Nonfiction – Page 6 – education and deconstruction.com

Do You Know What I’ve Done – BONUS POST

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This is what Trump was singing when his thinking was lucid.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT I’VE DONE FOR THE USA?

sung to the tune of “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” with apologies to Dionne Warwick and to whomever else the rights may concern.

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Do you know what I’ve done for the USA?

I’ve been prez so long. I did it right, I again made us great.

Do you know what I’ve done for the USA?

I’ve given us all peace of mind in the USA.

My beautiful bill is a great big giveaway.

I put illegals down and raised the bar.

In all my years, I’ve always been a star.

I made world peace. How great is that?

And all those losers, who never-were,

can get their funds cut-off and kiss my ass.

Criminals make me seethe in the USA.

We’re going to conquer space.

The White HOUSE is where I’ll stay.

I was born and raised in the USA.

I sent bad people away from the USA.

Fame and fortune, I’ve achieved in my life.

I’ll show you how to do it, TOO.

Buy my stuff, donate to the GOP, do what I do.

The Dems will turn to dust and blow away,

but if you want, to be my friend, you’ll get rich and happy right away.

I’ve got lots of friends in the USA.

dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough

Do you know what I’ve done for the USA?

dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough

My beautiful bill is a great big giveaway.

I put illegals down and raised the bar.

In all my years, I’ve always been a star.

I made world peace. How great is that?

And all those losers, who never-were,

can get their funds cut-off and kiss my ass.

I’ve got lots of friends in the USA.

dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough

Do you know what I’ve done for the USA?

dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough

Can’t wait to do more for the USA.

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dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough-dough…

Morgenthau

WARNING: LONG POST

The Book of the Week is “Morgenthau, Power, Privilege and the Rise of an American Dynasty” by Andrew Meier, published in 2022.

In this hodgepodge of a volume, the author recounted many of the historical events to which one family tree’s four generations of male Morgenthaus were witness in their lifetimes. Given the tenor of the times, there was probably less documentation on the females, so the author wrote much more about the men.

The story started in the 1860s, when the Morgenthaus began arriving in America. The fifty-five-year-old Lazarus, the family patriarch, along with his forty-one-year-old wife and most of their thirteen children had come from Bavaria. Due to the imposition of tariffs, Lazarus had been forced to close his businesses there.

The family, who considered themselves Jewish but weren’t religious, initially resided in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn. Through the decades, Lazarus sold various products with checkered success. His son Henry became an attorney and a securities-industry businessman. Henry’s survival skills allowed him to emerge from a 1905 white-collar crime-scandal with his reputation unsullied. Corruption hearings resulted in new regulations to prohibit conflicts of interest… until the next financial crisis, no doubt.

Anyway, Henry was an opportunist who preached progressive reform but at the same time, was raking in big bucks for himself. He pressured president Woodrow Wilson to appoint him ambassador to Turkey so he could protect the Jews– who were in the minority– in the then-Ottoman Empire, which included Palestine. In spring 1914, Henry was impressed by the Jews’ industriousness there, but felt that if the Jews were all concentrated in one place, they’d be more vulnerable to genocide all at once at the hands of their enemies.

Russia, Britain and Germany all had their eyes on acquiring the territory of Palestine. A few Jews who had fled crushing oppression in their birthplaces were purchasing land from Arabs around Tel Aviv. But at the start of WWI, importation of food was interrupted and the Jews couldn’t afford to buy food. Wealthy German Jews of New York City rushed financial aid to them so that they wouldn’t starve.

Henry naively believed Turkey could be convinced to stop supporting Germany, and become neutral like the United States. But already, the Turks had committed genocide and atrocities agains the Armenians, Christians and minorities, and had launched attacks in the Black Sea on behalf of the Germans. All Turkish men between the ages of twenty and forty-five were recruited by the military.

Unfortunately, Henry had no control over military leaders and war criminals, or over anyone, for that matter. But Henry enjoyed playing “James Bond” before the fictional spy character was even created. Henry’s son, Henry, Jr., considered himself a farmer, and worked on one in Dutchess County in upstate New York. Conveniently, his neighbor was FDR.

