Sleeping Under Bridges

The Supreme Court has decided that towns and cities have a right to remove homeless people from parks and other public spaces.  To me that is reasonable.  What I do find amazing is that in his opinion on the case Justice Gorsuch asserted that public camping laws applied equally to everyone and therefore did not target homeless people.

Wow!  Why didn’t he just quote the French author Anatole France, who famously said. “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.”  

Couldn’t Gorsuch just issue his opinion without being a total ass?

Of course I'm voting for Biden

When I was complaining about Biden’s performance to my friend René today, René said, “But you are still voting for him, right?”  

Of course I will vote for Biden.  I’ll do the work, get out the signs, canvass the turfs they assign to me.  Most women will vote for him.  Most environmentalists will vote for him.  Most Blacks and Latinos will vote for him.

The problem is the millions of people won’t vote for him because they think he is too old, too frail, too halting.  If Trump is as bad as Biden thinks he is (and I think he is), then Biden ought to have the self-awareness to allow the convention to pick Gretchen Whitmer or Andy Beshear or some other Democrat who could beat Trump handily.

A True Patriot?

If Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race now, he would go down in history as a patriot who set aside his own ambition for the good of the country and the future of its democracy.  He would be the candidate who put his nation first.  

In light of Trump’s threat to not abide by the election results, the continued partisan actions of the Supreme Court, the rise of “Christian nationalism,” and the growing number of far right members of Congress, it is important that a reasonable candidate wins by a large majority.  Obviously Biden is not the candidate to achieve that, even if he manages to win a narrow victory.  

The debate last night was a test.  How would Biden handle a debate against a lying blowhard whose weaknesses are there for all to see?  Biden failed that rather simple test.  

The Democratic Party has a strong bench.  I can easily name five governors or five Senators who would could beat Trump handily.  Biden needs to withdraw, and soon.

Donna Leon

I didn't watch the debate.  Couldn't take it.  Figured one guy would babble and one guy would shout nonsense, and if you didn't know who to vote for by this point in time, you shouldn't be voting in any case. 

Instead I watched a mystery based on a book by Donna Leon set in Venice.  It was a little strange; it was a German production, so the Italian cops and the bad guys all spoke German.  It also had a rather unsatisfactory ending.  Still, I'm sure it beat the debate.

AI-Generated Fakes?

When the Israeli government released pictures of babies butchered and burned by Hamas, some Palestinian social media accounts said it was fake AI-generated and never really happened.  

More recently Fox News has been using clips of real events, but manipulating the edits in such a way that makes Biden look confused or senile.

William Falk, the editor-at-large of the news magazine “The Week,” has pointed out that we have become a nation that accepts news which confirms our beliefs, and we disregard news that does not agree with us.  Falk said that without a bedrock of truth, everything will be cast into question; no one will know what is real and what is fake.  Perhaps we have already reached that point.

Ethics as sailing orders

C. S. Lewis compared issues of ethics to the three things a fleet of ships is told in its sailing orders.  

First, the ships must know how to avoid bumping into each other.  This is social ethics.

Second, they must stay shipshape and avoid sinking.  This would be individual ethics, such as character building and avoidance of vices.

Third, they must know where the fleet is going.  Why is the fleet at sea?  What is the mission?  What is the goal?

Right now in the U.S. we are having some issues.  Our social ethics seem to have eroded; we “bump into” each other quite frequently.  As for individual ethics, look at Trump and his followers.  Finally, what is the destination of our society?  Where are we sailing toward?

I read about C.S. Lewis’s metaphor in Peter Kreeft, Three Philosophies of Life.  San Francisco:  Ignatius Press, 1989.

What happened to us?

A billionaire, Timothy Mellon, recently gave $50 million to Trump and Robert Kennedy.  $50 million.  I gave $25 to Jon Tester, running for Senate from Montana.  Mellon just made my donation and our “democracy” a joke.  The Republican Supreme Court declared that money is “speech.”  No, it isn’t.  Other democracies regulate campaign donations.  Legislation could be passed.  But it isn’t.  It won’t be.

The Supreme Court itself is tainted.  It is not an impartial body of wise judges pronouncing on legislation.  It is an arm of conservative interests, using a weird theory that it is supposed to follow the wisdom of the Founding Fathers at the time they wrote the Constitution.  Tell me about the wisdom of the Founding Fathers as it relates to “bump stocks” or the Electoral College or abortion.

Some of our failures are ludicrous.  Louisiana posts the Ten Commandments in the schools but fails protect its students from getting shot.  Fertilized eggs have “personhood.”  Homeless people flood major American cities.  We don’t control nation’s borders.  Half the population thinks climate change is a hoax.  Ignorance stalks the land.

How did we reach this point?  This country launched the New Deal, provided the Arsenal of Democracy, sent astronauts to the moon, saved the endangered bald eagle, passed a Voting Rights Act, implemented Medicare, eliminated polio and smallpox.  That seems like such a long time ago.