Green Eagle

 I suppose that many of you have, by now, heard about log4J, which I've seen described as one of the greatest internet security threats of all time.  I heard about it several days ago, and given the particular vulnerability (accidental or deliberate) of right wing websites to malware, I decided several days ago to keep away from that trash for a while.  When I am convinced that the problem has been dealt with, I will return to my usual posting. If you have not heard about log4j, here is an article from the Washington Post that explains the basics.

 Something that wingnuts have trolled liberals about for years is their alleged awarding of "participation trophies" to all kids that compete in an event, instead of just the winners.  Well, as usual, this is nothing more than made-up garbage, but in some ways they do have an argument to make here. Case in point:  Awarding the position of Attorney General of the United States as a participation trophy to a clearly weak man who is petrified of doing what needs to be done in this country. Y eah, you.  What do you have to smile about? As a result, we continue to have a Republican party that accuses all Democrats of being Satanic Communist pedophiles, and threatens them all with death, while Democrats cower in the corner, afraid to deal with the worst criminality we have ever seen in this country's government. This is the path to dictatorship, and if it happens it will not be only the Republicans' fault. 

 This news today, from Talking Points Memo: "Former Vice President Mike Pence signaled on Wednesday that it’s not a given that he’ll cooperate with the House Jan. 6 select committee." Because it's perfectly normal for someone to refuse to cooperate with an investigation into an attempt to murder them.   After all, there is nothing in the Constitution that forbids murdering the Vice President if it gets you what you want, and we know how dedicated Republicans are to a literal reading of that document.

 I had a reason at work to look at some aerial views of Auschwitz, on Google Earth.  Here is one: I took a little look at the rest of the modern city of Oswiecim.  Here is a residential neighborhood a couple of miles from the prison camp: Really, how much has changed?  Sure, these people are not headed directly to the gas chambers- oh no, a few more decades of work must be extracted from them before they are allowed to pass on to their eternal reward, but come on... Having been trained as an architect myself, I can at least express some respect for the degree to which the designers of these buildings drew their inspiration from a classic specimen of 20th century design.   What the hell is wrong with people?

We've seen, in the last few years, a collection of (naturally, Republican) new members of Congress who are as delusional and out of control as anyone since slavery proponent Preston Brooks beat a Senator on the floor of the Senate so badly that the injuries took three years to heal.  The attack by Congressman Brooks went essentially unpunished, and became a major incitement for the secession of pro-slavery States.   Preston Brooks Well, we have a similar problem now, with the likes of Paul Gosar, Madison Cawthorne, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Bobert, and undoubtedly more in the future.  None of their belligerent threats have reached the level of actual physical violence yet, but they are doing all they can to provoke it. The obvious response to this hateful behavior is to eject these people from Congress, as they are patently incapable of doing their duty to the American people.  Unfortunately, as with Preston Brooks, the forces of hatred and racism are too great to allow the 2/