Friends, Italian-Americans have experienced the peaks and the valleys of what America has to offer. Lately, mostly the peaks. At first, mostly the valleys. Still, they never lost sight of all that this country has to offer, and they never whined and moped about their misfortunes. They "got on with it" and made the best of life in the greatest country on earth (not too hard, when you think about it). Now, though, their trademark holiday, Columbus Day, is under assault. I guess being Italian-American just isn't PC enough these days. Heaven knows it isn't a "protected class"! Anyway, if you've ever wondered how Columbus Day came to be, read all about it here:
Are the Dems in bad shape, according to the polls? Yes! Could they be in even worse shape than the polls indicate? Double yes! Check it out:
You thought 15,000 Haitians made a mess? There are a lot more on the way, so our border headaches are only beginning, sad to say.
Add LEGOS to the list of toys you don't want to buy for your kids and/or grandkids this Christmas. In fact, play it safe and avoid the major toy retailers, and toy manufacturers, altogether. Buy vintage toys! Or, better yet, buy little Johnny and Susie a broom and a mop (respectively) and put them to work.
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/lego-toys-gender-un/2021/10/11/id/1040065/
So voter fraud doesn't exist, right? It's all part of the "Big Lie"? Well, of course it exists. Here's a story that proves it. The question is whether it exists on a scale sufficient to determine the outcome of a close election. Maybe. Personally, I think the bigger scandal in 2020 was the hundreds of thousands if not millions of votes cast and counted in violation of election law. That's "fraud", if you ask me, because every illegal vote that's counted dilutes the impact of legal votes. There's no question in mind that, from this perspective, Joe Biden's 2020 win was illegitimate. Based on the Rasmussen poll you see below, most Americans agree. Note that the poll asks about "cheating" -- a vague, umbrella term for electoral shenanigans, many of which the Dems engaged in. Heck, the Trump-Russia hoax was one big effort to undermine our electoral process, and its legitimate outcome: the presidency of Donald J. Trump!
https://www.newsmax.com/politics/election-2020-absentee-ballots/2021/10/11/id/1040033/
Finally, there are worrying signs that the U.S. could be flirting with a recession. In particular, the mood of consumers has turned strongly negative. Given all the other headwinds we face economically, don't be shocked if we get a taste of that "stagflation" that everyone's talking about in 2021 and 2022. That doesn't mean the inflation will be horrific, or the economic contraction will be long and deep...but all that remains to be seen.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/us-another-recession-consumer-sentiment-trend
Dr.Waddy from Jack: Columbus was a prospectively murderous creep and he didn't discover America anyway! Let's do this: let's confirm his holiday as Indigenuous Peoples' Day and leave it at that. As much as Native Americans indulged in European style immolation of neighbors, the advent of the Europeans was bad news for all of them in the short run;though European culture was materially superior to their primitive life style, its imposition upon them was evil. I think it best that Italian Americans ,along with the myriad of "- Americans" celebrate their own holidays without expecting of the country reverence for their particular heroes. I agree, the motivation for this present attack on Columbus and Columbus Day is modern mindless leftist political correctness but perhaps we should not choose this hill to fight upon. The totalitarian America haters promise us many more far better defensible!
ReplyDeleteJack,
DeleteColumbus (from Genoa, Italy) set the stage for Spain to take over a giant piece of real estate. He is a hero to some and a villain to many these days. He initially landed on an island in the present day West Indies, and then sailed around and about those islands, and then fell out of favor, landed in jail for a while, and kind of faded out of sight, while guys like Cortez took over Mexico for Spain, and Pizarro grabbed Peru for Spain. LOTS OF GOLD AND SILVER TO BE HAD!
All Columbus really did was help The Spanish choose and develop Cuba as a base of operations, and people like Cortez originally planned to set up his own empire in Mexico, which he did for a while until The Crown of Spain and the Roman Catholic Church decided they were going to control everything, and the result was that all of Mexico, all of Central America, and all of South America was controlled by Spain until the early 19th Century when the places they controlled rebelled against them and set up their own countries, like Columbia, Argentina and so on.
