Trying to keep up with everything politically is a full-time job these days. You certainly seem to be doing well, and I’m glad you found sobriety beneficial. One day at a time . . .
I really admire the way you both clearly and wisely share your thoughts and opinions. Then take the time to actually read the feedback you get … and instead of either ignoring it or becoming defensive when there is a disagreement etc, you post that feedback and reply in the same open, honest and respectful manner as originally stated. That is a rare thing to find in any person these days, let alone a famous person who has most certainly earned the right to completely ignore the ‘comments’. But it is for that exact reason that you are trusted and respected by people all over the map (literally and figuratively). Thank you for modeling this mature and thoughtful communication style as you have throughout your career. I find myself in complete agreement, kinship even, after reading one … possibly followed by an opposite reaction a few comments later. But never once wavering in my deep admiration, respect and affection for you as a gifted and talented artist and kind , generous human being. I wish for all of us to extend your modeled grace and equanimity to each other - particularly in today’s divisive and roiling waters. Thank you so much. ☮️
Good morning, Harrison. Very happy you responded to the letter on the Ten Commandments. Very enlightening for me. On the debate. "Trump won". Yes.. rr I'm back. Trump won, yes, and I hate that he did.
He didn't win if you listened to what he said. I'm not saying Biden won, but I haven't heard anyone deny that Trump spewed ridiculous lies the whole time.
Once you realize that Trump in not a liar, but a bullshitter....and can discern the difference...it will make it easier to see why half the country don't see him as the reincarnation of the next dictator. As for Biden, the dems made their bed long ago. Joe's pride/hubris/love of power is so great that he can't seem to do the right thing. The dems are toast this time around, in my stupid opinion.
You often tell us what other people think (young people, half the country, etc.), but I don't think you've ever told us what you think. Are you saying you support Trump because he's a bullshitter, not a liar? If you have a better reason I'd really like to hear it. A lot of the country hoped he was a bullshitter in 2016, but his policies and his behavior turned out to be far worse than a lot of us expected. So he wasn't bullshitting about what he wanted to do. He may be an occasional bullshitter, but everyone knows he's a compulsive liar. "I won in a landslide" isn't bullshitting; it's lying, as is "Democrats want babies executed after birth" and "I graduated first in my class at Wharton" and "I didn't have sex with a porn star." As for Joe Biden, we should know soon whether he'll be the nominee in November. But Republican, Democratic and Independent patriots need to join forces to make sure Trump never gets near the Oval Office again. It's not just Trump who's dangerous. The whole Republican party has cultishly embraced him, with many candidates parroting his election denialism, nods to white supremacists, discrediting of democratic institutions, sympathy for dictators, etc.
I voted straight dem from the age of 18 (1980) until 54 (2016). Even cast my ballot for the honorable Walter Mondale in one of the biggest defeats in presidential history because I was a proud Minnesotan. The last two I left the dem party and became independent. I could not tolerate HIllary's hawkish ways and close ties with Wall Street in '16. The progressive causes of the dems (BLM, trans-ideology, identity politics, D.E.I., CRT, defund the police, crazy crime, Covid lockdowns/ID cards, open borders, fear of free speech, big tech/big money ties) made voting for Biden out of the question in '20. I'm not a fan of Trump's. I find him morally repulsive. I also think the rhetoric surrounding Trump's haters - "fascist, Hitler, Mussolini, dictator, destroyer of democracy", etc. - so over the top and full of so much fear mongering to ever be taken seriously. The kids see through that b.s. and so do so many of my fellow citizens. So, here I sit, politically homeless again. I will make a confession, though. I just may vote for DT just as a stupid statement to indicate my objection to the clear disdain that libs have for much of the country. Won't really matter much. I live in deep-red Nebraska. "If voting mattered, they would have made it illegal." That's my thinking. Probably not rational, but there it is. I still like Garrison, though.
