A majority of book challenges come from organized movements

My Sunday movie was Lover of Men: The Untold History of Abraham Lincoln. Several years ago I saw stories in the press about Lincoln perhaps being gay. This is a documentary exploring that possibility in more detail. The movie shows many letters by Lincoln and others that are evidence of his relations with other men. The letters are authentic. The movie uses actors to portray scenes. We see emotions (mostly tender glances) but hear no words. Where possible the scenes are enacted in the location where the original happened. From what I heard before Lincoln shared a bed with four men at various times, the most famous was Joshua Speed. This movie says Lincoln shared a bed with Speed for four years, declining housing where he would have a room and bed of his own. The two men were seen as great friends. Speed was instrumental in turning Lincoln from a country bumpkin into a man ready for national politics. This was at a time when mattresses were rare and men sharing a bed, especially in a tavern, was common. It was also a time that was homosocial – men and women socialized separately and all of one’s friends were of the same sex. Photos with fingers intertwined and with hands on thighs were not seen as strange. Letters mentioned Lincoln as being uncomfortable around women, perhaps having an aversion to them. But to get anywhere in politics one needed a wife. Speed introduced Lincoln to Mary Todd and they became engaged. But since that caused a rift with Speed Lincoln broke the engagement. Speed soon inherited the family plantation in Kentucky. Lincoln went to visit, which is where he saw the Speed family wealth and the human cost of slavery. Back in Illinois Lincoln resumed courting Todd and married her. There was another man, Billy Greene, who shared a cot (even smaller than a bed) with Lincoln for 18 months. They really had to want to share it. There was Elmer Ellsworth when Lincoln campaigned for and became president. And there was David Derickson who was Lincoln’s personal bodyguard and shared his bed at what became the “Lincoln Cottage” when Mary was away. The history of Derickson’s regiment mentions that Derickson was seen wearing Lincoln’s nightshirt and the mention includes no shame. Towards the end of the 19th century science replaced religion as the source of morality (well, to some extent). But science institutions were led be white men. And we get eugenics, the effort to “prove” scientifically that black people were inferior. Also a part of that effort was to show sexual difference also meant inferiority. Science supported hierarchy. Sigmund Freud said that doing a certain type of thing showed that you were a certain type of person. Have sex with men and you were a homosexual, which according to their “research” claimed homosexuality was not natural and homosexuals were inferior to heterosexuals. So sexuality became performative. One had to act in a way that removed all doubt one was straight. That’s why images of the American West of the time were filled with rugged men. Since homosexuality was said to be not natural it became punishable. There were brutal and abusive treatments in hopes of turning men straight. Lincoln is easily seen as the best president our country has had. He was the most invested in the country and in democracy. He is the closest we have to a national saint. How could one be so masculine as to win a war and also be queer? One of the historians is tired of that question because it implies stereotypes. Was Lincoln gay? There is strong evidence and no proof. Also, there was no concept of sexual orientation at the time. I quite enjoyed this movie and recommend it. There is, of course, a lot more information than I can include in my discussion of it. I finished the book The Wings Upon Her Back by Samantha Mills. This is a good science fiction novel that mirrors our current political climate. The story is about Zemolai, nicknamed Zenya. She lives where there is a domain of five gods. Arthur C. Clarke’s phrase “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” might be useful here or maybe, “... indistinguishable from divine intervention.” The gods are in charge of creation (engineering), scholarship, workers, farming, and security (mecha). Those that follow the mecha god, if they’re good enough, can earn mechanical wings to help with their security duties. The story begins with an incident 26 years after earning her wings that causes Zemolai to lose them. The rest of the novel has alternate chapters on how she earns her wings and what she does after she loses them. With this alternating format the two parts of the story highlight and parallel each other. When Zenya is young she is captivated with the idea of flying. When old enough she leaves her father and brother to begin training. She becomes a student of Vodaya, the top teacher who seems to be in direct contact with the mecha god. Vodaya drives Zenya to excel, and she does, and also becomes a tender mother to her. The five parts of the society are supposed to be an interrelated community. But rivalries develop. The scholars want to know all about the gods, even if the knowledge can upset current understanding. The mecha don’t want to disrupt the current stability, though the rivalries do exactly that. And the mecha shift from protectors against external threats to enforcers of internal doctrine. Spoiler alert: After Zemolai loses her wings she is cared for by rebels while her body recovers from the withdrawal of drugs that made control of the wings possible. As she maintains her devotion to Vodaya there is a long process to understand how abusive Vodaya had been to her and the rest of the community. Zemolai had earlier interpreted that abuse as just a tactic to make her stronger and more fit to receive the wings. She also begins to realize the abuse she doled out to stay in Vodaya’s favor and stay within the theology Vodaya upheld. Zemolai’s desire for the wings blinded her to the abuse. I enjoyed and recommend this book. I saw similarities to the nasty guy supporters. They also want something desperately – a restoration of the middle class and the hierarchy that places straight white Christian men at the top. They see the nasty guy getting it for them, certainly he’s blaming and hurting the people they want blamed. But their lives are being made worse as the nasty guy’s policies are implemented. They may need a long time to see he is abusive and has always been abusive. I found a page of Arthur C. Clarke quotes. A few:

The goal of the future is full unemployment, so we can play. That's why we have to destroy the present politico-economic system. Before you become too entranced with gorgeous gadgets and mesmerizing video displays, let me remind you that information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, and wisdom is not foresight. Each grows out of the other, and we need them all. In my life I have found two things of priceless worth - learning and loving. Nothing else - not fame, not power, not achievement for its own sake - can possible have the same lasting value. For when your life is over, if you can say 'I have learned' and 'I have loved,' you will also be able to say 'I have been happy.’

While I’m discussing a book... The American Library Association is marking Banned Books Week by releasing the list of the top ten most challenged books of 2024. From their top ten page:

The 2024 data reported to ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) shows that the majority of book censorship attempts are now originating from organized movements. Pressure groups and government entities that include elected officials, board members and administrators initiated 72% of demands to censor books in school and public libraries. Parents only accounted for 16% of demands to censor books, while 5% of challenges were brought by individual library users. The 120 titles most frequently targeted for censorship during 2024 are all identified on partisan book rating sites which provide tools for activists to demand the censorship of library books. The most common justifications for censorship provided by complainants were false claims of illegal obscenity for minors; inclusion of LGBTQIA+ characters or themes; and covering topics of race, racism, equity, and social justice.

There were 821 attempts to ban books, down from 2023, but up from 2021. Those 821 attempts included 2,452 unique titles. That’s significantly up from 2001-2020. The LGBTQ books in the list. 1. All Boys Aren’t Blue by George Johnson. This had 39 challenges. 2. Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe. 3. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. 10. Flamer by Mike Curato. All of them on the list, including those above, were challenged for a claim to be sexually explicit. Also related to literature is the end of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. I realized that I hadn’t heard about this year’s winners, which had usually been announced around Labor Day, so I looked for the website. That’s where I learned Scott Rice, the guy who created and ran the contest since 1983 announced his and the contest’s retirement back in March (sheesh he’s older than Biden). The archive of winners will be maintained. In August Deena Prichep of NPR talked to Rice about the contest and retirement. He explained the contest (which I’ve mentioned several times over the years) is to create the worst possible opening sentence for a novel. The rest of the novel is irrelevant. Last year Rice got 6,000 entries. The contest is named for Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, a 19th century author who wrote best sellers, but is remembered for the bad opening sentence of his novel Paul Clifford, “It was a dark and stormy night.” An example of a contest winner included in Prichep’s report:

For the first month of Ricardo and Felicity's affair, they greeted one another at every stolen rendezvous with a kiss - a lengthy, ravenous kiss, Ricardo lapping and sucking at Felicity's mouth as if she were a giant cage-mounted water bottle and he were the world's thirstiest gerbil.

