The Roe Bombshell Drops (So Shove It, Civility Cops)

<i.>

Here's a simple test we can all try at home. How do you know when anyone in a leadership position is no longer relevant anymore, has reached their sell-by date, so to speak? Simple. When they stop speaking truth to power, and tell us to do likewise.

I mean Dick Durbin, Illinois's senior US Senator, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose responses to the Supreme Court's recently-dropped bombshell -- the now-infamous draft opinion that Roe v. Wade is dead, because it's not mentioned in the Constitution, meaning, we only have the rights they deign to grant us -- rank among the stupidest and most jaw-dropping.

Pelosi's faux pas came first, during the Aspen Climate Ideas Conference, on May 9, in Miami (the same city where they're starting to openly fret about sea level rise). Asked what it would take to move the Senate on climate legislation, with Republicans ruling out such measures, Madam Pelosi opined:

"Well, we have to defeat them, so let's just try to persuade them. I want the Republican party to take back the party, take it back to where you were when you cared about a woman's right to choose, you cared about the environment. Hey, here I am, Nancy Pelosi, saying this country needs a strong Republican Party, and we do, not a cult, but a strong Republican Party."

When I read this, I rolled my eyes, and sighed aloud: "Nance, not to be mean, but the GOP seems quite robust nationally. Six of the nine Justices essentially carry their water at the Supreme Court. They control 26 state delegations, thanks to varying combinations of gerrymandering, and pushing their voters' darkest, most primal buttons.

"Oh, yeah, and while we're at it, let's not forget that January 6 insurrection thing, for which our Attorney General, Merrick Garland, is spending endless amounts of time prosecuting the little guy who swipes a coat rack from the Senate cloakroom, yet so far, has left Trump and his inner circle of planners -- including the infamous lawyer, John Eastman, and far right Congressmen and women, like Louie Gohmert, Jim Jordan, and Marjorie Taylor Greene -- blissfully untouched."

This is the same Republican Party that's working overtime to subvert democracy, however and wherever they can -- from running conspiracist-minded candidates to seize control of the electoral machinery, to the increasingly authoritarian bent that states like Florida and Texas are taking, to suppress the vote, or take total control of it, even when the results say otherwise. To put it charitably, they've never looked less persuadable.

Judging by what I'm seeing on the Hill's Twitter thread, the suggestion isn't going down well: "So the guy who said we can't "bully" the Supreme Court to act a certain way is married to the woman who bullied Arizona lawmakers to fabricate a different set of electors and helped organize a mob to bully Congress into not certifying the duly chosen electors? Got it." (Tristan Snell)

Or we might go this response, from MeidasTouch.com: "Republicans are holding major events with Kyle Rittenhouse and Viktor Orban. Spare us the BS that it's the Democrats who have gotten too extreme." Suffice to say, Madam Pelosi's room reading skills have atrophied a tad, now that she's sat on top for so, so, so long. Godfather III-era Michael Corleone would know the feeling well, I'm sure.

<"Scenes From An ACA/Pro-Choice Picket"/

Take I/Photo: The Reckoner>

<ii.>

Yet Pelosi isn't the only senior Democratic leader stuck in some endless 1980s and 1990s-era feedback loop, when the Republicans recruited the Christian Right to help do their bidding, though few talked as openly as they do now, about subverting the wishes of the majority (the 80 million who turned out in 2020 to rid themselves of Trump) to the tyranny of an aggrieved minority (the 74 million who wanted to keep their Dear Leader around). 

Sadly, you can also count Durbin, the party's second-ranking Democrat, among those leaders unable to meet the moment, as he made all too clear, when asked how he viewed the protests that immediately surfaced outside the five most authoritarian-leaning Justices' homes: 

"I think it's reprehensible. Stay away from homes and families of elected officials and members of the court. You can express yourself, exercise your First Amendment, but to go after them at their homes, to do anything of a threatening nature, certainly anything violent, is absolutely reprehensible." 

Once again, I found myself asking: 

“Are you 

f#cking kidding me?”

First, nobody has been violent to any of the five reactionary Justices, judging from the clips I've seen of their activities, anyway. Hell, nobody's even said so much as "Boo!" Considering the unhinged authoritarian bent of the draft opinion, it's not hard to understand why it's freaking people out. As almost every mainstream legal scholar has already noted, the draft opinion comes across as though the Fourteenth Amendment had never happened. 

If Roe can be struck be down, on the basis that no constitutional right to privacy exists, what does that reasoning bode for other rights -- ranging from contraception access, to interracial marriage, gay marriage, and so on -- that were granted on similar grounds? Nothing good, let's put that way.

