“It isn’t what you do, but how you do it”

mystoryorhistoryLeave a comment

I stumbled across a quote from John Wooden the other day that made me stop for a moment and think about what is going on in this country right now. Wooden said, “It isn’t what you do, but how you do it.”

This is not some sort of topsy turvy quote from Soren Kierkegaard like, “It is the duty of the human understanding to understand that there are things which it cannot understand.” Okay. I get it sort of. But try putting that on a T-Shirt or running that thought through a town hall meeting.

Wooden, according to UCLA athletics was “the most successful coach in the history of college basketball, guided his UCLA teams to an unprecedented 10 national championships in his 27 seasons (1949-1975).”

People who watched Ted Lasso on Apple TV saw Jason Sudeikis, as Ted Lasso, pin Wooden’s Pyramid of Success on his office wall. It was a pyramid of success that took Wooden’s teams to the peak of success. His teams “compiled an overall record of 620-147 (a winning percentage of .808) and won 19 conference titles. Under his direction, the Bruins captured a remarkable seven consecutive NCAA titles from 1967-1973.” Whether you are a sports fan or not Wooden’s record is impressive. So maybe we can twist Wooden around a bit and say something like “how you do it, is what you get.”

To me, how we are doing things today militarily, with AI, government, immigration to name a few, has created a lot of confusion, discontent, discord and given us, for the large part, what we don’t want; and creating an existential crisis, within and without.

Britannia says that such a crisis is a “period of inner  conflict during which a person is distraught over questions about identity, meaning, and purpose.” Britannia further says that at the heart of this crisis is a period of anxiety and a conflict “often considered to be related to spirituality.” Can this existential crisis befall an entire country? It looks to me as if we are there or if not hurtling towards it quickly.

Now I may be straying a bit from Wooden’s quote a bit. But, the Socratic-Method.com says at first glance we can see it isn’t what you do, but how you do it. How you do it “emphasizes the importance of the approach or methodology employed in any given task, rather than solely focusing on the outcome. This idea challenges the conventional notion that success is solely determined by the end result.”

This brings to mind the popular idiom: The ends justify the means. This phrase is attributed to Nicolo Machiavelli. Biography.com says he was an “Italian diplomat best known for writing ‘The Prince,’ a handbook for unscrupulous politicians that inspired the term ‘Machiavellian’ and established its author as the ‘father of modern political theory’.” The main theme of the book has been interpreted by many as a “political philosophy that one may resort to any means in order to establish and preserve total authority.”

Machiavelli may not have actually said the ends justify the means, but according to academichelp.net, the phrase “embodies a fundamental principle of consequentialism. This ethical theory suggests that the morality of an action is entirely dependent on its consequences. It’s a perspective that looks at the end result of an action to determine its ethical value, contrasting sharply with deontological ethics. Deontology, on the other hand, posits that certain actions are inherently right or wrong, regardless of their outcomes.” I believe we are living in a time, more than ever before, where we focus solely on the outcomes, particularly besting the other side–as if that is the sole purpose of life.

Wow, slow down. Too many isms, ologies and theories in there. We have now gone from the simple sentence into the compound world of and ethics. As far as I know philosophers theologians are still trying to determine “how many angles can dance on the head of a pin.” The two groups were perfectly confused unit a third group, mathematicians got involved.

In a round about way both Wooden and Machiavelli are talking about the same thing. The “consequences.” And it is here things get tangled up in ethical theory. We started out with two phrases. Wooden’s is ten words with no word longer than four letters. Machiavelli’s is half as much with one word seven letters long. How did we end up with fundamental principles of consequentialism to existential crisis?

To clarify let’s look at ethical theory. Philosophy Terms says, “ethical theories are ideas that help us decide which actions are good and bad by leading us to ethical choices that bring positive outcomes for everyone. These theories go deeper than just following rules; they help us see the bigger picture and understand why certain actions are better than others…(it) show(s) us the way to make decisions, even when it’s hard, and help us think not just about what’s good for us, but what’s best for everyone involved.”

This brings us back to consequentialism, which ebesco.com states “is a normative ethical theory that evaluates the morality of actions based on their outcomes. The central tenet of consequentialism is that an action is deemed morally right or wrong depending on the results it produces, with a focus on maximizing positive outcomes for the greatest number of people.”

I think the normative ethical theory can be dicey because of what is normal, particularly today. Wikipedia defines it as “the standards of what people ought to do, believe, or value. It is a quality of rules, judgments, or concepts that prescribe how things should be or what individuals may, must, or must not do.”

For instance, we have always been a country based on two legal concepts: One, the legal rule of law; and two, nobody is above the law. We have seen the Constitution’s words twisted around like a pretzel to achieve certain outcomes never before imagined. Thus creating a period of conflict and anxiety across, gender, race and religion. Never mind political beliefs. Those beliefs have been trashed long time ago.

Our existential crisis is not one of doing but how we are doing it. We have cast aside the ethical norms that have guided our country for 250 years. And without a doubt those norms have changed, in some case drastically, through our history. But we have always, as a nation had guiding principles that we could look to. We knew what was the right thing to do. It may have taken us awhile to come around but we have. We have been a beacon on a hill that has attracted people from all over to our shores because of those guiding principles.

Frederich Nietzche said “There will always be rocks in the road ahead of us. They will be stumbling blocks or stepping stones; it all depends how you use them.” It seems to me that we are living in a glass house in the mist of a rock fight.

Life is Easy if You have the Updated Operating System

mystoryorhistoryLeave a comment

Sometimes in life things change and we just don’t even notice. It is like when an old building that has been sitting tucked off the street for years gets pulled down; or that store on the corner that has been there forever goes out of business. And then one day you drive by and say to yourself “when did that happen.? When did they go out of business?” “Things” like that happen everyday. 

For instance, I have had a certain bank app on my iPhone for several years now. The reason I put the app on my phone was because I was moving to a state where that bank did not have any branches. So the app was a logical next step in the new electronically internet connected world we live in.

Now, I know I am aging myself because for the longest time in my life communication devices were connected to a landline to the home. The big upgrade was a cordless phone and answering machine. The mobile phone, soon to become a smart phone, changed all of that with voice mail. And I will admit, it is much easier now than back then. 

When it came to doing banking I would sit down on a Saturday morning with a cup of coffee and begin the task of writing out any bills that had arrived in the mail that week, put a stamp on an envelope and I was good to go. And with the advent of direct deposit I no longer had to stand in line, or wait in the drive through window at the bank on Friday to cash my check.  Things are starting to get easier.

Gone are the days when you would have to fill out a deposit slip indicating how much of your paycheck went into the checking account and how much cash you wanted back. The ATM soon became the go to place to get cash. You could go into just about any store and get  cash with a newly issued debit card. Today, the banking industry with its cash back bonuses has weened us away from carrying any cash at all—what’s in your wallet: no folding money. 

There were weeks when I would guard that last one or two dollars in my wallet as if it were the Dresden Green Diamond—waiting for Friday, Pay Day! Things seem to be getting easier.

