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“A tall ship and a star to steer her by.”

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Not that I was looking; but I did not see one mention about the Apollo 11 moon landing 57 years ago. It was a race to the moon that ended on July 20, 1969. I know it was a basically a bunch of white men doing their thing; but it was still one of the greatest achievements of mankind, until they did it five more times. And now we are talking about going back in another race, this time with the Chinese. Historically speaking it should be a day remembered.

Like most Americans of that time I was swept up with the Space Progam. It was an outgrowth of the Cold War with the Soviet Union and became the noble quest of President John Kennedy who challenged the country to begin searching the final frontier. Or was it a modern version of Camelot with space as our search for the Holy Grail–on the moon.

We shall send to the moon 240,000 miles away, a giant rocket, more than 300 feet tall on an untried mission to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to Earth. But why some say the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? Why 35 years ago fly the Atlantic? We choose to go to the moon. We chose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard. Because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we’re willing to accept. One we are unwilling to postpone. And therefore, as we set sail, we ask God’s blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure that man has ever gone.–President John Kennedy “Moon Speech” on September 12, 1962 in Rice Stadium. 

It is interesting in what motivates man. I really do think President Kennedy comparing space flight to sailing was apropos. He said, “we set sail, we ask God’s blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure that man has ever gone.” But when you think about it, most voyages of exploration are hazardous and dangerous excursions into the “unknown.”

Take Ferdinand Magellan’s voyage to around the Earth. With five ships and 270 men he left Spain on September 20, 1519. His expedition returned September 6, 1522 with one ship and about 40 men–he was not one of them. Magellan’s three-year trip would be more on line with going to Mars today. Currently it would take Elon Musk about three years to get there and back.

But blasting off for the moon was an adventure on the level with the ancient mariners. I love Kennedy’s metaphor of sailing. It reminds me of John Masefield’s poem Sea Fever:

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.

Man has always been blessed, or cursed, with a natural curiosity of what is on the other side of the mountain or beyond the horizon. When I think of going into space it reminds me of the sea voyages of the ancients, particularly the Greeks. The various Greek city-states might have been in competition for land in Greece but it was the open sea that allowed them to expand their horizons.

Geographically Greece is on the Balkan Peninsula with the longest coastline in Europe. The real factor though is that the land on this peninsula is mountainous–80 percent. Greek city-states trying to feed growing populations on mountainous land became a real problem. The solution was to establish over-seas colonies that relieved over population; but colonization also increased trade bringing to the city-states much needed food stuffs from as far away as the Black Sea and Spain. (I am not sure if the concept of colonizing the moon or Mars would either ease any over population issues on Earth or create trade.)

Dipal 1965 via Wikimedia Commons

Greek sea travel was not so much the age of sail as it was a man-powered voyage. Facts and Details says, “a ‘long day’ journey by an oared vessel” could be 140 miles “believed to be 16 hours traveled at seven or eight knots an hour.” Most Greek mariners hugged the coast line using line of sight and recognizing land features. This type of sailing made it easier to navigate. Plus, it made necessary stops for resupplying essential needs, like fresh water, easier.

Although longer voyages across the Mediterranean were not uncommon it wasn’t until more sophisticated navigational instruments were developed, like the Astrolabe, did mariners become more confident in pushing further out to sea. It took centuries for Mediterranean sailors to refine navigation that would allow sailors, like Columbus and Magellan, to take longer voyages across the Atlantic and to circumnavigate the globe. It took centuries to build better ships to utilize better navigation.

“The astrolabe, which is a precursor to the sextant, is effective for determining latitude on land or calm seas. Although it is less reliable on the heaving deck of a ship in rough seas, the mariner’s astrolabe  was developed to solve that problem. It is able to measure the altitude above the horizon of a celestial body, day or night; it can be used to identify stars or planets, to determine local latitude given local time.”–Wikipedia

Khalili Collections /via Wikimedia Commons

And since we are talking about seafarers one cannot omit the Polynesian. Seafarers whose navigation skills, according to Wikipedia relied “heavily on constant observation and memorization. Navigators have to memorize where they have sailed from in order to know where they are. The sun was the main guide for navigators because they could follow its exact points as it rose and set. Once the sun had set they would use the rising and setting points of the stars. When there were no stars because of a cloudy night or during daylight, a navigator would use the winds and swells as guides.”

In the 1960s NASA was tasked with assembling, scientists, fledgling aerospace companies and test pilots to come up with how to traverse 240,000 miles of open space and put men on the moon–with no stop overs. And, to do it in less than 10 years. Unlike past seafarers NASA had to invent and improvise. There was very little institutional knowledge of human space travel. What they did from Kennedy’s Moon Speech in 1962 to that one giant leap in 1969 is really a technical miracle. Especially if we look at what they had to use compared to what we have today.

For instance if we just look at the computer used on Apollo 11: the Apollo Guidance Computer. Apollo 11Space called this 70 pound computer, about the size of carry-on luggage, “a pocket sized pioneer (for its time.)” It was a 20th century astrolabe.

Each Moon flight carried two AGCs, one each in the command module and in the Apollo Lunar Module. AGC in the command module was the center of its guidance, navigation and control (GNC) system. The AGC in the lunar module ran its Apollo PGNCS (primary guidance, navigation and control system).”–Wikipedia

The original uploader was Grabert at German Wikipedia., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

I am not some sort of techno-geek. I do not know the first thing about what RAM is or how it works. I know nothing of processing speeds, or what 4G or 110 Megabits per second translates to. So comparing the AGC on Apollo 11 to the iPhone by the numbers means nothing until it is put into layman’s terms. I find what RealClear Science says “that the iPhone in your pocket has over 100,000 times the processing power of the computer that landed man on the moon” pretty impressive. There is our giant leap.

A leap, to paraphrase John Gillespie Magee, Jr. poem High Flight: Man has “slipped the surly bonds of Earth” and has “trod the high untrespassed sanctity of space,” and has “touched the face of God.”

Whether it was the ancient sailors on the seas or the astronauts in space, it really gives meaning to what Masefield meant when he said “all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.”

A/I, Follow the Money Part II

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Way back in March of 2019 I wrote that “America is due for a big-time governmental/economic scandal of tsunami proportions.” I never considered myself as a some sort of wizard with a crystal ball or prognosticator of future events. And from the looks of it, if I did, I would consider myself ill-equipped to make it that in that sort of profession. Another words: Don’t quit your day job.

But yet here we are in 2026, seven years later with the stock market humming and the economy hanging tough; despite tariffs, tax cuts, Doge and a military excursion/operation against Iran–that’s only real accomplishment has been to raise inflation and gas prices around the world; and maybe spike EV sales.

It is easy to say something is going to happen, if you say it long enough it is bound to come true. I am sure there were New York Knick fans who said in 1974, and every year after, that the Knicks are going to win the title next year– 53 years later they were right.

Throughout history, for instance, there have been some bold predictions on when the world would end, which I guess could be a harbinger of economic scandal. Much like our recent belief in a computer meltdown with Y2K. We live in a tech world swimming with malware and hackers. It seems as if we are just one click away from possible doom. Especially now with all the talk of A/I ending humanity as we know it.

For a lot of us our first encounter with A/I was with “the computer” on Star Trek. We sat back and were absorbed with how the computer in Star Trek could figure out how many Class M planets there were in a certain quadrant of space. Or how some unknown space disease was mutating human bodies into some sort of alien creature–and then figuring out a cure to reverse the process! The other side of the story comes out around the same time. We learned from 2001: A Space Odyssey how a computer without “parental” controls could lock humanity in deep space.

But when it comes to the ending humanity it is religious leaders who squawk the loudest with their predictions of fire and brimstone. And like Y2K it was the millennium change as a reason to fear the end. According to historysnob.com, Pope Sylvester II put the Medieval world into a dither with the belief that the Second Coming was imminent when triple zeros showed up on the calendar. As if God is working on a manmade calendar. And then, I ask, which calendar: The Julian or the Byzantine. Or is God working of a lunisolar calendar? Just asking, because I think Sylvester didn’t inform God. I mean, who knows maybe the world ends in 2037 in the next year of the Snake. After all the snake shows up early in Genesis. That slithering serpent put an end to the Garden of Eden. I am just saying.


It’s the end of the world as we know it
It’s the end of the world as we know it
(It’s time I had some time alone)
It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine
(It’s time I had some time alone)
I feel fine–REM

But back to the Popes. Not to be out done, Pope Innocent III predicted in 1213 “the world end in 1284–exactly 666 years after Islam’s founding.” I am not sure of the significance of that. An easy google search says: “The number 666 is commonly linked to the Roman Emperor Nero, known for his persecution of Christians. This connection arises from a method called gematria, where letters are assigned numerical values. This sounds more like figuring out the cryptogram quotes on the puzzle page of the daily newspaper. (What’s a daily newspaper?) When Nero’s name is transliterated into Hebrew, it adds up to 666. Good enough for me. I like the logic. However, my gut tells me the snake thing makes more sense.

