Former President Donald Trump is often going on about his legal troubles as if it was a witch hunt. At first glance when somebody says witch hunt they probably think of America’s most famous witch hunt: The Salem Witch Trials. These trials took place in 1692 and according to the The National Endowment for the Humanities, “19 (people) were hanged, one pressed to death and five others died in jail.”
According to NPR the last known witchcraft trial was in Virginia in 1706. Grace Sherwood was subjected to the only known way, at the time, to determine if she was a witch. The locals tied her up, and tossed her into the Lynnhaven River. Unfortunately for Sherwood, she floated, “which meant that the devil must be supporting her and therefore she was guilty as charged.” As far as I could tell that is still the only method around to determine if someone is a witch.
Since Trump has repeatedly called his legal woes a witch hunt, it might be reasonable to assume he is trying to avoid some sort of skulduggery that is akin to witchcraft. I have never witnessed a witch hunt but I am willing to bet that most witch hunts have been unsuccessful in actually bagging a real witch. It is like someone saying they rode a unicorn. This may be a good legal tactic on the part of the former president. If he can keep his legal woess in the realm of witchcraft, it is highly unlikely he will be convicted. Unless prosecutors are able to tie him up and chuck him into the Potomac to see if he floats.
But to think that Trump’s attorneys would play the witch card is ridiculous. It is more likely he is going to pursue a different definition of a witch hunt. The one we are more familiar with in modern times. Cambridge Dictionary states that a witch hunt is “an attempt to find and punish people whose opinions are unpopular and who are said to be a danger to society.” This definition is more akin to Senator Joseph McCarthy’s shaking the apple tree in the 1950s trying to see how many delicious pinko reds would fall to the ground.
That definition definitely works for some people. However, I think Trump is using the Merriam-Webster definition that states a witch hunt is “the searching out and deliberate harassment of those (such as political opponents) with unpopular views.” This definition fits Trump better as he campaigns around the country. He can cast himself off as a victim of socialist regime hell bent on purging the country of people hell bent on making America great again. I think this definition is the paranoid Orwellian looking over his shoulder. What are you hiding in your basement?
The former president is facing some serious federal criminal indictments. Mixing federal cases and witchcraft makes little sense at first glance. But it really is ingenious. The last convicted witch was at the turn of the beginning of the 18th century. Federal cases, however, are a different matter.
Many years ago I heard a lawyer say if the Feds want you the feds will get. Trump has to realise this. He has mentioned Al Capone several times in speeches. Capone, one of the notorious and vicious mob bosses of the 1930s, gets convicted on income tax charges. Really. At least Hunter Biden has some gun charges thrown in with his tax fraud case. FBI.gov says, “Capone was convicted after trial and on November 24, (1931) was sentenced to eleven years in federal prison, fined $50,000 and charged $7,692 for court costs, in addition to $215,000 plus interest due on back taxes.” And to add a cherry on top, the feds threw in an extra six months for contempt of court.
In the past decade sports analytics have been used to improve teams performance on and off the field. I am sure high-priced law firms have an analytics department. “Legal analytics,” according to LexisNexis.com are “tools (to) help lawyers make data-driven decisions on which to build their legal strategies. That could mean things like knowing the probability of a specific motion outcome, how seemingly unrelated cases connect, or how much a settlement award could be.” A little bit more sophisticated than seeing if a person accused of witchcraft floats or not.
What is interesting is that Trump’s lawyers have to be aware of the success rate the Feds have when they go to trial. First off it appears that the Feds are always the home team. It is their ball, their court and their rules. According to pewresearch.com they have a huge winning percentage, too. “In fiscal year 2022, only 290 of 71,954 defendants in federal criminal cases – about 0.4% – went to trial and were acquitted, Another 1,379 went to trial and were found guilty (1.9%).”
But here is the kicker, almost 90% of defendants in 2020 didn’t even go to trial. They pleaded guilty “while another 8.2% had their case dismissed at some point in the judicial process.” Just looking at the percentages less than 9% of those defendants in a federal criminal case came out on top.
Witch hunts hardly, if ever, turn up a real witch let alone convict someone of some sort of sorcery. However, a witchcraft trial is an iffy outcome. If you float you are guilty. And, well, if you don’t, you drown. Despite the 50-50 odds of winning neither verdict generates a positive outcome. Analytics can’t be telling Trump’s lawyers to take those long shot odds in Federal court. Whichever course he takes it looks like he is going to get dunked in the Potomac River; or spending time in Secret Service protection, just not in the Oval Office
I can only imagine how much fun historians will have in 50 or so years from now will have in trying to come to terms for the era we are living in now. Will they try to give it some sort of official historical name like the Era of Ill Feelings. The Rouge Era, where political institutions went off the rails. The Second Great Awakening when religion finally brought government and God together. Or will they simply name it after a person like the Victorian Age and call it the Trumpian Age.
Historians in many ways are like astronomers without space mounted telescopes to look back in time. Instead of telescopes, historians use data, observations, primary sources from the time in question. And today, with so much technology, social media anybody with a smartphone can be a chronicler of history. There is a no dearth of information available. Our technology is so acute that we can even pick up somebody farting during an interview. Not that there is a whole lot of historical significance in that.
But, just imagine if John Kennedy’s assassination took place in the age of the smart phone. Abraham Zapruder filmed one of the most defining moments of the 20th Century using a an 8mm Bell & Howell home movie camera. He filmed in Kodachrome but without sound. His 27 seconds of film has created never ending controversy and conspiracy theories to enthrall generations of conspiracy buffs. (With the emergence of the cell-phone cameras Kodak stopped making Kodachrome in 2009. The following year it went bankrupt.)
Today, football instant replays have more cameras and angles to determine if the nose of the football “broke the plane” of the end zone than we had in 1963 to determine which way Kennedy’ head was moving at impact. I know, too soon; but it is a point of conspiratorial contention.
Just think how many smartphones would have filmed Kennedy’s assassination. And from all sorts of angles revealing information that investigators can only dream of—and not to mention Closed Circuit Camera filming traffic. We probably would have had well over 500 videos of the assassination. Heck, somebody was able to film Wagner Group’s mercenary leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin’s, plane “crashing between the villages of Kuzhenkino and Kuzhenkinskoe in Russia’s Tver region. All 10 aboard were killed” according to CNN. I am sure the twin “K” villages are no comparison to Dallas/Fort Worth—even in the1960s. But somehow somebody manage to get a video—Putin vision. Was there a lone missile man on the ground behind the goat pins; or was it a bomb in the luggage? Only the Main Directorate of the GRU knows and they ain’t sayin’.
Historians also can be prognosticators of the future. Look at ESPN’s College Gameday. Every Saturday during football season pundits try to predict this week’s games and how they relate to each other. Searching for which team will be upset ruining their quest for the coveted Number One ranking. Those commentators look at the past trying to piece together a future.
For instance, we can look back 200 years ago and see some historical similarities of today. In 1817 President James Monroe went into the heart of Federalist territory: Boston Massachusetts. His visit was spun as a goodwill tour but to some Federalist Party members at that time it could have been seen more as an “in your face” moment.
