Madness, Stonewall, and the March of Progress

Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, 1776- "I love the [women] that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but [s]he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves [her] conduct, will pursue [her] principles..." -

(From the Thomas Paine Facebook profile, in the wake of the Cassidy Hutchinson January 6th testimony on Trump flying into a rage when secret service would not let him go join the riot.)

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Jean-Jacques Rousseau's birthday today. He joined this nuthouse in 1712.

"To be sane in a world of madman is in itself madness."

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We lost Rod Serling on this day in 1975. He was a guy who knew a bit about madness.

"This highway leads to the shadowy tip of reality: you're on a through route to the land of the different, the bizarre, the unexplainable...Go as far as you like on this road. Its limits are only those of mind itself. Ladies and Gentlemen, you're entering the wondrous dimension of imagination. Next stop... The Twilight Zone."

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The Ultimate Warrior- THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR IS TOTALLY OUT OF CONTROL!

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Here's a smattering of thoughts on the debate last night. 

Lies and all, Trump clearly won. Biden did not even mention his strongest points in his final statement, which he had weeks to prepare and memorize. 

I've watched every presidential debate for 20 years, and Biden's performance reminded me of Roger Ebert's review of Freddy Got Fingered. "This movie doesn't scrape the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn't the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn't below the bottom of the barrel. This movie doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence with barrels."

I watched most of the debate with Gretel, and after about 15 minutes without prompting her one way or the other I asked who she thought was winning. At first she was trying to make excuses for Biden, but then seemed relieved to just admit the plain truth that Trump was winning. I complimented her. It's hard to want something to be true, recognize it's not, and admit it. Many people pay no heed to the is/ought distinction, satisfied believing that what should be true is true. To make any progress in the world, we need to admit what is true.

The New York Times is reporting what we all saw- Biden stood there mouth agape, eyes darting back and forth. Doesn't really inspire confidence.

I'm thrilled that journalists are reporting that top Democrats recognize that they have a huge problem that needs to be fixed. 

But who should the Democrats run? That's why Biden should not have ran to begin with. That's what the primaries are for.

One of the key moments for me, was near the end when they reminded Biden that he would be 86 at the end of his second term. 86, whoa, and look at 82. Look at how different he was last night from the State of the Union. That was 6 months. He can't make it four and a half years, and Kamala Harris is more unpopular than him. He can't win.

Biden surrogates on the news this morning look like idiots trying to make the case for him. They tangibly look like they don't have any idea what they're talking about. They're making points that Biden could not make himself.

Republicans have been running those attack ads now for months, and Biden's campaign was saying that they were taken out of context. Last night we had an hour and a half clip that proved that they are all true.

I have a new favorite Trump lie- that presidential historians all agree that he was one of the greatest presidents. Hahaha. Even Republican historians in that poll put Trump in the bottom 10.

My least favorite Trump moment is exactly what it always is- that he won't commit to the peaceful transfer of power. He said as long as it's "a fair and legal and good election"... which clearly means one thing, he'll only respect the results of an election that he wins. He has said some version of this now for 8 years. Take a step back, this one fact about Trump tells you everything you need to know about him. He believes in himself above the country. 

Take another step back, if the Democrats remain loyal to Biden out of a sense of duty to him, they lose. They would be putting a person above the party to catastrophic results, which is exactly what the Republicans have done. 

If Trump's performance was as terrible as Biden's, I wonder how his people would be spinning it right now. I think I know- "Clearly the best debate performance in history!"

June 28, 2024

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"Two fossils poking out each other's eyes." Whoa.

Welles Music

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/C95vX66oRgUaRriZ/

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To the veterans of the Stonewall Riots, and to all gays and lesbians who have been oppressed, you're the modern American heroes. I dug up a special video for you...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4Xz7WV_qJs

June 28, 2010

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PT Barnum was 50 years old in 1860. I wonder how different the country would be if he was elected president that year.

June 28, 2020

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I hope Gretel doesn't want to become a marine biologist because she keeps calling an octopus an "applepus" and there's absolutely no chance of me correcting her.

June 28, 2016

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Let's be thankful that the consitutional originalists on the Supreme Court aren't also Biblical originalists or they would have ruled the plaintiff an abomination and had him put to death.

