Certainly, it is not what I and others were expecting to see and hear. If I read this commentary properly and understood? Prof. Heather Cox Richardson accuses todays’ US citizenry of living in some fantasy land, disregarding vaccines, taking on fascist activity and symbols, and having a lack of understanding of what the United States […]
The least trustworthy name in news, buried in the 13th graf: Democratic lawmakers have argued it would be illegal for Trump to unilaterally eliminate a federal agency without consulting Congress. This is not a question of whether something is blue-green, aqua, or cyan. This is a matter of fact. You might think a news organization […]
It’s not an easy day, but I’m remembering better times, such as when Mandy Patinkin translated Paul Simon’s “American Tune” into its native language: And then I remember that this was a sad song, that even though Simon wrote that last verse of “Loves Me Like a Rock,” he wasn’t always so obeisant to the […]
When an economy produces goods and services above and beyond the requisite, i.e., produces an abundance, it creates wealth. Ten-eleven thousand years ago, this wealth was likely food stored for winter, that rainy day, that dry season, … . Today, for some, this abundance/wealth might include assets such as fine houses, lifestyle, money, …; and […]
I subscribe to the Atlantic and have done so for about a decade. I subscribe to the print version also which accompanies me on long flights. An Interesting read and I like to turn pages. This morning I ran across an article by John Virtue, “How John F. Kennedy Fell for the Lost Cause. And […]
Before we moved to Rhode Island last year, I was familiar with Newport as the home of the Newport Jazz and Folk festivals. Indeed, we attended one afternoon of performances at the Newport Jazz Festival this summer. Newport is only an hour from our home in Rumford RI. Recently, I read in The New York […]
Then I really was going to skip today, even as–indeed, because–it is the 50th anniversary of 11 September. The original 11 de Septiembre, that is. Once is history, twice is parody. Feuerbach, as with Marx, was an optimist. Chile took only 17 years to get rid of Pinochet, and they did it at the ballot […]
An important reason to read history is to gain a perspective on current events. If you watch exclusively mainstream media television, particularly Fox News, you might be forgiven for the belief that things in this country are the worst they have ever been in history. “1877: America’s Year of Living Violently” by Michael Bellisiles is […]
Just finished reading “Black Earth: The Holocaust as history and warning” by Timothy Snyder. It is a detailed account of the Holocaust, as well as an effort to abstract lessons from this history for our time. Like his book “Bloodlands,” Snyder’s “Black Earth” makes for painful reading. As the grandson of a Ukrainian Jew and […]
Just finished reading “Bloodlands,” a book by Yale historian Timothy Snyder. It was published in 2010, but now has a lengthy afterword that discusses the book’s reception and ties the theme to current events. I was inspired to read this book because of events in Ukraine and I believe that I have a much better […]