Illiteracy in the Marble Halls

 

Photo by Spencer Davis on Unsplash

“In every age it has been the tyrant, the oppressor and the exploiter who has wrapped himself in the cloak of patriotism, or religion, or both to deceive and overawe the People.” ― Eugene Victor Debs

 

In defiance of the U.S. Constitution, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Rep. Lauren Boebert, presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano[1], and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas have declared their support for a state religion based on Christian nationalist and Christian dominion dogma[2].

The First Amendment to the Constitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Read that first part again. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….”

Lauren Boebert, among others of the far-right authoritarian political spectrum didn’t read that part. I can only wonder if they have read the rest of the Constitution.

In a Sunday, June 28th, 2023, speech at the Cornerstone Christian Center in Basalt, Colo., Lauren Boebert argued, “The church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church,” Boebert told the crowd, which applauded. “I’m tired of this separation of church and state junk.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia hard-liner, adding her support to the idea of a Christian Nationalist government declared: “We need to be the party of nationalism and I’m a Christian, and I say it proudly, we should be Christian Nationalists.”

Reflecting the views of Boebert’s and Green’s soulmate Michele Bachmann who once said, “If you want take away my religious liberties,” she once said in a radio interview with Lars Larson, “you can advocate for that but you do it through the constitutional process and you don’t intimidate and no politician should give away my religious liberties or yours.” Somehow, in that muddled brain, she equated the call for gay rights as a move to take away her religious rights, and then assures us that her religious rights are ensconced in the Constitution; that human rights are a violation of her interpretation of the Constitution. Can she perceive why the term “batshittery” was invented to describe her incoherent ramblings?

The more conservative elements within the Christian religion have translated Bible verses in any manner that they feel promotes their views. It doesn’t matter what the scripture in question says, it only matters how it can be twisted, spun, bent, and mangled. That same thinking drives those Christians into reinterpreting the Constitution, our history, the words of the Founders, and the pronouncements of political figures. Anything can mean anything to the semi-literate.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, Ted Cruz, Matt Gaetz, among a legion of others — thrive on fear and hate, the two-sided coin that drives the reactionary right.

A wise man once told me, “Do not ever- ever — make a crucial decision when you are in the throes of fear or hate. Nothing good can come of it. Wait until your senses return, and then decide.”

It’s unfortunate for our country that many of our politicians have not had a wise man or woman in their lives.

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[1] Mastriano came to national prominence by leading protests against COVID protocols, and became one of the leading voices in attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election. He literally brought bus-loads of supporters to the Jan. 6 insurrection and appeared to cross police barricades during the riot. He has spread Islamophobic conspiracy theories and tweeted out QAnon content. He pals around with white militias and prays to God to protect Confederate monuments. He once said women who have abortions should be charged with murder.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/10/doug-mastriano-christian-nationalism-dominionism-nar.html

[2] Connecting Christian Nationalism and Dominion Theology
https://mindshiftpodcast.medium.com/connecting-christian-nationalism-and-dominion-theology-93deb8c60237

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Celebrating Slaughter

 

Photo by https://www.flickr.com/photos/docmonstereyes/
Photo originally posted at https://www.flickr.com/photos/72538882@N00/5507547759
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AR-15_Build_IMG_9439_(5507547759).jpg

Facebook, Twitter (!?) and social media in general, do not offer a forum for robust debate on contentious subjects, making it necessary to keep discussions focused narrowly on select topics. Nowhere is that more evident than in arguments over “Gun Rights” vs. “Gun Control.” In those discussions, pro-gun advocates (and gun control people) have learned to derail arguments with questions and statements unrelated to the opening argument or comment. In a recent example, a statement saying that states with strict gun laws experience more gun violence was met with acounterclaim: immediately, a response claimed that the counterclaim did not explain Chicago, Baltimore, and Detroit.

Notice that the response did not affirm nor deny the accuracy of the comment that a correlation exists between looser gun laws and higher gun violence, but instead chose to change and expand the subject by bringing in an exception to the rule, by raising questions of gun trafficking and gang violence, and thereby increasing the complexity of the discussion and veering it away from a debunked comment while simultaneously forcing that complexity into the narrow confines of social media.

We see the same tactics used by Congress, such as the July 2022 response to the Uvalde, Texas massacre: Missouri Representative Billy Long blamed the mass murders of school children on Roe v. Wade- a non-sequitur. Abortion and the slaughter of children in schoolrooms are two entirely different topics, necessarily addressed by different laws and social standards. One addresses bodily autonomy and religion, the other concerns the protection of viable life.

