WHERE'S THE OUTRAGE?

A conservative friend of mine from high school, a guy who routinely criticizes Black Lives Matter, posted on my facebook page yesterday a local television news editorial asking where the outrage is for a nine year old boy killed by gang members in Chicago.  The idea is that the people criticizing the police really ought to give that up and protest "black on black" crime, instead.

Here's the comment I left:

Is it that you simply are incapable of understanding the difference between the government killing innocent people and criminals killing innocent people? Do you think it's some sort of rage competition, that people have to address only the issues you want addressed but not the ones they want?

Everybody, all of society, already knows it's horrible for a gang banger to kill a nine year old. People hate it. And the left addresses this issue ALL THE TIME, in terms of changing the social circumstances that breed criminality. There is ONGOING outrage about not only the crime, but also the poverty, hunger, psychological pathology, severely limited economic opportunity, all these things associated with ghettos.

But conservatives won't have any of it. They're lazy criminals, you all say. They deserve nothing, you all say. You people use these crimes as an excuse to attack people protesting cops killing black people. Like I said, EVERYBODY already knows how horrible murders like this are. But you people fall over backwards to minimize the seriousness of the government murdering people.

You are a total hypocrite on this issue, and therefore have absolutely no moral credibility when you say such things.

'Nuff said.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Dr. Ben Carson is Not Smart

From Daily Kos:

“Smart” is a multifaceted cognitive feature composed of excellent analytical skills, possession of an extensive knowledge base that is easily and frequently augmented, possession of a good memory, and being readily curious about the world and willing, even eager, to reject previously accepted notions in the face of new data. Being smart includes having the ability to analyze new data for validity and, thinking creatively, draw new insights from existing common knowledge.

As a neurologist in practice for 20 years and one who has worked closely with many neurosurgeons I can assure you, Dr. Ben Carson does not meet the above criteria. Not even close. He is a painfully ignorant person. This is an easy point to defend.

More here.

Actually, you can very easily extend this guy's analysis to all conservatives. By its very nature, modern American conservatism is NOT "curious about the world." It is NOT "eager to reject previously accepted notions in the face of new data." It is NOT willing to "draw new insights from existing common knowledge."

Instead, modern conservatism is about finding increasingly complicated rhetorical methods for denying, to self and others, any and all new information that threatens cherished notions about reality. It's about maintaining mental comfort and ease in the face of a continually changing world, in spite of the facts. It's about burying your head in the sand. It's about retreating into pleasant, self-affirming, and secure fantasy. No matter what the cost.

But if I were to say this about all conservatives, I'm likely to make a lot of people very angry. I'd better just keep this to Carson. For now.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Top Cop Union Threatens Quentin Tarantino

From Mother Jones:

Amid the continuing national debate about policing, Thursday brought the latest batshit PR move from police union leaders. Their current target, Quentin Tarantino, found himself on the receiving end of a veiled threat when Jim Pasco, the head of the national Fraternal Order of Police, told reporters that "something is in the works" against the Hollywood filmmaker. The union's plan, Pasco said, "could happen any time" between now and the premiere of Tarantino's upcoming film, The Hateful Eight, on Christmas Day. Just what exactly did he mean?

More here.

This is getting to be just totally nuts.

The police are government. In a democracy, citizens are SUPPOSED to be critical of government. That's how democracy works. We talk it out in the marketplace of ideas and presumably find the best ideas for how to proceed as a nation through this process. I mean, talking about politics, criticizing centers of power, it's not simply a first amendment right, but rather a civic responsibility.

So now we have a big part of the government, one of the parts with lots of guns, and the ability to take away your freedom on a whim, threatening a prominent citizen for doing EXACTLY WHAT HE OUGHT TO BE DOING.

This is creepy.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Ben Carson and the Tale of Redemption

From Mother Jones:

Here's the thing: the beating heart of Carson's personal story is about his redemption by God. So he says he had a violent temper as a kid, and then became a new man after praying in a bathroom one day. In fact, God turned him around so thoroughly that West Point offered him a full scholarship. He went to Yale instead, where the Lord took care of his finances when he was in desperate straits. And as a bonus, it was because of his Christian inability to tell a lie.

Are these embellishments unnecessary? Sure. But Carson knows his audience. Serious evangelicals really, really want to hear a story about sin and redemption. That requires two things. First, Carson needs to have been a bad kid. Second, redemption needs to have truly turned his life around. He was already a student smart enough to get into Yale, so he needs more.

More here.

Wow. It's really turning out that Carson just lies all the time. Of course, I don't expect this to get in the way of his primary run: Republicans only care about lying if the person doing it isn't a Republican. Free pass on everything.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

FRANK ZAPPA FRIDAY AND 70S POP MONDAY ON SATURDAY

Two of my facebook features exported to Real Art.



$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

FRIDAY CAT BLOGGING

Frankie

 Be sure to check out Modulator's Friday Ark for more cat blogging pics!

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Why Does Anybody Play Football Anymore?

From the Nation:

Given all we have learned in the last decade about the dangers of brain damage and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, why would anyone play? On one level it goes back to LeBron’s quote about why he won’t let his sons take the field, but that’s of course not the only reason. There are thousands of kids who involve themselves in football not because they dream of a way out of poverty (they know they’re not making the pros) but because they want other things that the sport brings—community, status, popularity, a sense of inclusion. This is certainly true of other sports as well, but there is nothing in this country that builds a cult of localized hero worship quite like football. And there is nothing as irrationally rational as teenage boys risking their own mental and physical health to feel special amidst the most awkward—and seemingly interminable—time of their lives.

More here.

I fear that short of some dramatic changes to the fundamental elements of the sport, football will fade away over the next three decades or so. Because that's very likely the way it has to be. Did you know that seven high school kids have died on the field in this season alone?

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

RESPECT OR DEATH

It is these days apparently a bedrock conservative view that if one is disrespectful to a police officer, one should be prepared to die for it. I mean sure, I'm all for people showing respect. But to be shot in the street because you don't? I used to be a conservative, myself, many years ago, and I feel like I usually have a handle on how conservatives think. But not with this. I just can't see the rhyme or reason to the respect or death mandate.

What am I missing?

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

HOUSTON'S EQUAL RIGHTS ORDINANCE

According to what is probably the most offensive political ad I've ever seen, we're not supposed to vote for Houston's equal rights ordinance because transsexuals are all just like Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs. Or something to that effect. I was blown away when I saw that thing last night. The final shot of the little girl in the bathroom stall looking up at the predatory man who followed her just straight up disgusted me.

This is a new right-wing low for demonizing minorities. It's worse, even, than George HW Bush's 1988 Willie Horton ad. In one fell swoop all transgendered people are painted as psychopaths. Total sleaze. Real bottom-feeding, dumpster-diving, shit-eating stuff.

Anyway, I just voted for it. Screw all you people.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Partisan Growth Gaps

New Krugman:

Partisan positioning on the economy is actually quite strange. Republicans talk about economic growth all the time. They attack Democrats for “job-killing” government regulations, they promise great things if elected, they predicate their tax plans on the assumption that growth will soar and raise revenues. Democrats are far more cautious. Yet Mrs. Clinton is completely right about the record: historically, the economy has indeed done better under Democrats.

This contrast raises two big questions. First, why has the economy performed better under Democrats? Second, given that record, why are Republicans so much more inclined than Democrats to boast about their ability to deliver growth?

More here.

Krugman appears to be afraid of going out on a limb in order to explain why the US economy traditionally does better under Democratic presidents, which it definitely does, but, being fearless, I'll try to speculate a little. It's very easy, really, at least in the Reagan as God of Conservatives era: when you believe that government is the problem, and believe it so strongly that the notion infects all your thinking, about everything, you must necessarily forget that, without government, there can be no market.

The government, quite literally, creates the conditions allowing the market to exist. Government MUST NECESSARILY play a role in the economy. It always does, whether you like it or not. But because conservatives hate government so much, they have blinded themselves to this reality. They talk up the wonders of the market, how the market, left to its own devices, will always do the right thing for economic growth, but the liberals with their awful government are always messing that up. Never mind the fact that liberals, real liberals, not the corporate right-centrists who have run the Democratic Party for twenty years, haven't had any real power for decades. The point is that this is an utterly false distinction to make, the government versus the market. The two are symbiotes. And that's just the way it is.

Conservatives will not accept this reality. Non-conservatives do accept this reality. So it's not so much that the Democrats are better on economics as much as it is that the Republicans, in their stubborn self-imposed ignorance, are worse. Far worse. Amazingly worse. They reject a fundamental and key aspect of economics, that the government must necessarily play a role in the economy for better or worse. Consequently, under Republican administrations, this effectively means worse. They simply refuse to accept reality, and will not use government to improve the economy. Democrats will. Thus, Democrats, who have at least one foot in reality, perform better.

This undeserved reputation Republicans have as "good financial stewards" is the biggest con I've ever seen in my life.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Halloween Isn't Harmless, It's Satan, Says Pat Robertson

From the Huffington Post:

Your nephew may look adorable dressed up as Clark Kent, but he's no diminutive superhero -- he's actually celebrating Satan.

This is the public service announcement brought to you by conservative televangelist Pat Robertson, who used his program "The 700 Club" on Thursday to warn the vigilant about the dangers of Halloween "All Saints' Eve."

More here, with video.

A lot of people try to figure out the inciting incident, or incidents, that started our country down the road of what ultimately became a rather psychotic far right-wing influence on the body politic. Some cite the election of Reagan. Some talk about a backlash against the social change of the 60s and 70s. Some point to Nixon's "Southern Strategy," and so on. And they're all valid points to consider.

But, personally, I don't think enough attention is given to the rise of whacked out ideas and attitudes among Protestant evangelicals and fundamentalists. I mean, these ideas have been around for a long time, but it wasn't until the late 70s or early 80s that they start to become widespread and well known.

I remember, as a Southern Baptist child, going to Halloween parties in a church context. Everyone loved Halloween; everybody was into it. By the time I was in fifth or sixth grade, however, in 1979 and 1980, the spooky holiday had become forevermore a day of Satan. No more Halloween parties at church. To do so was to deal with the Devil. And it remains that way to this very day.

I think one can make a direct connection to this supernaturalization of Halloween and the magical realism that denies global warming, that says tax cuts equal greater tax revenues, that brand President Obama a communist, Nazi, Kenyan-born Muslim. Facts? Who needs facts? We have our beliefs, and our beliefs are strong!

And the first obvious sign of that was demonizing a beloved holiday thirty five years ago. Now THAT'S scary.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I used to groove to this when I was a kid in the 70s:

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

FRIDAY CAT BLOGGING

Winkie

Be sure to check out Modulator's Friday Ark for more cat blogging pics!

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Why the GOP Crackup Is the Final Unraveling of Nixon’s ‘Southern Strategy’

William Greider essay, from the Nation courtesy of Bill Moyers:

Nevertheless, Republicans face a larger problem. The GOP finds itself trapped in a marriage that has not only gone bad but is coming apart in full public view. After five decades of shrewd strategy, the Republican coalition Richard Nixon put together in 1968 — welcoming the segregationist white South into the Party of Lincoln — is now devouring itself in ugly, spiteful recriminations.

More here.

Because most Republicans are in complete denial about the ramifications of the Southern Strategy, or that there even is such a thing, for that matter, they have absolutely no way of understanding what's happening to their party right now. That means the rage and frustration and gnashing of teeth are probably only going to get worse in the foreseeable future.

Bad things happen when Republicans go on an extended rage bender.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

CONSERVATIVES? I THINK NOT.

Or, as is traditionally understood by political science, reactionaries. It is absolutely right that what dominates the Republican Party today, and which calls itself "conservative," is NOT conservative. It's something else, something far beyond that, and they've been fooling us all for years.

Also, actual conservatives are now more or less part of the Democratic Party. The Republicans are ideological outliers.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

MAC WELLMAN'S DRACULA

From the Houston Press:

With this combination of dialogue, music and dance, no one raises the roof like the black leather, tight-fitting, double breasted, coat done up to the neck-wearing Van Helsing (a finely taut and hysterically dead serious Ron Reeder). With his mashable Dutch/something else vaguely Eastern European accent he spews Wellman’s invented words (Jonathan, who has taken to eating flies, spiders, and even a sparrow, he dubs a ‘zooaphagus’, or one that eats others) and delivers a whirlwind song and dance explanation of what a “wampire” is. Van Helsing is the crux of the dark humor in this production and Reeder plays it to perfection.

More here.

Mostly a decent review, although it makes what I think are a few unfair assertions here and there. But I do have to say that this is, without a doubt, the absolute best review I have ever personally received as an actor. Yes, I'm insufferably pleased with myself at the moment.

We've got three more performances, Thursday through Saturday.  Come see the show!

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

The Myth of Welfare’s Corrupting Influence on the Poor

From the New York Times:

Today, almost 20 years after Mr. Clinton signed a law that stopped the federal entitlement to cash assistance for low-income families with children, the argument has solidified into a core tenet influencing social policy not only in the United States but also around the world.

And yet, to a significant degree, it is wrong. Actual experience, from the richest country in the world to some of the poorest places on the planet, suggests that cash assistance can be of enormous help for the poor. And freeing them from what President Ronald Reagan memorably termed the “spider’s web of dependency” — also known as forcing the poor to swim or sink — is not the cure-all for social ills its supporters claim.
More here.

Increasingly, it's looking like conservatives are wrong about EVERYTHING. And, for this case, when you think about it for, like, two seconds, it makes complete sense. When conservatives talk about "welfare dependency" or how welfare keeps people from wanting to work, all that "laziness" crap, they're essentially pretending to be magical psychologists with the ability to peer into people's souls to see what makes them tick. Of course they're wrong. They have no idea what they're talking about. That's par for the course these days.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

IT'S NOT AN ACCIDENT

It is impossible to avoid noting that this change coincides very nicely with two other historical events. First, the rise of cost effective global shipping, which allowed corporations to outsource manufacturing, which, in turn, ultimately destroyed organized labor in America. Second, the election of Ronald Reagan and the eventual embrace of neoliberal economics by the entire US establishment, including the Democrats, including, even, the "liberal" media.

We didn't end up in this sorry state of affairs by accident.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

FRANK ZAPPA FRIDAY AND 70S POP MONDAY ON SATURDAY

Two of my facebook features exported to Real Art.



$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

FRIDAY CAT BLOGGING

Stella

Be sure to check out Modulator's Friday Ark for more cat blogging pics!

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$