I never submitted to the contest, though thought the worst first sentence would be one where there was no possible second sentence.

I could tell you about my life but thought it’s none of your damn business.

I searched previous blog posts for contest winners. I found these:

This dishonorable mention in the Fantasy category from the 2009 winners is by Shannon Gray of Wichita, KS. Detective Pierson mentally reviewed the group of suspects milling around the recent crime scene – two young siblings eating gingerbread, a young girl in a red hoodie, a beautiful girl with narcolepsy, and seven little people with the profession of miners – then gave his statement of "It's a grim tale" to the press. A winner in the Vile Puns category for 2015 is by Matthew Pfeifer of Beaman, Iowa: Old Man Dracula forgot to put his teeth in one night, and so had to come home hungry, with a sort of “nothing dentured, nothing veined” look on his face.

From 2018:

In preparation for visits by African dignitaries, we had redecorated the West Wing of the White House in an African motif with numerous artificial plants and animals, but the President asked that we remove the papier-mache wildebeests, saying he was "tired of fake gnus." Wm. "Buddy" Ocheltree, Snellville, GA

From 2023 and working with the inspiration for the contest:

It was a dark and stormy night at the harbors of Sydney, where wind whipped the seawater across the docks and the torrents of rain soaked everything that the waves could not reach, but luckily for James Tyche this story begins at a beach in Southern France, where it was currently day and James was gradually developing a healthy tan and less healthy sunburn. Robin Alberts, Ludenscheid, Germany

And from last year’s contest:

Stepping outside just after dawn, Chef Billingsworth was pleased to discover that for once the morning fog was not as thick as pea soup—or even lobster bisque for that matter—but was more a chicken velouté, or perhaps a beef remouillage. Mark Meiches, Dallas, TX

I’ll miss this fun. A while back I wrote about Kat Abughazaleh, who is Gen Z and running for Congress in a district that’s a long strip in Chicago’s northern suburbs. Alix Breeden of Daily Kos interviewed her. She’s a person I’d very much want to see in Congress right now, willing to take on the fascists (she’s been taking on ICE) as well as the stodgy Democratic leadership.

Voters don’t want to cooperate, they want to dominate

The winners of the annual Bulwer-Lytton contest have been announced. This is a contest to come up with the worst opening sentence for a novel. It is in honor of Edward Bulwer-Lytton, who opened his novel Paul Clifford with “It was a dark and stormy night.” Yeah, that’s the phrase that Peanuts character Snoopy used to open his stories. My favorites for this year are both from the same guy, who had a lot of entries chosen.

Stepping outside just after dawn, Chef Billingsworth was pleased to discover that for once the morning fog was not as thick as pea soup—or even lobster bisque for that matter—but was more a chicken velouté, or perhaps a beef remouillage. Mark Meiches, Dallas, TX To help maintain the spirit of the entire Apollo 15 crew during their lengthy and monotonous space journey, NASA scientists sent along fun snacks for everyone, including Space Food Sticks for the Lunar Astronauts and Space Food Milk-Bones for the Lunar Rover. Mark Meiches, Dallas, TX

My Sunday movie was Will & Harper a sweet documentary. I believe this is the first Will Farrell film I’ve seen, though, of course, I’ve heard about him. And this is a pretty good movie. When Farrell joined Saturday Night Live he met Andrew Steele, one of the writers. They said some of the stranger things Farrell did on the show and in later movies were Steele’s ideas. The two became good friends. During the pandemic, 27 years after their friendship started and at a time Farrell hadn’t seen his friend for a while, he got an email saying Steele has transitioned to female with the name Harper. She hoped they were still friends. Farrell responded yes, they were. Farrell proposed the idea of a cross-country road trip. During the long drive they could talk about her experience being trans. They could also visit various places so that Steele could get used to being in public as female with Farrell as support. As a man she had been across the country many times. But as female, would the country love her back? Yes, Will Farrell the comedian appears a few times, but mostly it is him being a very good and supportive friend as Steele tells her story. She’ll tell her friend anything he asks. She talks about recognizing she is trans in her late 50s. How happy she is to wake up after top surgery – puberty in four hours! She talks about wanting a place to hide so she could be a woman without condemnation from others. She explained her chosen name. She realizes that many places she visited as a man may not be safe for a woman, especially a trans woman. Along the way ... They visit the NBC studios and meet former SNL colleagues. They go to a Pacers game in Indianapolis and are introduced to Indiana’s governor. Only later do they find out how he has championed anti-trans laws. They visited Iowa City, where Harper grew up, and stayed with her sister. She visits a bar in Oklahoma and things go well. They visit a steakhouse in Texas and get a lot of mean tweets. In Albuquerque they have a hot air balloon ride. They end up at the ocean in Los Angeles. I am impressed at how much Farrell is the kind and supportive friend. This is a movie that explains the trans experience well. I’m glad they made it and hope America can learn from it. This one gets a solid recommendation. I wrote a couple days ago that creating a to-go bag is a good idea in case one must flee (or simply not want to live in an oppressive society) and include your passport in it. I realized that if you don’t have a passport or it is close to expiring, now would be a good time to get one. The upcoming administration will likely change the eligibility rules – a regime designed around oppressing those lower in the hierarchy won’t be able to do so if the peons flee (see: Berlin Wall). A passport is good for ten years. Many countries are reluctant to accept it if it is within six months of expiring. The media is still full of articles on why people voted the way they did, electing the nasty guy. I’m still ignoring most of them, though here are a few that make sense to me and say something similar to what I’ve been thinking. Paul Waldman, in The Cross Section on Substack calls on mainstream media to stop the votewashing, to stop making nasty guy voters look more virtuous than they are. From Waldman’s view these are the messages that 51% sent with their votes. We hate foreigners, especially non-white ones. We don’t like women either. We don’t mind being lied to. We love punching down on societies most vulnerable. We want leaders who hate the same people we hate. We don’t care if our leaders have no morality. The nasty guy promised to solve every problem people have and during his first term solved none of them, and that’s just fine with voters. We are wildly misinformed about the conditions in the country. Overthrowing the government is just fine. Fascism sounds awesome, so let’s try it.

If someone is upset about high grocery prices and their solution is “Let’s try fascism,” it doesn’t mean they don’t care about grocery prices, but it also means they’ve chosen fascism. And that’s a choice that shouldn’t be excused. I want to understand Trump voters; understanding why people make the choices they do is a central part of analyzing politics. But I refuse to apologize for them or paint their choices in the best possible light, especially when they are voting for the most corrupt, dishonest, and morally repugnant president in American history. And that’s exactly what much of the media is doing right now.

citixen of the Daily Kos community quoted an excerpt by David Frum of The Atlantic as another example of most of the media missing the point. Here’s part of that quote:

Don’t forget, this time around he’s a lawless potus. ... If MAGA controls the entire government, Democrats, and even plenty of Trump-voting Republicans, are only slowly going to realize: lawless executives are not going to allow democracy-as-we’ve-known-it to dislodge their majorities without real pain. We only have to look to the (sometimes bloody) civil rights era of the 50s and 60s to see what that looks like.

Kos of Kos wrote a two part opinion piece about how he understands what happened. In part 1 he wrote that there are things Democrats will have to think about. “Inflation is the new global third rail of politics.” Biden did a lot for unions but they didn’t love him back at full strength, so how to be the champion of the working class needs to be rethought. Infrastructure needs to be rethought. Support for Israel and Gaza need to be rethought, but didn’t make much difference in the result. There is a vast conservative noise machine and liberals have nothing comparable. Kos begged for investment in liberal media and told we already have the New York Times, which is accused of sanewashing the nasty guy, and NPR, which prides itself in being centrist. The lack of liberal media means there is little pushback when conservatives and conservative media twists liberal ideas and uses them as weapons. Another problem is the way liberals seem to be trying to right historical wrongs. The marriage equality effort changed public opinion strategically and gently. Current efforts seem to want to shame the public into agreement. An example is pushing “Latinx” even though most Latinos don’t like the term. There is also pushing proper pronouns for transgender people that sometimes is felt as a bludgeon.

