Everyday Erinyes #60

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage.  These – things – which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that.  As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as "unceasing," "grudging," and "vengeful destruction."

The Trump-inspired hate crimes appear to be approaching critical mass.  By which I mean the news is moving from stories to statistics. 

American teens have experienced a steep surge in abusive and hateful behavior since the dawn of the divisive 2016 presidential race, a national survey has found.

The survey in question was conducted by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) which is primarily a LGBTQ rights organization, and they are up front that their sample was not a valid statistical sample, since it used "convenience sampling."  While not a segment of the entire teen population, it does represent what is happening to the most vulnerable to bias and hate.  There is also confirmation from the Trevor Project, a crisis center for LGBT youth.

“The volume has continued to be higher than typical levels for November and December. This is very indicative of a higher level of emotional distress” for LGBT youth throughout the country, he said. “They’re clearly more distressed, so much that they feel the need to reach out for help…. The election results and the rhetoric going on in the media are enabling what would otherwise have been latent discrimination,” [David] Bond[, a Vice-President,] said. His organization, he said, is now counseling youth confronted by a wave of more “obvious and observable discrimination that is seemingly more welcome in the public eye, unfortunately.”

More welcome in the public eye.  Well, there you have it.  Big job, Megaera.  Good luck.

Then there's this.  "Anti-Corruption Act sparks a panic in legislative arena." 

Let's go back a step or two here.  This Anti-Corruption Act is not something that the legislature did.  This Act was initiated by the voters, and presented to the voters in the general election in November, and won by a margin of roughly 52-48.  Not exactly a landslide, but still, the will of the people.  It was supported by the Dakota Free Press and primarily by a group called South Dakotans for Integrity, through a website called Yes22.org.

In 2016, South Dakota was the only state in the country which did not limit the amount of gifts lobbyists could hand to politicians, and there was no accounting for them, so they could be secret.  The  people who wrote this law and worked for its passage studied all 49 other states, and they list all the laws, with links, on their website, so they know whereof they speak.  They wrote the law to be stricter than California ($10 per month limit) but more lenient than Oregon ($50 per year aggregate limit) – they selected a limit of $100 per year.

Now, in January, the South Dakota legislature is declaring a state of emergency in order to overturn this measure, the will of the people.  Emergency?  How could this be an emergency, you say?  Well, apparently groups are cancelling luncheons because legislators are afraid to attend lest they accept too much value and break the law.  They are afraid they might have to actually write down the cost of a cup of coffee.

This suggests to me two questions – first, has any of these legislators ever looked at an application for food stamps?  Would they even be competent to fill one out?  And, second, did it never occur to any of them that maybe their constituents want them working instead of going to parties? 

Or maybe they just have guilty consciences.  Alecto, have fun.

There's been a lot of attention paid to a number of things that the current occupant of the White House has done and not done this week, but there is one thing that bothers me which has not seen as much attention as I think it should, at least not in the circles I frequent on the internet.  If this is old news to you I apologize. 

Last Saturday the Canteloupe Cancer went to the CIA and gave a speech.  He was all happy and bragging that they gave him "standing ovations" (in addition to all the other things he brags about.)  There is just one problem with this.

The CIA will not sit down when the President is present unless he tells them to.  He didn't.

I've spoken in public; I've been trained to do it, and I've done it, probably not well, but I've done it.  If I went into a room in which everyone was standing – in front of seating – and continued to stand as I started speaking, I assure you it would not take me long to become uncomfortable and say something like, "Oh, please, be seated."  "Uncomfortable" is apparently not a tool in his toolchest, any more then "perception" or "empathy."  His world appears to be limited to "gloating" and "rage."

There was one other thing he didn't do. 

He didn't show much respect to the wall in front of which he was speaking.

The wall which commemorates 117 people who died in the line of duty.

This wall is the CIA's Vietnam Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Gettysburg, Pearl Harbor – and we all can think of many other places which have an importance for the people whose colleagues they commemorate which can hardly be expressed.

A former senior CIA officer told NBC News he was embarrassed watching the remarks, which he called a "free-wheeling, narcissistic diatribe."  Another former senior official noted that that early on in his remarks Trump interrupted himself as he was commenting on the stars behind him and never returned to the topic.  "Not quite a `this hallowed ground moment,'" the official said.

Tisiphone, it wasn't a human being or a group of humans getting destroyed here.  It was honor, integrity, service and pride in service.  But I think you can deal with it.

The Furies and I will be back.

Cross posted to Care2 at http://www.care2.com/news/member/101612212/4033383