Here in the United States we have had our religious prognosticators, too. Cotton Mather predicted the end times in 1697, 1716, 1736. I am not sure what methodology he used–the entrails of a witch, maybe. However, he died in 1728 not knowing he was wrong.

And then there was Harold Camping. History Snobs says: “This radio preacher twice announced Judgment Day: first on May 21, 2011, then again on October 21, 2011. Billboards went up worldwide, announcing the end of the world.” Both dates came and went and we are still here.

 There are others like Isaac Newton. I think I might take his prediction a bit more seriously. After all, he did give us the Law of Gravity and three Laws of Motion that seem to be pretty consistent over time. Newton “studied biblical texts obsessively and predicted the end might come around 2060.” We will have to wait and see.

I am more in the mode of Charles Wesley, a founder of Methodism, who had a more open-ended approach to predictions. History Snobs says, “To his credit, he didn’t try to set an exact date or time, although he made it clear in his sermons that he felt Christ’s return was imminent.” I am not sure what Wesley said about the Second Coming in his sermons, but he died in 1788. We may need to define the word imminent. However, I feel the same way about an economical scandal of Biblical proportions in the near future. It is imminent.

But to get back to the looming economic scandal just around the corner. I base my prediction on technological innovation and greed and a simple concept of follow the money. In my March 2019 blog I mention the coming of the railroads and the land grants handed out to railroads, particularly the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific. These two companies were involved in an 1860s version of a moon race. However the Russians were not involved. And like A/I today, the problem back then was not so much engineering as it was financing. Engineers and hard labor cleared the Sierra Nevada mountains but it was the good old use governmental funds greasing the palms of Congress that kept the Greenbacks flowing and the trains rolling.

“It’s gonna take-a money, a whole lotta’ spending money. It’s going to take plenty-a money. To do it right…”–George Harrison’s

The axle turning the wheel of this scandal was the Union Pacific’s construction company, the Credit Mobilier. The company over charged the government to the tune of $44 million and spread the wealth amongst their shareholders and several dozen Congressmen as well as the Vice President of the United States, Schuyler Colfax. Nothing really happened, nobody went to jail. A few Congressman were censured, the railroad got built and it was just chalked up to a typical business project during the Gilded Age.

The next governmental scandal centered around oil–drill baby drill. The global economy was shifting from a coal based economy to oil. One institution making that shift were navies of the world. So it really made sense back in 1910 to set aside land with known oil as a reserve for the US Navy.

This was an era before petrodollars. But shrewd oilmen knew the value of buck. There may not have been gold in “them there” Wyoming oil land reserves; but there damn sure was money to be had just lying there to be pumped. The Navy Department convinced President Warren Harding to transfer the land to the Interior department where Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall, began leasing out the Teapot Dome oil reserves to Mammoth Oil Company and Pan American Petroleum and Transport Company–both in non-competitive bids. Sound familiar?

Interestingly leasing of the lands was not a crime. The real problem with these sorts of scandals is in the creative art of accounting; particularly when somebody is left out of the art of the deal.  It only takes one disgruntled individual, in this case a left out oilman, to start following a money trail of  illegal interest free loans and bribes. Just a few of the financial incentives Fall received as compensation for his generosity to Harry F Sinclair’s  Mammoth Oil Company and Edward L Doheny’s Pan American Petroleum and Transport Company. A Senate investigation of Fall’s financial shenanigans lead to Fall serving nine months of a one-year sentence. Sinclair spent six months in jail not for financial malfeasance but contempt of Senate. Doheny was acquitted of any charges. And so goes Jazz Era justice.

Now I will be honest. I could be shooting in the dark here. I don’t know whole lot about A/I. I am smart enough to figure out we are moving into the next phase of the Information Age. I also realize that there are various companies lead by very rich men that are developing the computers to run A/I and setting up data centers. (Check Forbes as a list of the top 50 A/I companies: forbes.com/list/ai50/) I do know from watching the news and reading about A/I is it is going take a ton of financial investments to get A/I to become a reality. And here again, I don’t want to sound like someone predicting the end of the world when A/I spreads its roots deep into humanity and really comes to some sort of fruition. But before that happens it has to be built. And if history is any indicator there is always somebody ready to jump the line with a paper bag of cash or stocks to get a leg up.

From what I can gather, A/I is here and being used today. My guess is we have only scratched the surface. It took the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific nine years to complete the transcontinental railroad. In 1914 the USS Texas was the last US Navy battleship built with coal burning engines. The “Mighty T,” was converted to oil in 1925. I am sure A/I can be rolled out just as quick as linking the coasts with a railroad line or putting a gas station on just about every corner in America. Of course with the right financial government funding you can send celebrities into low earth orbit. I am sure right now there is a money trail being laid out from Wall Street to our governmental hallways attracting the right palms to grease to give somebody a leg up on everybody else. But as George Harrison sang it is going to take a lot of spending money, which brings us to the mantra “follow the money. Once the grease is applied, then we can worry about the end of humanity.

“It isn’t what you do, but how you do it”

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I stumbled across a quote from John Wooden the other day that made me stop for a moment and think about what is going on in this country right now. Wooden said, “It isn’t what you do, but how you do it.”

This is not some sort of topsy turvy quote from Soren Kierkegaard like, “It is the duty of the human understanding to understand that there are things which it cannot understand.” Okay. I get it sort of. But try putting that on a T-Shirt or running that thought through a town hall meeting.

Wooden, according to UCLA athletics was “the most successful coach in the history of college basketball, guided his UCLA teams to an unprecedented 10 national championships in his 27 seasons (1949-1975).”

People who watched Ted Lasso on Apple TV saw Jason Sudeikis, as Ted Lasso, pin Wooden’s Pyramid of Success on his office wall. It was a pyramid of success that took Wooden’s teams to the peak of success. His teams “compiled an overall record of 620-147 (a winning percentage of .808) and won 19 conference titles. Under his direction, the Bruins captured a remarkable seven consecutive NCAA titles from 1967-1973.” Whether you are a sports fan or not Wooden’s record is impressive. So maybe we can twist Wooden around a bit and say something like “how you do it, is what you get.”

To me, how we are doing things today militarily, with AI, government, immigration to name a few, has created a lot of confusion, discontent, discord and given us, for the large part, what we don’t want; and creating an existential crisis, within and without.

Britannia says that such a crisis is a “period of inner  conflict during which a person is distraught over questions about identity, meaning, and purpose.” Britannia further says that at the heart of this crisis is a period of anxiety and a conflict “often considered to be related to spirituality.” Can this existential crisis befall an entire country? It looks to me as if we are there or if not hurtling towards it quickly.

Now I may be straying a bit from Wooden’s quote a bit. But, the Socratic-Method.com says at first glance we can see it isn’t what you do, but how you do it. How you do it “emphasizes the importance of the approach or methodology employed in any given task, rather than solely focusing on the outcome. This idea challenges the conventional notion that success is solely determined by the end result.”

This brings to mind the popular idiom: The ends justify the means. This phrase is attributed to Nicolo Machiavelli. Biography.com says he was an “Italian diplomat best known for writing ‘The Prince,’ a handbook for unscrupulous politicians that inspired the term ‘Machiavellian’ and established its author as the ‘father of modern political theory’.” The main theme of the book has been interpreted by many as a “political philosophy that one may resort to any means in order to establish and preserve total authority.”

Machiavelli may not have actually said the ends justify the means, but according to academichelp.net, the phrase “embodies a fundamental principle of consequentialism. This ethical theory suggests that the morality of an action is entirely dependent on its consequences. It’s a perspective that looks at the end result of an action to determine its ethical value, contrasting sharply with deontological ethics. Deontology, on the other hand, posits that certain actions are inherently right or wrong, regardless of their outcomes.” I believe we are living in a time, more than ever before, where we focus solely on the outcomes, particularly besting the other side–as if that is the sole purpose of life.

Wow, slow down. Too many isms, ologies and theories in there. We have now gone from the simple sentence into the compound world of and ethics. As far as I know philosophers theologians are still trying to determine “how many angles can dance on the head of a pin.” The two groups were perfectly confused unit a third group, mathematicians got involved.

In a round about way both Wooden and Machiavelli are talking about the same thing. The “consequences.” And it is here things get tangled up in ethical theory. We started out with two phrases. Wooden’s is ten words with no word longer than four letters. Machiavelli’s is half as much with one word seven letters long. How did we end up with fundamental principles of consequentialism to existential crisis?

