New Hampshire In the South

May 19, 1864,  the battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse ground to a surly conclusion.  Grant disengaged his army from the bloody fighting with Lee and moved South, toward Richmond.  He predecessors had always retreated north, licking their wounds when beaten by Lee in Virginia, but Grant simply rolled away and moved South, hoping to draw Lee out of the Wilderness and into the open.  Grant had lost 33,000 soldiers and Lee 18,000.  But Grant had more soldiers and his plan was simply to keep fighting Lee, not to capture Richmond but to destroy the Army of Northern Virginia. 

With his army were men from New Hampshire. There had been men from New Hampshire at Gettysburg, and there were men from New Hampshire in Louisiana. 

They died from measles, diptheria, hepatitis, farm boys who had no immunity to diseases found among crowds.  And they died of malaria in the tropical South.  Some died from bullets and explosives. 

Why did they leave New Hampshire?  How did so many individuals decided to sign up, to march off to war? 

You see their names in the rolls and in the casualty lists: Blake, Foye, Marston, Philbrick, Batchelder, Merrill, Sanborn, Chase, Bean, Dow. Names we still see on stores, commercial trucks, street signs (what few we have here), parks.

What were they thinking? 

Since the Revolutionary War, Hampton and the surrounding towns kept militias, amateur groups of men with guns who met twice a year to march around. Some went off to fight in the Mexican War, but after that enthusiasm for military adventures waned and the militias were disbanded. The Civil War brought something different: recruitment of regiments for a known war. 

Slavery would have continued-- for who knows how long? -- had it not been for men from New Hampshire and other Northern states who were willing to enlist.

One can only imagine whatever lives they were leading here was not attractive enough to hold them. 

We can speculate, dream, but we can never know. All we know is what they did, not why.

What Mr. Trump Knows about The Donald

He doth protest too much.  When David Cameron accused the Donald of being a number of unappealing things,"He is divisive. He is stupid and he is wrong,"  the Donald shrugged off all the other adjectives but he objected: "I am not stupid."  At stupid, he draws the line. "I'm not stupid, okay?"

It's remarkable how often the Donald defends his own intelligence by simply declaring how smart he is, by saying he went to an Ivy League school (Penn), one of the best, by saying how smart and rich he is, as if those two things are mutually validating, by simply declaring he is brilliant. "I use all the best words." Well, that proves his case, right there. Anyone smart enough to use the best words cannot be stupid, ipso facto.

On some level, you have to believe, he knows  the sad truth. He has had enough experience to inform himself of his own intellectual limitations.

He can see the look in the eye of his interlocutor, as he answers a question inadequately or...stupidly. He knows, on some level, he hasn't got it. 

This is one of those profoundly unsettling experiences in life:  coming to grips with your own limitations.  Hopefully, you have enough strengths you can say, "Well, I may not be the smartest person in the world, but..."

Intelligent Republican

I particularly liked the response of a real estate developer I was talking with as we sat together in a steaming, stinking gymnasium during a lull in a wrestling tournament our sons were  doing.  This man was very rich, not Trump rich, but rich enough, probably the richest man in the gym. "I never was very good in school. Didn't get very far in math. But I sure learned how to add and subtract. Turned out in business, that's all you need."

He took satisfaction in knowing he didn't need to be an "A" student in calculus, and he didn't need to have high SAT scores and his lack of Ivy League credentials didn't matter in the testosterone fueled world of constructing suburban malls, which is where he made his money. He had enough intelligence to find his niche and exploit it. 

So many people from the Ivy League have certified  intelligence but never manage to find a niche.  

Reading about the genius of birds, about animal intelligence, I am now realizing just how varied this thing we call "intelligence" really is. 

