The Last Time Oligarchs Tried to Take Over America It Led to Civil War
The headline in this week’s Fortune reads:“Billionaire investor Ray Dalio warns U.S. is ‘on the brink’ and estimates a more than 1 in 3 chance of civil war”Billionaires and civil war? A...
View ArticleThe Memorial Day history forgot: The martyrs of the race course
It has become a Daily Kos tradition for me to republish this Memorial Day story I wrote in 2016. Some of the links and text has been updated. I have ancestors, Black and white, who fought for the Union...
View ArticleThreat and Consequences
How much of a sense of a threat is needed to justify a preemptive strike? The sense of peril doesn't have to be based on any actual impending danger for it to inspire violent action. Imagined danger...
View ArticleMy Answer to a Guy that advocates for a Civil War.
So I am scrolling through Facebook reels, and I come across this guy named Justin Waller. Never heard of him. He said that if there was a Civil War all the red necks, construction guys, nationalists...
View ArticleLike the Confederacy, Republicans lose vote to restore racist monument
The House voted Thursday to reject an amendment to restore a racist Confederate monument in Arlington National Cemetery. The statue depicted a Black “mammy” holding a Confederate soldier’s baby and a...
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Camping In the MadLands
NOTE: This a work of fiction meant to entertain. Often I write satire or try to add a touch of irony. Often these attempts are misunderstood. Reality is all too unbelievable these days, too many...
View ArticleDespot-Proofing Our Armed Forces
Like most Americans, I’ve been forced by circumstances to think a lot about a man I’d rather never bring to mind: Donald Trump. I’ve thought hard about his possible ascension to our top leadership...
View ArticleKitchen Table Kibitzing 7/3/24: A Turning Point?
Today in 1863 was the third day of a decisive battle of the Civil War.The Battle of Gettysburg (locally /ˈɡɛtɪsbɜːrɡ/ⓘ)[14] was a three-day battle in the American Civil War fought between Union and...
View ArticleDred Scott and Today, a Poem about the Supreme Court
As history tells us, corruption of justice delivered in rulings by the Supreme Court has occurred in the past...Dred Scott and Today1857... It was a time when the Supreme Court was corrupted...
View ArticleA Lesson from History on the Delegitimization of SCOTUS -- Nonacquiescence...
Back in the 1840's Chief Justice Roger Taney was generally regarded as a worthy successor to his famous predecessor in that role, John Marshall. Though a Jacksonian Democrat from a wealthy...
View ArticleDavid Kurtz at Talking Points Memo: We Are In A Cold Civil War
The Morning Memo at Talking Points Memo for July 3 by David Kurtz discusses several issues. Between the debate fallout and the Imperial Presidency the Roberts Supreme Court has created, we are living...
View ArticleCan We Now Do Something Meaningful About Gun Violence?
Regarding yesterday’s assassination attempt, I pray that this was a last failed attempt on any American citizen and not the first shot in a second civil war.With that now said, for those claiming that...
View ArticleAnother Trump ally threatens 'civil war' if GOP loses election
On Monday, Ohio state Sen. George Lang introduced Donald Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, at a rally by saying, “I believe wholeheartedly Donald Trump and Butler County's J.D. Vance are the last...
View ArticleUlysses S. Grant's Advice to 2024 Democrats
What was Trump doing yesterday with his blatantly racist drivel about Kamala Harris’s ethnic heritage? We were doing so well, with momentum on our side, and then Trump captured the news cycle. Is this...
View ArticleElon Musk Claims Nuclear Energy Is Safe Because Hiroshima & Nagasaki...
The much hyped interview of Donald Trump on X by Elon Musk started very late, supposedly due to a cyber attack by folks who wanted to sabotage the event. There may have been other reasons for the...
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Republican Attorneys General Seek Civil War
The headline of this article makes an extraordinary claim, and it demands extraordinary evidence. I think we have that, but it’s still a bit obscure. So first things first, listen to Marc Elias from...
View ArticleTrump is visiting a succession of 'Sundown Towns'
The amazing Jeff Tiedrich’s substack ‘Everyone is entitled to my Opinion’ is pretty much essential reading for anyone on the progressive side of the fence. So I’m guessing you’ve seen his latest...
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We are nowhere near the civil-war number, even if we get there /s
“When the subject appears somewhere as meaning, he's manifested elsewhere as fading, as disappearance”"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."This was an...
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Trump wants to restore the name of the Confederacy's worst and most hated...
Former President Donald Trump thinks he’s discovered the secret to winning the swing state of North Carolina by a big margin. He is pledging to restore the Confederate title of a military base that was...
View ArticleThe Weirdest Presidential Election in America’s History
Democratic countries across the globe have rules and standards that govern their elections. In these countries, elections are the hub around which democracy revolves. In nations without democracy,...
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Always There Are Two
Always There Are Two also appeared on my Substack … three months ago. I have not been on DK at all, things got busy for me around that time and have only now settled down. I’m letting this through...
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Okay, fine, let's break up the country then
Trump won. Things in this country are very likely to become bad, and they’re very likely to become worse than that for the most vulnerable and marginalized communities among us. It’s possible that they...
View ArticleI have a question and wonder how this new junk administration plays out.
I am not advocating, far from it but with the cabinet and president pick, how does a democratic America react. Medicaid and Food stamp cuts, getting rid of institutions, and military deployed on...
View ArticleCivil War Anyone?
From time to time on FoxNews, videos of 65+ men wearing "1776" shirts appear. Marjorie Taylor Greene keeps floating the idea of dividing the United States between Republicans and Dems. While I’m no...
View ArticleWhat Became Of That Impending Civil War?
It is likely that the January 6th Trump insurrection is when talk of political violence became widespread in the news biz. How much of this talk have we heard during the last four years? We were all...
