He did not want to die
He did not want to be a martyr
He wanted to see his neices & nephews grow old.
To sit by their beds
And tell them stories at night.
The kind of scary stories
With a safe kind of fright...
Good night.
Sleep well.
Hope your dreams are not as disturbing as mine.
For I see prophesies & visions;
Warnings of what is coming
Unless we do the right thing.
A Dragon emerges from my heart
soars above a scorched plain.
Will humans listen?
Or plunge the world in darkness again?
There is no cure
For what ails you.
You can torture thousands.
Drink their blood.
Bathe in it.
It is all the same.
An empty, hollow game.
Your soul is already in hell.
The suffering you inflict,
The pain & conflict
You will feel.
From your own vile judgement
There is no appeal.
I've reached the nadir of my despair.
It is not that I no longer care.
But I say a serenity prayer.
I focus on what I can change
And let go of what I can't.
These times of dysfunction
Only illustrate what is proper function.
We need a revolution
In our communities & hearts.
I've been listening to people talk about reforming the police and they all have good ideas. Some want to simply defund the police – even eliminate them – One twitter friend says [same as me].
"The senseless murder of George Floyd and other people of color, is a shame and an injustice. The violence generated by white supremacist and systematic racist prevents the building of a more perfect union. The consequences of the lack of corrective action by churches, corporations, civic and social organizations are a part of what must change. GABIDDC will not stand on the sidelines and be a part of silence that is deadly. We will soon asking you to attend our vitual meeting to create a plan of action for implementing chang. GABIDDC is a representative organization and public opinion directs our work. Stay tuned and continue for healing and positive change."
Truman E Carpenter, was my Grandfather. I never met him. He died January 5 1938, approximately. My mother [See: Sally Ann Holte/Mom] was orphaned at the beginning of 1938 when his plane went down. She was barely 2 years old when he died. Doing research on him, I thought some of it was interesting stuff and wanted to share it somewhere along with URLS to other places there is info on him.
In 1932, thousands of WW1 vets camped with their families in Washington DC, petitioning the Federal Government to payout bonuses early so they could survive. The Hoover Admin sent in the Army with bayonets under McArthur to suppress & drive them out. This heartless & authoritarian action led to FDR winning election.
Trump Plots Takeover
Yesterday Trump attacked a peaceful protest. He has deliberately labeled peaceful protests riots and accused "antifa" of engaging in lawless rioting. It is obvious the rioting has largely been instigated by Trump allies, the so called "boogaloo Bois", proud boys, rw media, all have gotten in on the act. It was even alleged that "umbrellaman" who broke windows at a store to entice people to loot it, was a cop. This has been going on a long time. Back in the 60s Charlie Manson justified his murders claiming he was trying to start a race war.
Tump thinks he can start a holocaust and use that to win reelection or dictatorial powers. I think it will fail.
Not to say it isn't possible.
That is not to say he won't try. That little stunt of attacking peaceful protesters and then holding up a bible. Isn't designed to get majority support. He has disregarded the law, misappropriating funds for his border wall, and gotten away with it. So far just ignoring laws has worked for him. People are calling on congress to cut off funds. They have done it on other issues. He ignores them.
Who will stop him? The courts!
Will he succeed in avoiding and rigging elections? I hope not.
Its going to be a long hot summer.
Federal Powers to Intervene in States
“To Enforce Federal Law Section 252 of Title 10 (previously section 332 of Title 10) delegates Congress’s power under the Constitution to call forth the militia279 to the President, authorizing him to determine that “unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States” and to use the Armed Forces as he considers necessary to enforce the law or to suppress the rebellion.”
Civil Rights Protection
Section 253 of Title 10 (previously section 333 of Title 10) permits the President to use the Armed Forces to suppress any “insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy” if law enforcement is hindered within a state, and local law enforcement is unable to protect individuals, or if the unlawful action “obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws.”
This section was passed to implement the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee for equal protection. It does not require the request or even the permission of the governor of the affected state. It would be ironic if the President used a section of law intended to enforce civil rights, to suppress demonstrations in response to Federal tyranny.
