Protest March of the Penguins

Penguins before profits!  Brought to you by - no joke - a non-profit group called Penguins International:

 

Penguins International will be live-streaming the march on Wednesday, April 16, at 4 p.m. Texas time. I'll post it then.

Will they have a gay contingent, I wonder?

Update, 4/16/25:  Get your head out of the snow!  Waddle for freedom!

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Millions Protest Trumpocracy Nationwide

I'm a little late posting this, but here's Rachel Maddow with scenes from across the country of the "Hands Off" protests that occurred on Saturday.  She adds some encouraging words at the end of the report.

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Shame on You, Pete

Photo by Gage Skidmore via Wikipedia

 

Some time ago, your Head Trucker concluded that the only person left in the Administration with good sense was Pete Buttigieg, the Secretary of Transportation (who is young enough to be my son).  But now I see I was mistaken.

My truckbuddies will have already read about Buttigieg's defense of the protesters outside the restaurant where Justice Kavanagh was dining the other day, citing their First Amendment rights.

Now I have no high regard at all for Kavanagh and the other Trumpists who voted to overturn Roe - and by direct and indirect statements, threatened also to undo the whole concept of a constitutional right to privacy that has been settled law for half a century, and which underpins many other rights that have come to be accepted as normative - like the right to contraception, and to same-sex marriage, to name but two.

It was a nasty thing those five justices did, who voted to overturn Roe and have precipitated us all into a constitutional crisis whose full extent and effects have yet to be seen.

Nevertheless, no matter how much I despise a public official's acts, I cannot endorse hounding and harassing him in the ordinary course of private life - whether at home or in a restaurant or store.  This is a repugnant thing, and I will give you three good reasons why:

1.  It violates the Golden Rule - often summarized as "Do as you would be done by."  Although it was stated by Christ, it is not an exclusively Christian rule; in fact, it appears in the same or very similar form in the teachings of just about every religion around the world, and even among primitive tribes without a set of scriptures.  Even oh-so-modern atheists are sometimes heard mouthing it.

2.  But if course, if you don't give a flip for anything even remotely connected to religion, well then, surely you must consider an invasion of privacy to be at the very least a violation of the good manners you learned at your mother's knee.  What's that, you say?  Free speech trumps good manners?   Well, I can only reply that my mother also taught me that Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right.  Free speech is not the only right, and it does not justify doing anything you feel like doing, to anyone, anywhere, anytime.

And how do you justify disturbing the peace - a crime - of the other people in the neighborhood, the restaurant, the store?  Perhaps you will say that the end justifies the means - a favorite line of dictators.  But just exactly what good result will come of your disturbance?  What exactly will it accomplish?

3.  And if all that rings no bell with you, how about this:  if it's just fine and dandy to harass the hell out of people at their homes and in restaurants, why then, what's sauce for the goose is certainly sauce for the gander, is it not?  This nasty behavior invites retaliation in kind.  Suppose a crowd gathered outside the Buttigieg home, or around the place where Pete and his husband were dining, shouting ugly words and carrying signs - would you like to see that happen?  Say what?  Oh, you wouldn't?

Well, I guarantee you it will be happening if you and Pete and the rest of the good liberal folks don't wake up and stop this stupidity.  It's a great way to spark that civil war we have all heard rumors of.

I've warned about this kind of stupidity before.

Shame on you, Pete.  I thought you were a bigger, better, wiser man.  Now I don't see anyone under 80 on the Democratic side to admire.  You were my last hope.  

The Democratic Party that I knew is changing beyond recognition and dwindling rapidly into insipid uselessness - a cake left out in the rain.  It makes me ill to see what is happening to my party and to my country, the steady erosion of common decency, the fragmentation of society, the descent into madness.  I really hope I don't live to see the final act of this tragedy.

My hat is off to the valiant Liz Cheney, though - one of the few Republicans left with moral character and BALLS.

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How Low Can You Go?

Back in the late 1980s when I was 30-something, my two girlfriends from college and I went out on the town one night at a popular new nightclub called Studebaker's - a franchise now apparently defunct. We usually got together for a long, leisurely chit-chat over lunch or dinner at some nice restaurant, but this time we decided to go see what all the fuss was about.

The joint was hopping:  a huge, brightly lit room with a crowded dance floor and a gleaming, honest-to-God Studebaker convertible perched on a dais at one end. Probably there was no motor in it, but it looked showroom-new, and people kept taking turns climbing in, sitting on the back where the top folds down, singing along to the oldies music and waving their arms to the rhythm - of course we eventually took our turn there, too. It was great fun.

The drinks were delicious, the music was marvelous, and everybody was joyously well-behaved.  At some point, the staff set up a limbo stick, and a crowd immediately lined up to go under it, dancing their way through.  Even your staid and sensible Head Trucker - normally the very soul of decorum - got into the spirit of things and joined the line.  The stick was not set very low, and people were merrily dancing their way under it with ease, leaning far backwards.  Everyone but me, that is.

Just as I got my waist under the stick, and my chin on a level with it, I realized too late that to go an inch lower would require the use of certain back muscles which had lain entirely undisturbed since I was a schoolboy climbing on the monkey bars in the playground, and who were now loath to be roused from their slumber.  Chagrined and perplexed as to how to proceed without knocking the bar down or collapsing on the floor, I hesitated for a second in order to give reverent consideration to the laws of physics.

