Unheard Lessons in Demagoguery

Trump was acquitted in his second impeachment trial on this date in 2021.

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Yesterday Zuzu pulled out an apt quote from Frozen as we looked out over the Gettysburg Battlefield from Little Round Top: "Funny how some distance makes everything seem small."

February 13, 2022

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McConnell, who signaled he will vote to acquit, said on January 19: "The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people, and they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government, which they did not like."

So he's saying that although Trump incited the insurrection, he's not guilty of inciting the insurrection.

February 13, 2021

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Republican Senate votes on the impeachment fall into two categories:

- I voted to convict Trump for inciting an insurrection, because he obviously did it.

- Although Trump clearly incited an insurrection, I voted not guilty because the Constitution wouldn't let me.

They seem to have two starkly different views of the Constitution- one in which they believe it in principle, and another in which they use it as political cover to continue holding their party above it.

February 13, 2021

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All 100 Senators know the same thing McConnell knows- Trump lied to his supporters for months, gathered them while the rightful certification of the transfer of power was happening, incited them to disrupt it, and sat quietly for hours while they stormed the Capitol causing death and destruction. It's a plain truth. 

So justice has not been served, but justice will be served. There's simply no question that every court in the country would convict him, and he will be convicted. That conviction prohibits him from ever running again under the 14th amendment.

February 13, 2021

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The Onion- Man Excited To Get Tattoo That Will One Day Be Used To Identify His Corpse

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Gretel and Zuzu wanted me to take more snake pics.

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Get ready for war. Critical viewing. Does this sound like someone your should support? (Trump says he stands behind everything he said.)

Stephen Miller, top policy advisor- "Our opponents, the media and the whole world will soon see as we begin to take further actions, that the powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial and will not be questioned."

February 13, 2017

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Train Conductors Describe The Creepiest Things They've Seen

https://www.ranker.com/list/creepy-railroad-stories/rosa-pasquarella

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I read the whole article, friends. It was definitive.

Vice- The Definitive Analysis of ‘The Handshake’ Between Donald Trump and Justin Trudeau

"This was no regular handshake. This was the first shot in a bloodless war."

February 13, 2017

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Carson is touting the fact that he's received more 2am emergency phone calls than anyone else running. I'd imagine that any emergency call any time of day would wake him up.

February 13, 2016

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Richard is improving after a mild stroke, and I don't think anybody even prayed for him. His doctors advised him to stay away from controversy for a bit... haha, wonder how that will go.

February 13, 2016

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Bernie Sanders- "Henry Kissinger’s actions in Cambodia created the instability that allowed Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge to come in and butcher 3 million people – one of the worst genocides in the history of the world. So count me in as someone who will not be listening to Henry Kissinger."

Count me in as someone who will not be listening to people who listen to Henry Kissinger.

February 13, 2016

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Imagine the Vietnamese having a memorial 34 times as big as ours.

February 13, 2016

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Ricky Gervais:

The universe could not have just come from nothing. God must have created it. 

Where did God come from?

He's always been around.

Cheers

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Gretel was fussing on the way to my parents this morning so Pepper hopped in the back and kept her company. A marvelous example of interspecies friendship. 

February 13, 2015

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Run for your lives! It's the Wrap-Around Effect!!!

February 13, 2014

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Make sure to hate Lent, cause if you like Lent too much you have to give up Lent.

February 13, 2013

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On this day in 1633, Galileo arrived in Rome for his trial before the Inquisition, unsure if you would be tortured or killed for simply reporting on what was plainly, and mathematically, true.

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With the success of a nuclear test codenamed "Gerboise Bleue", France bacame the fourth country to possess nuclear weapons, and the least fearsome by a longshot.

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On this day in 2011, for the first time in more than 100 years, the Umatilla were able to hunt and harvest a bison just outside Yellowstone National Park, restoring a centuries-old tradition guaranteed by a treaty signed in 1855.

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Jerry Springer was born on this day in 1944.

"I’m so sorry. What have I done? I’ve ruined the culture."

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Henry Rollins joined us on this day in 1961, as Will You Still Love Me by the Shirelles was being replaced at the top of the charts with Lawrence Welk's Calcutta.

"Go without a coat when it's cold; find out what cold is. Go hungry; keep your existence lean. Wear away the fat, get down to the lean tissue and see what it's all about. The only time you define your character is when you go without. In times of hardship, you find out what you're made of and what you're capable of. If you're never tested, you'll never define your character."

