Two Beacons of Hope I'm Enjoying Today: Mueller Report and SPLC
Starting with the SPLC:
I've been a supporter for decades. But the last ten or fifteen years I've pulled back a bit, responding only to very specific requests to fund the Intelligence Report or other particular efforts. I didn't have a clear sense of why I was getting uneasy, but I was definitely getting uneasy about SPLC becoming, maybe, a bit too big, a bit too rich, and maybe even a bit out-of-touch.
When Mo Dees' resignation hit the headlines, my first thought wasn't that, though. I've always suspected Mo to be a bit of a horndog in the men-of-his-generation mold, and possibly prone to the kind of reflexive misogyny that goes with that and manifests as discriminatory and harassing behavior. As with Clinton, it's possible for a guy to do some good and even noteworthy things, but still have that Achilles' heel. So I thought the most likely issue was some kind of zipper control incident.
Then Cohen resigned. And I thought, 'Well, shit, does this mean they have one of those seriously fucked-up Culture of Misogyny things that's become an organizational leadership-wide rot that will open a Big, Ugly Can of Worms with all kinds of creepy cheesy incidents and allegations equivalent to whacking off into potted plants or whatever, and totally fuck the whole organization?
Because, seriously, where are they going to find talented leadership determined to restore the soul and carry on the mission of THAT organization if there's the kind of multiple-lawsuit, vomit-inducing misdeeds to be raked over endlessly in the clickbait media?
Then today Bob Moser's article in the New Yorker hit, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Because it's bad, but it's not that variety of bad. Instead, it's the White Savior Guy(s) syndrome coming to a head, based on some principled resignations by diverse key staff and strong digging-heels-in-and-refusing-to-sweep-under-the-rug-and-move-on compromise by what looks like the whole REST of the staff.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's minor, or anything but profoundly disappointing and disgusting that White Savior Guy(s) syndrome could get that entrenched- to the point of spending like poverty pimps on swanky buildings in the name of 'bringing visibility to the issue' and other such nonsense.
But what it IS, is remediable-- and remediable in an amazing way. There's a hella deep bench of principled, passionate, diverse leadership available to fix this. The remedy for White Savior Guy(s) syndrome is relatively easy when the talent's available, and boy, howdy, the talent IS available. And that line staff, and (I suspect) a lot of donors and ex-donors like me, will be holding that board's feet to the fire: Turnover on the board, more diverse board members, and diversity in senior leadership. No ifs, ands, or buts. And the resources are there.
So that's a "fixable", and a relatively EASY "fixable", and when they start that process, they'll get me back on their regular membership rolls.
On the Mueller Report:
As everyone connected with the GOP is discovering with brutal clarity for the last three years, "adulting is HARD"... particularly that "responsibility" stuff. As soon as you move past the whiny demanding my way opposition to everything except what I want strategy and have to actually, like, deliver on real promises and undertake >gulp< hard work and suchlike, it all falls apart. Especially under the constant gaze of the "Enemy of the People" media.
The whole drama-as-accomplishment mindset has pervaded our culture, and I'm sure the momentary feeling of "Wait, that's it? No major headline-grabbing indictments or red meat leakage of juicy horrors?" I had yesterday was down to my own being affected by that mindset.
But then I reached back into my own experience of How Actual Grown-Ups Do Things and realized that we're again seeing Jedi Masters playing the Latham County Corn-pone Eating Contest Champions. Any kind of high-drama announcements or indictments or even leaks, to accompany the simple act of submitting the report on a two year long investigation that produced dozens of indictments and convictions, involved hundreds of cooperating (and uncooperating) witnesses and thousands of hours of interviews and whole libraries' worth of documents, would trivialize that result.
Looking at the quality of that team (One indicator: How many actual leaks have been traced to that team over the course of the investigation? Another indicator: With all the most accomplished dirty-tricks ratfucker GOPpie operatives and a bottomless well of soiled cash to buy dirt, how many of that team have been successfully ratfucked?) I am growing more and more confident of two things:
First, whatever they handed over is undeniably and deeply consequential. And impeccably documented. And demonstrably non-partisan. It will be very, very, VERY hard to ignore, even for the most corrupt, self-serving and determined enablers of the AmerikReich. VERY hard. And it will be generously sprinkled with landmines primed to explode under any attempt to subvert or cover them up.
Second, whatever they did NOT hand over has already been shared where it will do the most good in the long term, with other very competent grown-ups who prioritize Doing the Job Right over getting headlines and/or enjoying the thrill of vindication.
In other words, this is not over.
It's just beginning.
So those are the two things making me smile today. You take 'em where you can get em, in the Amerikreich.
hopefully,
Bright
= new reply since forum marked as read
It's easy to forget that not everyone knows about the things we hold dear, isn't it?
No problem. I wasn't correcting you - just adding info to help readers.
No need to 
