Category: Professor's Classroom

A Lesson To Be Learned

Welcome to Cinco De Mayo…..

Most of my long time regulars know that I am fascinated with World War One….the carnage and the dumbass decision made by leaders….one of the biggest bone head decisions was Churchill’s attack on the Dardanelles at  Gallipoli…

A little history to help with the understanding of where I am going….

The ongoing deadlock on the Western Front led the Allies to formulate plans to attack Turkey, an ally of the Central Powers. If the Turkish capital of Constantinople (now Istanbul) was attacked via the Dardanelles Straits, it might relieve the pressure on Britain’s ally Russia. It could also open a supply route to Russia through the Black Sea and at best knock Turkey out of the war altogether.

Plans were made for a naval expedition to seize the Dardanelles in February and March 1915. Given their strategic importance, the straits were well defended by minefields and fortifications. There were also many Turkish gun emplacements on the Gallipoli peninsula to the north and the Asian coast to the south.

When the naval attacks failed to destroy these defences, it became clear that troops would have to seize the peninsula and destroy the guns and minefields. Only then could the Royal Navy force the straits and push on to Constantinople.

However, the naval operation had alerted the Ottomans to the danger of an attack in the region. Any Allied landing had now lost the crucial element of surprise.

https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/gallipoli

Just a little background because Donny is still thumping his chest about sending in ground troops in and around the Straight of Hormuz….but will that be the disaster that Gallipoli was?

The Iran war reminds us small strategic moves can mushroom into expanding military commitments. The United States decided to blockade Iranian ports by controlling access to and from the vital Strait of Hormuz, as a response to Iran’s asserting control over it – which it had long threatened to do if attacked.

In its list of conditions to end the war, Iran is for the first time demanding recognition of its sovereignty over the waterway – considered the world’s most critical energy corridor. The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world’s key maritime choke points: strategic corridors where large volumes of global trade pass through extremely limited space.

A heavy price has often been paid for assuming this type of operation will be over quickly and easily.

America’s allies might wisely consider this history now – particularly as the April 25 anniversary of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign, which aimed to open the way to the Black Sea during World War I, approaches.

https://theconversation.com/gallipoli-has-4-lessons-for-the-strait-of-hormuz-crisis-280723

Just like Gallipoli the Straight is about the flow of trade and keeping the lanes open.

Gallipoli was a mind numbing disaster and I feel that the Straight and Kharg Island will meet the same fate.

Do we want such another failure on our all but stellar record of war?

I say screw it!  Time to end this stupid non-productive war and recall all our troops and ships and let diplomacy (if they remember what that is) do what it was designed top do.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribol”

May Day 2026

Happy May Day!

Today is the first of May and the International Day of the Worker….how many know the history behind May Day?

You know me any chance to drop some history and I am there…..

May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day, is a holiday celebrating workers and the history of labor organizing. Every year on May 1st, working people around the world join together for a day of remembrance and demonstrations. The holiday is a significant display of international solidarity and worker power. In Los Angeles, May Day unites the labor movement with advocates for immigrant rights and other community organizations.

The origins of May Day can be traced back to international labor organizing in the late 19th century. The holiday originated from a movement demanding improved working conditions and greater recognition for workers’ contributions. In 1884, a national federation of unions announced a campaign to establish an eight-hour workday by May 1, 1886. Workers in cities across North America went on strike leading up to that date in one of the era’s largest and most tumultuous periods of worker unrest.

In May 1886, police in Chicago shot striking workers, prompting activists to organize a protest in the city’s Haymarket Square. When a bomb exploded at that protest, killing one police officer and wounding others, police opened fire into the crowd, resulting in the deaths and injuries of both police and protesters. Eight protesters were arrested for inciting violence. The ensuing trial was considered by many to be unfair and resulted in the execution of seven of the eight men (1). This series of events would come to be known as the “Haymarket Incident” or “Haymarket Affair.” The image below is a newspaper clipping reporting on the executions from the Watertown Republican, November 16, 1887. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress’ “Chronicling America” digital project (2).

In the years following 1886, international labor groups and socialist advocates endorsed the commemoration of May 1 as International Workers’ Day or May Day. In some places around the world the “Chicago Martyrs” are still memorialized in May Day activities. But in the U.S., May Day celebrations became less common during the height of the Cold War.

