Day 15

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15 days ago was the inauguration of the 47th President of the United States.  All I need to say about that is easily accessible in the archives of this blog, between January 18 and February 2, 2025.  I have recommended, there, resources about history, national and international affairs that I trust and follow most every day.  Many of the resources are on the platform Substack.  I have a Substack account but to date I have never used it.  Perhaps some day, but not now.

Which leaves today, and following days, which will be an experiment.  Thanks for visiting.  Stop back.  My history has come to be two or three postings in a typical week, on varying topics.  I try to at least make sense, whether the reader agrees with me or not makes no difference.

Yesterday’s mail:

MY RESPONSE ON A COMMENT FROM DAVID: Thanks for comment on the [Feb 2] blog 
The difference [Nov. 5] was, as you say, those who didn’t vote at all.  Last night I was watching Bill Maher and his guest was Peggy Noonan, one of Reagan’s primary speech writers.  She said she wouldn’t vote for Trump, but couldn’t vote (I think these are her words) “for the other one” (Harris). Actions have consequences.
I think a brother-in-law, who I think is a strong democrat, didn’t vote for Harris either, because he couldn’t/wouldn’t vote for a woman.
Another friend, a way-out-there progressive, voted for Stein….
Now, in my ’sample’ two thirds of the voters who beat Harris were “Democrats”.
There are, literally, millions of variations on the same story.  We are a nation of individualists, and only rarely will anybody truly reveal why they voted a certain way.  Of course, the evidence is right in front of all of us.
Thanks again.  

And another, about Jan. 29 blog “Eggs”.  Dick: Stored in the boatload of posts I sent along today was [Eggs] from Jan 29.  Look at my comment at the end of the post.  

The wealthy Republicans seem to have mastered the art of identifying the wants and resentments of the rabble in our class, and then exploiting it.  So, it’s easy to identify what people want, and who they don’t like: just ask them; then promise that you’ll fix it.  But the problem is, what if they succeed, and the poor dopes can’t afford to enhance the wealth of the already wealthy/. It’s a battle I don’t think they want to win.  But it’s better than the alternative, unfortunately.  I don’t know what the answer is.  There probably isn’t one.  Trump is a master at exploiting fears, in Republicans, of being primaried, and then screwing his Army after they follow his advice.  Do you have plans for the $1,000 bonus you’ll get from Donald J. Trump when the tax bill is passed which will make the rich even richer?


Response:  Thanks, I’d missed that post. You do wonder if folks like Musk, Zuckerberg, Trump, et. al. ever think about how truly fortunate they are to be where they are. One of the recent Democratic presidential nominees (Obama?) caught  flack for saying something to the effect that if you’re rich, it’s not just because of your own hard work. You got a lot of help along the way from the greater society. I don’t begrudge anyone who has a lot of money. I’d just like them to at least have the appearance of being grateful for what they have and maybe, just maybe, share a bit with those less fortunate. 

Your point on the price of eggs being pretty irrelevant to people like you and me is well taken. Rita and I frequently attend the Dakota and rarely is our total bill under $100. I’m sure most people who attend spend similar amounts. Almost every time we leave, there are one or two homeless folks looking for handouts. I usually—but not always—give them a couple of bucks. I certainly could (should?) give more but I don’t. Maybe when my $1,000 Trump check arrives I should give each of them $500. They certainly need it more than I do.

Thought for today: from The Weekly Sift, Campaign or Movement.  I have followed this weekly column for a long while.  Easy to subscribe.  Very worthwhile .

Forward

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Monday Feb. 3 is two weeks after the Inauguration of #47 on Jan. 20, 2025. At the end of this post is what I wrote Jan. 18&25.  If you are interested, here are my posts from Jan 18 forward to now (just select archive for January 2025 at right): Jan 18, 19, 20, 23, 25, 29, 31.  Also see Feb. 1, titled “Oh Canada”.

Looking ahead, to the best of my ability, I am going to redirect during February, Black History Month.

