The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    Means 1, Ends 0,get over it.

                                     
    Since before Senaca last distracted himself from Philosophical endeavors by noting the recumbent bodies on the way to the water an old reliable philosophical  time
    waster has been   whether ,or to what extent ,Ends , justify the Means.

    Not among the t-wasters was  Clausewi,tz with his clear  view about God ´s  overwhelming affinity for the ¨big battalions" . Particularly ones  deploying gas.

    In the essentially non existent ¨Restoration""debate R =s  more deaths. Of course there will be an unquantifiable

    offsetting decrease among the previously unemployed , no longer so.

    We could of course use opinion surveys to get closer to the question of whether unemployment kills.  

    Forget  it. Among the returning workers of course will be those harboring the germ ,who will give it to others. Quickly.

    At least here,   Maybe in some  admirable New Zealand of the sky preventive measures will combat this. 

    Don´t hold your breath.

    And this is not necessarily due to the crass capitalistic intentions of this  class of

    Restorers

    Save time.Agree Restoration=s Covid19 deaths,

    So?

    So don´t just Restore .

    For God´s sake  do it intelligently. Don' t just leave it up to the Governors/.To be a President

    means to make rational choices. To be Presidential..

    I can  t  imagine there possibly is any rational reason  to multiply  the number of states making the same mistakes because the Administration treat it as a 1900 Oklahoma land grab.

     

     

     

    Comments

    Furthermore.

    Joe lunchail wants :Fings  how they used to be

    We´d like him to want to choose  a life of  quiet  nobility.   But he 's not noble.  Just maybe he'll settle for letting his  garden grow. The best maybe the best we  can hope for is  a patched together version of  2018.

    Take it.

    My sole  suggestion is stagger it.  Let ?Texas?go first and  benefit from Texas' Texas sized screw up.

    Then :two months later. ? Mario?

    Then two months after that  we can t 'fight em so  join em.¨ Gentlemen start your motors.¨


    Sorry to take air out of your balloon, but I think your suggestion is not really needed because: it's gonna happen anyways, it IS what is happening.

    Furthermore, I like to remind myself to beware of navel-gazing and myopia.of thinking only about our little country of 50 states with a maniac at the top, as if we are still so important, as if "America" is still a world leader. WE ARE NOT AND THIS IS A PROBLEM THAT AFFECTS THE WHOLE WORLD, and like it or not, other countries are going to do different things and their citizens will all be used as lab rats and guinea pigs and we will all learn from each other basically sacrificing certain demographics and populations whether they go willinging or not...

    What we have here is very much a "Casablanca" situation where the politics and problems and logistics of one or two countries doesn't amount to much more than a hill of beans in this crazy world.

    (Just think: once more people start taking airplane rides again: oh boy.)


    What?

    The world wasn't holding its breath waiting the guidance from Flaviusville?

    I'm taking my marbles and going to play someplace else. 


    Wait, I thought we'd all lost our marbles - are you hoarding?


    We cannot expect rational responses from Trump.

    Trump had a mental breakdown and said "Obamagate".

    Trump could not explain "Obamagate"

    In a rational world, the media would say "Trump lied about Obama" and ask if he was mentally stable.

    Rick Bright said that Trump wanted to push hydroxycloroquine because of a friend's financial interests.

    Bright was removed from his position.

    Georgia is undercounting deaths.

    President Obama was asked to give this year's commencement speeches.

    Trump was not felt to be a good role model for the graduates.

    At the DOJ, the Barr has been set so low, resignation is the only justifiable outcome.

    Flynn pleaded guilty twice.

    Flynn was fired because he lied to Pence.

    Don't expect things to return to normal.


    Who are you arguing with?


    p.s. if it's Joe Lunchpail, he's not here. Flavius is analyzing him, not representing him.


    I'm not arguing 

    I'm simply stating facts.

    It is inline with Flavius' post

    Chill



    Michigan Republican state representative

     


    Obeying mask rules in Dillon, Colorado 


    Lockdown protesters in Ohio

     

    All scared

    All looking for the good old days

     

     


    Well put


    What's interesting is that their good old days were traumatic for others. When you see the Confederate flag, the Klan hood, and the seething mob, the connection to past oppression of marginalized groups does not come to mind for many. Marginalized groups were the scapegoats when things were not going well.