To clarify let’s look at ethical theory. Philosophy Terms says, “ethical theories are ideas that help us decide which actions are good and bad by leading us to ethical choices that bring positive outcomes for everyone. These theories go deeper than just following rules; they help us see the bigger picture and understand why certain actions are better than others…(it) show(s) us the way to make decisions, even when it’s hard, and help us think not just about what’s good for us, but what’s best for everyone involved.”

This brings us back to consequentialism, which ebesco.com states “is a normative ethical theory that evaluates the morality of actions based on their outcomes. The central tenet of consequentialism is that an action is deemed morally right or wrong depending on the results it produces, with a focus on maximizing positive outcomes for the greatest number of people.”

I think the normative ethical theory can be dicey because of what is normal, particularly today. Wikipedia defines it as “the standards of what people ought to do, believe, or value. It is a quality of rules, judgments, or concepts that prescribe how things should be or what individuals may, must, or must not do.”

For instance, we have always been a country based on two legal concepts: One, the legal rule of law; and two, nobody is above the law. We have seen the Constitution’s words twisted around like a pretzel to achieve certain outcomes never before imagined. Thus creating a period of conflict and anxiety across, gender, race and religion. Never mind political beliefs. Those beliefs have been trashed long time ago.

Our existential crisis is not one of doing but how we are doing it. We have cast aside the ethical norms that have guided our country for 250 years. And without a doubt those norms have changed, in some case drastically, through our history. But we have always, as a nation had guiding principles that we could look to. We knew what was the right thing to do. It may have taken us awhile to come around but we have. We have been a beacon on a hill that has attracted people from all over to our shores because of those guiding principles.

Frederich Nietzche said “There will always be rocks in the road ahead of us. They will be stumbling blocks or stepping stones; it all depends how you use them.” It seems to me that we are living in a glass house in the mist of a rock fight.

Regime Change: The Art of the Deal Meets The Art of War

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I am sure somewhere in the annals of military history there are wars that were just “quick excursion.” The Franco/Prussian War of 1870 was quick and decisive as a European war can be but it lasted almost a year. A quick excursion sounds more like a raid, capturing Osama Bin Laden: In and out before anybody knows you were in. 

It is hard to believe that an air campaign bombing Iran with missiles, drones and smart bombs is a quick excursion. It is also hard to  argue with the Trump Administration’s reasons for bombing Iran. Most people can agree that Iran’s religious leaders, for almost 50 years, have exhibited a national religious psychosis that has kept the country in an 8th Century frame of mind. Instead of bombing them back into the Stone Age are we trying to push them into the A/I age?

It also would be delusional to believe that if the current Iranian regime was to have nukes they would behave rational with them; or any other weapon of mass destruction, considering they don’t play nice with the weapons that they already have. 

In many ways it makes sense that a regime change is in order. But we tried that already in Iran after World War II. The group we overthrew in the 1950s over threw our group in the late 1970s and now we are trying to overthrow them–again. Are we locked in some sort of irrational Twilight Zone circular reality that comes around like Haley’s Comet.

There is one point I would say is completely off the rails. This is the idea that it will be a short war. History indicates that we might be in for a longer haul, depending on objectives. And as crazy as it sounds it maybe over based sooner if we go by one man’s feelings. The rational for bombing, or going to war with Iran may seem logical. Practical? What is not rational or logical is to think a war can be won in two or three weeks simply by dropping bombs from above–or one man’s feelings.

Most wars have been irrational in terms of means or ends or both together. This is because choices for war are influenced by emotions, ideologies, domestic politics, and the tyranny of history, as well as by the more rational pursuit of material and strategic interests. Decisions for war have been almost invariably made by a handful of rulers and their advisors and entourages, and this is as true of democracies as authoritarian regimes.–Michael Mann, a Distinguished Research Professor of Sociology Emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles, writes in  Yale University Press 

The Israelis have had a series of short duration wars with their Arab neighbors. In 1948 they dispatched their Arab foes in less than a year. Then in 1967 they fought a Seven Days War and then a twenty-day Yom Kippur War in 1973. In all of those wars Israel came out on top. I am not a historian by trade or a military history by practice; but, those engagements were called “wars.” I would call them battles in a continuous war starting with the UN carving out a hunk of Palestine and thus creating the state of Israel in 1947. 

On a side note, when Western Powers have gotten involved militarily in the Mideast, it has not turned out well. The French and British found out during the Suez Crisis in 1956. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser had nationalized the Suez Canal and closed the Straight of Tiran and the Gulf of Aqaba. The Anglo/Franco force, along with the Israelis tried to regain control the Suez Canal, and at the same time topple Nasser. They left within a year. According to Britannica “Nasser emerged from the Suez Crisis a victor and a hero for the cause of Arab and Egyptian nationalism….(and) Britain and France, less fortunate, lost most of their influence in the Middle East as a result of the episode.”

In 1982 President Ronald Reagan had the bright idea of sending the Marines into the region. His thinking was they could stabilize the fighting that always seems to be going on in Lebanon. Lebanon is not a Central American “banana republic” or Grenada. American troops in the Mideast tend to attract more attention, particularly those with bombs and guns. We left after terrorist blew up the Marine’s barracks killing 241.

I am not going to argue the logic one way or the other on the UN decision to create Israel. It seemed like a good one after WWII and still is a good one. The geopolitical/ religious change in Palestine just hasn’t worked out like the 1940s planners thought.

So if we look at the Mideast starting in1947 there has been some sort of conflict going on for nearly 80 years. We have to look back to Europe circa 1330 to The Hundred Year’s War to find that kind of stamina (or blunt trauma stupidity) to sustain a war of that length. England and France fought a for a century in war that resulted in France chucking the Brits out of Continental Europe. (* see link below for a more comprehensive list of long-lasting wars)

“There is no instance of a nation benefitting from prolonged warfare.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

In 1568 there was an Eighty Year’s War or the Dutch Revolt. And some how in the same time frame Europe managed to roll in a Thirty Year’s, both ending in 1648. I am not sure what those wars settled but knowing just a tad of European history I would say it didn’t settle anything. 

A student who paid attention in their middle school US History class might recall the French and Indian War being fought in North America in 1756. In Europe it was known the Seven Year’s War. 

And, in April of 1861 President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to serve three month enlistments after Confederate forces bombed Fort Sumter. That three month enlistment was a pipe dream.  Before long Lincoln was calling for 300,000 volunteers to serve three-year enlistments. Eventually Lincoln initiated a draft; and that still did not cover the entire war effort. 

But those wars were fought without strategic air bombardment. Let’s jump to World War II, the ultimate regime change war. It was a war that looked like it would be over within a year. In fact there was an eight month period in Europe called the “Phony War” where Germany, France and Britain just sat there looking at each other–I dare you. No. I double dare you.

Finally, Hitler took up the dare and blitzed France. In a month they went through France as if it was a wedge of Brie cheese. They chased the British once again off the continent leaving the Wehrmacht to sit at the English Channel looking across at the White Cliffs of Dover. Hitler turned the war over to the Luftwaffe. Its commander Hermann Goering, thought he could bomb his way into England. The German army continued to lookacross the channel. They had no way of getting “boots on the ground” in England. 

When the Luftwaffe gave up the British just kept calm and carried on. Hitler, however, turned his attention to the East. Before long he got snowed-in in Russia where his lightening warfare froze up and lost its thunder against the Red Army and the Russian winter.  

Meanwhile, the US Army Air Corps was batting around a theory with British Bomber Command that the war could be won by simply bombing Germany around the clock, and hence into submission. By destroying the military industrial complex Germany could be brought to its knees—and possibly a regime change could be had. An arial theory that appears to still be a work in progress and may never be proven.

Without a doubt the the British and American air forces’s Combined Bomber Offensive played a significant role in Germany’s defeat, but it was two ground offensives Overlord (D-Day) on the Western Front and Russia’s Operation Bagration in Byelorussian (Belorussia) on the Eastern Front in June and August of 1944 that brought Germany to its knees. From there it was a race to Berlin and a regime change. 

In the Pacific the Japanese Empire rolled up the Dutch the British and the Americans like a wet blanket in the early weeks of 1942. Within months they upended the control of just about the entire Pacific Ocean from the shores of Australia to India and the Himalayas and north to parts of the Aleutian Islands in the Bering Sea. Only after four bloody years of ground troops “island hopping” across the Pacific and two atomic bombs was there a regime change in Japan.

And did we not learn anything in Vietnam. After nine years, despite virtual air superiority over most of Vietnam, and some nifty named air campaigns like Rolling Thunder and Linebacker, and the belief that a country could be pushed back into the Stone Age with strategic areal bombardment, the US Air Force, Naval Aviation and more than 500,000 ground troops could not secure victory or a regime change. The best deal hoped for was hollowed out “Peace with Honor.”

