Trump's Fascist Rallies and Violence

If you have ever wondered about the sort of people who attended lynching parties in the America of the 20s, 30s or 40s and asked yourself how could they watch, cheer and participate in the brutalization, torture and murder of their fellow human beings you can satisfy your curiosity by looking at a Donald Trump rally. Human fecal emission John McGraw, 78 years old, thought that he would be a big brave man by throwing an elbow to the eye of 26 year old Rakeem Jones. Jones was being led out of a Trump rally. Unsurprisingly immediately after the assault the police swarmed on Jones, the victim of the crime and not McGraw, the perpetrator. At 78, McGraw mostly missed out on the classic period of American lynching, in which lynchings were announced days beforehand and whites sent each other postcards and other memorabilia to commemorate the event. But McGraw is the perfect age to have been one of the people protesting the desegregation efforts of the 50s and engage in some of the violence that took place then. I wouldn't be surprised if we find out that McGraw was among those who flocked to Woolworth's sit-ins to insult, spit on or attack civil rights protesters. Trump has consistently exhorted his followers to violence against protesters in his rallies. He's talked about how things would have been handled back in the day. Trump initially refused to disavow David Duke and the KKK. So it's not at all surprising that his supporters, riding his rhetorical wave of hatred, have felt emboldened to lash out against the other, that is anyone not supporting Trump, especially black people. People can talk about Trump's position on trade or illegal immigration or whatever. But it's clear that for a not insignificant number of his supporters, their support arises from the fact that Trump panders to their worst instincts. They want to beat up people who disagree with them. They want to torture or kill the families of terrorism suspects. And they want to kill dissenters. There is no reasoning with people like McGraw. McGraw's a coward of course. He never would have put his hands on Jones were they mano a mano on the street. But there are a lot of people like McGraw in this world. They get courageous when they and likeminded people outnumber you 10,000 to 1. However there is a solution. North Carolina and several other states are stand your ground states. Jones and other protesters should obey the law but make it clear that anyone illegally laying hands on them won't get a chance to do so again. 
LINK

Michigan Primary Results

Last night Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders managed to beat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the March 8 Michigan Democratic Primary by 49.83% to 48.3%. This slim margin of victory for Sanders was astounding given that polls shortly before the vote showed that Clinton was ahead by double digits. Michigan has a primary which is closed (technically defined as closed because you have to declare party affiliation before you can get a ballot) but there is not a requirement that you are a registered member of one party or another. So there might be some sour grapes among partisans of one party or another who are convinced that their preferred candidate only lost because of those rascally rapscallions of the other party who lied about their party affiliation just to cast a vote in a different primary. But at this point there is no evidence of that. Michigan is different from the southern states which Clinton was winning handily (like Mississippi which Clinton won 83-17) in that (1) there are still white Democrats in Michigan, (2) there is still an active (but dying) union movement, and (3) Michigan lacks a huge Hispanic or Asian population. Sanders' attempt to make his case to Black voters paid off in Michigan. He got roughly 30~35% of the Black vote, which coupled with a more competitive percentage of the white vote allowed him to win. In Michigan in particular there's a strong undercurrent of discontent over NAFTA, "free trade" and globalization which was likely more fertile ground for Sanders' message. Michigan is ground zero for the loss of high wage middle class manufacturing jobs. In any event Sanders still has an uphill battle for the nomination but last night showed that it's not time for his political funeral just yet. Clinton will need to alter her message a bit so that it can resonate with a few more male voters in the Midwest, especially white ones. I think it's interesting that Clinton has mostly run up the score in states that will almost certainly be in the Republican column on election day. Michigan is whiter than the nation as a whole but it's also a state which usually leans Democratic. That Sanders won here after being down by such a huge margin has to give pause to some people in the Clinton camp. The big question will be if Michigan is just a bump in the road to the inevitable Clinton nomination or is it a harbinger for a comeback which hasn't been seen in modern times.

Donald Trump won the Republican Primary in Michigan with 37% of the vote. I also think he won in part because of his nationalist stance on trade issues. I think he will be the Republican nominee. Cruz came in second at 25% while Ohio Governor Kasich finished third at 24%. Marco Rubio finished fourth with just 9% of the vote and lacks any reason to keep going other than spite. Rubio did win in Puerto Rico but of course Puerto Rico provides no electoral votes. Perhaps Rubio will soldier on until the primary in his home state of Florida but he's currently behind there. 

HBO Game of Thrones: Season 6 Trailer(1)

Well this was unexpected. Enjoy the new Season 6 HBO Game of Thrones trailer. Very interesting. It looks as if some unanswered questions from last year will be addressed. And what's up with Bran standing? Dreams I would guess but who knows? And it looks like the Cersei we know and hate is ready to show the Faith Militant that you don't mess with live lionesses. We shall see. There's a lot to unpack in this short trailer. Hopefully there will be more to come. The fact that Daenerys is walking among a people who think that to walk when you could ride indicates low status doesn't bode well for her standing. All in all I think the trailer raises more questions than it answers, which is exactly what it should do, right?

Movie Reviews: Black Mass, Fatal Instinct

Black Mass
directed by Scott Cooper

This is a horror film masquerading as a gangster movie. I don't mean that it does so because of the explicit violence. Compared to some Tarantino and maybe even Scorsese films this movie is not all that explicit. 

Of course that said I am likely a little inured to cinematic mayhem so maybe you should take that last statement with several grains of salt. When I compare this to a horror film I mean that Johnny Depp, portraying pitiless South Boston Irish-American gangster James "Whitey" Bulger, does masterful work depicting the soulless cold black hole of a human being that Bulger was during his days of dominion over Boston. Bulger is less a human being than a ghoul. He's something almost unnatural. Depp's Bulger kills at will from cold calculation. 

He inspires others to kill, often out of pure fear. If nothing else Depp's version of Bulger will put you in mind of Nosferatu. His Bulger is all bulging forehead, bad teeth, stringy hair and arctic blue eyes. He's a predator of other humans. His gravelly voice commands, insults and frightens. Bulger is rarely kind to anyone other than his aged mother, sickly son, brother and less occasionally his wife. Everyone else he regards as someone to be ignored, used or consumed. When Bulger loses two people close to him he sheds all but a thin veneer of humanity. 

HBO Game of Thrones Extras

There is a new Game of Thrones season starting up in a little less than two months. So far HBO and the involved actors, producers and writers, perhaps stung by last year's leaking of multiple episodes, have been a bit more reticent (with the notable exception of new cast member Ian McShane) about providing information on the new season. Usually by this time there have been one or two trailers which show various teases from the new season. I'm sure that we'll get something as the premiere of Season 6 approaches. But for now there's been bupkis, as my high school chemistry teacher might have said. So what's a fan to do? As it turns out the DVD/Blu-Ray of the past season will be available in a few days. Both to stir up interest in that release and get you excited for the new season HBO has put some of the extras from that package online. These include Ser Barristan Selmy remembering how Robert's Rebellion got started and some more detailed information on the Many Faced God (God of Death). This is as you recall whom Arya Stark is supposed to be serving, that is once she can forget that she is Arya of House Stark and instead become no one. I rather doubt that is likely. Much like Inigo Montoya, Arya Stark has an overdeveloped sense of vengeance. Blind, crippled or crazy I expect her to continue seeking to get some payback on those who destroyed her family. Anyhow please enjoy the two short videos below. They give some greater context to people who haven't read the books. They also provide reminders to those who have read the books but have forgotten one detail or another from roughly two million words of text. In April both book readers and show watchers will pretty much be starting from the same point..

