tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59582822418652390032024-02-18T23:15:15.527-05:00Phil Terrana WritesPhil Terranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172907721252330800noreply@blogger.comBlogger197125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958282241865239003.post-70702036704514504992022-03-08T23:02:00.031-05:002022-03-08T23:14:44.597-05:00Ukraine-location, location, location, timing, timing, timing<p> <span style="font-size: 16pt;">Realtors tell us it’s all about location, location,
location.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">They also tell us timing is everything.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Political analysts, I’m sure, would agree.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">When my daughter was in college she became friends
with a fellow student, who our family quaintly refers to as, Mary from Ukraine,
to distinguish her from Mary from Princess Anne High School. Since graduating,
they correspond regularly and have visited each other on several occasions in
Ukraine, France, Morocco. The two are on similar journeys that began as college
students and has continued as they’ve become single working girls, newlyweds
and now with their own families.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Had either gone to another school or enrolled in
different semesters they never would have met, and both would have missed what
looks to be a lifelong friendship. Life certainly is all about timing and
location.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">That is what I told Mary’s father in my only
correspondence with him. When Jessica returned from her visit to Ukraine she
delivered a gift to me from him—a pewter glass holder. Before sending him a
thank-you letter I researched the significance of the image portrayed on it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It seems that in the 1600s, Poland was a powerful
nation controlling much of Eastern Europe. The people of Ukraine resented
living under what they considered to be a repressive regime, much the way a
century later we would resent being under England’s thumb.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">In 1648, under the leadership of Bogdan </span><span style="font-size: 21.3333px;">Khmelnitsky</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">,
Ukraine Cossacks successfully revolted and gained their independence from
Poland, just as we would one day do from England. His image is the one on the
glass holder. He was Ukraine’s George Washington before there even was a George
Washington.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Ukraine wanted what the American colonies would later
desire and they were willing to put everything on the line to gain their
independence. Like the American colonies, they were successful. But unlike the
American colonies, Ukraine was unable to sustain lasting independence, mostly
because of its location and 1650stiming.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">It was a different time and a different place. The
politics of the day demanded they align with a bigger, stronger nation or risk
falling back under Poland’s control. By the mid-1650s, Ukraine was under the
protectorate of Tsarist Russia. In the end, their fight for independence had
resulted in merely escaping the grasp of one European powerhouse only to fall
into the repressive realm of another. Their alliance with Russia would, in the
long run, prove more destructive than if they had remained with Poland.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">In the first few years after our victory over England,
we experienced many hardships of forming a new government, but our independence
was never threatened. Again, timing and location made the difference.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">As a nation, we had room to breathe. Our borders
weren’t at risk. Something else existed in 1776 America that did
not exist in 1648 Ukraine—fresh ideas.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">In the period between Ukraine’s revolt and the
American Revolution, something happened. Something that changed the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">John Locke was born in 1632 and in his lifetime, he
would propose doctrines that would change the world and the way people thought
about themselves. He, along with Rousseau, Voltaire and others would shape
politics and the approach to governing. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Before these men, revolutions were about replacing
repressive governments with similarly repressive ones. But the American Revolution
was about revolutionary ideas like life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness—ideas first put forward by John Locke. In 1648, Ukraine did not have these
forward-thinking ideas as a resource.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">That is what I wrote to Mary’s father when I thanked
him for his gift. At the time Ukraine, like many other former Soviet states, had
broken away from the Soviet Union and seemed to be making a move into
mainstream Europe. But as we watch the pictures coming out of Independence
Square in Kyiv, we realize the Ukrainian people are again at a crossroads and
faced with the same problems it had in 1648—whether it will align with Europe
and gain a greater degree of independence or return to being a Russian
satellite. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">This time it has the benefit of revolutionary ideas,
but it must also overcome 400 years of Russian influence. The struggle is also
being fought in an area of much unrest and turmoil and at a time when where
they wind up will have major repercussions for all the nations involved.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">No one knows where this current struggle will end, but
again, as always, the times and the location will play a major role.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">This was written in 2014 at the time of Ukraine’s last
struggle with Russia. Putin was Russia’s leader then and continues to be today,
so again, Ukrainians find themselves at war with a man willing to destroy them in
order to control them. Maybe now is the time and place to finally gain the independence
they’ve been fighting four centuries for.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And now is the time for </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Bogdan </span><span style="font-size: 21.3333px;">Khmelnitsky to be replaced by Volodymyr Zelenskyy</span><span style="font-size: 21.3333px;"> as </span><span style="font-size: 21.3333px;">Ukraine's </span><span style="font-size: 21.3333px;">latest hero in its fight for independence.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Phil Terranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172907721252330800noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958282241865239003.post-16822097328660964672022-02-10T11:16:00.000-05:002022-02-10T11:16:18.920-05:00Legitimate Political Discourse<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0in;"></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-size: 14pt; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjJlxamMxFZlz41BzQPrA5JbRBDbq_VyzJV13z8jiRFrkZy-kBrRXIhXJ-vudr6rcHNe_VuyNr4837XX49UD5msFtTjNy0-pbhp62f5Zxp_iL4bP_Uwumgde82A8VEesJtTQJG2Q0Gi8vHUvVccN-xfm5_ILicU3w4e59tspo9YuqsrZ3crAOF8hg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="967" data-original-width="1450" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjJlxamMxFZlz41BzQPrA5JbRBDbq_VyzJV13z8jiRFrkZy-kBrRXIhXJ-vudr6rcHNe_VuyNr4837XX49UD5msFtTjNy0-pbhp62f5Zxp_iL4bP_Uwumgde82A8VEesJtTQJG2Q0Gi8vHUvVccN-xfm5_ILicU3w4e59tspo9YuqsrZ3crAOF8hg=w505-h336" width="505" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stop shouting. I can barely hear myself think</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-size: large;">People died,
were injured, and/or were terrorized by all that “talking” that Republicans are now calling
legitimate political discourse. Yelling “fire” in a movie theater is still
wrong and not protected by the first amendment, but something that can get you
killed is legitimate political discourse.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;">Can we now
use the word deplorable to describe those who defecated on the floors and walls
of the Capitol? For those who don’t like reading about sh*t in their morning
newspaper, how would you feel about walking into your office tomorrow and
finding sh*t on your desk next to your nameplate?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;">How does
“Hang Mike Pence” even begin to equate with legitimate political discourse like
“I don’t think I can vote for that?” Don’t even try to write it off by
declaring “Democrats say nasty things, too.” Trump blew that defense out of the
water by declaring there were good and bad people on both sides in Charlottesville.
Nazis? White supremacists? Good people?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;">How does “We
have to fight like hell” not be a call for violence when the resulting action
becomes a violent, no-holds-barred, inflict-as-much-pain-as-possible
insurrection?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;">Republican
leaders continue to defend the big lie. They think the only good Americans are
Republicans in good standing. What should we expect from a party always demanding
loyalty oaths? <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 166.5pt;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;">Trump, who speaks for all Republicans—at least the good ones
(sorry Pence), call Democrats un-American traitors? No Republican said this was
wrong. Even “Some Democrats are un-American traitors, and some are not,” would
have been a step in the right direction.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;">Republicans
continue to defend the “big lie” because they are, and have been for some time,
big liars, tying themselves up in knots trying to explain their behavior. They stand by a man who says, “…if we don’t stand up and fight, we
will lose our country,” when this same man is literally destroying our country.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 166.5pt;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;">How deplorable must a Republican leader be to cower to this
immature coward? How deplorable must voters be to support these leaders? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 166.5pt;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ask someone who says, “I’d rather die than get vaccinated.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><br /><p></p>Phil Terranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172907721252330800noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958282241865239003.post-13567318033001521312021-09-22T20:33:00.002-04:002021-09-22T20:38:10.794-04:00Giving Ideas a Voice & Room to Grow<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">These are front and back covers of book I'm currently working on.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpdGHBU_7veC5i2nvOwKJgJJey2ip9HvmjMBdzk7EAciXRbU4jDZUWtEzd3eexi-EqYKgw6Hth8FEVLmqd5gZnJLZH9z5H_o0_Fbd1JCQAnC-WRtRWEtPJnj1Fuc1ebi1u2GbkR-eq/s2048/dads+book+-+Copy-1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1363" height="947" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpdGHBU_7veC5i2nvOwKJgJJey2ip9HvmjMBdzk7EAciXRbU4jDZUWtEzd3eexi-EqYKgw6Hth8FEVLmqd5gZnJLZH9z5H_o0_Fbd1JCQAnC-WRtRWEtPJnj1Fuc1ebi1u2GbkR-eq/w630-h947/dads+book+-+Copy-1.jpg" width="630" /></a></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNnb-0DLBoOD2xdftiysZW-3QPhggOrAS56MR_3moiNyMtL2oFCS_OrGvoK5b8mLfUq1GMlfRV6E7IDad1KdRfZ8RE_HdEUm0x3XGV0E8xcMzLochD6Yh2TXqVs9UMw2WnbF3gjsRl/s2048/dads+book+-+Copy-2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1348" height="956" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNnb-0DLBoOD2xdftiysZW-3QPhggOrAS56MR_3moiNyMtL2oFCS_OrGvoK5b8mLfUq1GMlfRV6E7IDad1KdRfZ8RE_HdEUm0x3XGV0E8xcMzLochD6Yh2TXqVs9UMw2WnbF3gjsRl/w631-h956/dads+book+-+Copy-2.jpg" width="631" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Phil Terranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172907721252330800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958282241865239003.post-11727378063258911772021-03-03T13:32:00.002-05:002021-03-03T13:34:56.274-05:00Now they are Deplorable<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;">As
a Democrat, I have to say I’m getting a little tired of the constant criticism
that Republican leaders are being subjected to, for simply being Republican leaders.
This goes for everyone from Trump to Cruz and McConnell, Rubio and Hawley, Ron
Johnson, the ever-ridiculous Louie Gohmert, and a whole lot more.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">True,
they are all hypocrites, clueless and idealess, which is a whole lot more
problematic than being an idealist. They stand for nothing other than
self-preservation in a dog-eat-dog world of politics, which is why it has
become easier than it’s ever been to make fun of them or box them into a corner
by throwing their own words back at them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Nevertheless,
ridiculing Republican leaders has become all too easy, because they are simply doing
the only thing they feel they must do to hang on to their jobs—appeal to
Republican voters by being loyal Republicans. They are wrong of course. They
could be leaders, but leadership is not what Republican voters look for in
their leaders. Trump won in 2016 because he said what Republican voters wanted
to hear, not what they needed to hear.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">For
this reason, while media fatigue has allowed me to let Republican leaders off the hook, and because
they deserve our pity more than our scorn, I am disgusted with Republican
voters. Not just because more of them seem to be white supremacist,
racists, bigots, religious fanatics, law-and-order enthusiast who don’t respect
the law, Constitutionalist who don’t respect the Constitution, and in many
cases, may not have ever read the Constitution, or just plain folks who simply
don’t care about anyone other than themselves. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">I’m
disgusted with them because they just don’t seem to be that smart.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">I’ve
listened to QAnon conspiracist rationalize why they supported and continue to
support Trump and it’s mind-boggling—not only for what they think they know,
but what they honestly don’t know, and make no mistake, QAnon conspiracist vote
Republican.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">So
do a lot of other crazies—Proud Boys, boogaloo boys, that old standby KKK,
those people who think masks aren’t necessary, or the ones who think guns are
not only necessary but vital to our survival.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Too many of these
not-so-smart Republicans think a debate on healthcare or wages or the economy
or politics can be won by throwing out the words Socialism, traitor, un-American,
fake news, Soros and lately Hunter.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">They
are so ill-informed, and willingly so, that Republicans were able to run in the
last election on a platform completely devoid of ideas or policies, other than,
we’ll do whatever Donald Trump wants us to do. This was the Republican platform
and 74 million Republican voters said, “Sounds good to me.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">When
Hillary Clinton declared Trump supporters were deplorable, and was rightfully
called on it, she immediately apologized and admitted that not all of the 60
million people who voted for Trump in 2016 were deplorable, only many of them.
