Ipse Dixie

     Indiana's daft Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith is at it again, this time proclaiming on "X" that the First Amendment doesn't say what it clearly says:

     Separation of Church and State is and always has been a lie—a dangerous falsehood weaponized to dismantle our Republic. From its very inception, this phrase was twisted to marginalize Christian values and strip away the moral foundation that has held America together. They want you to believe that faith and patriotism are separate—that you must choose between God and country. That is unacceptable. Don’t fall for it.
     We are a Judeo-Christian nation. Our Founders did not intend to erect a secular barrier between God and government—they understood that faith and freedom are inseparable. We must reclaim that truth and not let secular agendas undermine what it means to be American.

     He's lying.  And he's lying in a particularly bad-faith manner: there has never been a need to choose between one's deity and one's country, not in the United States -- and the secular barrier between religion and government exists precisely so that none of us ever has to.

     The Founders represented a very wide cross-section of religious beliefs and attitudes, from Ethan Allen's aggressive Deism and Thomas Paine's agnosticism, to devout Congregationalist Samuel Adams (who broke with cousin John Adams, at least for a time, over the latter's conversion to Unitarianism).  All of them had some experience with a state church, and they didn't want it.  Their consensus appears to have been that religious belief and practice was a deeply personal matter, which should not be compelled -- or restricted! -- by government.  They had no problem with individuals looking to their faith for moral guidance, but they wanted government kept firmly out of it.  And as early as 1765, James Madison expressed the thought that a state-established religion was detrimental not only to freedom of religion but also encouraged excessive deference to any authority that might be asserted by an established church.  Thomas Jefferson, in the 1779 Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom wrote: 

[N]o man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.

     Your religion is your religion, which you share with the fellow members of that faith; our government is our government, a secular matter.  If your faith guides your political choices, that's fine; if your faith compels the political choices of others, or restricts the free expression of their faith, that's wrong.  The United States of America is not a "Judeo-Christian nation," it's a nation with strong protection of religious freedom -- and a government open to men and women of all beliefs.

     Indiana's Lieutenant governor is peddling disingenuous, deceptive crap.  He's shoving men like Paine and Jefferson out of history in favor of nonsensical fairytales about the Founders, in a transparent attempt to justify theocracy.

And You Still Think He's Great?

     After the disturbing spectacle of a Cabinet meeting -- a Cabinet meeting! -- that was mostly an over-the top buttering up the boss session, I would like to think few people still entertain the notion that Mr. Trump is benign or especially competent.  I'd like to, but people keep surprising me.

     I'm no fan of overblown rhetoric on the part of or directed toward Presidents of any party or personal inclination.  The President of the United States is Just Some Guy, named George or Bill, Barack or Joe, Don or Dick.  They're not magic -- and  they don't deserve fulsome praise for getting out of bed in the morning, stuffing themselves into a suit and tie, and shuffling downstairs to the office and claiming to have ended wars.

     Presidents are not kings.  Their Cabinet members ought not suck up to them in public, especially not in a fawning, obsequious manner, and if they are obliged to do so, it's a sure sign something is wrong.

     Judging from that Cabinet meeting, our country is in the middle of a six-alarm helmet fire.

And Now, Threats

     It's hilarious.  The barbarians, having breached the gates (and claiming to be "defenders of culture," which is apparently how they spell racism) are now making threats.  I have, apparently, hurted their dearly tender feelings through the use of facts, history and logic, and they are a-comin' to get me.  Or maybe it's just karma.  Most of them are not exactly clear.

     I've seen 'em at the range.  They're not exactly credible there, either. 

     Update: Another nitwit has chimed in to tell me that the problem is I'm too mean to Trumpist Republicans and their fellow-travelers.  OMG!  How could I not have known?  Oh, that's right, I did.  I meant to be rude to them.  I've already said so.  But I am not threatening them; I am not promising retribution or gloating that I believe it is coming for them.  Honestly, I don't know.  The American Experiment may be doomed, and if it is, I expect to be harmed by what comes after.  But until it falls, I intend to keep pushing back, because the real ideals of this country are worth fighting for: that all people are created equal, that we've got a right to be represented in the government, that what we say and write and read should not be censored, that no religion should have the power to dictate our beliefs nor be suppressed by the government, that everyone here is entitled to due process of law and so on as spelled out in our Constitution as amended.

     That blood-and-soil bullshit isn't Americanism.  This country is a set of ideas, and if you're opposed to them, you're opposed to this nation.

     When I get threats, I will mention it on this blog.  I won't publish them.  If anything happens to me -- and that's unlikely, most of these people are cowards, who impotently wish I would stop reminding them of how far short they have fallen -- then there are people who can get at the unpublished comments and will know where to start looking.

