Month: July 2020

What Is Making The People Sick?

Closing Thought–31Jul20

We all know that this pandemic is raging and killing fellow Americans……but why?

We can say that it is the president’s fault for not taking this virus seriously in the beginning…..but is that really the reason?

Could it be that Republicans and Democrats view the pandemic differently?

Americans have changed their behavior in ways that would have been unthinkable even a few months ago. Masks are an essential accessory. Social distancing is the norm. And even as states moved to reopen their economies in May and June, many Americans continued to think it was better for people to stay home.

But underneath that apparent consensus is a large — and growing — partisan divide. Even as cases and hospitalizations spike in red states that mostly escaped the early effects of the virus, Republicans and Democrats remain stubbornly split on the threat it poses. For instance, it was only in July that President Trump wore a mask in public for the first time. And perhaps thanks to Trump’s repeated downplaying of the threat that COVID-19 poses, Republicans are much less concerned than Democrats are about the virus.

On the one hand, according to surveys conducted by the Pew Research Center, Republicans have consistently been less likely than Democrats to say that they fear being hospitalized because of COVID-19 or that they might unknowingly spread the virus to others. But on the other hand, that partisan gap has widened significantly between April and June.

Republicans And Democrats See COVID-19 Very Differently. Is That Making People Sick?

I mean seriously…..25% of the American people believe some of the conspiracy theories flying around this pandemic….25%…that is one quarter of the population!

Most Americans (71%) have heard of a conspiracy theory circulating widely online that alleges that powerful people intentionally planned the coronavirus outbreak. And a quarter of U.S. adults see at least some truth in it – including 5% who say it is definitely true and 20% who say it is probably true, according to a June Pew Research Center survey. The share of Americans who see at least some truth to the theory differs by demographics and partisanship.

Educational attainment is an especially important factor when it comes to perceptions of the conspiracy theory. Around half of Americans with a high school diploma or less education (48%) say the theory is probably or definitely true, according to the survey, which was conducted as part of the Center’s American News Pathways project. That compares with 38% of those who have completed some college but have no degree, 24% of those with a bachelor’s degree and 15% of those with a postgraduate degree.

A look at the Americans who believe there is some truth to the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 was planned

Thoughts?

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“lego ergo scribo”

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Passchendaele: A Worthless Exercise

On this day over 100 years ago the Third Battle For Ypres was commencing…..the date is 31July1917……this battle will go down in history as a massive waste of human life.

A description of the battle from the BBC…….

Officially known as the Third Battle of Ypres, Passchendaele became infamous not only for the scale of casualties, but also for the mud.

Ypres was the principal town within a salient (or bulge) in the British lines and the site of two previous battles: First Ypres (October-November 1914) and Second Ypres (April-May 1915). Haig had long wanted a British offensive in Flanders and, following a warning that the German blockade would soon cripple the British war effort, wanted to reach the Belgian coast to destroy the German submarine bases there. On top of this, the possibility of a Russian withdrawal from the war threatened German redeployment from the Eastern front to increase their reserve strength dramatically.

The British were further encouraged by the success of the attack on Messines Ridge on 7 June 1917. Nineteen huge mines were exploded simultaneously after they had been placed at the end of long tunnels under the German front lines. The capture of the ridge inflated Haig’s confidence and preparations began. Yet the flatness of the plain made stealth impossible: as with the Somme, the Germans knew an attack was imminent and the initial bombardment served as final warning. It lasted two weeks, with 4.5 million shells fired from 3,000 guns, but again failed to destroy the heavily fortified German positions.

The infantry attack began on 31 July. Constant shelling had churned the clay soil and smashed the drainage systems. The left wing of the attack achieved its objectives but the right wing failed completely. Within a few days, the heaviest rain for 30 years had turned the soil into a quagmire, producing thick mud that clogged up rifles and immobilised tanks. It eventually became so deep that men and horses drowned in it.

