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I’ve been meditating on the editorial by Portland, OR NAACP President E.D. Mondainé in WaPo entitled “Portland’s protests were supposed to be about black lives. Now, they’re white spectacle.” There’s a lot that I perceive to be true in the piece, and yet there’s something I believe Mondainé is missing.

Images of “Naked Athena,” as the protester has been labeled, have gone viral, her unclothed confrontation with police earning her accolades as a brave ally of the cause. But I see something else: a beneficiary of white privilege dancing vainly on a stage that was originally created to raise up the voices of my oppressed brothers and sisters. In this, she is not alone. As the demonstrations continue every night in Portland, many people with their own agendas are co-opting, and distracting attention from, what should be our central concern: the Black Lives Matter movement.

From Feminist News.

It’s my perception that the original struggle of the BLM movement has, as Mondainé suggests, recently been co-opted, but not by Mondainé’s white allies, but by President Trump through the dispatch of anonymized federal officers.

The character of the response is the key feature that changes the situation out of Mondainé’s reckoning, I think. If the officers were wearing normal uniforms and ID and acting as normal law enforcement, I’d agree with Mondainé.

But they’re not. They’re acting, to put it in a simple phrase, as terror troops.

President Trump has proclaimed this a law and order matter, yet the mayor of Portland as well as the governor of Oregon have rejected the troops. These two factors, taken together, has transformed the struggle in Portland from a black civil rights matter into a Trump campaign maneuver, meant to influence the American public against the BLM movement as well as liberals in general.

Every move an adversary makes is potentially an opportunity, and I’m not sure Mondainé understands this.

If we engage them now, we do so on their terms, where they have created the conditions for a war without rules, without accountability and without the protection of our Constitution. This makes me fearful for the safety of everyone demonstrating in Portland. That’s why we need to remember: What is happening in Portland is the fuse of a great, racist backlash that the Trump administration is baiting us to light.

By engaging in what is essentially an immoral act, Trump has left himself vulnerable to a charge of corrupt morals. But, in order to communicate this to Americans from coast to coast, it must be emphasized. In previous struggles, the black community used non-violent confrontations, in which they sacrificed their bodies and, sometimes, their lives, to make the point that the morals to which they adhered were superior to those who beat them – and thereby shamed them.

If Trump’s barbaric attempt to boost his popularity as the elections near is to be rebutted, Americans of all colors who stand against him must rebut his charge vividly. Protests are communications, and communications benefits from contrast.

Terror troops?

Meet the Wall of Moms.

The latter function as a moral authority in a struggle that Trump transformed, but, because the latter occupy the moral high ground, Trump is engaged on the terms chosen by his opposition. The Wall of Moms shame his troops, through their peaceful protest and their position in society, which exists regardless of community.

Mothers are the sacrosanct source of peace.

Mondainé may wish to withdraw from the streets:

We cannot fall for their deception. We cannot settle for spectacles that endanger us all. This is a moment for serious action — to once again take up the mantle of the civil rights era by summoning the same conviction and determination our forebears did. We welcome our white brothers and sisters in this struggle. In fact, we need them. But I must ask them to remain humbly attuned to the opportunity of this moment — and to reflect on whether any actions they take will truly help establish justice, or whether they are simply for show.

Thursday night, I will lead a rally in downtown Portland to refocus public attention where it belongs: on redeeming a guilty nation. But recent events might be a sign that our work in the streets should be coming to an end.

But how will an American independent perceive that action? As the opposition being run off by the Federal troops, unwilling to put up or shut up? The independents hold political power in their collective hands. It seems to me that communicating that the protesters are willing to peacefully protest even in the teeth of barbarity will be more convincing than evacuating the streets.

Letting Trump’s terror troops prove their own depravity in a nation where votes will decide the future of this country only benefit BLM.

I think.

These state GOP officials who think the election’s in the bag are looking worse and worse, at least according to Fox News:

The other states Fox News polled are equally discouraging for Trump and his supporters. In the previous post I suggested a 10 point victory for Biden (and Senator Smith, up for reelection after winning the 2018 special election by 10+ points against a credible opponent with a famous hockey name known state-wide) was not an unreasonable expectation this November.

