tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.comments2024-03-15T20:25:28.637-04:00History UnfoldingDavid Kaiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05020082243968071584noreply@blogger.comBlogger5416125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-30924275255502240442024-03-15T15:16:26.235-04:002024-03-15T15:16:26.235-04:00I saw a short Trump interview when he was 34, sayi...I saw a short Trump interview when he was 34, saying Lincoln would not have become president nowadays as he was not telegenic, for TV, no big fake smile and good looks. The medium is the message. Attention spans of humans, tik tok, youtube shorts based, is now less than small birds, scientifically proven. I have a boring, repetitive, physical employment, that can drive me crazy if I have not enough sleep to process the mental stress in my system. I had a couple days short sleep and was reminded of military sleep deprivation studies on grunt soldiers. Mental and physical discipline, flexibility, friendliness all work together. Lincoln was a lawyer but also boxed, cut wood among other things. He and Douglas debated for hours to a rapt crowd of similar. In the 1920s half the USA population were farmers. Much of urban population were in factories. I recall my father telling of delivering newspapers and messages between stock brokers offices by bike in his youth in the 30s. Cars were not universally owned and packaged foods, supermarkets, off the line clothing not to be expected. Consumerism and advertising were just being invented. Swaying of the mind by Bernays, Nephew of Freud, admired, copied by Goebbels was new. Later CIA and KGB had mind control tricks. Life has become superficial, detached from substantial existence, as understood by an illiterate farmer in the third world or everyman of any class preindustrially 300 years ago. Self analysis, 19th century philosophy or poetry all lost power to intellectual streams of the 1920s which became mainstream with 60s hippies. Life is what you feel they seemed to say. Soup can as art. Now anyone can have a TV channel on various platforms. Fame is cheap. Chaplin would have laughed as first global star. My wife told me of a young Russian man from her area who was just a poor boy, self taught, and went to Moscow to found the first university. Such feats as in America back then. We need real heroes. Maybe we have to find the hero in ourselves, to believe again, not be utterly cynical, hopeless, mean. Some times are raucous, competitive, others just mean, corrupt, decadent. It is hard to know if our energy is productive or just sick, negative, sociopathic. Are we in the 1890s or is it the fall of Rome? Times like this are obviously necessary, rationally observing. A House Divided cannot stand. Then perhaps a strong new foundation will be laid. Perhaps the 80 year cycle is more 160 year with internal strife followed 80 years later by external wars, as crises. Maybe a higher order combining agnostics, atheists urbanists with rural Christians will raise us to a new level with belief in ourselves and in God.Energyflowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14476915209268786507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-16579049328370821252024-03-05T05:54:07.190-05:002024-03-05T05:54:07.190-05:00My college education was almost entirely STEM in t...My college education was almost entirely STEM in the 80s so this grade inflation was not an issue. Real learning was mandatory. My Philosophy 101 course provided a missing part of the puzzle between childhood bible reading and modern lit and sciences of high school where I got modern works, shakespeare, greek tragedies. <br /><br />Think of the blowout airplane door or the Fani Willis, Kamala Harris type D.A.s moving up the ladder. How do you sort out low i.q. people before they get past certain stages and destroy the nation? Require homework and critical thinking. If engineers must do difficult thinking to build a bridge then philosophy, history are all areas where critical, original thinking is necessary. Extracurricular activities at Harvard? WTF? Why not just buy the degree? Only chosen few get to go anyway. I am actually surprised as I saw a youtube video by a pretty smart Asian American guy who happened to get in to Harvard and was not up to the study stress plus extracurriculars. He was no slouch but thought it very difficult and extremely competitive atmosphere. Your picture of modern Harvard is therefore incomplete. I understand that it is cutthroat and brutal there. Of course pure academics may have suffered significantly in our purely capitalistic system where grades are not important as who you know and how you interact( as in being in congress or a big company office atmosphere) is much more important. I would have to see a deeper background from people who move in these circles so I reserve judgement. This however explains the censorship and lack of tolerance in press and media if everything is about getting ahead in the broup and actual thinking, historical analysis is frowned upon.Energyflowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14476915209268786507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-67461382210322295062024-03-03T20:28:17.371-05:002024-03-03T20:28:17.371-05:00Thank you, Jeff. I too had to interrupt my educat...Thank you, Jeff. I too had to interrupt my education to serve in the military--I joined the Army Reserve in 1970 and served for six years. <br />There are several reasons for what happened. First of all, even in my day, professors looked down on their colleagues who took teaching really seriously. They were encouraged to spend as little time on it as possible. Some of us always did, because that is who we were, but we remained exceptions. The second reason was just the massive expansion of higher ed that was going on. It diluted the quality of faculty. And lastly--and I have put this in the post now--with tuitions going up and applications beginning to fall off (even at Harvard, now, it seems), the schools became focused on pleasing their students and not making their lives too difficult. You can't provide excellent education that way.David Kaiserhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05020082243968071584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-82426517538979610962024-03-03T17:33:02.758-05:002024-03-03T17:33:02.758-05:00What happened at Harvard was mirrored in my inner-...What happened at Harvard was mirrored in my inner-city community college, established for first in their family poor kids from "diverse" backgrounds. Forty years ago I assigned in Freshman English (as it was then called), lengthy novels like Ellison's Invisible Man and DeFoe's Moll Flanders. And in the second semester Hamlet. <br />After retirement I taught grad classes at the local state University and assigned far less reading. erik f storliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10674430310730993153noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-83502231220811280662024-03-03T16:35:39.036-05:002024-03-03T16:35:39.036-05:00Dr. Kaiser
As I read your introductory remarks, I...Dr. Kaiser<br /><br />As I read your introductory remarks, I could not but notice how similar our young adulthood was. I attended college and graduated in the 1960s, April of 1968, from the University of Michigan. I, too, attended graduate school, entering in the Fall semester of 1968, into Michigan's Business School. However, at the end of my initial semester, the similarities begin to diverge. I received a draft notice and would be interupting my education for two years, including a year in Viet Nam. Ultimately, I completed my degree work in April of 1972.<br /><br />Your observations on the decline of academic discipline over the past several years have resonated with me. The lack of academic rigor that you have observed is troubling. The young woman whose article you included in your post essentially confirmed all of the concerns you have been articulating. I found her essay unsettling. Grade inflation was something I didn't really grasp until both she and you laid out the evidence. I cannot imagine, in any instance, that a grade along the curve would result in a 79% assignment of an "A" grade in any classroom in which I was a student. <br /><br />Have we degraded our educational system to such a degree? Do our young adults even have the ability to think critically about the problems facing both our country and civiliation at large? Since when does participation in an extra curricular activity replace the ability to learn, interogate and analyze our past, our instituions and our beliefs?<br /><br />I grow increasingly uncomfortable. <br />Jeffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10390786408316074138noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-76384602027615989862024-02-26T15:02:34.580-05:002024-02-26T15:02:34.580-05:00"Greed is good" to quote a film characte..."Greed is good" to quote a film character from Wall Sreet. "Reduce the surplus population" said Ebenezer Scrooge. If the 80s and later export of factory jobs to reduce costs and boost profits while avoiding environmental regulations and union wages can be combined with the likely deliberate development of pandemic and vaccine just as deadly by certain US govt. agents can be believed then we have the whole story. I recall a funny bible paraphrase from a t-shirt when I was in school " do unto others then split". This sums up billionaire attitudes rather well and their govt. cronies. Energyflowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14476915209268786507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-22556752760719887302024-02-21T12:43:50.526-05:002024-02-21T12:43:50.526-05:00Every so often it seems that this occurs in the bl...Every so often it seems that this occurs in the black inner cities after an ugly incident. Only this time it was instrumentalized by certain people into truly nationwide riots. BLM, Soros funded groups, antifa all joined in with the motto "don't let a good crisis go to waste". Billions in property damages and many deaths resulted.Energyflowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14476915209268786507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-61313527664720689632024-02-17T13:05:45.132-05:002024-02-17T13:05:45.132-05:00Agreeing with above comment and having read other ...Agreeing with above comment and having read other articles by increasingly cynical, dispirited souls it could even be seen that from day 1 of our country and before that, that the elite manipulated the narrative to get into power, a Canada type solution might have done well enough, and from there expanded their power grab into the Americas and further. The Founding might have been the original sin as it broke from tradition and home creating something entirelly its own. Like early Christianity was purely jewish subsect but became something else and conquered Europe and beyond. America has likely hit its peak in global domination. Similar to all other great expansionist powers who grew, became corrupt, then receded, America will also decline into a more natural harmony with the world as it becomes organically integrated into the whole over time, having developed its landmass and absorbed immigrants and stabilized its ethnic composition and stopped its economic, technological and cultural dynamism. The old world is bouncing back into balance with American progress and the whole will in the end be more like the permanent competition between France, England and Germany over many centuries.Energyflowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14476915209268786507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-70106397442440319302024-02-17T01:57:14.092-05:002024-02-17T01:57:14.092-05:00The first statement Mr. Floyd made after being ord...The first statement Mr. Floyd made after being ordered by Police to get in the back seat of their vehicle:<br /><br />"I can't breathe"<br />CrocodileChuckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10762442097044797842noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-67711212180776722672024-02-14T12:33:54.816-05:002024-02-14T12:33:54.816-05:00FDR’s foreign policy was remarkably idealistic. In...FDR’s foreign policy was remarkably idealistic. In addition to persuading his domestic constituency to prepare for WWII, he worked to persuade his would-be allies abroad to commit to ending colonialism and to establish the UN.<br /><br />The creation of a huge intelligence community and military-industrial complex laid the foundation for a deeply corrupt and incompetent foreign policy, which has reached extremes in Ukraine and Israel that may well be exceeded by a war with China. Ukraine is far from a free people seeking independence — billions were spent creating “color revolutions” hostile to Russia and American political elites made a hobby out of profiting from the poverty and corruption of the poorest, most corrupt country in Europe. The foreign policy establishment working thru the institutions of government has provoked a war with Russia that has prompted the latter to revive its military capabilities at scale while collapsing the economy of Germany. <br /><br />In Israel, the U.S. is backing a genocide, setting its tattered moral credibility afire.Bruce Wilderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09631065564839959376noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-54275829022287475292024-02-06T08:49:57.205-05:002024-02-06T08:49:57.205-05:00Energyflow: I don't claim the label of "w...<b>Energyflow</b>: I don't claim the label of "woke" for myself (that's kind of like trying to give yourself a nickname, I think), but from what I've seen, people who could be called woke are concerned with people's rights and with the societal structures that are preventing those rights. Not that there's no ideology, or philosophy, in that, but it's not driven by ideology or philosophy.Matthew Ehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01007497367844755093noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-28603339302227935992024-02-06T05:10:44.653-05:002024-02-06T05:10:44.653-05:00My thought is more religious/generational theory. ...My thought is more religious/generational theory. The 60s were an "Awakening" period in the cycle. Woke as a term is simply a phrase which is similar to "enlightenment". Young people, hippies, felt back then that their parents generation were unenlightened in almost every sense, social, foreign , sexual politics. If daddy was a sexist, racist, jingoistic person then I would oppose all that in an enlightened manner and improve the world. The pre WWII attitudes excluded women, gays, minorities from life. "Barefoot and pregnant, faggot, n*****". All staples of everyday attitudes back in the day. Generally I think humans as an animal are ideological. Other animal don't think as much. We tend to create ideologies and run with them, mostly over the cliff's edge, following our newly formed prejudices, which are just the opposition to the ideology of the group we disagreed with. This is the basis of our conflicts. One side throws the baby out with the bathwater. So in essence the woke are trying to wipe away their sins, those of previous generations by opposing everything before 1968. In the French and Russian revolutions it was similar. Heads off, new calendar, marriage abolished for free love, expropriation, the terror. This is all happening in the West now over time. Boring conservative values of property, family, church are being challenged, destroyed. Mostly this will destroy the left and bring about radical right wing politics( Trump is Napoleon Bonaparte). The more things change the more they stay the same. If only people would read history and think for a few minutes, travel a bit out of their narrow cultural circle. Energyflowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14476915209268786507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-32922290968470574712024-02-05T19:33:24.388-05:002024-02-05T19:33:24.388-05:00That, too, we are now learning, was an event that ...<i> That, too, we are now learning, was an event that needed more skeptical journalism. We really do not know whether Floyd really was murdered or whether he died of a combination of heart disease and drugs--the medical examiner's original conclusion. </i><br /><br />I am very disappointed that you would echo such tripe. Radley Balko has been very good on this, writing a very good summary of how biased have been some tendentious accounts circulating among right-wing commentators and propagandists.<br /><br />https://open.substack.com/pub/radleybalko/p/the-retconning-of-george-floyd?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web<br /><br />Speaking for myself, I think the officers other than Chauvin were unfairly treated, because of a mob justice atmosphere, but that is a different problem. Bruce Wilderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09631065564839959376noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-28243832601993519572024-02-05T13:37:00.041-05:002024-02-05T13:37:00.041-05:00My main objection would be: anti-movements never l...My main objection would be: anti-movements never lead back to the starting point, but into a new mess.<br /><br />David Kaiser: <i> This tends to discredit any ideas about almost anything that anyone had before about 1968, when the ideas behind wokeness began to break into the mainstream. </i><br /><br />Isn't "woke", as it is defined here, itself an anti-movement?<br /><br />Was it not the conformism of the post-war period that led to criticism, protest and ultimately to an anti-conformist movement especially among young people, which is summarized under "1968"? Didn't these critics also ask themselves at the time: has conformism peaked? <br /><br />"The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.", said Bertrand Russel. <br /><br />In anti-movements, it is the loudest and most opinionated voices that are most likely to prevail. That's how it was in 1968, that's how it was in the Reagan-Thatcher era. Society has become increasingly polarized to this day, and I can't prove it, but I think it's obvious that it has to do with the nature and quality of the media, which readily picks up on and amplifies anti-movements.<br /><br />It would be appropriate to listen to the self-doubting voices, not the loud shouters whose strength lies in inventing derogatory labels for those who think differently.<br /><br />If Pamela Paul's article is written in such a spirit of self-doubt, it may do some good. <br /><br />But if it triumphantly presents self-doubting teenagers as victims of a contagious gender dysphoria, it will only provide ammunition in an ongoing culture war.noriborihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11746086704148831224noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-36654515272189651362024-02-05T09:29:46.940-05:002024-02-05T09:29:46.940-05:00Thanks for responding. Let me say at the start tha...Thanks for responding. Let me say at the start that, knowing you as I do, I am quite willing to take you at your word that you are "wondering" about these issues. I don't extend that same courtesy to all others; I'm quite certain that the core of this movement is motivated by the usual right-wing stew of issues, and if they do manage to drive trans people back into hiding in the USA, they'll switch to gay people faster than immediately, with nonwhite people and women on the horizon.<br /><br />I also note that, in dropping back to what you perceive as the more defensible position of "questioning medical transitions among teenagers", you've skipped over a number of points that I'm quite glad to have conceded to me, including "are trans people real", "is it bad to beat trans people to death in public bathrooms", "is medical transition okay for adults", and "is social transition okay for teenagers". That saves a lot of time and trouble.<br /><br />I am far from an expert on these issues. I'll do what I can. Also, as an atypical kind of trans person myself, I don't mind making myself available to you so you can learn whatever there is to be learned from my own anecdotal experience. I feel like I'm in a position where I can do that while many (most?) other trans people are understandably unable or unwilling to do so. But then, you're many times the researcher I'll ever be; if you want to learn more about these issues you shouldn't find it difficult. I can share this link, though, by someone who is responding to Pamela Paul's article: <a href="https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/debunked-misleading-nyt-anti-trans" rel="nofollow">link</a><br /><br />I hope that's worthwhile.<br /><br />My best understanding about medical transition for teenagers is, first, that it's rare, and second, that it's only done when the doctors are sure of their ground and that it's right for the kid. If that's not good enough, then what is? Compare, also, to teenage girls having breast reduction surgery due to back pain.<br /><br />I wouldn't go to all this effort to convince just anybody.Matthew Ehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01007497367844755093noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-11158542503911522502024-02-05T08:59:23.932-05:002024-02-05T08:59:23.932-05:00Matthew, it does not make me or Pamela Paul or Kat...Matthew, it does not make me or Pamela Paul or Katie Herzog or many others bad people to wonder whether encouraging medical transitions among teenagers is really good for the kids involved. That's a very legitimate question, to which we do not know the answer.David Kaiserhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05020082243968071584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-48127299545876566202024-02-04T18:57:54.093-05:002024-02-04T18:57:54.093-05:00You're backing the wrong horse.
Check into wh...You're backing the wrong horse.<br /><br />Check into what the "anti-woke" lot wants to actually do to trans people and those who support them.<br /><br />You may not "get" the "woke" take on gender, but you may want to consider that they have a point and know what they're talking about, and anyway they, we, represent people who mostly just want to be left alone.<br /><br />The core of my personal philosophy, such as it is, has always been, "Don't be mean," and as such I have no choice but to side with the woke over the anti-woke. I'm surprised and disappointed that you're not doing the same.Matthew Ehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01007497367844755093noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-25609155147279536242024-01-29T16:32:56.257-05:002024-01-29T16:32:56.257-05:00Trump, as an outsider challenging the system, will...Trump, as an outsider challenging the system, will be fought tooth and nail by the bureaucracy, the press. So this explains the extreme opposition and attacks on his character. Meanwhile, a person like Hunter runs amok protected by the system as he is a little prince. Trump had to fight hard to win over and convert his own party to his ideas. Only his popularity allowed him to overcome strong opposition. Supposing that in 4 years we have an open field for President. Trump perhaps has won and changed much. Additionally, severe debt and foreign losses have forced the social welfare system and military to go on a severe diet. America's standing is like the UK in the late 40s, 1950s, just another near bankrupt old power to be ignored. A Democrat would emerge to reform the near defunct party, maybe a Bezos self made man type, like Trump, but from the left. Bankrupt, corrupt big cities would need help and so on. He would face a fight, as Trump did from within his own party, to reform the party. Lots of people would have to go. A Peron type of person could emerge. We must consider that in general there will come a time of post imperialism, bankruptcy and the end of the welfare state. This will force much which is now taken for granted to be rethought. States will want to experiment and have more power. Central govt. bureaucracy will be peeled back. Much can be hoped for.Energyflowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14476915209268786507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-53576879213715528962024-01-28T17:23:16.784-05:002024-01-28T17:23:16.784-05:00Aloha Doctor,
Tsk, tsk. Such pessimism. But perha...Aloha Doctor,<br />Tsk, tsk. Such pessimism. But perhaps it is warranted. Given what's happening around the world and, particularly, in the US, perhaps it is warranted. Still, we are finishing up the Crisis and heading into the Climax (Strauss and Howe). And, of course, the Climax is supposed to be something like a "walk through the Valley of Death." On the other side? Well, the post-WWII American experience was not too bad, pretty good, actually. Of course, that was then and this is now. Everyone has lost of new, more-lethal toys now-a-days. Let's hope for the best.<br />Ed Ciliberti <br />(A Silent)Ed Cilibertihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09378230201414293974noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-86565004980857205372024-01-23T20:57:13.108-05:002024-01-23T20:57:13.108-05:00Berger and Debs are the best examples, because the...Berger and Debs are the best examples, because they involve non-Confederates (and non-J6ers).<br /><br />I suppose Berger is a great exxample to show application of the disqualification clause, but really? A "socialist" was voted into office and disqualified because of the Red Scare. That time in history (in my opinion) was an embarrassment. It targeted immigrants (like Berger) and was significantly undemocratic. In fact, the guy's conviction was overturned.<br /><br />So, if you want to rely on Burger, have at it, but your values are messed up. And if you read Brandeis and Holmes, others would agree.<br /><br />Debs of course is a problem bcause he ran for president. How do yuo square that up?ross edenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12395247364606106940noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-26917806029944845972024-01-19T16:07:48.971-05:002024-01-19T16:07:48.971-05:00Not might, Will turn out to be.Not might, Will turn out to be.A Woman Voterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01465915691621966683noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-3384000012413911802024-01-18T09:45:48.536-05:002024-01-18T09:45:48.536-05:00I find it funny when an author writes a book about...I find it funny when an author writes a book about someone like himself, writing a book, or when films are about filmmakers. Also nepo kids in entertainment and politics, Lisa Murkowski, in hollywood, modeling, too many to mention. Power begets power and a caste system emerges where the few know each other and all remains the same. Of course Trump came from the business side of things and is little different. A dishwasher can hardly be famous enough and to afford campaigning for politics so this is the only conceivable way to break into this caste system. Once you have been long enough in Washington or a state house to be credible, reliable to the system then you are most certainly corrupted by it, as that is the only way to survive there. If a corrupt system is self perpetuating then why not replace it(drain the swamp)? Civil war is difficult so that the only possibility is from an alternative power center. Billionaire businessmen fit this. If it is to be admitted that reform is needed(term limits, age limits, no more revolving door with big business, campaign contributions) but is impossible by those who benefit from the system them either an outsider accomplishes this or decay of Rome sets in or revolution takes place. If the 80 year cycle is to end in renewal then reform must occur. Likely a situation like the soviet military withdraw must happen to US postwwii interests. Multitrillion deficits(huge military and entitlements costs plust interest costs) are unsustainable. Both an externally impossible situation and internal systemic corruption doom to destruction or predestine to renewal the USA. Both happened to Russia. Energyflowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14476915209268786507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-44154087556882628972024-01-09T11:59:19.412-05:002024-01-09T11:59:19.412-05:00Dear Ed,
My comments have already appeare...Dear Ed,<br /><br /> My comments have already appeared.<br /><br />https://historyunfolding.blogspot.com/2023/08/is-fourth-turning-here.htmlDavid Kaiserhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05020082243968071584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-75460913156052662192024-01-07T21:58:37.781-05:002024-01-07T21:58:37.781-05:00Aloha Dr. Kaiser,
I noticed this week that Neil H...Aloha Dr. Kaiser,<br /><br />I noticed this week that Neil Howe has published a new "Generations" book: "The Fourth Turning is Here". It seems it was published this past July. I'm reading it now and am looking forward to your comments.<br /><br />Ed Ciliberti<br />Ed Cilibertihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09378230201414293974noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-29116126287069231482024-01-02T00:39:30.757-05:002024-01-02T00:39:30.757-05:00The question of whether Trump engaged in “insurrec...The question of whether Trump engaged in “insurrection” remains an open one. Even if you do not think such a determination requires the proof of a criminal conviction, if the claim is disputed, some due process beyond the arbitrary judgement of a partisan would seem to be necessary for credibility as well as legal effect. In 1865, most Confederates who took up arms or actively participated in organizing the Confederate war effort would not have disputed the claim they had engaged in insurrection. They mostly thought themselves justified, which is a different claim. But, once the Federal government had prevailed in the war, there could be no question retrospectively about whether an insurrection had taken place from the pov of the United States. <br /><br />It is not my understanding that either President Trump nor any of the January 6 rioters have conceded that they engaged in insurrection. And, the position of most Republicans is that no insurrection took place. It is political narcissism to pretend that no persuasive argument and presentation of evidence in a contested advocacy is necessary to legitimate excluding the leading Republican candidate from the ballot. Bruce Wilderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09631065564839959376noreply@blogger.com