Category Archives: Political

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Liberation

J. Fred Eden journal of POW liberation in 1945

[This is from a fragment of Daddy’s journal that Mom found after his death. Our friend Harry Yeomans transcribed it for her and provided us with copies. Thanks Harry!]

April 29, 1945

Only rumors. To all outward appearances, this might have been 1944. We heard in the grapevine that the Germans were ready to move – if the Russians came any closer. But we also heard that we were to be evacuated at the same time – as POWs.

Lay in bed listening for rumbles, planes, or air raid sirens and looking for flashes, flares – anything that would indicate that someone or something was coming to get us out of this – state-of-mind, at least!

April 30, 1945

I was too slow getting up and getting dressed this morning and missed roll call. When the rest came in, jabbering about Germans across the road getting ready to leave, I dismissed it as only preparations, but when a long line of guards, women – and officers pulled out, it seemed true. They were at least beginning to leave. After breakfast Sheridan came in with news that G’s had given permission for us to dig foxholes, and that the instructions were on the board.

What did this mean? Who have we to fear? [We] walked over to watch the Krauts leave – the Sgts were digging like mad – like a bunch of moles.

Across the fence all that remained of the Krauts were in confusion, like an anthill when hot water is poured on it. Tiffany’s “girlfriend” (whom he had seen and approached) was striding about in her little boots and trench coat, blond hair flying in the Baltic breeze – a guard came by – amused at all our digging. “Zwei Tage-alles gegangen” – in two days we’ll all be gone!

Strolled back to the barracks – boys from room digging trench. After all, these Krauts might get mad and strafe the place, so I got a Klim can to help dig. About that time there was a terrific explosion – Bombs! – no, it was in the flak-school – demolition! This goes on for hours, accompanied by explosions from the airfield. How that huge building stood, after all the HE around it, defies explanation.

We dig our slit trenches just in time for the biggest blow-up of all – an ammo bldg. “We thought we’d had it!”

Roll call at 1600 was a farce. Several big explosions as Major Steinhauer goes thru the motions of counting.

It’s rumored the counters are all that’s left – with about 40 interpreters. There are still Krauts in towers, but no guards in compound for roll call.

This day is down in my memory as Kraut Panic Day. They have left in a hurry. The refugees from town are loading the Red Cross parcels we have stored at the flak-school. Details went over to help get parcels out. The few guards left are trying to hold them off – not wanting to shoot, but they are pretty determined, grabbing the ones we get.

Hundreds have left Barth, afoot, ahorse, on cycles, by boat – anyway to get out! They are “fleeing in confusion.” All this excitement in contrast to the deadly inactivity of the last weeks is almost too much. The Reds must be a lot closer than Berlin says they are – East of Ankleeve – i.e. about 60 mi.

The last thing I heard before I went to sleep – “When the Krauts turned off the lights the picked up their packs and left.”

I don’t believe it. I’ll have to see it – maybe someday.

May 1

At 0530 I was rudely awakened by a messenger from Al [daddy’s A/C commander and pilot], who I found was in the Volage – waiting to go on guard in the towers! There are Americans patrolling the fence. Americans are in the towers – we are in charge! It’s like being drunk!

At 0030 the Krauts turned it over to Col. Zemke [a famous US pilot, Col. Hubert Zemke was credited with shooting down 28 German planes in air battles] – at any rate, they left it in his hands!

For the first time, we listened to BBC. No mention of us except Reds are at Auklam and Neustrelitz. The bulletin board reported by noon that 1) there was a Russian liason officer in conference with Col. Zemke; 2) that a Russian spearhead was 3 km south of Barth “proceeding slowly up the road.”

We stood at the south-most end of compound. Looking – straining to see first tank. All we could see was all kinds of refugees, forced-labor POWs, etc. coming to this camp.

The Russian liason officer was found to be fictitious, but at 2225, while we were listening to Hit Parade, the Russians did come! Too dark to see anything, but the Tannoy announced it true – 5 minutes later, the Hit Parade was interrupted to announce, “Hitler is dead!” Somebody beat us to it.

Then to top it all off – “Don’t Fence Me In” sung by Lawrence Tibbett was first on Hit Parade.

Boy, what a climax! We are freed men now – after 14 months and 11 days.

May 2

Turns out the “Russian spearhead” that reached here last night was a private with two tommy-guns and a dilapidated truck. But he has been reinforced by several other trucks of Reds.

