Service was far more important than performative nonsense

My Sunday video was Young Royals episodes 5 and 6 on Netflix. As I said last week I’m not going to go into a lot of detail so there won’t be any spoilers. I’ll only say there were a couple good plot twists and that the ending I thought I heard about (which prompted me to watch the show) wasn’t how it ended – and season two has been announced. According to a quick internet search if COVID doesn’t interfere much with shooting and post production work that second season may be available this summer. I see Netflix doesn’t show how much of the show I’ve seen, they show how much is left to see. At one time I checked and saw there was 20 minutes left. I thought there was a lot to be packed into those 20 minutes. They’ll be packed into season two instead. The more I thought about it the more I see didn’t get resolved in season one. The story is about the love between Prince Wilhelm and commoner Simon. There will be more about that, of course. But there are other things not resolved. Why did Wilhelm’s cousin August have trouble paying his tuition? Are Simon’s sister Sara and her friend Felice both in love with August or are they both using him and in love with each other? Will we see the ending I thought I heard about? I will probably watch season two when it is released. If the story drags into season three I doubt I’ll watch it. It is interesting enough to hold me through six episodes of 40-50 minutes and maybe through twelve episodes of that length. But not eighteen. In the news today was Netflix reporting a big drop in subscribers that prompted a big drop in the stock price. Along with that came talk of Netflix cracking down on password sharing. If they do season 2 of the Young Royals or likely anything else on Netflix in my to-watch list would not be enough to prompt me to actually pay. In response to comment in Twitter that the military aid promised to Ukraine isn’t getting there with enough urgency prompted Kos of Daily Kos to discuss such things take time. A deployment of Pennsylvania National Guard soldiers with related howitzers took five weeks. Kos talked about the number of tons all this equipment weighs – just the ammo is 2,000 tons. And the airport in Poland all this stuff is going to already has a parade of planes from several countries delivering goodies. Kos wrote:

Meanwhile, NATO is rubbing Russia’s nose in these shipments. Those planes could turn off their transponders and arrive in secret, but they’re actively broadcasting their presence, their source, and their destination. They want Russia to know what they’re up to, repeatedly reminding them of Western resolve, perhaps hoping it erodes Russia’s own. Russia is certainly helpless to do anything about it.

Getting armaments to Ukraine is not like clicking a button on your phone app and Amazon delivering it tomorrow. There is a difference between “could more be done?” and “nothing is being done.” The history of this war will include the massive international logistical effort to help Ukraine win. Mark Sumner of Kos told the story of two villages in Donbas with about a mile between them. Since 2014 one has been held by Ukraine, the other by pro-Russian separatists. In satellite imagery Sumner pointed out the open fields and two military trenches between the villages, plus the heavily mined road with lots of wrecks and car-sized potholes. When the war comes here it will be deadly, with one side or the other trying to cross an open field to get at an enemy protected by trenches. David Neiwert of Kos wrote about Putin claiming his goal was to de-Nazify Ukraine. Neiwert discussed the numbers of neo-Nazis in the Russian army – some of them flying flags of Russian fascist movements. Hunter of Kos reported Ukrainian President Zelenskyy again vowed he won’t negotiate away any territory in exchange for ending the war. The reason is simple: He doesn’t trust the Russian military and leadership. It is quite likely that if he concedes territory in Donbas Russia will set up a base there and, ignoring any peace deal, use it to launch an attack on Kyiv. The likely outcomes of the war are a stalemate or a Russian loss. And the economic sanctions against Russia will last a long time – likely until after Putin retires or dies. And the country faces a long isolation. Kos described the various battles and tactics around Izyum – Russia doing this and Ukraine countering with that. However, what caught my attention was the discussion in the comments. Mainstream media appears to be discussing only Russian successes and not their setbacks. Which makes several of them glad for the clarity and accuracy of Kos reporting. There was also a quote of a tweet from the Kyiv Independent. April 16 was the first time more people entered Ukraine than left. The border guard said over a million people have returned to Ukraine. Kos reported that Russia has started attacking at various places as the start of the Battle of Donbas. But the attacks have been so light the Pentagon thinks something bigger must be yet to come. But Kos thinks what we see now is about as good as Russia can do. Chef José Andrés and his World Central Kitchen has set up several kitchens in Poland and other countries and in Ukraine. They’re busy feeding those they can in 30 cities and towns across Ukraine. Gabe Ortiz of Kos reported that one of those sites in eastern Ukraine (I don’t know how close to Donbas) was leveled by a Russian missile. One person died, a few others went to a hospital. The operation quickly shifted to a new location and those in the hospital have been released. Commenters suggest a Nobel Peace Prize be shared between Andrés and Zelenskyy. Rebekah Sager of Kos got me thinking of the joke that circulated about 20 years ago about the Al Gebra gang and their Weapons of Math Instruction. She started her post with:

In a statement released Friday, the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) announced it had rejected 41% of K-12 math books for not meeting Common Core standards and/or for “indoctrination” or “exposure to dangerous and divisive concepts,” aka critical race theory (CRT).

