Bad Apple(s)
Benjamin Franklin updated a Medieval saying: “the rotten apple spoils his companion.” This proverb has been handed down to us as “One bad apple spoils the bunch.” If you eat fruits and vegetables regularly, you know this to be true.
We also know it’s true for people. We want our kids to hang out with other good kids. We worry when we see one or two bad apples in the bunch. Learning to tell the difference between a good apple and a bad apple is essential to adult life.
Why is Donald Trump surrounded by so many bad apples? Does Donald hire criminals? Or does he turn them into criminals?
Just look at the number of Trump’s associates convicted of crimes or submitted guilty pleas:
- Steve Bannon, Contempt of Congress
- Michael Cohen, Criminal Tax Evasion, Campaign Finance Violations
- Michael Flynn, Lying to FBI
- Rick Gates, Conspiracy against the United States, Lying to investigators
- Paul Manfort, Tax Fraud, Bank Fraud, Money Laundering, Witness Tampering, Lying to Congress
- George Nader, Possessing Child Pornography, Pedophilia
- George Papadopoulos, Lying to FBI
- Roger Stone, Lying under Oath, Obstruction of Justice, Tampering with a Witness
This shouldn’t come as surprise to anyone. Donald bragged about raping married women. He paid hush money to a porn star in order to keep his affair secret. Donald bankrupted several casinos. He tried to extort Ukraine by withholding military assistance.
On one of his last day to occupy the Oval Office he sat joyfully, watching his mob storm the United States Capital on January 6. We know his supporters carried out this assault on American democracy. Prosecutors have secured 329 Guilty Pleas. Courts have sentenced 185 of these criminals.
These criminals were his supporters. No court has found otherwise. These criminals were in Washington at his request. Donald sat and watched as they hunted for Vice President Pence. These criminals wanted to obstruct the Constitution of the United States of America.
Donald’s aides pleaded with him to call off the assault. They wrote a script for him to read: “I want to be very clear: you do not represent me. You do not represent our movement.”
Donald refused. Donald struck through those words. Why? Because these bad apples DID represent him. He called them there. Donald liked the assault. Will the conservative movement keep these bad apples in their bunch?
Remember Your Constantine
The year 312 of the Common Era marked a decisive turning point in world history. A Roman general named Constantine wanted total control of the empire. Constantine waged war against his enemies to establish dominance.
Since the time of Julius Caesar (100-44 BCE), Roman generals ruled by force instead of election. The 300 intervening years had taught the generals that they needed more than brute force. They still needed popular support to avoid mob violence.
According to Constantine, he experienced a vision right before the decisive battle of Milvian Bridge. In that vision he saw a Roman military standard with two Greek letter, Chi (X) and Ro (P). The P was situated directly in the middle of the X.
Underneath the Chi Ro was a banner. It had a Latin phrase, “In hoc signo vinces.” It translates as “In this sign you shall conquer.” Constantine interpreted the dream to mean his army should adopt the Chi Ro as their battle standard.
Constantine won the battle of Milvian Bridge and went on to conquer the entire Roman Empire.
What did this mysterious sign mean? What power did it possess? The Chi Ro were the first two letters of the word “Christ.” Constantine rewarded the followers of Christ by issuing an edict of toleration, the Edict of Milan (313).
“your Worship should know that it has pleased us to remove all conditions whatsoever, which were in the rescripts formerly given to you officially, concerning the Christians and now any one of these who wishes to observe Christian religion may do so freely and openly, without molestation. We thought it fit to commend these things most fully to your care that you may know that we have given to those Christians free and unrestricted opportunity of religious worship. When you see that this has been granted to them by us, your Worship will know that we have also conceded to other religions the right of open and free observance of their worship for the sake of the peace of our times, that each one may have the free opportunity to worship as he pleases ; this regulation is made we that we may not seem to detract from any dignity or any religion.”
https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/edict-milan.asp
Read the words of the Edict again. Notice Constantine not only allowed Christians to worship freely, he also asked them to recognize that “other religions the right of open and free observance of their worship for the sake of the peace of our times.”
This advice paralleled the words of Christ. “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”
For the next 1500 years, Christians emperors, kings, popes and preachers all ignored the advice of Constantine and the Law of God. They learned the hard way that “all who draw the sword will die by the sword. “ Do you want to make the same mistake?
I’m Staying
I love to travel. I inherited this love from my parents. Dad’s service in the United States’ Army opened a world to me. Our three years living in Germany had the most impact.
