Have you noticed how often the GOP cheats to win? In the “old days,” cheating to win was often ascribed to the Democrats. That changed with Richard M. Nixon, who lied about a secret plan to end the Vietnam War. It wasn’t really a plan, of course, and the US exit from Vietnam was anything but glorious. And then came the Watergate scandal.” That was followed by the racism of the Southern Strategy, which focused on denying blacks access to the polls and encouraging whites to vote for racist policies. And that has basically been the GOP strategy since, as . . . → Read More: Cheating to Win
|
||||
 Comments are closed  Blog  Academic Politics, democrat, Democrats, elections, Franklin Roosevelt, gerrymandering, GOP, Joseph McCarthy, Joseph Welch, mercy, New Deal, Nixon, politics, redistricting, Republicans, scandal, stack the court, The Who, Vietnam War, voters, Watergate, we won't be fooled again, won't get fooled again Alice entered Wonderland by falling down a rabbit hole that led to a strange and metaphorical adventure. Whether the United States has collectively fallen down a rabbit hole or whether politics have always been bizarre isn’t clear (at least to me), but we currently seem to have entered a time when the . . . → Read More: Down the Rabbit Hole Comments are closed Blog 1984, Alice, Alice in Wonderland, alternative reality, communist, democracy, dragons, dystopian, Eugene Ionesco, George Orwell, heroes, if not now when, If not us who, kings, Latvia, Mad Hatt4er, Nazis, rabbit hole, Rhinoceros, Starship Troopers, troops, well-regulated militia We seem to have been voting for the “lesser of two evils” for a long time. Back in the days of the Vietnam War and the associated political unrest, a musical group calling themselves The Fugs wrote and performed a song entitled “Wide, Wide River.” The song focused on the concept of voting for the lesser of two evils: Two of the musical questions in the song were, “Why must we always be voting for the lesser of two evils?” and “Was George Washington the lesser of two evils.” The person with the best answer to those . . . → Read More: Lesser of Two Evils Comments are closed Blog Chinese Revolution, corruption, Democracy in Chains, democratic society, end game, French revolution, House, Lord Acton, lust for power, medieval, Nancy MacLean, nobles, oligarchy, political systems, politicians, politics, representatives, rich and poor, Russian revolution, self-aggrandizement, Senate, senators, serfs, tax breaks, the Fugs, vested interests, we the people, Wide Wide River One of the stories from the French Revolution is about what Queen Marie Antoinette said of the peasants’ inability to buy bread: . . . → Read More: Let Them Eat Cake Comments are closed Blog civilization, economies, for, French, French revolution, gain the world, history, history repeats, Jesus, let them eat cake, Marie Antoinette, migration, New Testament, parable of the talents, parables, Planet B, poor, Queen Marie Antoinette, redistribution, refugees, revolution, rich, rich and poor, social welfare, tax breaks, warfare, wealthy Shakespeare’s King Lear gives a good (accurate and artistic) accounting of what happens when a powerful leader descends into madness. Lear is impressed by the flattery he receives from two of his daughters, and leaves his kingdom to them, ignoring the third daughter, who is more circumspect and honest in what she says. The play is a tragedy because it does not end well for any of the main characters. Although the play is “fiction” in that Lear was not a “real” king, the characters are based on common historical events. History shows how common it has been for those . . . → Read More: King Lear in Charge Comments are closed Blog Agincourt, battle, Battle of Hastings, civil wars, commoners, corporations, crew, Earl Landgrebe, ethnicity, golden parachute, gossip, history, King Lear, living in interesting times, madness, Magna Carta, media, news, newspapers, Nixon, Paul Simon, race, radio, reporting, royalty, self-interest, Shakespeare, Slip Slidin' Away, town crier, troops, Trump, TV, Watergate, we the people It’s no longer a matter of living in interesting times. Democracy in the US has always been on a roller coaster. We got started on a big hill by men (women only in the background at that point) who were flawed giants. Their principal flaw was owning slaves, In their defense, we can say that slavery was common at that time, and it hadn’t yet occurred to many that slavery was (and is) an evil institution. The country has had a variety of ups and downs since its founding, we’ve had numerous wars, including the military actions required to complete . . . → Read More: Bad to Worse Comments are closed Blog African-Americans, Carter, China, Civil Rights, Clinton, democracy, economic decline, economy, Eisenhower, George