People have every reason to be alarmed, and honestly, if our chief concern is that Alito, and his equally tawdry, unsavory crew -- Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorusch, Brett Kavanagh, and Clarence Thomas -- aren't able to go about their repressive business blissfully undisturbed, then we've gone a lot farther off the rails than I could ever imagined.

To put it another way, they should have to face their handiwork, starting with those that they're angering. They should have to account for what they're contemplating. They should have to answer for the harm that they're potentially getting ready to inflict on a majority of Americans who have consistently sworn, in poll after poll -- for as long as I can remember, going back 30-odd years or so -- that they don't want Roe overturned.

Honestly, who takes the ethically-challenged likes of Thomas seriously, and his solemn vow that the court won't be "bullied?" Really? I guess the bully privilege only extends to himself and his infamous blonde trophy wife, who worked hand in hand with those scheming to keep Trump in power, the 80 million who wanted him swept out of the White House be damned. Their votes, of course, didn't rank among the "legal votes" that the GOP's senior mummies stoutly vowed to see counted. That didn't matter to them, then or now.

In all fairness, though, I can't blame Thomas for a tad feeling confused, given the dynamic he's seen since his ascension to the court, in 1992 -- the Dick Durbins of the world falling into their role of playing good cop to the GOP's bad cop. It must unsettle Thomas, I'd imagine, to see the hornet's nest that has already stirred in response. But if he didn't see it coming, that makes him even denser than I imagine him. Or how he already imagines himself.

<"Scenes From An ACA/Pro-Choice Picket"/ Take II/Photo: The Squawker>

<iii.>

At any rate, I no longer respect Durbin, nor anyone who talks along the same lines, like Bill Kristol, another card-carrying member of the commentariat who still seems to think it's 1996. Surely, they will see the light, because they'll listen to reason, right? Hence, his own equally stupid. wishy washy advice, dished out via his Twitter account: "Please don't protest at people's homes. Please don't intrude on people attending their houses of worship. Organize politically, be civil civically."

Jon Rosenberg's response strikes me as way more relevant: "No. Fuck this. Go to people's homes. Go to their places of worship. Make them as uncomfortable as they are trying to make you. This is not the time for civility, this is the time for mass resistance and demonstration."

Crudely stated, but well stated. If you prefer a more eloquent version, Arwa Madhawi's commentary in the Guardian (see link below) should suffice, as well, particularly this comment:

"Here’s the thing though: civil rights have never been won by groveling at the feet of people who hate you and saying, ‘Please sir, can I have a few more rights?’ You simply do not owe civility to people who don’t see you as a full citizen. It’s worrying how many people seem to think otherwise."

Of course, this doesn't faze the Civility Cops, as I call the likes of Durbin, Kristol, Pelosi, and others of their ilk, who are mentally trapped in various nostalgic time warps, depending on their ideology or inclination. To hear the mainstreamers tell it, the soccer moms they spend so much time courting put away their bad girl sides -- careful with the bong -- long ago, so why bother telling them, "You can't have it all?" This is the default response of a Democratic Party that's been negotiating against itself for way, way too long. But when you see people clutch their pearls, and tell you that power really might concede without a demand, if you just lobby long and hard enough, that's when you know the world has passed them by.

<"Scenes From An ACA/Pro-Choice Picket"/

Take III/Image: The Squawker>

<iv.>

Yet it's worth recalling these seven words, and writing them in fire, on every so-called Democratic centrist's brain: It...Didn't...Have...To....Be...This...Way. At a certain point, the Democratic Party got used to the idea of Roe serving as a bargaining chip, one it viewed as key to keeping the faithful happy, and in the fold, whenever an election rolled around.

Dangling Roe as an empire building device to raise money and lock in votes seemed a far easier path to take than, say, codifying it into law, beyond the reach of meddling politicians (read: Republicans). Vote for us, and don't forget to donate, the traditional midterm pitches reminded us. Otherwise, women will lose their right to choose.

Democrats largely gave up on codifying Roe after the collapse of a Clinton-era push to do it, in the 1990s. However, it's an oversight they surely could have rectified in 2008, when Obama won the Presidency, and his party enjoyed a virtual supermajority in the Senate (57-41), until the 2010 midterms, when it shrank to 51-47. That's before we get to other major sins, like the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg swatting aside suggestions that she step down during that time. Imagine what we might have been spared, if only she hadn't let hubris overtake common sense (see link below). And let's not forget the strategic malpractice of Obama's first chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, the foul-mouthed moron who infamously told a roomful of activists, "I don't give a f#ck about judicial appointments."

