Tag: Historical Events

The Battle Of Athens

HUH?

The recent protests made me think of my glory days as an antiwar protester….it also made me think of some protests from the past….protests that are long forgotten but serve their purpose.

The Battle of Athens?

Could this be some random Greek saga or Is this some WW2 battle of note? Or is it some diatribe about Sherman crushing through Georgia?

That’s right a little history for this day…..this piece is about the actions of veterans from WW2.

In the post-war summer of 1946, the small town of Athens, Tennessee became the epicenter of an event that went down in history as the Battle of Athens. This wasn’t merely a physical confrontation, but a fight against entrenched corruption, and it was a battle that symbolized the broader struggle against tyranny and injustice in post-war America.

The protagonists of this historic grandstand were none other than returning World War II veterans, who, after fighting overseas, found themselves facing a new kind of enemy on home soil. The corruption in Athens had been brewing for over a decade under Sheriff Paul Cantrell and his associates, who’d manipulated the political landscape. These veterans, witnessing the disintegration of democracy and fairness in their town, decided the time had come to take action.

Their training, coupled with a deep-seated belief in justice, prepared them for the confrontation that unfolded.

The end of World War II brought a wave of relief and hope to millions, with service members returning home to rebuild their lives in peace. However, for the veterans of Athens, this was far from reality. They returned to find their town under the control of Paul Cantrell’s corrupt regime, characterized by rampant intimidation, voter suppression and a blatant disregard for the law. The local government had become a machinery of corruption, operating with impunity and stifling the voices of citizens.

These returning heroes, already seasoned by the horrors of war, were now confronted with a new battle, one threatening the very principles they’d fought to uphold. Unwilling to stand idly by, they were resolved to challenge the status quo, setting the stage for what became a historic uprising against corruption.

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/featured/battle-of-athens.html

And then there was more veterans that stepped up especially those from World War One….Remember the Bonus Army?….

Of course not!

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/macarthur-bonus-march-may-july-1932/

This is how you do things when injustice is rampant…..not like today when you sit on social media and piss and moan until the next celeb does something that impresses you or until you see the problem and try to understand (ha ha ha)

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“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–18Apr24

It is April and the gov of Mississippi signed a statement that no one told the media about…..when was the last time a governor of any state did not want PR for his ‘good work’?

Tater Reeves just signed a proclamation celebrating the Confederacy and slavery…..

In the year of our lord 2024, the Confederate States of America are still being honored in Mississippi. 

Continuing a decades-old annual tradition, Governor Tate Reeves declared April as “Confederate Heritage Month,” the Beauvoir museum in Biloxi announced on Facebook Friday. The site is the historic home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. 

The tradition dates back to 1993 but isn’t publicized by any Mississippi state official or government agency. The only organization that regularly does so is the Sons of Confederate Veterans, or SCV, who first requested the proclamation 31 years ago.  The SCV owns and operates the Beauvoir museum, promoting the “Lost Cause” myth of the Civil War that downplays the role of slavery and white supremacy in causing the war.

Reeves’s record on race and Civil War history is checkered. As a student at Millsaps College in his youth, Reeves was part of a fraternity that threw Confederate-themed parties where members wore blackface. The governor says he never wore blackface while in the fraternity. 

In 2020, he signed a law retiring Mississippi’s state flag, which honored the Confederate flag, but criticized Black Lives Matter protesters at the same time. And Reeves has also denied the existence of systemic racism in the United States. 

Mississippi is the only state that has dedicated a month to honoring the Confederacy in the last three years, although six other Southern states have done so historically. Mississippi will also recognize Confederate Memorial Day on April 27, as state law requires. But those seeking to protest against these policies will have a tough time: The Supreme Court just effectively abolished protests in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas.

(newrepublic.com)

There you have it….the New South looks a lot like the Old South….at least in the case of racist Mississippi.

If you hate brown people then Mississippi is the place for you.

A state that pretends that the Civil War was something noble….when in fact it was solely about slavery…..period.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

12 April 1861

My readers know that I cannot pass up an opportunity to drop some history….and today is one of those days.

Do you know what day it is?

Hundred and sixty three years ago today the first shots were fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina thus starting the bloody struggle that has been called the “American Civil War”……

For those that slept through American history class….