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A suggestion:  Take a little time this month to visit AMillionCopies.info, a simple website I inaugurated in spring, 2008, dedicated to two personal heroes, Lynn Elling and Dr. Joseph Schwartzberg.  A movie, there, from about 1970, is free and on-line.

You can watch interviews of Mr. Elling and Dr. Schwartzberg here.   They were both stellar activists.  They are both deceased, 2016 and 2018 respectively. (The interviews were by two Pakistani Fulbright Humphrey Fellows in 2014.  Read the short intro to the interviews before watching.)

I would also suggest taking the time to watch the film “The World Is My Country”, the story of peace activist Garry Davis in the WWII era.  The website is here.  Davis merited a page one obit in the NYTimes when he died in 2020,

Elling, Schwartzberg and Davis were all citizens who made a big difference.

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Where do you fit in?

Remember: only about 30% of eligible Americans voted for the new King Nov. 5, 2024.  That is hardly a landslide.  Near 170 million eligible voters did not vote for #47.

I will keep writing, and for sure I’ll keep informed, and absolutely stay engaged, but my posts for the time being will be on personal preference rather than focused on the disruption and chaos we will likely continue to see this month.  Keep this ‘blitzkrieg’ in perspective.  It will fail, ultimately, as have all such efforts over history, if the targets – most of us – get to work.

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POSTNOTE: January 18: “A House Divided“, one week ago, I wrote: “Two days from now will be the inauguration of the U.S. President.  It feels, today, much like being in the eye of a hurricane.  All seems calm.  But no one knows for sure exactly when the chaos of the hurricane will resume and who it will damage worst or how.  The prudent persons have prepared for the worst, but if they’re unlucky the preparation will be in vain.  The hurricane is all of us.  We will determine it’s strength or weakness.  We’re all in the path of the storm.”

Added January 25: …a tsunami, intended to demoralize and defeat – call it “shock and awe”.  Thus far, it has been worse than expectations.  This is a madman with a wrecking ball and the building permit to destroy.

COMMENTS:

from Remi (in Canada): The Americans last attempted to “conquer us into liberty” during the War of 1812. We sent them packing and burned down the White House. My grandmother’s great-grandfather, Denis Collet, was part of the French-Canadian militia involved in that event. This time, it seems that millions of Americans will lose their jobs.

from Molly: Here, from AP: But–hey–what could possibly go wrong?  Sigh, and some cuss words,

Oh, Canada.

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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the Tariff, Feb 2: here

Friend Molly sent me a couple of commentaries relating to Canadian views of the proposed Tariffs on Canadian trade to be imposed by the United States.

Here they are, without elaboration from me;

First,  here. Molly:  Robert Reich posted this beautifully done piece on his blog today–enjoy,

The following is by Jean Chrétien, who served as prime minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003. It appeared in The Globe and Mail, Canada’s most widely read newspaper, on January 11, 2025.
Second, here: hmmmm….so it begins??   (arghhh!)


Remi, French-Canadian from Montreal, and my cousin, gives first response to Chretien:

Jean Chrétien was one of my favorite Prime Ministers. He is brilliant, but we joked that he was the first Prime Minister who spoke neither official language since he massacred both when he spoke.  Jean has a very thick French-Canadian accent and speaks English somewhat like the ‘Little Bateese’ of Henry Drummond.

Chrétien is correct that this threat could strengthen the Canadian economy in several ways. The 25% tariffs will likely provoke a more significant backlash than Trump’s freeze on federal spending did. North American auto parts cross the borders up to 7 or 8 times before a vehicle is finally assembled. As one mogul in the auto industry stated, “It wouldn’t be more than a week before we would see vehicle production in North America come to a halt, which would result in millions of people being laid off, the majority of whom would be in the U.S.” Let’s hope these fiascos will finally prompt Americans to come to their senses.

from Canadian friend: Trump has made us enemies, but we will remain friends.  Bad times ahead.

