I Hit a Triple Today

As some of you may recall, I decided to try to engage with the radical right. I chose three big sites, Breitbart, Town Hall and the Daily Caller to try to engage with. In response to Biden's pick of Harris, I figured it is be a great time to inject a contrarian view. I was right that it is a very good time to inject a contrarian view.

Apparently, all three sites decided they have had enough of me and blocked my comments. It looks like I have to find more radical right sites. Sigh.

This adds to evidence that the radical right is no longer willing to tolerate dissenting facts or opinions. This tells me they are now all in on their run at building an American dictatorship built on demagoguery, irrational fear and irrational intolerance.

Town Hall - I tried twice, then gave up 
(but they did let me respond to another person's 
criticism of Harris as a slut)

The Daily Caller

Breitbart

I bought my first gun because I no longer feel safe in America | Solomon Jones

 In the first half of 2020, gun purchases by African Americans increased by 58% over the same period last year. That’s a bigger increase than any other group, according to a study by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the firearm industry’s trade organization.

I’m not surprised. I’m one of the Black people who bought a gun for the first time this year.

Though I spent my teen years in North Philly during the rise of crack-driven violence in the ’80s and ’90s, I’ve never been a proponent of guns. Not because I was against their use. I just never believed I needed one.

But that’s changed over the last few years.

I still believe I’m fairly safe among Black people. I think my family is, too. However, in a time of economic and medical strife, with a president who regularly engages in racial rhetoric that paints Black and brown people as the other, I’m concerned about what the future may hold. To be blunt, President Donald Trump has emboldened America’s racists, and I’ve come to the conclusion that it would be irresponsible to leave my family defenseless.

I didn’t come to this decision easily. When my children were younger, my wife and I determined that we wouldn’t have guns in our home. It was too dangerous to do so with little ones afoot, and our East Mount Airy community was relatively safe. Yes, there were property crimes that served as nuisances, but serious violence was rare, and our home was a place of peace.

I’ve also worked hard to stop gun violence through my work with ManUpPHL, an organization I founded to provide mentoring and resources to men who are at risk of becoming victims or perpetrators of gun crimes. That’s why, when I walked into a gun store and underwent a background check to legally purchase a gun, I did so with the knowledge that I was entering into a pact with my community. I knew I was making an unspoken agreement that I would never use my gun to engage in anything other than my responsibility as a husband and father, the responsibility to defend and protect those I love.

While I continue to feel safe in my home and community, America as a whole has grown increasingly dangerous for Black people under the leadership of Donald Trump. At first, it was just rhetoric that painted Mexicans as criminals and rapists. Then it was the notion that there were very fine people among the neo-Nazis who marched to protect a Confederate monument in Charlottesville, Va. Then it was the assertion that Black people came from s—hole countries, that monuments to slavery should be protected, and most recently, that federal agents should be called in to quell protests against racism.

All of this has emboldened those who hate Black people. We’ve seen their racist actions as they’ve called the police on Blacks for perceived infractions like barbecuing, or sleeping, or birdwatching while Black. We’ve seen white supremacists like Dylann Roof commit mass murders against Black people. We’ve seen them challenge government in places like Michigan with heavily armed protests that looked more like Klan rallies than demonstrations against coronavirus restrictions.

As a student of history, I’m concerned that in a time of economic hardship and overall uncertainty, such people will do what has historically been the norm. They will look for others to blame. Jews were the other in Hitler’s Germany, and Muslims were the other after 9/11, for too many Americans. As has been the case throughout American history, Black people are the other right now.

One glaring difference gives me some reason to hope. I’ve seen white allies take to the streets to protest against racial injustice. I’ve spoken with white pastors who’ve rejected the racist practice of segregated worship. I’ve seen much of America willing to listen to the views of those who’ve been oppressed.

Still, this reality remains. In Trump’s America, there is an emboldened and heavily armed faction that believes in racist ideology, and while I believe they’re vastly outnumbered by fair-minded people, they are here. But so am I, and I’m not going anywhere.