Exceptionally Self-Deluded

     The United States of America is in the midst of a Viktor Orbán-style takeover of the institutions of our republic -- including many that have long existed outside of the government, either by independent formation (like universities) or via structures intended to distance them from direct government control, like the United States Institute for Peace or the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

     In particular, the Executive Branch is arrogating to itself powers that had either not previously been deemed to exist or are Constitutionally granted to the Legislative Branch -- and a supinely complicit Congress along with a compliant Supreme Court are letting it happen, in some cases even empowering it.  It out-Jacksons Andrew Jackson, and puts forward a Wilsonian "Unitary Executive" without the odious Woodrow Wilson's academic rigor and commitment to an international deliberative body.  What it does share with both Presidencies is an overt dedication to furthering so-called "white supremacy," with the added frill of pushing women back to the powerlessness they suffered under Jackson and Wilson.  It's broadly authoritarian; I'm not going to get into any nitwitted discussion of how it couldn't possibly be fascism because they don't have spiffy uniforms or the underlying ideas don't come from the fascistae region of Italy.  The incumbent Administration means to rule, and they are completely comfortable laying a heavy thumb on any measure that will further that end, like partisan mid-decade Congressional redistricting.

     There's still a lot of talk of "overreaction," as though the sweeping changes were inconsequential follies, to be washed away or changed after the next election.  Oh, some of them may be, depending on how that election goes, and barring yet another Trumped-up "emergency" getting in the way of voting.  Others will not; many parts of the Federal edifice, like USAID, have been broken beyond recovery.  There might some day be another "soft power" effort along the same lines, but the institution, with all of its values and specialized knowledge, is gone.  And the accretion of power to the Executive may be as irreversible as the accretion of power to the Imperial throne of Rome.  Maybe not; the men who wrote the Constitution knew Classical history and tried to build a stronger bulwark against despotic power than the Roman Senate proved to be.  But so far, our Congress is failing the same test.

     So don't try to jolly me along, and understand that my rudeness to Trumpist Republicans is deliberate; unlike the conservative Republicans who preceded them, they have nothing of value to contribute to our society or system of government, only destruction and barbarism.  When they speak, hear the shouts of the mob and the howling of wolves in the background.  They seek only power and personal wealth; they smash institutions and sow only ruin.  What comes after them, unless we are very lucky in rolling it back, is darkness.

     American exceptionalism long held that our country was immune from the kinds of chaos that swept through the governments of other nations, leaving death and despotism in its wake.  Turns out that's not the case.

Reality Check

     I'm linking to a fact- and link-heavy newsletter from The Bulwark, which addresses in detail how Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s HHS has screwed the future by yanking Federal funding for MRNA vaccine research.

     Those vaccines are our best hope to fight future pandemics, as well as go after illnesses that have no good preventative, treatment or cure.  And now -- well, here's hoping the drug companies see them as potentially lucrative, or other governments with deep pockets want to pursue them, because the Feds are out of the game.  EU, I'm looking at you; Red China's not real big on sharing unless the price is right, and used low-tech methods as their first-line response to the COVID pandemic.

     Political disagreements are one thing, issues for debate.  Hamstringing medical research on something we already know works well against deadly illness is not a matter of opinion: it's the eventual mass murder of people by the dozens, thousands or millions.  How many is too many?  How many, do you suppose, does it take before the total becomes what the USSR's Stalin called "just a statistic?"

     Government by unbridled fantasy isn't a good idea.  The lesson will, in time, hammer itself home.  I fear we'll have to be hit very hard indeed before enough of us take it to heart.

It's Not Easy

     There's a three-ring circus going on in Washington, D.C., and it is echoed in many state capitols.  It's hard to ignore it, but I can't take every morning to point out the latest crazy thing thing the nitwits -- and especially the Nitwit-in-Chief -- did.  He loves the attention, after all, and like wresting a pig, all it does is splash mud around.

     It's a big wonderful world out there, and even the best efforts of the worst people probably won't break it forever -- but it's sure going to leave a mess. 

One More Time

     Exporters do not pay tariffs.
     Exporting countries do not pay tariffs.
     Importers pay tariffs, and pass the added cost along to wholesalers.
     Wholesalers pass the added cost on to retailers.
     Retailers pass the extra cost on to you and me.

     There are a lot of links in that chain, but that's how it works.  Oh, importers, wholesalers or retailers may eat part of the cost, but not for long; profit margins are slim.  It'll take time, but the prices of imported goods -- and things made here that use imported parts -- are going up.  If it came from Europe, the price will go up at least fifteen percent, by and by.

     Inflation is coming.  Yell at me all you like, but it will still happen and tariffs will be the cause.  Tariffs imposed by one man's whim.

Shares In Futility Up Sharply In Early Trading...

     Listening to a steady drumbeat of news this morning, the local TV stuff that wakes me up, NBC, NPR, BBC, and it strikes me that "Alas" is a damn poor motto to live by.  People are starving and it's become an opportunity for online grifters and self-serving propaganda vids from the nations causing the starving, or at most throwing pennies at the problem while looking the other way and hoping it will end soon.