There are real parallels between the Evangelicals depicted in the Handmaids tale, Trumpism and the Taliban. Both the evangelical RW & Taliban are religious groups who reject the separation of Church and State, women's rights, & much of liberal democracy. But, while the Handmaids tale is fiction, the "Sons of Jacob" are plausible. The Taliban resemble them. The story was written in the 60s. Updated for TV & the present it is even more terrifying.
Parallels to the Taliban
Parallels:
1. Commanders
The Talliban decentralized their movement in the face of arrests & imprisonments after losing electorally. The treasonous revolutionaries who overthrew the USA & created Gilead called themselves Commanders & their movement "Sons of Jacob" and used this structure to operate as both a movement and a terrorist army. The Taliban have done the same.
The structure is ideal for a tneocratic autocracy, because a paramilitary organization with commanders can be both decentralized and under oligarchic control. They could employ almost unlimited resources of men and material and seemlessly take over government & business orgs & resources.
2. Oppression of women
Both Taliban and Gilead are all about Oppression of women. Gilead justified enslaving women on cherry picked biblical passages. The Taliban cherry pick Hadith & Koran. The Taliban behave in a manner similar to the fictional rulers of Gilead. Destroy schools, Forbid literacy in children, force conservative dress, kill or enslave the rebellious. The world of Afghanistan resembles the fictional Gilead.
People forget that Iran and Afghanistan once had women doctors & were not that different from our country before revolutionaries took it over. People also forget that similar ideas are taught as dogma by dogmatic RW Christians & Catholics. In Gilead & Afghanistan reading is criminalized or punished.
Gilead and EMAD Trumpism
Thank God it didn't happen here! Yet. But Trump draws his base [in Arabic alqaeda] from Fundamentalists with similar ideas to the Sons or Jacob. It could happen here. And as the experts warn you, and as illustrated by both the "Handmaid's tale" and the Taliban, The rank and file may be true believers, but the leaders are Exploitive, Manipulative, Amoral & Dishonest [EMAD], or to use the clinical terms, at best Narcissistic, but with folks like Trump Psychotic, Sociopathic, ruthless & criminal people. The taliban finances itself smuggling drugs & running extortion schemes.
What this means is that when people like Lawrence Tribe, tell you he will do anything he can to stay in power. And his wannabe Commanders talk up "There is no good Democrat but a Dead Democrat" there is good reason to be alarmed enough to make sure you get involved!!!
Our water supply is not yet polluted enough for handmaids. But the story is more plausible than it seems.
This recent extralegal murder of George Floyd illustrates the viciousness of police as standing armies. Again.
The police function was originally part of the schema of the Militia. The Declaration of independence is, among other things, a complaint against "standing armies", "pretend courts" and the tyranny of uniformed personnel enforcing law in an arbitrary manner. They argued for local government, democracy, which requires policing of, by and for, the local citizens.
Thus the framers of the constitution argued for community policing. The virtue of this argument was undermined by the viciousness of class, race & religious bigotry. The universal principles in the constitution argue for this.
Broken Glass Theory
The original Atlantic Article on "Broken Glass Theory" was deliberately misinterpreted, because it too argued for resourcing community policing.
The founders had some fundamental splits, but all of them saw the militia as the a key resource in the security and safety of United States. They saw militia as the Palladium of Liberty, both a bullwark against invasion and a tool for avoiding standing armies and tyranny. For more see:
The United States Congress uses the militia passages in Article one of the Constitution to justify our Military Academies, Army, 2 year horizons for appropriations, and appointments to the Officer corps. But the core of the militia clauses, the militia, has been lost, or associated with the National Guard. This is rather like how the post office clause of the Constitution has spun off UPS, Railroads, Airlines, Toll Roads, Telephony and the internet, yet somehow remains relegated to mail and small parcels. Both of these constitutional organizations had one vision originally, and a distorted image currently. Our authorities want privateering government that serves separate advantage. This attacks basic principles of commonwealth & Republicanism, as fundamental principle.
I started this post a while ago. But while the basic idea is premised on an understanding of the relationship between militia and police and professional police and occupying Armies, getting this across to people has been difficult. But you can't have a democratic republic at a federal level without local democracy. Volunteer fire, rescue, HS & Police are vital componant of a functional republic. They should be compensated Federally when they serve the country locally.
