Deny, Defend, Depose

Luigi Mangione look-alike contest in New York involving
lots of 'innocent' fun for contestants and audience alike.

A shocking shooting incident occurred in Manhattan a few days ago when a young man stalked, then shot, the CEO of United Healthcare, Brian Thompson, twice in the back and killed him. It was in daylight with no attempt to hide the public murder. So far, so shocking, though murders involving guns in America seem to the rest of the world, to be worryingly commonplace.

The blurred image of the assassination as Mangione takes aim

Brian Thompson, C.E.O United Healthcare; executed in a New York street.
Remembered by those who knew him as
one of 'the good guys'

Perhaps the most shocking aspect of this murder is the reaction of much of the rest of the American world. The 26- year-old-shooter, Luigi Mangione, is well-educated [high-end prep school and Ivy League degree] and from a prosperous, highly respected Baltimore family, perhaps the most respected in Baltimore’s Little Italy. Nicholas Mangione was born there into a poor immigrant family in 1925 and from these modest beginnings, including serving in the Navy in the Pacific in WW2, Nicholas built a series of successful business enterprises in and around Baltimore covering country clubs, golf courses, assisted living facilities. The family has donated one million dollars to the Baltimore General Hospital among other good causes and is famous for its philanthropy. Within the tight-knit Italian community, there is enduring loyalty to Nick Mangione who died in 2008 and who was proud of both the family name and generosity, and its acknowledged distance from any Mafia connection. Luigi is one of his 37 grandchildren and an heir to the Mangione vast family fortune.

Mangione carried this gun and multiple IDs

Luigi has made no attempt to obfuscate his motive for the killing. He seems to have a highly critical opinion of much of corporate America, especially of the highly expensive Health Insurance section of the business world. The bullets he used, easily retrieved by officials, had ‘Deny; Defend; Depose’ scratched on them. These words closely mirror the expressions used by the Health Insurance industry in response to rejected claims. When Luigi was arrested, he was carrying a hand-written note outlining his ill will towards the corporate elite and including the message, “These parasites had it coming.” Clearly, the murder, one might say, execution, was planned. His obvious ire against the Health Care industry and corporate elites in general, has definitely touched a public nerve and seems to portray a personal grudge carried to extremes. It may be that Luigi Msngione has some personal problems unassuaged by his privileged background.

Gorgeous Luigi appealed for his appearance, his 
social status and Ivy League background

Indeed, the most puzzling and frightening aspect of the Mangione/Thompson murder is the public reaction to it. It seems to have unleashed a torrent of abuse and vitriol against the Health Insurance community with approval of the Mangione murderous reaction and precious little sympathy with the Thompson family loss. Brian Thompson, 50 years old, married with two children, was killed in revenge for corporate, not personal, greed and misbehaviour. This is cause for anxiety in the entire Health Insurance industry. CNN describes the public feeling as “long-festering frustration at a health insurance system that is unique in the developed world as it squeezes profits for private companies from patients.” Apparently, a “sizable minority of Americans have reported being in medical debt.” In a Gallup Poll taken just before the murder, 62% of Americans think that it is the responsibility of the federal government to make sure all Americans have health care coverage. This new data shows a gradual reversal from eleven years ago during the roll-out of private health insurance created by the Affordable Care Act/ Obamacare. Then a 42% minority felt it was the responsibility of the federal government.

The photogenic Mangione charm, the second image taken
just before he murdered Thompson

The personal and strong support for the assassin, Luigi Mangione, is at least partially based on his good looks. Cultural critic Blake Thornton suggests that Americans are almost programmed to trust and empathise with young men who look like Mangione. He is being described as the ‘hot assassin’. Professor Tanya Horeck, an expert on digital culture and crime, from Anglia University, believes that social media have given those sentiments massive visibility and helped them to spread. She told the BBC that the Internet has caused a blurring of the lines between celebrity and criminality, adding that when people see an image of a good-looking person pop up, their first thoughts are of lust, not moral criticism.