On 16 August the attack was resumed, to little effect. Stalemate reigned for another month until an improvement in the weather prompted another attack on 20 September. The Battle of Menin Road Ridge, along with the Battle of Polygon Wood on 26 September and the Battle of Broodseinde on 4 October, established British possession of the ridge east of Ypres.

Further attacks in October failed to make much progress. The eventual capture of what little remained of Passchendaele village by British and Canadian forces on 6 November finally gave Haig an excuse to call off the offensive and claim success.

However, Passchendaele village lay barely five miles beyond the starting point of his offensive. Having prophesied a decisive success, it had taken over three months, 325,000 Allied and 260,000 German casualties to do little more than make the bump of the Ypres salient somewhat larger. In Haig’s defence, the rationale for an offensive was clear and many agreed that the Germans could afford the casualties less than the Allies, who were being reinforced by America’s entry into the war. Yet Haig’s decision to continue into November remains deeply controversial and the arguments, like the battle, seem destined to go on and on.

(BBC)

If graphs and such do more to inform you then maybe this article will be more along the lines that you need……https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/happened-battle-passchendaele/

Then there are those that have given up the power to read for those I have a short video that could assist in their knowledge…..

As I stated earlier….a worthless loss of human life that accomplished NOTHING.

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Why Not Postpone 2020 Election?

Is that a threat or just wishful thinking?

Donald the Orange has a problem……voters are starting to doubt his chances for re-election…..

President Trump has trailed Joe Biden in the polls. First, it was only a 5- or 6-percentage-point gap, but since the middle of June, that margin has widened to anywhere from 8 to 9 points, according to FiveThirtyEight’s national polling average.

But until very recently, voters didn’t seem all that convinced that Biden could win. In poll after poll, comparatively more voters said they thought Trump would win reelection in November. Now, though, that view may be shifting.

Voters Are Starting To Doubt Trump’s Reelection Chances

For several months Trump has been setting up the debate that there will be something wrong with the November election……he has even floated the idea of postponing it.

President Trump on Thursday voiced the thought many of his political opponents don’t want to hear: He raised the idea of delaying November’s election. “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history,” he tweeted. “It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???” The president, who is trailing in the polls, did not immediately elaborate on the idea. The Washington Post notes that the Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to regulate the election date.

In April, Joe Biden said this: “Mark my words, I think he is going to try to kick back the election somehow, come up with some rationale why it can’t be held.” A Trump campaign spokesperson dismissed the idea at the time as “conspiracy theory ramblings.” Since the prediction, the coronavirus has only worsened in the US, with the death toll now surpassing 150,000. States are ramping up vote-by-mail efforts, but Trump alleges that would open the door to voter fraud.

Let’s look at the possibility of Trump postponing our election….he cannot do it on his own….we sill have a Constitution (as much as Trump might hate the idea)…….

