Lo, the Tweet Is On the Wing!

• “Fentanyl is not a contact poison.” – tweet
• “The deadlock within the Democratic Senate caucus is making it obvious which industries own which senators.” – tweet
• “South Dakota: state of corruption.” – tweet
• “Because an embryo is not a child, a fetus is not a child, and women are not to be enslaved.” – tweet
• “More Brazil than 1984” – tweet
• “There are some good cops, but there are almost no good police forces.” – tweet
• “Newsflash! Commission finds that Taney court is not racist!” – tweet
• In response to a school administrator arguing for a book to counterbalance a book on the Holocaust: “Obviously they need to get a copy of Mein Kampf.” – tweet
• “The Democratic leadership is finally nerving itself to fight but the fascist Republicans are already fighting.” – tweet
• In response to Texas Gov. Abbott going full anti-vax: “What plague breaks loose in Texas first? I'm betting on measles.” – tweet
• “Default on the national debt could be the US version of Brexit.” – tweet
• “We’ve literally taken a sniveling coward who couldn’t pay their debts and put them on our highest court of justice.” – tweet
• “Republican leaders, like all sociopaths, are shameless. Please stop expressing surprise at this and do something about it.” – tweet
• “When all of your public speech is performative, none if it can be taken at face value, Senators.” – tweet

The Tweets, The Tweets –

“This line of reasoning ends up punishing abusers and victims equally. There is a difference between cussing out the people who are beating up on you and being a foul-mouthed brute.” – tweet

In response to one more report that the judge in the Rittenhouse case is sympathetic to Rittenhouse: “They’re going to let him off.” – tweet

In response to Mitt Romney saying exceptionally wrong-headed things about taxing the rich: “Keynes, no slouch as an investor, had some scathing things to say about investments that couldn’t be valued. But I have no trouble believing that billionaires will crash the global economy again if they feel sufficiently affronted.” – tweet

A Keynes quote, in response to Elon Musk saying dimiwitted libertarian things: “When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done.” – tweet

“Try ‘confectioner's glucose’ [as keywords for an Amazon product search.] But why not buy it locally? Because, really, fk Amazon and their hellish working conditions.” – tweet

Of the immorbidator, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, “Why is this man not in jail if not on death row?” – tweet

“If anyone had checked that gun before they handed it to Alec Baldwin – anyone! – if Baldwin himself had checked, Halyna Hutchins would be alive today. ‘There are no firearms accidents.’” – tweet

To a covidiot: “Well, for one thing, you may have had asymptomatic covid and passed it on. For another, you still can get it.” – tweet

“Facebook: the modernized and equipped-with-jets yellow press.” – tweet

“I think Elizabeth Warren has a plan for that.” – tweet

“We seem to be in an age of permanent beginners, where the ill-thought-out ideas of novices are constantly repeated as wisdom.” – tweet

““Write what you know is a prison, so write what you feel.’ - James Blish. To which I will add, but don’t be a dick about it.” – tweet

In response to Senate hopeful Josh Mandel. “God will not bring them down anymore than history will judge. Bitcoin is a volatile speculation and no lasting store of value.” – tweet

“Lord, that was one stupid robber. Among the many things not understood about firearms: if you are too close to your intended target, they can be taken away.” – tweet

In response to Donald Trump founding a Twitter knockoff called “Truth:” “Donald Trump founds Pravda.” – tweet

The Compromise of 2021?

The Senate is deadlocked, with two Democratic Senators preventing the passage of the moderate progressive agenda of the Democratic leadership. My amber scrying ball is cloudy. But I do have a historical parallel to put forward: the Compromise of 1877.

In 1877, a deeply corrupt election threw the Presidential election into Congress. The Republican leadership, lacking a strong figure like Lincoln as leader, chose to seat their President by throwing away all their ideals. As part of the compromise, white supremacism was allowed to operate unchecked in the South. In addition, the white Southerners got huge subsidies– a railroad line, and their harbors rebuilt. This led, as we all know, to Jim Crow and the system of segregation. Less obviously, it led to the continuing economic failure of the South. In the end, racism turned out to be more powerful than capitalism, and the South remained impoverished. The slave economy, then and now, was a money-losing thing, and easily out-competed by industrial capitalism. And in 1877, how did the Democrats, then the party of racism and slavery, react to losing the Presidency but winning everything else? In Trumpian fashion! Name-calling! Unsubstantiated claims of fraud! Claims of corruption! Then as now, white supremacists are sore winners.

