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The Importance of Education

It is more important than ever for us to stay informed. Misinformation is being shoveled at us at an alarming rate. We cannot count on mainstream media to filter out the lies or to even do basic fact-checking. It is up to us to be educated.

A True Pickle
Well, the Republicans have ousted their own Speaker, Kevin McCarthy. The idiocy of such a move cannot be overstated. Remember, it was less than a year ago when we went through an excruciating process of 15 ballots before McCarthy was elected. Republicans have a slim majority in the House. Within the Republican Party, there is this small faction of about 40 Republican members that make up the Freedom Caucus. It is the Freedom Caucus members who are holding the House hostage and, therefore, holding America hostage. The major problem is nobody can please all of the Republicans all the time. Kicking McCarthy out is fine, but there is nobody to replace him. The other problem is nobody wants to compromise. This is bad.

Wenner is a sexist and racist
Jan Wenner helped start the Rolling Stone magazine back in 1967. He has a new book coming out called The Masters. It is about the founders of rock ‘n’ roll. He interviews rock ‘n’ roll legends like Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger. So, Mr. Wenner did an interview with the New York Times in which he was asked why Blacks and women musicians were excluded from his book. He stated that none of the women he knew were “articulate enough” to be included in the book. Of course, to add insult to injury, he went ahead and lumped black artists into the category of too inarticulate to be included, also. Mr. Wenner, who was on the Board of Directors of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, has been fired, removed, or dumped.

If you do some superficial research on the origins of rock ‘n’ roll, you invariably end up somewhere around 1954 to 1956, when rock ‘n’ roll really became American popular music. Artists like Bill Haley, Elvis Presley, and Jerry Lee Lewis come to mind. As a matter of fact, there are some “authorities” that will argue that Bill Haley and his song Rocket 88 (which was written and first performed by Ike Turner of Ike and Tina Turner fame) was the origin of rock ‘n’ roll. Well, like many things, if you read more and dig deeper, you find that rock ‘n’ roll music with a danceable beat supported by the drums and prominent guitars, piano, and/or saxophone has been around since the early 30s. There is no doubt that rock ‘n’ roll is a mixture of gospel, rhythm and blues, and country music. Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s 1938 gospel hit Rock Me sounds very RnR’ish (is that a word?). Her 1944 tune, Down by the Riverside, features her playing a wonderful guitar solo with a distorted guitar sound, which would be copied a decade later by Chuck Berry and others.

I’m not saying that Sister Rosetta Tharpe is the founder of rock ‘n’ roll. I’m saying that with just a little research, you will find that Blacks (Big Joe Turner, Fats Domino, Arthur Crudup) and women played a critical role in helping to develop the music that we call rock ‘n’ roll. All American music comes from gospel music. Gospel gave birth to jazz, country, and rock ‘n’ roll. Okay, back to Jan Wenner, he is a racist and a sexist. There are plenty of good books on early rock ‘n’ roll. Don’t buy Mr. Wenner’s book, please!

By ecthompsonmd|2023-11-30T08:34:48-04:00November 29th, 2023|Domestic Issues, Party Politics|0 Comments

As far as I know, the most famous and ruthless gangster of all time has to be Al Capone. In the movie The Untouchables, a disloyal Lieutenant was beaten to death with a baseball bat by none other than Al Capone. So, I feel pretty confident that if I had spit in Al Capone’s Cheerios, there would be some serious and harsh consequences, like my death. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner chief, did exactly that to Vladimir Putin. Several months ago, Prigozhin took his army of mercenaries and marched to Moscow. This was a coup attempt. He had little or no resistance. Suddenly, just hours from Moscow, he turned the convoy around and announced that the conflict had been resolved. What? We all knew how this was going to end. No, he wasn’t beaten to death with a baseball bat, but a plane that he was on mysteriously blew up. To misquote Thanos from the Avengers – his untimely death was inevitable. Vladimir Putin is a gangster. He is ruthless. He has proven his willingness to assassinate enemies. Yevgeny Prigozhin knew better than to challenge Vladimir Putin. Personally, I feel sorry for the other passengers on the plane. They were collateral damage.

