Journal of the Plague Years

February 26, 2018

There is no serious doubt among scholars that the Second Amendment was drafted to protect the right of individual states to organize militias, rather than the unfettered right of an individual to own a gun.  At the time of the ratification of the Bill of Rights, states were concerned about protecting their right to organize militias to protect themselves against foreign invasion and tyrannical excesses of the new federal government.  From the ratification of the Bill of Rights up through the Sixties, there was scant judicial precedent or legal scholarship that addressed this question (Source:  “The right to bear arms: what does the second amendment really mean?” by Alan Yuhas, TheGuardian.com, 10/5/17). Continue reading “The real history of the 2nd Amendment”

February 23, 2018

Yesterday, we were stupefied, watching Trump double down on his absurd suggestion that the way to prevent school shootings was to arm teachers and “harden” our schools, an idea that would be laughable if it weren’t so dangerous.  We then watched the annual horror show at CPAC, which paraded death cultist Wayne LaPierre to spout heretical nonsense about how our right to bear arms was ordained by God and Jean Marie LePen, scion of the notorious family of French far-right, hate-mongering, anti-Semites.  Given the events of the last several days, we cannot help but come to the conclusion that America is under threat from an occupying, insurgent force that has declared war from within and is dead set on dismantling our country, brick by brick. Continue reading “A cesspool of human depravity”

February 21, 2018

Less than a week after watching their classmates and teachers gunned down, the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have galvanized the nation with their heartbroken eloquence and mobilized the nationwide March For Our Lives on March 24th.  Many adults have been inspired by their courage, with George and Amal Clooney, Oprah, and Steven Spielberg each donating $500,000 to underwrite the costs of the march.  Unfortunately, we also saw the emergence of depraved trolls who attacked the teen leaders as puppets of “left wing” forces or paid actors.  The willingness of people to attack the teen victims of horrific gun violence is the grimmest evidence to date of the lengths to which the adherents of this nihilistic death cult will go to cling to their metal phalluses.  Naturally, they are taking their lead from the narcissistic reprobate in The White House, who tried to use the deaths at MSD as a shield to deflect attention from revelations in the latest round of Mueller indictments. Continue reading “Power concedes nothing without demand”

February 18, 2018

“Joy and pain, are like sunshine and rain,” Frankie Beverly and Maze

This weekend, social media has been awash in images of joyous, Afrocentric garb sporting Black people across the Diaspora, celebrating the opening weekend of the Marvel film, “Black Panther.” There were joyous drummers in a cinema in Ghana and the brothers who showed up in full Prince Akeem regalia, complete with a lion’s head, at the local Cineplex (Source: #BlackPanthersolit and #Wakandacametoslay on Twitter). Naturally, wherever there is unfettered Black joy, there are racist trolls trying to steal it. Buzzfeed detailed the easily debunked stories of alleged assault of white patrons at screenings of “Black Panther.” (Source: “Beware of False Claims of Assaults at Black Panther Screenings,” by Craig Silverman, Buzzfeed.com 2/16/18). When will these racist dolts get it through their thick skulls that we can love ourselves without hating you? It is a bonus that director Ryan Coogler uses this blockbuster Marvel movie to engage with the weighty themes of what people of African descent across the Diaspora owe to one another, while simultaneously envisioning an alternate reality where an African nation remained untouched by colonialism. Jamil Smith, Vann Newkirk, and Jelani Cobb have expounded eloquently on the film’s deeper meaning, here, here, and here. Kayla Reed, Jessica Byrd and Rukia Lumumba of the Electoral Justice Project are harnessing this Black joy by launching, #WakandatheVote to register Black people at movie theaters around the country (Source: “These Black Women Launched #WakandatheVote to Register Voters at Black Panther Screenings Everywhere,” by Tonya Renee Stidhum, Blavity.com, 2/17/18). Continue reading “Joy and Pain”

February 15, 2018

On a day dedicated to love, we were once again left shaking in impotent rage, witnessing the entirely preventable slaughter of innocent children.  There is no escaping the conclusion that we are a nation of immoral savages, unable or unwilling to take the simplest actions to prevent carnage on a mass scale.

