GOP Baloney

President Obama is a Muslim with a deep commitment to Rev. Wright's radical Christianity, and he is waging a war on religion.

The Black Bloc Anarchists

This might help explain a small corner of the news.

There are many kinds of anarchists, including Christian anarchists, nonviolent anarchists and so on. Anarchism is a set of theories, some of which are brilliant. For example, the idea that each child should have her educational needs met on an individual basis is an anarchist educational theory. The theory works--if your goal is for children to learn rapidly and happily.

If you pay attention to political demonstrations, you have probably noticed a relatively small bunch of guys in the major marches who attack buildings and smash things. Those are the Black Bloc anarchists. Groups like them have long been evident--I first met them in marches in the 1960s. They were the ones who broke windows as we marched and got us teargassed.

The Black Bloc anarchists are what Chris Hedges has called "the cancer of the Occupy movement." They are the dudes dressed in black who, after using the more positive Occupy people as human shields, break loose, attack property and confront the police. Of course the 1% savor this gift, this excuse to crack down on the 99%.

The point Hedges emphasizes is that the Black Bloc is deliberately destroying the Occupy Movement because they consider all organized movements on the Left as sell-outs. What the Black Bloc favors is petty vandalism, which they find romantic and revolutionary. Meanwhile they denounce unions, environmental organizations, Noam Chomsky (well, I denounce Chomsky but do not claim that he's a sell-out), etc. They praise the Unabomber's insane manifesto. The Black Bloc rioters lack common sense. They're like teenage boys doing 60 in a 25 mile zone, only what they kill is hope of change.

The Importance of the N-Word

Quite a few years ago my friend and college roommate, Dennis Renault, drew an editorial cartoon for the Sacramento Bee in which he had a KKK member in a sheet using the term "nigger." The obvious intent of the cartoon was to attack racism--much as Mark Twain did in HUCKLEBERRY FINN--and thoughtful people understood that. Others did not. The same editorial board that had okayed the cartoon and published it, backed down as soon as some African American community leaders called for resignations, and the board issued a public apology. Seminars on the word "nigger" were held around the nation, including one on Long Island, 3,000 miles away. My wife attended that discussion, where she was told by an excellent African American law professor that no white person should use "nigger" under any circumstance. "The word is forbidden," she said.

That level of response was, in retrospect, childish. I mean that in this sense: children do not grasp irony. Neither did many of the cartoon's detractors.

That was then. Now we live in an age where a heavily racist term like "nigger" has been desensitized by rappers (at least for the young, who listen to rap). What I want to argue is a little different. I believe that "nigger" is the single most important word we know. Its contempt for other human beings points directly to the founding of this nation, which enshrined slavery in its Constitution. "Nigger" points to our original sin and one that we have hardly begun to correct.

Look at the Republican Party, home of those who claim that President Obama was born in Kenya, raised as a Muslim, graduated from Harvard without writing his own papers, etc. The tortured logic and invention of false facts dates back to the twisted intellectual defense that the South made of slavery. The South is still entrapped in rubbish. Many still believe that slavery was good for African Americans, a civilizing experience. Or they hide, as Robert E. Lee did, in the claim that the Civil War was not about slavery but was about states' rights (the right to own slaves). In fact, slavery was vicious and a curse that twists in our political system.

We need to repeat the word "nigger." It calls up a central fact of history. We would like to forget slavery, of course. We would like to forget the ugliest parts of our past and pretend that Robert E. Lee was a gentleman, not a slave whipper, but that would obscure who and what we are and what we are capable of doing again. We'd do better to keep our history in mind.

Our Socialist Super Bowl

Martin Bashir pointed this out.

You might have noticed that in professional baseball, the same teams seem to win each year, the teams like Boston and the Yankees. They have the most money. Pro football is different. In football a team like the 49ers can be among the worst one year and among the best the next year, thanks to a form of socialism.

In 1994, the owners' and players' associations of the National Football League approved a salary cap. This cap is essentially a set amount of money that each of the NFL's 31 teams is allowed to spend on player salaries for the year. I don't know the real figures, but let's say that for the last season, the total amount of money available was $800 million. Divide that by the 31 NFL teams, and each team got to spend about $26 million. To oversimplify, each team gets what it needs; they start off even. Baseball represents the opposite theory: capitalism. The New York Yankees bring in a ton of money, so they get to buy the best players and pay them four times what a team like Oakland can afford. The Yankees hold the record for winning the most pennants. That's why rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for the Bank of America.

