Black Lives Matter

 

Recently I posted about cops misbehaving, “Bad Cop, Bad Cop” and addressed the racial issue tangentially.  In doing so I noted that apologists for police misbehavior are de facto fascists, even if they don’t wear swastikas or worship Mussolini – the way their beloved leader, Donald Trump, apparently does.  Here I’d like to directly address a very related topic, racism.

 First off, I’m white, and always have been.  I don’t expect anything to occur which will retroactively change my ancestry from 75% Polish and 25% English to something else.   I had a Facebook dispute with another white person, whose name will remain anonymous.  This guy posted a meme, obviously a response to the BLM movement, which showed white victims of violence opposite their alleged killers (all of whom were black, of course) and asked if THEIR lives mattered.  So I asked the guy, is someone alleging that the killers in question were released, let go, or not prosecuted for some reason – which would make the meme an appropriate response to BLM.  Instead of answering the question – because he could tell I was challenging the obvious disingenuousness of the meme – he then attacked me as having some sort of “white guilt” and being a liberal social justice warrior.  Whites, it seems, have no business or prerogative to call out other whites for racism.  I suppose Gentiles can’t criticize anti-Semitism, etc., and men can’t call out sexism.  This is not a position I agree with.  It’s a position asserted by racists, anti-Semites, and sexists.  [Apparently, four white males from Birmingham, England, consented to allow their Master of Reality album logo to be used for Black Lives Matter.  Throw your “white guilt” BS at them, huh? LOL.]

 The larger issue is this.  From 1861 to 1865 we had a war in this country, aka the US Civil War, in which the Union states fought to keep the country intact without slavery, and the Confederate states fought to secede so as to retain slavery, a position consistently maintained by Confederate leaders at the time.   Several decades later, apologists for the Confederacy sought to rehabilitate that rebellion by retroactively changing its motivation to “states’ rights”.   Note that some non-CSA enthusiasts like to make a similar argument, doing so less out of latent racism and more out of some misplaced attempt to appear intellectually superior by contradicting “conventional wisdom” (i.e. that the Civil War was about slavery) which in this case happens to be accurate. 

 Anyhow.  Since the Confederacy was defeated in April 1865, there has never been a time in this country when bringing slavery back was even remotely politically feasible.  However, the Union’s military defeat of the Confederacy didn’t instantaneously convince the Racists that blacks should now be equal to whites in every respect.  Rather, the focus of the Racists then switched to a determined effort to put blacks in as close a status to slavery as can be politically managed under the existing climate.  Segregation was the first attempt, even upheld by Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896) (“separate but equal” – and almost never equal in practice) which was overturned by Brown v. Board of Education (1954).   

 With segregation shut down, now the Racists seem to be using the police to clamp down on blacks, which ties into my earlier argument.   What they want is to give the police unfettered authority to arrest, shoot, and oppress blacks, denying them equal protection and due process of law.  Blacks carrying guns – which would otherwise be protected by the Second Amendment – somehow runs afoul of their sensibility, so they attempt to unilaterally assert, tacitly and through police action, that the Second Amendment only applies to whites.  The end result is a fascist regime which exclusively victimizes blacks, leaving whites, Asians, and other racial groups alone, presumably eliciting support from the majority non-black population.  Would you, as a white (or non-black), be acceptable with a fascist government if it allowed non-blacks the full benefits of a free democracy and exclusively oppressed blacks? [A novel form of selective fascism, I suppose you could call it.]  Reducing blacks to non-people, sounds very similar to treating them as property…  Hmm, that sounds like… slavery?   There we go:  the same outcome pursued by different means.

