What’s up, Doge? A terribly Parochial View.

No really. I have no idea what this is. I have only a passing familiarity with Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency. But like any doubter, I fear that which I do not understand. But a couple observations.

1. I am naturally skeptical of anything for which people evangelize, whether it’s a religion, movie. Band, or TV show. This minute you advocate for something that I just HAVE TO TRY/DO/LISTEN TO/WATCH, I am already shifting into self-defense mode. I like my things. I like what I like. I know who I am and what I like to do with my time. Why are you trying to change me????

2. In general, I find talking about money to be staggeringly dull. But even further than that, I also find that I can’t read about it or watch movies about it. My eyes glaze over trying to understand the many terms used for the stock market, derivatives and such. I just can’t.

3. Um…why are you still here? If you’re making so much money, why aren’t you on a yacht somewhere?

4. Why would I ever take advice from you? Have you looked at yourself lately???

5. Color me…whatever…but I’ve lived a long time and I’ve never come across anything to replace the “go to work/earn a check paradigm. (Is it a paradigm? It feels like a paradigm.) All the ways to make easy money always wind up biting in the ass: look at the saps who owned all those Air B&Bs. Or people that thought they would make it on Amway? I just don’t have a very strong faith in the easy way. And that’s coming from a person who isn’t crazy about going to work and would love to know that there is an easy way.

Anyway, that’s my time. I am the Parochialist and I have a parochial view of everything.

American Kompromat: A Parochial Review.

American Kompromat

By Craig Unger

(How the KGB cultivated Donald Trump, and Related Tales of Sex, Greed, Power and Treachery.)

It’s right there in the subtitle. This is the first thing I thought about when considering how to review this. Because it does stray from the initial topic quite a bit and may cause the casual reader to wonder “what does this have to do with THAT?” But the scope of the book is broad and paints a picture that we all recognize at this point. But the wrinkle of Trump being recruited as an asset back in the 80’s (one of many) by the KGB and then unwittingly parroting back the whole Soviet/Russian worldview as a platform for a major political party is the kind of thing that was supposed to be exposed by the Mueller Report. As explained in the text, it was all skillfully buried by AG William Barr. Barr gets a lot of time and airplay in this. It does offer a relatively damning summary of Trump’s time in public life, how one can trace back 40 years to see how the former Soviet Union saw promise in this brash young real estate tycoon on the rise, and how his ascent to the top office in the United States would have gone beyond any KGB recruiters’ wildest dreams.

But like a lot of books from the era of Trump, it will convince the initiated and be dismissed by his supporters who may or may not bother to read books. By the very nature of the subject, it can only be hearsay. And the book makes a point about how all the best intelligence operations are done with very few laws broken.

The last chapter sums up the last year of the Trump administration and the attempt to overturn the election. Somewhere Vladimir Putin is smiling.

Random thoughts…

Random thoughts…Re: The Mess We Inherited, No one is Getting Canceled, Teachers, Dr. Seuss.

I write these things down and sometimes they sit and I’m just going to bullet point put them in a blog in no particular order...

· How do you feel when you come to work and the night crew hasn’t done their job? It’s like that but on a much larger scale. Getting mad at Joe Biden because the coronavirus has not been contained and the country is still on partial shutdown and he has asked us to wear masks is like getting mad at the guy who showed up late because he is replacing the guy who didn’t show up at all.

· People act like when a person gets “canceled” it is because of a misunderstanding…one tweet, one misstatement, one stray hand in the wrong place, when it’s usually part of a pattern. (Garrison Keillor actually is creepy. Gina Carano had a sustained hate march against marginalized figures. JK Rowling doubled down on hate. And on and on… and yes. Andrew Cuomo is a scumbag. He should resign, as should any man who abuses or rapes or harasses women, especially in a power dynamic.)

· Online politics is full of people disingenuous enough to wonder why a single person can’t “fix” systemic racism, especially when the entire force of white supremacy always comes out to defend itself. Re: “I’m not racist but…” and butt hurt over voting rights and “Ma freedom” to say “Ma little (racist/misogynistic/picks on retards) joke… We are some terrible people. And we fight to stay that way.

Because it’s much easier than trying to learn someone else’s point of view and why your joke or statement is hurtful or offensive.

• People: “Yay, teachers are heroes and we love you.”
  

Teachers: “We need vaccinations and face shields and basic precautions before we can come back.”

Also People: “Teachers are lazy! They should just do their job!”

(BTW…take the words “lazy teacher” out of your stupid fucking mouth.)

· Dr. Seuss is not beyond reproach…to be treated like a saint instead of a man with human foibles… He was a man of his time and reflected the racist attitudes of the time. (You probably don’t use the same words you used when you were a kid, either. When was the last time you called someone a “Poopy-head?”)

HIS PUBLISHING HOUSE is doing this PROACTIVELY to protect his legacy. No one is “canceling” him. I would hope that if I became rich and successful off of a fifty-year career in writing that when I’m gone someone might look out for me in a similar way, eliminating some of the less-evolved pieces I may have written earlier in my life.

Hey…you’re an adult: did you even know about the existence of these books before this news came out?

And for the “Butt-hurt” people: without Googling, do you even know which books are being discontinued? Do you have them on your shelf? We’re not talking about the Cat in the Hat here.

· Finally…If you’re using social media to show the world what a mean and awful person you are, we don’t have to be friends.

Anyway…I am the Parochialist, and I’m glad to get that off my chest.

Finally Coming Clean...

(*This is Satire* No one should be this stupid.) Wow. The right-wing crazy people really got us all figured out. How we wanted to be forced to stay inside and miss our friends and live entertainment and movies and sports and performances…and how we engineered a hoax to exaggerate an illness and latch it on to other illnesses. Because 500 thousand people dying from a bunch of different things wouldn’t have attracted as much attention as just calling it Covid-19. I gotta hand it to you: you really figured it out. It was hard keeping it to myself for so long.

