Tag Archives: trump

covid-19 is not under control in the u.s.

Posted on by

The above was in my New York Times morning email briefing.

Also this:

A Resurgence of the Virus, and Lockdowns, Threatens Economic Recovery
Hopes for a rebound are endangered by prolonged closures of schools, renewed state restrictions on business and fears of a difficult autumn and winter.

By Jim Tankersley and Ben Casselman New York Times July 15, 2020

This is no joke. I know people who are losing their jobs. I know people who have lost their jobs. I know people struggling under major salary cuts. This is not a joke.

Explain to me again how Trump is making America great again? And don’t tell me he didn’t cause the pandemic because after a fashion didn’t he? Didn’t he open the door to catastrophe when he cut funding to the CDS and other programs starting in 2018? He cut the very team that looked and kept an eye on things didn’t he? A global health security team?

This is not some “liberal conspiracy” folks, this is death in real time, in real life. Compounded with riots and protesting because of the racism that is so insidious in this country, and based upon what comes out of that man’s mouth on a daily basis, how much worse is everything going to get before it gets better?

And look at all the time that was wasted on impeachment proceedings? Nothing was ever going to happen because there were never the votes to make anything happen. The votes we need come from us in November. And if we allow four more years of they are not Republicans, they are Trumpublicans, will our country actually really and truly hit the skids? Instead of dancing on the precipice? If this is a precipice and not a slow slide?

My personal opinion is we can’t wait to find out. With Coronavirus alone, we need change. As in different people. That is the power of the vote, people.

Please don’t shoot the messenger here. For years and years and years I was a moderate Republican. And happily so. I of course split my ticket because I resent being told how I am supposed to vote to be considered “good”. I still split my ticket.

But this fall, America needs to vote for herself and we as Americans need to vote as if our very lives depend upon it. Because our lives depend upon it. We can’t take four more years of living a very bad reality TV show.

True story. A niece of mine went to visit her boyfriend’s parents at their summer home. She and boyfriend were invited to a party of a friend of his. My niece and her boyfriend decided they were not comfortable going to a party with people they potentially would not know because of COVID-19. They were also unsure how many people would be there, would everyone social distance and wear a mask. A couple of weeks later, every person who went to the party they did not go to tested positive for Coronavirus.

Yes every person. That is how easy it is.

It’s like when you run across a person on social media whom you know to have had Coronavirus. And there they are taking selfies out in the world. You don’t want to be paranoid but when family members say they are still sick, what are they doing out?

I will be honest. I have had to go out to keep medical appointments. But nothing much more than that. I am just not comfortable. It’s very weird being out. And we are supposed to be wearing masks and social distancing and people just aren’t. And some of the grocery stores have even removed some of the Plexiglas barricades between cashiers and customers. I wouldn’t know personally because I have not been in a grocery store since the first week of March. But that is what I have been told.

I am afraid we are going to face new stay at home orders because people are kind of throwing caution to the wind. Being in a green status might mean “open” but it doesn’t mean we are out of danger.

Please pay attention. Our lives depend upon it.

thoughts and a message of hope…from england

Posted on by

I have been watching less and less of the news. It’s a repeating loop of Coronavirus on steroids. Often we are not learning anything new, it is just a constant repeating of the horror the world is going through. But I think the biggest problem I have with this whole global pandemic and how it affects us here in the U.S. is what comes out of the White House.

That man we call President is not Presidential. I was even reminded of that last night when I watched a PBS special on the Roosevelts.

A couple of weeks ago I called my mother and she shooed me off the phone almost immediately. “The President is speaking . I can’t talk now.” But honestly, what is he saying? He spent weeks not really taking this whole #COVID-19 thing seriously. Then all of a sudden he says it’s a pandemic and he thought so all along. Then he works something in about campaigns and his administration. Then everything will be open by Easter, then everyone wear masks but he won’t. Then he talks about how many people are going to die from this virus. Then he talks over the medical experts at his press conferences annoyed that people are asking the actual medical professionals questions. “Didn’t I just answer that question?” (paraphrased) he angrily shot at a reporter who had recently directed a question to Dr. Anthony Fauci at a press conference.

We need a national leader about now. Trump isn’t leading. He’s an angry man child embodiment of chronic contradictions and a stunning lack of compassion and that brings no comfort. It makes me anxious. At first I was trying to watch the news conferences from Washington to look for information and leadership in a time of crisis. Coronavirus-time IS like war-time and we need a leader who gets it, who gets us as Americans. Not a quasi-dictatorial narcissistic man child who still blows up Twitter daily with his petty bulltwaddle and spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors. Dude all of your Tweeting is bad for America.

And then there are people with their Marie Antoinette attitudes of let them eat cake. Like the guy in North Jersey who defied stay at home and social distancing orders and threw a giant Coronavirus booze fest party. He’s apparently now being charged for doing so. Good. And don’t forget the kids in the Pittsburgh area who had to have a giant blowout and where are their parents?

But it is because of all of this swirling crap that I have taken to tuning out the news and staying put and working in the garden more. Whether we want to or not, the fates have decided we are slowing down.

But there is one leader who may God bless and keep her who is truly leading. Queen Elizabeth II of England. She gave her subjects comfort and hope in a time of crisis. She also gave the rest of the world comfort and hope. No angry tweeting about fake news and newspapers that have done her wrong. Talking to the people and offering support and comfort.

