DEFEAT FASCISM

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Sometimes I read Thomas Sowell to see how conservatives think. They say he was smart. I’m not, so I must take their word for it.

He once said he started out as a liberal, but facts got in his way.

He loved facts, or so he said.

Therein lies an interesting observation that I, a public-school product, made over time. Sowell loved to present facts and let the reader mix them as a viewer of an impressionistic painting mixes disparate colors to imply a new one. Sowell’s readers see facts and the conclusions they drew are their own affairs.

For example. He once wrote a treatise on slavery. Without once offering an opinion or, at the ending, a moral conclusion, he sprinkled the piece with facts about slavery.

It seems that a huge proportion of all organized groups, from the attendees at Adam and Eve’s family reunions to states of modern Africa, have practiced slavery.

A weak mind would mix these facts and absolve America of any shame associated with the practice. At least that seemed to be Sowell’s intent.

Everyone else was doing it. What the hell?

Now this may pass for critical thinking in some places, but it wouldn’t stand up to my Sainted Mother’s “If everyone else was jumping off a cliff …” test for juvenile guidance.

Watch a criminal trial. Opening arguments consist almost entirely of facts, sometimes the same on both sides. Nonetheless, their purpose is to lead the listeners to diametrically opposed impressions.

We can’t change the truth. As John Adams actually said, “Facts are stubborn things.” What we can change is our method of searching for moral guidance.

DEFEAT FASCISM

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Ronald Reagan once, in a foggy attempt to quote John Adams, proclaimed, with his best actor’s voice, that “Facts are stupid things.” Perhaps some collection of brain cells thought so. Who knows?

Perhaps they are not stupid things, but facts are strange things. Wherein they, in their best use, lead us to the truth, in their worst use they can lead us into a quagmire of bewilderment.

How?

Anyone completing graduate school in America learned that consumption of ice cream and the murder rate are correlated, i.e. they occur at the same time of year.

In the MAGA world, this correlation could easily be used, with undoubted success, to convince the base that eliminating the production of ice cream would lower the incidences of murder in America.

A main difference between thinking folks and cult members is the knowledge that correlation does not equal causation.

In a more provocative case, a group of high-ranking government officials once determined that Americans who owned their own home were less likely to fall victim to many socioeconomic ills such as crime, poverty, lack of education, and reliance on welfare. This was a distinct and documented correlation.

Aha. Moving more folks from renter-status to home ownership would immediately help solve those problems.

As we know, the American economy almost collapsed when home ownership was broadened to include many who couldn’t afford the cost.

Was there a causal relationship between the facts?

Who knows? Let’s just say that public administration is a more complicated process than many Americans believe, infinitely more complicated than Donald Trump can imagine. After all, he is a descendant and proponent of the “Facts are stupid things” method of governance.

DEFEAT FASCISM

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I've always been lucky with friends. Many were attorneys. I never joined in any defamation games. Instead, I tried to learn from their applications of logic and law.

The law is a precious thing, It stands between us and destruction at times, between anarchy and peace at others. Can it be used for specious purposes rather than for good? Yes, but so can a surgeon's scalpel. So can a shovel. So can a hammer.

Today I think even more fondly about the attorneys I've known. Almost all have been honest and dedicated to the rule of law and logic. Not a single one I've known has ever crapped on the floor of the United States Capitol

Today we find ourselves besieged by the forces of evil and darkness. The purposes of those in power seek are to create an America composed of a binary population of favored rulers and proles.

Standing on the walls of the Fortress of America and defending us are a few brave lawyers. Let's send them our love.

DEFEAT FASCISM

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This morning, our statewide newspaper ran the headline "Lawmakers to weigh end to hiring laws." In short they will prevent state agencies from considering affirmative action. It will pass without a hitch.

Some of you may say, "It's about time."

Some may say, "It's the end of the world."

I just say it's a sign of the era upon which we have embarked.

Here are couple of my memories.

The first professional job I had was in a small consulting firm head by three bosses, two not bad and one a blinking asshole. We'll call him "BA."

