“1,776 Billion”, Al Capone and Napoleon Bonaparte

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In this mornings mailbox were four columns from experts I trust.  I would recommend reading all of them, and subscribing to them.  We are at a critical time in our history as a country, and best to be well informed.  Subscribing is a thank you.

The four (click on name to access the link): Joyce Vance; Heather Cox Richardson; Robert Reich; Paul Krugman.

I like the four because they know their fields and are acknowledged as such.  I notice only one of them appear on Robert Reich’s list, including himself, and that’s okay.  If you read only one thing from the above four, read the last paragraph of Richardson’s post….

POSTNOTES: Later in today’s mail (May 20) came Robert Reich’s commencement speech to graduates at UC Berkeley.  Here is the speech.  It is powerful.

It appears, also, that it is time to dust off the recent post I did about Cuba, which seems to be the next target of our regime.  Here is the post.

Here is the Presidents niece, Mary T,  on the Presidential Slush Fund.

Early May 21:  important additions to the conversation: Heather Cox Richardson and Joyce Vance.

Tim Snyder, another of the thinkers I subscribe to has a very interesting video this morning (May 21).  It is about 13 minutes and you can watch it here.

Found in the junk at the North Dakota Farm and restored: Cover of 1920 pictorial history of WWI, Leslie-Judge New York 1920 edition.

No one, including the perpetrators, know when and how this misadventure we are living within is going to end, though it certainly will end.

I think it appropriate to study up a bit on characters of history like Al Capone and Napoléon Bonaparte.

Napoleon and Al Capone:

It is very easy to access more than you’d ever want to know about both men (or other similarly notorious men and sometimes women).  I provide only the tiniest bios here.

Napoleon (1769-1821) commissioned the Arc de Triomphe (1918 photo above) at the height of his power in 1804, about the time he had crowned himself emperor.  His reign lasted until 1814, with an abortive attempt to resume power in 1815.  He died at 51,

Al Capone (1899-1947) reached his zenith, seven years as a crime boss, during Prohibition.  He finally ended up in prison (1931-39).  He was 48 when he died.

Both men had their fans and their moment of fame.  It didn’t last for either.

At every age, humankind has been taken for fools by assorted egomaniacs who thought they had it all figured out how to outsmart the rest, and cheat accountability.  Similarly, at every age, these folks build a loyal following.

None of this succeeds in the long term, but succeeds longer than it should because good people like ourselves don’t get engaged for all of the reasons we all know.

Get on the court.

COMMENTS (more at end)

from Fred:  Thanks Dick, I read all the commentaries. Each had their own insightful view of the Dear Leader’s corruption. Same goes for your thoughts. All explore the many avenues, streets and boulevards full of rot. Will this be a bridge to far for kleptocracy, nepotism, and cronyism?

I doubt it. Many still bow the Golden Idol lodged at Mar-a-Largo, but that flock is noticeably thinning.


from Peter:  Sometimes it takes me a day or so to get to your wonderful offerings. And sometimes I think, “See you, and raise you.” The following was the highlight of my year, I think.

“…we as humans are divided; we are fragmented…”

Francesca Albanese interviewed by Miko Peled (son of an Israeli general, who has started a movement to liberate Palestine): here.

Q&A that follows includes at least one recently released from Israel’s “hospitality” on the high seas. (For those not aware, the latest Sumud Flotilla, dozens of boats carrying aid to Gaza was attacked a thousand miles from Israel in international waters, and hundreds of unarmed civilians, doctors, journalists, veterans, students, artists, etc., were kidnapped, beaten, transported to Israeli prisons and tortured, including sexual assault.)

Watching this brings great relief, and inspiration. She embodies the possibility of confronting the full truth of our predicament, and yet remaining present and grounded in peace.

Responsibility of Citizenship in a Democracy

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I have a simple ask, only for your own reflection, about yourself: In 2024 who did you vote for (including all offices, or not voting at all, and why); what have been your feelings since?  How are you going to engage in this conversation in the months preceding the Nov 3 election?

Below are three ‘snapshots’ of the 2024 election; (This is also in pdf President vote 20024 final).

Who voted in 2024?  Here is what the Census said.

Which candidate got how many votes, according to the Federal Elections Commission.

COMMENT: The opening question mentions the 2024 and 2026 elections.  2024 was the once every four years Presidential election; 2026 will be the interim two year election where every one of the 435 members of Congress will be elected to two year terms.

Of course, in each election there are numerous other positions up for election, and there are occasional elections at other times. The Presidential and Congress (House and Senate) are the two I wish to emphasize.

We each have our own feelings about the current state of democracy in the United States.  In mid-April, I wrote my own feeling about this at the beginning of my April 18, 2025, post:

“A year ago [April 18, 2025] we were about half way through the first 100 days of DJT’s second term.  Speaking only for myself, back then I was suspecting the worst, but in retrospect I was grossly underestimating the reality to come, and we’re only in the second year.”

Less than a month later I’m aware that I was underplaying the crisis we are in for our nation as a democratic republic.  We – the folks who can vote – are the only solution.