With the death of Alexander Hamilton the headless Federalist Party got thumped in the 1816 elections and again in 1820. They had lost every election to a clan of Virginian Democratic Republicans since 1800. (Those Republicans are no relation to today’s GOP.) Some, Federalist however, could see the writing on the wall. Our country was in the midst of what Boston journalist, Benjamin Russell, writing in the Columbian Centinel, termed as the “Era of Good Feelings.” The Federalist Party was still around but for all practical purposes it had already started to fade on into the history books.
What made it an Era of Good Feelings was basically the fact that Monroe and the Democratic Republicans had no opposition barking at them. Monroe basically ran unopposed in his second presidential bid, technically the last president to run unopposed since George Washington. So yes maybe it was a time of good feelings. Monroe and company were like the Yankees of the 1920s and ‘30s; the 40’s and 50’s.
Today it is different. It is time where civility has turned to an age of toxicity. The social atmosphere of this planet could be compared with that of Venus, where sulfuric acid rains down creating a hellish place to be caught without your stainless steel umbrella.
And then there is Mike Johnson the new Speaker of the House. He said, “Someone asked me today in the media, ‘People are curious, what does Mike Johnson think about any issue?’ I said, ‘Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That’s my worldview.”
That might be good spiritual advice in a swampy Louisiana bayou. But today, I am not sure if most people are gonna find comfort in a leader looking back five or six thousand years for advice from Moses. I am not sure which part of the Bible Johnson prefers. For instance, if it is the Old Testament where it took two or three witness are needed to have a person stoned to death for certain crimes, Donald Trump might be in big trouble in Georgia. Three of his lawyers could put him center stage at a rock concert.
However, Trump might want to thank James Madison. It could possibly be argued that Madison looked to Moses’ example of separating the Red Sea for inspiration in separating church and state when he wrote: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Hence, comes the belief in church and state working different street corners in peace. This could then dovetail into the Eighth Amendment’s cruel and unusual punishment clause, which could keep Trump out of the rock pit in the belief that stoning someone to death sounds a bit cruel. So which is it, Old Testament fire and brimstone or New Testament forgive and love your neighbor–but no coventing?
But we have had Biblical difference before the New World even got settled and on its feet, Catholics and Protestants were going at it in Florida. In 1565 Spanish Catholics massacred French Huguenots (Protestants) who tried to set up a colony, Fort Caroline, north of St. Augustine on the St. Johns River. Spanish General Pedro Menendez de Aviles made sure that the Protestant colony never got settled when he killed more than 300 settlers and soldiers. Menendez, however, being the good Catholic, and probably adhering to the current worldview at the time, gave the Frenchmen a chance to convert to Catholicism. Most refused and were put to the sword. I am not sure where Menendez found that worldview in scripture.
I do not mean to question the Bible. I will, however, question man’s interpretation of it. So whose world view is Mike Johnson talking about? Is the Bible being pulled off the shelf a Vulgate Bible, which according to vulgate.org “is a Latin version of the Holy Bible, and largely the result of the labors of St Jerome (Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus), who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 A.D. to make a revision of the old Latin translations.
Or is Johnson cracking open The New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition Bible. According to the episcopaliannewservice.org “The New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition Bible is the result of a commission of the Society of Biblical Literature by the National Council of Churches, which includes dozens of denominations representing 30 million church members.”
But here is the real kicker about this Bible. This “ecumenical and interfaith” Bible can be the one Bible “suitable in Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox and Jewish context.” Furthermore, “It attempts to reverse the historic trend in translation history from the 19th and 20th centuries in which some Christian communities and scholars of the Bible were historically excluded from the translation endeavors of our English Bibles.”
Sounds sort of woke to me. I just wonder what “Christian communities” could have been excluded.
What is amazing about all of this is that it comes at a time when a portion of our country cannot agree on the results of the last presidential election. What makes us think we can decide on which Bible to pull off the shelf to get a unified worldview. Or election results.
It looks as if the paleomammalian (old mammal) brain has collectively taken over House Republicans. Led by the ever de-evolving King Lizard from Florida, Matt Gaetz, the GOP caucus just sacked the Speaker of the House with less thought than where they put their car keys.
Before the House Republicans search for a new leader they might want to begin looking for where they lost their mind. It was neuroscientist Paul McLean who came up with the theory that our brains are divided into three parts, much like our government. And like our government, each section of the brain has a specific function. For instance the primitive or reptilian part of the brain is responsible for keeping the lights on. That is to say things that we take for granted like breathing and blinking.
The paleomammalian brain, the limbic system, is thought to be the emotional part of the brain. It is the warning system of the brain that tells us “hey look out the sky is falling.” It is where subconscious responses come from to keep us safe. Which is really a good thing because it is times like those that we have to make that snap judgment to get out of the way of that falling piano. Something Wile E. Coyote always had a hard time doing.
This brings us to the third part of the brain, the part of the Republican Party brain that seems to have gone out to lunch for the last eight or so years: The neomammalian or new cortex–the prefrontal cortex. It is what thescienceofpsychotherapy.com calls the “‘smart brain’, the executive part of our system that is responsible for all higher order conscious activity.” Oh, but I forgot the House Republicans oppose the current executive decision maker.
There are two key difference (keeping it simple) between the primal and the neo-prefrontal cortex part of the brain. The neo side is a bit “slower in responding to incoming information” than the paleo-limbic system. It is, however, much more sophisticated in processing information. This “‘slow’thinking’ is the hallmark of human intelligence.” Something I am not sure is fully developed and functioning to capacity in the GOPers that roam the Halls of Congress. It is one thing to say, fire the Speaker of the House; but then like a bunch of middle schoolers they have no answer for their actions when hauled into the principal’s office. The “I don’t know” response may have seemed like a good idea at the time. But it is not a sufficient answer, as many of us who have had that little chat know.
cogsci.stackexchange.com
We could take all of this neuroscience to psychoanalysis and really muddy up the waters with Sigmund Freud’s theories on human behavior. Again, according to Freud, we have three elements to deal with: the id, ego and superego.
It would be impossible to put House Congressional Republican Party into some sort of psychoanalysis. But collectively it seems that they have lost a portion of their mind and and are operating at less than full-capacity. According to simplypsychology.org, “The id is the impulsive (and is the unconscious) part of our psyche that responds directly and immediately to basic urges, needs, and desires. The personality of the newborn child is all id.”
Furthermore, “The id is also stubborn, for it responds only to what Freud called the pleasure principle (if it feels good, do it), and nothing else.” The id also has a strong “death instinct.” And “when this energy is directed outward to others, it is expressed as aggression and violence.” The id, like the House Republicans, do not operate in the realm logic or reality of the everyday world. This might help explain January 6th.
Before I get to the ego, I think what is lacking in Congress today is the superego. “The superego operates on the morality principle and motivates us to behave in a socially responsible and acceptable manner.” And its “function is to control the id’s impulses, especially those which society forbids, such as sex and aggression.”
It would be unfair to the current group of Congressmen to say they lack certain moral principles. That claim could be made of a lot of past Congresses. But this group, the 117th Congress, appears to have broken the sound barrier on fundamental conventions of governance. So basically we have a House of Representatives being operated by an extremely large addled-minded kid with no morals and unchecked aggressive behaviors.