  • The Constitution: It gives Congress, not the president, the power to set the date. Officially, Election Day takes place on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, a date that has been fixed since 1845, per the New York Times. What’s more, the Constitution stipulates that presidential terms end on Jan. 20. Barring a change to the Constitution, then, any voting delay could only be for a few weeks.
  • What Trump said: “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???” He didn’t explicitly suggest he would push for the move. Later, he “pinned” the tweet, ensuring it would remain at the top of his feed.
  • Digging deeper: The National Constitution Center has a lengthy post on the subject. “In general, a combination of state or congressional actions could delay elections but not postpone the selection of a president and vice president,” per the post. “The only hard deadline spelled out in the Constitution is the end of a president’s term and a vice president’s term on January 20 of the year following a general election.”
  • Emergency? No, not even in an emergency such as a pandemic can a president circumvent Congress on Election Day, per a breakdown in the Washington Post. Trump could lobby Congress to make the change, but Democrats control the House, making this all but a non-starter.
  • Criticism: It’s coming from Democrats and Republicans. “Please don’t even pretend to mess with this,” wrote Ari Fleischer, former press secretary for George W. Bush. “It’s a harmful idea.” GOP Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming stated flatly on Fox News, “We will not delay the [election].” At the conservative Hot Air site, Ed Morrissey sounds exasperated. “The best that could be said for this tweet is that Trump’s just spitballing, but even that’s an indictment of its own,” he writes. “No president should just be spitballing a suggestion like this, not in public and not even in private.” Besides, he adds, Trump keeps saying we should “reopen for business.”
  • Fraud allegation: Trump continues to allege that mail-in ballots are prone to voter fraud, but the Hill reports there is “no evidence to support the idea.” An NPR fact-check also finds that Trump is spreading “unfounded claims.” Trump, for his part, tweeted a link to this news station’s investigation into problems with mail-in voting in Philadelphia, notes Breitbart News.
  • Things change: In April, Trump ridiculed Joe Biden’s prediction that the president would try to postpone the election, notes Axios. “I never even thought of changing the date of the election,” Trump said at the time. “Why would I do that? November 3rd. It’s a good number. No, I look forward to that election.”

If his threat cannot be acted upon would Trump just in a pouting haze walk away from the election?

First things first: John F. Harris writes that this scenario is “not terribly” plausible. But in a piece at Politico Magazine, he lays out why it might make sense for President Trump to quit the 2020 race before November. Harris notes that in March 1968, Lyndon B. Johnson shocked the nation by announcing at the end of a televised address about Vietnam that he would not run for another term. Things were too dire for him to waste any time on partisan matters, LBJ explained. Harris, who notes that Trump’s current chances of defeating Joe Biden are not great anyway, sees a parallel in 2020 with the pandemic. He even has a sample address Trump could use.

“Fellow Americans, I know I am a disrupter, and everyone knows I thrive on conflict,” Trump could say. “I believe that disruption is what Republicans and the country needed when I ran for president in 2016, and that is what I delivered.” But the pandemic changed everything, and “I am going to devote the balance of my term to trying to get this country opened up safely, and allow someone without my sharp edges make the case for Republicans this fall.” So why would Trump do it? He seems headed for a loss, which could tarnish his image. Stepping out now would help keep him in the game, “preserving his role as disrupter at large in American politics over the next decade.” Read the full column.

Just a thought that that I wanted to share…..

Say what you like….there is NO doubt that this coming election will be different than the ones that preceded it….

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/reasons-years-election-unlike-history-opinion/story

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“lego ergo scribo”

How About Defunding The Pentagon

We have lots of talk these days about defunding the police…..but for me the debate should be about defunding the Pentagon……why? So much of the problems we face revolves around a department in government that is out of control….it is wasteful and corrupt.

Yes I said corrupt!

Because the defense industry owns our Congress, both Houses, it is obvious when a bill came up that would cut just 10% of the budget….read my thoughts on this……https://lobotero.com/2020/07/22/2021-ndaa/

Now to the meat of the post…..there has been calls for the defunding the Pentagon (something I can agree with but that would be another post)………

n just the past few months, Congress has appropriated nearly $3 trillion dollars to fight the economic and public health impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. This is on top of a terrible budget deal last year that blew through spending caps imposed by the 2011 Budget Control Act. With little end in sight to the pandemic and its associated recession, Congress is likely to spend even more in the months to come.

With resources more limited than ever, areas of the budget that were off-limits for years should now be more closely scrutinized. At the top of that list should be the single largest part of the federal discretionary budget, an entire category of spending that has long been off the table: the Pentagon.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/07/16/defund-the-pentagon-the-conservative-case-366066

I agree that the Pentagon could use some tweaking and scrutiny….it has gotten away with wasting taxpayer money for decades….time for it to tighten up……

To be fair……something more bloggers need to try…..I will give the rebuttal to the defunding call…..