I’m only a single person, but I’ve known for a long time that I have immense power, if united with an immense number of fellow citizens, and only if I exercise my franchise.  (My dot for 2024 was Kamala Harris.)

You have as much power as I do: one vote.  So do the gaggle of super rich folks who tagged along to China recently.  Of course, temporarily, the Big Kahuna is relishing his status as the most powerful person in the world, but fame is evaporating, if the electorate makes that decision.  We’ll know in less than six months how the country feels for the next two years.

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After the 2024 election I periodically reported the vote counts in the presidential election.  Two of these tallies are above.  There were others which were essentially identical.  I felt, and still feel, that about 90,000,000 of my fellow citizens who could legally vote, didn’t vote at all in 2024.

For today’s post I checked the official tally from the Federal Elections Commission (3rd column above).  It speaks for itself.

In my initial “cut” I excluded the roughly 22% of the population under 18 years of age (about 75 million).  I estimated the number of qualified voters who didn’t vote at all.  This was roughly 176-186 million less the above 75 million. leaving 100-110 million.    Then arbitrary estimates for non-citizens, people disenfranchised (felons, for example), people who missed for reasons out of their control: accident, illness and the like.

90 million seemed (and seems) reasonable.  But I hedged it as “app” (approximate).  It is impossible to come up with an absolute number, even as an estimate, given the onslaught, now beginning, to make it as difficult as possible for certain people to vote.  Still, I can guess:  Many “immigrants” are under the age of 18, for instance.  Others in some cases will be challenged and may not be able to vote because of a suspicious name.  You know the drill.  Some won’t vote because they’re afraid to go, even if totally legal.  Games will be played with numbers, etc.  There is ‘truth’.  But don’t count on it being revealed by the people who know.

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At the minimum we can all encourage everyone qualified to at least register and vote well informed.  There is still plenty of time. An entrance portal for all states is here (Vote.Gov).  At least give it a look.

Democracy itself is under assault.  Look for challenges created by misuse of AI (Artificial Intelligence), finally tuned “alternative facts” which are not facts at all, but difficult to check, etc., etc.  You know the assault is happening in plain sight and in public.  Be skeptical about ‘facts’.  There is truth out there, but it takes more than a cursory look.

Our individual responsibility is to be better informed than ever before, and more in action than is typical.  Each of us is the person who counts the most.

I ask your involvement.

POSTNOTE:  In the process of simply thinking about this post, it comes to mind that with the increasing sophistication of communication technology the ease of deceiving a population is increasing at an alarming rate. Data can easily be manipulated by a skilled communicator (i.e. the carnival barker of the old days) and spread to a large population very easily and quickly.  A simple example: a real but heavily edited film clip of someone who appears to be evil and is made to represent an entire population by inference.  The most famous old political ad which illustrates this might be the Willy Horton ad used effectively in a 1988 presidential campaign – early in the era of mass communication.

In preparing this post, I stumbled across a graphic from the Congressional Budget Office from January, 2026. which to me had the same effect.  I noted especially the focus on immigration, which could make it appear that the country was being overrun by immigrants in the Biden years, less so in the days preceding and following, with no context whatever for the casual observer.  What the graphic shows is what the authorizer of the graphic wanted it to imply.  Reality was not necessarily the intention.

In this day and age the caution caveat emptor – let the buyer beware – is ever more appropriate.

COMMENTS (more below):

from Darleen: Your recent post on our responsibilities as citizens was very insightful and informative, Dick.  Thank you for your continued effort to keep us engaged.

from Kathy:

Not sure if you ever look at Heather’s podcast with her friend Joanne Freeman on  Saturdays called: What in the heck just happened? [The 41 minute program can be viewed here.]. But last Saturday addressed this same question about non-voters… why are folks not voting?
Thank you for continuing to post!

Mothers Day 2026

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Postcard early 1900s

Friday we attended the internment at Ft. Snelling cemetery of a man who recently died at the VA Hospital in Minneapolis.  It was a short service, few of us in attendance, officiated by VA personnel, the traditional honor guard, and rifle salute.  It was impressive and indeed moving.  We didn’t know the man, but we did know a little of the back story.  I couldn’t help but think of Alex Pretti, the VA Nurse killed in Minneapolis during the ICE surge, whose mission was to minister to patients at that VA Hospital; people with their own often difficult stories.

While awaiting our deceased veterans turn, I took this picture of part of this huge cemetery.

Ft. Snelling Cemetery, Minneapolis MN May 8, 2026

May 8, 2026 Ft. Snelling MN

There are thousands buried here, likely all military veterans.  Every single one of them had a mother and a father, and each would have their own unique story.  The parents of the veteran we honored had passed on years earlier.

The previous day, we’d been purchasing some Mother’s Day flowers at the nearby County Correctional Institution.  For a lot of years now, a work experience for inmates at this facility is to prepare plants for sale during the month of May.  Supporting the sale is a tradition for us and for many.

Sometimes an inmate assists customers, sometimes a volunteer, sometimes others doing a service project help out.  Moms are very visible volunteers.  As with those at the cemetery, every one has a mother and a father, including the inmates.  Everyone has a good idea of what the program is, and who is involved in it.  Here is the website for the volunteers.

