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| The Alamo, San Antonio TX |
It is exciting that the kids saw the Alamo in San Antonio. It was built as a Spanish mission.
Walt Disney hated communism! He hated it so much, he invented a fairy tale in connection with the Alamo. And so there it was for all the wide-eyed boomer kids to take in: the scene of Fess Parker as Davy Crockett swinging his rifle, named "old Betsy," at the Mexican troops who were overwhelming the place.
The Disney story was a TV mini-series, perhaps the first one ever. With the "killing off" of Crockett, Parker could no longer portray the character. He ended up being Daniel Boone in a later series.
People with high education and who have strong political beliefs invent fairy tales. Dana Milbank has shared an interesting take on Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Milbank of the Washington Post says well-educated people with entrenched political views have a very hard time - nigh impossible - accepting the facts behind any assertions made by the other side.
When all the lawsuits failed that challenged the 2020 election's validity - just one succeeded that was not exactly germane - it did not impress the MAGA crowd. You follow the news, don't you? Ginni got drawn into a fantasy world just like Disney's Alamo because she was entranced by Trump and his aspirations. From my perspective, these are autocratic aspirations. Ginni bought into the most fantastical, absurd arguments for keeping Trump as president.
Now that the obvious ethical issues are being pointed out, in terms of the influence she had as spouse of a Supreme Court member, the political right wing fails to be objective at all about the matter. Mitch McConnell had to make a formal statement to defend a Supreme Court justice.
We have all been clinging to the Supreme Court as a last bastion for staying free of the partisan dark clouds. The people on the right hate the "leftist" ideas just like Disney hated communism. It's natural to an extent that very wealthy people, who in many cases have had disproportionate good fortune, would fear ideas from the so-called left. A desperate McConnell had to depart from normal objective, reasonable thought and resort to the "boogeyman." He trots out the political "left" who I guess are out to get Clarence and Ginni Thomas.
That's all there is to it, in his eyes. Can you blame him for talking like this? Something like 40 percent of the American people will fight for any arguments made by the Trump crowd. Dispense with critical thinking.
Communism is bad, yes. But the U.S. didn't need to go into Vietnam and sacrifice the lives of something like 60,000 young men in order to fight something called the "domino theory." So much paranoia with such great cost. And after a long reprieve in the country, in which we seemed to come largely to our senses, it creeps back.
Can you imagine Clarence and Ginni Thomas expressing any contrition whatsoever? Could these two in their deepest private thoughts genuinely think there are no ethical if not legal problems with how they've behaved since the 2020 election? No, not a chance, and then McConnell speaks for the crowd that just wants to go on the offensive. Not for a second do they feel their political adversaries have any facts to offer. There's no chance to find a bridge here.
Walt Disney's fantasy about the Alamo wasn't enough. John Wayne chimed in most strongly with his 1960 movie. All these heroes were fighting for "freedom." Game, set, match, I guess.
The Mexicans were brown-skinned people, right? We know what kind of stage was going to be set by the likes of Disney and Wayne. Wayne actually became pro-war on Vietnam. We have all these well-heeled people ranting and raving about "communism" or "the left." Nobody likes communism per se. Pure socialism does not work. However, all advanced industrial nations are a combination of free enterprise and socialism. Yes, socialism.
We ought to tax the rich a little extra to have good schools. The government needs to invest in things like infrastructure (where we're drastically overdue) and fighting climate change. So fearful is the political right of the need to do the latter, they have come at us with attacks on climate change science. Of course Trump called it a "hoax." And this doesn't raise a red flag in your minds?
There are things that only government can do. Medicare and Social Security are obvious examples of "socialism" that we already have.
Powerful people in entertainment can weave stories to show that American freedoms are so unique/distinctive. And freedom is undoubtedly a virtuous thing. But we have a collective responsibility to take care of all our people and the world we live in, our environment. Listen to Bernie Sanders. We will probably get universal basic income (UBI) because people need their basic needs met. Automation puts more people out of work all the time.
It's not as if the richest people don't like cozying up to government. Where did all the naked capitalists of Wall Street go in 2008, when they panicked because of the "crisis" we all heard about? They went to the government. If government has to bail out Wall Street, do we need Wall Street at all? Let's just have the government take care of all of us. Where else does one go when there is a "crisis?" The government is the place, like it or not.
So in the aftermath of the 2008 "crisis," the seeds of which I'm still confused about, we got Hank Paulson in the news holding three sheets of paper with his hands trembling. I thought the right wing felt the government "never has the answers." Well, government was sure the repository on that one.
We have a debt-based system around the world now that could eventually suffocate us all. Maybe we're not seeing the forest for the trees. And all along, the right wing and super-rich people will warn us all about the boogeyman of the "left."
You can't blame them. They have 40 percent of Americans eating right out of their hands. We all may fail to understand this diversion until it's too late. My generation when young got snowed by the Disney and John Wayne versions of the Alamo. We are so human an animal.
Thoughts on a gray Thursday
My, the wind of late has seemed like a rumbling train past my house on Northridge Drive. I'm happy to own my own home. However, it still feels like I'm paying a fee to live here, when I look at my property tax statement, just received. N'est-ce pas? Think about the "softball complex" when you look at yours. The people applying this money can smile in such a smug way for group photos. So benevolent-looking. It's not their own money they're spending - it's OPM, "other people's money." A piece of cake for them. And we're left scratching our heads with property taxes.
There was pushback with the proposed county jail, remember? We need this kind of vigilance more often.
So on this depressing day weather-wise, I'll share an email sent to a friend where I touch certain bases with topics macro and micro. I invite you to read.
Hello (name withheld) - Randy Olson informs me that Cougar baseball team is now playing at Chizek Field. All through the years I assumed that Cougar baseball would want its own facility. Their long-time field has always seemed desolate. I wonder what it means they're now playing at Chizek. Has to do with $ probably. I am getting the sinking feeling that UMM is on downslide across the board. It's nothing like the "salad days" when there were so many pointy-headed elite faculty people who acted so special in community. The people who are fortunate enough to teach at UMM now are humble, probably scared. All the old arrogance seems completely gone. Agree? No more "weird" stories coming out of UMM either. But then again, maybe it's just because there's less life out there, period. I wonder if we could be looking at temporary closure of the institution. Remember Thorson?
The weather is getting scary strange. The wind has sounded like a train going by for about three days now, and it's just worthless and miserable outside. I'd say climate change but you'd probably reject that.
I suggest that you look at newspaper website. Check sports in particular. I realize of course that it's easy to criticize a newspaper. But the paper is just dropping the ball with its website to an extent that makes me wonder what's going on. The fact that it's so packed with UMM sports is strange because UMM's own website handles this with 100 percent quality. Sue Dieter was going for the moon with her newspaper website goals. And now this?- BW
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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