     "Alas."  Guess it'll make a nice epitaph.

U.S. Out Of UNESCO; RADAR Out Of Their Minds

     UNESCO is a UN agency that encourages peace through cultural exchange; they also list and track sites of exceptional interest and, yeah, they're pretty much longhaired idealists.

     They're apparently not racist enough for the Trump administration and, just like the last time Mr. Trump* had the gig, the U.S. has withdrawn from participation and funding; the Federal government was picking up about eight percent of UNESCO's tab.

     While it's not up to the level of abandoning international soft-power efforts that fed starving people and built good will towards the United States (cough, USAID, cough), it's another self-destructive move.  But it's also not the second but the third time the Feds have walked away from the table.  Like most UN organizations, UNESCO is kinda slapdash, prone to politicization, sketchy finances and a wavering focus; in 1984, the U.S. bailed for the first time.  Here's what U. S. Congressman Jim Leach (R - Iowa) had to say about it a few years later:

"The reasons for the withdrawal of the United States from UNESCO in 1984 are well-known; my view is that we overreacted to the calls of some who wanted to radicalize UNESCO, and the calls of others who wanted the United States to lead in emasculating the UN system. The fact is UNESCO is one of the least dangerous international institutions ever created. While some member countries within UNESCO attempted to push journalistic views antithetical to the values of the west, and engage in Israel bashing, UNESCO itself never adopted such radical postures. The United States opted for empty-chair diplomacy, after winning, not losing, the battles we engaged in... It was nuts to get out, and would be nuttier not to rejoin."

     You can't fix 'em if you don't have a seat at the table.

*  *  *

     Tam showed me a meme this morning that is circulating among the conspiracy-minded Right, claiming "NexRad," the next-generation weather radar system, actually means "Death Radiation"† in Latin.  At least one lunatic has already tried to blow up a radar tower recently.

     I have long railed against people who want us to live in mud huts, no matter if they were Green types who wanted to give up technology to save the planet (as opposed to, oh, building out wind, solar and efficient power storage) or RETVRN ideologues who figure they'll get to live in the big house while the rest of us till the fields (don't count on it, kiddo).  Threatening a highly-effective weather radar system as storms and similar events are getting worse (go argue causes over there in the corner where you won't annoy the grownups; it's happening no matter why) is another mud-hut move, right up there with eschewing vaccinations.  If you want you and yours to die early and often, go for it, but you don't get to inflict that stuff on the rest of us. 
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* Note that I do not make up or borrow amusing or dismissive nicknames for politicians, even the ones I heartily loathe.  Using silly monikers is foolish habit; you end up engaging with the caricature and not the person.  It's also symptomatic of a grade-school-level intellect, like chasing squeamish kids around with a booger stuck to the end of your finger.
 
† I have been through this before.  In fact, the peak power levels and operating frequencies of radar systems are scary -- but the reality is that they transmit in extremely short bursts, and the average power, roughly the heating power, is very low and falls off as the inverse square of distance.  Add in that the dish is moving and systems are interlocked such that when the dish stops, the transmitter is locked off, and.... Nope.  Radar is not now and has never been a death ray.  It won't even warm up your coffee unless you defeat the interlocks, stick the cup right in front of the dish and risk melting the transmitter.  The Brits would have liked to have a death ray, but when Watson-Watt went looking for one, all he found was a way to spot airplanes -- and clouds.  And all that did was help win the Battle of Britain for them.

Unrealistic

      - A few comments have come in that are obviously based on having read the headline and lede of my blog post and then changing channels to one of the far-Right opinion networks.  Hey, consume whatever media you like; an awful lot of it is junk food for your mind whatever the source.  But read my entire article: I'm a big fan of narrative twists, especially ones based on little-known or often-misunderstood facts.
     Do your homework.  Bring an understanding of what I wrote and actual facts to the table, or at least try for clever and amusing ridicule (I'll admit to a weakness for good writing), if you want to get your comment published.  Don't pretend it's fed.gov, western.civ as usual these days, because it's not. 

     - I am once again being accused of "TDS."  Nope, sorry, not the case; while I have openly acknowledged my distaste for the man since he first made a serious play for the Presidency, I was entirely willing to let him be just one more asshole President; we've had lots of those, several within my lifetime, and in the usual course of things, so what?  It's just one branch, it's just one term or at worst two.
     The insurrection of January 6, 2021 changed that; Donald Trump and his loose network of accomplices, patsies, fellow-travelers and enablers and the mob of thugs he raised revealed themselves as a genuine danger to the people and government of the United States of America on that day, and they have only become more of a danger since.
     I dislike Mr. Trump; he's the distilled essence of bad managers, comprised of ignorant self-importance, lies, probable grift and graft, bad faith and so on, but he's just one man.  The problem is Trumpism, which is an authoritarian, pseudo-populist movement with clear fascist tendencies; it is harmful to our system of ordered liberties and civil government, undermining the separation of powers between the three branches of the Federal government and abusing the rule of law.  The damage is severe, grave and ongoing.  One day, everyone will have always been against it, but coming back from Trumpism will be a long and painful process.