We did it all because we just didn’t want to go to work, and we wanted to crash the economy. But it worked too well…many of us just had to work from home. And we really crashed the economy (luckily, our stocks soared, so we still win!) We didn’t account for how many of you wouldn’t fall for it. Well done, America.

Unfortunately, the technology to work at home was better than we’d anticipated. But we loved seeing our friends and former co-workers suffer and go broke while waiting for unemployment checks to kick in. They should have just gone to one of those low-paying front-line jobs where they could have gotten sick more easily.

You sure saw through our scheme to lose people we cared about while we secretly smiled beneath our masks (Which we wore so that we could disguise our secret pleasure with how well the plan was working!)

Sadly, all good things have to come to an end. But at least the trackers that we installed in the vaccine will help us to keep tabs on you. We were getting tired of doing it through your phones and social media.

Oh well. We are smart, but you guys were smarter. Sorry about your friends who didn’t make it through this thing. They didn’t realize it was a hoax and a power grab.

Can’t win them all.

I Got a Monster: A Book Review.

I Got a Monster: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Corrupt Police Squad

Baynard Woods and Brandon Soderberg

I take this one somewhat personally because it is the city in which I live; the city that I consider my adopted hometown where I have spent 27 years working and writing and performing and making a life. I am biased for it and enraged at so much of what happens in this truly excellent book.

In 2017, Officer Wayne Jenkins and 6 others members of the Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF) were arrested by the FBI on multiple charges relating to their work on this special unit of the Baltimore City Police. For years, Jenkins and his men were at the heart of a criminal conspiracy to steal money from citizens, plant evidence on people they wanted to nail, and engage in reckless behavior behind the shield of the law.

This unit operated in response to the violence and gun deaths that have plagued Baltimore for years. The murder rate in this city has topped 300 a year for the past 6 years. In a post-Freddie Gray Baltimore, the Gun Trace Task Force flourished, taking guns off the street, making busts and pocketing cash along the way. And the scatter-shot approach to policing, which often swept up the innocent with the guilty was ripe with corruption and bad arrests.

In this mix is a cast of dirty cops, drug dealers, collaborators, victims and lawyers. One such lawyer, Ivan Bates had tangled with Jenkins on many occasions and in time became determined to do something about the corruption. This whole thing is like real life Bad Lieutenant. Cops ripping off drug dealers, planting evidence, roughing people up. The argument could be made that “oh, who cares? They were just drug dealers?” But the job is not to throw shit against the wall to see what sticks. The job is not to rob “bad” people. The job is to enforce the law and protect the public.

I Got a Monster is an absorbing read. I take note of the fact that the States Attorney comes off terribly. Marilyn Mosby is a peripheral figure in all this. The corrupt Gun Trace Task Force flourished under her. And they were subsequently brought down without her help. She does what is politically expedient: Dropping charges in case brought by dirty officers before investigating; she’s not thoughtful or methodical. All these arguments were initially used by Ivan Bates in his campaign to replace her as State’s Attorney, which is reported in the book. Ultimately, he had to drop that line of attack since he was a defense attorney and going against the GTTF would impact his clients. (the race was spilt three ways and Mosby won).

I Got a Monster is likely to be just one of many books about the GTTF. I know people outside the city love to dump on it (they can kiss my ass). But this book exposes a small sliver of one of the many ways in which local leadership fails the citizens of this city every day.

Re: Marilyn Mosby

This one’s for the Baltimore Readers.

Recently the city Solicitor determined that Marilyn Mosby, our States Attorney, did not violate any rules with her official travel. The reasoning appears to be because there aren’t any rules, there is no way to break them and therefore she has done nothing wrong. And furthermore, this was not tax money and we were not on the hook for any of it.

“[Inspector General Isabel Mercedes] Cumming found Mosby reported taking 24 trips in 2018 and 2019, traveling as a conference guest and speaker to Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Houston, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia, and elsewhere.” From Tim Prudente, Baltimore Sun, Febrauary 18^th, 2021

She has reportedly spent a total of 144 days out of town on these trips spanning 2018 and 2019.

Now…I’m not here to pile on or condemn about her traveling. I do not take particular exception to her spending about 19 percent of the year away from her duties in the city. For the purposes of this post, I will take on faith that these are legitimate business-related ventures…

No, my issue is with her job performance.

Mosby succeeded Gregg Bernstein, who presided over a comparatively calmer period in Baltimore when the murder rate was down and we had a decent Police Commissioner (Bealefeld). She took issue with the murder rate and his approach at reducing it. She also took issue with his conviction rate (95 percent).

Now…I know it might be apples and oranges, but after Freddie Gray, the murder rate has been way up in this city. From a low point of 196 in 2011…under Bernstein…we hit our high in 2019 with 348…under Mosby.

I know, I know…It’s astounding and terrible, and none of these are good numbers. Murder and drugs and crime and poverty and racism and corruption and redlining and neglect on a shocking level are all baked into the Baltimore experience, and I don’t presume to have the answers.

But come on.

That conviction rate “plunged” a whole 3 points to 92 percent…under Mosby. Which in and of itself probably isn’t bad, but what do I know? I’m not a lawyer, I’m not in law enforcement. I am just some beautiful stranger on the internet.

Also…

Her attempt to prosecute the Freddie Gray cops was admirable. But I said from the beginning, it was overreach. It had no shot in hell of working. And it didn’t. They all walked.

The corrupt Gun Trace Task Force flourished under her. And they were subsequently brought down without her help.

I know I’m only scratching the surface. But that’s what I got.

No. I don’t care about her travels. But I live in Baltimore, I read the news, and this is what I see. I want us to do better.

I don’t know much.

But…I am the Parochialist.

Rush, My Dad, and Me.

Jesus. Do we always have to talk about politics?

It began one day when I was in high school. I heard a voice coming through my dad’s radio that was saying things I wasn’t used to it saying. It wasn’t quite news, it wasn’t quite comedy, but it seemed like it was tailored to my dad’s conservative politics.