#4
Donald J. Trump has been indicted for the fourth time in five months. He has been booked. He has been fingerprinted. His mug shot has been plastered all over the Internet. Once again, following the proceedings, he held a press conference where he, once again, declared himself innocent. Somehow, this indictment is different. This is not a federal indictment, but instead, it is a state indictment. This is the state of Georgia.

In essence, Donald Trump and 18 co-conspirators have been indicted for their efforts to try to overturn the election in Georgia. Fani T. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, has been investigating this issue for more than a year. She is an experienced prosecutor. This is a complicated case that will take time to wind through the courts. Yet, it has the potential to be the most devastating against Donald Trump.

To me, the bigger question is the 14^th Amendment. Specifically, section 3 of the 14^th amendment states: No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

As far as I know, the 14^th Amendment has not been repealed. It is still active in our Constitution, and therefore, it is a law that we abide by. If we believe that Donald Trump instigated or participated in the insurrection on January 6th, then we are obligated to remove him from every presidential ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. This isn’t a choice. It’s an obligation. We are a nation of laws. We follow the law. It is really that simple.

The bigger question is how? How do we follow the law? One of the large misconceptions is that Donald Trump needs to be proven to be an insurrectionist in a court of law. This is not true. The House committee proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Donald Trump and others participated in the insurrection on January 6^th. This is our proof. The 14^th Amendment has satisfied the committee. Now, I think that any American citizen can petition the courts to remove Donald Trump and other insurrectionists from the ballot. Unfortunately, we must do this one state at a time. For example, a lawyer in Florida has filed a case in the Southern District of Florida that is asking for Donald Trump to be disqualified and removed from the ballot. No matter how this case is decided, I suspect it will go through the courts and finally end up in the Supreme Court. Now, this will test our system! Should the justices that were appointed to the Supreme Court by Donald Trump recuse themselves for conflicts of interest? This is going to get really interesting.

By ecthompsonmd|2023-11-12T15:15:49-04:00November 12th, 2023|Party Politics, Sports|0 Comments

I’ve had to rewrite my article for this month a couple of times. Some months, these articles are easier to write than others.

Trump
After sitting in my living room watching Americans attack the Capitol on January 6, 2021—and reruns of The Day countless times since then—I thought that people, important people, would be arrested. So, I waited with anticipation. Six months. A year. Two years. Two-and-a-half years. Well, that day has finally come. Trump has been indicted and formally arraigned. More on Trump later.

Barbie
I know. I thought it was going to be a fluff movie. It kinda was, but it was also much more. It turns out to be a female anthem. The movie is really good. It will cause you to think a bit. It is worth your time.

Small Towns
In 1985, John Cougar Mellencamp released his classic song, “Small Town.” I guess you could call it an ode to small towns. He discusses the fact that he was educated in a small town. He was taught to love Jesus in a small town. He met a beautiful woman and brought her back to the small town. Now she loves small towns just as much as he does. He even states that he has nothing against the big city—just that he is able to breathe in a small town. It’s a very nice tune.

Now, contrast Mellencamp to Jason Aldean, who just released a tune called, “Try That in a Small Town.” The song starts off violently. Sucker punch somebody on the sidewalk, carjack an old lady at a red light. The song goes on like this for several lines, then the chorus—Well, try that in a small town, see how far you make it down the road, around here, we take care of our own. This is not John Cougar Mellencamp’s small town.

It is hard to know where to go with Jason Aldean’s tune. It is combative. The imagery in the video is violent. It could even be called racist. The video seems to confuse nonviolent protests with lawlessness. The two actions are not the same. In the small town painted by Jason Aldean, there is no room for dissent. Step out of line or challenge the status quo, and you get a violent beat down. I really don’t want to have anything to do with Jason Aldean’s small town.

And, in fact, Mike Males, a writer for The Daily Kos, wrote on Aug. 8, “The odds of good-old White folks dying by gunfire are a whopping 1.7 times higher in an overwhelmingly White, small town or rural area … than in a big city full of people of color…

“The dirty rural secret shown in the latest Centers for Disease Control death tabulations for 2022-23: White people in small towns are 1.3 times more likely to be murdered, 1.3 times more likely to commit suicide, and 1.2 times more likely to die by violent causes than White people living in a big metro like Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, New York, or Houston.”