Austin Dispatches No. 230

Briefly: Protesters who represented a cross-section of Middle America swarmed the Capitol. The Congress cowered, fled, and hid, until enough government agents arrived with tear gas and brandished guns to expel Middle America.² Thereupon a succession of visibly rattled Congressmen declaimed they would not consider allegations of presidential election irregularities, but instead vote to certify state results in favor of Joe Biden, D-Del.³

Throughout, descriptions from establishment media sources clashed with their own video feeds. Indeed, we may have watched the first "insurrection" stymied by self-photography.⁴ But the establishment media, across the range of "respectable" opinion, maintained a consistent prissy, disapproving tone until the next day, when it added the hysteria of pearl-clutching ninnies for variety.⁵ In your own life, whenever someone uses the former tone toward you, you can be assured that you're in the right, regardless of the other person's status or power. And if it weren't for those pesky legal prohibitions against assault and battery, you'd be justified in rapping the mouth of the person using that tone, followed by a warning.

Quickly, the power elite canceled Inauguration Day festivities,⁶ erected barriers around the Capitol,⁷ and summoned 25,000 National Guardsmen to patrol the District of Columbia, then combed the ranks to purge Trump supporters,⁸ and left the rest to bivouac in parking garages in cold weather.⁹ Simultaneously, the FBI began arresting protesters who breached the Capitol.¹⁰ Vindictive Mafia princess Nancy Pelosi ramrodded a second House impeachment against Trump, for "inciting" the protesters.¹¹

At the inauguration, His Fraudulency avoided drooling and incontinence, but struggled through his blarney as other members of the power elite dozed while wearing face diapers improperly.¹² Later, he began signing executive orders overturning the work of his predecessor.¹³ Among his administration personnel, he picked admitted liar Anthony Fauci chief medical officer.¹⁴ The assistant secretary for Health nominee is a fat transvestite who melted down when addressed by the wrong pronoun.¹⁵ Meanwhile, His Fraudulency's presumed successor, Kamala Devi Harris, pitched a fit over a "disrespectful" Vogue cover.¹⁶ For people who just regained power, they don't seem too happy.

I can't recall the corporatist, managerial-therapeutic, warfare-welfare state ever working so hard at anything else, and to finally remove Trump from power visibly strained its members.¹⁷ That interloper bruised the self-regard of Beltway denizens. Over four years he treated them, in and out of his administration, like underperforming lackeys on a season of "The Apprentice."¹⁸ In other words, treating them as shabbily as they treat us. For that, he had to pay. In high school terms -- about as elaborate as many people can think -- the dweebs and apple polishers succeeded in ostracizing a combination of rich kid, jock, and class clown.¹⁹

For now, they command the heights, but they don't command respect. The donnybrook and the reaction exposed the limp wrist inside the iron fist inside the velvet glove. Even they know it, and they know we know it. A Pyrrhic victory or a dramatic loss to another challenge remain possibilities, even as they conduct sustained, multifaceted attacks against Middle America, to crush us under what cranky white nationalist Samuel Francis termed "anarcho-tyranny," or what scruffy anarchist Keith Preston terms "totalitarian humanism."²⁰ They used to do this with more finesse, but each successive generation of statists seem increasingly dumber and more impulsive in thought and deed.

Almost as bad, the scenarios I've described will be boring, to everyone except the sanctimonious jackasses getting their frissons from pestering the rest of us. Trump at least was entertaining, and turned American politics into a sort of group improv comedy.²¹ The sanctimonious jackasses, who normally pride themselves on their pop culture savvy, would've been delighted, except even they realized they'd been cast as the butt of jokes, or as straight men to Trump's antics.

Yet the corporatist state's attacks, and its members' power, can recede like Biden's hairline, if only Americans -- Americans in spirit, not merely on paper -- can summon within themselves the will to resist. You can do you part by helping to make face masks as socially unacceptable as sporting a swastika armband.²²

1 Cobler, Nicole. "House Member Tests Positive for COVID-19." AAS 16 Jan. 2021: B1+; Cowling, B.J. et al. "Face Masks to Prevent Transmission of Influenza Virus: A Systematic Review." Epidemiology & Infection Apr. 2010: 449-456; Deist, Jeff. The Imposers and the Imposed Upon. Auburn, Ala.: Mises Institute, 2020; Jacobs, Joshua L et al. "Use of Surgical Face Masks to Reduce the Incidence of the Common Cold Among Health Care Workers in Japan: A Randomized Control Trial." American Journal of Infection Control Jun. 2009: 417-419; Jingyi Xiao et al. "Nonpharmaceutical Measures for Pandemic Influenza in Nonhealthcare Settings -- Personal Protective and Environmental Measures." Emerging Infectious Diseases May 2020: 967-975.