By 1861, the country had already experienced decades of short-lived but ultimately failed compromises concerning the expansion of slavery in the United States and its territories. The election of Abraham Lincoln as president of the United States in 1860—a man who declared “I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free”—threatened the culture and economy of southern slave states and served as a catalyst for secession. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina seceded from the United States, and by February 2, 1861, six more states followed suit. Southern delegates met on February 4, 1861, in Montgomery, AL., and established the Confederate States of America, with Mississippi senator Jefferson Davis elected as its provisional president. Confederate militia forces began seizing United States forts and property throughout the south. With a lame-duck president in office, and a controversial president-elect poised to succeed him, the crisis approached a boiling point and exploded at Fort Sumter.

In the South we are taught our state’s history and most book make it seem like the desire to leave the union was overwhelmingly popular…,not accurate….

From its beginnings the Confederacy suffered from a rising tide of intense domestic hostility, not only among Southern blacks but increasingly among Southern whites. Ironically, it was a hostility brought on largely by those most responsible for the Confederacy’s creation. Planters excused themselves from the draft in various ways, then grew far too much cotton and tobacco, and not nearly enough food. Soldiers went hungry, as did their families back home. Women defied Confederate authorities by staging food riots from Richmond, Virginia, to Galveston, Texas. Soldiers deserted by the tens of thousands, and draft evasion became commonplace. By 1864, the draft law was practically impossible to enforce and two-thirds of the Confederate army was absent with or without leave. Many deserters and draft dodgers formed armed bands that controlled vast areas of the Southern countryside.

Wartime disaffection among Southerners had solid roots in the early secession crisis. Most white Southerners, three-fourths of whom owned no slaves, made it clear in the winter 1860-61 elections for state convention delegates that they opposed immediate secession. Nevertheless, state conventions across the South, all of them dominated by slaveholders, ultimately ignored majority will and took their states out of the Union. One Texas politician conceded that ambitious colleagues had engineered secession without strong backing from “the mass of the people.” A staunch South Carolina secessionist admitted the same. “But,” he asked, “whoever waited for the common people when a great move was to be made—we must make the move and force them to follow.”

https://www.essentialcivilwarcurriculum.com/southern-unionism.html

Even in the South there were enclaves of unionist bravado…..even in Mississippi….Jones county.

The story of Jones County, Mississippi’s Unionist activities has long been clouded by myth and legend, but most historians agree that this small, wooded backwater was the site of some particularly violent resistance to the Confederacy. The pro-U.S. movement in Jones first crystallized a few years into the Civil War, when the county became a haven for young men who had grown disillusioned with the Confederate cause and deserted the army. Led by a mercurial local named Newton Knight, the runaways organized into a Unionist guerilla outfit called the Knight Company and took to harassing nearby Confederate units. Whether Knight and his band were a principled resistance group or mere bandits has been a matter of debate, but there’s no doubt they succeeded in stirring the political pot. The group effectively disabled the county government, and at one point, its activities sparked rumors that Jones County had seceded from the Confederacy and was flying the stars and stripes over its courthouse. The Knight Company’s disruptive reign continued until April 1864, when Confederate Colonel Robert Lowry used bloodhounds to track the guerillas and drive them from their hideout in the swamps. Newton Knight later resurfaced, however, and after the war, he assisted in U.S. reconstruction efforts in Mississippi.

Back in the Dark Ages when I was in school this event was never covered at all.

There were others…..

https://www.history.com/news/6-unionist-strongholds-in-the-south-during-the-civil-war

For more information if interested….

Southerner vs. Southerner: Union Supporters Below the Mason-Dixon Line

You have seen those child soldiers in Africa…..well during our Civil War children as young as 10 fought and died….

Ten times more underage soldiers, from as young as 10-17, fought in the American Civil War than previously recognised, and this had profound implications for US military and legal history. This is a key takeaway from Associate Professor Frances M. Clarke and Professor Rebecca Jo Plant’s prize-winning book, Of Age: Boy Soldiers and Military Power in the Civil War Era.

“In America’s Civil War era, children remained minors until they turned 21. If they entered the regular army, however, they were emancipated from parental control. To retrieve young sons, parents filed writs of habeas corpus in massive numbers, while the Lincoln administration tried to stymie their efforts by silencing local courts. These disputes led to one of the most significant shifts in US legal history-the federalisation of habeas corpus,” said Associate Professor Clarke, who is a researcher in the Discipline of History.

https://www.nationaltribune.com.au/american-civil-war-prize-winning-new-book-reveals-plight-of-underage-soldiers/

A little history for those that are interested in the American Civil War….

