antifa

The lunatic in the White House recently labeled antifa a terrorist organization, which is wrong on two counts. As I understand it, antifa is not terrorist. I have no fear of them. And it is not an organization,.

We can expect the tRumpublicans to be shouting "antifa" from now until November. That way they won't have to talk about the murder of Mr. Floyd.

Antifa has a vague, romantic history going back to the 1930s, when some people began to form into small groups to fight Fascism. What we see today, apparently, are a lot of small affinity groups, maybe ten people per group, who know each other well and would be hard to infiltrate. There is no central leader--many members are anarchists--and probably no national structure.  There is an informal website, "It's Going Down."  (As far as I can tell.)

I suppose the different affinity groups show up in places where they think they can be useful. Sometimes they dress in black and break windows. Sometimes they mass against demonstrations by the far right. Blows might get struck. Absolute freedom of expression is not one of antifa's causes.

As far as I know, antifa has not killed anyone. They are not the left equivalent of Nazis. Maybe the best way to join antifa is to form your own affinity group (inviting only people you have known forever),  buy some black clothes and then show up at the right place and the right time.

Cornel West credits antifa with saving his life when he was attacked by Nazis. Antifa drove them off.

Mark Essick, Rogue Sheriff

When Mark Essick ran for sheriff, I didn't vote for him because he did not agree that our policing system needs a big overhaul so that deputies stop shooting unarmed people of color (including children). There was a much better candidate running, but Essick got the backing of the elite, and he was elected.

Now, in the pandemic, Essick has gone rogue. 

"I'm not following this f-king health order," is Sheriff Mark Essick's latest comment, made in opposition to the supervisors, the district attorney and the county health commissioner.

If you are old or infirm, Essick has put your life in danger. Essick should resign or be recalled. We need a sheriff who can work with medical doctors and enforce health regulations.

Grant

The History Channel, mostly known for crappy videos about aliens from outer space, is currently running "Grant," a three-part series on Ulysses S. Grant, America's most innovative general. 

A poor dirt-farmer, Grant was given an enslaved black man by his father-in-law. Grant drew criticism because he worked in the field alongside the black man. And after one year Grant went into town and legally freed him. 

Grant started the Civil War as Mr. Nobody. At the end, with Lincoln murdered, Grant may have been the most famous man on the planet. Eventually he was forgotten, smothered by praise for the slave-whipping Robert E. Lee, a leader Grant beat like an iron monger processing metals. To Grant, Lee was just another opponent and not the best one, either. 

I've seen the first two hours of the History Channel, and it seems guided by interesting recent research.

Grant excelled as an unflappable general in the field, directing events; and he excelled as a strategist, working with Lincoln and Sherman on a plan to win that was fool proof. 

Grant excelled as a horseman, as an artist and as a writer. Where Lee issued written orders that could be interpreted several ways (and were), Grant's orders were simple, clear and direct. That mattered. His autobiography is taught in literature classes--he wrote it while dying of cancer so his wife would have an income. (I'll stop--I could go on.)

Walter Bly

The first member of my family to serve in the American military was Francis Dezarn in 1776. He was an immigrant from Prussia, I think. The last to die in war was Walter Bly, the adopted son of my great-uncle, Frank Dezarn.  Frank, Peg and Walter lived around the corner from us in Compton. The military trained Walter as a pilot, and he went down over an island in the South Pacific. I was probably six or seven when that happened. 

Frank and Peg made me, my brother and sister their heirs.

I was too young to remember Walter Bly well, but now--at 85--I might be the only person alive who remembers him at all.

Memorial Day, 2020

Long Live tRump!

A plastic lawn jockey can beat tRump now. But what if tRump drinks a glass of bleach and dies? Biden would have to run against Pence.

The Democrats' best scenario is that tRump remains alive until early in November.

tRump's Plan

Advisors have told the imbecilic tRump that his re-election depends on voter suppression. His response has been to tell his voters to drink bleach and take a drug that kills people.   

Some Churches Reopen Early

When our ancestors invented complex language, they invented verbal delusion as well. Delusion explains why some churches are opening in defiance of the separation laws designed to slow the pandemic. Some delusional people argue that they will be protected from coronavirus in large crowds by an invisible spirit in the sky. But coronaviruses are not sentient, verbal or open to discussion.

Other churches are opening in defiance of the law because they are businesses.

Katherine Anne Porter

"Pale Horse, Pale Rider" is a long short story by Katherine Anne Porter. Published in many  anthologies, it ranks with the best short fiction  written in this country. More to the point, the story takes place during the great flu pandemic of 1918.