At 1400 Col. Greening call us out. “The Russian colonel in charge of the advance unit is in Barth now, has ordered us to be ready to walk out of here in six hours. Get everything in readiness. We may not move, but we must be ready.”

There was a mad rush to get packs made, warm clothing on (it was a chill, murky day), blankets rolled, etc.

As we scurried around, there was a wild shouting from N-2 and N-3, and to my – well, amazement – I saw Kriegies tearing down fences, tipping over guard towers, streaming down the roads – running wild.

I stood watching agape for a few minutes – til I recalled the urgency of the need to get my belongings packed.

It seems Colonel Chekov – bandoliers, pistols, and all came riding in to liberate the Kriegies, and finds us still behind barbed wire, so he orders the fences torn down.

“You are freed! Go to town! Tear down the fences! I have come to liberate you!” was the gist of his speech. To keep on the right side, diplomatically, of our allies, Zemke thought it feasible to comply and so gave the orders.

A few minutes later, we heard that there are German packs over at the flak-school, that everybody is going over to get them. That sounded like the very think for packing my stuff if we had walking to do. I grabbed a coat and ran with the crowd toward the school. Hundreds were streaming toward it, other hundreds were streaming back, laden with all kinds of stuff – hats, helmets, packs, jackets, souvenirs of all kinds. One man that I vaguely recognized in the confusion was returning with the prize of all prizes – a genuine, unopened, untouched egg!

The next few minutes I shall never forget! I had supposed, and had often cogitated upon it, that the day of liberation would be a wild, maniacal one, but even in my wildest wanderings, never had I imagined the things that I saw happening at that flak-school.

The school is a huge affair, brick throughout, built and equipped to do credit to an American college. Offices, rooms, and classrooms occupy the first two floors, and the attic floor is used for warehouses. The whole is surrounded by garages or storage houses forming a side street or court around them. This was filled with equipment blown up by the Krauts before they fled.

I have read and seen movies of wild armies looting and mutilating, but I never expected to see Americans in the role. From the time I entered the court til I left sometime later, I saw thousands of at least half-crazed Kriegies breaking windows, kicking in doors, grabbing everything in sight – not particularly needing it, just taking it because it was there for the taking.

I wandered frenziedly from one room to the next – looking at first for “those packs.” Then the necessity for hast gripped me, and I began to half-run through the mazes of equpment in the attic storehouses, through bales of hats, shoes, fur helmets, fur gloves, socks, fatigue clothing – it seemed a nightmare.

Everywhere there were outlandishly garbed men, groveling on the floor amidst the stuff, searching for more prizes to add to piles of stuff already too large to carry.

I wandered through, it seemed, miles of equipment and still no packs. I gave up in despair and went to the second floor. Things weren’t quite so wild there, and I began to quiet down. I found that all I had collected was a dilapidated old German O’seas cap, two bundles of fur-lined flying helmets, and a pair of giant-sized mattens.

In disgust with myselt, I flung away the cap and mittens and gave away one bundle of helmets. The other I kept for the boys to wear on the hike.

In an office I was passing, I noticed a bevy of maps, scattered all over. I glanced through them hurriedly for one of

Barth, but all had this section cut out. I stuck a “fligerkarten” of East Germany in my pocket.

Rushing on, I came across a room with several books on desk – one was a Wehrmacht song book that for some reason I took.

In another place, I came across an English book that I carried for at least an hour. In another building, of which the door had been battered down, scores of fellows were streaming out with service caps and blouses jammed on. In the confusion inside, I saw all kinds of band stuff – bass drums bashed in, horns broken in half – I left. In short, I never found the packs, returned to the barracks. Poop is that we won’t move, but must be ready.

Peacock had been to town, returned with descriptions of a wild, dirty horde of looting, drunken Russians on horses, in carts, in Jerry autos – all hell-bent for election. Some generous American had given him a drink – of green ink.

That evening Shorty and Tiff went into Barth. A Russky gave ‘em a cup of vodka and Kirk came back pretty high, talking a mile-a-minute about the Cossacks – storming through Barth on Jeeps, half-tracks and trucks. By the time we went to bed around 2 a.m., I still didn’t know whether we were free or not. It seemed so peculiar the way the Russians gave orders – for all I knew we are now Russian prisoners.

