That first president so much closer to Cincinnatus, so famous for the power he gave up.
Trump is of course his diametrical opposite -- but for the very simple reason that America finally grew a class of billionaires who fed only on the cancers of commercialism: the most cynical packaging, numbering, labeling, commodifying,…
That first president so much closer to Cincinnatus, so famous for the power he gave up.
Trump is of course his diametrical opposite -- but for the very simple reason that America finally grew a class of billionaires who fed only on the cancers of commercialism: the most cynical packaging, numbering, labeling, commodifying, and monetization of all life.
America, where the greatest universities in the world reigned from the Justin Morrill land grant legislation of 1862 to the Powell memo of 1971, when the rich united in gutting, rotting, turning the best inside out instead for schools of business -- for bankers, standardized testers, phalanxes of totally dehumanized fellow predators.
Yes, there's a fat, orange Donald Trump -- in such contrast to Washington. But there's such a deep, extensive, festering history buoying the fat orange one.
A true leader, intent on public service, will turn over the job at the end of their term of office or when there is a better successor. A megalomaniac will assume, true or false, that there is no better leader. Couple that psychopathy with wanting to beat the charges against them by self-pardoning or targeting their enemies and we have one possible prediction for 2025.
One loves country and the ideal of social justice and the other has an ego caught in a pernicious feedback loop, sort of the character equivalent of what happens when a PA system microphone is too close to the speakers.
Washington was both wealthy and a slave holder, so let us not forget that. He returned to his plantation wealth off the backs of slave labor. That is not social justice. That is racism and horror. Washington was wealthy from land speculation and slavery. Pretty much the circumstances that Trump wants to return us to.
The difference pointed out is that he did not choose or need to be a dictator for his lifestyle to be privileged and supported by the country in which he lived.
Something I was actually taught in high school in the early 1960s was a German word "Zeitgeist." Literally "Time Spirit" in that we can't judge ppl outside of the time in which they lived.
Yes, it was wrong to own other humans. It was wrong that Mrs. Washington was subservient to the will of her husband and did not own property without his blessing in the 18th Century. In earlier centuries it was wrong that witches were burned for causing plagues and that the Catholic Church burned Heretics.
And, in the century which I was raised, It was wrong that women couldn't vote. It was wrong that Atheists, could not hold public office (despite the First Amendment) & that homosexuals could be put in prison and not allowed to serve in the military or police department and that black ppl were subservient to white ppl and the law prevented them from intermarrying until 1967 in many states.
Right now in some way shape or form most Americans are beneficiaries of child labor/slave labor that help manufacture some of our consumer products. It's so easy to point at historical figures and find culpability, but we turn a blind eye on ourselves today.
We need to do better - perhaps speak up when we see some form of abuse or cruelty - too much gets passed over - just look at the years of tfg's ability to get away with all that criminal activity - because he had money & power. And there are many many more of these financially able & powerful doing the same.
"There Are None So Blind as Those Who Will Not See – Origin
“There are none so blind as those who will not see” is a proverb that comes from scripture. It’s not a direct quote from the Bible but echoes a phrase found in the King James Bible or King James Version (KJV).
Jeremiah 5:21 reads:
Hear now this, O foolish people, without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not."
Thank you, nothing new under the sun. And then there is Orwell who asked are you going to believe me or your lying eyes, Not a quote but you get the idea
Goldie Hawn as Jill Tanner, "ditzy blonde," to Edward Albert as Don Baker, a blind young man trying to live independently, in the 1972 comedy/romance Butterflies are Free. (sorry, couldn't resist!).
I actually saw that at the time. I was counselor for high school senior who had had eyes removed as a young child. He liked to take his false eyes out and freak peers out. He could navigate school better than most. Much better than deaf student. Shocked me.
Yes. The present has many examples of exploitation and cruelty toward other humans and members of other species. I dare suggest, that most of these acts of violence are committed by men. Yes, there are women who participate, and even some who initiate, but over all cruelty and violence are a male domain. We have yet to figure out how to raise boys into men who are less violent and more compassionate, especially toward women, children and members of other species.
Yet we must know our history to not repeat it. Therefore we are called upon to use judgement as change is inevitable, which I see the present ‘far wrong radical hate mongering’ republicans want, no really insist upon having a clock in place that runs historically backwards.
This is a concept that I have used with my adult children when they object to something that I did as a young adult. "You weren't there; so, you can't understand how it was."
Fast forward to the 20th century. I was a small boy in Texas in 1946 when my mother complained to me how the husband legally had complete control over the community property that they owned. Of course, I sided with my mother and trace my advocacy to equal rights for females back to that time. The law later changed, giving wives equal control over the couple's community property. It's true, the context has to be taken in the times in question. Fast forward. Women are still amazingly put down by Islam and the Roman Catholic Church. Without advocacy, nothing changes.
I wasn't there in post WWI Germany to witness the rise of Nazism, but no need to tell me I needed to be there to understand that it was evil from the get-go, that Hitler had many "willing executioners."
"Adventurers of a Bystander, by Peter Drucker (who was there) tells about some of those "willing executioners." Big fish in a little pond types, well, on steroids
As when my friend justified Female Genital Mutilation by saying it belongs to a culture, Zeitgeist does not excuse the atrocious things people do, nor does Culture. While I can see it within his times, it does not make Washington more noble that he accepts people as less than human. I find both Washington and Trump to be evil characters. https://www.un.org/en/observances/decade-people-african-descent/slave-trade
The deaths of 15 million of any group cannot just be seen as an acceptable behavior because of the Zeitgeist. We can always judge the times in which people lived and the fact that they do not see through it. I am less sympathetic to using the Zeitgeist as an acceptable excuse since I have been watching Hotel Europe (Nazi rise to power in Germany along the Rhinelands), World on Fire (WWII from the point of view of Polish, British, English and French characters which included Black, Gay, Jewish and "handicapped" characters), as well as Berlin Wall (set in 1987-1989 DDR, and focusing on the illegal trade deals made between leaders in the DDR and others). Resistance has been a theme in all of these series which is why Zeitgeist does not excuse everyone. I wonder whether people will be using the term "Zeitgeist" in accepting that millions of Americans are devoted to Donald Trump. So, we can judge people, even if we do not personally understand the things that compelled rich, White men to take advantage of their privilege in oppressing others.
Linda Weide - (there are a lot of Lindas on this thread today:)
No, Zeitgeist does not excuse the atrocious things ppl do during any time, it just gives some insight on the disinformation and erroneous beliefs of the mainstream culture at the time that cause them.
And, there are usually a minority of ppl who have correct insights and knowledge pushing against the mainstream culture of any given time. Unfortunately they are too often ignored or outright gotten rid of. There were abolitionists during the slave era. There were civil rights protesters during our segregated apartheid in the backward South, which also merged with the Anti-War movement during Vietnam at the same time.
Even us "privileged, white males" can be a part of that minority, and I have pushed against racism, homofobia, nationalism, female genital mutilation, and the poser christians who do not follow the teachings of Jesus, as observed by this Atheist who seems to be better versed in Christianity than most I encounter.
You wonder if Zeitgeist will be applied to our present Time. It may. Even tho there was the "White Rose" in Nazi Germany during WWII, most only know of the murderous tyranny that happened in that culture. Yet here we are, watching it play out again as our nation seems to have fallen into a majority of hateful, ignorant, Repugnant Cultists going the same path that my family was fighting against at the time of my birth. IDK if the Cultists can be considered "mainstream culture" since they are antithetical to everything I have known for a lifetime. I think they are a vocal, dangerous minority, but so were the Nazi's at one time. But yes there is some Spirit of our Time that caused this travesty. Just hope that those of us against it are remembered.