So we now we come to the third component of Freud’s trinitarian mind and the one most of us are familiar with: ego. Simply psychology says, “The ego operates according to the reality principle, working out realistic ways of satisfying the id’s demands, often compromising or postponing satisfaction to avoid negative consequences of society.” It is hard to imagine that all the stuffed shirts and blouses on Capitol Hill lacking an ego. But here we are.
But here is the kicker: It is called “reality testing.” If a plan of action (like firing the Speaker) does not work, then “it is thought through again until a solution is found. This is known as reality testing and enables the person to control their impulses and demonstrate self-control, via mastery of the ego.” At this point I am not sure if the House can master itself let alone function according to the Constitution. The main function of the House of Representatives is to come up with a budget. It fails miserably at this Constitutionally mandated duty.
I am not a psychoanalyst but then I do not think you need a PhD in psychology or one from the Harvard school of government to realize that we have a really dysfunctional Congress. It is a loony bin where the inmates hand out the meds and Matt Gaetz determines when to turn off the lights.
What is really frightening is that this group of inmates wants to hand out meds to the other two branches of the government, which most of us agree are barely cognisant without the House of Representatives help. Basically we have a House of Representatives that is semi-brain dead, an emotional cripple and unable to relate to others. Or as six grade teacher questioning an unruly student behavior: Have you lost your mind?
Back in August of 2018 I posted that Donald Trump would win the 2020 election. I was wrong. But I was correct in the drama he creates. Historians may have a lot to say about the Trump era, the rigged election, fake electors the storming of the Capitol. But one thing is for sure, the man knows how to create a reality show.
It is not my intention of rehashing what has been the reality of the last eight years or so. Who really wants to live life from the “golden escalator” ride to the presidency to the January 6th slide into the dark side of democracy and all the side shows in-between. As an aside, one of my favorite news clips from that January 6th day is when the crowd is trying to break through a police line in a tunneled passageway into the Capitol. I image the 300 Spartans defending that narrow coastal pass of Thermopylae against the massive Persian Army trying to break through. In the midst of the mob thronging the tunnel you can see some guy throwing a crutch at the police. I imagine if they had a kitchen sink that would have been tossed in, too. But only in America would there be a handicap accessible Beer Hall Putsch. You just cannot make this stuff up.
The one thing that Trump has given us, and this is undisputed, is riveting television. In the midst of a writers’ strike we still have those zany antics of Trump and Associates. There just does not seem to be Trump fatigue or point where the Trump reality show has jumped the shark. In many ways it just keeps getting better. It’s like CSI, it creates its own spin offs. The Trump Saga continues with the two Congressional Jameses. These two apostolic Trump followers are zealots, part of the Sadducees and Pharisees of the MAGA doctrine.
While The Trump Show has moved from the White House it is now in the GOP controlled House of Representatives. We now have The Jim Jordan Judiciary Show: Justice is Out There on Somebody’s Laptop; and Oversight is Over Right staring James Comer as the Chairman of the House Oversight Committee. Both are hot on the tail of the “Biden Crime Family” but Comer in particular. He has taken up the role of cleaning the White House of all sorts of criminal activity both foreign and domestic. It is a tough nut to crack with the investigation digging deep into secret and nefarious Biden Family deals from Ukraine to China.
This is right out of Mario Puzo’s The Godfather. The only difference is that this story centers around the Irish Mob led by the level headed, even-tempered Don, “Slow Joe” Biden. Don Joe started running his crime family in the shadows of the famous mob families in New York, Philadelphia and Boston–in Delaware, home to some of the most corrupt families in the world: US Bankers.
Don Joe saw a chance to take his family global when he was elected to the Senate in 1972. His dream was to become the ultimate boss of bosses: President. He took several runs but never had the muscle. But he never gave up hope. All the while he was grooming his sons to take over the “family business.”
His hopes in 2016 were dashed. And then the Trump Family struck first, hard and fast. Led by Don Don Trump they took the Democrats to the mattresses using outside muscle from the Russian mafia. Another blow to Old Slow Joe’s hopes of becoming the Boss of Bosses. Or so we thought. The Biden Family regrouped and eventually out fought the Trump family in the high desert of Arizona, in the streets of Milwaukee and woods of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. But it was a rainy night in Georgia that killed Don Don ‘s hope. He could not find the foot soldiers to flip the Georgia election. When the sky cleared it was the Biden Family that won the day.
However, the story is not over. With these new GOP backed Congressional shows the possibilities are endless. Don Don may be in the hot seat, his legal woes mounting; but his allies are striking back. So far the ratings are down but there is hope that GOP script writers, no match for the striking Hollywood writers, will come up with thrilling plot lines featuring Hunter Biden as their Breaking Bad‘s Gustavo Fring. Maybe they will garner a Network primetime slot or possibly streaming on Hulu.
But these Congressional spectacles are just the teasers for next season, which will be more like the The Valachi Papers. This will center around the trial of Trump’s chief Lieutenant, Mark Meadows, his consigliere Rudy Giuliani, and 17 other low ranking “Buttonmen” of the Trump Family that will leave Atlanta burning for ratings.
We have not had a national trial since the 1995 OJ Simpson Trial. As a country that is addicted to crime shows we have had to be content with 20 plus years of Law and Order and its spin offs: Organized Crime (and Trump’s favorite: Special Victims Unit). The OJ Trial took nearly 10 months to reach a verdict. Can we imagine how long all of the various Trump and Associates’ trials may last. And with an election in there it should make for high drama viewing. Or what TV (and news) producers would call: “Must See TV.”
Former President Donald Trump made the trip to Miami to be indicted for not giving back the classified documents he took to Mar-a-Lago from the White House. According to him, the government’s charges are just the continuation of the communist/socialist deep state witch hunt he has been subjected to for the last eight years. Many of his followers have rationalized that the current administration is unjustly “weaponizing” the Justice Department against their political opponents.
In my mind, our country, “we the people,” deserve everything we are getting from the former President. We had more than enough time before the 2016 Presidential election to witness Donald Trump’s global shenanigans. We have had plenty of time to observe his character as a Presidential candidate and as President.
Since then, we have had plenty of time to witness his influence on the character of others who came into contact with him. Today we live in a tainted apple barrel where the bad bad apple has seeped into and spoiled all the barrels of our government. From the Executive Branch to the Legislative Branch and now the Judicial Branch we can see and smell the festering rancid apple’s contamination on our entire federalist form of government.
According to Merriam-Webster: “We define bad apple as ‘someone who creates problems or causes trouble for others; specifically, a member of a group whose behavior negatively affects the remainder of the group.’ This term is often misunderstood to mean that a troublemaker’s behavior is not representative of the whole group, but the proverb this term originally comes from is “one bad apple spoils the whole barrel.” We are at the point where Johnny Rotten-seed is propagating noxious orchards everywhere.
“…every good tree bears good fruit but, a bad tree bears bad fruit.”
