Category: Professor's Classroom

Who’s The Worse Person In History?

Here is a question that ought to light up the social media goons.

A poll was recently taken and the question was asked….is it Attila, Genghis, Hitler, who?

One in 34 Americans – across the full political spectrum – now names a sitting president as the worst American in history. Not a serial killer, not a war criminal, not a figure safely buried in the past. The person currently holding the most powerful office on earth.

YouGov conducted its poll ahead of the 250th anniversary of the United States – a moment when Americans were being asked to step back and take the broadest possible view of their national story. Founding fathers, abolitionists, civil rights leaders, and accused predators were all on the table. And a sitting president landed at the top of the worst list anyway.

The question YouGov put to Americans wasn’t framed around partisan scores or job performance. It asked something bigger: looking back across 250 years of American life, who is the worst person this country has produced? The answer, from more than a third of respondents, was Donald Trump. The poll appeared on both a “greatest” and “worst” Americans list, a sign of how Trump remains one of the most polarizing figures in the country. No previous president in the poll’s history had managed that particular distinction – except one.

Read On…..

A New Poll Just Named the Worst American in History

What say you?  Who will be named the worse person in American history?

Let’s take a poll….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Has Democracy Changed?

We have just celebrated our 250th year of existence and we have a complete idiot as leader and things have changed in this country….that brings us to the question has Trump changed democracy forever?

This is what 11 historians have to say about the question…..

 

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2026/07/04/america-250-round-up-00981023

 

Do you agree with these findings by historians?

What do you think….has Donny changed the definition of democracy?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Declaration Of Independence

Today we celebrate the signing of the DoI which lead to the conflict that gave America it’s independence from Mother England.

The document that we celebrate was not the brain child of Jefferson…..as many would like to believe…..personally I think he was just writing a document from notes he had not much original thought there.

All that aside….what is this post about?

Thanks to Benjamin Franklin’s “Poor Richard,” for two decades every member of the Continental Congress was well aware that “haste makes waste.” But the days of late June and early July 1776 cast doubt on the universality of Franklin’s prudent proverb.

By that spring, the colonies had moved closer to independence. Individual colonial assemblies had developed their own list of grievances and calls for independence, many patterned on Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of the Causes and Necessity for Taking up Arms from the previous year, and on his mass-distributed 1774 pamphlet, A Summary View of the Rights of British America. Colonies were also drafting their own state constitutions to be adopted in a free United States of America.

Jefferson had sequestered himself at his beloved Monticello, suffering from migraines. No doubt the stresses of drafting ideas for Virginia’s constitution and grieving the loss of his mother, who died at the end of March, contributed to his condition. But in May, he descended from his Olympus and made the ten-day journey to Philadelphia to join the Second Continental Congress. He originally found rooms in the city center, but by May 23, Jefferson and his fourteen-year-old slave, Robert Hemmings, had found quieter quarters in the Graff House at Seventh and Market Streets. Jefferson had with him his recently acquired writing desk and Windsor chair.

On Friday, June 7, Richard Henry Lee, Jefferson’s fellow Virginia delegate, presented to the Congress Virginia’s resolution on independence: “these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.” During debates on the Lee Resolution on Saturday and Monday, John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, Robert Livingston of New York, and Edward Rutledge of South Carolina argued that the colonies were not ready for independence. Samuel Adams and his cousin John took the other side, stating that the citizens were “eager” and “ahead of Congress” on independence

https://www.coolidgereview.com/articles/declaration-not-all-jefferson

It is my opinion that we celebrate on the wrong day…..yes the DoI is integral part of our fight for independence but I think that the real celebration should be on Constitution Day in September for that is when it officially became the United States of America.

The DoI was a list of grievances against England but these were covered in Paine’s Common Sense…..

Common Sense provided a persuasive argument to leave England and their model of governance for a republic directly elected by the people. While it deals largely with the American case, it also considers larger topics of political philosophy—anti-monarchism, theories that republics will engage in less conflict, and discussions of the state of nature and how the first societies were created. Common Sense answers the question: What does the ideal government look like? In these ways, it is more relevant today than ever.

This is for those that have NO idea what Paine was writing about….it is quick and painless….

https://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/commonsense/summary/

Please remember that there is more to today than beer and BBQ…..it was the beginning of this great country and should be remembered as such.