Mr. Trump has some sort of intelligence, just not the kind he envies. He is intelligent enough to know, deep down, how very limited his capacities are. He may have a "genius" for marketing or for sensing what an audience wants, but those types of intelligence, as useful as they may be in winning the Presidency, would not likely be sufficient to perform well in that Office. His rambling riffs on the world are entertaining, the way, say, Louis C. K. is amusing, but when you ask him whether he is going to send troops to Syria or Libya or whether he will nominate Rush Limbaugh to the Supreme Court, you need better answers than, "I know the guy. I like him."

Apes, it turns out, have all sorts of intelligence unrecognized by human beings. When asked to perform certain tasks, like identifying objects hidden from view by touch, they perform very well, but after a few trials, they do not. Turns out, they bore easily and simply stop trying. 

This may be the best we can say for Mr. Trump. He bores easily and simply stops trying. But then, the comparison of the intelligence of the Donald to that of the chimpanzee may be an invidious comparison, insulting to the chimpanzee.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPD_m2laITc

The Wrong Poster Child: Transgenders as Victims

When Michael Brown, the 18 year old Black male who was shot in a suburb of St. Louis, became an example of Black youth violated by white police, discerning minds around the country said, "Uh-oh, maybe not the best example you would want for the victimization of Black youth."

The images of the massive Brown beating and intimidating a slight South Asia convenience store clerk as Brown stole some small cigars was enough evidence to suggest this 18 year old was no child and was, in fact, a thug. It was enough to make some people wonder if this particular 18 year old might, in fact, have stormed into the police car as the police asserted and tried to wrest the policeman's gun from him.  If Brown was shot in the back, that still has to be explained, but if you imagine a policeman physically attacked, you might imagine he didn't want this particular 18 year old running around looking for another victim.

But the knee jerk reaction ensued:  he was Black and shot dead, so he was innocent and he was used by well meaning, but misguided, people as a good example of a major societal ill, namely violent racist White police.

The same sort of mindless rush to embrace transgenders in locker rooms and bathrooms seems to be exerting gravitational pull on President Obama, who ordinarily is thoughtful, in a lawerly sort of way, weighing both sides of the argument, and choosing a reasonable path toward solution. Not so with his response to transgenders in bathrooms and locker rooms.

Mr. Obama, and many Democrats continue to cast this debate as one about victimization of innocent people who are simply different, who are struggling to be accepted, or at least to be left alone, in a cruel and mocking world. Mr. Obama and others see these people as being similar to homosexuals in their position of being ostracized, demeaned and denied basic human rights, like the right to marry whomever they love, something which affects nobody but themselves. 


Let's first agree there is a significant difference between a bathroom, where there are stalls which conceal people using the bathroom from each other, and a locker room, where women strip naked in front of each other, walk naked into a shower and shower naked. 

Let us also agree that nobody of good will should wish to hurt the feelings or threaten the psyche of a fellow citizen, even if that citizen is odd or frankly deranged. Everyone ought to be treated with respect.

But, suppose, for a moment,  that a person who has male external genitalia, walks into a locker room with thirteen year old females with female external genitalia and strips down to use the shower with these girls.  Is it unreasonable for these girls to express discomfort with this? 

And if their expression of discomfort made the person with the testicles feel demeaned and abused, should we say that his/her discomfort should prevail over the discomfort of the girls?

Suppose, just for the sake of argument, that at least some physicians who deal with transgender people who believe that, unlike homosexuality, most if not all transgender people have significant psychopathology.  This psychopathology may have understandable biochemical roots.  But it is psychpathology, palpable and real and not simply another way of being.

If you believed transgender people have a disease, in this sense, would it affect your analysis of their rights to use locker rooms or even bathrooms which have been designated for "women?" 

To Russia, With Love

Move over, Ukraine, Russia has displaced you.  Last week, Mad Dog had 119 hits from the USA, 42 from Ukraine and 691 from Russia.

Mad Dog is a hit in Russia!

Friends, who are more internet savvy than Mad Dog, have suggested since many of the world's most perfidious hackers live in Russia,  attention from Russia may not be a good thing.  