Somehow these stories say it all for me this weekend.  To everyone who is a biological mother, and to everyone anywhere who ever has filled a mothers role in someones life, have a wonderful day.

May 8, 2026 Woodbury MN

POSTNOTE: Here’s Heather Cox Richardson’s notes on the history of Mother’s Day.

86

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PRENOTE: This post is strictly to encourage personal reflection.  I recommend also the commentaries of SAK and Jeff, which I’ve included together in a May 3 post here.   Both are long-time participants on this list, and their comments came on May 1 and 2.  I encourage other reflections to be included as posts particularly in the coming weeks.  How about yours?

1949 at Busch farm near Berlin North Dakota. Richard (Dick) oldest kid, 9, is at left on second horse, . Uncle Vince, then 24, is at far left.Four Bernard and two Pinkney cousins on the horses.  The other man is not known.

Today is my 86th birthday, not a particularly noteworthy event, except today is two months to the day from the 250th birthday of the republic of the United States of America “if you can keep it” (Benjamin Franklin, Sep 18, 1787).

The 250th birthday of my United States takes precedence over my birthday, today.

This came most clearly to mind for me on March 29, 2026, when I and nearly 20 family members attended the wedding of my Marine grandson.  Spencer and his bride Megan are in their mid-20s.

It occurred to me, then, that  I was two months from age 60 when Spencer was born in 2000.

Flowing from that was the realization that the future is for Spencer and Megan’s generation to positively build forward.  My own time is limited.  The future always falls to the young.

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My thumbnail review of US history follows, hoping to encourage your own thinking from your own individual perspective.

To facilitate my own thinking I decided on the below graphic  to help me along, and I share it with you.

Succinctly, I have lived almost exactly one-third of the history of the United States of America.

It made personal sense to divide the history of our country into thirds.  The smaller box labeled “NOW” is the most recent history.  For me, I’d say this is since 2000.  For you…?  I made a pdf of this sheet if you wish to print out: Reflection at 250 years

The approximate population of the U.S. at the breakpoints: 1776 – 2.4 million; 1859 – 31.4 million; 1942 – 135 million; 2026 – 349 million.  In 1942 the world population was about 2.2 billion; in 2026 – 8.3 billion.

I’ve written about my own past, including family history. Everyone’s history is unique.  Here are some very brief snips about the U.S.

U.S. PAST: In my opinion, the first third of our 250 years was the time of founding and expansion, with the blessings and curses, generosity and meanness that accompany every history of every person and nation.  The middle third was the time of internal chaos as we evolved and struggled through phases.  For example, every single one of my mentors in life experienced directly the Great Depression and World War II, which left indelible marks on them and subsequently their mark on me from the time I was born (1940).

The most recent third has been a confusing time in many ways.  There has essentially been constant War, from WWII, to the Cold War, to, now, Iran, on and on.  War sells.  At the same time, my third has seen the birth and survival of the United Nations and NATO, and other coalitions which have diminished the tendency to spend our time killing each other.  Right now, the struggle is which mindset will survive.

My most recent PRESENT, which I count as my retirement years since 2000, has been a time of almost constant tension and political and social division.

It is nature to challenge relationships between youth and elders.   Today, to an unprecedented degree,  we have more ways to communicate less.  It was not long ago that “drone” meant flying a model plane with remote radio control.  That was it.  “High tech” when I was 25 (1965) is laughably primitive today.  Todays could be laughably primitive 50 years from now….  Or we may no longer exist.  We desperately need to focus on the future of everyone, not just ourselves.

The technological revolution as I mark it began with Facebook (2004), YouTube (2005), Twitter (2006), iPhone (2007).  Most recently is the explosion of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The current name of the game is power and control, which ultimately always end up destroying rather than benefitting the vast majority of affected citizens, including those with the power.  We never seem to learn.

When we were young, we faced the same dilemmas as today, but not to the extent existing in todays world.  The FUTURE has to be up to the young people, and judging from personal experience and observation it will be a hard transition, but not because todays youth are different than my generation was – they aren’t.  Their lives are more complex.

The “good old days” when I grew up were really not so good if viewed from a younger persons perspective these days.  But old days did have their benefits – we grew up less likely to take things for granted.  This is for Grandpa and Grandma conversations.  We probably learned more from adversity than from prosperity.

Today, as has always been true, we don’t need unity of 100%, not even 10%.  Luckily for the future there are as many kids now as then who want to make a positive difference for the greatest number.  Now is their time.

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The below illustration shows the original 48 of the almost complete United States

Here’s the National Geographic presentation of the U.S. from 1750-1800, as presented in the 1988 Historical Atlas of the United States. U S History timeline (2) Nat Geo 1750 – 1800

Inside front cover of”A Diplomatic History of the American People” by Thomas A. Bailey copyright 1964. Does not include Alaska or Hawaii (statehood Jan 3 and Aug 29, 1959)

Personally:

I have always considered myself an optimist and, as I state in the right hand column with every post, I’m a moderate pragmatic Democrat.  At the same time, on April 18 at this space, in a column about Cuba, I began the column with these words:  “A year ago today we were about half way through the first 100 days of DJT’s second term.  Speaking only for myself, back then I was suspecting the worst, but in retrospect I was grossly underestimating the reality to come, and we’re only in the second year.”