It was Rush Limbaugh, radio host out of Kansas City, now syndicated nationally through his Excellence in Broadcasting (EIB) Network. He was saying things that I knew weren’t being said by others. I learned about the Dittoheads (people who just agreed with everything he ever said) and “feminazis” and the Harmless Little Fuzzball (his fuzzy description of himself which belied the fact that one day, he would be the most dangerous man in media).

My dad lapped it up. He was a public-school teacher, a mild-mannered fellow, lots of good qualities (that I’ll get into soon enough). And while I can’t say Rush made him a conservative, it emboldened him in a way that must have given him comfort. Listening to the three hours a day of Rush, must have been enormously comforting for someone living among the liberal establishment of the deep blue state of Massachusetts.

(Though it’s not as deep blue as you might think: after all, they/we elected 2 Republican governors and the state went red three times in the last 40 years. Don’t fact check me. I’ll look it up.) For mild mannered people like my dad, there was an apparent rage not far below the surface. And while I can’t say he was ever as unhinged as the people we see on Twitter and in the news now, he certainly didn’t mind following a man who regularly disparaged The Liberals for…well, existing.

But for me, I think back to some of the things that my father might have supported in the days before Rush entered our lives. He had a minor crusade involving the treatment of prisoners in jails which I now find incongruous with the rest of the package of Republican Values. He had a strange fascination with the Anti-Abortion movement, especially with wacko right wing Operation Rescue, and it is to my ever-dying relief that he never followed through with joining those whack jobs in protesting abortion clinics. He was a deeply religious person who along with many like-minded friends, formed a sort of quasi extracurricular Church amongst themselves. Every Friday or Saturday Night in the early to mid-80’s, there was the Prayer Meeting.

Sidebar: it was during these prayer meetings when I snuck off and knocked on the door of my friend, the dear sweet old lady who lived with the leader of the meetings. Aunt Peg. I was about 7 years old and too young to stay home by myself. But when I knocked on that door, she always let me in. We watched TV away from the group. My favorite show was the Dukes of Hazzard. I don’t know how long we did that. All I remember was that I was always welcome and it was safe and I looked forward to seeing her every week and I really feel like shit for never coming back to see her after I grew old enough to stay home by myself.

Point being, a lot of these things were already there, already in place. At the same time, my dad loved animals and old comedy and Green Acres and laughed at fart jokes and who once took solace in the Urkel character on Family Matters. This same man who had all these harmless characteristics also devoted hours a day listening to a man that spewed ill-informed but confidently delivered crap that supported the superiority of the white middle class male, taped on his little timing device on the stereo and played on long car rides on trips in my childhood. Rush was so confident, so authoritative, so...convincing…the way a lot of Narcissists are. I didn’t realize how awful this man was until much later, when I had time away from home to finally learn how to think for myself.

And my father picked that up…constant barrage of “liberal this” and “liberal that.” “Clinton is a crook” and…it really didn’t matter if it related to the situation or not. I might have learned at some point to deflect these conversations, but that probably was a skill that didn’t get honed until I was much older.

I’d love to say I would have had a better relationship with my dad without all the Rush…but somehow, I don’t think that would have ever been the case.

It all rubbed off on me for a while, much like his love for classical music and appreciation for the Marx Brothers…I absorbed the contrarian appeal of the Limbaugh effect, even as I began a lifelong foray into punk rock…I have to admit, growing up in Western Mass, in the depressed shell of the once-great General Electric’s factory, it always felt a long way from the liberal enclaves of Boston or even Northampton. In my first presidential election, my father’s hatred of Bill Clinton rubbed off on me as I cast my very first ballot for his opponent, Bob Dole. Then a few years later, sometime after the excesses of the Clinton Impeachment trial, I began to slide back in the other direction. I believe seeing how far one party was willing to go to bring down a member of the other party was a huge factor in why I turned away from the GOP. I went third party in 2000 (never again) and then by 2004 I was voting Democrat and have done so ever since.

Meanwhile…

My dad went on doing what he did in elections. I can only assume he was still listening to Limbaugh and voting for the GOP.

Then…sometime during the Obama years, something happened….my mother got sick. He spent more of his time taking care of her as she suffered a series of mini strokes that ultimately took her down in November of 2012. But during that time, my love and respect for my father grew. He was setting an example for what it means to take those marriage vows seriously. After 46 years of marriage, this was the “sickness” part of “in sickness and health.”

And coincidentally, he stopped talking politics, and stopped listening to Limbaugh. Because even while he still revered this man who spoke to him daily for so many years, it just wasn’t doing anything for him at the time. “No one else is listening so why should I bother?” It would seem that the relative calm and competence of Barack Obama’s two terms coupled with the stark reality that he would lose the woman he loved and be alone for the first time in almost half a century would trump any desire to hear the words of an angry man over the radio.

I have to admit, this was my favorite era of my adult relationship with my father. Even as he took a world of shit from other relatives, he stood firm and took care of my mother until the very end….

I don’t know who my dad voted for in 2016 or 2020. I mean, I do know. But as long as I don’t know for absolute certainty he didn’t vote for That Awful Man, I can fool myself into thinking that his decency wasn’t compromised. But the reality is I know he would never vote for Biden and I’m even more sure that he would never have voted for Hillary, who was one of Limbaugh’s most frequent targets from the early days of the Clinton administration. Honestly, her biggest liabilities were her length of public visibility (apparently not a problem with Biden) and the continued dominance of the patriarchy.

Part of me just wishes that there had been a line that he refused to cross. That Trump would be the bridge too far; that this awful man who got where he got by putting people down, trashing women and the disabled and immigrants and anyone not maintaining the white supremacy narrative in the US would not get my father’s vote. That my God fearing but harmless little man that everyone seems to love would finally and at long last turn his back on the party of Rush and Trump. Honestly, all my high school friends, everyone around town, they all love Mr. C and for that matter, they all loved my mother as well. They were an odd little couple who were embraced for their oddness.