But I have digressed from the banking app. I really did not use the app that much. Most of my banking is done remotely now. Now my bills either go directly to my bank to be paid or to an email account, no trip to the mailbox and no stamps needed. It was like when radio music went from AM to FM: “No static at all…”

Occasionally, however, there is the need to cash a check. That’s where the app comes in. It was awkward at first logging in, fumbling around with user names and passwords—which I never remember—and now getting an authentication code texted to me. Then there is taking a picture of the front and back of the check. I feel like an Olan Mills photographer cajoling a toddler to sit still. Here I am trying to get a check to smile at me while instructions pop on the screen demanding me to get closer, center the check or use a darker background. It was the modern version of fumbling in the bank with pen on a chain and trying to remember your account number for the deposit slip–if you did not have a slip that came with the checkbook. It keeps getting easier.

I never thought about the app beyond trying to log in until the other day when I went to cash a check. I went to the app and logged in, which I finally could do without having to fumble around for my user name and password. My phone remembered that for me. Life just keeps getting easier.

However, a slight glitched popped up. Before I could do my banking I needed to update the app. No problem I thought. I would just hit update, which then took me to another screen to get the new updated app. I hit “get” but I got nothing but a return to the previous screen that said update app. I thought I just did that. So I demonstrated one of two lesser desired qualities of human life, either stupidity, insanity or both, and I tried again to update. It sent me back to the app screen to get the app. I hit “get” again and was promptly sent back to update. I was putting myself into a human controlled flow loop, the proverbial dog chasing his tail. I thought things were supposed to be getting easier.

As in most cases it is me, as the user, who is lost in the tangle of internet webs that connect us to the cyber universe. It was now that I examined the screen closer. In the upper portion of the screen in small writing next to a triangle with an exclamation point was a small message.

I want to shuffle off a side street here for a moment because one, I have fat fingers and any typing I do on my iPhone ends up with numerous typos. Secondly, it takes more than my reading-glass cheaters set at 1.5 magnification to read something that small. Those little messages are treated like a Yield Sign in Dade County Florida, a strong suggestion to the other guy to look out for you because you are coming through. I just thought if they wanted me to stop or slow down the message would have been a bit bigger with a Stop Sign symbol: Please read before continuing.

The message said I needed IOS 17 on my Apple iPhone to download the new app. I went to Settings to see what my operating system was. I and fumbled around some more only to learn that my iPhone was operating on some version of IOS 16. Getting the app for my iPhone now  required an additional update—to my operating system. Further research on the internet reveled that my phone cannot be updated to IOS 17. I would need to buy a new phone to get the banking app to run.

I was dumbstruck. In my mind this would be like having to buy new shoes because you have a broken shoelace.  Why do I feel like I am being scammed? Maybe because I am; or we are. 

But, there is a happy ending to the story. I went to my iPad, which did have IOS 17. I uploaded the banking app and was able to cash the check–for $11.49.

However, I have to wonder is this like the old house tucked back on the street or the business that just closed. How many other of my seldom used apps are just sitting on the home screen waiting to be pulled down or sign placed in the front window that simply says “closing.”

Life is getting easier if you have the updated app.

A True Vulgarian: To Offend and Upset and the Art of the Upside Down Apology

mystoryorhistoryLeave a comment

I have to laugh at the recent Trump settlement with the IRS for what most people are calling $1.776 slush fund. I refuse to get offended or upset with these financial and legal shenanigans Trump is, and has, pulled over our heads. He has really refined the art of the steel from land deals with city and county commissions to the fleecing at the federal level.

And further more, I think we should just chuck all the democracy talk of, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, as too esoteric. We need to push that sort of fear and the death of our Republic to one side and look at what is going on with this administration’s shenanigans. Or as Merriam-Webster describes as the “devious trick(s) used especially for an underhand purpose;” or the “activity or behavior that is not honest or proper: deceptive or questionable practices or conduct.” Trump and Associates have refined the tools of democracy to boldly walk through the front door and then walk out the front door in broad daylight in plain sight with loaded pockets.

The funny part in all of this is we opened the door and let him. Their methods appears to some as a smash and grab, which was the case with his January Sixers cohort. With that said these are not the activities of say a cat burglar who tries to avoid being seen using stealth and deception like Cary Grant in the 1955 Alfred Hitchcock film To Catch a Thief. What we need to do is dumb the Trump administration down to something Hollywood could produce and everybody could see in relation to what the viewing public understands.

For instance, we could go back to the 1988 film A Fish Called Wanda. I am not going to rehash the entire movie but to quote Wikipedia the movie is a “heist comedy film…(that) follows a gang of diamond thieves who double-cross one another to recover the stolen diamonds hidden by their jailed leader.” Although, in our current state of affairs the leader is not jailed.

But according to PBS News, “As part of the (Anti-Weaponization) IRS settlement agreement, the U.S. is ‘forever barred and precluded’ from examining or prosecuting Trump, his sons and the Trump organization’s current tax issues, according to a one-page document posted to the Justice Department’s website on Tuesday’.”

I get it, there is a slight difference in the plot; but, get out of jail or stay out of jail, it seems to me to be the same side of the soon to be minted coin. A one-dollar commemorative coin featuring Trump’s image on both sides. Heads its Trump, tails its Trump. Unfortunately, it won’t be minted in time for the country’s 250th birthday. Too bad, we could honor our First President by going down to the Potomac River and see if we could throw them across the river.

Whatever the case may be, we are more familiar with heist movies than movies about democracy. If we consider what is going on in our government as a heist operation instead of governing or some sort of governmental effort to make America better, I think we can better understand the current workings of our government. I reference the movie A Fish Called Wanda but we could probably insert any of the Oceans movies going back to the 1960s with the Rat Pack, or the 2003 The Italian Job, or the Tower Heist (2011). It is all about the grift.

The reason I picked A Fish Called Wanda is for one particular scene where Otto, the vulgar American weapons expert hangs the sophisticated British barrister, Archie, out a window upside down demanding an apology. I just feel like Archie represents the American people. We are being hung upside down. Shaken down and now forced to apologize for crimes that somehow we were complicit in. (See Youtube link below for video)

Instead of ranting or raving about the current state of affairs we should do like what Roger Ebert said in his review of this Anglo/American comedy, laugh loudly when “eccentric people behave in obsessive and eccentric ways and other, equally eccentric, people do everything they can to offend and upset the first batch” Their motto could be: Find out how much there is, get it, and get.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwfuUyTMpVY

The Structure of the Government Must Furnish the Proper Checks and Balances Between the Different Departments.

mystoryorhistoryLeave a comment

A good government implies two things; first, fidelity to the object of government, which is the happiness of the people; secondly, a knowledge of the means by which that object can be best attained.–James Madison

It is an oft told story about Benjamin Franklin that after signing the Constitution being met by Elizabeth Willing Powel who asked the good doctor “what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” To which Franklin replied, “A Republic madam, if you can keep it.”