     - U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick was on CBS's Face the Nation this morning, gleefully selling used cars with only slightly cracked engine blocks.  The worst clunker on the lot was a lie he repeated often, that when the U.S. levies a tariff, the exporting country pays it.  That's not how tariffs work and only a blink of thought reveals why: the U. S. government has no authority over exporters in other countries, or over the governments of those countries.
     Tariffs are collected from importers: U. S. companies, who will then raise prices, a process that rolls all the way downhill to you and me.  There is no magic source of tariff money; it comes out of our pockets.  The CBS News moderator did not push back on this; increasingly, news outlets accept the Administration's assertion that tariffs are somehow levied on other countries.  They are not.  They are a form of indirect sales tax, paid by consumers either at the checkout counter or in the form of lower wages from jobs at importing companies or firms downstream of them.

     I can't keep you from living in fantasyland, but I will point out when you are.  If that makes you itchy, write back -- but maybe lay off the lotus-eating for awhile when you do, because I'm not grading on the curve.

A Mighty Own Goal

     As I write this, the U. S. Senate is poised to pull the rug out from under funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) for the next couple of years.  CPB gets less than 0.01% of the Federal budget.  Oh, it's big money for you, me or your local factories, but it's still a rounding error compared to military expenditures, highways or servicing the Federal debt.  The House has already approved this recission, and the Senate just had a tie-breaking vote from Vice-President Vance (wearing his President of the Senate hat, and I do wish the Framers had come up with a different title for the job) to keep the legislation moving.

     CPB is a Federally-funded private non-profit corporation that in turn funds National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) -- largely indirectly.  By law, they're only allowed to spend five percent of their budget on themselves -- salaries, staplers, coffee machines.  65% of their budget goes directly to public radio and TV stations, everything from tiny, one-man stations deep in the Alaskan wilds to massive operations like the WGBH stations in Boston.  About 25% goes to production companies, which make programs for public radio and TV.

     The big public stations have multiple income streams -- those annoying pledge drives, strings of grants, endowments and "underwriting" sponsorships.  NPR has been a political football for decades, and set out some time ago to ease off the Federal spigot; around one percent (1%) their funding comes directly from CPB.  PBS has taken similar steps, but -- television's spendy -- are more reliant on CPB.  There's a catch, though; I'll get back to that.

     The Trump administration doesn't think NPR and PBS are being fair to them, and that's why they want to defund CPB.  I have not noticed this in actual NPR news segments, those five-minute blocks at the top and/or bottom of the hour; they're radio newscasts, strictly limited for time and focused on things that are, in fact, newsworthy.  While they're a little more relaxed than the ABC "Contemporary" news of my youth and more buttoned-down than NBC's hipper "The Source" a decade later, NPR matches any of the old classic top-of-the-hour radio news, CBS, NBC, Mutual or what ABC branded as "The American Information Network."*  The long-form stuff has a much greater proportion of opinion to information, and both NPR and PBS have had controversies.  While CPB's rules have some sober language about balance and perspective, the Fairness Doctrine is long gone, and nobody benefited more from the ending of it than the political Right.

     But NPR and PBS are not living off CPB dollars.  NPR outright sells ads on their streaming services (it's legal), albeit delivered in the same subdued manner as their over-the-air underwriting announcements.  Nope, the CPB cuts hit local stations.  This does loop back around, and there's the catch: in the indirect way networks operate in the U. S., member stations pay the networks, and between a quarter and a third of the funding for NPR and PBS comes from membership and programming fees those stations pay.  The big stations will tighten their belts, lay off janitors and newspeople, and keep on keeping on; they'll probably drop some programs, too.  But those tiny little stations, in Alaska or Montana or wherever, in backwater towns where the commercial AM station went dark and the FM got moved to the nearest sizable city?  Their local NPR station, over at the State School of Cow Mining (etc.), is the only source of local news and weather warnings, and it's got a staff of three, or two, or one: they don't have any janitors to lay off.  Those stations rely on CPB money to meet payroll, rent tower space and pay the power bill, and when it goes away--  Hey, maybe the Cow-Mining College or the Town Board will kick in a few more bucks, for old time's sake -- if they can afford it.  And if not?  Well, gee.  Better buy a NOAA weather radio, if you can pick up one of their low-power stations. (Kinda thin in some states.)

     Those small towns, those rural spaces, they're not generally hotbeds of big-city liberalism, and neither are their radio stations.  They're red spots on red maps -- and they'll be hardest hit. 

