By an exceedingly lucky stroke of good fortune, Condor has been reading the greatest work ever authored by an American president. Even if it were granted that John F. Kennedy wrote Theodore Stevensons's "Profiles in Courage" (which, of course, he didn't), it along with Richard Nixon's "Six Crises" and everything else by all the other presidents pales next to "The Personal Memoirs" of Ullyses S. Grant.
Grant's "Memoirs" disappointingly (for me) stop at the Civil War's end; I was hoping to gain insight into his scandal-plagued two terms in the Oval Office from 1869 to 1877. However, the focus on Grant's pre-presidential life is more than compensated for throughout the book. Grant wrote the autobiography, published by Mark Twain, while he knew he was dying of throat cancer. He expired a mere three days after putting his pen down for the last time.
The Hero of the Civil War relates an anecdote from May 1864, after the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, whereby a Confederate sympathizer woman named Mrs. Tyler burst into tears after learning of adept Union activity all around her area of Virginia. She had been led to believe by the Rebel press that General Robert E. Lee was driving the Yankees out of the South, and that "in the South-west Union troops were little better that prisoners of war." General Grant assured the poor woman that directly the opposite was true.
Today's Mrs. Tylers are the (still) millions of believing viewers of Fox "News," who lap up the 24/7 noxious nonsense emanating from its collectively anarchist anchors rather than follow the reality in plain sight all around them.
After the September 29 presidential "debate," Pulitzer Prize winning historian (one who actually did write his book) and official George H.W. Bush biographer Jon Meacham observed, "Donald Trump declared war on decency and on democracy last night. We saw a thug last night."
Last night? Mr. Trump has been remarkably consistent in his thuggery since entering public life. This is, remember, the first president eligible for impeachment from the moment he took the oath of office for being in violation of the Emoluments Clause to the U.S. Constitution.
Trump's treasonous regime, now thankfully in its final stages, has done more damage to American institutions than even those institutions can as yet understand. His efforts, needless to say, could not have been popularized without a terrorist an abetting network to regurgitate his lies to as many people as possible. In this endeavor, Fox "News" has been tremendous.
A shining new light of this ongoing criminal conspiracy is Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett. At her confirmation hearings Barrett either 1) perjured herself or 2) proved a useful idiot for the few billionaires who exercise a tight control of power in the U.S., by refusing to answer whether a peaceful transfer of power from one presidential administration to another is necessary in this country.
Barrett also refused to acknowledge the reality of human-induced climate change, stating she would not weigh in on a "political controversy." Thus she presents herself to the world as the latest in a very long line of Trumpite Sixth Extinctionists.
In the final analysis, the 19th century Confederacy that U.S Grant defeated was all about freedom the freedom to own dark-skinned human beings without interference from namby-pamby do-gooder Northern abolitionists.
Similarly, the 21st century self-defeating Trumpocracy is also about freedom the freedom to destroy all life on the planet without interference from liberals, Democrats, and anyone else who doesn't partake in the profoundly perverted vision of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution as proffered by Justice Antonin Scalia. We can only pray, and nonviolently ensure, this modern Confederacy has its own Appomattox, no later than January 20, 2021.
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Mark J. Plawecki is chief judge of the 20th District Court. The author of "Notes from Outside the Truman Show," Plawecki is currently conducting research for his next project, a study of U.S. political history.
