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.

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.

Oh Brother Where Art Thou

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.

https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/when-cotton-was-king/

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/andy-warhol-probably-never-said-his-celebrated-fame-line-180950456/

https://www.laprogressive.com/the-media-in-the-united-states/why-the-hell-did-cnn-do-it

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/04/25/robert-f-kennedy-jr-biden-2024/11733782002/