A significant lesson concerned the ethical and political challenges associated with bombing campaigns, especially their impact on civilian populations and infrastructure. These issues prompted a reassessment of air campaign strategies to balance military objectives with humanitarian considerations. The war also demonstrated that air operations alone could not achieve decisive victory without effective integration with ground and naval forces.–armistia.com

I am not saying the Trump administration will not be successful in bombing Iran. At this point most of us have an only a vague idea of what success would be–in the short term or long term. We also need to be leery about first round successes. If military history bears us out it is a good chance this war will not end in few weeks or months. Which leads me to ask: What are 2,500 Marines going to do? If there is any consistency in military history, we might as well settle in for the long haul; and wait for a negotiated deal: “Peace with honor” has already been taken.” 

* https://247wallst.com/special-report/2023/04/30/these-are-20-longest-wars-in-history/

GOP wants TSA style voter PreCheck

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Booze was proof of citizenship in Caleb Bingham, “The County Election,” 1854, Reynolda House Museum of American Art.

When I was in college many years ago I took a class on State and Local Government. One thing that I clearly remember was what the professor said about voting rights. He said that when it came to expanding suffrage it was the federal government that took the lead. Today, I am not so sure.

The House of Representatives just passed the SAVE America Act or its official moniker: The Safeguard America Voter Eligibility Act. USA Today writes that “The legislation would require people to provide proof of citizenship “in person” when registering to vote in federal elections, and adds an additional requirement that voters show an approved form of photo identification to cast their ballot. It also places new rules on mail-in voting, requiring Americans to send in a copy of their ID when both requesting and submitting their ballot.”

Before long we will be carrying some sort of portmanteau with all of our various IDs, Usernames and Passwords. But I suspect voting will turn out much like applying for, and being approved, for a TSA PreCheck Pass. For less than $90 you can skip the lines and renew every five years for just under $60. Is this where we are heading with voting?

It is all about manipulating the vote. I would not be surprised if the SAVE Act were to morph into a law that “allows” Americans access to the polling place but in order to actually cast a ballot the voter will be charged a fee for individual ballots for federal, state and local elections; much like how Medicare drug plans categorize medications into tiers, with lower tiers generally having lower copayments. To vote in local elections would cost X dollars and in State X2 dollars and Federal elections would be the top tier. It would be The FEAR Act: Funding Elections Against Reprobates. Those not paying can wait in the back of the line with the riffraff and vote at the DMV.

By making voting a user fee and a funding mechanism it would take it out of the realm of the Twenty-fourth Amendment “The right of a citizen of United States to vote…shall not be denied or abridged by the United States by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.” It is now a funding mechanism for those who can afford to vote.

Let’s face it, there have always been some sort of voting restrictions or requirements going all the way back to Colonial times. Even after the Revolutionary War, which was basically fought over the lack of representation in Parliament over who gets to tax Americans, had requirements. Even the newly independent Americans were faced with voter requirements. The most obvious requirement was being a property owning white male. This requirement hit the propertyless poor, white men, women and anybody of color–even the propertyless veteran of Valley Forge who fought to found this country could be disenfranchised.

The republican logic of the times believed that in order for a citizen to vote he, and I use the word “he,” had to have an economic interest in the community at large. Those lacking economic independence, even if they fought for independence, were believed to be easily manipulated and could not be trusted to vote–for whatever reason.

There is some truth to manipulating the weak-minded voter on Election Day. George Washington lost his first run at the Virginia House of Burgesses because his liquor wagon ran dry. Washington was swamped losing the election by 231 votes. He garnered only 40 votes. According to classiccitynews.com “Washington avoided the same mistake during his second run, spending nearly the entire campaign budget on 28 gallons of rum, 50 gallons of rum punch, 34 gallons of wine, 46 gallons of beer, and two gallons of cider royal served to 391 voters — nearly a half-gallon per voter.” A good time in the old town was had by all as Washington floated his way into the House of Burgesses.

The GOP backed SAVE bill incorporates some of the same logic Washington used but with a twist of lemon–the mail-in ballot. Trump believes he lost the 2020 election due to mail-in ballots. There is a lot of truth in this. According to MIT’s Election Lab study on How We Voted in 2020: A Topical Look at the Survey of the Performance of American Elections states that “Looking at 2020 (election), the partisan difference in voting by mail increased substantially. The proportion of Democrats voting by mail more than doubled, while the proportion of Republicans using vote-by-mail increased by “only” 50 percent compared to 2016. In total, 60 percent of Democrats cast their ballots by mail in 2020, compared to only 32 percent of Republicans.”

This does not explain Trump’s 2024 victory but here is the bitter lemon in the cocktail. MIT’s Election Lab study says that voting by mail, which includes dropping votes off at drop boxes had steadily increased since 1996. Standing in line and expecting a gill of rum for doing your civic duty has dropped from 89 percent to 60 percent in 2016. “The fraction of voters casting ballots by mail more than doubled from 2016 to 46 percent. “Meanwhile, the share of voters casting ballots on Election Day declined by half, from 60 percent to 28 percent.” Granted, the Covid pandemic had states scrambling to set up safe voting procedures. Drop-off and mail-in ballots provided voters with safe access to voting without the crowds. However, it appears that voters like the idea of early voting using drop-off boxes and mail-in ballots.

The other twist is that Trump, constitutionally, is not allowed to run again per the Twenty-second Amendment. Without Trump’s rum wagon pulling up on Election Day maybe GOP Congressional representatives feel the need to legally control the voting process. Voting by either drop-off or by mail is like the forward pass in pro football. In 1933 the NFL changed the rules that a passer had to be “five yards behind the line of scrimmage before he can pass the ball…” to allowing “the passer to pass the ball from any point behind the line of scrimmage.” In three years, 1936, the NFL had its first 1,000 yard passer when Green Bay Quarterback Arnie Herber threw for 1,239 yards.  In 1967 Joe Namath became the first QB to throw for 4,000 yards and in 1984 Dan Marino threw for 5,000 yards. Simply put, mail-in voting, like the forward pass is a game changer. Since Marino threw for 5,000 yards that number has been eclipsed ten or more times.

I am not sure where this act of saving our elections from ourselves fits into the timeline of our county’s democratic principles. Voting rights can be easily fit into historical narrative and are often associated to important events in our history. The most obvious is the Fifteenth Amendment giving freed slaves the right to vote. Then there was the Twenty-sixth Amendment ratified in 1971 which allowed 18 year-olds the right to vote. This amendment came out of the Vietnam War. If a young man or woman was old enough to die for their country they surely should be old enough to vote much like their forefather in the Continental Army. The Twenty-fourth says the right to vote shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex. I am surprised Congress has not taken up some sort of restrictions on trans gender people from voting. Maybe in the near future besides proving we are citizens we will need medical proof of our sex. Selfies do not count.

I really think the GOPers in Congress are not reading the writing on the wall–adapting to the forward pass or mail-in or drop box to voting. They need to scrap Trump’s revenge plays trying assuaging the “Big Man’s” ego and start looking downfield at the changing times. Putting more obstacles in the way of voting flew away with Jim Crow.

Ancient Aliens, the Deep State and the Epstein Conspiracy

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Without a doubt Americans love a good conundrum. If it is real puzzler with crime and sex we either turn it into TV docudrama or better yet, a full blown conspiracy. 

Just look at the Kennedy assassination. After 60 years we have gone from the “lone gunman nut theory” to Cuban assassins parachuting in on the Grassy Knoll to CIA Mafia-hired hitmen looking to get revenge for John’s brother, Robert, for going after organized crime as the Attorney General. I have even read where theorists say there is evidence to suggest that somebody took a shot at Kennedy from inside a curb-side sewer at street level.

Like the Warren Commission and the Kennedy assassination, I really don’t think President Trump realized as candidate Trump the morass he got himself into when he promised to release Jeffrey Epstein’s files to the public. That was like aroma of fresh-baked pizza with extra cheese wafting out onto the street for the Deep State conspiracy minded cosmonauts of  cyberspace to start chowing down on.  Afterall, whether he likes it or not, Trump has inherited the Deep State and all its dirty ops.

The Epstein Files is more than alleged sex trafficking of underage girls. Right now the conspiracy sleuths are more interested in whose names are on some sort of list, men seeking the pleasure of younger women—and their connection to the Deep State, banking, oil and international business. This has conspiracy bloodhounds digging like terriers at a rat hole. And that is what the Deep State , or what’s left of it at this point, wants. The Deep State wants these rat terriers running down dead end alleys. 

Meanwhile a key piece of information is being over looked: Epstein’s DNA. When it comes to crime we depend on Forensic DNA Specialists. But, in this case we should be relying on Genomic Researchers. 

