H2O Man
H2O Man's JournalSixteen Shades of Gray
“While that amendment failed, human cloning continues to advance and the breakthrough in this unethical and morally questionable science is around the corner.”
-- Governor Mike Pence; Indiana
Last night’s republican warm-up for Thursday’s debates has raised ethical and moral questions about the cloning of candidates. The two-hour pageant provided proof positive that a republican “think tank” -- or mind-control cult -- is mass-producing candidates for the 2016 presidential primary. Inspired by the 1967 movie The Graduate’s prediction that there is a future in plastics, and 1972’s The Stepford Wives, the republican party showcased 14 models of the new plastic “leadership” candidate.
“We learned a lot from our 2012 experience,” said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus. “The Mitt Romney Chief Executive model, while favored by the 1%, didn’t appeal to those who opt not to have auto-elevators in their summer homes. We thought that its bold gray color would convey the sense of leadership the public would invest in. But at this time, we’re excited to be offering sixteen shades of gray for customers to choose from.”
Last night’s viewing audience learned that each of the 14 republican candidates believes strongly in Mom, the American flag, and apple pie. More, each is opposed to Obama-Care, ISIS, and Iran. Time did not permit for close questioning in the areas where they may have their greatest disagreements -- on issues such as favor color, and the theme songs from their high school proms. One can hardly wait to have these burning issues addressed on Thursday night.
(Note: This morning, at a medical appointment, I discussed the republican cluster-fuck with one of my doctors. He is a registered republican, although he frequently tells me that he has not cast a single vote for a republican since 1988. Today, he said that the majority of people he has spoken to in the past two weeks about “politics” are older white men; he said that most of them have expressed support for Donald Trump. While he would not vote for Trump, he added, he believes that the republican corporatists are reaping what they’ve sown for decades.)
Republican Debate #1
As Thursday, August 6 approaches, community members may be deciding if they will watch the freak shows on Fox. The paternalistic nature of the republican party, along with the large number of candidates entering their primaries, has resulted in a two-tier debate format. It is, in essence, the JV team going first, followed by the varsity players. The republican machine’s attempt to decrease the number of primary debates seems sure to backfire on them.
In a sense, the JV contest could be viewed as a struggle to be considered as a vice presidential contender. Being relegated to the lower level would seem to close the door on those participant’s dreams of becoming president in 2016. Yet the character -- and specifically, the character flaws and the utter lack of character -- creates a situation in which several of the candidates will be going for broke, and attempting to gain a significant jump in the national opinion polls.
Thus, in many ways, the JV debate may provide more entertainment than the varsity game. There will be competition to see who can deliver the most outrageous sound bites. Indeed, some of the candidates are already shifting into high gear -- for example, Mike Huckleberry’s saying he would consider using the military to prevent abortions in the USA.
The self-righteous Huckleberry will no doubt gain support from the republican party’s rabid religious right with that claim, but he will also stoke the opposition of a segment of the tea party that opposes the use of federal troops in state and local matters. A few of them may have even read the Constitution. These folks weren’t concerned when, under Richard Nixon, Al Haig brought the US Army in to attack the Oglala Lakota who were at Wounded Knee in 1973. But they have become a wee bit more paranoid about the possibility of such confrontations, that may involve their circle of friends.
Such selective outrage can provide entertainment at both debates. Normally (relative to the republican party), candidates tend to be cautious in the early debates. They have a few well-rehearsed lines they are intent upon delivering. But they don’t want to make a mistake that could knee-cap their campaign. This would be the case in the varsity debate, except for the Trump factor. For Donald Trump is aware that in many contexts, emotion matters more than logic. And by appealing directly to emotion, he has established himself as the early leading contender.
Former Reagan aide Peggy Noonan recently noted that Trump is capitalizing on the utter contempt that republicans feel for politicians. That is, of course, accurate. The grass roots republicans recognize that the politicians they’ve long supported do not care about the; rather, they are the lap-dogs of the corporate state. As Trump’s numbers show, a growing number of the grass roots republicans are becoming unwilling to simple do what they are told, and to be satisfied. They are not excited about another Willard Romney candidacy.
