Trump on Mt. Rushmore

In reporting about Donald Trump's speech at Mt. Rushmore, his detractors once again get sucked into his method and are left sputtering inanely, much as the taunted school yard boy loses control, throws a punch and becomes the offender, hauled off to the principal's office, while the inciter walks off laughing, having won the fight by provocation without having to actually win anything.



Trump's tactics are reliable:
1.  Tell them who the enemy is and vilify that enemy.
2.   Establish that you are not racist by embracing one or two very visible Black folk, in this case Martin Luther King and Frederick Douglass.
3.  Ignore evidence of your appeal to white supremacists by your past statements and never acknowledge or repeat those, until the next convenient time.
4. Create a "history" of mythological heroes who embody the values of strength, dominance and winning.

ESTABLISH YOUR NON RACIST CREDENTIALS:

"We embrace tolerance, not prejudice.

We are the country of Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, and Frederick Douglass.  We are the land of Wild Bill Hickock and Buffalo Bill Cody.  (Applause.)  We are the nation that gave rise to the Wright Brothers, the Tuskegee Airmen — (applause) — Harriet Tubman, Clara Barton, Jesse Owens, George Patton — General George Patton — the great Louie Armstrong, Alan Shepard, Elvis Presley, and Mohammad Ali.  (Applause.)  And only America could have produced them all.  (Applause.)  No other place."

[Notice how he mixes such dispirit historical figures as Andrew Jackson (slave owner, creator of the trial of tears) General George Patton (a segregationist), Buffalo Bill Cody (who made Indians into circus clowns) with Frederick Douglass, the Tuskegee Airmen, Harriet Tubman, Jesse Owens, Muhammad Ali. The effect is disorienting but effective.]

"We must demand that our children are taught once again to see America as did Reverend Martin Luther King, when he said that the Founders had signed “a promissory note” to every future generation.  Dr. King saw that the mission of justice required us to fully embrace our founding ideals.  Those ideals are so important to us — the founding ideals.  He called on his fellow citizens not to rip down their heritage, but to live up to their heritage.  (Applause.)"

[The man who sees "very fine people" among the Nazis in Charlottesville now finds inspiration in Martin Luther King and claims King as an ally.]

"They would tear down the principles that propelled the abolition of slavery in America and, ultimately, around the world, ending an evil institution that had plagued humanity for thousands and thousands of years.  Our opponents would tear apart the very documents that Martin Luther King used to express his dream, and the ideas that were the foundation of the righteous movement for Civil Rights.  They would tear down the beliefs, culture, and identity that have made America the most vibrant and tolerant society in the history of the Earth"

"It was all made possible by the courage of 56 patriots who gathered in Philadelphia 244 years ago and signed the Declaration of Independence.  (Applause.)  They enshrined a divine truth that changed the world forever when they said: “…all men are created equal.”

"These immortal words set in motion the unstoppable march of freedom.  Our Founders boldly declared that we are all endowed with the same divine rights — given [to] us by our Creator in Heaven.  And that which God has given us, we will allow no one, ever, to take away — ever.  (Applause.)"

"Our people have a great memory.  They will never forget the destruction of statues and monuments to George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, abolitionists, and many others."

"The first Republican President, he rose to high office from obscurity, based on a force and clarity of his anti-slavery convictions.  Very, very strong convictions.

He signed the law that built the Transcontinental Railroad; he signed the Homestead Act, given to some incredible scholars — as simply defined, ordinary citizens free land to settle anywhere in the American West; and he led the country through the darkest hours of American history, giving every ounce of strength that he had to ensure that government of the people, by the people, and for the people did not perish from this Earth.  (Applause.)"

"He served as Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces during our bloodiest war, the struggle that saved our union and extinguished the evil of slavery.  Over 600,000 died in that war; more than 20,000 were killed or wounded in a single day at Antietam.  At Gettysburg, 157 years ago, the Union bravely withstood an assault of nearly 15,000 men and threw back Pickett’s charge."

"Lincoln won the Civil War; he issued the Emancipation Proclamation; he led the passage of the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery for all time — (applause) — and ultimately, his determination to preserve our nation and our union cost him his life.  For as long as we live, Americans will uphold and revere the immortal memory of President Abraham Lincoln.  (Applause.)"

"We believe in equal opportunity, equal justice, and equal treatment for citizens of every race, background, religion, and creed.  Every child, of every color — born and unborn — is made in the holy image of God.  (Applause.)"

CREATE THE MYTH:

THE PRESIDENT: "We gather tonight to herald the most important day in the history of nations: July 4th, 1776.  At those words, every American heart should swell with pride.  Every American family should cheer with delight.  And every American patriot should be filled with joy, because each of you lives in the most magnificent country in the history of the world, and it will soon be greater than ever before.  (Applause.)
Our Founders launched not only a revolution in government, but a revolution in the pursuit of justice, equality, liberty, and prosperity.  No nation has done more to advance the human condition than the United States of America.  And no people have done more to promote human progress than the citizens of our great nation.  (Applause.)"

[Of course when you think of Frederick Douglass's remarks on the Fourth of July, the idea that "no nation has done more to advance the human condition" becomes laughable, but Trump breezes right past this.]