Matthew 7:17
I am not one given to proselytize but Matthew Chapter 7 covers a lot of moral and philosophical ground to live our lives by. Whether you are a Christian or not; or if you don’t even believe in God, it is about building your life on a strong foundation, knowing people for who they are; and not judging.
“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.”
Matthew 7: 15
The interesting thing about judging is everybody has an opinion on how “things ought to be.” The concordance of any Bible has numerous citations on judgement, judging etc. For instance, John 7:24 Jesus says, “Stop judging by mere appearance, and make a right judgment.” So how do we tell which four-legged beast on the hillside are wolves and which ones are the sheep—making the assumption that there are always more sheep than wolves. Normally sheep run from wolves but today the sheep are running with the wolves.
It seems like Matthew 7 has us metaphorically bouncing back and forth between animal and plant. Jesus says “By their fruit you will recognize them.” He was so emphatic about rotten fruit that he repeats that sentence twice. Once in verse 16 and again in verse 20. And therein lies the dilemma, which tree is bearing all that bad fruit we are dealing with and which ones are just producing sour fruit. And then who determines if it is bad fruit or fruit that is just fermenting.
Rotting is an uncontrolled act of a food decomposing. Dangerous bacteria take over the food in question, breaking it down to a dangerous and foul state. Rotting kills the food.
Fermenting is just the opposite Fermentation is a controlled process that creates an environment in which the food is placed (jar, crock…); when done correctly, beneficial bacteria are produced that discourage the growth of harmful bacteria allowing you to eat it well past its usual shelf life.
fermentationkitichen.com
Some people claim that those who wrote the Constitution where the equivalent of today’s Evangelical movement. Without a doubt the foundation of our country is build upon the Judeo-Christian foundation–“values”–and not sand. But one must remember that in the late 1600s and early 1700s Quakers in Pennsylvania didn’t mix to well with Congregationalists in Massachusetts. Anglicans in Virginia had their qualms with Baptists and most colonists kept a suspicious eye on the Papists in Maryland–and later nobody cared for Latter Day Saints, who got chased right on across the Mississippi River and out to Utah. I am going to go out on limb but I would think that all of the various religions could agree on what tree gives off good fruit and which trees should be hewn down. And I would also go farther out on that limb that those who wrote the Constitution put together a document based on secular beliefs of the time with the idea that they would reflect the diverse views Judeo-Christian ethics. Granted, there are exceptions to every rule (of law).
I think the world honestly would be a much healthier place if instead of trying to find rationalizations for our bad behavior we would just say, “I was an asshole. Sure, there were reasons behind it, but that doesn’t matter.”
Colin Quinn
In the last year we have witnessed some surreal and absurd public behavior that has people rationalizing what kind of fruit is coming out of the apple barrel. Debating public policy is one. There is no Good Shepherd protecting and guiding the flock. We have shamans and one-eyed pirates roaming the hillsides beguiling the herd. What we are experiencing is the active and open deception of wolves and sheep commingling under the spell of a deal maker. We the people somehow voted him in; but as Carl Sagan once said: “Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”
Pete: The Preacher said it absolved us.
Ulysses Everett McGill: For him, not for the law. I’m surprised at you, Pete, I gave you credit for more brains than Delmar.
Delmar O’Donnell: But they was witnesses that seen us redeemed.
Ulysses Everett McGill: That’s not the issue Delmar. Even if that did put you square with the Lord, the State of Mississippi’s a little more hard-nosed.
After watching a few minutes of Donald Trump’s CNN New Hampshire town hall with fellow Republicans and undecided voters, I thought to myself: why am I watching a rehash of the last two or three years?
First of all, there was no “news” coming from this town hall. So we can take the “News” out of Cable News Network and replace it with Nitwit. Trump was recycling old reruns or the 2016/2020 elections. I particularly got a kick out of Trump saying he got 12 million more votes in 2020 than he got in 2016. It was more like 11.2 million votes. But who’s counting. Surely not Trump–at least not accurately.
Trump’s 2016 and 2020 election results are similar to two Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl appearances. In 1978 the Cowboys beat the Denver Broncos 27-10. However, in the following Super Bowl they scored 31 points, four more; but lost to the Steelers by four points. Sure they scored more points against the Steelers than they did against the Broncos; but they still lost.
The CNN town hall reminded me of what my Dad would say after a somewhat racus, animated business meeting. When the discussion came to an end and bummed-out people were leaving he would say: Don’t go away mad. Just go away. This is my question: When is Donald Trump going to go away.–mad or otherwise? It is obvious that to make America anything this guy has got to get off center stage. And CNN is not helping by giving him another 15 minutes to pedal his self-concocted version of reality TV.
How is it possible to report on Trump and not speak of the big lie, or say they’ve broken norms if not laws?
Robert Reich LAProgessive
Our political situation has us doubling down on everything. We have a couple of octogenarians running for president. The nearest GOP challenger to Trump as of now is the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis. And he has not even announced if he is running. At 44 he is a little more than half the age of the Joe Biden and Trump. DeSantis, however does not want to make America great, he wants to take America on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride at Disneyland. He seems more interested fighting “woke windmills” and running against Mickey Mouse (who will turn 95 in November). Two of Trump’s other challengers come from South Carolina. This could be a political comedy: “Guess Who’s Coming to the Chicken Plate Fundraiser.”
Biden’s only announced rival is a reboot of the ’60s with Robert Kennedy, Jr. He says his “mission over the next 18 months of this campaign and throughout my presidency will be to end the corrupt merger of state and corporate power that is threatening… to impose a new kind of corporate feudalism in our country.” It sounds good but I think most Americans could not tell the difference between a feudalistic economy and a socialist economy let alone describe corporate feudalism. As a nation we have not yet come to grips that this country based its economy on slave labor for its first 200 years of its existence. Nobody today remembers when “cotton was king” and made up nearly 60 percent of America’s exports in 1860.
Our political parties have us backed into a corner in a room without windows to even jump out of. Despite being under criminal investigation the GOP is clinging to Trump like the last piece of flotsam from a sinking ship. The Democrats, on the other hand, will ride Biden and the Old Gray Mare to wherever the old horse will go. It use to be a politician could leave office out the front door. Walter Mondale and Al Gore come to mind. Some, however, slither out the back door or jump out of the side window. Presidential aspirants like Gary Hart and John Edwards come to mind. I don’t think a criminal conviction would convince Trump and his followers it’s time to turn out the lights the party’s over. And it could be for the GOP. As for Biden, the pasture might be a pleasant place to graze away the days.
Turn out the lights The party’s over They say that all Good things must end Call it a night The party’s over And tomorrow starts The same old thing again
Willie Nelson
Andy Warhol is credited with saying “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” The statement assumes that after your 15 minutes you would step off the stage. But that was said in a time before social media and cable news. People like Donald Trump have managed to turn their “world-famous” 15 minutes into years. It really is about time we brought the curtain down on Trump and shove him off center stage because as we saw on CNN it was the same old thing again.
Fox Broadcasting Company, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The recently settled defamation dispute between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems for almost $800 million brings up a lot more about Fox than money. First off, who has close to a billion dollars laying around to buy themselves out of lawsuit and not miss a meal? It says something about Fox News‘ cash flow and their current business model.
