Is #45 Warning Alabama Again?

Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools talk because they have to say something.
—  Benjamin Franklin
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On This Day In:
2018	Worry (x2)
2017	Still Working
	Gold In The Morning Sun
2016	Power Inside
2015	Sometimes I Feel Small
2014	It Slipped Away
2013	Corollary
2012	Working Retired
2011	The Web Is Not Authoritative! (Really?)

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[The subject for this interview was Retired General James Mattis (Gen. Mattis was also Secretary of Defense serving from January 20, 2017 to January 1, 2019).  The answers are regarding the racially motivated mass shooting in El Paso and his feelings about politics in America…  —  KMAB]
About El Paso he said:  “You know, on that day we were all Hispanics.  That’s the way we have to think about this.  If it happens to any one of us, it happens to all of us.”
But about this treacherous political moment?
“You’ve got to avoid looking at what’s happening in isolation from everything else,” he said.  “We can’t hold what Trump is doing in isolation.  We’ve got to address the things that put him there in the first place.”  Mattis speaks often about affection: the affection that commanders feel for their soldiers, and that soldiers ought to feel for one another  —  and the affection that Americans should feel for one another and for their country but often, these days, don’t.  “ ’With malice toward none, with charity for all,’ ” he said.  “Lincoln said that in the middle of a war.  In the middle of a war!  He could see beyond the hatred of the moment.”
I thought back to what he’d told me earlier in the summer, when I had asked him to describe something Trump could say or do that would trigger him to launch a frontal attack on the president.  He’d demurred, as I had expected.  But then he’d issued a caveat:  “There is a period in which I owe my silence.  It’s not eternal.  It’s not going to be forever.”
—  Jeffrey Goldberg
Excerpt from his article:  “The Man Who Couldn’t Take It Anymore“
The article appears in “The Atlantic Magazine”  https://www.theatlantic.com/
And the article is online at:  https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/10/james-mattis-trump/596665/
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On This Day In:
2018	Just Trying To Be Me
	Day 39: Half This Game Is 90% Mental
2017	A Letter To 45
	Some Small Place
2016	REDs
2015	Cities
2014	Still
2013	Dare = Hope
2012	Check My Math
2011	Just Asking

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#IncompetentDonald Fails On All Three

Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character.  But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.
—  General Norman Schwarzkopf
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On This Day In:
2018	I Put It Down To Bad Teachers
	Day 34: In And Out
2017	And The Future Is Now
2016	I Am
2015	Positively Aiming Higher
2014	Suspicious Minds
2013	We Are Not Alone
2012	Lawyer, n.
2011	Each Day Remember…
2010	Impossible Dreams of Camelot

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Just Asking…

QUESTIONNAIRE
by Wendell Berry
1.  How much poison are you willing to eat for the success of the free market and global trade?  Please name your preferred poisons.
2.  For the sake of goodness, how much evil are you willing to do?  Fill in the following blanks with the names of your favorite evils and acts of hatred.
3.  What sacrifices are you prepared to make for culture and civilization?  Please list the monuments, shrines, and works of art you would most willingly destroy.
4.  In the name of patriotism and the flag, how much of our beloved land are you willing to desecrate?  List in the following spaces the mountains, rivers, towns, farms you could most readily do without.
5.  State briefly the ideas, ideals, or hopes, the energy sources, the kinds of security, for which you would kill a child.  Name, please, the children whom you would be willing to kill.
Found at one of the blogs I follow:  https://www.brainpickings.org/
The specific post link is:  https://www.brainpickings.org/2019/08/14/wendell-berry-questionnaire-amanda-palmer/?mc_cid=e1165a44ab&mc_eid=a1951a747c
Please visit the original site if you have a spare moment.  I HIGHLY recommend following this blog, but caution, the posts can be QUITE deep and insightful.  —  KMAB
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On This Day In:
2018	Or Attacks On A Free Press
	Day 26: Life
2017	Still Looking For The Key
2016	Not So Much Anymore, Boss
2015	Green Binge
2014	Overdone
2013	The Courage To Remake The World
2012	Minor Gifts
2011	I Love It When A Plan Comes Together…
2010	Eloquence
	Cleaning the Chalk Board

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Impeaching The Idiot In The Oval Office

Everything is riding on this.  Ultimately our global leadership is riding on this.  It’s not Saddam that is the issue; it’s whether America can lead, lead constructively and in a way that others respect it.
—  Zbigniew Brzezinski
[Obviously, given the reference to Saddam, a dated quote , but the point (constructive leadership) remains valid.  —  KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2018	My Religion
	Day 22: Step And Hang
2017	Adrift In The Oval Office
	Regrets – The Donald Failed The Test
2016	Just Ask “The Donald”
2015	Did You Pass On It?
2014	Even When It Ain’t, It Is
2013	Still Happens
2012	Possessing Eternity
2011	I Thought We Were Talking About Afghanistan

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And #IncompetentTrump Is A Failure At Both

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.
—  Peter Drucker
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On This Day In:
2018	To Excel At Your Craft
	Day 12: Waiting
2017	Like When You Can Order Others To Fight For You
2016	Holding Fast
2015	Alms Or Balms
2014	A Day At The Beach
2013	Pillows
	Steppin’
2012	Invincible Summer
2011	Being Objective
2010	First Things First…
	Northwest Passages – Intro
	Northwest Passages – Day One
	Northwest Passages – Poetry
	Northwest Passages – Evening One
	Northwest Passages – Morning Two

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Another Thought On #45’s Poor Education

Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain.  It’s not something you learn in school.  But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.
―  Muhammad Ali
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On This Day In:
2018	As Long As You Survive Each Experience
	WordPress to Facebook Test…
	Day 7: Oh, Yeah!
2017	A Good Habit
2016	The Minds Of Trumpism
2015	Expressing Nonsense
2014	A Real Fight
2013	Unravelling
2012	I Resolve
2011	Practice, Practice, Practice
2009	Phoenix Trip (Sept ’09)

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