Thursday: Hili dialogue

October 1, 2020 • 6:45 am

Welcome to Thursday, the First Day of October, 2020, and I’ll celebrate by putting up Thomas Wolfe’s “hymn to October” before this post.  In the meantime, we herald National Pumpkin Month (pumpkins are good for you!) and its beginning, National Pumpkin Spice Day, which I blame on Generation X.

And October is all of these months in one: National Apple Month, National Applejack Month, National Caramel Month National Cookbook Month, National Cookie Month, National Dessert Month, National Pasta Month,  National Pickled Peppers Month, National Pizza Month, National Popcorn Poppin’ Month, National Pork Month, National Pretzel Month, and National Seafood Month.

As for other designations of October 1, they include Homemade Cookie Day, International Coffee Day, World Vegetarian Day, International Day of Older Persons, International Day of Non-Violence, National Black Dog Day, and, most important, International Raccoon Appreciation Day. Let’s appreciate some:

Source

News of the Day: Every time I say, “well, Trump finally crossed the line; he’s doomed”, he bounces back. Such are the Deplorables. But, according to the New York Times, he may have gone to far with his failure to denounce white supremacy and the Proud Boys. Senate Republicans have tiptoed away from Trump, and even Moscow Mitch had a harsh (for him) word:

The president’s comments on Wednesday came after Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the chamber’s only Black Republican, said that “white supremacy should be denounced at every turn. I think he misspoke, I think he should correct it. If he doesn’t correct it I guess he didn’t misspeak.”

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader and a close ally of the president’s, told reporters Wednesday that he agreed with Mr. Scott, sharply rebuking Mr. Trump’s refusal to categorically denounce white supremacy during the presidential debate Tuesday night.

“With regard to the white supremacy issue, I want to associate myself with the remarks of Tim Scott,” Mr. McConnell said. “He said it was unacceptable not to condemn white supremacists and so I do so in the strongest possible way.”

And two tweets from a NYT correspondent:

Of course Trump gave himself high marks for his performance, saying that he got “great reviews.” But the polls show otherwise.

Meanwhile, the Commission on Presidential Debate is busy changing the ground rules of the two upcoming debates to ensure “more orderly discussion.”

Yesterday’s poll showed people roughly evenly divided between thinking that Trump would be hurt by the first debate and that he would suffer neither gain nor loss, while many fewer thought that the debate helped Trump:

An Irish court has ruled that the bread used in Subway sandwiches, with a sugar content of up to 10%, cannot be legally classified as “bread” for tax purposes. (It has to be below 2% of weight in the dough). That means that Subway sandwiches cannot be classified as “food”, an opinion that many (though not me) share.

Finally, today’s reported Covid-19 death toll in the U.S. is 206,852, an increase of about 1,000 deaths over yesterday’s report. The world death toll remains at”1.0 million +.”

Stuff that happened on October 1 includes:

  • 1800 – Via the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso, Spain cedes Louisiana to France, which would sell the land to the United States thirty months later.
  • 1861 – Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management is published, going on to sell 60,000 copies in its first year and remaining in print until the present day.

Indeed! You can still buy it at the bargain price of $15.59 on Amazon (in hardcover). Click on screenshot:

  • 1890 – Yosemite National Park is established by the U.S. Congress.
  • 1891 – Stanford University opens its doors in California, United States.
  • 1903 – Baseball: The Boston Americans play the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first game of the modern World Series.
  • 1928 – The Soviet Union introduces its first five-year plan.
  • 1936 – Spanish Civil War: Francisco Franco is named head of the Nationalist government of Spain.

Here is my proof that Trump postures like Il Duce (or George C. Scott):

  • 1940 – The Pennsylvania Turnpike, often considered the first superhighway in the United States, opens to traffic.
  • 1949 – The People’s Republic of China is established.
  • 1957 – First appearance of In God we trust on U.S. paper currency.

Many people don’t know that there was this change. In fact, at its annual meeting, the Freedom from Religion Foundation raffles off what it calls “clean money”: pre-1957 currency without the mention of the deity. (The change was made during the Cold War to draw a distinction between the atheistic Soviet Union and god-fearin’ America. Here’s an example of pre- and post-change currency.

  • 1964 – The Free Speech Movement is launched on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley.
  • 1975 – Muhammad Ali defeats Joe Frazier in a boxing match in Manila, Philippines.

