For Ukraine, it's search out the future -- or die

Environmental and climate advocate Bill McKibben points out that the planet-wide shift to harness energy from the sun is not only transforming how we produce heat and power cars. It is also changing how war is waged.

It's hard to drone a solar panel. 

The war in Ukraine may be adding resilience to the list of clean energy's virtues. 

As I write this, the Orsknefteorgsintez refinery in Orsk, Russia is ablaze. It sits 1,400 kilometers from the border with Ukraine—in fact, along the border with Kazakhstan. The refinery has a capacity of 6.6 million tons of oil yearly, and among other things it’s one of two refineries capable of producing the jet fuel used by the country’s strategic bombers.

The best reason for nations to switch to power from the sun and wind is that it will reduce, by some degree, the severity of the climate crisis (and save millions of lives lost each year to pollution). The second best reason is that it’s cheaper than fossil fuel, and any nation who doesn’t shift will be stuck with an economy running on expensive energy. But it seems to me—not a military analyst, but a fairly good tea-leaves reader—that the war in Ukraine may be adding a third to the list: its comparative invulnerability to attack.

As the world has begun to figure out, something important has happened amidst the carnage of Russia’s immoral invasion: warfare has changed forever, with the small drone quickly replacing much of the military hardware we grew accustomed to in the 20th century. 

Drones have been ubiquitous along the front lines, where the no-man’s zone between the armies is lethally patrolled by squadrons of drones able to take out tanks, troop transports, and pretty much anything else—that explains much of the stasis of the last two years; the competing forces are largely pinned down. 

The Russians, of course, have also been using drones to attack civilian assets—every night a new sortie, mixed in with missiles, seems to take out kindergartens, hospitals, and old folks homes. An early target was Ukraine’s energy sources, in an effort to freeze the fight out of the nation. (Currently the Russians seem to be playing dangerous games with the offline nuclear power plants not far from the front lines). But as we head into yet another war of winter, Ukraine hangs on—and more than hangs on. 

Over the course of the war, by sheer necessity, Ukraine has developed a formidable drone industry, and increasingly it is using them against a singular set of targets: the oil refining and transport infrastructure spread out across its sprawling foe. Russia has formidable air defenses, of course—Ukraine couldn’t fly a bomber across 1,400 kilometers of the country’s airspace to bomb a refinery. But the small and comparatively slow drones have proved equal to the task. ...

Russia can, and does, shoot rockets at the centers of Ukrainian civilian life. But Ukrainians, motivated by necessity and determined courage, have found, at least for the moment, an answer that sustains their embattled nation with sun power they have developed themselves. The war is making oil refining and coal burning obsolete and perilous technologies to depend on.

...The general lesson to be drawn from this, it seems to me, is that centralized and complex energy facilities are now sitting ducks for drone attack, and that that will certainly alter military calculations going forward. A refinery, for instance, is one of the most complicated machines humanity has ever constructed, often covering hundreds of acres. It’s filled with highly complex equipment and highly flammable hydrocarbons; hit one corner with a drone and the flames and the damage are likely to spread quickly. Not far behind—as Ukraine has learned to its sadness—are coal and gas-fired power plants—expensive infrastructure that can take months or years to rebuild as your citizens shiver. 

By contrast, solar farms and wind turbines are scattered, which makes them harder to hit, and relatively simple to fix. Silicon doesn’t explode when it’s hit: a drone may take out some panels, but they are easy to switch out for new ones. And individual rooftop installations are too small to be systematically attacked. ...

I'm sure McKibben would agree that it would be far better if Russia hadn't made war on its proud, self-reliant neighbor. But since Russia has, we can marvel at how Ukrainian innovation is showing how a small nation can preserve its independence by adopting the energy source of the future. 

Too often, war midwifes scientific advances that only kill more efficiently. There is so much death in Ukraine, but also so much life. 

Friday cat blogging

Meet Mio the Magnificent. You wouldn't know he is actually a sweet softie, would you? We live with this.

Terror for transpeople

Where decent people saw a frightening political murder, disgusting people saw an opportunity to stir and enlist hatred for political purposes.

Unhappily, it's fair to say that Charlie Kirk's Republican funders and political sponsors (but not the woman who loved him) got one bit of what they'd paid for after his untimely demise: yet another chance to stick it to transfolk and other gender nonconforming people.

Journalist Parker Molloy reports on the terror unleashed. 

... While the Heritage Foundation manufactures fake statistics to paint trans people as violent terrorists, actual terrorism is happening in the real world—and it’s targeting LGBTQ people.

In the week following Charlie Kirk’s death, there have been at least two attempted terrorist attacks explicitly planned as “revenge” against the LGBTQ community. Not revenge against any actual suspect or accomplice. Not revenge based on any evidence. Just revenge against random gay and trans people for something they had nothing to do with.

In Phoenix, a 49-year-old named Treven Gokey was arrested after threatening to shoot up a gay bar. He told police he wanted to be “a martyr for Charlie Kirk” and that “radical left violence breeds a far-right response.” When officers asked him about recent violence, he said it made him want to “harm others” to send a message. He’s now sitting in jail on a $250,000 bond, charged with making terroristic threats.

Meanwhile in Texas, Joshua Cole posted on Facebook about an upcoming Pride parade in Abilene: “fk their parade, I say we lock and load and pay them back for taking out Charlie Kirk.” He added, “theres only like 30 of em we can send a clear message to the rest of them,” before suggesting they go “hunting fairies.” The FBI arrested him the day before the parade. During questioning, he admitted he “did not believe that the gay pride event should be allowed.”

... Heritage claims — based on absolutely nothing — that “transgender ideology” drives violence. But in the real world, it’s anti-LGBTQ rhetoric that’s inspiring actual terrorist threats. These men didn’t need evidence that LGBTQ people were involved in Kirk’s death. They didn’t need facts. All they needed was the permission structure that years of demonization had already built.