Weekends and holidays in Germany were an adventure. The Churches and the castles overflowed with history. The natural history museums literally had insect specimens held in place by pins.
Only when we returned to Louisiana did I learn that my experiences on Army bases were unique in other ways. Most importantly, life on base was fully integrated.
Of course Louisiana was legally integrated by 1977. Legally integrated and socially integrated are two different situations. Most people still lived in segregated neighborhoods and had close relationships with people of the same race.
Since those days America has continued to make progress. I say progress because this racial and social awakening has been good for America. We are coming closer to the American Dream.
In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson proclaimed, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”.
Through most of American history this idea was not “self evident.” Laws and society discriminated. America placed obstacles in the way of individuals pursing their happiness.
Gradually, we have removed these obstacles. More and more Americans enjoy freedom. This is a good thing. I am proud to live in Modern America.
Are you?
Texas Republicans aren’t. At their convention, they directed Republican officials to prepare for secession. They want a referendum “for the people of Texas to determine whether or not the State of Texas should reassert its status as an independent nation.”
How would you vote? Are you proud to be an American? Are you proud of expanding liberty and equality to all Americans? Or, do you want to go backwards?
Texas Republicans aren’t only concerned with social issues. They also want to give your Social Security money to Wall Street. Imagine if your Social Security money was in private hands and fluctuated with Wall Street’s ups and downs.
How many of our seniors could pursue their happiness without the guarantees of Social Security and Medicare? How much shorter would their lives be?
For me, my vote is always cast in favor of Modern America. My travels have taught me to appreciate who we are. I am a proud American. I am proud of who we are.
We are brave. We are welcoming. We are generous. We strive to be a better, more perfect Union.
I will never understand why Texas Republicans hate America so much they want to leave. If Texas Republicans divide America again, I’ll leave Texas before I leave America.
Only You Can Make it Better
Please read the names of the American children and teachers sacrificed to Second Amendment extremism. We need responsible gun ownership. We need a well-regulated militia.
Alexandria Aniyah Rubio, 10
Alithia Ramirez, 10
Amerie Jo Garza, 10
Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez, 10
Eliahana Cruz Torres, 10
Eliana “Ellie” Garcia, 9
Jackie Cazares, 10
Jailah Nicole Silguero, 10
Jayce Luevanos, 10
Jose Flores, 10
Layla Salazar, 10
Makenna Lee Elrod, 10
Maite Rodriguez
Miranda Mathis, 11
Nevaeh Bravo
Rojelio Torres, 10
Tess Marie Mata
Uziyah Garcia, 10
Xavier Lopez, 10
Eva Mireles, Teacher
Irma Garcia, Teacher
We must do better.
America–Home of the Brave
On April 19, 1995 Timothy McVeigh attacked the United States of America. He murdered 168 Americans. Ten children were among the dead.
At the time of his arrest, McVeigh had excerpts from the Turner Diaries in his car. This 1978 novel by William Luther Pierce depicts a coming race war. White supremacists attacked the United States of American, hoping to cleanse the country of African Americans.
McViegh’s murderous bombing shocked the nation. Americans everywhere joined together to stamp out the militia movement. For several years leading up to 1995, militias spread anti-government hatred and promoted an armed resistance to federal law enforcement agencies.
Unfortunately, this period of calm did not last long. The 9-11 terrorist attacks and hurricane Katrina reinvigorated the National Rifle Association. It became the mouth piece for the gun corporations and spread fear and paranoia in order to sell more guns.
The NRA began promoting gun violence as the solution to social problems. Scared of a terrorist? Buy a gun. Scared of a natural disaster? Buy a gun. Scared of crime? Buy a gun. Scared of an immigrant? Buy a gun.
The NRA’s message of fear and paranoia fit in nicely with Australian billionaire, Rupert Murdoch’s agenda shouted on his new cable channel—Fox News. Murdoch favors vast concentrations of wealth and power. He knew that most Americans don’t have either, and he sold fear and paranoia as a distraction.
At first Fox’s message was relatively mild with men like Lou Dobbs and Bill O’Reilly peddling nostalgia for the 1950s. In the 1950s everyone knew their place. Women stayed at home. Blacks and Hispanics lived on their own side of town. Gays and lesbians lived in the closet.
Since the transition of Donald Trump from charlatan businessman to demagogic politician, the conservative rhetoric has become more vulgar. Trump constantly, and falsely, claimed immigrants were invading the southern border. He smeared them with false accusations of crime and violence.
