My Friends Were NOT Losers or Suckers

A few months ago I thought back to the 1960s, a tumultuous time in the world and in the United States. One hot spot in the world was Germany. After World War Two, the country was divided, with Austria again becoming independent, with the victorious Allies occupying the country. Germany was divided into occupation zones, with each of the four major Allies (the U.S., Britain, France and the Soviet Union) administering a zone. The eastern part of Germany was in the Soviet zone; thus, it became communist dominated with a pro-Soviet German government eventually installed. The thing was, lots of Germans, including many highly skilled workers and well educated people, crossed over into the western areas of Germany. By the early 1960s, the East German government, supported by the Soviets, cracked down on people leaving their sector, and they began building a wall to halt the out migration to West Germany. This all caused a crisis. Then not long thereafter, the U.S. announced they had evidence that the Soviets had shipped missiles to Cuba, a communist nation only 90 miles from the U.S. shore and run by dictator Fidel Castro. This REALLY caused problems and it looked as if the world could experience a nuclear war, as President Kennedy leaned on the Soviets to remove the missiles by ordering a naval blockade of Cuba. Finally, after many tense days, which included air raid drills in schools, the Soviets withdrew the missiles.

With these things going on, not many people paid as much attention to the then increasing tensions in South Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia. It was one of those countries that had been created by splitting the main country into a communist dominated North Vietnam, and a pro-Western government in South Vietnam. American foreign policy began to focus on stopping the spread of communism to South Vietnam, as we were eventually told and given to believe, that if South Vietnam became a communist nation, we could expect to be fighting Vietnamese communists in the streets of Los Angeles and Seattle, not to mention perhaps in Boise, Idaho. Thousands of U.S. troops were sent to South Vietnam, and while the reasons may seem odd today (almost funny, if the result hadn't been so bloody), the call to nationalism and American fear of communism was quite real in those days, and politicians of both major parties did not want to end up on the wrong side of the issue. We in the public were told how we were close to ending the threat in South Vietnam, but in fact, the situation grew worse, and soldiers by the tens of thousands were sent to try to end the conflict, with more than 50,000 dying by the time Americans were completely withdrawn from South Vietnam. 

A few months ago, as I thought about those times, I looked online for two friends who died in Vietnam. These guys were from right in my neighborhood. "Gary" was like 4 or 5 years older than me and the guys I hung around with. Now, if you're 10 and another guy is 14 or 15, that's a big difference at that age, and Gary was like a big brother to some of us, even though he wasn't a tall guy in that sense. Gary joined the Marines a few years later. He was sent to Vietnam and killed in action in 1967. Then there was "Robbie." He was just a year or 2 older than most of us and we all played ball together in the schoolyard and did all the things that young people and teenagers do. He was also not a tall guy at all. As the war became big news in the second half of the 1960s, he talked of wanting to be a Marine and to serve in Vietnam, or "Nam," as he would say. When he was still too young for military service, I think many of us thought and hoped the war would be over before Robbie might end up in it, and some of my firends poked fun at his gung ho attitude, perhaps to ease the thoughts of what might happen to him. Well, the war continued and Robbie joined the Marines. In the first few days of 1970 he was killed in action. The thing that most of us feared had happened.

 

I found my two friends online and I saw their photos from all of those years ago (both in their uniforms). I sat and cried and I'm not doing well at keeping my composure as I write this. Since I saw their pictures, word has come out that there were likely bounties paid by Russia to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan, and then word came that the "little man" (dis)serving as president of the United States called American wounded and dead soldiers "loosers and suckers." These things alone, along with his disparaging comments about John McCain and attacking the parents of a soldier killed in action, should be QUITE ENOUGH to tell any American all they need to know about the despicable creature and his mob-like culture occupying our White House. He is worthy of nothing but contempt. 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Fidelity-This word is closely related to "fealty," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English via French, and it is related to "confide," a word borrowed by English directly from Latin. Further, it may be distantly related to "bide" and "abide," both words from the Germanic roots of English. "Fidelity" goes back to Indo European "bheidh," which had the notion, "to trust," with extended meanings like "to convince" (bring someone to trust in your feelings about something), "to obey" (put trust in someone by following their orders). Italic rendered the "bh" as "f," which gave Latin "fidere," meaning "to trust," and the noun "fides," meaning "faith," which produced the adjective "fidelis," meaning, "faithful," which produced the noun "fidelitas," meaning "faithfulness." This was taken into French as "fidélité," with the same meaning, and English borrowed the word in the first half of the 1400s (initially as "fidelite?").            

Like Mr. Howell, Trump Says, "Make It Fit"

I'm returning briefly to one of my all time favorite shows, "Gilligan's Island." In the show, for those unaware, Mr. Howell, properly known as Thurston Howell III, played by Cleveland's own Jim Backus, is a wealthy business tycoon and one of the castaways who were shipwrecked during a storm. Like a dictator, Mr. Howell is accustomed to giving orders, and subordinates hop to it. By the way, he sees subordinates as everyone else on the planet. Like Donald Trump (played by Donald Trump), Mr. Howell's feathers get ruffled when anyone dares to point out his mistakes or dares to oppose his desires. Even with his great wealth, Howell is always scheming to get even more wealth, sometimes at the expense of his fellow castaways and even of his own wife. Can you imagine Mr. Howell as president, with access to the U.S. Treasury, especially after getting rid of anyone who could investigate any dipping into the till or other lawbreaking? In spite of his faults, Mr. Howell could eventually come to a reality check on his behavior and then try to make amends, although it might take some stomping and pouting first. 

Anyway, in one episode the shipwrecked little group finds separate pieces of an ancient stone tablet with drawings they believe might disclose a secret way off the island. Like putting together a jigsaw puzzle, each person tries to put a piece of the puzzle together. When Mr. Howell tries, the piece doesn't fit, so he says, "Break off a piece and make it fit!" Rigging the truth will make any message of the stone tablet wrong and of no benefit.

Photo of Jim Backus as Thurston Howell III from the Turner Home Entertainment/Warner Brothers Complete Gilligan's Island First Season DVD Set

WORD HISTORY:
Sub-This is not the shortened form for "submarine," but rather the widely used prefix. "Sub-" is distantly related to "up," "open," "oft" and "often," all words from the Germanic roots of English, and it is also related to a whole range of words with the prefix "sub-" (examples: "subordinate," "submerge"), and to many words beginning with "sus" (examples: "suspect," "sustain"). "Sub-" goes back to the Indo European root "upo," with the notion of "from under" or "from below," "to go over/above." This gave Italic "supo," seemingly a prefixed form from Indo European, and this gave Latin "sub," with generally the same or similar meanings to the Indo European form. This was not borrowed by English so much directly, but rather along with a number of words from Latin or from Latin-based languages, and it was then used by English as a word forming prefix, like for "subway," a word with the Latin prefix, but with a Germanic base and an original English word (way).        

Stand Up & Be Counted... VOTE!

2020 is a major election year, as Americans will vote for a president, many senators, many governors, all congressional representatives, as well as many state legislators, sheriffs, commissioners, and all sorts of other offices, plus there will likely be many issues on state or local ballots. That doesn't mean 2019 is not important, as Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi will elect governors, as well as some other offices.

So, as we approach the 2019 and 2020 general elections in November of each of those years, be sure to follow the laws and procedures of the state where you are registered to vote. If you are not registered to vote, DO SO NOW, don't procrastinate! Call your local election office, or check for their website online, so that you know EXACTLY what you need to do to be properly registered to vote. You can also check with your state's election office. "Typically" a state's chief election officer is that state's "secretary of state," and I'm sure they all have websites in these times. Remember, in the United States, election laws are set by the individual states, the District of Columbia, or U.S. territories (like Puerto Rico or Guam, for example, although residents of the territories are United States citizens, they cannot vote for president, unless they move to a state or to the District of Columbia and then register to vote in compliance with the laws of that state). For more information to help you register to vote, or for other election questions, here is the link to the site for the "League of Women Voters:" http://www.vote411.org/  as well as the link to the "League's" overall website: https://www.lwv.org/

If you have already registered to vote, it is a very good idea to check your registration, even if you just voted in an election within the last few months, and even if your information has not changed. Some states have ways of doing this online, but just as with registering, call or check online for ways to verify or update your voter registration. Remember, even if you move just a block or two away from the address shown on your voter registration information, it might change the ward or some voting district, so keep your information up to date. Further, there are occasional mistakes by election offices, and I'm not meaning "deliberate mistakes," but there are potentially those kinds of mistakes too, so you don't want to show up to vote, only to be told that your name is not on the voter rolls, or that you are listed in another precinct or whatever. TAKE NOTHING FOR GRANTED! REMEMBER, the Trump regime in Washington DC, along with their participants and collaborators on the state and local level, will do ANYTHING to disqualify you from voting, or to see that your vote does not count. There have always been charges leveled at both major political parties about election shenanigans, BUT we have never had the threat to our democracy in modern times that we face now. CHECK YOUR REGISTRATION, DON'T WAIT, DO IT NOW!