May 3

Col. Zemke spoke to us at midday to help clear up the situation somewhat. It seems that the first Russian units (Kurds) had orders to evacuate all POWs, internees, forced labor, etc. The Commander gave orders for us to move out. He was pretty drunk too, which helped. Now the new Commissar in Barth had changed the orders. He ordered us to stay here. That if we ran out of food, “I will provide.” In short, he wanted it understood that he was boss and that he meant to be obeyed. Zemke said he sent men to Sweden and to our front lines “three days ago,” that the Russians had notified Moscow, who would notify Washington, who would notify the Eighth Air Force, etc.

“I fully expect to have you flown out of here.”

All of which sounded good – in a way – but which meant exactly zero.

Things have changed a lot around here, though. Kriegies have horses, bicycles, cars, chickens, geese, cows, eggs, meat – in fact, Al got me over to his new quarters (the former German guard barracks) to help him roast a chicken. We topped it off with some macaroni and spaghetti sauce. What a meal!

We’ve had four Red Cross parcels issued this week in a “get ‘em out to the troops to keep from loosing them” policy. So there is beaucoup food.

Zemke’s idea is to keep us strictly in camp. He says Russkies are trigger-happy. That by various means we have had seven men killed so far. But there are plenty who left with the guerrillas, or advance troop, last night. None are taking off today.

May 4

Still plenty of milling around and general confusion. Nobody knows nuthin’! Official announcement that Eisenhower orders all POWs to quote, “Stand by!” unquote. This was a good signal for the guys to leave by droves, disgusted with the situation – with the merry run-around we’re getting after two years of “standing by.” This sure makes Air Marshall Tedder and Gen. Doolittle’s statements look foolish. “Will have you out in 72 hours.” We’ve been counting pretty heavily on that I guess.

Lay out on peninsula watching guys paddling across the inlet to leave for Rostrock, Lubeck, Wismar – or anywhere to get out of here. They say the Limeys are flying them out of Wismar every hour. Also watched Russky hordes – carts, wagons, calvary, kiddy-cars – start toward Zingst. What a wild, mad lot! They don’t travel on gasoline, but on vodka.

There have been four concentration camps found in this area. Some of the truth about these places is blood-chilling. Grown men who weigh 70-80 pounds – living on a slice of bread and bowl of Jerry turnip soup for 6-7 years. Typhus, all kinds of horrible diseases – phew.

And the Krauts expect mercy. Lord, see that they get their just and due punishment.

Manure and maggots knee-deep, live men insensible to the fact that there are dead bodies lying beneath them. A British paratrooper 37 months in dark, in solitary, with only one thought left in his mind – “I wanta go to town.”

They’re dying like flies, can’t be fed, except glucose, can’t walk – uhhhh!

May 5

First part of day much same. General confusion, milling around. War seems about over, with Krauts giving up by droves. At 1615, a Jeep, a Major, a Captain, and S/Sergeant arrive from somewhere.

General Aristoff, local commissar, confers with Col. Zemke. Col. Moss from Gen. Bridges of the 9th Something arrives “to conduct evacuation.” Russians refust to recognize his authority without credentials. Current idea is that we’re waiting for big liberation stunt to be pulled by Marshal Ratakoffsky and “Monty.” Would be quite a deal, but don’t know as how I care to wait – just for the publicity. Lots of things more important to me right now.

Scores more leaving for somewhere. Al says MP’s bringing them back by scores too. So it may not be such a good deal after all.

Guard squadron had fresh meat for supper. Some guys really got a break out of this mix-up, but thousands of us are still where we started – just Kriegies in a little larger compound now.

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From May 18, 2019

The politics of control

[I posted this on my War Journal blog on May 18, 2019… and now its come to pass. The Supreme Court has fallen into the fascist grip, and, like India, we are beginning to crash into an authoritarian government ruled by the court. If the Dems don’t do something strong and fast and solid, it’s going to get worse and worse.]

As it seems everyone must know other than those who are willfully ignorant, these reactionary Republicans around the country who are passing Draconian abortion laws are not doing it out of any love for children, unborn or otherwise.

They are doing it for the love of control. They want to control the behavior of women, especially poor women, by intimidation and threat. They want to make them afraid to have sex and punish them if they do.

And ultimately, they just want to drive the issue before the Supreme Court, which they have now gotten suitably packed with like-minded reactionaries who may–unless their humanity somehow reasserts itself under the pressure of realizing what insanity it would be–reverse Roe V. Wade. Thus affirming their need for control. It’s really pathetic.

