George Will has torn a long painful strip off Bunkie. It’s a good read.

… this weak person’s idea of a strong person, this chest-pounding advertisement of his own gnawing insecurities, this low-rent Lear raging on his Twitter-heath has proven that the phrase malignant buffoon is not an oxymoron.

…The president’s provocations — his coarsening of public discourse that lowers the threshold for acting out by people as mentally crippled as he — do not excuse the violent few. They must be punished. He must be removed.

Social causation is difficult to demonstrate, particularly between one person’s words and other persons’ deeds. However: The person voters hired in 2016 to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed” stood on July 28, 2017, in front of uniformed police and urged them “please don’t be too nice” when handling suspected offenders. His hope was fulfilled for 8 minutes and 46 seconds on Minneapolis pavement.

…

The measures necessary for restoration of national equilibrium are many and will be protracted far beyond his removal. One such measure must be the removal of those in Congress who, unlike the sycophantic mediocrities who cosset him in the White House, will not disappear “magically,” as Eric Trump said the coronavirus would. Voters must dispatch his congressional enablers, especially the senators who still gambol around his ankles with a canine hunger for petting.

If Trump reads it he won’t understand it. Too many hard words.

Originally a comment by Tim Harris on Like an awkward impulse buy.

Many plays by Shakespeare and writers of his time are profoundly political (European visitors were shocked at what the English companies got away with, for you simply could not be so political in any other European country), and if the director does not recognise this, or seeks to foist on plays some obvious contemporary ‘relevance’ that has nothing to do with the issues that are addressed in the plays, then that is a recipe for rendering the plays as dead as doornails. European (non-Anglophone) productions of Shakespeare, and particularly Kosintsev’s great film versions, often recognise the politics of the plays far better than most Anglo-Saxon productions do. I think that after the Civil Wars, it became difficult to address political matters on the English stage, and then in the Victorian Age, individualism, the growing lack of a sense of the common weal, and mere pathos came to dominate the theatre – and this continued into the 20th century in the Anglophone world. ‘Politics’ was thought to be in rather bad taste, an attitude that pervades modern journalism in the Anglophone sphere, particularly the USA, with its ‘both-sides-ism’. ‘”Hamlet” is about Hamlet,’ said Peter Brook in an interview on Japanese television about his pared-down version, a very unsatisfactory remark that went with a very unsatisfactory production – it is this attitude that I take strong issue with in my essay on the production. This is not to say that there not have been productions that recognise the importance of the political: Michael Bogdanov’s come to mind, and there is a very good RSC production of ‘Julius Caesar’ with an all-black cast, directed by Greg Doran. Speaking of this last play, there’s a wonderful film of it performed in Italian by the denizens of a high-security prison in Italy (that is, by men who are members of the Mafia and other ‘societies’): these men absolutely understand hierarchy, intimidation, vaunting, the politics etc from the inside, and it shows: ‘Caesar Must Die’, directed by Paolo & Vittorio Taviani.

There was also the matter of censorship: censorship in Shakespeare’s time was there, of course, but it was rather loose. But in 1737 a law was brought in that put the Lord Chancellor’s office in charge of licensing plays for performance – Robert Walpole didn’t want any satirical takes on his government appearing on stage. In the 19th century, Ibsen was banned from the British stage. The first great British political play in Britain in the 20th century was Harley Granville Barker’s ‘Waste’ (1907), which was banned from public performance by the Lord Chamberlain’s office, and remains still too little known.

And speaking of popes and the Catholic church…

Seven months pregnant, Manuela, a mother of two, said she miscarried at her modest home in rural El Salvador. But the police, and a judge, didn’t believe her. They charged and convicted her for aggravated homicide, sentencing her to 30 years in prison.

But Manuela only served two of those years. In 2010, she died alone in a hospital of Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a disease her lawyers say caused her to miscarry. 

More than 140 women have been charged under El Salvador’s total ban on abortion since 1998, incarcerated for up to 35 years in some of the world’s most notorious prisons. Like Manuela, many say they never had an abortion, but instead claim that after suffering a miscarriage they were wrongfully convicted when their doctors accused them of intentionally terminating their pregnancies. 