 If you are in a state that uses early voting by mail, and that is your preferred method to vote, be sure to follow your state's regulations for requesting a ballot, and then follow proper procedure for filling out and mailing in your completed ballot. Elections are always important, but the coming preisdential election in 2020 is perhaps the most important election in the history of this country. And let's not EVER forget Mitch McConnell, the most EVIL man to EVER serve in the United States Senate, refusing to hold a vote on Barack Obama's selection for the Supreme Court in 2016. That appointment was instead held by McConnell for Donald Trump. Whoever wins the presidency in 2020 will almost certainly get to appoint other Supreme Court judges, and all presidents get to appoint judges in the federal judicial sysatem. If you want to live in about the 1400s (maybe even 1400 BC), you'll love all of the Trump picks, and there will not be any legal thing you can do about them. You could well lose your rights very soon.

BE SURE YOUR VOTE WILL COUNT!

WORD HISTORY:
League-There are two main words of this spelling, but this is the most commonly used noun (and the derived verb) meaning "a group of organizations or people in alliance for some common purpose." It is related to "liaison," a word borrowed by English from French, which had derived it from Latin, and to "ligament," a word English borrowed from Latin. "League" goes back to Indo European "leig," which had the meaning, "to bind." This gave Latin "ligare," with the same meaning, which passed into Italian as "legare," again with the same meaning. This produced the Italian noun "lega," meaning, "a group, an association (people bound together in common cause);" thus, "a league." This was borrowed by French in the Middle Ages as "ligue," with the same meaning. English borrowed the word in the second half of the 1400s, initially as "ligg," then later as "league." The 1800s saw the word used for associations of sports teams, a meaning still very much relevant today. The verb developed from the noun in the first part of the 1600s meaning, "to bind together to form a league," but the verb is not all that common, at least not in the United States; I'm not sure about elsewhere.     

Michelle Wolf Spoke Truth

If Michelle Wolf's language is the worst thing you ever experience in your life, you'll have had a hell of a good life. Myself, I know all the words, I know how to use them and I do use them, on occasion, but I understand that some people may be uncomfortable or even shocked to hear such language, but if you have trouble hearing these words, how will you deal with truth, with reality. Truth can be ugly, it can force us to turn away, it can force us to pull the covers over our heads in an effort to avoid it. Sometimes we cringe at truth, but truth; that is, reality, marches on. I find it disingenuous by those who find Beto O'Rourke's occasional obscenities, or Michelle Wolf's language in 2018 to be so offensive, but they seem to have no problem with Donald Trump's language, including "Grab women by the -----," or calling some NFL players "son of a -------," or calling some African and Caribbean nations "sh--holes," or the use of words not generally judged to be obscenities, but given their context by Trump, they are truly obscene, like referring to Latinos as "invading the U.S.," calling Mexicans "rapists and criminals," calling Baltimore "disgusting ... a rat and rodent infested mess ... no human being would want to live there." Well anyway... comedy can be used to point to, or to emphasize, truth, and that's where Michelle Wolf hit the nail on the head.

In April of 2018, entertainer Michelle Wolf was the featured speaker (performer) at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.* With tensions in the country running high with Donald Trump often attacking the media and using the term "fake news" about reporting he didn't (doesn't) like, the stage was set for the dinner, which Trump did NOT attend, although Sarah Huckabee Sanders, his press secretary, was sent as a representative of the White House. Michelle Wolf's overall performance was what you likely have heard in nightclubs, if you've ever attended such; by that I mean, these performances "often" contain some rough language and she delivered the skewering of the media that was expected, she took a few jabs at herself, then she turned to the crux of the matter... Trump, Sarah Sanders and the media; she did NOT hold back. With Sarah Sanders she did everything except directly call her a liar, something I will gladly do here... SARAH SANDERS IS A LIAR! It is not without reason I call Sanders "Frau Goebbels." More truth was to come as Michelle said of the media and Trump, "You (the media) pretend that you hate him (Trump), but I think you love him. I think what no one in this room wants to admit... Trump has helped all of you. He couldn't sell steaks or vodka or water or college or ties or Eric ... but he has helped YOU. He's helped you sell your papers and your books and your TV. You helped create this monster and now you're profiting off of him." She ended with, "Okay, like an immigrant who was brought here by his parents and didn't do anything wrong, I've gotta get the f--- out of here.....Flint (Michigan) still doesn't have clean water!"  

* The White House Correspondents' Dinner is sponsored by an association of journalists from the various media who report on the U.S. presidency and presidential administrations. The dinner began in the 1920s and Calvin Coolidge was the first president to attend the dinner. Over the years show business people often provided entertainment, with comedians eventually becoming the most common, and with the entertainment centering on much teasing and joking, often by the president skewering media organizations or individual reporters, and the featured speaker skewering everyone.

WORD HISTORY:
Yacht-This word goes back to Dutch "jaght" or Low German "jacht" (in both cases the "j" is pronounced like English "y"), in either case a short form of Low German "jachtschip," which meant "hunting or pursuit ship;" that is, "a light fast ship." Low German "jacht" goes back to Old High German "jagon," which meant, "to hunt, to chase or pursue" (modern German still has "jagen," meaning, "to hunt or pursue"). Where this comes from is not entirely certain, although the Old High German word goes back at least to the 700s. It "could" go back to Indo European "yagh/yak," "seemingly" with the meaning, "to covet;" thus, "to pursue some desired object." The thing is, forms in the Germanic languages are scarce, and Old Norse borrowed its form, "jaga," from Low German "jagen." The Brothers Grimm show Old Frisian having "jagia," and Middle Dutch "jagen.'' Okay, so back to the derived word "yacht." It was borrowed by English in the mid 1500s from either Dutch or Low German, and the ship type itself also began use by the British monarchy in the 1600s as a boat for pleasure and relaxation; a use and meaning that has been with it ever since. German has both "Jacht" (borrowed from Low German or Dutch) and "Yacht" (borrowed from English), Low German has "Jacht," Dutch "jacht," Frisian "jacht," Danish and Norwegian "jacht" ("apparently" borrowed from Low German), Swedish "Yacht" (apparently borrowed from English).          

Hitler Gradually Consolidated Power, Part One

First... Adolf Hitler did not "seize" power. Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany very legally on January 30, 1933 by President Paul von Hindenburg, a major German military figure and field marshal during the "Great War" (later to be called "World War One").*//** Hindenburg was an old time conservative, and he had resisted appointing "the Bohemian corporal," as he referred to Hitler at least on one occasion. He also appointed more traditional conservatives to the cabinet, with the idea that they would "control" Hitler. But with Hitler as chancellor, he and his Nazi inner circle began to outmaneuver the conservatives and to circumvent the German constitution and to consolidate power for himself and for the Nazi Party in general. Conservative opposition began to melt, as more conservatives became complicit in Nazi rule, if not outright accomplices. Does this sound familiar Americans?

In the Reichstag election of November 1932, the last truly free German election before Hitler became chancellor, the Nazis received 33% of the vote, a drop from 37% in the prior election, but the Nazis still remained the largest German political party in terms of the number of votes. After Hitler was appointed chancellor on January 30, 1933, new elections were authorized for March 5. On the evening of February 27, the Reichstag building in Berlin was reported to be on fire. Police arrested a mentally unstable Dutch communist named Marinus van der Lubbe, who admitted he set fire to the building. The Nazis screamed "communist conspiracy," and some other known communists were arrested and put on trial with van der Lubbe. Hitler got President von Hindenburg to sign a decree to "protect" against a communist conspiracy. The decree suspended virtually all civil liberties in Germany, including freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and freedom of speech. Further, the decree turned over many state powers to the national government.*** The law essentially gave the Nazis a free hand to arrest about anyone who opposed them by accusing the person of being a communist. "Generally," the German courts were still outside Nazi control. While van der Lubbe was convicted of the Reichstag fire, and then beheaded, the other main communists were acquitted, a verdict by the judge that led Trump... I mean Hitler, to establish a new Nazi court, the People's Court (German: Volksgerichtshof), to get around the not yet Nazified constitutional courts.

