There certainly is racism involved, though. At this moment, most of America is assuming that those dead Asian women who worked at those spas were prostitutes. They weren't. According to the local police chief, there never had been any complaints against the massage parlors where they worked. They were killed because they wouldn't provide any sexual services.
It's still a hate crime, though — not racist, but misogynist.
Maybe I'm wrong -- but I'm not.
After twelve years of shouting into the wind, I'm hitting the pause button. Maybe I'll start again, maybe not. The wind is pretty noisy these days.
The commentariat has discovered Leon Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory, almost certainly with no help from me. Festinger remains relevant, to be sure, but I think Anthony F. C. Wallace's classic 1956 monograph, Revitalization Movements, seems more to the point. You can find the complete text here.
Thanks to those who have followed this blog. I sincerely you have been amused from time to time. Haven't had enough of me? I have some fiction in print now, which you can find here and here.
While impeachment at this point seems like a long shot, it would be worth the effort if it can deprive Tr*mp of his post-presidential retirement benefits, including a million bucks a year in travel expenses (and half-a-million more for Melania), lifetime Secret Service protection, and a pension equal to the salary of a Cabinet official. Fittingly, he won't get lifetime health insurance, which only kicks in after five years of Federal employment. I can't object if he's signed up for Medicare.
Meanwhile, it looks like the Republican Party is fracturing, which is not necessarily good news for progressives. If there is "bipartisan cooperation" between Republican and Democratic "moderates," the Senate may as well elect Joe Manchin the new Majority Leader. Granted, even that would be better than having McConnell in charge.
As for Tr*mp's "base," it will survive, albeit somewhat diminished. Just how diminished remains to be seen: those who get their "news" from One America Network, Parler, and 4chan, or who live in communities where Romney is seen as a liberal, can cling to their alternative realities for a long time. (FOX will follow the eyeballs and the ad revenue.)
Needless to say, Biden's FBI will have to pay a lot more attention to domestic terrorism.
That bizarre Tr*mp-Raffensperger telephone tape has a lot of people wondering if Tr*mp actually believes the fantasies he's been promulgating, given how bizarre his behavior has been lately. My guess is that his cognitive dissonance is raging, but he still can't accept the idea of being a loser. Fred Tr*mp has a lot to answer for in hell.
As if the Senate and the Electoral College weren't enough, the vaccine rollout truly points out the weakness of our federal system of government. I'd say it were time for a Constitutional Convention if I had any confidence in the people who would wind up writing the new one. Anyway, it looks like Tr*mp the Opera is headed for a finale. For Wagner, though, just one opera was never enough. Let's hope the next one doesn't have too many Aryan warriors in the cast.
