Notes from the Cafe Fiasco

Spriggs’ Weekly - Week 4, January 2019

Anybody

Well, you have to admit that at the very least Trump has proven one old adage to be true. Anyone really can become President.

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GasTV

The new gas pumps now have LCD screens that aim information at you as you fill your tank. I was topping off the tank this afternoon and the pump was spewing commercials at me, the weather, and the “Word of the Day,” Today’s Word of the Day was “subborn,” as in, to suborn perjury. Seems that GasTV is up on the times.

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Weather Report

 

The week started off being run of the mill January in Boston weather. Then we had a day of record lows (6 degrees)  followed a couple of days later with temperature almost in the 60’s. In between, we had 2 inches of snow and then freezing rain and sleet.

 

Glad that we’re not having that extreme weather conditions that the climate change people have been warning us about.

Spriggs’ Weekly - January 2019, Week 3

Authority Numbers

 

Reading How Democracies Die by Levitsky and Ziblatt that is mainly about how authoritarians can rise to subvert democracies. They present some interesting numbers for some of the most famous authoritarians in American history:

 

Hugh Long - (1934) Mailing list of 8 million names at the height of his power.

Father Coughlin - (1938) 27% approve, 32% disapprove.

Joseph McCarthy - (1954) pre-censure approval: 50%, post-censure approval: 40%.

George Wallace - (1968) 40% approval.

 

It seems that the American predilection for strong men has been with us throughout the past century.

 

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Founding Father

 

“History will teach us that of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the great number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people, commencing demagogues and ending tyrants.

 

— Alexander Hamilton, Federalist Papers #1 

 

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Thin Mints

 

Girl Scout Mother:  We have thin mint cookies for sale.

 

Questioner #1:  So, do you keep them in the freezer like I’ve been told to do?

 

GSM:  Personally, no. They don’t last that long.

 

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