There is a mass center of the American people struggling to get by, wondering why the Democratic Party is focused on things that feel irrelevant to them.

We should be able to condense everything down to a simple message, as Franklin D. Roosevelt did in his Second Bill of Rights:

Every American has the right to: 1. A job 2. An adequate wage and decent living 3. A decent home 4. Medical Care 5. Economic protection during sickness, accident, old age or unemployment 6. A good education

In part 2 Kos said Republicans had a simple message: Security. To explain why that worked Kos talked about his native El Salvador. The people overwhelmingly voted for Nayib Bukele, though he is Muslim in a Catholic country.

He took one of the most violent, dangerous peacetime countries in the world, and made it the safest in the Western Hemisphere. And he did that by calling a state of emergency and essentially eliminating all civil liberties, imprisoning virtually all young men. Yes, that cleaned up the streets of the violent cartels, but it also swept up innocent men with zero judicial review and threw them in a mega prison with a capacity of 40,000. The result?

Kos included a tweet from Bukele, that included a tweet by RadarHits, that said:

Just in: The murder rate in El Salvador falls from the world’s highest to the lowest in the Western Hemisphere – at 2.3 per 100k in 2023.

The highest was over 100 per 100k in 2015. Bukele added, “Strong men create good times…” As part of that effort he dissolved the country’s judiciary and created a rubber-stamping legislature. When Kos visited recently he talked to people about Bukele. Even if their friends and family got caught up in the dragnet they still supported him by massive numbers. Security beat freedom. What is the nasty guy selling is physical security (based on lies), economic security (his examples here are true), and cultural security (drag queens!). Most people don’t understand that the nasty guy’s solutions won’t fix their economic insecurity. Kos looked again at FDR’s Second Bill of Rights. Every item has to do with security. Security beat freedom. We can work with that. Long ago I saw the only thing the nasty guy is offering is a higher spot in the social hierarchy with permission to oppress those lower down. That’s it. That’s also a geeky way to say it. One can feel better about oneself by oppressing others. All of his policies are based on that. And most of those are designed to place himself in a higher position compared to those around him. He’ll lie on policy to get votes that will put him in positions of power. But he was incapable of lying about his true purpose – which is good for us who could read and understand his words. Bring the Lions of the Kos community has the same understanding, though it says it with a directness I like: The nasty guy offers domination. We ordinary people, at least the kind that try to stay reality-based, have to play by the rules. We can’t pretend the rules don’t exist.

Ah, but rich white guys can. Oligarchs like Musk can. Ride with Trump and his oligarch pals and you too can join them in breaking the rules. This is why Trump did not lose support as he was impeached, then charged, then found guilty. What was a clear liability in reality is an asset when you’re playing a game that you win when you show the rules don’t apply to you. MAGA, via Trump, is offering their supporters the chance to vicariously experience not just victory through Trump but what they want most of all: domination. The double standard is the point. The domination is the drug that keeps MAGA enthralled.

Harris offered joy and cooperation. Millions of voters wanted the opposite. They don’t want to cooperate, they want to dominate. Even against those we hate we want them and everyone to have good health care and housing. They want to be a part a movement to hurt others.

If you’re with him, you win- because he always wins. He gets away with it. He breaks the rules. He makes his enemies bend the knee and if they don’t he punishes him. ... If you are struggling economically, in a dead end job, living in one of many of the dire areas of this country, with no prospects of joining the “elite”- be it educational, cultural, or economic- MAGA is offering you a chance to feel it by being a part of a “movement” that will win and then dominate the people and groups on the other side.

People, not just white men without college degrees, beaten down by conservative economic policies that favor the rich want someone to get revenge for them against those living better than they are.

They wanted the satisfaction of “winning” and dominating. Trump always wins, and he bullies the losers. And millions of Americans, living on the edge, said give me that.

I hope you see the contradiction here. The nasty guy is offering domination – but not against the people who created the economic hardship these people are experiencing. His nature, his loyalties, his plans will make their lives worse.

All I can give them — is victory

It’s been eleven days since I last wrote about the invasion of Ukraine. Back on Tuesday, September 12 Mark Sumner of Daily Kos wrote about Russia’s tally of Ukrainian losses. That tally is higher than all of the Western tanks donated to Ukraine (even counting those that haven’t arrived yet) and more than a third of all the tanks Ukraine is estimated to have. As for armored vehicles the number Russia reports lost in just a few months is more than twice as many as Ukraine ever had.

But there is one way in which Putin’s massive numbers might make some sense. While Ukraine may not have an extra 11,000 APCs on hand, it might have that many fake APCs. Ukraine has been sending out whole new battalions of decoy weapons to draw in Russian drones and artillery.

First there were the rather hilarious inflatable tank decoys. Now a metalworking firm Metinvest has increased production of high-quality decoys, costing about $1000 each. And even up close they’re rather convincing. On Wednesday, September 13 Sumner reported that Ukraine launched an attack against drydocks associated with the naval port at Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea. They destroyed a submarine and a landing ship. The price of the sub is at least $300 million and that class of sub is regarded as among the most stealthy. Russia reported the attack and the condition of the sub as just a scratch, back in service in a few days. Photos of the sub and ship and analysis since then say that neither is going anywhere other than the scrap heap. On Friday, September 15 Sumner updated the story of Elon Musk shutting of his Starlink internet satellite service that blinded Ukraine as it launched an attack on Russian assets in Crimea. A quick summary of Sumner’s reporting: Musk did help Ukraine with internet access. But it is a lot less help than Musk claims. Also Musk has been preventing Ukraine from using Starlink to attack any of the territory Russia is occupying – and not telling Ukraine that’s part of his terms. Musk claims his network is not to be used for offensive purposes. On Sunday, September 17 Kos of Kos wrote that a recent far right conference the biggest applause line was one about it’s time to stop supporting Ukraine. That line got more applause than the nasty guy. Anti-Ukraine sentiment will quickly spread through the party. But winning the war is still vitally important. And Putin has no incentive to end it before the 2024 election. So the current policy of announcing more goodies for Ukraine every few weeks, even though the money was allocated quite a while ago, should end. Instead announce it all at once. The lock deliveries in place so Republicans and the nasty guy can’t undo it. Showing the full magnitude of America’s contribution gives Putin a clear picture of what he’s up against. On Monday, September 20 Charles Jay discussed two contrasting interviews. The nasty guy was on Meet the Press where he bragged how he would get Putin and Zelenskyy into a room and work out a deal. The war would be over! Of course, no details were mentioned. Knowing the players the deal would leave Russia in control of Ukrainian territory. There were also lots of lies with little fact checking. The other interview was of Zelenskyy that appeared on 60 Minutes. It was thoughtful in ways the other interview couldn’t be. And it included Zelenskyy saying things like:

We're defending the values of the whole world. And these are Ukrainian people who are paying the highest price. We are truly fighting for our freedom, we are dying we are not fiction, we are not a book. We are fighting for real with a nuclear state that threatens to destroy the world. ... If Ukraine falls, Putin will surely go further. What will the United States of America do when Putin reaches the Baltic states? When he reaches the Polish border? He will. ... Today you … saw me awarding people [medals]. [Well] today is a day like that. A week ago, I gave awards to parents [of soldiers who have been killed]. There were 24 families of the dead. There was a woman. She was with three children. There were parents, very old. They could barely walk and they had had only one son. One of the women was pregnant. She arrived holding a baby in her arms. And she was pregnant. And that baby will never see… what should I tell them? That all of them died so that we could say, `It's okay, [Russia] you can take it all.’ It's a difficult job. You understand me, right? Giving awards to people whose faces show their whole world has collapsed. And all I can give them, all I can give them—is victory.

