Journal of the Plague Years

July 15, 2019

     

     On Friday, there were 700 vigils around the country which peacefully, but forcefully, conveyed  the message that “Never again means never again,” and that the concentration camps holding migrant children and adults must be closed.  From Foley Square, NY to El Paso, TX; from Pittsburgh, PA, to Portland, Oregon, thousands of people came out to protest, (Source:  “Thousands Across the Country Attend Lights for Liberty Vigils,” by Stephanie Dube Dwilson, Heavy.com, 7/13/19).  Yet despite the scale and scope of the protests, neither The New York Times nor The Washington Post saw fit to include even a two paragraph article about the widespread evidence of Americans revulsion over the despicable human rights violations being perpetrated in our names.  Protests that featured a cross section of people of all races and faiths and that featured speakers such as House Judiciary Chair Jerrold Nadler were deemed insufficiently newsworthy and simply erased. Continue reading “Birthright”

July 10, 2019

 

Since Saturday’s arrest of pedophile “billionaire,” Jeffrey Epstein, we have been learning both the depth of his depravity and the long list of his powerful enablers.  According to the indictment unsealed on Monday, Epstein, who counted both Donald Trump and Bill Clinton as friends, lured dozens of underage girls to his homes in New York and Florida and sexually abused them.  According to the indictment, Epstein “maintain[ed] ‘a steady supply of new victims to exploit by paying past victims to recruit new victims,’” (Source:  “Who is Jeffrey Epstein?” by Deanna Paul, The Washington Post, 7/8/19).

It is only thanks to the dogged investigative reporting of The Miami Herald’s indefatigable Julie K. Brown that this rock has been overturned to reveal the maggots beneath.  Julie K. Brown uncovered almost 100 victims of Epstein’s perversity and revealed that then U.S. Attorney, Alex Acosta, had negotiated a sweetheart plea deal that allowed Epstein, who was facing 45 years in prison, to plead to one count of soliciting a minor for prostitution and serve a mere 13 months in a county jail (Source:  “The Jeffrey Epstein Case Was Cold, Until A Miami Herald Reporter Got Accusers To Talk,” by Tiffany Hsu, The New York Times, 7/9/19).  What’s worse, Acosta concealed the fact that he was negotiating a non-prosecution agreement from Epstein’s victims, in contravention of the law (Source:  “Federal prosecutors broke law in Jeffrey Epstein case, judge rules,” by Julie K. Brown, The Miami Herald, 2/21/19). The only plausible explanation for  Acosta’s indefensible actions is that he was intimidated by the likes of Alan Dershowitz and Ken Starr or that he was compromised himself. Continue reading “To catch a predator”

July 3, 2019

     Kamala Harris’s vivisection of Joe Biden over his fond memories of collaborating with segregationists and his staunch opposition to busing has revived the debate over the long abandoned practice.  For years, it has been conventional wisdom that busing “didn’t work,” and was opposed by Black and white parents in equal measure. Revisionist history is responsible for sanitizing opposition to busing as something other than what it was— virulent white opposition to white children attending school with Black and Brown children.  As someone who was bused into a predominantly white elementary school in Flatbush, Brooklyn and greeted by jeering white parents calling us “n—ger,” I feel it’s long past time to correct the record.

     As historian Matthew Delmont painstakingly explains in The Atlantic, busing had “long been a feature of public education and …made the modern public school system possible,”. It was the destination [integrated schools] that white parents objected to, not the journey, (Source:  “There’s A Generational Shift in the Debate Over Busing,” by Matthew Delmont, The Atlantic, 7/1/19).   Continue reading “The dirty little secret of busing”

June 28, 2019

 

In its 5-4 decision yesterday in Rucho v. Common Cause, the conservative majority held that the Supreme Court had no ability to curtail extreme partisan gerrymandering.  Justice Roberts, writing for the majority, used anodyne, facially neutral language to mask a deliberate dereliction of duty.  The results driven opinion was crafted to allow Republicans the maximum flexibility to entrench minority rule.  According to Justice Roberts, it is impossible to come up with a standard for evaluating partisan gerrymandering that is “clear, manageable and politically neutral, [yet] limited and precise,” (Source:  “Opinion Analysis:  No role for courts in partisan gerrymandering,(Updated),” by Amy Howe, Scotusblog.com, 6/27/19). Continue reading “Fight the power!!”