I may have been a trifle conservative.

There’s still a lot of time for Biden to step in a hole, or for Trump to suddenly start doing his job. But given his propensity of hiring sycophants who are not qualified for their jobs – and that’s a large part of any President’s job description – I don’t expect President Trump to turn it around through sudden competency.

Instead, he’ll try to stir the pot, and I hope that America continues to be a place of smarter and smarter citizens. I hope and believe they’ve learned not to take President Trump at face value, but instead investigate, not to take right-wing media “facts” on faith without checks, and not to jump and run on command.

And keep holding our breath that Trump doesn’t do much more damage than he’s already accomplished.

Pharrell William’s Freedom:

After a day of attending to personal matters, with the background worries about the pandemic, the racial justice vs President Trump tragedy, and wondering how to rescue those who, despite all the evidence of his vast incompetence, are still Trump supporters from their terrible misjudgment – yes, I know, that’s terribly arrogant – I found myself remembering this video. Yes, it’s years old, maybe everyone’s seen it, but it has a life and vividness and even droll humor that reminds me that hope can still be right around the corner.

Sure, his Happy video is fun as well, but I think the overt seriousness of Freedom makes it more memorable, and more apropos of the times.

Prelapsarian:

characteristic of or belonging to the time or state before the fall of humankind [Merriam-Webster]

Noted in “The Curious Case of the Electrified Épée,” Michael Farber, SI.com:

Sandy Kerekes is 95. Over a Wiener schnitzel lunch at Foyer Hongrois in early March, a Hungarian seniors residence on the edge of downtown Montreal, he says he sometimes still dreams about [Boris] Onischenko. Kerekes was nurtured in a prelapsarian sporting world and believes athletic competition—especially his sport—is meaningless if devoid of honor. Once Onischenko made the conscious decision to cheat, Kerekes says, “There were two ways for this to end. He could get caught. Or if he didn’t get caught and won, he would’ve been a total goddamn heel in his own head. This would have represented a downfall of a human mind. He would have lost his honor even if he would’ve been a hero for society and history.”

There’s an inherent difference in being the best and being a champion. The latter is just a guy with a trophy. Being the best, well, unless it’s best at cheating, it means something.

Getting back to the situation of having only a few massive slaughterhouses, with work forces vulnerable to Covid-19, and the problems of centralizing capacity in a few huge companies (starts here, last here), I see that the venerable Bruce Schneier is of the same mind, albeit coming at it from his famous perch as a computer security expert:

First, we need to enforce antitrust laws. Our meat supply chain is brittle because there are limited numbers of massive meatpacking plants — now disease factories — rather than lots of smaller slaughterhouses. Our retail supply chain is brittle because a few national companies and websites dominate. We need multiple companies offering alternatives to a single product or service. We need more competition, more niche players. We need more local companies, more domestic corporate players, and diversity in our international suppliers. Competition provides all of that, while monopolies suck that out of the system.

I cannot agree more. It’s not hard to draw an analogy between a market with many small and competing suppliers and the Internet itself, which is itself composed of interlinking subnets, potentially of different types of networks. This flexibility was designed into the Internet by the original designers, and there’s something to be learned there. Contrariwise, a network confined to a single platform type is a monoculture, which is a huge security risk, since a platform with a security hole means all of the instances of that platform has the hole, until it’s patched.

And patching’s usually a ragged, even irresponsibly managed, process.

It’s important to realize that the libertarians will tell you that our current situation of a few big companies is self-correcting. As the big boys become fat and sloppy, new competitors armed with new technology, processes, and business models will come in and knock over the current kings. They’ll have examples to show that it happens.

And sometimes it does.

But, as tempting as that model is for the government hater and, incidentally, the computer programmer who sees human interference in their programs and systems as loathesome^[1], a few examples do not prove the case for the whole. Indeed, some potential examples, such as Amazon knocking over Barnes & Noble (increasingly irrelevant) and Borders (bankrupt), has resulted in exactly the opposite: concentration of the market in the hands of the few. Or one. To bring in some thoughts from the investing community, part of the calculation of a new competitor making good, and thus being a good investment, depends on the size of the moat, which is the amount of investment needed to compete, plus the critical intellectual properties owned by the current winners. A big moat has an inverse correlation with changes of success for the new competitor – and moats are often big, and manipulable into becoming artificially bigger.