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I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A ‘Push-Up Bra’ For Men

Sunday once again and trying to find something entertaining or informative or both was proving difficult….so I sat back and thought about days gone past….

You guys know that I would find something that is there but seldom thought about for any length of time.

I can remember when I got my first jock strap…..it was when I was in middle school and PE was a mandatory class.

With that memory I also started thinking about the item itself….where and when did this piece of clothing come into being?

Happy 150th birthday, dear jockstrap. How far you’ve come from your modest but mighty days of protecting the precious parts of bicycle messengers as they navigated the bumpy cobblestones of Boston. Invented for that purpose in 1874 by CF Bennett, who worked for a company now known as Bike Athletic, the strappy staple of yore has become a sex symbol of sorts with a reach well beyond athletics, per the AP. Fashion designers have fancied them up for catwalks. Kristen Stewart recently pulled on a Bike jockstrap for the cover of Rolling Stone, earning barbs from conservatives. Some athletes, both recreational and pro, still reach for one. And the jockstrap owes a debt to the gay men who’ve embraced it since the 1950s, when a hypermasculine aesthetic in gay fashion was in vogue.

Working out of Chicago, inventor Bennett set out to solve a problem in Boston for its so-called “bicycle jockeys.” In that day, “loose britches” were the norm, offering little in the way of support. From there, the jockstrap found big success as the men’s underwear industry grew. The slip-in cup came later, as the piece of fabric and elastic moved into the sports world, around the 1920s. “They’re very coquettish. They reveal, they conceal. It’s like a push-up bra,” says 53-year-old Andrew Joseph. Sean McDougle, 55, a queer nudist-naturist in upstate New York, owns about 40 jockstraps. “There’s a certain feeling of freedom,” he says. “But the look and feel is [also] just somehow really alluring.” To date, Bike Athletic has sold more than 350 million jockstraps worldwide. Tom Ford, Versace, Calvin Klein, Thom Browne, Emporio Armani, Tommy Hilfiger, and Savage X Fenty have also put out jockstraps.

“It’s evolved almost into kind of male lingerie at this point,” says Alex Angelchik, who bought Bike Athletic with other investors in 2019. “From the ’70s through today, it became kind of a cult favorite within the gay community, and expanded to the metrosexual urban community.” Today, about 70% of Bike’s customers are gay men, he says. The variations of jockstraps today are endless, says Timoteo Ocampo, a Los Angeles-based designer who sells them online and in boutiques around the globe. His company, Timoteo, puts out men’s underwear, swimwear, and other clothing. “There’s detachable fronts, zipper fronts, colors,” he says. “Some companies are doing diamond chains on their jockstraps. … People get very creative. It’s more personal and showing who they are and being proud of that.”

Read the AP’s full story here.

Come on admit it! That was damn entertaining and made you think.

Have a great Sunday….and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

That Amazing Chewing Gum Or Spit That Out Young Man.

Do you partake in the exercise of chewing that sweet treat?

As per my formula for Sunday I try to find something that is helpful or informative for my readers and if it involves some history all that much better.

Recently I read the the producer of ‘Fruit Stripe’ gum would end its market (this would be a good time to consider something for your EBay store)

Chewing gum….we use it for appetite control….or to try and control the urge for a smoke…..or to freshen our breath for the long awaited first date…..and above all that have you ever wondered where this magic oral joy originated?

Guess what….I can help with that….

Many people today consider chewing gum a normal part of life. It’s elevated to pop-culture status in many ways, with a constant presence in baseball culture across America, from fields to dugouts and bubblegum trading cards. The professional Wrigley Field in Chicago is even named after a popular chewing gum, spawning the official Big League Chew brand of shredded gum. Pop stars like Madonna extol the virtues of big pink bubbles, and there’s even a thing called chewing gum art.

But as trendy as it seems today, our modern, lip-smacking, bubble-blowing society didn’t invent the concept or the reality of chewing gum. Though earlier versions came from different sources and had more varied applications, gum in one form or another has been chewed for thousands of years. An archaeological site in Denmark discovered a rudimentary Stone-Ages type of chewing gum made from the oozing pitch, or tar, of birch bark, which could have been used for chewing enjoyment, and to relieve toothache pain and other ailments.

However, birch pitch was so potent that it also served as a super strong adhesive — not exactly something we’d embrace putting in mouths today. It was instead our ancestors in the Americas that set the stage for modern chewing gum, starting long before the United States was a gleam in anyone’s eye.