I have said, every time the topic comes up, that we, the people, all of us collectively, own the results we are living with now.  We’re a Democratic Republic and we voted for what we’re enduring, which will likely get much worse as time goes on.  We sentenced ourselves to an outcome that will benefit nobody in the long run, including those who are now in power.

We collectively can remedy this, but we have to be, as Gandhi said, the change we wish to see in our country and our world.

If you’ve read this far, you are interested in positive change.

Below is the Presidential vote in the 2024 election.  Where is your “dot” in those numbers, including for all other elections that year as well, local, state and national.  Why did you make your mark as you did?  What will you do in coming months to change the status quo?  The ball is totally in each of our court.

COMMENTS (more at end)

from Brian:

Happy Birthday!  Interesting!  I grew up in Texas–yay!   We have had six flags over Texas, and there’s even a park now about it 🙂    Texas has been part of Mexico, France, the South, Spain,  Republic of Texas, and now the USA, yay!
Spain (1519–1685; 1690–1821), France (1685–1690), Mexico (1821–1836), the Republic of Texas (1836–1845), the United States (1845–1861; 1865–present), and the Confederate States (1861–1865).

 

SAK and Jeff on the Past and Present.

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SAK and Jeff are long-time friends of mine who have never met each other.  In fact, I have never personally met SAK, who lives in England.  Both recently filed opinions, and I asked and received permission to share their thoughts.  Their thoughts are well worth your time.


from SAK, May 1, 2026:

Congratulations on the 250th birthday! May the next 250 years be happier and even more prosperous for the United States, and if I may script a variation on a J. F. Kennedy formula, may the United States think not what the world can do for it but, as in times past, think what it can do for the world.

Looking back in order to help with the future, I thought two books by US authors would focus minds on a couple of issues that have not ceased to cause division & worse.

The first is The Virginian by Owen Wister. I came across it in the TV adaptation. That was many years ago & most probably in black & white. The whole book is available as part of the Gutenberg Project.

How could a young man resist when it tells of a “world where justice comes not so much from courts as the barrel of a gun.” Did the book start the “western” theme & craze, I don’t know? Even the western film genre progressed from black (“Indian”) & white (cowboys) to seriously dealing with issues of colonialism & racism, e.g. as in many of the films by John Ford – born to Irish parents which probably had something to do with his outlook.

A particular theme of The Virginian could be that the corrupting forces of the civilised east have diminished man, fulfilment will only come from heading west & embracing the freedom that the frontier provides. That is a bit the story of the hero as well as the eastern author who, after a nervous breakdown & being sent west by his doctor, was charmed by the land & the characters enjoying more freedom, and nobility, than the people he left back east.

In one episode, The Virginian, played by James Drury (in the TV  adaptation) is “forced” to take part in the hanging of a friend who was a cattle rustler, a grave crime at the time, which saddens him tremendously but which he says he would do again as it is the right thing to do. Compare that with the thousands of pardons to friends & supporters by you know who: another case of what the author of The Virginian points to as the corrupting influence of the civilised east, New York in this case, leading to diminished man 😉!?

Wister values the frontier spirit but at the same time laments that it is slipping away. The book & its many adaptations kept the myth nostalgically alive along with a dislike for what was replacing it. “The feel of it struck cold upon the free spirits of the cow-punchers, and they told each other that, what with women and children and wire fences, this country would not long be a country for men.” Think J D Vance & Pete Hegseth perhaps?

The author’s views on equality are readily available in The Virginian as well as in other writings of his. One chapter of The Virginian is titled Quality and Equality.

Wister: “There can be no doubt of this: All America is divided into two classes, the quality and the equality.

The latter will always recognize the former when mistaken for it. Both will be with us until our women bear nothing but kings.”

He writes:

‘It was through the Declaration of Independence that we Americans acknowledged the ETERNAL INEQUALITY of man. For by it we abolished a cut-and-dried aristocracy. We had seen little men artificially held up in high places, and great men artificially held down in low places, and our own justice-loving hearts abhorred this violence to human nature. Therefore, we decreed that every man should thenceforth have equal liberty to find his own level. By this very decree we acknowledged and gave freedom to true aristocracy, saying, “Let the best man win, whoever he is.” Let the best man win! That is America’s word. That is true democracy. And true democracy and true aristocracy are one and the same thing. If anybody cannot see this, so much the worse for his eyesight.”