    Given the history of the United States, it is not surprising that connections to Emmett Till and Trayvon Martin immediately come to mind when Ahmaud Arbery is murdered. It is not victimhood that creates the image, it is a response to reality.

    Liberty for the lockdown protesters means putting the lives of black and brown people at risk. An intriguing aspect is that even when mostly white lockdown protesters show up with weapons, some argue the armed protesters are not a threat. Imagine the reaction of police if armed black men repeated appear at protests. Would their right to bear arms be respected? Would it be said that they are a small group not representative of most black people? Would black people be asked to apologize for creating such a group of misfits?

    Trump and the Republicans are not up to the task of addressing the ills of the country. Perhaps we are doomed to seeing things with different eyes.


    Huh? Klan hoods and lynch mobs don't evoke images of marginalized groups? I'd be willing to bet over 90% tie it to abuse of blacks, freed slaves especially.


    Those images are seen frequently enough, that it makes sense for current abuse to be tied to past events. That is why Arbery brings up images of Trayvon. Trayvon brings up images of Till.

    Edit to add:

    One group wants the good old days

    Another group sees the good old days as the bad old days

    The courts halted Stop and Frisk because was unconstitutional 

    The current mask law had 80% minority offenders

    The media shows images of police handing out masks to whites on a beach

    There is video of black women swarmed and thrown to the ground by police

    In NYC a man who questions the handling of an unmasked black woman is thrown to the ground by an unmasked officer.

    The bottom line is that connection s are made to past events

    Swarming and throwing women to the ground for not wearing a mask is NOT acceptable 

    Find a better method.

    Not a mashup, a different view of events.


    rmrd - "...the connection to past oppression of marginalized groups does not come to mind for many. "
    rmrd - "Those images are seen frequently enough, that it makes sense for current abuse to be tied to past events."

    Possible for you to make up your mind?


    Many do not see the connections 

    They are seen as one-offs

    The connections are dismissed by some as mashups.


    Southern lynchings and cross burnings seen as "one-offs"? By who?


    Have a nice day

    Given the history of the United States, it is not surprising that connections to Emmett Till and Trayvon Martin immediately come to mind when Ahmaud Arbery is murdered. It is not victimhood that creates the image, it is a
    response to reality.

     


    So how do you justify "some see it as a one-off"? People with dementia? Infants? Learning disabled? Again, you contradict yourself.


    You want to continue this.

    Do you see a direct connection between Ahmaud Arbery and Trayvon Martin? Do see you see a connection between the lack of official attention to Jackson State and Ahmaud Arbery's case being initially swept aside?


    Not much, no. 

    How about Emmett Till and Ahmaud Arbery? How about Rodney King and Freddie Grey and Eric Garner?

    Sure, you can find lots of cases where police either refused to investigate or helped cover up or wouldn't bring charges.

    But it's still possible to find more similar and less similar cases within those categorues, rather than seeking for the Grand Unified Theory of Racism, all things connected, every time.

    K.I.S.S.

    Sure, you can compare the Arbery case to Trayvon Martin, but the dissimilarities start rising quick: clear day vs rainy night, local resident vs recent unknown transplant, jogging vs hanging out in the parking lot, assailants drive & block victim as a team in 2 trucks with weapons drawn from start vs pursuer walking by self at a perceived safe distance while talking to dispatcher, police treat case as stand your ground & leave shooters their weapons vs disarming Zimmerman & doing forensics & taking him to the station....