Recently Politico published two opinion pieces claiming that it’s time to “defund” national defense: “Defund the Pentagon: The Conservative Case by Andrew Lautz and Jonathan Bydlak, and “Defund the Pentagon: The Liberal Case by Sen. Bernie Sanders. A provocative suggestion, but both pieces lack some information that would contribute to a richer, more informed discussion of this critically important topic.

Although sharing similar headlines, the articles advance different arguments for why defense spending should be reduced. The self-described “conservative case” argues Pentagon spending has become “bloated” and “wasteful” and that Americans can no longer afford national security at the level currently funded. The other, “liberal view” proposes that instead of funding national defense, America should focus inwardly and take care of pressing internal problems.

https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2020/07/25/what_the_defunding_the_pentagon_articles_dont_tell_you_115494.html

I am with those that are calling for the defund…..put of control M-IC has given us endless war and wasted money…..and unless we voters pay attention and vote these toads out of control we will continue to have endless wars and pissed away cash.

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They Are All Anarchists!

Closing Thought–30Jul20

Out Dear Leader and his lap dog Barr are stating that Portland protests have nothing to do with the death of a black person…..

First Barr’s statement….

Attorney General William Barr is defending the aggressive federal law enforcement response to civil unrest in America, saying “violent rioters and anarchists have hijacked legitimate protests” sparked by George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police. Barr will tell members of the House Judiciary Committee at a much-anticipated hearing on Tuesday that the violence taking place in Portland, Oregon, and other cities is disconnected from the death of Floyd, which he described as a “horrible” event that prompted a necessary national reckoning on the relationship between the Black community and law enforcement. “Largely absent from these scenes of destruction are even superficial attempts by the rioters to connect their actions to George Floyd’s death or any legitimate call for reform,” Barr will say of the Portland protests, according to a copy of his prepared remarks released by the Justice Department on Monday and reported by the AP.

Then there is Trump trying to make it out as some attempt to overthrow the government…..”they are all anarchists”…..but sadly Mr. Trump it is bigger than Portland.

  • Portland: A bag containing loaded rifle magazines and Molotov cocktails was found at a park near where protests have been staged for two months in Portland, police said. A photo of the items was shared in a tweet from police that said someone pointed out the bag to officers at Lownsdale Square Park, per the AP. Meanwhile, the city’s protest late Sunday started peacefully, but intensified early Monday. US agents declared an unlawful assembly and deployed several rounds of what appeared to be tear gas, flash bangs, and pepper balls from the federal courthouse downtown.
  • Shots fired: The discovery came just hours after two people were arrested following reports that a shot was fired in the same Portland park. Officers responded just before 7:30pm. A person believed to be the gunshot victim arrived later at a hospital via a private vehicle with non-life threatening injuries, police said. It wasn’t clear if either incident was connected to the demonstrations.
  • Trump: “The ‘protesters’ are actually anarchists who hate our Country,” the president tweeted Sunday evening. He also took issue with the “wall of moms” in Portland, a group of women who stood together between federal officers and protesters, notes the Daily Beast. “The line of innocent ‘mothers’ were a scam that Lamestream refuses to acknowledge, just like they don’t report the violence of these demonstrations!”
  • Oakland: A protest in Oakland, Calif., in support of racial justice and police reform turned violent Saturday night when a small group of demonstrators wearing helmets and goggles and carrying large signs that doubled as shields set fire to a courthouse, vandalized a police station, and shot fireworks at officers, authorities said, per the AP.
  • Richmond: In Virginia’s capital, a dump truck was torched as several hundred protesters and police faced off late Saturday during a demonstration of support for the protesters in Portland. Police declared it to be an “unlawful assembly” at around 11pm and used what appeared to be tear gas to disperse the group.
  • Atlanta: In downtown Atlanta on Sunday, federal agents examined damage to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility where windows were shattered late Saturday.
  • Baltimore: People from a group of nearly 100 demonstrators spray-painted anti-police messages on a Fraternal Order of Police building and adjacent sidewalks on Saturday night in Baltimore.

