Monthly Archives: June 2021

Point of View Columns

Not with a Bang, Not with a Whimper, But with a Whine

Apocalyptic predictions are usually dismissed because of the inherent societal belief that things can never really get that bad – until they do. Predictions of the absolute collapse of civilization as it had been known prior to the actual Inquisition in Spain, or the Reign of Terror in France or the Holocaust in Germany or the arrival of Europeans in what is now North America had one thing in common – not enough people ever believed that things could get that bad – until it was too late.

It may be that this country has arrived at an inflection point where the combined currents of racism, bigotry, xenophobia and white supremacy have combined to actually transform these United States into a citadel where the advocates of these miseries and live and thrive and prosper. So it is important to understand that these times are different from any other time in American history.

There are two distinct events where the American story could have simply unraveled. During the Constitutional Convention of 1787 the inevitability of a United States of America was not apparent and walkout threats by various delegates were real. Hence the major compromises – including slavery – that were embedded into the Constitution.

Of course the Civil War, absent some tactical genius and blunders at Gettysburg, could very well have resulted in the permanent establishment of two nations. It should be noted, that the principal issue of slavery was cause for war. It could be argued that there were no fundamental differences with respect to government itself.

Today we are in a very different place. The (virtually all-white) Republican Party is clearly intent on codifying white minority rule in the United States. Through its Supreme Court majority, gerrymandering, control of state legislatures, voter suppression and 50 United States Senators (who represent 38% of the American population), the Republicans are hell-bent on actually disenfranchising the non-white segment of America.

This is not being done surreptitiously. This is not being done in the dead of night. It is happening live and in color for all the world to see. And what we all see is the very real possibility that the basic concept of democracy and full participation in government could simply expire like the passenger pigeon or the dodo bird. Indeed, American democracy could end up in a museum with very few visitors and limited visiting hours.

There are over forty states that are either enacting or contemplating draconian measures that will result in the nullification of nonwhite votes for at least a generation. The results of these measures will almost certainly result in the Republican control of the House and the Senate in 2022 with a clear pathway for the Restoration of Trump in 2024.

And if that seems like a nightmare scenario it is time to wake up and realize that nightmares can come true.

And it is time to abandon the belief that things can’t really get that bad.  They really are that bad and they are about to get worse.

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Point of View Columns

Why the Juneteenth Holiday is a Clear and Present Danger

It should go without saying, but in these days and times it must be said, the establishment of the Juneteenth federal holiday is a good and great thing. It is good because every time that this nation inches towards full recognition of the humanity of Black Americans, there remains a possibility that the aspirations set forth in its origins might actually become a reality in someone’s lifetime.

It is great because President Biden continues to demonstrate that he is not taking the Black vote/support for granted – something that too many other white (and Black) Democrats have not been able to do on a regular basis. While it is true that systemic racism in its many hydra-headed forms continue to exist, it is also true that symbolism can inspire hope and in turn hope can inspire action and action can create change.

Of course there will never be enough outrage that some Republicans will wish to visit on this country, several of the more egregious mouth breathers like Ron Johnson and Ted (Cancun) Cruz have decided that, upon President Biden signing the bill making Juneteenth a federal holiday, it would be a good time to mount a full-throated attack on critical race theory and defend America against attacks on systemic racism.

As it turns out, critical race theory is an academic area of study tracing the continuum of racism in the American legal system. Johnson, Cruz, et. al. have interpreted CRT as an attack on America, American values and apple pie. And they want to ban the teaching of CRT anywhere. And in fanning these fake claims of outrage they have inflamed the hearts and minds of far too many white Americans.

According to Cruz and Johnson and their cohorts, teaching the fact that eight of the first ten presidents of the United States were slaveholders is an attack on American traditions. The fact that emancipation did not end systemic racism in this country should also not be taught at any level – whether K-12 or in colleges and universities (the recent controversy regarding the denial of tenure to Nikole Hannah-Jones by the University of North Carolina is only one outrage).

Indeed, even #45 chimed in claiming that CRT would teach American children to hate this country. Of course this presumes that teaching children to hate racism, to hate slavery, to hate the inhumane treatment of any human beings means that children will hate America.

Clearly the battle to clear, or corral, white supremacy and white supremacist theory (or WST) has been an ongoing struggle. There are too many adherents who believe that the truth about America and race would diminish this country not realizing that virtually every country has an historical past that sheds little honor on that country.