As is well known, geopolitics is a complicated business, and president FDR conducted all kinds of secret dealings in his 1940 and 1944 reelection campaigns.

As an aside, in the 2016 and 2024 elections, voters chose a profiteering, sexist man-child over well-educated, politically experienced women with law degrees.

Described that way, the women sound awfully threatening to men, don’t they?

Women who take charge are perceived as bossy while men who take charge are perceived as strong leaders.

True, Donald Trump inherited the mentoring and all the resources required to continue his father’s lucrative business over the course of decades, during which he skillfully arranged sufficient profiteering and patronage jobs for his cronies, and name-recognition everywhere he needed votes.

Arguably, the women had a few disadvantages other than their gender.

Both women had long political histories– all the more opportunities for smearing by the opposition.

The odds were against Kamala Harris specifically because in the last seventy years, only three out of six vice presidents first became president by winning an election rather than by inheriting the presidency via death or resignation: Richard Nixon (1968), George H. W. Bush (1988), and Joe Biden (2020).

Additionally, Harris’ candidacy was doomed due to its extremely late start. Until mid-summer 2024, incumbent Joe Biden refused to withdraw from the race in order to retaliate against his own party, furious that he didn’t get his full eight years. All three aforementioned vice-presidents did a full eight years as such before running for president.

Americans are now hyper-aware of gender issues, and discrimination against women– given the current political climate.

Anyway, early 1922 found Henry, Jr. running a farming-newspaper and making valuable political contacts for his father and himself.

During WWII, Henry, Jr. served as Treasury Secretary in FDR’s administration. In August 1944, General Eisenhower perceived that the German people were as much to blame as their leaders for attempting world domination through evil means, as they spread the hatred, too; they should be punished with economic hardship when the war was over.

The following month, in Quebec, Churchill met with FDR, who invited Henry, Jr. (even though he was Treasury Secretary) to discuss what to do with postwar Germany. Churchill’s preliminary thought was to simply prevent Germany from re-arming, by shutting down her operations in the Ruhr and the Saar. But he didn’t want her to become too debilitated, as in the future, she might help protect Europe against Russian aggression. Russia, which had helped win the war, was gaining a reputation for military strength, and so would have to be allowed to have a say in world affairs.

Henry, Jr. wanted to completely infantilize Germany by forcing her to feed her people via small farms only, with no importing of resources. Her heavy machinery and factory parts should be distributed to European nations (including Russia) whose infrastructure had been destroyed or damaged by her. In that case, since international trade is largely a zero-sum game, England would revive her decimated economy, getting more coal and steel. Henry Stimson, Secretary of War, felt the plan to punish Germany was way too harsh, and was merely retaliation. Germany would be so resentful that her people would find a way to make war again.

In October 1944, Henry, Jr.’s aggressive attitude was leaked to the press. He got slammed and FDR’s opponent in the presidential election said Henry, Jr. had put American lives at risk; revealing America’s future plans would incite the Germans to continue fighting instead of surrendering.

Robert Morgenthau was born in July 1919. He became the U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of New York in 1961. He worked closely with Robert F. Kennedy, U.S. Attorney General, who advised him to let J. Edgar Hoover (head of the FBI) take over an organized-crime case of his, so that the FBI would be forced to acknowledge that the Mafia existed, and it would start to investigate it.

Decades later, Morgenthau took over cases of violations of international banking laws, when at least $700 million was illegally wire-transferred from Iran to U.S. and British banks, with information omitted from the transactions. Morgenthau’s bigger concern that Iran was sucking up to Western banks in order to learn how to build nuclear weapons, more than the financial wrongdoing. In summer 2009, the Israelis and Americans cooperated to use malware (the details of which are still classified) to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program.

“Once again, to Morgenthau’s surprise, Washington stonewalled. The more he demanded that someone go to jail, the more the attorneys from Justice and Treasury spoke of a ‘deferred pros’ — legal shorthand for a deferred prosecution agreement.”