BBC News: Coronavirus: The Queen’s message seen by 24 million

About 24 million TV viewers watched the Queen’s broadcast to the nation on Sunday, according to overnight figures.

In a rare speech, the monarch thanked people for following government rules to stay at home and praised those “coming together to help others”.

The message was seen by 23.97 million viewers, making it the second most-watched broadcast this year….It was only the fifth time the Queen has given such a speech in her 68-year reign.

Her most recent Christmas Day message drew a combined overnight audience of 7.85 million.

In her speech on Sunday, the Queen said the UK “will succeed” in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

She thanked people for following government rules to stay inside and paid tribute to key workers for their efforts.

Speaking from Windsor Castle, the Queen said the pandemic was a “different” challenge compared to what the nation had faced before.

The message ended with the words “we will meet again” – an apparent reference to Dame Vera Lynn’s bolstering war anthem We’ll Meet Again.

The Queen’s four other special addresses were given in 1991, 1997, 2002 and 2012.

It was truly a beautiful thing to listen to her speak in this time. Say what you want about her and sometimes people criticize Queen Elizabeth but she knows how to lead in times of crisis. And it was just so good to hear a message that was realistic yet not full of gloom and doom. It was also good to hear a message that wasn’t all about them. 

We will get through this. And it will take its toll. I hope we all get through unscathed but really it’s beyond our control at this point. We can only do our part and stay home. And if you have extra supplies to donate to first responders contact your local firehouse or hospital.

This weird time is giving us time to meaningfully connect with each other if we can stop and see the good in that. I also know it’s frustrating and scary. It makes you nervous. Trust me, I have felt all of those things. Especially because of the bombardment of so much news and the contradictory behavior coming out of Washington D.C.

One day at a time I think is the only way to handle the hot mess of Coronavirus. Yes much like a 12 step program, one day at a time. I will close with a quote from Teddy Roosevelt:

Rhetoric is a poor substitute for action, and we have trusted only to rhetoric. If we are really to be a great nation, we must not merely talk; we must act big.

#StayHome

life in a modern pandemic

Posted on by

We have been here in pandemic land before. Spanish Flu 1918. I remember being told as a child how it killed a lot of my maternal grandfather’s family.

It’s oddly prophetic that this past fall an exhibit at the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia opened about the last Philadelphia area pandemic called “Spit Spreads Death: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918-19 in Philadelphia”

We are all being introduced to coronavirus. Our pandemic for modern times. A reminder that while we have come so far in many aspects in society, we as humans are still vulnerable to disease and pestilence. Hunker down, it’s a global pandemic. Literally.

Now we know why things like the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Philadelphia is cancelled. In Philadelphia pretty much all big events are being cancelled. All colleges and universities seem to be going to virtual/online learning modes and emptying schools. Some school districts are closing schools. This is also why annual traditions to us in Chester County like the Chester County Antiques Show which was to open tomorrow with a special preview party.

I received notice of other things being cancelled that I was attending. My friend Andy King had a show scheduled at The Living Room in Ardmore. He’s been postponed until June, and the venue is closed until May 1st . A pop-up dinner by Peachtree Catering we were going to at the end of this month is also postponed indefinitely.

Last night it was announced flights from Europe weren’t coming to the U.S. for 30 days – a 30 day ban starting Friday I think it is. Ban thus far doesn’t extend to the U.K. as of now. Unless passengers were U.S. Citizens or U.S. Permanent Residents. Residents returning to the U.S. will be expected to self-quarantine upon return for about two weeks. It’s all very confusing, even to CNN.

Our financial markets are having big time issues. The U.S. markets have always been driven in part on emotion, and it’s 2020 but starting to feel like 2008. And people can weather that, what we don’t want is 1918.

I was doing a little gardening event and that is being postponed too. I can’t help it. I am still a cancer patient, which means I am in that lovely class of the immunocompromised. We are all supposed to practice social distancing – AKA minimizing close contact with people.

People, for the time being, it’s time to practice our nesting instincts and just stay home and enjoy each other’s company. Even Broadway, yes as in New York City, is going dark for a couple of weeks:

People are bitching left and right because things like NCAA March Madness is CANCELLED to live audiences. The tournament will go on, but the teams will be playing for the ghosts in the stadiums only. The NBA has suspended it’s season altogether. The NHL has suspended it’s season and MLB is delaying opening day.

This is actually no joke, yet on social media I see otherwise intelligent people saying that coronavirus is a “liberal conspiracy”. Seriously.

I am not in the mode of panic, but honestly? I am concerned. It’s taking people down in Europe and elsewhere and there seems to be no solution. It seems like pandemics before it, it must run it’s course?

Of course what also bothers me is we are still ill prepared for these disasters. Today Governor Tom Wolf basically started the wheels turning for PA shutdown. Montgomery County in particular on lockdown.

But what really gets me other than the mass confusion is how will this affect small businesses and hourly workers? Our economy is not as dandy as everyone would like to play make believe about. A friend of mine with a small business recently posted the following:

Governor Tom Wolf…now that you have taken our kids out of school, how are you going to help all the parents who work full time and have to work full time but have kids in school?
How are you going to help small businesses who have moms or dads as employees and now they can’t come to work?
What are you doing for the 1,000,000 small businesses in PA that are losing work but still have to pay mortgages, bills, employees?