I've read that when Washington was elected first President of the United States, people wondered how to refer to him. Many wanted him to be king, called 'your Highness' or other lofty titles, but he insisted that he just be called "Mr. President" or better yet, "Mr. Washington".
Despite his flaws, he was a totally sincere, caring, brilliant individual who loved his country and who set a pattern of statesmanship for all. His memory, and what he gave to America, should be cherished.
Yes, and from 1872-2017 a statue of Roger Taney, the fifth chief justice of the Supreme Court, stood outside the statehouse. Taney wrote the majority opinion in the Dred Scott case, which ruled that black people—regardless of whether or not they were slaves—could not be considered citizens of the United States.
Enslaved people built some of the buildings and worked in the seminary I attended in 2018-20, Virginia Theological Seminary. They have established an endowment fund for reparation payments to descendants of those people, whom they have begun searching for.
Linda: You are right of course to remind me--I need to remember that part of Washington’s story too. The stain of chattel slavery marks our country. Washington had his huge estate where everything was done for him by people he “owned.” They had no choices. He probably had slaves with him when he was a general. Washington had a lot to protect for his own sake. I am grateful for the founding of our country but I also need to remember our founders were not saints.
He definitely had William Lee, his body man or valet, with him throughout the war and we know he had a cadre of slaves with him in Philadelphia when he was president. They are vividly remembered at the Washington house display on the mall in Philadelphia, right next to the Liberty Bell pavilion, if you're ever there. He had to send them back to Virginia every six months for a different set or else, under Pennsylvania law, he would have had to free them.
I also note: Washington was white. I happen to be a big fan of Washington as well as John Adams (who did not have a slave per se), neither of whom were concerned about the enslaved humans in America or women or the Native Americans. In fact Washington began the process of wiping out the Native people of America.
But?? I have a friend who often tells me: "Hey, Nobody's Perfect". He usually says this in the context of a conversation around Hitler or something to be funny.
But, it is actually true. Those guys who were wedded to the British mindset of white, male superiority CAN be judged, but, as Jeri notes below, we are all partly a product of our times.
So was Washington. For better and for worse.
And? Nobody is Perfect.
Plus, now we have Clarence Thomas (thanks Biden) and his massive clerkship nuts out there influencing things. Thomas makes Washington look like an angel from Heaven.
I think it hardly fair to blame Clarence Thomas on Biden. Who nominated this pathetic man to replace Thurgood Marshall but HW,whose father Prescott was involved in the rise of Nazi Germany. And attempting to remove FDR from office, using Smedley Butler.
I read it this morning. Horrifying!! There is NO way this corrupt SCOTUS judge will ever face consequences or even pay taxes on his ill gotten luxuries. Even his luxury forays with his loyal #&**(*%!'s are funded by billionaire right wingers. Really Scary!!!
The commenter thanking sarcastically Biden (whom I am a supporter of and will vote for again) refers to his chairing the committee who heard Anita Hill testify and still voted for him to take a seat on the SCOTUS. Biden has since apologized to Dr. Hill. At the very least he demonstrates growth and humility.
Smedley Butler was a most remarkable American. He wasn't mentioned in the history books I had in school, but he certainly should have been. He stood up to power and told the truth which the corporate war machine (especially DuPont) did not like at all.
Now is a time that challenges each of us. Security is a delectable illusion while the dynamics of 'extended families', gang mentalities, and IN networks function as norms that slow progress. At the same time, other networks are building that fortify ways of being that are simply kind, that nurture reciprocity, and that are respectful of land and critters (outside of hierarchical power).
See the movie "Amsterdam" or Google Smedley Butler if you want to learn a little more about Butler and the Industrialists' attempted coup. They tried to use Butler for cover but he blew the whistle on them instead. Vey admirable.
Smedley was incredible in his service and commitment to the better principles of our nation. Not to mention that he was also a two-time recipient of the Medal of Honor. The man had substance and was certainly worthy of being listened to.
Thanks -- by looking up Smedley Butler I was led to the website of Americans Who Tell the Truth. I went to the portrait page there -- glad for the experience!
His vision was, however, for a man of his times, exceptional as was that of all of those who pledged their “lives, fortunes, and sacred honor.” That is courage and foresight which are rare characteristics in anyone at any time.
Washington was a man of his time. It doesn’t serve us to judge him by today’s standards. It doesn’t hurt to add that he owned slaves or that he didn’t respect the humanity of the indigenous population. That is fact. But those facts do not diminish the fact also he was a great man and if not for his actions, our country would not exist as independent nation.
Indeed, Linda: the "nobility" of the slave-holding members of the Continental Congress (including the, for me, ultimate hypocrite, Thomas Jefferson) and the "altruism" of the nascent robber barons from the northern colonies who profited from enslaved people's labor has to be measured against their bigotry and persistence in traumatizing an entire population for their own comforts. If you want to read a very good book about the contrasts within the Washington household, I recommend Erica Armstrong Dunbar's book, "Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge."
I came across a used book once; "Jefferson's Letters" which shows some first-person history, and he actually did anguish over slave holding in his writings to ppl in France, where he met free blacks who demonstrated intelligence which he did not see in his slaves.
I have donated that book to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, but had transcribed some excerpts.
Here is one letter:
To M. Henri Gregoire, Bishop and Senator, Paris.
Washington, February 25, 1809
Sir, - I have received the favor of your letter of August 17th, and with it the volume you were so kind as to send me on the "Literature of Negroes." Be assured that no person living wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a complete refutation of the doubts I have myself entertained and expressed on the grade of understanding allotted to them by nature, and to find that in this respect they are on a par with ourselves. My doubts were the result of personal observation on the limited sphere of my own State, where the opportunities of the development of their genius were not favorable, and those of exercising it still less so. I expressed them therefore with great hesitation; but whatever be their degree of talent it is no measure of their rights. Because Sir Isaac Newton was superior to others in understanding, he was not therefore lord of the person or property of others. On this subject they are gaining daily in the opinions of nations, and hopeful advances are making towards their re-establishment on an equal footing with the other colors of the human family. I pray you therefore to accept my thanks for the many instances you have enabled me to observe of respectable intelligence in that race of men, which cannot fail to have effect in hastening the day of their relief.
This entire nation was “built on the backs of” those who lived here centuries before anyone from England, Spain, Russia, etc ever landed on these shores.
You want “on the backs of”? read of the thousands who died just from the diseases Spaniards brought to the Southwest.
It is why I get angry at EU countries whining about their immigrant problem, when they were happy to take Marshall Funds off of the USA whose money was made off of the backs that people in the EU do not want in their countries, let alone all of the countries who got rich off of exploiting African countries and peoples. I feel the same way about US citizens who complain about refugees coming here. They don't know their history, and DeSatan denying it will not make it go away, but they won't learn it. I know that this nation was built by many groups of people and not all of them get credit for it, or are treated like they belong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I was taught that Washington was honorable because he chopped down the cherry tree and told his father, "I cannot tell a lie. I chopped down the cherry tree." That is what I remember from that story, told to me in first, second and third grade. The noble "Father of our Country!" Luckily I went to college in a time when we deconstructed these myths.