On Wednesday, September 20 Sumner reported on Biden’s and Zelenskyy’s speeches at the United Nations. Both discussed how vital support for Ukraine is, not just for Ukraine, but for the whole world. If Ukraine falls, Russia will attack elsewhere as will other strongmen. Lower down Sumner included a map showing the Russian units around Robotyne, where Ukraine has made the most progress. The Russian units across the line are quite likely not at full strength, with gaps filled with poorly trained conscripts. And behind that line there’s... very little.

Why aren’t those third and fourth rows of trenches filled with waiting soldiers? Because there’s no one to fill them. What Russia has now is what Russia has on the line.

And yesterday, Friday, September 23, Laura Clawson of Kos reported:

Putin Republicans were cool to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to the Capitol, and it didn’t go unnoticed or uncelebrated on Russian state TV. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Sens. Ron Johnson and J.D. Vance all featured in a Russian report on Zelenskyy’s U.S. trip.

That Russian report also included a rant with a lot of dehumanizing language of Zelenskyy, as in how could anyone support such a low-life as him? From the serious to the ridiculous. The top entries in the annual Bulwer-Lytton contest have been announced. This contest was inspired by Edward Bulwer-Lytton and the opening line of his story, “It was a dark and stormy night.” The goal of the contest is write the opening sentence of a bad novel. Some of my favorites from this year’s top entries:

It was a dark and stormy night at the harbors of Sydney, where wind whipped the seawater across the docks and the torrents of rain soaked everything that the waves could not reach, but luckily for James Tyche this story begins at a beach in Southern France, where it was currently day and James was gradually developing a healthy tan and less healthy sunburn. Robin Alberts, Ludenscheid, Germany After the unfortunate events involving the wicked stepmothers of Cinderella, Snow White, and Hansel and Gretel, the city council set out to ban all men from remarrying until further notice. Ezra Greenhill, Portland, OR Quintus Arias, along with many other Romans, came out of their hiding spots to observe the multitudinous bolts of burlap which festooned their city and glimpsed the tail end of the retreating Goths, concluding that as far as sackings go, this could have been a helluva lot worse. Rob Greer, Queen Creek, AZ Wherefore art thou?” she whines, like she don't know wherefore I art, when I damned sure told her like 50 times the old man makes me work the bar every Saturday night, like the Montague Lounge can't survive without me! Jon Hardi, Falls Church, VA

The crescendo of crazy

Thursday evening Biden gave a big speech. Some call it one of the best presidential speeches. I didn’t watch or listen. Mark Sumner of Daily Kos did, first giving a preview, then liveblogging. Sumner did not provide the text of the speech nor include a video of it. The speech had two complementary parts. One part was identifying MAGA Republicans as destroyers of democracy. Sumner quoted Biden (and the ellipses are Sumner’s).

Democracy cannot survive when people see only two outcomes to an election: Either they win, or they were cheated. And that’s where the MAGA Republicans are. … You can’t love your country only when you win.

The other was hopeful, the foundation he has built in the last 18 months and the possibilities for the future. That includes great things if we act together. Sumner said whoever is operating Biden’s Twitter account kept up with the speech. One tweet said:

While the threat to America is real, we are not powerless in the face of these threats. There are far more Americans of every background and belief who reject the extreme MAGA ideology than those who accept it.

Sumner’s assessment of the speech:

This isn’t just a terrific speech, it’s terrific, forceful, and heartfelt delivery. Biden comes across with more energy, more dedication, and more strength than he has since he was elected. Powerful.

Leah McElrath tweeted during the speech. She wonders what prompted the speech? Just the upcoming elections? Are charges against the nasty guy imminent? Are there imminent threats of far right violence? She concluded with:

Earlier this week Biden made a comment about people who fantasize they’re protecting the nation from government tyranny with their AR15s. He basically said a gun won’t do it, you’d need a plane (ie a full military). That’s connecting in my mind with the Marine presence tonight. Biden’s message to MAGA extremists seems to be: “Folks, I know Trump has you riled up, but, whatever you’re planning to do to attack our democracy again, you’re going to fail. The rest of the nation has the weight of US institutions and the might of the US military behind it.”

Aldous Pennyfarthing of Kos reviewed the Republican pearl-clutching from Sen. Josh Hawley, Leningrad Lindsey Graham (Pennyfarthing’s term and I rather like it – fits well with Moscow Mitch), and Ted Cruz. They all call Biden’s speech dangerous and a threat to the country while missing the real threats to America (the threats Republicans are pulling out of nothing to keep their base stirred up). Though Graham has a point of out-of-control crime – though doesn’t mention that crime is being committed by the nasty guy and other Republicans. Sumner has more on the Republican response:

It’s not that Republicans don’t know that Trump is waging a war against both democracy and decency. It’s that they already surrendered. And now the Vichy GOP is going through the motions of pretending to be offended at Biden pointing out the threat of Trumpism. Because no one is more prickly, skittish, and hysterical, than people who know, right down to their bones, that they are on the wrong side.

Sumner then quoted a tweet from Dean Obeidallah:

Harry Truman's famous line fits perfectly for Pres Biden's speech on MAGA: “I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.”

Then Sumner listed some of the things these same senators used to say about the nasty guy. An example:

There are reasons why Sen. Lindsey Graham (“Trump is race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot”) is now rushing to defend him and calling out Biden to “stop lecturing.”

Sumner explains the why:

Biden gave a speech defending democracy, the sanctity of free and fair elections, and the need to fight the forces dragging the nation toward fascism. And Republicans feel compelled to attack that speech. Not because they have the fervor of converts, but because they have already given in. Already bowed. Already sold their souls for a “win” that proved both meaner and more costly than they had ever imagined. Now they have to pretend that they’re somehow the good guys, even as their leader is out there saying that, given the opportunity, he’ll pardon the people who erected a scaffold on the Capitol lawn. They have to find a way to claim they’re the real Americans, even as they campaign on erasing democracy. ... Republicans are angry because they embraced the darkness, and Biden is holding up a light. It’s not just that they’re on the wrong side of history and decency, it’s that they know it.

Greg Dworkin’s pundit roundup for Kos is, of course, full of reactions to the speech and the Republican response. Jon Allsop of CJR said the Republicans have confused “political” with “partisan.” Of course, Biden’s speech was political – all public discourse is. It is basic to democracy. Their complaint is Biden criticized members of the other party. Dworkin quoted Dana Milbank of the Washington Post:

If it appears the volume of deception coming from MAGA Republicans is increasing, that’s because it is. Two academics from New York University set about documenting the proliferation of rubbish in a study they described this week for The Post’s Monkey Cage feature. They found that 36 percent of the news that Republican congressional candidates shared on social media came from unreliable sources on an average day from January to July, up from 8 percent for the same period in 2020. (The news shared by Democratic candidates from unreliable sources rose to 2 percent from 1 percent.) The most ominous finding is where the crescendo of crazy is coming from. Incumbent Republican members of Congress were relatively truthful: Only 6 percent of the news they shared came from unreliable sources. Among Republican challengers, fully 45 percent came from unreliable outlets.

