Author Archives: Steve Mays

National Insurrection Day

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In all the millions of words written or spoken about the January 6 Insurrection, I don’t recall anyone describing what would have happened had the mob — and Trump — been successful. So I asked my friend Bob Priddy (the smartest person I know) to speculate.

“There would have been more lawsuits than we could count and Trump’s judicial appointees would support democracy, to his howling dismay and most Republicans and every Democrat in congress would stand together against any such illegal power grab. The capitol would become a fortress for the Trump mob while its leader quickly would be in custody on numerous incitement and conspiracy charges, be ruled incompetent to continue to serve under the 25th Amendment, and his Vice-President would emerge from his hiding place to proclaim the legitimate process of government would continue.  He, as the new commander in chief of the military and in exigent circumstances would in no way defend Trump (recall that in the immediate aftermath of January 6 most GOP’ers flatly and publicly blamed Trump and their cowering did not develop until he left office in the normal course of events — a situation that would not exist if the mob gained control of the capitol), would call upon the protestors to surrender or starve to death or be killed by military forces that would go room to room hauling people out or killing them. Congress, or as many members of it as survived, would reassemble; states would re-certify the election results and the certification process would be completed.

President Pence would, as he did, attend the inauguration of Joe Biden on January 20, wherever it would be held, and would leave Washington a hero rather than a temporarily-noble Trump nebbish who rose above himself at a critical time.

The following days could have been a despicable bloodbath but the insurrection would have been contained to the capitol.  There might be minor uprisings in several states but the National Guard would be activated by governors and the uprisings would have been put down and state courts and local prosecutors would have reacted as usual and constitutionally-punished the trouble-makers.

There would not be a civil war but there would have been blots throughout the nation that time would never erase.  But Democracy would have survived because the nation would not geographically divide.

Donald Trump would face criminal charges and unending civil lawsuits seeking damages to the Capitol and personal injuries by those who resisted the mob or private citizens whose well-being was threatened.  He would declare bankruptcy to escape payment of damages but would be allowed to keep his domicile under the bankruptcy code. The rest of his empire would crumble because it is built on paper and would return pennies on the dollar to satisfy judgments against him.  If convicted of crimes, he could not be put in prison but would instead be sentenced to house arrest, allowed outside for an hour a day for exercise restricted to holes 8-13 on the golf course at Mar-a-lago.

Upon his death, Mar-a-lago would become a national institution for insane oligarchs and in time be transformed into an Ellis Island-type of historic site.

Each year on January 6, or on the Monday closest to it, National Insurrection Day would be observed with parades and speeches focusing on the greatness of a Democracy that withstood its greatest challenge and would never fail.

And urine samples gathered from every member of congress ceremoniously would be poured on the grave of Donald Trump.

I’ll make the same prediction about Trump’s final resting place — and for the same reason — that I made for Rush Limbaugh. It will be inaccessible to the public. El Rushbo is in a private cemetery somewhere in the St. Louis area, not in his hometown of Cape Girardeau.

Who would win a war between the Confederacy and the Taliban?

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In a chapter titled Amateurs Go To War, Battle Cry of Freedom author James M. McPherson describes the South’s strategy:

“Jefferson Davis […] early in the war he seems to have envisaged a strategy like that of George Washington in the Revolution. Washington traded space for time; he retreated when necessary in the face of a stronger enemy; he counterattacked against isolated British outposts or detachments when such an attack promised success; above all, he tried to avoid full-scale battles that would have risked annihilation of his army and defeat of his cause. This has been called a strategy of attrition — a strategy of winning by not losing, of wearing out a better equipped foe and compelling him to give up by prolonging the war and making it too costly.”

I shared this with my friend (and historian) Bob Priddy, suggesting parallels to the Taliban strategy in Afghanistan. Bob’s reply:

You have come to a realization that the American military has not come to grips with since time began. We still fight our wars as if it was Breed’s Hill (not Bunker Hill), with one side barricaded and visible and the other side marching resolutely forward, sacrificing enough bodies that eventually the marching force will overcome the barricaded force by surviving numbers or will fall back, weakened and puzzled at the lack of success. It’ why we “lost” Vietnam. It’s why our two-decade effort at nation building in Afghanistan ultimately failed. The parallels of Vietnam and Afghanistan are marked.

We can’t make good Republicans (no snide comments about that phrase) and good Democrats out of people who see no such things, never have, and have never wanted them.

Jefferson Davis ultimately failed because he never had the cunning or the tools the Taliban has — although the white supremacist philosophy never lost. The Confederacy did. But white supremacy lurks in the philosophical underground tunnels of our time. We can be grateful that its ride into Washington in January was not as successful as the Taliban’s ride into Kabul.

Poor planning and inept leadership saved us this time.

Mass Murder Movement

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Author Tim Wise explains why COVID anti-vaxxers aren’t a MAGA death cult… it’s a mass murder movement.

