Civil Commotion

As longtime readers know — because I link to his stuff, like, all the time — my nephew, Ryan, is a journalist working in the Detroit area.

But not for long.

This entails a move to New York City, and a vastly healthier media/publishing environment — the kind of place where talent like Ryan’s ought to thrive. Once again, then, Congratulations!

Worried about censorship, the non-profit Internet Archive intends to store a backup of the archive in … Canada.

Because the United States has gotten so crazy, so divorced from reality, so eager to surrender to the custody of a mad proto-fascist, that the backup needs to be beyond the government’s reach.

As Donald Trump careens towards the Oval Office, promising jail time for flag-burners along the way, an organization that archives the internet for anyone to peruse aims to create a full backup in Canada in order to protect the digital library from censorship.

[ … ]

“[Trump’s election] was a firm reminder that institutions like ours, built for the long-term, need to design for change,” the Archive stated in a blog post. “For us, it means keeping our cultural materials safe, private and perpetually accessible. It means preparing for a Web that may face greater restrictions.”

During his campaign, Trump appeared to favor a hardline stance on internet censorship when he stated that the tech industry needs to “close that internet up” to stop the spread of extremism.

“Somebody will say, ‘Oh, freedom of speech, freedom of speech,’” Trump said at the time. “These are foolish people.”

I don’t fault the Archive for moving its materials beyond Trump’s reach; he is mad, overtly hostile to American ideals, and commands legions of ignoramuses.

I do wonder, though: Am I the only person who recalls that everything from artwork to orphans were once sent here to keep them safe?

This is not normal. It demeans the presidency.

New York Times

No, it isn’t normal. And when you read this Holy Man’s defense of a West Virginia bureaucrat who referred to Michelle Obama as an ape in heels, there is no escaping the conclusion that much of the Republican disappearance into madness is no more than the eruption of subterranean racism — and we have elected a cynical demagogue who will exploit it without compunction.

Just over a year ago, as America debated whether or not Syrian refugees ought to be admitted to the United States, I posted this:

I am thinking about these things as America makes haste to disgrace itself in the matter of Syrian refugees. Of course we bear moral responsibility for our role in disrupting the Middle East’s fragile political equilibrium and making them refugees. Of course we must do the humane thing.

We know, too, what will happen when they get here: They will be humiliated and swindled without apology on the public streets of The Melting Pot; we will undoubtedly create more America-haters than we allow in.

I am reminded of that as we learn that Abdul Razak Ali Artan, yesterday’s Ohio State University knife attacker, may have been motivated by anti-Muslim sentiment.

Just minutes before an 18-year-old Somali college student used a car and butcher knife to attack people on the Ohio State University campus Monday morning, he said in a Facebook post that he had reached a “boiling point” and was “sick and tired” of seeing Muslims around the globe “killed and tortured,” law enforcement officials told CNN and NBC.

Did the widespread eruption of overt anti-Muslim sentiment since Donald Trump’s election played a role in unhinging him? That could never justify his behavior, of course, but it surely is reasonable to wonder if one too many taunts from exultant yahoos played a part.

Nobody of even modest intelligence can doubt that Trump’s election has already affected the … others — and affected them for the worse. Nor should anybody of even modest intelligence be surprised that all resent the degradations that Trump has promised, or that at least some turn violent as they assert their right to decent, dignified treatment.

Expect more.

The rock-solid fact that he lost the popular vote — and by a bunch, at least 2.2-million — really gets under The Donald’s skin.

THANKS!, Values Voters — you gave a nut the keys to the White House.

Let’s all hope the electors are paying attention.