The Wrongologist is reading Jay Winikâs April 1865: The Month That Saved America. It is about the end game in our Civil War. Winik describes how Lincoln, Lee and Grant actively decided to save America from the terrible fate that has befallen other countries afflicted by Civil War – countries like Bosnia, or Northern Ireland. Winik also reminds us of how old and durable the political split in this country has been.
And how breathtakingly vehement. And our current bitterness is consistent with our past bitterness. The names change, the parties re-configure, the particular issues in contention vary. And if you think youâve seen the worst of it, well, read some history. They say it tends to repeat:
They say you have a mandate:
Keystone Pipeline looks like it will pass:
We either did, or did not, get an emissions deal with China:
Throughout his campaign for reelection, Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell said it would be foolhardy to raise carbon dioxide emissions standards on American companies as long as China was sticking to business as usual. But now that China has agreed to take a big step away from using coal as its primary fuel source, McConnell still wants to fight implementation of the new agreement.
Then there is the collegiality shown by Mr. Boehner:
From the “One picture worth a thousand words” Department:
[State Department photo/ Public Domain]
A shopkeeper sells an oil lamp to Secretary of State John Kerry during Mr. Kerryâs visit to the Muttrah Souk in Muscat, Oman on November 10th, during a break in the stalled nuclear negotiations with Iran.
Kerry said:
Sometimes one has to resort to unusual measures to solve all these difficult problems.
The guy in the souk, apparently named Ali Baba (of course!) told Kerry:
This genie lamp will magically enlighten the world about your wisdom.
Really? Enlightenment about John F. Kerryâs wisdom? It is difficult to resist commenting. Is Kerry purchasing tchotchke to put in one of his many homes? Is he onboarding a new foreign policy tool for his team? Possibly, Kerry is asking, âwhat can you tell me about its provenanceâ? Maybe heâs thinking that it would be cool to bring an exotic, three wish device to his next Skull and Bones drink up, and that he could summon a young woman from the lamp.
Is Kerry hoping that genie power is stronger than nuclear power?
Another way to view it is that the merchant is trying to close the deal by reassuring Kerry that the magic genie lamp will definitely grant the US Secretary of State three wishes. After all, it was made in China.
Maybe Kerry thinks he can use the lamp to:
1. Make Assad disappear
2. Make Putin disappear
3. Make Xi Jinping disappear
All Departments of State want a secret diplomatic weapon. Sadly, ours is not John Kerry.
And it probably isnât a Genie Lamp purchased at the Souk
Veteranâs Day came into being on June 1, 1954 as a date to honor all who served in the US Military. Memorial Day is a day for remembering those who died while serving in the Military. We celebrate Veteranâs Day on the date of the WWI armistice, the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918 that ended the fighting. That was exactly 96 years ago today.
Veteranâs Day brings the reflexive, âthank you for your serviceâ from everyone in America. The two things the average person could do to honor the service of veterans are to vote, and to make sure that Vets get the health care they need when they come home. Sadly, we do neither:
People: If you say that veterans died to protect our freedoms, you dishonor them when you donât vote!
The Census Bureau reports that in 2013, 3.6 million veterans had a service-connected disability, with 957,504 having a rating of 70% or higher. Severity of disability is scaled from 0 to 100%, and eligibility for compensation depends on the rating. Letâs also remember that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is at epidemic levels among Vets, as is suicide. According to a study by the Department of Veterans Affairs, 22 Vets a day commit suicide. You all know we continue to do a terrible job taking care of returning veterans, and you should be finding out why, and pushing your congressperson to finally fix it!
Veterans rapidly are becoming a two-age group cohort. The Census Bureau report shows that most Vets are getting older, with 47% over the age of 65. Tom Dispatch reports that todayâs military is made up largely of Millennials. In fact, with nearly 43% of the active duty force age 25 or younger, and roughly 66% of it 30 or under, itâs one of the most Millennial-centric organizations around.
How the âentitledâ generation will perform as our protectors is still up in the air. An NIH study determined that people in their 20s have Narcissistic Personality Disorder at a rate three times that of people 65 or older and a recent survey by Reason and pollster Rupe found that 18-24 year olds are indeed in favor of participation trophies while older Americans overwhelmingly favor winners-only prizes.
Millennials may yet surprise even a cantankerous coot like the Wrongologist. Time will tell.
Here are two terrific, but very under-appreciated tunes for Veteranâs Day. We start with â1968â by Dave Alvin.
Sample lyric: And tonight in this barroom he’s easin’ his pain He’s thinkin’ of someone, but he won’t say the name Folks say he’s a hero, but he’ll tell you he ain’t He left a hero in the jungle, back in 1968.