The GOP Jumps the Shark

An expression in frequent use this year is "jumping the shark." It traces back to an ancient and sappy TV series called HAPPY DAYS and a character based on Marlon Brando's performance in THE WILD ONE. That character, of course, was the Fonz, Arthur Fonzarelli, who swaggered about in a black leather jacket, rode a motorcycle, and excelled at anything he put his hand to. In one episode of this long running sit com, the Fonz takes up water skiing, goes shooting across the ocean, encounters a large shark and jumps it. This ridiculous, over-the-top encounter was so silly that HAPPY DAYS never filmed another episode, according to myth. (It's safe to doubt that this jump had any real connection to the worn-out series ending as it did.)

So "jumping the shark" means going too far, becoming ridiculous and failing through excess. The GOP Presidential candidates, for example, have jumped the shark. Ron Paul demands we go back to the gold standard. Pretty Rick Santorum, fixated on gay men, has compared their love to "man on dog sex." Newt Gingrich wants to build a colony on the moon and make it the 51st state. Anchor baby Mitt Romney plans to treat 11 million undocumented workers with such cruelty that they will flee back to their nations of origin, particularly to Mexico, where his own father was born.

Spinner Vs. Spinner

The most boring news event on television is two spinners confronting one another. This is what passes for fair coverage on CNN. The host gathers together the assistant chair of the Republican Party and the assistant chair of the Democratic Party, and the two of them recite baloney manufactured by their propaganda machines. No one learns anything. Nothing could be less interesting.

NBC has a cheaper variant. On MEET THE PRESS the nameless host saves time by inviting only one spinner, then takes the chore of the opposite spinner into his own oafish hands. When interviewing a Democratic spinner, the nameless host become a Republican spinner. If he's talking to a Republican spinner, the nameless host assumes the mask of a Democratic spinner.

The best defense against the mindless waste of time called spinning is to flip to a different channel. The minute you spot a spinner, flip. Look for panel shows where the participants are analysts or historians. Some panels contain spinners, so remain alert.

Gilligan's Republicans

I'm sure someone has done this obvious task before--recast Gilligan's Island with the comics running for the Republican nomination. Gilligan, of course, will be played by Ron Paul, who is comically bumbling and dimwitted by nature. Michelle Bachmann as the irate Skipper. Thurston Howell is a fine role for Mitt Romney, and the useless Professor fits Newt Gingrich perfectly. Finally, the seductive Rick Santorum as Ginger, whose specialty is the reverse cowgirl.

And now for something completely different.

Mitt Romney is an Anchor Baby

This is how it goes. The father of little Mitty was a Mexican named George Romney, born in Mexico. George's Mormon father had moved to Mexico because polygamy was legal there (or ignored). Events during the Mexican Revolution frightened George's father, so the family fled to the United States when George was a child. Once George grew up and fathered Mitty, George had his anchor baby and could not be sent back to the land of his birth.

Now if you want to quibble, you might argue that George Romney's parents were American citizens or at least citizens of Utah all along. You might claim that Mitty was grandfathered into citizenship. I'm prepared to be reasonable. The way I see it, Mitt Romney is a perfect candidate for the Dream Act.

Local Banks

As some of you know, Occupy Healdsburg is urging people to move their money from the huge corporate national banks to smaller local banks, because the local banks actually use the money locally. That helps our economy. The Press Democrat this Sunday points out a good example. First Community Bank, Exchange Bank, and Luther Burbank Savings are lending money to Habitat for Humanity to buy foreclosed homes and rehab them for low income families. I have moved my money from Bank of America to Exchange Bank, which offers scholarship money (when possible) for junior college students.

Yesterday more than 300 people attended a memorial celebration of the life of Bob Boardman, a huge turnout from all over. Bob's gusto and positive attitude were maintained right to the end. His kith and kin did him proud on Sunday. We won't see his like again. He left an aching absence in our town and in my life.

The Windsor Democrats held a candidates' presentation forum for Democrats running for congress in our new district. In the end they made no endorsement. County Supervisor Mike McGuire read a letter from Assemblyman Jared Huffman. Jason Liles endorsed Stacey Lawson of San Rafael. For what it is worth--very little?--I support Normon Solomon, a sensible progressive with a long local record of working actively for peace and for help for those in need.