Day 1,000

of Vladimir Putin’s 3-day Conquest of  Ukraine.

 

 Day +14 of Donald Trump's now-"successful" 9 yr effort to conquer the United States.

    

_________

  

The post-election microblog migration away from Elon.

Will Bluesky become a viable alternative to "X"?

   

 I'm fixin' to find out.

 

Same handle as my TwitterX account. Just getting started. Still up on TwitterX for now.

Ran across Mike Caulfield on Bluesky. Intrigued by several of hiis posts, I looked into and bought his book. Just what I need—another title to study.

Glad I got it. 

Stay tuned...

_________

  

Burning Down Washington

to "save" America.

   

)

 

Kevin Roberts is President of The Heritage Foundation—a $100M/yr political lobbying business masquerading as a legit IRS non-profit 501(c)(3) "charity." This book had been scheduled for release in September 2024, but they delayed its publication until after the presidential election (likely owing in part to the "Forward" written by Trump running mate JD Vance, he of #HillbillyIshtar renown). They also altered the book cover art, removing the matchstick image and changing "Burning Down Washington" to the somewhat less, well—"inflammatory"—"Taking Back Washington."

 

Nonetheless, the incendiary allusions remain peppered throughout the pages.

 

Yeah...

 

He's on a roll with this riff.

 

 

The Dastardly "Uniparty" being all of us "Woke Libs" I guess.

 

Some encapsulatory le essense du Roberts:

The Permanent Things

What, then, are “the eternal rules of order and right” that Washington saw as being beyond a matter of opinion? They’re what Russell Kirk called “the permanent things.”

Today, the assault on the American way of life is aimed not just at our Constitution and political traditions but more insidiously at the foundations of civilization, which is to say, the permanent things. There is no point in preserving certain political forms if the society they were meant to protect has died.

The Party of Creation needs to get over the old conservatism’s reluctance to “impose” its “values” on others [emphasis BG]. There is no way to avoid taking a stance on the practices that sustain the human race. We can say with certainty what the “permanent things,” the vital tasks of any culture, are. The aegis of every civilization protected them; the best of all that has been thought and said from each distinctive human culture has pointed to them.

Family: Men and women should marry (and do so younger than most do today). They should marry for life and should bring children into the world (more than most do today). Parents have the right and responsibility to raise their children, to educate them, to pass on their traditions, and to make important family decisions (including rejecting experimental medical treatments) in line with their conscience and values. Children owe their parents a measure of obedience and gratitude, and family members should take care of one another. The nuclear family is the foundation of the human order, but it should reach beyond itself to form the fabric of an extended family, community, and local place.

Faith: Mankind is made to worship, and our republic depends on the moral strength and habits of heart brought about by piety. We have in this country a glorious tradition of religious freedom, but it is not freedom from religion but freedom for religion. A man’s religious tradition is a matter of his conscience, but that we have a faithful people is a matter of public concern. Accordingly, the state must not discriminate against religious organizations in government programs, and freedom of religion should take precedence over the enforcement of other rights. Policies that encourage religious observance, such as Sabbath laws and voucher programs that include religious schools, should be encouraged. American society is rooted in the Christian faith—certainly public institutions should not establish anything offensive to Christian morals under the guise of “religious freedom” or “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

Community: Americans’ pride has always been in their communities, the “little platoons” where citizens freely associate with one another and practice self-government. In communities, people from different backgrounds and walks of life orient themselves around the common good in its most concrete and practical form. Communities are places where we lift up one another’s burdens and practice the art of neighborliness, but also where we celebrate the holy days and feast together. If they are well ordered, our communities permit a feeling of comfort and safety at any hour of the day.

Work: Man is Homo faber, the animal that makes. By his labors, man provides for himself and his family. There is deep dignity in work, in the ownership one has of a job well done, that cannot be replaced by simply giving someone something they have not worked for or earned. Moreover, we know that the material prosperity that makes many of the other elements of the human order possible comes from productive human labor and the habits of discipline, skill, and care that undergird that productivity. At the same time, there is an appropriate time to rest from our labors together with our families and communities. The division of labor has also held political significance throughout human history. In the Western tradition, a republican government befitted only men who were masters of themselves, who were economically self-sufficient.