I hope I never have to use my gun to protect my family, especially since Black people who are legal gun owners risk being harmed by police who see them as threats to be eliminated rather than citizens to be assisted.

Still, as long as racists have the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, I will be practicing that right, too.

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/gun-purchase-increase-2020-african-americans-black-20200804.html

Dumping All Over American Trucks Goes Mainstream

 

It's not just a bunch of enviro hippies anymore

Two recent articles in not your usual sources of environmental news give me hope that the tide is turning for SUVs and pickups.

After a British organization recently proposed Treating SUVs Like Cigarettes and Banning Advertising I suggested that this wasn't enough; we had to learn from the entire anti-tobacco campaign, which not only banned ads but also regulated cigarettes and perhaps most importantly, made smokers into social pariahs. Cigarettes were no longer a personal choice but became "everybody's business."

The usual suspects like Treehugger or Streetsblog have been railing against light trucks (the proper name for SUVs and pickups) forever, but now, complaints about light trucks are everybody's business. An article by Ryan Cooper in The Week is interesting for a number of reasons. Titled The case against American truck bloat, Cooper uses humor and sarcasm to reinforce his case. Cooper notes, as we have, that the main reason for the jump in pedestrian deaths has been the proliferation of light trucks, and wonders why.

Trucks and SUVs do not make up 70 percent of automobile sales nowadays because Americans are now 70 percent contractors and HVAC repairmen. Nor has the average pickup gained 730 pounds since 2000 because 100 million people have taken up cattle ranching. The vast majority of SUV and truck drivers would have driven a sedan in previous ages, and for these people it's about looks, power, speed, and perceived safety for drivers. Thinking about pedestrians might upset this comfortable arrangement.

 In fact, if you look around, most HVAC contractors drive Ford Transits or Sprinter style vans, designed to European safety standards with low pedestrian-absorbing front ends and good visibility.

Both designs could have the boxes chopped off and be turned into great pickups, just like Volkswagen did decades ago, but that's not what people are buying. Cooper notes that the big front end is entirely a marketing gimmick:

Don't take it from me, take it from the guy who designed the latest GM Sierra HD: "The front end was always the focal point... we spent a lot of time making sure that when you stand in front of this thing it looks like it's going to come get you. It's got that pissed-off feel."

Cooper blames the automakers for "deliberately ranking insecure faux-macho looks over the safety of pedestrians as well as regulators for failing to rein them in" instead of having sloping noses with good visibility. When he tweeted about this he caught criticism from the likes of Ted Cruz and others who love their trucks.

Conservatives were quick to inform me that only beta male soyboys could possibly drive such a vehicle. It seems thousands of dead pedestrians — who are incidentally about 70 percent men — is just the price to be paid so the right can have another postmodern culture-war grievance in their eternal quest to own the libs.

 It's probably a stretch to call The Week a mainstream publication, but the article is getting spread around because it wasn't paywalled. Dan Neil also wrote a great article in the paywalled Wall Street Journal on the same subject, also with a bit of humor. This is key; in my writing, I am often sanctimonious, but Neil and Cooper make the drivers of these things look like insecure weenies.

Dan Neil explains how pickups changed from working vehicles to a different profile of customer:

That’s right: Gucci cow­boys. His­tor­i­cally aimed at com­mer­cial cus­tomers, sole pro­pri­etors, horse-haulers and mega-RVers, heavy-duty pick­ups are stronger and taller than or­di­nary (half-ton) trucks, with cabs mounted high above re­in­forced frame rails and heavy, long-travel sus­pen­sions. But HD trucks have evolved in the past decade, ir­ra­di­ated with the same pres­tige-lux­ury rays as light-duty trucks.

 He also blames the marketers for this, with one noting that “The face of these trucks is where the ac­tion is; a Ford has to say Ford from head-on, a Chevy must shout Chevy. Every pickup has be­come a rolling brand bill­board and the bill­boards are big.”

You don’t have to be Steven Pinker to see that truck de­sign­ers are lean­ing into the bully with these lantern-jawed bumpers and walls of chrome. De­troit’s blithe cod­i­fi­ca­tions of pur­pose­ful and pow­er­ful pickup de­sign fail to de­scribe the in­tim­i­da­tion fac­tor from the out­side.

