Day: July 23, 2020

Closing Thought–23Jul20

Pres. Trump has been setting the stage to challenge an election since 2016…..and he has made it clear that he will not accept the votes that are cast if he does not win.

In a Fox News interview that aired Sunday, President Donald Trump refused to commit to accepting the results of the 2020 presidential election and baselessly claimed mail-in voting is going to “rig” the contest—remarks one advocacy group condemned as an “insidious” attack on democracy.

“I have to see,” Trump said when asked by Fox News host Chris Wallace whether he intends to accept the election results. “No, I’m not gonna just say yes. I’m not gonna say it, and I didn’t last time either.”

Sean Eldridge, founder and president of Stand Up America, said in a statement that Trump’s comments show “he is an existential threat to our democracy and has no respect for the rule of law.”

“For five years, Trump has sought to undermine our elections again and again—from soliciting foreign interference to making baseless claims about voter fraud to lying about the results of the 2016 election,” said Eldridge. “Today’s comments are an escalation in these attacks on our democracy and show the insidious ways in which Trump is working to sow doubt about the outcome of this election before votes are even cast.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/19/existential-threat-our-democracy-trump-refuses-commit-accepting-2020-election

I will be interested in see how many of his supporters will come to his side and defend such blatant treasonous attitudes.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Pandemics Helped Build Mega-Corporations

Yes I know another one of the professor’s historic posts……history is where it is at people.

I read an interesting article about pandemics and how they helped build the mega-corporations….but first a little background from earlier posts here on IST……

https://lobotero.com/2020/03/28/pandemics-in-history/

https://lobotero.com/2020/04/01/more-plague-history/

There have been many pandemics through history and each time someone dies and others profit……

In June 1348, people in England began reporting mysterious symptoms. They started off as mild and vague: headaches, aches, and nausea. This was followed by painful black lumps, or buboes, growing in the armpits and groin, which gave the disease its name: bubonic plague. The last stage was a high fever, and then death.

Originating in Central Asia, soldiers and caravans had brought bubonic plague – Yersina pestis, a bacterium carried on fleas that lived on rats – to ports on the Black Sea. The highly commercialised world of the Mediterranean ensured the plague’s swift transfer on merchant ships to Italy, and then across Europe. The Black Death killed between a third and a half of the population of Europe and the Near East.

This huge number of deaths was accompanied by general economic devastation. With a third of the workforce dead, the crops could not be harvested and communities fell apart. One in ten villages in England (and in Tuscany and other regions) were lost and never re-founded. Houses fell into the ground and were covered by grass and earth, leaving only the church behind. If you ever see a church or chapel all alone in a field, you are probably looking at the last remains of one of Europe’s lost villages.

https://theconversation.com/how-pandemics-past-and-present-fuel-the-rise-of-mega-corporations-137732

Throughout history there are winners and losers……usually it is the working stiffs that lose out and those with the money that make out like bandits…..

Think this is not the case?

Let’s look at Bezos……in one day during this pandemic…..

How do you treat yourself when you make $13 billion in one day? We’ll have to ask Jeff Bezos, who, per Bloomberg, saw that amount added to his net worth Monday, the largest single-day boost to one person’s wealth since the Bloomberg Billionaires Index began in 2012. A big part of his newfound windfall: Amazon shares rising 7.9% Monday (they’ve been up 73% so far this year). The 56-year-old Amazon founder has made $74 billion in 2020, bringing his overall fortune up to nearly $190 billion—more than what Nike or McDonald’s is worth. Earlier this year, Business Insider reported

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I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

“F*cking Bitch”!

They say the the people in Congress are civil to each other even when they disagree….with such politeness as “gentlemen” and “gentle ladies”….when referring to each other……and then you have the MORONS like the Yahoo from Florida…..

Tensions flared on Capitol Hill this week when a Republican lawmaker challenged Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on issues of crime and policing in an unusual — and decidedly personal — confrontation on the Capitol steps.

Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) was coming down the steps on the east side of the Capitol on Monday, having just voted, when he approached Ocasio-Cortez, who was ascending into the building to cast a vote of her own.

In a brief but heated exchange, which was overheard by a reporter, Yoho told Ocasio-Cortez she was “disgusting” for recently suggesting that poverty and unemployment are driving a spike in crime in New York City during the coronavirus pandemic.

“You are out of your freaking mind,” Yoho told her.

Ocasio-Cortez shot back, telling Yoho he was being “rude.”

The two then parted ways. Ocasio-Cortez headed into the building, while Yoho, joined by Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas), began descending toward the House office buildings. A few steps down, Yoho offered a parting thought to no one in particular.

“Fucking bitch,” he said.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/508259-ocaasio-cortez-accosted-by-gop-lawmaker-over-remarks-that-kind-of

These people demand respect from others yet they allow a bonehead like Yoho to exist as a Congressman…..seems okay since it is Florida we are talking about.

These are the times we live in……no civility (evident here as well as the House)…..

We need to rid ourselves of toads and slugs in the government…..in other words…..

VOTE!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is American Exceptionalism Dying?

American Exceptionalism?

Where on Earth did that term come from?

(Pause for the Google machine to engage)

It was first used 150 years ago by a Frenchman, Alexis de Tocqueville (“There is something about Americans that is exceptional”)…..

I too have written about this situation several times as well…..

https://lobotero.com/2015/03/06/the-real-american-exceptionalism-the-unz-review/

https://lobotero.com/2016/06/09/he-doesnt-believe-in-american-exceptionalism/

https://lobotero.com/2017/02/28/american-exceptionalism-and-the-beat-goes-on/

As a teacher I get to read grad students papers and I found a recent one interesting about the term American Exceptionalism…..

The romantic notion of American exceptionalism undermines the effectiveness of US foreign policy, and clinging to this outdated notion harms specific areas of international cooperation. It should by now be clear that we aren’t special, and if we run foreign policy on deluded notions and poorly-earned arrogance it will only cause harm to those forming useful coalitions and partnerships. For example, on climate change, hubris will make a new administration focus on shaming other countries, when a show of some level of stability and making real changes domestically would go a long way towards real leadership.

Alexis de Tocqueville coined the term for the U.S. over 150 years ago (“The position of the Americans is…quite exceptional”). In a much less oft quoted sentence in that same paragraph, de Tocqueville goes on to say, “Their strictly Puritanical origin, their exclusively commercial habits, even the country they inhabit…seems to divert their minds from the pursuit of science, literature, and the arts…” And yet this notion lingers, not only in political language and symbols, but at the core of foreign policy formulation

Opinion – Eulogy for American Exceptionalism

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I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”