But alas…that was not to be…

For my mother’s part, she went a long time just being as “live and let live” sort of person, with a big, misdirected heart. And over time, with my father’s Limbaugh listening and Ditto head turn to the hard right, she went along with him. Because my father would preach. I mean, preach at her, us, anyone. Not talking with, but talking at. I hated that. How can you be polite and civil to someone you love who thinks that “anyone who votes for a Democrat is an idiot?” And she went along for the ride, becoming a card-carrying Republican, replete with bad words about Hillary, harsh words about Feminists and abortion and the most memorable moment coming during the Anita Hill testimony and subsequent Clarence Thomas Supreme Court Confirmation: “The Bitches didn’t get him!”

I know where that came from. It wasn’t her. It was my father, who channeled it from Rush.

Rush Limbaugh was dying, but that didn’t stop him from spouting off misinformation or being an evil prick. (no, it’s not called Covid-19 because there were 18 Covids before this; no, advocating a secession or even feeding that beast at all is not a good idea—you have listeners! You have a responsibility!)

Now Rush Limbaugh has finally died. On the one hand, I am glad, because he was such a prick. But then again, I know it must make my father sad, which oddly is still bothersome to me.

*

We talk a few times a year. It’s not a close family, but that is more of a product of our personalities than anything political. We’re not a “Trump divided us” kind of family. It’s just how it is, how it’s always been. Father’s Day, his birthday, my birthday, Christmas…we talk on the phone. Pre-Covid, I saw him once or twice a year. But my stoicism, my introversion, my love of the library and reading, my love of old comedy and the Marx Brothers: that’s all from him.

Please…turn off the TV sometimes. Turn off the news: no one needs to watch it 24-7. Find things that unite rather than divide. Sports are good. Movies are good. Trump is gone. Rush Limbaugh is dead. Maybe now I can talk to my dad again.

Ma Freedom

I just want to say as a left leaning person that I don’t give a shit about taking your children, restricting your freedom (wearing a mask and limiting gatherings to prevent the spread of Covid is not “restricting your freedom” but maybe you need to spend some time in jail or something to realize this), if you don’t want healthcare…well, I wish I could say fuck it, but people buying into it literally is what makes it affordable… But really, I don’t care about your religion (as long as you’re not making laws that affect me in the name of said religion) I’m not at war with Christmas (no one is) and I really don’t care if a family of immigrants (legal or illegal) move next to me….I live in a city, I’d have to be kind of a dick to not be able to handle people different than me at this point….

I just want to be left alone….

Some Parting Thoughts, January 19, 2021

Some Parting Thoughts…

First of all, thank you, America. Thank you, Georgia. Thank all of you for coming out and voting that fucker out. You are the real heroes.

It always pissed me off when someone called him an optimist. He’s a fatalist, leading other fatalists; the same fatalists who use that excuse to not bother taking basic precautions to avoid getting sick or passing it on. The same fatalists who perpetuated the false information and just always assumed it was going to get them so, why bother trying to prevent it?

I’ve been comparing the COVID-19 situation to every security deposit from every landlord I ever had. You see: I fought for every single one of them, even when every roommate told me I’d never get it back. And you know what? I cleaned those places. I followed up, and if I had to, I tracked the person down. And I always got my deposit back.

Same with COVID-19. When other people just said “oh, we’re all gonna get it, I say “no.” It is not inevitable. It is not fate. It is preventable. I have worked all the way through this thing (10 months) around hundreds of people. Many came down with it. I have not. (knock on wood). I never did. And as a bonus: No colds, not my usual upper Respiratory infection that I get every year.

This thing is deadly, but it was never inevitable.

I refuse to accept the “We’re all fucked” mentality.

And when people blindly followed him with some of the biggest flags and lawn signs I’ve ever seen in my life. I tried to remember any president at any time in my life when it was like this, and while “W’s” followers were pretty bad, it was never quite like this. I knew he was dangerous because I have seen this before…I’ve been around this kind of controlling, narcissistic behavior. I’ve seen the power of applying the right words, flattering at the right moment, driving the story, driving the conversation, always bringing the story back to themselves…It frustrated me to see it and realize that others did not see it.

I see grown men imitating him and I’m embarrassed for them. I see people I’ve known for years defend him and overlook his awfulness in a cloud of “whataboutism” and “oh, they all do it!” and I just shake my head. I just don’t remember a president lying this much and actively working against his predecessor even on small and non-controversial policies (like the Clean Water Act, or the rule banning the sale of military grade weapons to police departments…and let’s not forget how he tried to take away your healthcare for 4 years.).

He. Is. A. Dick.

But because I am naturally inclined to find the positive in any situation…here were some good things that came from the last disastrous year of his disastrous presidency…

I have still been working this whole time and I haven’t gotten sick or died.

I finished 2 stories I thought were unsalvageable…

I read 30 books.

We walked almost every day.

And tomorrow, he’s gone.

G** bless America, maybe.

Parochial Predictions for 2020-2024

Parochial Predictions…

Amy Coney Barrett is and will be a disaster for women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, and basic human rights etc, etc. Democrats will fight hard and make speeches and angry denunciations and it will all make spectacular TV and, in the end, she will be confirmed on a party line vote thus tilting the Supreme Court to a 6-3 Conservative advantage. We might get lucky every once in a while, and get Roberts and one other for the occasional 5-4 victory, but don’t hold your breath…

But what I really want to say is how I see the bigger picture: all this leads to a true Blue Wave in 2020. Democrats win the Senate, retain the House, and win the Presidency. And with that power, Democrats will do some sensible stuff that no one will remember but then there will also be a push to counteract the Supreme Court balance by adding more Justices. There will be a bill which will make its way thru both houses of Congress, and land on President Biden’s desk…

Then…President Biden, pressured by the GOP and in an appeal for “unity” (for this will be very poorly received on the right) will veto this bill. There will not be enough of a majority in the Senate to override this, so the bill will fail. This will hurt Biden in his bid for re-election, but because he has been likable and a mostly calming voice for the past 4 years, he will win again, though at least one of the two houses will go back to the GOP by the midterm.