Women’s bodies belong to everyone but themselves.

For more than 20 years, El Salvador — a tiny Central American country struggling with brutal gang violence and a record-high homicide rate — has completely banned abortion, including in situations when the procedure could save the patient’s life. The total ban was lobbied for by the Roman Catholic Church, an institution that became particularly powerful in the country after its devastating civil war. In 1998, the church was successful in cementing the ban into El Salvador’s constitution, adding an amendment to say that “life begins at conception.”

“No one should act against a life once it has been conceived,” said Father Edwin Banos, a social media savvy millennial priest based in Metapan, El Salvador, who’s thrown public support behind the country’s anti-abortion laws.

Easy for him. He’ll never have his body taken over by someone else without his consent. That happens to other people, people not like him, and he thinks he has the right to force them to share the inside of their bodies with someone else even when they don’t want to.

Even Catholic archbishops don’t want Trump polluting their sites.

President Trump drew fresh criticism from religious leaders on Tuesday when he and first lady Melania Trump visited a shrine to Pope John Paul II in Washington, D.C.

The trip to to the Saint John Paul II National Shrine drew a sharp response from Washington Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory, who said, “I find it baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated in a fashion that violates our religious principles.”

They do have some principles in common, like the subordination of women for instance.

The visit took place less than 24 hours after an Episcopal bishop said the president had used the Bible as a prop during a photo op outside the historic St. John’s Church.

Trump uses everything as a prop. He doesn’t value anything for itself, he values only what makes him look richer or more dominant or both. His wife is a prop, his children are props, the Oval Office is a prop, that desk that he keeps naming is a prop, Tony Fauci is a prop, Barr is a prop, generals are props, soldiers are props, the crowd is a prop, the helicopter is a prop, the Rose Garden is a prop. People who call him Sir are a prop. We’re a prop.

The Saint John Paul II National Shrine, which sits on the edge of the campus of Catholic University, was created by the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic men’s fraternal group. It was designated a national shrine by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2014.

Why do the bishops get to designate a national shrine? For that matter what is a national shrine, and why do we have any? We don’t have a state religion, so why should we have national shrines? I certainly don’t see any pope as a national anything; the papacy is a monstrous institution.

Via Casey Rae on Facebook:

He says it’s a poster that was for sale at the Holocaust museum in DC.

Erm…what?

I’m as baffled as the people who jump up shouting “What are you doing?!”

The Post and Courier talked to him afterwards:

“I am not your enemy,” Givionne “Gee” Jordan Jr. told the officers. “All of you are my family.”

Emotion caught his voice. Other protesters crouched over him, their hands on his shoulders as he spoke. “I love each and every one of you. I want to understand all of you. I want to. I would love to see the best side of everyone here.”

So, naturally, they arrested him.

In an interview with The Post and Courier, Jordan, a 23-year-old Charleston resident, said he spent the night in the county jail. He was charged with disobeying a lawful order, according to a police report.

The police chief says yes but we had told them to disperse. We told them many times. We said they’d be arrested if they didn’t.

Ok but then that takes the question back a step: why did the police tell them to disperse?

Reynolds did not say why officers seemed to single Jordan out from the crowd. Jordan said he was arrested around 5 p.m., well before Charleston’s 6 p.m. curfew.

Reynolds stressed that officers were also on high alert Sunday after a night of unrest Saturday, which included fires and looting.

Ok but does a guy kneeling and talking passionately about love and understanding suggest a guy bent on fires and looting?

Jordan was among a crew who volunteered to clean up downtown Sunday morning. He swept the streets and carried plywood to help business owners board up their storefronts. In the afternoon he headed to Marion Square, near King Street.

A crowd of about 200 gathered. At some point, Jordan, a black man, knelt on the ground.

“My plan was to get all the people beside me, kneeling behind me, kneeling with me,” he said in an interview. “Showing the cops that we are no threat. We are no threat at all. We just want to make the world better.”

In the video, several white protesters can be seen crouching around him, placing their hands on him.

They started doing that when his voice started breaking.

