2007: Fascists

 

In the novel that I published in 2007, Glass half-Full, an interrogation is taking place in chapter 21. Two metroDC cops, Derrick and Nguyen, are interrogating a crime suspect. Here's a snippet of that interrogation. Detective Derrick Trent is speaking :

"Let me tell you something. We’ve been to Mo’s place. We know about the Fascist bullshit that he’s feeding on and propagating. We know about the porno, the methamphetamines, the snuff films.”

Then Barney spoke seriously, looking right at the intimidator. “You’ve got the wrong man. I’ve stayed away from the IEDs. I’ve got nothing to do with them.”

Derrick Trent sat down, poured himself half a glass of water. He looked at the prisoner, but didn’t say anything.

Nguyen spoke calmly to the prisoner. “If you’ve got no direct connection to the bombings, you can prove it now by revealing the identities of the bombers.”

“I didn’t say I know who it is.”

“Okay. Put it this way. What do you know about the bombings?”

“You make this out to be like some kind of crime syndicate or something,” said the prisoner, defensively. “It’s not. We’re trying to bring this country back to its roots.”

Nguyen and Trent were stunned by the improbability of this statement. Trent started to speak. Nguyen quickly set his hand on Trent’s arm, motioning for silence. The two of them looked with askance at the strange man who sat at the table in front of them. But Barney Bluntell looked lost, as if he were a deer in headlights. His deep-set eyes, encircled with flaps of dark skin, betrayed a flash of eccentricity, or even schizophrenia. He was tottering on a decision to speak or clam up.

Nguyen decided to risk tipping the balance with a serious question. “Barney, what roots are you trying to bring this country back to?”

“This country has a history of decent people, white people, who can make it run right without interference from the communists and Jews who’ve taken it over.”

Glass half-Full

Little Foxes

 In 2020, when Joe Biden and Donald Trump were debating on national television, Trump took the opportunity of that public moment to issue a command to his Confederate supporters. 

“Proud boys! Stand back and stand by,” is what he said.

So the Proud Boys did stand back, for awhile, until they were whistled back into action.

Yes, they did stand down— until January 6, 2021, when they attacked our Capitol, in confederacy with the Oath Keepers and other rebels. 

They broke windows, rushed into  the  building, made the way for hundreds of intruders to follow. Forcibly vandalizing the hallways, terrorizing the occupants, they invaded  both houses of Congress and fulfilled their mission—at least temporarily—of preventing our Representatives and Senators from performing their official duty to count Electoral votes. 

Their destructive insurrection spoiled, for a few hours, our Constitutional procedure of transferring Executive authority from one President to another President. 

They destroyed, temporarily, our lines of authority. They obstructed our paths of transferring governmental authority from one Administration to the next.

They attempted to destroy our 245-year-old Rule of Law. 

They spoiled our lines of Law.

They spoiled our "vines." 

Employing the biblical metaphor, I say they spoiled our vines.

An ancient King, Solomon, mentioned for us in history, that the little foxes spoil the vines.

We can see nowadays that that analogy is still true. 

In the rebellion against our Congress, a defeated president of the United States summoned his little, proud, oathy foxes to spoil our vines of Constitutional authority.

Now we behold an unexpected development in this ongoing attempted robbery.

Our House Speaker has summoned forth the Big Fox to spoil our vines even further.

Now Kevin McCarthy calls in the prime-time Fox Carlson to tuck-up our public perception of what those fateful, fatal Jan6 videos actually tell. 

It seems that Speaker Kevin thinks  Fox Carlson can wield his foxy video smartitude to find some smidgen of vid evidence to exonerate the little foxes who spoiled our Congressional vines. . . as if the Jan6 riot were not an obvious act of Treason against We the People.

And maybe Fox Tucker will even find video evidence of an excuse to exonerate the Biggest Fox of all, the one with the orange fur on top.

Even though our special House Committee has already spent nine months investigating the attempted treason of Jan6, 2021.

Truth be told, though, if Tuck would just ask Liz and Adam what happened, he would get a truthful GOP answer.

Glass half-Full

Boston

Boston!

Liberator for the Nation

Mind Maker, Stacker of Books

Player with Minds, our Nation’s Education Handler

Revolutionary, bold, Bruining

City of Rising Spirit

Boston!

. . .  posted with appreciation to Carl Sandburg, whose Chicago poem established the poetic framework for this tribute to a great American city.

Glass half-Full 

All Downstream from Here

 Long about 1960, I had a problem with my 4th-grade teacher. 

Someone had scrawled the f-word on a wall in the boys’ restroom. She accused me.

Why she chose me to pick on, I don’t know. I was not guilty of the offence. Furthermore, I was an exemplary 4th-grader, not a deviant wall-scrawler.

In this present day and age, such an inscription would probably be no big deal. The f-word seems to have f***ed its way into a place of honor among all the high-achievers of the expletive class.

When I was a young man, the preferred curse word was “damn”, as in “dammit!” or “I don’t give a damn!” or even the extreme-sports expletive “g**dammit”. 