Consider the treatment of serfs, commoners and peasants in England and France for centuries or the intentional starvation of the Irish by the British or the Inquisition in Spain or the naked decadence accompanying the fall of the Roman Empire and the Greek city states. These are all immense national flaws that have been overcome to some significant extent by the citizens and institutions of those countries. Clearly the British and the French and the Greeks and the Italians and the Spanish can handle truth and move on towards making their respective countries better.

Clearly Cruz and Johnson and #45 and so many more don’t believe that the American people can handle the truth and move on to being a better country. And they are doing everything within their power to make this belief the truth.

And it would such a sad commentary on this country if they are right.

And that is why, for too many people, the Juneteenth Holiday, however symbolic, is a clear and present danger to the twin myths of white supremacy and American exceptionalism.

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Point of View Columns

Another Week in the Life of America – 2021

June 3, 2021

Now #45 is going around with the truly bizarre prediction/promise/fantasy that he will be reinstated and installed as president in August of this year. Aside from the fact that there is no constitutional provision that even remotely facilitates such a bizarre turn of events, it is clear that in his desperate desire to maintain some relevancy in the cesspool of irrelevancy that is his life, #45 will try anything.

The sad and dangerous part of this particular scenario is that millions of Americans already believe him and as August approaches we may discover that 1.6.21 was just a dress rehearsal.

June 4, 2021

Just when you thought that things could not get any more bizarre, there was a focus on election season in Mexico. As of this date almost 90 candidates for various offices have been assassinated – sometimes the ubiquitous criminal cartels claimed responsibility, sometimes more nefarious political motives seem to be at play.

The point is, with all the discussion about “Second Amendment” solutions and strategies here in the United States, can it be too farfetched to imagine that grievance-laden members of MAGA Nation, the most heavily armed faction in the United States outside of the military and the police, may decide to take matters into their own rifle sights.

It was approximately a year ago that right wing white supremacists plotted to kill the governor of Michigan. Ever since 1.6.21 there have been countless members of Congress and public officials throughout America have engaged enhanced security details because of the threats and dangers that have been fostered and fertilized by #45 and his enablers and supporters.

June 5, 2021

Carnage in the United States of Gun continues and a federal judge in California says that an AR-15 assault rifle is just like a Swiss Army knife. There has been a record of mass shootings in this country since the beginning of the year and yet this judge, an appointee of President George W. Bush, ruled that California’s ban assault rifles is unconstitutional.

Putting salt in the wounds of all of the families of the victims of gun violence – and pouring gasoline on the firestorm of gun carnage that is sweeping across the nation – this judge actually uttered his Swiss Army knife analogy. Many observers stated that this opinion seemed to have been lifted word for word from a  National Rifle Association list of talking points.

The judge will never meet with the relatives and survivors of gun violence although it would seem that he is insulated from any aspect of compassion or intelligence.

June 6, 2021

Over the weekend it has become clear that the November 3rd election of last year did not result in the election of Joe Biden as president. It appears that Joe Manchin, the senator from the Great State of West Virginia is the head of state because anything and everything that the Biden administration wants to accomplish absolutely must meet with Manchin’s approval.

And now Senator Manchin has announced that he is not going to vote in support of the voting rights reform bill.

So there…and by the way, who actually won the November 2020 election?

June 7, 2021

Democrats are working very hard to find a way to lose the elections in 2022 and 2024 – really. Considering that there is no real argument that the Black vote delivered the White House to the Democratic Party, it would seem that legislation regarding the protection of voting rights and protection from police violence would be “hot knife through butter” tasks.

Yet, this items are caught up in the arcane rules of Congress that are insurmountable except when it comes time for tax breaks for billionaires and Fortune 50 companies. The arithmetic is clear that the Republicans hold a death grip on the putative Democratic majority in the Senate, but the filibuster rule is not written on stone tablets delivered from Stone Mountain in Georgia.

If the urgency of now for Black America means anything, now and in the 2022 and 2024 elections, the Democrats need to find a way.

June 8, 2021

There is a very real opportunity for everyone alive today to be a witness to history being made. Unfortunately, it may not be the best narrative for which anyone could have wished.

But the reality is that by degrading the election process on a national scale, there is a very real possibility that the 2022 and 2024 elections could result in figurative and literal bloodletting as the credibility of the electoral process because Republicans continue to question that credibility.