"Seventeen seventy-six represented the culmination of thousands of years of western civilization and the triumph not only of spirit, but of wisdom, philosophy, and reason.

From head to toe, George Washington represented the strength, grace, and dignity of the American people.  From a small volunteer force of citizen farmers, he created the Continental Army out of nothing and rallied them to stand against the most powerful military on Earth.

Through eight long years, through the brutal winter at Valley Forge, through setback after setback on the field of battle, he led those patriots to ultimate triumph.  When the Army had dwindled to a few thousand men at Christmas of 1776, when defeat seemed absolutely certain, he took what remained of his forces on a daring nighttime crossing of the Delaware River.

They marched through nine miles of frigid darkness, many without boots on their feet, leaving a trail of blood in the snow.  In the morning, they seized victory at Trenton.  After forcing the surrender of the most powerful empire on the planet at Yorktown, General Washington did not claim power, but simply returned to Mount Vernon as a private citizen.

When called upon again, he presided over the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, and was unanimously elected our first President.  (Applause.)  When he stepped down after two terms, his former adversary King George called him “the greatest man of the age.”  He remains first in our hearts to this day.  For as long as Americans love this land, we will honor and cherish the father of our country, George Washington.  (Applause.)  He will never be removed, abolished, and most of all, he will never be forgotten.  (Applause.)

Thomas Jefferson — the great Thomas Jefferson — was 33 years old when he traveled north to Pennsylvania and brilliantly authored one of the greatest treasures of human history, the Declaration of Independence.  He also drafted Virginia’s constitution, and conceived and wrote the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, a model for our cherished First Amendment.

After serving as the first Secretary of State, and then Vice President, he was elected to the Presidency.  He ordered American warriors to crush the Barbary pirates, he doubled the size of our nation with the Louisiana Purchase, and he sent the famous explorers Lewis and Clark into the west on a daring expedition to the Pacific Ocean.

He was an architect, an inventor, a diplomat, a scholar, the founder of one of the world’s great universities, and an ardent defender of liberty.  Americans will forever admire the author of American freedom, Thomas Jefferson.  (Applause.)  And he, too, will never, ever be abandoned by us.  (Applause.)

Theodore Roosevelt exemplified the unbridled confidence of our national culture and identity.  He saw the towering grandeur of America’s mission in the world and he pursued it with overwhelming energy and zeal.

As a Lieutenant Colonel during the Spanish-American War, he led the famous Rough Riders to defeat the enemy at San Juan Hill.  He cleaned up corruption as Police Commissioner of New York City, then served as the Governor of New York, Vice President, and at 42 years old, became the youngest-ever President of the United States.  (Applause.)

He sent our great new naval fleet around the globe to announce America’s arrival as a world power.  He gave us many of our national parks, including the Grand Canyon; he oversaw the construction of the awe-inspiring Panama Canal; and he is the only person ever awarded both the Nobel Peace Prize and the Congressional Medal of Honor.  He was — (applause) — American freedom personified in full.  The American people will never relinquish the bold, beautiful, and untamed spirit of Theodore Roosevelt.  (Applause.)"

[Of course, Roosevelt was also the man who looked at immigration of colored people into the United States and warned the US was committing "racial suicide." Like many of his aristocratic class, he unabashedly considered whites as the master race. Of Jefferson, the slave owner who wrote of the evils of slavery while profiting from it to his death, a whole academic industry has been spawned. ]

"Abraham Lincoln, the savior of our union, was a self-taught country lawyer who grew up in a log cabin on the American frontier."

[Lincoln, the "great emancipator," who freed some of the slaves but left others in bondage, one can only say he was our greatest President, but no angel. Trump somehow knows that Lincoln is everything he cannot be. Lincoln, with all his complexities and his capacity for growth, and Trump the simpleton, with no capacity for growth. Trump fears growth; he fears the new. One of the most pathetic images of Trump was his staged interview before the statue of Lincoln at the Lincoln memorial. This great pretender in front of the image of true greatness.]

CREATE AND VILIFY THE ENEMY:

[Notice how much more time he spends on this part of the formula]

"And yet, as we meet here tonight, there is a growing danger that threatens every blessing our ancestors fought so hard for, struggled, they bled to secure.

Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children.

AUDIENCE:  Booo —"

THE PRESIDENT:  "Angry mobs are trying to tear down statues of our Founders, deface our most sacred memorials, and unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities.  Many of these people have no idea why they are doing this, but some know exactly what they are doing.  They think the American people are weak and soft and submissive.  But no, the American people are strong and proud, and they will not allow our country, and all of its values, history, and culture, to be taken from them.  (Applause.)"

"AUDIENCE:  USA!  USA!  USA!

THE PRESIDENT:   One of their political weapons is “Cancel Culture” — driving people from their jobs, shaming dissenters, and demanding total submission from anyone who disagrees.  This is the very definition of totalitarianism, and it is completely alien to our culture and our values, and it has absolutely no place in the United States of America.  (Applause.)  This attack on our liberty, our magnificent liberty, must be stopped, and it will be stopped very quickly.  We will expose this dangerous movement, protect our nation’s children, end this radical assault, and preserve our beloved American way of life.  (Applause.)"