I you are out celebrating please be careful and do not drive and drink…..if you are participating in the fireworks tradition be extra careful.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

And Hits Just Keep Coming

The establishment Dems are starting to run scared because the Left has come calling…..and winning….

This time the Left won in Colorado…..

Democratic socialist Melat Kiros beat US Rep. Diana DeGette in a Colorado House primary Tuesday, a stunning victory for the first-time candidate against a nearly 30-year incumbent and another win for progressive challengers across the country, the AP reports. Kiros, a 29-year-old lawyer turned doctoral student, is the latest candidate to rise from the party’s left flank and boot establishment-backed candidates. That includes two self-described democratic socialists and a progressive who won their Democratic primaries in New York last week. Kiros’ victory adds to a nascent but clear uprising, stirred by frustration among some voters, that has vexed party leadership. Colorado’s 1st Congressional District covers the dark blue city of Denver, and Kiros is expected to win in November and reach Congress in January.

We are winning from coast to coast,” Kiros said to an ecstatic audience and the blast of air horns. “We are taking back our party and our country!” There were mixed results for progressives in Tuesday’s other races. Sen. John Hickenlooper fended off a primary challenge from self-fashioned “insurgent progressive” state Sen. Julie Gonzales. And a smaller divide separated the two Democrats competing for US House in the state’s lone swing district, where the candidate considered more progressive, state Rep. Manny Rutinel, won. Phil Weiser, the state attorney general, won the Democratic gubernatorial primary Tuesday and will be favored to win come November. Term-limited Democratic Gov. Jared Polis will depart after two-terms governing with a more moderate touch, at times stymieing progressive state lawmakers.

So far this is looking up for 2026…..finally some progressives and hopefully they can get stuff done or at least become a major thorn in Donny’s ass.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Spirit Of The Declaration–Part 1

AS we begin the countdown to the 250th anniversary of the DoI and the founding of this nation I feel that too many people have little knowledge of the document other than the vague stuff they are taught in school.

There was more that went into this document other than Jefferson spending a couple of days in solitude writing the document….

So please let me help those that want to know as much as possible about the founding of this country and the thoughts behind them….

The members of the Continental Congress knew that their Declaration left much unsaid and unfinished. They had heavily edited Jefferson’s draft, though they refrained from adding new sections. In what Jefferson bemoaned as “mutilations” but were really judicious edits, Congress cut about a quarter of the text before adopting the document on the morning of July 4, 1776. In truth, the Declaration was not seen as the epochal event later generations attributed to it. To the delegates in Philadelphia, that step had been taken two days earlier, on July 2, when Congress voted to separate from Great Britain, King George III, and Parliament. Moreover, the Declaration was important insofar as it paved the way for two more important moves: forming foreign alliances, primarily France and Spain, and forming some kind of confederated government to guide relations among the now sovereign States. No public readings, fireworks, or celebrations occurred on July 4, though they would break out in coming days as America’s new citizens listened to the Declaration read on hastily printed broadsheets sent around the country.

By design, the Declaration avoided any discussion, or even suggestion, of the type of government the colonies should establish. Formally, that was the responsibility of Connecticut delegate Roger Sherman’s committee to draft articles of confederation, which ultimately created a uniquely weak central government. The more fundamental questions of governance were to be left to the new States, eight of which would draft and adopt constitutions in 1776 alone. Indeed, for many delegates, the business of writing state constitutions was far more important than Congress’s declaration. Even Thomas Jefferson would rather have been back in Williamsburg working on a constitution for Virginia, a draft of which he had already composed earlier in the year, and parts of which he now re-purposed for the declaration.

https://reason.com/volokh/2026/05/05/the-spirit-of-the-declaration-part-1/

The more history you learn the more care you will take in the votes you put in….there is so much more to our country than the mindless dribble of the MAGA twats…

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

As We Approach Our 250th

Each day we draw closer to the day when we Americans declared our independence from Mother England….

What is happening around this anniversary?

At 250 many Americans are losing confidence in democracy…..

https://apnews.com/article/ap-poll-america-250-democracy-exceptional-474874cbb88c08908c8b6c01e386ba91

Speaking of Democracy….