Melissa Harris-Perry and MSNBC

When you work for someone else, as most people do, there are limits on when and how you can express your frustrations with your co-workers and especially your bosses. These limits can vary based on your immutable characteristics. Like it or not, some people can get away with more stuff than others. The limits also depend on your internal makeup. At work, when some people are upset everyone in the room has to know about it ASAP while others grimace, quietly seethe and make plans to depart. But the most obvious limit on what you can say and do at work is how valuable you are to your employer and how in demand you are elsewhere. If you are producing profits for your employer and would be difficult to replace then you can get away with things other workers can't. Money talks and bovine emission walks. But if you aren't producing profits or quality work for your employer your ability to cause work disruptions will be limited. Your boss may be looking for opportunities to bid you farewell. We saw an example of that this past weekend when Wake Forest professor Melissa Harris-Perry (MHP) and former MSNBC host of the eponymous news analysis show decided that she could no longer tolerate what she saw as hideous disrespect from her employer, MSNBC. She decided to boycott her own show this weekend. And she let everyone know why in a scathing letter that implied racial animus:
Dearest Nerds,
As you know by now, my name appears on the weekend schedule for MSNBC programming from South Carolina this Saturday and Sunday. I appreciate that many of you responded to this development with relief and enthusiasm. To know that you have missed working with me even a fraction of how much I’ve missed working with all of you is deeply moving. However, as of this morning, I do not have any intention of hosting this weekend. Because this is a decision that affects all of you, I wanted to take a moment to explain my reasoning...
Here is the reality: our show was taken — without comment or discussion or notice — in the midst of an election season. After four years of building an audience, developing a brand, and developing trust with our viewers, we were effectively and utterly silenced. Now, MSNBC would like me to appear for four inconsequential hours to read news that they deem relevant without returning to our team any of the editorial control and authority that makes MHP Show distinctive. The purpose of this decision seems to be to provide cover for MSNBC, not to provide voice for MHP Show. I will not be used as a tool for their purposes. I am not a token, mammy, or little brown bobble head. I am not owned by Lack, Griffin, or MSNBC. I love our show. I want it back. I have wept more tears than I can count and I find this deeply painful, but I don’t want back on air at any cost. I am only willing to return when that return happens under certain terms.
I have a PhD in political science and have taught American voting and elections at some of the nation’s top universities for nearly two decades, yet I have been deemed less worthy to weigh in than relative novices and certified liars...

You can read her entire letter here.

Now in most professions there is a rule that this move is not the best way to leave your workplace , emotionally pleasing as it might be. That reaction makes finding similar work in the same industry more difficult than it needs to be. I'm not sure that bit of received wisdom applies in this case. It seems that people are more tolerant of ego eruptions in the media business. Also MHP is already an author and tenured professor. MSNBC did not provide her entire income. Effectively her show at MSNBC was a well paid side gig. I'm sure that she'll be just fine financially. Still I think that MHP lost sight of the fact that (1) the ratings for her show weren't very good and (2) during an election season it's not out of line that supervisors ask you to focus a little more on election results and analysis and a little less on the oppression of overweight multiracial transgender bisexual women who suffer from hirsutism, critical though that issue may be. Mentioning a competitor's interest in your situation,as MHP did, will rub your boss the wrong way. If you publicly call out your company co-workers or invited guests as "relative novices and certified liars" then you should expect to be looking for new work soon. Challenge your bosses to fire you; get fired. And unsurprisingly, MSNBC has allegedly confirmed that MHP will not be working for them again. I hate micro managers but sometimes micro managers are created by less productive employees. If I were a cable executive overseeing a low rated show and the producer/talent resisted talking about election politics during an election season I would take a firmer hand with them. I'd want to know what their plans were for improving ratings, what sort of topics they intended to pursue and which guests they felt were worthwhile.

I liked MHP though I didn't agree with her on everything and didn't go out of my way to watch her show. Apparently not many others did either. Again, if her show was must see TV I bet that her bosses would try to find a way to turn the other cheek and tell everyone that this was all a big misunderstanding. But as her show wasn't exactly ratings gold MHP didn't have the leverage that she may have thought she did. Or maybe she knew she lacked leverage but had just had enough. I don't watch much television or MSNBC but when I do watch it seems as if Chris Matthews, Brian Williams and Rachel Maddow are on every last show doing political analysis. I can certainly understand and sympathize if MHP felt overlooked and discarded as she writes in her letter. Who among us doesn't have a story to tell about how someone did us dirty at our job? Everyone has a different tolerance for work nonsense. Joy-Ann Reid, Alex Wagner, and Andrea Mitchell all had MSNBC shows. They all lost them. But they were professional about it. So they still have jobs at MSNBC doing reporting, news analysis or substituting for other hosts. To each her own I guess. If I worked for the MHP show and lost my job because Fearless Leader threw a temper tantrum I don't think I could be even tempered about it. Boyce Watkins and Yvette Carnell point out that with the impending end of the Obama Administration there may not be the demand for black public intellectuals which was partially met by MSNBC. (Unlike Carnell?) I take no glee in this turn of events but neither do I think there is some huge crime here. 

