by John Walters
U. Grant
We don’t want to say that former Civil War general and U.S. president Ulysses S. Grant was prescient as much as that he noticed some universal and timeless dilemmas that any democracy or society faces. Grant spoke the following words in a speech he delivered to the annual reunion of the Army of Tennessee on September 29, 1875.
If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason’s and Dixon’s, but between patriotism and intelligence on one side, and superstition, ambition, and ignorance on the other.
Listen Up
Don’t know who this dude is, or who wrote his eloquent prose, but it’s a must-listen.
WaPo For The Win
With its “41 Minutes Of Fear” piece, a video journey through the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, the Washington Post has deconstructed some of the mayhem that occurred on January 6th. Watching at home that afternoon, I never truly feared that the safety of U.S. senators and representatives was at risk. But I was wrong. I did not quite appreciate how much the inner sancta of the Capitol had been breached. This also is required viewing.
One thing that should impress/depress you as you watch the video is the utter and egregious sense of entitlement these white dudes have. They’re committing treason and they’re talking to the cops as if they’re employees at your local multiplex who’ve been charged with telling them that they cannot bring that bottle of beer inside to the screening of Deadpool. Or as if they’re gate agents who’ve just told them that their bag will not fit into the overhead and must be checked.
“AND YOU WILL ATONE!”
I picture Ned Beatty standing at one end of the conference table and little Donald Trump seatead at the other end. Beatty is telling him that his populist schtick was okay for awhile, but then once he incited a coup d’etat against the largest capitalist nation in the world, he’d gone a step too far. And there’s a price to pay for that.
“The world is a business, Mr. Trump.”
The most illuminating aspect of the past nine days, at least for me, was the swiftness with which major American corporations took action after Jan. 6th and announced that they would no longer donate to Republicans who backed the fraudulent claims of Donald J. Trump. First, you realize that they’ve been pumping blood into the insurrection for years by supporting these politicians in the first place (and likely the ones across the aisle as well).
Second, you have to say to yourself, that companies such as American Express, Amazon, AT&T (and that’s just the A’s on the list) and others did not just wake up on Jan. 7th and have this epiphany of, “Ohhh! Donald Trump is a lying sonofabitch who’s doing a terrible job as president.” I mean, the 3,500 dead per day should have told them that.
Nope. They woke up on Jan. 7th and said, “A violent insurrection and toppling of the government will create mass instability, which is bad for the market, which is bad for business. NOW this must be stopped!”
In other words, they didn’t get involved when Donald Trump was bad for America. They didn’t get involved until Donald Trump was bad for business. That’s your lesson for today.
Sham. Wow.
I used to think that all Minnesotans were wonderful people.
I’ve had to downgrade that assessment to “most.” Here’s Mike Lindell, MyPillow creator, departing the White House with his “Two-Minute Insurrectionist Offense” playbook. These are the most desperate of times for Mr. Lindell, but not so desperate that he’d be amenable to departing the White House with cup of coffee in hand. Did he just leave the greatest residence in our land or the 9 a.m. pitch meeting at the Mankato Free Press? Holy cats, Mike.
I don’t know what exactly it’s going to take to charge men like this with treason. But I think a good start will be boycotting big box stores (See: Bed, Bath & Beyond) that continue to sell his product. Watch the video he filmed below, flying home from the insurrection.
I can’t wait for three more days when the grown-ups are back in charge (they’ve named a Science Team!). And as the years pass we will look back on Nov. 3 and Jan. 6 and realize just how close this democracy came to plunging over a cliff, derailed by idiots and miscreants such as Lindell, Rudy Giuliani and Mike Pompeo. Among millions of others. Not a whit of decency among them.
30-Second Dossier: Lauren Boebert
–House of Representatives, Colorado
–High school dropout
–Resides in a town named Rifle, Colo., which is deep in the heart of the Colorado Rockies. The kind of town where you’d find Hank Reardon and Dagny Taggart holing up.
–Owns, with her husband, a saloon named “Shooters’ and encourages her employees to open-carry firearms.
–Had her mother at the insurrection.
–Used “I call bullcrap” on the House floor during a debate.
Finally, A White We Can Admire
Simply gorgeous, simply hilarious. Betty White turns 99 years old today and what a stunner she was 70 years ago. And still is. If you are old enough to recall her playing the viciously funny Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, lucky you.
I didn’t quite understand Sue Ann’s motives when I was younger, but thinking back on her now, she was an early cougar preying on the middle-aged frustrations of Lou Grant and Murray Slaughter (men who were, most likely, younger at that time than I am now. And I’m still wearing a Speedo every day. Scary.) Sue Ann was sort of the Col. Flagg of MTM. You didn’t need to see her on every episode, they were never going to make her part of the inner circle, her entire persona was based on self-delusion (she’d be MAGA, you have to think), but all of that is what made her such a pleasure to watch. A classic TV character the likes of which you just don’t see any more.