What is May Day?

May Day should always be about the worker and their place in society.

Do not let some pseudo-intellectual tell you any different.

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I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Shameful Experimentation

Time for some history….(this is where you can tune out if so desired)….

Most of us old farts remember the horrific medical experimentation done by the likes of Mengele, Eichmann, Himmler, et al.,…these quacks used prisoners as guinea pigs….and they were condemned by the rest of the world as purveyors of genocide.

The sad part is the younger generation cannot seem to come up with one prison camp name…..

In 2025, 48% of Americans ages 18-29 could not name a single concentration or death camp, according to a survey by the nonprofit Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which works to secure compensation and restitution for Holocaust survivors.

Another 53% of surveyed Americans said that they had encountered Holocaust “denial or distortion while on social media.”

Given their ages, approximately 70% of living Holocaust survivors will likely die by 2035. As they do, more and more people will never hear firsthand experiences about the atrocities Nazis perpetuated during the genocide of European Jews.

My research shows that Holocaust education and awareness, though, doesn’t always follow a linear path.

How sad is that?   6 million dead and no one can be bothered to remember them.  But I guess you gotta be old to remember this shit.

The US and others were just as guilty of unethical experiments like Tuskegee Syphilis Trials, the UK’s Porton Down Chemical Trials, and others were also involved…..

Research involving human subjects is littered with a history of scandal that often shapes people’s views of the ethics of research. Often the earliest cited case is English physician Edward Jenner’s development of the smallpox vaccine in 1796, where he injected an eight-year-old child with the pus taken from a cowpox infection and then deliberately exposed her to an infected carrier of smallpox.

Although Jenner’s experiment was, fortunately, successful, the method of exposing a child to a deadly disease in this way would undoubtedly nowadays be seen as unacceptable. Perhaps the most notorious cases of unethical research were revealed during the Nuremberg trials concerning Nazi experiments on concentration camp prisoners. This “research” included involuntary sterilisation, inducing hypothermia, and exposing subjects to diseases such as tuberculosis.

There are also examples of government-run research that took advantage of the vulnerability of the subjects to ensure their participation and which resulted in the subjects experiencing severe harms, such as the Tuskegee Syphilis trials or the UK-run Porton Down chemical experiments in which 11,000 military personnel were exposed to mustard and nerve gas between 1939 and 1989.

https://theconversation.com/human-experiments-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-39876

But one of the most horrendous experiments was done by the CIA, the MKULTRA….

MKUltra[a] was an illegal human experimentation program designed and undertaken by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to develop procedures and identify drugs that could be used in altering human behavior.[1] The term MKUltra is a CIA cryptonym: “MK” is an arbitrary prefix standing for the Office of Technical Service and “Ultra” is an arbitrary word out of a dictionary used to name this project. The program has been widely condemned as a violation of individual rights and an example of the CIA’s abuse of power, with critics highlighting its disregard for consent and its corrosive impact on democratic principles.[2]

Project MKUltra began in 1953 and was halted in 1973. MKUltra used numerous methods to manipulate its subjects’ mental states and brain functions, such as the covert administration of high doses of psychoactive drugs (especially LSD) and other chemicals without the subjects’ consent. Additionally, other methods beyond chemical compounds were used, including electroshocks,[3] hypnosis,[4][5] sensory deprivation, isolation, verbal and sexual abuse, and other forms of torture.[6][7]

Project MKUltra was preceded by Project Artichoke.[8][9] It was organized through the CIA’s Office of Scientific Intelligence and coordinated with the United States Army Biological Warfare Laboratories.[10] The program engaged in illegal activities,[11][12][13] including the use of U.S. and Canadian citizens as unwitting test subjects.[11]: 74 [14][15][16] MKUltra’s scope was broad, with activities carried out under the guise of research at more than 80 institutions aside from the military, including colleges and universities, hospitals, prisons, and pharmaceutical companies.[17] The CIA operated using front organizations, although some top officials at these institutions were aware of the CIA’s involvement.[11]

Project MKUltra was revealed to the public in 1975 by the Church Committee (named after Senator Frank Church) of the United States Congress and Gerald Ford‘s United States President’s Commission on CIA Activities within the United States (the Rockefeller Commission). Investigative efforts were hampered by CIA director Richard Helms‘s order that all MKUltra files be destroyed in 1973; the Church Committee and Rockefeller Commission investigations relied on the sworn testimony of direct participants and on the small number of documents that survived Helms’s order.[18] In 1977, a Freedom of Information Act request uncovered a cache of 20,000 documents relating to MKUltra, which led to Senate hearings.[11][19] Some surviving information about MKUltra was declassified in 2001.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKUltra

Read this if you are not familiar with the tactics of the CIA and how they manipulated American citizens with horrific experiments.