Oh, and the Orioles will make it to the World Series by…2023. And the Ravens will have won 2 more Super Bowls….

You heard it here first. Try to look surprised.

I am the Parochialist, and I approve the message.

Friday Thoughts and shades of gray over which we should not destroy ourselves....

Hey…

Let’s stop destroying each other over shades of gray. The Left is so much worse about this than the right. At least the MAGAs have each other, and they don’t seem to fight amongst themselves as much. We need to be the same about our guy. We need to put aside our differences for the next 60 days and vote for Biden. We will be in much better shape dealing with him than dealing with four more years of Trump.

The nicest thing I can muster about Dear Leader is that he just doesn’t care. He pushes crap like “Herd Mentality” which was a telling Freudian slip that only slightly distracts from the sheer insanity of herd immunity which dictates that some people should die (ok, a LOT of people should die) so that these other people can live. I said before, I’ll keep saying it: that is fucked up.

Also…How about rather than making excuses and trying to drag up articles about why you shouldn’t wear a mask (which are written by crackpots on sites that crash my computer) or trying to win the day with your rhetorical brilliance, maybe you should stop being selfish and just do your part? It’s really not all about you.

I don’t know about you…but I’m tired of stupid people making stupid decisions that fuck up my life.

Parochial News

Parochial News

Trump giving tips on preventing forest fires a la, exploding trees raking the forest floor, etc…he reminds me of those old commercials where the people mocked the guy who bought his salsa in New York City.

“New York City???”

In other words, I wouldn’t trust a man who comes from New York City to know anything about forests. People go to school for that shit. Listen to them…

So, we got wildfires, and involuntary hysterectomies given to illegal immigrants (some real American Nazi shit there…and I don’t use the word “Nazi” lightly.). This surely has to violate some law or mandate or constitute a Crime Against Humanity, right? Of course, those who support this shit don’t view illegal immigrants as humans, so I guess they got us there…

40 fucking people were shot in Baltimore last week. That’s got to be some kind of record.

And the South Dakota Attorney General killed a guy while driving drunk….

And in sports….

The Orioles have dug a hole, and the Ravens look as good as ever….

Renting the Libs

So apparently, according to the Angry White House Staffer, who is usually reliable, the Corona numbers are projected to go to 500K by January 1. It could be trimmed by 100K by wearing masks and washing hands but let’s not go crazy here. And anyway, what’s another 100K lives anyway? Herd immunity! Let the sick die so YOU can live! MAGA! MAGA! KAG! NAFTA! NAMBLA! “They’re just inflating the numbers to make Trump look bad!”

And other insanity….

*

And speaking of Trump and insanity and since this is The Parochialist, I have to talk about Baltimore, and Jared “Slumlord” Kushner, the accomplished son-in-law of Dear Leader…who talks shit about the very city he rents to...well, technically, he rents out in the county. But even more troubling is the pattern of doing things simply to “trigger” people and “own the Libs.”

Hey…maybe it’s strategy and some silly form of rhetorical genius, distraction or whatever…but is it productive? Is it helping anything get better? Is it doing anything besides making people angry?

While I can’t speak to the quality of his properties, what I can speak to is his disregard for the very place where he owns property and does business.

*

If you don’t live here, shut the fuck up. If you used to live here and then you moved away to “start your family” or some other bullshit, then you really need to shut the fuck up because you are definitely not helping anything.

Your privilege is to leave and then shit on those who remain…

It’s not rocket surgery…disinvestment, a government that is anti-public transportation…the cancellation of the Red Line was a mild disappointment for me but it was absolutely devastating to the Black Community, especially in West Baltimore. The Federal Government is supposed to be responsible for everyone, including people in cities that don’t vote for Republicans. But the 60 plus years of disinvestment and the proliferation of “slums” took people from both sides of the aisle to happen. The big difference is that other than to use us for a punching bag, Republicans don’t give a fuck about Baltimore, and it’s obvious.

Baltimore has a weird mix of what some of us call “good block/bad block” and is partly the result of people on the top not helping people on the bottom…and a slew of other crap…

The point is, I know this because I live here and I care. We have some wonderful amenities but I am afraid we are all out of time….

White Fragility: The Parochialist Review.

White Fragility, by Robin DiAngelo.

I am trying to represent the ideas in this book in the best way I know how, but I encourage you to seek out this book. DiAngelo writes in a clear and easy to understand way.

Note: for clarity, when I say “us” or “we” I am referring to white people like myself.

All ideas are a synthesis of what’s in the book, which I highly recommend, and page numbers are given where appropriate.

Also note: Black is capitalized because in general (general, very fucking general), Black people have a shared history and culture; white people do not (you would capitalize things like Irish, Italian, French, which would be a specific group within the white) and besides, capitalizing “white” is what honest to God asshole white supremacist groups do.

*

White Fragility by Robin Diangelo is about the difficulties we have when addressing white people in issues about race. Chapter by chapter, Diangelo takes her experience in diversity training to make the case that white people do not like talking about race issues precisely because talking about them damages the status quo that white people consciously or not are protecting at all costs.

She doesn’t mince words, and she doesn’t pull back from the premise that basically we live in a society that is comfortable for white people and uninviting to non-white people.

There is overwhelming white control of our major institutions: To that end, she lays out the following facts (which I have truncated just for convenience):

Ten richest Americans =100 percent white.

US Congress, US governors, US President and Vice President = 90, 96 and 100 percent white, respectively.

People who decide what tv shows we watch, books we read, news is covered, or music is produced = 93, 90, 85 and 95 percent white, respectively.

(There’s a lot more, I just did the top few. This is all on page 31.)

*

“For many white people, the mere title of this book will cause resistance because I am breaking a cardinal rule of individualism—I am generalizing.” (P. 11)

Race is a social construct. There are no commonalities among Black people or white people that come about because of genetics or biology. It is entirely a product of societal conditioning.

