History – Page 2 – Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3

Sunday Morning Reading

Reading for the morning after the No Kings rallies and beyond.

Good Sunday morning. This edition will be slightly different than most. Yes, there will be a collection of links I find worth sharing (and hope you’ll read). That said, most of the links in this week’s Sunday Morning Reading come from an excellent series in The Atlantic’s November 2025 issue from a collection of authors called The Unfinished Revolution.

Yes, that’s behind a paywall. Sorry, not sorry. But this is the Internet and if you’re not already paying for excellent content like The Atlantic, there are a million ways to skirt that restriction. The issue is one worth paying for, if for no other reason to keep it as an archive for future generations. That may prove important one day. I plan on picking up a hard copy soon enough.

The issue is also timely as this country approaches it’s 250th anniversary, and finds itself being torn apart by forces that, suffice it to say, don’t represent what many believe this country stands for, or at least the promise of what it should stand for, even with it’s historical problems and faults.

It’s also timely because we’ve just seen the second and larger No Kings rallies across the country. Given that the founding of this country was indeed the original No Kings protest that kicked off a revolution against rule by a monarch, the timing also feels apropos.

I won’t highlight all of the articles in the series, you should go and check them out yourself. The ones I do link to are ones I found particularly interesting. And yes, there will be other links in today’s Sunday Morning Reading as well.

Before I get to The Atlantic’s links, this article by Garrett Graff, Three Reasons I Still Have Hope For America, is more than worth your time. I agree that there is strength in numbers, but I don’t think the inevitable passing of a leader this time around will have the affect the world has seen historically.

The title of Anne Applebaum’s Atlantic piece, The Beacon of Democracy Goes Dark, certainly tells you where the piece is going. Even so, it is more than worth reading and contemplating. One way or the other we are living through and participating in moments that will change the world. We just don’t know how.

We’re dealing with our own Mad King wannabe, so Rick Atkinson’s The Myth of Mad King George draws some interesting parallels beyond their affinity for makeup that I suggest could be similarly drawn behind most of the troubled men who’ve plagued the world throughout its history.

Political and social schisms divide not only countries, but often families as well. Stacy Schiff asks Why Did Benjamin Franklin’s Son Remain Loyal To The British?

Jeffrey Rosen says that insurrection has marred the American constitutional order since its founding. He’s correct. Check out The Insurrection Problem. If you’re not an American history buff, I bet you’ll be surprised.

George Packer thinks we do need patriotism in his piece I Don’t Want To Stop Believing In America’s Decency. I concur with his sympathies, but when the meaning of words like patriotism and decency can get so easily mangled it becomes trying to cling to those beliefs.

Fintan O’Toole asks What The Founders Would Say Now. We’ve imagined, conjured, twisted, and appropriated who and what they and their words are so often, that in my view I think they’d tell us all to either grow up or go to hell.

As most of this week’s Sunday Morning Reading and my own thinking has focused on the issues facing America as a whole, I found former NY Times drama critic Frank Rich’s piece on Zohran Mamdani and the New York mayor’s race fascinating. Not just for his at times surprising commentary on that race. But for those paying attention, Why Powerbrokers Got Everything Wrong About Zohran Mamdani incisively dissects the deeper fissures subsuming the bigger political picture as well.

And to close out this week, here’s a piece from 404 Media about the amphibian symbol that has become associated with our current protests against the administration, Matthew Gault’s The Surreal Practicality Of Protesting As An Inflatable Frog.

If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. If you’d like more click on the Sunday Morning Reading link in the category column to check out what’s been shared on Sunday’s past. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

Sunday Morning Reading

Everything you can imagine is different, yet it’s the same.

It’s a Sunday. It’s a Sunday in Chicago. The Cubs lost. (Not surprising.) The Trump regime continues its horrendous snatch and grab policies all over the city (Increasingly not surprising but still terrifying.) Leaves are falling, but somehow they feel dirtier and without the bursts of color we’re used to seeing beforehand. And the world marches on. Time for a little Sunday Morning Reading.

Neil Steinberg wrote a terrific piece about Chicago amidst all that’s going on called What A Lovely Day in Chicago. It’s a love letter. It’s an homage. It’s a snapshot. As he puts it “We need to remember that this is oppression for oppression’s sake, a practice built on lies. The city is fine.” That’s the odd thing. The city is fine. It’s the oppression that’s not.