Do not condemn anyone until you see what the CIA is capable of doing….

Korean prisoners of war in the 1950s were subjected to early MK-ULTRA experiments while in American custody, according to recently declassified CIA documents which confirm these experiments for the first time.

The only reporting that previously referenced Koreans being used as guinea pigs for these experiments was journalist John Marks’s landmark 1979 book, The Search for the “Manchurian Candidate.” Using CIA documents, Marks traced the now-infamous MK-ULTRA project to its start, when it was known as Project Bluebird. In the book, Marks describes how, in October 1950, 25 unnamed North Korean POWs were chosen as the first test subjects to receive “advanced” interrogation techniques, with the overt goal of “controlling an individual to the point where he will do our bidding against his will and even against such fundamental laws of nature as self-preservation.”

CIA Ran MK-ULTRA Experiments on Prisoners of War in U.S. Custody, Declassified Docs Confirm

I wish I could say that this type of human abuse has been eliminated but I bet that it still goes on and under tight secrecy……use Iraq as an example.

Before you set about condemning the nazis just look around the US has been no better.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

It Could Be 1892

I know when I go off on one of my historic perspectives there are a bunch of eye rollings and altogether indifference…..but you could learn something and why is that a bad thing?

You read that right….1892….that was when the Populist Party came into national view…..and the preamble says it all…..in that year and as well as our year….

The conditions which surround us best justify our co-operation; we meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political, and material ruin. Corruption dominates the ballot-box, the Legislatures, the Congress, and touches even the ermine of the bench. The people are demoralized; most of the States have been compelled to isolate the voters at the polling places to prevent universal intimidation and bribery. The newspapers are largely subsidized or muzzled, public opinion silenced, business prostrated, homes covered with mortgages, labor impoverished, and the land concentrating in the hands of capitalists. The urban workmen are denied the right to organize for self-protection; imported pauperized labor beats down their wages, a hireling standing army, unrecognized by our laws, is established to shoot them down, and they are rapidly degenerating into European conditions. The fruits of the toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few, unprecedented in the history of mankind; and the possessors of these, in turn despise the Republic and endanger liberty. From the same prolific womb of governmental injustice we breed the two great classes—tramps and millionaires.

…

We have witnessed for more than a quarter of a century the struggles of the two great political parties for power and plunder, while grievous wrongs have been inflicted upon the suffering people. We charge that the controlling influence dominating both these parties have permitted the existing dreadful conditions to develop without serious effort to prevent or restrain them. Neither do they now promise us any substantial reform. They have agreed together to ignore, in the coming campaign, every issue but one. They propose to drown the outcries of a plundered people with the uproar of a sham battle over the tariff, so that capitalists, corporations, national banks, rings, trusts, watered stock, the demonetization of silver and the oppressions of the usurers may all be lost sight of. They propose to sacrifice our homes, lives, and children on the altar of mammon; to destroy the multitude in order to secure corruption funds from the millionaires.

https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/populist-party-platform-1892

Tell me we are not reliving those dark days yet again.

Those words written over a hundred years ago could have been written yesterday.

If you want a closer look at what these people were proposing…..then look no further…..

https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/the-populist-party-platform/

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Wipe Them Out!

The Donny inspired mash-up with Iran has him making all kinds of proclamations, especially worrying is his proclamation that he would wipe out the Iranian civilization if they did not submit to his outrageous demands.

As a political historian I want to let my readers know that for all his ranting and chest thumping he is not alone with such visions.

Donald Trump is arguably the most out-of-control politician in American history. Yet he isn’t the first to threaten the lives of an entire civilization. He is, however, the first to announce a time and date. April 7, 2026, at 8 pm Eastern time.

American political leaders, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, also made troubling remarks.

Andrew Jackson described Native resistance as something that would lead to their “utter annihilation.”