Nation: Man’s gratitude toward all the “little platoons” of human order culminate in his devotion to his broader nation and homeland. In a republic, this is experienced as a duty to safeguard the res publica, literally “the public thing” but better translated as “the common good.” The nation is cemented by a shared national origin story, according to which all citizens are “brothers, and children of the self-same earth” (literally or figuratively). Our deepest traditions about the purposes of government are reflected in the ancient ceremony for crowning England’s kings, when the archbishop of Canterbury hands to his sovereign the Sword of State with these words: “With this sword do justice, stop the growth of iniquity, protect the holy Church of God and all people of goodwill, help and defend widows and orphans, restore the things that are gone to decay, maintain the things that are restored, punish and reform what is amiss, and confirm what is in good order.”

Mix in a bit of blinding-glimpses-of-the-obvious Norman Rockwell-isms (cosplaying at profundities) with Cat 5 Aggrievedness and off you go.

 

Kevin takes some poignant past-their-sell-by-dates stabs at snark.

 

 

What can I say/tweet?

 

apropos, see Project 2025:

A breadth of sneering anti-"Woke Cultural Elites" vitriol. One Convenient Location.

 

JD Vance's "Forward" to Kevin's Burning Down Washington. "Wagons" and "muskets," 'eh?

 

BLOGGER'S NOTE

I typically personally buy at retail and fully read the hundreds of books I cite / excerpt / review here. I rarely get a publisher's comp pre-pub "galley." I then cite lengthy, complete, relevant passages from the works under review. My readers can decide for themselves the worthiness of the content. Implicit in this approach, to be sure, is that my very choosing of the excerpts I do implies my assessment of their value (good or bad).

I don't do this for money, never have. I fall well within "Fair Use."

The Kevin Roberts excerpts set forth above, however, come from the Amazon "Look Inside" preview. I have better uses for the $14.99 Kindle edition, given the breadth of excellent volumes out there, and my extensive prior study of Mr, Roberts (Mr. No-Life here even read his doctoral dissertation. Seriously, I did that.). It can't be defamatory. They're HIS words. And, within his writing you will find no shortage of recurrent, sharp-elbowed, condescending MAGA-resonant vitriol. More broadly, his microphone and video camera lens affinities are matters of ample, lengthy partisan public record.

 UPDATES

"There is no time—or room—for an insurgency. The Left captured the military quickly, and we must reclaim it at a faster pace. We must wage a frontal assault. A swift counterattack, in broad daylight. If we wait for nightfall, they will regroup. If we retreat from the system to rebuild, it's gone. And building another American military is not an option. We have only one Pentagon. One secretary of defense."

Peter Hegseth, Donald Trump's Nov 2024 nominee for US Secretary of Defense.

 

 

TRUMP AG NOMINEE MATT GAETZ

 

 

RFK JR, HHS SECY NOMINEE

 

ODNI

Tulsi Gabbard, nominated for Director of National Intelligence. ZERO experience in the intel field.

The anti-science / anti-intellect cohort is going to wreak havoc for Donald Trump.

Is it too early to start drinking? More in a bit. Crazy news week...

_________

  

On the post-Nov 5th election loss circular-firing-squad recrmiinations

"Can't we all just get along?"

 

 

Some good stuff in The New Yorker this weekend.

 

 

From George Saunders' piece.

Thought Experiment No. 1

Imagine a baseball stadium. Fill it with twenty thousand Americans. Require Democrats to wear blue and Republicans red. At a podium at second base, have a person make a speech about, say, immigration.

Soon enough, fights break out.

Rewind.

Same twenty thousand people. Let them dress however they like. Instead of the speechmaking guy, put two baseball teams out there. Instantly, it’s a different energy. Among the fans for Team One will be both liberals and conservatives, suddenly united in common cause. Ditto Team Two. There will be disagreements, sure, but because we’ve been taught about acceptable baseball-game discourse, these will tend to be relatively good-natured.

Questions for Discussion:

Regarding the first example:
Who put out the order to wear red or blue?
Who dragged that podium out there?
Who selected the topic? And from what list
___

Thought Experiment No. 5

There’s a parable, recounted in Paulo Coelho’s novel Veronika Decides to Die, among other places, about a kingdom whose well was poisoned by a wizard, such that a person drinking from the well would be driven insane. Everyone in the kingdom drank from the well, except the king and queen, who had a separate well for their use. Alarmed by the madness of the people, the king tried to issue edicts to control their behavior. To the insane populace, these edicts sounded like nonsense. The king’s problem was this: If he refused to drink from the poisoned well, which would make him insane, the people, believing he was insane, would dethrone him.

