Herd immunity, impunity, or fraternity?

Catching up after three days without an Internet connection.
So much going on it’s hard to stay current.

News blues…

A friend under curfew (also a lawyer) texted news from the San Francisco Bay Area:

• Yesterday was the attack on peaceful protesters, media, and clergy by secret service, police, and the National Guard in Lafayette Square [outside White House] to clear it for a Trump photo op. They attacked protesters under the direct command of Attorney General [William] Barr, who could clearly be seen ordering the attack. I watched this in real time.
• There were a number of crimes committed by all involved, the main crimes being criminal civil rights violations and conspiracy to violate civil rights.
• I spent the morning calling my federal representatives about this stuff, and my state and county reps about the wholesale use of gas, flash bang grenades, and rubber bullets against non-violent protesters, many of whom are young college and high school students. This is happening all over the state [California]… A main freeway [near me] was blocked [by protesters, too].
• A MSNBC TV reporter asked Republican Senators about these attacks. All senators either refused to answer or claimed not to have seen it.*
• Former CIA analyst Gail Heit said, “This looks like what happens when democracies die. It happens like this in countries before a collapse. It really un-nerves me.”
• There are big demonstrations all over defying the curfews. Like many cities and counties around the country, San Francisco and East Bay counties [population of 3.5 to 4 million], are now under curfew indefinitely. 
• [Signaling]…resistance from the big state governors and other quarters, a member of the Defense Science Board, James Miller, a former under-Secretary of Defense, resigned today. [He wrote] a scorching letter to the Secretary of Defense saying both he [current SecDef] and Trump had violated their oaths of office and the law.

Defense Science Board member, James Miller’s resignation is the beginning, I believe, of a domino effect that will bring Trump down.
*For now, leaders such as Marco Rubio still prop up the stale edifice. Rubio (R-Fla.), the acting chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said about the attacks on peaceful protesters outside the White House:

“That wasn’t even a protest ― that was a provocation … created deliberately for national television… Show me the pictures of that crowd and tell me those are real protesters and not professional agitators.” 

Meanwhile, Republican Voters Against Trump, a Republican group opposed to President Donald Trump urges voters to end his “American carnage” by voting him out of office in November. The group is using Fox & Friends, one of Trump’s favorite TV shows, to spread the message.

The spot uses the president’s own words against him and is centered around a line from his inauguration has taken on new meaning amid a deadly pandemic and nationwide civil unrest: “This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.”

Former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Mike Mullen, wrote in The Atlantic:

It sickened me yesterday to see security personnel — including members of the National Guard — forcibly and violently clear a path through Lafayette Square to accommodate the president's visit outside St. John's Church. I have to date been reticent to speak out on issues surrounding President Trump's leadership, but we are at an inflection point, and the events of the past few weeks have made it impossible to remain silent.
Whatever Trump's goal in conducting his visit, he laid bare his disdain for the rights of peaceful protest in this country, gave succor to the leaders of other countries who take comfort in our domestic strife, and risked further politicizing

Televangelist Pat Robertson, on his “700 Club” TV show, scolded President Donald Trump over his threat to send the U.S. military into American cities to control civil unrest.

“You just don’t do that, Mr. President. It isn’t cool.”
In comments posted online by Right Wing Watch, Robertson also called out Trump for getting the tone all wrong in dealing with the people protesting against racial injustice in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis, last week.
“You know, there’s a purpose to everything under heaven, you read in the Bible, and there’s a time,” Robertson said. “And I think now is the time to say, ’I understand your pain, I want to comfort you, I think it’s time we love each other.” 

Ah, yes, this is what I love about America and Americans. When the fur flies (aka “sh** hits the fan”) Americans guided by principle come out of the woodwork and show their courage.
I find fraternity at these times with James Miller, and Mike Mullen, and Republican Voters Against Trump, even very conservative Pat Robertson.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Third feature of Lockdown Syndrome: coupled with isolation, disconnection from the Internet for more than 24 hours causes irritation, anxiety, even depression.
Sitting by the garden pond helps, watching dragon- and damselflies helps. Seeing a vibrant Woodland Kingfisher certainly helps. But, there’s nothing like reconnection to the Internet!

***

Mea culpa. Fulsome complaining about the kitchen alarm and staff’s misuse of gas comes back to haunt.
It is true that staff does not moderate gas burners.
It is true that fire alarms are necessary tools to signal emergency.
And, it is true that alarms malfunction.
Indeed, malfunction was the root cause of our kitchen’s overactive alarm.
Another humbling lesson in why not to jump to conclusion, why not to assume, and why not to assign blame.
My excuse? I’m all-too-human.

On the topic of all-too-human, this was the perfect morning to listen to Arlo Guthrie’s, “City of New Orleans.”

Good morning, America
How are you?
Say, don’t you know me?
I’m your native son…

I listen, smile with joy … and cry with anguish as American burns. (Why brutalize people who justly claim their humanity?)
Crying is not allowed in my family of origin. Never has been, never will be.
So, like a well-trained seal (Bored Zoo Animal?) Dutiful Daughter sits on her bed, alone in her bedroom in KZN, far from friends and family in burning, adopted-country America, and cries.

Take care, Americans and America.
Do not give up your fight for your humanity, your human rights – and our democracy.

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