That Washington became The Distiller for America, which surely must have played a factor in the launching of the Militias towards Western PA in response to The Whiskey Rebellion of 1791-4.
However, when his 2nd term was coming to an end, rather than listen to those admirers and synchophants around the small Country who want to make his term 'for Life' and more monarchal, George again responded as Cinncinatus for the 2nd time.
There are those who do not realized that 'Branding' comes from personal character, too. His Orangeness is not as savvy of a brander as he thinks. His brand will live long in the company of a Benedict Arnold, not of a George Washington.
George, I would not have been a slave holder, but a slave! In Nazi Germany, while not Jewish the fate of Brown German children could take several paths, such as being made to perform naked in movies swinging from vines, and sterlization and perhaps the death camp, but I would not be differentiated from Romani people. Might just have had to face a lot of racism each day, even though my non-German parent might have been in Germany as a relic of their African colonies.
He IS that shocking shriek we keep on hearing. We must silence that obnoxious assault on our brains through our collective speech, our actions and our VOTES.
He's a crook. He invaded the White House, and as such a thing had never happened before, nobody knew what to do about it. It was so contrary to all the standards set up by Washington and maintained, for better and worse, ever since. The elevator. The glamorous exotic wife. The shadowy sidekicks. Did it really happen? What was it that really happened?
Too many today don't read books, but let the social media billionaires suck them into the mosh pits of divisiveness, group labeling, and massive black holes of loneliness.
If they don't read books, easy for them to fall for seeing others as menacing, abstracted foreign entities, rather than as individuals which good books and decent literacy help us nurture.
So many dictators, nationalists, and such feeding on the vulnerable, Anne-Louise.
Hate to use the cliché 'dumbing down of America' , but it's true, and it's accelerating.
Much, if not all, of MAGA's outrage stems from visually entertaining communication. Reading comprehension in this country is dismal and there's few alarms sounding about it; the oligarchs are fine with that.
I like your "mosh pits of diviseness, group labeling, and massive black holes of loneliness." It gave me a new thought....what if the adults had stayed out of the children's play ground, if moms hadn't gleefully invaded Facebook land and Dad didn't think twittering made him cool...just imagine ..... We have a deficit of adults. We have a lot of old immature and unlearned people. Now we have a bunch of rebellious, angry teenagers mad that there are rules in place to keep chaos at bay.
Jenn, iirc, didn’t he pay someone to go get those poor people *in Texas*, and fly them to MV? And he thinks no one will use that against him? Like, I dunno, Other Republicans?
My daughter recently moved back to Maine from Jacksonville. Her class was the second one to attend the high school for all four years. Within a year after the school opened it was already above the 1500 student capacity. She had excellent teachers there and the school board was very supportive of all of the schools in the district. There was never a discussion of banning books or ridding the schools of books the faux-Christians were against.
And then DeSatan became governor and all of this faux-Christian book banning and altering history took place.
Thank goodness he has the personality of a fish and has no chance of becoming President.
He certainly has a talent for choosing sycophants. He’s also the only governor to turn down Federal funding to combat climate change. Thank goodness some down here realize he just threw their Federal tax dollars down the drain.
And like I posted the other day. Florida has the HIGHEST property and casualty insurance rates in the country--NO. ONE!
They have a state run Homeowner's insurance company that is losing billions. Millions of Floridians can no longer afford homeowners insurance yet, their mortgage companies require it and are notified by the company if the insurance lapses.
I will be shocked if FL doesn't come begging for money to bail them out next FL legislative session.
I have heard that several insurance companies have pulled out. I'm not sure if it is just the coast or the entire state. AAA was one of them. Guess they are tired of pulling stuck cars out of the sand..
When a P&C company loses money in a state they can only make it up with future premium rate hikes. The Florida Department of Insurance has to approve those rate hikes, but the state legislatures make the rules on how much these hikes can be. So depending on the rules within a state, it may take several years to make up for losses. When we lived in FL State Farm pulled out of the state after one of the hurricanes. This was sometime between 2005 - 2010. And once a company leaves, why would they return.
This is from channel 6 in South Florida-
According to the Insurance Information Institute, the average insurance premium for homeowners in Florida has spiked by 42% year-over-year, to an average of $6,000 in 2023.
At least a dozen insurance companies have stopped issuing new policies in Florida since January 2022 and three companies have announced their intentions to withdraw from the state in the past year, according to the Institute.
Ummm....that's what we thought about DJT--that he had "no chance" of winning. He, too, was a joke. We're through the looking glass now. Nothing can surprise me after 2016.
I want so desperately to share your faith, Phil; but I don't. From where I'm sitting, it looks like the Dems and other so so called "liberals" are really just the opposite side of the same coin. The prettier side, the BETTER side, if you will; but still the same coin. I'm gonna bet on them (the liberals) anyway - I'm not self destructive enough to bet against them - that would be madness. But, oh, how I long to share your faith!
“Some voters have been swayed by contact from the super PAC, but many remain unconvinced. Some said the door knockers were indifferent or rude, while others said the full-court press from Never Back Down felt inauthentic. And, in a particularly brutal twist, some of the door knockers openly told Iowans that they themselves were in fact Trump supporters.”
Kathy I’m beginning to feel that if a book isn’t banned, it’s not worth reading.A number of my favorites have been so honored. Ah, To Kill a Mocking Bird is killed. Clearly deSantimonius. Trump wouldn’t know, since he has never even read his ghostwritten book, Art of the Shlemiel. .
My project this summer was to read banned books. Some of these books I had never heard of and their titles held no interest for me. Why read them? Someone told me NOT do. The one that boggled my mind the most was "Where the Wild Things Are." The other books I found very depressing, racial discrimination, some sexual stuff-yeah-but then if the censors are being arrested for rape and menage a trois what can I say.
A lot of the books (Handmaid's Tale, The Giver, Fahrenheit 54, 1984 are all prophetic showing us things that are happening incrementally now: banning books, control of women's bodies, discrimination (classes).
Schools can teach students to write essays where central to them is quoting others.
As individuals -- in the same room.
Quotes may be direct quotes, or summaries, indirect quotes.
Students in one class all write introductory essays. Everyone details how one lives, specifying food, clothing, shelter (this last includes interiors of one's buildings, and exteriors, landscapes, including how one travels). Everyone reads everyone's. Everyone then revises, to quote sympatico others one has read.
Keep it going in the same room, expanding to citing novels, films, songs that echo oneself or one's peers.
Eventually send a round of all essays at some later point to another group, across the city or in a neighboring culture where good English teachers can help with mechanics and skills in making essay connections.
It's all personal. Others -- all -- are individuals and deserve good listening to, good quoting in their cultures, in their contexts.
They don't read books, newspapers or listen to non-partisan news. We have become a society with divisions, perpetuated by left and right wing social media and cable TV. With Tucker Carlson announcing his new network, his fans will never hear other points of view.
Just the idea that we’d have to pull this off” in order to save our country from a lying, grifting, traitorous, abusive POS makes my blood boil. I know he has lots of followers, but they were hiding out in dark corners, mostly, until he woke them, like an army of orcs, to follow him to the bowels of hell.
True, but what we saw, at that time, was the glamour girl. We were later informed that she was a qualified designer (really?), a linguist (definitely not), or that she was sick of effing Christmas trees....all that was to come, along with I dont care, do u? Oh, and destroying Jackie Kennedy's rose garden.