But of course hesitation is fatal on the dance floor.  During that brief second, two other people, one on each side of me, not to be hindered for a moment, came limbo-ing through without so much as a by-your-leave, followed closely by other impatient folks.  The crowd was not about to allow time for a rethink or a redo - onward, onward, onward!  Too bad for you if you can't make it.  Out of our way!

Mortified, I somehow managed to get on through by a kind of crablike crawl - most undignified.  But this humiliating experience did teach me a significant lesson about human nature:  if you can't run with the big dogs, better stay up on the porch.  

This principle applies in ordinary, everyday life as well as in society at large.  It is one thing to dance your own dance to the music of the moment - it is quite another to be completely out of step and out of tune with everyone around you.  In the latter case, you can waste all your strength and joie de vivre in a lonely, forlorn, unwinnable battle - and what purpose would that serve? - or you can pull off the road and let the traffic diesel on by, going hell-for-leather whither it will.

Only rarely does a single determined soul turn the tide, in the name of a noble cause; but such cases are few, and beyond the strength of most.

Your Head Trucker, now old and gray, and less limber each year, cannot keep up with the mad rush of the modern world.  In the last month, I have used what little talent I have to express outrage and call for reform - just one small voice, joined to a great chorus of others.  I have said my piece, and more I cannot do.  The world is rushing madly around and beyond me, on either side - I have no power to stop the flood or divert it from what seems a looming disaster of willful ignorance and arrogance on both sides.

For several years past, I have paid less and less attention to the news of the day because it is so awful and so depressing - in this great moment of crisis, I have refocused my attention on current events, but now I notice that the upset and dismay are intruding upon my hours of rest and filling my waking mind.  News in this day of endless and often mindless reportage, 24/7, is very much an addictive drug - some people are even called, deservedly, "news junkies."

But it serves no good purpose for myself or for anyone else to fill up my thoughts, day and night, with such an obsession; in fact, it is positively detrimental to my physical and mental health. In any case, I have long since outlived my time - this present age, even before the current uproar started, is not at all to my taste. I feel myself very much a stranger in a strange land - an exile far from home. And of course, one can never go home again.

So let the current generation make of it what they will - perhaps a better world, or perhaps something even more ugly, vulgar, and brutal than the present one - even so, why should I let that destroy my serenity and peace of mind?  I have no power to help or hinder.  I am an old man without family or posterity, and much closer to the end of life's course than its beginning. Soon enough I shall be a thing that is past knowing. I have had my day, a full cup of joys and sorrows - but now the sun is low in the sky, and the night is coming when I shall rest from all labors.

So I think I will now attempt to redirect my thoughts and spirit to more peaceful things, abstaining from further comment on current events, unless something truly earthshaking happens - and please God, it won't. In the past month on this blog, I have stated very clearly where I stand, and I am sure that my stand is very much in line with the moral arc of the universe, and of the highest Good - that patient, impartial, eternal Love that moves the stars.

So this old dog is going to lie back down in that shady spot on the porch.  If any of y'all want to run yourselves crazy chasing cars, have at it. I'm done.

Better is an handful with quietness, than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit.

--Ecclesiastes 4:6

Notes from the Revolution, 6/16/20

. . . a revolution of hearts and minds . . .

Police chief Joseph Wysocki marching with protesters
last week in Camden, New Jersey.

Starting Over: "The City That Really Did Abolish the Police," at Politico. Excerpt:

As a movement grows in American cities and suburbs to overhaul police departments and confront their long records of racially unjust, violent enforcement, Camden [New Jersey] is one rare—and complicated—success story, a city that really did manage to overhaul its police force and change how it operated. And it took a move as radical and controversial as what some activists are calling for today: Camden really did abolish its police department.

And then the city set about rebuilding the police force with an entirely new one under county control, using the opportunity to increase the number of cops on the streets and push through a number of now-heralded progressive police reforms. And with time, the changes started to stick in a department that just years earlier seemed unfixable.

Over the past two weeks, Camden has become an example of reform that works—cited in articles, tweets and on network shows as an example of what can go right. And it’s true that the reforms produced real change in the statistics: The excessive use of force rates plummeted. The homicide rate decreased. And new incentives laid the groundwork for a completely new understanding of what it meant to be a good cop.

“You had to change the underlying principles of the way police officers were being trained and taught, and the culture in the department,” said former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who supported the changes in Camden. “The most effective way to do that was to start over.”

Then and Now: CNN asked black activists who were on the front line of civil rights protests in the 1960s to comment on the current demonstrations.  Excerpt:

It's not that things have gotten so much worse (now). It's just it is so much more obvious and apparent to everybody.--Charles Black, a leader of the 1960s Atlanta Student Movement

You've never seen as many white people marching (as now) -- never in history. We've been carrying this burden by ourselves, and you feel, they say, (like you are) carrying the cross. You feel like the cross is a little lighter today because you see other people carrying the cross with you.--Miller Green, one of the Freedom Riders

What's different is the variety of people at those marches, and that is sweet sunshine from heaven to me ... This is a wake-up call, and more people woke up this time than before.--Dr. Melba Pattillo Beals, one of the Little Rock Nine

The March on Washington, 1963

Dancing in the Street: Last week in Atlanta, National Guard troops and protesters danced together - something that never happened in the 1960s:





Also last week, Politico interviewed ten National Guard troops about their presence in Washington, D. C., in the now-notorious Lafayette Square photo op:

Many Guardsmen said they felt uncomfortable with the way they were used to handle the unrest because demonstrators lumped them in with the police. They felt that while they swore an oath to uphold the Constitution, their presence at times intimidated Americans from expressing their opinions and even escalated the tension.