Dworkin also included a quote about the election in Alaska to fill a vacant House seat (the same candidates face each other again in November for a full term). This is the first time Ranked Choice Voting was used. Sarah Palin (remember her?) lost. Mary Peltola won, making her the first Democrat in Alaska’s House seat in 49 years and the first Alaska Native in Congress. The problem pointed out by Adam Serwer of The Atlantic is the Republican didn’t win, which sparked charges the election had been rigged through Ranked Choice Voting. And RCV, even though voters approved it, is enough of a mystery that it can fuel conspiracy theories. Since the mainstream media is highly likely to devote its scarce air time to select quotes of Biden’s criticism of Republicans without the full context or the other part of Biden’s speech and because much of the mainstream media seems to promote the Republican agenda, a quote by Jay Rosen, who teaches journalism at NYU, is appropriate:

If you run a "mainstream" newsroom and someone asks you whether democracy is at greater threat from Republicans or Democrats, the key to avoiding a both-sides meltdown is to start like this: "We hold everyone to the same standards." Here's how the rest might go… "We hold everyone to the same standards. That includes the two parties. If our reporting shows you're putting democracy at risk, you can expect that to become a theme in our coverage. Right now our reporting is telling us that the threat is far greater from the Republican side."

Sumner reported a court unsealed a detailed inventory of what was taken from Mar-a-Lago during the FBI search. We knew about the 33 boxes and in amongst all that stuff were 100 classified documents. There were also hundreds of photos recovered. Those, and the unclassified documents, may not be critical but they’re still property of the National Archives. Also in the list, and not known before, were 88 entries for “empty folder.” 46 of those empty folders were marked as containing classified documents. The other 42 had instructions the contents were to be returned to a military aide. Were the contents of those folders scattered amongst those 33 boxes? That’s hard to tell. We know classified documents and newspaper clippings were intermixed. Or are the contents still missing? That is both frightening and infuriating. Secrets and Laws, a former CIA attorney tweeted that the most important revelation of the secret documens reclaimed from Mar-a-Lago is the sheer number. The number is useful if (certainly when?) the DOJ takes this to trial. At the trial they have to show willfulness, that having classified documents wasn’t an “oopsie.” Documents in his desk drawer should take care of that defense. Beyond that some of the documents will have to be shown as evidence. Some will be too sensitive. Others won’t convince a jury. If there were only a few documents the selection could be a problem. But with a hundred to choose from they are much more likely to sway a jury. Voters Not Politicians, an organization I continue to work with and which helped gather signatures to put voting rights on Michigan’s November ballot, has a new effort. They are giving candidates for the Michigan state legislature a questionnaire asking about their views on voting access and ethics. If the responses show the candidate is pro-democracy, VNP will endorse them. Yeah, it is scary and an indication of where the nation is when candidates need to be asked if they are in favor of democracy and even scarier that some show they are not. Here are the VNP endorsements. I see my Democratic candidate for the state House is on the list. I don’t see my Democratic candidate for State Senate. Did she reply with something foul? Or did she not respond? I don’t know if any Republicans are on the list (I doubt it) and I can’t check because party affiliation isn’t listed. The finalists in the annual Bulwer-Lytton contest have been announced. This contest asks entrants to come up with the worst possible opening sentence to a novel. It is named for Edward Bulwer-Lytton, who started his novel Paul Clifford with “It was a dark and stormy night.” In addition to a grand prize there are 13 categories from Children’s Lit and Historical Fiction to Science Fiction, Westerns, and Vile Puns. A few of my favorites from this year: From Purple Prose:

The pallid North Dakota winter coughed its phlegmy wind in my face, spattering my face with its icy spittle. –Andrea Dumas, West Fargo, ND

From Romance:

At least it was a creative way to be dumped, Ben mused to himself as he looked at the new location of his name on the updated seating chart for his wedding reception—the singles' table. –Izzy Maurer, Lincoln, UK

The Grand Panjandrum’s Special Award:

And so the two pachyderms with the same first name discovered each other, and they became the jazz duo legend known as the Elephants Gerald. –Brent Guernsey, Springfield, VA

Doing nothing is so obviously not an option

My movie for this Sunday was Street Gang: How we got to Sesame Street. Yeah, a chance to indulge my inner kid. This is a documentary on how the show was developed and what it did during its early years. A couple people were annoyed with how bad children’s television was. Many shows of the time had the purpose of selling stuff to kids. They wanted something different. They saw how much television was used as a babysitter and wanted at least some of that time to be used for education. The team did studies to figure out what should be on the show. They watched kids watching to see what held a child’s attention. The had many discussions with educators. They created notebooks to translate from education speak to TV speak. They got Jim Henson and Frank Oz involved. For a while they intended separate scenes for humans and Muppets. But their research showed kids tuned out when the Muppets weren’t on the screen. So they integrated the Muppets into the street scene. This show featured Joe Raposo who wrote the music for the show. It seems in a week he wrote a tremendous number of songs, many with silly, though effective, words. He talked about writing “It’s Not Easy Being Green,” one of the more important songs of the show. Mr. Hooper was Sesame Street’s store owner in the early years. The actor who played him died. There were discussions about how to handle that. They decided they needed to teach kids about death and asked experts what young children most need to know about death. And then they wrote a scene to explain it to Big Bird, who was the Muppet portraying a child needing to be taught. This movie comes with five bonus features on my streaming service. But clicking on them (and three don’t even have something to click on) didn’t get me anywhere. Last night I started a chat session to ask what to do. The session asked basic questions, then provided links to suggested answers. I said I still needed help. I was told to wait for a live representative. I gave up after 25 minutes (though at the peak of evening watching). After noon today I tried again. I opened the chat window and let it sit. I got a response at 56 minutes. Maybe a problem because it is a holiday? But I couldn’t wait because I had only 48 hours of access to the movie. I was finally told yes, the links to the extras are broken. The chat person escalated the problem. They have to rely on the studio for part of the fix. It might take a while. They credited me my purchase fee. They linked this case to my account so when it is fixed I can be notified. At that time I can purchase the movie again to watch the extras or spend the credit on another movie. The credit expires in a year. Updates from stories over the last few days: Aysha Qamar of Daily Kos posted more pictures and videos of flooding in NYC and northern New Jersey. She included a quote from a tweet by Ryan Hickey:

It's almost comical to say it at this point, but doing nothing is so obviously not an option. Inaction will cost so much more than passing a Green New Deal, creating a climate-resilient and 21st century infrastructure, and ending our dependence on fossil fuels.

Aldous Pennyfarthing of Kos commented on the website in Texas where citizens can submit tips that someone was involved in providing an abortion. I had mentioned that TikTok users have been flooding the site with bogus tips, so many the site has had problems. This site is hosted by GoDaddy. Their other customers threatened to boycott. Which prompted GoDaddy to verify its terms of service and see this site was violating the TOS, in particular that it “violates the privacy or publicity rights of another User or any other person or entity, or breaches any duty of confidentiality that you owe to another User or any other person or entity.” So GoDaddy shut them down. Texas Right to Life vowed the site would be back up somewhere else in a day or two. Their defiant tweet included the phrase: “Anti-Lifers hate us because we're winning.” I think that choice of wording is telling. * We’re not interested in who “wins” – we’re interested in keeping women from harm. Which you’re causing. * Framing this in terms of winning and losing is a supremacist tactic. Life shouldn’t be about a person’s position in the social hierarchy. * As for hating you – that’s pure projection on your part. Though we do hate the harm you are causing. Joan McCarter of Kos complained about inaccurate reporting by media. They’re repeating, without checking, conservative talking points. McCarter’s complaint is about the sentence “The new law bans abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is usually after about six weeks of pregnancy, before many women are even aware they are pregnant.” The things that sentence gets right: “before many women are even aware they are pregnant.” The thing the sentence gets wrong: * The “six weeks” – a pregnancy due date is based on the start of the woman’s last period. But that assumes all women have a 28 day cycle (they don’t), there isn’t any of a wide variety of reasons why this particular period was delayed, and doesn’t reflect the actual time since conception. This confusion is intentional. *The “fetal heartbeat” – at this point is is an embryo, not a fetus. Calling it a fetus makes it sound more like a baby than a collection of cells. Also, there is no heart or vascular system yet. There is a group of cells with electrical activity. Calling it a heart plays on people’s emotions. This confusion is intentional. This six week time period is arbitrary and set as a goal on the way of a total abortion ban. Be prepared to hear that bad sentence perpetrated by conservatives and not fact checked by media as other states try to do what Texas did. Selena Simmons-Duffin of NPR also discussed the “fetal heartbeat” phrase, using many of the same points McCarter did. She added a bit more: At this point in a pregnancy doctors don’t use the phrase “fetal heartbeat” except maybe when explaining things to patients. Also, the sound of that electrical activity, the “heartbeat,” is generated by the ultrasound machine. Elie Mystal has a few things to say about the federal government’s response which, so far, has only been various Democrats vowing to “fight” for women’s rights.

