Print The Legend

As you may recall, in the classic John Ford western "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", the man who became famous for shooting Liberty Valance wasn't the man who actually shot Liberty Valance.

When he tries to explain this to a bunch of journalists at the end of the picture, one of them replies:

"This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact...print the legend."

I was reminded of this recently while reading about the fabled charge up San Juan Hill, in the Spanish American War.

Did you know that a company of black Buffalo Soldiers fought their way to the top of the hill either well before or at precisely the same time as Teddy Roosevelt and his Roughriders? (Historians disagree on the exact timing.)

I didn't.

Their white commander called them the bravest men he ever saw.

I didn't know that either.

But when you see the pictures celebrating the famous charge, there's the Roughriders, that strange amalgam of Harvard toffs and western shitkickers, and there's Teddy with that crazy look in his eyes. And not a single black face in sight.

Now, I'm not saying that Teddy and his boys weren't brave, too. I'm just saying....well, you know what I'm saying.

(Curiously, the 'hero' of the film, the man who did shoot Liberty Valance, did it from the side, at night, out of a dark alley, while Valance's attention was elsewhere...hmmm...makes you wonder about the nature of some kinds of heroism, don't it? John Ford was a complex man.)

If You Have To Talk To A Republican...

I mean if it's absolutely, positively, unavoidable, like if you're related to them or something, ask them the following questions:

What would Lincoln think about voter suppression? Or political campaigns based entirely on hatred and fear?

What would Teddy Roosevelt think about "corporate personhood" and "corporate religious beliefs"? Or "too big to fail"?

What would Eisenhower think about starting a war based on lies? And then cutting taxes in war time?

What would Nixon think about getting rid of the EPA? Or basing your economic policies on the writings of a quack philosopher/novelist?

What would any of them think about putting the Second Amendment above and before all the others?

Ask them these questions and then brace yourself for an avalanche of dissembling bullshit...

The Game Is Rigged

The game is rigged.

The game has always been rigged.

What has changed is that the occasional bone is no longer thrown to the masses.

Through the years, palliatives such as trust busting, labor laws, a minimum wage, public education, Social Security,  the GI Bill, civil and voting rights, food stamps, welfare and Medicare were offered to an increasingly restless public. People who really believed in the unfulfilled, often mythical, promises of  "all men are created equal" and "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness".

Not any more. The very very rich, whether human, or super-human (i.e. Corporations) have decided that it's counter productive to their profits to do anything for the rest of us.

And their almost complete control of the media has eliminated the possibility of a true reformer, like Teddy Roosevelt or FDR, changing the rules of the game. Even a centrist like Barack Obama is way too progressive for our oligarchical overlords.

No, better to elect Ayn Rand spouting, trickle down fools, who campaign on the lie that "government is the problem" and then do their level best to make sure that government does not work--except to ensure that the public trough is kept open for only a very select few.