According to Historynet.com “By upbringing, experience, and nature, Eliza Powel was politically astute and acquainted with the leading lights of the American political scene.” Like many Americans in Philadelphia at the time, It is not hard to imagine her waiting at the steps of Independence Hall anticipating the results of the secret meetings that took place that long hot summer.

Eliza Powell is one of the many women who have been pushed aside as a footnote in the pages of history. According to Historynet.com she was a Philadelphia socialite, ” a fixture in her hometown’s most influential circles, and a proto-feminist who delighted in her intellect, broad range of interests, and social rank…” with “a first-class mind, and, unusual among women of her class and era, a serious interest in and engagement with the details and nuances of politics and statecraft.”

I would bet that when addressing Eliza after signing the Constitution, Franklin was not speaking specifically to her when he used the word “you.” The 81 year-old Franklin would only have two more years to live. So the “you” was sort of a collective second-person pronoun referring to a group of people, Americans from 1787 to the present, rather than one person at the time, and a disfranchised woman at that.

Franklin had his concerns about the Constitution. In final remarks before approving the Convention’s work. He said, “I agree to this Constitution, with all its Faults, if they are such: because I think a General Government necessary for us, and there is no Form of Government but what may be a Blessing to the People if well administered.” The key words in his comments, like, “you” is “well administered.”

A big fear today among many is the fear of losing our democracy. Various polls in the last couple years show an increasing fear that our democracy is under pressure, mostly from the extreme ends of the political spectrum and their hardcore entrenched views. But it not really our democracy that is under threat. We will always be a country with a democratic foundation. What we are witnessing of late is democracy manipulating the republic’s foundation for political belief or factions as the framers of the Constitution called them.

In this famous Federalist Paper (51) essay, Madison explained how the Constitution’s structure checked the powers of the elected branches and protected against possible abuses by the national government. With the separation of powers, the Framers divided the powers of the national government into three separate branches: a legislative branch (called Congress), an executive branch (led by a single President), and a judicial branch (headed by a Supreme Court). By dividing political power between the branches, the Framers sought to prevent any single branch of government from becoming too powerful. At the same time, each branch of government was also given the power to check the other two branches. This is the principle of checks and balances. Madison and his fellow Framers assumed that human nature was imperfect and that all political elites would seek to secure greater political power. As a result, the Framers concluded that the best way to control the national government was to harness the political ambitions of each branch and use them to check the ambitions of the other branches.–National Constitutional Center.gov

For instance a lot of debate during the Constitutional Convention centered on the make up and function of the Legislative Branch of the proposed new government. Some delegates were in favor of a unicameral others a bicameral Congress. (The Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation was unicameral.) The real problem today with Congress is it is still bicameral but completely divided along factions, with political parties providing the checks and balances in a unicameral way. Yes it is representative democracy at work. But, it is a complete disfunction of legislative design. Congress cannot even do its most essential task: pass a budget.

The House of Representatives is the people’s House. Its elected officials, because of their two-year elected-terms and smaller districts, are closer to the wishes of the people than a Senator with a six-year term representing an entire state. Madison’s belief, explained in Federalist Paper 62, was that “No law or resolution can now be passed without the concurrence first of a majority of the people (the House), and then of a majority of the states (the Senate).” The entrenched two-party system has done away with that concept.

He further explains that the Senate “as a second branch of the legislative assembly, distinct from, and dividing the power with (the House), a first, must be in all cases a salutary check on the government. It doubles the security to the people, by requiring the concurrence of two distinct bodies.” An impossible feat under today’s government.

Additionally, he writes that “The necessity of a senate is not less indicated by the propensity of all single and numerous assemblies, to yield to the impulse of sudden and violent passions, and to be seduced by factious leaders, into intemperate and pernicious resolutions.” (my italics) Does January 6th come to mind. On January 6th the Republic held firm against the democracy, or mobocracy, taking place on the Capitol steps and then within the Capitol itself.

There is, in my mind, no chance of losing our democracy. Later this year we all go to the polls and vote. The real problem in my mind, is how those administering our Republic will try to rig the democratic process. We have witnessed states gerrymandering legislative districts to favor one party. We have seen the courts upturn the gerrymandering process in one state but not another. We have seen the courts roll back voting rights. We have seen an Executive branch try to impose voting changes through executive orders. All of this is democracy but as Franklin said, it is a republic–if we can keep it.

God’s own Anointed

mystoryorhistoryLeave a comment

The recent memes of the President of the United States as a Christ-like entity is a unique concept for this country. It was a common in the ancient world that the leader was either a direct decedent of some sort of god or the that leader would eventually morph into a god, like the caesars of Rome. However, it was belief that never crossed the ocean. with English refugees of 17th Century.

Historians recognize the ancient world to have started around 3000 BC to around 500 AD. During that time there were a lot of god-like rulers running around. Elected presidents or prime ministers running Democratic/Republics would come later. Back then the closest thing to Democracy or a Republic was Athens and Rome. After their fall they left some nice buildings but it would be some time in the future before their governing principles would come up for discussion or consideration.

Kings, potentates, emperors, pharaohs were common rulers of the day. Some of these rulers were considered gods and looked upon as such. In Europe it was the Divine Right of Kings; in China it was the Mandate of Heaven; in Japan it was a belief that the emperor was the direct descendent of the Japanese sun god, a belief that ended with their defeat in WWII. Africa in the 1800s had Shaka Zulu. History Collection.com says that Zulu kings “were regarded as possessing special divine powers. Their leadership was deeply intertwined with religious rituals and ancestral beliefs, which reinforced their political and spiritual authority over the nation.”

Other modern day god-like leaders were Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, the “Lion of Judah.” According to History Collection.com Hailie Selassie linked “his rule to a biblical lineage said to descend from King Solomon…inspiring the Rastafarian movement, which revered him as a messianic figure.” The Dalai Lama is another modern day spiritual/political leader, “Believed to be the human incarnation of Avalokiteshvara.”

So why not the United States? In 1 Samuel the Israelites begged Samuel for a king. Even though it displeased God (it seems to me when you read this it is really a frustrated God telling Samuel go ahead and find a king. I have had enough of Israels complaining) he tells Samuel to give the people what they want.

Here in America governmentally and politically we have probably inched our way past monarchism. The next logical step is to turn the king into a god, or at least god’s representative on earth. Who needs elections, rigged or otherwise, when we can have a crown prince, a god-anointed, dancing with angeles.

If there was one place in Europe that was a hotbed of religious turmoil it was 16th and 17th Century England. Protestants had no problem loping off the heads of Catholic leaders or other heirs to the throne and vice versa. One minute you are a king or queen’s minister the next minute you are a heritic. Some Catholics sought an escape route out of England, settling in Maryland. Some Protestant sects like Quakers went to Pennsylvania and ticked-off Calvinistic Puritans headed for New England. They all felt the need to flee to the New World. This country, despite what may pass for common knowledge, was not founded on religious tolerance, it learned that tolerance was the path towards a stable civil society–and government.

