Inaguration...and everyone loses their minds!

I just read about Rosie O'Donnell calling for the imposition of martial law to stop the inauguration of Donald Trump.  Aside from committing a felony (ie advocating the violent overthrow of the US government), she is showing how unhinged and insane some people really are.

Elections come and elections go.  Presidents come and go.  You don't win them all.  Just because your guy loses does not mean you go into psycho mode.

That is what separates us from most of the world--and orderly and peaceful transition of power after an election.  We have been doing that since 1800, when George Washington, after two terms in office, handed off to John Adams in a boring inauguration. 

This is not the Third World where there are military coups and revolutions after an election. In this country, one guy wins and the other guy hands off and we have an election in four years.  In the meantime, there are two other branched of gov't to keep the executive in check just in case.

Rosie should be proud that the worst thing that will happen on January 20 is that President Obama might steal all of the pens out of the Oval Office desk....maybe leave a whoopie cushion for President Trump.

If you don't like it Rosie, move.

We don't do military coups here.

Attack of the Snow Demons!

!

Snow is in the forecast and, of course, NC goes insane.  People have flooded the supermarkets and in panic mode.

I am not sure why.

It has snowed every January/February since 2010.  They should be used to it by now.  As a matter of fact, I give the NC Department of Transportation high marks for doing a good job and being prepared.  They do better than New York, whose crews are constantly hitting parked cars and then try to make a run or it....no chance, Youtube is everywhere!

Hopefully, we get the soft fluffy snow you can make snowballs out of but it usually is that icy stuff.  Then comes the single digit temperatures.  If it is going to be cold and nasty, at least have some snow to go with it!

I still have a couple of weeks before classes start, so I will catch up on my reading and watch some playoff football.  Green Bay and Pittsburgh will have single digit temperatures and part of me wonders why fans pay hundreds of bucks to sit in that for a game while another part of me wants to be there!

At worst, I can go outside and fly drones!

Hopefully the wind does not catch this one and send it to some other dimension.  We never did find the other one!

Happy New Year!

At the edge of 2017

The year 2016 was a fun year!

In January I started my dream job as a college history professor and it has been fun every step of the way.  In June, my Penguins won the Stanley Cup and Michelle and I went to Fort Sumter--something had always wanted to do.  It was also the first trip I ever enjoyed to South Carolina!  Then it was off to Gettysburg, which is never boring!

Then came a thing that everyone said could never happen--Britain leaving the European Union.  The alleged "experts" got it wrong (and would drop the ball even worst later...) while I got it right.

Then came the worst day of my life in August when my beloved furry friend Sprinkles died. It was better that she died at home among friends than in the vets office.  At least it was quick when it happened and we got to spend time together before the end.  We buried here in the back yard and visit the site every day.

The school year began anew and I had a great time with US History and World Civ to 1700, lining students like hoplites and German armies invading Russia.

NC was hit with a major hurricane in October and thankfully, we missed most of it.  The school calendar was mixed up but we adjusted on the fly and made our objectives with style grace and panache.

Then November saw a shocker of an election and the defeat of the supposedly invincible and corrupt elite.

December has rolled by and it has hurtled toward 2017.

I am not one for living in the past, and as much fun as 2016 was, it is  on to 2017 we charge, to make it bigger and better, achieve more and have fun with it at the same time.

End of the ColdWar--25 years later

The Soviet Union collapsed 25 years ago today and it disappeared with barely a whisper.  There was no great revolt, no failed Third World War, no civil war.  Gorbachev left a letter of resignation on the desk in the Kremlin and left.

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

 TS Elliot's poem was, as the Brits say, "spot on."

The Soviet system was literally sick and dying.  Andropov and Chernenko were only around for a year and state funerals were becoming annual events.  Mikhail Gorbachev saw there had to be change and we had glastnost and pereskroika

And an attempted coup by the KGB in August 1991 and the collapse began in slow motion.

There was talk about the "end of history"(idiots!) and a peace dividend.

The West blew it.

American foreign policy became hyper agressive and the European Union is just as tyrannical as the Soviet Union.  Then we were straddled with the millstone of Political Correctness.

Like its Soviet predecessor, we see the cracks in the EU and Political Correctness.  They are not invincible monoliths that cannot be stopped.  They have weaknesses because they are built on lies.  Internal contradictions are the worst kind.

Like I wrote earlier, the first age of the Cold War era is over. Brexit and Trump (?!) are the beginning of something else.  Good,bad, in between, remains to be be seen.

Humanity's natural state is to be free.Yes, there must be order, but once it becomes the Evil Empire, conflict arises, trouble begins, and in the end, oppression will fail.  Moscow was smart and left before it became bloody.  Over here, we had an election.

Now, let's do it right.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, say what you want,but don't tell others what to say.

That lesson was free :-)

Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The second age of the post Cold War era

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I remember reading the Wishsong of Shannara a long time ago and there was a phrase I just remembered. It is kind of weird to remember one phase out of a book nearly 400 pages long but it came out of the dark corners and took center stage

Allanon the Druid is dying from a battle with the Mord Wraiths and he tells Brin that "the age must end" and he performs some sort of ceremony and anoints Brin his successor.

When the Berlin Wall fell back in 1989, we entered a new era, a post-Cold War age removed from superpower rivalries and a nuclear Sword of Damocles hanging over everyone's head.  The danger of a Third World War had been removed and there was a "peace dividend"  waiting to be used for something that could benefit everyone. There was even a talk about "the end of history" with the triumph of liberal democracy.

First off, history never ends.

Many have charged that US foreign policy became more aggressive after the Soviet collapse and others also maintain that our government has become as dictatorial as what we faced in the Cold War.

Maybe, maybe not.  That is for you to decide.

The year 2016 saw a resurgence of nationalism and populism and the erosion of transnational organizations such as the European Union, which has displayed serious undemocratic tendencies.  That explains Britain's succession from the EU and Eastern Europe's coming defection. Here in America, there are several similar feelings toward our own government and moribund political system.  The candidacies of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders showed that the People will not be ignored.  The 2016 election, psychotic as it was, was a serious, an d necessary shock to that political system.Barack Obama had promised "Hope and Change" and ended up endorsing the establishment everyone--Republican and Democrat bases--despised.

Hence, Trump and Sanders

The age must end and a new one is dawning.

Whether it turns out to be good or bad remains to be seen. History does not end and it often repeats because many never learn the lessons.  Sometimes they do.

Here's hoping...