Of course, she was talking about the white supremacists, bigots, racists,
fanatics, conspiracist and extremists, but not every Republican voter fell into
these categories.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Some
were just lifelong Republicans, probably born and raised in Republican
households, just as many Democrats are lifelong Democrats born and raised in
Democratic households.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Close
elections are generally not won or lost by these voters, but rather by those in
the middle who tend to lean one way or the other depending on the year, the
issues, or the candidates.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">For
any number of reasons, 60 million voters chose Trump in 2016, and while they
were not a majority, they were strategically well placed to secure an Electoral
College win for who turned out to be, the worst president ever.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Twenty-twenty
was a different ballgame entirely. Democrats picked up 17 million votes, which
wasn’t surprising considering Trump had spent four years bashing Democrats as
Socialists and un-American traitors.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">What
was surprising, was Trump picking up 14 million more votes after a presidency that should have only pleased James Buchanan, a presidency that included a public love-fest with a Korean
dictator and murderer, a tax law that benefitted millionaires and billionaires
and very few middle class Republicans, two impeachments and the groundwork for
numerous lawsuits once he left office. There was also a wall that Mexico never
paid for because it was never built, an immigration policy that separated
hundreds of children from their families, and a response to a world-wide
pandemic that was disastrous for the nation and fatal to 500,000 and counting
Americans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">The
events of January 6, 2021, as well as Trump’s behavior in the two months after
the election, only solidified for me that Trump is not qualified to be president,
and yet, he appears to have lost little support among his base. Seventy-four
million Americans voted for Trump in 2020, after a presidency that gave him a
leg up in the race for worst president ever. I shudder to think what those
voters saw in Trump’s presidency that made them want to go down that road
again. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">The
devotion of Republican politicians to Trump was evidenced recently by their
behavior at CPAC, where they publicly proclaimed what we all knew they were
doing privately—pledge their allegiance before a cartoonish golden Trump mannequin. I
don’t expect them to behave any differently than they do. I’d like to think
they answer to the Constitution, but I’m not naïve. They only answer to voters,
Trump voters. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Again,
maybe not all of those voters are deplorable. It’s possible that some might
just be foolish, but the fourteen million new Trump voters, if they had been
paying attention—and how could they not have been paying attention—surely they
are deplorable. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">No
one in their right mind could have witnessed the last four years, listened to
Trump speak, read about his missteps—no not missteps, but rather crimes since
even Republicans attest to his guilt—and not realize that he is a dictatorial
demigod, and totally unfit to be president. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">As
sensible, thinking Republican voters continue to jump ship, making the party less
sustainable than a Trump casino, Republican leaders are not the problem so much
as Trump voters, the deplorable ones are, and they are not just a problem for the
Republican Party, but for the nation. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: 0in;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Phil Terranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172907721252330800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958282241865239003.post-49721456968802398452021-02-11T20:13:00.009-05:002021-02-11T20:17:02.665-05:00...I will support and defend the Constitution...<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">I
am watching the Trump Impeachment hearings with interest. I watched the events
unveil on January 6, and concluded that day, because I had been
paying attention for the last four years, that</span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">President Trump was </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">obviously </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">responsible
for inciting the insurrection. He has spent his entire personal life courting conflict, and
devoted his one-year campaign and four-year presidency to provoking, condoning
and relishing in violence. Trump is not a difficult man to understand.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">At
the same time, the big question surrounding his impeachment seems to revolve
around what Republicans will do. Actually, this isn’t the big question. The big
question is why won’t Republicans do the right thing—and again, the answer
appears obvious.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">No
attempt has been made to hide this fact that Republicans are expected to vote
for acquittal because they fear political retaliation from Trump supporters, should
they do the right thing and stand up to Trump by condemning the January 6
insurrection. This apparently outweighs the fear the rest of us have of the
damage their dereliction to duty will do to our democracy should they give
Trump a pass. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">I
think House managers are doing an excellent job—an effort, we are told, which is
being missed by many Republican senators who are behaving childishly, as Trump has
often been accused himself, by refusing to pay attention.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Overall,
I think most senators are paying attention. As with Trump’s election in 2016,
setting a low bar is oftentimes what we do best in this country.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">One
thing does bother me about the hearings, and I don’t know if changes will be made
down the road. I hope so, but fearful they won’t.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Despite
the fact that most Republicans appear to have made up their minds to acquit,
House managers are proceeding as if they are dealing with impartial jurors, who
will ultimately do the right thing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">The
nation can count on fifty Democratic senators voting to convict, not because
they are biased, un-American traitors as the ex-president suggests, but because
they were at the Capitol on January 6, witnessed the violence, and don’t need
to be told what an insurrection looks like, or who provoked it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">This
impeachment is all about convincing 50 Republicans that what they saw really
happened, and that they must do the right thing so that it never happens again.
Republicans would have us believe that now is the time to come together and
respect President Biden’s call for unity, and question whether Congress can
work as a unified branch if Democrats insist on going forward with, not one,
but now the second impeachment of Donald Trump.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Democrats,
despite their desire to work with Republicans, know they are taking this
unprecedented action because Donald Trump has not once, but twice, committed
impeachable offences. Democrats are not the villains. Donald Trump is the
villain.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Neither
are Democrats the jurors everyone is questioning whether they will do their
duty. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">House
managers should stop addressing the Senate as a whole and start aiming their
case directly at the Republicans. This cannot be another, “there were good
people on both sides,” or “no harm, no foul.” When the argument is between
right and wrong, justice can only be on one side.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">There
was real harm done on January 6, physical harm and psychological harm, and our
democracy was threatened, and continues to be threatened.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Whether
this crime is punished rests not with the Senate, but with Republican senators,
and House managers need to stop ignoring the elephant—pun intended— in the room,
and forcefully and unequivocally address their case to the only people in the
room that matter.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">It
is not a question of, can <i>we</i> allow
the president’s actions to go unpunished, but can <i>you, Republican senators, </i>allow the president’s actions to go
unpunished.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">It
is not a question of, can <i>we</i> honor
the oath we took and stand up for democracy, but rather, can <i>you, Republican senators,</i> stand up and
protect democracy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">It
is not a question of, can <i>we</i> muster the
courage to stand up to Donald Trump and say no, no more, enough, but rather can
<i>you, Republican senators, </i>stand up,
finally, and say no, no more, enough.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">No
effort has been spared to point out that impeachment is not a trial. That is
not to say a trial isn’t taking place. Make no mistake; the Republican Party is
being put on trial—the trial of public opinion, which I would remind them is
where election are won and lost.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">There
can be no doubt how history will look upon this impeachment effort, and at the
behavior of Senate Republicans. History is full of accounts of heroic
individuals standing up for what they believed to be right, as well as cowards
who for political expediency did what they knew to be wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">The
senators should be aware of this, but for those that aren’t, House managers
should make the case, so that there can be no doubt, that this impeachment will
not be decided by the Senate. The decision to convict will be determined by
Republican senators, and history will hold them accountable, and the
accountability in question might very well be, who was responsible for the fall
of democracy in America.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span> </p>Phil Terranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172907721252330800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958282241865239003.post-50297066314289902182021-02-01T13:59:00.017-05:002021-03-03T15:36:41.768-05:00The Life, Times & Adventures of Hoag Franklin: Indian Scout, Buffalo Hunter, Lawman & Vaudeville Entertainer<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/grandi_designs/://www.grandi-designs.org/:https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibePWlPEcJOcwYjqd-DR5MzXBNQ3t7SgVU_hL0VL9HWxKTaGaN1sYzpPyyjEXxqea2EJwDo7n1Vm9iQ3wiUJT-aXVBrrP4nRMQkrhu2l5b8FNGBofckW8JQxQu9-70G_gcEsytdoZX/s2048/stagecoach+-+6+x+9.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: #783f04; color: #660000;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1430" data-original-width="2048" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibePWlPEcJOcwYjqd-DR5MzXBNQ3t7SgVU_hL0VL9HWxKTaGaN1sYzpPyyjEXxqea2EJwDo7n1Vm9iQ3wiUJT-aXVBrrP4nRMQkrhu2l5b8FNGBofckW8JQxQu9-70G_gcEsytdoZX/w410-h286/stagecoach+-+6+x+9.jpg" width="410" /></span></a></div><p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Like many of the people who settled the old west, Hoag lived a full and adventurous life, which would have gone unnoticed had an unpublished manuscript telling his story
not been discovered in an antique store.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Hoag crossed paths with many of the people, whose names we recognize—Calamity Jane,
Annie Oakley, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull and a host of lesser known individuals,
each of whom played vital roles in settling the west and creating the nation we
know today.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">He
fought alongside the legends of his time—Buffalo Bill, Kit Carson and Bat
Masterson. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Yet,
no one has ever heard of Hoag Franklin—until now.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">His
story begins when, as a young man still in his teens, he rides off on his first
buffalo hunt before joining a wagon train as a scout, and eventually heading
off to California in search of gold. For the next fifty years, he did almost
everything a man could do as the nation expanded from the Mississippi to the
Pacific Ocean. He even did things few men ever do.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">These
are his adventures, in his own words, written in the seaside town of San Pedro,
California at the turn of the last century, a town he visited regularly during
his Salt Lake City to Los Angeles stage coach run.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><blockquote><i>My latest novel, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Life-Times-Adventures-Hoag-Franklin/dp/B08M8Y5NXR/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=The+life+times+and+adventures+of+Hoag+Franklin&qid=1612809919&sr=8-1">The Life, Times & Adventures of Hoag Franklin: Indian Scout, Buffalo Hunter, Lawman & Vaudeville Entertainer</a>, with illustrations by Danielle Grandi. </i></blockquote><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p>Phil Terranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172907721252330800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958282241865239003.post-78364863522805114182021-02-01T12:12:00.001-05:002021-02-01T14:12:39.784-05:00ThemVersUs<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Historically,
the roles of the Republican and Democratic parties seem to hinge on blaming the
other party<b> </b>for everything that goes
wrong and taking credit for everything that goes right—and staying as far away
as possible from working together to find real solutions to real problems.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">This
is harsh, but justified criticism for two groups that somehow manage to bilk
American citizens out of millions, billions, and soon to be trillions of
dollars every election cycle. For what? Balloons, yard signs and annoying and
harmful 30-second divisive, fear-mongering ads.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">The
one thing both parties can ever seem to agree on is American Exceptionalism, not
because they have done exceptional things, but rather because they believe the
American people have done exceptional things, and the parties aren’t above
taking credit for what the people have done.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"></p><div class="separator" dir="rtl" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOEovx8GxhDYL0ujyHx8ASkVjrQEGNRnMBwTcafJyobh0mvXcu8aB8Xjl0zIyCRoNfoevI4KDMGoZgOmD0KBvEEt_cS_9M2cSpQSQx4XbT6FUMXvXwgiLb7AFiKRxyKXztsJIuiKDB/s1024/washington-as-statesman-large-new.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="701" data-original-width="1024" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOEovx8GxhDYL0ujyHx8ASkVjrQEGNRnMBwTcafJyobh0mvXcu8aB8Xjl0zIyCRoNfoevI4KDMGoZgOmD0KBvEEt_cS_9M2cSpQSQx4XbT6FUMXvXwgiLb7AFiKRxyKXztsJIuiKDB/w272-h200/washington-as-statesman-large-new.jpg" width="272" /></a></div><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">In
reality, the only exceptional thing we have done was when 56 men assembled in
Philadelphia in 1787 to create a government, which had probably been imagined
but never before seen. Everything after that—the Civil War, the land grabs,
racism, labor struggles, self-interest infighting and deceit has been more or
less standard fare.<o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpLast"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">As
human beings, Americans haven’t behaved much differently than the ancient
Persians or Egyptians, the feudal societies of the Middle Ages, the Conquistadors
of imperial Spain, or the European opportunists who divided Africa up in the
late 19<sup>th</sup> century. A basic flaw in humanity has defined our behavior
from the earliest days of the Stone Age right through to the Space Age we now live
in. Again, instances of exceptionalism such as what occurred in Philadelphia in
1887 have been rare.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoTitle" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">This flaw in the human condition, which
keeps both individuals and, by extension nations, not only in constant
conflict, but prevents them from being truly exceptional, is the <i>Us/Them </i>factor, which after watching a
lot of TV and being subjected to too many pharmaceutical ads, I’ve reduced to one word,</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><i><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">ThemVersUs
</span></i><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">because
it is so basic to understanding humanity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">We
(us) have always been suspicious, fearful, or threatened by them—anyone who
isn’t us. This isn’t an American problem. Just as we are not exceptional,
neither are we the only culprits in the world. Neither is <i>ThemVersUs</i> a political problem, which government can fix—no matter
how many balloons and yard signs political parties buy, to convince us they are
the solution.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">The
<i>ThemVersUs</i> problem, as basic as it
is, manifests itself in many different ways, both between nations and within
nations. Obvious in this country is racism, but it also surfaces in class
struggle, labor relations, economics, health care, housing, education, and
anything else where there are two positions creating <i>us</i> versus <i>them</i> situations—even
mask wearing during a pandemic. Rural communities and large cities distrust
each other, as do sparsely populated states and heavily populated states, and
people owning guns thinking people without guns are going to take their guns
away—by, I dunno, twisting their arms. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Taken
to the extreme, Middle America fears the inhabitants of the two coasts are
conspiring against them and vice-versa. Our forefathers couldn’t have foreseen
this because Middle America back then were the coastal states of Maryland,
Virginia and the Carolinas.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">There’s
an old Woody Guthrie<i> </i>where he takes
on one job after another in order to convince his girlfriend what a hard worker
he is, to the point where he just about wears himself out. If we truly want to
lay claim to being exceptional, we don’t have to do a whole lot of things, but each
individual acting in concert with other individuals will <i>actually </i>have to do something exceptional—something that
historically has rarely been done. Namely, deal with the <i>ThemVersUs</i> by learning to get along with <i>them, </i>which<i> </i>ironically,
will actually entail less effort than attacking <i>them,</i> and be easier on everyone in the long run.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTa2qJmq0__uRZFNJMeKX0LFDvQn69mtuWPuCfLcBz2e_75rHykDanWX3CPuf4QVSuyCaqF3hfX_B_aCp6RTk5Qh76VJL7oRrQ6D02vgbTZ8CPDaoFEYGO0ymMaIwG8KXpTzT30GKb/s1280/assult+on+Congress.webp" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTa2qJmq0__uRZFNJMeKX0LFDvQn69mtuWPuCfLcBz2e_75rHykDanWX3CPuf4QVSuyCaqF3hfX_B_aCp6RTk5Qh76VJL7oRrQ6D02vgbTZ8CPDaoFEYGO0ymMaIwG8KXpTzT30GKb/w327-h215/assult+on+Congress.webp" width="327" /></a></div><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">As
I’ve said, this is not a political issue so much as a humanity issue, but the
divisions created do prevent the exceptional government designed by our
forefathers from working, and even threatens to bring about its collapse as in
1861, and again more recently on January 6 when us/them went after them/us.<o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">If
Americans truly want to lay claim to the title of exceptionalism, we will have
to do something truly extraordinary, learn to live with and not fear <i>them</i> who surround us, or we will suffer
the same fate that has plagued every other society and cursed humanity from its
earliest days—a never ending struggle that has no winners. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpLast"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">It
won’t be easy. Being exceptional has never been easy, certainly not as easy as
being predictable, which requires no special talent or effort. It wasn’t easy
for those 56 men in Philadelphia, but despite their differences, they
understood that ordinary people can do exceptional things, once they stop doing
the senseless things they think they’re expected to do.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The
conflict between </span><i style="font-size: 14pt;">us</i><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> and </span><i style="font-size: 14pt;">them</i><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> cannot be won in the courtrooms, or
in Congress, or on the battlefield where the war has been waging continuously ever
since Cain first determined Abel represented a threat and needed to be killed.