The other varsity candidates face obvious difficulties in the debate featuring Trump. They can’t afford to ignore his outrageous statements, but the format for the first debate only allows 1 minute answers, and 30-second rebuttals. Hence, no detailed policy responses are possible. Thus, the verbal duels will be dangerous territory, as Trump has shown a greater ability to toss out one-line insults. His saying that Rick Perry needs to take an IQ test, while perhaps crude, reminds the audience of Perry’s 2012 primary fumble. Everyone will want to be the republican who puts Trump in his place; no one will want to be the target of his zingers.
The issues may favor Trump. Foreign policy issues will be fairly limited: ISIS, Iran, Israel, and Russia. Everyone will want to sound tough. Domestic issues will be more interesting. From boarder security to abortion, the economy to guns, the debate format will only allow for the shallowest of answers. And while all of the top-tier republicans have mastered “shallow,” Donald Trump has more experience in shallow television programming. Indeed, he doesn’t need to deliver more realistic, workable ideas than the other competitors: he only has to convey contempt for them.
It could be very entertaining. In fact, it would almost be funny -- but for the fact that one of these people could actually be elected in 2016.
Peace,
H2O Man
-ism
Malcolm X used to ask his audience: what does a white racist call a black man with a PhD? The answer, of course, was a harsh term that conveyed racist hatred. For sometimes the Truth is stark, and can make open and honest discussions uncomfortable.
Half a century later, I find myself thinking of Malcolm when I read some of the OP/threads on DU:GD that attempt to discuss “racism” in a meaningful way. In the early and middle phases of his ministry in the Nation of Islam, Malcolm identified whites as “devils,” believing that white skin prevented them from having the capacity to love all of humanity. In his final years, of course, Malcolm identified the system that whites were raised in as the cause of racism.
“Systems,” as anyone who has had the sad misfortune of reading my nonsense on DU over the years knows, fascinate me. While my employment career was in the field of psychology -- the study of the individual -- I have a great interest in sociology -- or, the study of groups (“systems”). The tree versus the forest, so to speak.
“Racism,” by definition, is the attribution of a set of characteristics to all -- or almost all -- members of a race of people. It includes the belief that members of a given race have abilities or weaknesses, specific to their race, which make them intrinsically superior or inferior to other races. Related terms include such words as bigotry and nativism. Racism leads directly to stereotyping of groups and individuals, and pre-judging what qualities they have, or lack.
In the United States, racism has historically been defined in the context of white people’s opinions of, and interactions with, African Americans and Native Americans. White people, who have generally held the reins of economic and social power, frequently viewed non-white peoples as less than fully human. Thus, for example, in much of the 1800s, blacks were viewed by whites as “domestic animals,” who were exploited for labor, yet prevented by law from participation in white culture. Indians, on the other hand, were considered “wild animals; their lands, rather than their labor, was to be exploited, and the force of law used to introduce them to the “superior” white culture.
In the late 1800s and early-to-mid 1900s, the fields of psychology and sociology were highly influenced by what we could politely, yet accurately, call Euro-American chauvinism. Thus, certain disorders among white women were studied, in an attempt to determine why they were unhappy with being “kept in their proper place” …..with little if any regard to the social pathologies that sought to restrict their humanity. Likewise, educated white men attempted to answer such questions as: What do blacks really want? And what is wrong with those Indians? Quite often, such theories were based upon blacks and Indians in the clinical setting of a prison.
However, as time moved forward, blacks, Indians, and even white women would move well beyond the restrictive roles once assigned to them. They became doctors and lawyers, teachers and scientists. And psychologists and sociologists. By coincidence, perhaps, the influence of Euro-American chauvinism began to be challenged. Open and honest discussions became rather uncomfortable for some.
As progress was made in advancing society’s understanding of social pathologies, such as sexism and racism, certain words (or phrases) would come to take on specific meanings within the context of scholarly study. And, within that context, those definitions are correct. Yet, we have to understand and appreciate that those contexts are specific systems. Thus, the meanings applied within that system -- while correct -- are not necessarily the full, or only, correct definition.
