Tag: Social Issues

The Great God–Greed

+++Note:  I need to be at the hospital for my procedures at 0645….so this will be my only offering for today as I will probably be in a shitty mood when I get home….thanx for understanding.+++

Since the late 70s early 80s the country has had an emerging new god on the horizon…..greed.

It is steadily gotten worse year by year and then we elected the spokesman for greed…..DJ Trump….but even with is insatiable appetite for money he has only made the tech bros the lead on greed.

I am talking about people like Bezos, Zuckerberg, Musk, et al….

Life is strange.

If you’d told me fifteen years ago that, as part of covering DC politics, I’d be reading books about space, I’d have told you to take a hike. But when Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post, he set a chain of events in motion.

I remember the day the Washington Post’s sale was announced. It was August 2013 and I was with my friend Tony Norman at our regular falafel haunt on U Street when I got an alert on my phone saying Bezos had just bought the Post for $250 million. “What?” Tony said when I broke the news to him. I read it again, not believing the words either. The Graham family, which had owned the Post for decades, wasn’t known to be looking to sell its prized possession. But now they had.

And in that instant, Bezos was transformed from the billionaire founder of Amazon, into the savior of the Post, if not the entire failing media industry. I read these hot takes with steam coming out of my ears. As the child of parents who owned our local newspaper, I was keenly aware of Amazon’s role in destroying newspapers across the country — namely by bankrupting local business, which are the lifeblood of any local paper (and community). The man who may be responsible for destroying more newspapers than anyone on earth was definitely not a savior of the free press.

That much I knew. But there was a lot about Bezos that I didn’t know. And now that he owned the Post, then the all-important newspaper for local DC politics, it was time to start reading up on the man.

The first book I cracked was The Everything Store, Brad Stone’s revelatory 2013 biography of Bezos. Eight years later, Stone followed that up with Amazon Unbound, another invaluable work. More recently, I devoured Wall Street Journal reporter Dana Mattioli’s excellent 2024 book The Everything War. These books laid bare Bezos’ business practices, a good number of which are illegal, or would be if we enforced antitrust laws in this country.

But there’s another aspect to Bezos that these books didn’t quite capture — namely how he’s lost touch with reality.

Bezos truly believes that he’s going to save humanity via an intergalactic bank shot. He’s perfectly open about this, and always has been. As I wrote in a story at Truthdig last year:

https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/07/23/how-bezos-and-the-tech-bros-made-greed-godly/

The Tech Bros will save humanity?  First, from what?  Second, are you kidding?

These Tech Bros firmly believe that they are serving humanity….I do not see it….do you?

What is up with the lie that if you are poor then you are lazy?  Which conserv moron thought this piece of crap up?

I guess when you have that much money you can claim whatever you want.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Love Letter To All Americans

This is an open letter that I read recently and wanted to post it for others to see…..and hopefully understand….

My fellow American,

You may feel weary right now about the condition of our country.

So many of us feel exhausted, worn out, riddled with uncertainty, and worried about how we can get out of the mess we’re in. We are disgusted by the division and acrimony, the finger-pointing, and the endless partisanship that dangerously envelops our public lives and is tearing apart our very nation.

If you feel this way, you’re not alone.

As you know, I’ve been traveling the country to speak out about where we are and how we can move forward—together. Wherever I go, people from all walks of life and all political persuasions feel as I suspect you do: We can do better and be better—as individuals, as communities, and as a nation.

If you’re like me, you love this country. Honestly, I love it deeply. I know that’s not always a popular thing to say nowadays.

Yet in marking another July 4th—which was the 250th anniversary of our nation—it can be hard to express such love. Such is the nature of love, right? In all parts of our lives, love is often filled not only with joy, but with ambivalence, conflicting feelings, and even anger. It can make celebrations of our love for others—and for this nation—tenuous, difficult, even foul.

So, what does it mean to love America today?

