Radical Reconciliation: Lincoln's Second Inaugural - 3 Quarks Daily by Michael Liss

227th anniversary of Lincoln's birth. Let's remember what might be his greatest speech. 3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily...

No Sense Of Decency - 3 Quarks Daily by Michael Liss

76 years ago... Wheeling, West Virginia, a "star" is born. "The speech itself is neither eloquent nor subtle. The former amateur boxer wades in with both fists. It’s likely even built on a lie—there was no list—at least not one McCarthy would let people look at."

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How do the smaller groups, in some in opposition to the Federal Government, continue when the power of the Feds is directed at them, and is willing to use coercion?

A Seat At The Top: Book Review Of "Lunch On A Beam" - 3 Quarks Daily by Michael LissA picture may be worth 1000 words, but this picture, the centerpiece of Christine Roussel’s engaging Lunch on a Beam: The Making of an American

One of the great pictures of the last century, unattributed, with an uncertain ID of the men pictured: My review of Christine Roussel's "Lunch On A Beam"

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ICE seeing itself as stewards of a permanent incarceration state, answerable only to the President-and only certain Presidents.

Obscene, but scalable and repeatable, and before it comes to an end, astoundingly expensive, both in dollars, and credibility.

A Complex Man: Lincoln At The Lyceum - 3 Quarks Daily by Michael Liss

"At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, must spring up amongst us. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."
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This made my day. Maybe what's left of the week. Now, admittedly, it's been a snowy week, but watching these two face off.....this would have made an excellent Tom Lehrer song.

Impressive lack of self-examination from Bondi--but this is what we should expect from a crowd that believes that their authority has no bounds....even when the exercise of that power takes life itself.

Trump has his audience where he wants it....glued to the screen wondering what he's going to do next. Like a cheesy horror movie....cheesy, but still gets you to jump.

It's Gilbert and Sullivan's "I've got a little list" without the humor or soul.

Try the movie "Hopscotch" with Glenda Jackson, Walter Matthau, Sam Waterston.....I promise you will smile constantly

Trump reinvents the "Good Neighbor Policy"

It's merely illusion. Trump would never mislead...

Heir to an imperfect, but often extraordinary history with imperfect, but often extraordinary men and women. It's both a durable and fragile legacy. Lincoln talked about the "Mystic Chords" and their being strained. That's still true--the bonds can be broken and it's our job not to let that happen

A Painful Paradox: Hoover And The Bonus March - 3 Quarks Daily by Michael Liss

Tens of thousands of hungry desperate people arrive in DC to ask for relief. Waiting for them, Hoover, MacArthur, Ike, and, ready to lead a cavalry charge, George Patton.

"If the Army must be called out to make war on unarmed citizens, this is no longer America."

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Clever....fiendishly so.

And what we need to unlearn....?

Will there be appropriate statuary to go with it?

Leader of the Free World....I'm comforted.

I'm confident that any "real American" would understand the need, after a few weeks of bad economic numbers, bad elections, bad poll numbers, and bad scandals, to want to start a war over gibberish. And, yeah, America's status in the world is diminished by helicopter parents.

There's a certain Patent Medicine Era aspect to this. The guy in the white suit, selling three bottles for $5, guaranteed to cure whatever ails.

Things Fall Apart: Herbert Hoover And The Risks Of Certitude - 3 Quarks Daily by Michael Liss

Watching Trump struggle, his constant assurances that everything is much better, remind us Herbert Hoover. "More Dickensian is Hoover’s insistence that the Federal Government should play little or no role in aiding the individual who falls into destitution."

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Impressive staying power, though. Are Trump's people expecting some intervention to rescue the case?

I decided not to comment at 3:57AM, assuming the issue could resolve itself....eh, no.

SCOTUS gleefully presents Trump with win after win....precedents, plain language absolutely no problem when called to serve.

With tomorrow the 84th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, hoping @hcrichardson.bsky.social might add some context to what a great nation does when faced with an existential challenge--and leadership needs to step up.

Trump's DOJ is never stuck, because they accept no limitations--and especially not from judges.

GOP sees this as a way to gut Obamacare (while expressing deep concern, of course). Neither empathy nor common sense are in their arsenal.

The President defines the universe of all that is real, and unreal?