We all know who did, and how wonderfully that movie has played out for them. Emanuel's dimwitted outburst is the kind of stupidity that inspires the GOP's bad actors to toast him privately, and chuckle, "It shouldn't be this easy. But it is!" With opponents like this, who needs a fair fight? Not them, of course, since they'll never experience one. And this is what makes the hypocrisy of the Democratic Establishment such a bitter pill to swallow. They'll never have to face the consequences of their choices, or if they do, it won't be for long, given the ages of Durbin (77), or Pelosi (82) and her trusty sidekicks, James Clyburn (81) and Steny Hoyer (82), eternally content to play the malignant Robin to her equally toxic Batman. Their loved ones won't have to worry about getting abortions, nor losing any of the other rights that will presumably tumble to the wayside, like so many wayward dominoes. When in doubt, they'll move to another country, an escape hatch that's always been available to the celebs, and the swells. Those who don't fall into either social category simmer slowly in the pot, like the vast majority of Nazi persecution victims did in 1939.

Honestly, don't sign up for another tour of duty with the Civility Cops. Their indifference and lack of empathy brought us to this pass, so why let the Durbins and Kristols and Pelosis of the world dictate the terms of our fight?

What's the point of trusting them to wield power anymore, when they do so precious little with it, on those rare occasions when they finally wriggle out of the penalty box long enough to claw back some of it? They've had plenty of chances. What have they done with them lately? What have they done for any of us lately? (Cue the sound of crickets chirping.) Right, exactly.

So no, sorry, Uncle Dick, and sorry, Aunt Nancy, forgive me if I don't feel like breaking bread with our potential downpressors. We understand if you aren't up to the fight anymore. Please, go sit down, shut the f#ck up, and let the rest of us get on with it.

Go to the Supreme Court goons' homes, or their gala rubber chicken dinners, and those of their acolytes, whatever event, or unseemly setting that you may run across them, and let them know -- to coin a phrase from "Janie Jones":

"EXACTLY -- HOW -- YOU -- FEEL."

So yeah, as full-on dramatic as that first sign sounds -- by all means, rage, rage, rage against the lying of the right. Because our survival depends on it. And those who have to follow this particular dystopian act will curse us forever, if we get wrong. --The Reckoner

Declare yourself an unsafe building

Suffer the indignation of your world,

To climb the ladders 
you've gotta suss out the snakes

Remember your height 
remember to never look down.

'Cause now you've made your choice
you've gotta take your chance

Find a way out now
you're

Unsafe, unsafe
<The Alarm, "Unsafe Building">

Links To Go (Hurry, Hurry, Before 

They Start Passing Out The Handmaids' Uniforms)

ABC News: Election Experts  Warn Of "Emergency" As Trump-Backed Election Deniers Win Primary Races: https://www.yahoo.com/gma/trump-backed-election-deniers-could-205400544.html BIll Kristol 's Twitter Feed: https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1523288322671788033 Jon Rosenberg's Twitter Thread On Bill Kristol: https://twitter.com/jonrosenberg/status/1523311316089602051 NBC News: Election Deniers Running In 2020...: https://www.yahoo.com/news/election-deniers-trump-won-2020-132726637.htm Politico: "Extraordinarily Self-Centered": As A Roe Reversal Looms, RBG Admirers Wrestle With Her Legacy: https://www.yahoo.com/news/rbg-admirers-wrestle-regret-anger-083000049.html

Reddit: WhitePeopleTwitter: https://www.reddit.com/r/WhitePeopleTwitter/comments/ulu58j/this/ The Guardian: Overturning Roe V. Wade Will Destroy Our Civil Rights -- So Don't Ask Us To Be "Civil": https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/10/overturning-roe-v-wade-will-destroy-our-civil-rights-so-dont-ask-us-to-be-civil

Punk Rock Art Photos: "Still Life: Defunct Medical Clinic"

 

<The long view, 

from the parking lot...>

Hard to believe, once upon a time, but this now-silent medical clinic, Moonham & Associates played a major part in the rhythm of our lives, when we first moved to the town we currently call home. Even in its current condition, you can see it was a state of the art structure, for the mid-2000s (though it was built in the late '60s).

Thoughtfulness abounded in the design. Ample parking in an ample lot, including more spaces for people with disabilities than you normally see. Central, accessible location, off a major five-lane road.

Numerous amenities, like a patient drop-off area. (If you're looking at the first photo, you drove up a small path, behind the array of blue disability parking plates, and then left, up a small asphalted hill, and back down again.) Every detail...