What’s your game plan? You wanted to be our leader and I respect your position…I just need answers on what your are proactively doing for us.

For a lot of us if we don’t work, we don’t get paid. Those in the millionaire category will grumble about their various inconveniences… and survive.

And what about the testing? How do we do it, how do we get them? That seems to be about as clear as mud. HOW do you get a test? Who decides if you should get one? What kind of games will insurance companies play with this? (See Inquirer’s Coronavirus testing in Pa.: state lab is not following CDC guidelines to get more people tested by Marie McCullough, Updated: March 12, 2020- 1:26 PM)

Another thing that bothers me is the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Cardiologist who is last media report in really bad shape in the hospital with Coronavirus. I really hope he recovers as he has a family and friends and colleagues who love and care about him. BUT….what the HELL was he thinking? He knew about Coronavirus and he saw patients? Children under the care of a cardiologist? So he’s sick, someone else in his house is sick, and so many schools and school districts had to close because of virus fears and why? Because he saw patients when he came back. He’s a DOCTOR. Shouldn’t he have known better?

Sorry not sorry, it really bothers me.

And oh this:

I am so at sixes and sevens about this. I don’t know what to think. As far as society progresses, we can’t escape the natural correction caused by disease is what keeps floating through my brain. I know, I am being repetitive.

Cancel Everything
Social distancing is the only way to stop the coronavirus. We must start immediately.

MARCH 10, 2020
Yascha Mounk
Contributing writer at The Atlantic

Well it’s a good thing I like being home I suppose. But then there is the other thing: you can’t even get food/pantry basics in some places because people are just wiping out stores. Some hoarding and I am sure the people who will re-sell at astronomical levels will surface more and more (Just look at trying to get supplies on Amazon.)

My mother just called me. She lives in Philadelphia. My stepfather had just gone to Trader Joe’s for some basics. Their shelves are literally bare, and not just for toilet paper.

One of my friends has a husband who is very immunocompromised – she’s been buying cases of rubbing alcohol.

What is the right answer? Everything in the US is a study in confusion. To me it feels like a somewhat rudderless ship. (See CNN)

The Philadelphia Inquirer is providing pretty good coverage. So is the New York Times. The CDC has a whole section about coronavirus. But there is so much contradicting and confusing information out there, isn’t there?

Vox has this interesting chart and notes the following:

The Spanish flu of 1918-’19, the most horrific pandemic in modern times, focused mainly on the young. It had biological similarities to a flu pandemic in the 1830s that gave some older people in the 1910s limited immunity.

Most common symptoms in China, up to February 22, 2020

So PhillyVoice had this amazing article in 2018 about the Spanish Flu in Philadelphia:

SEPTEMBER 27, 2018

(Part 1) 100 years ago, ‘Spanish flu’ shut down Philadelphia – and wiped out thousands
Some 12,000 people died after the city held infamous Liberty Loan parade
BY JOHN KOPP AND BOB MCGOVERN

(Part 2) SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

In 1918, Philadelphia was in ‘the grippe’ of misery and suffering
The dark days of influenza epidemic: bodies piled up with no way to bury them
BY BOB MCGOVERN AND JOHN KOPP

We need to learn from the past. But it would help if information wasn’t conflicting or seemed to omit things wouldn’t it?

Government does not want full scale panic.

Hell, no one does. It won’t kill us to practice “social distancing” but we need to live our lives.

And I don’t think individual people should be able to clean stores out of cleaning supplies and more, do you?

I guess there is a reason we didn’t have any snow days with schools this year other than global warming, right? Because snow days are becoming coronavirus days but what of the parents of all these kids being told to stay home? Are we all supposed to stay home?

I was told this afternoon all of the schools and colleges/universities in Ireland had closed down.

So our ultimate takeaway? Hunker down I guess.

But I still do not know how I feel about this. Other than don’t hug, don’t spit, and PLEASE wash your hands.

Image result for spanish flu 1918 philadelphia
From PhillyVoice via U.S. NAVAL HISTORY AND HERITAGE COMMAND/VIA LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

on the eve of 9/11

Posted on by

In two days it’s another anniversary of 9/11. It has been 18 years.

Above is a screenshot of a New York Times newsletter email I opened this morning.

I. Can’t. Even.

On the eve of 9/11, no less.

February, 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Let me tell you a true story…

I came out of the trade center during the first trade center bombing. February 26, 1993. I was working on Wall Street for a municipal bond trading firm and I had gone with a friend from work into the shopping concourse of the old trade center because this woman – her name was Deirdre – had wanted to visit the Hallmark Gold Crown store – her grandmother or someone collected their Christmas ornaments and they were on a clearance sale.

So we went there and we grabbed lunch, and as we were standing right outside the trade center staring at Century 21 Department Store and wondering if we had enough time to go in there as well, the ground started to shake. Like you would imagine an earthquake. And then we thought it was snowing because all the stuff was floating down in the sky. We of course later realized that was like soot and ashes and stuff and then one by one it was the strange cacophony of car alarms in the garage going off like weird church bells. Then the sirens of first responders started.

But at first, right after it happened, time stood still. The explosion underground which caused the sidewalks to move underneath our feet, followed by a hold your breath moment of complete silence. Then came the chaos.