On October 3, 2019, Donald inspired a 21 year old man from Allen Texas to travel across the state to El Paso and murder our neighbors. Patrick Crusius walked into an El Paso Walmart, and, using a semi-automatic rifle, killed 23 humans and injured 23 others. He wanted to stop “cultural and ethnic replacement” of White Americans by a “Hispanic invasion”.
Unlike Oklahoma City, this terrorist attack didn’t stop Republicans and Fox News. On May 16, 2022, Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney tweeted, “The House GOP leadership has enabled white nationalism, white supremacy, and anti-semitism.”
Cheney was responding to the terrorist attack the day before. Another White Supremacist murdered Americans in Buffalo, New York. Will Fox News and Republicans stop inciting violence this time?
It’s the Market Stupid
One year and 4 months after Donald Trump took occupancy of the White House, gas price averages rose from $2.46 to $2.99 per gallon. Two years later, in May 2020, the average price per gallon had fallen to $1.96.
What causes these wild swings? What had Donald done in office? Nothing.
Oil companies, not the government set prices. Oil companies prefer higher prices to lower prices. Oil companies are run by capitalists.
Capitalists make decisions to earn a profit. They invest their money and want their sales price to exceed their production costs. This is called a profit.
Chief Executive Offices (CEOs) and Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) have a fiduciary duty to investors. They must act in the interests of investors before anything else. Before workers. Before consumers. Before America.
CEOs raise prices when demand is high and supply is limited. Under normal market conditions they rig supply to match demand. This allows them to set prices at a profitable rate. Investors expect this special treatment.
In May 2020, oil companies would have preferred a price of $3 per gallon. Unfortunately, they couldn’t have predicted the world-wide impact of Covid-19. The pandemic caused an abrupt change in driving habits as people stayed home.
For nearly two years, oil companies lost potential revenue. They looked for ways to cut costs below the revenue coming in. They needed to make a profit.
CEOs saved money by simply shutting down wells and not drilling new wells. Less oil coming out of the ground meant a smaller supply. Another place to save money was in the refineries. During the pandemic oil companies reduced refinery capacity. A smaller supply commands higher prices even with the limited demand. These decisions created higher profits.
“Why U.S. Oil Companies Aren’t Riding to Europe’s Rescue,” NYT, 04 26 2022
Over the past year the United States and world economies recovered rapidly from the Covid 19 pandemic. In the first year of President Joe Biden’s term, the US economy added a record 6.4 million jobs. In the first five months of 2022, over 400,000 American found employment ever month.
More Americans are enjoying the fruits of their labor. They are driving more. They are eating out more. They are shopping more. High demand drives up prices.
This is how capitalism works. Investors demand a profit. Companies fix prices to generate a profit. Capitalists are not patriotic. They are not charities. They redistribute wealth from the consumer to the investor.
Freeing State Power
After the Second World War, the United States Supreme Court has been following a single star. Individual liberty is stronger than state power. Millions of Americans from all walks of life had risked their lives, and the nation honored their service with individual liberty.
The new conservative Supreme Court is on the verge of empowering states once again. The issue is abortion, but the principle is much broader. A secret draft opinion declares “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
States, not individuals, will have the power to decide medical issues. States will have the power to strip minorities of their rights. States will have more power. We will not.
The conservatives on the Supreme Court have already rolled back voting rights. In the March election Texas trashed 12% of mail in ballots. The Supreme Court has been silent as millions of ballots remained uncounted.
Seniors lost their Right to Vote. Our disabled neighbors lost their Right to Vote. Veterans lost the Right to Vote. Soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen serving overseas lost their Right to Vote.
The conservative Supreme Court also gave the green light to partisan gerrymandering. They gave politicians the power to pick their voters and obstruct the will of the people.
Now on the chopping block is the Right to Privacy. The Right to Privacy requires a state to justify its intrusion into your most personal decisions. It protects your decisions in the doctor’s office. It protects your actions in the bedroom.
The conservatives on the Court reject the Right to Privacy because it is not mentioned in the Constitution. They belittle the literal meaning of the Ninth Amendment.
The Founders placed this broad limitation on government: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”
Conservatives justices point to history to deny and disparage a woman’s Right to Privacy. They are correct. Both the Federal and the State governments routinely denied and disparaged women’s rights. Do we really want to go back to those days?
Next on the Conservative wish list is government prayers in public schools. Justice Clarence Thomas has already written that banning government prayers in schools violates the constitution.
Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick can’t even fix our broken property tax system. They raise our taxes every year. How can they teach our children to pray? That’s a parent’s right, not a state power.