You've listed all the talking points of Fox News. You know that they had to pay $787.5 million for some of the lies they told about the 2020 election, I'm sure. I don't even know where a lot of those grievances come from. What is "trans-ideology"? What Democrats have seriously tried to defund the police? Crime has dropped by A LOT during the Biden administration. Fear of free speech--seriously? Why make a "stupid statement" with your vote? And all of the stuff about democracy--why is it so far-fetched when you find Trump morally repulsive and his speech is littered with fascist references? You can't miss them: "Proud Boys stand back and stand by," "there were fine people on both sides" (when one side was sporting swastikas), "poisoning the blood of our country," "vermin," etc. And he has white supremacists to dinner, and one of his campaign ads mentioned a "unified Reich" under Trump. And the incitements to violence! Who does any of that? The answer is that no one does it. It really is fascist and it should be disqualifying. Fascist parties are rising around the world--Marine Le Pen's father was a convicted Holocaust denier, and Giorgia Meloni and her party have historical connections to the Mussolini regime. I also think you're wrong about people having disdain for much of the country. The disdain is for Trump, and for people who think he can do no wrong. Another thing I've noticed about your writing is the disdain you express toward yourself: "in my stupid opinion," "as a stupid statement to indicate my objection," "probably not rational." Why? If you think your thinking is stupid and irrational, maybe reevaluate. Historian Timothy Snyder explains it all very well. His latest post on this site: https://snyder.substack.com/p/fascist-froth
Today's The Writer's Almanac offering acknowledged the birth of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross on this day. Best known for her book On Death and Dying (1969), which became a huge best-seller. In it, she outlined the five stages of grief, specifically when someone is diagnosed with a terminal illness: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. The Kubler-Ross book may help many get past the election results this November but much like last election, some will stay stuck in the first stage forever…
I am an irresponsible Republican who voted for Reagan, Reagan again, George H.W., George H.W. again, Bob Dole, George W., George W. again, John McCain, Mitt Romney, The Big Buffoon, The Big Buffoon again, and this time may sit this one out like I did in 1976 out of protest, back then because I was an idiot devotee of Ayn Rand and this time because . . . ah who the hell cares anymore! The Big Buffoon IS out of his mind, and Hunter Biden's old man has clearly lost his. It's not too late for an open convention for either party, and I wish that both would hold one for the good of our country, but the lust for power is a heady brew and both parties are too drunk on it to see straight. Having said all that, I'm glad that I write under a pseudonym and have my face covered in my headshot. A POTUS "Enemies List" is a real thing. Dick Nixon had one, and so did Bill Clinton. It's too late for you to stay off The Big Buffoon's, but I think that you'll be far enough down it that you won't need to lose much sleep. We'll see you in Irvine in January, and we can commiserate together then.
Yeah, a sitting President dropping out. Because that worked out so good last time in ‘68 when Johnson dropped out, and the convention ended up nomination a candidate (Humphrey) who had not run in —let alone won— a single primary (which, itself, pleased the democratic voters no end).
(Oh well, this Democratic convention will also be in Chicago. Maybe at least we’ll get another Crosby Stills and Nash song about this convention too.)
Joe Biden, for all his issues, has been one of the best, most effective, given the headwinds from the right and left, of my lifetime! We can use four more years! It’s a team! 4500 people working for him in the White House…great leaders have great teams!
You drank the Kool-Aid, Ryan. That's good. I've drunk more than my share too in my time. By the way, I briefly flirted with voting for Bobbie Kennedy for nostalgia's sake, if nothing else, but then it came out that he ate a dog . . . or, at least, he denied that he ate a dog, which is one and the same in my book. You can always tell what a politician did by what he or she denies. Anyway, I can't abide a man or woman who will eat or shoot a dog and then deny doing so.
Thank you for correcting my misspelling of "Kool-Aid," Nichael, which I've already corrected. And actually, I do know what "drink the Kool-Aid" means because I'm old enough to remember the poisoned drink that Jim Jones gave his followers as "Communion" at Jonestown in 1978, and it's a perfect metaphor for blinding following leaders of any sort.