“I would love to see the best side of everybody here,” Jordan told police. “This is not the best side of everybody here.”

So they uttered not a word, and arrested him.

One part of the picture:

A Twitter account that tweeted a call to violence and claimed to be representing the position of “Antifa” was in fact created by a known white supremacist group, Twitter said Monday. The company removed the account.

Before it emerged the account was run by white supremacists, Donald Trump Jr., President Donald Trump’s son, pointed his 2.8 million Instagram followers to the account as an example how dangerous Antifa is.

…

The revelation of the account comes as President Donald Trump increasingly blames left-wing activists for violence occurring at protests across America.

Trump and Fox News and the Matt Gaetz types and all their fans.

The phenomenon of people on the right creating fake Antifa accounts predates the current wave of protests. The takedown Monday is not the first time a fake Antifa account linked to white supremacists has been suspended by Twitter, the spokesperson confirmed.

Is there anyone available to shout “FAKE NEWS!”?

Some commentary and information.

It is all very Putin, isn’t it.

Note: Val Demings is a former Orlando police chief.

Oh yes, the guts. So much the guts.

After the path has been cleared by violent men gassing citizens? How does that take guts?

Also –

The Post on Trump’s fascist overture:

President Trump began mulling a visit to St. John’s Episcopal Church on Monday morning, after spending the night devouring cable news coverage of protests across the country, including in front of the White House.

The historic church had been damaged by fire, and Trump was eager to show that the nation’s capital — and especially his own downtown swath of it — was under control.

Not, be it noted, that the nation’s president gave a rat’s ass about the casual murder of a black suspect by a white cop, but that the nation’s president’s neighborhood was under control. How to demonstrate that? Well, as luck would have it, there were protesters just outside, in Lafayette Park – which is indeed right across the street from the north side of the White House. How handy.

And so — shortly before the president addressed the nation from the Rose Garden at 6:43 p.m. Monday and roughly a half-hour before the District’s 7 p.m. curfew went into effect — authorities fired flash-bang shells, gas and rubber bullets into the crowd, clearing a path for Trump to visit the church immediately after his remarks.

In other words “authorities” perpetrated a violent attack on citizens in a public park.

The split screen as Trump began speaking was dark and foreboding — an angry leader proclaiming himself “an ally of all peaceful protesters” alongside smoke-filled mayhem and pandemonium as protesters raced for safety.

An angry, dangerous, uncontrollable, authoritarian, violence-loving dictator. He’s not any kind of leader, he’s a dictator.

When Trump had returned safely to the White House less than an hour later, the verdict seemed clear: The president had staged an elaborate photo op, using a Bible awkwardly held aloft as a prop and a historic church that has long welcomed presidents and their families as a backdrop.

In the process, protesters had been tear gassed and attacked, and Trump had taken a raging conflagration and doused it with accelerant.

He was in a tantrum about news coverage of his bunker night, and about news coverage of his phone call to the Floyd family which he of course thought had been wonderful but no one else did, and about new coverage of protests near his bunker.

Jason Miller, a former senior adviser on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, defended the president’s decision. He said Trump was elected in part on law-and-order themes, which he needs to continue to hammer, while simultaneously talking to black supporters about some of his initiatives, such as criminal justice reform.

“You’re going to have to go and knock some of the bad guys around a little bit,” Miller said. “Once they get tear gassed or pepper sprayed, they don’t want it to happen again.”

So people peacefully protesting in a park are “the bad guys” and Trump needs to knock them around with tear gas or pepper spray.

He added that Trump had been reminded by allies that he was elected as a “get-things-done president.”

“He’s not the hand-holder or consoler in chief,” Miller said. “He was elected to take bold dramatic action and that’s what he did.”

And “getting things done” means enacting violence on people who object to police violence against racial minorities. “Bold dramatic action” means violently ejecting citizens from a public park for no good reason and with no warning. What “bold dramatic action” will we be seeing next? Massacres? Mass lynchings? Immolations?

The action began less than an hour before the District’s curfew, and in the moments before Trump was set to speak. Just after 6 p.m., hundreds of protesters were gathered on H Street NW, facing Lafayette Square. Though members of the National Guard — wielding shields that said “Military Police” — were lined up behind barricades, along with Secret Service and other law enforcement officers, the protesters remained peaceful. Several played music, and one painted on an easel.