Questions for Discussion:

Is it possible that, in our culture, we each have our own customized, algorithm-enforced poisoned well? And that certain “wizards” have learned that lies are an especially potent form of poison? And that, therefore, the wells to which those “wizards” have access are more full of lies than others? And that even the wells that are full of truths aren’t great, since the method of delivery tends to enlarge one truth (one way of seeing) at the expense of others, thereby making it difficult to sustain such fragile things as ambiguity, doubt, sympathy, complexity, or genuine curiosity?

Might we then consider ourselves a culture being actively poisoned, a poisoning to which we are enthusiastically consenting?

What might we do about this?

Provide specific examples.
____

"Might we then consider ourselves a culture being actively poisoned, a poisoning to which we are enthusiastically consenting?"

 

Hmmm... basically "Nihilism?"

 

ERRATUM

.

Surely you jest?

 

Don't get me started on Dubya 

 

_________

  

Now streaming: The Oaf of Office, Season 2

 

This appeared on TwitterX today, posted by a Trump insider:

1. Restoring Presidential Authority
Trump intends to reissue an executive order from 2020 which would restore the president's authority to remove federal employees, thereby allowing for the aggressive management or dismissal of federal workers.

2. Overhauling National Security and Intelligence
Trump's plan includes removing individuals from national security and intelligence agencies who have engaged in corrupt practices or have used these agencies against political adversaries.

3. Reform of FISA Courts
He proposes a comprehensive reform of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) courts to address issues where judges have ignored misleading information in warrant applications.

4. Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Plans to establish a commission to declassify and make public all documents related to alleged deep state activities like spying, censorship, and corruption.

5. Crackdown on Leaks
Trump plans to pursue legal actions against individuals involved in unauthorized leaks that contribute to misleading media narratives.

6. Independence of Inspectors General
Ensure that inspector general offices are physically separate from the departments they oversee to maintain objectivity and prevent them from becoming part of the entrenched bureaucracy.

7. Independent Auditing System
Establishment of a system to continually monitor intelligence agencies to prevent unauthorized surveillance of citizens or disinformation campaigns.

8. Geographic Redistribution of Bureaucracy
Continue the initiative of relocating federal offices outside of Washington, D.C., to other parts of the country, reducing the concentration of bureaucracy in the capital.

9. Ban on Post-Government Employment
Prohibit federal bureaucrats from taking positions at companies they previously regulated or dealt with to prevent conflicts of interest.

10. Term Limits for Congress
Push for a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on members of Congress, aiming to reduce the influence of long-term incumbents and refresh the political landscape.

Yeah. Blah, blah, blah. We'll see...

_________

  

Klaas is again in session

"Do I recognize my own country any longer?"

   

 

From Brian Klaas's Garden of Forking Paths Substack: "The Tattered Republic"

The most salient divides in contemporary American politics are about how we react to one man, not policy disagreement.

First, there are those, like me, who experienced immediate revulsion at the personality traits—the narcissism, the abusive punching down, the gleeful cruelty—unapologetically dripping from every cell in his body. In this group are people who are True Never Trumpers, who would rather chew glass than vote for him.

Second, there is the Hold Your Nose Brigade. These voters may find Trump distasteful and immoral, but they want a tax cut, or a secure border, or they don’t want a woman in charge, or they are just pissed off about the price of milk. For this group, cognitive dissonance exists—they may object to the cruelty and the crimes—but that discomfort is not overpowering enough to sway their vote. (Trump beat Harris because this already substantial group expanded. It’s that simple).

Third, there are the people for whom—in the words of Adam Serwer—“The Cruelty is the Point.” This bloc cloaks itself in welcoming iconography of the flag and charitable symbols of religion while rejoicing at callous jokes about minority groups and fantasizing about treason trials and mass detention camps. For some, Trump’s narrow escape with death in Butler, Pennsylvania was proof that God had sent a fresh messiah, delivered straight to us from those most ascetic of earthly bastions: reality television and a golden penthouse.

It is easier to function as a democracy when the divides are about ideas, not individuals. After all, the sentiment that many Americans are expressing far more often—both on the Trumpian right and the Democratic left—is this: “I truly don’t understand how you could vote for that.”

But today, for those who have little reason to feel personally scared about being targeted or made to feel unwelcome by the resurrection of MAGA might, many are facing a different kind of fear, captured by more abstract uncertainties. What kind of world will my kids grow up in? How do I live in a community where half the people either celebrate cruelty or at least endorse it with their vote? Do I recognize my own country any longer?