Biden doesn't eat or shoot dogs (unlike Trump, he lives with dogs). More importantly, he's surrounded by competent people, he doesn't say he can't lose an election, he's never incited an attack on the U.S. Capitol, he wasn't mentored by Joseph McCarthy's chief counsel and he isn't trying to revive McCarthyism. The same can be said of anyone who might replace Biden as the Democratic candidate. Don't vote for nostalgia's sake, vote for the sake of sanity and your country. This has nothing to do with Kool-Aid.
I understood very well that it was RFK Jr. who you said ate a dog or whatever (he is not someone I'm interested in at all); I was just pointing out that Biden likes dogs--since dogs seem to factor into your thinking quite a bit relative to the 2024 election. I again urge you to vote for sanity and your country. Your Republican party drastically needs a reset, having gotten 100% behind a candidate who says any election he loses is fraudulent. It's unacceptable and unsustainable for a democracy, and the sooner we can return to some kind of normalcy, the better.
Thank you, Dana. That you persist in such sincere and polite engagement when what I write is mostly tongue-in-cheek really is both touching and encouraging. This is the year where I know only who I'm NOT gonna vote for. I hope that there's a spot for write-ins. I can't remember if there is.
The rich are not like you and me. F. Scott Fitzgerald told us that a long time ago . . . but the ability to be funny is worth its weight in gold. And you, Sir, are our modern-day Mark Twain. God willing, our country survives all the buffoonery.
Your story of the role that having a daughter playing in your decision to stop drinking reminds me of a time when I was a kid hanging around a group of older guys. All them were smoking (as was normal at the time) except for one guy. When someone asked him why he wasn’t smoking, he said (somewhat to the surprise of the others) that he had quit.
When asked why he had done such a dumb thing, he said that his young daughter had came home, crying her eyes out. She walked up to him and said they’d had a class in school about the effects of smoking and she wanted him to stop, because she didn’t want to grow up without a Daddy. He threw away the pack he had, and had never smoked again.
All these decades later, being myself a man rich in daughters, I’ve come to recognize too what a force for good this power can be.
(Perhaps there should be a self-help group, an off-shoot from AA; maybe call it something like AwD, Alcoholics with Daughters?)
Always a joy, thanks…even when we diverge I value you for your insight. One of things I wish we were better at is defining leadership…and making a clearer statement about membership in the community at the same time.
As a leader I would say, ‘If I think I’m the smartest person on my team I have failed as the leader.’ And politics is a team endeavor, and why Donny-John sucks as a leader, because his team was terrible! By choices made by him.
Joe has a real team…and 4,500 or so in the White House. And a few million or so working under these folks leading the country. This is a team. The woman leading the Department of the Interior is amazing! She is a leader of the kind we need more of…and yet so many seem to still think yelling, saliva, bombast make for a leader. You are fired shows you are a bad hirer.
And Garrison, you too are and have been a leader as well…and yet here too this isn’t seen by enough people. This is the leadership that supports children and schools, this is the leadership you wish on surgical team working to save your life, this is the leadership of a working Mom striving for a better life for her children, her babies. Trust, love, community, making it better, dealing with it when it;s not.
Decisive does not have to be mean, hateful, hurtful. It can build community, be joy and productive.
Why can’t the Democrats figure out the simple formula of clear messaging, unity and loyalty? The whole debate was a bad idea. You don’t give a platform to a dictator. He will never debate, he will only seize the opportunity to spread propaganda. It’s not Biden who needs replaced, it’s the folks making these careless mistakes! Traveling around the world for three weeks (prior to the debate)would be enough to make anyone tired and at 81 it’s vital to include some down time in your schedule. Who is looking after him?
Garrison, my daughter suffers from seizures and recently changed her medication to Briviact, a newer version of Kepra, without many of the side effects and better efficacy, fyi.