Others have suggested some of Mad Dog's  past posts regarding Mr. Vladimir Putin might have got him on the screens at whatever replaced the KGB. Again, not the audience Mad Dog would be wise to seek. 

Mad Dog prefers to think he is a big hit in Russia, that Russians are intrigued by American politics in the heartland.

Most of what Mad Dog knows about Russia comes directly from the David Lean film, "Dr. Zhivago," a movie  made by a  Brit, starring an Egyptian in the role of Zhivago, a Brit as Lara and an American as the arch villain. Not a bone fide Russian in the cast, but it has to be authentic because it's got that wonderful musical score which sounds very Russian and it was filmed, as Mad Dog recalls, in Finland, which is almost Russia.

Actually, with the rise of the Donald, Mad Dog believes we all may have much to learn from the Russians about dealing with a leader who commands rapt affection from his countrymen, while saying and doing bizarre, belligerent things while mismanaging his economy. At least Mr. Putin has not had to seek bankruptcy protection for any of his government owned companies, so he may have the edge on Mr. Trump in management skills. 

And then there is Maria Sharapova, that dazzling Russian tennis player, who could arouse interest in the most entrenched Russia o phobe.  She can surely compete with the Donald's current squeeze. Mr. Putin has a girlfriend who showed up at the Winter Olympics held in Russia, and presumably Mr. Putin put her on display to demonstrate he can compete with Mr. Trump and Mr. Obama for arm candy any day.


Mad Dog fondly  remembers his Russian friends from his days in Washington, D.C. Of course, these were ex-patriot Russians, so there is selection bias, but most of them said, at one time or another, Russia is a great country to be from. They really did not seem to miss mother Russia much. Russia apparently did not treat Jews well. Nor women, to hear my friends tell it. Nor people who felt inclined to complain about oligarchs who were cozy with Mr. Putin or Mr. Putin's friends. 

One thing which did not impress the Russians was size.  We talk about the Great Plains, but they sniff.  In Russia, we have 15 time zones. Or winter. We have Minnesota and North Dakota; they have Siberia. No contest.  We also, of course, have Alaska, but as Sarah Palin can attest, that's just a Russian annex, up there.

So, Hello Russia! Whoever you are. 

One thing Mad Dog does not understand: Why the silence?  This right here is a free country. You are allowed to speak up, speak your mind. Love to hear from you.

Bernie, Hillary and Major Barbara

George Bernard Shaw wrote a wonderful play called, "Major Barbara" in 1905 which students used to read in high school and which has suddenly become relevant again.

Barbara Undershaft is a Major in the Salvation Army, inveighing against demon rum and war and all things nasty and money driven and speaking for the good works of man which embody God's will.

She is confronted with her long lost father, whom she has not seen since her parents divorced and discovers he is a very rich capitalist, who owns a company town in which the workers are well paid, provided for with all earthly comforts and spiritual benefits of churches and schools.  The source of all this well being is profit from the Undershaft armaments factories.  Undershaft is a merchant of death, but he has provided a wonderful life for hundreds of workers. 

Barbara rejects his money, his help because the money is tainted money, money drenched in the blood of the victims of the bombs and bullets made by Undershaft's factories.

When Undershaft offers a large contribution to the Salvation Army post where Major Barbara works, she is horrified to think of all that tainted money being accepted by the Salvation Army.  But the man in charge of this post accepts not only Undershaft's generosity but money from a whiskey maker.

"I would accept money from the Devil himself, if I could put it toward advancing God's good works," says the director.

Eventually, Barbara herself accepts this thinking. In a capitalist society, she realizes, there really is no such thing as "clean money."   Sleazeball financial barons contribute large sums to support hospitals;  slave owners got the money they used to found universities from the misery of slaves. Part of the Brown family money came from the slave trade (although part of the family rejected slaving.) Georgetown University sold slaves. Andrew Carnegie, who turned a blind eye to the brutalization of workers in his steel mills gave the money for Carnegie Tech, now Carnegie Mellon. And Mellon was a ruthless capitalist.  The capitalist economy of England was founded on exploitation of colonial peoples.  