But shortly thereafter, Attorney General William P. Barr visited the scene, and, about 6:30 p.m., the National Guard moved just yards from the protesters, prompting some screams. Some protesters threw water bottles, but many simply stood with their arms raised.

Then, the chaos began.

That is, then the unprovoked attack began.

Members of the National Guard knelt briefly to put on gas masks, before suddenly charging eastward down H street, pushing protesters down toward 17th Street. Authorities shoved protesters down with their shields, fired rubber bullets directly at them, released tear gas and set off flash-bang shells in the middle of the crowd.

Protesters began running, many still with their hands up, shouting, “Don’t shoot.” Others were vomiting, coughing and crying.

As Trump began to speak, some protesters took a knee several blocks from the White House, again yelling, “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” But they were never able to stay kneeling for more than a couple of minutes, because authorities kept pushing them forward, as a thick, yellow cloud of smoke hung over the crowd.

Trump was talking while this was going on. He threatened protesters and then said with his usual moronic coyness “And now I’m going to pay my respects to a very, very special place. Thank you very much.” What, the toilet? No, he meant The Church. What’s so very very special about that? What does very very special even mean? Besides that Trump has no words?

Then he and Princess Ivanka and a small crowd of white men loped off to the very very special place.

Trump seemed to take in the scene and paused in front of St. John’s, turning to the cameras and holding up a black Bible in his right hand.

For what purpose? Is he auditioning for a biopic about Fred Phelps?

Asked if it was a family Bible, he said, simply, “It’s a Bible.”

And why is he brandishing it at us? To announce our debut as that new thing, a theocratic oligarchy?

Soon after the church event, the president’s top law enforcement and military officials, including the secretary of defense, attorney general and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, walked across parts of downtown Washington in an unusual show of force.

That is, in an unusual threat of military dictatorship aided by the attorney general. Yeah, that is “unusual.”

Some local officials were livid. D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser upbraided Trump on Twitter: “I imposed a curfew at 7pm. A full 25 minutes before the curfew & w/o provocation, federal police used munitions on peaceful protesters in front of the White House, an act that will make the job of @DCPoliceDept officers more difficult. Shameful! DC residents — Go home. Be safe.”

The Right Rev. Mariann Budde, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, said she learned of the president’s visit by watching it on the news.

“I am outraged,” she said, with pauses emphasizing her anger as her voice slightly trembled. “I am the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington and was not given even a courtesy call that they would be clearing with tear gas so they could use one of our churches as a prop, holding a Bible, one that declares that God is love and when everything he has said and done is to inflame violence.”

Oh who cares what she thinks – it’s Trump’s church, not hers, because everything is Trump’s, because he’s the god-king-emperor-bishop-general.

This. This is a coup move.

The Guardian Live reports:

Trump is predictably painting a picture of violent protests, focusing on “professional anarchists” and “Antifa”.

He says “we are ending the riots and lawlessness” and “innocent people have been savagely beaten”.

The president has threatened to send in military if governors don’t act. He said he also encouraged governors to bring in the National Guard, which many states have already done.

He’s not allowed to send in the military…unless he invokes the Insurrection Act. We don’t want him doing that.

While he was threatening martial law –

In a startling scene, police are using teargas to disperse crowds of protesters near the White House while Trump is speaking in the Rose Garden.

Here’s the exact language of Trump’s threat from the brief press conference:

I have strongly recommended to every governor to deploy the National Guard in sufficient numbers that we dominate the streets. Mayors and governors must establish an overwhelming law enforcement presence until the violence has been quelled. If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them.

Again: he can’t.

Trump’s extraordinary remarks have sparked widespread concern, with some noting that he is threatening to deploy the US military against citizens of this country. His speech took place as police were simultaneously teargassing protesters outside the White House. In his remarks, Trump also said the 7pm curfew in DC would be “strictly enforced”. The teargassing began prior.

This is an absolute fucking horror show.