Adjective, I'm sure you meant. I saw the Vance interview as well. It's disturbing that Meet the Press gives MAGA liars a chance to spew their lies. Trump's "family values," Biden's "weaponization" of the Justice Department, the "false premise" of Republican election denialism, etc. Vance is an effective liar.
GK any aphasia is a symptom of being a writer. It's psychological, and normal for creatives. As long as there's nothing wrong with you, and obviously there isn't, don't give it another thought : )
There are no “responsible” Republicans holding office or seeking it. Cheney is gone, and Mitt Romney is going. The rest are all trying to stay “relevant”, in the immortal words of Lindsey Graham. It remains to be seen whether Republicans voters are responsible. I certainly hope that enough of them are.
I can add a little context to Tammy Cuevas' question about the German Brethren and how they differ from the Plymouth Brethren (to which they have no connection). Their full name was German Baptist Brethren, and they originated in Schwarzenau, Germany, in 1708, inspired by both Anabaptist and Pietist movements. Their polite refusal to adhere to German state churches met with hostility. So they decamped to Pennsylvania where William Penn had offered refuge to dissidents and nonconformists of every stripe. The German Baptist Brethren were an insular lot, very much like the Mennonites (with which they share the Anabaptist heritage). They claimed "no creed but the New Testament," they believed in "openness to new light," they practiced adult baptism by a "trine" ritual (three immersions, one in the name of each Person of the Godhead), and they practiced a yearly "Love feast," an emulation of the Last Supper as recorded in the Gospel of John. This included a service of the washing of feet. They were practical, simple people. They had no professional clergy and their meetinghouses were quite plain. They emphasized simple acts of charity and were not much given to theological speculation. Had you asked an old Brethren elder for his views of soteriology, he would have lost interest once he learned that it had nothing to do with horses. Despite their theological flexibility, they could not manage to avoid the Protestant temptation to schism with the first three-way split in the 1880s. Today there are at least five Christian bodies that originated with the German Baptist Brethren, the largest of which is the Church of the Brethren. The 20th century brought professional clergy, abandonment of plain dress, and the replacement of German by English in their services.
Probably the best-preserved site of German Baptist Brethren history is the Dunker Church at Antietam. It appears in a famous photo of the Antietam battlefield. The meeting house was wrecked by a storm in the 1920s but was reconstructed in 1962 using as much original material as possible. If you visit it, you will notice that there is no pulpit. The Brethren avoided raised pulpits to emphasize that their ministers were figuratively and literally on the same level as the congregation.
'This is the beauty of cancellation; it frees you from self-importance.' Ah, perhaps the 'blessing in disguise' experience we've all heard about! Freedom from self-importance is tricky for most of us, that is my observation. (I couldn't possibly be wrong.) You grabbed your gift and ran with it, and I deeply thank you for doing so.
Trying to keep up with everything politically is a full-time job these days. You certainly seem to be doing well, and I’m glad you found sobriety beneficial. One day at a time . . .
I really admire the way you both clearly and wisely share your thoughts and opinions. Then take the time to actually read the feedback you get … and instead of either ignoring it or becoming defensive when there is a disagreement etc, you post that feedback and reply in the same open, honest and respectful manner as originally stated. That is a rare thing to find in any person these days, let alone a famous person who has most certainly earned the right to completely ignore the ‘comments’. But it is for that exact reason that you are trusted and respected by people all over the map (literally and figuratively). Thank you for modeling this mature and thoughtful communication style as you have throughout your career. I find myself in complete agreement, kinship even, after reading one … possibly followed by an opposite reaction a few comments later. But never once wavering in my deep admiration, respect and affection for you as a gifted and talented artist and kind , generous human being. I wish for all of us to extend your modeled grace and equanimity to each other - particularly in today’s divisive and roiling waters. Thank you so much. ☮️
And as those of us of fewer words might say, 'For sure!'