And that permission structure got reinforced immediately after Kirk’s death. Conservative media blamed “the left” before anyone even knew who the shooter was. The day after the assassination, bomb threats forced evacuations at the DNC headquarters and multiple HBCUs. The apparatus of rage was already primed and ready — it just needed an excuse.

Cole, by the way, had already been arrested for making terroristic threats back in 2019. The court noted his “prior criminal history” and said his release would pose a “serious danger to any person or the community.” But sure, let’s create a new terrorism category for trans people who, according to actual data, commit less than 0.1% of mass shootings. ...

Meanwhile we're in a "government shutdown" because Republicans refuse to present a budget that enough Democratic senators will vote for to overcome a filibuster. The media mostly focuses on the vicious cuts that Republicans are trying to make to health care, cuts which Democrats reject.

But the Republican plan also includes poison pills designed to erase and even destroy trans lives and life. Erin In The Morning reports:

... There is one promising sign for LGBTQ+ people in all this: Democrats, by refusing to cave to Republican demands on both the full-year appropriations bills and the continuing resolution, have shown a degree of backbone critics often accuse them of lacking. ... When talks eventually turn back to funding the government for the full year, there’s hope that Republicans may steer clear of poison pills like the anti-LGBTQ+ riders that risk blowing up the process altogether. 

... Still, there’s reason for concern that the pressure of a shutdown could push Democrats to cave on key constituencies—LGBTQ+ people chief among them. The memory of last year looms large. When Republicans laced the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act with anti-trans riders, Democrats in the Senate, having control of that chamber at the time, had the chance to strip them out. Instead, leadership folded: they refused to allow a vote to remove the provisions and passed the bill intact, cutting off TRICARE coverage for gender-affirming care for the children of servicemembers. For many trans advocates, it was a stinging betrayal. 

Now the fear is of a repeat—only worse. This year’s House NDAA goes even further, piling on a military bathroom ban, a sports ban, a coverage ban, and more, and the same fears hold true for negotiations over the bills funding the federal government for the next year.

... Republicans—Trump chief among them—have made clear that anti-trans provisions are on the table for the full-year appropriations fight. In recent days, Trump used both a Truth Social post and a grotesquely offensive deepfake video of Chuck Schumer to hammer Democrats, accusing them of protecting transgender people in the shutdown fight and vowing to walk away from negotiations unless they conceded ground. On Capitol Hill, several Republican members echoed the line, blasting Democrats for supposedly backing “taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries” in the federal budget—a talking point pulled straight from the party’s broader anti-trans playbook.

But backlash can go either direction. This report continues:

At least one source told Erin In The Morning that congressional offices were inundated with calls from LGBTQ+ constituents on Tuesday demanding that their rights not be bargained away in the final FY26 appropriations deal. ... 

... call your congressmembers and demand that any negotiations over funding the government for the next year must not include anti-LGBTQ+ provisions pushed by Republicans in power.

Republicans needed a scapegoat to blame for the vicious harm they want to inflict on us all; trans people have been drafted to serve that function. They can't really be so afraid of such a tiny, less than 1 percent fraction of the 330 million of us, can they? Oh gosh, apparently they can and want everyone to share their fears. And beat up on the bogey, metaphorically and sometimes actually.

It's on all of us to ensure that MAGA can't pick off one tiny segment of our American body on the way to injuring all of us. 

There's life in the old republic yet

Too tired today to write a think piece, so I'll just pass along a couple of recent found-images in completely different resistance styles.

I'd call this "assertive patriotism".

This one is more a vigorous "urban outburst".

In both cases, they embody hope for this tired old republic: that we the people will assert ourselves as the legitimate rulers of ourselves, not subject to whims of a doddering old phony and his rich and craven sycophants. 

That is all.

Update from a National Park Service gift shop

Last July, I explored the NPS gift store near Civil War-era Fort Point under the Golden Gate Bridge. I wanted to see whether the Trump regime's attempt to whiten and sanitize American history had yet determined what was offered to the public.

The Warming Hut then boasted a full wall bookcase with an attractive display of hardcover historical books, including plenty that highlighted slavery in the early American life of the Golden State and the fate of local indigenous residents. 

The good news: the Trump regime has not completely displaced serious historical materials with snow globes and commemorative mugs for tourists. The bad news: the effort to offer meaty historical books is much diminished.

A lone shelf in a corner still held books unlikely to please a MAGA culture warrior. There's still history as we know it today here, but it has been pushed to the edges. Some of the previous shelf space has been filled with natural histories and state guide books.

The true delight to me on my previous visit had been the broad collection of children's books at the site. (My inheritance from my childrens' librarian mother is showing.) What survives is still impressive:

 But again, much of the display now centered natural history and marine life curiosities. So much safer:

Click on any of these pictures to see the titles in larger size.

The National Park staff here seem to be trying to retain their integrity as educators of the public -- and hanging on, carefully. I fear for what the coming government shut down will do to this historical park. 

For these awesome days, a denunciation and a prayer

Days of Judgement by Peter Beinart

I Pray there will be a Reckoning for the Cowardice and Evil that has Overtaken Our Country

Read on Substack

[The text which follows is a transcription of Beinart's video.]

So, at the heart of this period in the Jewish year, between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, what we call the Yamim Noraim, is the basic idea that human beings are judged, that we don’t know how that judgment manifests itself in the world, but there’s a faith, a fundamental belief that there is some kind of accounting, there is some kind of reckoning, ultimately. And that notion fills me this year with a sense of really tremendous fear because I know that I have been inadequate to the monstrous evil of this period: the genocide in Gaza and the destruction of liberal democracy in the United States. 

There are so many times when I’ve just decided to turn away because it was easier to not look at the images, or to not participate in actions of protest that I could have done, just because I had other things that I wanted to do more, that were easier for me, that were more fun for me, so I really tremble at my own accountability for this. But I guess I also take some kind of comfort in the notion that there may be some collective accounting, some collective reckoning.