Math books teaching CRT? Are Florida officials afraid that anti-racist themes would be hidden in the story problems like Nazis used to hide racist themes? It looks like the math books were rejected for not meeting the Common Core standards (or maybe meeting them and shouldn’t). Even so, math is now a part of the politicization of education, a serious thing – or Gov. DeSantis is looking for campaign donations from book publishers. Hunter discussed the latest chapter in a long story, this one in Llano, Texas. Someone with a huge grievance got a judge to order the halt of the library purchasing new books and the county commissioners purging the library board and replacing them with the loudest advocates of removing pornographic books. Strange that “pornographic” means anything having to do with racism or LGBTQ issues whether or not sex or body parts are described. Hunter wrote:

So to sum up: A single angry conservative of the sort who believes they have a direct line to God, who shares all their own gut instincts on everything, popped up with a list of books to be disputed that she had not read herself but had simply cribbed from some other conservative group milking the same cow. They convinced a local judge to march into the library to seize books about The Pornographies. The growing movement convinced the county commission to purge local libraries of anyone with experience or who argued against one-party censorship, got themselves put into those now-empty positions of minor power, got freaked out when other members of their local community started taking notes about what they themselves were doing—after they had literally shouted and bullied the previous appointees out of their positions, which was according to them just fine because when Jesus is behind you you're allowed to be as cruel and tell as many lies as you want—and are now holed up in secret non-public meetings where they hold seances with Jesus to make decisions about rote library management that they can't figure out how to handle themselves. Because they got here by being loud, outraged know-nothing theocratic bulls***-shrieking paranoid bullies and don't have any other skillset that would apply here.

Neiwert started a post with:

The long-running gradual consumption of the Republican Party by the authoritarian QAnon conspiracy cult is nearing the terminal takeover phase: A recent survey by Grid found 72 Republican candidates with varying levels of QAnon affiliation. The most salient fact, however, is not only is the cult presence growing, but not a single Republican in any capacity can be found who either denounces the trend or works in any other way than in concert with it. That reality is terrifying not just because QAnon has a long record of inspiring unhinged, violent behavior with its fantastically vile beliefs and rhetoric. Most of all, QAnon at its core is deeply eliminationist, with an agenda calling for the mass imprisonment and execution of mainstream Democrats for ostensibly running a global child-trafficking/pedophilia cult—which seamlessly fits the people being targeted by Fox News and mainstream Republicans as “groomers” for opposing the right-wing attacks on the LGTBQ community.

And ended it with:

What all this tells us is that Democrats this fall will be facing a multipronged attack by Republicans, all based on hysterical fantasy: Democrats are soft on crime, they want to push critical race theory and “transgender ideology” on your kids, and they’re pro-pedophile. All three are designed to appeal to the lizard-brained lowest common denominators: the people inclined to violent eliminationism. Candidates should come prepared.

Lauren Sue of Kos reported on one who is prepared. Michigan state Sen. Lana Theis, a Republican, in a fundraising attempt, called Democratic state Sen. Mallory McMorrow a “groomer” and accused her of being a snowflake “outraged they can't teach can't groom and sexualize kindergarteners or that 8-year olds are responsible for slavery.” After a moment of marveling how much over the top lying and fear mongering is in that charge, enjoy a bit of McMorrow’s response, starting with why her priest declared her mother wasn’t meeting church expectations:

So where was my mom on Sundays? She was at the soup kitchen with me. My mom taught me at a very young age that Christianity and faith was about being part of a community; about recognizing our privilege and blessings; and doing what we can to be of service to others, especially people who are marginalized, targeted, and who had less often unfairly. I learned that service was far more important than performative nonsense, like being seen in the same pew every Sunday or writing Christian in your Twitter bio and using that as a shield to target and marginalize already marginalized people. ... So who am I? I am a straight, white, Christian, married, suburban mom who knows that the very notion that learning about slave slavery or redlining or systemic racism somehow means that children are being taught to feel bad or hate themselves because they are white is absolute nonsense. No child alive today is responsible for slavery. No one in this room is responsible for slavery, but each and every single one of us bears responsibility for writing the next chapter of history. Each and every single one of us decides what happens next and how we respond to history and the world around us. ... People who are different are not the reason that our roads are in bad shape after decades of disinvestment or that healthcare costs are too high or that teachers are leaving the profession. I want every child in this state to feel seen, heard, and supported, not marginalized and targeted because they are not straight white and Christian. We cannot let hateful people tell you otherwise to scapegoat and deflect from the fact that they are not doing anything to fix the real issues that impact people's lives.

SemDem of the Kos community wrote on the first anniversary of the death of Rush Limbaugh that the loud voice on the right left behind nothing. No one quotes or references him. He never said anything profound or meaningful – just racist. He wasn’t all that meaningful in life because he merely repeated the same conservative talking points and his jokes were to make fun of those not like him. A lot of people do that same thing – and they’ll be forgotten too. Greg Dworkin, in a pundit roundup for Kos, ha a couple interesting quotes. One is a thread from Dan Lavoie referring to a poll conducted by the AP:

The AP poll found a majority of REPUBLICANS think schools are teaching about race and sexuality the right amount or not enough! How do we end up with a brainless "America divided" headline off this legitimately surprising and newsworthy result?! What to do when your polling results don't fit The Narrative? Just say Americans are "divided" -- a meaningless, amorphous term that you could've asserted even without a poll! Overall, 71 percent of Americans think schools are teaching about race and sexuality the right amount or want more. That's a shocking level of social agreement on any issue -- and more than twice as many people as think schools should teach about race and sexuality less. More independents want schools to teach MORE about racism and sexuality than less. But some very loud people at a school board meeting say otherwise so therefor: America Divided™️

Dworkin quoted Lawrence Freedman, writing on Substack, who quoted an essay by Hannah Arendt that was written 50 years ago. Arendt wrote:

Oddly enough, the only person likely to be an ideal victim of complete manipulation is the President of the United States. Because of the immensity of his job, he must surround himself with advisers, the “National Security Managers” as they have recently been called by Richard J. Barnet, who “exercise their power chiefly by filtering the information that reaches the President and by interpreting the outside world for him.” The President, one is tempted to argue, allegedly the most powerful man of the most powerful country, is the only person in this country whose range of choices can be predetermined.

Added Freedman:

The key insight was that someone so powerful could also be so badly informed. That was the case with Lyndon Johnson in the mid-1960s. Could it also be the case for Putin in 2022?