In the U.K. the NHS [National Health Service] has the status of a quasi-religion while the population feels equally able to criticise its shortcomings.  However, it is unthinkable for the Brits to have to find affordable health insurance; we rightly expect the NHS, our old friend, to deal with our medical problems even though we increasingly must wait for appointments about which dereliction we
complain bitterly. I have recently been boasting of the unusual speed with which my necessary cataract problems have been dealt with. From initial appointment with ophthalmologist [Nov 13^th 2024] to second cataract removal [Jan 15^th 2025] demonstrates an amazing sprint achieved courtesy of NewMedica opening in Bury in late November. Had this not happened it would have been around a 34 week wait. A public conversation needs to happen in the UK with a view to perhaps changing the funding model for the NHS. However, a brave

NewMedica, Bury St Edmunds; opened Nov 2024

government or politician or popular public figure needs to be the figurehead and so far, there is no discernible Joan of Arc in view.

 

Florally Speaking

 

Florae

Primavera by Botticelli c1478
Featuring Flora the Goddess of Spring

A lovely young woman joined our family several years ago eventually marrying one of my grandsons. All three grandsons now have wives; it seems that marriage is back in fashion! The three grand-daughters-by-marriage, as it were, are super and have turned the trio of fond brothers into a sextet of strong friends and happy companions. They add a great deal to the sum of the family as all six gradually mature into becoming the fulcrum of the larger familial group.

Flora, as portrayed in a Roman mural in
the Villa di Arianna, Napoli

I am so delighted by one attractive name thus arrived, which can boast associations with history and poetry as well as beauty. That is not to undervalue the other girls’ names at all but the name, Flora, is simple, flowery, and somehow, the sheer prettiness of the name captivates the listener and the reader. It also has a rich history certainly dating from Roman times though it might well pre-date that long and noble era to the Greek. In Roman mythology, Flora was the goddess of flowers, of flowering plants, Springtime and fertility. In ancient Rome, people celebrated the arrival of Spring by holding festivals in honour of the divine Flora when they would wear flowers and participate in celebratory processions. In fact, Flora has been celebrated in art and literature throughout history. During the Renaissance she was often depicted in paintings and sculptures as a symbol of nature and beauty. The flowering of Botany as a science in the eighteenth century produced a bouquet of flowery English words, often taken from the Latin root. 

The only Fab Flora I know

The first recorded use of the name Flora for a girl was in 1777 with florescence appearing in 1793 fashioned from the Latin florescentia meaning blossoming. Florescence is also used to mean ‘thriving’ or ‘flourishing’, metaphorically as in ‘the highest florescence of a civilisation ‘or it can be applied to a person at the peak of his powers. The name Flora conjures up  notions of beauty, nature and blossoming and tends to be associated in the popular mind as a name for a gentle and feminine personality. It also contributes to words such as floral, florid, flourish, flowery; to expressions such as ’flora and fauna’ and to names such as Florence and Florida.

Thinking about the Roman roots of Flora has prompted me to wonder about other female names with similar associations, often from Greek mythology. I have located some; there are Aurora, Stella, Sofia, Clara, Beatrice, Candida, Claudia, Larissa. When I Googled the task, an unexpectedly large number of unknown, esoteric names came up; indeed, too many for comfort, 'per ardua, ad astra'  thought I, as I relinquished the task!

Flora MacDonald 1722-1790
Allan Ramsey

But leaving aside the Roman roots of the name, as the fair Flora who has inspired this blog, comes from a Scottish family, we must also look at the famous Flora MacDonald who courageously helped to save Bonnie Prince Charlie of the Stuart family as he was hunted by the English in Scotland, when she obtained passage for a party of eight from the Isle of Skye to the mainland in 1743. Prince Charles was hidden in the group, disguised as Betty Burke, an Irish maid. Flora was eventually identified by the British and imprisoned in the Tower of London, although Charles escaped to the Island of Raasay. Flora was released after the June 1747 Act of Indemnity when aristocratic sympathisers [including, it is said, Frederick, Prince of Wales] collected over £1500 for her freedom, an enormous sum for the time.

The name, Flora, is not unknown in Cornwall, in the town of Helston, the Cornish market town where the townsfolk have celebrated and enjoyed the wonderful tradition that is Flora Day for hundreds of years. They hold a Spring festival to celebrate the end of winter and mark the arrival of renewed vitality and fertility with the trees and flowers bursting into life. Many houses and shops are decorated with greenery and floral arrangements to expressn celebration of the spirit of renewal. 