Good morning, Harrison. Very happy you responded to the letter on the Ten Commandments. Very enlightening for me. On the debate. "Trump won". Yes.. rr I'm back. Trump won, yes, and I hate that he did.
He didn't win if you listened to what he said. I'm not saying Biden won, but I haven't heard anyone deny that Trump spewed ridiculous lies the whole time.
Once you realize that Trump in not a liar, but a bullshitter....and can discern the difference...it will make it easier to see why half the country don't see him as the reincarnation of the next dictator. As for Biden, the dems made their bed long ago. Joe's pride/hubris/love of power is so great that he can't seem to do the right thing. The dems are toast this time around, in my stupid opinion.
You often tell us what other people think (young people, half the country, etc.), but I don't think you've ever told us what you think. Are you saying you support Trump because he's a bullshitter, not a liar? If you have a better reason I'd really like to hear it. A lot of the country hoped he was a bullshitter in 2016, but his policies and his behavior turned out to be far worse than a lot of us expected. So he wasn't bullshitting about what he wanted to do. He may be an occasional bullshitter, but everyone knows he's a compulsive liar. "I won in a landslide" isn't bullshitting; it's lying, as is "Democrats want babies executed after birth" and "I graduated first in my class at Wharton" and "I didn't have sex with a porn star." As for Joe Biden, we should know soon whether he'll be the nominee in November. But Republican, Democratic and Independent patriots need to join forces to make sure Trump never gets near the Oval Office again. It's not just Trump who's dangerous. The whole Republican party has cultishly embraced him, with many candidates parroting his election denialism, nods to white supremacists, discrediting of democratic institutions, sympathy for dictators, etc.
I voted straight dem from the age of 18 (1980) until 54 (2016). Even cast my ballot for the honorable Walter Mondale in one of the biggest defeats in presidential history because I was a proud Minnesotan. The last two I left the dem party and became independent. I could not tolerate HIllary's hawkish ways and close ties with Wall Street in '16. The progressive causes of the dems (BLM, trans-ideology, identity politics, D.E.I., CRT, defund the police, crazy crime, Covid lockdowns/ID cards, open borders, fear of free speech, big tech/big money ties) made voting for Biden out of the question in '20. I'm not a fan of Trump's. I find him morally repulsive. I also think the rhetoric surrounding Trump's haters - "fascist, Hitler, Mussolini, dictator, destroyer of democracy", etc. - so over the top and full of so much fear mongering to ever be taken seriously. The kids see through that b.s. and so do so many of my fellow citizens. So, here I sit, politically homeless again. I will make a confession, though. I just may vote for DT just as a stupid statement to indicate my objection to the clear disdain that libs have for much of the country. Won't really matter much. I live in deep-red Nebraska. "If voting mattered, they would have made it illegal." That's my thinking. Probably not rational, but there it is. I still like Garrison, though.
You've listed all the talking points of Fox News. You know that they had to pay $787.5 million for some of the lies they told about the 2020 election, I'm sure. I don't even know where a lot of those grievances come from. What is "trans-ideology"? What Democrats have seriously tried to defund the police? Crime has dropped by A LOT during the Biden administration. Fear of free speech--seriously? Why make a "stupid statement" with your vote? And all of the stuff about democracy--why is it so far-fetched when you find Trump morally repulsive and his speech is littered with fascist references? You can't miss them: "Proud Boys stand back and stand by," "there were fine people on both sides" (when one side was sporting swastikas), "poisoning the blood of our country," "vermin," etc. And he has white supremacists to dinner, and one of his campaign ads mentioned a "unified Reich" under Trump. And the incitements to violence! Who does any of that? The answer is that no one does it. It really is fascist and it should be disqualifying. Fascist parties are rising around the world--Marine Le Pen's father was a convicted Holocaust denier, and Giorgia Meloni and her party have historical connections to the Mussolini regime. I also think you're wrong about people having disdain for much of the country. The disdain is for Trump, and for people who think he can do no wrong. Another thing I've noticed about your writing is the disdain you express toward yourself: "in my stupid opinion," "as a stupid statement to indicate my objection," "probably not rational." Why? If you think your thinking is stupid and irrational, maybe reevaluate. Historian Timothy Snyder explains it all very well. His latest post on this site: https://snyder.substack.com/p/fascist-froth