Fortunately for us, In 1787 the framers of our Constitution were more hooked into Enlightenment thinkers of the time than the Calvinistic reformers riping religious dogma apart like jackals on carrion. The idea of a king never took root in the colonies after the Revolutionary War. And the whacky notion that the executive power of the new government should be held in the hands of theocratical clergy never came up. That political theory never washed upon the Eastern shore of any colony, despite that many were founded on firm religious beliefs. (A side note: Since 2001 we have engaged two ultra theocracy in Afghanistan and now Iran. If we cannot beat them maybe it is time to really get a god on our side.)

That magistrate is to be elected for four years; and is to be reeligible as often as the People of the United States shall think him worthy of their confidence. In these circumstances, there is a total dissimilitude between him and a King of Great-Britain; who is an hereditary monarch, possessing the crown as a patrimony descendible to his heirs forever;–Federalist Papers No. 14

Ask any middle school civics student and they can tell you that the “executive power shall be vested in the President.” Section II states the powers of the president as being the Commander-in-Chief of the military, the president has the power to make treaties, appoint ambassadors, judges public Ministers and Consuls. The president can even propose legislation. Simply put, he is not only the Chief Executive but also Chief of State and Chief Legislator. But nowhere does it mention that he is Healer-in-Chief or High Priest. If a president can make his son-in-law a special envoy without portfolio, why not make himself a deity. Napoleon crowned himself emperor why can’t a president issue an executive order making himself a saint.

Here is where things tend to get sticky. The Constitution never references God, Jesus or a higher divine authority. Religion is only mentioned once in Article VI stating “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” And in the free exercise clause in the First Amendment it states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

It would appear to me, and I am not either a Constitutional or Biblical scholar, that any president is free to proclaim his or her’s relationship to a higher divine authority, particularly in a country like ours that holds Christian values so high. It may even be spiritually logical that our president is so in-tuned with the oneness of Christ that he follows what Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 28 that a president today is like the disciples of the past, and has “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…” And if it takes a few Tomahawk missiles and laser guided smart bombs to enhance your ministry, so be it.

In John, Jesus says that He is the light of the world. He tells the disciple that works he has been doing “they will do even greater than these.” He says ask me for anything in my name and I will do it. Maybe not wiping out aa whole civilization, just knock the fear of god into them. Getting a god to put a Sodom and Gomorrah on Iran would ensure a regime change and help in disposing of all that enriched uranium. And it would be divinely authorized.

However, there is a catch portraying one self as a disciple; and it is more than making a catchy internet meme; or proclaiming that you are all about the Gospel or publically reading the Bible with fellow Pharisees. Because throughout the New Testament, Jesus commands his followers to love God and love one and other. Paul tells the Galatians 5:13 “serve one another humbly in love.” Which really means showing some compassion for the down trodden and the sick. Paul tells the Ephesians to “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” You never heard Jesus issuing criminal indictments to those who disagreed with him.

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.–James 2:14-17

Christian values are not just based on faith as James writes, that faith by itself without works, is dead. In a letter to Titus Paul writes that our people should “learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful.” I am not sure but this does not look like the America I have been living in for the last 10 or so years. And certainly seeing a the leader of the free world portraying himself as a divine being while immolating Iran with Old Testament wrath is not channeling the Christ. It makes me wonder if the presidential meme should replace Jesus with Moses or Abraham and a time when turning the wrong way would turn you into a pillar of salt.

I have to ask what is next. It would not surprise me to learn that some sort of burnt offerings and animal sacrifices are being planned on the Ellipse Grounds on the National Mall celebrating 250 years of independence–without kings and religious potentates.

Regime Change: The Art of the Deal Meets The Art of War

mystoryorhistoryLeave a comment

I am sure somewhere in the annals of military history there are wars that were just “quick excursion.” The Franco/Prussian War of 1870 was quick and decisive as a European war can be but it lasted almost a year. A quick excursion sounds more like a raid, capturing Osama Bin Laden: In and out before anybody knows you were in. 

It is hard to believe that an air campaign bombing Iran with missiles, drones and smart bombs is a quick excursion. It is also hard to  argue with the Trump Administration’s reasons for bombing Iran. Most people can agree that Iran’s religious leaders, for almost 50 years, have exhibited a national religious psychosis that has kept the country in an 8th Century frame of mind. Instead of bombing them back into the Stone Age are we trying to push them into the A/I age?

It also would be delusional to believe that if the current Iranian regime was to have nukes they would behave rational with them; or any other weapon of mass destruction, considering they don’t play nice with the weapons that they already have. 

In many ways it makes sense that a regime change is in order. But we tried that already in Iran after World War II. The group we overthrew in the 1950s over threw our group in the late 1970s and now we are trying to overthrow them–again. Are we locked in some sort of irrational Twilight Zone circular reality that comes around like Haley’s Comet.

There is one point I would say is completely off the rails. This is the idea that it will be a short war. History indicates that we might be in for a longer haul, depending on objectives. And as crazy as it sounds it maybe over based sooner if we go by one man’s feelings. The rational for bombing, or going to war with Iran may seem logical. Practical? What is not rational or logical is to think a war can be won in two or three weeks simply by dropping bombs from above–or one man’s feelings.

Most wars have been irrational in terms of means or ends or both together. This is because choices for war are influenced by emotions, ideologies, domestic politics, and the tyranny of history, as well as by the more rational pursuit of material and strategic interests. Decisions for war have been almost invariably made by a handful of rulers and their advisors and entourages, and this is as true of democracies as authoritarian regimes.–Michael Mann, a Distinguished Research Professor of Sociology Emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles, writes in  Yale University Press 

The Israelis have had a series of short duration wars with their Arab neighbors. In 1948 they dispatched their Arab foes in less than a year. Then in 1967 they fought a Seven Days War and then a twenty-day Yom Kippur War in 1973. In all of those wars Israel came out on top. I am not a historian by trade or a military history by practice; but, those engagements were called “wars.” I would call them battles in a continuous war starting with the UN carving out a hunk of Palestine and thus creating the state of Israel in 1947. 

On a side note, when Western Powers have gotten involved militarily in the Mideast, it has not turned out well. The French and British found out during the Suez Crisis in 1956. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser had nationalized the Suez Canal and closed the Straight of Tiran and the Gulf of Aqaba. The Anglo/Franco force, along with the Israelis tried to regain control the Suez Canal, and at the same time topple Nasser. They left within a year. According to Britannica “Nasser emerged from the Suez Crisis a victor and a hero for the cause of Arab and Egyptian nationalism….(and) Britain and France, less fortunate, lost most of their influence in the Middle East as a result of the episode.”

In 1982 President Ronald Reagan had the bright idea of sending the Marines into the region. His thinking was they could stabilize the fighting that always seems to be going on in Lebanon. Lebanon is not a Central American “banana republic” or Grenada. American troops in the Mideast tend to attract more attention, particularly those with bombs and guns. We left after terrorist blew up the Marine’s barracks killing 241.

I am not going to argue the logic one way or the other on the UN decision to create Israel. It seemed like a good one after WWII and still is a good one. The geopolitical/ religious change in Palestine just hasn’t worked out like the 1940s planners thought.

