President Garfield- a footnote to a footnote in history

   Last year many  Americans were recalling the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy. An article in the Providence Journal by Tom Mooney had this sad heading : " JFK's presidency loses relevance with younger generations " ( Nov. 20 , 2013 ) The last melancholy sentence read : " After all, who remembers much about James A. Garfield or William McKinley? "   A  newspaper column written by some obscure scholar pointed out that Garfield had a brilliant mind.  Spotting the very high school Plane Geometry text  I had in 1963  at the URI library in downtown Providence, I had a Proustian memory not of Kennedy but of Garfield.  Quickly I found the very page:  here was an original proof of the Pythagorean Theorem presented by none other than  President James A. Garfield. A quite elegant proof !

           The significance of the Pythagorean Theorem was  made clear by a famous scene in " The Wizard Oz ".   Upon receiving the wizard' s diploma , Scarecrow got it all wrong : " The sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side ".  Garfield would have immediately smelled a charlatan wizard. And  Scarecrow, of course, was just as stupid with the Oz diploma.

             But old Euclid is not a footnote to history. He inspired both Albert Einstein and Abraham Lincoln in sound principles of logic and reasoning.  How many of our leaders in Congress today ever find instruction and amusement in a plane geometry textbook ?

Talking politics with Marie B. Badessa of Cranston

  I just read Marie B. Badessa's letter ( Aug.28 )  giving her weighty senior citizen endorsement of Cranston Mayor Fung for governor. We senior citizens are still formidable in the voting booth. I  was a captive audience  for Marie 's politics a few years ago while doing laundry in our laundry room. I myself voted for Fung as mayor for the simple-perhaps simple minded reason - that nobody at a spaghetti dinner here had anything bad to say about him.

          But be warned Marie is- even if she cannot vote for him- a big fan of Mayor Cianci.  She was considering leaving his biography ( was it " Pizza and Politics " ? ) at my door .  I  do believe in the power of redemption . And so I can only wish Cianci   a moral victory rather late in life.

               Marie recently lectured me on using the right garbage bin here.  No flies on her !

" Johnny Friendly " unions support Gina Raimondo ? ( Underground message )

    Any Rhode Island voter old enough to remember the Academy Award winning movie " On the Waterfront " will know what a " Johnny Friendly " union is like. No such thing as union democracy.  The union boss is absolute dictator. He makes any deal which serves his own " business " interests and to hell with any dissenting workers. So when I read about the business manager  for local 51, representing plumbers and pipe fitters in Rhode Island, Timothy Byrne, supporting Gina Raimondo for governor , I smelled a " Johnny Friendly " deal . Just how democratic is local 51, Mr. Byrne ?

       Can any Wall St. game player have a clue about the real needs of working people - apart from a nice cold beer after work ? In contrast to Gina Raimondo, liberal Democrat, Senator Elizabeth Warren , is furious about all these pension betrayals - even in the public sector. Let the ONE PERCENT  pay for THEIR firefighters and police officers.  Gina Raimondo is BRILLIANT only in betraying the working class.

Found, " Mr. Irate Taxpayer " = Susan Berg

 I recently challenged  the editor to find and interview  " Mr. Irate Taxpayer ". Well you did the next best thing: You published Susan Berg's nth letter ( Aug. 26 ) on the topic of the boogey man Tax Collector.  OK, she is an excellent writer. But  can Burrillville, Rhode Island be another planet ? I recommend she move to Knightsville , Cranston for a more plebian perspective on economic oppression.  So the ONE PERCENT is moving out of America just to survive ?  Has Susan ever understood a word of that rascal Karl Marx ? Or does even Pope Francis resonate with her in quaint Burrillville ? Is she too an Ayn Rand fan ?

Please find and interview " Mr. Irate Taxpayer "

    " Mr. Irate Taxpayer " seems to be a prominent  character every year in every Rhode Island election.  The cynic in me suspects that he is merely a cartoon character of no particular class, profession, neighborhood, or ethnic group. He is so very irate about his unbearable tax burden. Yet so smug in his Homeric self-esteem that he never imagines himself on the receiving end of ANY government entitlement. Could Mr. Irate Taxpayer be just a code name for our local ruling class ? Does HE get to select the winners in our upcoming city and state elections ?   Praise American democracy .