Today's The Writer's Almanac offering acknowledged the birth of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross on this day. Best known for her book On Death and Dying (1969), which became a huge best-seller. In it, she outlined the five stages of grief, specifically when someone is diagnosed with a terminal illness: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. The Kubler-Ross book may help many get past the election results this November but much like last election, some will stay stuck in the first stage forever…
I am an irresponsible Republican who voted for Reagan, Reagan again, George H.W., George H.W. again, Bob Dole, George W., George W. again, John McCain, Mitt Romney, The Big Buffoon, The Big Buffoon again, and this time may sit this one out like I did in 1976 out of protest, back then because I was an idiot devotee of Ayn Rand and this time because . . . ah who the hell cares anymore! The Big Buffoon IS out of his mind, and Hunter Biden's old man has clearly lost his. It's not too late for an open convention for either party, and I wish that both would hold one for the good of our country, but the lust for power is a heady brew and both parties are too drunk on it to see straight. Having said all that, I'm glad that I write under a pseudonym and have my face covered in my headshot. A POTUS "Enemies List" is a real thing. Dick Nixon had one, and so did Bill Clinton. It's too late for you to stay off The Big Buffoon's, but I think that you'll be far enough down it that you won't need to lose much sleep. We'll see you in Irvine in January, and we can commiserate together then.
Yeah, a sitting President dropping out. Because that worked out so good last time in ‘68 when Johnson dropped out, and the convention ended up nomination a candidate (Humphrey) who had not run in —let alone won— a single primary (which, itself, pleased the democratic voters no end).
(Oh well, this Democratic convention will also be in Chicago. Maybe at least we’ll get another Crosby Stills and Nash song about this convention too.)
Ahhhh . . . the good old days, huh? https://youtu.be/fEFsBF1X1ow?si=7vy6SSu9OUbb7_-w
Joe Biden, for all his issues, has been one of the best, most effective, given the headwinds from the right and left, of my lifetime! We can use four more years! It’s a team! 4500 people working for him in the White House…great leaders have great teams!
You drank the Kool-Aid, Ryan. That's good. I've drunk more than my share too in my time. By the way, I briefly flirted with voting for Bobbie Kennedy for nostalgia's sake, if nothing else, but then it came out that he ate a dog . . . or, at least, he denied that he ate a dog, which is one and the same in my book. You can always tell what a politician did by what he or she denies. Anyway, I can't abide a man or woman who will eat or shoot a dog and then deny doing so.
Hmmm.. . I don’t think you understand what the expression “drink the Kool-aide [sic]” means.
(Hint: It doesn’t mean “You’ve accurately and correctly stated the situation”.)
Thank you for correcting my misspelling of "Kool-Aid," Nichael, which I've already corrected. And actually, I do know what "drink the Kool-Aid" means because I'm old enough to remember the poisoned drink that Jim Jones gave his followers as "Communion" at Jonestown in 1978, and it's a perfect metaphor for blinding following leaders of any sort.
I didn't eat a dog once, also. Maybe I should run for something.
If you do, Geoff. You can count on my support.
Biden doesn't eat or shoot dogs (unlike Trump, he lives with dogs). More importantly, he's surrounded by competent people, he doesn't say he can't lose an election, he's never incited an attack on the U.S. Capitol, he wasn't mentored by Joseph McCarthy's chief counsel and he isn't trying to revive McCarthyism. The same can be said of anyone who might replace Biden as the Democratic candidate. Don't vote for nostalgia's sake, vote for the sake of sanity and your country. This has nothing to do with Kool-Aid.