From what I can garner Fox News‘ net worth is somewhere north of $16 billion. In comparison, CNN‘s net worth is around $6 billion and MSNBC ‘s just under $60 million. An $800 million loss of any sort would have put a serious hitch in CNN‘s giddy-up and would have wiped out MSNBC. Fox News seems to shake it off like a wet dog drying off.
The Fox News‘ settlement brings up what really is the “News” aspect of Fox News. It begs the question what kind of news gathering company is Fox News. I can’t get the image of Groucho Marx responding to an indignant Blonde, who feels she had been insulted, demanding an apology by asking, stupidly, “What kind of woman do you think I am?” To which Grocho says, “We have already established that. Now we are haggling over the price.”
The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.
photo flickr
To be honest I gave up on Fox News as a news source long time ago. The last couple of years or so it seems that Fox News is more of an entertainment company writing the news (and making the news) instead of reporting it. The veracity of their storyline, in my mind, is suspect; or it is your lie but I can tell it anyway that makes me money. Pushing an alleged false narrative on your viewing public seems to pay off handsomely. Just look at tobacco and pharmaceutical companies that have made billions pushing addictive products on an unsuspecting consumer. So why not News.
Fox News has found the right business/news model that treats the news as a running soap opera. It brings people back to the set every night for another episode of As the Country Burns, One Lib to Own and The Guiding Right. Throw in some fantasy and the soap opera model pays out handsome dividends. It is the $500 slot machine that keeps paying out. However, it is not American Exceptionalism but American Extravagance. As long as you are making bucketfuls of money its okay until its not. And then we wonder why.
Since its fraternity with Donald Trump, Fox News has played fast and loose with the facts. They have taken up the Trump administration’s view that “alternative facts” like the “Demon Cat” that haunts the halls of the White House is a real feline that can expand itself to the size of an elephant. News at times can go beyond believable especially when it involves a “Florida man allegedly throw(ing) an alligator into Wendy’s.” And Florida men are playing prominently in the news of late since Trump moved to Palm Beach.
And let’s throw in another element to the news: fantasy. Fantasy takes us into riding unicorns or dealing with dragons and dungeons. And I guess that is why it is so easy to peddle stories that can go beyond imagination to the domain of fantastic, alternative facts. Once it’s spoken on prime time it becomes reality. Take for instance the growing interest in unidentified ariel observations; UFOs to those born before 1980. The “little green men” from outer space have become Jews with orbiting space lasers. Just as believable as ET calling an Uber for a ride home. Anything is possible in the realm of fantasies.
Fantasy sells. Take the movie Avatar: The Way of the Water. The movie took in $2 billion. It is estimated that the production costs where $250 million. Some sources think it was more like $350-to-$400 million. However you slice it there is a nice chunk of profit investing in one of the top grossing movies of all time.
As I said, making money is okay until it is not. Take Dominion Voting Systems, a company that took umbrage to being the unpaid-credited main star of Fox News‘ fantasy-reality shows, decided the fantasy of stolen election had gone on long enough. The fabrications being spewed by some should have been a mini X-File series. There may have been more truth watching Fox Mulder and Dana Scully investigating The Untold Truth of 2020 Election then the stories peddled by anchor-heads at Fox News. At least any “untruths” would have been protected under literary license and disclaimers. In the end the those pushing the stolen election theory on the News could find themselves with a ticket in their spaceship headed back to their home world. So far Tucker Carlson is the only one to leave the planet.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
The Book Designer
The truly sad state of affairs is the irreparable harm Fox News‘ business model has done to the news gathering process in general. It appears that the extreme ends of the political spectrum drive the storylines; and profits. It has forced me to look at news in a completely different light. It is always good to question what you think you believe. But I look at the news the way Olympic judges evaluate figure skating. Olympic judging throws out the high and low scores and then averages the middle scores. I throw out the far right hysteria and the far left agitation and look for something in the middle. This concept only works some of the time.
It has been said that Alan Barth coined the phrase in 1943 that “News is only the first rough draft of history.” If that is so, when historians reach back into the news archives for that first rough draft of the year 2023 what will historians or anybody think when they view Fox News from this era: The X Files: History is out there somewhere–but not here.
John Trumbull, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
It seems like everytime I look at a news there is some sort of proposed bill to give parents more say in the classroom or to curb the continued march of “wokism” in schools throughout the nation. One state in particularly is leading the way: Florida. And one possible presidential candidate is the white knight leading this charge: Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis, who boldly proclaims Florida is where woke goes to die.
DeSantis has gained political traction with a sprawling “anti-woke agendathat includes preventing the teaching of AP African American Studies and what legislators deem critical race theory in Florida public school classrooms. A bill currently before the Florida Legislature would prevent the state’s colleges and universities from teaching “American history contrary to the creation of a new nation based on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence.”
Sheryll Cashin Politico
I was employed in 2005 in the Palm Beach School District. Later, I worked in the Alachua County School District. For almost 15 years in both school districts I was either a substitute teacher, a paraprofessional or middle school social studies teacher. I spent a lot of time in my own classroom and in others. I cannot ever recall teaching or witnessing some of the topics that some are trying to legislate today. I never had to shoo a kid out of a class because they were some sort of domesticated animal. I did see some kids come dressed to the hilt in Gothic attire. I will say my “gaydar” pinged loudly with some kids. But the attitude was more President Clinton’s don’t ask. We never discussed sex changes or what bathroom someone wanted to use or what sports teams someone wanted to play on. But maybe times have drastically turned upside down in the last three or so years since I have been out of a classroom.
Granted, there are some weird concepts and theories on gender identity floating around today that don’t make a lot of sense. We need a gender guidebook just to know what pronoun to use. It seems logical that some of these ideas would manifest themselves in schools and need to be addressed. Ideas in a school of 1,000 can go viral like the flu. I, on the other hand, went to a Catholic elementary school where stepping out of line, or thought, was dealt with quickly with stinging results. So yes, times have changed and they will continue to.
My guess to all of these changes were simmering well before I stepped out of the classroom. This call to wokism and cultural wars was jump started in 2008 with the election of Barack Obama as president. America’s first non-white president. His election is historically on par with the British army furling their flags, laying down their arms and marching out of Yorktown to the tune The World Turned Upside Down. (This may have started a British tradition. When the end is near, let the band strike up an appropriate dirge. It is believed the band onboard the Titanic “played on” ending their final set with Nearer, My God to Thee as the mighty boat slipped under to its watery resting place.)
Obama’s election brought out what James Madison writes in Federalist Number 10 the “latent causes of faction(s)…and we see them everywhere brought forth into different degrees of activity.” (Culminating with the storming of the Capitol.) The Federalist Papers were written to convince a skeptical 1787 public that a new United States Constitution was needed to replace the old loose association of states under the Articles of Confederation.
To many Obama’s election was as if the Earth’s poles swapped places and the core’s iron-nickel alloys started to melt. Madison continued, “human passions, have, in turn, divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to co-operate for their common good.” Just catch a few minutes of FoxNews or MSNBC. The only thing the two media outlets cooperate on is twisting news stories either to the right or to the left with the middle completely rung out. Sometimes it makes me wonder if the two networks are broadcasting from the same planet.