Lots of contradictory information out there. Several sources (local newspapers, NPR) say yes to lots of book banning. Snopes (which sometimes gives me info that shoots down my ideas) said that the FL ban list was put on Twitter by someone who was mocking various schools which were removing books in response to political pressure. I guess that is why there are so many " What the heck?!" books on the list. Snopes did comment that FL has made it a lot easier to challenge books.
I find it interesting that some FL Moms for Liberty need to clean up their houses before they start determining what is age appropriate material.
To be fair, it wasn’t impeachment that emboldened him. It was the refusal of Republicans to hold him to account for his impeachable behavior that emboldened him.
I found these two sentences at Wikipedia about Lewis Powell.
"His experiences as a corporate lawyer and a director on the board of Phillip Morris from 1964 until his appointment to the Supreme Court made him a champion of the tobacco industry who railed against the growing scientific evidence linking smoking to cancer deaths.[16]
He argued, unsuccessfully, that tobacco companies' First Amendment rights were being infringed when news organizations were not giving credence to the cancer denials of the industry.[16]"
So, the guy who started it all was an all out liar. No surprise.
Without mentioning his name once, Heather masterfully captures the conduct between a gentleman and an oaf. You rightly spotlight the historical grift of billionaires that trump exemplifies, but I'd like to u-turn back to another contrast between these two figures--someone who as a child purportedly said, "I cannot tell a lie" with the biggest liar the world has ever seen....
Wow, Phil! I think that may be the most profound and incisive comment I’ve ever read on this site.Although it’s not exactly the way I wanted to feel here in the wee hours before dawn on Christmas Eve, surrounded by my kids and grandkids, the truth will indeed set us free. Thank you.
Phil Balla, your post was at the top of the Comments section when I read HCR’s Letter this morning and I’m thankful for that. I spend a lot of time posting about Neoliberalism because, despite its having dominated American economics and politics for forty years, I think too few of us are familiar with it and that leads to many mistakes about who or what is responsible for the current, sorry state of our Union. Many think, mistakenly, the blame rests with the Democratic Party in spite of the plain fact that President Biden’s is the first Administration to do an about-face, moving our economy and society away from Neoliberalism. But my posts all seem to be, like this one, too long and repetitive. Your post this morning is nothing like that. Yours is direct, economical, well informed, and eloquent. I am so thankful for it!l
I'm reminded of Neil Armstrong's "One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." Whatever the imperfections, Washington's replication of Cinicinnatus's example, was one giant step in setting a firmer foundation for our country, something so many more could add to and improve. It was a step into a better future, not a step into a darker past.
The experiment of Capitalism isn’t finished evolving. Anything in its extreme is typically bad. And we live in extreme times.
Interestingly, utter these words to a Republican and they’ve been conditioned to immediately call you a Socialist — even though in reality, unless they are an American oligarch, they too have been hurt by extreme Capitalism.
My hope is the experiment of Capitalism continues and as a society we can learn to moderate the darker impulses of greed, power, and control.
The deep, festering underbelly of NYC (where Trump was nurtured) was the subject of a masterful April 2018 article by Frank Rich. It's a painful read for me, since I grew up in NYC and once thought some of the people named were great men. But it's important to understand the rot that exists in NYC overall... which Trump was drawn to like a bear to honey. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/04/frank-rich-roy-cohn-the-original-donald-trump.html
This 2018 article is confirmation of all I have believed about the NYC glitterati. But when one becomes a dictator in waiting, the glitter falls into the gutter.
NYC is truly a microcosm of America. From the best of what we can be (Broadway Theater, world-class museums, the Statue of Liberty) to the worst of what we can be (what's in the Frank Rich article). Were law enforcement to ever attempt to total cleanup of NYC's underbelly, the effort could transform America. But first things first. Trump (who benefitted from living in that cesspool) must be convicted and barred from public life for life.
When the orange balloon is at last punctured by our legal processes what will that picture look like and how will our artists depict the scene? I believe it will resemble the chaos at the end of “The Untouchables” when Al Capone receives the verdict of the judge. The painting will serve as a warning.
What a contrast.
That first president so much closer to Cincinnatus, so famous for the power he gave up.
Trump is of course his diametrical opposite -- but for the very simple reason that America finally grew a class of billionaires who fed only on the cancers of commercialism: the most cynical packaging, numbering, labeling, commodifying, and monetization of all life.
America, where the greatest universities in the world reigned from the Justin Morrill land grant legislation of 1862 to the Powell memo of 1971, when the rich united in gutting, rotting, turning the best inside out instead for schools of business -- for bankers, standardized testers, phalanxes of totally dehumanized fellow predators.
Yes, there's a fat, orange Donald Trump -- in such contrast to Washington. But there's such a deep, extensive, festering history buoying the fat orange one.
Phil, exactly right about Washington and TFG.
A true leader, intent on public service, will turn over the job at the end of their term of office or when there is a better successor. A megalomaniac will assume, true or false, that there is no better leader. Couple that psychopathy with wanting to beat the charges against them by self-pardoning or targeting their enemies and we have one possible prediction for 2025.
One loves country and the ideal of social justice and the other has an ego caught in a pernicious feedback loop, sort of the character equivalent of what happens when a PA system microphone is too close to the speakers.
Washington was both wealthy and a slave holder, so let us not forget that. He returned to his plantation wealth off the backs of slave labor. That is not social justice. That is racism and horror. Washington was wealthy from land speculation and slavery. Pretty much the circumstances that Trump wants to return us to.
https://research.colonialwilliamsburg.org/Foundation/journal/winter13/washington.cfm
The difference pointed out is that he did not choose or need to be a dictator for his lifestyle to be privileged and supported by the country in which he lived.
We all are forever tied to the times in which we live.
Something I was actually taught in high school in the early 1960s was a German word "Zeitgeist." Literally "Time Spirit" in that we can't judge ppl outside of the time in which they lived.
Yes, it was wrong to own other humans. It was wrong that Mrs. Washington was subservient to the will of her husband and did not own property without his blessing in the 18th Century. In earlier centuries it was wrong that witches were burned for causing plagues and that the Catholic Church burned Heretics.
And, in the century which I was raised, It was wrong that women couldn't vote. It was wrong that Atheists, could not hold public office (despite the First Amendment) & that homosexuals could be put in prison and not allowed to serve in the military or police department and that black ppl were subservient to white ppl and the law prevented them from intermarrying until 1967 in many states.
When did they quit teaching ppl about Zeitgeist?
Right now in some way shape or form most Americans are beneficiaries of child labor/slave labor that help manufacture some of our consumer products. It's so easy to point at historical figures and find culpability, but we turn a blind eye on ourselves today.
We need to do better - perhaps speak up when we see some form of abuse or cruelty - too much gets passed over - just look at the years of tfg's ability to get away with all that criminal activity - because he had money & power. And there are many many more of these financially able & powerful doing the same.
As you said, Marilyn, blind eyes!!!
A waste of good vision. None so blind as those who will not see. Who said that.
"There Are None So Blind as Those Who Will Not See – Origin
“There are none so blind as those who will not see” is a proverb that comes from scripture. It’s not a direct quote from the Bible but echoes a phrase found in the King James Bible or King James Version (KJV).
Jeremiah 5:21 reads:
Hear now this, O foolish people, without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not."
https://grammarhow.com/there-are-none-so-blind/
Thank you, nothing new under the sun. And then there is Orwell who asked are you going to believe me or your lying eyes, Not a quote but you get the idea
Goldie Hawn as Jill Tanner, "ditzy blonde," to Edward Albert as Don Baker, a blind young man trying to live independently, in the 1972 comedy/romance Butterflies are Free. (sorry, couldn't resist!).