Again, many of the prayers that we say during these High Holidays are in the plural. And when I think about collectively, in the Jewish community, and more generally in the United States, I do take some kind of comfort in the sense that there will be some kind of accounting, because the level of cowardice that we see around us is just beyond my wildest imagination. It’s beyond my wildest imagination. 

I mean, Donald Trump is a fundamentally kind of deranged and deformed person, someone who just doesn’t seem, I think, to really, really understand very basic ideas like the rule of law, right? But many, many other people around him do. I mean, we know this because many of the people who are his most fanatical supporters now—J.D. Vance, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio—they said earlier on, when they weren’t so afraid of him, they said, this man is a pathological liar, this man wants to be a dictator. We know that they believe these things. We know that they can see these things. These things are obvious, right? They’re not subtle. 

I mean, I almost chuckle now at the idea that Donald Trump was really concerned about antisemitism when he used antisemitism as the pretext to try to cripple the independence of American universities. Because we now see that Donald Trump doesn’t need any pretext at all. I mean, when he says that we should shut down television networks just because they criticize him, or that the Justice Department should investigate people just because they’re his political opponents, he doesn’t even need any pretext, right? It’s just the fact that they are limiting his power, and he wants dictatorial powers. That’s really all he needs. 

And when I see virtually the entirety of the Republican Party going along with this—you know, the Republican Party has always, you know, for as long as I can remember, liked to talk about appeasement, liked to talk about cowardice, always imagining themselves as the kind of the Churchills, the manly men, the people who could be counted on in the moment of peril to stand up to the forces of evil. You know, I mean, what an utter irony that has turned to be, right? 

Because it turned out that there is no greater group of appeasers, no greater group of cowards, than the people in the modern Republican Party today, who, because they’re afraid of Donald Trump, afraid that he could get them to lose their job, or afraid that he might go after them personally. Because, after all, Donald Trump goes after Republicans too, right? He’s going after John Bolton because John Bolton had the temerity to criticize him. These people who constantly talk about how tough they are and how manly they are, how they hate appeasement, and how they accuse their opponents of appeasement because they support diplomatic deals with Iran or other countries, now actually turn out to be willing to appease Donald Trump, even when he’s systematically moving to destroy equality under the law, which is the foundation of a free society, right, by basically just using the organs of the state in whatever ways he can to punish his political opponents, to prevent the possibility that people will be able to openly criticize him, and that the other party might be able to beat him in an election. 

And beyond that, I look at the organized American Jewish community. I mean, just go to the websites of the most powerful American Jewish organizations: AIPAC, the Anti-Defamation League, the Conference of Presidents of American Jewish Organizations. Would you realize that American democracy is in peril? Would you realize that the Trump administration is trying to create an authoritarian state? No, you would see virtually nothing of that because these organizations care really only about one thing: about maintaining unconditional U.S. support for Israel. It’s much more important to them that America maintains unconditional support for Israel than that America remains a liberal democracy. They would actually prefer an authoritarian America that supports Israel unconditionally than a liberal democratic America that changes its policy on Israel. 

And the evidence is right in front of you. Just look at what outrages them. Look at what they focus their political attention on. It’s about maintaining unconditional support for Israel. It’s not fighting for liberal democracy. It’s not opposing Donald Trump’s obviously, nakedly obvious efforts at creating an authoritarian, tyrannical state. I take some comfort in the notion that those leaders in our community, as well as those Republicans in Congress, as well as those business leaders, and people in industry, and some of these university presidents, that all of them will be judged. 

I think we’re already in terrible, terrible times, and probably heading for worse. And so, I think there is a Jewish tradition, in moments of great pain and trauma, of taking refuge in the idea that we believe in a God who judges, and that there is some kind of cosmic justice, even if we can’t understand it, even if we may not live to see it. And from the depths of my being, I hope that there is an accounting, that there is a reckoning, there is a judgment for the profound moral cowardice that is allowing the evil that is taking place, both in the destruction of Palestinians in the genocide in Gaza, and the destruction of the basic principles of liberal democracy in the United States. 

And I feel grateful that I have some modicum of faith because it’s that faith that gives me the belief that there will be a judgment and also reminds me that I need to redouble my efforts. 

I need to make a much, much more concerted effort to be part of the struggle against these forms of evil, both in Israel and Palestine that my government is complicit in, and the evils that my government is complicit in in the United States. 

That, all of us need not give in to despair, to not look away, to look this in the eye, and do whatever possibly we can to fight against this evil, which most Americans don’t want. Most Americans don’t want. And just say to ourselves, are we really a country that could allow the likes of Donald Trump to destroy all the things that are most precious in the country, really? Are we that kind of people? I would think that we’re better than that. 

And it’s my hope that one day we will be worthy of having said that in this moment, conscious of the accounting and the reckoning that we believe will come, that we tried to acquit ourselves better in the year to come.

Remembering the Reverend Dr. Vicki Gray: a ministry of presence

Yesterday St. Aidan's Episcopal Church in San Francisco hosted a memorial Eucharist for Vicki, one of the most versatile humans I've ever encountered. From the Naval Academy at Annapolis, through service in Vietnam, later in the US Foreign Service, then a transition, and finally the Episcopal Diaconate and building Transepiscopal, she was one caring, funny, brilliant and humane woman. 

As those who frequent this blog know, I make a practice of photographing little public political demonstrations whenever I can. I literally know of no one who I encountered more regularly at these events over the last 15 years in the San Francisco Bay Area than Vicki. Like me, even though the particular cause might seem hopeless, she believed in showing up, in witnessing, never knowing exactly what might come of it.

Here are few of these:

In 2010, standing with the hotel workers of Local 2 UniteHERE

 

At an interfaith gathering in Berkeley in 2010 on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks

 

On Vicki's home turf in the North Bay in 2015, speaking out against a risky plan to move crude oil by train through the 'hood.