Read the book to learn much, much more about the Morgenthaus and their times.

Reagan – BONUS POST

Trump is obviously ruminating on his legacy at this time. He’s trying to out-Reagan Reagan in terms of instilling fond memories in his base’s hearts and minds. Below is what Trump was secretly singing when his thinking was lucid.

Trump is praising the president he most imitated, and with whom he had the most in common. He:

passed big tax cuts;
sent US troops and law enforcement on international and national adventures because he believed in “might makes right” in the name of national security;
was extremely focused on maintaining America’s worldwide hegemony and dominance at the expense of catastrophic environmental damage;
has symptoms of senility which his handlers are hushing up– they’re implementing his messaging and policies on his behalf.

REAGAN

sung to the tune of “Woman” with apologies to the Estate of John Lennon and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Reagan, I was so impressed

with your ideology and cleverness.

After all, I’m forever in your debt.

And Reagan, I will do no less,

in my dealings and dominance.

You taught me, the scheme for success.

Ooh, al-so, I sue-sue-sue, sue, sue.

Reagan, I hope you understand, why I rile up my fellow men.

Please remember, their lives are in my hands.

And Reagan, you were close to my heart.

But as presidents, we were far apart.

After all, I’ll be a bigger star.

Ooh, al-so, I sue-sue-sue, sue, sue.

Reagan, you were consistently plain.

My style is to cause sorrow and pain.

And I will do it again and again and again.

I’ll outlast you-ou ou, yeah, yeah. Now and forever.

I’m above you ou-ou, yeah, yeah. Now and forever.

I’ll outlast you-ou ou, yeah, yeah. Now and forever.

***

But Reagan was pre-internet. In the Trump Era, just as electronic words can globally, instantaneously appear, they can be changed, or disappear. Electronic historical revisionism is easier, faster and more environmentally friendly than book-burning. It remains to be seen whose propaganda will prevail as conveyed by the latest technology, in the next century.

Between Two Fires

The Book of the Week is “Between Two Fires, Truth, Ambition and Compromise in Putin’s Russia” by Joshua Yaffa, published in 2020.

In this volume, the author described various workers in entertainment, tourism, war, religion and humanitarian aid– under Vladimir Putin’s reign. In order to avoid getting arrested or worse, the subjects needed to play well with the government, which funded a large percentage of their activities. Each of their stories was chronologically disorganized, wordy and redundant, but the author clearly conveyed their plights and mentalities.

Putin came to power when Boris Yeltsin resigned at the beginning of the year 2000. Shortly thereafter, Putin’s government took over the media, forcing a mogul (whose TV channel could reach as much as 98% of Russian households which had a TV set) to sell his media empire to the State (the Russian government).

In the late 1990’s, the site of a closed Russian prison called Perm-36 was turned into a museum whose curators tried to inform the public about crushing oppression suffered by Cold-War Era Soviet dissidents there. After Putin had come to power, German university students who believed in the cause of democratic freedoms, volunteered to do maintenance work on the site.

However, they got offended when a former prisoner was forgiving and even behaved in a friendly manner toward a former guard, who had become a security officer at the museum. The German’s were “bound by strict, categorical norms, an ethical prism born [sic] of Germany’s admirable– if often inflexible– attitude toward totalitarianism and those who serve it. A political prisoner and his guard should not shake hands, and from that flows a whole way of seeing the world.”

The former prisoner explained: The guard had been young and therefore impressionable, easily brainwashed into rationalizing that he was simply following orders as a messenger, putting prisoners into solitary confinement. The guard didn’t directly kill anyone; he was subjected to the same drab environment and fed the same food as the prisoners.

On the immorality / morality spectrum, no one’s perfect. Nevertheless, it appears that, in human history, the kinds of people who are evil– on the extremely immoral end– have become dictatorial world leaders in disproportionate numbers.