Let's also mention "people hearing without listening", Simon and Garfunkel, "Sound of Silence".
I actually saw that at the time. I was counselor for high school senior who had had eyes removed as a young child. He liked to take his false eyes out and freak peers out. He could navigate school better than most. Much better than deaf student. Shocked me.
Great diversion, skews our focus.
Yes. The present has many examples of exploitation and cruelty toward other humans and members of other species. I dare suggest, that most of these acts of violence are committed by men. Yes, there are women who participate, and even some who initiate, but over all cruelty and violence are a male domain. We have yet to figure out how to raise boys into men who are less violent and more compassionate, especially toward women, children and members of other species.
Rob, Zeitgeist. Interesting. Hmm 🤔
Yet we must know our history to not repeat it. Therefore we are called upon to use judgement as change is inevitable, which I see the present ‘far wrong radical hate mongering’ republicans want, no really insist upon having a clock in place that runs historically backwards.
I meant to have said the radical etc republicans ‘do NOT want’ ….
This is a concept that I have used with my adult children when they object to something that I did as a young adult. "You weren't there; so, you can't understand how it was."
Fast forward to the 20th century. I was a small boy in Texas in 1946 when my mother complained to me how the husband legally had complete control over the community property that they owned. Of course, I sided with my mother and trace my advocacy to equal rights for females back to that time. The law later changed, giving wives equal control over the couple's community property. It's true, the context has to be taken in the times in question. Fast forward. Women are still amazingly put down by Islam and the Roman Catholic Church. Without advocacy, nothing changes.
"Zeitgeist" - Yes Rob, thanks for bringing this up.
We definitely need it. I sort of thought it was common sense, but common sense doesn't seem too common.
I wasn't there in post WWI Germany to witness the rise of Nazism, but no need to tell me I needed to be there to understand that it was evil from the get-go, that Hitler had many "willing executioners."
"Adventurers of a Bystander, by Peter Drucker (who was there) tells about some of those "willing executioners." Big fish in a little pond types, well, on steroids
As when my friend justified Female Genital Mutilation by saying it belongs to a culture, Zeitgeist does not excuse the atrocious things people do, nor does Culture. While I can see it within his times, it does not make Washington more noble that he accepts people as less than human. I find both Washington and Trump to be evil characters. https://www.un.org/en/observances/decade-people-african-descent/slave-trade
The deaths of 15 million of any group cannot just be seen as an acceptable behavior because of the Zeitgeist. We can always judge the times in which people lived and the fact that they do not see through it. I am less sympathetic to using the Zeitgeist as an acceptable excuse since I have been watching Hotel Europe (Nazi rise to power in Germany along the Rhinelands), World on Fire (WWII from the point of view of Polish, British, English and French characters which included Black, Gay, Jewish and "handicapped" characters), as well as Berlin Wall (set in 1987-1989 DDR, and focusing on the illegal trade deals made between leaders in the DDR and others). Resistance has been a theme in all of these series which is why Zeitgeist does not excuse everyone. I wonder whether people will be using the term "Zeitgeist" in accepting that millions of Americans are devoted to Donald Trump. So, we can judge people, even if we do not personally understand the things that compelled rich, White men to take advantage of their privilege in oppressing others.
Linda Weide - (there are a lot of Lindas on this thread today:)
No, Zeitgeist does not excuse the atrocious things ppl do during any time, it just gives some insight on the disinformation and erroneous beliefs of the mainstream culture at the time that cause them.
And, there are usually a minority of ppl who have correct insights and knowledge pushing against the mainstream culture of any given time. Unfortunately they are too often ignored or outright gotten rid of. There were abolitionists during the slave era. There were civil rights protesters during our segregated apartheid in the backward South, which also merged with the Anti-War movement during Vietnam at the same time.
Even us "privileged, white males" can be a part of that minority, and I have pushed against racism, homofobia, nationalism, female genital mutilation, and the poser christians who do not follow the teachings of Jesus, as observed by this Atheist who seems to be better versed in Christianity than most I encounter.
You wonder if Zeitgeist will be applied to our present Time. It may. Even tho there was the "White Rose" in Nazi Germany during WWII, most only know of the murderous tyranny that happened in that culture. Yet here we are, watching it play out again as our nation seems to have fallen into a majority of hateful, ignorant, Repugnant Cultists going the same path that my family was fighting against at the time of my birth. IDK if the Cultists can be considered "mainstream culture" since they are antithetical to everything I have known for a lifetime. I think they are a vocal, dangerous minority, but so were the Nazi's at one time. But yes there is some Spirit of our Time that caused this travesty. Just hope that those of us against it are remembered.
Thank you for making this point, Rob. It has expanded and deepened my thinking.
🤨
I've read that when Washington was elected first President of the United States, people wondered how to refer to him. Many wanted him to be king, called 'your Highness' or other lofty titles, but he insisted that he just be called "Mr. President" or better yet, "Mr. Washington".
Despite his flaws, he was a totally sincere, caring, brilliant individual who loved his country and who set a pattern of statesmanship for all. His memory, and what he gave to America, should be cherished.
Any critics would have to be perfect in my opinion. Way more positives than negatives
Thank you for making this point. As I read this wonderful letter, I was struck that enslaved people built the building that this moment happened in.
Yes, and from 1872-2017 a statue of Roger Taney, the fifth chief justice of the Supreme Court, stood outside the statehouse. Taney wrote the majority opinion in the Dred Scott case, which ruled that black people—regardless of whether or not they were slaves—could not be considered citizens of the United States.
Dave Lincoln placed pro-South Taney under virtual house arrest during the Civil War.
Enslaved people built some of the buildings and worked in the seminary I attended in 2018-20, Virginia Theological Seminary. They have established an endowment fund for reparation payments to descendants of those people, whom they have begun searching for.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/27/us/virginia-seminary-reparations-trnd/index.html#:~:text=In%202019%20the%20school%20announced,of%20those%20who%20worked%20there.
Linda: You are right of course to remind me--I need to remember that part of Washington’s story too. The stain of chattel slavery marks our country. Washington had his huge estate where everything was done for him by people he “owned.” They had no choices. He probably had slaves with him when he was a general. Washington had a lot to protect for his own sake. I am grateful for the founding of our country but I also need to remember our founders were not saints.
He definitely had William Lee, his body man or valet, with him throughout the war and we know he had a cadre of slaves with him in Philadelphia when he was president. They are vividly remembered at the Washington house display on the mall in Philadelphia, right next to the Liberty Bell pavilion, if you're ever there. He had to send them back to Virginia every six months for a different set or else, under Pennsylvania law, he would have had to free them.
Thanks for this info. I learn not only from HCR but her readers as well!
Great comment Linda.
I also note: Washington was white. I happen to be a big fan of Washington as well as John Adams (who did not have a slave per se), neither of whom were concerned about the enslaved humans in America or women or the Native Americans. In fact Washington began the process of wiping out the Native people of America.
But?? I have a friend who often tells me: "Hey, Nobody's Perfect". He usually says this in the context of a conversation around Hitler or something to be funny.
But, it is actually true. Those guys who were wedded to the British mindset of white, male superiority CAN be judged, but, as Jeri notes below, we are all partly a product of our times.