This kind of blew my mind to realize it.

*

“Whiteness” is belonging to a world that already accommodates you. There is no need to consciously assimilate. You already belong. Whiteness means freedom from having to think about how racism affects us. We can go wherever we want: race is not a factor. Example: going to a part of the country that is mostly white is something we don’t even think about.

I know the counterpoint: that there are parts of the city a white person can go to. Sure. Those are still isolated islands within an urban area. But there are no Black Majority states. (The closest you get is Mississippi at 37%. I looked it up. Number 2 is Lousiana.)

*

Whiteness is assumed unless otherwise noted. When you tell a story about someone who is Black, do you note that in the story? What about when the person is white?

White Solidarity. Why speaking up about racism or speaking out about racist jokes or comments is shut down by other white people, thereby maintaining the status quo (white supremacy and control).

Personally…I see this every day. I am an introvert, and I don’t like spending a lot of time around people. I can’t say that I speak up about this much so I’m as guilty of this as anyone.

“Claiming that the past was socially better that the present is also a hallmark of white supremacy.” P 59.

A la peanut butter sandwiches. “Make America Great Again.” It’s the “again” part that makes it racist. It wasn’t so great for Black people, women, LBGTQ individuals, etc.…etc...

Other things from the book:

We are seen as “racially innocent.” We don’t have to take any risks to speak out about issues of race.

White people react negatively when you try to talk about racial experience as a white person. They will speak and try to discredit instead of listening and trying to learn.

“We are taught that we lose nothing of value through racial segregation.” –p. 68

We are conditioned to seek out the “better” (white) schools and tend to stick with our own kind…we don’t maintain or seek out friendships with people different from us. Remember, this is all very general.

*

We believe racism is bad and racists are bad (they are! They really are!) and we think that we are good (Maybe!) so we cannot handle being called racist, even when the shoe fits. That assassinates our character. So, we focus more on defending ourselves than understanding how our attitude, opinion, action or spoken words may be seen as racist. We close our minds because in our heads, we are good people and can’t listen to anyone who says otherwise. Thus, the status quo (White supremacy and white control) is maintained.

*

Racism is not a series of individual racist acts, but a system that is present in society, baked in to its fabric. The person who let’s something slip or looks around before making a racist joke may not be quite Nazi or Klan level, but they are also not that much different from the rest of us (remember, by “us” I mean white people).

*

If I believe I am not racist, then I am not obligated to change my behavior. When you are unwilling to question your own racism, you support the status quo.

Having so-called “good” non-racist qualities that insulate you from charges of racism actually help to perpetuate white supremacy…

Racism is often unconscious. You are unaware of your bias, prejudice, and underlying feelings of racial superiority.

*

Rather than ask: “AM I a racist?” how about asking “how am I helping to interrupt racism in this context? How do I know that I should?”

*

Quotes from Ta-Nehisi Coates, who wrote the terrific We Were Eight Years in Power, a vital book for understanding the plight of Black Americans in the role of both building and then being subjugated by this country.

*

Dissection of the movie The Blind Side Re: White Saviors of a Black man and many other flaws that are also listed in the book.

I remember hearing that Michael Oher was unhappy with being portrayed that way. I was always shocked that Bullock won an Oscar in such a mediocre movie. He does have a Super Bowl ring with the Ravens…

“The film is fundamentally and insidiously anti-Black.” (p. 98)

*

This book throws cold water on white people. And to be honest, we really need that. Some people will fail to accept the premise that the US is still basically a white country, having been founded and forged on the backs of slaves and indigenous people.

No…no one wants to hear that. But it would be nice if they did…

Parochial Corona thoughts in no particular order

Parochial Corona thoughts in no particular order

September 3, 2020

The high price of Herd Immunity.

I had someone in my house fixing my AC early in the pandemic. He seemed all right but he didn’t wear a mask (at that point, neither did I, not in my house, not when someone was coming over for maintenance. This was before I realized that the value in masks was in protecting other people from you, not so much vice versa. It’s all been a learning process.) Sometime during the settling up, he commented on my baseball paraphernalia, posters, etc.…

“Too bad we can’t play.”

Yeah…. South Korea is having games.

“Yeah, why can’t we?”

(Lots of reasons. For one, they took this seriously and masked up and contained the breakout, but I digress.)

“People are so stupid, man.” And then he says the word that made me cringe. “Herd immunity! It’s so simple!”

I smacked myself in the forehead of my mind. He said it. The word that people who want a quick end to a long problem like to use.

Herd Immunity…

Ok. So, I’m not a scientist. But here are some facts I can glean from 20 minutes of internet research…

(Or I could just use one of my old writing tricks…)

DO 20 MINUTES OF RESEARCH ABOUT HERD IMMUNITY.

And we’re back…

Herd Immunity is not a solution because letting x number of people die while the rest of us develop an immunity is nuts.

*

Lots of disingenuous claptrap from people who are anti-mask and like to point out supposed “hypocrisy” of people like Dr. Fauci and Joe Biden and now Nancy Pelosi and how there’s some picture somewhere of this time when they weren’t wearing a mask so why should we listen to them and blah, blah, blah.

Re: Dr. Fauci. He was at a Nats game, with friends? Family? And he lowered his mask. Big fucking deal.

Joe Biden is a mask wearer; he did pull it down to yell at someone last week. But I do that too.

I got a haircut from a friend who owns a salon. It was early in the pandemic, I didn’t know the protocol, I didn’t wear my mask because I thought I wasn’t supposed to while getting a haircut. It is a boring story. Which brings me to another boring story:

Nancy Pelosi gets a blowout.

I don’t even know what that is. Are you mad because she got a blowout or are you made because she wasn’t wearing a mask? I’m wondering about the Russian Bounties on American soldiers that we stopped talking about, I’m wondering about Russians tampering with our election, I’m wondering when the Coronavirus will be over, and I’m wondering why the fuck anyone cares about Nancy Pelosi’s blowout.