"In our schools, our newsrooms, even our corporate boardrooms, there is a new far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance.  If you do not speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras, and follow its commandments, then you will be censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted, and punished.  It’s not going to happen to us.  (Applause.)"

"Make no mistake: this left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution.  In so doing, they would destroy the very civilization that rescued billions from poverty, disease, violence, and hunger, and that lifted humanity to new heights of achievement, discovery, and progress.

To make this possible, they are determined to tear down every statue, symbol, and memory of our national heritage.

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Not on my watch!  (Applause.)"

"THE PRESIDENT:  True.  That’s very true, actually.  (Laughter.)  That is why I am deploying federal law enforcement to protect our monuments, arrest the rioters, and prosecute offenders to the fullest extent of the law.  (Applause.)

AUDIENCE:  Four more years!  Four more years!  Four more years!

THE PRESIDENT:  I am pleased to report that yesterday, federal agents arrested the suspected ringleader of the attack on the statue of Andrew Jackson in Washington, D.C. — (applause) — and, in addition, hundreds more have been arrested.  (Applause.)

Under the executive order I signed last week — pertaining to the Veterans’ Memorial Preservation and Recognition Act and other laws — people who damage or deface federal statues or monuments will get a minimum of 10 years in prison.  (Applause.)  And obviously, that includes our beautiful Mount Rushmore.  (Applause.)

The violent mayhem we have seen in the streets of cities that are run by liberal Democrats, in every case, is the predictable result of years of extreme indoctrination and bias in education, journalism, and other cultural institutions."

"Against every law of society and nature, our children are taught in school to hate their own country, and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes, but that were villains.  The radical view of American history is a web of lies — all perspective is removed, every virtue is obscured, every motive is twisted, every fact is distorted, and every flaw is magnified until the history is purged and the record is disfigured beyond all recognition.

This movement is openly attacking the legacies of every person on Mount Rushmore.  They defile the memory of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt.  Today, we will set history and history’s record straight.  (Applause.)

Before these figures were immortalized in stone, they were American giants in full flesh and blood, gallant men whose intrepid deeds unleashed the greatest leap of human advancement the world has ever known.  Tonight, I will tell you and, most importantly, the youth of our nation, the true stories of these great, great men.

No movement that seeks to dismantle these treasured American legacies can possibly have a love of America at its heart.  Can’t have it.  No person who remains quiet at the destruction of this resplendent heritage can possibly lead us to a better future."

"The radical ideology attacking our country advances under the banner of social justice.  But in truth, it would demolish both justice and society.  It would transform justice into an instrument of division and vengeance, and it would turn our free and inclusive society into a place of repression, domination, and exclusion.

They want to silence us, but we will not be silenced.  (Applause.)

AUDIENCE:  USA!  USA!  USA!

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  We love you!

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Thank you very much.  Thank you very much.

We will state the truth in full, without apology:  We declare that the United States of America is the most just and exceptional nation ever to exist on Earth.

We are proud of the fact — (applause) — that our country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, and we understand — (applause) — that these values have dramatically advanced the cause of peace and justice throughout the world.

We know that the American family is the bedrock of American life.  (Applause.)

We recognize the solemn right and moral duty of every nation to secure its borders.  (Applause.)  And we are building the wall.  (Applause.)

We remember that governments exist to protect the safety and happiness of their own people.  A nation must care for its own citizens first.  We must take care of America first.  It’s time.  (Applause.)

We support the courageous men and women of law enforcement.  (Applause.)  We will never abolish our police or our great Second Amendment, which gives us the right to keep and bear arms.  (Applause.)

We believe that our children should be taught to love their country, honor our history, and respect our great American flag.  (Applause.)

We stand tall, we stand proud, and we only kneel to Almighty God.  (Applause.)

This is who we are.  This is what we believe.  And these are the values that will guide us as we strive to build an even better and greater future.

Those who seek to erase our heritage want Americans to forget our pride and our great dignity, so that we can no longer understand ourselves or America’s destiny.  In toppling the heroes of 1776, they seek to dissolve the bonds of love and loyalty that we feel for our country, and that we feel for each other.  Their goal is not a better America, their goal is the end of America.

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE PRESIDENT:  In its place, they want power for themselves.  But just as patriots did in centuries past, the American people will stand in their way — and we will win, and win quickly and with great dignity.  (Applause.)

We will never let them rip America’s heroes from our monuments, or from our hearts.  By tearing down Washington and Jefferson, these radicals would tear down the very heritage for which men gave their lives to win the Civil War; they would erase the memory that inspired those soldiers to go to their deaths, singing these words of the Battle Hymn of the Republic: “As He died to make men Holy, let us die to make men free, while God is marching on.”  (Applause.)

.My fellow Americans, it is time to speak up loudly and strongly and powerfully and defend the integrity of our country.  (Applause.)

AUDIENCE:  USA!  USA!  USA!