The Human Genome Project was a large, well-organized, and highly collaborative international effort that generated the first sequence of the human genome and that of several additional well-studied organisms. Carried out from 1990-2003, it was one of the most ambitious and important scientific endeavors in human history.—NIH National Genome Research Institute. 

The Epstein case goes well beyond criminal forensics. It is alleged that Epstein’s DNA carries a slight mutation. It is a slight mutation passed along for centuries and can be traced back to its possible origins in three river valleys on Earth: The Hung He or Yellow River, “The Cradle of Chinese Civilization,” The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, better known as the “Fertile Crescent” and the Nile River. Some researchers believe that the same mutation can be found in Central and South Americans—home to the Aztecs, Incas and Mayans. This explains Trump’s efforts to deport as many illegal South and Central Americans as possible. This is just cover for the Deep State’s search for alien DNA in immigrants who come into this country from south of our border. It could possibly be argued that the Deep State kept Trump in the dark about this research in his first term. In his second term he unknowingly fell into the Epstein Files and the ancient alien DNA research face first. He now finds himself mired within the Deep State, something that unsettles his staunch MAGA base. 

Most middle schoolers, who stayed awake in their World History class, can take a wild stab at explaining the significance of those geographic areas. Those of us who are smarter than a 5th grader but less studious than an 8th grader may not know that all of these locations are significant in establishment of ancient civilizations and human advancement; moving from hunters and gatherers to inventing the wheel, writing, gunpowder and domesticating crops and animals. Something the Trump Administration is banking on us not knowing, now that they are aware of some of the buried Deep State secrets. This explains the dismantling of the state and national educational infrastructure and the closing down government funded national research centers.

The Deep State became obsessed with determining the human genome and may explain the push for diversity, equity, and inclusion as a way of preparing us for extraterrestrial beings in the woodshed.  According the National Genome Research Institute, “A special committee of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences outlined the original goals for the Human Genome Project in 1988, which included sequencing the entire human genome in addition to the genomes of several carefully selected non-human organisms.”

For whatever reason a handful of researchers were convinced that the Fertile Crescent held some of the mysteries of the human genome. Many people believe that President George H. W. Bush’s 1990  Gulf War was to put Saddam Hussein back in his box. Its real mission was in search of  DNA, just one of  Bush’s thousand points of light was the mapping and sequencing of the human genome. 

The main goal of this international effort was to get the entire human genome, or the genetic blueprint of the human being. By 2000 the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium “announced that it had produced a draft human genome sequence that accounted for 90% of the human genome.” The key word here is “human” because “The draft sequence contained more than 150,000 areas where DNA sequence was unknown because it could not be determined accurately (known as gaps).” But that 8 to 10 percent needed to be filled in. 

Again, in 2003 another Gulf War, this one started by Bush II, to fill in the gaps. This time it was under the guise of looking for Weapons of Mass Destruction. In reality it was in search of that one little mutation. Hence, military house-to-house searches armed with AR-15s and cotton swabs.  Abu Ghraib Prison was known more as a CIA torture chamber than a Deep State secret genetic research facility. The dupes in this charade were the Army National Guardsmen who unbeknownst decoyed the real purpose of Abu Ghraib. The human rights abuses was a great cover for the more benign genomic research that was taking place deep within its walls. 

By 2022 those gaps had been filled. All though touted as a positive outcome, the Human Genome Project “made every part of the draft human genome sequence publicly available shortly after production.” This created a genome race giving Communist Chinese scientists access to DNA sequencing science that they previously lacked. Trump’s trade war with China goes deeper than container ships crossing the ocean. It sheds some light on the Wuhan lab leak theory. What were Chinese scientists really researching? Was the Covid pandemic just a cover for deeper, darker genetic secrets?

What we are witnessing now is the anti-Deep State’s attempt to dismantle all evidence of the Deep State through a concocted agency called DOGE. DOGE’s eradication of agencies includes many seemingly unrelated government activities. It is a shotgun approach to eliminating the Deep State, destroying more than DEI and “woke” agencies.  The Trump administration is not only slashing research efforts taking place across the nation in government but also in university labs. Hence, the legal battles to defund universities like Harvard and the closing down government research centers. But probably its biggest take down was removing the United States from the World Health Organization, thus denying scientists valuable DNA data derived from a variety of sources–and reasons.

What the anti-Deep State does not understand is that some of these labs have been researching for decades with alien remains. Alien remains that some researchers believe are related to those they believe visited this planet 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. The Deep State has meticulously compartmentalized this alien DNA research so no one agency or research lab could connect the DNA gaps on its own. With the anti-Deep State slashing funding for research facilities, it is hard now to tell what was lost to DOGE’s shotgun approach in dismantling the government for budgetary purposes. 

For instance, one research group found there was a slight difference within the mutation leading some researchers to believe that there is just enough diversity in the alien DNA to speculate that maybe as many as three different alien related-groups visited Earth. No one is sure if that research is lost or just on pause. 

It is also their belief, but purely speculative, that these aliens set up what would be “Roanoke Colonies” in the Hung He River, the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, and the Nile River valleys, much like Britain’s attempt to establish settlements off the North Carolina coast in 1685.  These attempts resulted in the first great American Mystery:  “The Lost Colony of Roanoke.” Historians today do not know what happened to the 112 to 120 settlers. They still search for clues to their disappearance. Some speculate that local native Americans savagely killed them. Others believe that they may have lived out their remaining years with peaceful natives in the unsettled wilderness. 

Some researchers believe that these ancient aliens, stranded  in a hostile environment, suffered the same fate as Lost Colony of Roanoke inhabitants, were waiting for an interstellar supply ship that never arrived. Some go on to speculate that like the Lost Colony, war kept these Earth colonies from getting supplies they  needed. Although there is no proof of this some believe that an interstellar war may have kept colonizing aliens from a timely return.This leads some to believe that those stranded aliens, much like the Roanoke settlers, intermarried with the natives, humans, creating this out-worldly “nonhuman” mutant piece of DNA floating around in the genetic pool of humans.

In fact, some researchers feel strongly that the Chinese may be on to something big with their exploration on the Dark Side of the Moon– 2001: A Space Odyssey moment. There maybe proof of an ancient alien space battle that took place in our own Solar System. Evidence of this battle could possibly be found on the Moon. It may even give clues to the possible end of life on Mars. Although not taken seriously among astronomers and astrophysicists, it is a belief that this ancient alien space battle destroyed several planets explaining the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and the Kuiper Belt. 

The Deep State has been secretly working with the remains of extraterrestrials since the end of World War II. The government has tightly controlled information on UFOs or “unidentified anomalous phenomena”  UAPs. (see blog Congress and Aliens, January 2024). We have been looking to space for proof of extraterrestrial life while the proof may be right here walking around on Earth in our own DNA. There is more hiding in the Epstein Files and fantasy island. The Trump Administration overt activities to defund large portions of the government, its suspicious turn around on the Epstein Files indicates that like past administration, it has been consumed by the Deep State. 

Making America Great from Sea to Shining Sea

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American Progress by John Gast, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The slogan “Make America Great Again” confuses me. There is so much to unpack in that four word statement. It is a wide open proclamation that seems simple but in reality is so subjective it creates more questions than it can possibly answer, starting with what is great. Can “Great” even be defined and then agreed upon.

MAGA as a slogan is a historical phenomena based on the Rashomon effect. The term Rashomon effect comes from Akira Kurosawa’s 1950 film Rashomon. The movie, according to psychologenie.com, “highlights the contradictory interpretations of the same event by different people. But because these are accompanied by facts, each of these interpretations seem completely plausible … wherein lies the confusion and dilemma.”

What makes MAGA so confusing is whose interpretation of what era of American history we agree upon is or was great. Our history is comprised not of one event but a series of events that lead up to a major event–like say, the Civil War to Reconstruction.

Understanding and interpreting history comes from three sources. The University of California, Berkley’s Department of History says that Primary Sources are “The ‘raw materials’ (or the) foundation of historical research and writing.” It is observations from sources who witnessed history as it was unfolding. Sources like newspaper articles, journals, government documents and the arts all give us information from the past.

Secondary sources are the historiography produced from primary sources. It is the books and articles “that (are) anchored in primary sources and informed secondary sources.” It is the “arguments and interpretations about the past” that emerge from the “foundations of historical evidence (i.e., primary sources).” It is a process of either challenging or supplementing “prevailing interpretations that other historians have made.”

And finally, Tertiary Sources are “Books and articles based exclusively on secondary sources – i.e., on the research of others.” Basically we are dealing with numerous interpretations (sources) and outcomes depending on the combination and permutations of historical events. Like this blog.