And that is all the time we have….

What I say to people who say "If you don't want trouble, don't break the law!"

I’ve tried to write about this but there are certain things I cannot speak to. I cannot speak to another person’s experience. I can only point out how mine is different, how mine reflects a whole different background and range of experience.

If I think back to any part of my life and say “that was the worst day of my life,” I’m sure it pales next to someone else, someone different than me of another race or a different gender or gender identity.

But I’m offering up my thoughts. My narrow, parochial thoughts about police based on my own experience.

*

Shockingly, I have never been arrested, never done anything blatantly illegal.

I’ve lived a dull life.

But from time to time I’ve still dealt with cops.

My privilege is that I have always gotten off with a warning. I have never had handcuffs put on me. I was never looked at askance and asked invasive questions. I’ve never had my car searched.

My privilege is that I’ve always been able to walk away. I’ve never had a police officer’s gun turned on me.

Oh, I know what someone might say: you didn’t run, you were cordial, you did what you were supposed to do and that’s why the cops didn’t get rough with you.

Well, maybe. I’m not saying that it’s always a matter of race (again, I’m just speaking narrowly to my experience). But I have always gotten the benefit of the doubt.

*

Benefit of the doubt is when someone looks at you and does not automatically assume that you are up to something bad. There is no need to find fault with you. You can go about your business…

These are the encounters that people like me have with the police. That is my privilege. I did not work to get this privilege, it’s just automatic. And that is part of the problem. Because while it works for me, it does not work for everyone.

It is a benefit that white people get all the time and don’t realize it. Instead, we bitch about being pulled over in the first place. We tell the story later and our white friends sympathize. It works out great…If you’re white. Other people…not so much.

*

The point is: you do not have to be a bad person to attract the attention of the police. When people say “well, if you don’t want trouble, don’t break the law!” they really need to look at themselves and be honest about it.

I’ve probably been pulled over about fifteen times in my life. A great many of those times were in one of my old and crappy cars, which usually had some sort of noticeable mechanical issue. I’ve been stopped and frisked while putting up a flyer for one of my shows. I’ve been pulled over after leading a cop on a chase when I didn’t even realize I was being chased by a cop and I didn’t even realize I had been riding somewhere I wasn’t supposed to.

None of these things were really “bad” things, they were just things that happened.

I might not have been breaking the law, or known that I was breaking the law. But I got pulled over nonetheless.

It’s what happened after that that is the difference between my experience and the experience of Black People in America today.

Parochial Political Stew, Monday August 17th

Parochial Political Stew….

Just some shit I was thinking about. Take it however you want.

In the coming election, I prefer Joe Biden.

When I say I prefer Joe Biden, it’s not that I think he’s perfect. I actually like him because he’s not perfect, nor does he present himself to be. He fucks up a lot. He apologizes a lot. He steps in shit and goes, “oh, malarkey.”

I prefer all his goofball shit to the blowhard who can’t take criticism while trying to destroy the Post Office.

*

Remember when we didn’t spend hours and days thinking about Coronavirus or if it was safe to vote in person or wondering if that medication we were getting through the mail was going to show up?

Good times.

*

People rip on Biden for choosing Harris because (among other irrelevant arguments) she tore him up during the Democratic debates and how could a man let that happen and that would never happen to Trump because Trump is a man and he doesn’t let anyone disrespect him…blah blah MAGA KAG NAFTA SNFU….

In the issue about school busing in the 70’s which Biden had apparently opposed but in truth didn’t really affect him, Kamala Harris actually was affected by it and had her best moment of the whole campaign taking him down (but not out). And yet later on, he chose her. He liked what he saw. He liked what she could do for the country as his VP. Hell, he served in the shadow of Obama for 8 years. It’s called keeping your ego in check.

He overcame the humiliation. Because he is an adult. And that’s what adults do.

After almost 4 years I’m starting to realize the value of career politicians. It’s not a huge value, but it’s important. And in many ways, Biden’s value as a calming force as a competent if unremarkable politician is what many of us need right now.

*

Kamala (COMMA-Lah.)

To review…

So far we’ve heard”

She’s not Black! (Which I guess is news to her.)

She’s not qualified because she’s not an American! (Because Oakland is apparently not in the United States. I don’t remember needing a passport when I went there but maybe that’s changed since 2013.)

She’s too liberal! (also, probably news to her.)

She’s too ambitious/opportunistic/pick your word. (Because voters are asking that of every candidate, right?).

Her support of an aggressive police force that targets Black and other minorities is troubling. (Yes, it is. I have no argument there. But I don’t think the people who support Trump would consider this disqualifying, so they focus on the other more racist and misogynistic shit).

But the VP is never really the deal breaker.

*

I don’t expect to change minds. I just want to put things out there. I’m keeping my eye on the news without completely immersing myself in it. I don’t watch TV news at all. Not CNN, not FoxNews, not NBC. I sometimes wind up catching 5 minutes of the local news after Svengoolie on Saturdays but that might be it. I used to watch Meet The Press on NBC but my interest (and the quality) dropped off considerably since Tim Russert died in 2008.

I read the paper. The Baltimore Sun gets delivered to my house every day. I make a point of getting through it and then…I put it in the recycle bin. Just a once over of the news. That’s it. (Ok, maybe I go online and look at some stuff, or I read an article served up on Google news, but it’s not an all-day adventure.)

I appreciate the quiet. If I get pissed off, I have fodder for the blog. But it’s not all-consuming. That’s why I do it.

I highly recommend it, if for no other reason than to eliminate some noise in your life. And to do other things…

*

Assuming bad intent with everybody may work for some people but it’s just so damn exhausting. Maybe if you’re in prison or something.

The Parochial Case Against Donald Trump's Parochialism.

I did the Parochial case for Joe Biden, so in the interest of fairness, let me also do the Parochial case against Donald Trump's Parochialism.

There are many things that factor into this: the many baffling soundbites; the demonization of the “other.” His unfortunate fixation with the operation of dishwashers and water pressure on the shower.