As the United States marks its 250th anniversary, one question at the heart of the American experiment feels more urgent than ever: What does democracy mean to the people it is meant to serve?

https://thefulcrum.us/democracy/us-democracy-250-closing-gap-reality-ideal

America is a disappointing experiment and it needs to grow up…..

https://www.npr.org/2026/06/15/nx-s1-5856348/america-250-eddie-glaude

It all comes down to the Constitution and what better way to understand the document than the Federalist…..

https://theconversation.com/as-america-approaches-its-250th-anniversary-the-federalist-remains-an-indispensable-guide-to-understanding-the-constitutional-system-and-the-nations-enduring-independence-282201

There is so much happening around our 250th anniversary….time to use your internet access for something other than let some dweeb influence you into buying a yellow lipstick.

Be Smart!

Be a good American!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego go scribo”

Old Professor’s Classroom

Think about he richest cities in the US today….now think back over a hundred years ago….the richest city in the US was Natchez, Mississipppi

If asked to name the richest county in America in 1860, most people would guess New York, Massachusetts, or Pennsylvania.

They’d be wrong.

On the eve of the Civil War, that distinction belonged to Adams County, Mississippi – home to Natchez. According to 1860 census data, Adams County ranked at or near the top nationally in per-capita wealth, a remarkable distinction for a county on what was then America’s southwestern frontier. Contemporary accounts and historians have often described Natchez as having more millionaires per capita than any other American city. At a time when one million dollars represented an almost unimaginable fortune, an extraordinary concentration of wealth sat atop a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River.

That fact surprises us not simply because it involves Mississippi, but because it challenges an assumption many Americans hold about economic history: that today’s centers of wealth have always occupied the top tier of the nation’s economy. But Natchez tells a different story. Economic power is rarely permanent. It follows transportation networks, technology, markets, and opportunity – often leaving yesterday’s boomtowns behind.

To understand Natchez’s rise, start with the Mississippi River. Long before railroads, interstate highways, and commercial aviation connected the nation, rivers served as America’s primary transportation system. The Mississippi and its tributaries formed the most important commercial network on the continent, linking vast stretches of the interior to New Orleans and international markets. Goods that might take weeks to move overland could be transported efficiently by water, making river towns natural centers of trade and investment.

Natchez occupied one of the most strategic locations along that network. Rising high above the floodplain on dramatic bluffs, it offered protection from flooding while maintaining direct access to river commerce. By the early nineteenth century, steamboats moved constantly along the Mississippi, carrying passengers, mail, manufactured goods, agricultural products, and information. Communities along this watery highway enjoyed advantages that would later belong to railroad junctions, interstate crossroads, and major airports.

Geography provided the opportunity. Cotton created the fortune.

https://www.realclearhistory.com/2026/06/10/when_americas_richest_city_was_in_mississippi_1187096.html

That’s right the nation poorest state today was once one of the richest.

My my how things have gone wrong.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Dems Are Looking Confused

This past Tuesday in some primaries especially in NY mainstream Dems were handed their butts….

New York’s primary night delivered a jolt to the Democratic establishment—and a boost to the city’s left flank, the New York Times reports. Brad Lander, a former city comptroller, unseated incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman in a marquee House primary, attacking him from the left and zeroing in on his stance on Israel. In Brooklyn and Queens, state lawmaker Claire Valdez defeated Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso for the seat being vacated by longtime Rep. Nydia Velázquez. And in upper Manhattan and the Bronx, community organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier beat incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the AP reports. That means New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani swept the primaries in which he logged endorsements: The Democratic Socialist backed Lander, Valdez, and Chevalier, using the primaries as a test of his growing influence and broader left-wing project.

More on the outcome from these primary wins from a blogger I follow, the Secular Jurist….

Democratic Party establishment rocked by socialist earthquake in New York

The old man of Dem strategists, Carville, is butt hurt that progressives are winning elections….

Longtime figure on the right Tucker Carlson no longer wants to be part of the Republican party because of how it’s changing. Now longtime figure on the left James Carville no longer wants to be part of the Democratic party for the same reason. On the podcast Politicon, Carville said it’s time to openly consider splitting the party after three progressive candidates backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, won House primaries in solidly blue districts on Tuesday, reports Mediaite.

“Lady, I ain’t in the same party as you,” Carville said of union organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier, referencing her past comments that white people should not be in interracial relationships. “I’m sorry. I’m just not. And I actually do think it’s time for Democrats to talk the ‘s’ word: schism. I really do. Everybody’s always said, ‘No, no. We’re a coalition. We’re a big tent. And there’s just some s— I can’t be in the same tent with.” Avila Chevalier unseated Rep. Adriano Espaillat in Tuesday’s primary, while state Rep. Claire Valdez defeated Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, and former New York City comptroller Brad Lander easily beat Rep. Dan Goldman.