     The CPB cuts are an own goal.  NPR and PBS stations -- the survivors -- will have less reason to toe the Federal government's line, and more reason to be fractious.  
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* Speaking of money and news -- post WW II, U.S. radio networks were, by law, singular.  NBC had previously operated multiple networks, with NBC Red and NBC Blue at the forefront; they had to spin off Blue, which became ABC.  ABC started out in fourth place, behind NBC, CBS and Mutual -- Blue network had always been something of a "second string" network for NBC.  By the late 1960s, with radio losing badly to television, ABC came up with a way around the law, becoming not one but four radio news services over the same physical network: they offered different newscasts around the hour, each one suited to a different radio format; Information at the top of the hour, very conventional radio news suitable for middle-of-the road and all-news formats; FM and Entertainment at :15 (or :45, it's been awhile) and half-past the hour, both more relaxed and quiet, and Contemporary, available as a fast-paced two-minute newscast at ten til the hour and a five-minute newscast that ran from :55 to the top of the hour.  If it sounds a little crazy, it was -- but it meant ABC could have as many as four stations in a given town all carrying an ABC newscast, with lovely, paid ABC commercials in each one; and it meant ABC offered specialized news products the other three networks did not.  To my larger point, the actual content of these newscasts was almost identical: news is news, war, famine and natural disaster, and you got largely the same on-the-scene soundbites from all four versions.  The style of delivery differed; the focus varied slightly, especially when it came to celebrity items.

"...Just Ignore The Troubling Politics..."

     I've gotten that advice in comments quite a lot.  Oh, if only I could!  The problem is, politics won't ignore me.

     The United States was supposed to be a place where you didn't have to worry about the Federal government: it was supposed to be inherently stable, in ways that "Westminster" parliamentary democracies weren't.  It was intended to find the centerline in American politics, compromising between the interests of the states as polities and the people as a whole.  It was supposed to have limited, enumerated powers, with inherently fair courts based on law and not politics.  It was supposed to respect individual rights, and not play favorites to any group or creed.  We were a nation friendly to innovation in science, technology -- and ways of getting along with one another.  No majority held forever; the Presidency, House and Senate rotated regularly from one party to the other, often out of step with one another.  We were a nation with open arms.  A lot of that was more aspiration than reality, but the aspiration existed and was held up as a worthy goal.

     We've got an administration in place that doesn't buy any of that old-fashioned bunk.  They've got friends to reward and enemies to scourge.  They're hamstringing science and medicine in the service of politics -- and bending politics to serve religion.  The United States is going to come out of this poorer, sicker and less capable: that's what's happens when you defund universities, slash healthcare and medical research, set up hospitals to close, crash the economy with tariffs and uncertainty, shrink the Federal workforce in key service programs and let religion overrule scientific conclusions.

     It's a revolt of ignorant, opinionated, unqualified middle-managers, pushed to prominence by pressure from below and a moribund, senescent vacuum above.  I can't ignore it; they're hacking away at the foundations of my future and not just in the broad, society-wide sense: my retirement was predicated on Social Security remaining solvent for another decade and the economy staying relatively stable.  Both of those things are no longer true.

     The other thing I get told is, "Your side lost, get over it."  But the Democrats were never my side.  I was closer to the more centrist Republicans, tolerant people who didn't want cultural change to scare the horses and thought budgets should balance (oh boy, remember when the GOP talked big about eliminating the deficit? They could give a rat's ass now).  Now that the Republicans have embraced authoritarianism, xenophobia, vast expansion of Presidential power, so-called "Christian Nationalism" and conspiracy theories, the Democrats are the only remaining party that values our republic; they're the only party left with much variation among their elected officials, the only party that pays even a little attention to reality.  Don't think that doesn't gall me!  Most of my life, I could rely on the Dems to be the party floating zany notions; now I have to open my browser and learn Republicans in Florida have outlawed "chemtrails" and banned any efforts to control the increasingly-violent weather.  In a contest to be the craziest major party, the GOP has a commanding lead -- one that will carry the country right over a cliff unless we are wise and very, very lucky.

     It's as safe to ignore politics at present as it is to ignore storm sirens.  Better head to high ground or the root cellar -- and better still if you know which one to choose. 

We're In The Hands Of Fools

     I'm starting to see news stories -- you know, the kind with actual news about things that are actually happened, supported by interviews with the people to whom they are happening, genuine primary sources -- about shortages of agricultural workers: the people who set cows up for milking, harvest fruits and vegetables, work in meat-processing plants.  There's a lot of "touch labor," hands-on work, in that and it doesn't pay well.  Nor is it entirely unskilled.  The Trump administration and their Republican stooges in Congress keep claiming that those food supply jobs will be filled by former basement-dwelling shirkers, newly kicked off Federal assistance.  Even if they do exist in sufficient numbers (unlikely), I'm not at all sure I want my tomatoes picked and beef slaughtered, cleaned and cut by under-achieving potheads, filled with resentment at being yanked away from their gaming consoles; they're unlikely to be as diligent as the guy working on a temporary permit -- or despite the lack of one.