2 Arkin, William M. "A Giant Fail." Newsweek Global 22 Jan. 2021: 16-21; Burke, Melissa Nann, Riley Beggin, and Christine Ferretti. "Capitol Stormed -- Protesters Interrupt Certification of Election, Send Officials Running." Detroit News 7 Jan. 2021: A1; Grant, Joseph. "Trump Supporters Storm U.S. Capitol Building; Electoral Vote Certification Halted As House, Senate Evacuated." Sweetwater (Texas) Reporter 7 Jan. 2021: 1; "A Long Day for Democracy." Bloomberg Businessweek 11 Jan. 2021: 6-9.

3 Edmondson, Catie. "Blame and Blowback for Senator Who Led Objections to Electors." NYT 9 Jan. 2021: A16; Gilbert, Craig et al. "Senate Rejects Arizona Objection After Pro-Trump Rioters Disrupt Vote Certifying Biden Election Win." Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 7 Jan. 2021: A6; Navarro, Peter. The Navarro Report, Vol. I-III. Scottsdale, Ariz.: Navarro Report, 2021; Schweizer, Peter. Profiles in Corruption: Abuse of Power by America's Progressive Elite. New York City: HarperCollins Publishers, 2020: Ch. 3.

5 Brooks, David. The Paradise Suite: Bobos in Paradise; and, On Paradise Drive. New York City: Simon & Schuster, 2011: 140-188; Herman, Ken. "Texans' Roles in a Day of American Infamy." AAS 7 Jan. 2021: A1+.

7 Layne, Nathan. "In a State of Alarm -- National Guard Deployed Across Country." The Daily Record/(Glasgow, U.K.) Sunday Mail 17 Jan. 2021: 8.

8 Smith, David. "FBI Vets Thousands of Troops Amid Fears of Insider Attack on Biden Inauguration." The Guardian 18 Jan. 2021: 24.

10 Nir, Sarah Maslin et al. "New Yorkers Detained in the Days After a Riot." NYT 14 Jan. 2021: A21; Recio. "At Least 4 Texans Charged in Capitol Riot." AAS 17 Jan. 2021: B1+.

11 Boyd, Herb. "Trump Impeached Again!" New York Amsterdam News 14 Jan. 2021: 1+; Kristof, Nicholas. "Trump Incites Rioters." NYT 7 Jan. 2021: A23; United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Special Inquiry Investigation on Thomas D'Alesandro Jr. 1961. <https://vault.fbi.gov/thomas-dalesandro-jr/thomas-d-alesandro-jr.-part-01-of-01/view#bypass-fullscreen>.

12 Stossel, John. "Coronavirus -- The Bad Optics of Pandemic Hypocrites in Elected Office." (Torrance, Calif.) Daily Breeze 28 Jan. 2021: 11; Trefousse, Hans. Rutherford B. Hayes: The American Presidents Series: The 19th President, 1877-1881. United States, Henry Holt and Company, 2002: 105.

13 Thrush, Glenn. "Biden's Executive Orders (About 30 in 48 Hours) Eat at Trump's Legacy." NYT 23 Jan. 2021: A16.

14 Jansen, Bart. "Biden Asks Fauci, Federal Coronavirus Expert, to Be His Chief Medical Adviser." (Ridgecrest, Calif.) Daily Independent 4 Dec. 2020: A2; McNeil, Donald G. Jr. "How Can We Achieve Herd Immunity? Experts Are Quietly Upping the Number." NYT 27 Dec. 2020: 6.

15 Strong, Kim. "Transgender Community in Pennsylvania Proud of Dr. Levine." Bucks County Courier Times 25 Jan. 2021: A2; "Turkeys: Radio Personality's Immaturity." (Easton, Pa.) Express-Times 16 May 2020: 4.

16 Schweizer, op. cit., Ch. 2; Wynn, Ron. "Vogue's Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris' Cover Generates Controversy." Tennessee Tribune 14 Jan. 2021: B3.

18 Kranish, Michael, and Marc Fisher. Trump Revealed: The Definitive Biography of the 45^th President, rev. ed. New York City: Scribner, 2017: Ch. 12.

20 AD No. 226n21 (June 22, 2020); Francis, Samuel T. Leviathan and Its Enemies: Mass Organization and Managerial Power in Twentieth-Century America. Arlington, Va.: Washington Summit Publishers, 2016; Preston, Keith. The Tyranny of the Politically Correct: Totalitarianism in the Postmodern Age. London: Black House Publishing, 2016.

21 Halpern, Charna, Del Close, and Kim Howard Johnson. Truth in Comedy: The Manual of Improvisation. Colorado Springs, Colo.: Meriwether Publishing, 2009.

22 Heller, Steven. The Swastika and Symbols of Hate: Extremist Iconography Today, 2nd rev. ed. New York City: Allworth Press/SVC NYC, 2019.

		Statism Is Bad for Your Health
Austin Dispatches	No. 230	Jan. 30, 2021