June 28, 2015

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It makes sense that the worst president ever is buried in the worst section of Lancaster. Serves his corpse right!

June 28, 2014

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God's enemy is the devil but Jesus says to love your enemies. What does the holy ghost think of this?

June 28, 2009

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George Carlin, on Mohammad Ali:

He said, 'No, that's where I draw the line. I'll beat 'em up. But I don't want to kill 'em.' And the government said, 'Well, if you won't kill people, we won't let you beat 'em up.'

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The song I've loved my entire life, but haven't known that I've loved: Ca Plane Pour Moi, by Plastic Bertrand

https://youtu.be/Ln31raI2ezY

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Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie were assassinated in Sarajevo on this day in 1914- the catalyst for World War I.

Also on this day, the Treaty of Versailles was signed, ending World War I.

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On this day in 1997, Evander Holyfield heard the sound of Mike Tyson taking a bite out of his ear.

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Jean-Jacques Rousseau, endlessly quotable.

"The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying This is mine, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows, "Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody."

"I would rather be a man of paradoxes than a man of prejudices."

"People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little." 

"I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery."

"The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless."

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Mel Brooks turns 96 today, born in 1926:

I was a corporal in World War II. One day, I took eight guys out on a scouting mission, and we found a box of German rifles. Nearby, there were telephone polls with the ceramic insulators at the top. So I say, “A buck a piece—whoever can knock off the most insulators gets the pot.” We grab the rifles and start shooting. Somebody from Arkansas—they know how to do it—knocked off all of them and gets the nine bucks. When we get back to our base, sirens are going off. Everybody’s running around. I see my sergeant and ask what’s going on. He says, “Communications have been cut off between the 7th Army and the 26th Corps. All the telephone lines are down. We think there are snipers and we’re getting a patrol together to find them.” Now, I’m a little scared. I know exactly who’s at fault. So I said, “Okay, count me in.” and out I went again. We never did find them.

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The author Hemingway was born in 1928 and turns 94 today. Patrick Hemingway of course, not the regular Hemingway. Patrick is an author too.

"Literature is what intelligent people have instead of dope."

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John Cusack was born on this day in 1966. I can guarantee that he had at least one unforgettable night in his life.

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Elon musk was born on this day in 1971.

Antisthenes- "Wealth and poverty do not lie in a person's estate, but in their souls."

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Other notable birthdays- Pat Morita (1932), Gilda Radner (1936)

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Another notable deathday- James Madison (1836)

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Snopes: Trump Denies Briefing on Reported Bounties Against US Troops- President Donald Trump denied that he had been briefed on reported U.S. intelligence that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing American troops in Afghanistan.

Maybe he was briefed, and maybe he wasn't. It would be a good to have a leader who isn't defined by his lying. IF it's true, and he sat on it, while welcoming them back into the G8, can 100% of us agree that he goes packing?

What would actually happen? Maybe his approval would go from about 38% to 36%? Would Republican leaders have the moral courage to draw a line in the sand now and universal condemn it? Again, IF it is true... you know, that he continued to cozy up to the Russians even after finding out the were paying the Taliban to kill our troops. Why do I get the feeling that even under that hypothetical, Republican leadership wouldn't crack???

And why wouldn't they? Republicans might stand a better chance of winning the White House and Senate with him gone. Wait, could this be a Republican Hoax?!?! That would be a ruse for all-time.

Seriously though, we could be living in a different world right now if Senate Republicans had the courage to convict Trump of what they knew he was guilty for, and Pence was currently truly in charge of the Coronavirus response.

I'd probably disagree with him on every policy point otherwise, but I can guarantee that he would prioritize the health of citizens and the nation over continuous ego-driven quests to win that day's news cycle.

https://www.snopes.com/ap/2020/06/28/trump-denies-briefing-on-reported-bounties-against-us-troops/

June 28, 2020

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Rod Serling again- "All the Dachaus must remain standing. The Dachaus, the Belsens, the Buchenwalds, the Auschwitzes -all of them. They must remain standing because they are a monument to a moment in time when some men decided to turn the earth into a graveyard, into it they shoveled all of their reason, their logic, their knowledge, but worst of all their conscience. And the moment we forget this, the moment we cease to be haunted by its rememberance. Then we become the grave diggers."