June 23, 2019

     Earlier this week, Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez was attacked by Chuck Todd and several Republicans when she called the facilities detaining migrants along the U.S. border “concentration camps.”  Her critics were weirdly focused on the factual distinctions between Nazi death camps and the unsanitary, crowded, freezing cages where our government is currently holding children, (Source:  “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ignited a firestorm after she spent 3 days calling US migrant detention centers ‘concentration camps,” by Eliza Relman, Businessinsider.com, 6/20/19).The semantic gymnastics were a bizarre attempt to distract us from the horror that is being perpetrated right here, right now, on our watch.

     The absurdity of their parsing was brought into sharp relief by the story that broke Friday about the actual conditions under which migrant children are currently being held in a facility in Clint, Texas.  Children as young as 7 or 8 are caring for infants that they don’t even know. “Toddlers without diapers are relieving themselves in their pants…. .[Detainees] have no access to toothbrushes, toothpaste or soap,” (Source:  “‘There Is a Stench’: No Soap and Overcrowding in Detention Centers for Migrant Children,” by Caitlin Dickerson, The New York Times, 6/21/19). Continue reading “It can happen here”

June 21, 2019

 

Reparations has been on everyone’s minds of late.  Eleven of the major candidates have proposed serious study of the issue.  Mitch McConnell (naturally) trolled 37 million Black Americans by stating that reparations for slavery were not a “good idea,” (Source:  “McConnell opposes paying reparations:  ‘None of us currently living are responsible’ for slavery,” by Ted Barrett, CNN.com, 6/19/19).  The underlying ahistorical assumption of McConnell’s statement is that emancipation wiped the slate clean and that formerly enslaved people were immediately given full citizenship with the same political and economic rights as their white fellow citizens.  Even a sentient fourth grader knows how ridiculous that is.

At the historic hearing held on Wednesday on H.R. 40, (the legislation proposing a commission to study proposals for reparations), Ta-Nehisi Coates acidly rebuked McConnell, tying the century of Jim Crow and discriminatory government policy to the legacy of slavery, stating, “while emancipation dead-bolted the door against the bandits of America, Jim Crow wedged the windows wide open,” (Source:  “At Historic Hearing, House Panel Explores Reparations,” by Sheryl Gay Stolberg, The New York Times, 6/19/19). Continue reading “The case for reparations (h/t Ta-Nehisi Coates)”

June 17, 2019

 

Our march towards becoming a full-fledged fascist regime continues unabated.  Side by side articles in today’s Washington Post depict a House Democratic Caucus immobilized by Nancy Pelosi’s  opposition to impeachment, next to an article detailing the shameless determination of Trump and his top advisors to flagrantly violate the law in order to win the next presidential election.  Trump has now admitted to George Stephanopoulos that he would accept foreign election assistance and not report it to the FBI (Source:  “Trump just mused openly about committing what might well be a crime,” by Aaron Blake, The Washington Post, 6/13/19).

