Wayward Landlubber

    In a small workshop on a Philadelphia military base a team of mostly women-mostly immigrants produce the Presidential and Vice-Presidential flags, stitch by meticulous stitch. They also produce regimental colors for the various military branches. Produce is not the right word. They create the flags and each one is signed by the artist who did the hand-stitching of the eagle with the arrows in one talon and the olive branch in the other, as well as the adornments for the regimental flags. Each flag can take six months of conscientous work. There is a long list of craft-people waiting to get into this exclusive group of 13 people employed in a low building on a military base operated by the Defense Logistics Agency. Military jets parked at the entrance of their workplace provide atmosphere. I'm pretty sure these talented people don't make more than a government salary, which will be among the government salaries that will be held up if Republicans in the House are not capabl...

     On July 24, 1983, in a baseball game between the Kansas City Royals and the New York Yankees, George Brett hit a home run that was disputed by Yankees manager Billy Martin. Martin disputed that home run on the basis of too much pine tar on Brett's bat. When the head umpire agreed with Martin, George Brett stormed out of the dugout and a brouhaha ensued which had not been repeated until a group of entitled white boaters driving a pontoon boat, in Montgomery Alabama, were told they couldn't moor their boat where a tour boat was trying to park.      Some say pine tar makes the handle of the bat sticky, so the bat doesn't slip out of their hand. I always thought that was what the glove was for, but whadda i know? Other sources say that the pine tar helps the batter to visualize the ball on the fat part of the bat. Sort of like visualizing the belt line between Donald Trumps white golf shirt and the expanse of avoirdupoir that blocks out the sun beneath it....

     Most of us know something about the Luddites. Typical of most Americans it is not much. After all, it happened a long time ago over two hundred years ago, and didn't happen here. Why bother? What we know for sure is that they, the Luddites, destroyed machinery at the beginning of the industrial age. We're pretty sure it happened in England. To know more would be woke. And that's where it stands. Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations was written about a half century earlier, Karl Marx and Frederich Engels would write their book, Capitol, about a half century later. In between this, a new nation had come into being, and that was the United States of America. What could be more important than that? DAMN THE LUDDITES!       What only a few understand is the context. These protests against industrialization were led, and participated in, by workers in the textile craft industries. They were not industries until the industrial engines began putting these craft...

     I grew up in the postwar years. Our fathers fought fascists, they did not defend them. A Republican president's campaign slogan was "I like Ike" and we did. Most of us who lived at that time were younger members of families who could purchase a car and own a mortgage with a single breadwinner and stay-at-home mom, because 30% of the workforce was union. We were beginning to make progressive changes. Maybe not easily, but steadily. We, white people, were learning to see civil rights differently, most of us too slowly for many who experienced racism. Congress was still investigating Hollywood writers and actors for their student involvement in socialism... in the 1920's. They would have been young idealists at a time when socialism was gaining currency, and capitalism was showing its weakness, but the aggressive investigators did not much care and carried on until the steam ran out, they were unsurprisingly Republicans. By the middle of the next decade, one of the ...

     There is a world happiness index, measured by the famous Gallup polling people. The happiest place in the world has been sitting firmly on that precipice for the last six years. That country is Finland, the newest entrant to NATO, along with Sweden, who sits comfortably in the number six spot on that list. Finland and Sweden were happy to remain neutral until about eighteen months ago when Russia invaded Ukraine. Since Finland, Sweden and Norway share geographical closeness with Russia they were motivated to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in case Russia should annex Ukraine into its territory and seek more. Now that Russia is quite likely to suffer defeat in its quest, they are even happier.       Did I mention that Finland contains a part of the Arctic circle within it's land mass? Even in its most southern region it borders the North Atlantic, which is known by mariners for its icebergs. It is in short, a country where cross-country...

     Gun registration has never been a popular legislative idea in this country. Especially in those small towns that Jason Aldean embarrassed himself with. I know, ya' ain't supposed to end a sentence with a preposition. A recent event, much memed, has started some people in a strongly red state to contemplate a kind of weapons registration. Problem is, they are stuck on the title. The Folding Chair Registration and Safety Act doesn't seem to have the required dignity.      By now we know the story. A pontoon boat piloted by a white guy who considered himself entitled, and his entitled white friends, decided to tie up at a wharf in Montgomery Alabama. Only in Alabama could a white guy in a pontoon boat be considered entitled. Okay, include Louisiana, as well. The problem is that the spot they had elected to tie up to was reserved for a tour boat which was just in front of them, preparing to back into the spot. A large tour boat with not much room to maneuv...

    I'm a socialist. It took me a long time to admit it to myself, it took even longer before i could be confident enough to admit it publicly. That is a good thing. It shows thought, it shows deliberation. We liberals are used to that. It's what makes us what we are.       I grew up in a time during which, and just after, congress was having communist witch-hunts. People then had no clear idea between socialism and communism. The same ignorance exists today, some 70-odd years later. Mostly in one particular party. A party well-practiced in witch-hunting. Today's witch hunters have made witches from LGBTQ PLUS people. They have made witches of teachers and school boards for teaching Critical Race Theory (which is not taught until first-year law school) though any history that places slavery in a bad light would be too critical. They have vilified any mention of DES (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) in the workplace, though they do not have a seat in the ex...