So was Washington. For better and for worse.
And? Nobody is Perfect.
Plus, now we have Clarence Thomas (thanks Biden) and his massive clerkship nuts out there influencing things. Thomas makes Washington look like an angel from Heaven.
From today's NY times. Gift link.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/24/us/clarence-thomas-supreme-court-clerks.html?unlocked_article_code=1.IU0.y1z9.lqqEAxldi9UH&smid=url-share
I think it hardly fair to blame Clarence Thomas on Biden. Who nominated this pathetic man to replace Thurgood Marshall but HW,whose father Prescott was involved in the rise of Nazi Germany. And attempting to remove FDR from office, using Smedley Butler.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
If we want to place blame, I think starting with wealth is a great place. That isn’t Joe Biden, although his circumstances have no doubt changed.
I read it this morning. Horrifying!! There is NO way this corrupt SCOTUS judge will ever face consequences or even pay taxes on his ill gotten luxuries. Even his luxury forays with his loyal #&**(*%!'s are funded by billionaire right wingers. Really Scary!!!
The commenter thanking sarcastically Biden (whom I am a supporter of and will vote for again) refers to his chairing the committee who heard Anita Hill testify and still voted for him to take a seat on the SCOTUS. Biden has since apologized to Dr. Hill. At the very least he demonstrates growth and humility.
I thought perhaps that was the case.
However, men giving a damn about a rape allegation; is hardly disqualifying. Look at Kavenaugh.
Look at tfg, convicted of what in an other state is legally rape.
Thank you for the link, I only skimmed it but saved for later.
Smedley Butler is a fascinating figure. Prescott Bush is not.
Smedley Butler was a most remarkable American. He wasn't mentioned in the history books I had in school, but he certainly should have been. He stood up to power and told the truth which the corporate war machine (especially DuPont) did not like at all.
Now is a time that challenges each of us. Security is a delectable illusion while the dynamics of 'extended families', gang mentalities, and IN networks function as norms that slow progress. At the same time, other networks are building that fortify ways of being that are simply kind, that nurture reciprocity, and that are respectful of land and critters (outside of hierarchical power).
See the movie "Amsterdam" or Google Smedley Butler if you want to learn a little more about Butler and the Industrialists' attempted coup. They tried to use Butler for cover but he blew the whistle on them instead. Vey admirable.
Smedley was incredible in his service and commitment to the better principles of our nation. Not to mention that he was also a two-time recipient of the Medal of Honor. The man had substance and was certainly worthy of being listened to.
Thanks -- by looking up Smedley Butler I was led to the website of Americans Who Tell the Truth. I went to the portrait page there -- glad for the experience!
Thanks for the gift link. Sounds alarmingly like a carefully selected cult.
His vision was, however, for a man of his times, exceptional as was that of all of those who pledged their “lives, fortunes, and sacred honor.” That is courage and foresight which are rare characteristics in anyone at any time.
Washington was a man of his time. It doesn’t serve us to judge him by today’s standards. It doesn’t hurt to add that he owned slaves or that he didn’t respect the humanity of the indigenous population. That is fact. But those facts do not diminish the fact also he was a great man and if not for his actions, our country would not exist as independent nation.
Indeed, Linda: the "nobility" of the slave-holding members of the Continental Congress (including the, for me, ultimate hypocrite, Thomas Jefferson) and the "altruism" of the nascent robber barons from the northern colonies who profited from enslaved people's labor has to be measured against their bigotry and persistence in traumatizing an entire population for their own comforts. If you want to read a very good book about the contrasts within the Washington household, I recommend Erica Armstrong Dunbar's book, "Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge."
I came across a used book once; "Jefferson's Letters" which shows some first-person history, and he actually did anguish over slave holding in his writings to ppl in France, where he met free blacks who demonstrated intelligence which he did not see in his slaves.
I have donated that book to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, but had transcribed some excerpts.
Here is one letter:
To M. Henri Gregoire, Bishop and Senator, Paris.
Washington, February 25, 1809
Sir, - I have received the favor of your letter of August 17th, and with it the volume you were so kind as to send me on the "Literature of Negroes." Be assured that no person living wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a complete refutation of the doubts I have myself entertained and expressed on the grade of understanding allotted to them by nature, and to find that in this respect they are on a par with ourselves. My doubts were the result of personal observation on the limited sphere of my own State, where the opportunities of the development of their genius were not favorable, and those of exercising it still less so. I expressed them therefore with great hesitation; but whatever be their degree of talent it is no measure of their rights. Because Sir Isaac Newton was superior to others in understanding, he was not therefore lord of the person or property of others. On this subject they are gaining daily in the opinions of nations, and hopeful advances are making towards their re-establishment on an equal footing with the other colors of the human family. I pray you therefore to accept my thanks for the many instances you have enabled me to observe of respectable intelligence in that race of men, which cannot fail to have effect in hastening the day of their relief.
This entire nation was “built on the backs of” those who lived here centuries before anyone from England, Spain, Russia, etc ever landed on these shores.
You want “on the backs of”? read of the thousands who died just from the diseases Spaniards brought to the Southwest.
It is the story of this nation.
It is why I get angry at EU countries whining about their immigrant problem, when they were happy to take Marshall Funds off of the USA whose money was made off of the backs that people in the EU do not want in their countries, let alone all of the countries who got rich off of exploiting African countries and peoples. I feel the same way about US citizens who complain about refugees coming here. They don't know their history, and DeSatan denying it will not make it go away, but they won't learn it. I know that this nation was built by many groups of people and not all of them get credit for it, or are treated like they belong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I was taught that Washington was honorable because he chopped down the cherry tree and told his father, "I cannot tell a lie. I chopped down the cherry tree." That is what I remember from that story, told to me in first, second and third grade. The noble "Father of our Country!" Luckily I went to college in a time when we deconstructed these myths.
That Washington became The Distiller for America, which surely must have played a factor in the launching of the Militias towards Western PA in response to The Whiskey Rebellion of 1791-4.
However, when his 2nd term was coming to an end, rather than listen to those admirers and synchophants around the small Country who want to make his term 'for Life' and more monarchal, George again responded as Cinncinatus for the 2nd time.
There are those who do not realized that 'Branding' comes from personal character, too. His Orangeness is not as savvy of a brander as he thinks. His brand will live long in the company of a Benedict Arnold, not of a George Washington.
Luckily Washington was the only person in US history to own a slave.....
Washington was and still is one of the 2-3 greatest and most important Americans to ever live.
The “founders” decision to enslave Africans and impose a “Perpetual Brand” on them as less than human was DELIBERATE.
Imagine if they decided to take a different road toward “liberty and justice for all”. America would be a totally different nation today.
Trump and the Rs are forcing us to face what kind of nation we really are-we’ll see what 2024 brings.
George, I would not have been a slave holder, but a slave! In Nazi Germany, while not Jewish the fate of Brown German children could take several paths, such as being made to perform naked in movies swinging from vines, and sterlization and perhaps the death camp, but I would not be differentiated from Romani people. Might just have had to face a lot of racism each day, even though my non-German parent might have been in Germany as a relic of their African colonies.
https://www.harpercollins.com/products/destined-to-witness-hans-massaquoi?variant=32129842348066
So, I do not consider myself so pure, I consider myself so non White and male in a White Supremacist society.
He IS that shocking shriek we keep on hearing. We must silence that obnoxious assault on our brains through our collective speech, our actions and our VOTES.