Addiction
Addictive behavior can destroy the addict as well as those around them. Addicts find it harder and harder to distinguish reality from imagination. They tell themselves lies and demand others accept the lies as truth.
Dealing with an addict can be very exhausting. Addicts respond to the truth with false allegations and threats. Their paranoia grows with each attempted intervention.
As more and more evidence mounts about the events on January 6, 2021, it is hard not to see a group of addicts. Conservative politicians and activists became addicted to power. They enjoyed using it to punish their opponents.
That is not how democracy works. Democracy works when elected leaders respect the will of the voters. Joe Biden earned 81,268,924 votes. He earned 7,052,770 more votes than the loser.
According to the Constitutional process established by the Founders, the 7 million vote advantage translated into an Electoral College victory of 306 to 232.
The loser tried to challenge these facts in court. In courtroom after courtroom, the loser lost again and again. Like an addict the loser refused to accept reality.
Donald Trump was not the only addict, however. He surrounded himself with addicts. According to text messages from Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Republicans in Congress wanted Donald Trump to declare Martial Law.
Stop and think about that for a moment. A sitting Congresswoman sent a message to the White House asking the President of the United States to consider Martial Law. Elected Offices wanted to throw away the Constitution of the United States of America.
Who in their right mind considers a dictatorship acceptable? Who in their right mind thinks politicians, not voters, determine the outcome of elections.
If Republican politicians secretly conspired to tear up the constitution, why were they surprised when a mob attack our democracy on January 6? The mob tried to disrupt constitutionally mandated counting of electoral votes.
Lies fed these behaviors. Rational people like Vice President Mike Pence and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell private and officially rejected the lies. What made them different?
Both Pence and McConnell accepted the Constitution. They understood that losing an election requires giving up power. Addicts cannot give up power. Addicts will burn the whole house down to satisfy their appetite.
Build Ladders
I have often heard it said that most of success is showing up. Well, I have shown up to Southeastern for 27 years now and still have a few years left in me. The Faculty Senate recognized my career with a Life Time Achievement Award.
My success, however, wasn’t just my life time. I was lifted up by hundreds around me. They built ladders for me to climb.
The climb began long ago in Raceland, Louisiana. My Mawmaw Melancon was the widow of a sugar mill worker. She had worked the fields alongside him and then survived his early death. Mawmaw never refused my request to read Green Eggs and Ham. Her gift of reading opened up so many doors.
My Dad’s decision to join the US Army also created many more opportunities for me. Not only did the Department of Defense schools provide a world class public education, but my parents showed me the world. I saw historical places first hand as we visited churches, castles, palaces, and museums.
I will never forget standing in a German bunker above the Normandy beaches. I will never forget looking up at Abraham Lincoln and knowing his contribution to building a better America. These experiences made history real for me.
In high school I learned from the Salesians of Don Bosco. They staffed Archbishop Shaw High School. Father Roy and Brother Dave taught us the value of service through their lives. Head Football Coach Hank Tierney stressed the importance of technique and intelligence.
When I went to college, I continued to find support. In the 1980s states like Louisiana paid 75% of the costs attending college. My parents could afford the rest of the tuition and room rent. I only had to pay for the extras.
Luckily, I had my big brother Randy looked out for me. He ran a sandblasting and painting shop in Morgan City. I worked for him every school break, hauling sand, moving pallets, scraping rust, or driving a truck.
Since I lived with him, I saved my money to spend while attending University of Southwestern Louisiana. I didn’t have to work during the semester. Randy removed that worry, and I enjoyed my college years.
Sometimes I enjoyed myself too much, but eventually I learned moderation and time management. It didn’t hurt that I found two incredible mentors: Vaughan and Amos Ed Simpson. They taught me how to be a trained historian.
Their advice served me well at LSU. Just as important, however, was finding new mentors. Meredith Veldman, Victor Stater, Karl Roider and John Henderson helped me develop as a researcher. They pointed me in the right direction and kept me focused.
Not only did Amos and Vaughan teach me in the classroom, but they introduced me to their professional friends at the Southwestern Social Sciences Association. It was at a SSSA Annual Meeting that I meet Ed Byrd and Ingrid Westmoreland from Southeastern.
By coincidence Dr. Byrd died the year I earned my Ph.D. Having meet Dr. Westmoreland, it made it easier to apply for the job SE job. Her guidance and support helped me succeed for the past 27 years.
No one made my climb easier than my wife Jackie. She was there every step from graduate school until today. I am very fortunate to have her, and so many others, lift me higher than I could go on my own. I just showed up.