Here is another almost unknown song âIâm Writing in the Marginsâ from the album of the same name by John Gorka about a soldier in Afghanistan:
Sample lyric: I am writing in the margins Notes to me and you Cause the pages are all filled With new orders coming through
There are not a lot of rich boys Wearing DCUs and sand But Iâll think about that later When I make it home again
(DCUs are Desert Camouflage Uniforms)
There is a great story told about a T-Shirt worn long after the war by a Vietnam Vet. On it was the outline of a map of Vietnam, superimposed with:
Participant, Southeast Asia War Games, 1961-1975: Second Place.
Huge thanks to the guys/gals who follow orders, who do really hard and dangerous things and who too often pay a high price for doing so.
From the âThose who do not learn history are doomed to repeat itâ department, there is this quote from Harry S Truman:
If itâs a choice between a genuine Republican, and a Republican in Democratic clothing, the people will choose the genuine article, every time; that is, they will take a Republican before they will a phony Democrat, and I donât want any phony Democratic candidates in this campaign.
Steve Israel, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Robert Bennett (the Democratic brain trust behind the Demâs 2014 performance), clearly didnât learn much during their history lessons.
We all have different values and interests, so it is natural that we disagree on public policy. Open and honest debate would be healthy, but our politics these days is mostly negative, destructive and often dishonest. Speaker Boehner warned the President not to “poison the well” of goodwill by taking action on immigration. In almost the next sentence, the Speaker himself poisoned the well by saying the House will vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act (a vote that will go nowhere). Regardless of what you think about either issue, the Speaker’s words ended any shot at constructive debate. Mr. Boehner isn’t stupid. While being hypocritical is bad policy, it is often good politics.
This is what happens when you vote based on political ads:
Along with the conservative wave, voters also went in another direction:
We live in a time when we require drugs, super-heroes, and religion to help escape the realities that we have created for ourselves. Now is not the time to drift off.
Despite their intent, those that didnât go to vote also voted:
Be afraid, be very afraid:
Finally, letâs remember Tom Magliozzi, co-host with his brother Ray, of NPR’s Car Talk, who died this week from complications of Alzheimer’s disease. Car Talk was a temple of funny advice, mostly about our problems with cars. But they often got into other areas. The Wrongologistâs favorite was their philosophical deliberation on the question:
Do two people who donât know what they are talking about know more, or less, than one person who doesnât know what they are talking about?
With this discussion, they illuminated a key question about our politics. The boys easily addressed the issue: two people who know nothing actually know less than one person.
If you think about ANY two politicians, you know they were correct.
When people decide not to vote because the parties are not different from each other, candidates with strong ideological commitments win. That elected person then tries to move the country in the direction of an ideology supported by a minority of voters.
For the past 20 years, that direction has been a death warrant for the American middle class. If you think that the middle class is really what made America âexceptional,â then those political leaders elected to implement and sustain a corporatist agenda have worked to destroy the American Dream, while they hypocritically endorsed and exploited it in order to get elected.
The US is in the middle of a course of corporate political imperialism that has savaged average Americans, while it enriched plutocrats. Wealth has been consolidated, the means-of-production have been concentrated in the hands of a few corporations, and big business has effectively purchased our governments, both state and federal. Mostly because not enough of us take the time to bone up on the issues, or to vote in the off-year elections.
Two things need to change: First, more people need to vote. Second, we must throw off our corporate political masters. As long as we have a situation where corporations have all of the rights, but none of the liabilities of the people, they always have a competitive advantage over the public.
For both your Halloween hangover and your pre-election headache:
Jeb Bush floats idea of continuing the family dynasty:
Ebola Volunteers are heroes and potential disease vectors. Some politicians canât hold both thoughts:
Other epidemics caused by not voting:
Texas has apparently âsolvedâ the voter fraud problem:
Your thought for the weekend is from the movie, The Birdcage:
Senator Kevin Keeley: Louise, people in this country aren’t interested in details. They don’t even trust details. The only thing they trust is headlines.
Well, CNN headline writing is as bad as their broadcast. Is that Helvetica?
Since it is Nobel Prize time, here is an anecdote by Walter Gilbert (1980 winner in Chemistry) about what happens when you travel with your medal:
When I won this, my grandma, who lives in Fargo, North Dakota, wanted to see it. I…decided Iâd bring my Nobel Prize. It was uneventful, until I tried to leave Fargo, and went through the X-ray machine. I could see they were puzzled. It was in my laptop bag. Itâs made of gold, so it absorbs all the X-raysâitâs completely black. And they had never seen anything completely black.
âTheyâre like, âSir, thereâs something in your bag.â
I said, âYes, I think itâs this box.â
They said, âWhatâs in the box?â
I said, âa large gold medal,â as one does.