To be clear, the situation with the Reichstag fire has been, and still is, contentious. Van der Lubbe admitted to starting the fire by himself, but there are those who feel the fire was too big for one person to start, and that van der Lubbe had help, either from the communists, or from the Nazis, who, some quite logically believe, wanted an incident to provide them with a reason to crack down on opponents prior to the approaching election. There have also been theories that Hermann Göring, who was then the president of the Reichstag, had helped to plan the fire and to provide aid by sending Nazi stormtroopers through a tunnel that connected his office and residence to the Reichstag, which were across the street from one another. Whether such a tunnel existed, I don't know, but regardless of who started the fire, or who participated in the fire, the Nazis used the Reichstag fire to full effect. On election day the Nazis stationed Stormtroopers throughout the country. Even the strong arm tactics could not win the bastards a majority, and the Nazis received just shy of 44% of the vote. Less than three weeks later, the Reichstag was to vote on what is usually called "the Enabling Act" in English (German:  "Ermächtigungsgesetz"). The law allowed Hitler and the cabinet to make changes to the German constitution WITHOUT the consent of the Reichstag. Because the law changed the constitution, it needed support from two-thirds of the delegates, with two-thirds of the delegates needing to be present. All Communist delegates had been locked up after the post Reichstag fire decree and this removed a block of "no" votes. Still, Hitler lacked votes to get to the necessary two-thirds affirmative vote, and he turned to the Center Party, a Catholic-based political party. After Hitler's promise to protect Catholic religious practices and Catholic schools, the Center Party, although skeptical about Hitler's promises, voted with the Nazis and the Reichstag became irrelevant for the rest of the Nazi era. Hitler periodically used the Reichstag as a forum for important speeches, and to rubber stamp his policies, but it actually held no importance.

By the way, the fire destroyed much of the main meeting hall in the Reichstag, and thereafter, meetings were held in the nearby Kroll Opera House (German: Krolloper), and if you've seen photos or films of Hitler speaking to the Reichstag, almost all of the films and photos were taken in the Kroll Opera House, not in the actual Reichstag building itself. The Kroll Opera House was badly damaged by bombing during the war and it was torn down a few years after the war ended. The damaged Reichstag building remained, and it was a focal point in the fighting between Soviet and German troops in late April and early May of 1945, during the street fighting in Berlin, but it was not used for any legislative meetings until after German reunification in the 1990s. When Berlin was divided into "occupation zones" after World War Two, the Reichstag building was in the British zone, essentially right on the line with the Soviet zone. The (Communist) East German government erected a wall to divide Berlin in the early 1960s, "officially" to keep other people "out," a propaganda ploy that fooled no one. The Reichstag building was substantially renovated in the 1990s and it has kept its name, "Reichstag Building," but since the post World War Two years until the present, the German national parliament is called the Bundestag; that is, the Federal Parliament or Diet.

This is a picture of the Reichstag from a postcard I bought in Berlin back in the mid 1980s. The infamous "Berlin Wall" and Communist East Berlin was right behind the building. 

* The German president was the head of state; the German official, elected by a vote of the German people, who represented Germany in public ceremonial events. He also had the tremendous powers to appoint the chancellor and cabinet ministers, to dissolve the Reichstag (the German representative parliament) and to call for extraordinary national elections for delegates to the Reichstag (Note: this means the president could call for elections to be held outside the normally scheduled election dates). He was also the supreme commander of the armed forces, a very substantial power, as the army, especially, was held in very high regard in those days in German society, as the army was limited by the Versailles Treaty to 100,000 men, meaning that likely EVERY soldier was a veteran of the Great War. The chancellor of Germany was the head of the German government and its various departments (called ministries in German terminology and in many other countries, too).

** Hitler and the Nazis always wanted to present themselves as "strong," and the idea of "seizing power" was part of that effort, with the further idea that they were "revolutionaries," wanting to overthrow the then constitutional German government, and to prevent the Communists from taking power. The failed Nazi putsch (coup) of November 9, 1923, which was truly an attempt to "seize power," became a sacred event to the Nazis year after year, and a virtual holiday to them, complete with a Nazi banner carried during the coup attempt, and a solemn ceremony officiated by Hitler. You would likely be hard pressed to find elsewhere so much time and effort expended in celebration of a failure, but it was a failure Hitler and the Nazis turned to their advantage; thus, covering up just what a colossal failure it had actually been. A similar effort was made with the expression "seizure of power" ("die Machtergreifung"), which in reality, was simply the legal appointment of Hitler as chancellor by President von Hindenburg, but the terminology was used to make it sound strong and to show it as the realization of the putsch from 1923. As Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels said, "Truth isn't truth" ... oh wait, Rudy Giuliani said that.       

*** Germany had a federal system; that is, a system where the states had many powers delegated to them and where the national government had other powers for the entire country. By allowing the national government, then under Hitler's authority, to control many powers within the individual states, the Nazis took control of much of the authority in all states, including in those states where they were in a distinct minority. 

WORD HISTORY:
Cough-While the ancient origin of this word is uncertain, its "likely" an Old Germanic attempt to imitate the "sound of the act of coughing, throat clearing, forcefully expelling air from the mouth or gasping," as "kokh." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "cohhetan," meaning, "to cough, to make noise by forceful expulsion of air." This then became "coughen," with the "gh" pronounced similarly to "ch." The noun developed from the verb (between 1200 and 1300?). Words spelled with "ough" in them gradually began to change in pronunciation, as English speakers got further away from the more guttural sounds of before. As with "laugh," "cough" came to be pronounced as if "coff." Relatives in the other Germanic languages: German "keuchen" ("to wheeze, to huff and puff, to gasp for air"),^ Low German "seemingly" does not use a form in modern times, but it once had "küchen" (cough, clear the throat), Dutch "kuchen" ("to cough, to clear the throat"), Swedish "kika" (breath heavily, but its use seems to be limited today).

^ German also has "hauchen," meaning, "to breath (through the mouth)." It's a word not used by everyone, but initially it carried the idea of "to breathe audibly through the mouth," and it was spelled with a beginning "k." While I'm not totally certain, it could well be another form of the modern German form "keuchen" (once spelled "keichen"); thus, this would make it, too, a relative of English "cough."        

"Some" Republicans Take A Stand Against Trump

This was originally published 9-6-18 and it was updated slightly 10-22-20 and again on 4-27-22

 

Generally, I've seen presidents with whom I've had some serious disagreements, but I still did not feel that the nation was in imminent danger of falling into the hands of anti-democratic (small "d") forces, but that is no longer true. Trump and true Trumpists are fascists, and Trump is so infatuated with himself, he obviously would love to name himself as Führer, accompanied by frenzied crowds of Trumpists shouting "Heil!" Not everyone who voted for Trump is a fascist, but there is a hardcore element within his support that seems to have turned off their minds and to have submitted to Trump as if he HAD been named Führer. Democracy isn't something that we can leave to take care of itself. Democracy needs US to help tend to it and to help keep it strong. 

We hear about how many Republicans in both houses of Congress, and in other positions in government down to the local level, don't like the behavior and the divisiveness of Donald Trump. Barring such reports by the media, we would not be able to tell, since most are silent. Need we remind these individuals that they have looked into the eyes of evil, and they blinked. These men and women in Congress vote to send, or offer their support to send, American military personnel into harm's way, but they themselves cower before the president (now ex-president) of the United States, whom they refuse to scrutinize, a scrutiny that is one of their Constitutional duties. Like deserters from the field of battle, these people are missing in action by their own choice. With such people in positions of responsibility in 1776, the newspapers of those times would have reported, "These 'patriots,' and we use the term VERY loosely, do not like what the government of King George III is doing, but they give aid and comfort to the king's policies with their silence."

There ARE, however, some Republicans who have made their opposition to Donald Trump known. They have chosen to put their country first, not some wannabe Führer, who, like Hitler decades ago, would prefer individuals to swear an oath of loyalty to HIM, not to the country and to the Constitution. I will name a few, and some names you may know, while other names are probably unknown to you. There are many more, I'm sure, and I regret forgetting some names, and not knowing the names of so many more, but it's important that at least some be recognized for their opposition to Trump and that we ALL work to put serious checks on the power of this repulsive and divisive (now former) president before it is too late. These are some of the Republicans who have been outspoken in their opposition to Donald Trump and to complicit Republicans in Congress: Joe Scarborough (now an independent), Steve Schmidt (now a Democrat), Nicolle Wallace, Elise Jordan, George Will (now an independent), Richard Painter (now a Democrat), Charlie Sykes, Richard Haass, David Jolly, Bret Stephens, Bill Kristol, Ana Navarro, George Conway, Al Cardenas, Rick Wilson, Rick Tyler, Tim Miller, Michael Steele, John Kasich, Tom Ridge, Miles Taylor. They are human beings and Americans first, NOT Republicans. I have disagreed with some, if not many, of their political ideas, and my television has had to cover its ears over some of the words I've shouted at many of these people over time, but that's okay; this is the United States, at least for the present, and we have disagreements and I know Democrats don't have all of the answers, and they too have had to bear the brunt of some "words" I've hurled in their direction at times. We need good, and yes, at times, hard nosed discussions, that's part of democracy. But this "fight to the death" over EVERYTHING, and the deliberate efforts to divide the country for the sake of Donald Trump's ego cannot end well for our country.   

I guess we often do many things in our lives without a perspective, then one day, we look back and see things in the rear view mirror and we see where we wish we had done things differently. So I believe it has been with some of these people I've mentioned and some of the decisions they have made in the past. I'm NOT saying they will give up on long held political beliefs, but for a year or more, those mentioned have taken definite stands against Donald Trump and against the complicity and enabling by their fellow Republicans of Trump and his "sickophants"... ah, sycophants. No matter what disagreements I've had with the people I've listed, I am proud of them for speaking out and trying to bring the GOP to its senses. They have, at times, spoken brutally honest words in their assessment of Republican colleagues, but that's what is needed, because this is not a matter to be taken lightly, as the very fiber of American democracy is under attack by this criminal and some of those from his former regime. 

 

This emblem is in the public domain from Wikipedia                                                                                          

WORD HISTORY:
Cringe-This word is closely related to "crinkle," and it goes back to Indo European "ger," which had the notion of, "to turn, to wind (long 'i')." This gave Old Germanic "grenkanan/krenganan," with the meaning, "to bend, to yield, to give way;" thus also figuratively, "to fall in battle." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "cringan," with the same meanings. This then became "crengen," then, "crinchen," before the modern version. By the 1500s the meaning had evolved to "bend away in fear, embarrassment or from something unpleasant." There are quite a number of relatives of "cringe" in the other Germanic languages, some of which are: its German relative is now the antiquated "Kring," which means, "ring, circle," from the notion of bending something into a ring shape. It has been replaced in modern times with "Kringel," actually corresponding to English "crinkle," but meaning, "small ring, curl." Low German Saxon has "Kring" (circle, ring) and "Kringel" (ring-shaped baked good, pretzel), Dutch has "kring" (circle, orb), West Frisian has "kringe" (verb, meaning, to pinch, to squeeze, to press; all from the notion of "to bend, to yield), Old Norse had "kringr" (circle, ring).

The Missing Elephant in the Room

On Saturday, September 1, the Washington National Cathedral was the center of a memorial service for Senator John McCain, a Republican from Arizona. In the audience were senators, former senators, congressmen, congresswomen, three former presidents, three former vice presidents, current and former officials of the United States, and of course, members of John McCain's family. I suppose the assemblage totaled some 3000. The elephant in the room was the missing elephant in the room, for no matter how hard you looked among those 3000, someone was missing. Now you've got to admit, an elephant is not easy to overlook, even, or perhaps especially, among 3000 people. But if this particular elephant were with the 3000 people in the cathedral, he would taint the 3000. This is an elephant who doesn't fit in with people who, no matter their shortcomings, believe in some overall decency and rule of law. He is an elephant who believes the United States of America is about him and not about the tens of millions of Americans who have come here from elsewhere for centuries to form a great nation. This elephant chooses to divide people in any way imaginable. This is an elephant who brought the circus to town and stayed. But we all know about the smell a circus brings along too, and the stench brought by this elephant has permeated some of the nation's great institutions. This elephant was not in the Washington National Cathedral because Senator McCain did not want this elephant to foul the air of the memorial service. This elephant was not invited. 

Condolences to the McCain family and may you rest in peace, Senator McCain....

WORD HISTORY:
Eulogy-This compound word goes back to Indo European "hwes," which had the meaning, "good," and Indo European "leg," which had the idea, "to gather, to select, to choose." The first gave transliterated Ancient Greek "eu/eus," which meant, "good." The second gave transliterated Ancient Greek "legein," which meant, "to speak" (from the idea of "select/gather words"). This produced Greek "logia," with the basic meaning, "something said;" thus also, "a subject or theme." Together the parts gave transliterated Greek "eulogia," meaning, "good words;" thus, "praise," and in Christianity, "a blessing." The word was borrowed into English in the 1400s, "perhaps" more from Latin, which had taken on the word more from original New Testament writings (which were in Greek)."   

Two National Icons Pass: Aretha Franklin & John McCain

Within the last couple of weeks, the United States has lost two people who have made their respective impacts on this country, and even on the world.

Aretha Franklin has been a part of the lives of many of us since the 1960s. She has long been one of my heroes and she could stir energy and emotion with her great voice and great music. I cannot type this without tears in my eyes. I'd guess about 2005, there was a guy who turned out to be an outright racist (I didn't know it then), who sang and clapped his hands along with me when Aretha's song "Think" came on the radio one time. Aretha Franklin was one of the balms for our long national wound about race.

Senator John McCain was someone with whom I did not agree on a number of issues, but I respected him. Sometimes we get our feathers ruffled, but we get over it, and such was Senator McCain's relationship with more than a few people. The wife of a cousin of mine, a Republican, called McCain "a traitor to America" to me back when he was running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. The man spent more than five years in captivity in North Vietnam. When I told a friend of mine, also a Democrat, what she had said, his first words were about McCain's time spent as a prisoner of war, and he was puzzled that anyone would say such a thing about John McCain. No matter how John McCain voted on any piece of legislation later when he served in Congress, no one can say he had not sacrificed for his country, and for my cousin's wife to call McCain a "traitor" speaks volumes about her, but nothing about John McCain. The same applies even more so to Donald Trump, a self centered abomination, who is about 5 or 6 inches taller than John McCain in physical height, but who actually remains minuscule in comparison to McCain in both political matters and as a human being.
  
WORD HISTORY:
Hearse-The origin of "hearse" is unknown, and some of its meaning additions/changes are tough to pin down. It goes back to Oscan^ "hirpus," which meant "wolf." This gave Latin "hirpex," meaning, "a type of plow device with a row or rows of teeth (the connection to "wolf"^^) used to tear and cut through roots," a meaning later seemingly expanded to include, "a large type of rake." This later became "hercia" in Latin and passed into Latin-based Old French as "herce." It "apparently" was taken on by the Anglo-Norman speakers in England from French by the second half of the 1200s. Around that time, it also came to be used for a "portcullis;" that is, "a sliding gate, usually of metal bars or framework that could be lowered to stop the entry of enemies" ("presumably" the lowering bars looked like teeth coming down), but this meaning didn't seem to generally make it into English until the early 1400s. It had also developed the meaning in French of, "a chandelier for a church," apparently from the resemblance of a large chandelier to the plowing device? This meaning then led to "a framework for candles over a dead body," a meaning that later transferred to, "a wagon or carriage used to transport a body," as candles were often used on such transports. Of course, in modern times, the name transferred to "a specialized (usually elongated) motor vehicle for transporting a body."    

^ Oscan is a now dead language of the Italic branch of the Indo European languages. Latin is also a part of the Italic branch. Oscan was spoken in fairly large parts of southern Italy, and also somewhat in central Italy, but Latin gradually absorbed it until it was essentially gone by circa 100 A.D.