Do I recognize my own country any longer?

 

Not so sure this week.

 

Now, I have scant rational reason to feel "personally scared of being targeted" in light of my age (soon to be 79) and ailments (Parkinson's, artificial aortic valve), but I have loved ones, including offspring all the way to my glorious great-grandson Kai...

But, Trump et al and Heritage Foundation, y'all too can kiss my irascible Irish ass. And you poignant Theobros as well.

Do yourselves a favor and read Brian's excellent book.

Notwithstanding that I find Substack to be a relatively shitty authoring platform (right down there with Medium, lol), I subscribe to Brian's stack (as well as several others). His latest post is a gem.

UPDATE

Click

…[A] majority of American voters chose Trump because they wanted what he was selling: a nonstop reality show of rage and resentment. Some Democrats, still gripped by the lure of wonkery, continue to scratch their heads over which policy proposals might have unlocked more votes, but that was always a mug’s game. Trump voters never cared about policies, and he rarely gave them any. (Choosing to be eaten by a shark rather than electrocuted might be a personal preference, but it’s not a policy.) His rallies involved long rants about the way he’s been treated, like a giant therapy session or a huge family gathering around a bellowing, impaired grandpa…

Trump and his coterie must now govern. The last time around, Trump was surrounded by a small group of moderately competent people, and these adults basically put baby bumpers and pool noodles on all the sharp edges of government. This time, Trump will rule with greater power but fewer excuses, and he—and his voters—will have to own the messes and outrages he is already planning to create.

Those voters expect that Trump will hurt others and not them. They will likely be unpleasantly surprised, much as they were in Trump’s first term. (He was, after all, voted out of office for a reason.) For the moment, some number of them have memory-holed that experience and are pretending that his vicious attacks on other Americans are just so much hot air.

Trump, unfortunately, means most of what he says. In this election, he has triggered the unfocused ire and unfounded grievances of millions of voters. Soon we will learn whether he can still trigger their decency—if there is any to be found.

 

NY TIMES' FRANK BRUNI

 

As Election Day neared, Democrats’ hopes soared. I know because I saw it and heard it all around me — the widening smiles, the brightening voices. Vice President Kamala Harris was ascendant. Donald Trump was done. People could just feel it.

They were reacting to polls, though they were picking and choosing: To listen to them, that outlier survey in Iowa, which augured a Harris victory in a red state that she ended up losing by about 13 percentage points, was some amalgam of the burning bush and the Rosetta stone.

They were reacting to momentum, which is a word as squishy as a wet paper towel and a concept beloved by dreamers whose yearning outstrips actual evidence.

But they were reacting above all to Trump. To how epically awful he was being. In his increasingly saturnine and serpentine remarks, he imagined Liz Cheney facing a fusillade of bullets, he called Democrats “demonic,” he said that he should never have left the White House after the 2020 election. All of this was characterized by many observers as the most self-destructive, disastrous conclusion to a presidential campaign that they’d ever beheld. And all of it was identified by the optimistic Democrats around me as the last straw.

Americans—at least the ones whose minds weren’t firmly made up—would surely abandon Trump now. There was a limit to the cruelness and craziness they’d abide.

That judgment, of course, was terribly wrong…

UPDATE

 

Apparently, Heritage Foundation Tough Guy Mike Howell has some post-reelection testosterone competition.

 

 I give you MAGA Mike Davis.

'Think long and hard': MAGA ally issues ominous threat to Dem prosecutors over Trump cases

Attorney Mike Davis, who has long been rumored as a candidate for attorney general under Donald Trump’s new administration, issued an ominous threat to New York Attorney General Letitia James and “Democrat prosecutors” on Thursday: “proceed accordingly.”

The Trump ally made the intimidating remarks two days after Election Day during an interview with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson, where James, who oversaw Trump’s New York fraud case, became the center of the attorney’s scorn.

“Let me just say this to Big Tish James: I dare you to try to continue your lawfare against President Trump in his second term because, listen here, sweetheart, we're not messing around this time and we will put your fat ass in prison for conspiracy against rights, I promise you that,” Davis said at the beginning of his dark rant against prosecutors who pursued criminal cases against the now-president-elect… [via Rawstory]

 

Ahhh... The Manly swagger.

 

Surf their website. You easily find links to the "Donate" page, and no contact links going to the preening Principals.

 

More to come...

_________

  

Dear President Joe Biden:

An open letter.