Timothy Burke’s The News: Reign of Error expands on a piece by Henry Farrell that says that institutions and communities need to coordinate their resistance to Trump. As Burke puts it one of the obstacles is that “the closer that institutions get to one another in character and mission, and the less necessary it is to be competitive, the more that they are overwhelmed by the narcissism of small differences.” It’s an excellent dissection that reveals why some in higher places of different sectors might be holding their tongues while their mouths are agape at what’s going on around us.

Empywheel thinks The Nativists Are Getting Restless: How The Comey Prosecution May Backfire. I’m not sure it matters in the end if the point is do damage as loudly as possible.

David Todd McCarty asks the question Is Your Imagination Robbing You of Real Experiences? Cogito, ergo sum?

I wrote a play years ago about John Brown and Harpers Ferry, one of those moments in American history that we seem to want to forget, yet never goes away. Robert S. Levine tells us Why Donald Trump Wants To Erase John Brown’s Fiery Abolitionist Legacy (and Why He Will Fail.)

There was so much craziness about the Nobel Peace Prize this year given, well you know why. So much so that many of the other awards were overlooked. The Nobel Prize for Literature went to Hungarian author Lázló Krasznahorkai. I have several acquaintances who adore his work and were tremendously excited. I did some reading on Krasznahorkai and stumbled up on this 2011 piece by James Wood called Madness and Civilization about the author. Worth your while.

On the Artificial Intelligence beat, Sora is the latest thing everyone has an immediate love/hate relationship with. But this isn’t about that. Sarah Perez says It’s Not Too Late For Apple To Get AI Right. Frankly, I think it’s too late for any of these companies to get it right, unless “right” is about winning the con game.

Resting my case on that last statement, Alexandra Jones looks into the connections folks can’t make in real life and are turning to AI for in ‘I Realized I’d Been ChatGPT-ed Into Bed’: How ‘Chatfishing Made Finding Love On Dating Apps Even Weirder.”

And as Autumn continues its march, New Englanders Are Fed Up With Leaf-Peeping Tourists Ruining Their Fall, so says Jared Mitovitch.

(Image is a photo I took last Fall)

Hollywood Stars Relaunch The Committee For The First Amendment

History once again repeating itself

In the tumult that is the debate over freedom of speech and the First Amendment, a large group of Hollywood celebrities, led in this effort by Jane Fonda, have relaunched The Committee for the First Amendment. I’m glad to see it.

Committee for the First Amendment.

First created during the McCarthy ‘Red Scare’ era after government repression of American citizens for their political beliefs, the original Committee for the First Amendment was also a group of Hollywood actors, producers, directors, writers and more attempting to fight the repression led by Joe McCarthy’s efforts to purge communists from all walks of life. That repression led to black lists, the end of careers, and a black stain on the freedoms American’s cherish. Sadly, we’re back there again.

Some in today’s world of complicit media like to call this current mess a debate over freedom of speech. That’s bullshit in my opinion. There’s no debate in the attempts to label what speech, what entertainment, what ideas are allowed or not, certainly to when you have many Hollywood and media executives willing to bend the knee to the fascist regime we now have in place.

Here’s an excerpt from the webpage:

The federal government is once again engaged in a coordinated campaign to silence critics in the government, the media, the judiciary, academia, and the entertainment industry.

We refuse to stand by and let that happen. Free speech and free expression are the inalienable rights of every American of all backgrounds and political beliefs – no matter how liberal or conservative you may be. The ability to criticize, question, protest, and even mock those in power is foundational to what America has always aspired to be.

We understand that this is a frightening and confusing moment for many people. We recognize that we represent just one group of many who are under threat right now. Across classrooms, libraries, factories, companies and workplaces of all kinds, Americans of every walk of life are facing intimidation and censorship too — and we stand with them.

We know there is power in solidarity and strength in numbers. We will stand together—fiercely united—to defend free speech and expression from this assault. This is not a partisan issue. That is why we urge every American who cares about the First Amendment—the cornerstone of our democracy—and every artist around the globe who looks to the United States as a beacon of freedom to join us.

The list of those signing on is long. Here’s hoping we see more join in for what appears at the moment to be a long fight. And not just from Hollywood. It’s going to take this kind of action in all sectors of our society.