It can only be won when we stop fearing them, and learn to live with them—or
even better, when we learn that there is no us and them, but only us.</span> </p>Phil Terranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172907721252330800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958282241865239003.post-33559464850108790662020-12-10T13:11:00.003-05:002020-12-10T13:14:25.953-05:00How to Win a Propaganda War<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">We
are in the midst of a propaganda war in this country where misinformation
abounds and credibility is being put to the test. We are all combatants in this
war and our brains are both the weapons we fight with and the targets we must
defend from attack.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Common sense,
back when it existed in meaningful quantities, gave us the simple axiom,
“Garbage in, garbage out.” This suggests that good things in, will result in
good outcomes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Superior
education, research and technique result in superior products. Putting a man on
the moon began with an inspiring goal that was followed by gathering accurate
data, understanding it, analyzing it and building on it. Many would call this
the American way.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Conspiracy
theories are called conspiracy theories because they are based on—well they are
not based on anything. They are baseless. In the past, conspiracy theories
existed only in the world of cranks. Intelligent people looked down on both the
theories and the cranks, but fortunately, there were no enough of either to
threaten the rest of us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Today,
we are living at a time where more and more people, especially people in
powerful positions—men and women in the Senate and Congress, governors, state
and local leaders are looking at nonsense and concluding that if it works for
them, it’s okay. The biggest piece of nonsense being floated is that the recent
election was corrupted by election officials, fixed to favor Democrats, and must be overturned. Mind you, they don’t
necessarily believe the nonsense. In many cases, they don’t. They are simply
evaluating nonsense in terms of how it works for them. They are even willing to
look like cranks themselves, if there is something to be gained for them
personally.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">These
leaders are playing into the hands of people who would like to see our
government fall because if government falls, democracy falls. Thus far, too
many Republicans have refused to stand up to these conspiracist. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Our
country has always been able to deal with a small minority of cranks who were
out of touch with reality. It cannot deal with a sizable number of leaders
unwilling to stand up to them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Republicans
don’t have to do much. They have to simply admit, publicly and en masse that
the last election was fair, that Trump lost, and that trying to overturn a free
election is the most un-American thing any individual, especially a president
can do.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">They
have to use their brains to fight, not surrender their brains to
fear—especially the fear that Trump will somehow punish them for doing the
right thing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Again,
our brains are the only weapon we have against ridiculous propaganda, and they
are the only things we must protect when they are being attacked. Propaganda is the enemy of democracy.
Accepting and promoting propaganda is no different than working with the enemy
in a hot or cold war. It is treasonous.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Phil Terranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172907721252330800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958282241865239003.post-59871083337967145252020-09-18T20:18:00.003-04:002020-09-18T20:18:38.957-04:00Herd Immunity, Herd Mentality, Whatever<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdAFXUoezCo5mPhOMD2msw687C2kOtTz8g-8VxXF8DU_av1qKc42rGTVx1z28-ZkkJEC8qJd8S19lLAl5EaljxKAgmuyq6JbOcxh25uCA22HAVeeogr4-GUfunoqPUwWc0zjKm9vmw/" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1056" data-original-width="1600" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdAFXUoezCo5mPhOMD2msw687C2kOtTz8g-8VxXF8DU_av1qKc42rGTVx1z28-ZkkJEC8qJd8S19lLAl5EaljxKAgmuyq6JbOcxh25uCA22HAVeeogr4-GUfunoqPUwWc0zjKm9vmw/w320-h211/image.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Leader of the Herd<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> Trump
has been all over the herd immunity issue, for it, against it, understanding
it, not understanding it. He has behaved almost like a herd of buffalo on the
open range—all over the place.</span><p class="MsoNormalCxSpLast"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Herd
immunity in the face of a pandemic is a good thing in the same sense that
winning a war is a good thing. It is not so much a time of joy as it is a
moment of relief. A long nightmare—and that is what all wars are, even ones we
win—is over. It is the point a nation arrives at only after a period of
suffering, destruction and unnecessary loss of life.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpLast"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">There have been leaders in the past who were victorious because </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">they were willing to sacrifice wave after wave of their own citizens against the enemy. Good leaders seek victories that come with minimal casualties. Winning at all costs is not a goal, only a last resort. Reaching herd immunity is gaining victory through attrition because all else has failed.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Yes,
herd immunity in a pandemic is a good thing when a nation arrives at that
point, but it comes at a high price. It’s a victory not attained through smarter,
less destructive means, but rather by senseless inaction. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Trump
has been promising since day one that the coronavirus will go away—first in a
few days, then by Easter, and most recently when we reach a state of herd
immunity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Actually,
what he said was, "And you'll develop, you'll develop herd—like a herd
mentality. It's going to be—it's going to be herd developed—and that's going to
happen. That will all happen," Trump said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I
can’t imagine what Trump would say if Biden explained herd immunity this way.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Maybe
it will happen, but there are things we can do, more pro-active measures that
make more sense than waiting around for herd immunity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Wearing
a mask and social distancing might push the moment of herd immunity further
into the future, but it would save lives until a possible vaccine provided a
victimless herd immunity. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
my book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Trump-Dismantles-Washington-little-friends/dp/1725801744/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1600471717&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Trump Dismantles Washington</a>,</i>
there is a chapter where I describe Trump as the laziest man in America. His
need for slogans, nicknames, easy solutions to complicated problems point to Trump,
at his core, being a very simple man too lazy to rise to any occasion. For him,
an insult is always preferable to an idea. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Waiting
around for herd immunity, while at the same time ridiculing mask wearing and
social distancing is probably the laziest thing a leader can do. It takes no
courage, no strategy, and no particular skill. Someone who, when talking about
the pandemic says, “It is what it is,” will also conclude herd immunity is our
only way out. He’ll wave his hands around, as if he were holding a wand and
say, “It will go away like magic.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">What
do we say to a man so lazy, so ignorant, so out of touch?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">We
could say, “You’re fired.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">We
tried that a month before coronavirus landed on our shores. In fact, we were
told at the time that if we didn’t get rid of him, things would only get worse.
That was way back in the good old days of January.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">We
couldn’t fire him then because the Republican Party was suffering from herd
mentality and Trump was leading the herd. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Wear
a mask, social distance, be safe. Don’t wait for 250-million Americans to
become infected to take a victory lap.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Phil Terranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172907721252330800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958282241865239003.post-51454791853152265892020-08-01T11:58:00.000-04:002020-08-01T11:58:25.695-04:00Democracy is about building<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: 14pt; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Trump-Dismantles-Washington-little-friends/dp/1725801744" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="464" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUpdsTBTYsTJvmqdpN1SbuaSvVZekDIXL1cqdScbH208JE5WN8jMOaL8WQEH9WtiQ3F0B7izy2azmfxkggWQt0grwSVRYQvvoqYu2p-_FbMtUdNoShsleBux7U614bHo9_irUIXxnb/s0/Trump_Dismantles_Was_Cover+copy-small.jpg" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">No
one believes for a minute that Trump understands how Constitutional Democracy
works. This is evident in his questioning of elections and his obvious suggestions
that he might not vacate the office should he lose the election, or worse that
he might not allow the election to take place.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p></p></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
constant hope is that if push comes to shove, Republicans will push back. Unfortunately,
Republicans have been silent in the wake of so many Trump atrocities that one
has to question their own understanding of Constitutional Democracy, including
the role of Congress.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I’ve
been reading John Bolton’s book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Room
Where It Happened. </i>My takeaway so far has been there was enough ego in that
room to embarrass and de-feather the most self-respecting peacock.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Just
as the peaceful succession of the presidency is key to our democracy, so too is
the idea that one administration builds on the work of the previous one, and in
the process, the country will move forward—always toward a more perfect union.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Making
things better is what good governments do.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A
perfect example of this, coming in a crisis no less, was the efforts of Bush, Obama
and McCain, along with Republicans and Democrats in the closing days of the
2008 election when the country was falling into a recession. That may have been
the last time our nation worked as one.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">On
the night that Obama won that election, Republicans in Congress essentially
declared, “We’re out of here. Anything you do, you’ll have to do without us. Furthermore,
we’re going to make doing anything as difficult as possible.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">So
Obama moved ahead on his own—not because he was a dictator as Republicans
claimed, but because they had relinquished their responsibility to do anything
except obstruct. They claimed he was an illegitimate president, not quietly in
back rooms but as loudly as they could, not because the election was rigged,
but because they didn’t think he was a naturalized citizen.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">First
was the Affordable Health Care Act, which made health care available to
millions of Americans.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Then
came the Paris Accords, which enabled the world to speak with one voice against
a global problem of climate change that will spare no one.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This
was followed by the nuclear pact with Iran, signed by every industrial country
in the world, but never approved by the Republican Congress.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">DACA
was an attempt to ease the pain of millions of young immigrants, who everyone
agreed, at least publicly, deserved a break because they had done no wrong. Again
Republicans passed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">President
Obama was continually forced to go it alone, and then roundly condemned for
going it alone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpLast"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
thing is, none of these actions resulted in perfect fixes. They were initial
steps toward solving big problems. As our forefathers noted, we only strive for
perfection, nothing more, and nothing less.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoBodyTextIndent"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Republicans
however, who tend to treat the founding fathers as if they founded the Republican
Party, see things differently. More and more, they seem to strive for something
less.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Trump,
with the support of Republicans has killed one Obama initiative after another
rather than try to build on them. Treaties, regulations, programs, even his
strategy for dealing with a pandemic have been abandoned.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
only time they even pretended to make something better was their “repeal and
replace” approach to Obamacare, which failed miserably because Republicans at
their core, and Trump despite his boorish bragging, are not builders.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Democracy
is dependent on builders if it is to succeed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Anarchy—something
Trump seems obsessed with—centers on destruction.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">If
there is one thing we can expect from anarchists, it’s that they will deny they
are anarchist.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Four
years of Trump and the last ten years of Republican control have demonstrated a
complete lack of understanding of what America stands for.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">To
think Republicans will protect us from a destructive Trump is foolish thinking.
We have repeatedly seen that they are not up to the task. Why would they be? He
is only walking along the path of destruction they have laid out.<o:p></o:p></span></p><br />Phil Terranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172907721252330800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958282241865239003.post-13073031351207730482020-07-10T22:50:00.000-04:002020-07-10T23:01:25.845-04:00Ghost Generals—Still traitors, still losing<br />
<div class="MsoTitle">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">The young
man didn’t appear to be the least bit shy speaking to the journalist.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“Yes, you
can call me a white-supremacist. I don’t owe no man an apology for what I
believe. These statues not only honor the leaders. They remind us of the cause
they fought for. They represent the very soul of what we as a nation sought out
to become, and what we were prepared to do to see that dream realized. Those
men are who I am, we are, who we were, and who we will again be someday. That’s
my heritage people want to tear down.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">***<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“What do you
think, Stoney?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“I think
that’s the biggest load of rubbish I’ve ever heard, A.P.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“Were we as bullheaded
as this young fellow?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“Course we
were, but we were soldiers doing what soldiers do. This man don’t speak for me.
Nor you, I ’spect.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“I guess, if
I were pressed, I’d have to admit that those of us that did the fighting were
the soul of the south like that fella said, but that south don’t exist anymore.
That war was fought, fought hard, but it was lost. You...me...we all moved on,
but I don’t know what this fellow is trying to accomplish. Seems to me, he
might not know himself what it is.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“These
statues were a bad idea when they went up and they’re an even worse idea now...and
you know how much I believed in what we were fighting for, but sometimes, a
soldier has to lay down his gun and move on. We did our part, and when the time
came, we laid down our guns, but these statues won’t let us move on.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“I believe
you might have a point, Stoney.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">“I know I have a point. Look around you. We don't have nothing to do with this new south.The new south has moved on, but we're stuck back in the old south like rotten meat that should have been thrown away, not years ago, but decades ago. Yet, we haven't aged a day...riding the same dang horses, brandishing the same dang swords. I don't know about you, but oxidized green is not my color."</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">“I reckon,
if we were to get right down to the crux of the matter, statue or no statue,
we’re no more a part of the today’s south than the iron in those statues are
part of the iron ranges they came from. The ranges are dead. We’re dead. The
south that that fellow is braggin’ up is dead.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">“I, for one,
am tired being tied to this hunk of transformed iron ore.”</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“So what do
you think we can do about it?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“I’ll tell
you what I’d like to do about it. I’d like to get away from here. I’m tired of
people spitten’ on me and those horseless carriages spewing those God-awful
fumes around that would suck the life right out of me if I wasn’t already
lifeless. I never even knew you could paint something without a paint brush and
I sure don’t like what they’re painting on me.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“So where do
you think we should go? Who’d have us?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“Well, I don’t
care where they stick these statues. As for where we go, I’ll tell you where I
think we should go. I want to be back with my men.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“In the cemeteries?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“Hell, yes,
in the cemeteries. The ghosts of our men have been languishing around for
decades looking down on barely readable gravestones in remote, long-forgotten
battlefields while we sit here in the middle of Monument Avenue in all our grandeur.