<Constant exposure to wet, rainy weather 

hasn't worked wonders for these signs.>

...seemed carefully considered, even if the waiting rooms still seemed stuck in the mid-'70s Mike Brady Gothic era, as I call it, with all their color schemes, comically narrow armchairs, cramped, unforgiving waiting rooms, and splotchy, questionable color schemes.

Bit by bit, however, the various medical practices here shut down, and pulled out. As we later discovered, Moonham's slow fade revolved around the wishes of our local hospital, that had started building three outpatient clinics on the outskirts of town -- just past the south side, where we live. The gravitational pull of "one-stop shopping" proved irresistible...

<The weather has done a number 

on the wood finish here, too, 

as you can see here.>

...or so it seemed, at the time. The actual back story is more complicated, as I learned, when I started digging online into the history of Moonham. At its peak, the clinic employed roughly 35 doctors, and 200 employees, of whom 40 -- in the billing and collections departments, naturally -- followed their employers to the new location. (Everyone else, presumably, had to dust off their resumes.)

The one local news story I found, from 2011, suggested the reorganization hadn't been smooth. Millions of dollars in unpaid property taxes had piled up since 1999. An additional $10 million in bank loans for real estate and equipment, also loomed, though organizers waxed confident that Moonham had enough assets...

<Closeup view of the clinic's slow fade.

As you can see, the elements 

have really taken their toll.>

...to cover it all. Explanations for the clinic's demise ranged from greed, to inefficiency, though the sources quoted in the story pointed to independence as the big reason. Some doctors supported the closing, and some didn't, but they all wanted to run their own affairs. It's the hobgoblin that dogs any sort of collective arrangement, as the boys behind fabled enterprises like Apple Records will tell you (or Motown, or Stax, or... You get the picture).

With so many partners involved, I can see how that issue got tricky, although I'm assuming that they had to vote on everything, including monthly board meetings, and all the usual organizational folderol that accompanies them (annual and quarterly reports, for instance). The story mentions that the hospital already owned a portion of the property, although...

<This sign marked

the crest of 

the patient dropoff area.>

...nobody seems in any hurry to develop the 4.42-acre site, which has sat empty for over a decade now, and the Squawker and I had stopped visiting around 2010, as we followed our fellow patients to the new digs. 

The property itself was sold in December 2018, for an undisclosed sum, to an equally undisclosed owner (the hospital, I'm guessing, though without confirmation, we obviously can't say for sure). Its current market value is $1.066 million, which generated $31,000 in property taxes last year. I'm guessing they've long since caught up.

<The view from the outer left edge 

of the parking lot...>

So there you have it. A small town version, I suppose, of the territory covered on the VICE Network's ruin porn show, "Abandoned." With subjects ranging from Cold War-era fallout shelters, to decaying malls, and the remains of Route 66, it's enough to make you feel like small potatoes, indeed (though I'm not as enamored of the later episodes -- which seemed like an excuse for the host to indulge his skateboarding hobby). 

<...and a closeup shot 

of the signs, as faded as the rest.>

Truth to tell, I'm a little hesitant myself to feed anybody's ruin porn narrative. In many ways, the story here simply reflects a business transaction, one directed by a major player (our hospital). At that point, the players involved had two options: swim against the tide, and risk moving somewhere else, or joining it. Not surprisingly...

<I've heard of the "broken window theory," but even this snapshot seems like an extreme version, doesn't it?>

...most preferred the latter option. It reminds me of the old joke that you hear cynics drop among themselves: "You say it sucks to be alive? You're right. Most days, it does." Pause. "But it sure as hell beats the alternative." Ba-boomp! But seriously, folks, a funny thing happened to me on the way to seeing my offices, my practice, and my staff getting turned upside down. Even so, as the above photo suggests, there's no doubting...

<Nobody has had to worry about

following the instructions for quite some time.>

...that Moonham has definitely seen better days, and it definitely looks like worse for wear. The faded signs (above) scream of a stereotypical Abandoned 101 experience, and of course, no real movement to scavenge the bones of the property, from blacktop to bricktop, seems likely. Not immediately, anyway.

So what are the city fathers planning on doing about this gaping vacancy in our town's otherwise well-scrubbed back side? I haven't heard in a long time, and my Google walkin' fingers couldn't find a definitive answer, so your guess is as good as mine. 

