disloyalty
  • Promising the impossible
  • Violence and physical intimidation
  • Personal insults and ridicule
  • Vulgarity and outrageous behavior
  • Folksy posturing
  • Gross oversimplification
  • Attacking the news media

14 I 2018: “Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair”

Walls never serve their original purpose for long, but are repurposed as tourist attractions. The Great Wall of China, Hadrian’s Wall (what is left of it), the Roman Empire’s limes(fortified border) have all become tourist attractions. This is also the case with those two virtuoso works of poured concrete, the Maginot Line and Hitler’s Atlantic Wall. The Berlin Wall has come and gone, as has the Iron Curtain. Now the “Iron Curtain” was a figurative wall in Mr. Churchill’s famous speech, but it had its concrete manifestations in guard houses, machine gun emplacements, and forests of fence and barbed wire across the map of Europe. President Trump is now calling for a Wall of Steel along the U.S.-Mexico border and I imagine that this wall, if actually built, will one day be a rust stain across North America and a monument to folly.