For me, I think about what “patriotism”—and being a patriot—means. It isn’t about holding a blind allegiance to the country, wrapping ourselves in the flag, and using it as a weapon to denigrate, diminish, or even decimate those who look different from us or hold different views. I flatly reject such patriotism. I believe we all must.

Nor do I subscribe to a view that relentlessly trashes America, a view that is blind in its own ways to the good and goodness that exists throughout our nation, one that believes we must tear down the country in order to rebuild it. This patriotism is a dead end.

Instead, I urge us to embrace—indeed, to enact—a “patriotism of devotion.” Such patriotism is rooted in a deep affection for the nation—a love of the nation—that is so deep that you choose to stick with it through thick and thin, especially when you do not like what it is becoming or the direction it is going.

A patriotism of devotion beckons us to step forward, turn outward toward one another, and get to work—together. In this kind of patriotism, we see ourselves as builders, partners, and creators—even re-creators—in a shared American project where each of us matters, each of us has something to contribute, and each of us is afforded the dignity we deserve.

Retreating, surrendering, or giving up cannot be the answer, even though there may be days when you may feel like doing so. I get it. We all have such days.

Indeed, I am not asking you to pretend that you don’t hold certain feelings amid July 4th and the 250th anniversary of our nation. Nor am I suggesting you should somehow set aside, even suppress, your feelings. They’re yours; you have them. Let’s face it, many of us do.

Rather, I am writing to ask of you something basic but that, amid the current chaos, may feel seemingly out of reach. It is this: We must recommit to building together—or perhaps rebuild the very civic culture of our communities, this nation, and our common lives, so that we might better move toward our shared desire for a more perfect union, amid the real challenges we face.

This should be our American ambition today. To rebuild our country, starting in our local communities. Brick by brick. Block by block. Neighborhood by neighborhood.

We can do this. But we must go together.

Rich Harwood is the president and founder of The Harwood Institute.

Wise words.

I Read, I Write, You KNow

“lego ergo scribo”

Are You A ‘Cultural Marxist’?

To begin with the term ‘Marxist’ ought to send the more ignorant among us into some form of stroke mode…..but this is about culture more than the man…..but your IQ needs to be larger than your shoe size to differentiate.

Before we tackle this subject maybe a little background would help…..

1930s: originally denoting a theory that the oppression of the working class is effected through social and cultural means, developed by the Frankfurt School of social theorists.

(among some right-wing thinkers) a radical political ideology said to be promoted by left-wing activists with the aim of undermining or subverting western social and cultural institutions, ultimately resulting in the imposition of a progressive agenda on society.

Yes it is bullshit but that is what right wingers do best….spread manure.

Now for the meat of this post.

“Not to disparage David Bowie,” Alan Bennett remarked in 2016, “but if even a fraction of the tributes being paid to him and his influence were true, we would never have had a Conservative government.” Not to disparage Theodor Adorno, Jürgen Habermas and the other members of the Frankfurt School, but if they’d been one-millionth as potent as their detractors maintain, we would have had no Margaret Thatcher, no Ronald Reagan, no Liz Truss and no Donald Trump.

Yet, to hear some on the American far-Right tell it, “critical theory” – the Frankfurt School’s mash-up of Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx and Friedrich Nietzsche’s proto-existentialism – is responsible for everything that has gone wrong since the Second World War. Spoilt children, promiscuous teenagers, student radicals, transsexuals, rock ’n’ roll – each is the by-product of what the conservative activist Andrew Breitbart described as the Frankfurt ideology’s “adolescent rebellion against all rules and norms”.

What a load of claptrap, says the British historian AJA Woods. In The Cultural Marxism Conspiracy, he depicts a cult of wealthy American cranks and crackpots who kid each other that a few highbrow German-Jewish aesthetes managed to wreck Western civilisation. Certainly, the truth is more mundane: critical theory was just a logical extension of the highly moral form of literary criticism invented in Victorian England by Matthew Arnold at Oxford and carried on into the 20th century by F R Leavis at Cambridge.