Theodore Roosevelt is documented as saying that the extermination of Native Americans was “as ultimately beneficial as it was inevitable.”

California’s first governors and legislators openly called for the extermination of Native tribes. Governor Peter Burnett said, “A war of extermination will continue to be waged… until the Indian race becomes extinct.”

During Reconstruction and Jim Crow, state legislators openly discussed the need to “eliminate” Black political power and sometimes Black populations in certain counties. This included threats of “wiping out” Black communities during racial pogroms.

Senator Benjamin Tillman openly bragged about killing Black people to suppress their political rights, saying, “We have done our level best to prevent Blacks from voting… We shot them.” He also threatened further mass violence if Black political power grew.

Thomas Jefferson articulated a framework in which Native peoples faced only two options as he saw them: assimilation into Euro‑American society or extermination through war. Historians widely cite this as one of the clearest examples of early U.S. federal policy framing Native survival as conditional. He said the goal was to prepare them for becoming citizens of the United States, or face destruction if they resisted U.S. expansion.

Abraham Lincoln’s initial plan for enslaved people was gradual emancipation and deportation, with the only other option a war of extermination.

“It does seem to me that systems of gradual emancipation might be adopted; but for their tardiness in this, I should be without hope of their ever being adopted. But if they were adopted, it would give time for the gradual emancipation and deportation of the negroes, so that they would not be a burden on us, nor we on them. But if we deal with the negro as with the white man, and make him politically and socially our equal, we shall have a war of extermination.” — Abraham Lincoln

During the James K. Polk administration, several U.S. generals and members of Congress advocated the annexation or destruction of Mexican society during the Mexican-American War. South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun opposed annexing Mexico.

“We could never incorporate such a people,” said Calhoun. “It would be the destruction of our government.”

In 2010, another South Carolina Senator, Lindsey Graham, threatened Iran:

“We will obliterate their ability to function as a modern society,” said  Graham

Harry Truman even sounds a little bit like Trump when he made threats against Japan.

“They may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth.” — President Harry Truman

General Curtis LeMay oversaw the firebombing of Japanese cities and spoke in stark terms about the scale of destruction:

“We scorched and boiled and baked to death more people in Tokyo that night than went up in vapor at Hiroshima,” said General LeMay

He also said the goal was to “destroy Japan’s ability to wage war by burning down every city.”

In the 1942–1945 congressional debates, there were calls to “wipe Japan off the map.”

General LeMay also threatened that the United States could “bomb China back into the Stone Age. That sounds similar to a recent threat of Trump’s against Iran.

“We are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages,”  said Trump

For the record, the United States has been to war multiple times against Britain, France, and Germany, without once threatening to wipe their countries and peoples off the map. I’m trying not to draw any conclusions about who America deems worthy of elimination and who is not. I think the simplest answer is probably correct.

But who am I to say?

(levelman.com)

 

As you can see there have been many times that we have threatened to wipe out one civilization or another.

 

The Worst President Ever

Now I could go on a diatribe about Donny referencing his many fuck ups but his last chapter has not been written yet.

And now time for the old professor to drop some history.

The worst president to many political historians was Buchanan the 15th president of the United States.

Historians often label James Buchanan as one of the worst presidents in United States history. His presidency was marked with conflict, a conflict that had been brewing for over thirty years. Yet, Buchanan’s actions, and at times his inactions, aggravated sectional tensions to the point where the Union dissolved.

James “Old Buck” Buchanan was born to wealthy Irish immigrants on April 23, 1791, in rural Cove Gap, Pennsylvania.   He entered Dickinson College at the age of 16, two years later he graduated with honors. After his graduation in 1809, Buchanan studied law and as his legal career grew so did his political one. Buchanan served in a reserve unit during the War of 1812 and did not experience any combat, and shortly after the war, the Old Buck served in the Pennsylvania State Legislature before his election to serve in the United States House of Representatives from 1821 until 1831, where he sat on the House Judiciary Committee.