The Pinker reference is significant, given that he studies mental imagery, shape recognition and visual attention. Both Neil and Cooper are writing in the same week, pretty much the same story: Pickups are all about image, about marketing, about being in your face.

There are many who will defend pickups for their practicality; one justified it in comments on the last post saying "I need my SUV/Pickup to tow my boat/trailer/ATV/jetski/snowmobiles which I do every weekend, and I need it to carry 4+ people with all their luggage for 1-to-20 days over 200+ km long trips." I can't argue with that but suspect that people like this are few and far between. Another commenter was true to form, noting that "pickups are very useful"– for crushing protesters' bicycles in Portland.

Both of these articles are important because they change the approach from complaining about the safety or the fuel consumption and carbon footprint of pickups, but instead, talk about the people who buy them and the motivations that drive them. About the marketing, and the need to look intimidating.

This could be the beginning of the end for the pickup truck, when non-Treehugger types write in non-treehuggerish publications about how silly these trucks are. They could finally become socially unacceptable and turn into a niche sideshow, the vehicle of choice for the anti-mask brigade.

https://www.treehugger.com/crapping-all-over-american-trucks-goes-mainstream-5074162

Contact Tracing Is Not Working Very Well

The New York Times published an article (not behind a paywall) that describes what a contact tracer in Los Angeles is facing. People are either amazingly unaware of their daily lives and/or fearful of giving out information for whatever reason, or maybe no reason. If what the NYT reported is reasonably representative of what contact tracers everywhere in the US are facing, we probably cannot effectively trace COVID-19 infections in this country.

This is an example of what can happen after decades of right wing propaganda sowing distrust in government, i.e., people distrust government.

Here are a couple of examples of how people are responding, or more accurately, often failing to respond:

Case 2
Two attempted calls.
Telephone call at 11 a.m. Unable to complete interview since case had a “work call” to attend to. Telephone call on 7/29 at 10 a.m. to conduct interview. Case stated that roommate has tested positive, but not sure about exposure. Denied any other contacts outside of household. Case thinks exposure may be from going to the beach, and denied any other contact/exposure. Case provided roommate information to be contacted by Contact Tracer.

Case 5
Seven attempted calls.
Left voice message at 9:16 a.m., and again at 2:05 p.m. Able to contact patient at 3:25 p.m. and call dropped mid-interview. Case was anxious about getting “excuse” for work. Reassured that Health Officer Order may be of assistance. Called back and voice message again. 7/29 Checked work voice mail and have a message from case. Telephone call on 7/29 at 10:44 a.m. and left message. Attempted to connect with case and left message at 11:56 a.m. Attempted to contact case at 2:07 p.m. and left voice message. Attempted to contact case at 4:02 p.m. and left message. 

Case 8
Two attempted calls.
Left voice message at 11:08 a.m. Attempted to contact case and able to conduct interview after lunch. Case is an elderly lady who lives alone. Tested positive prior to a medical procedure. Assured me that her family is doing the “right thing” to stop the spread by testing and “cleaning everything.” Case was very thankful for the phone call, and listened attentively, but was adamant about NOT providing contact information.

Case 11
One attempted call.
Family member of case #11. May have been exposed at workplace. Able to add other household members who have not tested nor have symptoms. Was not comfortable to provide individual cell number, and preferred to have case #11 cell number since they live in same household. Case was gracious enough to help with some contact information, and able to gain essential information to and connect to positive cases.

Lebanon's Tragedy: Government Corruption and Incompetence

Government incompetence and corruption caused the explosion. This is what society looks like when government is corrupt, and incompetent political leadership is in charge.

The New York Times comments on the Lebanon incompetence:

Since an orphaned shipment of highly explosive chemicals arrived at the port of Beirut in 2013, Lebanese officials treated it the way they have dealt with the country’s lack of electricity, poisonous tap water and overflowing garbage: by bickering and hoping the problem might solve itself.