The (Rashomon) effect of the subjectivity of perception on recollection, by which observers of an event are able to produce substantially different but equally plausible accounts of it.–Wikitionary

A lot of philosophical beliefs about government and influential individuals in our history can be hashed about as causes for “making America great” starting with the Revolutionary War all the way to someone like Henry Ford and the assembly line. It could be argued that the Louisiana Purchase was an accelerant spurring a population pinned in-between the Appalachians and the Atlantic to move west into what would be a mission of Manifest Destiny, from sea to shining sea with amber waves of grain in-between. It was going west to get to the East–the Orient, and even possibly into Central America. But first Native Americans and Mexico had to be shoved out of the way.

After the War of 1812 a spirit of nationalism took hold. For the next two decades Americans began to take their beliefs west. According to William Earl Weeks, “Manifest Destiny consistently reflected three key themes: the special virtues of the American people and their institutions; their mission to redeem and remake the world in the image of America; and the American destiny under God to accomplish this sublime task.” It was a belief in the virtues of a liberty, justice, and the republican form of government. It encompassed the two “Cs”: Christianity and Capitalism, two concept developed during Colonial times that were now ready to move beyond the Appalachian Mountains–on steroids.

The westward movement in some ways was a religious crusade spawned by the Second Great Awakening. It created a religious incentive to drive west. Indeed, many settlers believed that God himself blessed the growth of the American nation. Afterall the Native Americans were considered heathens and always subject to be converted. By Christianizing the tribes, American missionaries believed they could save souls. Unlike Mountain Men and fur trappers who preceded the missionaries, Manifest Destiny was a fulfillment of God’s will to Christianize the heathen Native American tribes.

It appeared to be America’s sacred duty to expand across the North American continent, to reign supreme in the Western Hemisphere, and to serve as an example of the future to people everywhere. This was Manifest Destiny of the American people.–Building the Continental Empire Americas Expansion from the Revolution by William Earl Weeks

Manifest destiny touched not only on religion; it was an economic and trade crusade; it was about race and patriotism. According to Weeks, “Senator Edward Hannegan of Indiana typified (the) view when in late February 1847 he proclaimed to Congress that ‘Mexico and the United States are peopled by two distinct and utterly nonhomogeneous races. In no reasonable period could we amalgamate.'” A country that depended on slave labor to generate a national income probably did not have a deep seated problem in viewing the western inhabitants, non-Anglo Saxons, Catholics as inferior. The needs of the American expansion to the Pacific generally did not include them. These religious, economic and racial differences would end up in a war with Mexico over Texas. Mexico would lose just about all of the Southwest to include California right up to the border of the Oregon Territory as a result of the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). If this could be looked as a ledger sheet, America’s great gain was Mexico’s great loss.

The Oregon Territory was a bit different then battling non Anglo Saxon Catholics and savages. Fighting over the territory was not really an option. Territorial disputes with the former Mother Country over northern and western borders was nothing new. Handling the British bulldog was different then kicking around the Mexican Chihuahua. Britain, unlike Mexico with Texas, could see that American settlers were soon going to populate the Oregon Territory. Both countries had a vested interest in not disrupting the trade between the two countries. And besides, the United States had just engaged Mexico in one war and did not need to fight the British along the northern border at the same time.

Ironing out the Columbia River was done diplomatically. Concessions were made on both sides in modifying the belligerent cry of “Fifty-four Forty or Fight” land grab. This American claim included most of the land west of Continental Divide (current British Columbia) and as far north as the Russian territory of Alaska. Cooler diplomatic heads prevailed setting the border between British North America, Canada a country that we invade twice and at present seem to want to annex, along the 49th parallel instead of the 54th.

Then there was the desire of southerners to find more lands suitable for cotton cultivation. The anti-slavery movement in Northern states was beginning to take off. There was a deep concerned about adding any more slave states to the Union. All of this new land could alter the delicate balance of power of the federal government. Adding states to the Union at this time consisted of bringing in one slave and one free state at the same time. And no president until Abraham Lincoln would consider curbing the growth of our “peculiar institution” to just the South. Settling the boundaries of slavery in these new lands would take two compromises, The Compromise of 1820 (the Missouri Compromise) and The Compromise of 1850. Both were replaced with the idea of popular sovereignty in the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. The idea was that the settlers of new territories would decide. Eventually the country decided on war.

And then there was trade, particularly with China. According to The Office of the Historian, “American trade with China began as early as 1784, relying on North American exports such as furs, sandalwood, and ginseng, but American interest in Chinese products soon outstripped the Chinese appetite for these American exports.” (It seems we have always run a trade imbalance with China.) Sixty years later the United States would sign The Treaty of Wangxia that would open up five treaty ports to US trade.

The big problem in tapping into the Far East trade was the United States did not have a suitable port on the West Coast. San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco were all in Mexico. That would change after the Mexican-American War. Under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Mexico cede 55 percent of its country to the US. America received California, Nevada, Utah along with most of Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. It also settled the long standing feud over the southern border of Texas as the Rio Grande.

It could be argued that Manifest Destiny was a great moment in American history. A lot of the greatness however, was taking place East of the Mississippi. Internal improvements like canals were built to move produce and trade along the many rivers flowing to the Hudson and Mississippi Rivers, and the Great Lakes. Steamships began regular runs up and down the Mississippi and its tributaries. In 1826 in New Jersey John Stevens demonstrated the possibilities of steam locomotion. By the 1830s railroads like the Baltimore & Ohio (B & O) were surveying and laying track. Some Forty years later the railroads connected the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. These were innovations that would be needed to settle and develop the West.

From a certain perspective Manifest Destiny was a time when it could be argued that America being made great. Not so much for Mexico and Native Americans. Therefore greatness may very well depend on the subjective perspective taken in determining what is great as to who benefits by greatness and the stories they tell. To the contrary, there is a good possibility that someone has been disposed, denied or defeated by just standing in the way of making something great.

Making America Great: The Beginning

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We have been living with the red-hatted MAGA mantra for close to 10 years. I think this shibboleth historically does the country and its people a great disservice. Yes, it is a forward thinking concept. But in many ways MAGA focuses on the foibles and glitches of the present and omits the fact that America has always been a country that is constantly under construction; progressively moving forward in science, trade, economics and human rights.

I am not sure if we have ever had a period in our history where we have stomped the mud off our boots and dusted our hands and said, “My work here is done.” The only thing that comes to mind is planting the flag on the moon. The last man on the Moon was Gene Cernan way back in December of 1972. In fact no humans have been more than 400 miles from the Earth since that Apollo 17 flight. Every country with a space program is still flying in our contrails.

There are many reason why America has progressively moved forward. The early Puritans considered the New World to be a “beacon on a hill.” Today, President Trump is putting forth the concept that improving tariffs are a mechanism to keep that beacon shining. However, many are questioning if tariffs are the right tool for the time.

Even if we look back to what has to be our darkest moment there was progress. During the Civil War when the country ripped itself apart over a slave based economic system, a time when cotton accounted for 60 percent of the country’s trade revenues, a time when hundreds of thousands of men fought over Union and slavery; America was still moving forward. And, The Homestead Act was just one part of making America great in the post Civil War era.

During the Civil War, while the country was giving its last full measure of devotion to reunite a divided country there was hope with landmark legislation like The Homestead Act 1862. The Act opened up 270 million acres to “anyone” 21 year old or the head of a household. There were two caveats: you had to be a citizen or declare the intentions of becoming one; and well, if you took up arms against or aided enemies (the Confederacy) of the United States you need not apply. A step in making America great. However, this step, a concept of an individual owning 160 acres of western land, clashed with Native American ideas of land ownership and management.

Washington [D.C.] is not a place to live in. The rents are high, the food is bad, the dust is disgusting and the morals are deplorable. Go West, young man, go West and grow up with the country.— attributed to Horace Greeley, New-York Daily Tribune, July 13, 1865

But what made this act so important is it dovetailed neatly into the concept of Manifest Destiny. A belief that America was destined to be a country from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Americans, or English Colonials, have always pushed westward through the Cumberland Gap on the Wilderness Road into Kentucky and Tennessee or the National Road out of western Maryland on into Indiana. River travel played a big role in moving settlers and goods on rivers like the Ohio and its tributaries that flowed to the Mississippi.

However, at this time the United States was hemmed in by the Mississippi River to the West and Spanish Florida to the South. Nobody was really sure what lay on the other side of the Mississippi River in 1800. For instance, the Spanish searched all over the Southwest looking for a city made of gold called Eldorado. (They were looking in the wrong places. All they really needed to do was build a sawmill in Northern California and maybe American history would have been a whole lot different.)