^^ Just for the sake of comparison, German uses "Fleischwolf" (literally, flesh/meat wolf) as its word for "meat grinder," with the idea of a wolf's sharp teeth lying behind the word's meaning. 

Michelada Cocktail: A Toast To Mexico!

A "Michelada Cocktail" is from our southern neighbor, Mexico. Since before becoming president of the United States, Donald Trump had shown more than a little disrespect for Mexico and its people. Of course, Trump shows disrespect for many people, except Nazis and Vladimir Putin. So, if you decide to visit the White House, put on a Nazi armband; nothing fancy, any old Nazi armband will do, and you're sure to be given a warm welcome, which may even include a "heil" or two.

There are variations to this beer-based cocktail, including the use of tomato juice or Clamato.*


Ingredients (per 10 to 12 ounce drink):

light colored beer like Corona or Modelo
juice of 1/2 lime
lime wedge to rub around glass rim and outer edge
some chili powder mixed with some salt (or Mexican Tajin seasoning**) 
1 to 2 teaspoons of your favorite hot sauce
a pinch of cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
cucumber slice
lime slice
ice cubes

Mix a teaspoon of salt with about 2 tablespoons of chili powder on a small plate (or use Tajin seasoning). Use a large chilled glass or beer mug and take a wedge of lime and rub it over the rim and outer edge of the glass. Dip the lime juice moistened glass rim into the seasoning, making sure to then tilt the glass and roll it in the chili powder mix so that the outer edge of the glass also gets a coating of the seasoning. To the glass add the lime juice, the hot sauce, the pinch of cayenne pepper, the Worcestershire sauce, a few ice cubes and then fill the glass with beer. Give it a stir and add a slice of cucumber and a slice of lime to the side of the glass for garnishes.   

* "Clamato" is a brand of drink, which is a mixture of tomato juice, clam juice/broth and some seasonings. It is produced by Motts, a Keurig Dr. Pepper company.    

** "Tajin" is a dry Mexican seasoning of lime, salt and ground chilies. It has a spicy, tart flavor, but it is not overly "hot." It is available in many supermarkets, Latino markets or spice shops.  

WORD HISTORY:
Pint-This word is closely related to "paint." It goes back to Indo European "peig/peikh," which meant "to cut, to carve," the notion of which led to, "to carve decorations into an object." This gave its Italic/Latin offspring "pingere," and the idea of "decorate or adorn" broadened further into "decorate with color;" thus came the meaning, "to paint." The participle of "pingere" was "picta" ("painted") and this produced, "pincta," which meant, "a mark painted on a container to show a particular quantity." This passed into Latin-based Old French as "pinte," meaning, "a measurement of liquid." English borrowed the word as "pinte" in the mid 1300s, but it wasn't long before the ending "e" was dropped. By the mid 1700s, the word had also come to be used for a pint of ale.  

For Duty & Humanity

Back in 1934, "The Three Stooges," the famous comedy trio, released one of their short films called "Men in Black." It was nominated for an Academy Award in the short subject category. The little film of about 20 minutes had the Stooges* being doctors in the "Los Arms Hospital," with Dr. Graves as the hospital  superintendent. The Stooges have promised to devote their lives to the cause of "duty and humanity," a slogan given to them in medical school. They don't remember much else from their medical training, but they remember the slogan. Later, when they report to Dr. Graves, he asks them where they found the patient in Room 72. They answer, "Up on the chandelier," and Dr. Graves then asks, "What did you do for him?" Curley replies, "Nuthin'! What did he ever do for us?" Graves yells, "What are you working here for?" And the Stooges say in unison, "For duty and humanity!"

There are numerous incidents during the film, but the point is, quaint slogans may seem nice, but they are meaningless, unless their meaning is truly understood and acted upon accordingly. Does any person claiming Christianity REALLY believe that the Ku Klux Klan is a "Christian" organization, more specifically, a "white, Protestant Christian" organization? This is a terrorist group responsible for the burning of crosses and the use of violence to frighten and injure those they find to be "unacceptable."  Does anyone with a shred of tolerance and kindness toward others believe that "MAGA" ("Make America Great Again") is a slogan of tolerance and inclusiveness? Quite the opposite, it is a slogan associated with INTOLERANCE, BIGOTRY and outright HATE. It is a slogan for a particular American fascism led by the "Fascist-in-Chief," an American fascist sonofabitch, Donald Trump. The Three Stooges portraying doctors in a short film and shouting, "For duty and humanity," didn't hurt anyone, nor did they threaten American democracy. I cannot say the same thing about Donald Trump and his stooges.

* Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curley Howard (the actual 1934 film spells it "Curley," in the opening credits, but I believe later it was spelled "Curly").  

Public domain photo from Wikipedia showing the Three Stooges in 1937 (Larry Fine, Curley Howard and Moe Howard.  

WORD HISTORY:
Charade-This is a word with a great deal of uncertain history. It was borrowed by English from French "charade" (meaning, "a riddle") in the 1770s. French got the word from the Provençal word "charrado," which meant, "chatter," which was derived from the verb "charrar," which meant, "to chat, to converse." This seems to have come from Italian "ciarlare," meaning, "to chatter," but where Italian got the word is unknown, although Spanish has "charlar," meaning, "to chat, to talk on about unimportant things," and an obvious relative of the Italian word. The English meaning certainly ties in with "a riddle," as the name of the game "Charades" has participants acting out a word or individual parts of a word until someone guesses the correct answer. This provided the other meaning to "charade," although with a negative twist to the meaning; that is, "to act to deceive someone about a real intention or to cover up the real meaning of something."     

Make Sure Your Vote Counts!

As we approach the 2018 elections on November 6, be sure to follow the laws and procedures of the state where you are registered to vote. If you are not registered to vote, DO SO NOW, don't procrastinate! Call your local election office, or check for their website online, so that you know EXACTLY what you need to do to be properly registered to vote. You can also check with your state's election office. "Typically" a state's chief election officer is that state's "secretary of state," and I'm sure they all have websites. Remember, in the United States, election laws are set by the individual states, the District of Columbia, or U.S. territories (like Puerto Rico or Guam, for example). For more information to help you register to vote, or for other election questions, here is the link to the site for the "League of Women Voters:"  http://www.vote411.org/

If you have already registered to vote, it is a very good idea to check your registration, even if you just voted in an election within the last few months, and even if your information has not changed. Some states have ways of doing this online, but just as with registering, call or check online for ways to verify or update your voter registration. Remember, even if you move just a block or two away from the address shown on your voter registration information, it might change the ward or some voting district, so keep your information up to date. Further, there are occasional mistakes by election offices, and I'm not meaning "deliberate mistakes," but there are potentially those kinds of mistakes too, so you don't want to show up to vote, only to be told that your name is not on the voter rolls, or that you are listed in another precinct or whatever. TAKE NOTHING FOR GRANTED! REMEMBER, the Trump regime in Washington DC, along with their participants and collaborators on the state and local level, will do ANYTHING to disqualify you from voting, or to see that your vote does not count. There have always been charges leveled at both major political parties about election shenanigans, BUT we have never had the threat to our democracy in modern times that we face now. CHECK YOUR REGISTRATION, DON'T WAIT, DO IT NOW!

If you are in a state that uses early voting by mail, and that is your preferred method to vote, be sure to follow your state's regulations for requesting a ballot, and then follow proper procedure for filling out and mailing in your completed ballot. This is perhaps the most important election in the history of this country. If Democrats do no make sufficient gains to rein in Donald Trump as president, you may not get another chance to vote. Earlier this year in Wisconsin, Republican governor, Scott Walker, faced with Republican losses to Democrats in special elections to fill vacant elective offices, tried to stop such elections from taking place! Thankfully, a judge, who was appointed by Walker, ordered the governor to hold the elections. And let's not EVER forget Mitch McConnell, the most EVIL man to EVER serve in the United States Senate, refusing to hold a vote on Barack Obama's selection for the Supreme Court in 2016. That appointment was instead held for Donald Trump. Now Trump will appoint another judge. If you want to live in about the 1400s (maybe even 1400 BC), you'll love all of these Trump picks, and there will not be any legal thing you can do about them. You could well lose your rights very soon.

BE SURE YOUR VOTE WILL COUNT!