They’re where they are because of us, and we’re where we are because of them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“We sent
them to their deaths fighting for a lost cause, and we’ve gotten all the glory.
I think it’s high time we get back to our men.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“Well, I
reckon there’s enough cemeteries to choose from. Any idea where you’d like to
go?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“I think I’d
like to visit the boys over in Spotsylvania. They gave me everything a general
could ask for. Maybe it’s time I drop in on them. How about you?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“I might
head down to University Cemetery in Charlottesville. You know, I was born just
up the road in Culpeper...mighty pretty country. I should have gone back there
years ago.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“Better late
than never. See yeah, A.P.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“Take care, Stoney.
It was an honor serving with you.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />Phil Terranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172907721252330800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958282241865239003.post-53602590970021256612020-06-28T14:34:00.000-04:002020-06-29T12:23:02.749-04:00Fighting for an unjust cause just doesn’t cut it. Neither does ignoring the fight for a just cause<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">The nation is living through a debate on
whether or not to remove statues and names from schools honoring Confederate
generals. Did I say debate? I meant to say, free-for-all.</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Blacks, and many whites, say they are
offensive. Other whites say they are a part of our heritage, and that to remove
them is to deny that heritage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">On August 17, 2017</span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">,</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> the president said</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> "You can't change history, but you can learn from it."</span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">This past Wednesday, June 24, he scolded
states for allowing "roving gangs of wise guys, anarchists &
looters" to remove statues, saying "all represent our History &
Heritage, both the good and the bad," proving he was wrong in 2017. He
hasn’t learned a damn thing about history or our heritage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">History is both good and bad. There is
no denying that. In general, though, we build monuments to highlight the good
aspects of history. The bad aspects should not be forgotten, but they shouldn’t
be exalted.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">In a 1964 decision, Supreme Court Justice
Potter Stewart famously refrained from defining pornography, but suggested,
“He’d know it if he saw it.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Offensive seems to have fallen into the
same category in that it means all things to all different people. Some can’t
define pornography, but most people agree that it is bad. </span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Defining offensive
doesn’t appear to carry the same stigma or sense of urgency, although it
should. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Not everything that’s offensive to
someone is necessarily offensive to someone else. That said, no one is
suggesting we put it up to a vote. What’s needed are guidelines, universal
guidelines that don’t change as political norms change.</span></div>
<a name='more'></a><o:p></o:p><br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Erecting a statues or naming a school or
public building after people should bring recognition and honor to them for
their accomplishments—things they did to advance mankind on its constant journey
to be better today than we were yesterday. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">It should not be surprising that these
accomplishments can be made by flawed individuals. No rule exists declaring
imperfect people can’t do great things. I think we can agree that the perfect
man or woman does not exist. Anything that has been accomplished, good or bad,
great or abominable, has been done by imperfect people doing the best they can,
or the worst they can.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Likewise, being born at a certain time
and living in a certain era should not be held against a person. Neither should
anyone become too comfortable in thinking they live in enlightened times.
History, observed in retrospect, which is the only way we can look at it, has a
way of always bringing mankind back to reality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">With these guidelines, let’s look at the
current problem.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Being a slave owner in a nation and at a
time when slavery was condoned shouldn’t garner one condemnation. Neither
should those individuals be honored with a statue. For the most part, what
history does with those people is what we should all do with them—forget them.
As individuals, they are easily forgettable people. That doesn’t mean we should
cast a blind eye to slavery.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">On a side note, Christopher Columbus,
who discovered a new continent, actually a new hemisphere shouldn’t be held in
disgrace simply because those who came after him were racists or bigots or
imperialists. He was a sailor doing what sailors do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">To repeat, no one should be punished for
the sins of their father, but neither should our fathers be punished by their
children who happen to be living in a more enlightened world. Mankind is
supposed to be moving forward, and for the most part, we do, but it has never
been a straight line.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Now that we know what we should not do,
what we should do is rather simple. We should honor people for their
accomplishments—no more, no less.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">We honor our forefathers, many of them
slave owners, some of them hypocrites, some of them philanderers, some of them
cheaters not for who they were, but for what they did that set them apart from
everyone else, creating a democratic government based on ideals, which existed
nowhere else in the world at that time. They changed the course of history for the
better. They weren’t perfect and what they accomplished, in their own words
wasn’t perfect. However, their goal to be more perfect advanced mankind and for
that, they deserve our respect.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">That still leaves us with the problem of
those Confederate generals and those damn statues that those "roving gangs
of wise guys, anarchists & looters" want removed. There is no question
that they are a part of history. They are our heritage, whether we like it or
not—and it does seem like some people like it more than others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">However, the history they are a part of was
of no small consequence. In the direst days of our democracy, when the question
of whether or not our nation would survive, they choose insurrection. They
didn’t do so because they had something better to offer, as our revolutionist
forefathers did. They did so to protect slavery, even as much of the rest of
the civilized world was finally turning away from it. Owning other human beings
to do their work so that plantation owners might live privileged lives was so
important to the Confederacy that they were willing to destroy the greatest
democracy in the world at that time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Some of the generals were slave owners,
themselves. Some of them simply believed in the cause. Some of them, like the
sailor Columbus, were just doing what men in their profession did—fight in a
war; but they lost not a great war, but a tragic war. They did not accomplish
great things. In fact, they accomplished nothing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Americans died because Confederate
leaders and generals made bad choices. They were traitors. Traitors shouldn’t
be honored for losing—and they weren’t. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Most of those statues were erected at
the height of the <a href="https://postalservicenovel.blogspot.com/2020/06/not-being-racist-is-not-enough.html" target="_blank">Jim Crow era</a>, not to honor losing generals for fighting in a
good cause, but to deny history—to keep alive the hopes of not only a bad, but
a lost cause. Their purpose was not to honor accomplishments, but rather to
instill fear and maintain dominance over people, who decades after receiving
their freedom were still living in a repressive environment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">It should be obvious to everyone, even
those who are not military enthusiasts or history buffs that military bases
should not be named for losing generals. That’s like bragging about the “F” you
got in algebra or the job you were fired from for being incompetent. Those
things are best kept on the down-low, not put on a pedestal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Generals should be honored for the good
wars they fought in—the war for independence, the war to save not destroy the
union, the war to save democracy. Generals can even be honored for the wars
they lost if the cause they were fighting for was just. Fighting for secession
in order to keep slavery was not a just cause.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Some of these generals may have been
good men, but fighting on the losing side of the Civil War were not small character
flaws, but rather major mistakes for which they shouldn’t be honor. That we
have chosen to honor them only compounds their mistake and must be corrected. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">The sin of slavery committed in America
from 1619 to 1865 was a sin being committed by all humanity, not only southern
slave owners. The sin of Jim Crow oppression committed by racists from 1865 to
the present day is a sin that stains all Americans because we haven’t done
enough to eradicate it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">We might not all be racist, but all of
us have work to do to erase the stain of racism. The first step is realizing
this is not a white/black problem. Bigotry towards all minorities is an American
problem that must be addressed, or it will do what Confederate generals were
not able to do—destroy the American dream. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Taking down the statues and removing the
names of losing generals is a start.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Making light of serious problems by using
stupid references and assumptions like Kung Flu, Wuhan Flu, Pocahontas, empty
barrels, all Mexicans are rapist is a start. Yes, I am speaking to the
president, first and foremost, but also those who take their directions from
him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Condemning white supremacy in all its
forms is a start.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Calling out police who single out
individuals—in matters large and small—is a start.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Making capitalism work not just for the
investor but also for the workers, the lowest paid of which are often
minorities. Many working for nothing so a few can have everything is simply bad
business. Stopping this travesty will be a start.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">If we are to believe that life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness are inalienable rights, and not just a catchy
phrase, then we must accept that universal health care is also a right. Making
it available will be a good start.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Finally, acknowledging that “America is
a melting pot” is also more than a meaningless phrase—that it is a reality, and
we should stop making life unbearable, not only for immigrants but everyone
that happens to be different from us. That would be a start.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Tom Joad famously said in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Grapes of Wrath</i> that wherever there was
a group fighting for justice, he would be there. Maybe it is time for our
nation, as a whole, to align itself with each individual being repressed and
declare that that person is us, the United States of America, and deserves
everything that we expect for ourselves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpLast" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<br />Phil Terranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172907721252330800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958282241865239003.post-39520346549365610352020-06-20T14:13:00.000-04:002020-06-20T14:13:05.443-04:00It takes two to tango<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Race
relations in America is never going to be a graceful waltz, but it doesn’t have
to be a drunken conga line breaking apart everywhere with people falling all
over each other.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Maybe
a structured carefully orchestrated dance, like a tango, might be the best we
can hope for. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">As
we all know, it takes two to tango.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
a race relations tango, the two participants are the long arm of the
law—government propositioning for a dance, and the willingness of white people
to accept. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">How
our nation has dealt with the issue of race is a 200-year awkward dance that
generally has left everyone unhappy for good reason. The two participants, government
and white people often appear to be tone-deaf, dancing with two left feet, and
with no sense of timing, almost as if they were listening to different music. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
the years immediately preceding the Civil War, white people were split on the
issue of slavery; the south was for it, the north was against it, and neither
side was particularly in favor of recognizing the civil rights of Negroes.
Government was neutral at best, and disinterested at worst, so for thirty years
the nation staggered along allowing a very real problem to fester.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">People
were still split by 1861, but the government finally took a stand. Actually,
two governments took two different stands. The four-year Civil War between the
Union and the Confederacy decided the issue of slavery once and for all. At its
conclusion, however, the people were still as divided as ever. There was
dancing in northern streets, but as a nation, people were still hunkered down
along their respective walls looking at an empty, uninviting dance floor. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A
lot of legislative noise was heard after the war during Reconstruction, but
none of it was music to the ears of southerners. Legislation regarding race in
the north was non-existent. The only dancing taking place anywhere were Indian
war dances, which seemed to take everyone’s minds off the still empty dance
floor. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Reconstruction
slipped into Jim Crow as easily as bad bitter apples rot when left untouched. The
south, tired of the iron fist of the north telling them what to do, fell into
old bad habits as individuals and small mobs operating more like packs of
wolves began dancing to the beat of their own drummers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpLast">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpLast">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Race
relations took a back seat during the Jim Crow era as everyone’s attention
shifted to wars and economic strife. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpLast">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpLast">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Congress simply tired of passing legislation as government pulled the covers over its ears so as not to hear the music. If white people were dancing at all, it was around the race issue. Everyone had retreated to their own corners. Segregation was the tune being heard in every city, north and south. Finally, the noise got too loud to ignore.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpLast">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">For
the first half of the 20<sup>th</sup> century, government did it best, see no
evil, hear no evil routine, until suddenly the Brown vs. Board of Education
Supreme Court ruling in 1954 caught everyone’s attention. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It
caught their attention, but didn’t garner much support. For the most part, white
people were still not ready to dance. A few hit the dance floor, but they were
uncomfortable and looked out of place. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpLast">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpLast">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">By
the sixties, black people were screaming to get on the dance floor. Government
heard their cries and again passed legislation designed to bring everyone
together, but white people were still not ready. They might have been tapping
their toes and snapping their fingers, but they still weren’t receptive to the
government telling them they had to dance. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpLast">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpLast">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">For the last fifty years, another problem has arisen. Government was also becoming divided. Federal laws were pushing in one direction, red-state and local legislation in another, while the strong arm of police were taking matters into their own hands. No one was dancing in the streets, but everyone was taking to the streets.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpLast">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
question on everyone’s lips was, could black and white people and legislators
and police ever meet each other on the dance floor, recognize a common tune,
and do anything that didn’t look like a drunken conga line?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
question is still unanswered, but people are slowly pulling themselves away
from the wall, inching toward to the dance floor. They are still unsure, afraid
of how they will look, hesitant to be the only ones out there, but something is
happening.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">People—white,
black and brown people—appear to be coming together, at least on the single
issue of heavy-handed police violence toward blacks. Governments—federal, state
and local—seem to have heard their cries, which to be honest had to be shouted
at them, but at least they’re listening.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
wild cards are police unions, which in the past have always circled the wagons
in defense of obviously bad cops, and the increasingly small number of whites who
are not going to dance no how, nowhere, no way. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Our Constitution decreed over 200 years ago that all men are
created equal with certain inalienable rights. For the first time in our
history millions of white and black people, marching together, seem to finally be
in step with the government, admitting that as a nation we have not been true
to that promise. These voices in the streets are drowning out the now small
minority of people who continue to reject that promise that all men of all races have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Too
many people are dancing in the streets, and no one appears ready to go home. We
just may have found a dance we can all do together. It doesn’t even have to be
a tango. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<br />Phil Terranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172907721252330800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958282241865239003.post-69413538124344563422020-06-11T19:45:00.000-04:002020-06-11T19:48:39.891-04:00The Difference between "Sorry!" and "I'm sorry."<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">