Let’s consider an example. One of the ugliest aspects of a sexist society (re: system) is domestic abuse. And the majority, without question, of the cases of severe physical abuse in family systems is male against female. When I worked in human services, I was trained in what is known as the “Duluth Model,” which defines domestic abuse as exclusively male against female. And that’s fine, although it clearly excludes things such as domestic violence within lesbian couples.
Likewise, many social scientists define “racism” within the context of the US system, in which whites have the power to inflict damages to non-white peoples. Again, that is a good definition, and definitely has a few centuries of evidence to support it. Yet, the US is not the only system that we are part of. Indeed, we can think “larger,” in the context of globally -- and plenty of white racists despise non-white people around the planet, though they lack the power to damage them …..or we can look at a smaller example, such as any men’s or women’s prison in California, where the populations are primarily two or three non-white groups. Within such a system, there is racism; one could argue, of course, that it is still rich white folks who capitalize on that racism.
Racism, like sexism, is a pattern of thought. More, because people’s thinking tends to define their actions, racism and sexism poison human relationships, from the smallest of systems (the family) to the largest (global). Their potential for negative consequences -- especially violence -- increase when there is a power differential in play. This includes not only the ability to do harm, but the likelihood of consequences for inflicting that harm. The legal system, for example, has little ability to render justice, if the police, district attorney, and/or judge are racist or sexist. And our culture’s history with violence, from lynchings to domestic abuse, bears that out. Current events are further proof.
In order to get a healthy grip on the severe damage that these “-isms” do to our society, we are going to have a lot of those uncomfortable conversations. Because these pathologies are entrenched in all levels of society -- from family systems to the national system -- those conversations must likewise be held at every level, and become an active part of every system.
One of those systems is DU. It’s not a huge or tiny system, but even as a “medium-sized” system, we have numerous resources that can contribute to a meaningful discussion on the various “-isms” that pollute our larger culture. A lot of community members with a wide span of life experience and education. That translates into the potential for insights on “-isms” on every level of systems.
The only types of person who could inhibit such discussion would be those here simply to disrupt, and those who think they are right, and only they are right. Anyone and everyone else should be able to participate, add things of value, and be able to do so without engaging in the silly arguments we too often see here.
Peace,
H2O Man
Boxing
New York: PBC on ESPN
Danny Garcia vs. Paulie Malignaggi, 12 rounds, welterweights.
Danny Jacobs vs. Sergio Mora, 12 rounds, middleweights.
Saturday night’s card features two top fighters, in bouts that should showcase their considerable skills. While anything can happen in the ring, both Danny Jacobs and Danny Garcia are heavily favored to win their bouts. Let’s take a look at each fight!
Danny Jacobs (29-1) is one of the sport’s rising stars. His career was almost ended by cancer in 2011-12, but he has been able to come back in impressive fashion. Jacobs is a boxer-puncher, who tends to score early knockouts.
Mora (28-3-2) made his name in the boxing series “The Contender.” He won the junior middleweight title from Vernon Forrest in 2008, but lost it in a return bout three months later. His record also includes a draw with Shane Mosley, in a bout that Mora clearly won.
Jacobs, at 28, has been more active than his 33 year old opponent in recent years. He holds one of the division’s paper titles, and is looking to challenge either Cotto or Golovkin in the near future. However, Mora is a solid journeyman fighter, who could present a serious test if Jacobs is looking past him.
Danny Garcia (30-0) is moving up from the junior welterweight division, after holding the title there since his July, 2012 knockout of Amir Khan. In perhaps his most impressive win, Garcia beat tough Lucas Matthysse by decision in September of 2013. In his next fight, however, he was out-boxed by Mauricio Herrera, although he was given the decision. He has not been impressive since that bout.
Paulie (33-6) was most recently stopped by Shawn Porter in a mismatch. Malignaggi was simply too old, and Porter too strong. There is a good chance that this will again be the case on Saturday. Paulie’s last meaningful win came in 2012, and on paper, there is little reason to think he will be able to hold off Garcia.
Still, if Malignaggi is able to put together one last solid fight, and Garcia fights like he did against Herrera, anything is possible.
Enjoy the fights!
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