Another thing: Not having a plan for this day, from either the WH or Congress, only "looking into federal options" or "planning to bring a bill to the floor" now, is ITSELF malpractice. Texas passed this law in MAY. Mississippi has it's own Roe killing law in front of SCOTUS NOW. ... The Executive Branch has "whole of government" action plans for everything from alien invasion to LOTS OF SNOW. But they *didn't* have something on file, ready to DEPLOY, the moment women's rights were attacked in this country, LIKE RED STATE REPUBLICANS HAVE PROMISED TO DO? I find it unacceptable that only now, after the fact, after pregnant people are being denied their constitutional rights, only now are they like "we'll see what we can do." Only now is congress like "we'll debate a bill, in three weeks, when our vacation is over." This wasn't a SURPRISE ATTACK. This didn't COME OUT OF NOWHERE. Texas promised to do this. The Fifth Circuit promised to do this. SCOTUS has been poised to do this. The rapid federal response to EXACTLY THIS should have been planned from THE MOMENT RBG died.

A week ago Laura Clawson of Kos reported that an anti-vaccine protest shut down a vaccination event in Georgia. Health workers are being “harassed, yelled at, threatened and demeaned by some of the very members of the public they were trying to help,” said Dr. Kathleen Toomey, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health. An event was canceled because that staff was threatened and thy knew no one would want to come under those circumstances. Kos of Kos discussed the story of Brandy, who was strident in her anti-vax position. Until she died of COVID, leaving a daughter behind. Kos concluded:

What a stupid, senseless death. A daughter lost her mom—for what, to own the libs? And the irony? These people hate us liberals so much that they mock and insult and wish death upon us. And how do we respond? By begging them to take a life-saving vaccine. Let that sink in.

Chitown Kev, in his pundit roundup for Kos quoted Jay Baruch, a Brown University professor writing for STATnews. Baruch proposed a “harm-reduction” strategy towards the vaccine hesitant. As part of that Baruch wrote:

The anger I feel toward vaccine-hesitant people becomes a more complicated emotion when I witness them reckoning with their choices. Many of the unvaccinated people I’ve talked with are hard-working, loving individuals struggling to catch a break in a life that hasn’t been fair. They’re unmoored and don’t know what to believe when truth itself has supply-chain problems and the health care system has been letting them down for years.

Dartagnan of the Kos community discussed those refusing the vaccine. He mentioned an article in The Atlantic written by Juliette Kayyem, assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security during the Obama administration. Kayyem titled her article “Vaccine Refusers Don’t Get to Dictate Terms Anymore.” Dartagnan discussed the full approval that the FDA gave Pfizer and how that is prompting employers to require the vaccine. Then he wrote:

Kayyem notes that it is those who have been vaccinated, not those who have refused, who have essentially borne the economic burdens of the pandemic, by eschewing travel and public gatherings in order to protect themselves.

Trying to convince the refusers is reaching a point of diminishing returns. And coddling them allows them to continue to refuse. Begging is not a strategy. They simply find another excuse the vaccinated must address. Dartagnan concluded:

One of the common refrains of those Republican governors who refused to mandate social distancing and masks in their businesses within their states was that we had to “get back to business” and “get the country moving again.” Most Americans and—increasingly—many American businesses agree. The country has to get moving again. The way to do that is for everyone to get vaccinated. And if you’re not willing to get vaccinated, then we’re no longer going to allow you to hold the rest of us hostage by your refusal. Time’s up. It should have been up a long time ago.

Greg Dworking, in another pundit roundup for Kos, quoted John Stoehr and his Editorial Board, who explained the excuses by the refusers:

Her brother [Chris, who refused vaccination] doesn’t care. If the CDC had gotten everything right, right from the start, he would have told his sister the very same thing. Neither does it matter how hard Nicole or other editors at other major national newspapers try to earn his trust. They’re never going to get it. This is clear from the interview itself. As I said, she knocks down each and every one of his “reasons,” yet the empirical facts she offers do not elicit trust. Why? There’s always another “reason.” When this one doesn’t work, Chris goes to the next one. When that one doesn’t work, he goes to the next one. And so on. In theory, the interview between Nicole and Chris could go on forever like this, because his “reasons” are not reasons, but rationalizations for a decision he’s already made.

An Orlando Sentinel article discussed hostile people at school board meetings across the country. That hostility is prompting school board members to ask, Why am I doing this? That prompted Ruth Ben-Ghiat to tweet:

Purge dissenters with threats leaving thugs and fanatics in charge. This is how you crush democracy, board by board, town by town.

As an example of that Ron Filipkowski tweeted the text of a message sent to the MAGA men of Manatee County, Florida. It is instructions on how to attend and disrupt tomorrow evening’s school board meeting. The text includes, “Be the man you are called to be.” This year’s winners of the Bulwer Lytton Fiction Contest have been announced. The goal of the contest is to write the worst possible opening sentence for a novel. Or maybe it is the opening sentence for the worst possible novel. It is inspired by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, who opened his novel Paul Clifford with “It was a dark and stormy night ...” Awards – one gets their sentence posted on the contest’s website – are given for winners and “Dishonorable Mentions” in about a dozen categories. A few that I enjoyed:

As Dr. Steinbeck fought off the stone monstrosities that had ambushed the expedition crews deep within the Mayan pyramid, his lifelong friend, Dr. Williams, chose to heed his colleague’s wise words and “run while you still can”—a choice that ultimately left us stuck with him for a protagonist rather than the infinitely more intriguing late Dr. Steinbeck. Derek Lepoutre, Pickering, Ontario, Canada Astronomer Herschel Williams deeply regretted notifying the Interstellar Patrol that he had discovered a microwave-emitting star, as his new duties consisted solely of piloting the cargo ship Redenbacher around the star three times a week, its holds filled with popcorn and that rancid-smelling butter substitute. Randall Card, Bellingham, WA “You're a lazy, indolent, slothful, idle, good-for-nothing, work-shy, sluggish, inactive, bone-idle, inert, skiving, lackadaisical, listless, apathetic, lumpish layabout!" exclaimed Mrs. Roget when she saw the state of her son's bedroom. Nick Stevenson, Sevenoaks, Kent, England Victor Frankenstein admired his masterpiece stretched out on the lab slab; it was almost human, OK, no conscience or social awareness, and not too bright, but a little plastic surgery to hide the scars and bolts, maybe a spray tan and a hairdo, and this guy could run for President! David Hynes, Bromma, Sweden

That last one was given a special award (which means it is towards the top of the page with a nice title).

With all the force of a projectile labeled “Nerf”

Last night’s offering on the Metropolitan Opera free streaming service was Porgy and Bess by George Gerswhin. It was involving enough I didn’t get any writing done. It was long enough I watched the third act this morning.