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Mel Brooks again, to Terry Gross- "Boy, boy, when I did "The Producers," I got a thousand letters, mostly from rabbis and Jewish organizations. How dare you? It's the Holocaust, you know? And they were right, and they were wrong. And I would say, you're not wrong. You're absolutely right to take offense at it. But let me tell you this. If we're going to get even with Hitler, we can't get on a soapbox because he's too damn good at that. We got to ridicule him. We got to laugh at him. Then we can get even. And, sometimes, I get a letter back saying, maybe you're right, you know? It was OK."

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Sophocles- “Rather fail with honour than succeed by fraud. ”

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Albert Einstein- "It gives me great pleasure indeed to see the stubbornness of an incorrigible nonconformist warmly acclaimed."

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Jung- "About a third of my cases are suffering from no clinically definable neurosis, but from the senselessness and emptiness of their lives. This can be defined as the general neurosis of our times."

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Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary- "Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum -- "I think that I think, therefore I think that I am;" as close an approach to certainty as any philosopher has yet made."

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Salman Rushdie, Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1992- "Meaning is a shaky edifice we build out of scraps, dogmas, childhood injuries, newspaper articles, chance remarks, old fillms, small victories, people hated, people loved; perhaps it is because our sense of what is the case is constructed from such inadequate materials that we defend it so fiercely, even to death."

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J.D. Salinger- "You're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You're by no means alone on that score. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them—if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry."

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Ricky Gervais- "Mondays are fine. It’s your life that sucks.”

Addendum

Part 1

Dan Rather, June 28, 2018:

To all who are downcast with the current turn of events in our national saga, to all who fear hope is lost, a few quiet words of encouragement.

To give up and give in is not in the American character. Over the course of a long life I have seen unexpected leaders rise up and movements succeed against the odds. Our nation has repeatedly experienced many dark days and entire chapters of despair. And yet the American story has continued, and I would say, in the main, become a tale of increased freedom, justice and decency.

Before succumbing to discouragement or defeat, I ask:

Did you winter at Valley Forge?

Did you salute Lincoln's funeral train?

Did you attend Kennedy's interment at Arlington? 

Were you on the balcony in Memphis?

Did you hear the bombs at Pearl Harbor?

Or face the guns at Normandy?

Or walk a patrol through the jungles of Vietnam?

Was your voice silenced, your vote denied and your appeals for justice ignored on account of your gender?

Did you shelter with Harriet Tubman?

Did you see a mother sold down the river and away from her children?

Were you in the streets at Stonewall?

Or on the bridge in Selma?

Were you a loyal American interned in camps during World War II?

Did you walk the Trail of Tears?

Did you lose your farm in the dustbowl?

Were you beaten on the picket line?

Was your book banned?

Did you feel the bite of the police dogs in Birmingham?

Or did you lose everything in the Great Depression?

Were you labeled guilty as a Communist due to your associations? 

Were you barred from college by a gentleman's agreement? 

Were you denied due process?

Were you stopped by police on account of your race?

Were you separated from your children at the border?

Is your voting district gerrymandered?

Is your water contaminated?

There are so many questions from the past and the present. For many of you, the answers to some of the questions above is yes. Others face different challenges. But in every case, the American story is one of people rising up and saying some version of, ”never give up, never give in.” And then--not just saying the words but turning the mantra into action.

Today, many Americans face the choice of “fight or flight” in the political arena-- and face the choice on many other fronts --- but all towards one goal... a more perfect union.

Part 2

I asked check GPT to write the first paragraph of a novel about World War II in the style of Hemingway. I don't know, simultaneously brilliant and a little bit off.

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In the dawning grip of an ashen sky, the trenches breathed, exhaling the acrid tang of worn-out men and the relentless ache of anticipation. The air, crisp and heavy with foreboding, clung to the weary souls who bore the weight of a world at war. In those early hours, as dawn's tendrils caressed the desolate landscape, an orchestra of distant thunder and whispered echoes conspired to sculpt the symphony of suffering and courage, woven in the tapestry of a conflict that would forever etch its mark upon history. And so it began, this somber dance of destiny, where warriors became mere shadows, their essence fading like smoke, seeking purpose and redemption amidst the relentless tempest that was World War II.