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The elements of fascism

Because fascism is such an insidious thing, we must be vigilant and well-informed about how it looks in the early stages, before it’s too late.

[First published in November of 2016, this is pretty pertinent today, as the fascist elements released into our society by the Trump Effect are rampant, though seeming to lose much of their momentum lately. We need to remain vigilant.]

Fascism has been sneaking into our lives, into the hearts and minds of our countrymen, slipping into the national dialog in the guise of patriotism, strength, purity, religious piety, safety – all things that seem positive and non-threatening.

Trump and his appointees are pretty clearly leading us to an authoritarian state in the name of protecting us from “outsiders” and that’s why it’s problematic. From Dave Neiwert, a researcher on fascism who’s been following its rise for many years, here are a few of the characteristics that struck me as particularly noticeable in the current political climate:

— Attempted mass mobilization with militarization of political relationships and style and with the goal of a mass party militia
— Positive evaluation and use of, or willingness to use, violence
— Extreme stress on the masculine principle and male dominance, while espousing the organic view of society

— Specific tendency toward an authoritarian, charismatic, personal style of command, whether or not the command is to some degree initially elective. — [from Stanley Payne, in Fascism: Comparison and Definition]

— a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal constraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion. [from Robert Paxton’s definition of fascism]

From Paxton’s “mobilizing passions” of fascism:

— the belief that one’s group is a victim, a sentiment which justifies any action, without legal or moral limits, against the group’s enemies, both internal and external;

— dread of the group’s decline under the corrosive effect of individualistic liberalism, class conflict, and alien influences;

— the need for authority by natural leaders (always male), culminating in a national chief who alone is capable of incarnating the group’s destiny;

— the superiority of the leader’s instincts over abstract and universal reason;

From Roger Griffin: “Fascism rejects liberal ideas such as freedom and individual rights, and often presses for the destruction of elections, legislatures, and other elements of democracy.”

Neiwert’s entire essay is worth reading: http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2015/11/donald-trump-may-not-be-fascist-but-he.html

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Latent cruelty

This has all been building up for a while, I know, but the last few weeks have seemed to be particularly offensive and painful to watch in America.

Reading John Pavlovitz’ latest blog post today seems to have crystalized in my mind a few things that have been bubbling around there for a while, too. He calls it The Trump Effect, and he lays out the development of it pretty clearly. It’s been remarked on before by others and I’ve certainly been thinking it since it began to surface during the T-thing’s administration, as racism and white supremacy began to be expressed in new and more open ways, violence increased and the quality of the national conversation began to decline daily. The slide away from truth and accuracy and decency in his daily rants had its effect.

There are lots of examples, and Pavlovitz relates some of the most egregious, but to me its in the essential failure of basic human compassion in the face of this raging pandemic that it is most clear.

How people can equate the simple discomfort and slight inconvenience of wearing a mask with putting other people–and other people’s children–at risk of serious, life-threatening disease has just been beyond me to understand. But seeing it as just another expression of the crass, stupid insensitivity to others that is at the heart of the Trump Effect helps me to understand it. It somehow makes these people feel empowered, self-righteous, justified in their own petty hatreds to be pretending that refusal to wear a mask or get vaccinated is somehow an exercise of their rights as an American.

So it’s not enough just to not do it, they have to proclaim their heroic stupidity and even harass others who are wearing masks and getting vaccinated. It’s so remiscinent of something…. what is it? Oh yeah. Nazi rallies. Book burnings. Klan rallies. Lynchings.

All these are of a piece. People venting their anger and fear and seeking justification in some kind of twisted version of “rightness.” Pavlovitz lays it clearly at the feet of Trump’s monstrous venom.

Though certainly not created then or by the man, for the first time in America’s history the latent ugliness in people was revealed and validated and celebrated by a sitting president—it was officially normalized. And what we’re experiencing now; this staggering, insensitive posturing in the face of so many people’s suffering, is the late-ripening fruit of something that has been set into the bedrock of half our nation. It is the malicious entitlement that MAGA was designed to nurture from the beginning.

JohnPavlovitz.com

If you’ve followed the rise of fascism in America over the past few decades, which has been documented by many including the guy on Orcinus, you know this strain of “americanism” has been festering under the surface, held in check by the sense of decency and fair play that is–at least I believe it is–a stronger, more truly American trait, but developing under cover of various rationalizations and facades. Trump’s legitimization of that strain is what has allowed the racism to swell along with all this other petty hatred. The whole development, of course, has been facilitated and exacerbated by the ease of vicious communication made possible by the internet and social media.

So now we are facing fascist America. Big Time. Trump’s America.

{Post script: My brother was one of the 599 people who died of of COVID in Florida yesterday, so this is all very personal to me. He was a victim of the anti-vax conspiracy theory wackos, didn’t get the shot, didn’t go to the hospital when he got sick. They kept him alive for weeks, but it ravaged him so that he eventually succumbed to a cardiac arrest.]

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Pro-lifers really aren’t

A great column that goes far to explain why these Christians have pushed to such extreme positions on abotion, and showing just how un-Christian it really is. And how anti-life they really are.

The Easy, Selective Morality of the Pro-Life Movement
John Pavlovitz
The Easy, Selective Morality of the Pro-Life Movement
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Election challenges

The Orange one’s fascist

project to challenge the election

A final nail in the coffin of the Orange one’s desperate attempt to convince the world that he was cheated out of his throne just came from a district court judge in Michigan.

We all know, at least those of us still capable of rational thought, that it was a massive scam and an international disgrace, but the judge does a great job of laying it out.

It probably won’t convince those who drank the Orange Jim Jones’ coolaid, but it is at least confirmation at the highest level that this is nothing short of an illegal insurrection.

According to the National Law Journal report (rerun on law.com‘s Daily Report Aug. 25), the judge censures a group of lawyers–one of whom is Georgia Attorney Lin Wood–for their actions in the election fraud challenges. The whole group has been referred to their licensing states for potential disbarment.

“U.S. District Judge Linda Parker issued the orders in response to motions for sanctions filed by lawyers for the city of Detroit and the state of Michigan over the quickly rejected election challenge.”

The Law Journal

Those sanctioned are part of conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell’s team. The judge says the group showed bad faith in trying to use the judicial process to frame a public narrative for which there was no evidentiary or legal support.

“This lawsuit represents a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process,” Law Journal quotes Parker from the opening to her opinion. “It is one thing to take on the charge of vindicating rights associated with an allegedly fraudulent election. It is another to take on the charge of deceiving a federal court and the American people into believing that rights were infringed, without regard to whether any laws or rights were in fact violated. This is what happened here.”

It’s a pretty strong condemnation of the whole effort.

Parker also said that the election challenge “was never about fraud—it was about undermining the people’s faith in our democracy and debasing the judicial process to do so.”

This is all so clearly a fascist project aimed at pushing such a big lie that people believe it simply because it’s normal to think that no one would say such outrageous things unless there was some basis in fact.

It’s a tactic borrowed from the playbook of Hitler and Mussolini and has no place in our national process. These people should be disbarred, humiliated and prosecuted. Everything they stand for should be exposed to the light of public scrutiny and revealed for exactly what it, and its inspiration, is: a deceitful attempt to grab power.

The judge continues:

“But when viewed collectively, they reveal an even more powerful truth: Once it appeared that their preferred political candidate’s grasp on the presidency was slipping away, plaintiffs’ counsel helped mold the predetermined narrative about election fraud by lodging this federal lawsuit based on evidence that they actively refused to investigate or question with the requisite level of professional skepticism—and this refusal was to ensure that the evidence conformed with the predetermined narrative (a narrative that has had dangerous and violent consequences),” Parker said.

She goes on to explicitly show that the free speech these charlatans have claimed in their defense is not the same as that offered on public forums, because they were presenting affidavits to a court, which are required to reflect the truth, not speculation, conjecture and guesswork.

She specifically notes that lawyers presenting a case in court are not the same as journalists and are held to a higher standard of truth.

The judge wrote:

“It is not acceptable to support a lawsuit with opinions, which counsel herself claims no reasonable person would accept as fact and which were ‘inexact,’ ‘exaggerate[ed],’ and ‘hyperbole. Nor is it acceptable to use the federal judiciary as a political forum to satisfy one’s political agenda. Such behavior by an attorney in a court of law has consequences. Although the First Amendment may allow plaintiffs’ counsel to say what they desire on social media, in press conferences, or on television, federal courts are reserved for hearing genuine legal disputes which are well-grounded in fact and law.”

Four other judges around the country have recently passed down similar decisions related to Powell and other lawyers involved in election lawsuit cases. I hope these judicial responses put this foolishness to rest at last.

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Climate denial

You’re already talking about, as we said, already experiencing more extremes, so we’re already experiencing enhanced hazards as a result of climate change. And every bit of warming, whether it’s above or below one-and-a-half degrees C, increases the risks that we face. So, anything we can to limit the amount of warming will reduce the hazards we’re creating for ourselves.

Bob Kopp, Rutgers

Clarifying words from the UN-sponsored report that came out this week, a report that makes starkly clear that the threat of climate change/global warming is real — and dire. And further confirmation that it’s the extremes that are effect of climate change, not just warmer numbers. In my simplified version of this a few weeks ago, I made the point that heat powers change and creates all kinds of extremes.

John Sauven adds a few of the details in his remarks to Democracy Now:

You can just read the headlines — you know, the wildfires out of control in Greece and Turkey, the heat domes in California and, you know, British Columbia in Canada, the wildfires out of control in Siberia, the floods in Germany and in China. You just look anywhere around the world, and you see climate catastrophe unfolding.

John Sauven, UK Director of Greenpeace

And he doesn’t mention the fires in Oregon and other west coast areas that are devastating whole towns, threatening to spread destruction and smoke across the country.

The report also is very clear — the clearest language yet — on the point that it’s what we humans do that’s making it happen so fast. Kim Cobb, one of the authors of the UN report, points out in the Democracy Now report, that they’re now saying, with full scientific consensus, that the human connection is unequivocal.

Well, this report is obviously an unprecedented new foundation for our science and our world at this critical moment. It is something that involved hundreds of authors over the last three years and really assessed the relevant scientific literature across 14,000 different articles in the published, peer-reviewed literature to make assessments as to where we are with human-caused climate change and where we’re going and what lies ahead in the choices that we have to make. So, really, a stunning, historic pillar in our field and a reminder of the futures that we have to choose in the next decades. … We’re going from “virtually certain” human-caused climate change in the last report to “unequivocal” wording for this report in terms of human influence on climate, and thinking about piling up on the absolutely factual column more and more and more aspects of the impacts of climate change. And this report, I think, makes a very strong emphasis on the rising climate and weather extremes, that have been more uncertain in previous reports. This year, the science has — over the last years, the science has matured to the point that a lot of strong wording in this report around the links between human-caused climate change and any number of different climate extremes.

Kim Cobb, Ga. Tech

It’s clear and very strongly supported by the scientific community — 14,000 articles — that this is the case. Which leaves the climate-change deniers with nothing but bluster to rely on. Denial of the need for action on this issue is just based on the selfish, greedy refusal of the industrial world to take responsibility for their huge part in this problem. Their words ring hollow in the face of the overwhelming evidence that’s been gathered in decades of research. The petroleum, coal, power and auto industries are among the worst, and they have lots of paid voices that present pseudo-science to cover their refusal to make changes that might cost their stockholders money.

And, of course, they have lots of paid lobbyists and lawyers to cajole and threaten our representatives so they are afraid to do anything about this issue. Even the half-hearted provisions in the infrastructure bill and other recent legislation doesn’t seriously take on the corporate roots of resistance to action to improve the situation.

I look at what’s happening around the world, the weather going crazy, people dying, children’s future threatened, and I seriously wonder what it will take for our leaders to do something.

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Blithering idiots

Yes, that’s a bit of an angry, unkind and vicious name-calling for a title!

I won’t try to defend it as justified, but I’m somewhat at a loss as to how to characterize what is happening with folks in our community, and, it seems, the nation as well. Much of what I see from folks who have been sucked into the “orange experiment”–as someone has dubbed the past few years–just seems to be blithering. Talking for effect and pandering to people who’ve abdicated their rational responsibility to critical thinking, evaluation, sorting through things for themselves. And not really making a whole lot of sense. That’s what I mean by blithering.

And they could fairly be called idiots in the sense that many of them just don’t really know much at all about what they’re blithering about. They haven’t bothered to look into the history, the scientific facts, even the reality of current reports floated on social media and propaganda masquerading as news sites, such as Fox News. They just take what someone they have decided to admire says as truth and repeat it without thought.

Locally we have just seen the impact of such blighted thinking on our school board.