Book Reviews: The Resort, The Sixth Family, Something from the Nightside

The Resort
by Bentley Little

I continually attempt to write shorter reviews because of time constraints. This book happens to be a perfect test case upon which to try a more pithy style. Bentley Little is a horror writer who uses the Southwest, most frequently Arizona, the same way that Stephen King uses Maine. It's Little's home turf and primary fictional setting. It's what he knows. He brings it to life. Bentley Little does not possess the same talent for characterization as Stephen King does. That's not a knock against Little. Few popular writers have that sort of knack. Little is a fast food horror writer. I don't mean that in any sort of pejorative way. You know what you're going to get with Little. Usually a family or group of people in the Southwest run into some sort of supernatural or extraterrestrial event and are lucky to escape unscathed. Little also has a strong penchant for the perverse. Little often produces easy reading that can manage to make the great outdoors look dangerous. Little's description of the empty deserts, deserted highways and big box stores of the Southwest can give a reader the chills, that is when Little is on his game. An example of Little being on his game would be The Store, his horror parody of big box stores such as Wal-Mart, Target, Sam's Club and Best Buy. Unfortunately I didn't really think as highly of the book The Resort, which reads initially like a homage to Stephen King's The Shining (there's a psychically sensitive little boy and even a reference to room 217 IIRC) but very quickly degenerates into shock for the sake of shock. I don't think my tolerance for gore has decreased with age. The Shining is a masterpiece. It also had some graphic violence and sex. The Resort has more graphic sex and violence than The Shining but has less of a story to tell. Where The Shining used clues and hints throughout to ratchet up the sense of foreboding while giving the reader increasingly detailed sneak peeks at The Overlook hotel history, The Resort just throws weird gross sex and violence at the reader while not bringing together any themes until the very end where Little hits you over the head with the proverbial kitchen sink. I just couldn't get into the story because so much of it didn't make sense. After a while I was looking ahead to see how many pages were left before the end. I got far enough into the book that I felt obligated to finish it. 

A California man named Lowell Thurman, his wife and their three sons decide to vacation for a week at a fancy out of the way Arizona hotel, The Reata. Lowell's primary reason for doing this is to avoid his 20th high school reunion. Lowell is a college graduate with econ/business training. But currently he has plateaued out as a grocery store middle management supervisor. His work pays the bills, but Lowell's not happy he has a job instead of a career. His job can find him working with accounting spreadsheets and figuring profit margins or occasionally working a register during a busy time. Lowell is happy to be out of California and away from all his high school "friends". The family has trouble even finding The Reata and things go downhill from there. Someone steals their room and also steals some of the wife's clothing. There are raucous parties in restaurants and in rooms that are supposedly unoccupied. Dionysian gardeners leer at female guests. Someone urgently warns them to get out but won't tell them why. Something is in the pool. Their car breaks down and somehow neither AAA nor hotel management can get it fixed. The events coordinator wants to sign up Lowell for various sports activities and won't take no for an answer. Hotel employees suddenly become rude and bellicose with no warning. And throughout all of this the Thurmans and some of the other everyday guests find themselves inexplicably not wanting to leave The Reata. Ever. The concept wasn't bad but I didn't like the execution. Because most of the characters are flat you don't feel a sense of danger or loss when bad things happen. I was never captivated by any character. The gleeful exploration of body functions added little. There were just too many disjointed occurrences to make this a worthwhile read for me. It also ran longer than it should. As always, YMMV.




The Sixth Family
by Adrian Humphreys and Lee Lamothe

Although some assumptions behind the premise of this book proved to be incorrect and more recent events have made some information contained within woefully dated, this was still a very good read for organized crime buffs. For those who aren't the book is written in an easy to understand style, not quite conversational but definitely informational. What we know as the American Mafia was not only transported from various Italian criminal traditions but also changed and altered by conflict and cooperation with other racial and ethnic groups in the United States as well as by the contrasting social conditions between the United States and Italy. The virtual freeze on immigration to the US between 1924 and 1965 was also an important catalyst in Americanizing the mob and pushing it to develop along more practical business lines. Although they did not, as rumored, exterminate all of the old school mob leaders derisively known as "Mustache Petes", 1930s mob leaders such as Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky and Frank Costello were key architects in building a nationwide syndicate that ran on interests and loyalties defined by profit rather than bloodlines. They also endorsed a "five family" system in New York City which has endured to this day. But not everyone was as avant-garde as Luciano. Some people still believed in restricting mob membership to Sicilians and limiting intimate business relationships to members of their blood family or exceedingly close friends. Mob boss Joseph Bonanno, founder of the NYC family which bears his name, was younger than Luciano but far more traditional. He continued to work closely with Italian mobsters, Sicilians preferred. Bonanno sent men to Montreal where he claimed hegemony. The Montreal Mob was divided into Sicilian and non-Sicilian factions, although both technically owed allegiance to the Bonanno Family. Over time, the Montreal Sicilian group, headed by at first Nicholas Rizzuto and later by his son Vito, became more powerful. This group took over all of Montreal and several other areas in Canada. The Rizzutos were very clannish and took pains to hide their true strength from both their enemies and their supposed New York friends. The Montreal group had worldwide business interests and blood relations working on at least four continents. Gradually they became far wealthier and more powerful than their New York "bosses" though they pretended otherwise to avoid law enforcement interest. Sicilians linked to Montreal were involved in the murder of recalcitrant Bonanno Family captains and most infamously the self-proclaimed Bonanno boss (and their former patron) Carmine Galante.