This belief that America was to rule from the Atlantic to the Pacific grew legs with Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase. The cry “go west young man” and the slogan “Manifest Destiny” were still to come. But, the early 1800s was also a time of some ill conceived ideas. Americans were picking a Quasi War in the late 1790s with France and a real war, again, trying to settle old scores with Great Britain in 1812. While we were fighting the British we also took another crack at conquering Canada. it seems history has circled back again on conquering Canada, this time with tariffs.


The Homestead Act of 1862 was a revolutionary concept for distributing public land in American history. This law turned over vast amounts of the public domain to private citizens. 270 millions acres, or 10% of the area of the United States was claimed and settled under this act. Repercussions of this monumental piece of legislation can be detected throughout America today.–National Park Service

The new nation’s eyes were also focused south on the Spanish possession, the appendage we know as Florida. At that time there were two Floridas, as if one was not bad enough: an East Florida and a West Florida. It was West Florida that abutted New Orleans and the part of Florida that was not included in the Louisiana Purchase. Despite diplomatic haggling, Presidents Madison and Monroe got nowhere on changing Spain, France or Britain’s mind as to America owning what would later become chunks of Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Spain, unlike France, was not interested in selling off its North American holdings. However that was about to change.

In 1804 Jefferson was after New Orleans, the crown jewel in the Louisiana Purchase. As long as any foreign country owned New Orleans it put a serious crimp in bottling up American trade coming down the river. Forget tarifs, the fledgling country needed an outlet for its western produce. America needed West Florida to get its goods to what would later be known as the Gulf of America and on to foreign markets or back east to New York, Boston, and Philadelphia.

The process of acquiring this chunk of Gulf Coast would take several diplomatic incidents. But it was General Andrew Jackson that got the ball rolling. During the War of 1812, while other generals were floundering in taking Canada, while the British burning Washington City; Jackson was fighting both the British and Native Americans in the South. He whipped the Native Americans in what was known as the Creek War and whipped the British in the Battle for New Orleans. Once the war with the British was over he was able to turn his full attention to the various renegades who were crossing to and fro across the the US and Spanish Florida border. (It seems like some things in history never change.)

Now, in most wars there is always at least one country ready to supply the locals with the needed provisions to wage war. Like the United States sending weapons to Ukraine. In this case it was Britain supplying the Native American tribes of the Southeast with the tools of the trade. The Spanish did not seem to mind. Nor did they care who came and went across the border. Runaway slaves from Georgia found refuge among the Native Americans. Two groups that had a vested interest in helping Spain keep Florida and keeping Jackson out.

If there is one thing that history has taught us is that Native Americans never come out on the winning side of a war involving Europeans and Americans. Once Jackson sent the British running back to the Gulf of Mexico, as it was known back then, he began chasing Native Americans and runaway slaves seeking asylum in Spanish territory. In his incursion into Spanish Florida combatants were killed, forts and personal property were destroyed. Caught up in the hostilities were two British nationals: Alexander Arbuthnot and Robert Ambrister. Both were convicted of aiding Seminoles and other Native American tribes. Jackson gave both men a short shrift and a short rope. Both ended up getting hung along with two Seminole chiefs creating an international incident. It was a diplomatic mess that Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams, had to clean up. The whole affair would become the first of three Seminole Wars.

A side note here. A small country like Denmark might want to take note. When it comes to land, Americans usually get what they want. Just ask any Native American tribe or Mexico, For instance Florida, the Monroe Administration wanted Florida. Later it was the Polk administration going after Texas. If anything, Jackson’s running around Florida made it clear that Spain could not control the border or its inhabitants. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams presented Spain with the ultimatum either control your people or we will.

If it was anybody who had the art of the deal down it was John Quincy Adams. It was the Onís-Adams Treaty of 1819, which according to history.state.gov, “Spain ceded East Florida to the United States and renounced all claim to West Florida. Spain received no compensation, but the Unites States agreed to assume liability for $5millin in damages done by (Jackson) American citizens who rebelled against Spain”

The Onís-Adams Treaty resulted in the 1821 Transcontinental Treaty. What makes the treaty important is that it “defined the western limits of the Louisiana Purchase.” It led Spain to surrender “its claims to the Pacific Northwest (Oregon Territory). In return, the United States recognized Spanish sovereignty over Texas.” A recognition that would last less than 30 years. Adams also worked out the northern boundaries of the Louisiana Purchase and the Oregon Territory with Great Britain. Once Adams set these boundaries the march to the Pacific and making America great was about to begin.

In just a little more than 10 Years America increased its size by one million square miles.

  • The Louisiana Purchase: 828,000 Square Miles;
  • The Oregon Territory: 288,000 Square Miles;
  • and Florida: 72,000 Square Miles.

And this does not include Mexican controlled California and Texas, yet to be acquired.

The biggest problem Americans faced was getting over the Mississippi River. The technology to capitalize on all of this land had yet to be developed. Canals connecting rivers to the Mississippi River had to be built. According to mississippiriver.com, “In 1814 the city of New Orleans recorded 21 steamboat arrivals, however, over the course of the following 20 years, that number exploded to more than 1200. The steamboat’s place as a transportation necessity was secured.” It was the beginning of making America great.

From Gilded Age to Golden Age

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contemplative images flickr.com

In President Trump’s Inaugural Address he boldly stated, “The golden age of America begins right now.” It has a nice ring to it but when you think about it, America’s last attempt at a golden age was called the Gilded Age.

Our Gilded Age was a time that was between the Civil War and the and turn of the 20th Century. It was a time when America was unfolding itself from sea to shining sea. History.com describes it as an era where “America became more prosperous and saw unprecedented growth in industry and technology.” But it was also an era as History.com says, that “had a more sinister side: It was a period where greedy, corrupt industrialists, bankers and politicians enjoyed extraordinary wealth and opulence at the expense of the working class. In fact, it was wealthy tycoons, not politicians, who inconspicuously held the most political power during the Gilded Age.”

For a Golden Age to be golden it needs to fit the following criteria:

  • The age must have stable economic growth, trade and the creation of wealth;
  • The age must have significant advancements in the arts, literature and science that contributes to the advancement of civilization;
  • The age must be one of discovery and innovation where progress pushes the envelope of what is possible;
  • Finally, it must be an age where there are peaceful relations among citizens and other countries.

Granted very few eras in history have hit all of the above criteria in full. It could be argued that for most of the United States history the US has come close to meeting most of the criteria to some degree some of the time; and at other times completely disregarded others. But even the Gilded Age with its moments of great wealth had its moments of economic panics, followed once again with the creation of great wealth. It was a time when the captains of industry controlled entire industries creating monopolies and trusts. and full employment. But it was a time where workers barley made $500 a year.

 Like today, New York City was the center of the financial system. Between 1863 and 1913, eight banking panics occurred in the money center of Manhattan. The panics in 1884, 1890, 1899, 1901, and 1908 were confined to New York and nearby cities and states. The panics in 1873, 1893, and 1907 spread throughout the nation.–federalreservehistory.org

According to the Thomas Edison National Historical Park, “In 1879, he made an incandescent bulb that burned long enough to be practical, long enough to light a home for many hours.” Within 60 years there would be night baseball.

Louis Bachrach Studios Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

It was a period of peace and innovation. Inventors like Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell pushed the boundaries of science. Their inventions had a great impact on raising America’s standard of living and helped push the world into an electronic age of light and communication.

Alexander Bell places the first long-distance call from New York to Chicago in 1892. There were no free minutes at that time or unlimited texting.

Gilbert H. Grosvenor Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

With the influx of immigrants, a segregated population became more segregated with laws like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. It was a law that restricted Chinese laborers from entering the country, among other restrictions. It also affected Chinese immigrants already in the country by making them permanent aliens. It was an act of denying them citizenship. It was also a time where women, citizens, were denied the right to vote.

And it was a time of full employment fueled by immigrants, where workers barley made $500 a year. It was also a time dangerous working and conditions for labor. One slip or injury could cause economic devastation for a family. Unions fought for survival. However most were crushed from the weight of business interests working in conjunction with the government.

  • There was the Haymarket Riot of 1886 where workers were rallying for an 8 hour day. A bomb exploded killing workers and seven policemen.
  • There was the Homestead Steel Strike of 1892 where workers battled Pinkerton Detectives brought in by Andrew Carnegie’s chief executive Henry Clay Frick to break the strike. Eventually the Pennsylvania Militia was called out and the union organization was crushed.
  • And two years later there was the Pullman Strike. Pullman manufactured railroad cars. In 1893 George Pullman laid off seventy-five percent of the work force and reduced wages for those still working. The the American Railway Union called for a nationwide strike shutting down rail travel in 27 states. Eventually, President Grover Cleveland sent in 10,000 troops to quash the strike.