I don't think I've ever considered that Henry Rollins has the same last name as Jimmy Rollins.

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Other notable birthdays- Tennessee Ernie Ford (1919), Chuck Yeager (1923), Kim Novak (1933)

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Notable deathday- Antonin Scalia (2016)

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Can't wait to see what this guy does with his other 13 minutes of fame...

https://youtu.be/FmiS0RNNp28

February 13, 2009

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From another planet- Elvis's Lonesome Cowboy

https://youtu.be/fp7ZMwe1fHA

February 13, 2020

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If I'm ever sitting down unaware that Schiff or Raskin are passing, nudge me to stand up. I couldn't possibly have more respect for anybody who passionately fights for a righteous cause against insurmountable odds of winning despite any possible effort.

https://youtu.be/q7CX_5D6y6E

February 13, 2021

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Vivian Maier 

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Iggy Pop- "Something I like to do a lot is just sit by water when there's a current and just stare into the water. I don't fish, I don't hunt, I don't scuba, I don't spear, don't boat, don't play basketball or football - I excel at staring into space. I'm really good at that."

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Tsunetomo, Hagakure- “There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment. A man’s whole life is a succession of moment after moment. If one fully understands the present moment, there will be nothing else to do, and nothing else to pursue. Live being true to the single purpose of the moment.”

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Charlie Kelly, It's Always Sunny- "I'll take that advice under cooperation, alright? Let's say you and I go toe-to-toe on bird law and see who comes out the victor."

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Benjamin Franklin- "When you are finished changing, you're finished."

Sounds like he's plagiarizing Dylan. "He not busy bein' born is busy dyin'."

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Kant- "Coffee! Coffee!"

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Lincoln- "Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?"

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H.L. Mencken- "The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots."

Addendum

Myspace Blog

February 13, 2007

Is Jesus a MacGuffin?

Assuming, for the sake of argument, that there's no God- has Christianity been a net gain or net loss for humanity? It's provided morality and order for billions, given a reason to live for countless inmates, given inspiration for people to help the poor... and we'd have a lot less Johnny Cash songs without it. Hell, we might not have a Johnny Cash without it.

On the other hand... I'm reminded everyday by God Bless the USA bumper stickers that Christianity has served, and is serving, to separate us. That's a big deal. What percentage think Muslims are evil because they worship a different God? Did you know that Muslims believe they worship the same God, just differently? In Arabic, the English word "God" translates as "Allah." So in an Arabic country Christians believe in Allah. Lunacy, ain't?

This brings me to the point I'm making... or rather, the question I'm raising- Is Jesus a MacGuffin?

What's a MacGuffin you ask? It's a word popularized by Alfred Hitchcock as an object, event, or character in a film or story that serves to keep the plot in motion despite lacking intrinsic importance. Guy Haines' cigarette lighter in Strangers on a Train is a popular example. Another is the golden glow from the suitcase in Pulp Fiction. What they are isn't important. They are important because they advance the story.

So do people follow Jesus because of some unique truth and intrinsic value, or does he just "advance our story?"

I didn't have a religious upbringing but have still managed to create a system of order and morality for myself. Dare I tell you it had a strong foundation in Star Wars? Yes, I dare*. People have found the same thing in the Godfather- a movie described by some as baseless and violent. Many in Asia have found the same order and morality in Buddhism, a religion with (can you believe it?!?!?) no God. And on and on and on. So, no matter where you live there is some sort of system providing order and morality.

Does that make each system a MacGuffin where the archtypes are the same, but the details are different? And if the details are unimportant, then isn't Jesus a MacGuffin? If that's true though, couldn't we say that Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Stephen Colbert are also MacGuffins? They each advance a cause, but can't be simply written off as "having no intrinsic value."

Perhaps the individuals are important only as details in systems of the same basic morality. If that's true it would prove something necessary for our species to realize in order to survive, in my estimation. And yes, I say that without hyperbole. It would prove that we are more the same than we are different. A big deal! And then once we realize that others are no different than ourselves, perhaps we'd realize our personal responsibility to do unto them as we would have done unto ourselves. Yes, full circle!

You know the circle is an American Indian motif symbolizing oneness?

* "Anger, fear, aggression. The dark side of the Force, are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny. Consume you, it will..."

source- Wookieepedia: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Dark_side