 Returning to Black Lives Matter, any sensible person can ascertain its meaning: not that black lives matter MORE than whites, or that ONLY black lives matter, but simply that they do matter.  To the extent extravagant and bizarre claims and demands are attributed to the movement, that sounds to me like false flag nonsense asserted by someone not associated with the movement (almost certainly white) who wants to discredit it somehow.  With regard to looters and rioters, it’s less clear whether these are legitimate protestors, or criminal elements who considered it expedient to take advantage of the chaos and disturbance to help themselves to merchandise with a 5 finger discount.  Under the circumstances I would expect the BLM movement people to try to exercise more control over their own people and keep their protests peaceful.   We’ll see what happens.  

Currently Reading

 I like to read, and often I’m reading multiple books, fiction and nonfiction, at the same time.  Often I’ll get bored with one book, start up and finish another, and return to the prior one and finish it out of sheer determination.  As of August 2020, here’s what I’m up to…

Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi – Into the Void, by Tim Lebbon.   Almost done.  An incredibly dull and insipid story of a Jedi girl whose brother is a Sith or something like that.  She tracks him down and they fight.  Remember how everyone bitched and moaned that the prequel movies with Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker were difficult to endure and pretty much crap?  Same deal here.

 West of Eden, by Harry Harrison.   Remember that meteor that hit the Earth 65 million years ago and killed off all the dinosaurs?  Me too.   Well, imagine it missed us completely and the dinosaurs evolved into an intelligent race, but we came along too, so humans and dinosaurs are competing species, and the dinosaurs have their own words, but speak English too.  Imagine that story in very small typeface.  Generally I find Harry Harrison to be an excellent writer, but by now I’m reaching his less compelling stories – like this one.

 Not a Suicide Pact, by Richard Posner.  A Federal judge takes a fresh look at the Bill of Rights, privacy, etc. in the modern age post 9/11 to determine how much of prior case law restricting the government from becoming a fascist dictatorship still applies these days.  What’s interesting is that he’s not looking for excuses to chuck the whole thing in the trash but actually making a conscientious effort to reconcile the two.  And he notes that prior crises, such as the Civil War, WWI, WWII, the Cold War, etc. which provided some excuse to suspend some civil liberties remarkably did not plunge us into dictatorship, AND the guys in charge scaled back on the security business while the wars in question were still going on.  As an attorney I’m finding this to be far more interesting than petulant Jedis or talking dinosaurs.

 A Tramp Abroad, by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens).   MT/SC follows up his earlier Innocents Abroad with another travel diary, this time in Switzerland in the late 1870s.  His wit and humor remain intact.  While I’m still digesting it – and will happily read it all – as yet the most interesting item concerns travel couriers, which could be described as ongoing consultants who speak the local language, understand the local customs, and above all know how to cut through all the local red tape and BS so the traveler can enjoy the journey without being bogged down in unpleasant inconveniences.   The courier isn’t cheap, but his services are well worthwhile – to the point where whoever can afford him would be an idiot not to hire him. 

 Waffen SS: Hitler’s Army at War, by Adrian Gilbert.   My legal colleague bought this and read it, then lent it to me, knowing my fascination with the Waffen SS.  That’s the military wing of the infamous SS, the evil organization responsible for Nazi Germany’s worst excesses, e.g. the Holocaust.  They trained with live ammunition and hired renegade Army types with unconventional ideas on how to do things.  They also got those impressive dot cammo uniforms and the best tanks and weapons, AND recruited a whole range of non-Germans eager to fight Stalin.  So far I’ve just started, so I can’t tell yet how much Gilbert will tell me that I didn’t already know – but my tolerance for all things Waffen SS is high enough that I will read this whole thing even if there’s nothing in it I didn’t already know.  We’ll see.

 Too Much and Never Enough, by Mary Trump.   The daughter of Trump’s older brother Freddy (deceased), Mary Trump – i.e. his niece – serves up the dirt on her infamous uncle.   She’s clearly in a position to know much of what happened, so I’ll take her word for it.  About halfway through this. 

 A Trick of Light, by Stan Lee & Kat Rosenfeld.   I still haven’t figured out the plot, though it seems to involve superheroes. 