We have the ancient Mayan and Aztec societies of the early Americas to thank for the core ingredient precipitating Western-style chewing gum. That would be chicle, an oozing substance from sapodilla trees. Both civilizations chewed it for everything from thwarting hunger to freshening breath or cleaning teeth. Like today, there even appears to have been societal etiquette involving chewing the gum in public. But it would take generations before chicle launched a flurry of commercial activity in the United States.

Read More: https://www.tastingtable.com/1531138/ancient-origin-chewing-gum-explained/

Now you know where the tasty treat in your mouth came from and how it morphed into that sweet treat.

Enjoy!

Have a wonderful Sunday and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You KNow

“lego ergo scribo”

National Vietnam War Veterans Day

Today is a day of remembrance, 29 March, of those that fought and died in the hell hole call Southeast Asia.

I bring this up because I was one of those people that spent my youth ass deep in mud and blood…..so my way of celebrating, for lack of a better word, is to share a few things with my readers.

When there is a conversation about this war there is always those that say the US could have won that war if we had wanted to or the ever popular if the president had listened to his generals.

Is this true?

This article tries to disspell some of the manure around such comments….

Historian Mark Moyar revisits the Vietnam War, challenging the consensus that the U.S. couldn’t have won. He contends South Vietnam was a viable state by 1972, capable of repelling North Vietnamese offensives with U.S. aid, and that the war wasn’t as unpopular in the U.S. as believed. However, Moyar overlooks South Vietnam’s reliance on U.S. support, North Vietnam’s advantages, and the U.S.’s inability to fully disrupt the North’s support for the Viet Cong. He underestimates domestic opposition to the war and the improbability of sustaining long-term U.S. involvement. Ultimately, the U.S. withdrawal reflected a strategic decision that the war’s costs outweighed its benefits, with no lasting impact on the global balance of power. The current cooperative relationship between Vietnam and the U.S. suggests the strategic loss was minimal.

Mark Moyar, a scholar of U.S. foreign and military policy, years back had the opportunity to update an older argument on the viability of the Vietnam War. Moyar argues that the historical consensus on the war is wrong on several points, and that in fact the United States could have won the war and preserved the Saigon government at acceptable cost. While Moyar’s argument is worth consideration, he still fails to make his case against the long-standing consensus on the war.

Please read on….

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/vietnam-war-was-there-anyway-us-military-could-have-won-209574

A nice gesture but I remember how we were treated when we returned to our homeland….

We Viet vets are getting older and starting to die off….soon we will be like those Korean War vets….we will be forgotten and no one will care.

So in the vane of that thought I offer up a comparison on the two forgotten wars….

The Vietnam War and the Korean War stand as two pivotal events, each leaving indelible marks on the world stage. Yet, the curious reality persists: the Vietnam War is remembered vividly, while the Korean War often fades into collective memory. This piece explores the disparities between these conflicts and uncovers the factors influencing the Korean War’s comparative lack of visibility.

https://sofrep.com/news/forgotten-battles-a-comparative-analysis-of-the-vietnam-and-korean-wars/

I disagree that Vietnam is remembered vividly….by those that were there then yes but those that were not or too young it is nothing but a show on the history channel.

If you have a moment in your busy lives please take the time to remember those that did not return.

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Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Female Heroes–WW2

Happy St. Patrick’s Day for all you Irish minded people.

It is Women’s History Month and I try to bring women out of the shadows to show that they are just as capable as any man.

Ever heard of Josephine Baker or Marlene Dietrich? How about Virginia Hall or Lee Miller or Nancy Wake?

These women all have something in common….they we serving during World War 2.

For instance Josephine Baker was used as a spy in France….Marlene Dietrich work for OSS….

Here are five stories about remarkable women who defied prejudices based on race, gender, disability, and religion during World War II.

George Santayana wrote in 1905 that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. This universal truth is specifically poignant when we think about World War II and the pivotal role that many women played during this difficult time. Most countries banned women from being involved in physical combat, but this didn’t stop plenty of iconic women from finding ways of playing pivotal roles in logistical and tactical initiatives.

https://www.thecollector.com/female-heroes-world-war-ii/

Women that should have a prominent place in the history of World War Two but have had to take a back seat to personalities like MacArthur, Patton or Monty.

They did their part and should be remembered for the part they played in our victory over that slug Hitler.