Bush, GOP, Great Depression, Great Recession, greed, Harley Davidson, honesty, housing, industrial base, Interesting Times, Interstate Highway System, laves, mobsters, Native Americans, Nixon, North Korea, Pogo, political decline, presidents, Reagan, Republican, rich get richer, robber barons, Russia, slavery, tariffs, Trump, Vietnam War, War in Southeast Asia, women, WWII Going to Hell in a Handbasket is an old saying typically used to describe a situation heading for disaster. That seems to be the current situation in the United States. In many ways, the States reached its zenith during World War II because everyone—at least nearly everyone—worked together for the common good. This is not to say that everything was wonderful during that time. We unjustly imprisoned Japanese Americans and excessively rewarded those whose companies produced munitions we needed for the war effort. In doing so, we created what has become the military-industrial complex. President Eisenhower, who had been . . . → Read More: The Handbasket to Hell Comments are closed Blog 1920s, 1930s, Allies, banking, butcher, Chine, Chinese Revolution, Civil, Civil War, conservative intellectuals, corporate greed, cuts of meat, earn a living, finance, financial laws, follow the money, France, French revolution, Gordon Gekko, Great Depression, greed, greedy, handbasket, handbasket to hell, Hell, hell in a handbasket, industrial age, Investing, Michael Douglas, Military Industrial Complex, Nineteenth century, political influence, president, repeating history, revolution, robber barons, Russia, Russian revolution, slavery, tax code, tax laws, Teamsters, the States, the wealthy, thumb on the scale, trade unions, Trump, Wall Street, war, wealth, wealthy, WW II, WWII A long time ago (1959) in a land far, far away (France) a playwright named Eugène Ionesco wrote The Rhinoceros. In the play, the citizens of a provincial French village turn into rhinoceroses. The most common interpretation of the play is the Nazi takeover of France in the 1930s. The Rhinocerisation of the citizenry in the play symbolizes that takeover. When I was watching TV news last night, I had the weird sense that the United States is currently undergoing its own process of rhinocerisalion. While we watch our friends and neighbors become rhinos, we exclaim the equivalent of the . . . → Read More: The Rhinoceros Comments are closed Blog Al Wilson, bazarre, china shop, Eugene Ionesco, France, French village, king of hearts, madness, military rank, play, rhinos, snake, snakes, The Rhinoceros I started being aware of politics in 1950. Truman, a democrat, was president. He instituted the Marshall Plan to facilitate the rebuilding of Europe, which had suffered serious damage during WWII. A major concern at that time was the increasing strength and avarice of Russia and the Communists. The U.S. also had internal concerns about the growing popularity of Communism as a way of life, and we—politicians elected to national office—wanted to make sure that we weeded them out before they could take over in the States. A senator named Joseph McCarthy was charged with rooting them out. He . . . → Read More: Who’s Writing This Script? Comments are closed Blog Bob Dylan, bone spurs, Cherokee Indians, Civil War, Clint Watts, Cold War, Communism, decency, democrat, Europeans, flying monkeys, freedom, French, history, John McCain, justice, Marshall Plan, Masters of War, McCarthy, Messing with the Enemy, Mexico, pivotal point in history, politics, Portuguese, progress, Revolutionary War, Spanish, Tammy Duckworth, Texas, Truman, Vietnam, witch hunt, witches, Wizard of Oz “Fouling one’s nest” is an old metaphor, originally in reference to birds that excreted in their nests, and applied by extension to humans who failed to keep their environments tidy. The thought that led me here was about helium balloons used to help promote events such as weddings and open houses, cut loose after the event to come down wherever. And they will come down, and, when they come down, they cause problems for birds and other wildlife. People think about the immediate benefit of using the balloons to highlight an event without considering the after-event consequences of disposing of . . . → Read More: Fouling Our Nest Comments are closed Blog \, Al Gone, An Inconvenient Truth, ancestors, balloons, bird, black-lung, buffalo, cattle, coal, consequences, conservation, desires, Elton John, environment, exploiting resources, exploration, feast, fiction, fossil fuels, fouling, fouling our nest, grain, helium, history, humans, Jules Verne, lions, Los Angeles, movies, needs, nest, oil, planet a, planet Earth, planetary destruction, pollute, pollution, primitive people, religion, religious differences, Rocket Man, Santa Monica, science fiction, setting, wars |
||||