The Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel dined with me, and I asked them how they dared so roundly to assert that God spake to them; and whether they did not think at the time that they would be misunderstood, & so be the cause of imposition.
Isaiah answer'd: "I saw no God, nor heard any, in a finite organical perception; but my senses discover'd the infinite in every thing, and as I was then perswaded & remain confirm'd, that the voice of honest indignation is the voice of God, I cared not for consequences, but wrote." —William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
Greetings from the far left coast where this morning my brother and I exchanged texts about how great it is having Barack Obama out on the campaign trail. I do not recall ever seeing him more impassioned. He has me fired up, ready to go..
Back in August I received an email from a poet friend in Atlanta who recently indulged an urge to read some Allen Ginsberg poems and found that she appreciates him much more now than when she was younger. I return to Ginsberg from time to time myself. My friend's comment prompts me to think it may be time to take a deeper look back at Ginsberg. A project. More anon, perhaps.
Memo from the film desk. Asia. (2020). Dir. Ruthy Pribar. Asia (Alena Yiv) is a 35-year-old nurse, single mother, and Russian immigrant living in Jerusalem.with her teenage daughter, Vika (Shira Haas), who never knew her father. Asia explains to Vika that he did not want to sign the papers allowing her to leave Russia, but he did not want to be a father either.
Vika is often left to her own devices while her mother works various shifts at the hospital and goes out to clubs to dance and drink in what passes for social life. Asia also has a relationship of sorts with a married doctor. Their romantic trysts take place in his car. Even in this setting there is something almost caring and tender about it.
Revelation that Vika suffers from an unnamed degenerative disease comes a bit into the film when she calls her mother from the ER after losing consciousness while drinking with hooligans in the skate park. Asia says sternly that she knows she cannot drink with her medication. Vika knows, and she knows what her future almost certainly holds and that she does not want to die a virgin.
Asia recruits Gabi (Tamir Mula), a gentle, kind-hearted young Arab man who assists nurses at the hospital, to help care for Vika. Gabi and Vika hit it off in a sweet way until Asia's intervention leads to a result not intended and it all goes sideways, perhaps the only way it can in a world where sometimes life is terrible through no fault of anyone.
Asia is a story of dignity, grace, and stoicism that has a humbling nobility about it. The closing scene shows an act of kindness and love that will be with me for a while.
The assault on Paul Pelosi by a nudism activist cranked up by the usual conspiracy theories generated predictable responses from the usual blockheads: a drunken assignation with a male prostitute that went wrong or a false flag operation, take your pick, accompanied by a Jr. Trump Halloween joke in poor taste even by Trump family standards, or "There’s a tiny possibility there is more to this story than meets the eye."
Mona Charen, whose conservative bona fides are well established, put it succinctly: "What the hell is wrong with these people? Where has their sense of ordinary decency gone?" (The GOP Can’t Whatabout the Pelosi Attack, The Bulwark, November 1, 2022)
Charles Sykes wrote of Elon Musk's "tiny possibility" tweet, which was liked and retweeted tens of thousands of times before being deleted, that "on his very first weekend of being Chief Twit, Musk helped launched a toxic conspiracy theory that will now take on a life of its own."
Speaking of Musk, a while back I set up a Twitter account that was used only to share Portable Bohemia writings on the chance that I might expose myself, so to speak, to new readers. I deactivated the Twitter account when Musk's takeover came through shortly before the Pelosi incident. I feel vindicated. It was the right move.
Some Republican leaders denounced the assault in no uncertain terms. At the same time prominent members of the party denied that this was right-wing violence or that their rhetoric and endorsement of violent fantasies might contribute to an atmosphere where the unhinged, as Pelosi's assailant clearly is, are inspired to act on their delusions. They take pains to paint this as a "both sides are to blame" problem, pointing to the shooting of Steve Scalise by a Bernie Sanders supporter and a man arrested for allegedly plotting to assassinate Brett Kavanaugh because of Supreme Court rulings on abortion and gun rights.
Tom Nichols pointed out two crucial differences between the Pelosi and Scalise attacks:
1. There seem to be a lot more unstable people motivated to violence on the right.
2. More pundits on the right celebrating the violence.
This incident feels like a turning point. (quoted by Charlie Sykes, "What the Hell is Wrong With These People?")
Data provided by Max Boot in a Washington Post column supports Nichols' contention:
Violence is unacceptable whether from the left or right, period. But we can’t allow GOP leaders to get away with this false moral equivalency. They are evading their responsibility for their extremist rhetoric that all too often motivates extremist actions.
The New America think tank found last year that, since Sept. 11, 2001, far-right terrorists had killed 122 people in the United States, compared with only one killed by far-leftists. A study from the Center for Strategic and International Studies last year found that, since 2015, right-wing extremists had been involved in 267 plots or attacks, compared with 66 for left-wing extremists. A Washington Post-University of Maryland survey released in January found that 40 percent of Republicans said violence against the government can be justified, compared with only 23 percent of Democrats. (Max Boot, Don’t blame ‘both sides.' The right is driving political violence, October 30, 2022)
The situation in Ukraine remains grim as Russian forces employ traditional tactics that date back centuries: a poorly trained, poorly equipped, and poorly led army relies on willingness to endure massive casualties while inflicting massive devastation on civilian populations.
New blog posts: Proud Boys Take on Role of Morality Police, October 17, 2022. It seems that the Proud Boys have anointed themselves America's morality police. While taking a Saturday morning walk with a friend in a county-run botanical garden, Washington Post editorial page editor and columnist Karen Tumulty encountered a contingent from the group's D.C.-Maryland chapter…read more>>
New blog post: A Less Than Optimal Choice for Portland City Council, October 27, 2022. Portlanders face a less than optimal choice in the city council race between incumbent Jo Ann Hardesty and challenger Rene Gonzalez. I discussed long-standing reservations about Hardesty in some detail as well as aspects of Gonzalez's agenda that give me pause…read more>>
Keep the faith.
Stand with Ukraine.
yr obdt svt
Pictured below: Indivisible Tuesday, October 4, 2022. These are people MAGA Republicans characterize as socialist, Marxist liberals, maybe even antifa. A menacing bunch of rabble rousers I'm affiliated with, n'est-ce pas?