Prediction for 2025? Here's my take , although I try to believe that "right" will win and all the Republican nonsense will end.
(I'm certainly no poet , but here goes....
If it's assumed
that Trump will resume,
and possibly presume
to quiet our freedom tune
with fume, as a buffoon,
the prediction is
Doom and gloom.
He was a squatter in the People’s House.
So true.
He's a crook. He invaded the White House, and as such a thing had never happened before, nobody knew what to do about it. It was so contrary to all the standards set up by Washington and maintained, for better and worse, ever since. The elevator. The glamorous exotic wife. The shadowy sidekicks. Did it really happen? What was it that really happened?
It's still happening, Anne-Louise.
Too many today don't read books, but let the social media billionaires suck them into the mosh pits of divisiveness, group labeling, and massive black holes of loneliness.
If they don't read books, easy for them to fall for seeing others as menacing, abstracted foreign entities, rather than as individuals which good books and decent literacy help us nurture.
So many dictators, nationalists, and such feeding on the vulnerable, Anne-Louise.
We're still in it.
Hate to use the cliché 'dumbing down of America' , but it's true, and it's accelerating.
Much, if not all, of MAGA's outrage stems from visually entertaining communication. Reading comprehension in this country is dismal and there's few alarms sounding about it; the oligarchs are fine with that.
Absolutely.
I like your "mosh pits of diviseness, group labeling, and massive black holes of loneliness." It gave me a new thought....what if the adults had stayed out of the children's play ground, if moms hadn't gleefully invaded Facebook land and Dad didn't think twittering made him cool...just imagine ..... We have a deficit of adults. We have a lot of old immature and unlearned people. Now we have a bunch of rebellious, angry teenagers mad that there are rules in place to keep chaos at bay.
He throws Florida tax money down the drain for performative drama like shipping immigrants to Martha's Vineyard. Anything for attention.
Jenn, iirc, didn’t he pay someone to go get those poor people *in Texas*, and fly them to MV? And he thinks no one will use that against him? Like, I dunno, Other Republicans?
FL has just banned another 300+ books.
My daughter recently moved back to Maine from Jacksonville. Her class was the second one to attend the high school for all four years. Within a year after the school opened it was already above the 1500 student capacity. She had excellent teachers there and the school board was very supportive of all of the schools in the district. There was never a discussion of banning books or ridding the schools of books the faux-Christians were against.
And then DeSatan became governor and all of this faux-Christian book banning and altering history took place.
Thank goodness he has the personality of a fish and has no chance of becoming President.
He certainly has a talent for choosing sycophants. He’s also the only governor to turn down Federal funding to combat climate change. Thank goodness some down here realize he just threw their Federal tax dollars down the drain.
And like I posted the other day. Florida has the HIGHEST property and casualty insurance rates in the country--NO. ONE!
They have a state run Homeowner's insurance company that is losing billions. Millions of Floridians can no longer afford homeowners insurance yet, their mortgage companies require it and are notified by the company if the insurance lapses.
I will be shocked if FL doesn't come begging for money to bail them out next FL legislative session.
And this 100% a GOP caused problem.
Yup. I have Citizens. Thank goodness for FIRM, who are working towards some solutions. 🤞
I have heard that several insurance companies have pulled out. I'm not sure if it is just the coast or the entire state. AAA was one of them. Guess they are tired of pulling stuck cars out of the sand..
When a P&C company loses money in a state they can only make it up with future premium rate hikes. The Florida Department of Insurance has to approve those rate hikes, but the state legislatures make the rules on how much these hikes can be. So depending on the rules within a state, it may take several years to make up for losses. When we lived in FL State Farm pulled out of the state after one of the hurricanes. This was sometime between 2005 - 2010. And once a company leaves, why would they return.
This is from channel 6 in South Florida-
According to the Insurance Information Institute, the average insurance premium for homeowners in Florida has spiked by 42% year-over-year, to an average of $6,000 in 2023.
At least a dozen insurance companies have stopped issuing new policies in Florida since January 2022 and three companies have announced their intentions to withdraw from the state in the past year, according to the Institute.
I think fish have more personality than DeSantis!
LOL, I thought about the fish I was insulting with my comment, but I posted anyway.
Does that make me a bad person?
Besides, hard to describe DeSantis appropriately. I’ve given up and doubt I’m the only one who has.
You won’t make it with the ecology community, but that means you’re only half bad.🤣🤣🤣
LOL
Gary, I will never look at DeSantis again without thinking of the puffer fish that I caught as a child.
I'm glad I read this BEFORE I sipped my coffee. I hate cleaning up the screen.
I laughed out loud at that one.
Ummm....that's what we thought about DJT--that he had "no chance" of winning. He, too, was a joke. We're through the looking glass now. Nothing can surprise me after 2016.
And he is term limited as governor. I bet he will give Senator a shot.
This is insulting to fish.
In November, Karen, Dems and independents will make the savages pay for their savagery.
I want so desperately to share your faith, Phil; but I don't. From where I'm sitting, it looks like the Dems and other so so called "liberals" are really just the opposite side of the same coin. The prettier side, the BETTER side, if you will; but still the same coin. I'm gonna bet on them (the liberals) anyway - I'm not self destructive enough to bet against them - that would be madness. But, oh, how I long to share your faith!
Phyla, if you try knocking on doors with this rhetoric, will it get the Dems more votes? Savages? Come on!
What is a good name for people who smear their feces on the walls of the Capitol building? Chimps?
"Deplorables" was gentler, but even if savages understand savagery, deplorables don't understand gentle. Same end result. Urgent therapy:
books, forced reading (and stay out of FL). Have you read "Fahrenheit 451"?
“Some voters have been swayed by contact from the super PAC, but many remain unconvinced. Some said the door knockers were indifferent or rude, while others said the full-court press from Never Back Down felt inauthentic. And, in a particularly brutal twist, some of the door knockers openly told Iowans that they themselves were in fact Trump supporters.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/22/us/politics/desantis-iowa-pac-ground-game.html?mwgrp=a-mbar&unlocked_article_code=1.IU0.cv0r.FwF4tp0qgZZz&hpgrp=ar-abar&smid=url-share
Hope you're right!
“Orange school district pulls 673 books from teachers’ classroom shelves
List includes classics like Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’ and bestsellers such as Grisham’s ‘The Firm’” 📚
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2023/12/20/ocps-books/?share=isotknis2ilropapllks
Kathy I’m beginning to feel that if a book isn’t banned, it’s not worth reading.A number of my favorites have been so honored. Ah, To Kill a Mocking Bird is killed. Clearly deSantimonius. Trump wouldn’t know, since he has never even read his ghostwritten book, Art of the Shlemiel. .
My project this summer was to read banned books. Some of these books I had never heard of and their titles held no interest for me. Why read them? Someone told me NOT do. The one that boggled my mind the most was "Where the Wild Things Are." The other books I found very depressing, racial discrimination, some sexual stuff-yeah-but then if the censors are being arrested for rape and menage a trois what can I say.
A lot of the books (Handmaid's Tale, The Giver, Fahrenheit 54, 1984 are all prophetic showing us things that are happening incrementally now: banning books, control of women's bodies, discrimination (classes).
Why bother with schools at all? Why bother to teach reading? Or, teach only enough to do social media.
🤢
You're so right, Phil. What to do?
Schools can teach students to write essays where central to them is quoting others.
As individuals -- in the same room.
Quotes may be direct quotes, or summaries, indirect quotes.