We got back to our office which was at 44 Wall Street and people were all freaked out. It was at that point we learned what had actually happened and came to the realization of how lucky we were to get out.

Over the course of the next couple of hours we had “refugees” that we knew from the twin towers who had to go down hundreds of flights of steps in some cases and came to our offices to wash the soot off their faces and just chill.

I remember this girl name Katie who was a trading assistant along with me whose fiancé worked for Dean Witter at the time. He was one of those people that had to walk down lots and lots of stairs and showed up in our office looking like he was completely done in black face but it was soot. And he was shaking, just standing perfectly still in our reception area, shaking. I will never forget it.

So when 9/11 rolled around and the first report came over my car radio, tears started streaming down my face as I sat in my office parking garage. They came back was the only thing that went through my head. Then my cell phone rang and it was my late father who at the time was on a train to New York City to head into his office. He was reaching Metro Park and I told him to get off and turn around and come home and he didn’t listen to me because the Amtrak conductors told him it would be fine.

My late brother in law was working in NYC by this point and thankfully he was able to meet up with my father and they holed up in someone’s apartment for a couple of days until they were able to get out of the city. But it was scary when they were all cut off from us with no phone communication whatsoever. Because it was absolute insanity in New York when the towers came down.

I remember when I went up to my office in between the first plane and the second plane and people were crowded around TVs and some broker’s office and I remember again I said “they came back.”

People looked at me and said you don’t know what you’re talking about it’s just a small plane that crashed into the side of the trade center. A horrible accident. Then the second plane hit. Then you had the news out of the other two planes.

I think all of our lives in some small way changed on 9/11. For years I kept running into people that knew people who died. People I knew from college died in the twin towers. They weren’t people I knew very well but a small school on a small campus they were people you recognized.

And our current President was going to meet with the Taliban at Camp David on the eve of 9/11 except it got cancelled?

WTF. Seriously, WTF????

How Trump’s Plan to Secretly Meet With the Taliban Came Together, and Fell Apart

New York Times

By Peter Baker, Mujib Mashal and Michael Crowley. Published Sept. 8, 2019
Updated Sept. 9, 2019, 8:35 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON — On the Friday before Labor Day, President Trump gathered top advisers in the Situation Room to consider what could be among the profound decisions of his presidency — a peace plan with the Taliban after 18 years of grinding, bloody war in Afghanistan.

The meeting brought to a head a bristling conflict dividing his foreign policy team for months, pitting Secretary of State Mike Pompeo against John R. Bolton, the national security adviser, in a battle for the competing instincts of a president who relishes tough talk but promised to wind down America’s endless wars…..In the days that followed, Mr. Trump came up with an even more remarkable idea — he would not only bring the Taliban to Washington, but to Camp David, the crown jewel of the American presidency. The leaders of a rugged militant organization deemed terrorists by the United States would be hosted in the mountain getaway used for presidents, prime ministers and kings just three days before the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that led to the Afghan war.

Thus began an extraordinary few days of ad hoc diplomatic wrangling that upended the talks in a weekend Twitter storm. On display were all of the characteristic traits of the Trump presidency — the yearning ambition for the grand prize, the endless quest to achieve what no other president has achieved, the willingness to defy convention, the volatile mood swings and the tribal infighting….And even after it fell apart, Mr. Trump took it upon himself to disclose the secret machinations in a string of Saturday night Twitter messages that surprised not only many national security officials across the government but even some of the few who were part of the deliberations.

No words. I just don’t get politics except for the overwhelming feeling on the eve of 9/11 that national politics just must be for dangerously selfish and narcissistic people.

Timing is everything and had this meeting happened it would have created more opportunistic divisiveness in this country.

Enough already. Some dates on the US calendar need to be respected. Stop already the national politics of self aggrandizing narcissistic behavior.

The timing of this just disgusts me.

9/11

american on american terrorism is NOT o.k.!

Posted on by

Today the news broke that someone in this country that someone is mailing pipe bombs to people like the Clintons, Obama, George Soros, and others.

That is truly a WTF moment.

These actions are not what the USA is about. These are not the actions of loyal Americans, but acts of domestic terrorism.

These actions are horrible. I don’t care what your politics are or what political party you belong to, no one should be mailing anyone pipe bombs.

I posted the New York Times article they published a couple of hours ago on my blog’s Facebook page with the sole comment of WTF. Sorry not sorry, it’s how I felt.

After I posted the article, the comments started. The one person who liked the article as in liked it because it was a good thing someone was mailing pipe bomb things to high ranking Democrats, took me to task because apparently I hadn’t posted articles when some Republicans were mailed envelopes with suspicious content.

Excuse the hell out of me, I didn’t know it was a domestic terrorism contest between political parties. I also had been blissfully unaware of that news report.

I used to be a total news junkie. I don’t watch the news very much anymore. Ever since this administration came to Washington our country has devolved into an angry hateful nation.

That is not my America. To me that is not being an American.

Truthfully, I am kind of sick of both political parties at this point.

The Democrats in Chester County evicted two teenage girls from the “Sunrise Movement” an event recently because they didn’t want them asking Governor Wolf environmental or pipeline questions at an event. They bought event tickets fair and square. So wrong. Of course one of the young ladies was already essentially ridiculed this summer by Wolf’s golf spike shoe wearing opponent Scott Wagner.