But that grand old expletive of my generation has slidden through the 

downfall of Time and has been displaced by a new kid on the block:

F**k,

who has bullied his way into 21st-century vernacular like a bull in a china shop and has taken total control of all the expletive territory, formerly occupied by the dam.

Now you hear it everywhere, but especially in videos and movies online, f*** this and f***ing that, in reference to every damn trouble that arises between humans, or even . . .

even inconsequential stuff, insignificant events that would require, in a normal world, no cursory extremities. 

For instance, a person scrolling on their phone through social media might  suddenly exclaim, “I can’t f***ing believe it!” just because star-celeb Blahblah decided to break up with star-celeb Boohoo, when . . . honestly, a good ole “damn!” would have been sufficient to express the terrible tragedy of their over-dramafied breakup. 

You know what I’m talking about. . . the little sh*t stuff that happens every day and is no big deal but people nowadays get all bent out of shape about, exclaiming . . . “f*** this” and “f***ing” that, when a simple dammit would have been sufficient.  

This  extremely dystopian behaviour is certainly evidence that our world is now going to hell in a handbasket, slip-sliding slowly into the depths of depravity; now we will degenerate into some depraved  downfall like what happened during the Jan6 destruction when our Dome was damn-near demolished.

Damn!

Smoke

Ballad of Brett 'n Blasey

 Five years ago when trump nominated brett kavanaugh to the supreme court, a storm of protest erupted because of accusations.

Blasey Ford objected to brett’s promotion to our highest court. She said that he had attempted to rape her, or something like that.

Our Senators considered his integrity and honesty while questioning witnesses who accused brett of sexual assault. The most notable allegation was raised by  Blasey Ford. 

After the circus of those hearings, I wrote a song about the brouhaha, borrowing the old 1-4-5 blues riff, with the tune slightly updated as a hit by the vocal group Mamas & Papas, which they had named “Creeque Alley”.

During those Senate hearings, protesters and other concerned citizens gathered outside the Capitol.

 They did not, however, (thankfully) try to tear the place up, like the Jan6 insurrectionists attempted to do. 

Here’s my  tuneful account of what happened: 

     Ballad of Brett 'n Blasey

Lindsey and Mitchey were getti’n kinda itchy

just to leave  Judiciary hearings behind.

Chuck with his committee, workin’ toward a ditty

trying to get Brett’s nomination on time.

On committee fence Jeff Flake sat

‘cause victims’ rantings knocked him flat.

Lindsey and Mitchey still a-pushin’ forward

in the Senate, you know where that’s at

and no one’s getting Tweet ‘xept Blasey Ford

 

Lindsey said to Grassley we need to go so fastly

just to push this nomination on through (let’s go fast)

But Flake said to Grassley, we just cant pass it

until we truly know what to do.

On committe fence Jeff Flake sat

‘cause elevator tirades knocked him flat.

Lindsey and Mitchey still a pushin’ forward

in the Senate, you know where that’s at

and no one’s getting Tweet ‘xept Blasey Ford.

 

When Blasey was in high school, accosted by a drunk fool.

She said it was the nominee.

In Committee testifyin’, implied the nominee be lyin’

And stop his nomination immediately.

Cuz he was drunk’n crazy, back in the school days,

she said Brett had accosted in a drunken haze.

Lindsey and Mitchey still a pushin’ forward

in the Senate, you know where that’s at.

and no one’s getting Tweet ‘xept Blasey Ford.

 

Old schools, Senate rules, smart fools, America drools,

the escalating hype is so strong.

Tweet up, Face up, everything is hype up

to make trauma and drama prolong.

In a last-minute surprise

 Jeff proposed a compromise

Lindsey and Mitchey still a pushin’ forward

in the Senate, you know where that’s at.

and no one’s getting Tweet ‘xept Blasey Ford.

 

Broke busted Blasey can’t be trusted

and Mitchey wants it to go to the Floor.

Diane cant take it; she says she’ll have to shake it

We knew she’d wanna shut that door.

Slidin’ on procedures and rules;

You know its lowball, but politics is old-school.

Blasey’s ‘criminations and sad accusations

cant go on indefinitely,

so Brett’s nomination was becoming a reality.

 Glass half-Full

Statesman Biden

Twenty-six months ago, a loser occupant of our Oval Office launched a violent mob toward our US Capitol. The riotous mission that he urged upon that mob was to violently disrupt our Congress and prevent them from fulfilling their Constitutional duty to count Electoral votes. 

When the mob reached the Capitol, they forced a criminal break-in, rampaged through the halls, defacing symbols of our national heritage and forcibly entering our lawmakers’ offices. 

When they reached the House of Representatives, they pretended to take charge of the room and the podium as if they owned the place. Their riotous mission was to prevent our Congress from fulfilling their Constitutional duty to count our votes and thereby select our next President. 

Ultimately, however—long story short— their law-breaking assault on our Congress failed. Thank God, in whom we trust.