I look forward to learning if Schneier will be, or has already, critiqued free trade in general.

(h/t CT)

¹ Interference, as in adjustments, restarts, corrections of corrupt data. These all hint at imperfections in the program for the naive software engineer who is prone to an almost-religious devotion to their craft – I’ve known a few. Then they look at the economy and capitalism and see government regulation as an opportunity for corruption, and seek to prove it’s unneeded. Someone should write a book, Government Regulation For The Software Engineer: Why It’s Needed.

All those paths in gardens you see in shows, so well kept and peaceful.

Bullshit.

Which reminds me I should go weeding right now. Tomorrow and the weekend are supposed to be fairly miserable around here.

An impressive résumé and introduction, even if you don’t live in Louisiana.

I’m running for United States Senate because Louisiana and our country are at a crossroads, and Washington’s political games are only making us sick. It’s time to take a new road, and I hope you’ll join me: https://t.co/lI336iVf9K #lasen #lagov pic.twitter.com/G4sxAWS7J4

— Adrian Perkins (@PerkinsforLA) July 22, 2020

I think this is effective. It doesn’t attack any of his opponents, it presents himself as a highly competent and effective person who has experience as the public service bug. That’s the first step to getting elected. The Republican incumbent, Bill Cassidy, is running for reelection, and it’s worth remembering this:

Cassidy was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2014, defeating incumbent Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and becoming the first Republican to hold the seat since 1883. [Ballotpedia]

If Perkins makes it out of the primary – and it appears to be a jungle primary – he may be a more formidable opponent than Cassidy is expecting in the current political climate.

Meet Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis:

No Democrat should EVER AGAIN be elected in the United States in any capacity. The government’s constitutional obligation is to preserve and protect OUR rights, not to preserve and protect their own power. They are willing to sacrifice America and our freedom and liberty. NO!!!

— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) July 23, 2020

Not a bad effort.

Even a relatively sane Republican such as Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) is puzzled concerning the flaming crash his political party is committing, as he explains in an interview with the Deseret News:

Sen. Mitt Romney says he doesn’t know where the Republican Party is headed as the president cozies up to dictators, and character doesn’t seem to matter in leaders anymore. …

Romney said Republicans were once insistent on reducing the national debt, but that doesn’t seem to be a priority anymore. Character, he said, used to be a critical element in selecting leaders but isn’t talked about in clear ways these days.

“I don’t know where my party goes,” Romney said. “I have to be honest with you in that regard.”

Even Romney suffers from the philosophical ills of living in the epistemic bubble. I’m not going to go into the structural troubles of the Republican Party, as I’m sure my regular readers’ eyes are starting to burn from the repetition. But I’ll say this to the puzzled Senator:

1. Examine the philosophy of how the party is run, every tenet, every guideline. Nothing is holy.
2. Quit believing the opposition is the enemy, they’re just friends with different views.
3. Acquire some political friends from outside the bubble and have sober, serious discussions with them. They will see things not apparent from within the bubble.
4. Talk to apostates! Maybe the most important thing Romney can do.
5. Put facts and truth first, not the comfort – emotional or religious – of the base. If they all want to head south, but the best direction is north, tell them so and start marching! And teach them that facts come first. Religious fervor has turned out to be one of the rocks of doom, so get rid of it.
6. Be uncertain. That’s the basis of true governance.

These are just some of the things that Romney and like-minded colleagues must do if they’re not going to rebuild a clone with the same destiny after the current Republican Party self-destructs.

Will they? I’m sure there will be a lot of screaming over all of the above and more. For example, the tenet of Winning at all costs seems like a great tenet, but it’s led to self-destructive primaries and campaign mendacity of staggering proportions. Or Ideology above all, another one that seems like a good idea, has led to a host of third and fourth raters occupying important positions – such as host of governor’s seats.