You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

Sunday Morning Reading

Traveling through the crazy paying attention along the way

It’s been a fortnight since I’ve published one of these columns due to travel. So much has happened. The travel adventures to London and Memphis were great. The way the world continues to pull itself apart continues to not be, as witnessed by protests and a madman’s threats of troops in the streets followed me from Chicago to London to Memphis. You can shut off and shut down to enjoy new places and visit dear friends, but the insanity keeps getting more insane. So, Sunday Morning Reading is back at it this week, with a mix of politics, culture and a bit of tech. (Oh, yeah, Apple released new iPhones during all of that.) If you can’t feel the currents flowing together, you’re not paying attention.

On my travels my wife and I caught some theatre. Two plays by Shakespeare and the contemporary play Stereophonic. The two Shakespeares were one of his worst, Merry Wives of Windsor, and one of the best, Hamlet. We’re theatre rats and know the importance of the medium and certainly recognize the role writers in all mediums play in our lives, history, and culture. So too does a favorite writer of mine, David Todd McCarty. Check out his important piece The Reason You Need To Be Making Art Right Now. And if I may be so bold, the other Sunday Morning Reading links below demonstrate that to a tee.

NatashaMH reflects on free speech, punk rebellion and British satire in When Satire Was Safe. Great piece. I dare say, satire has never been safe even when tolerated. Plenty of fools can attest to that. Ask Yorick.

I mentioned there’d be politics and here’s a few links to some excellent context on just how damn familiar all of what we’re living through is. For those who bother to pay attention. First up is Mark Hertling’s Beware Today’s ‘Fire-Eaters’. If you don’t know that term, read the piece. You’ll recognize today’s fire-eaters in a second.

On a broader scale, take a look at Nikki McCann Ramirez’s interview with Mike Duncan in Are We Witnessing The Fall Of The American Empire? My short answer is yes. Here’s the money quote that should terrify us all:

So if we go this route, we’re going to have congresses, we’re going to have Supreme Courts, we’re going to have a President of the United States, there will be governors, there will be elections, it’s just what’s happening underneath that facade. The facade is never going to go away, it’s how tissue-thin the facade is.

Follow that up with George Packer’s America’s Zombie Democracy.

For a bit of recent history and context, check out The Story of DOGE, As Told By Federal Workers from a team of Wired writers led by Zoe Schiffer.

As I mentioned Apple released new iPhones last week. Om Malik seems quite taken with the new iPhone Air, although he has some concerns in Go Out & Get Some Air.

In this column and other posts I’ve been following Denny Henke’s journey to de-Apple himself in his tech life with a keen interest. I greatly admire his drive and his sharing of his efforts. Check out My Ongoing Effort To de-Apple the iPad.

And to bring this all back around, take a look at Neely’s Tucker’s sharing of a guest post by Patrick Hastings, Nobody Would Edit Shakespeare, Right? Right? They have and they do. David Garrick wasn’t the first or the last. Throughout history we always look for the ways to make it easier to swallow tragic moments and unhappy endings. In the theatre and on the stages of our lives.

(The image above is of David Garrick’s monument in Westminster Abbey, taken by me on my recent travels.

If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. If you’d like more click on the Sunday Morning Reading link in the category column to check out what’s been shared on Sunday’s past. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

Jimmy Kimmel’s Return: Grace and Strength

Perhaps a spark

Jimmy Kimmel returned to the air in some places last night. In my opinion, he did so with grace and with strength.

He certainly didn’t give any ground as a comedian, continuing to needle the Trump administration and the two-faced chair of the FCC, Brendan Carr. But he also showed a great deal of grace given the moments he and we have all been through since this episode of life under a crazy emperor with no clothes.

I’m linking to the video above with his opening monologue, because one way on the other the moment is a piece of broadcast and cultural history. The optimist in me hopes it will prove to be bigger than that, perhaps a turning point. The realist in me thinks we’re due for some sequels.

Here’s hoping people and the cowardly CEOs have learned a lesson or two before the next sequel is given a green light. I’m not holding my breath on the latter. I have more hope for the former.

You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

The Cowards and Greedy Captains of Industry

If you can’t take a joke…

Once upon a time things like free speech, freedom of expression, freedom of the press were considered hallmarks of what America stood for. That feels more and more like a fairy tale. The folks in control of the government keep ripping their claws into social and political fabric and turning America into some weird fascist and cultish state that worships a convicted felon and child rapist.

2021 11 08 smothers brothers alamy.

