Nothing to Say, But I’ll Say It Anyway

I haven’t posted in several weeks because I’ve had nothing to say.

But two items in this week’s news are worth mentioning.

One, another proposal is being floated to divide California.  This one would sever interior California from coastal California.  The interior part of the state is largely rural, while the coast is heavily urban.  Read as follows:  rural equals Republican; urban equals Democrat.  Would there be Dust Bowl era signs at the urbanish borders saying “Opies [Old Progressives] Go Home”?

Two, the state department of transportation is beginning to favor building traffic roundabouts over planting stop signs at intersections.  If this goes far enough, I see it as a giant piece of symbolism.  No longer will America be a stop-and-go nation but one that that is more circuitous, more circumspect.

More later, when I still have nothing to say.

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What Would (Did) Mencken Say?

"The White House will be adorned by a downright moron”—H. L. Mencken.

Henry Louis Mencken (1880–1956) was an American journalist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English.   He preferred a shortened form of his name, H. L. Mencken, and was nicknamed the "Sage of Baltimore."

Snopes.com checked the authenticity of the quote used at the start of this post and verified that, yes, Mencken did in fact write those words.

Snopes went further and put the remark in the paragraph in which it was originally composed, thereby showing the context, which was not at all flattering to Americans: “As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

Mencken was a skeptic.  He was acerbic. His barbs lived long lives and are scattered around the internet.

He distrusted humanity: “Don't overestimate the decency of the human race.”

He had a low opinion of his fellow Americans: “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.”

He disliked the American form of government: “Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.”

He thought little of the GOP: “In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican.”

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Patience, Forsooth, Yea Verily

"Impeach Trump" results on Google--about 19,500,000 (May 10, 2017)

In a summer years ago, I and several family members vacationed in the Pacific Northwest.  Early in August, we pulled our trailer into a campground in the wooded mountains east of Tacoma.

The area was remote, and this was a time before the internet.  I don't know if television reception was available there, but faint radio signals could be heard. In the park office that night, an employee and I listened to a scratchy broadcast of President Richard M. Nixon resigning from the highest office in the land.

The date was August 8, 1974.  My trip diary for that date recorded, "Nixon resigned today."

Behind that terse entry were my feelings of frustration and wonderment: Why did it take so long?

More than two years earlier, in June 1972, burglars had broken into the offices of the Democratic National Party at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C.  They got caught, and during 1973 and into 1974 it became clear in the media that the Republican Nixon was behind the burglary and other acts of political spying and sabotage.  On July 27, 1974, the House Judiciary Committee passed the first of three articles of impeachment, charging obstruction of justice.  Two years had gone by before the nation could get rid of a president who claimed he was not a crook.

That's the way it is.  Many people, and I'm one of them, would like to be done with the current occupant of the White House.  But it'll take time.  The wheels of justice slog along slowly and, we hope, fairly.

Meanwhile, if you'd like to relive those painful moments of yesteryear, the internet is loaded with information about Watergate and Nixon.  I used this site:
http://watergate.info/

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