Reminding the Bay Area of the needs of unhoused people as San Francisco upended itself for the Super Bowl in 2016.

Calling out Israeli atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza -- in 2018

 

There have been few like her.

Bad faith Republican politics

Stuart Stevens was a career Republican political strategist, the capstone of whose work was serving in a leading role in George Romney's 2012 campaign against Barack Obama.  In this 2021 book, he looks back at that campaign, and his lifelong political orientation and concludes It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump.

He's unsparing about this conclusion; his early campaign work in the South taught him that race was the substrate of all US politics:

[I learned] a truth as basic and immutable as the fact that water freezes below thirty-two degrees Fahrenheit: race was the key in which much of American politics and certainly all southern politics was played. It was really very simple: the Democratic candidate needed 90-plus percent of black votes to win. ... Since [the 1964 Civil Rights Act] no Republican candidate has broken 17 percent with African American voters, and by 2016 only 3 percent considered themselves Republicans. ... 

... the Nixon White House had laid out the path to electoral success by maximizing white grievance and suppressing the African American vote through a combination of manipulation, lies and legal challenges. It was the road that the Republican Party took in the Trump White House. ... Race has defined the modern Republican Party.

Since the 2024 presidential election, many pundits have attempted to muddy the question of whether the Republican Party is still the overwhelmingly racist formation that Stevens describes, but the best data we have suggests that little has changed despite whatever gestures Trump and his crew make. (Take a look at the cabinet, for example; bet you can't name his HUD appointee, the usual Black slot ...)

Beyond issues of race, Stevens has plenty to denounce in the moral foundations of his former party:

• "Family values" was never a set of morals and values that the Republican Party really desired to live by ... it was just another weapon to portray those on the other side as being out of the mythical American mainstream. ...

• The professional politicization of Christianity as a right-wing force was always more about the acquisition of power than a commitment to Christianity. It was where the commercialization of Christianity meets the politicization of Christianity. ...

• The Republican Party is held aloft by a large, powerful, and ever growing industry of deceit. The purpose of much of conservative media is to lie to their audience. ...

• The most distinguishing characteristic of the current national Republican Party is cowardice. The base price of admission is a willingness to accept that an unstable pathological liar leads it and pretend otherwise. ...

All, I think, commonplace understandings four years on from the publication of this book and among the folks to whom I relate personally here on the Left Coast.

What I found more interesting in this book than Stevens' denunciation of Republican orthodoxies were the moments when he delves into the contradictions that can be experienced by a political consultant or advisor. This is something of which I have some 30 years experience in and around campaigns, some of which I had some influence in. In such a position, your job is to win ... not necessarily to be onboard with all the policy implications. 

For example, Stevens writes:

When [Republican Pennsylvania Congressman] Tom Ridge [on the eve of his campaign for governor] was facing a decision on how to vote on the 1994 assault weapons ban, I'd like to say I urged him to vote for the ban ... I didn't, nor did I advise him to vote against it. I never thought my role was to remind clients of deeply held beliefs. ... I cared about one thing -- winning -- and had every reason to believe it would mean we'd lose.

I get this. I can't say I ever differed from a plausible candidate I was working for on a matter of such consequence, though I'm not sure about that. But I certainly worked at least one campaign without any belief that my candidate would be a net gain to city and society if we won; I wanted the experience of working in a well-funded operation of a particular sort in order to increase my campaign skills, win or lose. That campaign work was about me, not the candidate. Such is extremely common among political operatives, however little we admit this to ourselves.

Stevens' book retained its interest to me, even though in the current Trump regime, it reads a little dated. If interested in what a good man learned that led him away from his previous political positioning, I highly recommend this one.

Friday cat blogging

In the competition for seating space on the couch, Mio gets his share ... and more. And he's not even the fierce one in the household.

Reality animates fury ...

Erudite Partner's latest article for TomDispatch is online today.

Going Backwards on Rights with Trump
Or Just Around in Circles? 

Warning: dangers in the mirror are often closer than they may appear. In other words, the next few paragraphs may seem to be hyperbole but are, in fact, expressions of reality (animated by a cold fury).

On September 8, 2025, the Supreme Court did its best to murder what’s left of civil rights in this country. As Charlie Savage of the New York Times reported, in an unsigned 6-3 ruling, it overturned a lower court’s order forbidding ICE and the Border Patrol in Los Angeles from stopping, interrogating, and detaining people based on any of four factors: “apparent race or ethnicity; the fact that they speak English with an accent or speak Spanish; their presence at particular locations like farms or pickup sites for day laborers; and the type of work they do.”

Those six conservative justices might as well have stood in front of the court and set fire to the 1964 Civil Rights Act ...

Martin Luther King looks on as President Lyndon Johnson signs the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

At one point in her youth, the E.P. thought about becoming a lawyer. She decided she had better things to do with her life, but she did, much later, become a genuine expert on the development of the international law which outlaws torture. And she knows whereof she speaks when she eviscerates the lawlessness of the Trump regime. 

Read it all here.  

The National Embarassment speaks. He's far gone.

 

The only thing that could upstage this lunacy was the return of Jimmy Kimmel. 

Dare we feel hope?

Is it madness to believe that ABC returning Jimmy Kimmel to their airwaves suggests that the Trump project has stubbed a toe? And shown some vulnerability to an aroused public?

John Ganz, a scholar of 20th century fascisms who is no optimist, thinks so. (Paragraph breaks inserted for readability.)

It seems strange to say, but the return of Jimmy Kimmel to the air is a great defeat for this regime. 

The victories will look anticlimactic and make those who made a lot of noise feel sheepish.

You shouldn’t feel ashamed; the administration should be. 

They openly screamed and cried for his removal, and it failed. It showed the limits of their power. 

One should take heart in it, although there are many more battles to come.

Cynics will scoff that it was a pecuniary decision; likely so, but if the incentives are in disobeying rather than obeying, we may yet be saved. 