The latest outrageous move of the Trump administration is threatening ABC to take late night comedy host Jimmy Kimmel off of the air “indefinitely.” It’s a political move and a business move. It’s also a mob move.

Disney, the pseudo-family corporate parent of ABC, Disney made the move after one of the ABC affiliates, Nexstar Media said it was so offended by Kimmel’s comments about the recent shooting of Charlie Kirk that it would pre-empt the show on its stations.

Here’s the fun part. Nexstar is trying to expand its stable of channels and that requires FCC approval. You don’t need a crayon to draw your own conclusions because the thugs in charge are so transparent with their thuggery.

Day by day we’re watching what used to be called the Captains of Industry, academia, and the media drive their boats into what they presume is the safe harbor under Trump’s protection. That harbor is getting so crowded that no one is going to be able to sail out again. Forget the ship of state, the ships of commerce are running themselves aground. This will continue because once ground is given, the bully keeps taking. It’s a tale told too well.

This feels like a yet another power move and of course it requires power to pull off. But it’s actually the move of cowards who realize they are despised and have skin so thin that they can’t take a punch line from a so-so comic. It also requires what we once thought of strong business leaders to show their true colors as cowards. Captains of Cowardice fits more today than the former sobriquet of Captains of Industry.

Another president in another time, Lyndon Johnson, once said about the comedic and satiric criticism tossed at him by the Smothers Brothers.

“It is part of the price of leadership of this great and free nation to be the target of clever satirists. You have given the gift of laughter to our people. May we never grow so somber or self-important that we fail to appreciate the humor in our lives.”

Don’t get me wrong. LBJ was pissed. But he was man enough to rise above it, at least publicly. Those were tumultuous times then as well. These times are becoming not only tumultuous, but tortuous because of the daily drip of news like this.

A Constitution Day Like No Other

Not easy to celebrate this year.

Today, September 17 in the U.S. is Constitution and Citizenship Day in the U.S. It marks the observance of the day that delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed the document, revered for almost two and half centuries, and now, in my opinion, seriously in danger of being stripped of its meaning by those only adhering to its principles when its convenient and shredding them when it’s not.

CONSTITUTION_iStock 923052552_2500 1200x630.

Tumultuous times today, but there were also tumultuous in the run up to reaching the moment that saw the Constitution adopted. That’s well known and also conveniently forgotten. Until a piece of it needs cherry picking to beat a point home.

It was never a perfect document. It was never intended to be. That’s why there’s an amendment clause in Article V. But amendments to the document require enormous amounts of toil and compromise, are hard to come by, and frankly that process can’t work when you live in a world without principle.

I may not have agreed with some of the things left out of the original document or its later amendments, and perhaps I’m naive, but I do happen to believe that those who argued over what our governing document should be at the time at least had principles that they believed in as opposed to those today who only seem to believe in what’s best for themselves and not the entire body politic.

We talk all the time about the founders who built this thing. It’s a damn shame we’re consumed with talking about a real estate developer who is overseeing its destruction.

Touring in Tongues

Still enjoying touring London. Still marveling at how weird it is seeing the reaction to this week’s news and the sadly predictable reactions to it back home.

Chatting with drivers and other folks met along the way, the news back home may seem foreign to my view on the world as I thought it might one day become, but I’m reminded how, though separated as we are by a common language, we are inextricably tied into a gordian knot, by those who thrive on stirring up division for gain.

I say that as London prepares for supposed “free speech” protests today, with what’s in those quotes more easily defined as a way to drive the wedge of division deeper into our collective souls at whatever cost for whatever profit.

Sunday Morning Reading

Things AI can’t summarize: Nostalgia and what’s worth not forgetting.

A brief breather at home before travels resume, so there’s a full plate for this week’s Sunday Morning Reading including some nostalgia that shouldn’t be, some very interesting reading on AI, a defiant Chicago, and even a bit on gambling and baseball. Enjoy.

Chicago is under threat from a madman and you can feel the tension in the crisp fall air. Dan Sinker has written an excellent Benediction for Chicago On the Eve of Occupation. You don’t hear thoughts and prayers in the check out lines at the grocery store, just a growing sense of defiant preparation.

The pendulum seems to be swinging wildly in the opinion wars about Artificial Intelligence now that some are actually able to sift through the hype bubbles and see what’s what. EmptyWheel has an excellent 4-part series that is more than worth your time. It begins with A Normal Person’s Explainer On What Generative AI Is And Does and continues with The Other Half Of The AI Relationship, Proteins, Factories, And Wicked Solutions, and concludes with LLMs Are Lead.

