Sunday Morning from Muncie and the Velvet Underground

Up and down all night, and finally deciding against trying any longer, so up at 7 am. That is actually late for me.

Hit the ibuprofen before the email and stuff to read.

 From The Guardian Book Review: The Singularities by John Banville review – inside a murderer’s underworld; and Where to start with: Marcel Proust

Reading Over 100 Indiana churches leave United Methodist Church as social issues wedge a divide left me confused. There was this paragraph:

Over 100 Indiana congregations of the United Methodist Church are splitting from the national denomination in a decision that lays bare how social issues such as same-sex marriage have wedged a divide between progressive and conservative branches of the church.  

Indiana’s branch of the denomination has more than 1,000 congregations, meaning Saturday’s decision marked a minority exodus. But more in Indiana and across the country are expected to disassociate by the end of 2023 due to a change in church policy, titled "Disaffiliation over Human Sexuality," that governs exits.

Then there was this:

The church still holds a ban on LGBTQ clergy and ordaining same-sex marriages. Global delegates of the church voted to maintain that ban during a 2019 General Conference in St. Louis, in which they decided 438-384, or 53% in favor, of a traditional plan that upheld long-standing rules. The church enacted its exit framework that same year.

Trimble wrote in a blog post from August he was aware of claims the UMC wanted to “eliminate or alter foundational theological doctrines including the Trinity and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” “These claims are blatantly untrue, and I would question the motives of any person who would assert such falsehoods,” Trimble wrote. 

Seems all that happened was the rule for leaving changed, not anything substantive. 

Stan Cox's No Red Wave, But Plenty of Red Flags contained a quote that really warmed the cockles of my heart, something I have thought and said since 1984:

In an October 20 article titled “We Need to Stop Calling Ourselves Conservatives,” John Daniel Davidson, a senior editor at the arch-far-right outlet The Federalist, made MAGA goals crystal clear. He wrote that conservatives “should stop thinking of themselves as conservatives (much less as Republicans) and start thinking of themselves as radicals, restorationists, and counterrevolutionaries.” He continued,

Put bluntly, if conservatives want to save the country they are going to have to rebuild, and in a sense, re-found it, and that means getting used to the idea of wielding power, not despising it. . . . conservatives will have to discard outdated and irrelevant notions about ‘small government.’ The government will have to become, in the hands of conservatives, an instrument of renewal in American life — and in some cases, a blunt instrument indeed.

This sort of language was casually mainstream in GOP circles before the election, and there’s no reason to expect far-right lawmakers and governors to be chastened by the November 8 results. Even if Team MAGA is prevented from taking long-term one-party control of the federal government, we face a rough road ahead. A nation having one of two major parties dominated by leaders hostile to democracy is at risk of experiencing lasting damage.

Back in 1984, people were enthralled by the escape from the stagflation at the end of the 70s. There was a mass exodus of factory jobs from this part of the country. Certainty, prosperity, common sense were promised by conservatives. But if they had paid attention to the Moral Majority, to Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, or to Phyllis Schafly, they would have noticed the America desired was a narrower one, with fewer rights, with prosperity limited to the rich. They were out to change America into their image, not conserve anything that had made America. What had made America, its freedoms and civil rights, was what these conservatives detested.

Consider the accusation of Justice Alito leaking court opinions: Former Anti-Abortion Leader Alleges Another Supreme Court Breach, Justice Alito denies disclosing 2014 Hobby Lobby opinion in advance, Supreme Court leaked landmark case years before Roe was overturned, ex-abortion activist says in new report, and Justice Alito Allegedly Leaked Hobby Lobby Birth Control Decision to Donors in 2014. Seems to me that the right, particularly the religious right, have been working on certain goals for a long time. The far-right conspiracy theorists skipped over this - after all, it is to their advantage - but may their theories are fueled by a bad conscience over their own anti-American cabal.

The same article has some ideas that might apply to Indiana:

In an October 2022 working paper titled “Pro-democracy Organizing against Autocracy in the United States,” Erica Chenoweth and Zoe Marks of the Harvard Kennedy School propose a set of strategies that could form the basis of “a broad-based pro-democracy struggle” in the event that “the U.S. began to careen more precipitously toward authoritarianism at the national level.” What effective actions can communities and broader networks of people take if we find ourselves living under a regime in which elections occur on schedule, but, as they write, “rule of law, separation of powers, press freedom, and civil rights are weak or nonexistent”? They suggest four broad strategies.

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In looking through Chenoweth and Marks’s list, it occurred to me that these strategies could be just as effective in heading off autocracy as they would be in coping with it. They seem especially relevant in several southern and midwestern states that are sliding briskly toward authoritarian one-party control. With the midterm election now behind us, I’m hoping for a surge in what Brownlee called “organized movements that can compel a policy change,” a surge aimed at both building multiracial, pluralistic democracy and preventing climate meltdown.

