Whose purpose in life is derived from immiserating everyone else

I’m marking an anniversary today. I moved into my current house 29 years ago today. William Barr, the head of the Department of Injustice and someone willing to run all possible legal interference for the nasty guy, seems to have found a limit. Joan McCarter of Daily Kos reported Barr declared the election valid – the election his boss has been fuming about as rigged for a month. Barr told the AP:

To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election.

In a separate story Kerry Eleveld of Kos reported that Barr has appointed a special counsel to investigate whether there was anything illegal in the FBI investigation of links between the nasty guy campaign and Russian officials during the 2016 campaign. What Barr’s special counsel is to do isn’t to investigate the links between the campaign and Russian officials. It’s to investigate the agents who started that investigation – to investigate the investigators. The appointment of the special counsel makes it harder for Joe Biden to simply stop it. Eleveld also reported Gabriel Sterling, a top aide to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, stepped up to the microphone and said, “This has to stop!” He talked about his boss and family getting threats, of other officials and private citizens getting threats. He called on the nasty guy and various GOP leaders to condemn the threatening language and show leadership. They are complicit. “Someone’s going to get hurt, someone’s going to get shot, someone’s going to get killed. And it’s not right.” Thank you, sir. Greg Dworkin, in his pundit roundup for Kos, quoted the county chair of the Democratic Party who wrote an article for Politico:

Why did Trump do so well with rural voters? From my experience, it’s not because local Democrats failed to organize in rural areas. Instead, after conversations with dozens of voters, neighbors, friends and family members in Dunn County, I’ve come to believe it is because the national Democratic Party has not offered rural voters a clear vision that speaks to their lived experiences. The pain and struggle in my community is real, yet rural people do not feel it is taken seriously by the Democratic Party. ... The signs of desperation are everywhere in communities like mine. A landscape of collapsed barns and crumbling roads. Main Streets with empty storefronts. The distant stare of depression in your neighbor’s eyes. If you live here, it is impossible to ignore the depletion.

David Neiwert of Kos discussed the book Culture Warlords: My Journey into the Dark Web of White Supremacy by Talia Lavin. As for her research:

She did this by creating new online identities for herself—a cornfed white girl from Iowa who was looking for a good right-wing man; a lonely young man with horrible insecurities about his romantic life who identified with other “involuntary celibates,” or “incels;” an angry young Christian conservative eager to do battle with “pagan” elements—and entering the online realms created by and for such people. It was a simultaneously edifying and terrifying experience. ... The universe she exposes is an utter cesspit of dehumanization, narcissism, and stunted personalities, boiled over years into a toxic stew of humanity whose whole purpose and meaning in life is derived from immiserating everyone else—particularly vulnerable people: ethnic minorities and women and LGBTQ folk and immigrants are who they focus their energies on targeting. ... She explores, near the end, the community self-defense nature of the antifascist movement and concludes sensibly that neo-Nazis, incels, Proud Boys, and all the radical-right haters are not just best, but possibly only, defeated by the force of the people who outnumber the poisonous bloc by millions coming together as one and expelling them from society as a matter of basic public health and well-being.

Expelling them from society? I read that and think, then what? Lock them up? Put them on an ice floe and let them float away? Why not help them become restored members of society by helping them heal from their insecurities? I did not say that would be easy. Aysha Qamar of Kos reported the inmates of California’s Soledad State Prison heard that Sy Green was struggling to pay tuition at the elite Palma School. So the inmates donated money – $30,000 though their wages are eight cents an hour – to help Green finish high school and go to college. Jason Bryant created the scholarship. He had been an inmate and now works for an organization that works towards restorative justice. The inmates already had a relationship with Palma. The school and prison created a book reading program to develop understanding between the two groups. Green needed the money because his parents suffered medical emergencies. His parents sent him to Palma to avoid gangs and drugs. Now that Green’s future is secure and to show thanks he has been visiting the prison during school breaks. And part of those visit is so that the inmates can mentor the young man – yes, that’s a good thing. Retired astronaut Mark Kelly has been sworn in as the new senator from Arizona. I’m not sure why he is able to do that a month ahead of other new senators. The event prompted Bill in Portland, Maine of Kos to write:

With Kelly's swearing in we'll be over the moon because we appreciate the gravity of the moment, but we're not worried that he'll think he's above us because he'll do lots of ordinary stuff like listen to the latest nep-tunes, play Moon-opoly with his kids (while still giving them their space), and even pack his own launch box, although extending his pinky while drinking his daily cup of gravi-tea is a little elitist, but on the whole he'll be very down-to-earth, and if any of this offends you I sincerely Apollo-gize.