Students in one class all write introductory essays. Everyone details how one lives, specifying food, clothing, shelter (this last includes interiors of one's buildings, and exteriors, landscapes, including how one travels). Everyone reads everyone's. Everyone then revises, to quote sympatico others one has read.
Keep it going in the same room, expanding to citing novels, films, songs that echo oneself or one's peers.
Eventually send a round of all essays at some later point to another group, across the city or in a neighboring culture where good English teachers can help with mechanics and skills in making essay connections.
It's all personal. Others -- all -- are individuals and deserve good listening to, good quoting in their cultures, in their contexts.
VOTE and be ready Anne-Louise
They don't read books, newspapers or listen to non-partisan news. We have become a society with divisions, perpetuated by left and right wing social media and cable TV. With Tucker Carlson announcing his new network, his fans will never hear other points of view.
And we thought we’d finally awakened from this awful nightmare in November of 2020. Makes me want to cry out in my sleep - enough!
Maureen, my same thought. Were we snookered or just needed to believe in Santa Claus after 4 years of daily lying and upheaval.
I think about that a lot, recently. It's going to be a long haul of damage control if we as a country can pull it off.
Just the idea that we’d have to pull this off” in order to save our country from a lying, grifting, traitorous, abusive POS makes my blood boil. I know he has lots of followers, but they were hiding out in dark corners, mostly, until he woke them, like an army of orcs, to follow him to the bowels of hell.
You forgot Rapist.
Excuse me, the IMMIGRANT wife....
True, but what we saw, at that time, was the glamour girl. We were later informed that she was a qualified designer (really?), a linguist (definitely not), or that she was sick of effing Christmas trees....all that was to come, along with I dont care, do u? Oh, and destroying Jackie Kennedy's rose garden.
I recall MSM reporting/propping up much of this!
They were made for each other....
Faux News.
Lots of contradictory information out there. Several sources (local newspapers, NPR) say yes to lots of book banning. Snopes (which sometimes gives me info that shoots down my ideas) said that the FL ban list was put on Twitter by someone who was mocking various schools which were removing books in response to political pressure. I guess that is why there are so many " What the heck?!" books on the list. Snopes did comment that FL has made it a lot easier to challenge books.
I find it interesting that some FL Moms for Liberty need to clean up their houses before they start determining what is age appropriate material.
▶️ Watch this reel
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/s98tf2EfRYax5A8t/?mibextid=vSrFwX
I love this guy.
This guy is terrific!
Love when he says "...the public school system that you have been, eh, leading..." Yes, he is terrific! Hope we see much more from him in the future!
"Opportunity for themselves" sums it up.
Thank you for that link!
Thanks for the share MaryPat
Mary Pat: You made my day with this link! Thanks!
I don't have Facebook. Who is this guy?
Were you able to watch the video? I think he is a former student at the school where whatshername (of threesome fame) is on the school board.
I don't have FB. So, who is "he"?
https://harvardpolitics.com/zander-moricz-interview/
That young man has an important future!
Thanks!
And Rupert is still going strong, slowed just half an iota by Dominion
Jeri, correct. Just as Impeaching Trump twice did nothing but embolden him.
It seems that holding people to point is feckless.
To be fair, it wasn’t impeachment that emboldened him. It was the refusal of Republicans to hold him to account for his impeachable behavior that emboldened him.
Maybe Biden’s impending impeachment will do the same, HA
Of course, he’s not into phony bravado
Jeri, if that's what it will take to wake up people, I'm all for it.
We have been in a stupor and need an “awakening”. Sorry DeSatan, Woke is a good thing.
Phil,
Thanks for the reference to the Powell Memo.
I found these two sentences at Wikipedia about Lewis Powell.
"His experiences as a corporate lawyer and a director on the board of Phillip Morris from 1964 until his appointment to the Supreme Court made him a champion of the tobacco industry who railed against the growing scientific evidence linking smoking to cancer deaths.[16]
He argued, unsuccessfully, that tobacco companies' First Amendment rights were being infringed when news organizations were not giving credence to the cancer denials of the industry.[16]"
So, the guy who started it all was an all out liar. No surprise.
Pitch perfect
"What a contrast"
Without mentioning his name once, Heather masterfully captures the conduct between a gentleman and an oaf. You rightly spotlight the historical grift of billionaires that trump exemplifies, but I'd like to u-turn back to another contrast between these two figures--someone who as a child purportedly said, "I cannot tell a lie" with the biggest liar the world has ever seen....
Well said, shades of Antebellum times ...
Wow, Phil! I think that may be the most profound and incisive comment I’ve ever read on this site.Although it’s not exactly the way I wanted to feel here in the wee hours before dawn on Christmas Eve, surrounded by my kids and grandkids, the truth will indeed set us free. Thank you.
Phil Balla, your post was at the top of the Comments section when I read HCR’s Letter this morning and I’m thankful for that. I spend a lot of time posting about Neoliberalism because, despite its having dominated American economics and politics for forty years, I think too few of us are familiar with it and that leads to many mistakes about who or what is responsible for the current, sorry state of our Union. Many think, mistakenly, the blame rests with the Democratic Party in spite of the plain fact that President Biden’s is the first Administration to do an about-face, moving our economy and society away from Neoliberalism. But my posts all seem to be, like this one, too long and repetitive. Your post this morning is nothing like that. Yours is direct, economical, well informed, and eloquent. I am so thankful for it!l
I'm reminded of Neil Armstrong's "One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." Whatever the imperfections, Washington's replication of Cinicinnatus's example, was one giant step in setting a firmer foundation for our country, something so many more could add to and improve. It was a step into a better future, not a step into a darker past.
The second and third paragraphs so beautifully the horror that I have been intuiting for a long time. Thank you for your description.
Damn...that is one sharp flaying knife. And true. Personally, I believe the '80's gave this problem wings and it really took off.
Kudos.
Well said, Phil!
The experiment of Capitalism isn’t finished evolving. Anything in its extreme is typically bad. And we live in extreme times.
Interestingly, utter these words to a Republican and they’ve been conditioned to immediately call you a Socialist — even though in reality, unless they are an American oligarch, they too have been hurt by extreme Capitalism.
My hope is the experiment of Capitalism continues and as a society we can learn to moderate the darker impulses of greed, power, and control.
Idealistic, I know…
The deep, festering underbelly of NYC (where Trump was nurtured) was the subject of a masterful April 2018 article by Frank Rich. It's a painful read for me, since I grew up in NYC and once thought some of the people named were great men. But it's important to understand the rot that exists in NYC overall... which Trump was drawn to like a bear to honey. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/04/frank-rich-roy-cohn-the-original-donald-trump.html
All I can say: you reap what you will sow.
This 2018 article is confirmation of all I have believed about the NYC glitterati. But when one becomes a dictator in waiting, the glitter falls into the gutter.
NYC is truly a microcosm of America. From the best of what we can be (Broadway Theater, world-class museums, the Statue of Liberty) to the worst of what we can be (what's in the Frank Rich article). Were law enforcement to ever attempt to total cleanup of NYC's underbelly, the effort could transform America. But first things first. Trump (who benefitted from living in that cesspool) must be convicted and barred from public life for life.
Wow
When the orange balloon is at last punctured by our legal processes what will that picture look like and how will our artists depict the scene? I believe it will resemble the chaos at the end of “The Untouchables” when Al Capone receives the verdict of the judge. The painting will serve as a warning.