And in the case of Guardsmen involved in the Lafayette incident, some felt used.

“As a military officer, what I saw was more or less really f---ed up,” said one D.C. Guardsman who was deployed to Lafayette Square last Monday and who, like some others, spoke on condition of anonymity to speak freely. The official line from the White House that the protesters had turned violent, he said, is false.

“The crowd was loud but peaceful, and at no point did I feel in danger, and I was standing right there in the front of the line,” he said. “A lot of us are still struggling to process this, but in a lot of ways, I believe I saw civil rights being violated in order for a photo op."

What I Say:  It has done my heart good to see the innate respect for civil liberties and American ideals shown by many police and military all across the nation, from the front lines right on up to the highest command levels.  Despite the killings and beatings and horribly bad decisions some have made, it does seem to me, surveying the scene from my seat high up in the digital bleachers, that the majority of police and military people are - like most civilians - aghast at George Floyd's brutal murder as well as committed to safeguarding every American's inherent right peaceably to assemble and to seek redress of grievances.

Last week, a two-block-long parade of demonstrators marched right by the house here, and the police were marching with them, escorting them through town with police cars fore and aft: protesters and police all moving together with a common goal of peaceful assembly at the town square - which is as it should be.  Unfortunately, your Head Trucker was asleep at the time; had I been awake, I would have gone out and waved my American and rainbow flags in support.

If you were to survey the list of recent protests all across the nation, especially in the South, as I have done over on Wikipedia, and if you were to take the trouble to look at the source citations, as I have done, and watch the local news videos from all sorts of small towns and small cities, as I have done, you would notice crowds of blacks and whites mingling freely with united purpose.   This would not, could not have happened in my childhood in the segregated South.

This is not to deny the existence of racist attitudes in all parts of this country, as the nightly news keeps reminding us.  To be sure, hateful bigots still infest the backwoods and back alleys of the South and North - some of them are highly placed, and some are even pillars of the church - but there are many good and decent folks in those small towns too.  And in almost every demonstration I looked at in those small Southern towns, the police, the sheriff's deputies, and often the mayor were out in force - not against the protesters, but in solidarity with them, guaranteeing their right to safely protest.

In other words, they and we are all one American people, in or out of uniform, regardless of race, creed, sex, or color: a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.  And that gives me hope that we will all get through this time of outrage and sorrow together, make right what is wrong, and build a more perfect union - the unending task and high duty of every generation in these United States.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

What it's all about:  liberty and justice for all.

From Wikimedia Commons.

Well, fellas, during this momentous week just ended, I've posted a number of reports and videos that I thought were especially significant, out of a sea of memorable words and deeds that keep on flowing past our eyes and ears. But I am an old man, whose physical powers are not what they used to be - and to my dismay I find that a similar decline seems to be occurring with my mental powers, which were always keener than the former. I simply don't have the stamina to keep pace with all the frenzy of events now happening, though I hope perhaps what I have already posted has reached someone, somewhere, who might not otherwise have seen it, and opened an eye or sparked a new thought.  Knowledge is power.

Never before in all my life have I seen such a united and nationwide outpouring of public protest, not even in the turbulent 1960s. The horrific murder of George Floyd has galvanized the whole nation, if not the whole world, awakening the consciences of millions to the urgent need for reform, and return to fundamental American values. Though tempted to despair, somehow I feel sure that out of this dark night in the nation's history, a righteous dawn will come, and soon, if we seek it together - all ages, races, and sexes.  A way must be found to knit this country back together again as one united people - how to do it, I don't know, but it must be done.  Or else.

Today is Sunday, ostensibly a day of rest and reflection - though how often in our busy modern world do we work or play even harder on Sunday than on the other days of the week? - and instead of once again spending hours combing and sifting through the news, the best thing I can think of to honor the Sabbath Day is to present for your contemplation the sublime words of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948 as the sum of human aspirations for a world of liberty, justice, brotherhood, and peace. Now is exactly the right time to remind ourselves of what the life of this nation, and of all mankind, can be, and should be.

Preamble

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

Article 1.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2.

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3.

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4.

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5.

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Continued after the jump . . .

Notes from the Revolution, 6/6/20

. . . a revolution of hearts and minds . . .

Today:  Massive Protests in America and Worldwide:

People across the U.S. and other parts of the world are gathering in major demonstrations on Saturday against racism and police violence, marking the 12th consecutive night of protests since the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota last month.

In Washington D.C., thousands of people are expected to stage what could be the city’s biggest demonstration yet, and the police department there said it will close many streets until midnight.  Massive demonstrations have also broken out across the world from Europe to Australia, with tens of thousands of protesters calling for an end to racism and police brutality in their own countries.