The younger voters might not have all the life experience of an older person, but they are the ones who will be inheriting the hot mess this country is becoming. Don’t discourage involvement. People are growing apathetic enough, myself included if I am honest.

The anger and rage coursing through this great nation is utterly terrifying. It has to stop.

We need to get back to civility within our political system.

In my humble opinion that also means we need to start systematically electing different kinds of politicians. We need to have representatives in elected office who actually represent us, not special interest groups, big donors, political party bigwigs.

Since the founding of this great nation people have fought and died for our freedoms. People need to remember what it is to be an American, and part of that is the ability to embrace differences in others. We are all not supposed to be identical. We are a nation founded by immigrants, and those people risked their lives to come here to escape political persecution, religious persecution, etc.

We need to stop the anger.

We need to stop the violence.

We need to just hit the pause button even in our own individual lives to be appreciative for the gifts we have been given by God.

Do something nice for a change. Turn off the political vitriol.

what is history?

Posted on by

Photo off of Twitter August 22, 2017

What is history?  By straight definition it is the study of past events, particularly in human affairs.

In the early 1960s, an English Historian named Edward Hallett Carr wrote a book titled What is History.  It was a study of historiography (study of historical writing/the writing of history). The book discusses history, facts, the bias of historians, science, morality, individuals and society, and moral judgments in history.  I find that so timely considering the craziness of revisionist history overtaking the US today.

Allow me to quote Cambridge University on his book (Cambridge University Press printed it originally in 1961):

…Historiography consists partly of the study of historians and partly of the study of historical method, the study of the study of history. Many eminent historians have turned their hand to it, reflecting on the nature of the work they undertake and its relationship both to the reader and to the past….. he chose as his theme the question ‘What is History?’ and sought to undermine the idea, then very much current, that historians enjoy a sort of objectivity and authority over the history they study. At one point he pictured the past as a long procession of people and events, twisting and turning so that different ages might look at each other with greater or lesser clarity. He warned, however, against the idea that the historian was in any sort of commanding position, like a general taking the salute; instead the historian is in the procession with everyone else, commenting on events as they appear from there, with no detachment from them nor, of course, any idea of what events might lie in the future.

Carr also discussed the influence that a society will play on forming the approach of the historian and the interpretation of historical facts. He wrote about how historians as individual people are also influenced by the society that surrounds them.  He also wrote about the cause and effect of history, and that history is human progression.  It’s fascinating, really. It makes you understand how and why certain historical events seem so different from generation to generation.

So let’s look at our history in the USA.  We are a country born of immigrants, yet today we seem to have such issues with them.  Truthfully, nothing new as every era in the U.S. has historically had issues with various ethnicities  coming to the U.S. in search of their American dream, correct?

We as Americans have ugly wars in our past.  It’s all part of our history. How we got here today, has it’s roots in our past.  It’s how we learn and grow as a society.

Today we are a nation seething with anger and self-righteousness. People love one politician, and hate another.  People love each other, and also hate each other.  It is kind of part and parcel of the human condition, is it not?

We learn from history what we do not wish to repeat, correct? So why is it people do not get if we do not acknowledge and learn from our history we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes?

Our history is not pretty.  No history is 100% pretty.  Even fairy tales are not 100% pretty, so why is it people think they can change the history by removing statues?  I get why people want to remove some statues – like Robert E. Lee.  Even when some versions of history try to be gentle, there isn’t exactly much that is truly redemptive about him. But his personal history was interesting, and he seems to have been a  contradiction of himself at times. (And no I am not a fan of his, that is merely an observation after doing a bit of reading on him when writing this post.)

At the center of the Robert E Lee and tearing down of statues debate is slavery.  Trump asked if we were going to start removing George Washington things as well,  and as a column in the Chicago Tribune asks, where do we as Americans draw the line?

Here is a snippet from the article by Eric Zorn:

It can be an interesting and difficult debate — think of Christopher Columbus, Henry Ford, Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson and other historical figures whose great accomplishments are tainted by words or deeds that horrify those with modern sensibilities….It’s an easy distinction. Washington, Jefferson and other flawed founders built this country. Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and other rebels tried to tear it apart. Unlike Washington and Jefferson, they have no significant compensating virtues or accomplishments to counterbalance their treachery and justify the numerous honors and tributes bestowed on them as symbols of Southern “heritage.”…

This doesn’t mean, as one piously aggrieved reader wrote, that we must purge our personal libraries of accounts of the Civil War. It doesn’t mean we have to sanitize our museums, pave over our battlegrounds or write the Confederacy out of history textbooks. It doesn’t even mean that good ol’ boys and girls can’t put rebel-flag stickers on their cars or build shrines to losing generals on their property.

It means we all have to stop pretending. It means we have to acknowledge Robert E. Lee isn’t an anodyne mascot for sweet tea, stock car races and Faulkner novels, particularly for African Americans, whose continued bondage he fought for.

 

Ahh yes, but here in the Philadelphia area, we have to have what the media calls in situations at times “the Philadelphia connection.”

Enter Frank Rizzo.

Yes that Frank Rizzo, former Mayor of Philadelphia, dead since 1991.