He says (1:50) “as we speak” he’s “sending thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers and military personnel” – which, again, presidents are explicitly barred from doing.

This is baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad.

Bad bad bad bad.

Holy shit. Trump just had protesters gassed so that he could have a photo op with the gassing.

Police fired tear gas at peaceful demonstrators outside the White House Monday, just moments before President Trump addressed the nation about violent protests that have unfolded across the country over the killing of black men by police.

[Black people actually. Breonna Taylor was a woman.]

Sooner after his address, Trump used the path cleared by police to walk to St. John’s Church, which had sustained fire damage during protests the night before.

During his address from the Rose Garden, said he was dispatching “thousands and thousands” of armed soldiers, military personnel, and law enforcement officers to stop the rioting and looting seen in recent days.

…

Hundreds of demonstrators had peacefully gathered at Lafayette Park, when police, Secret Service and military police suddenly moved in to disperse the crowd.

With tear gas.

Oh hey gee whaddya know – it was a homicide.

The death of George Floyd, an African-American man who died in police custody, has been declared a homicide following an official post-mortem.

He suffered a cardiac arrest while being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on 25 May, the report found.

Being unable to breathe will do that. We’ve been reading about it in connection with the virus. The heart speeds up in the effort to pump oxygen to where it’s needed but it can’t, because the oxygen is blocked, so – bam. With the virus it’s the lungs, with George Floyd it was a cop’s knee on his neck. On.his.neck.

It listed Mr Floyd’s cause of death as “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression”.

…

The findings of the official post-mortem were released shortly after those of a private examination that was carried out by medical examiners hired by the Floyd family.

That report said Mr Floyd, 46, died from asphyxia (lack of oxygen) due to a compression on his neck and back. It also found the death was a homicide, a statement from the family’s legal team said.

“The cause of death in my opinion is asphyxia, due to compression to the neck – which can interfere with oxygen going to the brain – and compression to the back, which interferes with breathing,” Dr Michael Baden, a former New York City medical examiner and one of the pair, said at a news conference on Monday.

And no breathing ends up as no living.

Michael Sellers, a former CIA officer:

This call was absolutely batshit crazy. It’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back for me in terms of what I’m about to say. I have been thinking about this for several days and now, after this very disturbing call with the governors (for which there are audio recordings, so there’s no doubt what he said) — I’m going to say it: I am increasingly worried that Trump is laying the groundwork to invoke the Insurrection Act 10 U.S. Code § 252 and declare martial law. This is something he has the power to do, and if he were to do it, civilian rule of law would be suspended. There are many things pointing to the idea that he is at least aware of it and trying to lay groundwork: His attempt to designate Antifa as a “terrorist” organization helps lay that groundwork. More importantly, his efforts to position the governors as incapable of keeping the peace further lays that groundwork. The law states: “Whenever the President considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States, make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, he may call into Federal service such of the militia of any State, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to enforce those laws or to suppress the rebellion.”

Review the contents of the call with the government with that in mind: “You have to dominate or you’ll look like a bunch of jerks, you have to arrest and try people….It’s a movement, if you don’t put it down it will get worse and worse . . .The only time its successful is when you’re weak and most of you are weak.”

And this, which goes directly to the issue of martial law:

“So bad a few nights ago that the people wouldn’t have minded an occupying force . . .I wish we had an occupying force in there.”

…

One thing that may keep him from doing it would be the idea that it makes him look weak — that the only way he could control it was to resort to a military coup of his own government (which is what a declaration of martial law is, more or less). But I’m not at all sure that will stop him from doing it. And if he keeps fanning the flames and making it worse, all that does is heighten the likelihood that he could do it. I hope I’m wrong. I really, truly hope I’m wrong, but keep an eye on this and watch his actions with this in mind.

It’s very very scary.

More on Trump’s proto-fascist rant this morning:

On a video teleconference, the president warned that the law enforcement presence across Washington is set to intensify later Monday. He said the protests are ruining the nation’s standing on the world stage. And he called on governors to pass new bans on flag burning, a constitutionally protected expression of free speech.