     Meanwhile, tariff madness continues: they're on again!  Or off again!  Or put off!  "90 deals in 90 days" has become two deals, not especially good ones, with the UK and Vietnam, and a series of not entirely coherent letters sent to world leaders (scroll down to read the original releases on Truth Social).  The deadline to implement most of the higher tariffs has been pushed back yet again.  --And remember, they're assessed on the importer, not the exporter: Uncle Sam has no power to make companies in other countries ante up.  The higher rates are far beyond what any company can be expected to pay without charging more when they sell the goods, and those high prices will roll downhill to you and me.

     But don't worry, Republicans in government have got their eyes firmly on the prize!  Why, just the other month, Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith warned on Facebook, "PRIDE MONTH ALERT: The Rainbow Beast Is Coming For Your Kids!" (link for proof.)  He expanded his, er, thoughts on a podcast, saying in part, "Back in ancient Israel, there was a goddess, her name was Ishtar, and she was the goddess of transgenderism, a gender-warping goddess. She was a homosexual goddess.[...] And she was represented by rainbows in her eyes. Anytime you saw her, you'd see rainbows. And it's like, wow, this is the same demonic playbook just playing out all over again."  This is a fear-mongering mish-mash with no Biblical basis and barely any footing in ancient history. Ishtar/Inanna was a Mesopotamian goddess roughly analogous to the Greek Athena, not strongly associated with rainbows (she "spans the sky like a rainbow" in one myth, seeking a lost associate).  Presumably, the Israelites encountered the Mesopotamian pantheon during their captivity/exile in Babylon, but there's no evidence they brought Ishtar home (she is not conflated at all with earlier Asherah poles and the associated goddess of motherhood, for instance).

     Elsewhere, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has weighed in on Governor Braun's Executive Order from earlier in the year, defining "sex" in the state as whatever a person was believed to be at birth,* echoing a similar Federal EO.  Indiana's being sued by the ACLU over it and the Attorney General recently issued a news release that any change to Indiana birth certificates (a process already banned by the Governor's EO) would be "falsification of records," lining up innocent clerks with possible felony charges for complying with court orders.

     So, the economy's headed over a cliff, we're likely to start seeing higher grocery prices and even food shortages (not counting eggs, already scrambled by bird flu) before Thanksgiving, and the GOP is making sure...we're safe from rainbows and congruent IDs?

     Boy, what a relief.  Who cares about a depression, as long as those multi-colored demons are kept at bay!  Bonus: an Indianapolis church thinks our government isn't doing enough: the church says they ought to be executing LGBT people.

     We're all in the hands of murderous fools.  As Roberts Rules of Order reminds us, silence is consent, and I'm not agreeing to this kind of craziness.  Look, I want people to dress modestly and keep their windowshades down, but I'm not the boss of them, their tattoos, or what consenting adult(s) they fall in love with.
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* Leaving physically intersex people, a group only slightly less common than natural redheads, at the mercy of the attending physician's best guess.  Sure hope they got it right!

A Waste Of Ink And Electrons

     Over the last two days, news media have made very very sure -- to the point of program interrupting news bulletins for one of 'em -- that I was aware how the criminal trial of Sean "I have an enormous number of nicknames" Combs came out, and that another group of Men With A Theory are launching a brand new search for the remains of Amelia Earhart, Fred Noonan and their airplane.

     Precisely why I should be concerned about the unsavory and at least partially criminal sex life of a celebrity -- a thing as statistically predictable as the sun rising in the east for as long as there have been celebrities -- and one more search for a lost aviator (she's dead, guys, and so is he) is a mystery to me.  There's a huge, tragic mess in Gaza, Iran may or may not presently have a viable nuclear weapons program,* U. S. domestic politics are getting crazier, our government is building straight-up concentration camps and treating one of the most outrageous examples as a no-humans-involved occasion for levity and Congress is in the process of pushing through a massively unpopular bill that is certain to have far-reaching effects, but I need to be told about the titillating details of what the rich and famous get up to behind closed doors, and that the sons and grandsons of the same kinds of men who misplaced her are going to go digging for whatever's left of a famous aviator and her slightly less famous crewman?

     No.  I do not.  There's actual serious grownup news to be reported and it would be damned nice if they'd act like it.

     I'm not holding my breath.
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* Fission, fusion, or--  One of the things that frets me is that a desperate and fanatical government with a smashed-up atom-bomb program probably still has loads and loads of nasty stuff with a long half-life, and a dusting of that on enemy territory does both immediate and lasting harm.  Dust and wind being what they are, most nations won't risk the fallout (other than as an add-on oopsie to actual nuclear war, at least).  Iran, however, is not most nations, and they have a history of funding groups even more heedless of consequences.

The Big Fugly

     I admit it.  I've been watching the progress of the so-called "Big Beautiful Bill" through Congress with bated breath and growing horror.

     It's an exercise in geeking, in the flexing of Presidential authority expressed as the "Leader Principle:* can the Executive chivvy both houses of Congress into biting off the head of a live chicken? 