THE PRESIDENT:  It is time for our politicians to summon the bravery and determination of our American ancestors.  It is time.  (Applause.)  It is time to plant our flag and protect the greatest of this nation, for citizens of every race, in every city, and every part of this glorious land.  For the sake of our honor, for the sake of our children, for the sake of our union, we must protect and preserve our history, our heritage, and our great heroes.  (Applause.)

Here tonight, before the eyes of our forefathers, Americans declare again, as we did 244 years ago: that we will not be tyrannized, we will not be demeaned, and we will not be intimidated by bad, evil people.  It will not happen.  (Applause.)

AUDIENCE:  USA!  USA!  USA!

THE PRESIDENT:  We will proclaim the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, and we will never surrender the spirit and the courage and the cause of July 4th, 1776.

Above all, our children, from every community, must be taught that to be American is to inherit the spirit of the most adventurous and confident people ever to walk the face of the Earth.

Americans are the people who pursued our Manifest Destiny across the ocean, into the uncharted wilderness, over the tallest mountains, and then into the skies and even into the stars.

We are the culture that put up the Hoover Dam, laid down the highways, and sculpted the skyline of Manhattan.  We are the people who dreamed a spectacular dream — it was called: Las Vegas, in the Nevada desert; who built up Miami from the Florida marsh; and who carved our heroes into the face of Mount Rushmore.  (Applause.)

Americans harnessed electricity, split the atom, and gave the world the telephone and the Internet.  We settled the Wild West, won two World Wars, landed American astronauts on the Moon — and one day very soon, we will plant our flag on Mars.

We gave the world the poetry of Walt Whitman, the stories of Mark Twain, the songs of Irving Berlin, the voice of Ella Fitzgerald, the style of Frank Sinatra — (applause) — the comedy of Bob Hope, the power of the Saturn V rocket, the toughness of the Ford F-150 — (applause) — and the awesome might of the American aircraft carriers.

Americans must never lose sight of this miraculous story.  You should never lose sight of it, because nobody has ever done it like we have done it.  So today, under the authority vested in me as President of the United States — (applause) — I am announcing the creation of a new monument to the giants of our past.  I am signing an executive order to establish the National Garden of American Heroes, a vast outdoor park that will feature the statues of the greatest Americans to ever live.  (Applause.)

From this night and from this magnificent place, let us go forward united in our purpose and re-dedicated in our resolve.  We will raise the next generation of American patriots.  We will write the next thrilling chapter of the American adventure.  And we will teach our children to know that they live in a land of legends, that nothing can stop them, and that no one can hold them down.  (Applause.)  They will know that in America, you can do anything, you can be anything, and together, we can achieve anything.  (Applause.)

Uplifted by the titans of Mount Rushmore, we will find unity that no one expected; we will make strides that no one thought possible.  This country will be everything that our citizens have hoped for, for so many years, and that our enemies fear — because we will never forget that American freedom exists for American greatness.  And that’s what we have:  American greatness.  (Applause.)

Centuries from now, our legacy will be the cities we built, the champions we forged, the good we did, and the monuments we created to inspire us all.

My fellow citizens: America’s destiny is in our sights.  America’s heroes are embedded in our hearts.  America’s future is in our hands.  And ladies and gentlemen: the best is yet to come.  (Applause.)

AUDIENCE:  USA!  USA!  USA!

THE PRESIDENT:  This has been a great honor for the First Lady and myself to be with you.  I love your state.  I love this country.  I’d like to wish everybody a very happy Fourth of July.  To all, God bless you, God bless your families, God bless our great military, and God bless America.  Thank you very much.  (Applause.)"

[And then he adds a new thing: He attacks the left for something which even some on the left agree with him about--the intolerance of the left:]

"We want free and open debate, not speech codes and cancel culture.

Upon this ground, we will stand firm and unwavering.  In the face of lies meant to divide us, demoralize us, and diminish us, we will show that the story of America unites us, inspires us, includes us all, and makes everyone free."

This is Donald Trump at his zenith, straight out of Mein Kampf. 

Unless we study him, we will not defeat him.  As Patton was depicted waving Erwin Rommel's book at the battle where Patton defeated Rommel:

"I read your book, you bastard! I read your book!"

TWiV: Vaccines for COVID19 & Silent COVID19 in Young Carriers

TWiV Episode 631 is one of their more important episodes.
Brianne Barker (immunology), Rich Condit and Vincent Raccaniello discuss papers which actually, this week, are very relevant to what our thinking and behavior should be, at least this week.
As always, they could use an editor, but if you have time walking the dog or on the bicycle, it's rewarding.

Key points:

1/ There is a saliva test from Rutgers available at some CVS's for the virus PCR, i.e. you can tell if you are shedding virus particles, which would suggest you are actively infected.

2/ An Italian study of 20,000 people suggest that in people below 30 years old as many as 70% infected with SARS CoV-2 (Covid19) are asymptomatic, i.e., could be silent spreaders--although previous episodes note more than 80% of infections were spread by 10% of infected people, "super spreaders."

3/ Some people who were infected no longer have the antibodies to the virus, made by B cells, but may retain immunity through their T cells.
Tests for T cell immunity are not clinically available.

