It is the middle of the afternoon, two ish to be precise. I have a few hours with little to do. Perfect time to write that next pithy commentary on the state of the world, country and neighborhood, starting small by figuring out why there are so many little curly haired white dogs in my condo complex. I heard one dog owner claim that they don’t shed but they do look a little grubby. I think they were a way for folks to deal with Covid and now they are not sure.
The Trump ticket to escaping any responsibility for anything has been punched again despite Colorado’s efforts. Maine is on board too but I doubt that will fly. He is certainly keeping the lawyers busy or maybe they just use the same stuff over again, change the dates and locations. Doesn’t seem to matter if the case makes any sense or has been tossed out before. Let’s make a new law or appeal the old one. Wonder what they are teaching in law schools today. New games on how to lie or maybe the Guilani bankruptcy boogie.
There isn’t much funny about Trump and the time between now and next November doesn’t seem long enough to find sanity. I have been rerunning the most recent BBC epic : the Golden Age. My favorite history lessons come wrapped in stories of romance, betrayal and wickedness and this is a particularly interesting example of the genre. It seems we are living in a very similar age with some scary parallels.
The time frame in what I’ve read about that period starts with the end of Reconstruction and the Jim Crow years in the South. The title, the Gilded Age, was used by Mark Twain for a novel he coauthored. It had all the usual suspects: speculators, railroad tycoons, robber barons, and unchecked greed in organizations oddly called trusts. It also welcomed 20 plus million immigrants. Equally noisy congressman tried to keep them out. Somehow we absorbed them and millions more.
The post civil war economy was growing and needed workers, but most businesses and government agencies were unregulated and corrupt and this led to a vast disparity between the rich and the poor that we see again today. In the TV version, the women are the focus, their attempts to establish their place in this increasingly ill formed society. The developing union movement that we are seeing today may bring some balance again. Some of the parallels are hopeful but it is a mixed bag.
So I wander around inside my head this cool Saturday afternoon, wondering how it will turn out next year and what pieces of it will land in my backyard. Are there angry people no matter what the outcome? Someone said if we ignore history it will repeat itself. But which parts? I think I will go check on the curly haired dogs for a while.
I agree totally with you
I have felt that everyone should watch that show
Same standards