Helston Flora Day Procession, 2017

Helston Town Band, be-garlanded for Flora

Botanical illustration; 18th century
Museum of Wales

18th century Botanophilia
The Spirit of the Enlightenment

Flora, Roman goddess of Spring

The Maga Heir Apparent

 

The Maga Heir Apparent

J.D.Vance

In writing about the soon-to-be President of the United States, I confessed to the fear of Donald’s mid-term departure, perhaps by sniper or possibly dementia, and the subsequent ascent of J.D. Vance from V.P. to President. I first heard some details about Vance’s early life when I saw the film [based on his book] of Hillbilly Elegy, and marvelled at what he had achieved and how far he had travelled from his roots. Clearly a man of condierable energy and determination. And gradually I have grown more interested in him and his beliefs as I have heard numerous reports of his subsequent opinions and decisions on his journey to the Political Right which jarred with my earlier impressions of this complicated man.

Hillbilly family.

 In Hillbilly Elegy, Vance paints a bleak picture of his turbulent early life in one of those deprived communities in Appalachia, describing  an environment in which  poverty was a “family tradition” for many people. He relates that alcohol, substance-abuse problems and domestic violence were commonplace and that hopes for a better economic future were in short supply. There was a personal rage there too, not only at the circumstances the Hillbillies found themselves in but also at their mainly-mute acceptance of their fate and dysfunctional lives.  Vance’s mother was an alcoholic and drug addict who was neglectful of, and often cruel to, her children. Alongside Vance’s harsh descriptions of his childhood, however, are striking memories of his beloved grandmother, “Mamaw,” Beverley Vance, to whom he pays tribute for providing the stablility that he needed at home and for encouraging him to rise above his difficult 

Vance and his mother, Beverley, sober
since 2018

circumstances. He moved in with her and Papaw, alcoholic James Vance, after his mother was sent to prison, when he was around the age of 16, and she undoubtedly steered him towards Education. He enlisted in the Marines and went on to the Ohio State University and subsequently, to Yale Law School; both remarkable achievements for a poor boy from a dysfunctional family in a rust belt city.

During the 2016 election Vance had voiced strong criticism  of Trump. In an interview that year, for instance, Vance bluntly stated, “I can’t stomach Trump,” but soon after entering the U.S. Senate race to represent Ohio in 2021, however, Vance publicly apologized for his past critical comments about Trump. For, despite having lost the Presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden, Trump remained highly popular among white male working class Republican voters in Ohio. Vance made his support for Trump’s policies the centrepiece of his Senate campaign and aligned himself with the Make America Great Again [M.A.G.A.] movement. He also repeated Trump’s false claims that there had been widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. Presumably these standpoints were electoral choices made by someone who wanted to win the race he was in and didn’t care too much about personal integrity. Many said that J.D would do anything to win and that, perhaps, is the secret to his success in life.

During the last eight years, J.D. has continued his psychological and political development and an important part of Vance’s transformation has been via his conversion to Catholicism and his intellectual move to the American Right, some might say, the Far Right. He voices admiration for the illiberal Victor Orban of Hungary who provides financial suppor for 'traditional families' [aka white, Christian, 

Elon Musk with ten of his twelve children

Hungarian-born] and is disillusioned with America’s constant wars; he shares Musk’s obsession with the low numbers of children in families [though Musk has contributed 12 children with three women which might evoke some admiration though also relief that he is rich as well as fecund. He claims to be 'doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis.'] Vance wonders if giving more votes to parents, or perhaps taking voting power away from childless couples, might not help American Society. He despairs over the high rate of divorce in America and was strongly opposed to abortion with no exception for rape or incest but has now conveniently fallen into Trump’s line of leaving these decisions to individual States. He

Vance trolled Harris as a 'childless cat lady'

has attacked day care as ‘class war against normal people’; cast aspersions on ‘childless cat ladies’; and suggested that the whole purpose of the post-menopausal woman is helping to raise children. J.D. seems possibly to be more than a touch chauvinistic, even misogynistic, but his view of the world is definitely retrogressive though he is quite careful to screen from the wider public some of his anti-modern views which do not win majority votes.