More than 43,300 National Guard members are on duty on Saturday in 34 states and D.C to respond to protests, many of which have been peaceful. In some cases, peaceful protests have been followed with looting and violence at night. 

All living former Presidents Condemn George Floyd's Murder, Call for Justice, Reflection, and Reform:



Obama on Black Lives Matter in 2015 and 2016:






What I Say:  Of course any halfway intelligent person who speaks English recognizes instantly that the phrase "Black Lives Matter" does not at all imply that only black lives matter. There is no "only" at the front of that phrase; but there is an implied "too" at the end. Even a first grader would understand that without being told. Anyone who thinks differently is being willfully obtuse and dishonest:  a racist bigot. And that's all that needs to be said about it.


Former FBI Assistant Director Frank Figliuzzi Warns: "I'm calling the next five months in the history of our country the coming chaos."




Watch:  Hoke County Sheriff Hubert Peterkin, keeping it real in a powerful statement at the memorial service for George Floyd held today in Raeford, North Carolina, near Fayetteville, where he was born:

We, as law enforcement authorities, don't have the authority to bully and push people around and kill them because we have on a badge and a gun. . . .  Enough.  Don't let the life of George Floyd be in vain.  It has become a sacrifice.

One more thing: I missed this outrageous news story when it happened last year, but I'm utterly appalled that this rich white bitch down in Houston was NOT charged - of course - for assaulting a biracial couple taking birthday pics of their 1-year-old. It doesn't rise to the level of murder, but her arrogant attitude sure does need to change.  It's despicable.

Notes from the Revolution, 6/5/20

. . . a revolution of hearts and minds . . .

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo: "Who are we?  Where are we?  How did we get to this place?
Cuomo lays out a plan for police reform, and the necessity of avoiding false dilemmas.



This is the clearest, most intelligent response to the current crisis I've heard yet. Damn, why is Cuomo not President?

I should also tell you that when I first saw the video of 75-year-old Martin Gugino being violently knocked down by bully-boy police, I thought, "That could be me." I'm not all that much younger than he, and subject to stumble and fall on my own without any help from others. Though I must also say that your Head Trucker would not have the temerity to step in front of a marching phalanx of armed men as he did.


Unconscionable: California: Vallejo police kill unarmed 22-year-old, who was on his knees with his hands up



This, of course, is just one of many stories of egregious,sickening police savagery occurring, with most grievous irony, during this week of nationwide protests against police brutality. Unfortunately, I can't find videos of all of them in a format I can post here. But likely you have seen some on TV or the internet already. Police reform must be the first step of reformation and healing in this country. I can tell you, even from my very mild, infrequent brushes as an old white man with traffic cops in the last two decades, police in Texas have gotten very heavy handed and mighty damn arrogant. Who taught them to behave like that? I shudder to think what they have been like with blacks and other minorities, here and across the nation. No more!


Interesting:  Suddenly, Public Health Officials Say Social Justice Matters More Than Social Distance  Excerpt:

The experts maintain that their messages are consistent—that they were always flexible on Americans going outside, that they want protesters to take precautions and that they're prioritizing public health by demanding an urgent fix to systemic racism.

But their messages are also confounding to many who spent the spring strictly isolated on the advice of health officials, only to hear that the need might not be so absolute after all. It’s particularly nettlesome to conservative skeptics of the all-or-nothing approach to lockdown, who point out that many of those same public health experts—a group that tends to skew liberal—widely criticized activists who held largely outdoor protests against lockdowns in April and May, accusing demonstrators of posing a public health danger. Conservatives, who felt their own concerns about long-term economic damage or even mental health costs of lockdown were brushed aside just days or weeks ago, are increasingly asking whether these public health experts are letting their politics sway their health care recommendations.

Also:  In reversal of position, WHO tells public to wear masks if unable to distance

The WHO’s emergencies director Michael Ryan stressed that putting on a fabric mask is primarily about preventing the wearer from possibly infecting others, rather than self-protection.

Lester Holt of NBC News summarizes the day's events:

Notes from the Revolution, 6/4/20

. . . a revolution of hearts and minds . . .

The Reverend Al Sharpton:  "Get Your Knee off Our Necks"
Excerpt from the memorial service for George Floyd in Minneapolis today; the full sermon here is something all Americans should watch.




Houston Police Chief to Trump:  "If you don't have something constructive to say, please keep your mouth shut."  Followed by a great exposition of what American policing should be.




Pope Francis speaks out: "We cannot turn a blind eye to racism"

Dear brothers and sisters in the United States, I have witnessed with great concern the disturbing social unrest in your nation in these past days, following the tragic death of Mr George Floyd. My friends, we cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every human life. At the same time, we have to recognize that “the violence of recent nights is self-destructive and self-defeating. Nothing is gained by violence and so much is lost.” Today I join the Church in Saint Paul and Minneapolis, and in the entire United States, in praying for the repose of the soul of George Floyd and of all those others who have lost their lives as a result of the sin of racism. Let us pray for the consolation of their grieving families and friends and let us implore the national reconciliation and peace for which we yearn. May Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of America, intercede for all those who work for peace and justice in your land and throughout the world. May God bless all of you and your families.