OK, I promised not to delve into old topics, and so I apologize. But Romney, et al, have to get this right. Not for the sake of their party, but for the sake of the nation.

And now President Trump joins his faithful band of minions in yelling at Rep Cheney (R-WY):

Liz Cheney is only upset because I have been actively getting our great and beautiful Country out of the ridiculous and costly Endless Wars. I am also making our so-called allies pay tens of billions of dollars in delinquent military costs. They must, at least, treat us fairly!!!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 23, 2020

Rep Cheney has notably hawkish views, not unlike her father, former VP Dick Cheney (R-WY), while President Trump is fairly allergic to foreign military adventures.

That is a subject for another time: some such ventures are foolish, and some are important and beneficial. I am not an Isolationist. I will only note that President Trump sees these ventures in monetary terms, and appears incapable of strategic thinking, as do many of those in his Administration.

My real point is that the Amateur-in-Chief, recognizing a philosophical threat to what has become a primary Republican Party religious tenet, amateurism, has now joined in chasing out the rascal. If Rep Cheney apologizes or changes her tune, she may be allowed to remain in the Party.

Otherwise, she’ll become, at best, a ragtag relation. Maybe an independent. And, right now, she’s #3 in the GOP House hierarchy. No one but the President is immune to this grim treatment.

Meanwhile, one of the RINOers will get her post, or at least move up onto the leadership ladder, if she’s thrust out into the cold. Probably Gaetz, given his high profile roles in past debacles, who’ll be showered with praise by Trump.

And this is what happens when religious parties encounter deviancy from the core teachings.

Coruscating:

literary
flashing brightly

formal
extremely intelligent and exciting or humorous:
He’s known for his coruscating wit. [Cambridge Dictionary]

Noted in “The Lincoln Project understands that Trump’s enablers must pay a price,” Max Boot, WaPo:

In fact, the Lincoln Project’s founders have impeccable Republican credentials, but they are thoroughly disenchanted with the Party of Trump. One of the consultants affiliated with the Lincoln Project — Stuart Stevens — has written a forthcoming book called “It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump” that explains in coruscating and compelling terms why he is done with a party he has served his whole life. Steven has run numerous GOP campaigns; he was Mitt Romney’s chief strategist in 2012. Yet he makes no attempt to paint Trump as an aberration. Rather, he sees the president as the distillation of decades of GOP dogma.

I’m getting awfully damn bored of talking about it, but this map from Global Epidemics is a compelling illustration of those governors, celebrated just weeks ago in the right wing media, who have turned out to be terribly incompetent:

DeSantis of Florida, Ivey of Alabama, Kemp of Georgia. Abbott of Texas is looking worse. These are all Republicans. Louisiana’s governor is Democrat John Bel Edwards, and they’re not doing well at all, either. I have not heard what’s gone wrong for them. He’s a disappointment, as he’s a professional politician, which may sound like Hell to some folks, but bespeaks experience and even training (he’s a lawyer).

And, yes, parts of California also look bad. Governor Newsom (D) got off to a great start, but either he reopened too aggressively, or the people aren’t paying attention.

Here’s the link. It updates with new data, so your experience may vary from the above.

I cannot help but compare these two statements concerning Joe Biden by Republicans, and a comment on the Republicans by, ah, a Republican. Here’s those two on Biden:

“Joe Biden thinks he’s the heir apparent to Obama’s failed legacy, but let’s be frank — Obama can’t save his anemic presidential campaign,” said Trump campaign spokesman Ken Farnaso. “Make no mistake, since 2015, the political class and their partners in the media have consistently underestimated the connection between President Trump and everyday American families.”