POSTNOTE: As I note from time to time, my father was 100% French-Canadian; our roots in North America go back to 1618 with the arrival of Jean Nicolet from France.  I have many cousins and families north of the border.  Over time I’ve gotten to know two Canada Consul Generals in Minnesota, and been to a number of consulate sponsored events over the years.  One of the events involved Canada, U.S. and Mexico representatives together.

June 26, 2013 at Canada Consulate, Minneapolis MN, Mexico, Canada and U.S. Trade Representative gathering.

COMMENTS:

from Remi:  It’s risky to be America’s enemy, but it can be fatal to be its friend. The Wall Street Journal called this “The Dumbest Trade War in History.”

“Each one….”

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The new regime took power January 20, 2025, about two weeks ago.  There has been a blitzkrieg, intended chaos.  It’s now up to you and me and the other 75,000,000 of us who voted for a different future on November 5.  All previous posts can be accessed at the archive for January 2025.

“Each One”.  My hope is to use this space frequently for short personal opinion pieces that may provide one or two or three of you with some useful personal insight for your own participation in our country’s destiny.

Back in 2007 I got to thinking about the potential of multiplying influence.  The philosophy was very simple: if one could influence two; and they could influence two more, and so on, ultimately there would be an immense impact.

In 2008, I tried out the idea…and it failed.  I wrote about it in Uncomfortable Essays, which are easily accessible, pages 3-7 for some detail.  The concept was easier than succeeding.

In more recent years, particularly as I get into elder times, I’ve rethought the concept.

The first step was to move from Each One Reach Two, to Each One Reach One…theoretically much easier, but slower and practically speaking almost as difficult.  We all have our favorite thing, and reaching consensus with even one other person can be difficult, as we all know.

So I’ve evolved again: the one I want to reach, including when I publish this blog, is myself.  In the simplest sense, convincing myself that is worth taking the time to do these musings which have now had a long shelf life.  My ‘eye on the prize’ remains ‘each one reach two’…I don’t call it a failure to not reach that goal….

Per graphic below: There were over 75,000,000 Americans who generally agreed with me in the political decision on Nov. 5 – the people who voted for Harris/Walz, and most likely Democratic candidates.  Of course, our side didn’t win.

I calculated yesterday that in the same election about 168,000,000 (167,588,214) Americans did NOT vote for the regime now in power.  It is not whether we have power; the only question is whether we will exercise it as individuals.  If we join together and work, the status quo will change, even though it will be a difficult year or two or three.,

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“Woke”.   About the most overused word in American English is “woke”.  Recently I came across a very brief definition from an excellent book gifted to me by a friend in Oregon.  The brief segment is accessible here: Woke from Barbara Holmes.  The brief segment is from her book, Crisis Contemplation.  Healing the Wounded Village.  Note also the footnoted reference to an article by Tomi Adeyemi in Oprah magazine.

There is a frontal assault occurring on what is called “DEI” (diversity, equity and inclusion).  Woke and DEI and other words have  pejorative connotations by the current regime in Washington.  It is worthy of discussion.  For instance, is the whole concept of “white male privilege” or “wealthy entitlement” as “woke” themselves.  The saying, “what’s good for the goose is good for the gander” comes to mind.

Conversations:  The day after the catastrophic airline/helicopter crash at Reagan Airport in Washington, I overheard two guys in the next booth at McDonalds talking about the crash.  The one said that no information on identity of pilots, etc., had been released yet.  The other one brought up how the Biden administration covered up details of the East Palestine PA train wreck in 2023 – where a derailment threatened a community with toxic spill of train cargo.  The trajectory of the conversation was downhill, and ended quickly.  One had reached a conclusion before there was even the most tentative definitive information.

The conversation brought to mind an on-line conversation three of us had in early December after the Dec. 4 murder of a Minnesota Health Care Executive in New York City.

Our  conversation one week after that murder, was such that I asked if I could share it with others, which permission was given.  There is nothing dramatic about this three-way conversation, which you can read here Harbinger(2).  It is simply independent and spontaneous written impressions of three people, and not intended to represent conclusions.  Hopefully this thread might help in your own thinking about the issues raised while the legal processes continue, and about conversations generally.  Again, the comments are shared with the writers permission.

