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
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 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 If you’ve been paying attention to the news, you already know about the conflict between Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump. While the Trump administration seems to be setting a new record for corruption and other “dishonesties” in the White House, this isn’t the first time in U.S. history politicians have yielded to temptation and the abuse of power. As Lord Acton pointed out, power corrupts, and that has certainly been true for U.S. Presidents. As is true today, our Founding Fathers tended to be the rich and powerful. One of the ways they used their wealth and power was . . . → Read More: Stormy Weather Comments are closed Blog agri-business, American Presidents, Belgian Congo, corporations, corruption, Democrats, Donald Trump, earthquakes, fame, Founding Fathers, fracking, French Indochina, Gordon Gekko, greed, Lord Actor, Martin Shkrekli, Mexico, Native Americans, oil and gas, political donations, politics, power, presidents, profit, Republicans, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Shkrekli, slavery, slaves, Stormy Daniels, the Fugs, the Rolling Stones, Vietnam, wars, wealth, White House, White Man's burden, Wide Wide River Although all presidential elections in the US are “historic,” our most recent election will probably go down in history as the most historic of all. As most of you already know, the election featured the first woman candidate to be nominated by a major political party, and the first major oligarch who pretended to be the candidate of the people. It also featured more—a lot more—of the usual yelling and screaming—and sometimes punching and shoving—than most US presidential contests. One of the influencing factors was, of course, accomplishments of President Obama, many resented him because he was the first . . . → Read More: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Coronation Comments are closed Blog 1984, Aliens, Blacks, buggy whips, cancer, Christ, Clinton, coal, coastal states, Divergent, dystopian, election, fear, female, flyover states, gas, global climate change, global warming, hate, Hispanics, history, Hitler, holocaust, Hunger Games, Indians, Interesting Times, manufacturing, Maze Runner, Mexicans, Mideast, Native Americans, oil, Old Testament, oligarch, presidential, race-based hate, Rapture, Second Coming, slavery, surgery, technologies, Trump, war, woman, WWI, WWII My last post with the title, “What a Week,” was about racial violence. Although it would be easy to write a new post on all the racial violence that has happened since, I will focus instead on the political mess we (those of us in the States) have created for ourselves. I’ve seen a lot of elections over the years, and I can’t recall any previous election when so many people disliked both candidates. Hold Your Nose and Choose provides a strategy for deciding between the lesser of two evils. One of the jokes making the rounds about the upcoming . . . → Read More: What A Week, Part 2 Comments are closed Blog Aleppo, Bosnian, Bosnians, by the people, change, Crusades, democracy, for the people, fossil fuel industry, fossil fuels, gas and oil industries, gender, global climate change, global warming, Golden Rule, Mahatma Gandhi, Middle East, monetary exchange, Native Americans, of the people, political mess, political systems, politics, racial violence, Romans, Serbs, sexual orientation, shared values, slave owners, slaves, war I recently had two online exchanges with “True Believers.” In my case, both were Christian “literalists” whose “true belief” was in Biblical inerrancy, believing that the Christian Bible is literally the “Word of God” and therefore contains no errors. The belief in inerrancy is more complex than the phrase implies, as there are so many different versions of the ancient texts. My concern is with inerrancy in general rather than which particular form it takes. Christians aren’t the only ones who have an inerrancy faction. Muslims have one, too. Sunnis and Shia are currently in the news for their . . . → Read More: True Believers Comments are closed Blog arguments, Battle of Greasy Grass, Bible stories, Biblical inerrancy, Big Enders, Buddism, Christian, Crusades, Edward de Bono, evidence, fights, God, Greek poems, Hamas, history, Hundred Years War, Iliad, internecine conflicts, Israel, John, literal interpretation, Little Big Horn, Little Enders, Luke, Mark, Mathew, metaphor, Muslim, Native Americans, Odyssey, oral tradition, planet Earth, Real Americans, rock logic, True Believers, warfare, water logic An alternate title for this blog entry might be “Adjusting to Social Media.” Many of us who are older “dogs” at this point haven’t really caught up with the changes in forms of communication that have occurred in recent years. Some of us are making the effort. Others aren’t. If you’re a student of communication, you’re probably familiar with Morris Massey, who has used the lens of generational differences to help individuals understand the communication process. Where we were when, especially in pre- and early adolescence, influences the principal frames through which we view the external environment. When I was . . . → Read More: Old Dogs and New Tricks Comments are closed Blog bookstores, Borders, computer, copyright, education, email, Encyclopedia Britannica, envelope, Facebook, frames, Google+, graduate student, Internet, lawmen, learning, Lewis and Clark, LinkedIn, mail, Morris Massey, Native Americans, newspapers, newsweeklies, old dogs, outlaws, phone calls, radio, range wars, sexting, social media, territory, texting, tubes, TV, Twitter, typewriter, What You Are Is Where You Were When, Wild West |
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