So they opened it up and they said, âWhatâs it made out of?â
I said, âgold.â
And theyâre like, âWho gave this to you?â
âThe King of Sweden.â
âWhy did he give this to you?â
âBecause I helped discover the expansion rate that the universe was accelerating at.â
At which point, they were beginning to lose their sense of humor. I explained to them it was a Nobel Prize, and then their question was: âWhy were you in Fargo?ââ
How corporatists fight Ebola in Texas:
The truth is, everyone is infected by the headlines:
âBe afraid. Be very afraid.â In 20 letters, itâs the platform and program of the GOP:
Complete version: Be afraid of Africans, Hispanics, Democrats, Liberals, Muslims, Atheists, Foreigners, Gays, etc. If fact, be afraid of just about everyone except the GOP. Because those OTHERS will take your money, take your job, take your gun, infect you with diseases, break into you house, rape your women folk, strengthen and enlarge your government, spend your taxes, use your resources, raise your prices, insult your God, hurt your feelings (saying âHappy Holidaysâ instead of âMerry Christmasâ), corrupt your children, impoverish your descendants, enlarge your government, make life in your suburb or your condo no better than that of a slave on a plantation⌠and did we say enlarge your government?
If the above makes sense to you, then vote the Republican ticket in November. The GOP wonât accomplish anything, but they will validate your paranoia, and that will feel so good!
Stock Market gives back all of the yearâs gain in one week:
The Supremes non-decision causes a wedding:
Malala winning the Nobel makes many parents jealous:
ISIS recruiting steals American Slogan, âE Pluribus Unumâ:
Our country is hated abroad, and frightened at home. We have reached a point where we could reasonably refer to the great American Republic in the past tense. We have edged into a post-constitutional era, no longer a nation of laws, but an autocracy run by law evaders and law ignorers, a culture in which corruption is no longer a form of deviance, but the norm.
We all live in a Mafia-run neighborhood:
By now, everyone knows about the evils of bankers and their Washington facilitators: Wall Street lobbies Congress for favorable deals, Congress then approves them at taxpayer expense. When things are this bad, the very structure of our society is threatened, and voters have to stress fundamentals over issues. We need to move beyond the divisive cultural issues, all the single issues, even critical things like the environment, war and peace, and the âeconomyâ, and focus on structural issues. We have to leave the culture wars and even big political differences behind, and make alliances among votersâbecause right now, none of us are being heard.
Will White House security improve with new leadership?
However, a new threat jumped the fence:
For months, the Ebola outbreak was confined to West Africa, a region more than 8,000 miles away. But this week a patient was diagnosed with the deadly virus in Dallas, Texas, bringing Ebola hysteria right on home. We have heard typical reassurances from the CDC, while some politicians have engaged in fear-mongering. But, unless lots of Americans plan on exchanging bodily fluids with people who live or work in West Africa, we’ll be fine.
Politicians talk about terror and say: âwe could all be killedâ. They speak about Ebola and say: âwe could all be killedâ. Mothra could also come back, and you know the nation isn’t prepared for Mothra. Where will we get enough Raid? Do we have Godzilla’s cell number? OK Obama, what are we supposed to do?
Meanwhile, the actors in the Middle East continue to mis-hear each other:
And in HK, not only no hearing, there is no listening:
The Saudis make its relationship with the coalition very clear:
We learned this week from the Wall Street Journal that Mr. Obama made a deal with the Saudis. They will lend legitimacy for our attacks against ISIS and Al Qaeda in Syria (Jabhat al-Nusra). Then, the US will move against the Assad government in Syria. The neocon editors of The Economist are doing victory laps. Here is the âObama Accomplishedâ photo from The Economist story:
Despite the new strategy, Obama is not sleeping well:
America sends troops to Africa, Cuba sends doctors and nurses:
Finally, in new analysis from the Pew Research Center, fewer Republicans believe in evolution today than did in 2009:
⢠43% of those who identify with the Republican Party say they believe humans have evolved over time, plunging from 54% four years ago
⢠48% say they believe âhumans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time,â up from 39% percent in 2009.
How unbelievably stupid does one have to be to believe that evolution is a hoax? Itâs only a guess, but it is probable that a poll would show a higher percentage of Americans believe in the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus. Here are the data:
Never let facts get in the way of a good belief system.
Will this be the Military Service Patch for our never-ending involvement in Iraq?
The Old Lady from South Carolina (OLFSC), on Fox a week ago: (emphasis by the Wrongologist)
This is a war weâre fighting! It is not a counterterrorism operation. This is not Somalia. This is not Yemen. This is a turning point in the war on terror. Our strategy will fail yet again. This president needs to rise to the occasion before we all get killed back here at home.
He said the same thing a decade ago. Then-freshman Sen. Lindsey Graham (OLFSC) worried that Saddamâs (nonexistent) cache of nerve gas âcould kill millions of peopleâ.
Some people think Arabs are an existential threat, but climate change is a myth?
The Arab Nations really are backing our ISIS effort…Really:
We will see if we truly have an exit strategy:
In other news, independence remains elusive in Scotland:
