Soaring Rhetoric vs Braying(Rebuznos)

The Octogenarians

The dedication of the Museum of African American History(The National Museum of African American History and Culture) this past weekend brought forth soaring rhetoric and strong feelings involving such sentiments as love and patriotism.Former Presidents and change agents partook of and contributed to the heady brew.It was fitting that the first black President of the U.S. be the chief dedicator,knowing as he does the gap between the sentiment and the initiation of the measures necessary to attain equality before the law and equal  access to opportunity.I suspect that  G.W.Bush was sincere in his sentiment but still cannot see the barriers that were imposed by his (and his dad’s) supreme court appointments.

The presidential( on Monday night)debate was  at a much lower level of rhetoric.It showed a well  prepared intelligent,experienced candidate mixing it up with a bar room brawler unprepared and relying on one liners to hide the absence of a…

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Into the Breach or Deja Vu One More Time!

The Octogenarians

Trump uses other people’s money…Trump low balls legitimate debts,Trump lies,Trump cheats,Trump bullies,RMV in his brilliant analysis,asks “where and how can he be stopped?)The empire of the 4th estate must play umpire and cry foul when appropriate.
The dog whistle calling for profiling and appealing to police nationwide as an endangered band of brothers has been accompanied by the questionable shooting death of at least three more males of color.Rioting and mayhem threaten to overwhelm us.Page of Maine wants to fight a duel(against whom is unclear).What does a duel using AR 15s,AK 47s,Glocks or Uzis look and sound like? It was bad enough using black powder and muzzle loaded dueling pistols to be outlawed.Does Trump’s America mean finding out?
RMV tells us that the umpires(media) need to call foul but the Trump diversionary tactic is already underway.THE DEBATE IS RIGGED he bawls.
His consolatory message to black people about Tulsa “what…

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The Structure of Trump’s Wall

The Octogenarians

It’s time to take a close look at what is going to go into the Wall that the Trumpeter will put around America.It will go down to Hades because coyotes will dig.(the human kind as well)It will go up beyond Mitgaard to Asgard so that the Donald can join Thor and Odin at will.It will be one way bullet proof but permeable to our fire so that the NRA and the gunslingers won’t lose money or practice.It will be coated with Tacos on the Mexican side so that the powerful culture of Mejicanos(his advisor’s language)will stay on the Mexican side and they will pay for the Tacos and thus the wall.It’s massive structure will consist of blocks that are cemented with fear-1/8,ignorance-/1/ 8,gullibility -1/8,racism-1/4,hate-1/8,greed-1/8 and the necessary 1/8 of stupidity.It will contain slots so that Trump’s merchandise can pass freely(White House momentos) but will not be impermeable to nuclear fallout…

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Sportsmanship

The Octogenarians

From Rmv & VV

Claude:

Your comparison of today’s politics with a tennis match(sarcasm notwithstanding)reflects your world view, that of a person of great integrity and keen sense of sportsmanship. Unfortunately tennis is a game of strict rules and an umpire to enforce those rules. Trumpism is WAR! And despite certain similarities, strategy and the like, war and games are inherently opposites. Let me tell an interesting story about Stonewall Jackson I learned while visiting the B &O Railroad Museum in Baltimore last week. Now everybody, Northerners and Southerners agree that Jackson was a great general and, I believe, both sides see him as a person of integrity. Now the story…

Early in the war Jackson arrived at the B & O nexus some 100 miles west of Baltimore where all of the railroad’s many lines came together to facilitate switching and re-routing; it was the B&O hub carrying the…

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The Joker vs Wonder Woman or Blurred Lines & Definitions

The Octogenarians

Yes,in this analysis Trump is the Joker and Hillary is Wonder Woman.The joker keeps getting away with sinister muttering and Wonder Woman keeps acting as though she were sensitive to s world full of kryptonite.No Hillary,that would be Supergirl and there’s something ominous about that character.(loose cannon?)
Let’s revert to our more comfortable tennis symbolism.The truly great tennis players excel in one or more aspects of the game.For some it is the serve,for others the forehand or backhand or volley.For the Trumpeter it is the offhand and the bobble volley.The offhand is the masterful no hands stroke of the off the cuff remark which resists contextualizing when used with the bobble volley.(“believe me”,” definitely”,”you know what I mean”)Trump’s latest offhand shot “take away the guns from her security detail and let’s see what happens to her”.If this seems like a renewal of the threat the the second amendment people might…

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Another Pause to Remember

The Octogenarians

We are in Hispanic history month,we are remembering the 60’s civil rights marches,the infamy of 9/11,the death of Phyllis Schlafly of “don’t call me MS, it means misery!” fame ,world mental health and much more.The pause,most often not taken, to remember or to identify( for those not old enough to remember) symbolizes the tendentious key issues of the  upcoming presidential election.  Immigration reform,equal opportunity in employment and education.homeland security and policeman of the world status,lives matter crusades,globalism vs America first and on and on.The issues are clear enough the consequences of action upon them is not.Cooperation is obviously going to be necessary to stay in the race against time and the candidates are polar opposites on almost everything.It is a bad time for the decision to be made on the same basis as the popularity of a media promoted quiz show.The use of the low bar being set by the…

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The Retrospectoscope Revisits Old Eli

The Octogenarians

A number of posts to this blog have dealt with issues involving Yale University.The issues have included visits by supreme court justice alumni,renaming of Calhoun College,new campuses, (domestic and international) and 1960’s era recommendations of A.K.Rice re:Yale Medical School.The latter recommendations which I had considered “missing” were generously made available by President Salovey’s chief of staff (J.McGrath) allowing me to confirm a judgement made on this blog that Yale by now,had probablygone beyond those recommendations.(which were not accepted at the time)Nevertheless a review of that document was highly instructive both as to the brilliance of A.K.Rice and, that notwithstanding,the correctness of the decision.

Ken Rice used concepts of boundaries,inputs,throughputs and outputs quite masterfully in support of the major premise that the Medical School ,Nursing School,Mental Health Center,and School of Public Health had a responsibility to the surrounding community,the state and the nation that required the positioning of the patient and…

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