But even beyond the examples of individuals or companies which have done nasty things, all parts of the economy benefit from the spoils of war, or empire or commercial exploitation.  The baker buys his flour transported by trains built by cooley labor and he sells it to people who work in the factory which builds bombs which kill innocents abroad who the factory workers never see. 

The capitalist economy of 21st century America is no less interconnected.  

The same man who contributes to Planned Parenthood may give generously to the Catholic Church or to the Mormon Church.  The Koch brothers have part of Lincoln Center named in honor of the money they have given, and that money comes from oil and also supports a reactionary agenda which includes union busting. 

The affluence of many Southern cities depends on "defense contractors" i.e., the production of weapons of mass destruction which wind up being dropped on Palestinians or other oppressed people. 

In past decades, sweat shops in China, Taiwan, El Salvador paid their workers starvation wages so "stuff" could be sold cheaply in the United States. 

You can poison a gallon of clean water with a few drops of arsenic or lead. And you cannot get an engine running without greasing the gears with dirty grease and oil.

Maybe Hillary needs to re read "Major Barbara" as she struggles to answer questions about those speeches to Goldman Saks. "I'd take money from the Devil to get the laws the Middle Class needs."

Trumped! Our Very Own Berlusconi

If Donald Trump never does another good thing for his country, at least he managed to thwart one of the most malicious sleaze balls in his quest for the presidency. Listening to Mr. Cruz's concession speech tonight was the ultimate reminder of the great service the Donald has done his country by ending the ordeal of having to listen to the stomach turning Mr. Cruz any longer.

Running against Trump will be a challenge for Hillary Clinton. Like most lawyers, like anyone who has been in government, Hillary thinks in terms of policies, and programs,  but Trump does none of this.  Do you apply the principle of punishing an accomplice to murder by prosecuting a woman who has an abortion? Yeah, sure, why not?  No, wait.  Hell, I don't care.  Who thinks about stuff like that anyway?  Hey, we're gonna make America great again: that's what I'm talking about!  

How do you debate a ten year old who will stand on the stage and make faces and thumb his nose at you and called you names?  

Mr. Trump joins that pantheon of rich men who seek public office by sheer audacity and exuberance and succeed, for a time. He will have to step up his game to compete with  Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian premier,  who was fond of appointing former lovers to government offices. He appointed Marla Carfagna, a former bedmate,  as his Minister of the Ministry of Equal Opportunity--taking the name of that ministry quite literally--if this woman was willing to go to bed with me, why should she not have equal opportunity to serve in public office?

Who would not want equal opportunity with her?

Perhaps Hillary's best option would be to send Bernie to the debates with the Donald. She could say, "When the Republicans nominate an adult, I'll debate. Until then I'll send my Vice Principal to deal with the Infant Terrible." 

The Donald should be studying the game films of Mr. Berlusconi in action.  This is  how an infantile billionaire can frame the discussion among world leaders when considering important questions like what to do with the Syrian refugees flooding into Europe or how to handle the Greek default. 

Who needs adults ,when we can have such fun?

We all have to admit, it will be interesting to see what the composition of America really is. Will the Donald appeal to only the 32% who voted for him in the early primaries or will more and more Americans catch the fun train?   Are we more like Germany or Italy?  Germany, after all, elected a decent, if frumpy lady whose instincts have been magnanimous and conciliatory, while Italy preferred Mr.  Berlusconi, who was way more fun, who threw parties with a ready supply of young women (teenagers, actually)  to bed for all his rich friends, while running a tabloid news and real estate empire. 

Now this is the way to govern

I may have to start watching reality TV.  How about "Survivor?" 