     So far, the answer is yes, barely.  For both Dems and the GOP, there's a lot not to like in this bill, from the predictable scale-back (and outright elimination) of Federal services and funding predictably opposed by Democrats to massive increases in Federal spending and a mushrooming of the Federal debt and deficit that ought to give pause to any red-blooded Republican -- but only a handful of fiscal hawks on that side of the aisle appear to have noticed.  By shoving millions of voters off Medicare, it has produced a ticking time-bomb for mid-term elections, and many of the more obscure provisions of this over-900-page monster are likely to have similar effects on voters and their votes.

     The Senate-amended bill has now lurched back to the House, where the earlier version passed by a narrow margin.  Cut in places the junior body had expanded it, puffed up where they had trimmed, it's an open question if it's still got the votes -- but the Chief Executive, who is by explicit Constitutional structure not the boss of them, is cracking the whip just offstage, and Speaker Johnson is only too happy to perform on command.  Will his fractious body of Representatives go along?

     I'd like to tell you no.  I'd like to say they're on the whole too proud and too committed to their various individual principles to bend the knee.  But I doubt that's true.  Heads in the hog trough, a hand out for handouts and only too aware of Mr. Trump's willingness to primary any Congressperson who won't bend to his will, the House may squeal but I have little confidence enough of them will stand fast.

     The Legislative Branch is choosing to sow the wind.  The midterm results are likely to blow -- if the economy or voter reaction doesn't turn stormy even earlier.
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* The term sounds a lot zippier in the original German.

At A Loss For Words

     Between Friday's batch of Supreme Court decisions and the likely passage of the unpopular, so-called "Big Beautiful Bill," I'm not sure what to say.  They amount to Enabling Acts for authoritarianism, an accretion of power to the office of the President that bodes only ill for the American experiment in self-government.

     Many of the people I most expected to react negatively to such a development are instead cheering it on.  I've been treated to amazingly unmoored nonsense in unpublished comments, notions not just unsupported by but refuted by observable events.

     Republican politicians, the President in particular, are behaving as if they will never leave office, as if their party will always be in the majority.  In a functioning Constitutional democracy (using the latter term loosely), turnover is likely; any power one party has granted to officeholders will be available to their successors, even if they're from a different party.  The conclusion is obvious.

     Most members of the House and Senate appear to be quite comfortable with this state of affairs, nearly every Republican and an apparent plurality if not outright majority of Democrats.  Polls of likely voters show the opposite.  You'd think that would be a warning flag for men and women who depend on winning open elections, and yet their behavior indicates it is not.  Once again, the conclusion's clear.

     I don't know what to say.  I've been jumping up and down, pointing out storm clouds on the horizon, lightning, walls of rain and tornado funnels, and a lot of people just smile and tell me we ain't never been wiped off the map before, so why worry now?  Congress is getting rich playing the stock market while the President is selling tchotchkes and memecoins and U.S. citizenship, playing with tariffs like a child smashing toy trains; the Administration is back to insisting on "official truth" at odds with objective reality and the Constitution is slowly crumbling under the weight of "Christian Nationalism," authoritarianism and kleptocracy.  The people who ought to care about it and are in a position to take immediate action, judges and legislators, are smiling and nodding like a heroin addict right after a big hit.

     I am without hope for our country's future.

It's Alan Turing's Birthday

     It's Turing's birthday, a day to remember that the brilliant mathematician and computer theorist was an enormous part of the UK's early lead in developing computers -- until he ran afoul of laws criminalizing private sexual behavior.  Turing was gay, at a time when same-sex acts were illegal, and after arrest, trial and conviction, he lost his security clearance and was effectively unemployable in cutting-edge work.  Subjected to harsh and unusual treatment that sidelined his solo efforts, he is believed to have committed suicide.

     Approve, disapprove or ignore his affectional leanings as you wish, but bear in mind the cost to free individuals and to society in general when prejudice is made law.

Congress Keeps Stepping Back

      The Framers of the U. S. Constitution thought Congress would be where the action was; that the numerous Representatives and august Senators would serve as a check on one another and, protective of their power and mindful of their responsibilities to their constituents, as a check on the Executive Branch and careful gatekeepers of the federal judiciary.

     Congress has never done an outstanding job of living up to this expectation, but historically, they've done about as well as we might expect of ordinary men (and a few women).  Through my lifetime, they've increasingly taken up the habit of handing power over to the Executive whenever they found the exercise of it inconvenient, had a majority of the same party as the President or wanted to dodge the blame if things didn't work out.

     The most recent piece of authoritarian backsliding comes from the House, at the hands of South Carolina's Nancy Mace and Brandon Gill of Texas.  Mace and Gill* want to give the Attorney General the power to deem any city "lawless" if it meets any of a vaguely-defined set of criteria, and to rinse away† federal funding to any not-so-fresh city so labelled for up to 180 days.