In the north, the power of wealth which Lincoln had inveighed against reigned unchecked. The satirists Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner co-wrote a novel entitled The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today and the title gave us the historical name of the period, the Gilded Age.

Turning to our time, what might be the elements of a Compromise of 2021?

First, the abandonment of a meaningful right to vote in multiple states. Unless some electoral reform bill makes it through Congress, which Senator Manchin so far refuses to allow, both access to the ballot box and the honest count of votes will be a thing of the past in Republican-dominated states.

Second, the continued predominance of wealthy industries and individuals in national policy, regardless of how harmful that policy is. We have Senators Sinema and Manchin defending the pharmaceutical industry’s outrageous price-gouging, and Manchin blocking even modest carbon-reduction efforts. The filibuster will be kept in place to protect many bad actors from any regulation and keep the taxes of the rich down.

And the consequences? I have a long list of nightmares, but I am not at all sure they will come true. The consequences of the Compromise of 1877 were dire, but they were also unpredictable. The same is likely to be true of the (not yet made) Compromise of 2021. Better to avoid it entirely, if this is possible.

The Rectification of Language 2: Immorbidize

Immorbidize. To make ill. By analogy with immiseration (to make less) and impoverish (to make poor.) Example: The policies of Governors DeSantis and Abbott immorbidize their states’ populations.

The Rectification of Language

As the fascist poet Ezra Pound once said, "When language is corrupt, no truth may be spoken." Being perfectly willing to steal a good line from my political enemies, I offer the following rectifications: 

Rubber bullet. Properly called a ʙᴀᴛᴏɴ ʀᴏᴜɴᴅ or ᴋɪɴᴇᴛɪᴄ ɪᴍᴘᴀᴄᴛ ᴘʀᴏᴊᴇᴄᴛɪʟᴇ; “rubber bullet” is a euphemism intended to make them sound soft, which they are not. A large-caliber (1.5" or 40mm) low-speed bullet, typically these days made of plastic. Can do considerable injury, though they usually do not kill.

Nazi.  1. as a proper noun, a historical German political party, a contraction of Nᴀᴛɪᴏɴᴀʟsᴏᴢɪᴀʟɪsᴍᴜs. 2. As a common noun or adjective, an apocalyptic nationalist (ꜰᴀsᴄɪsᴛ) ideology that promotes mass murder through government action (ᴅᴇᴍᴏᴄɪᴅᴇ.) The adoption of policies which spread covid is nazi in character. 

Fascist. 1. As a proper noun, a historical Italian political party. 2. As a common noun or adjective, an apocalyptic (technically palingenetic, but only historians know the word) ultranationalist political movement. (Definition due to historian Roger Griffin in his book The Nature of Fascism.) Ultranationalist ᴅɪsᴘᴇɴsᴀᴛɪᴏɴᴀʟɪsᴛ churches are inherently fascist because dispensationalism sees history as a series of apocalypses.

Tweets: "the workings of the world machine are depressing"

"And the end result is we’re stuck with a document that’s at least 100 years out of date and absolutely dependent on the whim of supreme court justices to fill in the gaps. We’ve got plenty of authoritarianism [with a constitution that is hard to amend; the difficulty of amendment doesn't protect us.]" – https://twitter.com/RavenOnthill/status/1442162221761454080?s=20Tweet

On an LA baliff's firearms negligence: "He is a civilian. And there are no firearms accidents." – Tweethttps://twitter.com/RavenOnthill/status/1442162221761454080?s=20

On comments as to how sex positive feminism is going out of style: "You are making, you know, too much sense. American popular culture operates in extremes. In my time we have strong from prudery to prurience and now we are swinging back again. Moderation seems impossible. I fear we are headed towards an updated version of Victorian prudery and hypocrisy, with a feminist gloss." – Tweet