 

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Postnote: I started this post on January 27.  For the moment I’ll continue linking to a few of my favorite sources of informed comment.  All of these are available to anyone, and if Substack, you’ll be advised of others available.  I support by subscribing.  Most of these are also available free, but encourage subscription, which is support for their work.  Beginning with January 27 e-mails, here are some well worth your time: I find Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from and American, and Joyce Vance’s Civil Discourse to be always factual, constructive and very informative.  Here are some from the last few days:

(1) Letters from An American 1/26; (2) Civil Discourse 1/26; (3) Paul Krugman 1/27;  (4) Weekly Sift 1/27: (5) Letters From An American 1/27;  (6) Civil Discourse 1/28;  (7) Letters from an American 1/28; (8) Jeffrey Frantz Sep 26, 2024; (9) Civil Discourse 1/29; (10) Letters from An American 1/29; (11) Letters from An American 1/30: (12) Civil Discourse 1/30; (13) Letters from an American 1/31; (14) Civil Discourse 1/31; (15) Letters from An American 2/1; (16) Civil Discourse  Discourse 2/2,.

These and many others are informative.  If I send them along, I’ve read them myself.  Most of these I initially learned about from Joyce – Thanks very much –  networking is extremely important.  Information needs to be combined with action, wherever you are, what you can do (is most likely more than you think you can do).

Eggs (A bit about wealth)

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The daily cup – note the handle – it has seen a lot of use over many years.

Most every day, my extravagance is a cup of coffee at the Woodbury City Centre Caribou Coffee.

The most recent cup set me back $2.81, plus the usual $1.00 tip or $3.81.  Caribou is where I start my day at 6 a.m.  It is a part of my daily ritual, ever more simple as I age.

For most of us, “wealth” is not a familiar condition.  Talk of Millions, Billions and Trillions is all but incomprehensable .   Monetary “Wealth” is out of our league; what we earn is petty cash for the approximately 1,000 billionaires in the United States; but their wealth seems to dominate the official conversation.  My opinion: too much is never enough for them: acquisition of power is the primary, almost sole, value.  “Money” is one of the primary exhibitions of “Power” (a false criteria in my opinion).

In the interest of education, I offer the illustration below, which might help flesh out the abstract.

Illustration in pdf form: Wealth

Why start this post with Coffee, then later title it “Eggs”….

The recent campaign political narrative seemed to focus on kitchen table issues, like the price of eggs.  The price of eggs seems to be mostly a matter of bird flu, not the fault of anyone.  It would be the fault if remedial action were not taken to control the spread of the disease, which in turn decreases production and inevitably raises prices.

I don’t often look at the price of eggs, but recently made a specific point to look at our supermarket.  Depending on the size of the egg, the cost was 50 to 60 cents.

The cost for the single egg hardly seemed confiscatory for by far the largest percentage of Americans.

A few days later I was at a local restaurant, and noted the menu Ala carte items:  one egg was $3.50, coffee $4.50 and so on.  Of course, at a restaurant no one orders just one egg.  A bowl of oatmeal, a coffee a order of toast, plus tip set me back $20 – just for myself.

A few times in my life I’ve been to countries where eggs would be luxuries.  One that comes to mind is rural Haiti, where I recall seeing eggs only one time: hard boiled.  They didn’t look safe.  Refrigeration is something not taken for granted in Haiti.  If a chicken lays an egg, best used on delivery.

Another time, in the Philippines, we visited what I remember as a large commercial poultry operation, with the chickens in a restricted environment, more likely for safety from predators than egg factory.  The chickens were certainly not raised for pets; the farm was not on a heavily populated island.  The utility of the chickens is not known to me.

Of course, in my rural upbringing farm chickens were ubiquitous, and “egg money” was the housewives allowance sometimes.  Chickens were utilitarian animals.  Not only did they produce eggs, but they were ideal meal size – no waste.  Perfect for family dinners or when company came.