This is how you handle the mothers that Trump say are not protesting…..please click on the links to see what this is all about……..

https://twitter.com/i/status/1287817041693609985
 
WE have MOTHERS protecting protesters…..then we have FATHERS with leaf blowers protecting the mothers that are protecting the protesters and now VETERANS are there to protect the fathers protecting the mothers who are protecting the protesters.
 
 
According to Donald the Orange….Mothers are anarchists….fathers are anarchists and now veterans are anarchists…..
 
In case anyone is interested (probably not) those protesters in the Antifa/anarchists have been linked to ZERO murders……
 

Donald Trump has made warnings about the threat of antifa and “far-left fascism” a central part of his re-election campaign. But in reality leftwing attacks have left far fewer people dead than violence by rightwing extremists, new research indicates, and antifa activists have not been linked to a single murder in decades.

A new database of nearly 900 politically motivated attacks and plots in the United States since 1994 includes just one attack staged by an anti-fascist that led to fatalities. In that case, the single person killed was the perpetrator.

Over the same time period, American white supremacists and other rightwing extremists have carried out attacks that left at least 329 victims dead, according to the database.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/27/us-rightwing-extremists-attacks-deaths-database-leftwing-antifa

Antifa is a convenient bogeyman……they can lie about these protesters like they have always lied about this they do not agree with…….

People continued to resist fascism, as this poisonous political plant took root in Latin America and thrived under Franco in Spain. Many leftists who fought these fascists did not call themselves antifa – but that’s what they were. Antifascism was and remains a frame of mind and a determination to act morally – against fascism.

So it was something of a surprise in the early twenty-first century to see antifascists smeared as dangerous, violent thugs. This reactionary recasting of an old struggle reached its zenith in 2020, when Donald Trump, a demagogue with fascist leanings, announced that he would designate antifa a domestic terror organization. No matter that doing so is probably illegal. No matter that antifa is not an organization. These people who fight fascism must be put down by the police, Trump said. And then, in Portland, Oregon, he proceeded, probably illegally, to do so.

The Antifa Bogeyman

The good news is that all those anarchist, the Moms, the Dads and the Vets have helped end the siege of Portland by Trump’s secret police……

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown says she has reached a deal with administration officials that will see the “occupying force” of federal agents removed from downtown Portland. Brown said Wednesday that agents from the US Marshals Service and US Customs and Border Protection will begin a phased withdrawal Thursday and Federal Protective Service officers at the city’s federal courthouse will be bolstered by state troopers instead, the Oregonian reports. Brown said the agents “refused accountability and brought strife to our community” during nightly confrontations with protesters. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler—who was tear-gassed by federal agents last week—hailed what he called the end of an “illegal occupation.”

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf confirmed that an agreement had been made, although he described it in very different terms. “We are not removing any law enforcement while our facilities and law enforcement remain under attack,” he tweeted Wednesday. But “the state of Oregon is finally agreeing to cooperate with our federal forces,” he said in a second tweet, “exactly what we asked for since the nightly violence broke out two months ago.” He added: “We’re glad Oregon is now correcting their months long error.” President Trump said Wednesday that agents would remain in Portland until local authorities “secured” the city, the AP reports. “Either they’re gonna clean up Portland soon, or the federal government is going up, and we’re gonna do it for them,” he said.

Wolf will say whatever Trump wants him to say….he is that much of a puppet.

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The Cult Of Robert E. Lee

These days of re-thinking the Civil War there is one that seems to have this whole cult around him….that is Gen. Robert E. Lee, commanding general of the Confederate Forces.

It is fascinating, at least to me, that a traitor like Benedict Arnold is hated and a traitor like Lee is deified…..and believe me….in the South Lee is deified.

How did this whole cult spring up around Lee?