So if we look at the Mideast starting in1947 there has been some sort of conflict going on for nearly 80 years. We have to look back to Europe circa 1330 to The Hundred Year’s War to find that kind of stamina (or blunt trauma stupidity) to sustain a war of that length. England and France fought a for a century in war that resulted in France chucking the Brits out of Continental Europe. (* see link below for a more comprehensive list of long-lasting wars)

“There is no instance of a nation benefitting from prolonged warfare.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

In 1568 there was an Eighty Year’s War or the Dutch Revolt. And some how in the same time frame Europe managed to roll in a Thirty Year’s, both ending in 1648. I am not sure what those wars settled but knowing just a tad of European history I would say it didn’t settle anything. 

A student who paid attention in their middle school US History class might recall the French and Indian War being fought in North America in 1756. In Europe it was known the Seven Year’s War. 

And, in April of 1861 President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to serve three month enlistments after Confederate forces bombed Fort Sumter. That three month enlistment was a pipe dream.  Before long Lincoln was calling for 300,000 volunteers to serve three-year enlistments. Eventually Lincoln initiated a draft; and that still did not cover the entire war effort. 

But those wars were fought without strategic air bombardment. Let’s jump to World War II, the ultimate regime change war. It was a war that looked like it would be over within a year. In fact there was an eight month period in Europe called the “Phony War” where Germany, France and Britain just sat there looking at each other–I dare you. No. I double dare you.

Finally, Hitler took up the dare and blitzed France. In a month they went through France as if it was a wedge of Brie cheese. They chased the British once again off the continent leaving the Wehrmacht to sit at the English Channel looking across at the White Cliffs of Dover. Hitler turned the war over to the Luftwaffe. Its commander Hermann Goering, thought he could bomb his way into England. The German army continued to lookacross the channel. They had no way of getting “boots on the ground” in England. 

When the Luftwaffe gave up the British just kept calm and carried on. Hitler, however, turned his attention to the East. Before long he got snowed-in in Russia where his lightening warfare froze up and lost its thunder against the Red Army and the Russian winter.  

Meanwhile, the US Army Air Corps was batting around a theory with British Bomber Command that the war could be won by simply bombing Germany around the clock, and hence into submission. By destroying the military industrial complex Germany could be brought to its knees—and possibly a regime change could be had. An arial theory that appears to still be a work in progress and may never be proven.

Without a doubt the the British and American air forces’s Combined Bomber Offensive played a significant role in Germany’s defeat, but it was two ground offensives Overlord (D-Day) on the Western Front and Russia’s Operation Bagration in Byelorussian (Belorussia) on the Eastern Front in June and August of 1944 that brought Germany to its knees. From there it was a race to Berlin and a regime change. 

In the Pacific the Japanese Empire rolled up the Dutch the British and the Americans like a wet blanket in the early weeks of 1942. Within months they upended the control of just about the entire Pacific Ocean from the shores of Australia to India and the Himalayas and north to parts of the Aleutian Islands in the Bering Sea. Only after four bloody years of ground troops “island hopping” across the Pacific and two atomic bombs was there a regime change in Japan.

And did we not learn anything in Vietnam. After nine years, despite virtual air superiority over most of Vietnam, and some nifty named air campaigns like Rolling Thunder and Linebacker, and the belief that a country could be pushed back into the Stone Age with strategic areal bombardment, the US Air Force, Naval Aviation and more than 500,000 ground troops could not secure victory or a regime change. The best deal hoped for was hollowed out “Peace with Honor.”

A significant lesson concerned the ethical and political challenges associated with bombing campaigns, especially their impact on civilian populations and infrastructure. These issues prompted a reassessment of air campaign strategies to balance military objectives with humanitarian considerations. The war also demonstrated that air operations alone could not achieve decisive victory without effective integration with ground and naval forces.–armistia.com

I am not saying the Trump administration will not be successful in bombing Iran. At this point most of us have an only a vague idea of what success would be–in the short term or long term. We also need to be leery about first round successes. If military history bears us out it is a good chance this war will not end in few weeks or months. Which leads me to ask: What are 2,500 Marines going to do? If there is any consistency in military history, we might as well settle in for the long haul; and wait for a negotiated deal: “Peace with honor” has already been taken.” 

* https://247wallst.com/special-report/2023/04/30/these-are-20-longest-wars-in-history/

When Real Estate Moguls goes to War

mystoryorhistoryLeave a comment

One of the key concepts about Hitler’s Nazi philosophy was Lebensraum–living space.

Lebensraum was a geopolitical concept the Nazis used “to justify military domination of Central and Eastern Europe and then the USSR.” According to World History Encyclopedia, by taking lands in Eastern Europe, Germany “would gain vast new space and resources and ensure economic prosperity and autonomy for Germanic peoples.” Hitler simply annexed Austria, he took over Czechoslovakia and then invaded Poland before rolling onto Russia.

That concept of “living space” gets swept up under the rug when discussing Hitler’s attempt at a Thousand Year Reich. To sit back and call World War II one man’s redevelopment dream would be making light of the War and its subsequent atrocities. But I would say that if we looked back in time a large percentage of wars were fought over land; or were just out right land grabs, like Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine. Sure Russia does have some ancient civil claims to the land–but those claims would probably not stand up in court.

Modern day current events are never as simple as political pundits make them out to be. Take Trump’s reasons for bombing Iran. Prima facie the bombing of Iran and the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei looks like justifiable homicide to Israel and the West. Iran, since the Islamic Revolution has been sticking it to the West, particularly “The Great Satin,” America. Starting in 1979 when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s Islamic revolutionaries captured the US embassy in Tehran, which eventually led the toppling of the Carter Administration. Since then Iran has been funding terrorism and developing long range missiles with nuclear capabilities which makes sense for a regime change. It would be an understatement to say that diplomatic relations between the two countries have not been good. In fact some would say that some sort of quasi war has been going on for the better part of 46 years.

Iran, or as history once knew them as Persia, has tangled with some mighty empires in its past. They were one of the original players in the Middle East that included Egyptians, Summaries, Assyrians and Babylonians. They took on the Greeks, Alexander the Great, and the Romans in their day. And now a 250 year old upstart–the United States. However, the United States is not ruled by your ancient or even modern run-of-the-day leader.

Enter the real estate mogul and golf course developer Donald J. Trump. If Donald Trump knows one thing, it is a land deal when he sees one. And the number one rule in real estate is location, location, location. Location trumps all other needs. In some case in order to redevelop land it needs to be condemned. According to US Law Explained, “Condemnation is the legal process used by the government to either take private property for public use under eminent domain or to declare a property unsafe and uninhabitable due to severe code violations.” Gaza falls into all of those parameters. Those living in the condemned area do have Constitutional rights. But since Gaza is not under US jurisdiction Palestinians will have to file their complaints elsewhere.

The first phases of redevelopment have already taken place. Israel has already condemned Gaza, they have already demolition a good portion of the buildings and they have relocated the people. Trump enters into the deal and manages to get the first phase of peace agreement in place, his Board of Peace–a de facto planning council. But any good redevelopment needs money, investors and as long as Hamas and Hezbollah are in the area nobody wants to put any money into the pot.