 The Plot Against America, by Philip Roth.  In this alternate history story, Charles Lindbergh – famous for being pro-Nazi before WWII and vanishing into obscurity once his idiocy became obvious – won the 1940 election and jumps in bed with Hitler.  As yet the US hasn’t done anything, but it looks like America’s Jews will be relocated to the Midwest.   The protagonists are Jews living in Newark, New Jersey, so NYC also winds up relevant to the story.  I’m not finding it very interesting, but since they turned it into a movie I will continue to the end. 

 Bonus.  I’m a big fan of LSD.  I’ve probably read as much as there has been written on the topic, including Practical LSD Manufacture, a self-explanatory book which lets me know that my chemistry skills are nowhere near good enough to allow me to even consider trying to make acid myself.  Fortunately, I’ve been able to sample some legitimate lysergic acid diethylamide in the past, but this was decades ago (thanks to the Grateful Dead concert at RFK in 1992).  Anyhow.  The most recent top level “cook” (as LSD chemists are called), William Leonard Pickard, was recently released from prison.  Despite his diligence at keeping his operations discreet, the FBI finally caught up with him and put him away for some time, which legally imposed idleness he took advantage of to write a novel.  As yet I haven’t even started reading it, but rest assured when I finish the Star Wars novel I’ll pick up his: The Rose of Paraclesus: On Secrets & Sacraments.  We’ll see what the man had to say.  

Doom Saloon 1 & 2

 

I think we’re all trying to do our best to survive the coronavirus.  In my case the biggest impact has been a summer of concerts wiped out.   King Crimson and Dead & Company were cancelled outright, Judas Priest, Fu Manchu and All Them Witches were postponed to much later dates, and TOOL is postponed to a date still unknown.

 A few bands have figured out that conducting online concerts is a way to circumvent this whole issue, and of these, Clutch is one. I’ve enjoyed both of their Doom Saloon shows, May 27 and August 7.  If there is one downside – in addition to missing the energy of a personal appearance and a similarly motivated audience – it’s these shows are fairly short, less than an hour each.  Normally a headliner, Clutch included, can be expected to play at least 90 minutes.   Some bands like Dead & Company and King Crimson play closer to 3 hours.  Well, I’d rather a 50 minute online live show than no show at all.

 A few benefits of online shows vs. in person.  1) No obstructed view issues.  None of this business of Shaquille O’Neal deciding that the exact center of the floor area is the perfect place for him to stand and block everyone else’s view.  2) No moshing.  I came to see the band, not some drunken asshole who feels that he’s not enjoying himself if he’s not ruining it for everyone else.  3) Flip side is that you can intoxicate yourself anyway you want with no hassles.  4) Logistics.  Log in, watch, no issues of getting to the venue and back again in one piece.  5)  No virus.  Of course, the most pertinent issue is that you won’t catch the virus from your fellow audience members. 

 Doom Saloon 1:  May 27, 2020.  Setlist: Who Wants To Rock?; Pure Rock Fury; Weird Times; The Soapmakers; The Regulator; Firebirds!; The Incomparable Mr. Flannery; Unto the Breach; Electric Worry; The House That Peterbilt; A Shogun Named Marcus; Minotaur; Evil (Cactus cover); In Walks Barbarella.

 I got a t-shirt, but I did not see that they released the show itself as a recording.  This one actually had opening acts, of which Crowbar was the only band I cared for, though as I was unable to free myself from work until Clutch’s show, it was moot anyway.

 Doom Saloon 2: August 7, 2020.  Setlist:  How To Shake Hands; Power Player; Rock’n’Roll Outlaw; Far Country; Smoke Banshee; What Would A Wookie Do?; Mice and Gods; Profits of Doom; Ghoul Wrangler; King of Arizona; (In the Wake of) the Swollen Goat; Your Love is Incarceration; Brazenhead; Oregon

 I did order the t-shirt and vinyl recording of the show.   No opening acts this time around.  This setlist was submitted by a fan (Marshall Snyder) and includes a fair amount of deep cuts.    A fellow Clutch fan made the astute observation that, even if we picked our least favorite Clutch songs, we’d still have an excellent set. 