Although Trump’s pronouncements have always revealed his contempt for democracy, he increasingly sounds like a syphilitic 17th Century monarch.  In that same Stephanopoulos interview, Trump refuted the very idea that a president could obstruct justice, stating, “I run the country,” (Source:  “Trump: ‘I run the country,’” by Matthew Choi, Politico.com, 6/16/19).  He might as well have said, “L’etat c’est moi.”  Given the maddening timidity of the House Democrats in the face of the escalating lawlessness coming from every corner of this administration, Trump’s overweening confidence is understandable. Apparently, the House Democrats have decided that obstructing an investigation of election interference from a hostile foreign power does not warrant impeachment. Apparently, they have decided that ripping thousands of kids from their parents, putting them in cages and then losing track of them is not enough to warrant impeachment. Apparently, trying to rig the census to consolidate the power of a white supremacist minority and lying about it under oath does not warrant impeachment. Continue reading “It’s up to us”

June10, 2019

      On Thursday, June 6th, we marked the 75th anniversary of D-Day, when Allied forces stormed the beaches at Normandy.  The invasion was a bold and risky endeavor that dealt a decisive blow to Hitler’s genocidal, fascist forces. As the years pass, fewer and fewer veterans remain who can provide a first hand account of that momentous day.  As a result, the coverage on this anniversary aimed to correct the blind spots of history. We were urged to remember the Black soldiers who participated in the invasion, despite serving in a segregated army, (Source: “We Must Remember D-Day’s Black Heroes,” by Rep. Marc Veasey, TheHill.com, 6/6/19).  Others highlighted how French women were singled out for harsh punishment for “consorting” with the enemy, even when male collaborators escaped punishment and even when some of those women were the victims of rape, (Source:  “This Picture Tells a Tragic Story of What Happened to Women After D-Day,” by Ann Mah, Time.com, (h/t Greg Thomson),6/6/19). Continue reading “A constant struggle”

June 5, 2019

 

For the last two days, Americans have been forced to endure the embarrassing spectacle of Trump’s state visit to the U.K.  We have been treated to pictures of the crass and bloated narcissist in ill-fitting white tie.  We have seen a tableau of his family in hideous 80’s inspired fashion, looking like the Nazis at Captain Von Trapp’s ball.  We have watched Londoners engage in epic trolling by projecting Trump’s abysmal approval ratings (21%) next to those for President Obama (72%).  Most of all, though, we have been shamed by the massive protests that greeted Trump, in which 75,000 people flooded the streets to vociferously voice their displeasure (Source:  “Fact Checking Trump’s London Visit:  Trade, Protests, Brexit,” by Linda Qiu, The New York Times, 6/4/19).

Our indolence in the face of the mounting lawlessness and galloping authoritarianism of this administration is galling by comparison.  On Monday, we learned that ICE kept 37 migrant children between the ages of 5 and 12 locked in vans for two nights while in the process of reuniting them with their families, (Source:  “Botched family reunifications left migrant children waiting in vans overnight,” by Jacob Soboroff and Julia Ainsley, NBCNews.com, 6/3/19).  We have become so inured to the routine brutalization of migrant children that this shocking tale was barely a one day story.  After all, when we learned several months ago that the administration had separated thousands more than 2700 children and had no way to track them, we merely shrugged, (Source:  “IG:  Trump administration took thousands more migrant children from parents,” by Amy Goldstein, The Washington Post, 1/17/19). Continue reading “Silence is consent”

May 31, 2019

   Like a nation of C students, we professed to be shocked by Robert Mueller’s 9 minute statement Wednesday morning, summarizing the work contained in the 448 page report prepared by his office.  Mueller’s remarks were notable for two key sentences that were lifted almost verbatim from the report. The first was his reiteration that the “central allegation of our indictments,[was] that there were multiple systemic efforts to interfere in our election.  And that allegation deserves the attention of every American,” (Source: “Full transcript: Robert Mueller’s statement on the Russia Investigation,” Politico.com, 5/29/19).

    Mueller’s other key statement was, “If we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so,”(ibid).  He painstakingly explained that he was bound by Justice Department policy prohibiting the indictment of a sitting president.  Although Mueller was terse and emotionless, his message was clear — he did not exonerate the president and the only vehicle by which to hold Trump accountable is impeachment. Continue reading “High crimes and misdemeanors, Pt.2”