As has been noted, it is guaranteed that every Republican who loses an election in 2022 will claim fraud – and there is no reason to believe that Democratic losers won’t  also be singing from the same playbook. And there will be enough turmoil and litigation in the two years before the presidential election that once again the Republican/Democratic loser will claim fraud and voter theft and then…and then we will have an opportunity to witness an existential threat to the world’s oldest democracy.

This will be the legacy of #45.

June 9, 2021

The range of possibilities in the Republican journey to the City of Crazy in the Land of Stupid is infinite. Exhibit 278 is the recent pilgrimage of Republican state legislators from all over the United States to visit and observe the voter recount taking place in Arizona.

This November 2020 election vote recount is the most recent of the dozens of recounts that have already taken place all over America – all with the same result…no indication of voter fraud.  Nevertheless, in its infinite wisdom, the Arizona State Legislature instituted a third, and unofficial, audit of the votes cast in November 2020.

A renegade firm by from Florida by the name of Voter Ninja (seriously), with no experience in statewide voter recount, has been conducting a bizarre recounting process including testing ballots for bamboo particles (which would prove that they came from China). Nevertheless, Republicans have been flocking to Arizona to see how they can gum up the electoral works in their respective states.

Once again, there is very little doubt that the 2022 local, state and federal elections will be subject to an unprecedented tsunami of challenges to the outcome of countless races. This will only further erode general confidence in the electoral process, thereby setting the stage for a disastrous 2024 presidential election.

Sometimes great empires end not with a bang, but with a whimper…

June 10, 2021

President Biden is now in Europe – his mission is to clean up the diplomatic and strategic mess that is part of the stained legacy of #45. Given that even a casual observer cannot be clear as to how long common sense will reside in the White House, the six other members of the G7 can be forgiven for their reluctance to fully embrace the notion that “America is back”.

That declaration by President Biden will certainly be met with the understandable – if unspoken- response, “Yes, but for how long”?

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Point of View Columns

The Tulsa Atrocity – What We Don’t Know

On this day, June 1, 2021, Joe Biden became the first United States president to acknowledge the Tulsa race massacre that took place one hundred years ago. It took a century for the head of this state of this country to not only to acknowledge the atrocity of the devastation of Greenwood and the murder of hundreds of its Black residents – in the process he also acknowledged the humanity of Black Americans – an act which has been so very difficult for this country.

The fact that an atrocity of such scope could be hidden from virtually all Americans for most of this past century makes it clear that this country has no moral standing to condemn similar atrocities in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. It is also clear that even as President Biden offered more than condolences – he also made concrete proposals to address the economic disparities that have been the result of the massacre in Tulsa, and in most of these United States.

But the question must be asked – what is it that we don’t know. If the massacre of hundreds of men, women and children and the total devastation of a large and thriving community could literally disappear from national memory, it is impossible to believe that the destruction of Greenwood was an outlier, an anomaly, some kind of unfortunate divergence from decency.

We do know about the race massacres in Rosewood, Florida and in Atlanta – but what about Elaine, Arkansas where 100-237 Black people were massacred by white mobs in 1919. The point is that Black Americans have been experiencing a reign of terror for centuries in this country.

The difference in the modern era is that we don’t see white mobs decimating Black communities, but sadly we see too many out of control white police officers murdering Black men, women and children one by one. In the modern era we don’t see white mobs roaming the streets of Harlem, Bedford Stuyvesant or Compton. What we do see is the systematic and systemic denial of basic human needs – housing, medical care, access to transportation, quality education and clean water.

We do not see the apocalyptic horror of roaming mobs. Instead we see the slow motion decimation of human being, denying the humanity of too many Black men, women and children in the process. And to be clear, it is not only Black Americans who suffer this indignity. And to be clear, it is always Black Americans who are first, last and always the targets and victims of this not so benign neglect.

It is interesting that telling the truth about the experience of Black Americans in this country – also known as Critical Race Theory – is actually against the law in the state of Texas, and we can be sure that other states will follow. It is interesting that too many Americans are comfortable with lies and myths and are adamantly opposed to uncomfortable truths.

Finally, what we do know is that unless and until all Americans confront and address these uncomfortable truths there is zero possibility of this nation ever attaining the ideals that are articulated in its founding documents.

This country simply cannot endure while living a lie.

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