Here’s round 12 of the fight when Ali, who was losing, began to land punches:

  • 1982 – Sony and Phillips launch the compact disc in Japan. On the same day, Sony released the model CDP-101 compact disc player, the first player of its kind.
  • 1989 – Denmark introduces the world’s first legal same-sex registered partnerships.
  • 2017 – Fifty-eight people are killed and 869 others injured in a mass shooting at a country music festival at the Las Vegas Strip in the United States; the gunman, Stephen Paddock, later commits suicide.

Notables born on this day include:

Here are the real Bonnie and Clyde, who look nothing like Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. Wikipedia caption: “Bonnie and Clyde in March 1933 in a photo found by police at an abandoned hideout.”

  • 1920 – Walter Matthau, American actor (d. 2000)
  • 1924 – William Rehnquist, American lawyer and jurist, 16th Chief Justice of the United States (d. 2005)
  • 1935 – Julie Andrews, English actress and singer
  • 1956 – Theresa May, English politician, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Those who departed life on October 1 include:

  • 1972 – Louis Leakey, Kenyan-English archaeologist and paleontologist (b. 1903)
  • 1985 – E. B. White, American essayist and journalist (b. 1899)
  • 2004 – Richard Avedon, American photographer (b. 1923)

Here’s an Avedon photo of Bob Dylan, Taken in Central Park, New York on February 10, 1965. Dylan was 23.

  • 2018 – Charles Aznavour, French-Armenian singer, composer, writer, filmmaker and public figure (b. 1924)

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, the fireplace isn’t working and Hili is calling attention to a problem. Malgorzata explains: “The problem is that there is a bird’s nest in the chimney and Paulina cannot have fire in her fireplace upstairs. She really called the chimney sweep and we all are waiting for him but the days go by, it’s colder and the chimney sweep didn’t come.” Hili’s fire downstairs uses a different chimney, so this is a rare example of altruism on her part.

Hili: You absolutely have to call the chimney sweep before winter.
Paulina: I did, but he didn’t show up.
In Polish:
Hili: Koniecznie trzeba zamówić kominiarza przed zimą.
Paulina: Już zamówiłam, ale go nie widać.

From Michael, and it’s a good suggestion (the Debate Commission is indeed pondering whether to use mute-able mikes in the next debates):

From The Cat House on the Kings:

Lions from Nicole:

A tweet from Titania:

Tweets from Matthew. Automatic translation of this first one: “Wow! What a phenomenal kestrel from Harry Jamont! How clever to get this moment and that look so sharp! Thick feather!”

The tweet below greeted me when I woke up yesterday morning. An excerpt from the article:

While the majority of snakes would normally swallow their prey whole, the Small-banded Kukri Snake seems to have evolved a particularly macabre feeding habit that has never before been witnessed in a serpent.

During a survey on the relatively small-bodied Asian kukri snakes in Thailand, a Danish-Thai research team, led by Henrik Bringsøe, documented three occasions where a snake uses its enlarged posterior maxillary teeth to cut open the abdomen of a large poisonous toad, then inserts its entire head and pull out the organs one by one, while the prey is still alive. The discovery is published in the open-access, peer-reviewed journal Herpetozoa.

In those gory attacks, the toads struggled vigorously to escape and avoid being eviscerated alive, but, on all occasions, this was in vain. The assaults could last for up to a few hours, depending on the organs the snake would pull out first.

Jebus!

You, too, can guess the color. (I was pretty close.) Sound up.

Sound must definitely be up for this ginormous gaggle.

Be sure to see the other photos on this thread of child labor. As Pinker noted in Better Angels, the revulsion we feel at this defunct practice is a sign that morality has improved.

Most kitties wouldn’t enjoy the beach, but this one does!

70 thoughts on “Thursday: Hili dialogue”

  2. Mrs Beeton’s book is one of my most useful cookbooks. I don’t miss the chapters on hiring and firing the servants much that have been omitted from modern editions.

    I don’t know what she would have made of 10% sugar in Subway bread – it’s a sort of ‘let them eat cake’ situation.

    Reply

  3. When I lived on the seashore, all cats who lived with me absolutely loved the beach, especially when a surf-casting fisherman pulled in a striped bass bigger than a cat. Bigger than a CAT! O the unmitigated joy! And of course there was the sheer expansive gloriousness of limitless poopery, not to mention all those huge birds JUST out of reach but fun to chase nonetheless.

