I just finished this book and it’s awesome. A few things I learned from it:

• America lost many (most) battles to the British but won the war through mostly determination (and some luck)
• George Washington was a hero, but there were quite a few other officers that were perhaps just as – or more important who really didn’t get the credit they deserved
• The first submarine was invented in Colonial times and was called “The Turtle”
• Benjamin Franklin was even more important than I had realized
• There were con men, shysters and miscreants every bit as shady as the Trump Crime Family during Colonial times. The Trumps – as seemingly awful as they are – would have been just one of many such miscreant clans in Colonial Days
• It’s amazing that America even exists. If I were a betting man, I would have probably bet on the British
• America has been full of uneducated yokels and dummies from the start
• The American Revolution was Both a Revolution AND a Civil War. There were many British Loyalists living here with the American Rebels
• Slavery was a severe problem from the start
• The first American Rebel to die, Crispus Attucks, was a black man

I decided to read this long and intense epic because I have British and German relatives who immigrated before the Revolution – during the mid to late 1700’s. I don’t know if they came here for religious freedom, but I suspect that was the case – and perhaps they were offered some – perhaps land or just a better life. I do know they were pacifists. My British family immigrated from London, and my German Family from the Stuttgart area which also included an area that later became Switzerland. One great grandmother from Germany divorced a great grandfather and immigrated with a Hessian. I don’t know if he was a mercenary. I suspect he came over for that purpose, but jumped on a deal where he ended up with land in Lancaster PA. His name is Hess, a well to do, and well known name near or in Lititz.

We are in a new war. It might be WWIII, and I suspect it’s not going to be fought on a battlefield. I say WWIII because Brexit in the UK is as idiotic as what we we went through during the Trump mis-administration.

There are shades of Brave New World, 1984 and maybe even more than those, Idiocracy. But are Americans just stupid? Well, yes, a good chunk are, but it hasn’t been any different than the dummies that were here during Colonial times. Some were brilliant – perhaps the smartest in the world since America exists seemingly in spite of itself, but there have always been dummies in America. Gullible fools for sure.

I actually hate politics, but Trump had had my “ire” up since he ascended to the right hand of God. What I’ve just realized is that his Presidency and much more importantly, the morons that Revere him are two things that are as ridiculous as America even existing.

The combination of doing Geneology, Art, Music and being “jolted” into politics because of Trump (and, previously, Bush’s 2008 Loan and Bank fiasco) has been a “miasma” that has acted as a wakeup call. It’s not fun, but important. My response is to use my art as a wise ass because that takes the edge off of it.

Our Idiocracy, and the Brexit Idiocracy are diseases that I think have been caused by the Internet turning dark and spewing dangerous GroupThink. Thank God, for every moronic web site or podcast, there are equal numbers of good, intelligent and thoughtful ones. Freedom of Choice will save us from ourselves.

We aren’t in WWIII – yet. If the rest of the world follows the US and the UK, we will be in WWIII. But I suspect rather than a physical battlefield it will be on the Internet.

While I wish I didn’t lapse into political rants in my art, they have been little “musings” that have helped me better understand what the hell is going on in America and the world. So this ranting is very useful.

Trump has been called Putin’s “useful idiot”. When I see American anti vaxxers dying of Covid and taking Ivermectin, I realize these are the self selecting morons that are like some of the yokels and bumpkins back during revolutionary times. Trump is a self serving pathological narcissist, but he and his Goon Squad are so incompetent that rather than being a threat, they serve a useful “Cautionary Tale”. I feel compelled to say something as if our Democracy depends on it. And maybe it does?

The biggest difference between pre-internet and now is that the Internet proliferates and promotes, aids and abets self inflicted crimes of Idiocracy.

Will America survive this? I’d bet yes, and that America will learn from it. I had grown tired of this idea of American Exceptionalism, but maybe – instead of what looks like dumb shit luck – the fact that we have even slightly more than a majority that still love our Bill of Rights and what this nation was founded on, maybe, somehow, we will survive this “idiot age”? And maybe the diversity – weaved into our national fabric is the “thing” that makes this look like dumb shit luck? Maybe we can win the war again after losing so many battles?

Then we can move onto a much more serious problem – climate change and our melting, burning earth.