‘The K***s Are in a Panic’

[Trigger alert: The following article quotes from antisemitic posts that have been published in recent days. I apologize.]

* * * *

Today marks the start of an era of bounty and happiness, although I’ll be honest with y’all and remind you that the road will surely be hard and draining at times.
 
But, at least my unborn son will come into a world ruled by a GREAT MAN that only comes around once every century or so.
—columnist “Marcus Cicero,” Infostormer web site, “Victory Is Ours!

Those who spend life’s precious heartbeats as a way to calculate how many people they hate have until recently tended to keep their communications in the shadows. One had to look for their articles. One needed to know that such hatred existed in order to know where to look for their articles and blog posts. Often, those web sites would turn out to be defunct by the time an amateur like me would look for them.

It was as if those who hate full-time knew that there was something impolite about what they felt, so they kept it behind a locked door and only opened it with a secret handshake.

That day is done. With his campaign for U.S. President and his election yesterday, it no longer matters whether or not Donald Trump himself holds these thoughts in his heart or not: some (many? all?) of his supporters do. I do not think it is all.
Read More

It Can’t Happen Here, Can It?

Certain though Doremus had been of Windrip’s election, the event was like the long-dreaded passing of a friend. “All right. Hell with this country, if it’s like that.”—Sinclair Lewis, It Can’t Happen Here

The title begs the question: what is the “It” that can’t happen here? The free, democratic election of a fascist (lowercase F, even though any difference in degree or style of fascism is truly no difference at all)? Or any movement to resist it after it takes power?

Sinclair Lewis gives one succinct answer at the end of the second chapter of his 1935 novel It Can’t Happen Here: “The hell it can’t.” In the chapter, several of the leading lights of life in fictional Fort Beulah, Vermont, are conversing and considering the campaign promises of U.S. Senator Buzz Windrip, who is considering a run for the Democratic Party nomination against President Franklin Roosevelt.
Read More

The Latest Delay for Shawkan

A journalist’s job is to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

* * * *
The trial of the photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid (“Shawkan”) was postponed once again today, November 1, this time until November 19, 2016. I sent inquiries to several sources this morning with the request for any details about today’s hearing. No one has yet replied.

Anyone following Shawkan’s case can see that the waiting is wearying. Look at the photo at top. It was taken today, November 1. The trial itself is trial enough for Shawkan, who is a photojournalist who was arrested in a general roundup of a protest in August 2013.

Thus the next court appearance for Shawkan will be Saturday, November 19, in Cairo, Egypt. It will be the latest chapter in a three-year saga, a Kafkaesque tale that should not be taking place at all. I published this article yesterday about this tale of a journalist trapped in a story:
Read More