    Tomorrow I'm writing a piece, "Black Panther and House Party: Uncanny Similarities"



    That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,
    Looking as if she were alive. I call
    That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf’s hands
    Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
    Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said
    “Fra Pandolf” by design, for never read
    Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
    The depth and passion of its earnest glance,
    But to myself they turned (since none puts by
    The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)
    And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
    How such a glance came there; so, not the first
    Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, ’twas not
    Her husband’s presence only, called that spot
    Of joy into the Duchess’ cheek; perhaps
    Fra Pandolf chanced to say, “Her mantle laps
    Over my lady’s wrist too much,” or “Paint
    Must never hope to reproduce the faint
    Half-flush that dies along her throat.” Such stuff
    Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough
    For calling up that spot of joy. She had
    A heart—how shall I say?— too soon made glad,
    Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er
    She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
    Sir, ’twas all one! My favour at her breast,
    The dropping of the daylight in the West,
    The bough of cherries some officious fool
    Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
    She rode with round the terrace—all and each
    Would draw from her alike the approving speech,
    Or blush, at least. She thanked men—good! but thanked
    Somehow—I know not how—as if she ranked
    My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
    With anybody’s gift. Who’d stoop to blame
    This sort of trifling? Even had you skill
    In speech—which I have not—to make your will
    Quite clear to such an one, and say, “Just this
    Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,
    Or there exceed the mark”—and if she let
    Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set
    Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse—
    E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose
    Never to stoop. Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt,
    Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without
    Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
    Then all smiles stopped together. 

     

    All it takes.

    Or someone  jogging ( for godś sake-!!give me a break ) through  a neighborhood that's ¨changing¨.

    The justifications for violence  roll on and on. But the

    underlying one is pretty much the same: one human

    being: A duke or someone on a neighbor watch, or whatever,

    decides that  he (always) has been gifted with the right that someone else

    should die.

    There are no individuals that have that  right.    

    rmr doesn  t have decide why Arberryś  killers

    hadn t  the right to be killers .

    No individuals do.

    In the next ,last ,stanza the killer

    duke is off to  be paid to choose yet another some wife-for-a while

    Till she smiles too much

     

    so give Browning his conclusion

    -


     There she stands
    As if alive. Will’t please you rise? We’ll meet
    The company below, then. I repeat,
    The Count your master’s known munificence
    Is ample warrant that no just pretense
    Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
    Though his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed
    At starting, is my object. Nay, we’ll go
    Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,
    Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,
    Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!

    Robert Browning
    (for ever immortalizing an asshole)


    "You say 'Awesome' a lot" - Kendall Roy, Succession


    Thanks.

    The world is changing, people are scared. So we get Confederate masks, Klan hoods, and people in Trump hats who look like they are in a zombie movie..

    I wish I could say that I care about them, but they are actively trying to kill me. They support a guy in the White House trying to kill me. I don't wish them any harm, I just don't want them in charge of anything important. I am trying to Be Best, but so far it is not working.

    The usual retorts are that it is not all of them are bad. The response is that it is enough of them are bad. Like MLK Jr, I will pray for them.

    Another retort, what about black on black crime? That is more important. The response: violent crime is decreasing. It is still too high, but it does not mean we divert our attention from murders by neighborhood watch people.

    In Georgia, we are on DA number 4. We are in an area where the person who videotaped the murder thought the video exonerated the two alleged murderers. There is no guarantee that there will be a conviction.

    While there are those who don't make connections between Emmett Till, Medgar Evers, Trayvon Martin, and Ahmaud Arbery, it simply doesn't matter. Watch or listen to Joy Reid, Don Lemon, Julani Cobb, Tiffany Cross, Charles Blow, Jonathan Capehart, Eugene Robinson, etc, they make the connections, as do many others.

    I am not angered by people who don't make the connections, I feel sad for them.


    In acid parlance, some of these aren't "connections", they're "trails".


    Do you ever have any realization of the thing where if you just spoke for yourself, IN THE FIRST PERSON, your own feelings and reactions to things, INSTEAD OF CLAIMING TO REPRESENT what a whole bunch of people think and feel, that few would have much of a reaction against what you are thinking and feeling?

    not to mention splaining what this phantom group of people whom you claim to know how they feel and think against whole nother bunch of phantom strawmen...

    try the word "I" sometime, you might like it,  speaking for yourself instead of irritating everyone here with splaining for a tribe like you were elected to represent it to the dopes on dagblog


    try the word "I" sometime

    Nah

     

    I'm writing opinion. That is clear. The style I use, without repeatedly saying "I", is common practice. For example, here is an opinion column by Charles Blow:

    Obama is everything that Trump is not: intellectual, articulate, adroit, contemplative and cool. He also happens to be a black man. The fact that he could not only ascend to the height of power but also the heights of celebrity and adoration vexed Trump.