According to Wister some men are born superior & democracy should allow them to rise & not enforce some sort of social equality. He thought the ways of the west – at the time – were what made America great & these ways were being betrayed. Sadly, as is often the case, this yearning for a mythological past comes accompanied with a distaste for the present along with all its diversity which Wister, along with many, consider as impurity. Thus from an essay he wrote in 1895, The Evolution of the Cow-Puncher, one can read: “No rood of modern ground is more debased and mongrel with its hordes of encroaching alien vermin, that turn our cities to Babels and our citizenship to a hybrid farce, who degrade our commonwealth from a nation into something half pawn-shop, half broker’s office. But to survive in the clean cattle country requires spirit of adventure, courage, and self-sufficiency; you will not find many Poles or Huns or Russian Jews in that district; it stands as yet untainted by the benevolence of Baron Hirsch.”’ Lament amplified by irony.

Few are spared the slurs & similarly nowadays insults of whole groups are dispensed willy-nilly by people in high, or the highest, places. Wister thus continues:

“Even in the cattle country the respectable Swedes settle chiefly to farming, and are seldom horsemen. The community of which the aristocrat appropriately made one speaks English. The Frenchman to-day is seen at his best inside a house; he can paint and he can play comedy, but he seldom climbs a new mountain. The Italian has forgotten Columbus, and sells fruit. Among the Spaniards and the Portuguese no Cortez or Magellan is found to-day. Except in Prussia, the Teuton is too often a tame, slippered animal, with his pedantic mind swaddled in a dressing-gown. But the Anglo-Saxon is still forever homesick for out-of-doors.”

The second book is Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind.

The book & film capture America’s myth of its own innocence, capture the origin of white grievance, basically that whites are the victims of black equality and victims of racial justice.

Sarah Churchwell’s book, The Wrath to Come: Gone with the Wind and the Lies America Tells, tells of how parts of America refuse to accept that it has done anything wrong. Many of the ideas below, the better ones,  are Churchwell’s.

Gone with the Wind is a big impressive lie but it doesn’t follow that it should be banned: it is literature dealing with complex issues & human dilemmas. I also wonder if any books should be banned at all?

What happens when 2 ideologies come into conflict & one wins over the other? What does the defeated ideology then do? Does it go away or does it go somewhere unnoticed & continues to develop and/or fester. I notice in the Middle East for example the Sunnis vanquished the Shi’ites way back in the 7th Century A.D. The effects of that battle are still with us!

Someone has pointed out the difference between mourning & melancholia. Mourning is linear, with time it ebbs & gives way. Melancholia persists. He pointed to something that afflicts empires etc like the British Empire & referred to it as “post-colonial melancholia”. Empires have to overcome it in order to become a normal state focused on the present & the welfare of its present citizens. The Austro-Hungarian empire seems to have done that admirably & Austria is now a happy place that knows its limitations. The British empire is less successful.  The Russian & Ottoman empires are still suffering from acute nostalgia. The US is facing a slightly different melancholia: post-slavery & perhaps even post-hegemony melancholia.

The author, Margaret Mitchell, grew up with stories of the civil war. She said that she had “heard everything in the world except that the confederates had lost the war. When I was 10 years old it was a violent shock to learn that General Lee had been defeated.” Talking of The Virginian, President Trump renamed Fort Gregg-Adams in Virginia back to its Fort Lee name. I wish he were at least honest about things but no, this is his justification: “We won a lot of battles out of those forts. It’s no time to change. And I’m superstitious. I like to keep it going, right? I’m very superstitious. We want to keep it going.” No mention of dog whistles, it just so happens that the at least seven military bases, one of which is possibly the largest in the world,  were renamed after Confederate officers.

All this propagates the myth of the “lost cause” which was developed to conquer the shame of the Confederacy losing the civil war. A bit like the “stolen election” which the President continuously hammers, facts or no facts.

Mitchell saw herself as a friend of black people & the plantation owners as doomed chivalrous romantics – not as slave owners. The black slaves in the book are not full-fledged characters but are there supporting the main heroes of the novel like Scarlet whose lives are disturbed by the civil war.

According to Sarah Churchwell, “racism is the operating system of the story, it is what it’s about. The narrator never refers to black people as people, not a single time over the course of a thousand pages. They are either called a racial category so she will use either racialised words or she will compare them to animals. So they are literally described as different kinds of dogs or many different kinds of apes, monkeys, gorillas, hounds but literally never as a human being. I went into every single depiction in the book. So it is a textbook instance of dehumanisation. They are systematically dehumanised. The sympathetic black people who are depicted positively are the ones who choose slavery. They like being enslaved. They choose to stay with their enslavers after the war. They resent the Yankees for coming & trying to liberate them and the bad black people in the story, the unsympathetic black people are the ones who assert their own freedom and who assert equality.”

Still it is a compelling novel although it is a misrepresentation. The film played in London’s Leicester Square for 4 years including during the WWII Blitz. Churchwell writes that one of the first acts of Hitler on entering Paris was to ask to see Gone with the Wind. The issue of slavery & how it was handled reflects badly on many countries aside from the US of course. Britain was complicit in the trade & it compensated slave owners for the loss of their “property”.

For a good while during our lifetimes the pendulum swung in the direction of justice and tolerance away from insistence on social purity & the superiority of certain groups. Now it seems to be swinging in the wrong direction. Let us see what the near future brings . . .

Happy birthday!

General Pershing at the Arch of Victory (Arc de Triomphe) Paris, at the end of WWI.  Cover of book found in farm junk in North Dakota.