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  4. The image to the right of Trump is not Franco or Mussolini, but George C. Scott portraying the latter. However, Scott does do a good imitation.

    Reply

    1. That’s interesting. I looked at the picture and thought “that looks a lot like George C Scott”.

      My second thought (after a Google image search) was it’s Mussolini, not Franco. I didn’t find that exact image, but I found a very similar one

      https://images.app.goo.gl/PgaDUnDjBDpWMPsu7

      I was also going to post a correction saying the photo is not of “El Caudillo” who is Franco and, in any case, it was Mussolini to whom PCC(E) compared Trump previously.

      Reply

    4. Scott did some similar posturing as Patton.

      When I see Trump, I think “Tony Clifton”, especially when he walks.

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  5. Senate Republicans have tiptoed away from Trump, and even Moscow Mitch had a harsh (for him) word …

    Screw Mitch McConnell. For nigh on four years now, he’s lined up behind Donald Trump wherever he could, pretended to turn a blind eye whenever he couldn’t. Now, with his majority in the senate melting before his eyes as the election clock ticks down, he thinks he can distance himself from Trump? Did I mention he should screw off?

    Mitch McConnell is the absolute pits.

    Reply

      1. No, my point is that McConnell knows no pale beyond which Trump might tread. He’s doing his meager step back from Trump now solely out of self-interest, for fear of losing his senate majority. The worst fate Mitch can imagine is being senate minority leader standing by, watching helplessly, as the Democrats, led by new majority leader Chuck Schumer of NY, cram legislative act after legislative act down Republicans’ throat.

        Mitch cares for nothing, certainly no principle or policy, beyond clinging to power for power’s sake.

        Personally, I hope C-SPAN dedicates a camera solely to coverage of McConnell’s face during the upcoming 117th session of congress, so we can watch his sourpuss expression as it happens.

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      2. Don’t be too sure. He’s obviously gauging the public’s level of shock. His true feelings are not hard to guess – Complete indifference.

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    2. The Atlantic site has posted another spine-chilling article by Mike Giglio entitled “A Pro-Trump Militant Group Has Recruited Thousands of Police, Soldiers, and Veterans.” Meanwhile the NYT has posted an article entitled “Trump Renews Fears of Voter Intimidation as G.O.P. Poll Watchers Mobilize.” These developments give credence to the fears of many that in this election democracy hangs in the balance. Equally scary is that democracy’s fate may rest with congressional Republicans. If Trump attempts to steal the election through intimidation or the courts, how will they react? If they proclaim unequivocally and with near unanimity that beyond doubt Biden is the winner, Trump will be finished, although the militias could cause lots of problems. If they remain silent, they will be complicit in ending the “American experiment.”

      https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/11/right-wing-militias-civil-war/616473/

      https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/30/us/trump-election-poll-watchers.html

      Reply

      1. “Poll watcher” will always carry the stench of the Jim Crow south for me. It was the euphemism used for those charged with preventing black folk from exercising the franchise in those days.

        As was revealed at his confirmation hearings, it was how former right-wing justice (later chief justice) William Rehnquist made his bones as a Republican Party operative in Arizona during Barry Goldwater’s failed 1964 presidential run.

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        1. For me William Rehnquist, the name and the man, will always be one of Gore Vidal’s euphemisms for penis, as in “He pulled out his Rehnquist.”

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    3. It’s perfectly understandable from a political operator perspective, and Mitch is nothing if not that. The less time left in a President’s tenure, the less the Senate can get done, and so the less useful his cooperation is to them. Moreover, if his popularity keeps dropping, he’s not even useful to them as a re-election promoter.

      Besides, Trump signed the CR yesterday, so the biggest legislative task they needed him for is now done. They could literally put nothing on his desk for signature between now and December 10th (when they’ll have to extend the CR or pass a budget), and the key agencies of government would still function.

      Reply

      1. Yep, but when I heard about that budget bill, here’s what I see on the tracks come Dec 11. Biden has won but O9 is still challenging the results, and refuses to sign an extension even if one reaches his desk. Gov’t shuts down incl the election machinery so he can go on to try to hold on past Jan 20.

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        1. It’s entirely possible he threatens a veto out of spite. However I suspect that for something as politically uncrontroversial as a CR extension, that threat might be met with a bipartisan supermajority counter. If he loses in November, he’s going to have basically no leverage with any of the Republican Senators or House members. Why should they shut down the government for someone who can’t offer them pork in future bills, can’t threaten their reelection, and notoriously never makes good on his promises to ‘pay later?’