On the observation that our radical right is not primarily economically motivated: "This is an error made both on the left and the right. it is no surprise that capitalists believe in the power of money, but socialists also overestimate the power of economics.' Consider that Jim Crow impoverished the South [- if economics were a primary concern, it would have been abandoned long since.] Yet the socialist critique of the petite bourgeoisie is applicable here. This is a group which is constantly uncertain of its status and so it throws in with the haute bourgeoisie, which is utterly contemptuous of it. Consider how many small businesses were shafted by Trump, yet it is that group which is Trump’s base of support." – Tweets

"Dear Arizona Republicans, dear Republicans nationwide: you lost. Get over it." – Tweet

"Zuck [Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO] likes this. It’s happened just too often to be accident. He likes encouraging people to die and kill." – Tweet

To Tom Nichols: "And I am old enough to remember when we told you it would come to this, well before Trump. History began before 2016." – Tweet

"The party of rape, treason, and plague strikes again." – Tweet

"The ownership of the broadcast media and their senior editorial staff support Trump and the Republicans. Never forget it." – Tweet 

On the Taliban leaders: "These people have crossed the line. Their minds are dominated by a hunger for destruction. They will not cross back." – Tweet 

"@crookedfootball just had occasion to read your post on Kukathas, and it sent me back to my 2008 remarks on the subject, which I will share here, "Oh, you hominids could make the border into a killing field, make a feast for us corvids. That would stop them from coming, probably. The people who ran Abu Ghraib and run Gitmo, they'd be happy to do it for you. And then they'd do it to you. If you don't want more rule by criminals, it's time to start thinking about alternatives. I regret to write that subsequent events have borne this out." – Tweet, Link

"You’re only threatened by antifa if you’re a fascist. Antifa is there to rumble, the fascists are there to kill. And, yeah, antifa are anarchists but they’re mostly the sort of anarchists who are more likely to find you a meal and a place to sleep than throw bombs." – Tweet

"Antifa is small and weak. They have nothing like the numbers, power, and wealth of the fascist wing of the Republican party. A better concern, I think, is why is antifa the lead in opposing the authoritarian – fascist – right. Where are the mainstream folk? Where were people like you, Prof. Nichols, when it started to be clear, back in the last 1990s, that this was a proto-fascist authoritarian movement? Why is the activism only coming from a despised minority?" – Tweet

On the execrable conduct of the conservative wing of the Congressional Democrats: "It was that way in 2010, when the Affordable Care Act was passed. Remember? If we wait for the conservative wing of the Democrats to do, well, anything, pigs will fly first." – Tweet

 

https://twitter.com/RavenOnthill/status/1442162221761454080?s=20

Tweets: Mostly on Covid

On Covid

We shouldn't be opening the schools this fall unless the children are masked, teachers and staff vaccinated, a covid testing system is in place, and the schools have certified ventilation systems. – https://twitter.com/RavenOnthill/status/1434741830411702273?s=20

We're heading for a health care system crash, soon in red states, in a few months in blue. Don't get sick. I don't see how this ends. Do ICUs start turning away unvaccinated patients as less likely to survive? – https://twitter.com/RavenOnthill/status/1434742656307847170?s=20

What are we going to do when Covid becomes endemic among children? – https://twitter.com/RavenOnthill/status/1434921906931527683?s=20

So many deathbed conversions. I wish we would see the conversions before people were on their deathbeds. – https://twitter.com/RavenOnthill/status/1435035423005298694?s=20

Other Topics

Terrorism works. School boards now need sergeants at arms. Maybe they could enlist school resource officers. – https://twitter.com/RavenOnthill/status/1434927667803918337?s=20

I have come to the conclusion that the Texas Republican leadership should be strangled with coathangers. - https://twitter.com/RavenOnthill/status/1434693176262991874?s=20

The MAGA want to make America great again by throwing away everything that made America great. – https://twitter.com/RavenOnthill/status/1434929344959238146?s=20