4/ Vaccines now being rushed to production overwhelmingly are designed to attack the T spike of the virus. But other components may be more important.  In fact, in order to be well protected vaccines might have to use more parts of the virus to achieve really adequate protection against the virus.

This is really worth listening to.

https://www.microbe.tv/twiv/twiv-631/

Bostock, Gorsuch, SCOTUS & The Emperor's New Clothes

"The only statutorily protected characteristic at issue in today’s cases is “sex”—and that is also the primary term in Title VII whose meaning the parties dispute. Appealing to roughly contemporaneous dictionaries, the employers say that, as used here, the term “sex” in 1964 referred to “status as either male or female [as] determined by reproductive biology.” 
The employees counter by submitting that, even in 1964, the term bore a broader scope, capturing more than anatomy and reaching at least some norms concerning gender identity and sexual orientation. 
But because nothing in our approach to these cases turns on the outcome of the parties’ debate, and because the employees concede the point for argument’s sake, we proceed on the assumption that “sex” signified what the employers suggest, referring only to biological distinctions between male and female. 
Still, that’s just a starting point. The question isn’t just what “sex” meant, but what Title VII says about it. Most notably, the statute prohibits employers from taking certain actions “because of ” sex. And, as this Court has previously explained, “the ordinary meaning of ‘because of ’ is ‘by reason of ’ or ‘on account of’” ...In the language of law, this means that Title VII’s “because of ” test incorporates the “‘simple’” and “traditional” standard of but-for causation...
That form of causation is established whenever a particular outcome would not have happened “but for” the purported cause... In other words, a but-for test directs us to change one thing at a time and see if the outcome changes. If it does, we have found a but-for cause. This can be a sweeping standard. 
Often, events have multiple but-for causes. So, for example, if a car accident occurred both because the defendant ran a red light and because the plaintiff failed to signal his turn at the intersection, we might call each a but-for cause of the collision. ... 
When it comes to Title VII, the adoption of the traditional but-for causation standard means a defendant cannot avoid liability just by citing some other factor that contributed to its challenged employment decision. So long as the plaintiff ’s sex was one but-for cause of that decision, that is enough to trigger the law."
--Neil Gorsuch, opinion

With his Bostock v Clayton County decision Justice Neil Gorsuch reasoned that a company cannot fire a man or refuse to hire him because of his sex, and that means if his sex is "homosexual"  or "transgender" the company has violated his rights under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Mad Dog was delighted with the outcome, i.e. preventing homosexuals from being fired for being homosexual, but had to wince at the means by which this happy outcome was achieved, not that Mad Dog was at all surprised by this legal sleight of hand--after all Justice Scalia did even more back flips in his Heller decision giving any individual the right to own a howitzer whether or not he was a member of a militia, as stipulated by the 2nd Amendment. Scalia did a back flip with a full twist on that one, whereas Gorsuch did a simple back flip. 

As is now common in Supreme Court decisions, the justice writing the opinion goes to the meaning or possible meanings of words we all thought we understood like "sex"

"Sex" to most people means gender, i.e., are you a male or female, as defined by your genitalia, or, if you've paid attention in class, to your chromosomes, or your hormones.

If you are really sophisticated and have followed the case of the track star, Caster Semenya, you know that sometimes sex chromosomes and even sex hormone blood levels do not settle the issue of gender, and that gender is something of a definition, a semantic thing more than a biologic thing. 

Gonads are testes; male testosterone levels

But for Justice Gorsuch, if you consider the woman who on Sunday marries another woman and on Monday gets fired because she has publicly declared she is a homosexual, then you have been fired because of your "sex" which is to say the way you prefer your sex, which would, no doubt have surprised every Congressman or Congresswoman who voted for the 1964 act. 

By the same reasoning, if a man is convicted on Monday of having had sexual relations with an eleven year old girl and is fired on Tuesday for his version of "sex" then that man's civil rights have been violated by the company which fired him, because, after all, it fired him for the way he prefers his sex, i.e. with under aged children. (Yes, yes, I understand you could fire him for having committed a felony, but then we could argue about the various understandings of the word "felony.")

You will object, the pedophile is a very different beast from the homosexual and from the trans sexual, but if you are defining sex as "sexual preference" or the way you desire to have sex and with whom, then the pedophile has also been fired because of his sex.

Not the outcome we want.

That's the problem with making rules based on outcomes.

Ross Douthat calls Gorsuch's reasoned decision "an act of sophistry, not interpretation" and of course Douthat is simply stating the obvious.

Gorsuch anticipated the objections, of course.  He tried to disguise his ruling as proceeding merely from step to step: if you accept this, then you must accept that.  And there is that lovely, "there but for this, goes that."  So he claims his hands were tied. He simply had to rule as he did once he read the text of the 1964 law which so clearly stated you could not be denied employment because of your religion, color, or  your sex. 
Of course what Congress what saying was you could not be denied because of attributes which ought not be considerations in whether you can do a job: your religion, which you embrace, your color which you cannot help or whether you are male or female, which is what "sex" meant in the days before transgender medicine. 

Anticipating objections from his colleagues that if Congress had wanted to protect homosexuals it would have said you cannot be fired on the basis of your "sexual preference" and it had plenty of opportunity to do that later but voted that down. And Gorsuch is right to say Congress's failure to be brave subsequently does not relieve you the duty of respecting the law they did pass. 