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  6. For all you pumpkin fans out there:

    I HATE canned pumpkin. Vile stuff that tastes like the can.

    For years I used New England Sugar pumpkins in my baking. Two years ago I discovered Pink Porcelains, a Burpee variety. So meaty and sweet.

    Halve the pumpkins and scrape out the seeds, leaving the rind on. Cut each half into quarters. Place the quarters in a large steamer and steam for about twenty minutes, or until the flesh is soft and a paring knife goes in easily. Allow the quarters to cool. Place a sieve over a large bowl, and scrape the flesh out of the rind into the sieve. Chop the flesh into small pieces and stir them around until the liquid starts to drain. Allow the flesh to drain until it stops dripping, stirring occasionally. The drippings are great for a soup base, so don’t throw them out.

    If you’re not using all of the flesh, store it in the freezer in 1 1/2 cup portions (the same amount as one can). Use Rubbermaids or other plastic containers, rather than freezer bags, if possible. If you store it in freezer bags, it’s hard to get back out again when you thaw it out without a bunch of it sticking to the bag. It will keep in the freezer for six to eight months.

    Beats canned by a mile!!

    L

    Reply

    1. Thank you. With all the “Halloween pumpkins” about I never know how to find an edible one by name. Yes, I know pumpkins and field corn are edible but I’m not that hard up yet.

      Reply

      1. The only palatable “Halloween” type pumpkin worth eating is Triple Treat, also a Burpee variety.

        The name comes from its three uses – carving, baking, and nearly hull-less seeds, which can be roasted and salted.

        But the Pink Porcelains are amazing, so I’ll probably never use anything else.

        L

        Reply

  8. Holy J-S! That snake’s eating habits are grotesquely fascinating. But upon reflection, the grotesquely fascinating is commonplace in the animal kingdom.

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    1. Sorry. Don’t know how the duplicate occurred.

      Strange that the Brits tear down the Blackamoor pub signs then paint the post boxes black. I recall when the peculiar Princess Michael of Kent wore a blackamoor pin during her meeting with Megan Markle then apologized ex post facto, as if she were ignorant of the signification. Bullshit. That was a calculated choice of fashion accessory designed to tell Megan that the odious Princess Michael considered her just another nigger.

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    2. Sh-t. Another apology. I didn’t notice that the article about the snake was indeed linked so mine’s superfluous. Time for coffee now.

      Reply

  10. 1975 – Muhammad Ali defeats Joe Frazier in a boxing match in Manila, Philippines.

    The so-called “Thrilla in Manilla” was one of the greatest, and, frankly, most brutal, prize-fights in history. The fight started in the middle of the morning Manilla time, under the brutal Philippines’ sun, so it could be shown on closed-circuit tv at night back in the States. The temperature in the ring during the fight was estimated at upwards of 120° F (49° C).

    The fight was like a great opera in three acts, with a fresh Ali dancing and sticking & moving in the early rounds, Frazier dominating the middle rounds as his heavy body blows and left hooks took their toll on Ali, and Ali catching a second wind (seemingly out of nowhere) to win the later rounds, by which time Smokin’ Joe’s left eye was swollen completely shut, allowing Ali to land right hands at will, since Frazier couldn’t see the punches coming. Frazier’s corner man, Eddie Futch refused to let Joe answer the bell to come out for the final, 15th round, for fear that Frazier would die in the ring.

    My theory (which is my own) is that the fight took such a toll on both fighters that neither was the same again.

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  11. That means that Subway sandwiches cannot be classified as “food”, an opinion that many (though not me) share.

    Well, I think it’s better than a lot of fast food alternatives (which may be damning with faint praise).

    Irish regulations aside, it’s pretty clearly bread. Though if the Irish court finding causes the company to change their recipe to include less sugar – even just in Ireland – I would applaud that result.

    Reply

    1. The store bread over here range between 2 – 8 % sugar as well, often at either end.

      The sugary variants should perhaps be treated as dessert cake.

      Reply

  12. I do find it a bit irritating that the Times is listing the world death toll from Covid as simply a million plus. I think it’s prone to lead people into a weird kind of complacency, and it hurts the ability to follow trends in daily numbers. 1,010,000 is still 10,000 more dead than 1,000,000, after all, and they’re just as dead as the 10,000 that died when we were at 990,000.