Like Leavis and Arnold, the Frankfurters abhorred the rise of industrial capitalism. Unlike Leavis and Arnold, the Frankfurters were openly ideological. They were, to be precise, materialist Hegelians: they believed that, by melding their respective skill sets – philosophy, sociology, psychology, aesthetics – they could mint an entirely new and holistic explanation of history and society, premised on empirical grounds.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/non-fiction/review-cultural-marxism-conspiracy-frankfurt-school-woods/

If you are interested this may be a good piece for you…..

https://ammo.com/articles/cultural-marxism-gramsci-how-disciples-of-gramscian-marxism-subverted-america

It is all so much smoke screen for mental midgets that flock to the likes of Donny and his brand of fascism…..belittle the opposition…..it works for them.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

I Hate Defeatism!

“…Land of the free and home of the brave…”

When I returned from Vietnam I began my campaign of protesting the war and I was met with an amazing amount of defeatism…..I started my protests for after seeing that war first hand I could stand by and turn my head and ignore the horrors and the sacrifices.

Defeatism can be found in most aspects of life….your life, your job, etc but for this post I want to address political defeatism.

Personally I hate defeatism to me it is just throwing hands up and accepting crap and no inclination to change things.

First we need to define the term so there is NO confusion.

Defeatism….is a term used to describe an individual’s mindset or attitude characterized by a pervasive belief that failure is inevitable, and success is unattainable. This defeatist thinking can manifest in various aspects of life, including work, relationships, and personal goals. It often leads to a lack of motivation, low self-esteem, and a reluctance to take on challenges.

There seems to be a wealth of defeatism these days especially on blogs….it is fear that drives this cancerous feeling.

…

I can’t say for certain, but I got the clear sense that there is a wide-spread fear among Americans these days of openly expressing opposition to the aspiring orange tyrant in the White House. Putting an anti-Trump bumper sticker on a car could lead to vandalizing of the vehicle, saying something critical of Trump could mean losing friend, a job, or ruining a family gathering. I even heard that one of my J-School alums didn’t want to sign the Class of ‘69 protest letter or even to have a copy of it sent to his email address, explaining to a mutual friend that “I still have a journalism job” and thus even being associated with such a document!

A common comment I heard from people when I expressed my outrage at Trump’s executive orders like the blocking of already-awarded federal research grants, the revoking of already-approved Green Cards and student visas for foreign students, the deportation of children who are US citizens, and the president’s ignoring of judicial and even Supreme Court orders, has been a dismissive and resigned “Yeah, that’s the new normal now.”

I cannot recall observing that sort of defeatism and fear during the dark years of American atrocities in Indochina. When we learned of massacres of civilians in Vietnam by US troops, or of the carpet bombing by B-52s of North Vietnam and later of Cambodia, the news fueled mass marches across the country and in the nation’s capital.

…

This is the only way to stop what Shipler and I are noticing: a withdrawal from protest. That cannot be allowed to happen. As Shipler writes, “History is still in the hands of the people, for a time. Whether this enters American history as a passing phase or a fundamental turning point will depend on whether Americans mobilize. To make courage contagious. ‘In a free society,’ said Abraham Joshua Heschel during the civil rights movement, ‘some are guilty, but all are responsible.”

https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/05/15/fear-of-protesting-trump-policies-spreads-in-us/

Then there is apathy….defeatism and apathy go hand in hand and to the ruination of the nation….

A new kind of plague has spread across the West: the plague of resignation, marked by diminished voter turnout and a general retreat from political engagement. People feel frustrated by a system that seems to yield little change, regardless of their involvement. But treating this “plague” requires an understanding of its cause. While it’s easy to diagnose public sentiment as apathetic and cynical, we must ask what fuels this mindset and what might reverse it.