“I’m done,” said Carville. “In not in that … political party.” He also referenced Israel, saying that he doesn’t want to be in a party “that denies the right of the state of Israel to exist.” In a separate appearance on NewsNation, Carville suggested the progressives form their own party. “All of these people hate Democrats,” he said. “Why do you want to run as a Democrat? Start your own movement. If it’s such a powerful, sweeping movement that’s got momentum everywhere, then go ahead and be at the head of it. Don’t use the Democratic Party to advance it.”

First of all Carville was never on the Left he has always been a centrist, a big dollar Dem…..second the best thing that could happen to the Dems is he takes a bow and shuts the fuck up….and he has been in Israel’s pocket for decades…time for him to fade away.

It looks like the DNC needs to realize what is happening and adjust their focus……but will they?

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/jun/24/socialists-draft-aggressive-new-agenda-democratic-party/

You know the Right will be frothing at the mouth and will inevitably start their bullshit about socialists….personally I am glad to see some progressives getting into the fray with the DNC, a tired dinosaur that needs replacing.

Now if they can just keep up the pressure and win these  damned elections.

BTW, DSA is not a socialists organization….makes good propaganda to say they are socialists but that would be a lie and we know the the Right has mastered lying.

Not to worry I will be explaining the DSA once again so people can keep up and try to dispel the misinformation from the Far Right slugs.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

150 Years Ago Today

The nation is celebrating our 250th birthday and I would be remiss if I failed to include the anniversary 150 years, of the Little Big Horn….since my grandfather was full blood Choctaw he would haunt me if I neglect to stick to Custer.

A little history….

The Battle of the Little Bighorn, fought on June 25, 1876, near the Little Bighorn River in Montana Territory, pitted federal troops led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer (1839-76) against a band of Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. Tensions between the two groups had been rising since the discovery of gold on Native American lands. When a number of tribes missed a federal deadline to move to reservations, the U.S. Army, including Custer and his 7th Cavalry, was dispatched to confront them. Custer was unaware of the number of Indians fighting under the command of Sitting Bull (c.1831-90) at Little Bighorn, and his forces were outnumbered and quickly overwhelmed in what became known as Custer’s Last Stand.

https://www.history.com/articles/battle-of-the-little-bighorn

The day is important in American history….

On June 25, 1876, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and an entire battalion of the 7th Cavalry Regiment rode to their deaths and into American legend on the ridges north of Montana’s Little Bighorn River. The battle was decided in a few hours. Its meaning remains contested 150 years later.

Little Bighorn stands alongside Yorktown, Gettysburg, and D-Day in the pantheon of iconic American battles. But it is a curious addition there, in that it was a small engagement, fought by just a few hundred men on a compact piece of terrain. More curiously still, it was a loss. Not just a loss — a disaster. And more than any other American battle, it has become identified with a single man. Most Americans know it not by its place, but by its protagonist: “Custer’s Last Stand.”

Relative to those multi-corps- and army-sized battlefields, its small scale and remarkable preservation make Little Bighorn an excellent staff ride for junior leaders, allowing participants to study leadership, terrain, and small-unit combat at a very human level. Yet the closer one looks at Little Bighorn, the larger it becomes.

https://warontherocks.com/the-importance-of-the-battle-of-the-little-bighorn/

The Nations that took part in the attack are doing a job on history so that the affair will not be forgotten.

The 150th anniversary of the Battle of the Little Bighorn is weeks away, and tribal leaders are working to ensure their perspective of one of the most significant battles in American history is preserved and shared with the public.

Northern Cheyenne Tribal Vice President Assistant Eugene Little Coyote said the spot marks where four Cheyenne warriors and five Lakota warriors first engaged Custer’s troops on June 25, 1876. He named the four Cheyenne warriors as Bobtail Horse, Dull Knife, Roan Bear, and Calf.

Tribal leaders said the marker will explain how a small group of Cheyenne and Lakota warriors prevented the 7th Cavalry from crossing the river and reaching the nearby village.

“Had they not engaged them and stopped their advance across the river, Custer’s troops would have gotten into our villages and just killed a lot of people,” Little Coyote said. “So this was a pivotal moment at the beginning of this, the Custer side of the battle.”