 Next up: DOWN.  The supergroup with Pepper Keenan of Corrosion of Conformity, Phil Anselmo of Pantera, and Kirk Windstein of Crowbar, will be playing its first album, NOLA, in its entirety, on August 29.  I have my ticket and I’m ready to go.

 I might as well address this “play the whole album” deal.  Generally I’m NOT keen on it, for several reasons:

1.         No surprise.  I like NOT knowing what a band is going to be playing.  If they announce they’ll be playing a given album, you know at least that part of the set in advance.

2.         Already part of the set.  When bands do this, they pick their most popular album, which is already a major part of the set.  Rush did Moving Pictures, but since “Tom Sawyer”, “Red Barchetta”, “YYZ” and “Limelight” (side A of the original 1981 vinyl) were already set staples, that left “Camera Eye”, “Witchhunt” and “Vital Signs” as the odd ones out.  Priest did British Steel, most of which they were playing anyway.  The exception was Jethro Tull, with Aqualung.  Stuff like “Hymn 43”, “Mother Goose” and “Wind Up” weren’t common in the set (if ever), and Ian Anderson did something very clever:  he didn’t play the album track by track consecutively, he alternated with non-album tracks to mix it up.

I would advise bands to do this at least, or – if they’re feeling really bold – play an entire album, sure, but a different album each show. 

 Anyhow.  Both Clutch shows were excellent, inexpensive, and highly enjoyable, and I eagerly await the DOWN show online.  See you there!

All of Maryland

 

As my Facebook posts show – for those of you paying attention – I’ve been touring around Maryland recently.  I grew up in Montgomery Village and consider the 355 corridor from Gaithersburg down to Bethesda to be my home turf.  As an adult I discovered Baltimore (and have blogged about it in the past).  The rest of the state fell by the wayside until I finally decided to see it all, once and for all.  I’ve lived in Paris, France, visited lots of Europe and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, so not seeing my home state in its entirety with a surplus of COVID19-inflicted free time struck me an egregious oversight. 

 Moreover, I attended undergraduate college at the University of Maryland, College Park, which is the state university’s main campus.  North and South Hill dorms are named after Maryland counties, whereas the 11 high rise dorms are named after county seats (no Rockville Hall, by the way).  I was in Hagerstown Hall for freshman year, Talbot Hall for sophomore year and fall semester of junior year, then Montgomery Hall for spring semester junior year and all of senior year, plus New Leonardtown apartments for all of summer 1988 and first session of summer 1990, before graduating once and for all.

 Already Knew.   Montgomery, Prince George’s, Frederick, Washington, Howard, Anne Arundel, Baltimore City, Baltimore County, and Charles County.  Back in the 70s our family went to Ocean City twice, but obviously that was some time ago.   Most of my clients are Vietnamese, and you’ll probably find very few of them on the Eastern Shore.  Moreover, much of my practice is divorce, and so long as one of the parties lives somewhere in Maryland, you can file in any county, even if neither party lives in that particular county (so long as both parties agree).  An uncontested divorce in Maryland will have a single hearing before a master, and with the COVID these days, even those hearings are now held over the phone and not in the courthouse.  These days I’ve been filing all of them in Montgomery County.   

 Mission 1.  Garrett & Allegheny Counties (county seats:  Oakland and Cumberland).  The far northwest counties, surrounded by West Virginia and Pennsylvania.  Highly picturesque and aesthetically beautiful.  I’m glad I visited them for the first time ever. 