The author spoke with a local “fixer” in the war in Chechnya in the 2010’s. She served as messenger, bailed dissidents (anti-government rebels) out of jail, and aided journalists covering the war. She had adopted a kind of pragmatism– cooperating with the administration of the Soviet-appointed leader of Chechnya– even though he and his ilk brought genocide, atrocities and crushing oppression to her people.

For approximately the first decade of Putin’s dictatorship, ordinary Russians’ living standards improved due to modernization, plentiful oil, and an increase in consumer goods in the stores. They also enjoyed religious liberalization (except for Western Christian and Catholic worshipers– those denominations competed too much for congregants with the Russian Orthodox Church). Freedom rang until it didn’t, as Putin’s hunger for, and amassing of power got him “reelected” as supreme leader in 2012. From then on, under Putin– Russia’s, Crimea’s and Ukraine’s leadership became Stalinist all over again.

At any rate, like the United States media, the Russian media has its trivial distractions. A scandal, which the State investigated for two years, erupted when a contemporary art museum’s curator allowed an Azeri exhibit to feature children’s dolls in gruesome positions.

After a while, employees in many workplaces, couldn’t guess what would spark an inquiry from the authorities. There were neither written nor spoken rules on acceptable behavior. Of course, spies were everywhere, ready to arbitrarily wield power.

Read the book to learn much more about various workers in the Putin years.

Burning Question – BONUS POST

In the last forty years, New Yorkers’ political subconscious has yielded the following:

two Jewish mayors (Koch, Bloomberg) had 3 terms each;
two mayors (Giuliani, de Blasio) with Italian names had two terms each;
two black mayors (Dinkins, Adams) had one term each.

How many terms do you think a Muslim mayor will have?

On a related plane, here’s a little ditty on the state of affairs of the leader of the United States.

TRUMP’S FREE OF TRUTH

sung to the tune of “Up On the Roof” with apologies to the Estate of Gerry Goffin, Carole King, The Drifters and their estates, and to whomever else the rights may concern.

When those liberals keep shutting Trump down,

and pesky laws are just too much for him to face,

he’ll use AI in front of Fox’s cameras,

and all his words will fall, right into place.

Free of truth he’s peaceful as can be.

And there his world of flacks executes his fantasies.

So when his brain is feeling tired-and-gone,

he’ll go where his GOP friends kiss his feet.

He’ll get far away from the irksome crowds

who’re asking tough questions from front-row seats.

Free of truth, that’s the only way he knows.

Luckily, his power allows him to make it so.

Trump’s free of truth.

All the time Fox puts on a show for free.

And you can help them re-write history.

He’s telling you, he’s making America a great paradise, that’s trouble-proof.

But if there’s someone shutting you down, why, it’s you know who.

Trump’s free of truth.

Where Tyranny Begins

WARNING: VERY LONG POST

The Book of the Week is “Where Tyranny Begins, The Justice Department, the FBI and the War on Democracy” by David Rohde, published in 2024.

In this hodgepodge of a volume (which frequently contains the word “being” in the middle of sentences– awkward writing), the author described president Trump’s first-term shenanigans, that completely bucked established democratic order through making a mockery of the American justice system. The consequence has been that people now have total distrust of their government. On the other hand, there has been “creative destruction” that might be cause for optimism.

Interestingly, American voters have shifted from electing war-hero presidents (the last was George H.W. Bush in 1988) to electing draft-dodger presidents (except for Obama). And although the internet spreads disinformation of politicians’ cover-ups and denials, it also allows the sharing of stories among families and friends who experience genocide and atrocities.

There is actually more free speech than ever, as anyone can put in their two cents on the internet, in all different ways. The Nixon administration was suppressing free speech through the FCC’s power to license all kinds of broadcasting outlets, before cable TV was widespread. Yes, there were many more newspapers and magazines then, but ordinary Americans had to write “letters to the editor” and get them published, or call in to a radio or television show, if they wanted their voices to be heard.

In nations that have free and fair elections, initially, disinformation helps get a leader elected. Eventually, if he becomes a dictator, dissatisfaction among the people will reach critical mass, and the pendulum will swing the other way.

