I am on the upswing. I shall return in a few days, a very few days. I'm still overcoming drams of acute depression, dehydration (with associated dollops of delirium), dizziness on standing (low blood pressure) because of sodium loss, and extreme fatigue. But little steps aimed at improvement are helping to overcome these little inconveniences, which foolish men like myself cope with on our own, because foolish men like myself believe in our invincibility. I appreciate your forbearance.
Your host, PM 'Papa' Carpenter
***
THE CARPENTARIAT RECOMMENDS ...
Recent Posts
- I am on the upswing.
- Andrew Sullivan has completely lost his mind. (And he ain't alone.)
- Lies, damned lies, and FACTS: Georgia's voting law
- Neo-gibberish
- Matt Gaetz - and what not to do when under criminal investigation
- Mike Pence: A Broken Man for Our Times
- Dangerous ground
- "Gunsmoke," social conservatives, and American silliness
- It's all coming into focus: The Democratic defamation of Matt Gaetz.
- This is why American conservatism is dead
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April 09, 2021
April 02, 2021
Andrew Sullivan has completely lost his mind. (And he ain't alone.)
It seems my pause from the madness isn't working out very well.
His clickbait campaign continues.
"The most dangerous manifestation of the collapse of the old religions … is the conflation of religious impulses and politics…. [The 'woke' ones are] too worldly, too rooted in contemporary culture wars, too baldly tribal, and too shallow in their understanding of the world to have much staying power. But they can do immense damage to souls and our society in the meantime. They lack the one thing that endures in religious practice: something transcendent that makes the failure in our lives redemptive, and sees politics merely as the necessary art of attending to the imperfect."
That last line is an example of astounding historical ignorance — religion should play no part in our governance (see: U.S. Constitution), — or is, "merely," uncaring. Politics is the art of "attending to the imperfect." That's no mere fact.
For a man who complained for years about his minority group's oppression, he just doesn't give a damn about others, among whom he is not a member. Classic conservative thinking. Let politics bite him in the ass; then you will hear his complaints.
Lies, damned lies, and FACTS: Georgia's voting law
I need to pause for a couple days. Personal stuff. See you soon.
***
Before pausing, I couldn't resist noting this contrast in media coverage about Georgia's voting law.
From a Wall Street Journal editorial:
"The public debate on Georgia’s new voting law has become a stew of falsehood, propaganda and panic. Part of the blame lies with the partisan distortion of Democrats, part with their media echoes." The editorial goes on to say that "Mr. Biden [and his millions of dupes] either doesn’t know what’s in the Georgia bill or he is lying about it."
The NY Times examined the law's "most significant changes to voting in the state," itemizes them and provides more background on each:
* Voters will now have less time to request absentee ballots.
* There are strict new ID requirements for absentee ballots.
* It’s now illegal for election officials to mail out absentee ballot applications to all voters.
* Drop boxes still exist … but barely.
* Mobile voting centers (think an R.V. where you can vote) are essentially banned.
* Early voting is expanded in a lot of small counties, but probably not in more populous ones.
* Offering food or water to voters waiting in line now risks misdemeanor charges.
* If you go to the wrong polling place, it will be (even) harder to vote.
* If election problems arise, a common occurrence, it is now more difficult to extend voting hours.
* With a mix of changes to vote-counting, high-turnout elections will probably mean a long wait for results.
* Election officials can no longer accept third-party funding (a measure that nods to right-wing conspiracy theories).
* With an eye toward voter fraud, the state attorney general will manage an election hotline.
* The Republican-controlled legislature has more control over the State Election Board.
* The secretary of state is removed as a voting member of the State Election Board.
* The G.O.P.-led legislature is empowered to suspend county election officials.
* Runoff elections will happen faster — and could become harder to manage.
***
From one of the bill's more hot-button areas: The law specifies that "No person shall … offer to give … food and drink, to an elector … (1) Within 150 feet of the outer edge of any building within which a polling place is established … or (3) Within 25 feet of any voter standing in line to vote."
Figure that one out. What is a helper supposed to do? Toss a water bottle and bag of peanuts to a voter from 26 feet away?
This provision, however, is the real kicker:
"The law dictates that the newly created chair [of the state election board] be 'nonpartisan,' but the position is appointed through the partisan legislature…. The State Election Board, newly influenced by the partisan Legislature, will have the power to suspend county election officials…. It could particularly affect counties like Fulton [Atlanta]."
Don't like Fulton County's election results? Easy fix. Just suspend the county's election officials.