Mission 2.   Carroll & Harford Counties (county seats:  Westminster & Bel Air).  I had visited my mother in the hospital just southeast of Leesburg, Virginia, took the highway up past Frederick, Maryland, and stopped by Westminster, which is a fairly small, old-fashioned town.  Carroll County is between Frederick County and Baltimore County, bordering on Pennsylvania (the famous Mason-Dixon Line).   Then southeast to the Baltimore Beltway (695), up around northeast to Bel Air, which is just off I-95 northeast of Baltimore; Harford County also borders Pennsylvania in between Baltimore County and Cecil County, the latter being the northeast corner of Maryland, bordering Delaware.  

 Mission 3.   St. Mary’s & Calvert Counties (county seats:  Leonardtown & Prince Frederick).    After passing through Prince George’s and Charles County, you’ll eventually hit St Mary’s County, with lots of farms.  A few days earlier my office manager, Nancy, had me take her down here – just 5 minutes from Leonardtown – looking for live chickens.  No luck, but the way was paved for the Leonardtown mission.  As it happens, in addition to two vacations in Ocean City prior to January 1979, our father also took us on a weekend excursion to Solomon’s Island, which is right across the river in Calvert County, and actually on the way to Prince Frederick from Leonardtown.  Our 1970s trip to Solomon’s Island was a rainy weekend, and our dad took us to a tobacco plantation.  This time around the weather was much nicer, but I simply passed through Solomon’s Island and only spent brief moments in each county seat.  After Prince Frederick, the route took me back up past Lower Marlboro – not exactly next to Upper Marlboro – and eventually back up to the beltway near Andrews Air Force Base.

 Mission 4.   Cecil County, Kent County. Queen Anne’s County, Caroline County (county seats:  Elkton, Chestertown, Centreville, and Denton).  Starting from Elkton, Maryland, close by to Delaware, I went south through the northern portion of Maryland’s Eastern Shore.   I had literally never been here before, even in passing, the closest being passing by on I-95 to/from Delaware and New Jersey.   Highly rural, lots of farms, not much to see here.  The county seats are small and indistinguishable, though Denton likes to brag that FDR came through to give a speech in 1938 or so.    From Denton I returned home over the Bay Bridge and then down I295 to 395 and back to Virginia.

 Mission 5.   Talbot County, Dorchester County, Wicomico County, Somerset County, and Worcester County (county seats:  Easton, Cambridge, Salisbury, Princess Anne, and Snow Hill).   I wrapped this up by visiting Ocean City, albeit briefly.   This route took me across the Bay Bridge to Easton, Cambridge and Salisbury, then the detour to Princess Anne and Snow Hill – neither are off of Route 50, the main highway from the Bay Bridge to Ocean City – then up to Ocean City itself.

 Back on Memorial Day Weekend, 1990, my buddy Phil and I were puzzled that the Cellar, our favorite bar in College Park, was empty on Friday night.  The Cellar’s bouncer suggested that everyone had gone to Ocean City for the weekend.   At the spur of the moment, we left College Park at midnight, drive on Route 50 with no traffic in the middle of the night, and reached Ocean City at 3 a.m.   We slept in the car, only to be woken not by a local cop, but by heavy rain.  When the weather report promised a whole weekend of this, we set off, westbound on Route 50, arriving back in rainy, overcast College Park at noon.  That was the extent of my Eastern Shore travels as an adult, until last weekend’s solo road trip.   

 This time around I was alone and reached Ocean City around 5 p.m. on a sunny, warm, Saturday afternoon.  I hit the main drag from Route 50, drove north up to the Carousel Hotel, and spent about 5 minutes there looking around, and 5 minutes on the beach in street clothes.  It looks like the hotel is in the same shape and condition it was back in the late 70s when we visited it.  I took I 90 west to Route 50 and was home in about 2.5 hours.

Maryland ranks 42^nd in the US in size, and 19^th in population.   Leaving aside Baltimore, which is six times more populated than Columbia, the second largest city, only Ellicott City (Howard), Frederick (Frederick) and Rockville (Montgomery) are county seats in the top 10.