But before any real redevelopment and any major investing can take place, Iran and its proxies need to be knocked out of the equation. Hence, the bombing of Iran and Israeli bombing of Gaza and Lebanon–the forceful eviction of squatters and other undesirables is a prerequisite.

What makes the whole bombing war contraversial is the Trump administration has not given us a real definative reason for its intentions. Sure Iran needs to be punched around–a good thrashing is in order. However, all the of the reason the Trump Administration is giving for kicking Iran’s ass are excellent reasons that nobody can really argue with. But those reasons are side show reasons. Trump’s real interest are he wants to redevelop Gaza. That area: Gaza, Lebanon and Iran are sitting on the new Silk Road. The Interchange that links Europe to the Far East.

Various routes of the Silk Road (PublicDomain)

At the New Delhi G20 Summit in 2023 the India, Middle East European Corridor (IMEC) was created. According to the Indian Express the IMEC was created “to stimulate economic development through enhanced connectivity and economic integration between Asia, the Arabian Gulf, and Europe.” This would be a modern day Silk Road.

According to Ancient Origins Unraveling the Mysteries of the Past, “The Silk Road is arguably the most famous long-distance trade route in the ancient world. This trade route connected Europe in the West with China in the East, and allowed the exchange of goods, technology, and ideas between the two civilizations.”

Depending on the route taken a variety of factors had to be dealt with along the Silk Road. The 4,000 mile route from China to Europe was a monumental task in itself. Merchants had to deal with environmental conditions, disease, political instability and bandits. As Ancient Origins states: “Although merchants could make huge profits if they succeeded in bringing their goods to their destination, it was not without risks, as certain stretches of this route were extremely dangerous.”

The re-invention of a modern day Silk Road requires that certain bandits are removed and political stability along the IMEC are dealt with before and redevelopment takes place. This global trade route requires some geopolitical redevelopment.

GOP wants TSA style voter PreCheck

mystoryorhistoryLeave a comment
Booze was proof of citizenship in Caleb Bingham, “The County Election,” 1854, Reynolda House Museum of American Art.

When I was in college many years ago I took a class on State and Local Government. One thing that I clearly remember was what the professor said about voting rights. He said that when it came to expanding suffrage it was the federal government that took the lead. Today, I am not so sure.

The House of Representatives just passed the SAVE America Act or its official moniker: The Safeguard America Voter Eligibility Act. USA Today writes that “The legislation would require people to provide proof of citizenship “in person” when registering to vote in federal elections, and adds an additional requirement that voters show an approved form of photo identification to cast their ballot. It also places new rules on mail-in voting, requiring Americans to send in a copy of their ID when both requesting and submitting their ballot.”

Before long we will be carrying some sort of portmanteau with all of our various IDs, Usernames and Passwords. But I suspect voting will turn out much like applying for, and being approved, for a TSA PreCheck Pass. For less than $90 you can skip the lines and renew every five years for just under $60. Is this where we are heading with voting?

It is all about manipulating the vote. I would not be surprised if the SAVE Act were to morph into a law that “allows” Americans access to the polling place but in order to actually cast a ballot the voter will be charged a fee for individual ballots for federal, state and local elections; much like how Medicare drug plans categorize medications into tiers, with lower tiers generally having lower copayments. To vote in local elections would cost X dollars and in State X2 dollars and Federal elections would be the top tier. It would be The FEAR Act: Funding Elections Against Reprobates. Those not paying can wait in the back of the line with the riffraff and vote at the DMV.

By making voting a user fee and a funding mechanism it would take it out of the realm of the Twenty-fourth Amendment “The right of a citizen of United States to vote…shall not be denied or abridged by the United States by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.” It is now a funding mechanism for those who can afford to vote.

Let’s face it, there have always been some sort of voting restrictions or requirements going all the way back to Colonial times. Even after the Revolutionary War, which was basically fought over the lack of representation in Parliament over who gets to tax Americans, had requirements. Even the newly independent Americans were faced with voter requirements. The most obvious requirement was being a property owning white male. This requirement hit the propertyless poor, white men, women and anybody of color–even the propertyless veteran of Valley Forge who fought to found this country could be disenfranchised.

The republican logic of the times believed that in order for a citizen to vote he, and I use the word “he,” had to have an economic interest in the community at large. Those lacking economic independence, even if they fought for independence, were believed to be easily manipulated and could not be trusted to vote–for whatever reason.

There is some truth to manipulating the weak-minded voter on Election Day. George Washington lost his first run at the Virginia House of Burgesses because his liquor wagon ran dry. Washington was swamped losing the election by 231 votes. He garnered only 40 votes. According to classiccitynews.com “Washington avoided the same mistake during his second run, spending nearly the entire campaign budget on 28 gallons of rum, 50 gallons of rum punch, 34 gallons of wine, 46 gallons of beer, and two gallons of cider royal served to 391 voters — nearly a half-gallon per voter.” A good time in the old town was had by all as Washington floated his way into the House of Burgesses.

The GOP backed SAVE bill incorporates some of the same logic Washington used but with a twist of lemon–the mail-in ballot. Trump believes he lost the 2020 election due to mail-in ballots. There is a lot of truth in this. According to MIT’s Election Lab study on How We Voted in 2020: A Topical Look at the Survey of the Performance of American Elections states that “Looking at 2020 (election), the partisan difference in voting by mail increased substantially. The proportion of Democrats voting by mail more than doubled, while the proportion of Republicans using vote-by-mail increased by “only” 50 percent compared to 2016. In total, 60 percent of Democrats cast their ballots by mail in 2020, compared to only 32 percent of Republicans.”

This does not explain Trump’s 2024 victory but here is the bitter lemon in the cocktail. MIT’s Election Lab study says that voting by mail, which includes dropping votes off at drop boxes had steadily increased since 1996. Standing in line and expecting a gill of rum for doing your civic duty has dropped from 89 percent to 60 percent in 2016. “The fraction of voters casting ballots by mail more than doubled from 2016 to 46 percent. “Meanwhile, the share of voters casting ballots on Election Day declined by half, from 60 percent to 28 percent.” Granted, the Covid pandemic had states scrambling to set up safe voting procedures. Drop-off and mail-in ballots provided voters with safe access to voting without the crowds. However, it appears that voters like the idea of early voting using drop-off boxes and mail-in ballots.

The other twist is that Trump, constitutionally, is not allowed to run again per the Twenty-second Amendment. Without Trump’s rum wagon pulling up on Election Day maybe GOP Congressional representatives feel the need to legally control the voting process. Voting by either drop-off or by mail is like the forward pass in pro football. In 1933 the NFL changed the rules that a passer had to be “five yards behind the line of scrimmage before he can pass the ball…” to allowing “the passer to pass the ball from any point behind the line of scrimmage.” In three years, 1936, the NFL had its first 1,000 yard passer when Green Bay Quarterback Arnie Herber threw for 1,239 yards.  In 1967 Joe Namath became the first QB to throw for 4,000 yards and in 1984 Dan Marino threw for 5,000 yards. Simply put, mail-in voting, like the forward pass is a game changer. Since Marino threw for 5,000 yards that number has been eclipsed ten or more times.

