January 6, 2021, started out as an exciting day. President Biden’s victorious election was about to be certified by both Houses of Congress in a mostly ceremonial procedure presided over by Vice President Mike Pence.
Our withdrawal from Afghanistan was tumultuous and chaotic, and our Commander in Chief was in charge. There’s no doubt about that, but was he aware of the challenges we would face?
The Republican Party, also known as the Grand Old Party, decided in 2020 that they would have no platform other than to ”enthusiastically support the President’s agenda.” The understanding was that any Republicans who refused to support Trump’s lies and his efforts to undermine our democracy and Constitution would be punished by Trump’s base and, in turn, by the party; and that is exactly how it has played out through the…
The terms "woke" and "cancel culture" have received prominence in Republican attacks upon Democrats, and these terms are being invoked as part of a Republican effort to justify retaining an image of America as a nearly flawless nation. Challenging attempts at exposing American history, warts and all, may have produced a citizenry more responsive to entreaties to "Make America Great Again," but choosing to ignore…
Rise and Fall?
These are challenging times; and possibly due to a teacher’s deep love of history and appreciation of its lessons, we may recall the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. Our nation’s level of division is concerning; and ancient Rome, the greatest empire the world had known, would crumble and fall.
Messages of hope are always welcomed during such turbulent times, and Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) delivered these reassuring words to his Fox News viewers: “We believe in our responsibility to secure the future of America. I’m on the side of the average worker. We need our party to focus upon principles that undergird the success of the American economy and the American worker.”
In recent tweets, President Trump falsely claimed that”2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT (caps his) Election in history”, going on that mail balloting is bad and absentee balloting is good. This, of course, is a distinction without a difference.
For 3.5 years we have lived in president Trump’s America. We know he lives in the alternative reality he knows best, but since the Covid-19 pandemic hit, it has been total chaos:
"In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” - George Orwell
James Carville famously suggested, “It’s the economy, stupid,” and our president seems to agree. And Joseph Goebells advised, “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.” At 20,000 falsehoods and counting, Donald Trump seems to have taken his counsel to heart.
After detailing in our March Viewpoint Donald Trump’s numerous fascist efforts to undermine our democracy and democratic republic, we believed there was little to add before the elections to expose the full breadth and depth of his destruction of our country. We were very wrong! Since then, the COVID-19 coronavirus has devastated our country due mostly to his inaction, denial and mismanagement, killing more than…
I remember writing this in June 2015 in the aftermath of the Charleston massacre:
“Resting on the south lawn of the Talbot County Courthouse is a Confederate memorial to the “Talbot Boys”, which was placed in this spot in June 1916. The monument, which depicts a soldier draped in, and hoisting a Confederate flag, stands to the south of the Frederick Douglas memorial, an individual whom the Talbot boys fought to enslave.
Nearly a century ago, as fascism was taking hold in Europe as epitomized by Benito Mussolini in Italy and Adolf Hitler in Germany, renowned author Sinclair Lewis wrote his classic work “It Can’t Happen Here”, a warning to America to remain vigilant to prevent fascism from coming onto our shores.
This last decade was the hottest recorded on the planet, according to NASA and NOAA. The United States accounts for 11 % of global greenhouse gas emissions and Australia accounts for 3% (coal production being their main fossil fuel).
In the first installment, we considered why we subsidize the US fossil fuel industry to the tune of $639 billion of which $20 billion are cash subsidies, when in the last 10 years the top five oil companies made $900 billion in profit. It is estimated that post-tax subsidies amount to $2.028 per person in the US.
This October, the lodge on Fox Island in the Chesapeake Bay saw its last group of middle school students come and learn about the fragile eco-system of the Bay. Fox Island is in Virginia but six miles from Crisfield, Maryland.