 

From Jeff May 2, 2026:  

Its possible that I am reacting to the finishing of reading the book on the demise of the Weimar Republic just today, where there were so many possible off ramps that could have been taken by many groups and individuals to upend the rise and takeover of Hitler and the Nazis…ugh.
The book I read was “Fateful Hours: the collapse of the Weimar Republic” by Volker Ullrich.   Ullrich  is a German historian, this is a translation of his latest work into English.  Ullrich’s thesis is that from 1919-1933 nearly every step of the way things could have been done to stop Hitler and the Nazis. He points to critical moments where parties failed , individuals failed to do what was necessary. Parties and factions within failed to come together to unite and fell into disunity.

Sure, a historian has the benefit of hindsight, but he quotes journalists and others at the time who understood the gravity of several missed opportunities. 

Germany’s unique history leading up to WW1 and its aftermath greatly played into the shifting situation.  There remained a strong anti-republican group based in different regions, the  Bolshevik revolution in Russia gained strength for the Communists and labor unions were already strong, the Center was declining, much of the Lutheran and especially Catholic establishment tended toward the right wing, if not the authoritarian wing, the Social Democrats, as I said, while comprising a plurality missed the urgency of certain moments and like most liberals held faith in the “law” and the “Constitution” and the better angels!
Meanwhile Britain and especially France demanded outrageous reparations and requirements on Germany. The economy jerked around with hyperinflation then a liquidity drain after 1929 and finally huge unemployment and a government from 1930 to 1932 that was sure that austerity and cutting budgets and raising taxes was the cure (John Maynard Keynes and FDR proved them wrong of course)
Interestingly though, the book enlightened me on the German public,  they were not disengaged! Voting rates were from 75 to nearly 90 pct in national and regional elections (no tv, mobile phones or social media to distract them?)  By summer 1932 when the Nazis reached their peak in the elections, the Center Right government was not solving the economic pain, the Center Left was fractured and the Communists were not a solution as they were under the control of the Comintern and Joseph Stalin by then. 

The Nazis were able to become the party of “change”, upending the status quo, and offered a dynamic leader and understood the power of propaganda and new technologies to disseminate much more than the traditional parties.   (sound familiar?)
There was one quote that stood out to me in the book, a Social Democrat member of parliament and wounded WW1 vet named Kurt Schumacher said in 1928: “If we know anything about National Socialism, it’s that for the first time in German politics human stupidity has been successfully and completely mobilized.”
Take out the words National Socialsm and put in MAGA and its pretty much where we are today

Another parallel in the book, is that in one election where 84% turnout happened, news articles suggest there were alot of first time voters, and uninformed voters,  Ullrich uses this inference to suggest the increase in votes for the Nazis in that election…again, sound familiar?

I am far from being calm, or maybe I have finally reached that state, day after day of screaming and banging fists against a wall finally you end up with no voice and bruised and broken hands. Calmness due to inability.
I have been reading alot. Also I recommend watching light stuff on tv to relieve the mind (though since my good wife was gone in Wisc for 2 days and she cannot tolerate any serious movies {enough terrible seriousness in the news and daily life} I watched “The Secret Agent”  the Brazilian movie that won the best foreign film..its a trip and unique)  I recommend the Netflix series “Running Point” with Kate Hudson, its about a comically dysfunctional family of sibs who own what is supposed to be the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA (fictionalized of course)….2 seasons, quick dialogue, topical, yet mostly traditional.  show writer is Mindy Kaling

Law Day 2026

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Today is Law Day in the United States.

For a lot of years after I retired, I was active in an organization who was very active advocate for the rule of law.  Before that, though not a lawyer, most of my work time was spent dealing in one way or another with legal matters such as contracts, etc.

A few years ago, while going through the papers of my friend Lynn Elling, I discovered a 52 page booklet produced for Law Day from 1959, produced by the American Bar Association.  The four links are the entirety of that first booklet, now 67 years old, but more current now than ever.  (The note on the cover was by a prominent twin cities lawyer who was president of the local group.)

If nothing else, read the first two or three pages of the first link.  The booklet is the post.  Certainly share with friends you know who are in the profession of Law.

Law Day Am Bar Assoc 1959

Law Day (2) Am Bar Assoc 1959

Law Day (3) Am Bar Assoc 1959

Law Day (4) Am Bar Assoc 1959

 

Reflecting at 250 Years

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In about two months our country has its 250th birthday.  What is your role in the future or our nation and our world?

I’ve been reflecting on how I, as an individual, fit into the 250 years of the United States of America.  I am, as we all are, individual members of this union.  Everyone has their own story.  Monday I shared a single page thought starter with a small conversation group I’m part of.  And here I share it with you: Reflection at 250 years.  It speaks for itself.   Interpret as you wish.  I’ll share my personal thoughts on May 4.  I’ll welcome yours, if/as you wish, any time.

*

Sunday, April 26, I shared first thoughts in the wake of the White House Correspondents Dinner at the Capitol Hilton in Washington.  The next two days, ending this evening (Wednesday) have been highly publicized and puzzling.