I am not sure where this act of saving our elections from ourselves fits into the timeline of our county’s democratic principles. Voting rights can be easily fit into historical narrative and are often associated to important events in our history. The most obvious is the Fifteenth Amendment giving freed slaves the right to vote. Then there was the Twenty-sixth Amendment ratified in 1971 which allowed 18 year-olds the right to vote. This amendment came out of the Vietnam War. If a young man or woman was old enough to die for their country they surely should be old enough to vote much like their forefather in the Continental Army. The Twenty-fourth says the right to vote shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex. I am surprised Congress has not taken up some sort of restrictions on trans gender people from voting. Maybe in the near future besides proving we are citizens we will need medical proof of our sex. Selfies do not count.

I really think the GOPers in Congress are not reading the writing on the wall–adapting to the forward pass or mail-in or drop box to voting. They need to scrap Trump’s revenge plays trying assuaging the “Big Man’s” ego and start looking downfield at the changing times. Putting more obstacles in the way of voting flew away with Jim Crow.

Trump’s Mythical Tropical Thunder and Big Stick Diplomacy

mystoryorhistoryLeave a comment
William Allen Rogers, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Mythology or fact. In American mythology Teddy Roosevelt said to “speak softly and carry a big stick.” He never went around actually beating people over the head, but it did get him a prominent spot on Mount Rushmore. President Donald Trump seems to have taken Teddy’s myth to heart with his South American diplomacy. To paraphrase President Teddy Roosevelt Trump is more of: Threaten everybody and carry a big sledge hammer.

Most of us are familiar with Teddy Roosevelt as the mythical cowboy, the “Rough Rider” charging up San Juan Hill. His actual presidency not so much. Do we remember that he won the Noble Peace Prize in 1906 for mediating an end to the Russo-Japanese War. We probably know more about Greek Mythology thanks to Brad Pit and Percy Jackson than we do about Teddy and how he built the Panama Canal. Teddy could easily be turned into some sort of X Man or Guardian of the Galaxy super hero. We are more aware of the Mount Olympus crowd of gods and the quests of Hercules than the reality of our own mythical heroes on Mount Rushmore.

In fact, we may even know more about the Trojan War and mythical battles between Achilles and Hector than we do about the Spanish American War. How many people know who spoke those immortal words: “You may fire when ready Gridley.” Or who Gridley even was. But here are blowing up Venezuela as if it were 1898. It seems that we are teetering on some sort of tropical disturbance with the US Navy leading the way. Is it because of drugs; is it for oil? Are these realistic reasons for flooding the region with US military asset? Based on history I would say yes. After all, we didn’t hesitate to protect United Fruit Company’s banana assets in Central America from 1891 to 1934 using the US Marines as the “big stick.”

The Trojan War started with the kidnapping of the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen. Paris kidnaps Helen to Troy, this is not an elopement because Helen is a married to the King of Sparta. Before long Greeks are manning their “triremes” and rowing to Troy to bring Helen back and to bring Paris to justice. In reality it makes for a good love story: Young lover steals young girl’s heart; jilted lover seeks revenge. Or maybe a two-part episode of Law and Order Special Victims Unit.

I doubt the kidnapping Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores is going to send thousands of narco boats to Key West. However, some people claim that this whole tropical thunder campaign is revenge for Trump losing the 2020 election to Sleepy Joe Biden. After all, when all the conspiracy theories are added up how could the turtle possibly beat the hare. Did the turtle who started the race have a twin hidden along the way somewhere?

According to The Independent, “In the days after the 2020 election, Trump-connected figures floated debunked conspiracy theory that election technology firms Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic were designed to rig Venezuelan elections and then deployed to the United States to manipulate results to put Joe Biden in office.”

Like any good myth, or fable, a good deal of influencers promoting falsehoods are needed to keep Trump’s “bogus ‘stolen election’ narrative alive.” These hasty generalization are continually repeated to keep air moving through them. It’s the CPR that keeps these “long-dead conspiracy” alive and on some sort of political respirator.

“Hasty generalization is a logical fallacy that occurs when a conclusion is drawn based on insufficient or unrepresentative evidence. This type of reasoning often leads to stereotypes and oversimplifications, as it involves making broad claims based on a limited set of examples or experiences. It highlights the importance of adequate evidence and careful consideration in both deductive and inductive reasoning.”–fiveable.me

Archaeologist, going back to the 1880s continue today looking for ancient mythological sites like Troy, Mount Olympus or Crete to find a historical narrative. Team Trump, like archaeologists, has left no theory uncovered in search of a historical narrative that leads to him winning the 2020 election. But like ancient discoveries they can be credible but do not necessarily confirm the myth. The myth of Trump’s 2020 victory remains a poetic political history, now a sad saga in the face of all the harsh contrary legal rulings.

If the Ancient Greeks can create believable mythical narratives, can the same sort of fabrication be created today? For instance, the Trump Administration has created a myth that claims immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were eating the towns’s pets. There is probably as much truth to that claim as to the cyclops, Polyphemus, eating several of Odysseus men trapped in the cyclops’s cave on his way home to Ithaca after the Trojan War.

“Myths narrate the sacred history of the acts of supernatural beings and tell how the physical and social universe came to existence through the deeds of the supernatural. In this way myths become the exemplary models for all significant human activities. By knowing myths, one knows the origin of things and hence can control and manipulate them at will. In most cases it is not enough to know the origin of myth, but it must be recited and ceremonially recounted. It has been said that by reciting myths one re-creates primordial times and emerges from the profane time to enter the “sacred” time of original events.”–continuum.fas.harvard.edu

Americans have their share of tall tales and folk lore, like George Washington throwing a silver dollar across the Potomac River. That’s quite feat when some of the best NFL quarterbacks can only throw a football 70 yards. I have been to Mount Vernon and from George’s front door I can tell you he did not chuck a silver dollar across the Potomac . At least not there. Maybe up river some place where you can walk across. All this makes me think why would he throw a silver dollar to begin with. Why not a rock? I think the silver dollars embellishes the myth. But do we hold this exaggeration against the man who supposedly could not tell a lie; and later become the Father of our country? I am not sure if the myths about George Washington are still taught in school or not but the continual reciting gives Washington supernatural powers.

The belief, or non belief of Washington throwing a silver dollar, in my mind is just not true. I would hate to call it a lie because a lie in most cases, for whatever reason, is an assertion or an attempt to mislead and deceive somebody. The silver dollar story is more of a hyperbole to exaggerate the greatness of Washington. Today, I just don’t hear too much hyperbole. I don’t hear tall tales of a giant lumberjack wrestling with a blue ox. What I hear are, and I would hate to call anybody a liar; are bold faced falsehoods, stories intended to mislead and deceive. Some simply call them lies.

