TROUBLE SPAWN
Retired educator / military officer(Army Colonel) - Current Ops Div Chief (G333), HQDA / married / political progressive / ED.D. and Army War College Grad. 3277
Joined Nov 2017
Sitting here, reading the stories on RBG, feeling morose, and then I thought about a penny cup at a cash register...How you see them all over, how they are meant to be a sharing device for giving and taking.
My thought was it would be an interesting sociological experiment right now to see if there is more money in the penny cup now or less. My working hypothesis is there is less as we seem to be more a Country of Takers now...
Morose thoughts generate morose working hypotheses...
to remember what we owe others, to become the best versions of ourselves and to act on our values — be it in work, family or politics.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/09/18/who-shall-live/
And from Rubin again, a reminder...
You do not need to be Jewish or even to believe in a Higher Power to appreciate that we are being tested. We are living in extraordinary times — a pandemic, a recession, a crisis in our democracy and reckoning on race, all at once — for which there is no precedent. Great calamities have struck, both man-made and natural, but we have the capacity to lessen the burden on our fellow Americans, ...
Stick with me Kid, I'll let you know how to think, when to think, and what to think about...
Jen Rubin opens today reminding us who Trump is...
Violent White supremacists believe this, hear resonance in Trump’s message and have acted with deadly force upon their beliefs that Jews are a menacing, alien population. We have been down this road with Trump many times; he may praise Israel for the points it affords him among evangelical Christians, but that does not preclude his embrace of anti-Semitic rhetoric and themes.
EJ Dionne in WaPo on Biden sharpening his pencil to write right wrongs...
The state-school striver from Scranton has decided he doesn’t have to worry about any of that. Biden needs only to concentrate on the facts about who Trump is: a pampered elitist and fortunate son who loves golf a whole lot more than he loves working people. I can’t wait to see what lies Trump will tell to hide this truth.
RBG's death has entirely and magnificently given us extreme lucidity on the coming election...
Which America will win? An Inclusive one or a Casted one?
If Republicans force a justice on us, it’s because they believe that standards are for suckers, and people who hold power need not be constrained by any pledge or institutional tradition.
It doesn’t matter how exhausted we are, or how difficult the odds. In this hell-spawned year, we can either give up, or give everything we can to stop some of America’s worst men from blotting out the legacy of one of our very best women.
Michelle Goldberg in NYT on stopping McConnell...
Graham’s words couldn’t be clearer, nor could those of Senator Chuck Grassley, the former chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who blocked Garland. Just last month, Grassley said that he “couldn’t move forward” with a Trump nominee this year because of the 2016 standard.
After delivering a paranoid rant about armed insurrection, senior Trump administration official Michael Caputo this week blamed his high “stress level” and took a leave of absence. He said “every American” fighting the pandemic “has been under enormous pressure. I am just one of them.”
He’s right about that. After four years, we are barely holding it together. Surely four more years would cause the losing of the American mind.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/09/18/trump-has-made-americans-lives-worse-heres-proof/
Those had all been stable from 2014 to 2016. After Trump’s election, they all worsened — and stayed worse.
The American Psychological Association in 2017 found two-thirds of Americans, including a majority of Republicans, were stressed about the future of the nation. That jumped to 83 percent this year, with 66 percent saying government’s handling of the pandemic causes significant stress.
In sum, well-being among all American adults declined “substantially” with Trump’s election — even though the economy was expanding. Meanwhile, the population in 21 states (many in Trump country) had a significant decline in well-being in 2017 — a huge shift in one year — and not one state experienced an increase. More Americans complained of worry, lost pleasure in activities and less positive energy from friends, family and leaders.
Dana Milbank in WaPo...
Trump’s America is one sad place.
Much of this is because of the pandemic, and the economic fallout, but the troubles predate the virus. Overall mental well-being dropped noticeably after President Trump’s election in 2016, in red and blue states alike. Happiness became decoupled from financial security, and evidence points to a “Trump Effect” — an American public depressed because of extraordinary vitriol in politics, chaos in the news and a government out of control.
Joe Scarborough in WaPo on the coming storm...
Americans should heed poet Maya Angelou’s warning that when someone tells you who they are, you should believe them the first time. Over the past four years, Trump has told the world that he loathes constitutional limits and will do anything to maintain power — whether that means accepting political help from foreign countries or attacking America’s democratic process as “rigged.”
Ken-Dogger: Hey Spot, sad day in America…
Spot: You mean the rising pandemic deaths?
KD: No, I mean Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing, simply tragic for the country.
S: Why’s that?
KD: America doesn’t need more stressors now.
S: Will we get to celebrate her life?
KD: We will, but peeps will want to focus on SCOTUS fight.
S: What would RBG want?
KD: She’d want the celebration and the cause to continue…
S: Then what we do is for RBG…
KD: And America.
Houston-Baylor game postponed due to virus https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/29915133/houston-baylor-football-game-postponed-covid-19
via @ESPN App http://espn.com/app
Listen to Tebow, a man who really hasn't been able to move on from college football, but who does talk positively about adaptation and overcoming adversity....but it's a shame we can't do this for America as a whole...I get saving stuff and the interconnection of economic activity, but we aren't having conversations about the right things to save and what needs to be gone.
Walked with Dixiee this morning to a High point in the neighborhood...amazing.
I don't think so, I just found a place where peeps seemingly understand limited government in its role of ensuring citizens are protected under the common good. It ain't rocket science peeps...
Here to fight another day...I had to interface with a government agency yesterday, never a longed for experience. But in this case, it was the Utah DMV and its licensing services in Beaver Utah. In short, they were exceptional peeps who apparently saw their government service as ensuring regulations are followed, that citizens follow similar procedures to ensure uniformity, and to promote public safety. I didn't sense a deep state in place, was I missing something?
TROUBLE SPAWN
Retired educator / military officer(Army Colonel) - Current Ops Div Chief (G333), HQDA / married / political progressive / ED.D. and Army War College Grad. 3277
Joined Nov 2017