As seen in The Elephant Bar blog, I think this was originally an AP Photo

So as I was researching, I stumbled accross this blog – I found it interesting (and timely), so let me share:

Saturday, December 09, 2006
One Tough Philly Cop, Frank L. Rizzo.

Rizzo was born in 1920 in the Italian-American neighborhood of South Philadelphia. In 1943, like his father before him, he joined the Philadelphia police force and rose to became Commissioner in 1966. Rizzo didn’t care much for the sixties. To him it was all about law and order and he had zero tolerance for those who acted otherwise….Other American cities burned, not Philadelphia. …The man was asymmetric in force and style. Look left at this photo. Check the nightstick from his sharkskin tux. This is Rizzo in 1969, Commissioner Rizzo. While attending a banquet he was informed on an impending riot. Still dressed in his tuxedo, he took charge. No delegating for Rizzo.

Rizzo went on to be mayor. He switched parties from a Democrat to a Republican was elected mayor in 1971 and 1975. No cultural ambiguity or political correctness from Frank…Rizzo lived a modest life and was never charged with anything.

Frank Rizzo died 16 July 1991. He is gone and so is a lot else of that era. America has always had flaws and so has her leaders. The cynical cadre on the left side will always make a cause of tearing down America and the tough patriotic men who created and slowly improved her…The Left has seized the agenda and will set the agenda once again. They know what they are about and their leaders stay true to their cause. The never deviate form staying the course. Conservatives have not done well because of misplaced loyalty to those that call themselves conservative and are not. Given that, which side do you think will win?

 

We are still having the conversation today between left and right, but that is not what we’re talking about today.  We are discussing “what is history?”

Frank Rizzo was an Italian from South Philadelphia.  He may have been many things, but a White Supremacist and slave owner wasn’t among them.  That is inconvenient history to some, but it is the truth, isn’t it?

Helen Gym, on Philadelphia City Council seems to be one of the main proponents of Project Topple Frank, and who is she? I frankly, don’t follow Philadelphia city politics particularly closely and had never heard of her before this.

She is apparently the first Asian American woman to hold this position.  She is Korean and was born in Seattle, raised in Ohio.  Went to Penn as per what I see online, and after college worked as a teacher and as a reporter in Ohio.  She is married and has kids and is a community activist.  In 2009 she was active in a Federal Civil Rights case involving the horrible bullying of Asian students in South Philadelphia. (Click here for her subsequent testimony to the US Commission on Civil Rights.)

Here is her website – check it out HelenGym.com. She has done amazing things, but you know I just do not agree with her whole Rizzo thing.

People conveniently forget how the Italians and Irish were discriminated against in Philadelphia.

Rizzo was a big symbol to a lot of Philadelphians. Positive and negative. But that is kind of like the parallel to what is history isn’t it? The good and the bad? The pretty and the ugly? Are we going to sanitize every piece of history in this country? Can we? Should we?

Taking down Frank Rizzo’s statue is not going to do anything except create more of a divide than exists already in Philadelphia.  He’s not Robert E. Lee.  He wasn’t perfect, but he is part of our regional history – we can’t whitewash all of our history.  The heated rhetoric on both sides does not help.

This country is exploding in ugliness. It makes me sad.  I am not so naïve to think “why can’t we all get along” because it is at it’s core completely contrary to human nature.

I remember years ago, a local politician refusing to go to a historic site for a special occasion.  They wouldn’t go because one of the owners (Quakers) owned slaves. It doesn’t matter that one of the more famous owners of the property freed said slaves and if memory serves, paid them wages.

And ironically, if you are a student of history, you will note that Quakers way back when before times changed, were slave owners .

FACT: even Benjamin Franklin owned a slave. Read more about Franklin and slavery here.  Does this mean we should no longer have statues of Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia as well?

(The Society of Friends did not make slave owning a disownable offence until 1776.)

But what we do need to do is to stop the hate, stop the violence.  A country founded by immigrants is now so at war with itself.  It’s like if we do not change course, we soon will be embroiled in a version of another civil war, or is it happening already?

No matter what our race, creed, or color we need to take back our cities and towns and crossroads from ugliness and violence.  We have the knowledge and power to do it peacefully.  But I just do not see taking down the statues of dead Philadelphia mayors as being helpful to that end.

History is a cruel mistress and we can’t undo certain aspects of it.  We can only use what it teaches us to try to move forward more positively. We should not try to deny what happened or do a revisionist history on our history.  We do need to stop pretending, acknowledge history’s dirty and horrible bits, along with the rest of it and move on.

We have to stop trying to tear each other down as well as catering to the agendas of politicians – not trying to be mean, but politicians without some sort of agenda are few and far between, aren’t they?  We need to be the Americans our forefathers fought and died for, a nation of immigrants yearning for a better life and a desire to be free from tyranny.  The thing about tyranny is it comes in many forms.

Some will like this post, and others will not.  This is something I have been thinking about and I hope I have articulated in a way that provokes thoughtful conversation, not a litany of angry, threatening comments.

Please, be a part of the solution to stop the madness infecting this country, not feed it’s eternal fever.  Use our history to make us better in the future.

I wonder, what will the history books say 25 years from now, 50 years from now, and 100 years from now about what is going on across this country right now? How will they recount the history we are presently living?