I watched King Charles III speak at the Congress, and I was very impressed with how he approached the topic generally,  YouTube has numerous recordings of the speech, and I recommend that you watch and listen.

Post Saturday night at the Capitol Hilton the President seemed to use the near tragedy as a selling opportunity for his dream of a regal ballroom next to the White House, where the East Wing used to be, and intensified his campaign of retribution..

Here is another old postcard from the ND farm, from 1904, showing the White House from where the future east wing would be constructed the following year (1905), in Teddy Roosevelts term.  I think the proposed new ballroom is an outrageous decision to waste money we don’t have on this kind of frill, but who am I?

White House Postcard 1904

POSTNOTE April 30, 2026: Heather Cox Richardson on the speeches of King Charles III and DJT, here.

*

Finally, I want to share a couple of individual comments generally relating to Iran.  They are opinions written at a certain point in time.  I appreciate their thoughts.  First, from Jim Klein April 9, 2026: the second, on April 20, from Jim Christie.  I’ve known both Jim’s for a lot of years.

I’d invite more such expressions of opinion, especially in the next two months as the 250th birthday approaches.

Chaos

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POSTNOTE April 27: A week ago today I learned of the death of a colleague staff member at Education Minnesota, Angel Morales.  Here is the obit.  I really hardly knew Angel – he came on staff a year or two before I retired (2000) and his assignment was to the Rochester local, outside the Twin Cities.  But I did know him.  I would really encourage your reading the obit, especially his request at the end.  I didn’t ‘connect the dots until this morning, when local police officers descended on my walking area for some area training.  They were all wearing black.  The obit and the training brought into focus another reality.  Your choice to read or not.  I hope you do.

5:34 a.m. Sunday April 26, 2026

I wasn’t especially interested, but we were going to watch the White House Correspondents Dinner last night starting at 7 p.m. CDT.

Apparently it had very limited play on TV.  I know it was being carried live on CNN and MS Now.

I watched for about the first hour, then went to bed.  Life is too short to spend the night with speculation about who, what, when, where, why, how the drama unfolded, though the issue in the broadest sense is certainly important.

Stay tuned.

8:06 a.m. April 26: I printed out and read at coffee this overnight post from Heather Cox Richardson, received in my inbox at 12:09 a.m.  It speaks for itself.  This story is just beginning.

4:50 p.m. April 26: Here are two brief comments from folks I consider to be very reliable and well informed sources of information, far above my pay grade:  Joyce Vance, this morning, and Robert Reich, this afternoon.  I expect this story will have legs.  Stay tuned.

8:00 p.m., April 26: 24 hours ago we were watching the beginning of the Correspondents Dinner program.  Joyce Vance filed her update at 6:30 p.m.  At 6 p.m.  CBS 60 Minutes opened with Norah O’Donnell interviewing the President.  The segment is worth watching.  The following segment, an interview with former Nebraska U.S. Senator Ben Sass is also worthwhile.  He is a young – 54 years – man with terminal cancer; a conservative with a message to everyone regardless of party.

2:14 a.m., April 27, 2026: Heather Cox Richardson April 26.

I basically note that President 47 has a single default position: the opposition is enemy, to take no prisoners.  Bad news is always their fault,  This might seem to work in cutthroat business, but it is destructive to a society where people of differing points of view need to live together.  It is destructive for him to blame people like myself – Democrats, liberals, progressives – for all his problems, when he is the one who acts as a dictator, incites division, and complains when his opponents fight back.  His is not a recipe for a healthy community – country, state, town.  But he is not inclined to learn.  There is much more to say, but let this suffice.

*

I invited a few folks from outside the U.S. to comment if they wished.

from Remi in Canada (see also comment at end of post):

Comparison of Firearm Deaths (Recent Annual Data)

The following table summarizes the most recent available annual statistics for total gun-related deaths and specific homicide counts for 2024.

Country Year Total Gun Deaths Gun Homicides Death Rate (per 100k)
United States 2024 44,447 15,364 12.8
Canada 2024 ~800 286 0.69
United Kingdom 2024 ~130–160 ~30 0.25

 

from Chris in France:

Basically, nobody is impressed by the security that Trump was looking so proud about. How could this happen without a break in security process???
Same with the guy found in the bushes around his property in Mar a Lago a few years ago.
Is he organizing those things to make him looking so strong that nobody can destroy him???
Still, the French think that Trump is enhancing agressivity and violence.
Images provided by him went on TV.
We are tired of seeing him everyday of every month with some more speech or declaration or comment… contradicting the one of the day before….
Well, that’s what I can tell so far.


from SAK in British Isles:

As all leaders & politicians have said: happy nobody was injured or killed.

In the UK there are questions being asked as to whether King Charles III should be around President Trump – safety concerns regarding the coming visit.

Trump accused Europe of being “weak” and in “decay” because countries are too focused on being “politically correct”.

Trump: “If you look at Sweden, Sweden was known as the safest country in Europe, one of the safest countries in the world,” Trump said. “Now it’s known as a very unsafe, well, quite unsafe country. It’s hard to believe that’s true; it’s a completely different country.”