Former President Jimmy Carter speaks out: "We need a government as good as its people, and we are better than this”:

Rosalynn and I are pained by the tragic racial injustices and consequent backlash across our nation in recent weeks. Our hearts are with the victims’ families and all who feel hopeless in the face of pervasive racial discrimination and outright cruelty. We all must shine a spotlight on the immorality of racial discrimination. But violence, whether spontaneous or consciously incited, is not a solution.

As a white male of the South, I know all too well the impact of segregation and injustice to African Americans. As a politician, I felt a responsibility to bring equity to my state and our country. In my 1971 inaugural address as Georgia’s governor, I said: “The time for racial discrimination is over.” With great sorrow and disappointment, I repeat those words today, nearly five decades later. Dehumanizing people debases us all; humanity is beautifully and almost infinitely diverse. The bonds of our common humanity must overcome the divisiveness of our fears and prejudices.

Since leaving the White House in 1981, Rosalynn and I have strived to advance human rights in countries around the world. In this quest, we have seen that silence can be as deadly as violence. People of power, privilege, and moral conscience must stand up and say “no more” to a racially discriminatory police and justice system, immoral economic disparities between whites and blacks, and government actions that undermine our unified democracy. We are responsible for creating a world of peace and equality for ourselves and future generations.

We need a government as good as its people, and we are better than this.

Former Defense Secretary James Mattis Denounces Trump as a Threat to the Constitution:   "He tries to divide us. . . . We can unite without him."

IN UNION THERE IS STRENGTH

I have watched this week’s unfolding events, angry and appalled. The words “Equal Justice Under Law” are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand—one that all of us should be able to get behind. We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values—our values as people and our values as a nation.

When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens—much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.

We must reject any thinking of our cities as a “battlespace” that our uniformed military is called upon to “dominate.” At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state governors. Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict—a false conflict—between the military and civilian society. It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, and of which they themselves are a part. Keeping public order rests with civilian state and local leaders who best understand their communities and are answerable to them.

James Madison wrote in Federalist 14 [Note: Actually, it's Federalist 41, third paragraph--Russ.] that “America united with a handful of troops, or without a single soldier, exhibits a more forbidding posture to foreign ambition than America disunited, with a hundred thousand veterans ready for combat.” We do not need to militarize our response to protests. We need to unite around a common purpose. And it starts by guaranteeing that all of us are equal before the law.

Instructions given by the military departments to our troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that “The Nazi slogan for destroying us…was ‘Divide and Conquer.’ Our American answer is ‘In Union there is Strength.’” We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis—confident that we are better than our politics.

Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.

We can come through this trying time stronger, and with a renewed sense of purpose and respect for one another. The pandemic has shown us that it is not only our troops who are willing to offer the ultimate sacrifice for the safety of the community. Americans in hospitals, grocery stores, post offices, and elsewhere have put their lives on the line in order to serve their fellow citizens and their country. We know that we are better than the abuse of executive authority that we witnessed in Lafayette Square. We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution. At the same time, we must remember Lincoln’s “better angels,” and listen to them, as we work to unite.

Only by adopting a new path—which means, in truth, returning to the original path of our founding ideals—will we again be a country admired and respected at home and abroad.

For my overseas truckbuddies who may not catch all the allusions to our Constitution and history in Mattis's unprecedented censure, CNN provides an annotated version here.





A powerful message: "End Trump's American Carnage" from Republican Voters against Trump




White House Fence Enlarged, Expanded:  actually, this project has been in the works for months, but coming at this particular moment, it seems highly symbolic of a bunker mentality.

Artist's rendering - National Park Service

Notes from the Revolution, 5/31/20

Photo by Dan Aasland, via Wikipedia

Wikipedia map of weekend protests with more than 100 participants.
Minneapolis is marked with a red circle.
You can see the interactive map and more at List of George Floyd protests.

I use that title for this post because something has got to change in America - now, for real, for ever:  a revolution of hearts and minds.

While there may be many problems and many issues to consider, the police in this country MUST be reformed immediately. Far too many times in the last ten years or so - since the advent of ubiquitous phone cameras - we have seen white policemen killing unarmed, unthreatening black civilians. And the brutal, deliberate murder of George Floyd, which has sickened every decent American and horrified the entire world - is the last straw. It MUST be the last straw - or I'm afraid the country will simply fall apart, or rather, be torn apart in a terrible way.  We can't let the haters win.

You know, when I was a little boy, my mother - a teacher who had worked with what we would now call "school resource officers" where she taught in a large urban school - used to tell me, "Don't be afraid of the police. The policeman is your friend." Who tells their children that today? And whom can you trust, if you can't trust the police? Of course there are still many good cops - but the bad ones are out of control, it seems to me. That's got to change NOW.

I certainly don't want to live in a country where any sadistic brute with a badge on his shirt can wantonly and openly kill someone, and get away with it scot-free - while his cohorts just stand around watching a man die in prolonged agony, and don't lift a finger to stop it, a scene out of a Nazi concentration camp.

THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR THAT.  NONE.  It might be the black dude down the street today - but tomorrow, it just might be YOU. And apart from any personal considerations it is simply and unarguably wrong - EVIL - by any moral code, no ifs, ands, or buts about it: Thou shalt not kill.  Not even the extensive police power of the state extends to cold-blooded murder for no good reason.