November 6, 2024
DEAR PRESIDENT BIDEN 


cc: Vice President Harris

You remain our incumbent President until 12:01 pm January 20th, 2025—75 more days as I write and post this on November 6th.

Donald Trump’s collaborators (e.g., former AG William Barr most notably today) have wasted no time DEMANDING that the serious current federal criminal cases against him—involving his asserted January 6th, 2021 insurrection complicity and illegal possession of Classified documents—be summarily dropped forthwith by our Department of Justice.

Your Oath to the Constitution remains binding. Your obligation to see that our rule of law remains intact and functional until you are succeeded in Office remains binding.

Donald Trump has repeatedly evaded honorable dealings and lawful accountability since the Days of Bone Spurs. It may very well now be the case that he can use his hand-picked judiciary operatives to continue to Melt Clock so that he might escape consequences yet again.

The American people deserve to know ALL of the details comprising the foregoing (redacted where appropriate). The realities of clock and calendar may indeed mean he will again evade his days in courts. Nonetheless, you must NOT let the full record of these proceedings be spiked and buried—by all necessary and lawful means within the scope of your Official Duties (as recently indemnified by the Supreme Court).

Thank you, sir, for your service.

Sincerely,

Robert Gladd
Baltimore, Maryland

_________

  

Well, this will surely be "interesting" going forward

 

A REMINISCENCE: THE OAF OF OFFICE IN 2020

President Trump at the CDC, prattling on in his 2020 re-election campaign "KAG" cap, and humbling praising himself for his scientific public health acumen (inherited from his late "great super genius" MIT physics professor uncle).

Here's Trump rambling at length about how smart he is and how well he understands public health pic.twitter.com/1Co6MaRkzl

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 6, 2020

Electing Donald J. Trump once could be dismissed as a fluke, an aberration, a terrible mistake—a consequential one, to be sure, yet still fundamentally an error. But America has now twice elected him as its President. It is a disastrous revelation about what the United States really is, as opposed to the country that so many hoped that it could be. His victory was a worst-case scenario—that a convicted felon, a chronic liar who mismanaged a deadly once-in-a-century pandemic, who tried to overturn the last election and unleashed a violent mob on the nation’s Capitol, who calls America “a garbage can for the world,” and who threatens retribution against his political enemies could win—and yet, in the early morning hours of Wednesday, it happened.

Trump’s defeat of Kamala Harris was no upset, nor was it as unimaginable as when he beat Hillary Clinton, in 2016. But it was no less shocking. For much of the country, Trump’s past offenses were simply disqualifying. Just a week ago, Harris gave her closing argument to the nation in advance of the vote. Trump “has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other—that’s who he is,” she said. “But, America, I’m here tonight to say: that’s not who we are.” Millions of voters in the states that mattered most, however, chose him anyway. In the end, Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric about invading immigrant hordes, his macho posturing against a female opponent, and his promise to boost an inflation-battered U.S. economy simply resonated more than all the lectures about his many deficiencies as a person and a would-be President… [Susan B. Glasser]

_________

  

November 5th draws nigh

 

 

 Below: On a deadly serious note:

October 29, 2024

To the American People,

We are former public servants who swore an oath to the Constitution. Many of us risked our lives for it. We are retired generals, admirals, senior non-commissioned officers, ambassadors, and senior civilian national security leaders. We are Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. We are loyal to the ideals of our nation—like freedom, democracy, andthe rule of law—not to any one individual or party.

We do not agree on everything, but we all adhere to two fundamental principles. First, we believe America’s national security requires a serious and capable Commander-in-Chief. Second, we believe American democracy is invaluable. Each generation has a responsibility to defend it. That is why we, the undersigned, proudly endorse Kamala Harris to be the next President of the United States.

This election is a choice between serious leadership and vengeful impulsiveness. It is a choice between democracy and authoritarianism. Vice President Harris defends America’s democratic ideals, while former President Donald Trump endangers them.

We do not make such an assessment lightly. We are trained to make sober, rational decisions. That is how we know Vice President Harris would make an excellent Commander-in-Chief, while Mr. Trump has proven he is not up to the job. As leaders, we know effective leadership requires in-depth knowledge, careful deliberation, understanding of your adversaries, and empathy for those you lead. It requires listening to those with expertise and not firing them when they disagree with you.