There is a moral to the story: regardless of how we cry poor, the United States is an extraordinarily wealthy country measured against the rest of the world; and the disequity in wealth, already great, is getting greater still.  One of the first priorities seems to give the already wealthy even more tax breaks, which, in turn, will increase the deficit, with cries to take money out of appropriations for the least among us to pay for it.

Be vigilant.

POSTNOTE ON WEALTH, GENERALLY.

Increasingly the internal gap in our own country between the ultra rich and the rest of us is more and more absurd.

At the inauguration January 20, the obvious guests of honor were the ultra wealthy, including Elon Musk and several others.  It appeared there was no room in the inn for even one of the MAGA base, the very people the wealthy depend on to vote them into office.

It has long seemed to me to be a very odd paradox: to become wealthier, the wealthy depend on the poor to spend more money on things they cannot afford or don’t need.  There are ultra-wealthy in all countries.  I remember seeing at least one of their houses in Haiti, one of the poorest countries on earth.

At the same time, the energy is to depress wages and workers, making it more difficult for the working class to have disposable income to spend on the goods which bring more wealth to the already wealthy.

Paradoxical to me: our economy depends on people spending money, which grows wealth for some.  Storing unused money away – excessive savings such as billionaires control – does nothing for the common good.

The wealthy must know this is absurd, but craving more is an addiction like any other.

Here is a piece of data very carefully developed by a friend of mine, Dr. Joseph Schwartzberg, for his book on transforming the United Nations system. The chart summarizes the Wealth of UN Countries.  Note especially column 2 (% of world population) and 4 (% of Gross National Income). The U.S. had 4.4% of the World’s population, and 22.8% of the world’s gross national income.  The data is now several years old, but doubtless remains true today.

The solution is up to each and every one of us, where we live.

Mariann Edgar Budde – human beings

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PRENOTE: January 18, “A House Divided“, one week ago, I wrote: “Two days from now will be the inauguration of the U.S. President.  It feels, today, much like being in the eye of a hurricane.  All seems calm.  But no one knows for sure exactly when the chaos of the hurricane will resume and who it will damage worst or how.  The prudent persons have prepared for the worst, but if they’re unlucky the preparation will be in vain.  The hurricane is all of us.  We will determine it’s strength or weakness.  We’re all in the path of the storm.”

Add to the above, a tsunami, intended to demoralize and defeat – call it “shock and awe”.  Thus far, it has been worse than expectations.  This is a madman with a wrecking ball and the building permit to destroy.

Well, here we are.  There are at least 75,000,000 of us, and it’s time for us to get to work in small ways and large.  The bal is in our court.

There are those who think they’ll be unscathed and can sit this out.  How about their neighbor?  Their own children, people they know.  Everybody but the highly privileged are going to be punished, while being exhorted to accept the dream, never to be realized.  Trickle-down on sterooids.

I did four posts between Jan. 18 and today.  One is a family history piece.  Take a glance at them if you care to, and rest assured, there are more on the way.  Jan. 19; Jan. 20 “Inauguration Day”; Normand Collette (family history) Jan 24.

Here’s a place to start:  Mariann Edgar Budde 

Mariann Edgar Budde is Bishop of the American Episcopal Church and Pastor of the National Cathedral.  January 22, she addressed some very specific comments to the newly inaugurated President, and Cathy’s comments below, including the link to Bishop Budde’s thoughts, set the stage eloquently for the work ahead.