At the heart of this apathy is a deep-seated reluctance to self-examine or step beyond comfort zones. Many, especially on the political left, hold fixed beliefs about who holds power and who bears responsibility for society’s ills. There’s a pervasive notion that those in power are inherently to blame, that the powerful are perpetually working against the interests of ordinary people. This perspective is often accompanied by the view that any issue of injustice or inequality can be traced back to the “evil” actions of the elite. The public, in turn, finds a certain comfort in this approach. It allows people to feel moral and justified, focusing their frustrations outward rather than examining their own roles and responsibilities.

Apathy and defeatism: the plague of politics

American history will be written by the people.  Will you be part of the ‘brave’ or part of the defeatism that is striking fear in Americans hearts?

Even at my advanced age I refuse to live in fear and reject defeatism in all it’s forms

Who will stand with me?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Tolerance: Weapon Of Oppression

There are way too many people out there that have thrown up their hands and tolerate the destruction of a way of life and the country.  (Not something I would ever consider)

There is a paradox of tolerance at work….

The paradox of tolerance, a theory that challenges a society’s ability to defend democracy from within, is at the heart of the political turmoil plaguing the United States today. The idea, first articulated by philosopher Karl Popper, suggests that a tolerant society must be intolerant of intolerance itself, or else the intolerant will exploit that tolerance to dismantle the system from within. The United States is facing a stark test of this paradox as extremism and hate groups gain traction, exploiting the very liberties that protect democratic life.

The past few decades have seen the steady rise of groups that thrive on division, hate, and violence. From white nationalist organizations to conspiracy-driven militias like those associated with QAnon, these movements increasingly occupy the mainstream political conversation. At their core, these ideologies aim not only to challenge the social order but to dismantle the democratic principles of equality and justice. They are not just seeking to make their voices heard—they are attempting to redefine the terms of the social contract, eroding the shared values that have historically bound Americans together.

Consider the 2017 Charlottesville rally, where white nationalists, neo-Nazis, and other far-right extremists marched in the streets under the banner of “Unite the Right.” The violence that erupted, culminating in the death of counter-protester Heather Heyer, was a chilling reminder that these movements are not merely fringe elements but potent forces that can stoke real, deadly consequences. The response from certain political figures and public figures, including the president, was a horrifying moment in American politics. Rather than denouncing these groups unequivocally, there was a reluctance to take a firm stand against intolerance, allowing the seeds of hate to grow unchecked. In this moment, the U.S. was at the crossroads of the paradox of tolerance—its commitment to free speech and political expression directly collided with the need to protect democracy from those who would destroy it.

The question then becomes: How much tolerance is too much? Can a society truly remain open and free while it allows the propagation of ideas that actively undermine freedom itself? The answer is, unequivocally, no. When the principles of liberty are manipulated to spread hate and division, tolerance becomes not a virtue but a tool of destruction. The societal contract must be protected from those who seek to exploit it for their own gain, and that requires setting firm boundaries on what is considered acceptable within a democratic society.

https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-paradox-of-tolerance-when-freedom-becomes-a-weapon-of-oppression/

Let me reiterate…..paradox of tolerance….The paradox of tolerance is a philosophical concept suggesting that if a society extends tolerance to those who are intolerant, it risks enabling the eventual dominance of intolerance, thereby undermining the very principle of tolerance.

You can see the paradox everywhere.

  • Online communities that tolerate every voice until no reasonable ones remain.
  • Workplaces where “all ideas are valid” slowly turn into echo chambers.
  • Governments that either over-police or under-protect, losing legitimacy both ways.

So is our tolerance of what is happening making all things worse?

Just wondering

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Teaching Pigs To Sing

I have always thought that it was part of my DNA to help others what is happening around them….educate and agitate….my grandfather use to get onto me for my obsession….his words we “when you teach a pig to sing you waste your time and piss off the pig (exact words).

Regardless I continued and continue to try and help people understand the situation…..and there are those here that agree with my grandfather that I waste my time….it is after all my time to waste and I do not like the defeatism that is prevalent.