Wittgenstein

Ludwig Wittgenstein, the great 20th century philosopher, once wrote that if he were talking to someone and the person said that he did not believe in science, Wittgenstein would not know how to continue the conversation. His point, I think, was that communication depends on shared beliefs.

Today we find ourselves placed in a situation Wittgenstein probably never anticipated. In America, the Raving Loony Party--which elected our current President--does not believe in science, the pandemic or reality. 

And it's not just the Raving Loonies. Our county board of supervisors (all Democrats) is bravely ignoring science and sniping at the county health doctors and the governor. The supervisors demand a faster opening up of businesses where people of no influence can work shoulder to shoulder. 

Planet of the Humans

The Healdsburg Peace Project held a Zoom discussion of a movie produced by Michael Moore (he's not in it) called "Planet of the Humans." The film is brutal. You may not want to watch it.

What is new in the film is not surprising. Maintaining our current lifestyle will require huge amounts of energy from fossil fuels. The world is heating up. The consequences of global warming seem likely to be genocidal by 2100. 

So far we have no fix for this. Wind and Sun power require more energy to set up than those sources generate. If we burned every tree in America (the biomass solution) we would generate enough energy for one year. 

As near as I could tell, the best current solution is to change human nature and cut way back on things like electricity. How likely is that? 

We'd better find a workable solution soon if we want to avoid a die-off among our grandchildren. 

Prospects for 2100

On TV today I watched mobs in Los Angeles buying flowers for Mother's Day.  Grown children stood shoulder to shoulder. Few wore masks. The flowers had been flown in from South America in refrigerated containers. 

That's how delusional we are. 

Never mind the coronavirus pandemic, still growing in California.

We burn fossil fuel to create the energy needed to operate airplanes. The price is global warming. We are making the planet inhospitable. We do not have the technology to replace the fossil fuel energy we currently depend on. Sustainable energy sources require more energy to build than they produce.  Yet Americans use our energy to fly in--from another continent--refrigerated flowers.

Saving the Bison

In the ocean the hadal zone--named for Hades--is located more than 20,000 feet below the surface. The zone has almost no oxygen, but life forms exist down there. There's no light; there are no vegetables or vegetarians. It's cold. Everyone eats someone else (or eats clumps of bacteria). It’s a Trumpian world. 

Nearer the surface of the ocean, global warming, brought on by our fossil fuel industries, is heating the water and killing the phytoplankton that produce the oxygen breathed by the American bison. About 40% of the  phytoplankton has disappeared in my lifetime  Science predicts that the bison (as a species) will likely run out of good air in 80 years.  

We should be honest with ourselves. To save the bison we need leadership--not lip service--that will face environmental realities.   

The Things He Sees

In the President's mind everyone is a version of himself. tRump's world consists of con artists, rapists, bad balls and loathsome, cheeseburger-chomping stinkbutts. tRump is sure that FBI agents are scum, because as tRump goose-steps about his lawn, the things he sees are always himself.

Your Money or Your Life

Back in the age of radio, everyone listened to Jack Benny's sit-com. One of his repeated routines began with him being held up by a robber. Benny was (in this fiction) legendarily cheap. The robber would stop him and say, "Your money or your life!"  And Benny would say nothing. After a long pause, the robber would repeat, "Your money or your life!" and Benny would reply, "I'm thinking. I'm thinking."

On Sunday families from Bakersfield drove 100 miles to Orange County beaches. Men, women and children gathered at the Pacific rim to defy the order that closed businesses and beaches to save humans from the coronavirus. 

Follow the money.

There was a related demonstration in Santa Rosa. 

Also our county board of supervisors, under pressure from some but not all businesses, apparently want the county scientists to conform to certain political and economic demands. 

They're thinking. 

Stacy Abrams

In an oddity I cannot explain, the credibility of raped women mostly depends on which political party the observer backs. Stacy Abrams, one of my favorite leaders and a potential Biden vice-presidential candidate or cabinet member, believes that the women who accused Boofer Kavanaugh and Donald tRump  of rape were truthful but not Tara Reade, who accused old Joe Biden. Abrams maintains that Biden has been cleared by a newspaper, the New York Times, which has so far refused to clear tRump.

Abrams perhaps got that last part a little wrong. The Times' editorial board has called for an "unbiased apolitical panel" to look into Reade's claim. That may be close to a newspaper exoneration, but it's not quite there.

I read the Times daily for 30 years, but I am not a friend of their Wall Street centrism.  I am, however, an independent sort. I'm not affiliated with a political party, so I am modestly nominating myself for seat on the Times' proposed investigative committee. I have the needed qualifications. I am an old white male, and one of my two parents graduated from high school.