Sam Nunberg, a former adviser to Trump, said that highlighting Obama could remind some voters why they backed Trump in the first place. “He is somebody who is not viewed as a competent president vis-a-vis the economy, the military and foreign policy,” Nunberg said of Obama. “That said, it would be better if he was not on the scene. . . . Trump’s reelection campaign was always going to have to have the most popular politician campaigning against him.” [WaPo]

Pushing personal opinion as fact when it comes to the other party is one thing. Pushing, again, personal opinion as fact when it comes to your own party is quite a different thing:

From Buzzfeed:

The Department of Homeland Security’s response to anti–police brutality protests in Portland, Oregon, has disturbed and angered many employees, who called the deployment of the federal force an unusual maneuver that could do long-term damage to the agency’s reputation. …

But conversations with 17 DHS employees, all of whom requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, reveal that many at the agency disagree with the show of force. Some called for an investigation, while others said they feared the long-term consequences for the agency’s reputation.

“Despite working at DHS, I watch and learn about every day’s new descent into lawlessness and authoritarianism just like the rest of the world,” one employee said. “Being a part of this corrupt regime, even as I play no role in the decision-making process, leaves me disgusted by my employer and saddened for my country.” …

Another DHS employee said they’d never seen anything like what’s happening in Portland in their many years at the agency.

“We have a lot of work ahead in terms of repairing the public’s trust,” the employee said.

Repair? Repair?

I don’t think this is the sort of damage that can be repaired. I think you fire everyone at the agencies involved, and then rebuild from the ground up. Each employee is responsible to the American public for their behavior, and this behavior, of anonymous officers playing catch and release with peaceful protesters, is not acceptable. That means that not only is the leadership that didn’t resign when directed to organize this debacle responsible, it means all the officers who went trotting out to harass citizens also deserve to be fired.

At least this employee gets it:

“I did not sign up nor was I trained to be a street cop,” said one DHS employee who had not been deployed but had reservations of others being sent there. “Civil societies have immigration laws that need to be enforced, but that does not mean we should be used as this delusional president’s personal attack dog just because we happen to be available.”

Now they need to act on it.

We had a minor storm a few days ago, and I trotted out to interview the victims.

Verticle:

Noun
(plural verticles)

An axis or hinge; a turning point.
Origin
Latin verticula a joint. [YourDictionary]

Noted while researching a possible typo in a grammar post. I do not believe “|” is a “verticle bar”, but a “vertical bar.”

Rep Liz Cheney (R-WY), Conference Chair (#3 position in the GOP House Leadership) and, of course, a legislator with far right credentials and a former VP for a Dad, has to deal with some hyenas:

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., on Tuesday faced down a group of GOP Freedom Caucus critics who complained about her public support for Dr. Anthony Fauci and her support for Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie’s primary opponent.

Cheney, chair of the House GOP Conference, defended Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, during a closed-door conference meeting, according to a source familiar with her remarks.

On May 12, Cheney tweeted: “Dr. Fauci is one of the finest public servants we have ever had. He is not a partisan. His only interest is saving lives. We need his expertise and his judgment to defeat this virus. All Americans should be thanking him. Every day.” [NBC News]

Rep Gaetz studying a script for his bit part in Endgame. He’ll be playing a dead body.

Rep Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who should surely be acting in community theater rather than wasting his time in the House of Representatives, doesn’t seem repentant:

Liz Cheney has worked behind the scenes (and now in public) against @realDonaldTrump and his agenda.

House Republicans deserve better as our Conference Chair.

Liz Cheney should step down or be removed. #MAGA

— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) July 21, 2020

Steve Benen marvels:

In other words, while going after Cheney for failing to toe a pro-Trump line to their satisfaction, these far-right lawmakers pointed to an instance in which Cheney and Trump were aligned.

And while all of this internecine drama is interesting on its own — it’s not common for House Republicans to go after one of their own far-right leaders like this — let’s not miss the forest for the trees. Fifteen weeks from Election Day, Republicans have no platform, no policy agenda, no coherent vision, and no accomplishments to run on. They’re behind in the polls, facing poor odds, and confronting the possibility of a Democratic sweep.

It’s against this backdrop that several House GOP members are focusing their criticisms on one of their own leaders, who doesn’t appear to have done anything especially notable to earn their ire.

But I think Benen misses the key point: Cheney endorsed an expert. Remember, the Republicans, and especially the Freedom Caucus Tea Party members, can’t stand experts, because they might say something that infringes of their absolute freedoms.

Yeah.