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I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Ever Hear Of The Truman Committee?

Basically it was a good idea to draw in the massive defense spending….to make it more accountable and responsible….

I have been railing about the amount of money that is thrown at the Pentagon….the massive profits of a few huge industry with a few players.

Then I recall something from our distant past that makes good sense.

On February 10, 1941, a relatively unknown senator, Democrat Harry S. Truman of Missouri, rose on the Senate floor to deliver a speech that would forever change his destiny. Though the United States officially remained “neutral” to the war raging in Europe, the German invasion and occupation of France and the Low Countries in 1940 prompted action by the U.S. government. President Franklin Roosevelt requested, and Congress hastily appropriated, more than $10.5 billion to bolster national defense buildup. A former small business owner, Truman cautioned against awarding defense contracts in a way that “make[s] the big men bigger and let[s] the little men go out of business or starve to death.” He advised against distributing contracts “on the basis of friendship or political affiliation.” Championing legislative oversight, Truman proposed an “investigation of the national defense program and the handling of contracts.”

This became known as the ‘Truman Committee’….

I bring this up because someone in Congress has floated the idea of a ‘Truman Committee’ to be reestablished….

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders has a novel way to stop military-industrial complex profiteers from “bilking the American people”—and it’s actually over 80 years old.

In an article published Tuesday in The Atlantic, Sanders (I-Vt.) called for a revived Truman Committee—a World War II-era bipartisan congressional panel “designed to rein in defense contractors, closely oversee military contracts, and take back excessive payments.”

“America’s national priorities are badly misplaced,” the senator asserted. “Our country spends, with almost no debate, nearly $1 trillion a year on the military while at the same time ignoring massive problems at home. We apparently have unlimited amounts of money for nuclear weapons, fighter planes, bombs, and tanks. But somehow we can’t summon the resources to provide healthcare for all, childcare, affordable housing, and other basic needs.

“The United States remains the world’s dominant military power,” the senator continued. “Alone, we account for roughly 40% of global military spending; the U.S. spends more on its military than the next 10 countries combined, most of whom are allies. Last year, we spent more than three times what China spent on its military.”

Sanders noted that nearly half of the approximately $900 billion the U.S. will allocate for military spending this year “will go to a handful of huge defense contractors enjoying immense profits,” with many weapons companies profiting handsomely off sales to Ukraine, which is struggling to repel a two-year Russian invasion.

In what Sanders called a “particularly egregious example” of war profiteering, RTX Corporation—formerly Raytheon—has increased the price of its Stinger shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles by 600% to $400,000 since the early 1990s.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/sanders-military-spending-2667378533

It amazes me that Americans will ignore this  situation but will fly off the handle when some woman in Bumfuk, Indiana gets $300 extra in her EBT card.

I think Bernie has a helluva idea….these parasites need to be investigated and punished…

But the industry has hundreds of lobbyists to spread the cash around to see that any oversight is squashed.

While Bernie has a good idea….money will decide the idea’s fate.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Section 3 14th Amendment–The Beginning

It is a Sunday and as usual I want to enrich your knowledge as best I can…..yes another FYI post from the Old Professor.

These days there is a massive back and forth about who is eligible to run for office and the defense of whichever side one falls on this debate is always the 14th Amendment….Section 3 to be exact.

For those that do not know the language of this section of the Constitution….I can help….

Section 3 Disqualification from Holding Office

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

There you have it…..very simple and straightforward.

Since it is an amendment to the US Constitution where did it all begin and why?

As with so many things in this country this amendment had its beginning after the great American Civil War.

On December 4, 1865, the 39th Congress convened in Washington, D.C., marking its first meeting since the Union victory in the Civil War and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The burning questions facing Congress and President Andrew Johnson—Lincoln’s White House successor—were how to reincorporate the former Confederate states into the Union and how to prevent another violent insurrection.

Among the Senators who tried to take their seats in the coming months was Alexander Stephens, former vice president of the Confederate States of America. Stephens had been arrested for treason in May 1865, imprisoned for five months in Boston, then paroled by President Johnson. Upon returning to his home state of Georgia, the state legislature elected Stephens to the Senate.