This episode shows not only the limited power of the administration but also of its central base of power: the thugs of the online right. They also wish to appear to speak for the people, to embody directly popular demands and discontents, but they are not the people; ultimately, they are a rabble, a mob that can be summoned up but that can’t hope to apply its power to the much larger society at large. 

Civil society must recognize them as a fraction, not the whole of the public.

As terrible as they act, they are also not Leviathan. Musk captured Twitter to deliberately create a distorted image of the public, but it deceives its creators, too: they think it is America, but it’s not, it’s just their simulated America. 

Don’t grant them more power than they have. 

• • •

Historian Heather Cox Richardson makes the same observation in a very American metaphor:

... Trump and his loyalists have outkicked their coverage as they try to consolidate power.

As usual, I am cheered to be in NFL football season. 

• • •

Meanwhile, the national embarrassment whined at the U.N.:

Trump accused environmentalists of wanting to “kill all the cows.” There was no evidence for that claim. 

Another day, another madness. Meanwhile, the United States commits murder on the high seas.

Our various histories: complexity meets MAGA

Civil War historian Kevin M. Levin alerted me to an important unveiling in our nation's (currently occupied) capital.

... a 6-feet tall, 600-pound statue of President Abrahan Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation was installed on the steps of the soon-to-be opened African American Civil War Museum in the Shaw neighborhood of DC. “Liberty and Union” is inscribed at the base. 

The statue will officially be dedicated on September 22, the day Lincoln issued the preliminary proclamation and the museum will hopefully open to the public after years of renovation and delays in November.

This historic Black neighborhood, named in honor of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, has its roots in the Civil War, when thousands of enslaved men, women, and children flocked to the city for shelter and freedom. The military established Camp Barker in this neighborhood early in the war, a contraband camp that was eventually moved to the grounds of Arlington National Cemetery.

Here the creators of the statue and museum officials proudly describe their new work to DC local news.

Levin brings forward a less boosterish view of Lincoln put forward in 1900 by Archibald Grimké, son of a South Carolina slaver and the slaver's "property," Nancy Weston. Archibald Grimké grew up to found the NAACP. 

In Howard’s American Magazine, Grimké wrote:

It seems to me that it is high time for colored Americans to look at Abraham Lincoln from their own standpoint, instead of from that of their white fellow-citizens. We have surely a point of view equally with them for the study of this great man’s public life, wherin it touched and influenced our history. Then why are we invariably found in their place on this subject, as on kindred ones, and not in our own? 

Are we never to find ourselves and our real thought on men and things in this country, and after finding them are we to deny to them expression, for fear of giving offence? Are we to be forever a trite echo, an insignificant ‘me too’ to the white race in America on all sorts of question, even on those which concern peculiarly and vitally our past, present and future relations to them?... 

I hope not; I do most devoutly pray not. For if we are ever to occupy a position in America other than that of mere dependents and servile imitators of the whites, we must emancipate ourselves from this species of slavery, as from all others. And the sooner a beginning is made in this regard the better. With whom then can we more appropriately begin this work of intellectual emancipation than with Abraham Lincoln, the emancipator?

…. Was Abraham Lincoln a great American? Yes, certainly. Was he one of the greatest of American statesmen? Yes, assuredly. Was he a great philanthropist? No. Was he a great friend of human liberty and the Negro, like Garrison, Sumner, and Phillips? No, a thousand and one times, no! For the sake of truth let us answer ‘yes’ every time where ‘yes’ agrees with the facts of history and ‘no’ where simple honesty forbids and other reply. And then let us be done, once and forever, with all this literary twaddle and glamour, fiction and myth-making, which pass unchallenged for facts in the wonder-yarns which white men spin of themselves, their deeds and demigods.

The several views represented here -- those of the museum builders, of Grimké, of Levin -- demonstrate why surviving the Trump regime is going to require, among other priorities, struggling to preserve complexity in our understanding of our past. Over the last few decades, historians of the American experiment have drawn a nuanced picture of where we come from. MAGA would reduce our story to simplistic patriotic bluster.

That's not good enough. Recognizing complicated history enables us to live and grow into an ever more complex, free, and equal nation and society. Disestablishing the crushing burden of past lies enables us live together in present truths. 

To live in the light of truth is hard, but to survive without truth is ultimately impossible.

From the 'hood in these scary times

Latino Heritage Month celebrations kicked off in the San Francisco Mission District yesterday. A few blocks away from the costumes and the Lowriders, somebody had something to say.

Our "hood has not yet experienced Trump's full assault. But folks are getting ready. And meanwhile, they threw a fine street party.

Latino Heritage Months marks the anniversaries when many nations south of the US border gained independence from European colonizers.

9/15 - Independence Day for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua

9/16 - Mexico Independence Day

9/18 - Chile Independence Day

The California community college in Barstow, CA offers a nice description of the history of these festivities geared to people who find the notion of Latino Heritage unfamiliar. This is significant, as I presume the Trump regime will try to outlaw such information.

Eyes on the prize: "what are you going to do about it?"

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo would certainly want to say his web newsroom is a very small fish in the media ocean. But he built it from nothing; it's solvent; and it feels unique to me, anchored by Marshall's sense of history and society. (Like Marshall, I'm a dropout from academic history studies who never stopped learning from our past.)

He has potent thoughts about the Trump regime's attempt to cow and conquer our information sources in the wake of the Kirk assassination. I think Marshall would say this was always where Trump was going; the murder of one right wing agitator is just a convenient pretext.

Marshall's insights are not all bleak. The old media system is collapsing, but interest in consuming what he calls "non-gelded" media is likely to replace or even exceed what is repressed by corporate conglomerate dynosaurs that do Trump's bidding. The moment makes this possible.

Nonetheless his summation of our situation is bracing. Here's a portion of it: 

... most elected Democrats remain in the mode of believing they are a party of government temporarily out of power. They are that too. 

