17 August 2018

#takemyclearanceplease

It's not current. I have no need for a security clearance at this time, let alone the one I used to hold.

I will nonetheless — for the rest of my life — support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. I therefore stand with John Brennan and a collection of other distinguished past servants of the Constitution (however much I disagree with some of them in detail) and present servants like Mr Ohr. I will not be cowed by your inability to accept criticism, Mr Drumpf, and implore that you consider in the bowels of Christ — or, given your more-probable object of worship, of Mammon — that you might be wrong. Fortunately, I'm no longer subject to Article 88, so I won't have to improve my attitude to mere contempt.

And remember that Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People also spoke out against the powerful and their economic interests. Ironically enough, concerning pollution and environmental degradation. Dr Stockmann (not David Stockman) is the hero, however flawed he may be, however selfish he may be, for his allegiance to uncomfortable truths. (Admittedly, the Arthur Miller adaptation is a bit too pointedly influenced by McCarthyism to be fully "faithful" to Ibsen's original.)