When you would tell them repeatedly that wearing a mask was less for the wearer than for others, they shrugged. If other folks are at risk, they should stay home and let the rest of us get back to the gym, the hairdresser, concerts, movies, and tailgate parties before the big game. […] Their freedom to do as they pleased was more important than other people’s lives.

Suicidal people don’t act or think that way. Homicidal people do.

If you refuse a vaccine when you have no valid health reason to do so (as almost no one does), thereby keeping the virus alive longer by increasing the risk of mutations, you are saying that other people’s lives don’t matter to you.

I cannot weep for someone who thought the “blood of Jesus” was all the vaccine they needed.

On a personal level, treating deniers like pariahs means banishing them, metaphorically, to the cornfield. It means cutting them out of our lives entirely: no invitations to the cocktail party or backyard barbecue, no seat for them at the holiday table, and no invitation to the grandkid’s graduation, Little League game, or dance recital. Refuse to speak to them, break bread with them or communicate with them in any way until they get their shit together and learn to play by the rules of public health by which rational, decent people agree to play.

Till then, they have made their ICU beds. Now they can lie in them, and sadly, die in them — completely and utterly, alone.

“Afghanistan Meant Nothing”

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That’s the conclusion of Laura Jedeed, a freelance journalist who deployed to Afghanistan twice — once in 2008, and again in 2009-2010.

I remember Afghanistan as a dusty beige nightmare of a place full of proud, brave people who did not fucking want us there. We called them Hajjis and worse and they were better than we were, braver and stronger and smarter. […] It was already obvious that the Taliban would sweep through the very instant we left.

And now, finally, we are leaving and the predictable thing is happening. The Taliban is surging in and taking it all back. They were always going to do this, because they have a thing you cannot buy or train, they have patience and a bloody-mindedness that warrants more respect than we ever gave them.

I am Team Get The Fuck Out Of Afghanistan which, as a friend pointed out to me today, has always been Team Taliban. It’s Team Taliban or Team Stay Forever. There is no third team.

Rambo III: Freedom Speech

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We knew how Afghanistan was going to end way back in 2008. In this scene from Rambo III Richard Crenna warns the Russian commander how stupid it is to start a holy war in the middle east in the name of freedom.

And this from 2009. Matthew Hoh, a former marine saying Afghanistan is not worth U.S. lives.

“I feel that our strategies in Afghanistan are not pursing goals that are worthy of sacrificing our young men and women or spending the billions we’re doing there,” Hoh said. “I believe that the people we are fighting there are fighting us because we are occupying them — not for any ideological reasons, not because of any links to al Qaeda, not because of any fundamental hatred toward the West. The only reason they’re fighting us is because we are occupying them.”

Rigged election: 1854

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“The Border War was a series of violent civil confrontations in Kansas Territory, and to a lesser extent in western Missouri, between 1854 and 1859. It emerged from a political and ideological debate over the legality of slavery in the proposed state of Kansas.” (Wikipedia)

From James McPherson’s Battle Cry of Freedom:

“In November 1854, (Missouri Senator David) Atchison and other prominent Missourians led an invasion, of “border ruffians” into Kansas to swell the vote for the proslavery candidate. Derided as “Pukes” by norther-born settlers, many of these lank, unshaven, unwashed, hard-drinking Missourians had little material interest in slavery but even less love for “those long-faced, sanctimonious Yankees” devoted to “sickly sycophantic love for the nigger.” The border ruffians won the first round. Casting more than 1,700 ballots that a subsequent congressional committee found to be fraudulent, they elected a proslavery delegate to Congress.”

“I’m sorry, but…”

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“How should I mourn friends who threw away their lives because irrational politics overrode rational thoughts of self-preservation? What should I say to the grieving spouse you leave behind? “Well, at least they died doing what they loved to do” becomes even more ludicrous when what they loved to do was LIVE! I probably won’t go to your funeral at all. It’s your fault that I have to make that choice. I don’t want to be your pallbearer.”

Bob Priddy on those who refuse to get vaccinated.

Nothing Really Has A Name

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“Your life began with a kind of singularity. A personal Big Bang. Without warning, you emerged from unconsciousness into a sea of light, color, smell, faces, feelings, and other completely unexpected phenomena, and there was nothing to do but attempt to navigate it. It was the ultimate “cold open” – no context, no explanation, just things happening.”

“You can learn to see that mysteriousness in the world again, on purpose. You can practice looking at what’s in front of you as an infant might see it. It’s all just textures and feelings, that have no real names and carry no explanation. Looking at the world like that comes with a certain kind of relief to the compulsive mapper, because what’s right in front of you is never as busy as the map. […] It comes down to just looking — seeing what’s there, and nothing else, as you once did.”

Nothing Really Has A Name by David Cain