Social Darwinism At Its Worst

Texas Governor Abbott today issued an executive order ending the mask mandate in Texas. Dr. Kavita Patel, always smart and caring, notes that Houston has all four variants of Covid. Undoubtedly they will have more. Did Abbott not ruin enough people’s lives with the power failure ten days ago? Or maybe he thinks that his order will divert attention from it.

Abbott is doing more than even risking lives, he is assuring that cases will spike in Texas, and probably will spike in the rest of the country, too. President Biden said today that we can likely have vaccines for everyone by the end of May. That is incredible. Abbott couldn’t wait for two months? Obviously not. He has been vaccinated, which probably is enough for him, because he and his rich oil buddies don’t care about anyone else. This is social darwinism in its most immediate and evil form. If he survives, anyone who doesn’t is expendable or deserves it. Aristocrats in Dickensian London, and rich businessmen in Gilded Age New York stepped around or over the penurious, sick and freezing men and women lying in the streets. Abbott is a recognizable current version of those people.

How does somebody like Abbott get elected? Of course, they’ve elected Cruz and Cornyn there, too. Something about “freedom,” I guess, which shows the power of worthless slogans. I would like to think that the freedom to be able to be protected from a dreadful virus is more important than the freedom to make another billion dollars by keeping the energy supply and the power grid in the hands of a few people, or the freedom to do whatever you feel like, no matter how many others you endanger.

Maybe there will be calls for Abbott to resign, or be impeached or recalled? No, that is only going on in New York. I wish that we could build a wall around Texas for at least the next few months, but we can’t.

FBI Director Christopher Wray

I am watching FBI Director Wray being questioned by the Senate Judiciary Committee I haven’t seen all of it, and I wonder if anyone who has, is having a similar reaction to mine, that Wray is far from great? I guess that the measure will be in his work, but we don’t know that much detail about it, nor as compared to how someone else might do.

My feeling after the election was that anyone whom Trump appointed, should be removed. His appointments, never good, had increasingly become more than partisan, they were obviously people who were chosen do exactly what Trump wanted. DeJoy. That late appointee to the Defense Department, who was said to be ready to call Georgia officials, lie about voting fraud, and thus overrule them and have it all go to the Supreme Court. These were like Mafia “appointees.’

After Trump fired Comey, he picked Wray, and said that he wasn’t sure about him, but “maybe he’ll be all right.” Wray does not seem like a partisan hack, but he seems today to be trying very hard not to upset the Republican senators. When asked by Democratic Senator Coons if he has seen any evidence whatsoever that people at the insurrection were posing as Trump supporters, or that Antifa or BLM had any part in these riots, he said, “not at this point.” He also said that some parts of the insurrection were organized. Maybe that is true. only parts? What other parts were there?

There had been some media discussion as to whether President Biden was going to keep Wray. After being elected, Biden said that he would keep him. I guess that it would look bad if he changed his mind now. The concern is that this is a time of great danger to the country, from White Supremacists, Nazis, and Fascists; and we need an FBI which fully understands this danger, and does everything it can to deal with these threats. We cannot afford to just try not to make waves, as President Obama did when he re-appointed Comey, who already had a history of adversity with the Clintons. We don’t want an FBI Director who is so concerned about upsetting Republicans, that he hedges, and tries to purvey some “both sides” narrative. We want precise and effective law enforcement.

Well, it’s just my reactions, but as I watch more of Wray, I am not fond of his affect, including facial expressions,and a bit of condescension when responding to Democrats. Maybe he did not like it when Senator Whitehouse blasted him for not cooperating in terms of statements and press conferences. My armchair suggestion would be to get a new Director, but very possibly that would cause real problems with FBI morale, so I guess that we are stuck with him. Maybe he will do what is necessary, we must all hope so.