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    1. Similarly, I was somewhat surprised (and displeased) that the U.S. media din’t make a bigger thing of us passing the 200,000 mark. Sure, it’s just a number, but it’s a lot of deaths, and it really should be cause for more self-examination.

      Maybe “quarter million” will get everyone’s attention.

      Reply

        1. The WHO projection is a global 2 millions, so I assume that implies that US is halfway (and especially since many of the states are still in the first wave).

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  14. Do you realize that some of your readers are so-called “deplorables”? And they can be intelligent, intellectually curious, atheist, and believers of evolution and the reality of human-induced climate change? And politically aware. I think you are the one that is politically naive but I still enjoy your posts on evolution, wokeness, and the pursuit of empirical facts. And I’m a dog lover and despise cats (domestic ones only).

    Reply

    2. Ever take a look around at your fellow so-called “deplorables” and wonder what in the world am I doing among so many dim, intellectually incurious, bible-thumping, evolution- and climate-deniers?

      And if by “deplorable” you mean Trump-supporter, what’s your case for supporting such an obviously mendacious, incompetent huckster?

      Reply

  16. The phrase, “In God We Trust”, first appeared on US currency during the Civil War. It was a vapid attempt to align the Union cause on the side of righteousness.

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    1. The motto “In God We Trust” first appeared on US money on the 1864 two cent piece. A similar slogan, “In God Is Our Trust”, appeared on the 1863 $20 one year interest bearing legal tender note. [Yes, it was legal tender, but also earned 5% interest for a year, so one year later it could be turned in to the government for $21.] By a strange quirk, the first appearance of the current motto was on the First Charter National Bank Notes issued by the First National Bank of Jacksonville in 1874. Since the seal of the state in which the bank was located was printed on the back, and the Florida state seal included the words “In God We Trust”, the motto is on these Federally issued notes. The first appearance on generally circulated notes was on the series 1935G $1 Silver Certificate [actually issued in 1957, as noted in the original post.]

      Reply

  17. and, most important, International Raccoon Appreciation Day. Let’s appreciate some:

    Blatant plug for Frosty: a Raccoon to Remember, a short non-fiction tale about a park ranger who adopts an orphan raccoon. Absolutely heartwarming book. I believe the paper version may be out of print (it’s from the ’70s) but I also believe it’s still available on e-readers.

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  18. My great-grandfather applied for work in the coal mines near Pittsburgh, ca. 1870. He was rejected as too young. He was eight.

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  19. According to The Guardian, Subway’s loss in the Irish courts “The ruling is not the first slice of controversy for the brand. In 2014, Subway decided to start removing the flour whitening agent azodicarbonamide from its baked goods after a petition circulated online. The ingredient is commonly used in the manufacture of yoga mats and carpet underlay and has been banned by the European Union and Australia from use in food products.”. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/01/irish-court-rules-subway-bread-is-not-bread

    The things deemed “food” in the US aren’t always regarded as such elsewhere…!

    Reply

  21. in re ” … … we herald National Pumpkin
    Month (pumpkins are good for you!), ” pure
    puree of pumpkin ( and NOT the cans full up
    of such spices and mixes thereof ) is
    mighty fine for both kitty cats and d*gs.
    Nutrients’ wise, digestively and,
    particularly, if kitty cats are prone
    to hurling up hairballs pure puree, whilst
    not curative, is so helpful. A cheap help,
    too.

    The Midwest’s Aldi ( there, seasonally only )
    grocery stores are now selling 15 – ounce
    cans of thus for 86¢ per each. O n l i n e
    ( and likely due to pandemic’s UNavailabilities ) Walmart and Amazon ‘ve both
    been OUT of its stock upon any size of
    pure puree for months’ and months’ time.

    Blue

    Reply

    1. Incidentally, finickiness within kitty cats,
      in re their vittles, does not seem with
      pure puree of pumpkin to be any much at all
      of a problem. ¡ They nom it right on down !
      And stat. ¡ Amazingly ! As if a treat.

      Blue

      Reply

  22. Whatever condemnation of Trump’s failure to condemn white supremacy and the Proud Boys there is by the GOP, I’m guessing that much of it is virtue signalling. Same with those 2016 Trump voters who say that Trump has just crossed a red line for them. They knew he was a racist in 2016 and he has done nothing to change that opinion since. They know that society (whatever that is) demands that white supremacy be condemned and are dutifully going through the ritual. Many will recover in time for the election and vote Trump.