The superintendent — responding to the CDC call and the obvious spike in COVID cases in our state and our county — had announced that masks would be required and caution would be exercised as school opens next week. Then the semi-republican echo chamber began to react to the idea of mask requirements, ranting and roaring about “standing up for our rights” and government mandates and other such phrases that have been put out to manipulate them. This week, the board held a special meeting and said the superintendent couldn’t mandate masks and school would be normal.

I want to call each of the four who voted to do this and ask, “Have you looked at the recent data?” Our county has seen rates go up by a factor of six times in the last few weeks, and the state has quadrupled its rate. We had four people in the hospital last week, this week we had 12 and in the past few days there have been 16 hospitalized. This is a tiny community and that’s a significant change. The curve is now going nearly straight up on that graph.

It is literally incomprehensible to me that people think that being asked to wear a mask in public is some kind of effort to exercise government control over their lives. They have long accepted that we expect kids to meet certain standards when they come to school, that we stop at red lights, that we follow laws and reasonable standards of behavior on the roads that make things work for everyone. That’s what this is. Not some violation of rights. The constitution doesn’t mention the right not to wear a mask

And then we have the true fascist, Florida governor DeSantis, who has ordered that any school district who does mandate masks will lose funding. So, being asked to wear a mask is infringing on someone’s rights, but the governor dictatorially mandating what a supposedly independent school board does is defending freedom? It truly boggles the mind the degree of twisted thinking, propagandized mentality required to think that way.

People who blast out about “standing up for our rights” by refusing to mask up or get vaccinated are somehow imagining themselves as some kind of hero. It’s really sad when there are so many places, so many issues that we truly need to stand up for our rights about, and these folks just don’t notice those things. Things like the blatant racism in our community, the inequity at the heart of the economic system, the injustice that is visited on poor or even middle class people every day by our legal system, homelessness and PSTD in our veteran population, hungry children and other issues that threaten to undermine the functioning of our democratic way of life — why are these people not worried about “standing up for our rights” on these issues?

I don’t blame social media for this turn of events, but it does seem to be making it worse. It gives people a platform to easily and freely spout un-researched, ill-considered notions that are absorbed without reflection by a numbed audience, all full of self-congratulatory blithering and self-righteous ignorance.

Candidates for local political office are “announcing” on social media platforms, reducing the political process to some kind of debased level of unhealthy posturing and attacks beyond even the low levels we’ve been seeing in TV political ads.

It’s all pretty discouraging to see. Especially as the pandemic threatens to once again disrupt daily life to an intolerable degree.

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Selfishness…

John Pavlovitz, a progressive Christian blogger whose critique of the recent Fascist (he doesn’t use that term, I don’t think) surge in the American political landscape aligns well with my own, has spoken out strongly in the past year about the pandemic and the poor response from his fellow Christians.

His blog is Stuff That Needs to be Said at johnpavlovitz.com, and the post today pretty much summarizes the problem with vaccine hesitancy/resistance as one of plain selfishness. Which thoroughly indicts Christians who buy into the whole fascist republican stance on all this for the hypocrites they are, professing as they do to follow a spiritual leader whose most powerful message was “Love one another as I have loved you.”

As a former mega-church youth minister who was fired for refusing to support racist policies, he is well-acquainted with the fundamentalist approach and has very thoroughly debunked all that. This post today clarifies much about how and why these pseudo-Christians think the vaccine is not something they need to do. He says, starkly:

Selfishness is America’s second deadly virus and it may be one we cannot overcome.

And he makes it clear that it’s pretty un-Christian at heart:

I wish there was a vaccine that could make these people give a damn about other human beings; that we could inoculate them against whatever toxic cocktail of ignorance, fear, arrogance, political tribalism, and bad religion that has rendered them resistant to the suffering of others.

I suppose this shouldn’t have been a surprise. I imagine their denials of the virus and their refusal to mask and their defiance of safeguards should have tipped me off, but still I did not expect this entrenched and strident refusal to help other people, especially the many who claim to follow a “love your neighbor” Jesus.

And the prognosis for the country is also quite stark:

Until love and mercy and kindness take hold in the hearts of these people, until they are burdened with the common good, that lack of empathy will be a sickness that will destroy us.

I hope that he’s not right. I hope that goodness and mercy will prevail. I hope at least that these people will eventually recognize that the cost/benefit ratio for taking the vaccine militates in favor of reasonable action instead of this self-absorbed, ignorant attitude that puts ones own comfort ahead of the life and health of a whole nation.