Bishop Budde spoke from the pulpit from the heart.  She is an example for all of us.    Cathy’s suggestion is right on.

from Cathy H January 23, 2025:

Beloved community,
Perhaps you have heard or seen the incredible prophetic and brave sermon that Mariann Budde gave yesterday at the National Cathedral.  It is in its entirety here but if you have limited time I encourage you to watch at least the last 4 minutes.
Back when St. Stephen’s [Minneapolis] was involved with ISAIAH, Mariann was the pastor of St. John’s Episcopal in Linden Hills [Minneapolis] and was already a force for justice.
This is the bravest thing I’ve seen in our country in a long time. To be on a national stage, literally facing the President and to call him out.  I think she was actually calling him in to the message of the Gospel.  I encourage you to watch it as a sign of hope and bravery. May we all be so brave.
President Trump has denounced her and the message and is demanding an apology which she has stated she will not give.
Because of her words, she is receiving death threats.  I am going to write a note of support and encouragement to her and I encourage you to do the same. Perhaps indicate on the back of the envelope a sign of encouragement so that she/the church knows it is not hate mail.
The address is: Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, Episcopal Church House
Mount St. Alban
Washington, DC  20016

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A real note with a genuine stamp to the Bishop is most appropriate.  It took courage for the Bishop to make the very public statement that she did.  The least we can do is to acknowledge that courage.  It can be very brief.  It will be appreciated.
Jeff shared a very interesting data-based column from the Washington Post.  It is here.  If you can open it, you’ll find it very interesting.

We are a nation of immigrants.  In my own case, one grandfather and all four great grandparents came to the United States as immigrants.  Being an immigrant, regardless of legal status, is not an abstract issue is not a foreign concept to Americans.

UPCOMING: I will do mostly brief posts on assorted related topics in coming weeks, and would suggest simply checking this space from time to time if interested.

COMMENTS. (more at end)


from Carol: I love that Bishop.  She was pitch perfect – and Trump just had to sit there and take it.  I did not know she once pastored a church in the Cities.  Death threats against a gentle, older lady channeling Jesus’ message – what have we come to.

I also contacted her by e-mail at: mebudde@edow.org

from Brian: Thanks so much for posting–right on!

from Dick 1 p.m. Jan 26: As it happens, I went to Mass at Basilica of St. Mary this morning (Jan. 26), and following is the second reading for today.

Grandma Josephine (Collette) Bernards very well worn 1911 Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible

pdf of above: Corinthians I Ch 12 12-30

There could be no more appropriate reading for the current circumstance than the above.  Where I stand, of course, is what I published above, yesterday (Jan 25).  I had no idea what today’s church reading would be, and my guess is that this reading has long been scheduled, perhaps years in advance.  Fr. Joe was pitch perfect in his commentary.

The first two comments are at the end of the post.  I saw them when I got home from church.  I know both writers, and I respect them both.

I have often mused about our divided society.  To use the body analogy, can the left side of the body survive without the right, or vice versa.  We go a step further: can a society survive where the rules depend on whether the farthest right or the farthest left absolutely dominates.  What if a extremely strong head survives, but tries to function with only half of the body – that’s the present United States of America.  We shall see.  2017-21 was for practice; 2025 for an indeterminate time is the new reality.

We are facing a time period where the President seems to consider himself a king in many ways.  To carry the above body analogy a step further, Can a head function with only half a body; similarly, can a bird with only one functioning wing fly?  These are not abstract musings.

At the U.S. Congress, we’ve already had the first decision, a vote by the new Vice-President, to break a deadlock in the U.S. Senate.  In my own state, at this moment, the House of Representatives is stalemated in that it cannot reach a quorum, and this is because of a Supreme Court ruling.

We can figure out how to figure things out, including at the Presidential level, or the road ahead is not pleasant for anyone.

Norman Collette, and Jean Nicolet

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My cousin, Norman Collette of Winnipeg, passed away recently, and his funeral Mass is on January 24, 2025.  Here is more information.

Norman and I share a root family at Oakwood-Grafton ND; going back to Minnesota, and Quebec.  His grandfather, Arcidas Collette (aka Alcidas) and my Grandmother Josephine (Collette) Bernard were two of the children of Octave and Clotilde Blondeau of Oakwood.  Norman grew up in the area of Ste. Elisabeth and Morris MB.  He and I have met in person more than once, but distance and being in different countries made more collaboration impractical.