The reason the South fought the American Civil War has been contested ever since the Confederacy surrendered in 1865. An odd turn of events, considering that when 11 Southern states seceded from the Union at the war’s outset, they were very clear about why they were doing it.

In declaration after declaration, Confederate states explicitly said that they had seceded in order to preserve slavery.

South Carolina, the first to secede, cited “an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery” in its declaration of secession. Mississippi’s declaration argued “There was no choice left us but submission to the mandates of abolition, or a dissolution of the Union.” 

It was only after the war that many former Confederates changed course, creating an alternative narrative that historians refer to as the “Lost Cause.”

https://www.history.com/news/how-the-cult-of-robert-e-lee-was-born

Lost Cause….something I have also written about…..read it for yourself…….

Did Lee commit treason?

Led an armed rebellion against the government and person of the United States of America……then YES HE WAS!

In case you are interested…..https://athenaeumreview.org/essay/did-robert-e-lee-commit-treason/

More on the actions of Lee……

Robert E. Lee was a great “American” general, who attended West Point, led American soldiers to victory as a commander in the Mexican War and was beloved by his men

Until 1862, that is, when he turned traitor and gave up his commission in the US Army for a stint as commanding general of the “Confederate States of America” after South Carolina fired on Fort Sumter, South Carolina in April 1861, as an act of war. A devoted son of Virginia, Lee returned home and took up arms against the United States of America whose Constitution he had sworn to protect and defend.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-great-general-robert-e-lee-was-a-traitor-and-a-bad-person

To be fair I offer this short video that tries to refute the idea…..

Lee IMO was a bigger traitor than Arnold…..but that is the post for a rainy day.

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“lego ergo scribo”

That 2021 Pentagon Budget

I think that the Pentagon Budget is way too high and that it makes for waste…..the new budget for 2021 was up for a vote and there was a movement to cut 10% out of the budget…..a move that I agreed with but thought it should be higher)….

Not to worry…..the M-IC owns Congress so the deal to cut the budget was defeated….and after that 37 Dems voted to approve the wasteful budget……..

Hours after the Republican Party released a coronavirus relief proposal including $0 for election assistance funding and no additional funding for cities and states as the country continues to combat the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. Senate passed its version of the National Defense Authorization Act on Thursday, allocating $740.5 billion to the Pentagon.  

The annual military budget bill was passed with a vote of 86-14, with 37 Democrats joining the Republicans in supporting the proposal. View the full roll call here. 

Progressives including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.),and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) voted against the bill.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/23/day-after-voting-down-10-pentagon-cut-37-senate-dems-join-gop-approve-740-billion

Not worry those VP picks are right on target…the Progressive voted “No” and the  sell out voted “yes”…..

Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris, two leading contenders for the 2020 Democratic vice presidential nomination, voted opposite ways Wednesday on an amendment to slash the Pentagon budget by 10% and invest the savings in healthcare, housing, and education in impoverished U.S. communities.

Warren, a co-sponsor of the amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), voted in favor of the measure while Harris voted against. The amendment, led by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), was defeated by a margin of 23-77, with 24 Democratic senators voting no. See the full roll call here.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.)—one of more than a dozen potential vice presidential picks being vetted by the Biden campaign—also voted against the amendment, which would have reduced the proposed $740.5 billion Pentagon budget for fiscal year 2021 by $74 billion.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/22/top-vp-contenders-diverge-warren-votes-yes-and-harris-votes-no-slashing-pentagon

There you have it……Biden who is a centrist sell out and two of his picks for VP Duckworth and Harris….and now we know who owns those Senators.

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“lego ergo scribo”

 

Closing Thought–29Jul20

Once again there will be a limited amount of post…..drafts that I have saved will have to do….I apologize but eye surgery early today.

Surgery on Right eye went well…..doctor s pleased with the progress…..now today he will do the Left eye.