Watch the story below:

The Nations took it to the ‘man’ (if he could be called that) and did what needed to be done.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”

Does The US Have A Future?

NOTE:  Today I start the next round of poking, prodding, scanning, and chemo…it all begins this morning at 7 am so this may be the only post I do today….thanx for understanding.     chuq

That is the big philosophical question as we prepare to celebrate our 250th year.

The research says things are not looking good for the future….at least for right now….

Over a third of Americans do not believe their country is going to exist 250 years from now as the U.S. nears its 250th anniversary, according to a poll released Tuesday.

In the new Reuters/Ipsos poll, 38 percent of respondents said the U.S. is not going to be a single country in two-and-a-half centuries, while 62 percent thought it will last. When broken down by party, 26 percent of Republicans and 40 percent of Democrats said the U.S. is not going to be a whole country in 250 years.

The poll comes amid heightened political tensions in the U.S., with multiple instances of political violence in the last few years and increasingly heated rhetoric.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll also found that 30 percent of respondents said the U.S. is the world’s best country, a decrease from 38 percent who thought so when asked in November 2017. In the more recent survey, 48 percent said the country is among many excellent countries, 13 percent said the U.S. isn’t great in any way and 8 percent did not answer the question or were unsure.

In other recent polling, Americans have also expressed little faith in their country’s leadership and governmental structure.

An early June poll from Quinnipiac University found more than half of Americans saying that the system of democracy was not working in their country. President Trump, a polarizing figure himself, was sitting at a 40.30 percent approval rating in a polling average from Decision Desk HQ on Tuesday morning, with his disapproval rating at 56.8 percent.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll took place from June 12-15, featuring 1,537 U.S. adults and a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

(thehill.com)

This can be looked at in two ways….will the country survive or will the political system survive?

I know most people are concerned with the survival of our country but that aside what do you think with happen in the near future?

Personally I think Donny is killing the country as well as the system….so if the US is to recover then we may need another 250 years to accomplish it for Donny has done as much damage as possible to this country and its system.

Why would I say such a thing?

There are so many indications that point to the end of the American experiment….

Minoritarian rule of the winner-take-all (WTA) electoral college: Because 48 states allocate all electoral votes to the statewide winner, a candidate can secure the presidency while losing the popular vote. This enables the election of administrations that prioritize corporate deregulation and tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy, even when the broader electorate demands reform.

Electoral manipulation: Once institutions are in place, the mechanisms of voting can be altered to ensure the ruling minority maintains an electoral advantage.

Partisan gerrymandering: Lawmakers manipulate district boundaries to pack opposition voters into a few districts or spread them out thinly, allowing the minority party to retain a governing majority of seats despite winning fewer total votes statewide.

Voter suppression: Stricter voting regulations—such as rigid voter ID requirements, purges of voter rolls, and the reduction of early voting—disproportionately restrict access for minority communities and lower-income voters.

Institutional counter-majoritarianism: certain governing structures are explicitly designed to over-represent specific geographic or demographic groups at the expense of population equality.

Malapportionment of legislatures: In systems like the U.S. Senate, low-population rural states receive the same representation as highly populated urban centers. This allows a minority of the population to block national legislation.

Legislative obstruction: Minority groups utilize built-in procedural hurdles within deliberative bodies to stop majority action.

The Filibuster: In legislative chambers, this rule requires supermajorities (e.g., 60 out of 100 votes) to pass routine legislation or end debate. This allows a minority of legislators to veto the entire legislative agenda.

Judicial entrenchment: When the ruling minority controls the executive and legislative branches, they can appoint lifetime judges who share their ideological preferences.

Counter-Majoritarian Courts: Appointed judges can use the power of judicial review to overturn laws passed by the majority, strike down civil rights protections, and further enable restrictive voting and campaign finance laws.

Money in politics and concentrated wealth allows well-funded, organized interest groups to exert outsized influence over the political process compared to the general populace.

Dark Money: Unregulated or anonymous campaign contributions allow a wealthy few to fund sympathetic candidates, lobby for specific policies, and run mass media campaigns that shift the political agenda.

Now look ahead….do you see anyone on the political horizon that will change these defects?

I do not and that is why I say this American experiment is in real trouble.

The nation is in real trouble and absolutely no one on the horizon that can save it.

Go ahead let the opinions fly.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”