I have been watching Ken Burns The Civil War. Without question , the Civil War is the event that puts American History into focus. The Civil War is the touchstone that puts slavery and profound writings on the rights of humankind into focus.

To be continued

In the twisted worlds of our narcissistic minds , we welcome the opportunity to be both victim and oppressor. African- American politicians wield political power while simultaneously asserting that they are victims of the White Power Structure.

If it sounds crazy, it is. A cross doesn’t make a Christian, nor a swastika a Nazi. Illusions comprise our world. We can borrow money to buy an automobile, and fancy our selves wealthy or successful. It never occurs to us that a millionaire just might intentionally ride the bus.

There was a very powerful investor in the late nineteenth century who accumulated a vast fortune, But never spent any of her money. She could afford a “cottage” at Newport, but never built one. She carried a pail of oatmeal for lunch, which she heated on the office stove. She had an umbilical hernia that she bound tightly rather than repair it via surgery. Her name was Hettie Howland Robinson Green. When her heirs died intestate, her fortune was distributed to numerous charities.

We think we control our little part of the world, but we don’t. The people who erect the monuments and the people who remove them are both merely players in the same game.

Mass- produced books are a rather new phenomenon. I don’t have an exact date, The Gutenberg Bible is not quite six hundred years old. And that wasn’t about mass distribution.

Mass- produced books require a broadly literate market of readers who will buy them. The genre’s suitable for mass production are romance novels, science fiction, pornography,. Those are the first that come to mind. Include mysteries, and Westerns,

Y T Bloggers have mastered the jejeune political rant. It doesn’t take a lot of skill. Somewhere between swatting flies or shooting down a hydrogen filled balloon.

This brings us to our old reliable nemesis: Donald Trump. He’s picked a timeles target, the Persians, now called Iranians, to quibble with. Grudge matches on a grand scale involve billions of dollars. There are probably Iranian farmers who can’t get crops planted. That means Iranian theocrats will have to use oil money to buy grain from Canada, Russia, Argentina, and maybe Ukraine . They will probably farm out their nuclear weapons research to the North Koreans. They have The Bomb and need oil.

It’s been 46 years since the Iranian Hostage Crisis, when the Shah of Iran was ousted by the Shi’a mullahs and Ayatollah in power now. Remember that the Shah was a CIA client stooge. (I can’t think of a better word).

The takeaway from this muddle is that the Iranians are no more closer to getting rid of the current theocracy than they were under Reagan, George H W Bush, Clinton, George W Bush, Obama, Trump 45, or Biden.

We will have to spend money replacing the ordnance we’ve expended

The merry go round will make several more turns.

Maybe peace would be cheaper for all concerned.

I started cleaning. I had porn on, but soon tired. Then I started Ken Burns’ The Civil War. I’ve seen the series many times before, but I never tire of it. Like Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation , there is much to learn for he and Clark are both master teachers.

That’s enough for now.

Criterion Collection has a marvelous collection of the films of Jacques Tati.

He was (is) a genius. Watch these instead of the drivel you have to pay to watch in the prisons they call movie theaters today.

Trust me on this.