WORD HISTORY:
Ballot-This word, closely related to "ball" (round object),^ goes back to Indo European "bhel," which had the notion, "to swell, to blow or puff up/out." This gave Old Germanic "balluz," "a swollen or bloated object;" thus, "a round object, a ball." This was borrowed by Latin and then emerging Italian from the Germanic dialect "Lombardic" as "palla," but also more properly as, "balla," both meaning, "ball." This gave Italian "pallotta/ballotta," diminutive forms meaning, "small ball." The ball was used in secret voting, often with white colored balls registering as a "yes," and black balls registering as a "no;" thus the term, "blackballing someone." English borrowed the word from Italian in the first half of the 1500s, and when paper ballots came into existence, the word "ballot" simply was transferred to the new voting method.

^ "Ball" is an original English word from its Germanic roots.  

2018, Perhaps The Most Important Election EVER

Signs of a developing trend leading to the crucial midterm election on November 6 have been in abundance in early special elections. Americans almost always seem to reprimand the party holding the White House in elections held at the halfway mark of a president's term. (DAMN! It just dawned on me, that must be why they call them the "midterm elections." See, just give me a few decades and I can figure it out.) It doesn't always seem to mean that Americans dislike the president in office at the time, but all presidents step on some toes, and those with smarting toes are highly motivated to limp to the polls to vote, often leading their own party to turn out in large enough numbers to give anything from a nudge to an outright smack upside the head to the occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, better known as the White House. There have been numerous special elections since Donald Trump took office in January 2017, and while these elections have produced a number of Democratic wins, including some stunning wins, even the Democratic losses have shown a major narrowing of the margins of Republican victories, compared to recent historical Republican margins in those regions. 

Thoughtful change often wins in the end, but it can take time and the question is, can American institutions and American ideals hold on long enough to win against a man who longs to destroy American democracy so that he can become the undisputed Führer of the United States? Republicans in Congress have knowingly rolled over for this strident, divisive and highly insecure president. Have we forgotten the longstanding question about Hitler and Germans? How could an educated and cultured people follow such a self centered and maniacal man like Hitler, a man with obvious emotional problems? We need not ask that question any longer, for the answer is right before our eyes in the United States of America, where a bigoted, resentful and spiteful old bastard with a bad hairdo has risen to lead this country (hey, Hitler had a bad hairdo too). The GOP has long cultivated the uneasiness of some white Americans about the attempts of black Americans, as well as other American minorities, like Latinos, women (who are actually a majority) and gays, to gain equality and fairness in our society. The thing is, in my lifetime, I have heard many divisive statements by American politicians, including, but not limited to, George Wallace* in the 1960s and 1970s, and David Duke** in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, but I've never heard a president of the United States use so much divisive rhetoric to further his own cause and to satisfy his own ego, as one Donald Trump, the unity of the country be damned!      

This upcoming election is likely to be a fight to the death. Are Democrats, independents and anti Trump Republicans ready? Trump and the complicit and enabling Republicans will do anything and everything to minimize their losses and hold onto their control of Congress. The Koch brothers, the Mercers and all of the other "take me back to a previous century" people will spend unprecedented amounts to further Republican control of government. They will say it is to further the Republican Party, but that party is now the party of Donald Trump, which they will NOT tell you. Will the election prove to be the beginning of Trump's political demise, or will he and Republicans emerge stronger than ever, and likely be able to suppress the rights of Americans to protest and to stop the media from reporting critical news articles about them? Vladimir Putin of Russia and Xi Jinping of China are Trump heroes, and they are dictators. We don't need to dig up Einstein to connect the dots for us to understand where Trump stands on democracy. This is all in front us, not hidden somewhere in the shadows of the news. Don't be in denial. Don't stick your head in the sand. We can't take our eyes off of them for one second. The young people of this country have stirred and have been springing into action. They can help to lead us through the potentially destructive nightmare of Trumpian fascism.

For the last couple of centuries, people around the world have looked to the United States as a beacon of hope. Some people have been inspired by the U.S. to pursue freedoms within their own respective countries, while others have left their homelands bound for American shores. We're seeing the light of that beacon flickering like a kerosene lamp running low on fuel. The question is, will WE choose to refill the lamp and keep this beacon of hope shining, or will we let the lamp go dry and extinguish its light, letting the path of hope go dark? We now have a man in office who praises dictators and judges people not as individuals, but by their ethnic, racial or religious backgrounds. That's what Führers do.


* George Wallace was the governor of Alabama in the 1960s, a time when desegregation of schools and public facilities was ongoing. For more on the issue of desegregation and racial politics, here are  two links: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-former-confederacy-modern-american_8.html 

http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-former-confederacy-modern-american_15.html 

** David Duke is a long time member, and a former leader, of the "Ku Klux Klan," often known by its initials, "KKK," a racist and overall hate filled group dating to the post Civil War era in the American South. Duke was born in Oklahoma, but he has spent much of his life in Louisiana. As most Southerners of earlier times, Duke was a Democrat, and he sought office as such, but as Louisiana and the South, in general, moved more to the Republican Party, Duke changed to that party in the late 1980s. Duke became known for his anti Black American and anti Jewish views. 

WORD HISTORY:
Beacon-This word for "a light positioned on some high place to serve as a guide or warning, often for ships, but not exclusively so," goes back to Indo European "bhah," which had the notion, "to shine, to be bright, to appear as bright." This provided the later basis for West Germanic "bauknan" (English is West Germanic), meaning, "signal light." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "beacen/becn," meaning, "sign, signal." This then became "beken," before the modern version. The other Germanic languages have: German "Bake" (pronounced as if, "bahkeh") meaning, "traffic sign, railway signal," originally used in reference to "a fire set on a geographically high point or in a tower to provide sea navigation);" Low German Saxon "Baak" (sign or signal for ships), West Frisian "beaken" ("buoy"), Dutch "baken" ("beacon"). "Apparently," long ago, Old Norse, from the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages, borrowed the word from Frisian as, "bákn," which meant, "signal, signal fire."^ This was passed down to the modern North Germanic languages as: Icelandic "bákn," which now means, "large stone column;" that is, "a column showing direction."

^ Centuries ago, the Frisian word was "baken/beken," and meant "signal or signal fire." Later, Frisian split into dialects, giving West Frisian the altered spelling and the narrowed meaning to the modern "buoy." Researching North Frisian is very hard, but it "seems" to have "beken," but I can't confirm that from multiple sources. North Frisian is spoken in the German region of North Frisia, which also includes a number of North Sea islands, called the North Frisian Islands (someone stayed awake late to come up with that name). Remember too, while North Frisian is the spoken regional language, standard German is taught to everyone in school.   

Trump's Witch Hunt

Double, double toil and trouble;  
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
Mueller's kettle, it does seethe,
And Donald's lies, he won't believe.
He stirs the pot, to mix the brew,
and then he checks on Don Junior too. 

Eye of Newt Gingrich, and guilty are pleas,
of so many aides, who've been involved in the sleaze.
You can scream all you want, "There was no collusion,"
but the facts will soon show, how your claim's an illusion.

From the '16 election, the tables have turned,
and people will cheer, when your ass it is burned.
No witches are sought, just seeking good sense,
which will not be found, in the name of Mike Pence.
He's a fanatic and liar, so he's not the best,
you'd better watch out Pence, you're likely the next.

Hitler Thought He Was A Genius Too

Well... recently we had Donald Trump declare himself to be "a very stable genius," so I thought I'd do a little piece on something Hitler had said.

Traudl Junge was one of Hitler's personal secretaries for the last two and one half years of his life. After the war, she wrote down the recollections of her time in that secretarial position, but then those actual recollections were not published until 2002 (2003, in English), after Viennese writer Melissa Müller* found Junge and did a series of video interviews with her. Müller published Junge's postwar notes in a book called, "Bis zur letzten Stunde" ("Until the Last Hour"). The notes were published without corrections to mistakes, and only with notations indicating illegible words or phrases, although Müller added extensive footnotes of her own to the back of the book to correct the errors, as well as to give a bit of background on the various people Junge mentioned, as many people on Hitler's staff and in his immediate circle were not generally known to the public. The video interviews, which largely parallel Junge's notes, were also released on DVD as, "Im Toten Winkel"("Blindspot," literally, "In the dead angle"), and with English subtitles. In her notes, as well as in the interview with Müller, Junge tells how Hitler had said that he hadn't married because he could not devote sufficient time to a wife, and that he did not want children of his own, as he believed, "offspring of geniuses have a difficult time in the world" ("Nachkommen von Genies haben es meist sehr schwer in der Welt"). And that these children were expected to be of the same caliber as their famous parent and that they wouldn't be excused for being just average. "Moreover, they are mostly Cretins" ("Außerdem werden es meistens Kretins;" that is, "idiots").** And Junge then comments about how she thought it odd that Hitler considered himself to be a genius, and that Hitler's statement made her flinch inside ("innerlich gezuckt"). It should be noted, by the time Traudl Junge, then known by her maiden name, Traudl Humps, went to work for Hitler, German cities were becoming ever greater targets of Allied air attacks. Wow, what a genius!