There is always someone point a finger and trying to get people like me to stop what we are doing….

Mark Twain once quipped, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” The problem is that we rarely question our own beliefs. Once a false assumption takes hold, it becomes a default lens we use to interpret the world—and dislodging it becomes incredibly difficult.

One very basic assumption that lies at the heart of many change efforts is that information is power—the notion that if you arm people with the right knowledge, they will act on it. That’s why so many change programs are rooted in education and training, because they assume that the right information will change people’s behavior.

There’s even a name for this assumption: the information deficit model. Decades of research show that it doesn’t hold up. The truth is that we rarely change our behavior after being exposed to new facts. When confronted with evidence that contradicts our beliefs, we’re more likely to question the evidence than to update our views. Our brains prefer stability to change.

The core assumption of the information deficit model is that when people lack basic knowledge, exposing them to new evidence will change their opinions. But that assumes that their minds are blank slates, which is rarely true for most subjects and contexts. We all have preconceived notions of how the world works and will tend to cling to our views.

For example, people who believe in a flat earth don’t simply lack knowledge of a round earth, but have a model of the universe in which the earth is flat. In order to change those beliefs, they would not only need to accept new evidence, but also to discard old beliefs that they have relied on to navigate the world.

To do that they face a number of barriers they will need to overcome, including the synaptic pathways built up in their brains that are devoted to their existing model, the social pressure of people in their community who hold similar views, and the switching costs involved in changing their behavior based on their new knowledge.

https://www.fastcompany.com/91517078/stop-trying-to-educate-people-into-changing-science-proves-it-doesnt-work

The unreasonable idea is fed by stupidity not ignorance.

So to all those that feel I am wasting my time I say with a heart felt….BITE ME!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Massive Crowds For ‘No Kings Day’

This past Saturday was set up for protests of Donny and his merry band of idiots and their destruction of the foundation of this country.

The expectation was the crowds would be large and vocal.

Organizers called it “the largest single-day nationwide demonstrations in US history,” with an estimate 8 million people coming out for events in communities and cities nationwide.

From major cities to rural towns that have never seen mobilizations like this before, protesters made clear that in America, we don’t do kings,“ the No Kings coalition said in a statement.

Demonstrators turned out for “No Kings” rallies around the world on Saturday in opposition to President Trump and his policies involving the Iran war, immigration enforcement, elections, health care, the Epstein files, the environment—and authoritarianism. In Washington, Bill Jarcho was in a small group wearing tactical vests marked “LICE” to spoof ICE agents. “What we provide is mockery to the king,” Jarcho said, per the AP. “It’s about taking authoritarianism and making fun of it, which they hate.” More than 3,300 events, the third wave of “No Kings” protests, were planned in all 50 states, per the Washington Post. Large rallies were held in cities and small ones on roadsides, including:

  • Minneapolis: Organizers declared the city’s rally the day’s flagship event. Bruce Springsteen performed a song he wrote to protest the immigration operation that left two American citizens shot to death there by federal agents in January. “They picked the wrong city,” Springsteen told a crowd of thousands, per the New York Times. “These invasions of American cities will not stand,” he added. Gov. Tim Walz criticized Trump’s comments about Somali immigrants, saying their descendants would still be in the US long after “the orange clown is in the dustbin of history.” Instead of giving a speech, Jane Fonda read a statement from Becca Good, whose wife was one of the people killed by federal agents. “Everyone who was there when my wife was taken from me has had their lives destroyed that day, including those agents,” she read, per CNN. “What we need is to stop destroying life.” A huge sign placed on the state Capitol’s steps read: “We had whistles, they had guns. The revolution starts in Minneapolis.”
  • Washington, DC: Protesters headed to the military base where Stephen Miller, the White House aide overseeing deportation efforts, has been living, chanting for his removal. Some said, “We’ve got the people outside your door.”
  • Paris: Several hundred people, mostly Americans living in France, gathered at the Bastille with members of labor unions and human rights organizations, per the AP. “I protest all of Trump’s illegal, immoral, reckless, and feckless, endless wars,” organizer Ada Shen said.
  • Topeka: A rally outside the Kansas Statehouse had people impersonating a frog king and Trump as a baby. Wendy Wyatt drove with a “Cats Against Trump” sign from Lawrence, 20 miles to the east, and planned to drive back to her hometown for a later rally there. “There are so many things” that upset her about the Trump administration, she said, though “this is very hopeful to me.”
  • Manhattan: Protesters chanting while marched south from Midtown. One told CNN “there’s not enough room on the sign to say why” she’s protesting. “If we want a democracy,” she added, “we have to participate in it and we have to save it.”
  • Austin: Protesters came to the roadside park Auditorium Shores. Gilbert Martinez, a 93-year-old Korean War veteran, said Trump is reckless and the Iran war a diversion, per the Times. “That idiot is going to cause a lot of good military people to lose their lives,” he said.
  • Portland, Oregon: A large crowd marched to a drum beat. One sign read, “So bad, even introverts are here.”
  • Chicago: Saira Bensett, 60, said the gathering in Grant Park was cathartic. “When I watch the news it’s often too much—the emotions I feel make me feel like I’m alone,” she said. “So I wanted to be here to feel like I’m not by myself.”

The US was not the only protests on Saturday…..

No Kings rallies weren’t just held in major US cities. In a series of social media posts, Indivisible co-founder Leah Greenberg collected photos and videos of No Kings events in communities including Arvada, Colorado, Madison, New Jersey, and St. Augustine, Florida, as well as international No Kings events held in London and Madrid.

Of course with the accumulation of that many protesters there were going to be rowdy individuals that take the protest a bit far…..but all in all they were peaceful….but of course the idiots that believe in the MAGA bullshit will try and twist the outcome to a negative….it was not and will not be a negative force.

I stopped by the one in my city early on Saturday and there was already about 100 people getting ready…..one guy said they were expecting about 350 people to show up.

The local news stations which there are two had no mention of the protests at all.  The local rag had no story about the protests either.

However the Clarion Ledger out of Jackson Mississippi reported on the protest in a city about 60 miles north of the Coast.

https://www.clarionledger.com/picture-gallery/news/2026/03/28/see-photos-from-the-no-kings-protest-in-hattiesburg-ms/89365297007/

I was not expecting too much out of the news down here for this is deep Red.

How about in your area?

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 Happened To The Republican Party?

A very good and regular reader and commenter here on IST, Judy at https://judyt8630.wordpress.com/, she and I have been having a back and forth about the Republican Party and this is just an extension to that conversation.

When I was young I helped my grandfather with his efforts to get out the vote of Ike and the GOP…..those were the days when the GOP was truly a party of the people.

Their platform for that national election was something to be proud of…..

The individual is of supreme importance.

The spirit of our people is the strength of our nation.

America does not prosper unless all Americans prosper.

Government must have a heart as well as a head.

Courage in principle, cooperation in practice make freedom positive.

To stay free, we must stay strong.

Read what the GOP stood for in that election…..https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/republican-party-platform-1956

Like I said it was a platform that every American could be proud of and vote for.

But then in 1960 everything started changing with in the the party….after 65 years of BS it has become the party of today…..so what the Hell happened?

This video is an interview with an ex-Congressperson on what has happened….

The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie goes deep with the artists, activists, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and visionaries who are making the world more libertarian—or at least more interesting—by challenging worn-out ideas and orthodoxies.

Today’s guest is Jeff Flake, former Arizona senator and U.S. ambassador to Turkey, and now head of the brand-new Institute of Politics at Arizona State University. Flake made national headlines in 2017 when he delivered a searing Senate floor speech announcing he would not seek reelection and declaring he would not be complicit in the “degradation of our politics” under Donald Trump and MAGA.

This is an article in Mother Jones….