This book is a very interesting look at the sprawling businesses and rivalries of the Montreal leadership and top hierarchy. Most of the the top people were related to each other by blood, by marriage or occasionally by both vectors (apparently first cousins are legitimate romantic/sexual interests in some circles) which made it difficult for law enforcement or other criminal rivals to penetrate the Montreal group. This book also examines the problems which immigrant Sicilian Mafiosi caused for their American and Canadian counterparts. Not only did the Sicilians have a well deserved reputation for violence, more importantly there were regular disputes and debates about organizational structure. Could a Sicilian mobster be a leader in an American group if he was still a member of a Sicilian Family? Could an American tell a Sicilian what to do? If a Sicilian arrived in North America and opened up a business or racket that competed with a preexisting one, who could sit in judgment? Would a violent reaction from a North American start an international conflict? As mentioned this book will be mostly of interest to organized crime aficionados. The Montreal Mafia had rivalries and partnerships with various other criminal groups, most notably the Hells Angels. If you are curious about organized crime outside of America this would be a good read. After this book was published, Vito Rizzuto, the Montreal boss, was sentenced to ten years in an American prison. Evidently either there was long suppressed rancor in the Family or outsiders saw their chance. In a relatively short period of time Vito's brother-in-law, close friend, son and father (the former boss) were all murdered. After his release Vito led a campaign of retribution but soon after died from lung cancer.




Something from the Nightside
by Simon Green

If you like private eye stories, swoon for detective stories with a hint of the macabre and magical, enjoy stories where the hero is not necessarily a "good" guy in the classic square jawed Dudley DoRight mode, relish dry sardonic British humor or just appreciate tales where the protagonist has a secret heritage that may make him extremely powerful or extremely vulnerable then you might want to check out this Jim Butcher approved first book in Simon Green's Nightside series.

The Nightside is a sort of twin pocket dimension linked to London. As the name implies it's the shadow to London's light. It's probably bigger than London. Time and space do not work the same way in the Nightside as they do in the regular world. "It's always night in the Nightside. It's always three o'clock in the morning, and the dawn never comes. People are always coming and going, drawn by needs that dare not speak their names, searching for pleasures and services unforgivable in the sane daylight world. You can buy or sell anything in the Nightside, and no one asks questions. No one cares. There's a nightclub where you can pay to see a fallen angel forever burning..." 

The Nightside is also the former home of one John Taylor. His father abandoned him once he discovered that John's mother, whom John knows little or nothing about, wasn't human. John grew up rough in the Nightside, making both enemies and friends. He probably made more enemies. When things got too dangerous, John split for London, saving both his life and sanity. Now he makes a living as a private detective. John's primary talent, besides a smart mouth, is that he's able to find anyone or anything in any plane of existence, whether that person or thing wants to be found or not. So you probably have a secret weakness or lust. John can find that. The way thru a minefield? John can find that too. The exact sequence of events to cause the Apocalypse? Give him time he can probably find that. Even so, John Taylor is between jobs and dodging bill collectors when an attractive wealthy woman named Joanna Barrett walks into his office and demands that he find her missing daughter, Cathy. There's just one problem. Joanna has good reason to believe that Cathy has somehow gone to the Nightside, the one place John swore he'd never visit again. There's a lot of bad blood waiting for John in the Nightside. Even some of his former friends like Shotgun Suzy or Razor Eddie might not be thrilled to see John again. But John needs the money, and he's not usually the type to turn down a lady in distress. But God help anyone who's trying to play him. You wouldn't like John when he gets upset. 

This is a short book that is just over 200 pages. There are a few hints about John's heritage and why some people are deferential to him while others would like to kill him on sight. There's some comedy. This was a fun introduction to a good series. The cliches are there but they work.