Let's stay focused here

Charlamagne Tha God took exception to Joe Biden calling Trump our first racist president, noting the obvious that many presidents before were avowed racists. I suppose Joe meant in recent history, but then Richard Nixon made it pretty clear where his affinities lay. You could also make the case that the notorious crime bill that Bill Clinton endorsed unfairly targeted Black Americans. He rushed the bill through Congress hoping it would help Democrats in the 1994 midterms, only to see that Congressional election blow up in his face. However, neither Nixon nor Clinton nor any modern-day president was ever as overtly racist as has been Donald J. Trump, which is the point Joe Biden was trying to make in an effort to solidify his support among Black Americans. He just may have lost Charlamagne's vote.

Of course our current president would like Black voters to believe he has done more for them than even Honest Abe did back in 1863 when he signed the Emancipation Proclamation by executive order. This came in the same speech where Trump announced he was sending in his stormtroopers to riot torn cities. As you can imagine, this claim was met with even more incredulity than the statement Honest Joe made in response. Such unwarranted federal police actions are specifically in response to Black Lives Matters protests still going on throughout the country, where his stormtroopers have rounded up what they believe to be the ring leaders of this notorious movement that Trump has openly admonished.

Portland, Oregon, has been the staging ground for this federal invasion. Ostensibly, the stormtroopers were called in to protect federal buildings, but they soon became "proactive" in the words of Homeland Security Director Chad Wolf, making extralegal arrests to thwart what they considered to be potential violent acts against federal buildings. The Mayor of Portland joined protests against these jackboots only to find himself tear gassed as well. Herr Trump was so pleased with these actions that he has vowed to send his jackboots into Seattle, Chicago, New York and other unruly cities where he says Democratic mayors have failed their people.

It is all part of the Republican campaign strategy to make Americans feel that their security can only be entrusted to Donald J. Trump. If Sleepy Joe Biden is elected, anarchy will reign as we have seen in Seattle, where a small neighborhood briefly declared its autonomy. It seems that his campaign has been watching too many Purge movies.

While I can understand that Charlamagne might be a little miffed by Honest Joe's seemingly naive comments, it is pretty clear we need to get our wannabe fuhrer out of office as soon as possible. Imagine what might happen in the next four years if this guy is allowed free rein! So, yes, I'm willing to give Joe a pass on this one.

O Pioneers!

It is hard not to think of Nebraska without thinking of its greatest writer. Here is a marvelous piece by Capote, Remembering Willa Cather . I remember seeing a stage production of O Pioneers! and being deeply moved by its raw emotions. I had read My Antonia before, and soon found myself hooked, like Capote was by the simple elegance of her prose and the way she was able to evoke so many feelings through her characters. Much of it came from the fact that she had lived those experiences herself. Her father dragged the family from Virginia to Nebraska in 1883, when it was still a young state, settling in the town of Red Cloud. named after one of the great Oglala chiefs. Red Cloud was still alive at the time, living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, in the aftermath of the "Great Sioux Wars" of 1876-77. I don't know whether Cather took any interest in the famous chief, although it is hard to imagine not. Upon his death in 1909, he was eulogi

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Welcome to this month's reading group selection. David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908. At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades. Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society. I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran. Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, noting the gro

Colonel

Now with Colonel Roosevelt , the magnum opus is complete. And it deserves to stand as the definitive study of its restless, mutable, ever-boyish, erudite and tirelessly energetic subject. Mr. Morris has addressed the toughest and most frustrating part of Roosevelt’s life with the same care and precision that he brought to the two earlier installments. And if this story of a lifetime is his own life’s work, he has reason to be immensely proud. -- Janet Maslin -- NY Times . Let the discussion begin!

Dispatches from Vilnius

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