The WSJ editorial board is correct about one thing, though. "The public debate on Georgia’s new voting law has become a stew of falsehood, propaganda and panic" — exacerbated by right-wing media coverage.
April 01, 2021
Mike Pence: A Broken Man for Our Times
"Former Vice President Mike Pence is steadily reentering public life as he eyes a potential run for the White House in 2024," writes Newsmax.
He may have a spot of trouble with that. It seems that in an early March interview, Trump named Ron DeSantis, Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz as GOP leaders. Somehow, he forgot to name Pence. Trump then proceeded to criticize Pence for failing to steal the presidential election for him.
"[Pence's] allies argue that, over time, the anger will subside." Soldier on, boys. But then, there's this: "Signs that many in the GOP still hold Pence responsible for losing the election have dotted the highway in many Trump strongholds, where masking tape and markers block out his name on Trump-Pence flags and lawn signs."
I suspect the Pacific Ocean will drain faster than Trumpers' anger will subside. I'll give Mike credit, though. He's forging ahead — like the Light Brigade.
Dangerous ground
I am wary about this mock-up, from the Daily Beast:
Like Theodore Roosevelt, who signed on to Progressivism because he realized the movement was the acute political future, (though in 1912, it didn't work out), Biden has seized the moment — while simultaneously adjusting to political reality, which has always been the key to presidential success.
Against the regnant theme of Biden gone progressively wild, I would argue that he has indeed returned us to the meat of that 1920 Harding neologism: "America's present need is not heroics but healing; not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration." Which is to say, what has Biden done except return us to Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson and Barack Obama's arc of the moral universe?
What we're witnessing is a restoration of human decency. Not heroics and revolution. Should we agree to perceive the Biden administration's wholesome accomplishments as "revolution" instead, reactionary blowback will soon follow.
Beware progressive triumphalism.
March 31, 2021
"Gunsmoke," social conservatives, and American silliness
Taking a break from the usual madness, this afternoon I watched an episode of "Gunsmoke." In it, a cowboy wished to marry a "saloon girl." This was deemed by 1975 television to be a rather shameful communal act.
Until I read Tom Clavin's fascinating, 2017 work, Dodge City: Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and the Wickedest Town in the American West" about six months ago, I would have assumed the production's assessment of rowdy Old West types marrying prostitutes was correct.
Clavin corrected that. Many of the law enforcement officers of that era, such as Earp, married whores, as the historian and former NY Times journalist detailed. Their additional income to the officers' pay was appreciated by the husbands, and their "profession" was scarcely looked down on.
Later, American Puritanism. Which Clavin, understandably, hasn't space for. But it's the — or one — foundation of our ludicrous culture wars.
It's all coming into focus: The Democratic defamation of Matt Gaetz.
Sure, for now the scandal bombs are dropping on mostly the QAnon crackpots. But given the rife, incestuous contagion of zaniness among the larger GOP clan, Fox News, Newsmax, Breitbart and other goofweed organs of sheer lunacy will be disseminating QAnonThink.
Poor Matt Gaetz. Insidious Democratic victim of the week. Dems have been running their child-sex rings for years, say QAnoners, and wouldn't you know it? Like the devious little shits they are, they have grabbed the table, and turned it. Oh, they're a wily bunch.
"This kind of setup or smear campaign is consistent with evil," wrote one QAnon [member]. "The [deep state] will try to destroy all their opponents in any way possible. See ALL the FALSE accusations levied against the GOAT — DJT. Evil accuses good of what they themselves do."
"Gaetz is working WITH FBI to catch an extortion racket," said another. "The deep state media is using Matt Gaetz to distract us from the recent Ghislaine Maxwell [indictment]."
Notes Vice News: "Another user said the story was a smear campaign designed to undermine Gaetz’s ambitions for a possible 2024 presidential ticket with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis."
Please tell me that's true — the presidential ticket, that is.
So tune in Tucker and Sean tonight. They'll get to the bottom of this. Guaranteed.
This is why American conservatism is dead
Washington Post columnist Henry Olsen, who "focuses on American conservative thought," has a few thoughts of his own on Georgia's recently passed voting law. His piece is shockingly blind.
"Democrats have been tarnishing Georgia’s new voting law, saying it represents a return to Jim Crow," he writes. "That calumny besmirches an effort that largely succeeds at balancing extensive voter access with strong election integrity."
Later, there's this: "Democrats’ objections are an answer in search of a problem."
