tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post127479963588457265..comments2024-03-28T22:01:11.059-04:00Comments on Murder is Everywhere: My Favorite PresidentOvidia Yuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05749549092493567689noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-6489877431801050222019-11-15T11:16:14.324-05:002019-11-15T11:16:14.324-05:00Michael, Thank you so much for chiming in. I was ...Michael, Thank you so much for chiming in. I was listening for a while, too, this AM. I heard and reacted as you did to the partisan garbage. And then there was Nunez's reading of the transcript of Trump's congratulatory call with the Ukranian president, in which the only three syllable word in either participant's remarks was Trump's repeated use of "incredible." The dictionary definition of which is "that cannot be believed, not to be credited, too extraordinary to admit to belief." I am certain the POTUS has no notion of the irony of his all too frequent use of a word with such a meaning. <br /><br />I was aware too, while listening to Nunez read the otherwise boring and irrelevant transcript, of the VAST difference between Washington's way of expressing himself and Trump's.<br /><br />We are--all of us I hope--doing what Washington suggests is proper when it comes to threats to our unity as a nation: 'watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned.' I, for one, am certainly 'indignantly frowning.'<br />I cannot resist adding, can anyone imagine our current prez using the word 'discountenancing?' <br /><br />I am tuned out now on the proceedings. I am sticking my head back in its favorite refuge - the fictional past! Annamaria Alfierihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12311596277267789834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-16415998021246103772019-11-15T10:30:03.824-05:002019-11-15T10:30:03.824-05:00Thanks so much for this wise and prophetic perspec...Thanks so much for this wise and prophetic perspective!<br /> Having just listened to the opening of today's hearing, and shocked (though I should have known what was coming) by the partisan garbage coming from "ranking member" Nunez and the disruptive "points of order" shouted by a few Republican congressmen, the following portion of this brilliant address resonated with me; "The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension...is itself a frightful despotism...leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism...gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction...turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty. Michael Cooperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03920544462417780237noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-49707675235858935852019-11-14T18:34:38.497-05:002019-11-14T18:34:38.497-05:00Brilliant, isn’t it, Bro? And Papa Washington for...Brilliant, isn’t it, Bro? And Papa Washington foresaw the problems so clearly when we were only seven years into our democracy, and there were no other models on earth to look at. What a document! What a Founding Father!Annamaria Alfierihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12311596277267789834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-60537532889417714092019-11-14T17:57:58.374-05:002019-11-14T17:57:58.374-05:00For me, this was the most telling paragraph: Howe...For me, this was the most telling paragraph: However combinations or associations [parties]...may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.Jeffrey Sigerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00718317707555064653noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-66600512379381737932019-11-14T12:10:50.085-05:002019-11-14T12:10:50.085-05:00Michael, you know my deep, abiding admiration for ...Michael, you know my deep, abiding admiration for Madiba. Do South Africans think of him as the father of the country? Americans call Georg Washington by that epithet. And in this case, father really did know best. Annamaria Alfierihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12311596277267789834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-35355198025681522922019-11-14T11:55:04.835-05:002019-11-14T11:55:04.835-05:00EvKa, we have to believe that repaid is possible. ...EvKa, we have to believe that repaid is possible. This is not that worst of times for our democracy. That came 160 years ago. There is a lesson in this. I wonder how long it will take to learn it. Too long for me, I fear. Annamaria Alfierihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12311596277267789834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-3242306952742037842019-11-14T11:12:31.828-05:002019-11-14T11:12:31.828-05:00Oh, how we long for better times. But it is that v...Oh, how we long for better times. But it is that very longing that lights our way and may be our only escape. Thanks, AmA. #1 is definitely #1.Everett Kaserhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12371555243187874414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-84622973702149477152019-11-14T10:47:05.232-05:002019-11-14T10:47:05.232-05:00Mandela also turned down the possibility of a seco...Mandela also turned down the possibility of a second term as president, fearing a personality cult. Unfortunately, his successor was less successful. But sooner or later one has to pass the baton; Mandela felt sooner was the better option.Michael Sears (of Michael Stanley)https://www.blogger.com/profile/09886295534214542834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-54825117439397976932019-11-14T08:05:50.516-05:002019-11-14T08:05:50.516-05:00Isn't it dispiriting, Carol, how our two count...Isn't it dispiriting, Carol, how our two countries, whose names begin with 'United, have gotten so fractious that no one thinks about the common good and only the side they're on. Forget public discourse. Let's just have a shouting match. We can yell until we are blue in the face, but we can't get anything done. Washington's speech mentioned the word 'acquiesce.' I am a far leftists. I want things the majority does not want. But more than MY vision, I believe in democracy, which means rule by the majority. But I live in country where the majority doesn't even bother to vote. OY!Annamaria Alfierihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12311596277267789834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-73498508327765021512019-11-14T06:05:07.389-05:002019-11-14T06:05:07.389-05:00"...that your union ought to be considered as... "...that your union ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other." We would do well to remember that on this side of the pond as well.Caro Ramsayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08499318515241879831noreply@blogger.com