…
Buchanan’s presidency was marred with conflict; however, one of the most significant events of his presidency began to unfold even before his inauguration. At the heart of the Dred Scott v. Stanford case was the status of slavery in the territories, an issue that had plagued American politics since the Missouri Compromise. Buchanan desperately hoped that the Supreme Court would unequivocally settle this massive issue before his inauguration in March of 1857. In violation of presidential ethics, on February 3, 1857, the president-elect began corresponding with Justice John Catron of Tennessee. Buchanan inquired as to when the country would learn about a decision and if the decision would be narrowly focused or broad. In his response, Catron did not answer as to when a decision would be handed down but did mention that the territorial question would be involved. On February 23, 1857, Justice Robert Grier of Pennsylvania responded to an earlier letter of Buchanan and tipped him off to the coming decision, writing “six if not seven will declare that the compromise law of 1820 to be non-effect.” With this prior knowledge in his inaugural address, Buchanan referred to Dred Scott as a decision that would “speedily and finally” resolve all questions about slavery in the territories, and he would “cheerfully submit to that decision.”

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/james-buchanan

There is more if you are interested…..

Read more about the worst presidential scandals.

Read more about the Worst Presidents methodology.

Donny may one day be known for nothing other than feeding his own ego but until then Buchanan is still the worst president.

I know most people could care less about our history and that should be a shame for we are where we are today because ignorance has prevailed.

Any opinions?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Men Without Hats

I could go into some diatribe about the music of the 80s but I shall leave that for someone that is a fan.

I will close out my week with a little cultural history.

For generations upon generations men wore hats…..top hats. derby, cowboy, bowler, etc…..as late as the 1040s and 50s hats were still being part of the attire and then in the 1960s something happened….but why did it happen?

A hundred years ago, everyone wore hats. In 1960, they suddenly stopped. Here’s why.

There you have it a change in cultural perception.

Although those cowboy hats are still popular with some (that reason will be beyond me)….

I hope this change in pace was to your satisfaction.

A little history is always a good thing.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

What Of The Democrats?

Another day of doctors and such….I will not be around for most of the day and I shall try to catch up as soon as possible….thanx for understanding.

College of Political Knowledge

This is part of the series I write looking at the Democratic Party and the upcoming election.

After the ass kicking the Dems took in 2024 they set about to change the way they approach elections (that was the lie they told then)….I wrote about it so I went back into my archives (that is why I have them) and found what I had written then….this from about a year ago….

What Happened To The Democratic Party?

After a year of lip service and lies things are not going well….so far all they have done is theatrics for the media and accomplished very little….some Dems have even sided with the GOP on some spending bills…..not much has changed….

Recent polls show approval of Donald Trump hovering in a deep unlit trough around 40 percent. Yet his dismal ratings have done little to bolster the reputation of the opposition party. Commentators across the political spectrum have overwhelmingly agreed that the Democratic brand is shot. The American Prospect called it “damaged.” NBC said it was “weak.” Rolling Stone said it was “cooked.” Semafor announced that “left-wing ideas” had “wrecked” it, and Bill Maher compared Democrats to has-been companies like Sears or Kodak that had “screwed themselves out of relevance.” The pejoratives aren’t confined to the armchair critics. Arizona Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego lamented, with only slightly more finesse than the news outlets, the “national brand problem.” Michael Bennet, a Democratic senator from Colorado, delicately agreed that the branding is “problematic.”

Is all lost for the Democrats, or is there opportunity in the shambles? When the only party offering a bulwark against Trump’s murderous, crackpot regime appears to be losing the vibes war—and as we approach the midterm elections that offer our last best chance to rein in the madness—these questions are not merely of political interest; they are a matter of existential importance.

And so, in a survey of 2,421 Democratic voters, conducted January 7–16 by Embold Research, The New Republic sought to explore what rank-and-file Democrats want to see from their candidates and elected representatives. Is it true, as one popular strain of criticism goes, that some of the party’s more liberal social ideas are a liability? How important to voters are housing, prescription drug prices, trans rights? How should we approach economic policy, foreign policy? How conciliatory or aggressive should party leaders be toward their foes? What, in other words, do Democrats want from Democrats?

https://newrepublic.com/article/206015/new-republic-opinion-poll-democrats-leaders-results

Not much is changing because the Dems are still in corporate pockets….the people mean nothing to these politicians no matter how much manure they spread none of it is true.

The Centrists are leading the way…..

Centrist Democrats led by Cheri Bustos, a corporate lobbyist who previously headed her party’s campaign arm in the US House, are launching a policy and advocacy organization aimed at pressuring Democrats to embrace the kind of “pro-growth” deregulatory agenda associated with the so-called “abundance” movement.