Many people think they’re learning history from sound bites and trivia awkwardly written by AI. But the library’s history section contains entire books that are likely to be more contextually comprehensive, written by actual people (yes, some of whom are myth-makers). And yes, depressingly, so much of substantive human history has been about war. It’s still worth reading lots of books on all kinds of history to understand the big picture, even though there might currently be doom and gloom, and one might feel powerless to stop it.

Obviously, no matter how much people learn how devastating and expensive war is, a few people keep instigating it!

So how are these instigators (recently consisting of the unbloodied elite, chicken-hawks and profiteers) allowed to make war, considering there’s a majority against the war?

This is how the cycle goes, in the United States:

Careers in media, entertainment, sports, the licensed professions and academia have been politicized. Nowadays, it seems most jobs might be highly lucrative in the short term, but they’re fiercely competitive and stressful. Job security is uncertain, given cancel culture and an uncertain economy.

Young job-seekers who can’t afford an education, or whose prospects are poor for other reasons, join a federal-law enforcement outfit, or the military– where they are ordered by the instigators to go to war.

Bottom line: There are sufficient people who owe their jobs to the instigators of war!

Trump has not yet not sent American troops in great numbers to foreign shores, but he has exacerbated home-grown hostility, in terms of hyper-partisanship, conspiracy theories and mistrust and distrust of American institutions.

A number of cliches apply to the second half of the twentieth century, into the first quarter of the twenty-first; among them, “The people gets the government it deserves” and “There is nothing new under the sun.” It might be recalled that the 1960’s were a tumultuous decade. There was violence in the streets of certain cities and on college campuses. Journalist P.J. O’Rourke wrote, “The Baby Boomers threw a decade-long temper tantrum.”

Over decades, that rebellion has actually resulted in more societal tolerance for divorce, re-marriages, interfaith marriages, and various arrangements of people of different sexual orientations. Societal pressure has eased on getting married and having children.

Now Americans can stay single, live together, give birth to or adopt children, or not– and not be socially ostracized. Interestingly, Trump’s daughter Ivanka converted to Judaism upon marrying, for the purpose of increasing her family’s power in their social circles. Even she had to conform to the tenor of the times.

At the dawn of the 1970’s, Americans were gob-smacked by the crimes of the Nixon administration. Part of the wrongdoing was war crimes. Nixon finished what LBJ started: contamination and devastation of the countries of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. And Nixon’s secrecy only exacerbated the mistrust and distrust of Americans in their government.

The Nixon Era ushered in a whole host of cultural changes. Since then, two generations of the social manipulative boys who entered politics have learned that if they stick together, they can evade punishment (or even be rewarded!) for behaving disrespectfully toward people of different walks of life. At the very least, they immediately have a leg up in society having been born white and male.

This trend began with younger male Baby Boomers who didn’t serve in the military. A few circumstances have contributed to their continued domination. They:

didn’t have their lives interrupted or willingly risk their lives while the government supervised their every move for two or more years.
missed the life-or-death situations in war zones and the exposure to different cultures, religions and class differences that military service would have imposed on them.
came of age among their own kind; at private school, boarding school, and fraternities, but have still been able to take advantage of the “old boy network” to advance their careers because they still experienced the military-service environment of the abusive hierarchy which leads to male bonding.

The 1990’s saw various franchises (TV and movies) featuring two fictional male friends who exhibited some aspects of this teenage boy culture; among them: Beavis and Butthead, Wayne’s World, Bill and Ted’s, and Clerks.

Donald Trump has taken this trend to its logical extreme, to run the country. This nation has been brainwashed into saying, “Boys will be boys.” Now, the boys have nowhere to go but down.

The author briefly described how independent counsel Ken Starr launched an overzealous witch hunt into Bill and Hillary Clinton’s activities. The sordid episode began in 1995, when their enemies investigated a land-deal called Whitewater. The Clintons themselves were deemed not to have broken the law, so their enemies desperately sought additional sources of dirt.

