Used to follow him avidly though.

When Yeats was on, he was on.

I think it means everyone/everything is tainted by this anarchy. The imagery of this tide overcoming all, corrupting everything is its wake is what these lines mean to me.

I love your site. thank you.

Neo: I only read about Nifong and never saw or heard him. It takes hearing and seeing, ordinarily, to reach that type of revulsion for a person.

I will say the same. What Nifong and others like him did was most likely about the same level of disgust that Binger is doing. But, I didn’t get consumed by those cases because I didn’t watch any of the videos.

But, the Rittenhouse case I did see videos of at least one of the shootings before the trial began. That got me to invest more of my time into watching the trial. Being off from work yesterday I ended spending the better part of my afternoon watching the case on Court TV. Yuck! Did Binger disgust me even more!

And, yea, maybe those other prosecutors behaved just as badly; but, I didn’t watch them. And there was a certain revulsion at watching Binger’s bad behavior. He just made my blood boil!

I remember him trying to put words into Rittenhouse’s mouth when he tried, not once, not twice, but three times to get Kyle to say that he intended to use deadly force. Kyle kept saying no, he didn’t intend to kill anyone, his intent was to stop the attack. It was just real sleazy behavior on Binger’s part. I couldn’t understand why the judge didn’t stop him (I think the defense didn’t object because he knew this bad behavior might work in their favor by showing how sleazy the prosecutor was). It was quite revolting to watch!

And then there was also Binger’s body language when the judge was reprimanding him for trying to twist Rittenhouse’s “silence” before the trial into a sign that Rittenhouse was guilty. Binger looked like he was thinking of an excuse to “get back at the judge” as if to say I am smarter than you – how dare you stop me! The arrogance displayed was revolting.

There are several other examples as well – but, I assume most here have watched part of the trial.

While what Nifong and others like him did was revolting, watching Binger conduct himself during the trial adds to the disgust.

Lastly, and this is totally irrational on my part, Binger reminds me of the character “Stuart” on the TV show “Spin City” played by Alan Ruck. The Character of Stuart was a total narcissist and a sleazy person. It isn’t just Binger’s looks that he reminds me of Stuart – he comes across as a real-life sleazy narcissist like Stuart. Except the character of Stuart was intended to be funny – Binger isn’t at all funny.

And EricGuy, I’ll bet you’re right in that Nifong and others like him might be just as disgusting. But, fortunately for my sanity I didn’t see any of them; I just read about them. It was good news to hear that Nifong was disbarred. Can we hope for something similar with Binger? So far he doesn’t seemed to have broken any laws; but, time will tell.

It must be true that the prosecutor believes that the politically advantageous thing for him to do is to act tough on Rittenhouse. If he asks for a dismissal it damages him politically. If the judge declares a mistrial then the onus and blow-back is on the judge, and the prosecutor’s hands are clean.

If the prosecutor is really a jerk, he might envision prosecuting Rittenhouse over and over as a form of punishment.

Should this reflect badly on the prosecutor? Of course, but you can’t prove it and beyond that it I wouldn’t know.

For me, the phrase “Ceremony of Innocence” probably does reference religion but feels more primitive than that. I think Yeats is simply telling us our norms and laws and civilization are all fragile – a ceremony of innocence – that collapses
when “Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.” The adjective “mere” is jarring. Anarchy is easy if the ceremony of innocence is abandoned as we are allowing to happen now.

Viewer warning: Have airplane motion sickness bag ready and open….
https://twitter.com/GMA/status/1458781171282845698
– – – – – –
Dershowitz with a timely reminder:
https://www.newsmax.com/newsmax-tv/dershowitz-rittenhouse/2021/11/11/id/1044345/

I suppose I can take the oath, playing the odds that I won’t get on jury, and that if I did it would probably not be an earth-shattering case.

But I have a much lower regard for the FBI and, in liberal Cleveland the legal system as a hole.