If a faction consists of less than a majority, relief is supplied by the republican principle, which enables the majority to defeat its sinister views by regular vote: It may clog the administration, it may convulse the society; but it will be unable to execute and mask its violence under the forms of the constitution.
James Madison Federalist Papers Number 10
If Obama’s election intensified smoldering discontent among a certain portion of the population, it was Donald Trump’s election that brought in the oxygen needed to create a public blast furnace. Madison hit human nature on the head when he wrote, “we see them (factions) everywhere (to the right and to the left) brought into different degrees of activity…A zeal for different opinions concerning religion, concerning government and many other points.” Today’s other points like wokism, culture wars and gender identification bring discontent to the forefront. No matter how irrelevant these points can be, thrown into the furnace they keep everybody liberal, conservative, woke or sleeping in flames. Or as Charlie Daniels once sang that people are running around “like their heads were on fire and their asses was catchin’.”
The instability, injustice, and confusion introduced into the public councils, have, in truth, been the mortal diseases under which popular governments have everywhere perished; as they continue to be the favorite and fruitful topics from which the adversaries to liberty derive their most specious declamations.
James Madison Federalist Papers Number 10
What Trump turned loose, among other things, is a belief in populist democracy. This has created a lot of faulty understanding about government and motivated people to believe in their opinion as fact, alternate or not. All of this was aggravated by lack of substantive leadership. As Madison writes, “It is in vain to say, that enlightened statesmen will be able to adjust these clashing interests, and render them all subservient to the public good. Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.” Today it is hard to determine who is running the looney bin, the mobocracy or mutton-headed elected officials.
While our government derives its powers from the people the country needs a steady hand at the helm. The preamble of the Constitution is explicit on just what our government is set up to do. However, our government is not a democracy. It is a representative form of government. For instance, at the local level some parents attest that they know best how and what to teach their children. This form of populism on first glance seems equitable. However, it is more likely to do more harm to education. The education system needs community and parental input. With that said it would be impossible to run a classroom with 20-to-30 co-teachers. Airlines do not fly their planes based on popular opinion or untried aviation concepts and theories. Nobody wants to crash and burn.
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Preamble to the Constitution
This populist belief has created a “mutual animosity” which has exploded into targeted violence in church shootings, demonstrations that turn into riots and a former president preaching that without him sinister forces will destroy the country. In most cases it is plain simple stupid-ass theories that have disrupted government. It has turned village idiots lose everywhere. Their suppositional beliefs have turned the common wall-sitting simpletons into shamans. Their prophecies have created “instability, injustice, and confusion introduced into public councils.” Creating what Madison called “a mortal diseased under which popular governments have perished.” County commissions and local school boards are inundated with populists cultural tenets and beliefs. Usually by those using bully tactics to get their way.
Trying to pin down what “woke ideology”is can turn into a bootless errand. According to Mother Jones, during a reinstatement trail for suspended Democratic Florida State Attorney Andrew Warren, fired by DeSantis for Warren’s contrary beliefs on abortion, “Taryn Fenske, DeSantis’ Communications Director said, ‘woke’ was a ‘slang term for activism…progressive activism’ and a general belief in systemic injustices in the country.”
Desantis’ General Counsel Ryan Newman said, “it would be the belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them.” Newman added that “DeSantis doesn’t believe there are systemic injustices in the U.S.” Using that logic it could be believed that everybody is just making shit up as they go along.
Using DeSantis’ base line for education based on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence can be tricky. For instance, could the Civil War be considered an act of “progressive activism” or an attempt at correcting a “systemic injustice?” Afterall it did upend the status quo socially and economically, particularly in the South. Old conservative concepts on race relations had to be rethought. A 155 years later we are still rethinking possible progressive activism like voting, Plessy v Ferguson, and Brown v Board of Education of Topeka.
Florida’s forgotten past–flickr
I lived in Florida most of my life. I went to junior high and high school in Florida, graduated from the University of Florida and first learned about the Rosewood Massacre in Florida from a historical road sign along State Road 24 while driving to Cedar Key. The Rosewood story is a Zombie Apocalypse compared To Kill a Mockingbird. I am not trying to make light of destroying an entire town when rampaging whites, backed up by 500 hundred Klansmen, took apart a small town of 200 people, mostly African Americans. Six black and two white people were killed but some believe the death toll was much higher. How does the Rosewood story fit in with universal principles of the Declaration of Independence? Could it euphemistically be overlooked because it could be construed as “conservative activism” or was it just sustaining a systemic socio-economic system that was overlooked and just not taught in Florida’s history classrooms?
What people assume is that history is a dead subject chiseled in stone. And in some ways that is true. It is more than just memorizing dates and names. What people tend to overlook is that history is the road from the past that leads to the present. It is how we got to where we are. Interpreting history gives meaning to the present. And sometimes history does not lend itself to principles stated in the Declaration of Independence.
America has a fascination for some reason with the English monarchy. One possible reason is that the Father of our country, George Washington, had no children of his own to pass the presidency down to. Even before he became president some framers of the Constitution advocated for some sort of monarchy. The concept never got any real traction and lost out to the republican faction that believed elected executive was much more democratic. Besides, the main cause of the Revolution was King George III’s intransigent position on Colonial taxation and rights.
This love-hate relationship with the King and his rule was knocked around by various colonials from time-to-time. But it was not until Thomas Jefferson explicitly laid out 27 specific grievances in the Declaration of Independence that the Continental Congress expressed its true feelings and dissatisfaction with the King’s rule. At least 16 of those grievances were directed at King George III. Any of which could have been determined treasonous. Ben Franklin must have certainly understood the ramifications of sending the King a nasty document when he said,” We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately. ”
At one time the relationship between England and her colonies was described as paternal. England was the “Mother Country” and the colonies her loving children. An interesting concept. However, from a psychological point of view, if England was the Mother Country, then the King was the father. I am not sure where Parliament fits into this analogy; but the argument could be made that the colonies had real “daddy issues” with George III.
It is estimated that at anywhere from 15 to 20 percent of the colonial population, some say closer to a third, were loyalist. It is believed that anywhere from 60,000 to 80,000 loyalists split the scene during the war and headed for jolly ole England or Canada rather than live under patriot or rebel rule.
And here, almost 250 years later, despite Jefferson’s “long train of abuses and usurpations” against the monarchy, we find ourselves still obsessed with the the trials and tribulations of English royalty. In March of 2021 we (the Colonists) opened our hearts to a prince with real daddy issues: Prince Harry, who claims his daddy, King Charles III, referred to him as a “spare.” There is a lot going on between Harry, his wife Megan and the Royal Family. Anybody who has watched The Crown on Netflix can tell you Buckingham Palace could double for some sort of halfway therapy house for dysfunctional family members–a place with real mommy and daddy issues.
I guess Harry had had enough and decided to leave the looney bin and live in LaLa land instead. In a loyalist turned rebel move he washed up here in the USA, a royal now a colonist. In a recent interview with NBC News’ TODAY co-anchor, Hoda Kotb, the now defrocked prince said: “You know, home – home for me, now, is you know, for the time being, is in the States.”