<span style="font-size: large;">There are a million and one ways to say something stupid, or do something stupid. That’s what free will get you.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">There is really only one way to apologize for saying or doing something stupid.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Before I get to that, I want to look at why apologizing seems to be so difficult.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Little children have trouble apologizing because they are embarrassed at being called out. Kids don’t like to stand out in a crowd or be singled out in even a small setting. They hate apologizing, which is why a curt “Sorry!” is sometimes the best they can do.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Adults never like admitting they were wrong. They know they can’t get away with a childish “Sorry!” So they equivoc-ate and hesit-ate and fluctu-ate—anything to keep from eating crow. Any excuse they can come up with is better than admitting guilt.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Politicians are in a class by themselves. They’re obviously adults, so they got that going against them, but their success depends on them having all the answers, always doing the right thing, and most importantly, always looking good. Politicians are convinced that admitting a mistake is worse than making a mistake and is always a bad look. They might be adults, but they are acting like children.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Our president has never apologized for anything in his life. He doesn’t see the need to because he has never done anything wrong. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">For a man who has never been wrong, he apparently surrounds himself with people that can do nothing right. He is forever calling out those around him for the sins he commits.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">He can be excused because he is nothing more than a child in a seventy-four year old body. He is actually worse than a child because he can’t even say “Sorry!” and walk away.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">So, we have a president who believes he is always right and enabling politicians unable to call him out when he’s wrong. No one apologizes for anything.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">If only, someone could show them the way.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Fortunately, now there is.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Recently General Mark A. Milley did something very unbecoming of the highest ranking military man in the country. He allowed himself to be used by the president for an obviously political photo-op. Making matters worse, the senseless show he participated in resulted in peaceful protesters being physically abused, a Bible being desecrated, and a church being high-jacked for political gains. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Everything about it was wrong and everyone told him so.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">He could have made excuses: The president is my commander. I was only obeying an order. It didn’t seem wrong at the time. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">He could have feigned ignorance at the damage he did: If I offended anyone, I’m sorry. It was a confusing time, and I must have gotten caught up in the confusion. I thought we were simply going to inspect the troops.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">General Milley didn’t say any of these things. That’s because you don’t become Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by acting like a child, or making excuses, or worrying about your image, or behaving like our president. You get there by knowing right from wrong and not being afraid to admit when you’ve done something wrong. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Everyone makes mistakes. Even generals. Even presidents. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Especially this president.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">This is how General Milley apologized.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">“I should not have been there. My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics. As a commissioned uniformed officer, it was a mistake that I have learned from.” </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">This is what a good apology sounds like. It’s also what separates the men from the boys. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
</div>
Phil Terranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172907721252330800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958282241865239003.post-57146656404028435512020-06-10T20:50:00.000-04:002020-06-10T20:50:10.888-04:00Can you hear me, now? Not Really. <br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> In 2013, Representative King (IA) infamously said, young girls coming
into the U.S. from Mexico “...had calves as big as cantaloupes from lugging
drugs across the border.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> He would not have spoken these extremely hurtful, not to mention
stupid, words if he wasn’t certain his constituents would not only approve, but
also reward him for them. He was right. They returned him to Congress in 2014,
2016, and 2018.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> For a long time, some would say, too long, it’s been impossible for
Republicans to say anything so outrageous that their base would reject them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> This was good for them because Republicans seem to be uniquely adept at
saying things that make no sense. What isn’t unique about Republicans is that
like Democrats, Independents, Whigs in the old days, and the Green Party in
recent days, they like to talk. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> They kiss babies, eat food they wouldn’t otherwise go near with a
ten-foot pole, take endless selfies, and shake countless hands; but most of all
they like to hear themselves talk.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Unlike Democrats who are known for their in-fighting—that’s what a big
tent will do for you—Republicans are known for their unity. Reagans eleventh
commandment, speak no ill-will of other Republicans has been their guiding
principle for over fifty years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> This has never been more evident than with the current president. Trump
has said things so mystifying, so beyond the pale, so utterly ridiculous as to
make normal people cringe, yet somehow, Republicans have always found a way to
defend him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Senator
Graham called Trump an idiot during the 2016 campaign, adding he’s a
race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot, who will destroy the Republican
Party. Today, because </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Republicans can’t afford to have </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Trump's</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> base turn
against them, Graham can’t say enough good things about the idiotic,
race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot. Idiots don’t generally start making
sense when they turn seventy. A smarter Graham would understand this.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Senator
Cruz continued to support him through three-plus years of lunacy because the
very thought of Trump’s base turning on him was worse than having to endure Trump
insults against both his wife and father during the campaign.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> And
Trump’s base will make them pay. Those who have stood up to Trump, and when I
say stand up I refer to the most </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">minuscule</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> exhibition of courage one could
possibly imagine, nevertheless, they have seen their careers ended, primaried
out of existence so to speak.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> However, just as Trump appears to be self-destructing before our very eyes, his base is also beginning to crumble, albeit ever so slowly. His poll numbers,
never high to begin with, are beginning to fall. People who once proudly wore
tee-shirts bragging, “I'm Deplorable” are having second thoughts. </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">They might not be saying it out loud, but t</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">he
times, they are achangin’.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> The only thing worse than being deplorable is
having to admit that the man you voted for no longer meets your deplorable
standards. They’d rather you just forget. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Just
because his base can walk away, slither into the darkness and hope no one
notices, doesn’t mean everyone can be so lucky.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> As
Trump’s base abandons him, the big question is where the Congressmen and women
and senators go, after bowing so cowardly before his unholy altar for three excruciating
years. Is Trump’s base turning only on him? Do the sheep in Congress fight to
hold on to the ones still loyal to Trump, or do they go after the ones that
have left? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Trump’s supporters </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">have been</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> a big question mark </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">from the start</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">. Only now, Republicans
are beginning to question what everyone else has questioned from the start—what’s
up with Trump’s base. Republicans no longer know which way the wind is blowing,
only that something is in the air.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> We
are seeing the by-product of this confusion every day in the halls of Congress.
Politicians who talk for a living, who thrive on hearing their own voices, who
can tell a lie without even blinking an eyelash have suddenly gone mute—afraid to
say the wrong thing, afraid to say the right thing, afraid to say anything. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> These
habitual motor-mouths can no longer find the words, when asked to comment on
the president latest act of lunacy— something they could and did do without
thinking just a few months ago. The poor souls have lost their voices, the only
thing that ever mattered to them. They are reduced to making excuses, where
they used to make waves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> “I
didn’t hear that.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> “I
didn’t read that.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> “I’ll
get back to you.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> “Did
he say that? I don’t know. I wasn’t aware.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"> "Hmmm, sooo, </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">ahh..."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> “I’m
late for a meeting.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> “I’m
late for lunch.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> “I’m
late. I’m late. I’m late.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> Oh,
if they could just say what Senator Graham said in the 2016 campaign? Trump is an
idiotic, race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot. If only Republicans could cut
Trump and his base loose and take their chances with those Americans who have
known from day-one that Trump wasn’t going to make anything great. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> He was only
going to make us the laughing stock of the world, trample on the Constitution and tear our country apart. That’s what idiotic, race-baiting,
xenophobic, religious bigots do. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<br />Phil Terranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172907721252330800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958282241865239003.post-76823934656181081632020-06-01T17:30:00.000-04:002020-06-01T17:30:10.016-04:00Not Being a Racist is not enough<br />
<div class="MsoTitle">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">When
talk of reparation starts up—and for the record, this piece is not about
reparation—but when talk of reparation arises, the immediate response from many
is why anyone should have to pay for someone else’s bad behavior, especially if
that behavior occurred hundreds of years ago.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Valid
arguments can be made for both sides—I hate to even use that expression—but
reparation seen as paying off a debt is one thing. Reparation as punishment for
someone else’s sin is quite another thing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">My
point is there are no easy answers to complicated problems.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">We
are, however, responsible for our own sins, especially if we refuse to stop
committing them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Many,
perhaps most, would be right declaring, “I am not a racist. I don’t have a
racist bone in my body. I deplore racism.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Well
good for you. We need more like you. If you lived on an island by yourself, you
would be entitled to bragging rights. Unfortunately, we are a nation with a lot
of people unlike you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A racist nation isn’t one where everyone is a
racist. A racist nation is one where racism is allowed to exist, even thrive in
some areas, and accepted as something we don’t condone, but can’t do anything
about. If racism is present in a nation, the nation is a racist nation. Nation-building
is a team sport.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Racism
isn’t something that occurs over weeks, months, or years. A nation doesn’t go
through a racist phase, and then suddenly shape up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpLast">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpLast">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Before
we even were a nation, for 157 years from 1619 to 1788, we depended on slavery
to build our nation. In 1788, we became a nation dedicated to the idea that all
men were created equal, but continued for the next 75 years, until 1863, to
condone slavery. From 1863, the year of the Emancipation Proclamation into the
1960’s Civil Rights movement, Jim Crow laws, segregationist policies, and hate
groups like the Ku Klux Klan did everything in their power to prevent blacks
from exercising the rights given to them by the 13<sup>th</sup>, 14<sup>th</sup>,
and 15<sup>th</sup> Amendments. For the last half-century many states, white
supremacists groups, and yes, individual racists have continued to do
everything in their power to weaken or remove entirely those rights given
blacks in the 1860s and 1960s. We are the United States. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpLast">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpLast">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"E pluribus unum" (Out of many, one) is a good motto when everything is going well and everyone is working together. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpLast">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpLast">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"Sicut et nos omnes," </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">(Just as
one, so are we all) is what explains a bad situation we’d rather forget, or at
least, ignore.</span><span style="background: rgb(248, 249, 250); color: #222222; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">A conversation about racism does not
begin by pointing the finger at the other guy. It begins by admitting we have
always been and continue to be a racist nation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
only thing that changes is the personal involvement in racism as experienced by
the white community. Sometimes, racism pushes everything else aside—even a
pandemic. Most times, racism is so far out of mind that we might be tempted to convince
ourselves it doesn’t even exists. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">For
blacks, racism is an ongoing way of life in the United States of America,
always has been. It never goes away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Money
can help ease the pain, but money can’t make wrongs, right. No amount of money
can put a black family in a white neighborhood if that neighborhood doesn’t want
them. A college education cannot give a black person a job if a white employer
doesn’t want to hire him. And what we continue to learn, as we have known for
the last 150 years, no law can guarantee a black person his rights if a white
person refused to concede them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">What
we are increasingly learning is that no policeman can protect a black man if
that policeman is part of the problem.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Money
can’t fix the racism problem. Laws can’t fix it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Again,
we are a nation of individual, whose actions define the group. Every individual
must decide, not whether he or she is a racist, but rather, do they want to
live in a racist country, and if they don’t, what are they going to do about
it?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">I’m
convinced the racists are not going to fix this problem. Introspection will not
get them to where the country needs them to be. Saving the nation is more than
protecting our own reputations. Racists have to know there is no place for them
in this country. Non-racists have to tell them that, every chance they
get. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0in;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
</div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<br />Phil Terranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172907721252330800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958282241865239003.post-85790697651017973282020-05-28T15:52:00.002-04:002020-05-28T15:52:57.427-04:00Let's see. How can I screw this up?<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxMMB2LRn3rGoACmYVMalizA1Aqt9s5kSIoucND2xQ9ZFJfSaAWrlR-Hr7BrrUhvtKU3MmKJDhUMcBZ9MgI6X-_HZeytMT66uNfTJT4BUHvb6a-GXt2F5fo82gaUzeiPcHZLT7AXJT/s1600/MAGA+Mask.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1143" data-original-width="1600" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxMMB2LRn3rGoACmYVMalizA1Aqt9s5kSIoucND2xQ9ZFJfSaAWrlR-Hr7BrrUhvtKU3MmKJDhUMcBZ9MgI6X-_HZeytMT66uNfTJT4BUHvb6a-GXt2F5fo82gaUzeiPcHZLT7AXJT/s320/MAGA+Mask.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This would have been a chance</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Let me be clear from the onset. The following is not a real proposal. In
fact, to some degree, some of it may have already been considered. I don’t know.
I am merely looking not so much, at what the president can and cannot do, but
why he is unable to do what he should do.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">In the nation’s war against COVID-19, virtually the whole country is
united. Healthcare workers are making tremendous sacrifices. The nation
realizes this and appreciates their work and are doing whatever they can—sheltering
in place and wearing masks to lessen their load, save lives, and put this
pandemic behind us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">The list of suspects continue to go against the grain, bucking the
advice of doctors, health and state officials. These are the fatigue-clad men
showing off their guns, rebels without a cause carrying “Don’t Tread on Me”
flags, loudmouths who simply don’t like the government or anyone else telling
them what to do, and of course, Trump supporters who don’t believe in science,
don’t trust the press and think there is a deep-state in Washington going after
the president. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Sadly, there is also the president, himself, taking every opportunity
to fight with his own medical advisors, state governors, Congressional leaders,
the press, and anyone else bold enough to stand up to him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">He has been in a state of denial about the disease and its spread from
the beginning, slow to act when denial was no longer an option, and a spreader
of bad, misleading and often dangerous information. To his shame, he has made
the simple act of wearing a mask an issue for debate. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">The president’s quandary exists in his own mind. He thinks everything
that is good for the country—masks, social distancing, and science—must be bad
for him. His insecurity forces him to question any idea that doesn’t originate
from his own mind. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">What he does believe, unfortunately, is that anything that
does pop up in his mind is good for him politically—huge rallies, opening up
businesses with as little restrictions as possible, and not listening to
medical advice—and can’t be that bad for the country. If he wins, we all win.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">The result of all this bad leadership has been the spread of the
disease and increased deaths and suffering. He has also seen his poll numbers—the
only thing he really cares about—go down. His declining poll numbers result in
even more bizarre and destructive behavior. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">It didn’t have to be like this. He could have done something early-on
that would have helped both the nation and his political standing. I’m not
talking about more testing and more equipment. These were never in the realm of
something he could or would do because he never saw these as his
responsibility.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">There was, however, something he could have done that one could have
expected a selfish, self-absorbed politician like himself to do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">I’m talking about MAGA masks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">He could have stepped up to a podium in February to address Americans
wearing a MAGA mask—not meekly, but proudly. Not self-consciously, but pro-actively.
