On Brazil, America, George Santos, Josh Shapiro, Rudy Giuliani, the oldest living Pearl Harbor vet (105), and more
It was “déjà vu all over again.” Supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, the former president of Brazil, who was defeated in an election last October, stormed the institutions of government: the congress, the supreme court, and the presidential residence. Ian Bremmer circulated a photo of a mob of these guys beating a capitol policeman: here.
Many thoughts come to mind, of which I’ll offer a few.
After our presidential election in November 2020, Cameron Hilditch wrote a piece about “loser’s consent.” Democracy depends on it. If you don’t have loser’s consent, you don’t have a democracy. And such consent can’t be taken for granted, obviously.
The insurrectionists, or rioters, in Brazil draped themselves in the national colors. This appears to be common: wrapping yourself in the flag while attacking the institutions of your country.
On January 6, the rioters assaulted the U.S. Congress for the purpose of stopping a constitutional process — which they succeeded in doing, for several hours. That more did not die is very fortunate.
In democratic politics, there are many who root for their party, or tribe — their jersey. But how many root for the system itself? When I am inclined to worry, I worry about this, among other things.
Democracy is resilient, we are told. I believe this. It is also fragile, we are told. Can both things be true? That would defy sense. But one or the other may feel true, depending on the day.
• George Santos (R., N.Y.) has received a lot of publicity for a freshman congressman. This is because of the spectacular lies he has told, as he has climbed the ladder of American life. Casting a vote for Kevin McCarthy, to be speaker of the House, Santos raised his right hand. He also made a peculiar gesture with his left. You can see it in a photo here.
This gesture has become familiar in American life. For example, Roger Stone and the Proud Boys flash it, when they’re together.
What gives? Why did George Santos choose to do this, on the House floor? If there is an innocent explanation, that would be pleasant to hear.
• I am not necessarily big on symbolism. I think it can be cheap, and smell of sentimentalism. But when I saw this, I thought it was right. I have linked to an article in Jewish Insider, which begins,
When Josh Shapiro is sworn in as Pennsylvania’s governor next week, he will take the oath of office on a stack of three Hebrew Bibles, including one that was on the bima, or prayer platform, at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue during the 2018 mass shooting that killed 11 worshippers.
How about the other two Bibles? There’s an old expression: “to swear on a stack of Bibles.” Shapiro is doing it literally. For good reason, you may agree:
Shapiro, Pennsylvania’s outgoing attorney general, will also use the same family Bible he has used at each swearing-in since he was first elected to the Statehouse in 2004 . . .
The third Bible — a copy of “Readings from the Holy Scriptures for Jewish Soldiers and Sailors,” which was given to soldiers when they entered the military — belonged to Herman Hershman, a World War II veteran who earned a Purple Heart and Bronze Star on D-Day. Hershman, who died in 2013 at age 88, attended Beth Sholom Congregation, the same suburban Pennsylvania synagogue that Shapiro attends.
• I wonder if you caught this: “Oldest living Pearl Harbor survivor marks 105th birthday.” That man is Joseph Eskenazi (speaking of Jewish Americans, and Jewish-American vets). “I feel great,” he said — which makes me feel pretty great.
Here is a slice of that news report:
His memories include being awakened when a bomb fell — but didn’t explode — near where he was sleeping at Schofield Barracks; reverberating explosions as the battleship USS Arizona was sunk by Japanese bombs; and machine-gun fire from enemy planes kicking up dust around him after he volunteered to drive a bulldozer across a field so it could be used to clear runways.
“I don’t even know why — my hand just went up when they asked for volunteers,” Eskenazi said. “Nobody else raised their hand because they knew that it meant death. … I did it unconsciously.”
• From Iran, the news scarcely changes. It has scarcely changed since 1979. RFE/RL reports, “Another Iranian Protester Condemned To Death Amid Claim Of Coerced Confession.” All the confessions are coerced. So it has been in dictatorships forever. In fact, I have a question: Why do they bother to coerce the confessions at all? Why don’t they just go ahead and kill them, without formalities? I mean, why be fussy?
• “The right side of history” seems a phrase ingrained in our tongues, or imprinted on our brains. I wrote an essay about this in 2011: “‘The Right Side of History’: It’s bunk.” It is one of those Marxian nostrums.
I wrote about “the right side of history” as recently as January 2, in my Impromptus — after Xi Jinping, the Communist Party boss in China, said that his state “unswervingly stands on the right side of history.” (Go here.)