The problem is, the law they did pass was clear as day: They didn't want your boss firing you for being Black, Catholic or female. If you were gay or transgender or an anti vaxer or and advocate of Free Love or a Free Mason or a nudist or a Communist, you were not protected; out of luck. Congress would protect some classes of people, but not others.

Among Friends

Of course, Justice Alito got to the heart of Justice Gorsuch's claim he was simply constrained by the "text" of the 1964 law and Alito replied this was like a pirate ship flying a false flag while lulling its prey into proximity. Fact is, the text itself was clear and there is no question about what Congress meant by "sex."

You may say this opinion belies Mad Dog's long held contention that he could predict the outcome of any Supreme Court case with significant social/cultural content based on a one paragraph description, that Alito, Thomas, Kavanaguh, Gorsuch and usually Roberts would vote one way and the liberal justices the other, and here Gorsuch surprises. It's the old, "Don't tell me about the law; tell me about the judge" thing from Roy Cohn. 


But in Gorsuch's case, while he is conservative about most everything, he is not about homosexuality; he belongs to an Episcopal church which has gays and the Episcopalians have split over embracing gay clergy and he is with those tolerant of gays. So he voted, had you known this about the man, exactly as you would predict.

Mad Dog got advanced warning of this side of Gorsuch from a Colorado judge, who, at the time Gorsuch's name was proposed as an archetypal conservation told Mad Dog, "He may, occasionally, surprise you...and the Federalist Society."

Mad Dog has long argued that Supreme Court justices decided cases in reverse: Supreme Court law works backwards. You start with where you want to wind up, say legalizing personal ownership of guns, or permitting abortion, or outlawing segregated schools, or endorsing slavery and you work backwards from there, finding laws and reasons or definitions of commonly understood words and arguing or redefining and you claim you began with an open mind, but the text of the law, the original intent of the lawmakers or the founding fathers compelled you to the opinion you wanted to reach all along.

In this case, it worked to benefit society. In the Dred Scott case, in Citizens United, it did not. 

Rachel Carson: Revisiting The Silent Spring

"Will Google be paying similar tribute to any of the other mass killers of the 20th century? Hitler? Stalin? Mao? Pol Pot? Probably not. But then, none of the others have had the benefit of having their images burnished by a thousand and one starry eyed greenies. Nor, unlike Carson – as I note in The Little Green Book of Eco Fascism –  do they have named after them a school, a bridge, a hiking trail, three environmental prizes and an annual “sustainable” feast day (at her birth place in Springdale, Pennsylvania)"
--James Delingpole, Breibart News

"The list of diseases and their insect carriers, or vectors, includes typhus and body lice, plague and rate fleas, African sleeping sickness and tsetse flies, various fevers and ticks and innumerable others.
These are important problems and must be met. No responsible person contends that insect borne disease should be ignored. 
The question that now urgently presented itself is whether it is either wise or responsible to attack the problem by methods that are rapidly making it worse. The world has heard much of the triumphant war against disease through the control of insect vectors of infection, but it has heard little of the other side of the story--the defeats, the short lived triumphs that now strongly support the alarming view that the insect enemy has been made actually stronger by our efforts."
--Rachel Carson, "The Silent Spring."

Reading "The Silent Spring" again, I first read the objections to Ms. Carson's seminal screed upon the industrial, widespread and wanton use of chemical pesticides, but I also saw her argument through the lenses of my latter day education in biology and the environment, chiefly the fantastic TV series narrated by David Attenborough, including "Life Underground" and "Blue Planet." And, with time, I've learned that criticism and analysis ought to be used with equal vigor examining the arguments of those we love as on those we despise. 

Warning: I surely learned more biology from David Attenborough than I ever got from the professors of biology at my undergraduate college. Truth be told, I had four main professors in college biology, and only one was really good. What passed for biology at my college in the mid 1960's was mostly descriptive and "fund of knowledge" stuff which did not allow much for critical thought or, for that matter, for anything really useful. "The Voyage of the Beagle" was superior to most of my courses, though no less descriptive and iterative. Memorize. Regurgitate. Consider yourself "educated."

But back to Carson. 

One might say, if one had no time to investigate further that any woman who could earn the title of "eco fascist" from Breibart must be hero, ipso facto and be believed simply by virtue of the enemies she has made.

Carson makes all sorts of allegations about the destructive effects of DDT, mostly coalescing around the triad of ideas: 1/ DDT destroys birds, their eggs and other unintended creatures 2/ Target insects become resistant and the survivors are even more of a problem 3/ that once DDT kills off the pest at which it was aimed, new insects, mites, spores replace it which are even more destructive to the cows, people or crops the DDT was meant to protect. 
She does not use the standard footnoted references to support each claim so it can be examined based on the source study but rather a "List of Principle Sources" to cover arguments presented over a span of pages. This can be forgiven as this book was intended for the general public. 