But the 2,750 tons of high-density ammonium nitrate combusted Tuesday, officials said, unleashing a shock wave on the Lebanese capital that gutted landmark buildings, killed 135 people, wounded at least 5,000 and rendered hundreds of thousands of residents homeless.

The ship carrying the chemicals was en route to Mozambique when it was detained in Beirut. A Lebanese court impounded the cargo, so the ammonium nitrate was transferred to a port hangar.

Over the next six years, port officials repeatedly asked the judge to find a way to get rid of the chemicals.

In a 2016 letter, they cited “the serious danger posed by keeping this shipment in the warehouses in an inappropriate climate” and asked that it be dealt with “to preserve the safety of the port and its workers.”

The port’s director, Hassan Koraytem, said that port officials were told the materials would be auctioned off, but the auction never happened and the judiciary ignored the port authority’s letters.

He said he was unaware of the power of the chemicals so the port took no special precautions to protect them.

“Now we are living a national catastrophe,” he said. “There is no more port.”

Judicial officials could not be reached for comment.

Ah yes, the tried and true could not be reached for comment tactic. It is the favorite of crooks, liars, demagogues, tyrants, goons, politicians and corporate criminals when faced with questions they do not want to answer. There ought to be a law against it, but there isn't.

Also, the good 'ole bickering and hoping the problem might solve itself tactic is also a big hit among the corrupt, the incompetent and authoritarians who refuse to compromise to get something done. Very popular.

What's left of a small business in Beirut

What's let of the port in Beirut

The GOP and our president are similarly incompetent. Comparable incompetence and accompanying slaughter happened in 2013 in GOP controlled-America. The incompetence happened to the town called West, which is in Texas. That corruption and incompetence killed 15, injured about 160 and flattened some buildings.

West, Texas - after GOP anti-government ideology and 
a corrupt no-regulation mindset has been in place for enough years

Questions: When, if ever it is moral and justified to resort to illegal, violent protest in the face of "too much" government corruption and/or incompetence? Does it depend on how many die in a spectacular blast, or can a slow, accumulation of corpses also count, e.g., George Floyd? How does one define "too much"?

Christian Fear and Lust for Power

“Back in 2011, white evangelicals were the most likely group to say that personal morality was important in a president, according to the Public Religion Research Institute. Since Mr Trump became the Republican standard-bearer, they have become the least likely group to say that, changing what seems like a fundamental issue of morality to accommodate their support for the president.”-- The Economist, June 2017

“How long will I be allowed to remain a Christian?” That was the deeply dismaying question posed to me by a friend with four young children as we discussed the plight of the Christian faith in America and around the world. With each passing month, that shocking question becomes more relevant and even more disturbing. .... Here in the United States, Christians and Christianity are mocked, belittled, smeared and attacked by some on a daily basis. This is a bigoted practice that is not only increasing exponentially, but is being encouraged and sanctioned by a number on the left. .... As more and more of the mainstream media, entertainment, academia and the hi-tech world continue to purge or discriminate against Christians, what future job fields will be open to young Christians? -- Fox News opinion piece, April 2018

“Trump’s an outsider, like the rest of us. We might not respect Trump, but we still love the guy for who he is. Is he a man of integrity? Absolutely not. Does he stand up for some of our moral Christian values? Yes.” .... “I’m not going to say he’s a Christian, but he just doesn’t attack us.” .... “Obama wanted to take my assault rifle, he wanted to take out all the high-capacity magazines. It just — felt like your freedoms kept getting taken from you.”  -- New York Times, Evangelical Trump supporters explaining their feelings and reasons for support

Polls indicate that about 80% of white Evangelicals will vote for the president in November. That is about the same level of support he got from that group in November of 2016. This group is absolutely necessary for his re-election. He is so important to them that they changed their moral beliefs. What white Evangelicals want is political power to make their fear go away.

An article in the New York Times, Christianity Will Have Power, discusses the reasons that white Evangelicals support the president. The main reason was fear in 2016, and it still is today. The article starts with a January 2016 speech at a small religious college in Iowa where the president promised the audience they would have power if they elected him. In his speech, the president promised power:

“I will tell you, Christianity is under tremendous siege, whether we want to talk about it or we don’t want to talk about it. And yet we don’t exert the power that we should have. Christianity will have power. If I’m there, you’re going to have plenty of power, you don’t need anybody else. You’re going to have somebody representing you very, very well. Remember that.”