According to recent statistics, Sweden has 1.15 murders annually per 100,000 citizens which is less than the safest state in the US (New Hampshire: 1.9).

District of Columbia, where the White House & the Washington Hilton are, has 33.1 murders per 100,000 annually.

Yesterday at the Washington Hilton, District of Columbia, happily nobody was injured . . .

House speaker Mike Johnson said on X that he and his wife were at the gala and were “thankful no innocent people were harmed and everyone is now safe”.

“We’re grateful as always for the law enforcement and first responders who acted so quickly to bring the situation under control. Praying for our country tonight,” Johnson said.

There will come a time when gun laws will change in the US. A question of when.

Same applies to the current US administration: will President Trump last the term & will Republicans lose control  . . . a question of when.

 

Jim Christie: Thoughts on Iran

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On April 8,  I sent the following to a group of people I thought might have a particular interest in the Iran situation:

“I’m sending this to only a few of you.

I’d appreciate your taking a look at, and perhaps commenting on, https://thoughtstowardsabetterworld.org/war-on-iran/, especially the postnotes for April 6 and 8 at the beginning and end.  
I am no more an expert on Iran or anywhere than any other Americans, but I think there is a lot at stake at how this issue is approached in coming months.
Of course, feel free to share.

April 20, Jim Christie in Winnipeg ‘took the bait’.  Here, with his permission, is his response. 

“You are free to use whatever these few comments are worth wherever you wish, quoting me directly.

First, thanks again for circulating these thoughtful remarks. Making connections with past horrors like 9/11 is instructive for anyone of good will.
Second, the critiques of Christianity and the bellicosity of the Tenakh [the holy books of Judaism, one of which is the Torah] are warranted. Of course the Qu’ran has enormous violence imbedded in its pages, too. The sad reality is that all religious traditions are tainted in this respect. However, surely the pervasive problem is the determination by far too many in every generation to weaponize religion. And one can hardly gainsay the vast positive impact of religion in the lives of so many individuals and cultures. Religion has a place in the public square, but not in the political process.
Third, 9/11 and the current debacle; No two conflicts, despite congruencies, are ever identical. As Twain, I believe, said, “History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”
The horror of 9/11 and the cowboy posse response of Mr. Bush does not compare with the ongoing campaign of the Islamic Republic of Iran to destroy Israel, murder Jews everywhere, and undermine even the best elements of the West, including the ongoing attempt at preserving the integrity and security of persons under law. Leave us not only be cautious of implicitly lauding the October 7 perpetrators, but also of a regime that routinely and profligately murders its own people, from the Baha’i to the January protestors.
As to Israel and Hamas and other Iranian proxies, the Israeli’s exist year over year amidst perpetual existential threats. Those threats are not only external. The extreme Haredim and the unholy Netanyahu cabal are also deadly to Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu is an abomination. But then, forgive me, so is your current President, tragically so during the 250th. Anniversary of your already great Republic.
It’s a mess, Dick. And like so many of our aging generation, beyond raising my voice where possible and welcome, I have reached the stage of life where I mainly observe.
Still, I find it impossible to give way to despair. For me, Easter is.
I find I reflect a great deal on Tennyson. “‘Tis not too late to build a better world.” But our tools are worn, our energy low.
Blessings on your continued thought and voice,
Jim

 James Taylor Christie

Professor Emeritus
University of Winnipeg
Co-Editor/Author, Moral Pressure for Responsible Globalization, Vol. 2
DeGruyter-Brill, 2025

Four Presidents

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Kathy alerted me to a 18 minute piece on NBC April 21.  It features brief comments made very recently and personally by Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joseph Biden.  It is well worth your time.   Link is here.  “Cost of admission” is a 25 second ad.

Here is a chronological list and brief bio of all of the U.S. Presidents.  The list is compiled by the White House Historical Association.

The U.S. presidents and the U.S. Capitol, 1905. All Presidents shown up to and including Theodore Roosevelt (front row far right). Found in the basement of the North Dakota farmhouse of my grandparents, who came to North Dakota in 1905.

The above photo in pdf: Presidents through TR

How do you see our past and present, and your personal role in the future of our country and the planet on which we live?

POSTNOTES:

Wednesday April 22 is Earth Day.  Many local events were held beginning on Saturday April 18, but this site provides information for followup.  Earth Day is every day, and we, not they, are the crucial link.

Other recent posts (click the date for each on calendar at right):  April 11, Jim Klein; April 14, Space Shot; April 17, Tax Day.

It is about two months to the 250th birthday of the U.S.  I would solicit personal perspectives on past, present and future from anyone as standalone opinions.  Your choice.

COMMENTS also below:

from Jeff:  The fact that a majority of people elected the current occupant 2 times is a sad comment on the state of the USA. He is a depraved narcissist.  as you have often said, it is more the folks who don’t vote who are much to blame

from Brian: Oh Dick, this was so great, it made my night so much happier.   Thanks!

from Joann: Thanks for sharing! I hope their optimism is warranted.

from Jay: Thanks, Dick. Just watched it—very good!