Category: Society

Last Time Out We Shared Some Laughs. Now the Other Side

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Two Articles Broke My Heart but They Need to Be Read. Our Friends are Worried About Us.

On my last posting, earlier this week, I shared some editorial cartoons that, as I noted, gave me some laughs, made me angry, made me think. Exactly what such a thing should accomplish. And it seems you agreed. We got a few comments and lots of email about how much we all enjoyed the change and a bit of light heartedness. Goodness knows we could all use a bit of that.

Today, I regret to say I cannot be so lighthearted,

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Let’s Share a Few Laughs

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Because These Days, If You Can’t Laugh, You Might Cry Instead

The Sword Disguised as Pen

The art of the political or editorial cartoon is a fine and long-standing tradition. It has been a mainstay of American politics since our founding days. This art form actually predates this country by a long time. It seems that the ability to make fun of the high and mighty is a cherished tradition going back centuries.

We have been dealing with some pretty grim circumstances of late. And that was before the pandemic! Today, we will take a break and enjoy some of the better cartoons I have seen in recent weeks.

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OK, America. Who are We?

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We Looked at Me/We and Freedom/Community. Where Did We End Up?

Earlier this week, we looked at sometimes competing values as we fight the pandemic. We have been in this thing long enough now to come to some conclusions. But before we do that, a slight diversion. Let’s talk about dreams.

Dreams About the Pandemic

Others have noted that more frequent and more vivid dreams seem to be a byproduct of all this isolation. It appears I have succumbed to this symptom. I have recently had two dreams on judging how we are doing as a people.

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Is it Me or is it We? Is it Freedom or is it Community? All of the Above?

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America is Having an Internal Search. Who are we? What Do We Value?

America Looks for Itself, in Itself

As the pandemic rolls through America, interesting characteristics are arising. They are arising for individuals and collectively. We find ourselves highlighting sometimes very different aspects of our values. Some are just different; some are in conflict.

This is not a new phenomenon. Like a collective Diogenes, we periodically seek to define who we are and what we stand for. But it is more important than ever this time. We must decide what are our national values and priorities going forward.

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Good Reading to Share, Just for You

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We All Have More Time to Read, in This Isolation. I Have Some Goodies to Share

Catching Up on Our Back Reading

Like many of you, I seem to always have a stack of magazines lying about that I am behind in reading. If I could sell al the Atlantics and New Yorkers I have lying about, I could probably make up most of the beating the stock market is inflicting on me just now.

But there is good news. As our splendid isolation continues, we get caught up on such things.

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We Need a BIG Recovery- Here are 3 Pillars to Building Solutions

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Trying to Get Well from the Pandemic Offers a Golden Opportunity to Advance

 

This country is going to spend a lot of money trying to restart our economy. That is a given, a necessary action. Whether we do so intelligently or not is another question.

Infrastructure Investments, Wherefore Art Thou?

This feeds into our so far, fruitless national discussion about infrastructure. We are about $13 TRILLION behind in our infrastructure investments. That includes not doing new work or maintaining what we have. Remember collapsing bridge stories? We still have thousands of unsafe bridges all over this country.

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Leadership Right Under Our Noses, Just When We Need It

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Often Lost in Media Coverage in Normal Times, Governors Actually Run Things

Consider Governors

Several recent presidents have been governors: Carter, Reagan, Clinton, and Bush II. Even so, governors often get short shrift in media and in public attention. We tend to gravitate toward Washington personalities. This is an understandable, if oftentimes shortsighted, approach to picking our national leaders.

Washington personalities have the natural advantage of being in a global media capital. At some level, Washington based individuals also often deal in foreign policy and foreign crises. These yield valuable experience for a potential president.

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Who Knew?! Surprising Spin Offs from the Pandemic

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We Learn a Lot About Each Other in Such Times, Sometimes with a Laugh.

 

New Environments, Same Old DNA

Well, nothing like a few weeks of pandemic driven self-isolation to see what makes us all tick, eh? People change in new environments, as we see all around. But sometimes, we are predictable as can be.

Much of what has developed in society in recent weeks was foreseeable. Ah, but some were not so predictable. I have noted quite a few (changes? quirks? proclivities?) that I not have seen coming.

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There is Another Deadly (but Curable) Virus Stalking the Land

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Here is its formula: I+AxIL/NC = -0

As terrible as the Corona virus is, there is another that is ravaging our country. It is bad enough in and of itself, but it actually makes the other virus, indeed all our national problems, worse.

I am referring to the mental and emotional profiles that make up the Trump administration. If this were a biological infection, its component formula might read something like the following:   I+AxIL/NC = -0

The Chemistry of Failure

I: Ignorance. Simple failure to know, to understand, to study a threat or a problem.

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A Singular Failure of Judicial Judgement

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What Happened in Wisconsin is a Call to Arms

 

This is Not an Especially Complicated Story

Wisconsin had a primary this week. The governor sought to maximize voting by mail. He considered postponing the primary, as have many other states in the midst of this pandemic.

No hyperbole here – people who had to vote in person put their lives – and those of poll workers – at very real risk. This is a no brainer, right? Not so fast.

The Republican legislature blocked any moves to improve safety while encouraging voting.

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