    Reply

    1. This, Mr Topping, is a correct assessment;
      I utterly concur. And is why, in the
      runup within the last presidential election,
      Ms Rodham Clinton correctly referred to same
      / to these ( somewhat closeted ) hypocrites
      as … … the Deplorables. That they are.

      Blue

      Reply

    2. I’m perfectly willing to think Sen. Scott is being sincere. Mitch, others…maybe.

      As a general rule of thumb, I think the bootlicking we’ve seen out of the GOP towards Trump while he had a lot of power was the ‘virtue signaling,’ and the opinions we see aired when a GOPer leaves his administration or the opinions of House or Senate GOPers as Trump comes closer to the end of his term are their more sincere opinions. This would imply that the condemnation of his white supremacy is their ‘real’ position, while earlier support for him is the ‘fake’ one.

      Reply

  24. As Pinker noted in Better Angels, the revulsion we feel at this defunct practice [of child labor] is a sign that morality has improved.

    In 1918, in Hammer v. Dagenhart, the US Supreme Court struck down the federal child labor law as unconstitutional, with justice Holmes, joined by Brandeis, McKenna, and Clarke, dissenting. This was during the so-called Lochner era in which a reactionary SCOTUS repeatedly struck down Progressive Era federal legislation on constitutional grounds. The Hammer case was overruled in 1941 in United States v. Darby Lumber Co..

    For a long time the Lochner era was held in disrepute. But in recent years some libertarian-minded legal thinkers have taken a revisionist, more-favorable view of Lochner. Sitting Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas has given some indication of being favorably disposed to this camp. I’m not saying ol’ Clarence wants to send kids back into the coalmines, but he certainly favors a more laissez-faire approach to businesses’ ability to operate free from governmental restriction and regulation.

    Reply

    1. In re your comments about Clarence Thomas I found this from 2011. The article also points out that (naturally) blacks would suffer, too. That said, I wouldn’t mind watching Uncle Clarence shining Kavanaugh’s shoes.

      Given that Uncle Clarence advocates near apartheid under the guise of black self-sufficiency (just as long as he’s allowed access to the corridors of white power), this is just another way to help bring it about.

      Reply

  25. Oh interesting – I never understood who Charles Aznavour was on this introduction of Sinatra in Paris : https://youtu.be/NVjtzC-vo14

    The recording has lots of excellent songs and arrangements, all in a short time span – most songs are maybe 3 minutes long.

    Reply

  27. I’m not sure how to fix this,but I seldom receive email notifications about new post anymore. I used to get them daily. This may have some bearing on numbers on the site.I’m clicking on the notification button,now.Hope that will fix it.

    Reply

  28. One notable who today had had a birthing day
    once upon a y1924 – time ? =

    = happens to be our now 96 – year – old
    former, and a l w a y s quite presidential,
    President James Earl Carter, Junior.

    Blue

    Reply

  29. Here is my proof that Trump postures like Il Duce (or George C. Scott):

    Well, I have thought so for a long time – they both project buffoon.

    It was easy to image search for other politicians like Obama having the same jaw stance at times, but Trump seems to regularly use it for intimidation. I also found an article that claims that when comparing Trump with Mussolini and it has another image comparison between the Orange and the Brown.

    Donald Trump is similar in personality to the Italian dictator; the similarity is unsettling. Like Mussolini, he prefers loyalty to integrity and is willing to say anything and do anything to maintain power. Mussolini abolished opposition parties; Trump simply captured a 160-year-old political party, turning it into a personality cult.

    Trump cannot close mainstream media as Mussolini did, but his calculated use of the term “fake news” to taint legitimate criticism of his actions and personality is a branch of the fascist tree.

    Trump is certainly not a Caesar, and America is not Rome. Trump is much closer in many ways to a 20th century Roman authoritarian who wreaked incredible damage by building a personality cult and disdaining the norms of traditional republican government. Beware not the Ides of March, but the chant of “Il Duce!” Or perhaps, “Trump, Trump!”

    On another gruesome picture:

    The tweet below greeted me when I woke up yesterday morning.

    I got an article in my feed. Yes, it was too early in the morning to really appreciate the beauty of nature.

    Reply

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