For further commentary on Rizzo-Statue-Gate:

Was Frank Rizzo racist, or a product of his time?
by David Gambacorta, Chris Brennan & Valerie Russ – Staff Writers

That Rizzo statue is history! (No, seriously…put it in a museum)
Updated: AUGUST 17, 2017 — 12:07 PM EDT by Will Bunch, STAFF COLUMNIST

Kenney says Art Commission will make the call on Rizzo statue
Updated: AUGUST 22, 2017 — 2:20 PM EDT
by Chris Brennan, STAFF WRITER

Frank Rizzo mural defaced in South Philly                                                           Updated: AUGUST 19, 2017 — 1:31 PM EDT
by William Bender, Staff Writer

the united states of hate

Posted on by

I can’t stand it.  Every day, something more wicked this way comes.  People using vehicles as weapons and mowing people down in Charlottlesville and killing them, is the latest.

Earlier this year we had lovely things like shooting a United States Congressman at a softball practice for a charity match (Alexandria, VA).  In this country, they also shoot police officers these days, people in malls and schools and movie theaters. Pick your atrocity.

The United States of America is our collective home, so when did we stop respecting it?

When did we as one nation under God stop respecting what our forefathers did for us?

When did we get so ugly and angry?

When did we become a country of angry seething and racial and religious bigotry?

When did we become a country that hates immigrants and we are a country founded by immigrants?

When did peaceful resolution and polite and respectful dialogue go out of fashion?

Why are so many conservative pundits in papers, on the radio and television, and on social media stoking the fires of hatred? I don’t understand it, since given the administration in Washington, this should be their time, they should be happy, not angry and hateful.

I am someone who was once a political junkie, now I hate politics as much as I hate news.  Politics is a dirty business, and the harsh reality is more people are in politics for the wrong reasons, versus the right reasons.

Extremism is the name of the game these days, and extremism in politics is so bad for this country, yet we as Americans seem to allow it?

The USA is turning into one long night of hell with this current administration in Washington. And we are turning into a joke with the rest of the world.

This terrifies me and makes me sad.  What are we teaching our children? What is the legacy we are leaving our children and future generations?

People, we need to find peace.  We need to stop the hate and violence.  We need to take our country back from political extremism.  Peacefully.  Hate begets hate and violence begets violence. It has to stop.

Be kind to one and other, remember what made America great is actually none of the crap we are seeing currently.  What made America great was our fight for freedom, our independent spirits, our ingenuity, our grit, our kindness, our ability to love one and other, our ability to unite as one people.

“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

every day a new “executive action”

Posted on by

buh-bye-dodd-frank

Buh byes Dodd-Frank Act.

To me as a former Compliance Officer I am mixed on this.  Five years ago around this time I left a job and regulators I detested. I had recently finished breast cancer treatment and I was exhausted.  And my head wasn’t in the game any longer.  Being a Compliance Officer is like being the nanny to recalcitrant adult toddlers. So I decided to leave because essentially that is what you are supposed to do. It was not an easy decision and there was that great unknown quality, but stress kills and post breast cancer my doctors said flat out to reduce my stress or I would most definitely suffer a recurrence.

And amusingly enough, a couple of weeks after I resigned my job some of the SEC either five or six regulators who were assigned to overseeing my branch of the financial services industry called me on my cell phone after I left  my old company – you see when compliance officers leave, regulated businesses have to file about that – it is a material change to a company in the financial services industry.  Therefore, in a sense, my decision to leave because of breast cancer became a public one of sorts.   (Good thing I decided from jump to be open about my breast cancer, right?)

Anyway, I can’t say I didn’t expect the call, nor was it completely out of the realm of normal.  It still, however,  irritated the crap out of me – one because my cell phone isn’t just out there with directory assistance, and secondly because government has this big brother aspect at times that I find incredibly intrusive and in a sense at times runs contrary to the freedoms our founding fathers bled for two hundred some odd years ago.

I told them yes, I really did have breast cancer, really was treated for breast cancer,  and yes having breast cancer really did motivate me to look at my life and make changes.  So the part of me who had to deal with that then cheers what Trump did today BUT then there is my rational mind.  And my rational mind knows that there do need to be regulations.

I think I can safely say trying to navigate under Dodd-Frank was a hot mess BUT it was put in place for very good and valid reasons. Remember 2008? A guy named Madoff?

Dodd-Frank is large, no huge. Dodd Frank is also cumbersome and interpretations of rules always felt like  a moving target at best .  People were never sure if even the regulators knew which end was up a lot of the time, but hey it did increase the presence and budget on the Securities and Exchange Commission didn’t it?

Obviously I feel Trump is and always will be Wall Street’s boy although I do think that he makes them nervous because of his unpredictable nature.

Elizabeth Warren said today I believe as per The Street:

“Donald Trump talked a big game about Wall Street during his campaign — but as President, we’re finding out whose side he’s really on,” the Massachusetts Democrat said. “The Wall Street bankers and lobbyists whose greed and recklessness nearly destroyed this country may be toasting each other with champagne, but the American people have not forgotten the 2008 financial crisis – and they will not forget what happened today.”

 

She’s not wrong.  And (again)  the problem is the Democrats had quite a few years to work out the kinks on Dodd-Frank and they did not.