View ArticleCivil War. Civil War! Civil War... Civil War?
I have been hearing nothing but talk about the “impending civil war” that is “definitely coming” and is “going to hit us at any second now.”What I have not heard is any consensus on what that Civil War...
View ArticleAssad's Syria on the Brink of Collapse?
Events in Syria appear to be accelerating at an astonishing rate. Just Wednesday, the Islamist HTS faction in de facto control of Syria’s NW province of Idlib (under Turkish “protection”) launched...
View ArticleSyria Civil War Updates -- Hama Falls to HTS, Assad Forces in Full Retreat!
UPDATE: Friday, Dec 6, 2024 · 1:02:47 AM +00:00·IrontortoiseInteresting profile of HTS leader al-Jolani in the Telegraph today:On Thursday, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), the jihadist group leading the...
View ArticleMore Syria Updates -- the End is Approaching for the Assad Regime
For those following the rapidly unfolding events in the latest chapter of the Syrian Civil War, the above map from wikipedia is by far the best I've seen so far. The big news today is that the...
View ArticleThe Fall of Damascus and the End of the Assad Regime
UPDATE: Sunday, Dec 8, 2024 · 10:14:39 PM +00:00·IrontortoiseRussia confirms Assad and his family are now in Moscow.It’s now official — Assad’s own Prime Minister basically handed over what was left...
View ArticleOur Civil War is Not Done
Democrats have long been criticized for ignoring the working class. However, the disconnect is less political and more cultural, economic, and racial. While Democratic policies clearly favor 98% to 99%...
View Article"Republicans refuse to accept the voters’ choice."
The quote that comprises the diary title is from tonight’s Letter from an American by Heather Cox Richardson. She is talking specifically about North Carolina, where voters handed Democrats the state...
View ArticleThere is no doubt in my mind...Trump wants a war with Americans not loyal....
He is pushing the envelope and I truly believe that war is coming. Dragging people out of homes and ending sanctuary cities, putting tariffs on people to pay when it is hard to feed your family...
View ArticleA Letter to Hakeem Jeffries
The other day I had the chance to ask my congressman to have his office hand deliver a letter to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. I thought I’d share the text here.The Honorable Hakeem...
View ArticleHow to Fight Back
1789: “Let them eat cake!”— Marie Antionette2025: “Let them seek help from Elon!”— the GOPThe president’s speech last night was hardly presidential. If there was a practical, sensible suggestion or...
View ArticleI fear for US/Canada/Greenland/Denmark
I’m a dual US/Canadian born in another country altogether. This story by ex-CIA/military Malcolm Nance has me worried. It looks like Trump is bent and bound to expand the empire by seizing Greenland...
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Why conservatives are obsessed with erasing history—except the Confederacy
The Trump administration has spent the last month on a tear, using President Donald Trump’s newfound power in multiple departments and agencies for a goal that seems bewildering at first glance:...
View ArticleKitchen Table Kibitzing 4/2/25: Someday We Have To End This
160 years ago today the Civil War ended. The shooting part, anyway.At dawn on April 9, 1865, the Confederate Second Corps under Major General John B. Gordon attacked Sheridan's cavalry and quickly...
View Article160 Years Ago Today: Lee Surrenders at Appomattox
A brief note of remembrance for a significant day in United States history — and its relevance to us today.On April 9, 1865, one hundred and sixty years ago, a quiet and otherwise obscure village in...
View Article160 Years Ago Today: Abraham Lincoln Assassinated
A little after 10 p.m. on April 14, 1865, at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC, John Wilkes Booth crept into the box occupied by US President Abraham Lincoln, First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln, and two...
View ArticleGulag for Hire
“No person . . . shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law . . . .” US Constitution, Amendment...
View ArticleGoodbye to an American Deathcamp and Charming Wedding Venue
Yesterday, Nottoway Plantation in Louisiana burned to the ground. It was the main house and command center of an American death camp that, at its height, held up to 176 human beings in the bonds of...
View ArticleThe Memorial Day history forgot: The martyrs of the race course
It has become a Daily Kos tradition for me to republish this Memorial Day story I wrote in 2016. Some of the links and text has been updated. I have ancestors, Black and white, who fought for the Union...
View ArticleScott Pelley's anti-MAGA commencement speech drives Trump fans to new levels...
In 1861, the American Republic tottered. It was a house divided. It took four years of civil war, the death of thousands of soldiers, and the suffering of their families to save the noble experiment....
View ArticleCivil War Hymns: Remembering Our History to See the Contradictions of Today
George Orwell said, “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” Given that, remembering the songs and examining the meanings within...
View ArticleTrump's Roadkill Parade: Are We Game?
Call it a mixed bag. On one hand, Saturday marks Flag Day and the 250th anniversary of the founding of our Army. On the other hand, it marks the 79th birthday of the confounder-in-chief whose bout...
View ArticleBreaking - Trump is escalating: ICE deploying to 5 Blue cities…
Nothing in The NY Times yet, but reports are starting to show up.From The Daily MailDonald Trump is set to deploy ICE tactical units to five Democrat-run cities amid the riots in Los Angelesas Gavin...
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Video: Juneteenth Music
Oh FreedomPost-Emancipation Spiritual. This song was written at or soon after the date of the first Juneteenth.Oh freedom, oh freedom Oh freedom over me! And before I’d be a slave I’ll be buried in my...
View ArticleA president declares war on half the country
Temporarily upstaged by war in the middle east, this week’s Senate Armed Services hearings suggested war might be brewing closer to home. Trump seeks an unprecedented $1 trillion defense budget that...
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WYFP: More & Better History
I love history. Is it too much to ask for a President who knows our own? Estimates vary but, Wikipedia has the number of the people who died during the civil war as 698,000.Abraham Lincoln won the...
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