I’m sorry to return to the subject so soon. There is a congressman named Byron Donalds, a Republican of Florida. On January 9, he tweeted, “We’re on the RIGHT side of history!” (Meaning Republicans.) If you capitalize “right” and put an exclamation point after “history,” does that make it super-duper-extra-true?
• Rudy Giuliani tweeted out a poster, or meme — proclaiming a “new national holiday.” Henceforth, apparently, January 6 is to be known as “Ashli Babbitt Day.” Babbitt, as you remember, was a Capitol rioter shot and killed by a policeman. What Giuliani is doing says a lot about Republican attitudes concerning January 6.
But there are different Republicans. You may recall what Mitch McConnell, the GOP leader in the Senate, said: “We saw it happen. It was a violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election, from one administration to the next. That’s what it was.”
McConnell said this after the Republican National Committee censured Congressmen Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for their participation on the January 6 committee.
Mitt Romney — also a different kind of Republican — tweeted,
Shame falls on a party that would censure persons of conscience, who seek truth in the face of vitriol. Honor attaches to Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for seeking truth even when doing so comes at great personal cost.
• When do you hire an ex-con? Which ex-cons? Under which circumstances? These are such interesting questions, and often very painful ones. Let me commend an article by Billy Binion, in Reason magazine: “A Michigan Supreme Court Justice Hired an Ex-Con. Another Justice Shamed Him Into Resigning.” (That is, the clerk, the ex-con, resigned.) Awfully interesting case.
By the way, in his Twitter bio, Billy Binion says, “Yes, this is my real name.”
• George F. Will has written a column typical of him: beautiful and tough-minded. That is an awfully appealing combination, to some of us. The specific column I’m talking about deals with a case of political correctness at Princeton University (where Will earned his Ph.D.). Get this:
The fires of wokeness will soon be starved of fuel by the sterile monotony of wokeness’s achievement: enforced orthodoxy. Campuses are becoming burned-over places, sullen about the scarcity of things to deplore and cancel within their gates. Beyond those gates, society increasingly regards academia with, at best, bemusement.
Nevertheless, in their leafy quarantine, the woke will have the consolation of vanity. Wokeness has many flavors but one purpose: self-flattery.
• Mike Pompeo has a campaign book coming out: Never Give an Inch. On Twitter, some people were chortling that the author gave his book a self-blurb: “My new book reads like a thriller with stories from my heart.” I’m more interested in the title.
The deal with the Taliban may have been good, it may have been bad. (I think it was bad.) But it’s passing strange for the deal’s architect to title his book “Never Give an Inch.”
And, on a sidenote: In democratic politics, you often have to give inches.
• You’ve heard of “First World problems”? I’ll throw one at you: You are trying to use a username or password — and are told you can’t, because it is already taken. Yeah, by you! But they — whoever “they” are – -don’t remember, or something.
• For one of the Dutchest photos in world history, go here.
• Did you know the story of Kenneth Rowe? I did not, until I read his obit: “Kenneth Rowe, Who Defected From North Korea With His Jet, Dies at 90.” He was born “No Kum-Sok.” The subheading of the obit reads, “Two months after the Korean War armistice, he handed America an intelligence bonanza with his headline-making flight in a Soviet-made MIG.”
Holy-moly.
• Writing a “London Journal” two months ago, I said the following:
In train stations, and subway stations, a voice over the public-address system makes an announcement, routinely. It is a lovely feminine voice. She says, essentially, that if you see something odd — something untoward or possibly threatening — you are to tell some official, and the official will straighten it out. He’ll “get it sorted.” This leads to the tag-line, “See it, say it, sorted.”
I hear that many times during my stay in London. “See it, say it, sorted.” Quite lyrical (especially — in fact, only — in a British accent).
Well, Allen Kay has died, at 77. Sam Roberts, that master, has written a delightful — I mean, a delightful — obit. Every word is delicious. What a joy, this Allen Kay. He was an advertising exec, one of whose brainchildren was “If you see something, say something.” This slogan appeared in the New York subway system in War on Terror days.
After Kay died, a city transportation official said, “By essentially serving as a counterweight to ‘Snitches get stitches,’ the iconic ‘See something, say something’ campaign has over the years unquestionably saved lives.”
Readers, I appreciate you muchly, and I’ll talk to you soon. Thank you.
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