Going on our latest drive-through, however, the Squawker and I agree on this much: if Mother Earth wants to reclaim the property, it's off to a flying start. Lack of urgency does things like that. Or maybe something's happening behind the scenes, but nobody's announced it yet. We'll see what how it looks in a year or two. --The Reckoner

<Words: The Reckoner>

<Images: The Squawker>

My Corona Diary (Take XXXVIII): MAGA House Makeover On Main Street (UPDATED, 3/08/23)

 

<Photo: The Squawker>

The Keep America Great garden sign is still in place 

(above, right), with the American flag. But the clearest 

signs of change are evident in the window -- the 

BLACK LIVES MATTER sign,and the Ukrainian flag. 

One of our favorite pastimes, as far as the Squawker and I are concerned, is cruising around town, snapping photos of whatever suits our fancy. As fellow travelers in outsider art, this type of activity only seems logical, especially when you're looking for sights that seem slightly out of the ordinary.

Today's photo definitely qualifies. For the last couple years, we'd noticed a house that we dubbed "The Trump Shrine," because whoever owned it seemed bound and determined to give onlookers as much visual evidence as possible of their devotion to President #45, as he's known in certain quarters.

On the side of the home hung a splashy, bright red flag that proclaimed, in white lettering, "TRUMP 2024: PROMISES MADE, PROMISES KEPT." A pair of statutory red, white and blue campaign signs hung in the windows, and for a time, a yellow flag bearing the Revolutionary War motto ("DON'T TREAD ON ME") and accompanying rattlesnake, also hung proudly over the front entrance.

Imagine our surprise, then, when we drive by a couple months ago. The Trump flags were all gone. That's the first thing we noticed. 

What's more, they'd been replaced by....not one, not two, but three -- count 'em -- blue and yellow Ukrainian flags! And there's a BLACK LIVES MATTER sign in the window, too!

"What's going on here?" I wonder. "Did the owner do a total 180, ideology-wise, or does somebody else live here now? Either way, I'd love to hear the story. Whatever it is."

"Yeah, it sure is weird," Squawker allows. "But anything's possible, as we both know. I know people who spent decades as evangelicals..."

"And I've run across my fair share of ex-Hare Krishnas, and on the other end, stumbled over active Scientologists," I agree. "So yeah, nothing would amaze me. But still..."

We make another run around the block, in case we're just blearier-eyed than usual. It seems hard to imagine such a total makeover, in this age of extreme polarization, as the talking heads constantly remind us (Blah blah blah extreme polarization blah blah blah blah a nation never more sorely divided blah blah blah blah blah the starkest social divide since the '60s... etc. etc. etc....).

Or is it? I try to visualize whatever went on in that homeowner's head, past or present. Did Trump ultimately disappoint that fan, somehow? ("What promises kept? What border wall, anyway? What Obamacare repeal?") Did the whole Trump phenomenon seem hollow, somehow, the more months that ticked by, as Biden remained firmly in place at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? ("You mean they can't overturn the 2020 election, after all?") Or maybe the puzzle pieces fell into place, once a sinking feeling set in ("The only swamp he ever drained was the one that emptied right into his coffers. I've been taken for a ride.")

At any rate, the decor didn't change, the moment we'd rounded the block again. Obviously, it wasn't some figment of our imaginations, though we still wonder inspired the makeover. I heard a different theory, a couple weeks ago, from someone driving me off to a medical appointment. 

When I rattled off the various decor changes, and pondered aloud the possibility of a Trump-to-BLM conversion, she just rolled her eyes, and laughed off the notion, "Oh, there's no way! That house must have been sold. What else explains it?"

"Yeah, that seems more likely," I said. "But still, you have to wonder..." Because, come to think of it, one finishing touch remains from the past regime, and that's the KEEP AMERICA GREAT garden sign, which is still stuck in the ground (see above).

What's that about? I ask myself. Keeping both political options open, perhaps, in case of apocalypse? Offering a different twist on a tried and true slogan? Or maybe it's just a case of simple absentmindedness, or indifference? 

We'll never know, I'm sure, because it's hard to decipher an enigma, without the hint of a ready explanation. Then again, social phenomena can be funny like that. --The Reckoner

UPDATE (3/8/23): I guess we spoke too soon. The political paraphernalia has since come down, save for the KEEP AMERICA GREAT GARDEN sign, that remains stuck in the lawn. An indicator of some major change in mood, or a simple reflection of some need to do some spring cleaning? who knows? 

Maybe the occupant's tired of the whole subject, which I've heard a fair amount of people say lately. In any event, the above snapshots will have to stand as the sole visual evidence of a sight that inspired no shortage of comments and in-jokes. Like any casual or dedicated rubbernecker, we'll now have to find them elsewhere. Or so it seems, anyway.