Cheney spat right in the Holy Water of the Freedom Caucus, and it’s no surprise that Gaetz, et al, jumped in outrage.

From OnTheIssues.

I wonder how much longer Cheney, who’s otherwise a far right conservative, will remain in the Republican Party? It must be galling to discover your supposed ideological bedmates are actually mad as hatters. Or is she just hooked on the power and will overlook their, ah, warts?

And for Gaetz, et al, is this just squalling at the blasphemy, or is this also a RINO attempt, a chance to move up the political ladder?

In view of our dumpster fire of a Presidency, I think the high school of tomorrow should include a class named

Corruption and How To Prevent It: Ethics & Processes.

Because this is just downright silly. Even pathetic.

On Lawfare Princeton’s Keith Whittington wants to modify the Presidential Pardon Power, but is a little shy of prescriptions:

I’ve been speculating on how international trade will change in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and international shutdown, and WaPo provides some more information, this time from Japan, on how they are beginning to adapt to the newly recognized realities of supply chains sometimes being a step too long:

Video from yesterday’s, I presume, Portland Mom’s protest:

Along with his allies. NBC News reports:

So many words, so many fucking bigly words.

The American Civil Liberties Union and a law firm on Monday filed a legal challenge to the recent imprisonment of Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney.

The groups argue that Cohen was sent back to prison this month after being released on home confinement in retaliation for his plans to release a negative book about Trump before the November election.

“He is being held in retaliation for his protected speech, including drafting a book manuscript that is critical of the President — and recently making public his intention to publish that book soon, shortly before the upcoming election,” lawyers on behalf of Cohen wrote in Monday’s lawsuit.

Yep, the emblematic lefty organization, the American Civil Liberties Union, doing work for former Trump fixer and lawyer Michael Cohen.

This is what it means to have ethics, Mr. Trump.

And while the book probably won’t be published in time to influence the election, unless Cohen’s a fast writer or he has a ghostwriter, it’ll be another enlightening look at the guy that evangelicals think is just toothsome.

Sorry. Feeling a bit bitter today after the Portland mess.

The Portland, Oregon debacle, in which anonymous Federal officers are randomly arresting peaceful protesters, holding them for a few hours, and then releasing them – while sometimes putting black bags over their heads – is appallingly reminiscent of other incidents of barbarism in recent American history. I speak, of course, of the incidents of torture during the Iraq occupation, undertaken as Americans faced IEDs and other resistance, as well as pressure to find Saddam Hussein. Black hooded men, forced into pressure positions, or water-boarded, all while American politicians pettily argued whether particular interrogation techniques were torture, was a black blot on American honor. The references are unmistakable.

A scene from a John Lewis retrospective. I can only guess that is actually Lewis submitting to the policeman’s baton.

Fortunately, Americans, properly informed, are not snowflakes. We have many examples of meeting barbarity head-on, as the tragic passing of civil rights titan Rep John Lewis reminds us. The barbarity of the right-fringe currently in power, so long as it’s met as peacefully as possible, will discredit itself, its progenitors, and its agents so thoroughly that only in their own minds will they consider themselves justified or honorable. These folks are certainly full of spunk.

It’s not too soon to offer analyses of the pathological currents in society that has led to these contretemps.

First up is an old theme for this blog: the mistaken belief that amateurism is good in critical affairs. Amateurs are great in many things, even indispensable in such non-critical pursuits as astronomy, but I’d never want one to fix my car, eh? Similarly, letting amateurs at the controls of government will lead us towards the cliffs of doom – as we’re seeing now.

Second, recklessly attempting to import the processes of the private sector into the public sector, along with people whose vision is limited to private sector practices, leads to events which are ineffective and even corrupt in the public sector, but if they’re not in the private sector, well, those people don’t even get it. For them, if it worked over here, surely it will work over there. Multiple reports exist of elements of the Federal response to the pandemic being approached in just this manner – and we can see the results from here. It’s a fiasco.