* Melissa Müller is the author of "Anne Frank: The Biography," first released in 1998.

** German text from, "Bis zur letzten Stunde," 2011 German paperback edition, by Traudl Junge in cooperation with Melissa Müller, List Taschenbuch

WORD HISTORY:
Genius-This word, related to Latin-derived "genus," and to "genealogy," a word tracing back to Greek, both words borrowed by English, goes back to Indo European "gen," which had the notion, "offspring, produce." This gave its Latin offspring the verb "gignere," meaning "to produce, to give birth to." This then produced the Latin noun "genius," which meant, "guardian spirit which accompanies and guides a person from the time of birth," but also, in some cases, "the intellect of a person."This was borrowed into English in the second half of the 1300s with the "guardian spirit" meaning, along with the secondary meaning of "intellect," but it wasn't until the 1600s that the "intellect" meaning became primary, with the added, "high intellectual capacity" meaning. German borrowed its form of the word, "Genie," from French in the 1700s.

Trump & The United States Are NOT One And The Same

Way back in 1934, in Nuremberg, Germany, Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party held their annual party rally, a series of special events and speeches that took place in September of that year. Hitler had been chancellor of Germany only since January 30, 1933, and he had only been total ruler for about a month, as President Paul von Hindenburg had died in early August, bringing Hitler to combine the presidency with the chancellorship, as "Führer." During one event, Rudolf Hess, a major Nazi official, declared: "The party is Hitler, Hitler however is Germany, just as Germany is Hitler" ("Die Partei ist Hitler, Hitler aber ist Deutschland, wie Deutschland Hitler ist.").

The most important aspect of Hitler's assumption of the presidential powers was that he became the supreme commander of the armed forces, a situation that worked out so well for the world (written, of course, with GREAT SARCASM, for those in need of clarification). With this power now vested in Hitler, he had the military forces swear loyalty to HIM, not to Germany: "I swear to God this sacred oath, that I shall give unconditional obedience to the Führer of the German Reich and people (and) supreme commander of the armed forces, Adolf Hitler, and, that as a brave soldier, I shall, at any time, be prepared to lay down my life for this oath." (German: "Ich schwöre bei Gott diesen heiligen Eid, daß ich dem Führer des Deutschen Reiches und Volkes, Adolf Hitler, dem Oberbefehlshaber der Wehrmacht, unbedingten Gehorsam leisten und als tapferer Soldat bereit sein will, jederzeit für diesen Eid mein Leben einzusetzen.")

So, one can see the entwining of Hitler and the German nation with the idea that an attack on, or criticism of, Hitler, being seen as an attack on, or criticism of, Germany itself. It had stunning affect, as German officers (including Austrians), long associated with respect for powerful, and even autocratic rulers, but with otherwise a general lack of political involvement, could not easily bring themselves to oppose this little man with the toothbrush mustache, because of this oath, even though they could see the terrible destruction he was bringing to others and to Germany. A few independent thinkers in the military opposed many aspects of Nazism from early on, but most German officers remained in denial right up to the very end, cowering behind the above oath. A few military officers, with the knowledge they had of Nazi crimes and the downward spiral of the war, did act, risking their own lives FOR Germany, but AGAINST Hitler. They finally admitted the truth to themselves, that Hitler and Germany were TWO different things, not one and the same. While their attempt against Hitler and the Nazis failed, there is a memorial plaque in Berlin where some of the anti-Hitler participants were executed. The plaque reads: "Here died for Germany," followed by the names of those executed on that spot, but it represents ALL who tried to overthrow the evil they saw. And note, it says, "died for Germany," not a word linking Germany and that son-of-a-bitch Hitler.

Any president of the United States, including Donald Trump, is chosen by Americans as their temporary national and international representative and head of the executive branch of a three part system of government, along with the legislative and judicial branches. Criticism of our presidents, including Donald Trump, does not mean Americans hate their country, as the president and the nation are separate, not linked in any way as the Nazis did with Hitler and Germany. Presidents of the United States are asked direct questions by the media, and sometimes even by every day citizens. Presidents also receive criticism, fairly, unfairly, or somewhere in between, by the media and every day citizens. It is not only permitted, it is expected. We are not a nation of lockstep zombies, although some Americans seem to be doing a great imitation of such. Americans also can, and should, question military leaders, including four star Marine generals, an act we recently were told was "highly inappropriate," by the spokesperson for the current Trump administration. In our system, no one in a position of authority is immune from being questioned or criticized, it goes with the territory, and those who assumed those positions of authority "knew what they were getting themselves into," as Trump told the widow of Army Sergeant La David Johnson, a man who was killed in operations in Niger, along with three other Green Berets, in October 2017.   
     
WORD HISTORY:
Cower-This word, unrelated to "coward," in spite of the modern similarity in spelling and meaning, has a cloudy history, but it goes back to Indo European "guh/geu," with the notion, "to bend, to curve, to arch." The problem comes as to how some Germanic languages got their forms of the Indo European word; that is, was it by a direct offshoot from the parent Indo European? Or an indirect borrowing by way of another language? I can find no form in Old Germanic, and "perhaps" a form entered Germanic by way of its North Germanic branch, where it then spread southward to Low German, which eventually passed it to High German and to English. Its basic meaning in the long distant past seems to have been, "to sit or kneel down in a hunched (arched, bent) position." Lithuanian, a Baltic language in northeastern Europe, had "gurnas," from the Indo European form, and meant, "hip, hipjoint;" that is, "the bone or joint that permits crouching down." The word first appears in English circa 1300 as "curen," although there could have been an earlier unrecorded form, but it seems to have been borrowed from Low German "kuren" ("watch or peek out from a hiding place in the woods"). Some relatives are Old Norse "karr," more directly tied in meaning to the Indo European, meant "curly, wavy" ("bent, curved"), while Swedish "kura" means "huddle." German has "kauern," which means "to crouch in an arched position, to cower." The Brothers Grimm, who not only assembled fairy tales, but who also did extensive work on word histories, wondered if "cower" might be related to the English verb "cow," meaning, "to intimidate;" thus with the possible original meaning, "to cause someone to crouch in fear." I must admit the two words likely come from the same Indo European base (Old Norse had "kuga," meaning, "to oppress;" so, a likely relative of "cow." It has nothing to do with the noun for the name of the animal, "cow.")

How Were Things In Nazi Germany?

While I wrote this in 2017, it is unfortunate that it is still more than a little relevant now ...

(No Word History for this) 


How were things in Nazi Germany? Now we have at least a partial idea from the events in Charlottesville, Virginia. I say "partial," because, with the exception of the dwindling remaining survivors from those times, we cannot even imagine the terror experienced for many in Germany, and in Europe, from the sound of Nazi chants and jackboots on the pavements. With Trump giving cover to Nazis and other Nazi-like groups, many adherents of these groups have come out from under the cover of the Tea Party, a group which designated itself a band of patriots and swore up and down they weren't racists and bigots. Maybe we needed to make them say, "We swear on our swastika armbands."

It is up to TRUE AMERICAN PATRIOTS, and citizens from around the world, to make sure no one learns by experience more than this already partial terrible element we witnessed in Charlottesville. Please don't stay on the sidelines, or think, "this doesn't affect me." Pay attention, don't fall for all of the lies, deceit and self promotion by Trump, who may soon take credit for sunshine, and for rain in a drought.    

Where Are McConnell & Ryan, Other Republicans?

Note (8/17/17): A few Republicans have been gradually issuing some critical statements directly naming Trump, including a statement by Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, which questions Trump's "stability" and "competence."  

No "Word History" for this today... 

