First, let us send consoling thoughts to the families of the 19 firefighters who died in Arizona yesterday. The dangerous heat wave in the southwest continues. It was just a hair under 130 degrees F in Death Valley.
Egypt is acting out again. Righties blame Obama.
News for 150 years ago today — Outnumbered and disorganized Union troops retreat back through Gettysburg as Confederates advance. The Union troops are reinforced and positioned on Cemetery Hill. Confederate Lt. General Richard Ewell chooses not to attack the Union lines.
I’m wondering when we’ll have some Union victories like Gettysburg and Vicksburg in our “Cold Civil War,” that’s been raging, since Goldwater/Nixon/Reagan.
I had hopes in 2008, when President Obama was elected.
But the backlash to that positive event has been devastating. It allowed all of the Conservatives to fly their freak-flags.
Hopefully, with all of their anti-minority and anti-women activities, this will be the last time that “The South Shall Rise Again.”
And if not – and I certainly hope we don’t – maybe we’ll have to have a REAL Civil War.
But this time, no clemency for the traitors.
Related to the Civil War: The Banality of Butter: What Hannah Arendt Can Tell Us About Paula Deen. Also, great little movie out about Hannah Arendt, focusing on the Eichmann trial.
I’m wondering when we’ll have some Union victories…
I haven’t seen a map of it, but the country is becoming more and more polarized. I’ve read that entire state governments are either under complete GOP or complete Democratic control. In North Carolina, the GOP now has a solid lock on the state government, and they’re busy instituting draconian policies not unlike what we were seeing in Wisconsin and the upper midwest last year (and likewise, provoking a similar response from the public). Meanwhile, in California, we’re so incredibly lucky to have Jerry Brown and solid Democratic control. I don’t have a clear picture on the rest of the country, but it seems that the South at least is solidly red.
That said, I am so encouraged by Wendy Davis in Texas. She will probably lose the fight over abortion, but we so badly need leaders, particularly in the Deep South, and it’s amazing to me how she and her red hot sneakers have gained national attention overnight. I went to her website, and read a little about her story, and it just amazes me that she’s in politics for more or less the same reasons I lean left.
The whole phenomenon of polarization is fascinating to me. Mike Lofgren, in Truthout wrote The Authoritarian Seducation, where he talks about how Congress has extremely low favorability ratings, whereas the military scores very high. When the political system is broken, a country becomes susceptible to rule by other means. I fear we’re heading that way.
I’m sure the righties are blaming the 130 degrees in death valley on Obama too.
And probably Gettysburg too!