La Cucaracha

When one of the characters in the comic strip La  Cucaracha learned that the Supreme Court had ruled that corporations are persons, he tried to get a date with Victoria’s Secret. 

Lowering the Barr

Roseanne Barr, a major creative force in television sit-coms, recently referred to Valerie Jarrett, a Black American and a major actor in the Obama administration, as "a combination of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Planet of the Apes.”

Over the years photographs of Jarrett have been widely published. It probably goes without saying that Jarrett is not a Muslim and does not resemble an ape. Barr, although talented, is more blatantly racist than President Spanky Bonespurs. The off-stage flow of racism floods out of balance anything Barr does on stage. 

I won't watch Barr or Charley Rose or a sit-com starring O. J. Simpson.  










 Roseanne Barr waded into racial waters on Monday, suggesting that former Barack Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett looks like a combination of the Muslim Brotherhood and the “Planet of the Apes.”

Early Sorrow

A month or two back I went down to the library and volunteered to tutor anyone who wanted to learn how to read and write in English. I was assigned a student, a young woman from Colombia, who had a degree in engineering from her own nation. Her goal is to learn English and then earn a graduate degree in engineering. Somehow she got herself to Sonoma County as an au pere, and I am currently trying to explain to her why the “ed” is pronounced in “traded” but pronounced like a “t” in “dressed.”

In short my student resembles the young woman murdered by the United States Border Patrol yesterday. That youngster also had a college degree and was trying to get into our country for a graduate education. She’s dead now. She was 20. She must have been precocious. She had to pack a lot into a short life, didn’t have much time. 

Antiques

I have watched both versions of the TV program "The Antique Roadshow." Today I am prepared to compare them.

I'll start with the American one. Americans own good junk. In each show several ordinary dudes will bring in the etchings they found in grandpa's attic. Each one will turn out to be a Rembrandt, one of five known copies, worth maybe $40,000 each. And so on. Some finds approach a half million dollars in value. One of these days, a farmer in Idaho will bring in for appraisal the Holy Grail.

The British version works just as well but on a different scale. For example, the show I am watching as I type this features a woman who brought in a box of rocks. They were fancy rocks and turned out to be worth maybe $3,000.  She was as happy as an American.  Typical finds includes things like a shoelace once worn by a footman employed by Anthony Eden or maybe a petrified turd discovered in Queen Mary's chamber pot or, on a good day, a shadow once cast by Vanessa Redgrave.  

I've noticed that British people own little of value.  You'd expect more from such an ancient capitalist nation, but it must be that all the good stuff has already been gathered into castles and cathedrals. There is nothing left for John Doe but "me grandma's medals from World War Two." They are worth maybe 180 pounds to eccentric collectors of ephemera, but the guy will never sell them. 

Cox

At the moment, polling shows a three-way race for governor in California among Gavin Newsom (progressive Democrat, 25%), John Cox (Republican, 19%) and Antonio Villaraigosa (centrist Democrat, 15%). Newsom favors setting up a California single payer health care program. 

In California’s jungle primary system, all candidates for a state office run in one primary, with the top two vote-getters meeting in the general election. 

Newsom will apparently finish first in the primary. If Cox, endorsed by President Spanky, finishes second, Newsom will crush him in the general election. Democrats hold a huge advantage. 

If Villaraigosa finishes second in the primary, he might win in the general election. Two Democrats will be running against one another. Villaraigosa will get a chunk of the Democratic vote and the support of all the Banana Republicans, because he opposes single payer. 

I want Newsom (and single payer) to win in the general election, in the primary election I will vote for Cox. (Who says I never vote for Republicans?)

  

Ta-Nehisi Coates

I have never been present when two Black Americans debated the best way to cope with racism.  My view of the debate between Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Dubose is too distant to qualify me as a reader, and now I read that a related debate is going on between Ta-Nehisi Coates and Cornell West. 

To simplify, this is a debate between pessimism and hope, two valid positions. 

I don't know, of course, who is right in this debate, which is between Black Americans who believe in ending racism through struggle and Black Americans who believe racism is permanent and advocate withdrawal as a solution.  This debate has been going on since the Civil War. In my youth it was between Malcolm X and MLK. Or so it seemed. All of this must be much more complicated than a simple dichotomy.

Coates is a fascinating writer and the current intellectual force behind what has come to be called Afro-pessimism, the belief that no one "is coming to save us." The withdrawal message Coates presents would certainly please the KKK, if they could read. But that's not the test. The problem may be that Coates is right. Yet he writes about this in major publications, which isn't withdrawal. 

I am not a pessimist, but suppose Coates is right. Suppose racism is incurable.  Humans have many failings that we struggle against and never conquer. But does pessimism require us to quit? Did Booker T. Washington or Malcolm X actually withdraw?  I think of people like Coates as pessimists who refuse to quit. I'd like to see a longer list of such people: Ludwig Wittgenstein, Joan Didion, Albert Camus, Samuel Becket? 

Why We Should Dredge The Pacific Near Ocean Beach

Representative Mo Brooks on the pernicious effects of rivers: “Every time you have that soil or rock deposited into the seas, that causes the sea level to rise, because now you’ve got less space in those oceans, because the bottom is moving up.”

In short, it is rivers that cause the seas to rise, along with surfers and whales, who displace water.

I see a new industry in the future: dredging out the Pacific Ocean. The bottom material can be transported to the Sierras, making them more majestic, which will be a boon to the trucking firms. And I think there may be metals in that ocean silt, and we can look forward to a California gold rush again in the foothills.

The Banana Republicans

I’ve been wondering how often a President has ended up at war with his own justice department. It probably happened with early Presidents, maybe Andrew Johnson, for example. In my lifetime we’ve had Nixon and Trump battling the justice department leadership they appointed themselves. In these cases the Presidents were—to be blunt—as crooked as coiled snakes, creating a problem for Attorneys General who enforce the law.

Today’s crookedness will likely turn out to be the worst case so far, because Crooked Spanky has the support of a new party, the Banana Republicans, who seem determined to destroy old Republicans like John McCain, Mitt Romney, Robert Mueller, James Comey and so on.

A Curse on Trump

Today I will lay an Irish curse on Donald Trump.

May Donald Trump ache with insecurities.

May Trump wear uncomfortable garments each day of his life, including a silk cloth cinched tightly around his neck.

May Trump be condemned to cheat in every golf game he plays, unable to remain honorable no matter how hard he tries.

May Trump never experience the love of a woman, not even his mother. May he be unfaithful In every marriage. 

May the male progeny of Donald Trump be stupid, venal, disgusting and mocked by comics on national television.

May Donald Trump never have a genuine friend as long as he lives.

May Trump’s foreign policy consist of extorting Arab nations for business loans and money for protection like the Mafia. 

May Trump’s hair turn white and grow backwards and be dyed the color of Russian urine.

When President Trump’s portrait is hung in the Hall of Presidents, may the face be to the wall.