As is well known, Bill Clinton was eventually caught lying under oath about having an extra-marital affair on company time. BUT, that affair was with a consenting adult.

Which is the worst:

war crimes,
financial crimes, such as tax evasion, accounting fraud, bribery or racketeering (that are NOT victimless; they hurt society by [excuse the cliche] making the rich richer and the poor, poorer), or
lying under oath about having committed adultery???

So, Americans entertained or disgusted by Bill Clinton’s story might have concluded that the investigators were extremely incompetent, desperate for blood, or that there was a backroom deal not to break the story until after Clinton was reelected. When someone is dishonest about one thing, there is trust erosion in other things they might say or do. Regardless of real motives, this stupidity is one more reason to mistrust and distrust the American government.

As an aside, an inconceivably large amount of taxpayer dollars was wasted on frivolous investigations on the Clintons. Not coincidentally, people who pay little or no income tax, also don’t have their money wasted on that kind of nonsense.

At least Clinton complied with the rule of law. Trump dictatorially broke tradition by bypassing the Justice Department entirely when he signed an Executive Order to impose a travel ban on all Muslims from several countries. His philosophy was (pursuant to Moses’ line in the movie, The Ten Commandments): “So it shall be written, so it shall be done.” His thinking was, why should he need to fool around with pesky rule of law? He was the new sheriff (or rather, outlaw) in town, and his whole life, had always got his own way by bullying his opponents into submission.

Going into the 2024 presidential election, American voters knew what they were getting into. Obviously, they would rather have a brain-dead male dictator, than a woman president.

In any case, read the book to learn about Trump’s trials and tribulations in his first term, and the characters involved, such as Bill Barr– who became a hyper-partisan cheerleader for Trump, and a hypocritical crybaby to the media.

ENDNOTE: Speaking of politicization of employers, here’s a little ditty that explains the situation.

POLITICAL BOSS

sung to the tune of “Party Doll” with apologies to the Estate of Buddy Knox and to whomever else the rights may concern.

Everyone has got to have a political boss,

to punish you when he’s feeling cross,

to be involved in honest graft,

to run sweetheart contracts, like for aircraft.

No one wants a political boss,

no one wants a political boss,

but if you’re loyal, he’ll support you, help you.

If you’re loyal, he’ll help you.

Everyone’s got to have a political boss,

to choose candidates,

make you pay his costs,

to use media to spread-smears unfair,

to have lawyers on hand with tactics that scare.

No one wants a political boss,

no one wants a political boss,

but if you’re loyal, he’ll support you, help you.

If you’re loyal, he’ll help you.

Everyone’s got to have a political boss,

so when scandal hits,

you’ll take the loss,

to hand out jobs and to raise funds,

to add to his base, train daughters and sons,

train daughters and sons.

No one wants a political boss,

no one wants a political boss,

but if you’re loyal, he’ll support you, help you.

If you’re loyal, he’ll help you.

No one wants a political boss,

no one wants a political boss,

but if you’re loyal, he’ll support you, help you.

If you’re loyal, he’ll help you.

The Crazies

This blogger skimmed “The Crazies, The Cattleman, The Wind Prospector, and A War Out West” by Amy Gamerman, published in 2025. The author made a very bad editorial decision not to include an index in this volume. With an index, it could have been a reference book, but instead, was a mishmash of the history of a family of ranchers in the Crazy Mountains, and brief biographical descriptions of the stakeholders and their activities in a decades-long fight over a renewable-energy project in Montana.

As an aside, in the past decade or so, journalists who publish books are getting sloppier and lazier than ever. It appears that they slap together the articles on a specific topic that they’ve written over a number of years, and fail to edit and organize those articles in a coherent way. And the book gets published, as is.

Anyway, in June 2004, a wind-farm entrepreneur named Marty Wilde oversaw the construction of a wind tower on a Montana ranch owned by the Jarrett family, on behalf of the company named Crazy Mountain Cattle. That tower took all kinds of measurements of the copious wind in the area, for more than a year. Then a wind map was made. Wilde had to front all expenses until the wind-farm was actually built before he could collect a developer’s fee and royalties– which could take years, decades, or not happen at all.