A big story in the news right now is about the nasty guy calling military people “suckers” and “losers.” Losers for dying, suckers for being willing to serve their country without a hefty compensation.

A lot of military people are responding. One that caught my attention was by Charlotte Clymer. She was part of a casket team that went to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. The team’s job was to transfer caskets from an aircraft to ground vehicles with high dignity and precision. She did not want to mess up in giving these fallen soldiers the honor and respect they were due. She ended with this:

I cannot adequately describe my anger at Donald Trump for being so willing to send service members halfway around the world to die on his own behalf and then call them "losers" for doing so. This coward is unfit for his office and the power it holds. He needs to go.

Mark Sumner of Daily Kos fills in the details of the nasty guy’s reactions, beginning with:

From even before Donald Trump declared that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue without losing support it’s been … kind of true. No matter what Trump has done, not matter what scandals have emerged, everything has seemed to strike with all the force of a projectile labeled “Nerf.” However, the word that Trump not only denigrated John McCain’s military service, but called the fallen soldiers at a military cemetery “suckers” and “losers” seems to have cracked Trump’s tacky gold-plating.

Why this particular affair has Trump running scared after he’s survived been caught out: Trying to extort lies from a foreign government, putting children in cages to demonstrate deliberate cruelty, and attempting genocide against blue states is not exactly clear.

Sumner also listed ten things more outrageous than calling dead soldiers “losers” from least outrageous to most:

Extorted Ukraine to say they were investigating Joe Biden (yeah, he was impeached over this, but not removed – and this was the least outrageous).

Remained silent after the death of Jamal Khashoggi.

Got rid of inspectors general so he couldn’t be held accountable.

Handed out pardons to guilty pals.

Encouraged police to use violence.

Ignored Russia’s offer of bounties for the murder of US troops.

Lied about building a border wall – he declared it a national emergency, but very little has been built (which is a good thing, so keep the focus on the lie).

Encouraged racism in everything.

Put children in cages.

And the most outrageous: Turned the COVID-19 pandemic into genocide.

Sarah Kendzior responded to the nasty guy quote that he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and he wouldn’t lose support:

The real question of that quote though isn't "Why do they support him?" It's who gave him the gun. It's who loads the gun. It's who refuses to arrest him after the murder. It's who creates the propaganda to whitewash the murder.

*That's* why he can shoot anyone on 5th Ave.

Leah McElrath tweeted:

[To be clear]: The military is NOT actually “betraying” Trump, but he experiences himself as entitled to their support, both because of his position and because of his grandiosity. Since he feels entitled to support he’s not receiving, he will experience the lack of it as a betrayal.

Bernie Sanders tweeted a thread saying we must consider what to do if the nasty guy loses and tries to hold onto power. He offers things we can do to prepare.

States should change laws to allow votes to be counted (or at least prepared for counting) before election day so that battleground states are not counting votes days and weeks later.

News media should prepare Americans to understand we might not know the results on Nov. 4. Without media acting conspiracy theories will thrive.

Social media companies need to stop people from using them to harass elected officials and intimidate voters.

Congress should hold hearing with local officials on how they plan to handle Election Day, as a way of getting the story out.

We must prevent the nasty guy from staying in power if he loses.

Jennifer Cohn, an election security advocate, tweeted:

Some of the people who helped Bush stop the election recount in Florida 2000 – Kavanaugh, & Roberts – are in positions of power today. Roger Stone organized the Brooks Brothers riot to intimidate recount workers & stall the recount so it wld be hard to complete b4 the deadline.
...
We can expect Trump to similarly weaponize election deadlines in November, especially as to vote by mail. They will use the signature match requirement to argue & delay.

It sounds like after they argue and delay, they’ll say the count has gone on for too long, we have to stop it (though that will depend on who is ahead at the time).



Greg Dworkin, in his pundit roundup for Kos quoted Greg Sargent of The Washington Post.

As a new wave of unrest breaks out, some commentators have cracked open their well-worn pundit handbooks and recited a trusty old trope: Violence simply must help the “law and order” candidate. It cannot be any other way, because the handbook says so: Violence must beget backlash — a craving for the candidate vowing “strength.”

But what if a public backlash is brewing against what President Trump is doing? What if many voters see Trump’s exploitation of the situation as part of the problem, and are recoiling from that? If so, this could challenge the conventional pundit playbook, and prompt a revisiting of how cycles of racial nationalism and attempts at reconciliation play out in our politics.

New polling suggests this possibility. A CNN poll finds that 58 percent of Americans say Trump’s response to the protests has been “more harmful,” while only 33 percent say it’s “more helpful.”

In another pundit roundup Dworkin quoted a couple essays from David Graeber, who recently died. The first was printed in Gawker.

The Department of Justice's investigation of the Ferguson Police Department has scandalized the nation, and justly so. But the department's institutional racism, while shocking, isn't the report's most striking revelation.

More damning is this: in a major American city, the criminal justice system perceives a large part of that city's population not as citizens to be protected, but as potential targets for what can only be described as a shake-down operation designed to wring money out of the poorest and most vulnerable by any means they could, and that as a result, the overwhelming majority of Ferguson's citizens had outstanding warrants.

And from The Baffler, an article titled The Bully’s Pulpit and subtitle On the elementary structure of domination.

In late February and early March 1991, during the first Gulf War, U.S. forces bombed, shelled, and otherwise set fire to thousands of young Iraqi men who were trying to flee Kuwait. There were a series of such incidents—the “Highway of Death,” “Highway 8,” the “Battle of Rumaila”—in which U.S. air power cut off columns of retreating Iraqis and engaged in what the military refers to as a “turkey shoot,” where trapped soldiers are simply slaughtered in their vehicles. Images of charred bodies trying desperately to crawl from their trucks became iconic symbols of the war.

I have never understood why this mass slaughter of Iraqi men isn’t considered a war crime.

Graebler went on to describe some attempts to cover it up.

Such a “turkey shoot” is definitely an act of domination, of not just being victorious over your opponent, but eliminating them.



Time for fun. The annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest for the worst possible opening line for a novel is out. A few of my favorites:

Although Snake-Eye Slade had told him to get out of town (in some old-timey western vernacular), Allthumbs McGubbins reckoned that ever since the unfortunate pistol-in-the-holster discharge accident, he couldn’t quite manage a skedaddle but felt that his departure would require something faster than a mosey.
- Tim Metz, Kokomo, IN

Farmer Bob, unlucky in love and life in general, received yet another Dear John letter, this time from Bubbles Magaggaggey, the last blind woman in town, so here he was, alone and penniless; so penniless, in fact, that he neglected to make the payments on his tractor and soon received a John Deere letter, coincidentally from Bubbles, who ran the Tractor Emporium.
- DJ Hicks Jr., Manchester NJ

Gasping for breath as she lay in the dew-laden lakeside grass, Rifka Lieberman's chest heaved with rising passion as Saul Cohen approached with the inhaler she had left behind at the assisted living facility.
- Leo Gordon, Los Angeles, CA

“You may know my true name,” gloated Archmage-Emperor !Gfńatt’ Bdúnśṽiobfhńr to the foolish traitor who had dared try to end his glorious mage-empire’s reign, “but can you pronounce it?”
- Gideon Gordon, Boston, MA

When she walked into my office on that bleak December day, she was like a breath of fresh air in a coal mine; she made my canary sing.
- Yale Abrams, Santa Rosa, CA

Health care for the fetus

One of the blogs I read reminded me that the Bulwer-Lytton contest winners were announced several months ago. This contest, named in honor of the guy who coined, “It was a dark and stormy night,” awards those who come up with the worst opening sentence for a novel. A few of this year’s winners or dishonorable mentions:

From the Purple Prose category, submitted by Eric Mellinger of New York, NY:

Despite being a German, vegan book-cataloger from rural and upscale Connecticut, Marion was quite ignorant and overly opinionated about almost everything, except for Atlas Shrugged and atheism, which made her the embodiment of an Arian, vegetarian, ultracrepidarian-contrarian, non-sectarian, libertarian, librarian agrarian from Darien.

