with Nixon, the fact he had unmasked their golden boy, Alger Hiss before he could emerge as Secretary of State or higher office, as a Soviet agent was never forgiven, that he fooled Dean Acheson, Adlai Stevenson et al, to buttress this resentment, they had to create psycho biographies like Fawn Brodie, and a host of other matters, the Hughes loan which staid mostly dormant for 15 years was one of those gotchas, I guess like the payments to daniels, then again they probably didn’t rely on one donor exclusively, then there is the Chennault letter which is a little perplexing about the outrage therein, Madame, was an unpleasant reminder of who the Dems would throw under the bus, as they would sort of due less than a decade later, one might argue if the deal obtained in 72, could have been done, with 25,000 less casualties.

the fall of Saigon might have happened in 71,of course the bulk of his feints to the moderates, like wage and price controls were much more injurious tothe middle class, but the focus on cultural issues, like crime andother values issues, instead of the niche interests of Lindsay enraged them more, so did his plans to consolidate many of the government department (which I think Haldeman really reminded us) so to was a return to a regional powerbloc, hence the reliance on the Shah as local gendarme,

the policies pursued by the current regime, are much like the claptrap that Ramsey Clark considered back at the tail end of the administration, ‘root cause’ foolishness on the Domestic front,

I was moved by Johnson’s withdrawal and Nixon’s resignation all those years ago, but growing up has made me very cynical about politicians and journalists. I missed the speech, but the network coverage afterwards — half campaign ad for Harris, half elegy or eulogy for the noble patriot Biden — was shallow, cheap and unconvincing, at least to me.

There’s been too much lying and too much gaslighting to take the usual chatter about the national drama and trauma, and the fate of the Republic, and the soul of America very seriously. I remember now that a lot of adults (and even more college students) were cynical about Johnson and Nixon. Maybe they were right.

Cicero:

Got news for you — I can do arithmetic, as well as even fancier math. So I suggest not talking down to me.

Russell’s advice was for the ages, not just for his time, and it is a critical thinking remedy for fanaticism.

And I’m going to call for Supreme Court reform because this is critical to our democracy, Supreme Court reform. You know, I will keep working to ensure America remains strong and secure and the leader of the free world.

What the ever mother loving hell is this shit?

And more, I’m well aware of your credentialing citations on Russell’s behalf. I’m not in need of them, if that’s your object to inform. I too read Russell seriously many years ago; was even persuaded by him in some ways. But the point, if I may, is not truly about Russell as such, but about the state of philosophical inquiry in our times. Enough from me on that for now. Or worse, too much.

He was a hugely influential mathematician and philosopher who won a Nobel Prize for literature, not a “minor figure” at all. I disagree with a lot of what he said, but he’s not a minor figure.