Building a wind farm involves an extremely complicated set of steps involving the law, politics, economics and the environment. In the mid-single-digit 2000’s, part of the wind-farm was to be built on land where lived the Blackfeet Tribe, Native Americans. Thanks to a grant Wilde secured from the US Department of Energy, the Tribe’s community college had most of its 100-kilowatt electricity bill (charged by the Glacier Electric Cooperative) paid for using a wind turbine donated by a California company called Vestas. The school’s students were employed to erect that turbine on its campus. That was still one of the early steps in terms of a full-fledged wind farm.

In 2008, the original plans called for eighty megawatts to deliver electricity to twenty-six thousand homes. But Marty Wilde and Rick Jarrett needed buy-in from Jarrett’s neighbors.

Read the book to learn how Wilde and Jarrett fared– their triumphs and setbacks, in connection with laws, legal rulings, and actions from all the numerous people and parties up until the book’s writing, that basically involved redistribution of wealth among the wealthy lawyers and their clients (excepting Rick Jarrett, who found he couldn’t make a living ranching). As usual, curious things will happen when there’s dishonor among thieves.

Oh Yes, Trump’s Got Flunkies – BONUS POST

Here’s the current political situation in America.

OH YES, TRUMP’S GOT FLUNKIES

sung to the tune of The Monkees TV theme song, with apologies to whomever the rights may concern.

Round the world, Trump-flies on Air Force One.

All his profiteering, is never done.

Oh yes, Trump’s got flunkies.

His flunkies enable his rule.

They are always busy, screaming his enemies are fools.

Foreign countries are friendly, distracting from the shutdown here.

He’s cheating our young generation, of democracy we hold so dear.

Oh yes, Trump’s got flunkies.

You never know where he’ll be found.

So you better get ready, America’s bankruptcy-bound.

Mad House

The Book of the Week is “Mad House” by Annie Karni and Luke Broadwater, published in 2025.

This volume focused on the shenanigans involving Mike Johnson’s eventually becoming the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives during Donald Trump’s first and Joseph Biden’s terms. Children masquerading as lawmakers, due to a razor-thin GOP majority in the House, acquired a disproportionate amount of power.

“The ‘little bitch’ remark became an emblematic moment of the Congress: two MAGA mean girls [Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene] fighting loudly on the floor of the House, over who had the right to call a baseless, attention-seeking impeachment of [Joseph] Biden her own.”

The GOP has mastered saying all the right things– infuriating and depressing their base in a way that spurs them to vote. The GOP’s emotional messaging is most powerful because they cause their base to lose sleep. They resort to ad hominem attacks– more memorable than logical, reasonable, sensible, factual, rational arguments. Columnist Dorothy Thompson wrote in late 1944 (in reference to the decimating of Germany’s ability to make war again): “Hate is an emotion that should be confined in the heart. When it rises to the brain, the result is insanity.”

The GOP targets people in the middle of this political-emotional spectrum; the unhappy voters. Some members of this middle group protest in the streets. They revel in their anger together. Misery loves company. The media focuses on street protesters, regardless of their party, because they garner high ratings. But it’s impossible to prove how much this kind of activist accomplishes, if anything.

As an aside, activists accomplish nothing if they’re not attention whores, as the squeaky wheel gets the grease. However, there are very few concrete examples of activists who are able to prove they got legislation passed. None directly led protests in the streets without lots of additional campaign activity. Three from the past include Estes Kefauver, Saul Alinsky and Ralph Nader. To begin with, they were all white males, so they were necessarily more influential than other kinds of people. They had very specific goals, and the nation was ready to buy into their ideas.

Returning to the political-emotional spectrum: on one extreme end, are the joyful simpletons. They are happy because they are blissfully unaware of what’s going on in the world. They stay away from news on governmental goings-on, and don’t vote. Or if they do vote, they don’t think too much about for whom they’re voting, which has recently been for Republicans. For, they’ve been influenced by talking with people they know and trust, who are targeted by the GOP. Case in point: The late comedian George Carlin (a non-voter) joked, “I didn’t even leave the house on election day!”