PORTUGAL got Brazil because they complained to the Pope a lot. Actually Portugal got to The Far East first because they did not bump into a landmass like Columbus did and Ponce de Leon in Florida. Portugal also got huge chunks of real estate in Africa like Mozambique and Angola, and they did not give those places up until 1974 (repeat, 1974).
I got the following (accurate history I believe) from somewhere so I will put quotation marks around it:
"In 1497, John Cabot (an Italian Navigator from Venice) discovered and explored large areas of Eastern Canada under the commission of King Henry VII of England. In 1499, William Weston, an Englishman, discovered and explored large areas of what became New England, and claimed North America for England. Both men knew each other and sailed from Bristol, England."
During the 16th Century, Queen Elizabeth 1 of England kept Spain from grabbing the territory that William Weston had claimed. Of course The French got involved in Canada, claimed Quebec, got along with The Indians better than the English, but got kicked out of North America officially during the mid-18th Century in the Seven Years War.
Well Jack, how is that for a history that leaves out a lot of details?
The bottom line is that Columbus was an Italian but an expatriate one at that.
Dr.Waddy and Ray: I think I understand why Columbus is valued by many Italians; may they always be free to do him whatever deference they wish. But alone among our national holidays, his day is quite arguably inappropriate. His advent heralded unshirted hell for millions. Let us, I suggest, simply reject mandated national celebration of his achievements (no antiConfederate style nihilism please). Save our energy for the assuredly imminent unjust onslaught on Washington and Lincoln!
ReplyDeleteJack, you're right that this may not be the best "hill to fight on", and yet every hill we surrender makes the next hill that much harder to defend. You say that "imposing" European culture on the Native Americans was "evil". Okay, but you might as well say that humanity is evil, or history is evil, because that's what human history is full of, no? The strong impose on the weak. It's only when the strong are white males that anyone thinks to condemn the universal laws of nature/history. I know you mean well by conceding ground to the Native Americans and their alleged defenders among the woke, but I'm pretty sure your broad-mindedness will avail you nothing in the end. They'll take that inch and stretch it to a mile.
ReplyDeleteRay, that's a superb history of European exploration and conquest of the Americas, which leaves out all the moral angst -- and so I like it all the more! You left out the fact that some experts even doubt whether Columbus WAS Italian -- and, at any rate, it's very unlikely he thought of himself as "Italian". Genoese, possibly. Catholic, almost certainly. Viceroy of Such-and-Such -- you bet!
Again, Jack, I know where you're coming from, but for all intents and purposes Columbus=Europe, as far as his woke enemies are concerned. Are we willing to trash the legacy of Europe? I'm not!
Thanks Nick, And when you think about it, Columbus really had nothing to do with North America. Our piece of real estate was claimed for England by an Englishman, as indicated in my comments. Certainly France was a major player in North America, but the main language in Canada is still English as far as I know.
DeleteDr. Waddy from Jack : I appreciate your frankness as always. You are quite right in that the woke "feel" no obligation to any who support them in any way. Even those who unfailingly prostrate themselves at their altar are as flies to them.The European conquest of the Americas was absolutely inevitable and I consider Western Civilization to have been, on balance, a benefit to humanity. Had it not been Columbus, it would have been someone; perhaps if the Ming Chinese voyages had advanced beyond Africa, it might have been Admiral Cheng He. Since he was a eunuch, the woke might have embraced him. I stand by what I said above but do see your argument and that of Ray's as plausible and well taken.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: I must agree, "the strong impose on the weak" is a regretably proven historical maxim. It was manifested by several Native American tribes and nations upon less warlike others in PreColumbian America and continued for centuries after. Too, it is a realistic endorsement of national policies which emphasize peace through strength in this still dangerous world.
ReplyDeletetest from Jack:
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: I didn't understand your "sausage making" metaphor until I saw an explanation recently: " you really don't want to know how it is made". Reminds me of the account of T. Roosevelt throwing his plate of breakfast sausage out a White House window while reading Upton Sinclair's muckraking description of the sausage making process. Imagine if he had hit the German Ambassador coming up the White House walk!
ReplyDeleteJack, I appreciate your frankness too, not to mention your cornucopia of other virtues. ('Tis the season for cornucopia, or is it cornucopias?)
ReplyDelete