In an affluent Florida suburb yesterday, a 19 year old former student burst into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, armed with an AR 15 and countless magazines of ammunition.  By the time he was finally apprehended, 17 people had been killed and 14 more had been injured.  Hundreds more teenagers who should not face a crisis more consequential than picking a prom date will be battling PTSD like veterans of Fallujah. Continue reading “Not a moment’s peace”

February 13, 2018

Watching the Trump administration on a daily basis is as if Hieronymus Bosch’s “Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things,” had come to life and taken up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.  Pride is on display in Trump’s irrational boasts that he is a very “stable genius,” with the “best words.”  Greed is apparent in his refusal to divest his from his companies and to exploit the presidency for its brand value.  Lust is evident in the comment that fame allows him to “grab [women] by the p–sy” and gluttony and sloth conjured up by the image of Trump in his bed scarfing down McDonald’s cheeseburgers while watching Fox.

This administration is truly a collection of the worst human beings imaginable.  From profligate spendthrifts like EPA head Scott Pruitt, who bilk the public treasury for luxury flights while dismantling environmental protections to Staff Secretary Rob Porter, unable to obtain security clearance for a job that required one, because of his habit of violently abusing his wives, Trump staffers embody all of the most detestable human traits. Continue reading “All things bright and beautiful”

February 10, 2018

The predilection of this administration to promote and protect truly evil men never ceases to amaze. In the last week, two senior administration officials were forced to resign when evidence of their history of spousal abuse came to light. First, The Daily Mail revealed that White House Staff Secretary, Rob Porter, had been accused of battering each of his two ex-wives. This information, uncovered by the FBI a year ago, is the reason Porter did not have a security clearance, despite holding a position that required the highest one.

The cascade of credentials trotted out to cover Porter in a cloak of invisibility that hid his violent abuse of women was truly disgusting. Harvard Law School graduate, Rhodes Scholar, Mormon— these aspects of Porter’s identity were reverently recited as proof that he couldn’t possibly be a serial batterer. If anything, the incantation of these indicia of respectability explain how so many men get away with it. Continue reading “They Were Expendable”

February 7, 2018

It is easy to become inured to Trump’s unceasing barrage of inflammatory rhetoric such that we don’t react.  We know that he consistently rails against anyone who fails to display the appropriate amount of fawning obsequiousness, but we still should be shocked by his declaration yesterday that the Democrats who sat in stony silence during his State of the Union address were guilty of “treason.”  In the same unmoored speech in Cincinnati yesterday, Trump stated that he would welcome a government shutdown if Congress doesn’t enact his hardline immigration restrictions (Source:  “Trump’s Latest Surprise:  Shutdown Might be a Good Idea,” by Mark Landler, The New York Times, 2/6/18). Continue reading “Boycott!”

February 3, 2018

With the release of the Nunes memo, it is clear that we are in the midst of a slow motion coup. Nunes‘ four page, sloppily drafted hatchet job contains misstatements of fact and material omissions that were quickly debunked (Source: “Justice Department told court of source’s political influence, officials say,” by Ellen Nakashima, The Washington Post, 2/2/18).

For Trump’s purposes, of course, none of that matters. The memo succeeded in kicking up dust around Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation, as evidenced by the breathless stories that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should fear for his job because he signed the authorization to renew surveillance on Carter Page (Source: “Under Pressure, Justice Dep’t. official faces criticism for handling of Russia probe,” by Sari Horwitz, The Washington Post, 2/2/18). Most people will simply scan the headlines while buying their Buffalo wings and beer and accept the Republicans’ fabulist tale of FBI partisanship. Continue reading “How to survive a coup”

February 1, 2018

 

We are through the looking glass.  Those of us in the reality based community watch aghast as attacks on the independence of the FBI metastasize from infecting a handful of Trump toadies to The Speaker of the House.  Earlier this week, Paul Ryan openly called for a need to “cleanse” the FBI (Source:  “Paul Ryan calls for a ‘cleanse’ of the FBI and wants Trump to release the secret GOP memo,” by Brennan Weiss, Businessinsider.com 1/30/18).  These are the actions of autocracies that bury the truth to protect the rulers at all costs, heedless of the impact of their actions on the Rule of Law, the integrity of the government or the will of the people. Continue reading “Those who are ignorant of history…”