Today, February 8, 2023, President Biden stood in that room, at that podium and delivered his second State of the Union address. He was able to stand there and speak to us peacably because, on January 6, 2021 our Capitol police, assisted by Washington metro police, were able to defeat the insurrection that the previous, incompetent white house occupant had instigated. 

The President who spoke to us today from that embattled podium is obviously a well-seasoned, highly competent statesman. Having entered Congress as a young Senator in 1972, Joe Biden’s experience as a competent leader was obvious. He outlined, thoroughly and precisely, his plan for our peace and prosperity for another year of governance. 

His only bellicose statements were directed at the fentanyl-pushing criminals.

The man knows how to govern. He has been doing it in that room, and in our Oval Office, for 51 years.

He has his experienced hand on the wheel of our Ship of State.  

Our President is no amateur; he clearly knows what he’s doing; he understands how to give an account of what he and his administration is doing on our behalf. He laid it all out, plain as day, what their objectives are. And those objectives are lawful, not treasonous. 

I am still registered as a Republican. I do have a few disagreements with some issues that are championed by the Democrats but I voted for Joe in 2020. As things stand now,  I will vote for him again. 

The Republican party has been destroyed, beyond repair, by the Joker’s ineptitude and total disrespect for our Constitutional rule of law. 

              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzcBTUvVp7M

I recommend to every citizen of our United States: listen to your President’s State of the Union. Even if you do not agree with him, it is more important that you inform yourself than that you arm yourself. 

Glass half-Full 

1619 Project

I was a Republican for a few years, but now that all the insurrecting destruction has taken hold of them,  I have reverted to just being a plain old American. E Pluribus Unum.

In the last year or so, the party of Trump/Jordan had been tossing around this “woke” term, which I didn’t quite understand, although the general drift of the so-called woke term seemed to indicate that there was something wrong about the “woke” movement.

 After a while, I noticed that the “woke” term was somehow associated with something called the 1619 project. 

Then I figured out, a few days ago, that I could discover more about what this 1619 project actually is, by watching the documentary that Nicole Hannah-Jones had made. So I watched it on Hulu, and learned a lot about the experience of growing up black in a country that is—truth be told— dominated by white people.

I did learn a lot.

Having spent nine years of my 1950’s childhood in Jackson, Mississippi, I did have, from an early age, a perspective on these controversies. Now that I have watched Nicole’s historical opus, I know more than I did before, so I can attest that her labor of love does indeed present educational—and even redemptive—value.

Reflecting now on what has happened in my lifetime, and in the lifetime of this nation, I must say that, while we white folks did indeed have an obvious emphasis on 1620, we seem to have overlooked the 1619 aspect of American history.

So Nicole has covered that for us, with her 1619 Project, right from its start:

She has prepared quite the educational documentary. Giving an early nod to Alex Haley’s Roots,

 she raises some definitive historical issues with respect to the plight to of black folks and their tribulations, since their arrival here in 1619, a year before our honky brethren arrived at Plymouth in 1620.

It’s definitely something to think about. Live and learn, no matter what hurdles and obstructions may be encountered. 

I mean, for instance,  look what Berry Gordy did up there in Detroit, with Motown. 

Although, there’s a lot more to black history than Motown, or even Memphis or Atlanta or Chicago or Harlem or Birmingham or Bessemer. For instance, Nicole concludes her epic documentary with an emphasis on the plight of workers at Amazon, which is, in some ways, an extension of what those 19th-century black folk were dealing with back on the plantation.

Bottom line, I surely hope those Amazon workers are well-paid and not overworked, while they’re preparing my novels, Glass half-Full, Glass Chimera, Smoke, and King of Soul , and shipping them out to the world.

Check it out, Nicole’s 1619 Project on Hulu. It is, indeed, an education, especially if you have  yet to be woke up. Arise, all ye honky sleepers!

Glass half-Full 

Medgar Evers' Last Stand

 

'Tis not a good night to start a long road trip. Nevertheless, on this dreary night in spring of 1970, two LSU students leave Louisiana for the long drive to Kent, Ohio. But before travelling all the way through Mississippi, they take a detour. Donnie wants to see an historic site in his hometown, Jackson Mississippi.

         Kevin held the slow, steady pace while Donnie peered into the darkness, searching for a street to their left that would go between two corner lots in this humble neighborhood of North Jackson. “Yeah, that’s it, Missouri Street. Turn there. Then it should be about a block, and then a right.”

        Kevin dutifully followed his friend’s directions. After the one block on Missouri, there it was, the street they were looking for, and they saw the name on the sign: Margaret W. Alexander Drive. Kevin turned onto it.

       “I think it’s the second or third house on the left,” said Donnie. “. . . with a carport, and a halfway-up brick wall on the front.” He gazed intently into the darkness. “Yep, Kevin. That’s it. That’s Medgar Evers’ house. Right there in the driveway—that ‘s where he was when they shot hit him.”

       “Damn!” said Kevin. “in his own damn front yard!” What is wrong with these people?” He stopped the car.

This excerpt is quoted from my 2017 novel, King of Soul, chapter 22.

Glass half-Full