The new organization, named Next American Era, was formed “with an eye toward 2028” as Democrats work to recover from their crushing defeat to President Donald Trump in the 2024 elections, Axios reported Sunday, noting that the group describes itself as a “hub for center-left policy and advocacy.”

Bustos, whose lobbying client list in 2025 included OpenAI and Larry Ellison’s Oracle, said Next American Era plans to “air issue-focused ads during the midterm elections and the 2028 presidential campaign, but it won’t endorse candidates,” Axios reported.

Bustos said the founders of Next American Era share “many of the same principles as the Abundance movement,” a loose assortment of organizations and individuals—including large corporations and prominent billionaires—broadly supporting views expressed by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson in their 2025 book Abundance.

“She said cutting red tape, streamlining regulations, and supporting workforce training are among the top policy goals of her group, which is structured as a 501(c)(4) political nonprofit,” Axios reported

https://www.commondreams.org/news/cheri-bustos-next-american-era

Their aims are the aims of the GOP so how do these fools still wear the Democrat name tag?

I wish I could say that these fools are a minority….they are not even the minority leaders of both houses are wishy washy….

Democratic leaders in Congress are already backing down on one of their key demands in the fight to reform the federal immigration agencies terrorizing Minnesota and other parts of the country.

On Wednesday, Democrats laid out a list of 10 “guardrails” they said they wanted to see put in place to protect the public from abuses by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, before agreeing to a new round of funding for their parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

https://www.commondreams.org/news/jeffries-schumer-ice-masks

Was this an attempt at some form of bi-partisanship?  Or was it just cowardice?

Now look at the protests around Minneapolis….the Congressional Dems were quick for lip service but have done nothing to join the protests.

One Democratic lawmaker to whom Axios granted the veil of anonymity suggested that Democrats expect the base to “get upset” but believes the discontent will wash away because “then you’re going to have the real fight in two weeks.” Whether or not that period ends with any meaningful change in the status quo remains to be seen. Much of what Democrats seek would merely require various federal agents to obey rules and regulations that they’re already supposed to follow as a matter of agency directive—though enshrining these policies as laws would be a step in the right direction.

That said, there’s still the thorny matter of enforcing any new constraints that are imposed on ICE and Border Patrol. I hope I’m wrong about this, but by the time all is said and done, I don’t expect much in the way of material change where the president’s paramilitaries are concerned. At best, perhaps, people will see the faces of the thugs who are beating them—though not always, if Schumer has his way.

https://newrepublic.com/post/206262/democrats-join-civil-resistance-midterms

The Dems should be out there let the people see that their lives matter to them…..so far empty words and ill promises is all we have got.

So far the only ones that are stepping up are the true Progressives, not those that use the term to appear important, and I agree that working class politics is where this party should be centered not in the pockets of billionaires.

Speaking at a panel at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said that decades of government failures such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the 2003 Iraq War had opened the door for demagogues such as Trump among working-class voters.

The only way to defeat this, she said, is to reorient progressive politics around social class.

“We have to have a working-class-centered politics if we are going to succeed,” she said, “and also if we are going to stave off the scourge of authoritarianism, which provide political siren calls to allure people into finding scapegoats to blame for rising economic inequality, both domestically and globally.”

Elsewhere during the panel, Ocasio-Cortez elaborated on the way economic inequality fuels the demand for authoritarian leaders.

“We’re seeing, in economy across economy around the world, including in the United States,” she said, “that extreme levels of income inequality lead to social instability and drives in a sense in authoritarianism, right-wing populism and very dangerous domestic internal politics. And that is a direct outcome of, not just income inequality, but the failure of democracies over decades to deliver, the failure to deliver higher wages, the failure to rein in corporations.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-munich

I agree!

The DNC has tried to eliminate any dissenting voices and embraced the corporate policies that Clinton championed.

This is not what the people of this country needs we already have a big business party, the GOP, we need a party of the people that will work tirelessly for the betterment of people’s lives……something we have not had for a generation.

Time to stand up and bring this party back to where it belongs….on the side of the working masses.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Political Polarization: Where Did It Begin?

I know in the past decade or so this subject has been examined by many…..but it is getting out of hand and deserves a closer look and often.