The moral imperative to respect the dignity of human life transcends all questions of race or politics. I believe in one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for ALL. If it's not for ALL, it's not America, and anyone who doesn't stand up for equal justice for ALL is not an American.

That's my considered opinion. And this is me, old, decrepit, and virtually housebound, doing what I can to help. You look at these videos and see what you think you can or should do about it.

CNN's Van Jones tells it like it is, plain and clear:






St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter decries the "incredible insult to humanity" of George Floyd's murder:




On Saturday, Sheriff Chris Swanson in Flint, Michigan, just might have started something big when he laid down his baton and joined the protesters:



Now that's a real man.

Rep. John Lewis: Be Constructive, Not Destructive

Congressman John Lewis, 80, one of the last surviving leaders of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, released this statement yesterday on his official website:

Sixty-five years have passed, and I still remember the face of young Emmett Till.  It was 1955.  I was 15 years old — just a year older than him.  What happened that summer in Money, Mississippi, and the months that followed — the recanted accusation, the sham trial, the dreaded verdict — shocked the country to its core.  And it helped spur a series of non-violent events by everyday people who demanded better from our country.

Despite real progress, I can't help but think of young Emmett today as I watch video after video after video of unarmed Black Americans being killed, and falsely accused.  My heart breaks for these men and women, their families, and the country that let them down — again.  My fellow Americans, this is a special moment in our history.  Just as people of all faiths and no faiths, and all backgrounds, creeds, and colors banded together decades ago to fight for equality and justice in a peaceful, orderly, non-violent fashion, we must do so again.

To the rioters here in Atlanta and across the country:  I see you, and I hear you.  I know your pain, your rage, your sense of despair and hopelessness.  Justice has, indeed, been denied for far too long.  Rioting, looting, and burning is not the way.  Organize.  Demonstrate.  Sit-in.  Stand-up.  Vote.  Be constructive, not destructive.  History has proven time and again that non-violent, peaceful protest is the way to achieve the justice and equality that we all deserve.

Our work won't be easy — nothing worth having ever is — but I strongly believe, as Dr. King once said, that while the arc of the moral universe is long, it bends toward justice.

N.B.--As a young man, Rep. Lewis put his life on the line many times in the cause of non-violent protest.  He endured beatings by enraged mobs and rioters as one of the original Freedom Riders in 1961, and four years later, on what came to be called "Bloody Sunday," he received a skull fracture when truncheon-wielding police charged the peaceful protesters on the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, Alabama.

How Gay Obama Is Destroying America

From Free Press Houston via Joe.My.God.: anti-immigration protesters in Houston last week sound off about that homosexual boyfriend-killer Obama in league with the flood of gays, Chinese, Mexicans, and Muslim jihadists coming across the border to destroy America. A few pro-immigration protesters are also interviewed.




Why, even our embassies abroad fly the rainbow flag, and we have a bunch of queer ambassadors - isn't that terrible?! So God just might nuke America into oblivion any day now, says Houston pastor Rick Scarborough, for the evil, wicked, detestable sin of loving the gays:




Funny how all those liberty-loving, flag-waving, right-wing patriots, as soon as you take the whip and the rod out of their hands, they want to destroy "this great country" that they have always professed to love so dearly - isn't it? If they don't control it, they want to see it smashed to pieces, and then gloat over the smoldering ruins. A fine Christian attitude, ain't it boys?

Taking the Struggle to Mississippi

A world away from the United Kingdom, which passed a same-sex marriage bill this week, two gay couples were refused marriage licenses in Jackson, Mississippi this week:



Which was only to be expected. But my God - making a protest for gay marriage in Jackson like this? You fellas from the big blue-state wonderland have no idea how fucking brave these couples are.

The We Do campaign is making such demonstrations all across the Magnolia State this month:

Stunning New Pics from Mars

Honk to Grandmére Mimi at Wounded Bird, who kindly forwarded these.

Dallas Marriage Equality Sit-In

Mark Jiminez and Beau Chandler applied for a marriage license at the Dallas County Clerk's Office on Thursday.  When they were refused, they promptly staged their own sit-in.  I'm not sure what actual good that did anyone, but way to go, guys!  I can remember when something like this would have nearly gotten you lynched here in Texas - but times are changing, s-l-o-w-l-y, even here:



The Dallas Voice, the local gay paper, reports:

“City police, county sheriffs and building security are all here,” Chandler said. “Nice to get their support.” Although he was joking, most of the people the couple encountered in the building were supportive, even if they were unable to issue the license.

Sr. Cpl. Laura Martin, LGBT liaison officer for the Dallas Police Department, accompanied the group, even though she didn’t have direct jurisdiction since they were in a county building. Lt. Shelley Knight, LGBT liaison for the sheriff’s department, also followed the couple. “I told them if they want to smoke, do it before going upstairs,” Martin said. “And have a full belly.” Martin said the couple could be held overnight, depending upon how backed up the magistrate was.