With that, Olsen turns the entire controversy on its head. The 2020 election is known as perhaps the most flawless in history. Federal, state and local election officials have confirmed this, repeatedly. Yet Olsen proceeds to detail the harmlessness of Georgia's law — all of it designed, he says, around securing "strong election integrity," which, in 2020, was perfectly healthy.
The invisible subtext of Olsen's piece is that Georgia's Republican legislators were kicking around ideas one day on how to make voting easier for Democratic constituents. And so the liberating elements of Georgia's new law fell into place. Well isn't this nice, they said to one another: We may get our butts hammered for making voting so easy and carefree, but at least we'll know we have done our part to ensure "extensive voter access" to the polls.
There's another subtext; this one more visible. As long as conservative columnists who "focus on American conservative thought" so brazenly deceive the electorate with their asinine tales of innocence, American conservatism will remain a dull, blunt force in politics. Nothing more. And with that force, they're just digging themselves deeper. How blind.
March 30, 2021
That nice little island, which never before threatened anyone, is arming to the teeth
Oh, good. What could go wrong?
[Japan's] military is now one of the world’s best-equipped and trained, increasingly visible on exercises around the globe. A close partner of the U.S., Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has moved the country away from its strict pacifism during his 8½ years in power
over two stints. China’s military rise, along with the threat of North Korean missiles, has been a major catalyst….
Retired Lt. Gen. Koichiro Bansho, a former adviser to Japan’s National Security Council, said there was no question Japan is prepared for combat.
"This is a normal military," he said. "We carry body bags."
For Christ's sake. From the Pentagon: "On February 10, 2020, [the president] sent Congress a proposed Fiscal Year 2021 budget request of $740.5 billion for national security,… which drives the Department's decision-making in reprioritizing resources and shifting investments to prepare for a potential future, high-end fight."
Only a military mind would write of a "potential future" fight. The future is loaded with potential. The future is potential.
Point being, though, if three-quarters of a trillion dollars isn't enough to prepare for an ally's security, what in hell is?
A blast from the past: The NYT opinion page actually has some good stuff today.
It appears the virtue warriors at the NY Times opinion department took a day off, allowing some editor to publish some interesting writing. A little wrap-up, generously rewarding ...
I suspect that the absence of true populism on the right has a lot to do with the closing of the right-wing mind: the conservative establishment may have lost power, but its apparatchiks are still the only people in the G.O.P. who know anything about policy. And big money may still buy influence even in a party whose energy comes mainly from intolerance and hate.
In any case, for now Republican politicians are doing Democrats a big favor, clinging to discredited economic ideas that even their own supporters dislike.
We may be seeing something akin to this on the international stage, if I may take that liberty with Bret Stephens' column:
Communism aided the West because it saddled an imperialist Russian state with an unworkable and unpopular economic system that could not keep up with its free-market competitors. "They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work" — the quintessential Russian joke about working life in the workers’ paradise — goes far to explain why a regime with tens of thousands of nuclear warheads simply petered out.
Now China. The new USSR. And a whole new bundle of internal, self-destructive tendencies.
Also former Democratic senator Mark Pryor — remember him?
As Mr. Biden considers his choice to lead the department’s crucial antitrust division, he should look to Mr. Roosevelt’s choice of Robert Jackson, a lawyer in private practice, for the role as an example of what strong, progressive leadership in the agency can accomplish. Though Mr. Jackson is best known today for his tenure as attorney general and later as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court Justice, it is perhaps his role in transforming America’s antitrust laws and institutions where he made his biggest impact.
I have always loved Mr. Jackson. Not, however, because of his role as attorney general, or later as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, or his historic involvement in transforming America’s antitrust laws and institutions. No, Mr. Jackson has always held a special place in my heart because of what he reputedly announced on the eve of the Nuremberg trials, in which he acted as U.S. chief of counsel for the prosecution: If you want to line up the bastards against a brick wall and machine-gun them down, fine. But let's not pretend there is such a thing as international law.
That story, told by one of my undergrad profs, may be apocryphal. Who knows. Who cares. It perfectly mirrors Jackson's lovably unlovable personality. President Biden needs more hardass grumps like that — to decisively shut down the "conservative establishment," electorally powerless, but whose "apparatchiks are still the only people in the G.O.P. who know anything about policy."
I once counseled a political candidate to not use, please do not use, that tired old cliché, "It's time for a change," which he very much wanted to use as his campaign slogan. He did. He lost. Today, though, the sentiment if not the words themselves, could not be more apt.