Dana,
Bobby Kennedy, Jr., is the one who ate a dog and then denied doing so. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/offbeat/rfk-jr-says-he-loves-does-not-eat-dogs/ar-BB1pCE5l?ocid=BingNewsSerp
And it was Trump's prospective running mate, that lady governor from some Podunk state somewhere, is the one who shot her dog and then admitted doing so. https://time.com/6971773/kristi-noem-memoir-dog-kill-children-net-worth/
I never said that the current President of these United States ever ate or shot a dog, but his dog reportedly has bitten a Secret Service agent, or so I read. https://www.usatoday.com/story/graphics/2024/02/23/biden-dog-commander-biting-tracked/72701866007/
What all this has to do with the price of tea in China I forget . . . except that maybe China figures into all this somehow. https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3269604/us-china-ties-may-have-hit-wall-xi-biden-summit-noted-chinese-commentator-warns
I understood very well that it was RFK Jr. who you said ate a dog or whatever (he is not someone I'm interested in at all); I was just pointing out that Biden likes dogs--since dogs seem to factor into your thinking quite a bit relative to the 2024 election. I again urge you to vote for sanity and your country. Your Republican party drastically needs a reset, having gotten 100% behind a candidate who says any election he loses is fraudulent. It's unacceptable and unsustainable for a democracy, and the sooner we can return to some kind of normalcy, the better.
Thank you, Dana. That you persist in such sincere and polite engagement when what I write is mostly tongue-in-cheek really is both touching and encouraging. This is the year where I know only who I'm NOT gonna vote for. I hope that there's a spot for write-ins. I can't remember if there is.
See you then, sir. I wish your buffoon had tthe ability to be funny and actually tell a joke. If he has, I haven't heard it.
The rich are not like you and me. F. Scott Fitzgerald told us that a long time ago . . . but the ability to be funny is worth its weight in gold. And you, Sir, are our modern-day Mark Twain. God willing, our country survives all the buffoonery.
Good morning, Garrison.
Your story of the role that having a daughter playing in your decision to stop drinking reminds me of a time when I was a kid hanging around a group of older guys. All them were smoking (as was normal at the time) except for one guy. When someone asked him why he wasn’t smoking, he said (somewhat to the surprise of the others) that he had quit.
When asked why he had done such a dumb thing, he said that his young daughter had came home, crying her eyes out. She walked up to him and said they’d had a class in school about the effects of smoking and she wanted him to stop, because she didn’t want to grow up without a Daddy. He threw away the pack he had, and had never smoked again.
All these decades later, being myself a man rich in daughters, I’ve come to recognize too what a force for good this power can be.
(Perhaps there should be a self-help group, an off-shoot from AA; maybe call it something like AwD, Alcoholics with Daughters?)
Always a joy, thanks…even when we diverge I value you for your insight. One of things I wish we were better at is defining leadership…and making a clearer statement about membership in the community at the same time.
As a leader I would say, ‘If I think I’m the smartest person on my team I have failed as the leader.’ And politics is a team endeavor, and why Donny-John sucks as a leader, because his team was terrible! By choices made by him.
Joe has a real team…and 4,500 or so in the White House. And a few million or so working under these folks leading the country. This is a team. The woman leading the Department of the Interior is amazing! She is a leader of the kind we need more of…and yet so many seem to still think yelling, saliva, bombast make for a leader. You are fired shows you are a bad hirer.
And Garrison, you too are and have been a leader as well…and yet here too this isn’t seen by enough people. This is the leadership that supports children and schools, this is the leadership you wish on surgical team working to save your life, this is the leadership of a working Mom striving for a better life for her children, her babies. Trust, love, community, making it better, dealing with it when it;s not.
Decisive does not have to be mean, hateful, hurtful. It can build community, be joy and productive.
Thanks! Ryan
Why can’t the Democrats figure out the simple formula of clear messaging, unity and loyalty? The whole debate was a bad idea. You don’t give a platform to a dictator. He will never debate, he will only seize the opportunity to spread propaganda. It’s not Biden who needs replaced, it’s the folks making these careless mistakes! Traveling around the world for three weeks (prior to the debate)would be enough to make anyone tired and at 81 it’s vital to include some down time in your schedule. Who is looking after him?
