Earl R. Smith II's Blog, page 16
April 19, 2020
Coming Together While Being Driven Apart
As a political and social theorist, I spend a lot of time talking to and about politicians and political activists. I also spend a lot of time with ordinary folk; most of whom can’t stand what takes place in the political arena. This pandemic has highlighted a conflict of agendas that has been poorly documented […]
April 16, 2020
Echoes from the North Woods
Some decades back, when I was living in Manhattan, I decided to take the advice of Henry David Thoreau. “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came […]
April 15, 2020
The Latest Coronavirus Numbers Are Sobering but the Future Looks Far Worse
There is bad news and very bad news – and only a glimmer of good news. And finally, there is more tragic incompetence, stupidity and a darkening future on the horizon. First the bad news: the number of new cases and deaths are increasing almost exponentially. Worldwide, the total number od cases in now over […]
April 14, 2020
Trumpsters and Delusions of Grandeur
It’s the current epidemic that defines what it means to be a Republican. Hubris, self-love, self-pity, incompetence before a challenge, disregard for fellow citizens, ideology before humanity. Let’s call it what it is – Trumpism. And the reactions to it could not be starker in contrast. This morning, I watched Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough […]
April 13, 2020
We’re number one! Brought to you by Trump and His Supporters Everywhere!
The United States has the worst statistics when it comes to the coronavirus. We have more cases, more deaths and curves that just keep going up. No other country comes close to the insanity that is the American response to the pandemic. And that is just one gift that Trump supports have placed in your […]
April 10, 2020
Freedom of Speech – I Don’t Think So!
As I see it, there is no societal guarantee of free speech in the United States and the 1st Amendment does not provide one – period paragraph. That Amendment only provides that the government should make no laws which restrict a citizen’s right to speak. It does not limit other citizens, including the wealthy, corporations […]
Cabin Doors and Political Insanity
As a social and political theorist, I get asked to work on a range of problems. The two that are at the top of my list are outlined in the following initial drafts: The New Normal We Made For Ourselves: Futurist have mostly focused on avarice, governmental excesses, war, nuclear bombs and aliens when they […]
April 9, 2020
The New Normal We Made for Ourselves
There is an old saying – “man needs nature, but nature does not need man”. Despite warnings that Washington DC was becoming a hotspot, I made my trip to Safeway – an interesting name for the times – and noticed that they had made lots of changes. There was only one set of doors to […]
The New Normal and the Dinosaurs
If you listen to the pundits, we are on the road to flattening the curve and returning to normal. Maybe it will be in the fall, but Americans will be back to normal – going to ball games, having picnics, attending concerts, wandering through museums and standing in unreasonably long lines just to exercise their […]
April 8, 2020
Sadness for the end of things
What is so sad about the current political environment, is that Democrats and most of the media conflate impotent whining with winning. Trump is winning because he is getting his way. He is removing any possibility of effective oversight by firing the persons who would be responsible for it and replacing them with soldiers in […]