A University of Wyoming entomologist, J. Gordon Edwards, goes page by page listing and "refuting" the "lies" he find in Silent Spring, to the effect only of revealing his own psychopathology, but she does leave herself open to this sort of thing by publishing as she did, a layman's book about science. But these attacks are trivial and often driven by other agendas.

The real problem I have with Ms. Carson is her proposed solution for malaria and other problems is in no way proven to be less potentially havoc wrecking on the environment than the pesticides she decries: namely genetically manipulated mosquitoes who are released into selected biological systems to breed in sterility, resulting in a decline of the mosquito targeted, mostly Anopheles.  

She says,  "Examples of successful biological control of serious pests by importing their natural enemies are to be found in some 40 countries distributed over much of the world. The advantages of such control over chemicals are obvious: it is relatively inexpensive, it is permanent, it leaves no poisonous residues."

Defending the biological warfare she likes: "To some the term microbial insecticide may conjure up pictures of bacterial warfare that would endanger other forms of life. This is not true. in contrast to chemicals, insect pathogens are harmless to all but their intended targets...outbreaks of insect disease in nature always remain confined to insects, affecting neither the host plants nor animals feeding on them."

Oh, Ms. Carson, beware that word "always."  In science, "always" always calls for the exception to always.

The other operative word here is "pests."  What is a "pest"? I would have to imagine a pest is some insect, plant or organism people, or at least some people do not like or consider harmful to a human enterprise or offensive to someone's taste.

(In New Hampshire, the horticulture department at the University of New Hampshire does not like, aesthetically, purple/ maroon leafy maples, the Norwegian maple. The UNH department prefers green. The faculty testified before a committee of the New Hampshire House of Representatives the Norwegian maple, with its dark leaves of deep maroon is "an invasive species" [another choice phrase.]You cannot legally buy, import or plant a Norway maple in the state to this day, unless, somehow, you plant them around the Hampton Academy school grounds, which, somehow, is exempt from the problem of an invasion by Norway maples. It might be noted, you rarely find a Norway maple growing wild in the woods and forest around Hampton or anywhere along the Seacoast--they are almost always ornamental trees planted by some stealthy gardener, likely before they were outlawed--Except when it comes to governmental planters.)

The most famous example of biowarfare run amuck, of course, was the effort to rid the Hawaiian islands of rats by importing mongoose. Turns out, rats being nocturnal, were not much bothered by the mongoose, which likes to hunt by day and wound up killing a lot of lovely Hawaiian birds but few rats. Best laid plans oft' do go astray, or at least occasionally. It doesn't take much googling to discover other misadventures:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_pest_control

The problem for Ms. Carson and for all of us, is biology is interwoven and like that wonderful Simpson's Halloween episode, when Homer goes into the past, where he steps on a butterfly and thereby changes evolutionary destiny for the planet, over and over and in unpredictable ways is worth re watching. This "butterfly effect" was not original with the Simpsons, which only made it most entertaining, but is a cautionary tale we ought not forget. 

Ms. Carson spends chapter after chapter, citing example after example of how ridding a micro-environment, a field, a state of one insect, one mite results in the emergence of another, even more troublesome insect, mite, fungus, cautionary tale after cautionary tale, only to then lay out for us a fool proof, trouble-free solution of competitor based, predator-under-our control solution.  She does strike the refrain that the whole notion of "nature under our control" is an exercise in hubris, but she cannot help herself.

Obadiah Youngblood "Church"

Ms. Carson alerted us to the problem; she was not as strong on the solution. 

Defund Police v DeFang Police: Right Idea, Wrong Marketing

Recently, on Twitter, Mad Dog received a reply to a posting pointing him to a newspaper report from a London paper showing unarmed Bobbies having been beaten by a crowd, and forced into retreat.

This Tweeter's photo shows a Marine in dress blues with his medals displayed across his chest saying that police cannot be cowards, implying, of course, that police who do not mow down demonstrators with bullets and clubs are cowards as they are caught in flight by photographers.

Mad Dog suggested the police who confronted the crowds, outnumbered and unarmed showed far more courage than their helmeted, shielded, club and gun toting American counterparts.

Those Ohio National Guardsmen who shot unarmed demonstrators at Kent States never took a step backward, but were they not cowards?

The two men in the famous flower power poster showed one brave man and another with a gun.

But to market the idea of disarming police as "defund police" telegraphs a message of anarchy. Of course we need police. We just need the right sort of police.

That Marine might well join a police force after he leaves the Marine, precisely because they will give him a gun to brandish, to show all the ladies and his buddies how brave he is.

But men who are brave when they have the gun and the firepower behind them, facing only unarmed civilians are, to Mad Dog's mind, phony tough guys.

Somehow, the idea of American Bobbies, braver than Wyatt Earp, has got to be marketed. Defund is not that.

Modern American Wimpdom

Yesterday,  a motorcycle decked out with a huge American flag, big enough to act as a mainsail on a frigate, roared past me.  Also smaller flags, Don't Tread On me, maybe a Stars and Bars--I don't recall.  It was loud as a freight train and its rider's hair, what there was of it, mostly gray, streamed in the wind. 

There you had the essence of American manhood, New Hampshire style.  You knew this freedom fighter would be heading to a gathering of like minded patriots, to drink beer and smoke and laugh about all the snowflakes out there who wear masks to grocery stores.

