Whose worse, Trump or McConnell of both?

"It's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it."

Hate crimes up 17% in 2017

Hate crimes rose 17% in 2017 after the election and antics of Donald Trump. Is our nation better off after his election?

With over 44 mass shooting so far this year in 2019, and active shooter drills traumatizing our children in schools, do you feel safer now under Trumpism than before under Obama?

It is interesting how this issue has not been brought up in the Democrat Presidential Candidate debates.

For more click here.

The real story of Thanksgiving.

 Americans have a hard time with the truth.

They prefer their myths which present them in a more positive light repressing their darker side.

Without acknowledging their darker side they cannot effectively manage it and are doomed to repeat their racism, xenophobia, and white nationalism which we observe in our current time of Trumpism as the rise of  Nationalism with such inane memes as Make America Great Again. Really? Have we learned nothing from the sins of our past?

Systemic racism is alive and well in our current day and age especially in regards to our treatment of Native Americans and people of African heritage whom we enslaved.

"A" Great Amercian Novel

Tyler Malone has an interesting short essay in The Fall, 2019 issue of the Hedgehog Review entitled, "An Ever More Perfect Novel".

He writes that the idea of "The" Great American Novel was born in 1868 in an article in The Nation magazine written by John William DeForest where he wrote that the best American novel would be "the picture of the ordinary emotions and manners of American existence."

Suggestions have been made for the winner of the Great American Novel accolade such as Moby-Dick, The Great Gatsby, Uncle Tom's Cabin, To Kill A Mocking Bird, and many others.

At the end of the essay, Malone opines that since America is always changing there never can be "The" Great American Novel, but prefers to think of the idea as "A" Great American Novel. In other words, I think Malone is saying that as times change, the novel that best captures the identity of the American Spirit will change as well.

As an amateur sociologist, I tend to think about this question as generational. We have the Depression generation, the Greatest generation who fought World War II, the Boomers, the Gen xers, the Millential's and now Gen Z. So if you have to pick A Great American Novel for each of these generations which novel would you nominate. I'd open it up for non fiction nominations too.

What fiction and nonfiction books best exemplify the American experience in each of the above mentioned generations?

What are the biggest countries in the world by geographical size?

What is the size of the countries in the world measured by square kilometers?

Which do you think the top five biggest are?

Are you aware of the International Baccalaurete Progam

Show me the data - Is "voter fraud" a real problem in the United States as Republicans claim?

Today we are starting a new feature on MarkhamsSlowNews tagged "Show Me The Data" which will describe empirical facts that help us to define and describe various topics in the news.


 

Science is resticted in policy making by Trump's Republican Administration.

   

The following was posted on a listserv by a colleague of mine regarding the New York Times article.

Hi:

The phrase, "know nothings,” well fits the Trump administration and their fervent GOP followers who seem proud of their ignorance as found in the latest  E.P.A. proposed agency rule restricting the science that can be used in drafting health regulations by requiring researchers to turn over confidential health data. This is yet another dangerous and toxic policy designed by Trump/GOP to put blinders on/mislead the public to justify their plan to "take America back, make America Great again” by significantly limiting  scientific and medical research that the E.P.A. can use to determine public health regulations; overridden were protests from scientists and physicians who said the new rule would undermine the scientific underpinnings of government policymaking.

     This proposed rule well fits Carl Sagan’s related comment:"The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.”

Regards,

Doug Stephenson, LCSW, BCD
GNV, FL

For more click here.

Impeachment isn't as much about Donald Trump as it is about core democratic principles.

What is at stake in the impeachment of the United States is the core beliefs in our constituion of the United States. All Americans have a duty to educate themselves and inform others about our values and support for democratic processes.