Nicole Minetti

Both billionaires seem to have a taste for a certain look of woman. In the case of Nicole Minetti, who procured the teenagers for Mr. Berlusconi's "parties" the look was lean and angular. At least, one might say, he had a certain standard he maintained.  Mr. Trump, apparently, has similar tastes.  And he's an internationalist. He likes Miss Universe contestants. And as was true of Mr. Berlusconi, the women seem to find something to like in the Donald. Might be the hair. Might be the money.  Something works for these guys.

I may have some young ladies for you

Stay tuned.

I Dig  Donald

The Game is Rigged: The Deadly Delusion of Meritocracy

Thomas Frank has made a career analyzing how liberals lost the  struggle for the soul of bottom 80% of the American electorate, which is to say the lower and middle classes, such as we actually still have a "middle class."

His big idea is encapsulated in the remark he cites from Lawrence Summers, an effete snob who never quite recovered from his rejection as an undergraduate from Harvard and who made a career of bullying his way into sinecure positions like President of Harvard and chief economist of the World Bank, who said, "One of the reasons that inequality has probably gone up in our society is that people are being treated closer to the way that they're supposed to be treated." 

This is something of a corollary to the remark he made which cost him his job as Harvard President, when he observed that women haven't established much of a presence in math and science because they aren't as talented as men in math in science. He was alluding to test scores which have suggested as much, but it was politically incorrect to say it.  

What he was really saying is that the successful deserve to be successful and the losers are what they are, losers.

This is  the idea that we have ways of measuring "talent" and worthiness and we should reward those on whom God has bestowed superior genes and brains and we should not feel too sorry for those less competitive, less worthy, less" talented," less intelligent individuals who comprised the lower 90% and who could never "qualify" to get into Harvard.

Which brings to mind the man Thomas Frank quoted in his book, "What's the Matter with Kansas," a guy who complains that his son, who could rewire his house, rebuild the tractor's motor, read the defense from the line of scrimmage before burning it for a forty yard touch down pass,  hunt and shoot a wild boar, kayak a class four rapid and sink a basket from 35 feet would never get into Harvard, because his college board scores are not high enough.

What the man from Kansas was saying is you have your ideas of what constitutes "talent," Mr. Summers, and I have mine. And in my world, your kid, with his perfect scores and perfect grades and his resume filled with made-for-college-application extra curricula activities,  is an empty suit, whose greatest virtue is knowing how to kiss up to adults.

That "talented" student, destined to garner the glittering prizes, is the Lt. Dick, of the Band of Brothers, a Yale graduate, who was never seen when the lead started flying, a dreadful failure as a leader of men, who is ultimately removed from command of Easy Company, only to wind up on the staff of the General who commands the whole regiment, the classic case of a fortunate feckless son,  kicked upstairs. 

Frank assails the "well graduated" cohort of smug collegians who have been told they are the select, the elect and they will rule the world and they graduate to join Mackenzie Consulting and, sure enough, they find themselves writing reports telling men twice their age how to manufacture widgets more profitably, having mastered the problem of profitable widget making in a blitzkrieg of studying the factory and it's place in the economy.

Of course,  those who have a more enlightened perspective  will tell you they got high board scores because their parents could afford to send them to Kaplan courses and tutors which ramped up their scores.

On the other hand, when one actually lives and works among the hoi polloi, one discovers they are not all brilliant, hard working people who were simply born into poor families. Many do come from families  with six brothers and four sisters and parents who worked two jobs and had no time to read to kids at night. College for them was never an option. But  whatever their talents and intelligence, many of these folks struggle putting pen to paper to simply fill out a questionnaire.  

It's not that people who dropped out of high school were unintelligent, but their lives took arches predictable from their circumstances and the marketplace has no patience and no intention of  bringing them up to speed.

But the rage that fuels the crowds at Donald Trump rallies is a rage at a dimly perceived injustice, buried in early childhood experience and reinforced throughout adolescence that meritocracy is a fraud, the system is rigged and the wrong people rewarded.