More stuff from " The Underground Man " ( stuck up Gene Valicenti )

Your columnist, Bob Kerr, rightfully perceives WPRO  talk radio jerk, John DePetro, as a cartoon character. But the guy I catch even earlier ( Only WPRO comes in clearly on my crappy clock radio ) is their  modest host Gene Valicenti.  Perhaps he can be forgiven for being an obnoxious gift of our culture of narcissism.  This guy needs immediate admission to an EGO DETOX CENTER .
          But what I particularly loathe about this guy is his nearly manic enthusiasm for pimping for the Rhode Island Lottery.   Hope is a big buzz word here. But is winning the lottery the only hope for Rhode Island working stiffs ?

An antidote for cynicism about capitalism ( From Underground Man )

A retired Army Colonel is alarmed by cynicism about capitalism which has even penetrated the OP-ED pages of the Providence Journal . I recommend an antidote for such pernicious cynicism about the glorious free market: the documentary film by conservative director Michael Moore: " Capitalism: A Love Story."

          Naturally, conservative types imagine that a social order in which they are on top ( The Colonel himself is pictured enjoying his " Good Life " ) is the best of all possible social orders.

Tough times for journalists , indeed !

 I agree  with your editorial today ( Aug. 25 ) that these are tough times for journalists. Also consider that  a retired Army Colonel ( Lonnie Barham ) sets himself up as judge of which journalists are employable in our democratic society. Certainly not incorrigible old Bolsheviks like former Providence Journal editorial page editor, Robert Whitcomb. ( Lonnie's letter in yesterday's Sunday Journal ).

Ivory Tower reflection on poor drunken mother ?

             On August 23 there was this shocking news report about a 22 year old Bristol woman who left  her 2 year old child in a car while  she was in a drunken stupor at a bar. "The family is wonderful " , some shocked acquaintance of Kelsey James said .  Stories  about these  " despicable moms " are just perfect for bourgeois moral effluvia.  But the problem is that the isolated nuclear family today is not WONDERFUL no matter how devoted mom  and/or dad.

            So many  family related horror stories could be prevented  with some bold SOCIAL ENGINEERING ( God forbid ! ) . We must rediscover our ancient tribal instincts. We must organize ourselves into larger, more efficient social units. Somewhat like the kibbutz of Israel. A child will never be alone or unattended-or neglected or abused - in the New Family which is really just the ancient matriarchy re-constructed on a higher level.

          We are far too atomized in modern capitalist society. It is destroying our ancient social instincts. We must end the dark night of the circumscribed " I ".

             Or our we just too attached to the culture of narcissism ? The only viable future for humanity is WE not ME .

More on Colonel Lonnie Barham

   Is not a retired Army colonel who rants against big government a curiosity ?  Who also thinks that the former editorial page editor of the Providence Journal, Robert Whitcomb, was at least a pink shade of Bolshevik ? Well I just read a commentary piece he wrote for the Warwick Beacon published 9 / 22 /  11.  For a moment he shows his democratic stripes . Big Government will be checked " only when the majority of Americans make their voices heard loud and clear at the voting booth. ". OK the military has as much right to vote their conscience as the rest of us plebians. But what if we vote our class interests as the absolute majority of the nation ?  Then the sagacious Colonel sees the ominous prospect of a " tyranny of the majority " -  more takers than producers  who " vote themselves more and more entitlements ".   Karl Marx, you see got it all  wrong . The working class " producers " are not nearly as productive as our ruling class.  I guess it is wealth that creates wealth -and with very little Biblical " sweat of thy brow ".

             But why won't these magical JOB CREATORS create enough jobs for everybody ? The trick is they will if and only if it can make them richer.

     Colonel, I salute you . And to hell with real American democracy !

Depetro : " Call me on your free Obama cell phones ! "

I always get a therapeutic dose of right-wing, talk radio demagogue John Depetro  early in the morning. The protest at the Providence police station over another murderous cop aroused his petty-bourgeois moral indignation. But his inner " democrat ' invited any of those despicable people involved in the noisy protest INSIDE the police station to call his talk show on their FREE OBAMA CELL PHONES (sic ). Then  I  listened to his fans  fulminate on the need to  " civilize " the black community. General idea : they are all too lazy to work and so are suckers for mindless protests organized by left-wing , irresponsible leaders of the black community.  I guess a responsible leader answers only to our wealthy ruling class ?