We all know what Donald Trump said, and didn't say, about the White Supremacists, Nazis, the KKK and White Nationalists, first on Saturday, then again on Tuesday, interspersed with a reluctant condemnation of violent racist groups on Monday. It should be CLEAR to ALL Americans, the REAL Donald Trump IS the ONE many of us have been saying he IS for so long. No longer can ANY Americans bury their heads in the sand and deny or fail to address this abomination. After Trump's statements on Saturday and Tuesday, many Republican leaders and officeholders made their way to Twitter to say how much they condemned these same groups, with a few even admonishing Trump for his diluting a long tradition of strong, unequivocal condemnation of such violent racists, although not all mentioned Trump by name. I only say "Trump" or "Donald Trump," because I refuse to dignify this total abomination with the title "president." I also do NOT accept those who say how they've known him for years, and that he is not a racist. Open your eyes and ears, DONALD TRUMP IS A RACIST.

A big question is, where are Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan on things, besides weak-kneed Tweets? These two, and many other Republicans in both houses of Congress, sure didn't waver in their attempt to strip health care from millions of Americans. And as for other Republicans, including those serving in the Trump administration, when do you stop acting like Trump did on Monday, while appearing to be forced to make his condemnation statement, and you stand up and condemn and divorce yourself from Donald Trump? When will YOU lead your constituents and followers to stand against these groups, instead of seemingly fearing the retribution of these groups at the voting booths. The GOP has been courting these groups for many years, now bringing their party to this point in their history. Speak out NOW and ACT! YOU have already been complicit, end that complicity NOW!    

Trump Is Our Il Douche

While the leaking of conversations between President Trump and a couple of foreign leaders is very disturbing, the information is what it is, and it shows what a manipulating, but insecure, man Trump really is. For years, and especially in the last couple of years, Trump has cultivated an image of a tough leader and negotiator, strutting around like former dictator Benito Mussolini. Trump stood at rallies and thundered about building a wall along the border with Mexico, a wall Mexico would pay for, he said. Now we find in a leaked transcript of a telephone call with President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico, an Il Duce much more on the order of Il Douche, asking the Mexican president to help him fulfill his campaign rhetoric and to stop saying that Mexico will not pay for the wall. Trump then threatens to stop meeting with Mexican officials if President Nieto doesn't stop publicly saying Mexico won't pay for the wall. The point is, he tells President Nieto how he used the "wall issue" for two years, but now he has to deliver something, although "(the wall) is the least important thing that we are talking about, but politically this might be the most important (we) talk about." So like Mussolini, the posturing and strutting are all for show to get some voters to buy into this, but in reality, Il Douche has gotten himself into a bad position politically, with a promise that was easy to scream from the podium at rallies, but which is not so easy to fulfill.

WORD HISTORY:
Douche-This word, distantly related to "duke" (also to Italian "Duce"), and more closely related to "duct," goes back to Indo European "deuk," which meant "to lead, to guide, to draw or pull along (that is, "to cause to move along"). This gave Latin "ducere," with the same meanings, which then gave Latin the noun "ductio," meaning, "a conduit, something that leads to a place." This gave Italian  "doccia" meaning, "pipe to conduct water/liquid in a stream or spray;" thus, "drain," or "shower." This passed to French as "douche" (shower). The word was borrowed by English in the mid 1700s with the "shower, stream of water," meaning. Circa 1840s, the word began to be used in reference to female hygiene, which moved the word out of common public mention and into more discreet use. Close relative of English, German, also borrowed the word as, "Dusche," meaning "shower." Both English and German have verb forms developed from the nouns.    

FOXTOPUS, A Good Name For Fox News

Well we've all heard the use of "octopus" for someone who can't keep their hands to themselves, especially on a date, and especially in reference to the places where they like to put their hands. Since Fox News has been dealing with the likes of Roger Ailes and Bill O'Reilly, and as Fox News has been in support of the "P---y Grabber-in-Chief," Donald Trump, I'd say a good name for them is, "FOXTOPUS." Hopefully they'll like the name; they've earned it.

WORD HISTORY:
Sleazy (Sleaze)-The word "sleazy" seems to have come from a "cute" English pronunciation in the 1600's for German "Schlesien" (German pronunciation as if, "schlay-zee-en," thus English "sleazy"). Schlesien (English form: "Silesia") was then a German region ^ known for the production of cloth, which was often a German export. Indeed, the English form, Silesia," was used as a word for the cloth. The cloth was thin, thus "flimsy," and this meaning began to be attached to the word, which eventually broadened beyond the cloth itself. From this "flimsy" meaning, came the further meaning, "low quality," which then broadened to, "someone of low character (20th Century);" thus, "The sleazy councilman in the neighborhood took bribes from drug dealers." Also the meaning, "a place of low or dirty repute;" thus, "We're entering a sleazy part of town, where all sorts of illegal activities go on." The noun "sleaze" was derived from the adjective (mid 20th Century?). 

^ Today, due to border adjustments after World War Two, parts of the "Silesia" region are in Poland, the Czech Republic (Czechia) and Germany.   

Some More Questions To A Republican

"Hello folks! This is Dan Ratherbe, in Philadelphia. Today I once again have Republican George Owen Pappenstiel here to speak out on the issues confronting the nation and his Republican Party, no holds barred."

DR: "Well Mr. Pappenstiel, it's been a little while since I first interviewed you." *

GOP: "Yeah, that was back when that Bomma guy claimed to be president."

DR: "That's Obama."

GOP: "Yeah right, tryin' to be Irish.... 'O' bomma... haha.... about as Irish as the rest of them people from them places in Africa."

DR: "But he IS part Irish. Don't you remember he visited Ireland?"

GOP: "Visitin' a place don't make ya from that place. I cun visit Massichew... Masseshoe... that place where Boston is, but that don't make me no Democrat, an' that's fer shur."

DR: "So what do you think of Donald Trump's first couple of months in office?"

GOP: "It's a breath o' fresh air! Finally gettin' some truth out, 'cause Ole Donald tells it like it is. That's what's gonna make America great agin, truth tellin.' Just like with that Bomma listnin' in on Ole Donald talkin' on his own private phone in his own private buildin'."

DR: "But there's been absolutely no proof that any such thing ever happened."

GOP: "That's what you librals in the media want folks ta believe. There is proof.... Ole Donald said it, didn't he? That's proof! He the president of the UUUNited States, ain't he?"

DR: "Well I assume you support the wall the president wants to build on the border with Mexico?"

GOP: "Oh now, truer words was never spoke. All them folks south of the Rio Grande is jus' what Ole Donald said 'bout them. They er murderers and rapists. Then they come up here and want US to speak Mexican."

DR: "You mean Spanish."

GOP: "No, I mean Mexican. They ain't from Spain."

DR: "So what do you think of the Republican failure to repeal Obamacare?"

GOP: "That's jus' plain terrible! Don't know what's becomin' o' this country. Wantin' ta give health care to ever'body. An' this law from Bomma helpin' to give care to millions. An' that Bernie Sanders guy... he the worst, even worse than Bomma hisself. He ain't no Christian, that fer shur."

DR: "Ah, Bernie Sanders is from a Jewish family."

GOP: "See, told ya he ain't no Christian. They jus' like those Mooselims... all from over yonder there in the Middle East. All them folks need to jus' stay over there. Ole Donald messed up there, he needs to ban people from all them countries, not jus' a few. All we do is give money to them people over there, includin' Izrel. Never knew any good people from that part of the world, not a one."

DR: "Ah... Jesus Christ."

GOP: "An' don't be takin' the Lord's name in vain, ya hear?"

DR: "Well, our time is up, Mr. Pappenstiel."

GOP: "Ya got that right, if we don't do what Ole Donald wants an' you keep takin' the Lord's name in vain. Jus' ask Pat Robertson!"


* The first "interview" was in May 2013 and this is the link:  http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2013/05/asking-republican-few-questions.html

WORD HISTORY:
Ode-This word "seems" to go back to Indo European "aweid/e-weid," which had the notion, "to make (voice) sound, to speak, to vocalize." This gave Ancient Greek the transliterated "aeido," which meant, "to sing, to give praise in song." This gave Ancient Greek "aoide/oide," a noun, "song, poetic song." Latin borrowed the word from Greek as "oda," then "ode," the form taken by Latin-based French. English borrowed the word from French, likely with reinforcement by Latin, in the late 1500s.