Again, in June 2022 a Fox News host Jesse Waters blamed the Buffalo NY slaughter at a supermarket on the wearing of medical face masks. Really, Jesse? Ten blacks murdered by a white supremacist and you want me to believe he did it because he wore a mask? How do these circus performers and carnival barkers get voted into high office and well-paid roles as journalists?

Remember when the title, “World’s Dumbest Congressperson” passed from Louie Gohmert to conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene when, in May 2028 and prior to her election a Georgia’s representative, she claimed the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, was actually a “false flag” planned event?

And then there is the propaganda device known as The Big Lie. Texas Senator John Cornyn got educated by California Governor Gavin Newsom when Cornyn claimed that California gun laws do not stop gun crimes, Newsom offered statistics showing that Cornyn’s Texas had a higher rate of gun offences than California. Why don’t our government officials check the facts before they make their fallacious claims? Could it be because we are led by dim-witted anti-intellectualists?

Gun control advocates sometimes use the same tactic, but from my experience, generally when they show a lack of firm grasp of the facts.

In early February 2023, members of Congress began celebrating mass shootings by wearing AR-15 pins, further encouraging strident militia types and wannabees to engage in Gish galloping non-sequiturs against those who seek a solution to the slaughter.

Could it be that those who seek to distract and derail a debate are those that know they have lost the debate, but rather than withdraw, try to force the thread into an endless pursuit of ever-changing topics?

Give up? The answer is “Yes.”

Welcome to ‘Murika, y’all.”

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Does Bigotry Come with a Dress Code?

 Photo by Paulina Zimmerman on Pexels.com

Drag queen = pedophile?

Does that mean no one in the Proud Boys owns a dictionary?

Does bigotry carry a dress code?

So many questions.

Marjorie Taylor Greene Tells Proud Boys To Dress Appropriately for Protests

BY DARRAGH ROCHE ON 6/18/22

https://www.newsweek.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-proud-boys-dress-appropriately-protests-1717116

The Aristocracy and the Rest of Us

 

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko from Pexels

"Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction." --Erich Fromm

Fuck Congress.

A little dramatic? I suppose, but then, without drama, what? Treacle? There is always the danger of carrying drama into purple prose, but purple prose at least displays a level of effort and confidence. I'll have to watch out for that tendency to be heavy-handed, though. It comes, partly, from my current reading of James Joyce- now being tempered by John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces.

I once read of a prominent author (I have forgotten who he was) who avoided reading contemporary writers for fear of contaminating his work. Wouldn't reading only the classics put the author in danger of being influenced by them? Did he, for fear of sounding like Joan Didion, come across like Herman Melville?

We live in a litigious culture in which it seems everyone wants to get rich from everyone else's labor- a trait drilled into us by our elected officials and corporate executives. I suspect the author's reluctance to read copyrighted work came more from a fear of accusations of plagiarism than from concerns about influence on style and voice. A charge of plagiarism is a burdensome shame for a legitimate writer, though all of us carry phrases, voices, and styles in our hidden memories from works read, dramatizations seen, and music heard. All writers live with the danger of these suppressed memories coming to life on paper. I see in my own scribbles the influence of, say, Joyce's phraseology. Might I have also inadvertently used a phrase or a sentence? Modestly, I am not of the caliber of writer to work in the words of that kind of genius; but of a lesser writer or one who engages a more vernacular style, there is certainly the possibility of a string of words belonging to another showing up in my pages.

I like to believe that if I were to see a bit of prose rightfully mine but appearing in someone else's work might be handled- and corrected- without my resorting to the theft of his entire work through subpoenas and demands for obscene amounts of cash, but then, my Congress- votes to give themselves yet another pay increase, and I've got to pay That bill, don't I?

Members of my congress force their ever-increasing wealth on the public with no thought of the burden it places on others.

Pay for their insatiable need, I will; in the same spirit it was fostered onto me--with contempt for the greed of the officials who make themselves wealthy beyond the common working person’s imagination.

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Congressional Salaries and Allowances: In Brief

Updated November 3, 2021:

https://www.everycrsreport.com/files/2021-11-03_RL30064_302197ea1def9558e2ef1420c3d51c8957b4e526.pdf