If he had told Americans then that wearing a mask, along with social distancing
was the greatest weapon we had, not only to defeat this disease, but to restore
America to greatness, he would have been behaving like the strong war-time
president he thinks he is. If he had told his supporters that MAGA masks, or
any other mask, was not a sign of weakness, but rather a sign of moral
fortitude against an enemy we might not be able to see, but we clearly need to
defeat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Would his supporters buy this? I don’t know. I do know they have bought
every single other thing he has thrown their way. I think they would proudly
wear masks if they saw him wearing one. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Those who don’t support the president might’ve worn mask with opposing
logos. We are already a divided nation. Why not put some of that division to
good use? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">No one knows if everyone wearing masks in February would have reduced
the number of deaths. I think I can say with certainty that deaths wouldn’t
have increased if everyone was taking added precautions. I do think we would
have been in better shape today if he had promoted masks instead of speculating
(I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt that he doesn’t deserve) about injecting
bleach or putting lights inside our bodies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">If the number of deaths were down because of something the president
said or did instead of up because of things he didn’t say or do, I think that
would have been good for his poll numbers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">This isn’t about Trump’s poll numbers or </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">elect-ability</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">. Four years of Trump
as president is enough for me. I’m not interested in promoting MAGA either. I
think it falls in the category of false and misleading advertising.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">I am simply pointing out that this is one more example where given the
opportunity to do the right thing and benefit from it, or do the wrong thing
and not only do damage to himself, but do damage to the nation, our president
will always choose Door Number Two.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">He can’t help himself. He’ll destroy the nation. He’ll destroy you. He’ll
continue to destroy himself and his presidency. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">He’s not the fighter he says he is, as much as he’s a destroyer. He’s taken
a complicated immigration problem and destroyed the whole process. He’s tried
to destroy Obamacare putting millions of Americans at risk. He’s destroyed our
relations with allies. His waffling and indecision at the beginning of the
pandemic has destroyed the economy more than it had to be. He is doing
everything he can to destroy Constitutional government. He has destroyed departments
within the government, including the Justice Department and State. He breaks
things faster than a child breaks toys on Christmas morning. It’s what he does.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Destroyers certainly don’t make things. A destroyer like Trump will not
make America great again. He couldn’t even pretend to do so by wearing
something like a MAGA mask.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><i>Postscript: A check on Google shows there are actually MAGA masks, although they seem to be getting mostly two-star reviews. No way of knowing what him wearing one would have meant for the nation.</i></span></div>
Phil Terranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172907721252330800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958282241865239003.post-11992681282222797692020-05-17T14:23:00.000-04:002020-05-17T14:23:30.002-04:00Sometimes, bigly is not enough<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">One
of Donald Trump’s biggest handicaps, and it’s not his golf handicap because I’m
sure he doesn’t have one, but one of his biggest is his need to surround
himself in bigness.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
biggest crowd. The highest ratings. The best people. Most persecuted president
in history. The best economy—ever. The biggest, most beautiful wall, and we
wouldn’t even have to pay for it. That’s the bestest of all. He ran in 2016 on
making America great. In 2020, he’s running on making it greater. If he could run for a third term, it'd be to make America the greatest of all time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">While
other national leaders conduct diplomacy, Trump exchanges “love letters”—with
dictators, no less. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
trouble with living your whole life in the superlative world of EST—even if it exists
only in your own mind, which incidentally, also happens to border on genius—the
trouble is at some point life at the top—the best, biggest, highest, longest, most is
no longer good enough.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Take
missiles.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">After
escalating the missile crisis to the point where Russia and the United States
between them had enough missiles to not only blow up the planet, but half the
solar system, common sense set in. Both countries agreed to start reducing
their stockpiles. That actually <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">was</i>
one of the best decisions of the last half century.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Alas,
not being the best nuclear power was unsustainable. Both nations are at it
again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Russia’s
Avangard hypersonic missile system can fly faster and lower and pack a more
powerful punch, giving Putin bragging rights. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It
does look like the Cold War is on again, but wait! Trump isn’t your ordinary
war time president. He’s America’s greatest war time president. You have to get
up pretty early to get the jump on Trump because the man never sleeps.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Trump
is the greatest, “anything you can do, I can do better” man. Putin will rue the
day he ever met Trump, which is saying a lot because right now, Putin thinks
the day he was introduced to Trump was the greatest day of his life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Trump
recently announced that he has America on a path to develop the world’s first—wait
for it—“Super-duper missile.” If that doesn’t scare the living daylight out of Putin,
I don’t know what will. Actually, he’s probably a little concerned that Trump
won’t be re-elected. Best day ever could turn into the worst day ever.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It’s
one thing to be the greatest war president ever. It’s another laurel in his MAGA
hat to be one of America’s greatest medical minds. Fighting the greatest virus
ever, which some people say was brought to this country in a Corona beer bottle
smuggled across the border by a Mexican rapist working for Obama, calls for
extraordinary skill.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">We
need a vaccine and we need it fast. How fast? Some of the best minds in the
country say a vaccine might take as much as eighteen months, maybe a year if we’re
lucky. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Trump
laughs at luck. In the White House Rose Garden, he announced “Operation Warp Speed,”
the push to get a vaccine by the fall. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Super-duper
missiles? Warp-speed vaccine development? Is there anything the man can't do?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Actually,
there is.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I’ve
never heard anyone walk away after one of his announcements declaring it the greatest
speech ever. Usually, his talks are followed by someone explaining what the
hell he said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
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<br />Phil Terranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172907721252330800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958282241865239003.post-36546218696646506432020-05-16T12:53:00.001-04:002020-05-16T12:54:53.921-04:00Oops<br />
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“I was mistaken.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This was Moscow Mitch McConnell’s
explanation for having said President Obama did not provide a 69-page pandemic
playbook for the incoming Trump administration.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Admitting mistakes, while sometimes
embarrassing, is always a good thing. Realizing we’ve made mistakes is how we
learn, admitting them is how we grow.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Because he is unwilling or incapable
of doing either, Donald Trump remains an intellectual five-year-old. He is a
250 pound man-child who happens to be president of the United States because
sixty million Americans made the mistake of voting for him in 2016.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Not everyone would agree with that
statement. They don’t have to. How we vote isn’t necessarily a mistake
regardless of the outcome, or whether the winner turns out to be good or bad, competent
or incompetent.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In Trump’s case, we know he can’t
speak intelligently, he doesn’t read, and is so thin-skinned that those around
him must baby him to keep him from flying off the handle. When was the last
time the leader of the free world had to be babied?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">He also is incapable of making
decisions. He simply thinks out loud, tells us what people—real or imagined—are
telling him, or what he heard on T.V., or what he concocted in his own “brilliant”
mind.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">These are all observations from the
last three and a half years of his presidency, but these facts were all true
and in plain sight when he was running in 2016. That’s why voting for him was a
mistake of massive proportion. We are not seeing a new or different Trump. He’s
the same man-child, intellectual idiot now that he’s always been.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">His presidency began with a mistake
and the mistakes continue to mount.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">He puts people in positions of
authority only to have to remove them because he made a mistake.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Sometimes people remove themselves
because they realized joining his team was a mistake.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Every encounter with Speaker Pelosi has
turned into a mistake for Trump.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Making that “perfect” phone call was
a mistake.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Promoting bleach as a cure for COVID-19
was a mistake. It certainly wasn’t an example of sarcasm.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Every day of his administration, from
the estimate of the Inauguration Day crowd size to opening up America without
adequate testing, has produced new mistakes by him or his accomplices like McConnell,
Barr, Giuliani, Rep. Nunes, Pence and just about everyone else in his inner
circle. Until now, few have admitted to making a mistake. </span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">McConnell’s admission
that “he was mistaken” is something—if he was, in fact, merely mistaken.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">What exactly is a mistake? The
dictionary defines mistake as an action or judgement that is misguided or wrong—like
giving the wrong answer to a test question. Most people don’t give the wrong
answer intentionally.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">So, what is a mistake not?</span></div>
<a name='more'></a><o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I don’t think a lie is a mistake. Telling
a lie might possibly be a mistake—especially if the lie is exposed—but the lie
wasn’t a mistake. The lie was a lie and was wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I have to think that if former Obama
administration officials were saying they handed over a 69-page pandemic
playbook to the incoming Trump administration, they were telling the truth. It
would be foolish to say it existed if it did not. Nothing gets exposed more
quickly in Washington than a lie.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Nevertheless, Trump said the playbook
did not exist. Obama left him no guidelines, no PPEs, no nothing. McConnell,
because he has not stood up to Trump in that past, could not stand up to him in
the present. Not only could he not stand up to the president, he had to
demonstrate his loyalty because babying the president is what Republicans do. Apparently,
he felt he did not have the luxury of simply keeping his mouth shut.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Against all the rules of common
sense, he sided with Trump, a man who has told tens of thousands of lies during
his presidency and God-knows how many in his lifetime. He echoed Trump’s claim
that Obama left him nothing. Furthermore, McConnell declared that Obama should
have done what he, himself, was incapable of doing—keep his mouth shut and not
criticized the president.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">McConnell’s statement wasn’t a
mistake. It was a lie. It was a mistake in judgement to tell the lie. It was a
mistake to think he could get away with a lie. Hell, it was a mistake to call
it a mistake. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">People like Trump, and apparently, McConnell
is one of them, can’t help themselves. Lies roll off their tongues like slop
fall from pigs’ snouts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I have written on other occasions
that Trump and McConnell are bullies and cowards, throwing their weight around,
but standing for little.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">They lie because, as cowards, they
can’t face the truth. The bully in them makes them think they can get away with
lying. When their lies are exposed, they make excuses, much as you would expect
intellectual dimwits to do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Trump, and the people around him,
continually attack those who expose his lies, making outrageous claims that he
was only joking, or being sarcastic. I don’t recall Trump ever taking the baby
step of admitting he was mistaken, much less lying.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This is ample proof that as bad as he
is, McConnell is only a piker compared to Trump. </span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">He shies away from the
personal insults that Trump relishes handing out. McConnell is still a bully,
still a coward, but he isn’t quite the psychopath that Trump is. He is still
naive enough to think he can get away with “I was mistaken.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Why wouldn’t he opt for this route?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“I was mistaken” draws out the
response, “That’s okay. Mistakes happen.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“I lied” begs the obvious response, “Why
did you lie?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Anyone with an ounce of brains, which
seems to be the minimum requirement for this administration and its supporters,
knows that the answer to why did you lie will only result in more lies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This is the tale of two cowards,
bullies, and liars and how they behave when caught in a lie.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">One man, McConnell, says he was
mistaken, goes into hiding and hopes for the best.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The other, Trump, double-downs, says
his accusers are nasty for questioning him, and declares the truth to be a
hoax. If this does not work, he turns and walks away crying, “Why is everybody
always picking on me?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">If a five-year-old behaved like this,
the expectation would be that someday the child would grow up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Trump isn’t a five-year-old. He only
acts like one. He is a 73-year-old man-child. What we see is as good as it is
going to get. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">As for McConnell, I only see more “mistakes”
down the road. Anyone powerful enough to stand up to Trump, but too coward to
do so will continue to lie and apologize for the mistake.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="line-height: 150%; tab-stops: .5in;">
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<br /></div>
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<br />Phil Terranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172907721252330800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958282241865239003.post-80269992083739076272020-05-10T14:40:00.000-04:002020-05-12T09:35:23.293-04:00Your money or your life<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">There’s the
old Jack Benny joke where he is being robbed and the thief demands, “Your money
or your life?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">After a
long pause, the frustrated thief asks, what’s taking so long?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“I’m
thinking. I’m thinking.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This
question is being asked again of the whole country—and no longer does it get a
laugh.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“Your money or your life,” has become a lot
more complicated as we wage this war against the corona-virus. Part of what
makes it complicated is the role that money plays in our lives and the
inequitable distribution of it over the last fifty years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">We are
engaged in a war against a corona-virus. The virus can only win by continuing
to exist, by infiltrating our society. “Just looking for a home,” like that
nasty old boll weevil.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Our victory
depends on denying the virus a home, or if it happens to move in, like an
uninvited guest, kicking it out as quickly as possible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Until we can
acquire overwhelming firepower against the disease—vaccines, medicines, herd
immunity, which sounds a little archaic, but I’m not much of a joiner in the
first place—our best weapon is social distancing, sheltering in place. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The virus’
war plan calls for guerrilla maneuvers—randomly striking when no one is
looking, catching us when our guard is down. This tactic, commonly resorted to
by enemies that don’t have the big guns, little bugs for instance, can be very
effective simply instilling fear.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">So, we have
two combatants, one microscopic bug striking a lot of fear and doing real
damage by attacking, attacking, attacking; and one large human race passively shutting
down its economy. Something doesn’t seem right, and yet, as Donald Rumsfeld
said, and I never thought I’d be quoting him, “You go to war with the army you
have, not the army you wish you had.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Passive
avoidance is the best weapon we have right now. The good news is, it’s working.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">We are at
sort of a standstill right now with the enemy, by gaining the upper hand,
limiting the spread, in spite of incurring heavy casualties. That doesn’t mean
the enemy isn’t also out there, waiting, waiting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Scientists,
who know something about fighting viruses, are urging us to continue sheltering
in place, at least as much as possible. However, some soldiers—and in this war,
everyone’s been drafted—some soldiers are grumbling as soldiers tend to do.