Ms. Maud has recommended John Steinbeck's "East of Eden,"  and though I did not think I liked Steinbeck much, Ms. Maud is of such discernment, I figured I give Steinbeck another try. After all, beyond bike rides, what else to I have to do now in the lock down Covid day?

But before I got to Eden,  I discovered a slim volume of his war correspondence "Once There Was a War."  Each little dispatch is a gem, but two have stayed with me and bubbled up behind my eyes, watching that red blooded American easy rider rumble by down Route 27 on his way toward Exeter.  

One was a report of a movie theater in a suburb of London, where children, soldiers, nurses watch a Veronica Lake movie and the children thrilled to her blond glamour and took what they saw on the screen as absolute truth about life in America, and the soldiers stared numbly and the nurses laughed, until a German bomb collapsed the roof and set fire to the building and the kids, or parts of them were extracted, methodically, by rescue teams and hauled off to hospital.

Another dispatch, titled simply, "Chewing Gum" described a line of children held back near the gangplank of an American ship, holding out their hands for chewing gum from the disembarking GI's. 
"When you have gum you have something permanent, something you can use day after day and even trade when you are tired of it. Candy is ephemeral. One moment you have candy, and the next moment you haven't. But gum is really property."

But the real moment occurs when a bag of orange peels is dropped on the dock from the ship, "Golden with squeezed orange skins. The children hesitate, because it is against all their training to break the rules. But the test is too great. They can't stand it. They break over the line and tumble on the garbage box. They squeeze the skins for the last drop of juice that may conceivably be there."

A bobby comes along and shoos them off, desultorily.  He has to do his job but his sympathy is with the children. They get very hungry for oranges, he says. Nobody over 5 years of age is allowed oranges in England. The bobby hasn't had an orange in 4 years.

Reading the New York Times about the deprivation of Americans locked down in their apartments or homes, unable to go out to restaurants or to bars, or swimming pools or country clubs, I marvel at the fortitude of my fellow countrymen, who have suffered so much with this COVID19 pandemic.

Those who have lost jobs, yes. They are hurting as Americans did during the Depression--although now we do have unemployment insurance, at least temporarily for many.

But when it comes to deprivation, everything is relative. 

What is this Trump Thing?

I am no historian, but at least in my lifetime, I cannot recall a President who inspired local people to fly flags with his name on them outside their homes. 

Some of this may have to do with the ease of printing and design in the 21st Century, but this really is something new. At least I've never seen anything like it. 

After Lincoln died, people displayed Lincoln likenesses, and that long train ride from Washington, D.C. back to Illinois--people lined the route and people wept openly after FDR and Kennedy died, so there was a personal connection for many with the President. But this is different. Nobody's died. 

This Trump flag thing is something different in my mind. 

Hitler inspired the Germans to public displays of affection, and, for all I know, Franco and Peron may have as well. There was a time after World War II when German magazines were not allowed to run Hitler's photo on their covers, for fear people would frame them and hang them in their homes and businesses. 

But these are flags outside homes, on porches. In America. 

I saw them on a car ride through Buck's County Pennsylvania last Christmas, along with rebel flags, but mostly alone, just flags with Trump 2020.

Is this simply brilliant marketing? But no, you can send a man a Trump flag; that doesn't mean he'll fly it.

On my bicycle rides through Hampton Falls, I see the flags.  On Hidden Pasture road, on other roads.

The man can barely parse a sentence.

At least with Hitler, you could understand: he gave long, rousing, coherent, if vile, speeches and he appealed to something.  Racial pride. Fear. Loathing of the other in a country defeated, humiliated. The Germans, one might imagine, had a sense of grievance. But where does that sense of grievance in America come from?

During Vietnam, in the 60's, we had the same thing: That hate which stoked the murders at Kent State, a class hate really. That was palpable. There was racial hatred, as colored people confronted institutionalized racism and Southern whites saw their privileged status challenged. There was the "moral majority."

Trump fans are no more loathsome than the "patriots" who hated the anti war demonstrators, who hated the hippies or hated the "Freedom riders." But at least, when George Wallace "with hate dripping from his lips" cried out, "Segregation now. Segregation tomorrow. Segregation forever!" you knew what that was. 

I don't really know what Trump love is. 
I talk with folks every day from Haverhill and Methuen, Massachusetts and Salem, New Hampshire.  On many topics, they seem normal.  But then, you stray a little, and you discover they love Trump and they hate something, someone, but their hate and bitterness and resentment remain inchoate. 

In some ways it's like those scrawls you see on walls: "Fuck you!" But you don't see those so much any more. You see more Trump signs than "Fuck you!" signs. Or maybe they are just the same thing.

In some ways, one has to believe this is just fate playing out the hand.  If Gavin Newsom were the presumptive Democratic candidate, you could say, okay, now the pendulum is swinging back. There's going to be a real chance. But with Biden, a vessel so fragile one can hardly imagine his making it across a calm sea, much less a rough and tumble campaign--you have to be able to see what is coming.

I can make it to Canada on a single tank of gas, is all I'm saying.