Editorial

The is no good reason for me to know the name Julius Tate Jr. There is one bad reason. Julius Tate Jr. was a teenager out with his girlfriend in his own neighborhood. He was a young guy enjoying his life and I am some older guy that lives alone and writes detailed articles on technology and surveillance. He had excited young people things to be doing and I have boring old nerd guy stuff to be forever behind on. He will never know my name because the life he was enjoying was ended by a Columbus SWAT officer without warning while he was unarmed and accused of no crime.

I should have seen this pile of dystopian fecal matter stack up long before it reached eyeball height. In 2010 I had a friend who had been run off campus of the cult that called itself Cedarville Bible College for professing her (very white, very liberal) feminism. She was permitted to graduate but not permitted on campus except for class and chapel. She still had her meal card although she was not permitted to eat there because it had a magnetic stripe that would be swiped to record her attendance at church which was mandatory every day of the week.

The involvement of the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division in the affairs of the Columbus Police Department stretches back more than 20 years. Every instance to their intervention follows the same pattern. Local outrage leads to court cases which then lead to attorneys involved which then leads to the Justice Department stepping in. What follows next is a change in presidential administrations which leads to a change priorities, or in the case of the Trump administration outright removal of the pretense of priorities, which is then followed by half measures or consequences.

It began when Iranian soccer player Alireza Jahanbakhsh posted a photo of the late Iranian Quds force Commander General Soleimani after his death. Jahanbakhsh said Instagram had removed that post. Within hours the International Federation of Journalists reported that at least fifteen Iranian journalists have had their profiles suspended. After that Multiple Iranian newspapers and other media outlets reported being banned from the platform.

The world can stop wondering if last night's apparently less than effective missile attacks by Iran on three US airbases in Iraq are the one and done of a tit for tat round of posturing of two authoritarian regimes in crisis rallying their respective domestic political bases. This is not even the end of the beginning of a war.

It was something that should have never happened. This past Comfest in June 2019, members of the fascist group Proud Boys volunteered at Comfest and were welcomed. Despite the 2019 mission statement including the phrase “combating resurgent fascism” Proud Boys were allowed to pick up trash while wearing t-shirts and hats advertising their group and their beliefs, and after the objections of community groups who were alerted, were allowed to get free beer and police protection.

“Promise them anything, give them what they get, and fuck them if they can’t take a joke.” –Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to a staff member regarding the Kurds in 1975

Do you ever talk to yourself when alone? Mutter “good God” when you read a stunning twist of plot in a book or shout “holy shit!” when you open a bill? Do you swear aloud after an argument on the phone? Have you ever threatened a telemarketer after hanging up? Do you struggle with your private thoughts and discuss them with your loved ones at night as is considered healthy? Do you have friends that you discuss your private thoughts and ideas in your home? Does your subconscious cause you to talk in your sleep? Everyone does one or more of these things.