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[ by Charles Cameron — Donald Trump and Joy Reid. meet CP Cavafy ]
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Donald Trump has been repeating a mantra tying Dems to the word mob recently — here’s one example:

“Democrats produce mobs, Republicans produce jobs!” @realDonaldTrump

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) October 19, 2018

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Belay that! For Trump “the mob at the gates” might equally, scarily, be that “caravan” in Mexico, making its way up to a confrontation with US troops at the border, and no doubt paid for their troubles by George Soros —

Take your camera. Go into the middle. You’ll find MS-13. You’ll find Middle Easterners..

Hold it: that’s a powerful image.

But Joy Reid saw the mob differently:

The mob are WOMEN.

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Democrats, the caravan, women — take the mob at the gates as you will, there’s a considerable force, on the outside, massing and pressing to come in. And poetry has something to say about that (recurrent) situation. In the words of CP Cavafy‘s celebrated poem, Waiting for the Barbarians:

What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum?

The barbarians are due here today.

Why isn’t anything going on in the senate?
Why are the senators sitting there without legislating?

Because the barbarians are coming today.
What’s the point of senators making laws now?
Once the barbarians are here, they’ll do the legislating.

Why did our emperor get up so early,
and why is he sitting enthroned at the city’s main gate,
in state, wearing the crown?

But I’ll invite you to read the answer to that question, and the rest of the poem, powerful as it is, on the Poetry Foundation site..

Cavafy has one possible outcome — but there may be as many as there are mobs, or people perceiving them.

In any case, enjoy the poem, and vote.

[ by Charles Cameron — Eric Trump & voices in the uncanny valley ]
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First, here’s Eric Trump saying the Democrats are “not even people”:

Now, for an exact comparison, here’s what “not even people” sound like, when they speak those same words:

Listen to the gaps, Eric, the lapses of emphasis.

Artificial human voices will no doubt improve: at this point they’re easily discernible. They sound uncanny.

Dems don’t sound like that.

[ by Charles Cameron — the words “substitute teachers” come to mind ]
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There’s nothing like quoting the recent past to illustrate the near future, eh?

https://twitter.com/postpolitics/status/785172785417125889

I guess these guys seem more presidential?

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Edited to add: Okay, revised version, 20 minutes later:

Live debate streaming tonight at 9 p.m. ET.
Post: https://t.co/IHaONdWF4o
Facebook: https://t.co/hZHrubnJJ5
Youtube: https://t.co/H9uZokKnIg pic.twitter.com/ZCdz6EWOKi

— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 9, 2016

https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/785177688839520257

[ by Charles Cameron — Hillary Clinton hoist as the contrapuntal mind springs into action ]
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Hilary Clinton recently tweeted:

The top 25 hedge fund managers make more than all of the kindergarten teachers in America combined. That’s not acceptable.

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 26, 2016

That was March 26th this year.

I have a certain fondness for the Medici, who sponsored the Platonic Academy under Marsilio Ficino, and more or less gave us the Florentine Renaissance, and for Paul and Mary Conover Mellon, who sponsored the magnificant Bollingen Series of books, starting with Where the Two Came to Their Father: A Navaho War Ceremonial, Joseph Campbell‘s collaboration with Jeff King and Maud Oakes..

But then I’m also highly appreciative of St Francis, the poverello of Assisi.. go figure.

Thing is, Bernie Sanders had tweeted pretty much the same thing just a week earlier:

It's unacceptable that, last year, the top 25 hedge fund managers earned more income than 425,000 public school teachers.

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 19, 2016

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But hey, wait a minute, Hilary had also tweeted in June of 2015:

What's wrong with this picture? pic.twitter.com/GnytNmNS7A

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 13, 2015

— so now who has the “first mover” advantage? — plus she had graphics!

— and hold on, even that tweet drew an almost immediate tweet-back in refutation:

The fact that many of your major donors, and your son-in-law, are hedge fund managers? https://t.co/TA6ThYyTLc

— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) June 13, 2015

— from the redoubtable Marc Andreessen, no less.

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Nor are those the only ways those tweets of hers can bounce back on the Clinton campaign. Here’s another:

The top 25 hedge fund managers make more than all of the kindergarten teachers in America combined. That’s not acceptable.

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 26, 2016

.@GoldmanSachs paid you more for a 20 minute speech than a Kindergarten teacher makes in 10 years. #ImNotWithHer https://t.co/GKIumiC1d1

— Xavier Pérez (@DOUBTMYPROGRESS) March 29, 2016

I suspect, btw, Xavier Perez swiped that from Kevin Tulppo on Facebook a couple of days before..

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I’m not really much of a political animal — feeling powerfully drawn to Justin Erik Halldór Smith‘s remark today —

some questions have complicated histories and there might be no right side to take

— but in this entire by turns provocative, hilarious, sad, infuriating, and by now deeply fatiguing campaign season thus far, there has only been one image giving me a sense of quiet delight in one of the candidates..

On the left, Bernie Sanders as a far younger man — I can vaguely recall being a far younger man myself — and on the right, the book he was about to read, or had just been reading..

Rimbaud, poetry. Ah, youth.

[ by Charles Cameron — responding properly to Tim Furnish ]
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Political candidates and religion is not quite the same as church and state — an issue on which, as a Brit living in the States, I am profoundly impressed both ways. However, religion in politics very much interests me, and in my news scan early this morning I noted this tweet:

Cruz and wife "donated less than 1 percent of their income to charity and nothing to churches." From @AP story. https://t.co/NvYoCr5jkE

— Julie Bykowicz (@bykowicz) January 31, 2016

To which I responded:

Quoted in same article, Cruz suggested politicians should "avoid ostentatiously wrapping yourself in your faith" https://t.co/NOl7iqpibA

— hipbonegamer (@hipbonegamer) January 31, 2016

Tim Furnish picked up on this, and tweeted:

@hipbonegamer OK. But Hillary just said she is Christian and a devotee of the Sermon on the Mount. Where's AP story on how much she gives?

— Timothy Furnish, PhD (@Occidentaljihad) January 31, 2016

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From my point of view, I think that’s both a fair question and a great DoubleQuotes opportunity, so I followed Tim’s lead to the NYT piece he was refering to, and the result, phrased in headlines, is as follows:

Sources:

AP, Now deeply Christian, Cruz’s religion once wasn’t so obvious

NYT, Hillary Clinton Gets Personal on Christ and Her Faith

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For myself, I’m glad that Hillary Clinton “rarely talks about faith on the campaign trail” and that Ted Cruz‘s religion “once wasn’t so obvious”. Tithing as an obligation isn’t anything I worry about — the widow’s mite story gets to the heart of things, I think — and I’m a fan of reticence in matters of faith in any case:

Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee

pretty much puts the kybosh on publicity, methinks, as does:

when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret..

Similary, the second of Maimonides‘ Eight levels of charity is this:

to give to the poor without knowing to whom one gives, and without the recipient knowing from who he received. For this is performing a mitzvah solely for the sake of Heaven.

And the Qur’an, Sura 76. 8-9, suggests:

They give food, for the love of Him, to the needy, the orphan, the captive: “’We feed you only for the Face of God; we desire no recompense from you, no thankfulness..”

I’m not dogmatically tied to these views, Tim, but I admire them greatly — IMO, there’s simply so much beauty in such advice!