In May, during an Aspen Institute conference, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told the audience, “I want the Republican Party to take back the party, take it back to where you were when you cared about a woman’s right to choose, you cared about the environment…This country needs a strong Republican Party. And we do. Not a cult. But a strong Republican Party.” Her comments echoed a sentiment that Joe Biden had expressed during the 2020 campaign: If Donald Trump were out of the White House, the GOP would return to normal and be amenable to forging deals and legislative compromises.

Both Pelosi and Biden have bolstered the notion that the current GOP, with its cultlike embrace of Trump and his Big Lie, and its acceptance of the fringiest players, is a break from the past. But was the GOP’s complete surrender to Trumpism an aberration? Or was the party long sliding toward this point? About a year ago, I set out to explore the history of the Republican Party, with this question in mind. What I found was not an exception, but a pattern. Since the 1950s, the GOP has repeatedly mined fear, resentment, prejudice, and grievance and played to extremist forces so the party could win elections. Trump assembling white supremacists, neo-Nazis, Christian nationalists, QAnoners, and others who formed a violent terrorist mob on January 6 is only the most flagrant manifestation of the tried-and-true GOP tactic to court kooks and bigots. It’s an ugly and shameful history that has led the Party of Lincoln, founded in 1854 to oppose the extension of slavery, to the Party of Trump, which capitalizes on racism and assaults democracy.

It Didn’t Start with Trump: The Decades-Long Saga of How the GOP Went Crazy

Just a few attempts to try and illustrate what has gone wrong with the GOP…..

What we know as traditional republicanism may be dead and gone and we can thank no other than Little Donny D-Nothing and his band of goons.

Any Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Who’s Afraid Of Intellectualism?

Good question and the best answer is Conservatives since about the 1960s….and ever since they have worked tirelessly to eradicate it….

As a kid, my favorite part of grocery shopping wasn’t the snacks or the cereal aisle, it was the tabloids at the checkout. I’d devour headlines about Batboy sightings, Bigfoot vacations, royal scandals, and the occasional presidential summit with extraterrestrials. These were absurdities printed with a straight face, and the comedy was half the fun.

I didn’t expect that, decades later, those supermarket fever dreams would feel less like parody and more like prophecy. The fantasies that once lived on cheap newsprint now pulse through mainstream culture. In the social media age, anything can be “true” if it flatters your bias or fuels your outrage. And with AI dissolving the already thin boundary between fact and fiction, we’ve entered an era where reality feels optional, truth feels negotiable, and the most sensational lie travels at the speed of an algorithm.

In this environment, “common sense,” emotion, and personal anecdote have muscled into spaces once reserved for evidence and expertise. But there’s nothing “common sense” about medicine, climate science, gender identity, or any other complex system that shapes human life. Yet this appeal to “what feels right” has become the jet fuel of America’s culture war. It declares: If the issue seems simple to me, it should be simple to you. And if you disagree, you’re elitist or part of a hidden agenda. This flattening of complexity has turned ignorance into authenticity and expertise into betrayal.

This is anti-intellectualism, and though accelerating, it isn’t new. Richard Hofstadter warned in the 1960s of a growing American suspicion of expertise, a belief that intelligence itself was untrustworthy. What was once a cultural tendency has hardened into a political identity and, increasingly, a governing philosophy.

It’s also tied to a literacy crisis hiding in plain sight. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 21% of U.S. adults struggle with “Level 1” literacy, basic decoding with limited comprehension, and 34% of adults perform at “Below Level 2,” meaning they cannot reliably compare or integrate information across texts. The more recent NCES update shows low literacy rates increasing, with “Below Level 2” rising from 29% to 34% as of 2024.

America’s Peril: The Rot of Anti-Intellectualism and Demagoguery is Costing Us Our Future

So why are so many Americans afraid of intellectuals?

They prefer to grasp a hold of some hair-brain idea than see if the idea holds water….is it laziness or just plain stupidity?

Inquiring minds want to know.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”