“Dishwashers, you didn’t have any water so the people that do the dishes, you press it and it goes again and you do it again and again…so you might as well give them the water because you will end up using less water.”—July 16, 2020

Ok…you give water so you have less water. But now they have more water? Oh, and BTW, Trump doesn’t make dishwashers and WTF are you talking about?

Then there is the lack of tact, courtesy and knowledge, and his pride in that lack of knowledge. Like when Trump claims teachers are teaching kids to hate America. That we used to teach 1492 and now it’s 1619 and “I don’t know what the hell that is.” (slavery. 1^st slaves brought to North America [literally 60 seconds of Googling]).”.

--this part synthesized from comments he made on or about July 19 ^th, 2020. Commentary is mine.

It’s that pride in the lack of knowledge where I pick this up…this is the one honest to God thing that I cannot stand about Trump because it strikes at the heart of me as thinking person who enjoys reading and the accumulation of knowledge. Because he is willfully ignorant. Meaning he chooses to be this way.

When you don’t know something and can’t be bothered to look it up. When you can’t be bothered and you’re proud not to know.

Oh, that really fucking burns me.

We live in the greatest age in human history in the way that we are literally at arm’s length from the answer to virtually any question at any time. Through a smart phone, you an access any piece of information, research any fact, clarify any misconception, settle any argument stemming from lack of personal knowledge (who played the lead role in some tv show from the 70’s, for example.) You can access virtually anything at any time. In my opinion, Google is the 2^nd most amazing thing ever invented, behind Bluetooth (which is crazy! I can play music from my phone with no wires???).

But Trump, who is a notorious Twitter user (hey, aren’t we all?) doesn’t care to use the same set of skills he uses to get online and spout off his bullshit to look things up. He prefers to listen to people who praise him, and to simply assume that he knows everything he needs to know.

(You never hear Trump recall a childhood or teenage memory where he says something like “man, I was so stupid back then” or “man, what a jerk I was.” Why is that?)

Nope. He knows what he knows, and even that’s questionable.

In a perfect world where you’re not struggling for survival and you have room to self-actualize, being human is a wonderful journey where a whole big world and an infinite universe is out there. It is impossible to know everything there is to know. Science gives us a guide, and provides a way to find answers, but we will always be learning. Like with outer space, for example. We have been sending probes to explore the solar system, Mars, Jupiter, the former planet Pluto…we will never chart it all. The ability to learn and grow and gain wisdom is one of the pleasures of getting older. Reading books, researching, going to museums, watching documentaries, passing along information, learning from others…it’s all part of the joy of life.

But Trump…cannot…be…bothered.

I would feel sad for him if he wasn’t such a miserable person.

Parochial thoughts on the 10 Day Sturgis Motorcycle Rally

… in which 250 thousand people are expected to converge on a small South Dakota town…whose residents, by the way, were against this taking place this year https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/10/us/sturgis-motorcycle-rally-residents-decision/index.html

While I’d love to reside in a self-constructed bubble of Nihilism and meaningless existence, I still have to come out into the world and deal with the reality of its opposite.

Shit matters. Leadership matters.

To a great extent, I get it. I get that the boredom, the cabin fever, and the isolation is real and very crippling (ask anyone in solitary confinement). But this is an opportunity to get out in the fresh air and enjoy the company of other people.

But…

This is where leadership should kick in. Having someone above you setting an example, setting guidelines and enforcing the rules is very important. It matters.

Now…The Governor of South Dakota is a rabid Trump supporter who not only doesn’t advocate wearing masks but actually opposes them. So, 250 thousand people are free to come from out of state and infect people back in their home states.

• What if someone in leadership had said “sorry folks, come back next year”? (I get the feeling people would have shown up anyway.)
• What about enforcing a mask policy? (Enforcement only seems to go so far when the people outnumber the violators.)
• What about (at the very least) coming out to the rally in a mask and setting an example? (I know, I know. What am I, crazy?)

The genie is out the bottle. It’s happening. I think I know some people who are there.

I don’t blame the people for doing what people do. Failure of leadership on all levels has left people angry and defiant and if I’ve learned anything it’s that nobody learns anything until it happens to them. And even then, it’s not foolproof.

It’s why I’m not going anywhere but work or outdoor facilities within driving distance until at least 2021.

I will continue to be Parochial.

It is what it is...(a short but spirited defense )

It is What it is.

While dumb heartless pricks like “president” Donald J Trump use the phrase “it is what it is” to absolve himself of any responsibility for allowing the unfettered spread of Coronavirus to make people sick and cause 155 thousand American deaths, allow me to address a less angry and contentious side of all this.

Let me offer my spirited defense of… “It is what it is.”

I started a new job about ten years ago and honest to God, I had never heard this expression before then. And then suddenly, there it was: everywhere.

“It is what it is.”

Everyone said it. Everyone employed this expression when a day turned dark and horrible through no one’s fault.

I work outside with heavy equipment where there are probably about 200 people working at any given time. Rain or shine, snow or blazing sun, in all manner of things. Nothing stops us, with the exception of lightning or the occasional hurricane or bad storm. I work with real people who come from all kinds of backgrounds and prejudices and assumptions and wit and humor and idiosyncrasies that you may or may not get used to over the years. The people come and go, and sometimes people drop off and you forget about them.

But there are 2 constants:

1. The weather is the weather.

2. The job is the job.

You are working outside, doing the job, which will never change, in weather, which you can’t control. There is no point complaining about it because….

It Is What It Is!

It’s actually a beautiful expression when used correctly, and in context. It is working class unconscious Zen Buddhism, Stoicism, and Serenity Prayer, all wrapped up in one. The bottom line is that it advocates accepting your lot in life if that is what you have to do to survive. It is saying, “bitching won’t help me out of this.” Because sometimes that is the case. It is a lesson we all have to learn, just as surely as learning it’s opposite. Knowing what to do when is part of the game.

But you know…it is what it is….