But really they’re an opposition party in the midst of an attempted authoritarian takeover of the American Republic. That means many things. But here’s one of the most important. Last night Sen. Chris Murphy went on Bluesky (and likely other platforms) denouncing [Trump Federal Communications Commission  Chair Brendan] Carr’s criminal and unconstitutional actions — a “history making abuse of your power” he called it. Murphy went on to say, “It will define your legacy and one day you will come to regret punishing free speech and trying to destroy democracy.”

It was the best thing I’d seen any elected official say in response to yesterday’s events and one of the only meaningful ones. But on the next round, I’d recommend Murphy put a finer edge on those remarks. 

I don’t care and I suspect Carr doesn’t care about one day regretting some principle he transgressed. He knows what he’s done. Just one year ago he was on X saying that “free speech” is the “counterweight” to tyranny. “That’s why censorship is the authoritarian’s dream,” Carr wrote at the time. He knows what he’s doing. 

I want lawmakers to be telling people like Carr and his ilk not that they’ll have regrets but that they’ll face consequences.

I hear all these people telling me how there won’t be a 2026 election, or that it won’t be free and fair or a bunch of other things. My question to them, or maybe to you is, what are you going to do about it? 

History is long. No one is in the saddle forever. It is critical for an opposition to give the people a vision of forward trajectory in time, that this isn’t the end of the story, that consequences can be delayed but not evaded. It’s such a demonstrable point. Think even of the longest lasting fascist or authoritarian dictatorships. Franco? About 35 years. Pinochet? 16 years, ousted by a referendum. 

I don’t imagine this will last for even a tiny fraction of that length of time. My point is simply to demonstrate the incontestable point: no one remains in the saddle forever. That’s true even in the most extreme cases. A reckoning comes and everyone needs to be on notice.

Trump is already unpopular. He is getting more unpopular. His actions are unpopular. 

It is the elites, the big diversified corporations and monopolies who have tossed aside most rapidly Americans’ instinctive disdain for kings and dictators. 

It’s down at the most democratic level of our system where the resistance is strongest and growing — juries that refuse to indict or convict amid Trump’s bogus crime crackdown, voters who are showing they’ve had enough. 

He slashes at the civic orthodoxies and values we were all raised on. This remains his opposition’s greatest advantage. It simply needs to be exploited. 

Adam Smith says there’s a lot of ruin in a nation. There’s a lot of ruin in a democracy. We’re in a very bad situation. To me, all I care about is what to do in response. ...

Do read it all.

Friday cat blogging -- signs of the season

 

Janeway knows what is important to the humans in this household and even looks on ...

 

We haven't always turned on the furnace this fall, but we have got out a quilt.

Mio knows what that perch is for: day sleeping. For night sleeping, he prefers to get between us.

And we are not powerless ...

Last night I learned that late night comic Jimmy Kimmel had been fired by Disney/ABC when I saw a friend's social media post: "we are canceling our subscription to Disney tonight!" WTF???

Apparently Kimmel had committed "wrong speech" about the Charlie Kirk assassination. Trump wanted the critical comedian gone and his hatchet man at the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, put the screws to the cooperative media conglomerate.

Our household doesn't have a Disney subscription, so we can't cancel that. 

But tireless Jay Kuo, lawyer and human rights activist, pointed to Christopher Armitage's useful prescription for letting the corporate big boys know that people are outraged.

Here's Kuo's abbreviated summary:

... corporations only understand when their money is at risk.

That means we aren’t powerless. We can do at least four things to hurt them where it matters:

1. Cancel Disney+ and tell them why.
2. Call/email/mail those companies to complain.
3. Screenshot and tag advertisers asking why they support censorship.
4. Share this playbook with others.

There often comes a point where those in power become cocky and badly overreach, misreading the room and handing the opposition an opportunity. When voices from all sides of the political spectrum come together in condemnation, we know we have hit such a point.

Wading into the culture wars with full-on censorship and cancellations will backfire. Comedians like Kimmel and Colbert are beloved figures who speak hard truths in entertaining, accessible ways to millions. The fascist right has nothing like their star power, and it has no sense of irony or comedy, which is why it is so threatened by such figures. 

... The right has managed to take a national conversation about Kirk’s murder and turn it into one about authoritarian censorship. That’s a huge unforced error, and we should exploit it. 

If we care about free speech and blunting fascism, we must keep speaking. 

Charlie Kirk as a political prop for Donald

In this post, I am going to give readers a good chunk of basketball GOAT Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's reaction to the murder of Charlie Kirk. I sometimes think of Kareem as "the last rational man standing," often insistent on a level of simple common sense which contemporary culture has a hard time holding onto.

To get my own cards on the table: I believe that to murder Charlie Kirk was wrong. Murdering anyone is wrong. And also that Charlie Kirk, in his public life, was a bad guy -- a professional racist, misogynist, and homophobe who not only was pushing noxious ideas, but worse, organizing to give these ideas concrete power. If you think this assertion requires documentation, I give you Jamelle Bouie or Moira Donegan.

After passing along Kareem, I'll add a couple thoughts of my own on some of the commentary flying about. 

Here's Kareem:

I’m not going to discuss Charlie Kirk the man or the political figure. Instead, I’m going to discuss the gleeful abuse of Charlie Kirk as his figurative corpse is dragged through the media by the Right the way Achilles dragged Hector’s corpse around the walls of Troy. The MAGA alchemists have transformed a tragic death into the political theater of clothes-rending professional mourners that diminishes not just the performers, but all of us forced to watch. 

One can almost hear their collective sighs of relief as they have a distraction from Epsteingate, the devastating economic news of the rise of inflation, the loss of jobs due to tariffs, and polls revealing Trump’s further drop in approval.

... Let’s start with the most obvious observation: Most political assassins or would-be assassins don’t represent any political party, any more than an avowed Christian KKK lynch mob represents Jesus’s teachings. People with severe mental health issues—like murderers, rapists, child molesters, arsonists, etc.—may outwardly profess certain beliefs, but their actions are a perversion of those beliefs. 