The British, however, did not take kindly to his bolting for the Colonies. The Daily Mail called Harry “the Duke of Delusion.” Some called for the His Royal Highness and wife “to be thrown over the balcony”–more of a Putin move and not fitting in with English tradition. With all the ill will coming at Harry, you cannot really blame him for skedaddling across the pond. I am sure Harry is not the Frankenstein monster some in the British press are making him out to be. But in reality it seems like he has made a good choice considering some of the monarchs’ antics of the past.
King Charles I Follower of Anthony van Dyck, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Americans trying to keep track of the English monarchy have to wade through various houses of royalty like Tudors, Yorks, Stuarts and Windsors. And in those houses there is a subset of Henrys, Georges, Jameses, Charleses and Elizabeths. There are so many of them it takes a score card and numbers to figure out which Charles was beheaded and which one went into exile. For the record Charles I was beheaded January 30, 1649 forcing the future King Charles (II) to flee to France. And, now we have Charles III on the throne with one of his sons basically in self exile.
For centuries people have been trying to keep track of the six wives of Henry the VIII and their fate. Whether you need to know this for a test or just want to become familiar with a historically significant bit of information, there are several well-known tricks to keeping Henry’s queens straight in your head: Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived. (Are we starting to see a pattern)*
wikiHow
Oliver Cromwell bids the beheaded King Charles I a fond farewell into the afterlife.
Bridgmanart (Public Domain)
There is a lot to historically unpack in England at this time. But to keep it simple Charles I believed in the divine right of kings. He had his clashes with Parliament and religious Puritans, namely Oliver Cromwell. Ironically, some of Jefferson’s “long train of abuses and usurpations” hurled at George III 130 years or so later were levied against Charles I causing an English civil war. The ensuing civil war found Charles and his Royalists on the losing side.
After his defeat, the Puritans took the radical and unprecedented approach that a sitting King could be put on trial. Cromwell’s New Model Army purged Parliament of members who supported Charles. A new Parliament, derisively referred to as the “Rump Parliament,” was ushered in to try the King for treason. Cromwell and his “Rumpers” found the king guilty. They made quick work of the verdict and three days later they had Charles beheaded. Even Lord Haw-Haw, the Englishman turned German propagandist during WWII, was given a longer shrift in his treason conviction in 1946. Despite being hung, he was able to keep his head on his shoulders and off a pike. After Charles’ execution Cromwell becomes Lord Protectorate of England, a fancy title for head Protestant-in-charge. This opened up a whole new can of conflict for English monarchy.
Oliver Cromwell is an interesting case in history. In 1658 he falls ill from malaria, and maybe comorbidities. He becomes what we would call today an anti-vaxer. Being a staunch Protestant and Puritan he refuses the only known treatment at the time, quinine. Because it was discovered by Catholic Jesuit missionaries, he decides not to partake of the holy water. According to the National Library of Medicine, quinine “was referred to as the ‘Jesuits’ bark,’ ‘cardinal’s bark,’ or ‘sacred bark.’ These names stem from its use in 1630 by Jesuit missionaries in South America, though a legend suggests earlier use by the native population.”
As I mentioned earlier, there is a lot to unpack with English history and it is not for the faint of heart. When Cromwell died he was given a fine state funeral and was buried in Westminster Abbey. But not for long. Like the the French Revolution, when the French mob turned in on itself it ended up guillotining 10,000 people. Once hailed as conquering hero, Cromwell’s image was popped like a Chinese weather balloon over the Atlantic. The mobs hit the bricks.
When the Rumpers lost power, Parliament brought back the monarchy with Charles II. According to historycollection.com, after Charles II was restored to power he “pardoned everyone except those who had played a direct role in the execution of his father.” English public opinion, or mob mentality, turned on the deceased Cromwell. Like dogs looking for a lost bone in the backyard, the a mob, armed with pickaxes and shovels dug up Cromwell’s remains. He was then treated to a treasonous posthumus execution: hung and later decapitated. I am not sure if beheading is just for the living. According to wikidiff.com, the difference “is that beheaded is to have had your head cut off while decapitated is with the head removed.”
In any case, the end result was that Cromwell’s head was placed on a pike and hung atop Westminster Hall. But it wouldn’t stay there forever. And what would be a good story like this if there were not some juicy conspiracy, theories like the remains were not actually Cromwell’s. Some believe the remains could have been Charles’ I. A 17th Century version of where is JFK’s brain.
On 30 January (the date being chosen to coincide with the anniversary of the execution of Charles I) the bodies (Cromwell and two associates) were symbolically hanged at Tyburn, and, for good measure, then decapitated. This was insufficient to sate the desire of the mob for vengeance: the heads were subsequently displayed on poles outside Parliament and the bodies deposited without ceremony in an unmarked grave.
The Exhumation and Posthumous Execution of Oliver Cromwell: worldhistory.us
Cromwell’s skull remained on Westminster Hall until the late 1680s when the English equivalent of a Nor’easter snapped the pike and brought Cromwell’s’ head back down earth. It was picked up by a guard who stashed the head inside his chimney. For some reason the government was “eager to see the head returned to its pike.”
A drawing of Oliver Cromwell’s head from the late 18th century. author unknown, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons The Wilkinson Head of Oliver Cromwell and Its Relationship to Busts, Masks and Painted Portraits, Biometrika
The head, however, bounced around from hand-to-hand. A French collector once put it on display; two brothers bought the head for what in today’s money would be close seven thousand pounds; and in 1815 it ended up hands of the Wilkinson family. According to historycollection.com, “The Wilkinson family kept the skull in their home and were happy to show it as a curiosity to any prominent guests who came to visit. The skull remained in their possession for over a century, stored inside a simple oak box and passed down through the generations. Finally, in 1960, Horace Wilkinson decided that his rather grim family heirloom deserved a proper burial and contacted Sidney Sussex College, which agreed to bury the head on the campus. And in 1962, a few of the living Wilkinsons gathered with representatives of the college for a small ceremony where the head was finally laid to rest.”
We have become more civilized today. This is not 1594 Shakespeare’s Richard III when Lord Hastings finds out he is sentenced to be beheaded and told: “Make a short Shrift, as he longs to see your Head.” It is obvious that citizen Harry does not have to worry about losing his head today over marriage vows, family squabbles and “daddy issues.” Today’s monarchical antics are mere slap fights compared to the political head rolling and religious affairs of the past.
*Also joining this headless list is Thomas More, Lord Chancellor, “a devout Catholic, he refused to acknowledge the divorce of King Henry VIII from Queen Catherine, (of Aragon Henry’s first wife) thereby refusing to acknowledge the King’s religious supremacy. He was charged with treason, found guilty and beheaded in 1535, with his head then displayed from Tower Bridge.”
The recent four day 15 ballot vote marathon to determine who the next Speaker of the House reminds me of classical music. Classical music has always been a mystery to me, much like the comings and goings of Congress. I know Classical Music did not start out like Willy and the Poor Boys out on the corner, down on the street–“bring a nickel, tap your feet.” It’s developed through several centuries of evolution starting out from monks chanting away in church music to Bach, chamber music, secular operas like The Marriage of Figaro and flying Valkyries in Norse mythology, to today’s atonal compositions that sprang forth in the early 20th Century. It is a musical history spans nearly 400 years.