Quoting the list will take too much space, follow the link to read them in detail,  I will condense them into this: find allies, organize, and take action.

I think I have said this before in these notes that we are looking at a return to the 1920s. The Indiana Democrats need to organize accordingly.

I miss Modern Times, Nuvo used to run it, but here is one online.

The regular Guardian newsletter came in while I was typing this. There are two stories I have not seen anything else on the little TV news I watch, or in the few newspapers I track.

Sex parties and fast cars: US agent turned cartel mole claims DEA corruption:

In what prosecutors called a “shocking breach of the public’s trust”, Irizarry, 48, also laundered money with members of a Colombian drug cartel who were supposed to be his sworn foes.

The explosive revelation that one of its former rising stars spent years as a kind of cartel double agent has been deeply embarrassing to the DEA, and that and other scandals afflicting the agency show no signs of abating.

Last year, DEA agent Chad Scott was sentenced to 13 years in prison for falsifying government records, perjury and stealing money from suspects during investigative work. Earlier this year, another agent, Nathan Koen, was convicted of accepting bribes from a drug trafficker, and a third, John Costanzo Jr, was charged with accepting bribes in exchange for leaking confidential information to defense lawyers.

In interviews with the Associated Press, Irizarry, who recently began a 12-year prison sentence, has claimed that corruption is endemic in the powerful US drug agency, which has 92 foreign offices, about 4,600 special agents and a budget of more than $3bn.

“You can’t win an unwinnable war,” Irizarry told the Associated Press. The “DEA knows this and the agents know this”. There is “so much dope leaving Colombia. And there’s so much money. We know we’re not making a difference.”

The war on drugs proceeded from a false idea could only breed corruption. Thing is the bureaucrats want to keep their jobs, their budgets, their power, and that is itself a form of corruption. None of this has done our country any good.

Muncie saw this back in 2008: 8 a.m.: New rules for drug forfeiture in Muncie. In 2011, The county prosecutor was disciplined by the Indiana Supreme Court for the part he had in drug forfeiture cases: IN RE: Mark R. McKINNEY.

The other story was about the latest climate summit: Cop27: EU president says deal is ‘small step towards climate justice’ but warns much more to be done – live. I cannot get away from the idea that we have destroyed ourselves.

Midstory blog has Is a Walkable Midwest Possible?, a subject close to my heart. I find the outer ring of Muncie not conducive to walking. I used to think Anderson as tough on pedestrians, but my recollection is of more sidewalks in Anderson. It's just that Andersonians used to look at walked as possible mad-dog mass killers as they drove by in their cars.

When compared to other countries, America receives consistently low walkability scores. A recent study released by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy found that, of the 1,000 cities surveyed, only one U.S. city – Washington, D.C. – placed in the top 25 on any index that measured walkability. Urban sprawl and the suburbanization of America have made walking difficult in many cities and towns and nearly impossible in others, and the country’s outdated infrastructure makes travel more risky for pedestrians. While a handful of major urban centers in the U.S. rebut this phenomenon, they are more outliers than the norm.

“Walkability” is a fairly expansive concept that takes into consideration the ease and safety of foot traffic, the proximity of amenities and businesses, and the practical design and aesthetics of walking areas. Cities and neighborhoods considered to be “walkable” enjoy a host of economic, health, sustainability and community benefits, so facilitating and maximizing an area’s walkability is top of mind for many urban planners and designers.

The answer is maybe, if the effort is made. 

I am #91 in the queue at Clarkesworld magazine.

 The Atticus Review has a reading list. Ah, if I had the time! Too many titles sounding too interesting. I make note of this so that you can get at the wider world.

Also from Atticus, BOOK REVIEW: You Have Reached Your Destination. I do not know the name Louise Marbug. After reading the review, I think I should find her.

Marburg’s writing is whip smart; her closely observed characters run the gamut from innocent to wickedly spiteful; and her plots pop with unexpected, but beautifully inevitable, endings throughout this collection, as well as her two prior collections, No Diving Allowed from Regal House Publishing and The Truth About Me from WTAW Press. Her stories balance the wry with the deeply felt, the humorous with the human, every time.

Minimag has a new issue, I have not even been able to skim and now that I am feeling rather ruthless towards my email, I probably will not. I skimmed, probably will regret not reading more in depth; it looks lovely.

I got around to reading "Sharpe Ratio" by John Kaufmann from Epiphany. It was a hoot. I envy the diction. I suppose this would the way I would have written if I had stuck to my guns 40 years ago.

Enough with the email, I give up. I still have a newsletter from AGNI that looks interesting. Graham Norton is on the TV, but I am getting tired of the TV. Thing is, I cannot stand silence. The Paris Review is letting Joan Dion interviews from out of their paywall. I have read Slouching Towards Bethlehem and one of her novels. I will want to read this.

It is 9;56. Taking a break from reading and onto other things.

Leave you with the Velvets:

 

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