Therefore, for anyone to publicly proclaim that the ideology they have perverted is the cause of their violence is like blaming Jesus for the lynching. Only the most simple-minded would believe this. Only the most evil would try to whip up political fervor using this accusation.

What kind of person uses this tragedy to gain political points over their adversaries? The same kind of damaged and deranged person who would assassinate someone. The assassin and the person who tries to benefit from the assassination are kindred spirits.

As usual, art is one of the first things blamed. An episode of South Park made fun of Kirk (as it has of most political figures), but an immediate backlash appeared online as some called for its cancellation (cancel culture?). The first reaction of the ignorant is to silence opposition. Why ignorant? Because if they were truly supporters of Kirk, they would have known that he openly praised South Park and thought the skit about him was “hilarious.” 

But then, they don’t really care about Kirk the man—only about Kirk the political prop to promote their cause. They have Weekend at Bernies-ed him for their own morbid use.

As he does every time he needs to distract his supporters from his failures, Trump swaggers into the saloon, gets the patrons riled up on violent rhetoric, then leads them out into the streets with their torches and rope, pointing at who they should lynch. “We have radical left lunatics out there,” Trump told reporters. “And we just have to beat the hell out of them.” BEAT THE HELL OUT OF THEM!! 

So, he’s condemning violence by promoting violence against innocent people. He also added, “We have to be brave,” before bravely suppressing his grief over the death of a man he referred to as a martyr so he could attend a Yankees game. So brave.

Remember, Trump is the same guy who said, when running against Hilary Clinton, “By the way, and if she gets to pick—if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks, although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know.” A “joke” about assassinating Clinton? And he still got elected. Twice. Maybe that kind of rhetoric encourages people to act violently toward politicians on both sides. After all, assassination is endorsed by the president.

Trump not only blamed “the radical left” for the shooting, he also vowed that his administration “will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity, and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it, as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials and everyone else who brings order to our country.” 

It might be hard to suppress your gag reflex when you consider how Trump publicly lambasted any judge who ruled against him (and that’s a lot of judges), making each of them a target for his more violent followers (like the ones on Jan. 6 who wanted to hang Mike Pence). His statement implies there is some nefarious organization, rather than the more likely lone gunman. This allows him to then investigate any group opposed to him on the possibility that they were involved. The hope is that the threat alone will silence critics.

After a moment of silence on the House floor in honor of Kirk, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), who worked as Kirk's director of Hispanic engagement at Turning Point USA, stood up and shouted at Democrats: “You caused this!” 

It gets worse. Utah Republican U.S. Senator Mike Lee called Kirk’s murder “a cowardly act of violence” and spouted off about how “The terrorists will not win.” ...

The sad part of these accusations isn’t the fact that they all can be logically and factually disproven: it’s that the perpetrators already know this but say it anyway because they have such contempt for their followers that they don’t think they’ll notice the stupidity of the statements.

Blaming Democrats or the Left is just a shameful attempt to use Kirk’s death as a political tool. The fiery passion in these accusations is a stage performance. The irony, of course, is that accusing anyone or any group of being responsible for Kirk’s death based on their politics riles up the violent crazies to now physically attack those being vilified. Trump and his MAGAs’ outraged finger-pointing is putting targets on people that bear no responsibility at all. If MAGA had the mental capacity to see the hypocrisy in their actions, they might feel shame; but that is an emotion they are incapable of. ...

The true agenda of using Kirk’s death as both a shroud of indignation and a loaded weapon at political rivals was clearly stated by Trump when he was asked on Fox & Friends about his plan to help bring the country back together. His answer: “I couldn’t care less.” 

That about sums up his attitude toward all Americans who aren’t billionaires or who don’t vote for him. Perhaps it will be stitched onto a red cap as his new campaign slogan: “I couldn’t care less.” 

• • • 

A few thoughts from me and then I'll let this topic go, though MAGA certainly will try to keep their fable of Kirk going forever.

Former Washington Post data guy and now freelancer Philip Bump opined:

Just because I saw someone mention it: There’s no reason to think that TPUSA/Kirk had a significant effect on the 2024 election. The turnout operation was non-existent and claims that they/he are the central (or even a major) cause of young voters moving right aren’t backed by any actual evidence.

TP/Kirk had a very good reason to pretend they were essential and many in the media aren’t positioned to evaluate such claims. With due modesty, I am positioned better than most. 

Well maybe. That's pretty much what the data guys will always say about quantifying the impact of grassroots volunteer para-campaign efforts. He's right that the people who organize these have a financial incentive to exaggerate their effectiveness; funders want to be shown results. And in many circumstances, skepticism may be in order. But in some circumstances, knee jerk disbelief in volunteer mobilizations is probably wrong. When mobilizations operate in fertile -- that is not-already exhausted turf -- the sheer number of the newly activated volunteers and voters can marginally change the results. I've led such operations from the opposite side from Kirk. Kirk was operating in exactly that sort of terrain.

• • •

Lisa Needham offered a perceptive thought:

... [the reason] so much praise is being lavished on Kirk is that Republicans don’t really have anyone else to admire. In the Trump era, there are no heroes.

Trump, with his tacky, mobster-esque authoritarianism, values two things above all else: fealty and malleability. People with core, immutable values, people in public service, people who would sacrifice themselves for a cause — these are not people who can exist within the modern Republican Party. As far as Trump is concerned, those people are chumps. ... Americans who gave their lives to turn back the tide of fascism during World War II? Suckers and losers, per Trump.

• • •

I'll leave the disgusting way Republicans can be expected to mobilize transphobia, given what has so far emerged about the shooter. I fear we'll be wondering next whether MAGA really does object to murder ... Let's hope not.