He wasn’t alone. Southern legislatures elected to Congress two former Confederate senators, four other former Confederate congressmen and a host of former Confederate military officers. Members of the Radical Republicans, the political group that had led the fight to end slavery and now pushed for the rights of newly freed Black Americans, were outraged. Their plan for post-Civil War governance was Reconstruction, an ambitious legislative program to end slavery, extend the vote to Black men and guarantee equal protection under the laws for all “freedmen,” formerly enslaved people.

But enforcement of Reconstruction would be impossible if state and local governments in the South were run by former Confederates, and if Congress, in the words of Pennsylvania Representative Thaddeus Stevens, was “filled with yelling secessionists and hissing copperheads.”

The simplest way to legally enshrine loyalty to the U.S. government as a post-war qualification for federal and state political offices was by amending the Constitution. This marked the start of a many-years debate over who should be allowed to serve in government—and who got to decide.

The end result was Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which disqualified anyone from holding federal or state political office who had violated their oath “to support the Constitution of the United States” by engaging “in insurrection or rebellion against the same.”

https://www.history.com/news/14th-amendment-section-three-disqualification-clause-confederates

Now you have enough information (if you actually read the article) to make a formed debated on this subject the next time Uncle Fred brings it up.  And probably know more about the subject than the idiot that brings it up on the boob tube.

You may breathe now and resume your day’s activities.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I hope you have a wonderful Sunday and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Will Biden Have An “LBJ Moment”?

College of Political Knowledge

2024 Election Series

For all you out there that have no idea what an “LBJ Moment” might be….let me help you out.

1968 LBJ was expected to run for re-election and he decide to opt out of the process….

By late March 1968, President Lyndon Johnson’s presidency lay in tatters. Anger over the war in Vietnam and Johnson’s growing credibility gap had created a full-scale insurgency at home, within the Democratic Party. On 12 March, Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy won more than 40% of the vote against Johnson in the New Hampshire primary.

Days later, Robert F. Kennedy, Johnson’s greatest political nemesis, announced his intention to also challenge the president. I had been expecting it,” Johnson later matter-of-factly wrote in his memoirs about Kennedy’s entry into the race.

On the campaign trail, Kennedy seemed to be blaming every national infirmity on the president. At the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, he even went to far as to accuse Johnson of “calling upon the darker impulses of the American spirit.”

With Democratic voters in Wisconsin prepared to head to the polls on 3 April all signs pointed to Johnson suffering a catastrophic primary defeat to McCarthy’s energized and confident foot soldiers. Nationally, Johnson’s approval rating sank to 36 percent, and support for his handling of Vietnam plummeted to 26 percent. Missouri senator Stuart Symington told a closed-door meeting of his Senate colleagues, “Lyndon Johnson could not be elected dogcatcher in Missouri today.”

Beyond his immediate political challenges, a larger emotional toll was being taken on the president. He regularly shuffled from his personal quarters to the Situation Room in the basement of the White House in his bathrobe and slippers. In a meeting with his old friend Senator Richard Russell, he began crying uncontrollably. He felt “chased on all sides” by the growing dissent and anger over the war, the “inflationary economy,” and the “rioting blacks, demonstrating students, marching welfare mothers, squawking professors, and hysterical reporters.” Not since Lincoln had an American president faced as much domestic dissent as that which confronted Johnson in the spring of 1968.

(blog.oup.com)

I bring this situation up because there is the Iowa Caucuses today and Trump is expected to rout all comers.  Plus Biden’s poll numbers are not what anyone would call good…..so will Biden do as another Dem prez did…cut and run?

One independent candidate thinks it is a possibility.

Cornel West is sure he’ll be on the ballot for the 2024 presidential election as an independent candidate. But the Harvard prof isn’t sure that President Biden will be one of his opponents. “I think he’s going to have an LBJ moment [and] pull back,” West tells Politico, referring to Lyndon B. Johnson’s surprise withdrawal from the race in 1968. Instead, West won’t be surprised if the Democratic nominee ends up being California Gov. Gavin Newsom or Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, both of whom he considers to be on the “B team,” he says in the interview. “I’m just saying that I’m open to those possibilities, given the fluidity of the situation,” he says of Biden. “He’s running out of gas.”

Polls, lots of polls, tells us that Biden is losing his grip on popularity and the possibility that he will help Trump win another term as mini-dictator.

Plus the voters are losing all confidence in the Dems across the board….another indication the Biden may be fighting an uphill battle.

Will he pull an LBJ?

My thought is he will not….there is something about the gig that keeps these slugs coming and coming….it is like a crack addiction….always wanting more and never enough.

What say you?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”