     You probably know what feedback is -- that howl that sometimes arises in a PA system when the microphone is taken in front of the speakers, growing louder and sharper until someone relocates or turns off the mike.  That's positive feedback.  Negative feedback works the other way, damping down distortion; in electronics, it's how we stabilize amplifiers and limit their gain.  Too much can be a problem; it's got to be set just right.  When legislators try social engineering via laws, that's a kind of feedback.  It's got to be just enough to accomplish the goal -- and it had better not be positive feedback, or it will only make the the problem worse.

     The news release for the bill specifically mentions Los Angeles, where four square blocks of downtown have seen both peaceful protest and violence over the last few days, where 4,000 federalized California Guard members have been sent in -- without, so far, pay or provisions -- to protect federal buildings and some employees and where some 700 U. S. Marines have been dispatched to do something -- DoD hasn't been forthcoming about their exact mission.

     I wondered just what federal funding Los Angles might be receiving now, and for what purpose?  Was it, perhaps, paying a plushy addendum to the Mayor's salary?  Supporting a den of fatcat politicians?  Imagine my surprise to read the city "receives federal funding for a wide range of programs, including transportation, housing, community development, and public safety," and, under the American Rescue Plan, funding to "support initiatives like housing and homelessness services, community development, and justice diversion programs. Federal grants also contribute to infrastructure improvements and social services."  In short, it goes to programs intended to reduce lawlessness across a wide range of situations and behaviors, everything from police to getting the homeless off the streets.  Cutting the money for that in response to a determination that a city had become lawless is positive feedback!

     It's a bad bill.  It surrenders yet more power from the Legislative Branch to the Executive -- and sets up the exercise of that power in a way that makes the problem it purports to address even worse.
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* Make of that what you will.
 
† I certainly did.

Predictably...

     A few innumerate folks have written to tell me that nuh-unh, most American citizens really do want ICE raids and federal response to protests against them.

     So let's run the numbers.  64% turnout in 2024, so 36% of possible voters picked None Of The Above, or at least didn't care enough to vote.  The remainder and a bit of math gives us 30.9% of possible voters for Harris, 31.8% for Trump and 1.3% for someone else.  That's 31.8% of possible voters who wanted Mr. Trump badly enough to go vote for him -- and 68.2% of them who did not.

     This is a close match to a President whose favorability scores run in the 40s.  Which they do, and were falling the last time I checked.

     Sure, a lot of people aren't upset enough to go marching and waving signs, and even fewer are so mad they'll set cars on fire or throw things at well-armed police.  But don't for a minute confuse that with enthusiasm for oppression or masked federal agents staging raids on people showing up for immigration hearings or hanging around big-box building-supply stores hoping to pick up work.  It's not popular -- and will get less so as the high-effort, low-paid jobs that keep us fed and housed increasingly go unfilled.

     My suspicion is that these chickens will come home to roost in the midterms, and the Trumpists in office and holding Administration jobs will cry foul when their numbers shrink.  The only question is how bad the rout will be -- and if the opposition party (parties?) can come up with a clear counter-message of their own in the meantime.  California's Governor Gavin Newsom, who was trying pretty hard to hunt with the hounds and run with the hares at the same time, is presently learning a painful lesson about carrying a scorpion across a river, but will it stick? 

You Voted For This

      Stock-market volatility; the CDC's entire vaccine advisory board removed despite RFK, Jr's promise to Congress not to do so; ICE raids in Los Angeles (and elsewhere) that triggered protests (also in LA and elsewhere), protests that periodically flare up into violence, and the violence in LA has resulted in 4,700 federal troops being sent in, despite LA and California officials saying they had the situation under control.  California is suing the federal government: 4,000 of the soldiers are California National Guard members, and there's a difference of opinion over the legality of federalizing them in this manner.

     Meanwhile, at least two foreign journalists covering the mess in LA have been hit by "less-lethal" fire, and if you're in the few blocks where law enforcement, ICE agents and protesters clash, it looks pretty bad even before it turns physical.  (Elsewhere in the sprawling city, it's life as usual, which seems to be a surprise to some commentators.  There are ten million people in LA County, compared to almost seven million in, say, all of Indiana or Tennessee: there's a lot of room for life-goes-on. We only see what the cameras are pointed at.)

     American voters chose this, 49.8% to (at least) 48.3.  (Yes, yes, only the electoral college votes matter, and that was more lopsided, call it 58%.).  In LA County alone, out of 3.7 million votes,* 1.2 million went to the Republican Presidential candidate.  They voted for this, and I hope they don't have urgent business near the protests.

     Vote for blood, expect blood.  Still think it was a good idea?
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* 37% turnout?  An estimated 17% of LA County residents are non-citizens.  That leaves 46% sitting on their hands come Election Day, and compares very unfavorably to a national turnout of almost 64%.  If you worry that a few high-population states dominate elections, I guess LA's got your back.