From Vile Puns, by David Franks, Fayetteville, AR:

Being a man of perspicacity, Alexander Graham Bell was able to treat his own stomach-ache (caused by eating three dozen raw oysters and a warm crock of sauerkraut on a bet) without the aid of his assistant, and when asked how he became ill, he would say only "Alimentary dare, Watson."

The winner of the Western category, by Stephanie Karnosh, Springboro OH

"Yeehaw, boys, and so long," called Eugene 'Bullettooth Dynamite' Jones as he rode off into the torrential downpour on his 32-inch-tall miniature horse, Kevin, hiding a frown because he knew deep down in his heart he had yeed his last haw.

On to serious matters.

The news magazine The Week has named Moscow Mitch the decade’s most consequential politician. That’s even over the nasty guy and President Obama. Their reasons:

* His refusal to do anything that might be seen as giving Obama a win. That includes refusing to allow a vote for Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland.

* His work in holding federal judge positions empty under Obama and then rapidly filling them with far-right judges, several of them rated as not qualified.

* He has done nothing about foreign interference in our elections, and by his inaction he is inviting more of it.

Perhaps removing Moscow Mitch is more important to democracy than removing the nasty guy.



Joan McCarter of Daily Kos reported on a study done by ProPublica and Vox about Texas having the highest rate of women without health insurance and the highest death rates for pregnant women and new mothers. One expert, Eugene Declercq at Boston University School of Public Health described it as…

the extreme example of a fragmented system that cares about women much more in the context of delivering a healthy baby than the mother's health in and of itself.

Some numbers: In Texas a woman qualifies for Medicaid if she makes less than about $320 a month. If she is pregnant she qualifies for Medicaid if she makes less than $3520 (if a family of three). But once the baby is born she likely loses Medicaid and then can’t afford to handle any complications a few months after birth.

In Texas a woman is only worth insuring if she’s pregnant. Put another way, the health care is for the fetus, not the woman.



Senator John Cornyn revealed what he and the GOP think about health insurance. He tweeted:

In 2017, the prices paid to hospitals for privately insured patients averaged 241 percent of what Medicare would have paid.

He was asked, so what’s the solution?

His answer: “Not Medicare for All.”

Translation: The GOP has no solution. Because the health care industry, his donors, would make less money. Because they would not be able to put their profits over the lives of their patients.



I had written about an editorial in Christianity Today in which they called for the removal of the nasty guy because of his bad character. Yeah, the lost subscribers. And gained three times the number they lost.

Dark and stormy

The Bulwer-Lytton awards for 2018 have been announced! Mr. Bulwer-Lytton is famous for his book that begins, “It was a dark and stormy night.” The contest named after him looks for worst possible opening sentences for stories. There is a grand winner every year plus winners in various categories, such as romance, western, science fiction, and vile puns. Here are the winners (or Dishonorable Mentions) that caught my attention.

Dreaded Pirate Larry was somewhat worried, as he looked down at his boot, where his first mate was stretched out, making whooshing sounds, attempting to blow him over, that despite having the fastest ship, the most eye patches, and the prettiest parrots, his crew may need a few lessons on the difference between literal and figurative, as evidenced by the rest of the crew applying ice to the timbers.

Shelley Siddall, West Kelowna, BC, Canada

Sufficiently numerous airborne water droplets struck various grounded objects at appreciable velocities, illuminated by ambient light from a sub-horizon sun such that fewer photons were absorbed by the retina of our protagonist’s eyes within a given interval of time than the number at which he would struggle to decide whether the amount of light he perceives should be considered “bright” or “dark”; in other words, it was a dark and stormy night.

Shea Charkowsky, Santa Clara, CA

And it came to pass that, in those days when the young and powerful Alexander, called The Great, boldly ventured forth on his mighty steed Bucephalus, leading a vast army to conquer, claim, and generally visit the more tourist-y areas outside his empire, there remained at home his lesser-known brother Demetrius the Mediocre, who kept the fires burning and, to everyone's surprise, produced a pretty decent BBQ.

Marsha Engelbrecht, Lafayette, LA

He was a bold man, thought Arial Calibri, the typesetter’s daughter, but he wouldn’t recognize a superscript if it was underlined, believed that “strikethrough” was a baseball term, thought italics were people from Italy, and that sans serif was a Caribbean island.

Sara Hough, Blacksburg, VA

In preparation for visits by African dignitaries, we had redecorated the West Wing of the White House in an African motif with numerous artificial plants and animals, but the President asked that we remove the papier-mache wildebeests, saying he was "tired of fake gnus."

Wm. "Buddy" Ocheltree, Snellville, GA

Once upon a time, there was a place where things happened; allow me to be more specific.

John Wallace, South Australia

Obsolete

Melissa MCEwen of Shakesville is annoyed with news sources that seem to obsess over whether Prince died of a drug overdose. She says Prince died of a disease that was painful and difficult to treat. The difference is important and removes the stigma.



The Conservative Party in Canada has officially removed opposition to same-sex marriage from the party policies. The term used is "obsolete." Keep in mind that same-sex marriage was made legal in Canada 11 years ago. And that the Conservative Party lost power to the Liberals last year. They're starting the work they'll need to do if they want to get back in power.



I'm quite late for telling you about the winners of the 2015 Bulwer-Lytton contest, the one that awards prizes (a pittance) to people who craft the worst sentence supposedly from a novel. The 2016 winners should be announced in about three weeks. A winner in the Vile Puns category (and my favorite for the year) is by Matthew Pfeifer of Beaman, Iowa:

Old Man Dracula forgot to put his teeth in one night, and so had to come home hungry, with a sort of “nothing dentured, nothing veined” look on his face.

You've been warned...

Living next door to the Lesters for nearly twelve years now, Mrs. Nestor, fully aware of her husband’s fondness for pulchritudinous posteriors, was unable to deter Chester Nestor’s constant quest for Mr. Lester’s sister Hester’s monster keister.
Jeff Flegel
Racine, WI

That's one of the Miscellaneous Dishonorable Mentions from this year's Bulwer-Lytton contest. It's also the one that got the biggest laugh out of me. Yeah, the contest awarded it's dubious prizes last April, but it was only today (while perusing my bookmarks) that I thought to check. The rest of this year's winners are here.

Dark? Stormy? Not tonight

It's time for a laugh. I've known about the Bulwer-Lytton Contest for about 25 years now (the 1984 winner caught my attention). Alas, though I heard about this year's results back in the June I didn't take time to check on the whole list of this year's winners (and dishonorable mentions) until something prodded me recently (though I don't remember what).
http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/2009.htm

In case you've never heard of this nonsense… Edward George Bulwer-Lytton was an English writer who once started a novel with the phrase, "It was a dark and stormy night." Yup, that's the one Snoopy plagiarized for years. In honor of that phrase and its creator the English Department at San Jose State University asked people to offer other suggestions for the worst opening line for a novel.

This dishonorable mention in the Fantasy category from the 2009 winners is by Shannon Gray of Wichita, KS.

Detective Pierson mentally reviewed the group of suspects milling around the recent crime scene -- two young siblings eating gingerbread, a young girl in a red hoodie, a beautiful girl with narcolepsy, and seven little people with the profession of miners -- then gave his statement of "It's a grim tale" to the press.