They are getting impatient. They want to confront the enemy by meeting him head
on. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">They are
playing into the guerillas’ hands. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This war has
come down to what a lot of wars come down to—a battle of will power.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Troops are
being distracted from what the original war was all about—saving lives, to the
new war—saving the economy. A certain panic is setting in as the stock market
crashes, jobs are lost and bills go unpaid.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">We might not
be able to see the bug we’re fighting, but a quick glance at the evening news and
state houses around the country tells us insurrection is in the air.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Again, it comes down to our money or our
lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Money should
be a medium of exchange. It started out that way and made life a whole lot
easier. Farmers didn’t have to carry a chicken with them when they needed a new
pair of pants, tailors didn’t have to take along a rack of ties when they went
to the butcher.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Somewhere
along the line, but the last fifty years stands out, money became a measure of
wealth and hoarding it became a national pastime. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: large;">The true measure of a man has come down to how
wealthy he is. When wealth becomes so important, the loss of wealth becomes a crisis,
something some people would be willing to risk their lives to prevent.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The economy has
slowed, but it still exists. An economy is nothing more than the exchange of
goods and services. That isn’t going away. We didn’t become the wealthiest
nation in the world for nothing. Money is everywhere. Well, not everywhere. For
the most part, it is in all the wrong places. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It’s hanging on the walls inside
mansions, or floating in marinas, or in that Lamborghini that just passed.</span><span style="background: white; color: #4d5156; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Money is flying through the ether in split-second
trades between banks and investment firms, never staying anywhere long enough
to do any good, but always growing. Maybe it’s time to put it where it can do
the most good.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">If the
people and corporations that have spent the last fifty years trying to corner
the money supply—and I’d have to say, they’ve done a damn good job—decided to
give some of it back to the American workers whose labor created their wealth,
then maybe some of the anxiety about loss of income might be alleviated.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">If they
remained convinced that they’ve earned every last nickel they have, which is
pretty much every last nickel of what was in the economy to begin with, then government
should declare that this national emergency, which asks workers to sacrifice
their jobs and income, can also ask the wealthy to sacrifice some of their
wealth. The tax rate for the super rich could be raised to 45-50 percent, which
would still be light-years from what it was in the fifties, but a substantial help
in protecting the economy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">More income,
less wealth. It might not be the perfect solution, but neither is more wealth,
less income. People losing some of their wealth right now might be mad, but
they aren’t desperate. People losing income are so desperate, they’re willing
to put their lives on the line. This makes the wealthiest nation on the planet
a little less than the greatest nation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">If one
appreciates that money’s role is as a medium of exchange, they’d understand
that all the things that were needed before in the economy before corona-virus
will be needed again. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Everything
is relative. Whatever money could buy before, it will be able to buy again,
regardless of how much money is floating around, which is all money should ever
be doing in the first place—floating around, doing its thing. All these transactions
will again be pumping money into the economy. The economy isn’t going anywhere
because we are not going anywhere—unless we lose the fight against the
corona-virus because we lost the will to fight because workers lost the little
money this great economy has been meagerly doling out to them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Now, there
might be less money floating around when all this is over, but whatever amount
is out there will be enough to get the job done, because that is what money
does—get the job done. The rich will still be rich, the poor will still be poor
and the middle class will still be in the middle, complaining about the poor
and striving to become the rich. The distance between the fewer rich and the fewer
poor might be a little less. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">There might even be a bigger group in the middle, which
might be the final step in putting social distancing behind us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />Phil Terranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172907721252330800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958282241865239003.post-91436123416025597192020-05-06T13:07:00.000-04:002020-05-12T15:31:26.709-04:00Just Asking<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">I don’t know
if all the coronavirus talk going around was the catalyst for the question, or
if it was just something that was going to come up at some point no matter
what. Some things are inevitable.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Art Linkletter made a dog-gone good living bringing the darndest things kids say to the American audiance's attention.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The question
I’m referring to did come from a kid, which is encouraging in its own way. In a
world changing faster than many of us can keep up with it’s comforting to know
kids haven’t changed—at least those kids under the age of six or seven. They still
say the darndest things.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I was having
a conversation with my grandson—just talking about anything that came up. The
planets. Pro wrestling. Fights with school bullies. We were all over the map,
which is where we both like our conversations to go. He even commented that the
two of us were “very similar” in that way, after asking the question in
question.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">He’s right.
I’m ten years retired from my last real job, and he’s probably about a decade
away from his first. We’ve both got time on our hands.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In the
middle of our conversation, and it may have been the result of the crazy times
we’re living in or it was something he thought up on the spur of the moment, he
asked the question.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“Papa, how
long do you think you’re gonna live?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">There really
is no good answer to this question. He’s too old and too smart for me to say
forever. Pulling an exact age out of the hat, regardless of what age I picked,
was only going to open up a whole new can of more wormy questions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Rather than
pick an age, I just said, “I’m hoping for at least another month.” I said it in
a way that let him know I was joking and that I planned on being around for a
long time. I just couldn’t tell him how long.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The more I
thought about this question, which I’ve thought about enough to tell this story
several times, the more I realized that we often don’t give kids enough credit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">His question
may have been unusual, even unexpected, or it may have been totally normal and
to be expected. I’ve only been asked it once in the direct manner he posed it,
but with seven grandkids, variations of this question have come up before.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The reality
is, I’m 73 years old and he’s seven. If nothing else, his was a legitimate
question.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">So maybe
kids don’t say the darndest things.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I started
thinking about some of the things adults ask their kids. Darn it if they don’t say
some of the darndest things, too—questions that don’t have easy answers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“Who told
you, you could do that?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“What made
you think you could get away with that?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“What were
you thinking?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“What’s come
over you?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“What have
you done?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“What’s the big idea?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Pretty much any question adults ask that begin with <i>what</i> is looking for an answer that
doesn’t exist.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">By the same token, “When are you going to grow up and start
acting your age?” practically begs for the answer, “I dunno. Maybe in about a
month.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I’m searching for a good punch line to end this and haven’t
come up with one. Given the subject matter, maybe I shouldn’t take any chances.
I should just post it while I still can.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<br />Phil Terranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172907721252330800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958282241865239003.post-24921909123957567432020-04-29T12:19:00.000-04:002020-04-29T12:26:48.279-04:00Liberate us is nothing more than, "I surrender."<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">We are
fighting a new war against the corona virus, the unseen enemy, our
self-described war president calls it. We all want to win this war, and win it
as quickly as possible, and with as little suffering as possible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Battles are
being fought on two fronts—in our hospitals where doctors and nurses are
fighting the disease head-on, and deserve all the honor and respect we can give
them, and in our neighborhoods where our businesses have closed and many of us
are sheltering in place, attempting to limit the spread of the disease. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">How does
this war compare with other wars we’ve engaged in?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">My father,
assigned to the 1<sup>st</sup> Infantry Division (The Big Red One), was
fighting in Tunisia in 1942-43. This was the first real test for American
soldiers and sailors in the war that was going into its fourth year. He kept a
log that amounted to little more than a date and where he was or what battle
was being fought that day: 8 Nov – Invaded Africa (Oran), 18 Feb – Kassarine
Pass, 16 Mar – Gafsa El Guetter, 13 May – campaign ended, 10 Jul – Invaded
Sicily (Gela).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Ralph
Ingersoll, a journalist/soldier also attached to the 1<sup>st</sup> Division,
wrote a 200-page book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Battle is the
Payoff</i>, describing one day and one battle—Gafsa El Guetter. He didn’t depict
a full-blown shoot-out lasting days on end and culminating with one side
finally crying uncle. Instead, he talked about boot camp, the days leading up
to the battle, the preparation, relationships, how units are organized, plus
the differences and purposes of the various units. His lesson was that a lot
more than firepower goes into winning a battle.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Even in the
few pages where he described the battle, there were times when some units were
not only not fighting, but they were sleeping while bullets flew over their
heads. The groups that were fighting tooth and nail would, at times, stand down
themselves, and it’d be their turn to catch a few much needed minutes of sleep.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The battle
called for everyone to do their part, but everyone’s part was different.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">He closed
the book, written in real time, by questioning the dedication of both the
combatants and the folks back home. The soldiers were prepared to give their
all and were giving their all, but even they, Ingersoll noted, didn’t have the
same drive that British, Russians and other allied soldiers had. Germany hadn’t
bombed American cities or invaded our shores or imprisoned our citizens.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Whether the
war would be won and how soon came down to each individual battle and
everything that went into winning them. Each battle, in itself, was a payoff
that would in time bring victory. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A time for
celebration in our current war will come, but clearly, we are still fighting
the battles, which call on all of us to endure suffering unlike most of us have
ever experienced.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
general population, fighting the battle of mitigation to limit the spread of
the virus are fighting valiantly, but are losing momentum. Just as every
soldiers at the battle of Gafsa was vital to the final victory, regardless of
what they did, so also, the battle in our hospitals will not be won if the
battle in our streets and neighborhoods are lost.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Ingersoll
questioned the dedication of his generation. He needn’t have. In time, they
came to be known as, “The Greatest Generation” because they answered every call
to duty.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Our current
generation—WWII survivors, their children and grandchildren</span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">—</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">are charged with fighting today’s battle to contain the enemy. Some of us are
beginning to show our soft side, becoming impatient, worrying that we might win
one battle, but question whether we will lose the battle to save the economy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">They
don’t appear to have the same drive to win this war because, like Ingersoll
said about Americans in WWII, maybe they haven’t directly experienced the brutal
impact this invisible enemy is inflicting on us like doctors and nurses have, and like many families have. They want to win. Sure. They're just ready</span></span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"> </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">to let others do the heavy lifting.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Sadly, we
are not the nation of our parents and grandparents, shouting, “Bring it on.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The message from protesters in the streets is, “I don’t know. I don’t think I can do this any longer.” </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Carrying weapons and waving flags do not make </span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">protesters</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> more convincing or patriotic, or their message any less pathetic.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Frankly, we
haven’t had the training, the importance of which Ingersoll couldn’t stress
enough, that would enable us to fight a battle of, "sticking to a plan." We are
impatient now because, for too long, we have been a nation requiring immediate
gratification.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“Give me
what I want, and I want it now.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Our current
war demands that baby boomers and the me generation hunker down, not throw in
the towel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Phil Terranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172907721252330800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958282241865239003.post-2454250682265529532020-04-23T11:47:00.002-04:002020-04-23T16:59:13.707-04:00Nature, doing what nature does—Get even<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent2">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><i>My
original intention was to write something commemorating Earth Day. I seem to
have wound up killing several birds with one stone, namely Evangelicals’ role
in politics, the fact that we keep putting God in the center of issues in a way
that takes us off the hook, and our lack of respect for the environment, which
may be coming back to haunt us.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Asteroid that could cause 'violent' sky explosions approaching Earth" height="212" src="https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/asteroid-fly-by-earth-01.jpg?quality=80&strip=all" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mother Nature doesn't always need a hammer</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="clear: right; float: right; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Evangelicals,
who often appear to be very at home living in a Biblical world, are convinced
God spends all His time punishing us for our transgressions</span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">—</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">legalized abortion
and homosexuality, and possibly being anti-Trumpers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">On the other
hand, they believe that being pro-life and taking a stand against homosexuality
will incur the favor of a more benevolent God. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, supporting Trump can’t hurt.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Ministers
like Joel Osteen have a very simple message. “Do right and God will do right by
you. In Joel’s message, the reward he’s talking about isn’t heaven so much as
monetary success. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This all
goes back to Biblical days, when God was flooding the earth, creating famines
and releasing swarms of locusts or armies of frogs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">All this
reward and punishment talk, I suppose, is a means of preparing us for the
apocalyptical war that will be waged between good and evil. Evangelicals tell
us—and I must say sometimes they seem a little, what’s the word, anxious, maybe
too excited at the prospect—but they say this war is right around the corner,
and promises to be, at long last, the war to finally end all wars. Armies for
this war are being built and plans are being drawn in churches.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Despite what
the Bible says, I find it hard to picture God leading an army. I also can’t
picture Him putting up with the devil for more than a few hours, before
shouting, “Hit the road, Satan.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">God had to
have foreseen man behaving badly when He gave us free will. It’s hard to
picture him being caught off-guard. I think the concept of sin is more man’s
creation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I don’t see God
paying attention to every minute deed of man, when He pretty much lets the rest
of the universe operate on automatic. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Is He really
choosing sides in sporting events—not big events like the Super Bowl, which I
can see Him being interested in, but rather every single contest, at every
single level, on every single playground, every single minute of every single
day? Like all those crap games going on in all those back alleys. The people
participating in those events certainly think He’s engaged.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Is He really
involved in choosing the exact time of death for not just you and me, but every
single man, woman and child on Earth? If so, was there something that only God
was aware of, for not letting Bing Crosby make it back to the clubhouse? Did
God have to take him out on the putting green? Seems very un-Godlike.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I kind of
like the idea of free will, where not only are we free to make our own choices,
but no one, and in this case, no one means Someone, is looking over our
shoulders, jotting down notes and second-guessing us. That said, I believe
there is a price to pay for our actions. It’s just not coming from Heaven
Headquarters. Maybe we’ll pay that price down the road to Someone, but what
happens in this world, I think, gets punished in this world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">So who does
the punishing?</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">We are all
familiar with the story of the dinosaur. They were coasting along, nibbling at
leafs atop fifty-foot trees, butting heads for fun, getting the shit scared out
of them every time a thunderclap applauded, and leaving really big footprints
everywhere they went for about 260 million years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">God didn’t
seem to be interfering much in their lives. Maybe, that was because they lacked
thumbs and brains, and were incapable of sinning. Like I said, they were
usually just doing what dinosaurs did, which was nothing, only on a big scale. Maybe, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">God just had better things to do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Then that
asteroid hit. When I say hit, I don’t mean it broke into millions of pieces and
conked each individual dinosaur on the head, killing it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Apparently,
the asteroid hit and kicked up a dust-storm or dust-cloud or whatever you want
to call it; and any dinosaur that had a brain bigger than a walnut, and it
appears that none did, but had they, they would have known right then and there
that the jig was up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">At this
point, nature took over, but to be perfectly honest, that asteroid was already part
of nature on a much larger scale. It wasn’t long before less sunlight was
reaching the earth, temperatures started dropping, and icecaps began forming
and moving south for the summer, freezing dinosaurs in their tracks. Had this
not happened, mankind wouldn’t have suspected in a million years that dinosaurs
even ever existed. In fact, for about three millions years—as long as we’ve
been around, we didn’t suspect dinosaurs did exist until the last few hundred
when those frozen bones started popping up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">As climate began getting colder, vegetation
died off. Not only could dinosaurs not find leaves atop fifty-foot trees, they
couldn’t even see the trees, for the forest no longer existed. Without thumbs
or brains, dinosaurs couldn’t build shelters, which they also couldn’t do
before the asteroid hit, but which they didn’t need then.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It seems
that nature plays a bigger role controlling the lives of earth’s inhabitant
than any spiritual CEO. Maybe the Indians had it right. Earth, wind and fire.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
inventions of the Industrial Age—automobiles and airplanes, plus a whole lot of
gas-guzzling machines have allowed mankind to throw his weight around and more
or less thumb his nose at nature. Man wasn’t going to allow Mother Nature to
call the shots like she did with the dinosaurs or pre-wheel generations of
humans.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">We’d drive
through, fly over and sail around any roadblocks she put up. For the last
century or so, man did whatever the hell he wanted to do, and there didn’t
appear to be much nature could do about it. Our rivers began burning and our
air was becoming unbreathable. Water that wasn’t burning was becoming undrinkable,
but man kept shuffling along, living what had come to be known as the good
life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">By April 22,
1970, the first Earth Day, the tide was beginning to turn. Nature was starting
to get even. Just as previous generations were introduced to petroleum, the
current generation learned about something called the ozone layer. Apparently,
it was disappearing before most of us even knew it existed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The next
fifty years saw climate change become a major issue—a major debatable issue.