I am apprehensive about another surgery on yet another eye.  But Having to deal with blurry eye and good eye trying to decide which eye to close…reading is a bother (something that does not sit well with me).

Hopefully I can return to a normal posting schedule after 7 days…..there is so much happening these days and so much I am missing (I hate that)…..

Once again I hope these drafts will meet with your approval….and I appreciate your readership and your bearing with me and my eye stuff.  I promise I will get back to normal as soon as I can…..

Thanx everyone….

Stay well….Stay safe…..

I shall return as soon as possible.

“lego ergo scribo”

American Mind–Civics Class–Part 3

Part 3 in my series on American Civics…..

Gulf South Free Press

GSFP is trying to gt its readers to reengage with the civics that is needed to make accurate decisions…..Part Two and Part One can be accessed here…..https://gulfsouthfreepress.wordpress.com/2020/07/16/american-mind-civics-class-part-two/

Religion has played an important part in our “American Mind”……

This is a continuation of the series on Real Clear Public Affairs…..this part covers the religious aspects of the American mind…..

There is no doubt that religious attachments are declining throughtout the Western world, with many young people affirming an amorphous attachment to being “spiritual” while jettisoning the rules and rituals that belong to traditional religion. Many intellectuals have gone further and promote a militant and aggressive secularism at odds with the mainstream American political tradition. In an insightful discussion of the public role of religion in American democracy, the political scientist Carson Holloway demonstrates the essential place of religion in America’s political culture. None of the Founders were political atheists: for all…

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A Necessary Evil?

I have often heard the statement that something is a necessary evil…..I may sure that you have as well…..but what does the statement actually mean?

A Necessary Evil…….something bad or unpleasant that you have to accept in order to achieve what you want…..

There are few things that I could say are necessary evils…..

I, for one, consider yard work to be a necessary evil.• Mr Waldegrave’s shambolic performance in the press conference was a necessary evil.• We do not look at government as a necessary evil.• It may be a necessary evil, but it is surely an evil.• However, the authors, like most others then and now, saw those shortcomings as a necessary evil in maintaining control.• They’re a necessary evil, like the woman who sawed off all my lovely hair.• Lawyers are a necessary evil that I try to use as little as possible due to their cost.• Bureaucracy was also a necessary evil to cope with the ravages of war.• They viewed such methods as a necessary evil, unavoidable yet somehow beneath their dignity.

All this confusion is from something the “Mouth Of The South”, Tom Cotton, had to say about slavery….

“As the Founding Fathers said, it was the necessary evil upon which the union was built.” That’s how Sen. Tom Cotton described slavery in an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Friday. The Republican was speaking out against the 1619 Project at the time, a New York Times-based curriculum examining the history of slavery in the US. Cotton has introduced a bill that would reduce federal funding for any school that uses it, the Hill reports, but he’s now facing criticism for his comments on it. In context:

  • “We have to study the history of slavery and its role and impact on the development of our country because otherwise we can’t understand our country. As the Founding Fathers said, it was the necessary evil upon which the union was built, but the union was built in a way, as Lincoln said, to put slavery on the course to its ultimate extinction.”
  • Cotton also said that the US should not be portrayed as “an irredeemably corrupt, rotten and racist country,” but “as an imperfect and flawed land, but the greatest and noblest country in the history of mankind.” He added, “The entire premise of the New York Times’ factually, historically flawed 1619 Project … is that America is at root, a systemically racist country to the core and irredeemable. I reject that root and branch. America is a great and noble country founded on the proposition that all mankind is created equal. We have always struggled to live up to that promise, but no country has ever done more to achieve it.” A director of the project was among those criticizing Cotton, but Cotton’s response to her got retweeted by the president himself: “Describing the *views of the Founders* and how they put the evil institution on a path to extinction, a point frequently made by Lincoln, is not endorsing or justifying slavery.”

I do not agree with “whatsisname”…….it was only necessary for the owners of plantations to get rich….

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”