Today we have left hyperbole in the literary dust. The first thing that makes today’s falsehoods confusing, is that they are laced with a collection of “alternative facts” in an attempt to make a logical political debate misleading. To paraphrase Mary Poppins: Just a spoonful of truth makes the lie go down. The second thing that makes today’s falsehoods dangerous, is they are based on a continual flow of hasty generalizations that disrupt and confuses any sort of understanding as to what just happened. As citizens we are forced to sift through partisan unsubstantiated social media claims and influencers with suspect credentials. This kind of biased news goes beyond reporting on half the truth. It is full blown bending the facts to deceive and mislead, not to mention inflame ones sense humanity: They’re eating the dogs. Are they? Is Atlas still holding up the world?

The real confusion with Trump’s Tropical Thunder is that it is mixed in with so many other unrelated hasty generalizations: His search for the Northwest Passage through Greenland; trying to change the definition of who is an American citizen–and then deporting alien scum rinsed out of the system. The nation is now on a mythical quest to Caracas, Venezuela to rescue a kidnapped 2020 election. It is also the quest based on the biggest hasty generalization of our time: That Trump is Making America Great Again, probably the biggest myth Americans have ever put on a hat.

From a Purged Female Pharaoh to an Erased Font for its Wokeness

mystoryorhistoryLeave a comment

I really had to laugh the other day when I read that Secretary of State Marco Rubio rolled back the State Department’s use of Calibri as the department’s font. First, the Biden Administration changed fonts from New Times Roman, a font with serifs, to  Calibri, a sans serif font type.

According to DW.com “The US Secretary of State says the Calibri font, introduced under Joe Biden, is wasteful, confusing and degrades the department’s correspondence. The move is part of Trump’s bid to undo Biden’s pro-diversity policies.” I think Rubio is saying in a round-about-way that the pen, with the right style of font, is greater than the sword.

Let’s take the Declaration of Independence, one of our first historical documents issued before we were even a country, as an example. Thomas Jefferson is given credit for writing the Declaration of Independence but the task of actually putting the words to parchment using quill and ink was Timothy Matlack, the assistant to the Secretary of the Second Continental Congress. According to the National Archives Matlack “transcribe(d) the document using a patrician style called English round hand or Copperplate.

“Matlack’s handwritten document lends a sense of elegance, authority, and—most important—anonymity to the Declaration of Independence. The purpose of the document is to justify American independence and raise support for an independent United States, both within the colonies and abroad.”

Standardization and formality have long been hallmarks of official documentation, such as legal or government papers. For this reason, the mastery of fine handwriting became a profession itself, and the craftsmen who expertly transcribed texts for hire were called “penman.” The mark of “good” penmanship was its artful appearance. Fine letter formation instilled trust and so carried an importance equal to what the words actually said. –prologue.blogs.archives.gov

Timothy Matlack is the scribe whose impeccable handwriting adorns the official, signed parchment on display in the National Archives Rotunda.
Charles Willson Peale, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Rubio also proves, in a round-about-way that a font like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Or in this case what is confusing and degrading. Now, using Rubio’s reasoning, the Biden administration switched to Calibri because the State Department thought it was easier for people with vision problems to read.

But here is the real problem with the current administration’s switch back to New Times Roman. The recommendations to shift fonts came from the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. Their decision was based on studies that Calibri was a cleaner font to read than New Times Roman.

Poor Calibri, erased by guilt from association, caught in the world of woke. Somehow the Trump State Department views Calibri as a woke font because it might be easier to read. However, readability had nothing to with Rubio’s change of fonts. Herein-lies the kicker. Anything with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion label sewed onto a government study, in this case the Calibir Font, is going to be sent to the Woke Second Hand Store found in the section of nonrenewable concepts of inclusion.

The definition of legibility is this: how easily individual characters or symbols can be distinguished from one another, how easy they are to recognize. If a font is legible, you can effortlessly distinguish between similarly shaped symbols even in small text sizes…Readability refers to the ease with which a reader can understand a written text. The definition in this context focuses on how easily the reader can scan or “glide” through lines of text without distraction or difficulty (ease of reading).—typttype.com

I personally don’t care what font the State Department uses. The State Department can hand write their correspondence using crayons from the classic 64 Crayola box. (I don’t think you would find them using “Colors of World Skin Tone” 24 color box set.) What I am getting tired of, and to paraphrase Trump’s “Russia, Russia, Russia” is “Biden, Biden, Biden” with an occasional Obama thrown in there. I would have been satisfied with we want a font with serifs and be done with it.

I think it really has more to do with purging “anything” to do with Obama and Biden. Just google Obama and Biden policies reversed by Trump. It is a long list ranging from environmental climate change initiatives dealing with clean air and greenhouse gases to fuel economy standards and federal minimum wage. Oddly we have not heard anything about the Administration’s victory over Trump’s war on water pressure. Ending this war is never included in the eight or so touted wars this Administration has ended.

But wiping out a predecessor’s legacy is nothing new. If we could travel back in time on Mr. Peabody’s Way Back Machine to Hatshepsut’s rule (c. 1479–1458 BCE) in Egypt, we would find the systematic eliminations of anything to do with her rule as pharaoh.. According to worldhstoryedu.com, “The motivations for erasing Hatshepsut’s legacy are complex and likely rooted in political, religious, and cultural considerations. First, her ascent to power was unconventional, as she took on the full role of pharaoh while a male heir, Thutmose III, was available, albeit a child at the time.”

Additionally, “Some historians have also suggested that Hatshepsut’s erasure may have been part of a broader ideological movement to purify Egyptian history. The pharaohs who followed Thutmose III, particularly during the reign of Amenhotep II, took further steps to restore a strict adherence to traditional roles and practices.”

Seated statue of Hatshepsut Metropolitan Museum of Art, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

It is interesting to note that according to worldhistory.org, ‘Women in ancient Egypt were regarded as the equals of men in every aspect save that of occupation. The man was the head of the household and nation, but women ran the home and contributed to the stability of that nation as artisans, brewers, doctors, musicians, scribes, and many other jobs, sometimes even those involving authority over men.”

Hatshepsut must have really ticked off Thutmose III; her purging was done so well she was forgotten to history. Egyptians had deep beliefs about the afterlife. They believed if one’s name was removed from history this would have serious ramification in the afterlife “…it is believed that whoever removed her from public knowledge did not wish her ill after death and so preserved her name in more secluded areas.” History is out there somewhere.

It wasn’t until the 19th century that archaeologists unearthed, “in the more secluded areas” her statues, monuments and other related long lost inscriptions. It was from these discoveries that archaeologists and historians were able to determine the great impact Hatshepsut had on the development of New Kingdom’s 18th Dynasty.

History is full of purges. We can look back to October 13, 1307, a Friday when King Philip IV and Pope Clement V decided to gruesomely rid themselves, and then avail themselves of the so called fortunes of the Knights of the Templar. Ironically no fortunes were found and people have been looking for buried treasure for centuries.

As for the choice of what font the State Department uses I ask: Does anybody really care?