“They’re the nicest couple,” Martin said of Chandler and Jiminez. “They’re the first guys after any protest to come up and thank the officers.” It was unclear at press time what charge would be filed against the couple. Last week, a sheriff’s spokesman indicated the pair likely would be charged with criminal trespass, a class-B misdemeanor. The penalty for that is up to 180 days in jail and a maximum $2,000 fine.

What the Hell Goes on Here?

What kind of country has this become? What kind of country is it going to be? When, thanks to the Supreme Court, corporations can spend unlimited sums on campaigning and billionaires are already planning to spend a quarter of a billion dollars to defeat Obama next year and elect a far-right president? Check out what Rachel has dug up:



Meanwhile, bankers are already thinking about a million-dollar media campaign to smear the Occupy movement with "negative narratives" and thereby fend off any unfavorable legislation:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

What does it say about this country that millions of people would vote for pigs - and I use the term advisedly, just look at them - like Karl Rove or Newt Gingrich?  Huh?

But meanwhile the police, who are paid out of the public purse, sworn to protect and serve the public, gaily pepper-spray non-resisting, peaceful protesters on both coasts, defending their casual brutality as being "fairly standard police procedure" necessary to protect themselves and the protesters.  WTF?

84-year-old woman pepper-sprayed at Occupy Seattle, November 15th

Is this the kind of country you want? Ruled by rich, self-satisfied fascists with the jackboot heels of their thugs on the necks of the people?

If not, you better pray the Republicans don't win the next election.

Your Head Trucker agrees with Andrew Tobias, financial advisor and author of a gay classic, The Best Little Boy in the World, among other things, who said this last month:

So the Tea Party folks demonstrate to keep people from having health care, to lay off teachers and police and firefighters, bust unions, keep poor people from voting, and – most important – protect tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires. Pretty neat trick how the billionaires more or less organized and financed their movement and, by harnessing their justifiable fears and concerns, gulled them into doing it. . . . Now come the “Occupiers,” or whatever they will be called, who share many of the same fears and concerns – and a few of the same bogeymen – but seem by and large to be taking the other side of these issues.

Maybe we should put construction workers back to work rebuilding our schools and bridges. Maybe we should pass the American Jobs Act “right away” to help the middle class. Maybe it should be paid for by Warren Buffett and other wealthy folks who are paying taxes at a lower rate than their secretaries. Maybe Paul Krugman knows more about economics – and has the average guy’s interest more sincerely at heart – than Sarah Palin.

Well, it’s about time.

Crowds make me nervous. Simple answers to complex problems make me nervous. But enough is enough.

Update, 6 p.m., 11/21:  Two campus cops and the chief of police at UC Davis have been suspended pending an investigation. The president of the UC system yesterday declared himself appalled by the incident, ordering an immediate review of police procedures on all campuses.

Philip Kennicott writes in the Washington Post on the pepper-spray video:

It looks as though he’s spraying weeds in the garden or coating the oven with caustic cleanser. It’s not just the casual, dispassionate manner in which the University of California at Davis police officer pepper-sprays a line of passive students sitting on the ground. It’s the way the can becomes merely a tool, an implement that diminishes the humanity of the students and widens a terrifying gulf between the police and the people whom they are entrusted to protect.

The video, which shows the officer using the spray against Occupy protesters Friday, went viral over the weekend. On Sunday, the university placed two police officers on administrative leave while a task force investigates. The clip probably will be the defining imagery of the Occupy movement, rivaling in symbolic power, if not in actual violence, images from the Kent State shootings more than 40 years ago.

Although another controversial image, showing an elderly woman hit with pepper spray near an Occupy protest in Seattle, made this nonlethal form of crowd control an iconic part of the new protest movement, the UC-Davis video goes even further in crystallizing an important question: What does the social contract say about nonviolent protest, and what is the role of police in a democratic society?

A prof at UC Davis says what happened after the spraying incident caught on video was even worse:

Without any provocation whatsoever, other than the bodies of these students sitting where they were on the ground, with their arms linked, police pepper-sprayed students. Students remained on the ground, now writhing in pain, with their arms linked.

What happened next?

Police used batons to try to push the students apart. Those they could separate, they arrested, kneeling on their bodies and pushing their heads into the ground. Those they could not separate, they pepper-sprayed directly in the face, holding these students as they did so. When students covered their eyes with their clothing, police forced open their mouths and pepper-sprayed down their throats. Several of these students were hospitalized. Others are seriously injured. One of them, forty-five minutes after being pepper-sprayed down his throat, was still coughing up blood.

More pictures and videos from that and other protests here.

And in case you ever need it, the Air Force has tips on what to do if you get pepper-sprayed.

Also worth reading:

Why I Feel Bad for the Pepper-Spraying Policeman, Lt. John Pike

What George Orwell Can Teach Us About OWS and Police Brutality

In Memoriam: Elizabeth Edwards

Christian Science Monitor:

Members of the controversial Westboro Baptist Church picketed the funeral of Elizabeth Edwards in Raleigh, N.C., Saturday. But they were vastly outnumbered by a “human buffer” of people who quietly stood in the rain singing Christmas carols and carrying signs reading “God loves Elizabeth Edwards” or simply “Grace” and “Hope.”