Sanitizing white history

If MAGA won't display this, I will. At the behest of the Trump administration, this photo of the back of an American slave has been removed from a National Park site.  After liberation, this survivor rose to the rank of sergeant in the Union army during the Civil War.

 

By way of David Kurtz, TPM. 

Some of our tech billionaires have lost it

 

A rowdy little demonstration greeted the tech-bro billionaire's appearance at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco this evening. His lecture series is on the topic of the Anti Christ. ... he suggests (seriously!) that activist Greta Thunberg might actually be the anti-christ we should fear. 

Being rich is no guarantee against stupid. Dude seems to think he's hooked into demonic forces. Perhaps he is a demon? This sort of fantasy doesn't usually end well.

Meanwhile, he doesn't care who he hurts. PLTR is the stock symbol for his corporation Palantir which is providing the data for mass public surveillance of our communities, the violent lCE kidnapping of immigrants, the genocide in Gaza, union-busting efforts and more.  

Thiel has stated his opposition to democracy, he actively supports defunding universities and public education, and aligns with Christian Nationalist movements that support white supremacy and the subjugation of women. He might wear a suit-and-tie and use his immense wealth for influence - but he dreams of a techno-feudalist society.

Some folks have other ideas.

Target's broken promises to Black community spur boycott

When an economic actor is already on the skids, that's the moment to push harder, not to compromise. 

Under intense competition from the likes of Walmart and Amazon online, Target -- the huge mid-American retailer -- has plenty to worry about. Consumers are complaining of messy stores and poorly stocked shelves. 

The number of Americans who say they regularly shop at Target has gone down 19% since 2021, according to GWI, a behavioral attitudinal data provider. The number of Americans who say they do not shop at Target has risen 17%. 

Further, Target is backing out of promises made to the African American community.

... the company had heavily touted a commitment to DEI back in 2020 after protests erupted across the nation over the murder of George Floyd. That year, Target announced it would increase representation of Black staff by 20% over three years and invest $10 million in social justice organizations. In 2021, the company pledged to dedicate more than $2 billion toward Black-owned businesses before the end of 2025.

In January, however, Target said it would conclude the hiring and advancement goals it had set. 

Then the company contributed $1 million to Donald Trump's inauguration fund ...

African American leaders think the retailer owes respect to its customers' community, not to a billionaire President.

Pastor leading Target boycott on its impact and the retailer's response
Target is reeling as sales have stalled and its stock price has plunged. The company faced backlash after a rollback of its DEI initiatives prompted a boycott that slowed store traffic nationwide, one of the factors that pushed CEO Brian Cornell to step down. Now, Target is scrambling to reset its image. Geoff Bennett discussed more with Pastor Jamal Bryant, who spearheaded the Target boycott.

Interviewer Geoff Bennett: ... Why single out Target when this appears to be a broader corporate retreat? 

Pastor Jamal Bryant, senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Georgia: After the inauguration of Trump, 23 corporations backed away from inclusion and we thought it prudent to just go after one at the time. The African American community spends upwards of 12 million dollars a day at Target. We thought that the one that was the most trafficked should be the focus of our media attention. 

Bennett: ... it's striking that Target hasn't reinstated its DEI program even as it struggles with declining sales, sluggish foot traffic. ...

Pastor Bryant: I think that diversity is in as much danger as democracy is. The president of Target as well as of Amazon and Walmart met with the President [Trump] back in February. I think they have held on to his admonishment more than what the consumers are clamoring to say. 

Bennett: ... [Target] highlights a $2 billion investment in Black-owned businesses, more than doubling the number of Black-owned brands on its shelves, supporting more than 500 entrepreneurs, completing a more than $100 million investment in Black-led community organizations. Why do you see those efforts as insufficient?

Pastor Bryant: ... they produce no receipts. $2 billion but they have not been forthcoming as to what entities are the recipients of it. ... We'd love to put a ribbon on it, but if Black companies or Black banks were the recipients, they would be clamoring to announce it and yet we're in the silence of the lambs. ...

... [Target] is one of the lead employers of African Americans. They are the beneficiaries of African American consumption.

... When George Floyd died, they made the pledge of $2 billion and then it stalemated. It was supposed to be turned over to us on July 31. And we still are not seeing anything. We are reasonable and amenable... but none of those requests have been responded to.

Bennett: What's the end game if Target does not meet your requests?

Pastor Bryant: Then they will continue to hemorrhage. ... with 9.7 percent of foot traffic being slowed down, online sales being slowed down, the stock continuing to plummet ... I think it is time of for the share holders to make their voice clear ...

The Montgomery bus boycott went for a year and a day. This is just our fifth month. ...

Bennet: How do you see yourself leveraging this kind of power on other issues?

Pastor Bryant: ... this is the first real organizing power of Black economic strength in 70 years and a lot of  corporations are waiting to see what will be the outcome ... this generation needs a victory, that our collective works are not in vain ...

This boycott is the real thing -- not just performative hand waving. Like the Tesla Takedown, the boycott takes aim at a corporation which counts on the good reputation of its brand and which is fouling that brand through association with the Trump regime. And it hurts Target. Market researchers report: 

Since last year, the number of regular Target shoppers who identify as Democrat has declined 13%. Inversely, the number of Republican customers has risen 13%. It's not clear if that is due to Target’s $1 million donation to Trump's inauguration or some other factors. 

The boycott is spreading beyond its founding base in Black churches. Over Labor Day, the American Federation of Teachers joined the movement, hoping to cut into Target's Back to School business.  

AFT President Randi Weingarten explained: 

This movement comes at a crucial moment—when American workers find themselves at the whim of billionaires and board rooms that are more invested in money over people. We want this resolution—and the full weight of our nearly 2 million members—to be a reminder to Target that there are consequences to dismissing the will of the American worker and that, until they do right, our members will be spending their money in places they feel respected and recognized. 

Boycott Target! This is yet another way to assert there's more to this country than MAGA!  

The 'hood has a point of view

Bus shelter on 24th Street, San Francisco