Even as glaciers melted and oceans rose, people who weren’t scientists debated
whether climate change was real. To their credit, dinosaurs never wasted a
minute debating whether an asteroid was what hit earth. They didn’t know what
it was, but they knew it was something.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Fifty years
of useless debate has left us with no ice cap. If future generations are told
the story of the Titanic, someone will have to explain to them what an iceberg
is. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Coastal communities will go the way of Atlantis, which is unfortunate
because while Atlantis was a folk legend, cities like Norfolk, Virginia are
real and are really sinking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Yes, Mother
Nature is getting her mojo back. She didn’t send a swarm of locust to get our
attention, and she certainly isn’t consciously punishing us like Evangelicals
believe God is always doing. Nature is simply adapting to the changes man has
made by making her own changes. It certainly does look like punishment, though.
When nature adapts, the message for mankind is, “Hold onto your hats. It’s
gonna get rough.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Her
adaptations are changing weather patterns, producing bigger and more dangerous
hurricanes and tornadoes, snow where there was never snow before, and droughts
where there used to be rain-forests. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In spite of
what was happening right before their eyes, climate change deniers were doing
what habitual deniers do, continuing to deny. Like any frustrated mother
dealing with children who won’t listen, Mother Nature just got tired of
arguing. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This brings
us to the corona-virus, which seems to have done what fifty years of Earth Day
marches could never do—shut down businesses in a way that’s gotten our
attention. It’s not just corona-virus. Viruses, in general, seem to be getting
tougher, more persistent. Viruses are shouting at us the way even loud
tornadoes weren’t able to do. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">What’s the
take-away as businessmen like to say? The demand for electricity and other
utilities have hit rock bottom. Transportation has come to a virtual standstill.
OPEC can’t give oil away. Air and water are getting cleaner. Not because man
got smarter, but because nature has enlisted the aid of something else besides
weather in its fight against industrialization. Tiny but headstrong viruses.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />Phil Terranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172907721252330800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958282241865239003.post-4675764113514863792020-04-20T14:28:00.000-04:002020-06-19T13:30:19.537-04:00No Middle-Ground Trump. <div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Everything
is beautiful, in its own way.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Ray Stevens sang
those words back in 1970. It was a beautiful song, but the message
was all wrong. In the first place, there are all different degrees of beauty.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Chrysanthemums
are beautiful, but spelling chrysanthemums correctly in a spelling bee can be
even more beautiful. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Obviously,
being beautiful is beautiful, but winning a beauty contest is even more
beautiful. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">And some
things, like victories that we think might be beautiful, aren’t beautiful at
all, or don’t necessarily have to be.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Winning a
track meet can be a beautiful thing, taking your breath away even more than the
running did, but wars are ugly no matter whether you win or lose. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The same
goes for winning arguments.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Poverty and
starvation and disease are never pretty, much less beautiful.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">So while it
is noble to look for beauty everywhere, it’s foolish to think you’re seeing it
everywhere.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">In her 1878 novel, </span><i style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Molly Bawn, </i>Margaret
Wolfe Hungerford, a not-so-beautiful Irish author with a very un-pretty name
first coined the phrase,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>“Beauty is
in the eye of the beholder,” possibly in self-defense. She may have been right. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">On the other
hand, she, like Ray Stevens, could have been wrong. Sometimes, beautiful just
isn’t there. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">During the
Army-McCarthy Hearings, at a point where Senator McCarthy was being
particularly ugly, Army lawyer Joseph Welch asked Senator McCarthy the rather
poignant question, “Sir, have you left no sense of decency?” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
same question could be asked of <a href="http://postalservicenovel.blogspot.com/2020/05/sometimes-bigly-is-not-enough.html" target="_blank">President Trump</a>, who since entering the public
arena in 2015, has brought a certain degree of vitriol and hurtfulness to the
presidency not normally seen outside a professional wrestling ring. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Nasty,
brainless, ugly, unhinged, crazy, crooked, cheatin’, corrupt, sneaky, slippery, shady, slime
ball, worst ever, wacky, psycho, reject, human scum, traitor, un-American, and ironically,
empty barrel are just a few of the hundreds of insults he has hurled. Not at
our enemies, but at Representatives and Senators, allies, department heads,
cabinet officers, members of his own party, as well as Democrats, state
governors, business leaders, high school students, everyday citizens, virtually
every reporter working for the fake news, and even a teenage Noble Prize
winner. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Obviously,
the president has no sense of decency. For Donald Trump, living on a planet
with over six billion people means living on a planet with over six billion
stupid people, all of whom are out to get him. I would have liked to see his Christmas
card list. I’m guessing, if he had one at all, most of the names had lines
drawn through them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">And
yet, there is another side to this man who sees nothing but ugliness in practically
everyone <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>he must deal with. Trump has a
beautiful relationship with inanimate objects, or things that don’t physically
exist, like ideas that pop up in his head.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Opening
up the country for business is a beautiful puzzle, and once we put it together,
our beautiful economy will be more beautiful than ever.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Easter
would be a beautiful time to begin.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">All
this is possible because of the beautiful tests. “We have beautiful testing.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Being
able to mine beautiful coal again will be a beautiful thing, but we will still
need that beautiful pipeline.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">And
what about those beautiful Confederate statues?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">And
those beautiful military weapons—beautiful weapons for a beautiful military,
and all paid for with beautiful American tax dollars.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">When
he travels, on his beautiful Air Force One, and lands in beautiful airports, he
is treated beautifully by beautiful dictators who he has a beautiful
relationship with, especially if they put his beautiful picture up on lights on
their beautiful hotels.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The Syrian
War was ugly, but we had a beautiful safe zone, where refugees were being taken
care of beautifully.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Traitorous
Democrats prevented him from signing what would have been a beautiful health
bill. Those same un-American Dems are the only thing standing between a
beautiful wall at the southern border between the U.S. and Mexico. We signed a
beautiful trade agreement with them, but that doesn’t let the Mexican people,
who are murderers and rapists off the hook.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">On
the subject of trade deals, how about that “beautiful, warm, nice call” with Ukrainian
president Zelensky. Did I mention it was also perfect? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Of
course, who can forget those beautiful love letters from Kim Jong-un. While we
can’t forget those beautiful letters, we must remember Melania, and his beautiful
daughter Ivanka. And the other one, too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I
would be remiss if I didn’t mention his beautiful temperament, which he never
fails to do. Trump’s beautiful temperament is probably what allows him to hover
between the ugly real world inhabited by everyone around him and the beautiful
world that exists in his mind.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It’d
be nice if someone asked Trump’s opinion on something and he said, “I don’t
know. I’d have to think about it. I’ll get back to you.” Trump always has an
opinion, and it always comes down to two choices—beautiful or despicable. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“Oh
yeah, and you’re a jerk for asking.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">
</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">There
is no middle ground with Trump. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Another entertainment show, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Project
Runway,</i> which was unable to launch its host into the presidency because it
didn’t have beautiful ratings like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Apprentice</i>,
did teach us something. Things, even beautiful things, can change quickly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">One
minute you’re up and the next minute you’re down. Just ask anyone who has
worked for Trump—one minute you’re beautiful, the next minute, you're (see Nasty, brainless, ugly...paragraph
above).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Phil Terranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172907721252330800noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958282241865239003.post-62670000117313733652020-04-19T11:29:00.000-04:002020-04-19T11:29:22.463-04:00The Greatest Hoax Ever<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large; text-align: center;">Every
time I hear Trump allude to his economy being the greatest ever, my first
thought is “ever” is a long time. My second thought is, his economy was never
the greatest, period.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;">He talked a
lot about the stock market when it was going up, not so much now that it’s
going down. In the first place, the stock market doesn</span><span style="font-size: large;">’</span><span style="font-size: large;">t measure the economy so
much as it measures wealth. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;">Wealth in this country is doing very well, if you
happen to be wealthy. The wealthy are buying and selling the way the wealthy
have always done business—without leaving their mansions and certainly without
wearing masks. When the market goes down and then starts to go up, it means
someone sold high and bought back in low. When it’s over, they’ll be even
richer than they were before. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;">The other
thing Trump talked a lot about was job creation and unemployment. Job numbers
were the highest ever, while unemployment were the lowest ever. The smartest
president ever concluded that he must be the greatest president ever. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;">So, what did
the first month of the corona-virus shelter-in-place policy look like? Well, jobs vanished
and unemployment went up. No great surprise there. Congress worked quickly to
ease the pain by directing money to businesses and affected workers. Of course,
it wouldn’t happen overnight, but compared to the way most things go in
government, it was moving along damn fast. The problem was, it was not moving
fast enough.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;">Seems that
greatest-ever number of workers, working in the greatest-ever number of job weren’t
making enough money to hold them over one week. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;">Investors
had seen the stock market go down from highs in the 29,000s to lows in the
17,000s, but after a month, it was already bouncing back into the 23,000s. Of
course, it didn’t really matter because those people, the wealthy, are not
living day-to-day, week-to-week. When you’re a billionaire, or even a lowly
millionaire, you probably don’t even own a calendar. You might own a $10,000
watch—actually $10,000 is the really, really, really low-end for luxury
watches—but they are only for show. Just like they don’t care what month or day
it is, the wealthy don’t care what time it is. Every time is a good time.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;">Apparently,
the people who work for the super-rich are, by necessity, a lot more time
conscious. There’s the day the rent or mortgage is due, the day the car payment
is due. Utilities don’t have a specific date when they’re due, but they have to
be paid every month, as do credit cards. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;">All those
jobs—the greatest number ever—didn</span><span style="font-size: large;">’</span><span style="font-size: large;">t give workers—again, the greatest number
ever—enough money to get through the week. When 25-million laid-off
workers—don’t tell Trump this is the highest number ever—can’t last a week
without a paycheck, I think it calls into question whether we had the greatest
economy ever, or was someone, I’m not naming names, promoting the greatest con
job ever.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;">It wasn’t a
con job on the workers. They have been demanding better pay for decades.
Fifteen states are still sticking to the $7.25 number, while others shroud
their statistics in secrecy—one can only assume because releasing them would be
embarrassing. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;">This con job
was unleashed on voters, especially the ones who, for some reason, didn’t
believe the president would lie to them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;">If seeing
the word “greatest” makes one feel good regardless of the context, there is
some good news to report,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;">While the
greatest number of workers, working in the greatest number of jobs, in the
greatest economy, under the greatest economy president—now doing double duty as
the greatest war-time president—are learning that their emergency funds won’t
get them through the week, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Forbes
Magazine</i> announced earlier this year that there are 671 billionaires in
America—the greatest number ever.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;">In 1970, there
were only two billionaires. The minimum wage back then was $1.60, which was the
equivalent of $11.00 in 2020. Effectively, many workers today are making almost
three dollars less than workers in 1970, which essentially puts most workers in debt.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;">Here’s a
question: Where did those 671 billionaires come from?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: large;">Answer: Out
of the pockets of the greatest number of workers, working the greatest number
of jobs in the greatest economy ever.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br />Phil Terranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00172907721252330800noreply@blogger.com0