Vice President Harris has proven she is an effective leader able to advance American national security interests. Her relentless diplomacy with allies around the globe preserved a united front in support of Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression. She grasps the reality of American military deterrence, promising to preserve the American military’s status as the most “lethal” force in the world.

The contrast with Mr. Trump is clear: where Vice President Harris is prepared and strategic, he is impulsive and ill-informed. He has heaped praise on adversarial dictators like China’s Xi Jinping, North Korea’s Kim Jung Un, and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, as well as the terrorist leaders of Hezbollah. Conversely, he has publicly and privately excoriated the leaders of our most steadfast allies, including the United Kingdom, Israel, Australia, Canada, and Germany. He abandoned our Kurdish allies while ceding influence in the Middle East to Russia, Iran, and China.

Further, Mr. Trump denigrates our great country and does not believe in the American ideal that our leaders should reflect the will of the people. While Vice President Harris follows the democratic norms we expect of any political leader—including promising to abide by the outcome of the pending election and respecting the rule of law—Mr. Trump is the first president in American history to actively undermine the peaceful transfer of power, the bedrock of American democracy.

Mr. Trump threatens our democratic system; he has said so himself. He has called for the “termination” of parts of the Constitution. He said he wants to be a “dictator,” and his clarification that he would only be a dictator for a day is not reassuring. He has undermined faith in our elections by repeating lies, without evidence, of “millions” of fraudulent votes.

He has shown no remorse for trying to overturn the 2020 election on January 6th, promises to pardon the convicted perpetrators, and has made clear he will not respect the results of the 2024 election should he lose again.

That alone proves Mr. Trump is unfit to be Commander-in-Chief.

We believe, as President Ronald Reagan said, that “America is a shining city on a hill.” Yet in this election, one of President Reagan’s more ominous warnings is equally relevant. “Freedom,” he said, “is never more than one generation away from extinction.”

Our endorsement of Vice President Harris is an endorsement of freedom and an act of patriotism. It is an endorsement of democratic ideals, of competence, and of relentless optimism in America’s future. We hope you will join us in voting for her.

Sincerely,

President of National Security Leaders for America:
Rear Admiral Michael E. Smith, USN (Ret)

PLEASE PAY IT FORWARD.

 

PDF link to full document, including (now more than 1,000) Signatories.

_________

  

Dr. Matthew Motta on anti-science, anti-intellectual trends in the U.S.

 

Ran across this article in my Scientific American app today. I looked up the author, and bought his book.

Looks very interesting. We shall see. Goes to some prior posts (to cite just a few for now).

• The science policy implications of the looming 2024 Presidential election
• Truth and democracy in an era of misinformation
• Why trust science? Here's why.
• Is there a "science" of science communication?

Of course, the "anti-science" stuff (a continuing burr under my saddle) invariably maps to other topics. Another new read in that area.

 

Yeah. See

A "White Christian Nationalist" theocracy drawing nigh, commencing Nov 5th?

And, we mustn't forget the swell Project 2025, etc.

A breadth of sneering anti-"Woke Cultural Elites" vitriol.

"God SAID it; I BELIEVE it; that SETTLES it."

Trust the Plan

Threat from Within? 

Lots more to come. Just getting underway with this stuff.

A BRIEF MOMENT OF LEVITY

Worried about science policy? Don't fret, Trump may prevail soon.

Sorry. The Power of Photoshop Compels Me...

 

ANTI-SCIENTIFIC AMERICANS UPDATE

 

The further I read into Matthew Motta's book, the more I am impressed. A central citation / launch riff of his is Richard Hofstadter's 1964 Pulitzer-prize awarded Anti-Intellectualism in American Life. 

 

I was born in Feb 1946. The U.S. 1950's speak directly to me (I recall the GOP "I Like Ike" campaign stuff and Red Scare McCarthyism). I was graduated from high school in Somerville NJ in 1964, the year of this Hofstadter book publication. At the time, my mind was way elsewhere—uh, girls (quixotically) and guitars. Belatedly pissed that I'm only now reading it.

Nonetheless, thank you effusively, Matthew, for the cite. This stuff could scarcely be more timely, in light of our current, vexing MAGApocene.

UPDATE

"Mental Immunity," anyone?

Additional topical stuff from a prior post.

 

ERRATUM: KINDLE HIGHLIGHTING

NOTE: I really like the Kindle app "highlighting" functionality. I find it helpful in reading more carefully. I'd like to see them add two more highlight colors—light grey and pale green.

UPDATE

“Is science the Enemy?”

More to come...

_________