Be Good

Jan. 14th, 2026 01:42 pm
infrogmation: (Default)
An older colleague comments:

The rage I've felt following the murder of Renee Good has stirred up many memories. Especially, my first confirmed kill in Vietnam. I fired, at point blank range, at a pregnant woman who was running by in fear. She wasn't armed and truly represented no threat. But we had been told to "go in hot". That meant we were authorized to shoot anyone in the village b/c they supported our enemy. The memory will haunt me until I close my eyes for the last time. I've wanted to join the protest in my area. Unfortunately, I believe I'll try to kill any ICE agent who lays hands on me. That's what I was trained to do by the US Army. Maybe in a few more days, the rage will lessen, and I can attend a protest safely. RESIST!

-----

Writer Adam-Troy Castro wrote:

Even at a remove, I don't want to step on the grief of Renee Good's father.
He is a grieving parent, who incidentally happens to be a Trump supporter.
And since the senseless killing of his daughter, he asked a reasonable question where it could be heard, and taken down. Why are they lying about my daughter? Why are they saying things about her that I know not to be true?
And this question was relayed to Trump, during televised questions, and Trump merely repeated that she was an agitator, that she escalated a confrontation, that she attacked the ICE guy and tried to run him over. All lies.
Renee Good's Dad, a man for whom I have no end of sympathy, seems to me to be a tragic figure in the Shakespearean sense. He is probably just baffled and hurt, at this response from a man he believed in, and probably still follows. Still.
What I want for him, what I want for all the Trumpers who simply had a political position and stood by their man, is that a very reasonable series of questions penetrate.
This man who lies about Renee Good, what else has he lied about?
It probably isn't just her, right?
This woman who got in the way and was killed, is she the only one?
What about all the other people, hundreds and thousands of them, who Trump demonizes, the cities where he has sent his thugs, the innocents who has had tossed into vans, the masked bullies he has roaming the streets and brutalizing teenagers and women and pillars of the community?
Is it possible, just possible, sir, that he's lying about them?
That he's lying as easily as he breathes?
That he and his collaborators have fed you nonsense assumptions that have enabled his savagery, and made you part of them?
Will you just swallow your hurt and rationalize that he's wrong about your daughter, but right about everyone else he's hurt? Or will you realize who the problem is?
Have you learned, sir?
infrogmation: (Default)
According to family oral history/lore on my Swiss ancestry side.

Switzerland formerly wasn't a rich country. Back in the day if a family had too many boys who survived, the extras would be sent as mercenaries for foreign kings. Then there was America, which was another option.

Great grandfather had a foot in both traditions for extra sons - he came to America, but initially as a mercenary. In the Civil War, if a rich man was drafted, they could instead of fighting pay a fee, or have a substitute go for them. It was usually less expensive to hire an immigrant as a substitute. So that's how he got in the Union Army, but once he was there fighting became devoted to the cause.

He saved up his pay, and after the War moved to St. Louis and set up as a shopkeeper. He did well and after a couple years he wrote to his little brother, the youngest extra son, to come join him.

Great Uncle sailed across to New York, and found someone at the port who spoke some German or French, and told them he was going to join his brother in St. Louis. The man took a big sheet of paper, wrote something in English in big letters, and pinned it to the front of Great Uncle's coat, and told him just point to the paper and he'd get there.

So about a week later he arrived in St. Louis where Great Grandfather was waiting. Great Grandfather took one look at the paper on his brother's coat and tore it off. He'd crossed half the country wearing a sign reading "THIS DAMN FOOL WANTS TO GO TO ST. LOUIS".
infrogmation: (Default)
The phrase "No Kings" is trending, so here's some historical context.

The USA was founded in rebellion from and in opposition to monarchy. The Constitution's framers made our head of state an elected position of limited and checked authority. When George Washington was first elected President, someone asked if he should be addressed as "Your Majesty" (in the style of European monarchs); Washington replied certainly not, he should be addressed simply as "Mister President".
For reasons such as these, critics, satirists, and cartoonists have long known that one of the greatest insults they can throw at a US President is to compare him to a king. Depicting them with a crown on their head concisely conveys that they are abusing their power, are unfit for office, have delusions of grandeur, and are inherently un-American.

A few of many historic examples of US Presidents insultingly caricatured as king.


King Andrew the First - Andrew Jackson caricatured as a king
King Andrew the First - Andrew Jackson caricatured as a king, 1833, artist unidentified.


King Andy Johnon - My Kingdom for a Horse

1868 caricature of Andrew Johnson as King Richard III, by Thomas Nast.
King Andy Johnson - "My Kingdom for a Horse!"

(Love Thomas Nast's work here - look at that face; talented artistry leaving no doubt as to Nast's opinion of Johnson!)

Coronation of William McKinley
The Coronation of William McKinley.
1896 caricature of William McKinley crowning himself, by Louis Dalrymple.

King KNixon
1972 caricature of Richard Nixon as King Canute, by Paul Francis Conrad.
Note the co-conspirators hiding under the train of Nixon's royal robe.
infrogmation: (Default)
U.S. National Archives reverses self on promise to declassify JFK assassination documents for 50th anniversary; reason: pressure from C.I.A.

American public told "You want answers? You can't handle the truth!"

National Archives: No new JFK docs - Bowing to the CIA, the National Archives says it won't release 1,100 secret assassination documents in 2013. By Jefferson Morley, Salon.com



Text mirror )

Some stats

Jan. 5th, 2010 12:30 am
infrogmation: (Default)
Aughts were a lost decade for U.S. economy, workers. Zero net job creation

Healthcare Spending and Life Expectancy. U.S. spends most per person but without higher life expectancy.
infrogmation: (Default)
Wikipedia:United States incarceration rate. USA! We're #1! In both percentage of population and total numbers in prison!

And within the USA:

Incarceration in the U.S.A.

Louisiana: We're #1! In percentage of our population in prison, within the nation with the highest prison population!

Some folks in law enforcement have a helpful suggestion.

Ron Paul gave some perspective back in 1999
infrogmation: (Default)
For those who haven't yet read either of these two articles on the US & the economy, recomended:

The Quiet Coup by Simon Johnson

The Big Takeover by Matt Taibbi

February 2026

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