The people on the opposite end of the spectrum, voraciously read books in order to think critically about how voters get brainwashed by candidates, a multi-disciplinary body of knowledge: psychology, sociology, history, economics, etc. They do not worry because they take the long view of history and have faith that the worm will turn. Their philosophy is, there’s nothing new under the sun and this, too, shall pass. They’re the kind who vote, but they’re loyal to neither party. They’re very cynical, but they don’t get too upset about misbehaving leaders, either. For, John Maynard Keynes said, “In the end, we’re all dead.”

In recent decades, when covering the U.S. government, the media has given disproportionate attention to the said children. There appears to be more of a focus on females, as they are still just getting their sea legs in politics. BUT, in covering their cat-fights, the media’s ulterior motives are to draw high ratings, and set the women’s movement back decades! The owners and top executives of the American media oligarchy are still mostly men. Sure, there are lots of overpaid female noisemakers– talking heads– appearing on the idiot box now, but ordinary American women are still way behind in terms of equality in so many areas of everyday American life.

The authors named names of flip-floppers– politicos who sold out and joined Trump’s crowd in order to continue their political careers (in alphabetical order):

Lauren Boebert, Tom Emmer, Nancy Mace, Kevin McCarthy, Mitch McConnell, Chip Roy, Steve Scalise, Michelle Steel, Elise Stefanik, and Marjorie Taylor Greene

Karni and Broadwater also listed the principled few who resigned rather than sell out to a dictator. The petty, vengeful and mean-of-spirit Matt Gaetz and his followers sought to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy (described as “a sensitive grudge holder”), but had no plans for the aftermath when they met with success.

All through the autumn of 2023, Republicans were trying to get their act together. Steve Scalise (a “secretive backstabber”) threw his hat into the ring. Also running for the position of House Speaker– Jim Jordan, who had supporters who made death threats against his political enemies and their families. Jordan never apologized for the trauma he caused.

Democrats didn’t want to see Jordan become Speaker, because he would put the kibosh on aid to Ukraine, and they would have to fight over the budget bill again. He wasn’t a good candidate for Speaker anyway, because he wasn’t holding anyone hostage for political favors, and he hadn’t “paid his dues” in terms of experience.

Read the book to learn much more about yet another tabloidy episode in American politics.

Donald TACO – BONUS POST

As is well known, celebrities’ names endure through decades or centuries when entertaining poems, songs and other such propaganda are written about them. Here is one about Donald Trump (aka Donald TACO ).

DONALD TACO

sung to the tune of “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” [also, the Beverly Hillbillies TV theme song], with apologies to Disney and to whomever else the rights may concern. There are various versions– with different verses and lyrics.

Born a Baby Boomer in New York’s Queens,

with the real-estate- biz in its-infancy.

Daddy gave him the goods,

so he held every key.

He became a slum lord, when he was only three.

Donald, Donald TACO,

naming the wild frontier.

Through the decades, he fought legal wars,

till his biz-opponents FLIPPED,

and his credit was restored.

Lawyers and PR handled this, risky-chore.

He made himself a legend, forever more.

Donald, Donald TACO,

whitewashing history.

When he lost Atlantic City, golfing was his victory-lap.

He wrote a few books. His deal-school turned to crap.

Even while in hiding, he kept greatness on tap.

He invented New York City, on the map.

Donald, Donald TACO, avoiding jail free and clear.

While building his homes, his golfing never done.

When the Apprentice firings had just begun,

he plotted with his lawyers and his hired guns,

and lit out a smearin’ to have political fun.

Donald, Donald TACO,

the leading dictator here.

His name is biggest.

Now he needs a rest,

from real-estate-to-show-biz,

to the political crest.

He just recently passed the world-peace test.

His propaganda and dominance,

are the best.

Donald, Donald TACO,

king of this occupied sphere.

King of this occupied sphere.