    Trump set about to demonstrate that none of that mattered, none of it could supersede the talents of a confident counterfeit. He convinced himself that Obama was the convenient recipient of affirmative action adulation from a world thirsty for racial recompense, an assuaging of white guilt.

    Trump has held this view well before anyone heard the name Barack Obama. In 1989, Trump said in an NBC News interview, “A well-educated black has a tremendous advantage over a well-educated white, in terms of the job market.” Trump went so far as to say that “I’ve said on occasion, even about myself, if I was starting off today I would love to be a well-educated black because I really believe they do have an actual advantage today.”


    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/17/opinion/trump-obama.html?action=click&block=associated_collection_recirc&impression_id=974176900&index=0&pgtype=Article&region=footer

    There no point in the column where Blow says that he is stating his opinion.

     

     

    Stating opinion without using the word "I" is done all the time at dagblog:

     

    “Rumors of War,” Mr. Wiley’s largest sculpture to date at a towering 27 feet high and 16 feet wide, was inspired by the heroic, equestrian statues of Confederate generals in Richmond, Va., that line its famous Monument Avenue. After the sculpture leaves Times Square in December, it will be permanently installed in Richmond on Arthur Ashe Boulevard, a major thoroughfare, recently renamed after the Richmond-born African-American tennis icon, that crosses Monument Avenue.

    This is how you change culture. Not by being bothered by the old, not by tearing down history. Just add new to show who you are now. To requote my excerpt:

    ....was inspired by the heroic, equestrian statues of Confederate generals in Richmond, Va., that line its famous Monument Avenue....

    This is what art does, this is what it is "for", and a lot of what the best art does comes from "appropriation".


    by artappraiser on Sat, 09/28/2019 - 5:05pm

     

    "This is how you change culture" indicates there is only one option


    ¨Touche ¨


    An I for an I, before you come to Blows.


    this is a thought provoking comparison: a 1900 Oklahoma land grab.

    Only these days instead of land grabs, we have grabs for slices of the Federal government budget.

    (About which there are many lies being told recently about blue states and red states, etc.)

    This would have much more to do with Congress' power (and lobbyists of same) than any president.

    Edit to add: yes of course some presidents are more skillful at wrangling with and herding Congress than others, for various reasons, some of skill, some just because of circumstance and environment they inherited. I.E.: FDR, LBJ, Bill Clinton--pretty good at that, Obama, Carter, both Bush's--not so much. Reagan relied on minions to do it...JFK not around long enough. Eisenhower, Truman--I have no idea....


    Here look, I can't go past paywall, but the tweet suffices, it's allover, it's not U.S. specific nor all about Trump, it was a no brainer that this would happen, public health in charge is basically the enemy of individual civil liberties, always was, is the stuff of dystopian and sci-fi fiction, totalitarians telling you how to live. Throw in Putin trolls to ratchet up the discord and dissatisfaction:

    German police crack down on anti-lockdown protesters https://t.co/yZ1WEQU0EN

    — Financial Times (@FinancialTimes) May 17, 2020

     


    And the opposite in Belgium:

     


    These people have always been with us:


    I can't  imagine there possibly is any rational reason  to multiply  the number of states making the same mistakes because the Administration treat it as a 1900 Oklahoma land grab.

    We blew past the exit marked  "Rational Process" a while back. Now the driver is snorting cocaine off the tits of a porn star while he imagines that he is the leading actor in Death Race 2000.

    In regards to the element of competition, the comparison to the Oklahoma land grab is apt. But that was a zero sum game where winners supplanted losers. What is truly nuts about the GOP approach to the crisis is that the scarcity involved cannot be exported to people they are not. It is understandable that they would fall back upon a principle that has served them so well in the past. But they are now rolling the dice that nothing has changed.