Current divorce rate in U.S. at a 50 year low.
J.D.'s prejudices may be showing.

It is unsettling to consider how close J.D. is to the Presidency and the extensive power that implies. His fellow Right-wing travellers will have an influential voice in the White House from January as Trump is busy settling old scores and continuing his narcissistic pursuit of glory. There are frightening prospects of what could follow, courtesy of a clever, resilient and determined man prepared to await his chosen, self-crafted fate.

 .

 

The Boastful Buffoon

                           Quote from a letter in the New Statesman of 22-28 November 2024.

"Jason Cowley quotes Philip Roth as saying no one could have foreseen the ‘catastrophe befalling the U.S. coming in the shape of ‘the boastful buffoon’. Well, someone did! In 1920 H.L. Mencken  wrote in The Baltimore Sun newspaper:

“All the odds are on the man who is …. the most devious and mediocre …The Presidency tends to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move towards a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts’ desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

Apparently, Martha Snowden of Norwich is the N.S. letter writer who contributed the above perfect quote; perfect, that is, to describe the probable process by which the next U.S. President was elected. When Trump first stood for election in 2011? as Republican candidate, he was ridiculed and dismissed; he seemed a mixture of game show host and 

Trump with Elon Musk interviewing him. Musk has poured
millions of dollars into the Trump campaign coffers.
In return, this unelected billionaire will have significant
national political power from Jan 2024.

perma-tanned low-level gangster. But, impervious to insult or criticism, he marshalled a growing band of far-right millionaire supporters who poured money into his campaigns trusting him to deliver the promised destructive policies to clean the swamp, dismiss thousands of civil servants in important departments like Health and Social Security and pursue personal and political grievances bent on retribution. And this section of American capital which gambled on Trump has seen satisfying leaaps in share prices of companies they own. And he keeps on winning! He has now won TWO Presidential elections!

Joe Biden, who beat Trump twice for the
Democrats but who unwittingly
helped Republican Trump
to beat Democrat Kamala Harris

Trump's extraordinary but sure-footed reaction to 
an assassination attempt. He has an instinctive ability to
capitalise politically on potential disaster.

Trump addressing a M.A.G.A. rally

He is not a bright or educated man but he has an implicit and instinctive understanding of what motivates the American people; he 'gets' their grievances and destructive impulses perhaps because he shares them. The MAGA movement looks deranged from my armchair but it is huge and will  probably endure for a considerable period or, God forbid, permanently. The American working class [their ‘middle class’] does not study politics or politicians but it responds emotionally to Trump’s calls to make America great again; to his immensely patriotic and loudly anti-establishment rallies which erroneously suggest political and social change, even class revenge. They feel warm, part of something big without noticing the harmful effects of his proposed political onslaught on systems mainly beneficial to them nor his inclination, or rather determination, to deliver significant tax cuts for corporations and wealthy individuals. In the 2020 Presidential election, 65% of non-college educated white men voted for Trump. I do not have the figure for 2024 but it seems unlikely to be less, particularly as both Trump and Vance concentrated efforts on courting this section of the population during the recent election, seeing it correcttly as key to victory.

Another example of the Trump-style of communication.
Only this example is mockery of a somewhat intellectually
superior and more eloquent former President.

My sadness at the ineptness of the average American sniper is only superceded by my

Typical unstatesman-like behaviour
as Trump publicly mocks the disabled
reporter Serge Kovaleski.

fear that a more expert variation will find its mark and America will be left to the untender mercies of J.D.Vance, an altogether more astute and lethal operator. He is an idealogue and leader of the anti-liberal American New Right which, despite its proclamations, is no friend to the worker; indeed more of a force contributing to the economic precarity and social discord of the working class from which J.D. himself sprang.  J.D. is tough, determined, resolute; an unsentimental marksman with the experience of ascending from his cultural roots to national prominence and importance. The wartime phrase, ‘He takes no prisoners’ comes to mind. It is painful just to imagine the widespread social and economic disruption he might cause should the Donald not make it to the end of his next Presidential term. And I try not to acknowledge that, following the Donald, the next Republican Presidential candidate will undoubtedly be J.D.

J.D.Vance

Vice-President Kamala Harris, beaten to the top job
by a grossly inferior candidate.