Follow that excellent series with The Tech Industry Has a Dirty Secret: The More People Learn About AI, The Less They Trust it by Victor Tangermann. For what it’s worth, I’m also seeing AI naysayers riding the pendulum back the other way as they find ways to make some of the tools of this tool work for them. No AI could ever sort this out with a summary.

The Power We Use and The Power We Give is a brilliant piece by Philip Bump. As he transitions from his former job with The Washington Post he’s talking about where choosing to land next and why making the right choice about where to exercise what power the words you use live. This is a complicated moment in history on so many levels, well illustrated in this one man’s piece.

Also, here’s an excellent piece from Bump on the goings on in Chicago called Trump Wants To Make War On Chicago. He Picked The Wrong Fight.

Speaking of complexity, David Todd McCarty wonders why so many men find themselves alone later in life in Boys Don’t Cry, Men Don’t Bond.

Chris Armitage says It’s Time For Americans To Start Talking About “Soft Secession.” I take the point about the term and the concept. I’m not criticizing either or Armitage’s piece when I say this, but hell, when the president of the country mockingly riles up everyone with a threat to declare war on a city, I’m not sure there’s anything “soft” about anything anymore.

NatashaMH tackles political amnesia is what I think is a timely piece worth revisiting more than once. Our capacity to forget or set aside so much, so often, is astounding. Check out Inside The Fortress, Outside The Fire. Here’s the money quote:

As often as I can, I remind them how history is a reminder of the lives we lost and of how stupid we really are. “Senseless to the core. And once we’re done with the bloodshed, we write poetry.”

To clear the palette a bit, check out Tim Newcomb’s piece about how A Remarkable Discovery of A Document Shatters One of Shakespeare’s Biggest Mysteries.

Fact checking may be a dying art, given that most of the world has decided we can each have our own facts. Zach Helfand as a wonderful long piece on The History Of The New Yorker’s Vaunted Fact-Check Department. Too damn bad we have to file this under nostalgia.

Speaking of nostalgia, check out Bettor Up by J.R. Moehringer about gambling and baseball. Yes, it’s about gambling and baseball, but it’s the closest thing I’ve seen to the good sports writing (especially about baseball) that I grew up with.

(Image from Roman Kraft on Unsplash.)

Context and Chicago History with Troops in the Streets

This isn’t the first time Chicago has seen troops in the streets

Chicago is on edge as it prepares for what may (or may not) be Federal troops being sent in by the convicted felon and child rapist Donald Trump. Chicago and Illinois politicians are standing up and speaking strong against what most see as just the next move in his racist retribution reaction. I say next move, because it won’t stop in Chicago. This is what was promised and there’s no reason for Trump to back down or slow down now.

All of that said, troops on American streets is not a new phenomenon. That’s certainly true about Chicago. Neil Steinberg has an excellent piece in the Chicago Sun-Times that provides some context and history of past moments when the Windy City had troops in town. It’s worth your time, and not just for those in Chicago.

We tend to think of the military as a monolithic entity comprised of troops always taking orders and doing what they’re told. For the most part that’s true. But every military unit is no different than any unit of any other organization of individuals. You’ve got soldiers, sailors and airmen who do the right thing and you’ve got trouble makers. One of the problems is that some of the trouble makers have itchy trigger fingers, as do some of the officers.

This country is split down the middle with folks in and out of uniform who have a thirst for harming others and those who abhor violence. That’s not just common American history, that’s common human history. Those war movie clichés didn’t get created out of whole cloth.

Use that for the base of recipe that’s stirred up with demagoguery and it’s a dangerous brew ready to boil over.

I’m reasonably sure troops are going to show up in Chicago. Perhaps soon. Perhaps later. I’m also sure that if there is trouble it will come from the trouble makers, both in the ranks, and those ranking up and down the ladder of command, including the supposed tough guy at the top.

We’re already seeing reports that National Guard troops in L.A. and D.C. are having morale issues as they tire of being paraded around as B-roll fodder. (By the way, it’s lousy B-roll if the purpose is to show toughness.) We’ll see more of that as tensions increase all around the spectrum of this tough-guy wannabe spectacle.

I think this is just getting started.

As I said, go and read, Steinberg’s piece. It’s well worth your time.

You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.