The annual income of an American worker in 1890, at the height of the Gilded Age. Adjusted for inflation, that’s just under $1,500 in today’s dollars.–Investopedia

Sticking with the railroad motif, Louisiana in 1890 passed The Separate Car Act. Railroads were required to provide “equal but separate accommodations for white and African American passengers.” Additionally, according to Britannica.com, the law prohibited passengers from entering accommodations other than those to which they had been assigned on the basis of their race.

The argument necessarily assumes … that social prejudices may be overcome by legislation, and that equal rights cannot be secured to the negro except by an enforced commingling of the two races. We cannot accept this proposition. If the two races are to meet upon terms of social equality, it must be the result of natural affinities, a mutual appreciation of each other’s merits, and a voluntary consent of individuals. (From Brown’s majority opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson. In other words, don’t trip over the color line on the way out.

Original published in The American Magazine in 1905 Frances Benjamin Johnston

It is amazing how educated legal minds can interpret the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. When this law was challenged in court it made its way to the Supreme Court. In Plessy v Ferguson, the Supreme Court ruled that separate accommodations did not violate the Thirteenth or Fourteenth Amendments. Justice Henry Billings Brown wrote for the majority. He “argued, because the amendment was intended to secure only the legal equality of African Americans and whites, not their social equality. Legal equality was adequately respected in the act because the accommodations provided for each race.” The lone dissenting vote came from John Marshall Harlan who fundamentally objected to the statute because “it interferes with the personal freedom of citizens.” The ruling gave us the concept of “separate but equal.” A dogmatic principle that hung around for another 50 plus years.

A Golden Age is a term used to describe a period in history where a culture, society, or nation experiences a period of prosperity, peace, and advancements. This era is characterized by significant achievements, significant contributions, and a collective sense of prosperity and unity. Golden ages are often marked by major advances in science, technology, art, and literature.–California Learning Resource Network

Before declaring a golden age Trump and company should look at what they are up against. They may have a hard time competing with the likes of ancient Egypt’s Fourth Dynasty. We might be going back more than 4500 years but in its golden age these pharaohs put up some impressive feats, like building pyramids. According to Pharaoh.se “the pharaohs of this dynasty only ruled for a little more than a century (and we think eight years is a long time), and yet they managed to have the three pyramids of Giza built in that time.” The pharaoh Sneferu started construction of the first pyramid and built three more, (no doubt letting the Nubians to pay for last two).

The Pyramids of Giza
Ricardo Liberato, Wikimedia Commons

His son Khufu continually improved upon his dad’s work. No pressure on Don Junior. In Trump’s first term he could not complete a wall along the Southern Border. (It was foiled when Mexico reneged on its fiduciary participation.) However Trump is proposing the Stargate Initiative. According to Forbes, this is “a $500 billion private sector deal to expand U.S. artificial intelligence infrastructure. Spearheaded by tech giants OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle, Stargate represents the largest AI infrastructure project in history.” Move over pyramids because the Yanks are coming! The sky’s the limit when billionaires get together. (At least three have skirted outer space.)

And then there is the Golden Age of Ukraine. If Trump plans to end Russia’s conquest of Ukraine he might want to bone up on Vladimir I or just Vladimir the Great. And no, this is not Putin but the “founding father” of Kievan Rus’. Putin might be using history to repeat Vladimir I’s medieval accomplishments. We have to harken back the 10th and 11th Century when Kievan Rus’ was Europe’s most powerful European state. A state without nuclear weapons. Vladimir I is credited with expanding Christianity to that region. Originally a pagan, much like Saul of Tarsus, he saw the light. When he converted to Christianity he oversaw the conversion of Kyiv and Novgorod to Christianity as well. For kicks he had all pagan idols thrown into the Dnieper River.

And lest not forget what was once “The Red Menace” from the East, China. Any golden age today has to take into account one of the oldest cultures in human civilization. Just look to the Tang Dynasty. Its first emperor was Gaozu (also Kao-tsu, formerly Li Yuan,-tsu (618-626 C.E.). According to ushistory.org, Gaozu “granted equal amounts of land to each adult male in return for taxes and continued the trend of local government rule…he also created a monetary system of copper coins.” Maybe Trump and Friends are onto something with Bitcoin. And he wrote a set of laws that were revised every two decades that lasted into the 14th century and the Ming dynasty. Sounds a bit like our Presidential Executive Orders, subject change but more frequently.

Emperor Gaozu was a Sui military commander who led a rebellion against his former masters, seized control of the state, and founded the Tang Dynasty
Public Domain

There is a cautionary tale here: “One of Gaozu son’s, General Li Shih-min, succeeded in eliminating all political rivals of the Tang and established firm control of the Tang dynasty over the newly reunified China. He then proceeded to murder his brothers, and forced his father (Gaozu) to abdicate the throne to him. Preferring his temple name, Tai-tsung took the throne in 626 C.E. The Golden Age of China had begun.” Nothing like a little fratricide and shoving the old man off the throne to get a golden age kicked off.

And if Trump wants to purse a Mideast policy he might want to look into the Islamic Golden Age. According Islamic History this golden age “is traditionally dated from the mid-7th century to the mid-13th century during which Muslim rulers established one of the largest empires in history.” It was period when artists, engineers, scholars, poets, philosophers, traders contributed “to agriculture, the arts, economics” mathematics and science. This was a time before OPEC, BP, Mobile, Exxon and Chevron–and Israel.

A little closer to our time the Elizabethan Age between 1558 and 1603 is referred to as a Golden Age of England. “According to Britannica, “it was a span of time characterized by relative peace and prosperity and by a flowering of artistic, literary and intellectual culture.” It was a time of Shakespeare.

With America’s stable economy and government, great universities and innovative thinkers, Trump has a lot to work with in getting a golden age cranked up. A lot of the elements needed to create a golden age are already present. They just need to be combined and conducted into a fine symphony. However, it is going to take more than handing out fries under the Golden Arches to create an age greatness.

The Phony Political War is Over

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Now that Donald Trump has been inaugurated and all the campaign’s bombastic swagering, threats, ranting and hectoring are over, we can get down to Trump 2.0. We have endured more than two months of Biden’s phony rule. Some of have been dreading the day when he steps down, while others have been on the Capitol steps just waiting to get started in making America great(er) again, emphasis on the again.

I liken the political time we just experienced to the lull in World War II after the fall of Poland. It was obvious that France and Britain were going to square off with Germany. But, for six months before the Battle of France both sides danced around each other with clenched fists before the beat downs began.

Phony War, (1939–40) a name for the early months of World War II, marked by no major hostilities. The term was coined by journalists to derisively describe the six-month period (October 1939–March 1940) during which no land operations were undertaken by the Allies or the Germans after the German conquest of Poland in September 1939.–Britanica

Since the election, Democrats and Republicans have been like two dogs running along the fence barking at one another. Snarling over cabinet appointments, growling about who closed the peace deal between Israel and Hamas, who caused the California Fires: the real dog fight can begin now that Trump has been unleashed. This time there will be no question about who turned the dogs loose, and there will be nobody running through the neighborhood with leashes to get them back in the yard. But that is what the people voted for, the ouster of a woke, liberal dog catcher.

The Germans were never one to forget how they were not beaten in World War I. Paybacks can be a tough check to cash. The Germans forced the French to sign an armistice at the same location and in the same railway car that the ended World War I.

For the last two months squawking heads from all points on the media scale have been pontificating on the path our country will follow in the next four years. Making predictions if the economy is going to tank or soar to even greater heights under Trump’s proposed tariffs. There is speculating on the overt reach of billionaires: is Elon Musk going to be given space grants to industrialize the exosphere much like in the 1860-80s when the government gave thousands upon thousands of square miles of federal land to railroad barons for laying tracks that crisscrossed the hinterlands. Will the Pentagon become world’s largest twenty-four hour men’s only lounge? Will the government turn the US Postal Service over Jeff Bezos, where voting by mail will be a guaranteed two day delivery where you can track your vote.

Fortunately, we are not at war. In fact Trump sounds very Wilsonesque in keeping America out of wars. Wilson tried for fours years in keeping the US out of World War I. Let us hope Trump’s art of the deal with Putin in Ukraine is better than Neville Chamberlain’s “Peace for Our Time” with Hitler in 1938. That peace lasted for about a year.

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, proudly showing the Anglo-German Declaration commiting both countries to peace after his return from Munich on September 30, 1938.

The real question about peace for our time is how well Democrats and Republicans can get things accomplished now that the phony talk is over and the gavels are about to drop in Congress and in the courts. Are the MAGA forces going to try and blitzkrieg the Democrats? Are the Democrats going to roll over in the first 100 days of Trump 2.0 like France in 1940? Or, are the Dems going to proclaim they will never surrender.