Norman and I shared an interest in family history, and while Norman has now passed on, I think it is an appropriate time to pass along a new revelation about his and my first French-Canadian root, Jean Nicolet, who arrived in what is now Quebec in 1618.  The story is in outline and text form here: Jean Nicolet.  The information was provided by another cousin, Remi Roy, whose great-grandfather, Philippe, was our Octave’s younger brother; and whose grandmother and grandfather, Lottie Collette and Joseph Roy, married in 1913 at Ste. Elisabeth MB, the same community where Norman grew up.  The basic genealogy information is in outline form, but I think makes sense.  Remi also includes some narrative about Nicolet and LeBlanc (our connection),

An additional article about Nicolet from the Door County WI Historical Society is here.

The setting for the story:

The Collette family history is available on-line here, click on library, click books and scroll down to Bernard-Collette and Roy-Collette for the histories.

An earlier post, directly related, about Francois Collet, is here.  This post was updated Jan. 24, to include some information not previously shared.

The Collette’s in St. Anthony (later Minneapolis) MN is here.

Norman and I were from the same generation – I’m about a year older.  I’ve observed for a number of years that when our generation is gone, so will be most of the memories of the old days.  If you are reading this, and haven’t got around to recording memories for the future, now is a good time to start.  Years from now somebody will want to know what was life like back then.

Week One

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Best advice I can muster at the end of this first week is to not give up.  Find a few reliable sources, read enough to be informed, especially on your most important issues, then, most important, take some action every day, slightly beyond your normal horizon, and share….

Two of my most reliable continuing sources are Professors Heather Cox Richardson and Joyce Vance.  Under their names are a link to a post-inauguration post of theirs which as usual is informative.  I subscribe to them, and will recommend some others as well.  Support your media.  Some others this first week: Jay Kuo and Big Picture, Garrison Keillor,  Substack is a good platform to become acquainted with….

In the mailbox Jan 23: Heather Cox Richardson and Joyce Vance.  I urge you to subscribe to these and others.

UPDATES

In the mailbox Jan 24: Heather Cox Richardson, Joyce Vance, Paul Krugman; The Big Picture; Joyce Vance

In the mailbox Jan 25: Heather Cox Richardson; Dismantling Healthcare

In the mailbox Jan 26: Heather Cox Richardson; Robert Reich

There will be additional posts the next few days.  Check back.

Inauguration Jan. 20, 2025

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The inauguration dominated January 20, Martin Luther King Day.  See a brief post on Jan. 19.

Jennifer Rubin says it as well about the inauguration as anyone, here.

Heather Cox Richardson January 20 column, here.

POSTNOTE: Heather Cox Richardson’s January 19 column,  is especially relevant to Martin Luther King Day.

 

January 19, 2025

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Tomorrow is the annual observance of Martin Luther King’s birthday.  His actual birthdate was January 15, 1929.  I’m always aware of how young he was when he was making a name for himself: in his 20s in Birmingham days; 34 at the “I have a dream” day in D.C. in 1963; 39 when he was assassinated in Memphis April 4, 1968.

Today is President Joseph Biden’s last day on the job.  A fellow blogger with much more of a reputation than myself, and a person I greatly respect, was unfairly critical of him (I felt) in their most recent commentary, and I did offer a comment as follows: “Sorry, I’m about three years older than Joe Biden, and I’ve watched this evolve over the years since your uncle walked down the escalator [2015].  Joe Biden did what needed to be done.  It wasn’t perfect – in the job he has there is never perfection – but I think of the alternative.  Keep, keeping on. Thank you for your witness.”

As is true with another hero of mine, Jimmy Carter, the light of history will be kind to the memory of Joe Biden’s service to this nation.

Other comments at this moment are superfluous.

Sat Jaan 18 2025 5 p.m. Washington DC photo from Carole A.  It was a chilly day in DC and there were few organized events at the mall.  Inauguration was two days later.  U.S. Capitol in background.

POSTNOTE: Heather Cox Richardson’s January 19 column, received overnight, is relevant to January 20.