Third, the ceaseless rattle of religion within the GOP. There was a reason the Johnson Amendment was made into law so many years ago. It traded tax-exempt status for the various churches which promised not to preach concerning politics, and it was important because houses of worship inject an element of absolutism into a political world, whose nature during successful times is marked by compromise – anathema to the blindly religious and their leaders. When one religion or another is in control, they employ unrebuttable, yet ludicrous, arguments to bolster their positions, no matter how nutty – and, for those who don’t submit, they threaten terrible, if imaginary, divine punishment – and sometimes physical punishments as well. As Barry Goldwater noted long ago,

Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know, I’ve tried to deal with them.

The deadly combination of certainty of Divine intentions, no-nothingism and its concomitant disdain for experts and knowledge, and all the general arrogance that goes along with it has proven fatal to the Republican Party’s ambition to be a governing Party. They cannot compromise, as Goldwater noted, and when corruption grips the upper reaches, there is no process for eliminating the pus that is Trump and his Evangelical Advisory Board.

Who are the latter? It’s surprising difficult to find out the current list of members. I see former Rep Michele Bachmann (R-MN) was at least once on the board, and having watched her pronouncements on high, I would not want her to be in a position of advising the President. My Arts Editor, a former Baptist, remarked during research that they seemed to be mostly “prosperity megachurch” pastors, which makes sense: the celebration of money is a mark of corruption.

But here’s Paul Brandeis Raushenbush of Auburn Seminary, relaying the judgment of Dr. Robert Jones, in reaction to the Charlottesville riots earlier in the Trump Presidency:

One person who isn’t surprised is Dr. Robert Jones, CEO of  the polling and research firm PRRI and whose book The End of White Christian America is crucial reading for understanding the reaction of White Evangelicals to this President.  Jones told Voices:

“With regard to Trump’s evangelical advisory committee, the views he espoused this week are consistent with views he expressed in the campaign. So the evangelicals on his advisory committee knew this was the president they were agreeing to serve. And like most things in the Trump orbit, the committee is mostly setup to be a Trump fan club rather than a committee that broadly represents the major entities in the evangelical world.

Also note: Given white evangelicals’ own checkered past supporting segregation and remaining silent about white supremacy groups (something I covered in my book), there may in fact be widespread agreement with the remarks.  For example, we conducted some recent analysis of perceptions of the Confederate flag, and found that 72% of white evangelicals say that they see the Confederate flag more as a symbol of southern pride than as a symbol of racism.

It’s fairly damning. The mixing of politics and theology is, as ever, a potent and poisonous mixture.

If the organization that succeeds the Republican Party as representative of the conservative wing of the country wishes to do better than these last dregs of the GOP are doing, those are just some of the principles to keep in mind. Negative, even exclusionary, that’s how it’s reading to me: toxic proposals deserve to be tossed in the trash and never seen again, no matter how much prestige the proposer has.

And it’s up the press, unbiased media, to bring these bad practices to light.

Yes! Yes! Pull my hair in anger! It makes me feel … alive!

Tormented (1960) suffers from a sloppy story. Whether Tom Stewart, supreme jazz pianist and the star attraction at an island wedding, is psychologically unstable, or if his former girlfriend, Vi, really is a supernatural critter from Hell, he’s in a helluva pickle – but we really can’t tell which is which, because we know virtually nothing about him. We end up watching Vi fall from the dilapidated light tower at which she requested they meet, and then wonder at his self-judgment that that his refusal to render aid in a crisis leaves him blameless. Did she deserve to be saved? Is he just a moral coward? Or was he distracted by his upcoming wedding to another woman?

And, apparently, Vi is fairly irritable as well, not to mention mildly monomaniacal. She might be dead, or a talking plastic head on his table – take your pick – but she still wants the pleasure of being married to him.

There might be an interesting story in there somewhere. The hopeful other bride, Meg, has a little sister who does fairly well at stealing scenes and typifying moral dilemmas. But the story’s really a mess, the special effects made me giggle, and my Arts Editor was cringing at this jazz musician’s efforts.

My advice is a little light sauce to get started, and try substituting your own lines for the characters’ lines. It’ll make this movie a little easier on the stomach.

And check out the actors’ bodies! In our print, at least, they all looked malformed, as if the film had been oddly stretched at some point.

Or you could get on with your life, instead.