“Washington was under very good control, but we’re going to have it under much more control,” Mr. Trump said, according to audio of the meeting obtained by CBS News. “We’re going to pull in thousands of people.” He added later: “We’re going to clamp down very, very strong.”

…

“You’re making a mistake because you’re making yourselves look like fools,” he told the governors at one point. “And some have done a great job. But a lot of you, it’s not – it’s not a great day for our country.”

One participant on the call described the president’s words and tone as “unhinged.”

He’s got bunker-fever.

The president said that the violence “is coming from the radical left — you know, it everybody knows it — but it’s also looters, and it’s people that figure they can get free stuff by running into stores and running out with television sets. I saw it — a kid has a lot of stuff, he puts it in the back of a brand new car and drives off. You have every one of these guys on tape. Why aren’t you prosecuting them? Now, the harder you are, the tougher you are, the less likely you’re going to be hit.”

He’s very worked up about looters stealing tv sets, far more worked up than he ever was about the police murder of George Floyd.

This kind of violence has happened before, Mr. Trump said. “It’s happened numerous times. And the only time it’s successful is when you’re weak. And most of you are weak. I will say this, what’s going on in Los Angeles — I have a friend lives in Los Angeles — they say all the storefronts are gone,” the president continued. “They’re all broken and gone. The merchandise is gone. It’s a shame. It didn’t look as bad to me — maybe it was the sunshine, I don’t know. But in Los Angeles, the storefronts are gone. Philadelphia’s a mess. What happened there is horrible.”

The murder of George Floyd, not so horrible.

“If you’re weak and don’t dominate your streets, they’re going to stay with you until you finally do it,” Mr. Trump said. “And you don’t want it. Philadelphia, you’d better toughen up. Because what’s going on in Philadelphia, like New York, is terrible. It’s terrible. You’d better toughen — they’ll never leave. I know you want to say, ‘Oh, let’s not call up the Guard, let’s call up 200 people.’ You’ve got a big National Guard out there that’s ready to come in and fight like hell. I tell ya, the best, what they did in Minneapolis was incredible.”

…

“You’ve got to arrest these people. You’ve got arrest these people — and you’ve got to charge them,” the president said to the governors. “And you can’t do this deal where they get one week in jail. These are terrorists, these are terrorists, they’re looking to do bad things to our country. They’re Antifa and they’re radical left.”

…

Mentioning Barr, the president said, “Bill —… if a brick is thrown at somebody, and it hits them, or maybe if it doesn’t hit them, your very tough, strong, powerful people are allowed to fight back against that guy. And very strongly and powerfully.”

He longs to watch violence against civilians on his teevee tonight. He’s panting with excitement.

Illinois Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker called on the president to tone down his political rhetoric. “We have to call for calm, we have to have police reform called for. … The rhetoric coming out of the White House is making it worse.”

“I don’t like your rhetoric much, either,” the president said before moving on. “But that’s okay, we don’t agree with each other.”

We need something nice FOR ONCE so here is something.

I’m just going to quote most of the rest, for ease of reading.

Swans generally mate for life – like humans, they will sometimes get “divorced”, and if one dies they will often find another partner. One day, the pair were flying together when the male swan hit a building and sadly died. His widow was left alone on the Highgate ponds.

For four years, the widowed swan spent her days alone, flying between the Highgate ponds as if looking for her lost mate. Just after he died she made a nest and laid unfertilised eggs. She never left to find anyone new, and any suitors who tried their luck were swiftly rejected.

The swan on the roof was quickly identified as our missing widow. She was collected by the amazing volunteers from The Swan Sanctuary, which really deserves its own thread: its founder, Dot Beeson, started it in her backyard, sold her own home to expand it and was awarded an MBE!

The rescued swan spent the weekend at the Swan Sanctuary. Since January, the Sanctuary had been home to a male swan, who’d been rescued after a territorial fight at Waltham Abbey and needed surgery to remove two fishing hooks found in his throat. Our widow was placed in his pen.

Soon she seemed fine to head home, so they went to retrieve her. The large male swan stood in the way. They let the two settle and tried again, and again he stood in the way. When they finally got her into the car, she cried for the male swan. Could it be love at first sight?