I'm sorry, but these are the sad excuses of those in clear denial.
Could you be more clear?
Ha! Doubtful. This clear goes to 11.
Garrison, my daughter suffers from seizures and recently changed her medication to Briviact, a newer version of Kepra, without many of the side effects and better efficacy, fyi.
Responsible and Republican, a verb and noun that no longer go together.
On Meet the Press yesterday, Vance spouted that Trump extolled family values.
His adulterous past, porn star, etc escapades, endless lies and corrupt business dealings, and bankrupt atrocities! Some values, not!
Adjective, I'm sure you meant. I saw the Vance interview as well. It's disturbing that Meet the Press gives MAGA liars a chance to spew their lies. Trump's "family values," Biden's "weaponization" of the Justice Department, the "false premise" of Republican election denialism, etc. Vance is an effective liar.
Sure he (TFG) extolls them. He just doesn't live the values. That's a different thing, entirely.
Public schooling is not Sunday school. Keep religion separate from government and public education.
"responsible republicans"
as redundant a phrase can be
GK any aphasia is a symptom of being a writer. It's psychological, and normal for creatives. As long as there's nothing wrong with you, and obviously there isn't, don't give it another thought : )
There are no “responsible” Republicans holding office or seeking it. Cheney is gone, and Mitt Romney is going. The rest are all trying to stay “relevant”, in the immortal words of Lindsey Graham. It remains to be seen whether Republicans voters are responsible. I certainly hope that enough of them are.
I can add a little context to Tammy Cuevas' question about the German Brethren and how they differ from the Plymouth Brethren (to which they have no connection). Their full name was German Baptist Brethren, and they originated in Schwarzenau, Germany, in 1708, inspired by both Anabaptist and Pietist movements. Their polite refusal to adhere to German state churches met with hostility. So they decamped to Pennsylvania where William Penn had offered refuge to dissidents and nonconformists of every stripe. The German Baptist Brethren were an insular lot, very much like the Mennonites (with which they share the Anabaptist heritage). They claimed "no creed but the New Testament," they believed in "openness to new light," they practiced adult baptism by a "trine" ritual (three immersions, one in the name of each Person of the Godhead), and they practiced a yearly "Love feast," an emulation of the Last Supper as recorded in the Gospel of John. This included a service of the washing of feet. They were practical, simple people. They had no professional clergy and their meetinghouses were quite plain. They emphasized simple acts of charity and were not much given to theological speculation. Had you asked an old Brethren elder for his views of soteriology, he would have lost interest once he learned that it had nothing to do with horses. Despite their theological flexibility, they could not manage to avoid the Protestant temptation to schism with the first three-way split in the 1880s. Today there are at least five Christian bodies that originated with the German Baptist Brethren, the largest of which is the Church of the Brethren. The 20th century brought professional clergy, abandonment of plain dress, and the replacement of German by English in their services.
Probably the best-preserved site of German Baptist Brethren history is the Dunker Church at Antietam. It appears in a famous photo of the Antietam battlefield. The meeting house was wrecked by a storm in the 1920s but was reconstructed in 1962 using as much original material as possible. If you visit it, you will notice that there is no pulpit. The Brethren avoided raised pulpits to emphasize that their ministers were figuratively and literally on the same level as the congregation.
Thank you for this plain factual history. I read it with admiration.
Thank you for your kind words. I hope that I have conveyed to Ms. Cuevas a sense of how quietly extraordinary her forebears were.
'This is the beauty of cancellation; it frees you from self-importance.' Ah, perhaps the 'blessing in disguise' experience we've all heard about! Freedom from self-importance is tricky for most of us, that is my observation. (I couldn't possibly be wrong.) You grabbed your gift and ran with it, and I deeply thank you for doing so.