This is a report I read recently….it is a good look at what has been happening in this country for at least twenty years. (Personally I think it began way before their assertion)(I shall explain my disagreement later in this post)

This article posits that this polarization began in 2008 or the Obama years….

Forget Donald Trump. A new analysis suggests the U.S. public’s sharp lurch into polarization began in 2008, years before his first presidential campaign.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge’s Political Psychology Lab tracked shifts in Americans’ views across nearly four decades and found that divisions were broadly stable through the 1990s and early 2000s, before rising steadily from 2008 onward. Using more than 35,000 responses from the American National Election Studies between 1988 and 2024, they estimate that issue polarization has increased 64% since the late 1980s, with almost all of that change occurring after 2008.

The research uses a machine-learning approach to move beyond party labels and better understand what actually drives Americans’ political views. Instead of relying on whether respondents identify as Republican or Democrat, the team grouped people based on patterns in what they believe across a range of issues, from abortion and “traditional family values” to race, inequality, and health insurance. That distinction matters because in many countries politically opposite parties do not exist, says David Young, a psychology researcher at the University of Cambridge, U.K., and one of the study’s authors. “You might even want to study countries where there are no parties, like Saudi Arabia,” he says.

The paper challenges the idea that polarization is solely a Trump-era phenomenon. It points to 2008 as the “major turning point,” a year that also included the financial crisis, Barack Obama’s election, and the widespread adoption of the iPhone-era internet. “Our ability to nail down when it starts is slightly divided by the fact that we only have data points every four years,” Young says. Still, “we know that this increase starts from our 2008 data point,” he adds. “That’s our best guess at the starting point.”

https://www.fastcompany.com/91487819/political-polarization-started-a-lot-earlier-than-you-might-expect

Now my disagreement.

I say that the polarization began with the election of Reagan…..he weaponized the religious Right and emboldened every conspiracist that waddled out of the ether.

One could go back to the Goldwater years as the fodder that lit the flame of polarization.

We can say that conservatism is about free enterprise, smaller government, lower taxes, yada, yada…..but let’s be real in conservatism there is the privileged class and then us peasants…..we disguise it anyway we like but the simple fact is wealth knows best.

Thanks to Uncle Donny we see their true colors now….they no longer hide their distaste for the people.

This must be met with equal force by those that think that the people of this country are the important nay the only important issue.

Until then this slide will continue and god only knows where it will lead.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

What Will It Take?

For at least a decade (it really began on 1980 and slowly burst into flames in 2010) we have heard that the US is looking at a second civil war some even think this is our second revolution…..but what will it take for these dire predictions to come to life?

There is a simulation that states we are looking at the beginnings of a new civil war….

What’s the most surefire way to achieve Civil War 2.0 in the United States? According to one wild simulation, it’s exactly what’s happening right now in Minneapolis.

In October 2024, researchers at the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law (CERL) at the University of Pennsylvania conducted an experiment in which a president ordered a widely condemned federal law enforcement operation in the city of brotherly love.

To carry out the operation, the simulated president tried to federalize the Pennsylvania national guard, which the governor resisted. National guard troops who sided with the state followed suit, prompting the fictional president to order acting US military troops to march on Philly.

According to CERL director Claire Finkelstein’s breakdown of the simulation, newly published in the Guardian, the experiment culminated in a “violent confrontation” between state and federal forces in a major US metropolis.

Finkelstein notes that the war gaming exercise included actual government officials and former senior military leaders, none of whom “considered the scenario unrealistic.” The results were based off the assumption that during a rapidly evolving civil emergency like this, courts would be largely ineffective at stopping federal overreach.

Though the early stages of the Philadelphia simulation closely match the brutal events citizens in Minneapolis have experienced at the hands of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, the model diverges from reality in one key way: municipal and state officials don’t seem interested in attacking ICE agents anytime soon.

https://futurism.com/future-society/simulation-civil-war-games

It is a fascinating take on the events occurring today….

How long will the American people tolerate this abuse of government power?

From years ago all the rhetoric about confronting government abuse, you know those fat ass militia twats that were all talk, if this is not what they were going on about what the Hell is it?

I say keep it up do not let this become a standard for us to just stand by and ignore the abuses of Donny and his band of idiotic thugs.

I hope the spirit of 1776 has not been lost.

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”