One term that I associate with classical music is a “variation on a theme.” Take Sergei Rachmanioff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Here is where it gets confusing. Niccolo Paganini was an Italian violinist and composer born in 1782 and died in 1840. According to Wikipedia he “was the most celebrated violin virtuoso of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique.” His 24 Caprices for Solo Violin Op. 1 has “served as an inspiration for many prominent composers.”
The Genoa born Niccolo Paganini was a European touring rock star of the early 1800s.
Rachmaninoff, on the other hand was Russian/American pianist and composer who died at the age of 69 in 1943. According to utahsymphony.org. Paganini’s 24th Caprice “has a tonal structure that is ripe for variation.” And from what I can determine many composers through time have created some sort variations and themes off of Paganini’s work.
I am going to stop right there on the music because I feel like I am getting way over my head. It is all beginning to sound like an apple and orange sort of comparison. It is like comparing Tom Brady, a modern day quarterback, and Walter Johnson, a baseball pitcher from the early 1900s. They both threw a ball but they did it at different times and used different balls. Somehow in music it works but I cannot picture Brady on the pitcher’s mound with a football shaking off the catcher’s signals.
Washington Senator, Walter Johnson one of the greatest pitchers in baseball pitched for the Senators for 21 years (1907-1921). He won 417 games and not one was voted on by the House of Representatives.
Library of Congress, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Take poor Kevin McCarthy. He is no political virtuoso. In fact some say his skills are suspect. He looks like a weekend kayaker on a Class V rapids. His election to become Speaker of the House will go down in history. For what, I am not sure. At the very least he was played like an historical variation on a theme.
Sitting on a sofa on a Sunday afternoon
Going to the candidates debate
Laugh about it, shout about it
When you've got to choose
Every way you look at it you lose
Mrs Robinson by Simon and Garfunkel
This is not the first time the House has had to deal with this sort of legislative mobocracy. Take the 1800 Presidential election between President John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. The first time the House had to make an odiferous hold your nose choice. Bipartisan bickering was the theme of the day with partisan newspapers sniping away at anything that crossed onto their side of the street. The framers of the Constitution failed to take into consideration party factions putting up individuals to run specifically for president and vice president. In this election the Jeffersonians, Republicans (later to become Democrats) voted lock step for Jefferson as president and his running mate, Aaron Burr. The problem is that each had 73 electoral votes–a tie. Oops. John Adams, the Federalist nominee, received 65 while his veep choice recieved 64 to avoid the confusion of a tie had they won. The House found themselves with a rat stuck in the plumbing. The Constitution says the candidate with the most electoral votes becomes president and the candidate with the next highest becomes Veep. In some ways this was like the 2000 election in when officials examined hanging chads to determine the president.
Aaron Burr, a patriot, the third Vice President and a true American scoundrel just behind Benedict Arnold in notoriety.
John Vanderlyn, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The rat in the pipe was Aaron Burr. He was a smarmy guy, a cad known as much for his carnal exploits as his political and business hustlings. He was later tried for treason and acquitted. But in 1800, Burr brought Jefferson New York’s 12 electoral votes and the presidency. It was twofer for Burr because not only did he give Jefferson the presidency but at the same time he gave Federalist Alexander Hamilton a sharp poke in Hamilton’s political eye. Burr being a Republican and Hamilton a Federalist. Hamilton and Burr did not get along in New York politics and the 1800 election did nothing to improve their relationship. It only hasten their meeting on a a New Jersey dueling ground several years later.
So you think we think are divided now. Today, we are just playing a variation on an 1800 theme. This election was the first real game of political cutthroat where ties didn’t go to the runner. A lot of personal animosity played into this election. Hamilton and Burr did not play well with each other; and, Hamilton and Jefferson had been smacking each other around in Washington’s cabinet from the beginning, pulling at the old General’s ear for his soul. They took their personal battles into the fledgling press ripping each other apart like hyenas on carrion rotting away in the Serengeti. Party faithful and stalwarts shared this acrimony. And we haven’t even added the real loser in this mess, President John Adams’, and his cantankerous political and personal outlook as the first one-term president. After the election he shuffled off to Braintree and political exile–sort of like a ticked off unindicted Nixon.
The three remaining ambitious patriots created what Star Trek fans know as the Kobayashi Maru–the no win scenario. Despite being the vice presidential candidate Burr found himself within an arm’s length grasp of the presidency. The 1800 version of Gulum/Smeagol waiting to snatch the One Ring to unite them all from Jefferson. One catch though, everybody had to scale Mount Doom–The House of Representatives.
Much like the National Football League, the Constitution does not do ties very well. Most of the time the losing teams walk away after an overtime game feeling like they were cheated out of win. The framers, however, in their parochial wisdom, threw tie games into the House giving each state one vote to break the presidential tie. This would be like letting sports writers or gamblers pick the winner of tie games. At the time there were 16 states and nine votes were needed to cross the goal line.
The real kicker for Jefferson was that the old Congress still sitting was a Federalist Congress and they had no love for the red-headed Virginian. The Republicans swept the new Congress but those newly elected Republicans had not been seated. This “never Jefferson” Federalist Congress held him in high contempt. Jefferson’s chances were slim. The first ballot took place on February 11, 1801. Eight states voting for Jefferson and six voting for Burr with two states split. It remained that what for the next week and 34 more ballots.
Hamilton the clairvoyant sees Federalist support growing for Burr. Although not a member of Congress, Hamilton is the de facto leader of the Federalist party. Before 1800 is over he begins a letter writing campaign to fellow House Federalists urging them to vote for Jefferson. This perplexes many of the “never Jeffersonians.” Making a deal that hands the presidency over to their arch enemy is like replacing Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates with Beelzebub. But as the old saying goes: The devil is in the details. The country is facing its first apocalyptic moment.
Mr. Jefferson, though too revolutionary in his notions, is yet a lover of liberty and will be desirous of something like orderly Government – Mr. Burr loves nothing but himself – thinks of nothing but his own aggrandizement – and will be content with nothing short of permanent power in his own hands.
Alexander Hamilton to Congressman Harrison Gray Otis
Say what you will about Jefferson, and Hamilton said a lot through the years. But despite their drastic differences in principles and attitudes on government, Hamilton saw the that Jefferson’s principles heavily outweighed Burr’s ethics, or a lack thereof. In a letter to Massachusetts Congressman Harrison Gray Otis “In a choice of Evils let them take the least – Jefferson is in every view less dangerous than Burr.”
Eventually Hamilton convinced enough Federalist that Jefferson would not tear the government down and turn the US into a junior partner in the French empire. On February 17, on the 36 ballot 10 states voted for Jefferson with two states not voting for neither Jefferson or Burr making Jefferson the third president of the United States.
History like music may be written down and cataloged in a library–Googled today. But every now and then, like McCarthy’s Speaker election, we get to witness a variation on theme that reminds us of what once was, still is, and yet to come.
mystoryorhistory 