It is incredible how different American history would have turned out if Lincoln could have seen Reconstruction through instead of Andrew Johnson. #history #USHistory
#ushistory
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/august-24-2024
#HeatherCoxRichardson #uspolitics #ushistory
Aug 25, 2024
..."Their vision rejects the division of the country into “us” and “them” that has been a staple of Republican politics since President Richard M. Nixon. It also rejects the politics of identity that has become identified with the argument that the United States has been irredeemably warped by racism and sexism. Instead, at the DNC, Democrats acknowledged the many ways in which the country has come up short of its principles in the past, and demanded that Americans do something to put in place a government that will address those inequities and make the American dream accessible to all.
Walz personifies this community vision. On Wednesday he laid it out from the very beginning of his acceptance speech, noting that he grew up in Butte, Nebraska, a town of 400 people, with 24 kids in his high school class. “[G]rowing up in a small town like that,” he said, “you'll learn how to take care of each other that that family down the road, they may not think like you do, they may not pray like you do, they may not love like you do, but they're your neighbors and you look out for them and they look out for you. Everybody belongs and everybody has a responsibility to contribute.” The football players Walz coached to a state championship joined him on stage.
Harris also called out this idea of community when she declined to mention that, if elected, she will be the first female president, and instead remembered growing up in “a beautiful working-class neighborhood of firefighters, nurses, and construction workers, all who tended their lawns with pride.” Her mother, Harris said, “leaned on a trusted circle to help raise us. Mrs. Shelton, who ran the daycare below us and became a second mother. Uncle Sherman. Aunt Mary. Uncle Freddy. And Auntie Chris. None of them, family by blood. And all of them, Family. By love…. Family who…instilled in us the values they personified. Community. Faith. And the importance of treating others as you would want to be treated. With kindness. Respect. And compassion.”...
Very interesting (and not funny). A historian & Constitutional framer speak to the vagaries of the Constitution on #SCROTUS
Yes! The Constitution Allows Changes to the Supreme Court – and Other Surprises with Lawrence Goldstone
When they’re in Philadelphia, there were certain hot button issues. One of them was slavery and one of them was commerce. But one of them, and one of the most controversial items they had to deal with was a national court system. Every state, as I said, had its own functioning judiciary. They didn’t want to give up power to a federal court system, but yet everyone knew they needed a Supreme Court. But a court system, if you believe that you were a citizen of a state and went to a district court, a federal court in a different state, it would be like trying to stand in judgment before foreigners. And so this became during ratification, this became one of the most controversial aspects. Here they are trying to figure out how they can have a court without a court system. So Article III ended up having only six paragraphs.
Interesting focus on Article III (short and vague) and providing #ContextAndPerspective on how the states were prodded into signing
#LawrenceGoldstone #Constitution #SCOTUS #ArticleIII #UShistory #history #Judiciary
Where Beau runs down the history of the 4th of July and The Declaration Of Independence.
A bit long, but worth the trip.
#USHistory #4THofJuly
Beau of the Fifth Column - The Roads To The Declaration of Independence
https://med-mastodon.com/@bicmay/112029373721293348 bicmay@med-mastodon.com - "This Women's History Month, we at the AFL-CIO want to recognize that Women's history is not a separate history; it’s not a single month...Our Civil, Human and Women’s Rights Department has put together a list of recommended reading for the month—and we’re making it easy for you to support women authors and to buy union-made. We’ve sourced each book and linked to some union bookstore choices where you can order it online."
https://aflcio.org/2024/3/1/womens-history-month-reading-list
I love the Cynical Historian (Cypher) channel. This shortish video on the Wild West Myth which he wrote his dissertation on the topic is so fascinating. It is amazing how much in situ mythologizing, marketing, and post-hoc rationalization of the era and the retconning that into our national identity in the following century we have to unwind. I will say that I'd love to read his dissertation on the topic. I'll also say that with me being unable to finish in a timely manner even Asimov's I, Robot because.."Squirrel!"...that probably won't happen... #history #USHistory #CynicalHistorian
Understanding the Wild West Myth: American Exceptionalism through Violence and Indian Wars
Heh... and we (disinformation and trauma drenched masses) still haven't definitively addressed the #Jan6 #sedition ...
Well, books to sell I guess... Anything new here? Anything new in the realms of #justice, #accountability, &/or #truth?
In new memoir, Mike Pompeo says Trump told him to ‘shut the hell up’ about China
Big picture thus far -
And a great monologue/overview) from Colbert last night, who got additional praise and attention for his focus on "the fifth... the fifth" along with the rest of it, from #TrumpVIrus tantrums in cars, throwing plates, etc. Great synopsis for anyone who didn't see it live or one of the after-event panel discussions, etc. A truly mind-boggling expose/portrait of a certifiably unfit would-be King:
“Real Real Bad” - Hutchinson’s Eyewitness Testimony Reveals White House Knew Jan. 6th Would Get Ugly
#sedition #treason #Jan6 #USHistory #coup #GQP #GymJordan #Colbert
Currently reading
Gentleman Spy: The Life Of Allen Dulles, by Peter Grose
A fascinating read, this nonfiction biography is well-written enough and long enough to feel like J.R.R. Tolkien's spy novel. I'm halfway through and having a wonderful time.
The book starts, as one would expect of a biography, with Dulles's family history, birth, and early life. The foundations of his career in diplomacy were laid in Versailles at the postwar treaty negotiations in 1919. During the second world war he took the side door out of diplomacy and into intelligence, inventing the institution of non-military espionage along the way. Not to say that Allen Dulles was the first or only person to do so, but he is the main character. I've read up to when Dulles has "finally" reached his goal of leading the US intelligence service. He had dreamed of being Secretary of State but his brother John Foster Dulles ended up there instead. (That's who the airport is named after, by the way.) But by 1954, US covert interventions in Iran and Guatemala had already set the course of CIA we know and love as we know it today.
To find out what happens next, turn to page 389.
My own interest in this book and others like it (see also Veil by Bob Woodward) is that the historical background of current events, unless you happened in History or perhaps Political Science, is mostly lacking in discussions and news coverage. Even those who really should be expected to know their history, never seem to talk about it. Alongside the implicit history lessons in this biography, I'm also engaged with the mental exercise of trying to spot biases in the way the factual timeline is recounted.
The author presents Allen Dulles as a sympathetic character even aside from his charismatic personality, flaws and personal failings included so it makes for a different experience than simply reading a good piece of fiction - he didn't do or say or feel any of those things to drive a story, this was a real person and nothing that happened was a plot device.
Oh and despite my real enjoyment of the book, I'm actually making slow progress for the simple reason that there is so much going on in history, I don't dare skim a single bit. And that's good because I get to keep reading for that much longer.
My halfway-done take? I'm fascinated reading about how nice people found good reasons to do bad things.
#reading #history #biography #cia #ushistory #wwi #wwii #coldwar