Our secretary quit. As we began to look, a friend told me of a young woman on the look for a job after a restructuring ended her department. She came highly recommended, and I mentioned her to my bosses. They invited her in. She was poised, erudite, highly qualified, and anxious. After the interview, BA walked into my office, frowned and said, "You didn't tell us she was a n****er."

Yeah. I did that.

As my career developed, I assisted cities in obtaining HUD grants for municipal improvements. The department began seriously requiring affirmative action efforts as a step to receive grants. I informed a local mayor of this, and the conversation went like this.

"You mean we have to put a black in charge of something?

"If you want this grant."

"We don't have anyone."

"No one at all?"

"Not a qualified black."

"You are telling me that in your entire city government there is not one black worker qualified for promotion?"

"Not unless you consider John in the Sewer Department."

"Been with the city for a while?"

"Some 15 years or so."

"Knowledgeable?"

"I guess so. We rely on him when Fred, the supervisor is ill. Fred's in bad health now and ready to retire."

One can see how it went. In more recent times, a city with an African American population of some 19 percent welcomed its first black city employee. Progress? I guess. It was when he was elected mayor.

Don't let them kid you. It's going to get worse.

Share at will.

DEFEAT FASCISM

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Parties change. People do too. When I was about 6 six years old, I first noticed people talking about politics. I asked my sister what would happen if Dwight Eisenhower were to be elected president. Her reply? “We will have another depression and Mother and Daddy will lose our grocery store and we’ll all go hungry.”

That scared me, so I began to pay attention. Of course all we got were long periods of boredom punctuated by racial tension and fear of nuclear war. Oh, and the defeat of McCarthyism and the forced integration of a major southern high school. By the time I was 18, JFK was saying “Ask not what your country can for you but what you can do for your country.” That was one of the most eloquent and encouraging lines ever uttered by a president.

Now, say a lad was 6 years old in 2016. When he reaches the age of 18, and is ready for the world, all he will ever have known about American politics will be Donald Trump. Whether in or out of office, barring unforeseen occurrences, Trump will have dominated the front page of almost every daily newspaper and been the subject of all nightly news and entertainment venues.

Unless our chap is highly educated, he will believe this is how government is supposed to work. If he is homeschooled by true believers or the product of an evangelist private school, (both funded partly by state taxes in my state) he may believe it is his god's will that things are as they are. If he is a product of a starved-to-the-bone public school system, he may be tuned to accept life as an Orwellian "prole."

Just think about that for a moment. Share at will.

DEFEAT FASCISM

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Perspectives change. Once I thought the “Easy Rider” guys were cool. Now I have seen neighborhoods, even cities, destroyed by the actions of drug dealers like those two. How many died while they rode across America pissing people off.  (The music is still great, though.)

 I thought the characters in “The Big Chill” were cool as well. Now I see that they were the self-absorbed assholes that would go on to ruin America. (The music is still great, though.)

The hero of “The Graduate?” Now I watch the final scene and say to myself, “She just ran off with the sorriest son of a bitch in Southern California.”

Now it’s “Animal House.” (The music is still great, though.)

Many, if not most, college graduates of the 60s saw that film and said, “That was us.” I've even heard high-class attorneys say so. What a group of colorful characters doing wild things.

Yep. They were funny as hell.

Now I realize that we just elected them to run our state and national governments.

Maybe it's not enough just to have good music.

DEFEAT FASCISM

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Here on the front porch of the Arkansas Delta we are returning to normal from a nasty bit of January weather. We don't handle snow very well. We wouldn't mind the ravages of summer heat if we could miss winter's badass moments.

Then there is the other stuff.

In the news, our governess went to Washington and took a large crowd of state troopers, maybe a full platoon or so. The only explanation is that it was a show of force. At this point their blouses are not brown, but one wonders.

Our congressional delegation is praising the president. Not one had a discouraging word about the pardoning of those who attacked the Capitol police and then crapped on the hallowed floors.

A whole generation is now thinking this is normal.

Sometimes I want to get a crowd of like-minded veterans and burn our Honorable Discharges on the Capitol lawn.

Why do I post these? I know I'm not changing things, but I want to make sure they come for me. I don't want to be one of the ones forced to walk by and view the carnage when the nightmare ends.