The NYT writes:

“Evangelicals did not support Mr. Trump in spite of who he is. They supported him because of who he is, and because of who they are. He is their protector, the bully who is on their side, the one who offered safety amid their fears that their country as they know it, and their place in it, is changing, and changing quickly. White straight married couples with children who go to church regularly are no longer the American mainstream. An entire way of life, one in which their values were dominant, could be headed for extinction. And Mr. Trump offered to restore them to power, as though they have not been in power all along.”

In essence, rural people see the social changes and they do not like it. They do not like social changes including a long decline in church attendance, a high divorce rate, legalization of same-sex marriage and a false belief that for eight long, terrifying years, president Obama led a brutal attack on Christianity, religious freedom and white people generally. The Christians complain that people in urban areas do not understand them, their situation or their moral values, especially family values. They fear that children are not taught to attend church every week and that spells the end of Christian power. They complain that urban people look down on them and think of them as deplorable.

One Christian explained it like this: “I feel like on the coasts, in some of the cities and stuff, they look down on us in rural America. You know, we are a bunch of hicks, and don’t know anything. They don’t understand us the same way we don’t understand them. So we don’t want them telling us how to live our lives. You joke that we don’t get it, well, you don’t get it either. We are not speaking the same language.”

One woman commented: “The religious part is huge for us, as we see religious freedoms being taken away. If you don’t believe in homosexuality or something, you lose your business because of it. And that’s a core part of your faith. Whereas I see Trump as defending that. He’s actually made that executive order to put the Bibles back in the public schools. That is something very worrisome and dear to us, our religious freedom.”

It is hard to see how operating a business in commerce is a core part of belief or religious practice. Selling products or goods in commerce is not any form of endorsement of anyone or their sex status. But maybe that is just an atheist bias. Obviously, Christians see this as a devastating attack on their liberty. Also, in practice, very few businesses are lost because most states do not have laws that ban discrimination  in commerce on the basis of sex. In those states, there is no chance that a business owner can lose the business by refusing to serve LGBQ or same-sex couples. They want power to discriminate their pure little Christian hearts out while oppressing those they dislike.

What few or no Christians appear to see is that the power they want is the power to stop social, economic and demographic change through political force. They do not see that a majority of Americans do not want or accept their goals, including the power to discriminate against same-sex couples and the power to force women to bear children that they do not want. What nearly all Christians appear to not know is the history of religious discrimination and brutality that characterized their false view of an illusory Christian American Garden of Eden since colonial times. What most seem to want is a vision of rural America that was like it was in the 1950s through about the mid-1960s. They want minorities to go away. They want power and they are willing to be authoritarian to get it and to use it to control the unwilling. 

One Christian commented that they want Christian education for their children: “so we don’t have to have them indoctrinated with all these different things. We are free to teach them our values.” What most Christians apparently do not understand or care about is that others want to be free to teach their different values and lead their lives as they want. 

If Christian values means forcing other people to live differently from what they would choose, those Christian values are immoral. One person seemed to sense this: “It’s almost like it is a reverse intolerance. If you have somebody that’s maybe on the liberal side, they say that we are intolerant of them. But it is inverse intolerant if we can’t live out our faith.” The flaw in that reasoning is that Christians always could live out their faith as they wished. Christians have always overwhelmingly been in power in America. Abortion law never forced any woman to have a baby she did not want. Legalized same-sex marriage does not force anyone to worship in a church that accepts it or anything they find unacceptable. There is no significant attack on religious freedom.

All of this seems to be lost on almost all Christians. The propaganda and lies they have been fed has worked to create a great but false fear. That fear now opens the door to the death of democracy and civil liberties and the birth of an intolerant authoritarianism borne by a vulgar, immoral, mendacious demagogue and a corrupt choir called the GOP. This is what fear, rational or not, can lead some people to do.