It was introduced as “The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009” (H.R. 4173)  December 2, 2009 – described as “an Act to promote the financial stability of the United States by improving accountability and transparency in the financial system, to end “too big to fail”, to protect the American taxpayer by ending bailouts, to protect consumers from abusive financial services practices, and for other purposes.”

But where I think parts of it should have been rolled back and/or amended I think rolling it ALL back is a mistake and will open up American investors to harm with no recourse.

But as Bloomberg is reporting:

Trump on Friday signed two directives aimed at starting the process of rolling back restrictions put in place to prevent another financial crisis. Among the targets are rules that guard against predatory lenders, force brokers to lower fees for retirees and ban proprietary trading — protections that consumer advocates vowed to defend….“We’re going to attack all aspects of Dodd-Frank,” Gary Cohn, the director of the White House National Economic Council and former Goldman Sachs president, said Friday in an interview with Bloomberg Television. The administration “can do quite a bit” without help from lawmakers, Cohn said, “but the more help we get from Congress the better off we’re all going to be.”

Does everyone remember MCI Worldcom?  Years ago at another job I was in an office building where MCI Worldcom had a presence.  I remember the day many many moons ago when I ran into a single mom who worked for WorldCom after she had lost her job AND after she lost all of her years of retirement savings when they went bust.  It’s something you don’t forget.

Now Wall Street must be cheering.  Fat cats hate, hate, hate rules and regulation.  But you do actually need it. Greed is good to fictional characters like Gordon Gekko, but in reality, greed is not a good motivator.

Forbes has an interesting piece out on aspects of Dodd-Frank they think should be retained.

Here is what NPR had to say a little while ago:

President Trump signed two directives on Friday, ordering a review of financial industry regulations known as Dodd-Frank and halting implementation of a rule that requires financial advisers to act in the best interests of their clients, according to a senior administration official who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.

Trump himself made his intentions clear in a meeting with small business owners Monday. “Dodd-Frank is a disaster,” Trump said. “We’re going to be doing a big number on Dodd-Frank.”…”This is not an attempt to undo Dodd-Frank,” the administration official insisted before going on to explain that some of the work of changing regulations, including the so-called Volcker Rule to mitigate risks, could be done through personnel, putting Trump-allied people in charge at agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Small business owners and everyday mom and pop small investors are exactly the types of folks who need protection.

And Washington D.C. always runs on the buddy system, but now we are talking scary buddies, or we are seeing what happens when you let the foxes have fun in the hen house.

One of the quotes which stood out in the New York Times this afternoon is:

“We expect to be cutting a lot out of Dodd-Frank because frankly, I have so many people, friends of mine that had nice businesses, they can’t borrow money,” Mr. Trump said in the State Dining Room during his meeting with business leaders. “They just can’t get any money because the banks just won’t let them borrow it because of the rules and regulations in Dodd-Frank.”

Respectfully Mr. President, maybe some of your friends shouldn’t be getting loans?

Trump signing this latest Executive Order (he seems to issue forth with them like farts) doesn’t mean he can like magic immediately undo Dodd-Frank. Which means Americans really should be calling their elected representatives about this, immigration, environmental issues, the Affordable Care Act and so many things.

MODERATION.  We seem to be missing that with this new administration.  At times we missed in in the prior administration. But it is what we desperately need before this great nation of ours completely dissolves into riot.

But as far as Dodd-Frank goes (and mind you I do not want to make my readers’ eyes glaze over), I leave you with this:

You know how Showtime has a show called Billions? Well it might be a Hollywood created drama, but well let’s just say they take their inspiration from the real world.

We need a system of checks and balances in this country and with good and proven reason. (see Too Big To Fail)

Right now as American we are riding on the tail of a tsunami.  That’s not good for anyone.

 

 

on walls.

Posted on by



Dear People Celebrating Border Walls Being Built,

Your taxpayer dollars and all of our taxpayer dollars are building the US equivalent of the Great Wall of China meets the Berlin Wall.

As a wise friend said today, build a wall and someone else will build a tunnel. By all means beef up the borders, but a wall is a fools’ errand. And we get to pay for it. Now and in the future.  

Nationalism and patriotism are fine but are being perverted and twisted into something ugly. I do not feel that was what the founding fathers intended. 

We are a nation founded of immigrants who fled tyranny and religious persecution for the hopes of a better life. We now seem to be a country in the early stages of a dictatorship, not democracy. Democracy implies a thoughtful balanced process, and we are not seeing that.

What we are seeing in this country is the politics of extremism hard at work. The politics of extremism foments hate, and fear, and ugliness. There is nothing “great” about that.

A lot of the people celebrating each new hour and things like building walls and putting a woman’s place in a wayback time machine to the 1950s and earlier are people who profess themselves to be Christians. I am having a particularly hard time getting my head wrapped around that.

Sorry I just don’t get it.

Sorry this garbage is not what it means to be an American.

Be careful if you leave a comment as I am in a not suffering fools lightly kind of mood.

And if you want to read a really interesting piece on America’s new reality, check out:
 

Politico: How Trump Could Shrink the Government (While Still Keeping the Good Stuff)

Call it limited-government liberalism, or compassionate conservatism, Washington could ink a new contract with Americans. Is the new president bold enough to try?

By MICHAEL GRUNWALD January/February 2017

……sigh….regression immersion is now commencing….

Posted on by