July 18

 Early and not yet light. 

As I said I am not following the Republican Convention or any of the politics closely but occasionally I find a post worth passing on so I will continue linking to them.

It is sad that N. Carolina Republicans saw fit to gerrymander Democratic Congressman Jeff Jackson out of his seat. Here he provides interesting pieces describing the machinations in the House as well as lucid and moderate commentary on the current politics. Here he provides more solid information on the assassination attempt.

Update: partly sunny, breezy, and cool. Nice. We have the doors and windows open. Might be a nice day for hot tea for supper instead of the cold tea I have in the fridge.

Tom Englehardt (on his Tomdispatch) site has a melancholy but, I think, accurate article. I remember reading his book THE END OF VICTORY CULTURE when it first came out and felt a faint feeling that worse was to come. I wasn't thrilled (and am not now) that Biden and Trump are squaring off again. I believed that something was coming down the pike that neither the men nor the parties behind them will be able to handle. It is nothing less than the end of American hegemony. But Biden, with his thoughts still stuck in the world of the Cold War, and Trump, with his pipe dream of "Make(ing) America Great Again," have the vision or the personality to chart a new course. So we will stumble into a very murky future.

I just saw a headline that gave me a cynical laugh: MASS DEPORTATION IS FASCISM. Not really. I guess people really don't read their Bibles any more--unless they are trying to justify what ever they are trying to force feed the rest of us. During the 500sBCE the Babylonian Empire deported many of Jews from the Kingdom of Judah. How many deportations, how many deportees isn't really certain but the Exile lasted about 50 years until the Babylonians were conquered and Jews allowed to return to Judah. Skipping forward several centuries and the Romans did the same after putting down the last Jewish rebellion in 135CE. Jews remained a minority in the area until the modern state of Israel was established in 1948. Russian czars pursued policies of both deportation and "Russification" at various times and the Soviets did the same in Ukraine under Stalin. And we aren't clean on this either given the Trail of Tears during the 19th century. Fascism has nothing to do with deportation. Deportation is a TOOL various political systems have used to deal with "troublesome" populations of "others."