In a 2007 interview, Mrs. Edwards described herself as “completely comfortable with gay marriage,” hence the Westboro protesters at the funeral. But on Saturday just five church members (two of them children) showed up to picket, waving hateful signs about Mrs. Edwards and the United Methodist Church where the service was held. The funeral itself was attended by some 1,200 people.

Boston Herald:

Here’s something the media should vow today: never to mention the Westboro Baptist Church again. Yesterday five nutty protesters from this nutty church held their nutty signs two blocks from the Methodist Church in Raleigh, N.C, where nearly 2,000 mourners gathered for the funeral of Elizabeth Edwards. It’s safe to say the Westboro protest was a non-event.

Yet within hours of Edwards’ death Tuesday, news outlets across America were filled with reports that this virulently anti-gay, anti-Semitic and anti-military “church” — made up of 70 members — planned to picket Edwards’ funeral. When you Googled Elizabeth Edwards’ funeral yesterday, before and during it, there were more than 1,000 stories about Westboro’s protest plans but just a few dozen stories about Edwards herself.

What did Elizabeth have to do with the Westboro “church,” based in Topeka, Kan.? Nothing. But the Westboro crowd knew her funeral would get lots of media attention. So they injected themselves into it. This is what they do, brilliantly. They announce plans to “protest” some upcoming, solemn event. Normal people, nauseated, plan counter protests. When the event happens, a handful of Westboro members, sometimes none at all, actually show up. But hundreds show up for the counter protests. And we in the media cover them, playing right into Westboro’s hands.

This is exactly what happened yesterday. We had five nuts on one side of the street with their “Elizabeth in Hell” signs. We had perhaps 200 “Line of Love” counter protestors on the other side of the street with their “Peace” signs. The Westboro crew disbanded 20 minutes before the 1 p.m. funeral even began. No one disrupted anything. . . .

The father of Matthew Synder, a Marine killed in Afghanistan, has sued the Westboro Church for intentional infliction of emotional distress and for violating the privacy of his son’s funeral. The case is now before the U.S. Supreme Court as a First Amendment question. But this is not an argument about the Westboro nuts’ right to protest. It’s an argument against the news media’s seemingly indiscriminate decision to cover nuts like these, over and over, no matter what.

Enough.

What I Say:  Amen. Your Head Trucker is a great believer in freedom of speech; but there is an exception to every rule, and this is one.

Beyond that - I'm just very, very tired of all the ugliness and indecency of this modern age.

Barcelona: Gay Kiss-In to Protest Pope

En route to dedicate Barcelona's famous but unfinished Sagrada Familia church today, Pope Benedict had to pass a crowd of kissing gay couples - 100 to 500, depending on which news report you read - who organized the kiss-in to protest the Pope's denunciation of gay marriage as "intrinsically evil," a theme he alluded to in his homily at the church, while also denouncing Spain's abortion law and its secular, "anticlerical" trend.  Spain was the third country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage, in 2005.

Barcelona, from all I've read, is something like the San Francisco of Spain, with a large gay population. Other protestors turned out as well, like this woman whose sign, one news story reported, translates to something like "Condoms save, the Pope damns."

Feminists and others also turned out to protest the Pope's visit. I get the sense of a few phrases on these signs, but can any of my truckbuddies translate?

The Christian Science Monitor reports:

King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia greeted the pope, were present in the consecration mass, and bid him farewell at the airport, but Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was conspicuously absent and only met the Catholic patriarch for a private meeting in the airport minutes before he returned to Rome.

Mr. Zapatero decided to visit Spanish troops in Afghanistan throughout most of the pope’s visit and publicly only shook his hand, highlighting the tense relations with one of the Vatican’s closest traditional allies in Europe.

The fallout in relations between the current government and the Vatican, however, is not seen as a real challenge from the state. That would probably not be tolerated by a majority of Spaniards, analysts say.

Recent surveys show the number of practicing Catholics is dropping fast, to around 20 percent currently, mirroring a broader European trend, but the vast majority of Spaniards still declare themselves Catholics. And the Catholic Church has great perks here, starting with around $9 billion annually in different forms of direct and indirect government funds from tax revenue to financing of religious schools. The Spanish Church is the second biggest property owner in the country, trailing only the government. . . .

Spain is not officially secular, as most western states are. Rather, it is legally neutral in terms of religion, implying it is a faith-based state. In practice that has translated into huge benefits for the Catholic Church that leaders from other religions, namely Muslims, Protestants, and Jews, say are unconstitutional because they are discriminated against when getting access to government aid and public space.

In Santiago, Benedict XVI met the leader of the main opposition Popular Party, Mariano Rajoy, who has promised to turn back secular laws passed by the Zapatero government if elected.

Britain's Sky News has a video report here.




Honk to Heretic Tom at The Gospel According to Hate for the story idea.

Target Ain't People

Hahaha.  Your Head Trucker is an old codger who is not up for street protests anymore, but he throroughly admires the spunk and creativity of these young whippersnappers.  What a marvelous job they did - and left the onlookers smiling, and probably more sympathetic to the cause than they would be if the protesters had broken windows and torn up the merchandise.  Effective - memorable - nobody hurt.  Excellent.

And notice how quickly the little old lady shoppers get into the swing of it.  A charming way of doing things, my hat is off to the younger generation on this innovation.


Honk to Truthspew via Reluctant Rebel.