Beheaded James Foley and " Demon Haunted World "

     I cannot imagine a headline like this at the height of the Cold War : " Did British Jehadist behead journalist James Foley ?  " .  For all its evils the old Soviet Union offered third world youth a rational explanation for social injustice. Marxist ideology was the best that a scientific sociology could offer the desperate masses.

            Not for nothing Carl Sagan 's " Demon Haunted World "  was written after the collapse of the Soviet Union .  Without  scientific literacy- this candle in the darkness - the  masses soon sink back  into Dark Age ignorance, superstition, and barbarism. Another Great Plague will take us all the way back intellectually to the 14th  Century.  

       Do you  conservative types at the Providence Journal think the masses can be won over to Ayn Rand's cruel atheism and "  The Virtue of Selfishness "  ?

          Even the revolutionary optimist Leon Trotsky noted this about the world's  oppressed masses in his " Diary in Exile "  :  " what reserves they possess of darkness "  .

                                                                     

A brief socialist perspective on R.I. governor race

For purely pragmatic reasons this professed socialist remains a registered Democrat in Cranston.  I do vote for lesser evils simply to avoid immediate catastrophe. Breaking news: " Raimondo leads Taveras in R.I. governor race, with Pell gaining ground(  Providence Journal- WPRI 12 polls find ).
           I  may or may not have a favorite in this contest in the near future ( Pell is a badly needed fresh face ). But it is so clearly just a personality contest. All three candidates seem decent and honest by Rhode Island standards.
           But  it is the BUDGET -not your character-that finally decides what you can accomplish in office. And  government revenue is limited by the nature of the capitalist profit system. Where private wealth is sacred even the formidable federal government is reduced to begging.
               Too often even in politics character is not fate . We need a rational attitude toward wealth distribution.

A vile prejudice against homeless people ?

  It seems that ANY homeless person impudent enough to complain about horrid conditions at any homeless shelter  can " get no respect ".  I passed on  the complaint of " Ragged Dave " to the Health Department of Rhode Island via e-mail at its web site. They say they take every question and comment seriously.  This shelter impressed " Ragged Dave " as filthy, poorly ventilated, with an unprofessional staff-  recalling the nightmare mental institutions  and  tuberculosis wards of the unenlightened past.   I simply asked the Health Department: is this tolerable here ?   No investigation necessary ? Homeless people have no credibility ? I expect at least a snide dismissal of my e-mail.

            ( Normally Kind Bob Kerr says he would not take any complaint of " Ragged Dave " seriously )

Detective Philip Marlowe ( Bogart) on " this gun loving country "

  I just read Tim Norton's letter " Right to life trumps right to gun " , August 8.  For some strange reason my homeless friend., " Ragged Dave ", wanted to see an old Humphrey Bogart movie last night, " The Big Sleep ".   Dave caught a great line by detective Philip Marlowe on  " this gun loving country ":  " Such a lot of guns around town and so few brains ".

          The basis for this obsession for gun rights is a nearly insane worship of private property rights - in a country where- as Senator Elizabeth Warren observes- our middle class is being ruined.

What Russian newspaper says ( from " Watching America " )

I learned during the Cuban Missile Crisis - just a high school student back then - that you must LISTEN to all sides in these international conflicts. I find the web site " Watching America " most useful for this end. It publishes editorials from around the world on hot topics. Headline of Izvestia editorial ( a Russian  Old Guard newspaper ) :  "  Stalin would have put some fear in you, you asses (sic) " .

           This is all about President Obama's  reaction to the Ukraine crisis. "  President Obama who up until the Ukraine crisis has given the impression of a more or less poised gentleman has before our eyes turned into a smart ass hooligan "  .    Just pointing this out to the editors and readers of the Providence Journal.  I myself have never wavered from the international socialist perspective- which scorns all bloody patriotism and idiotic nationalism - Russian or American. Remember August 1914 and the horror of Verdun !

Other newspapers have uncovered disgraceful homeless shelters

   Bob Kerr rather hastily suggested that " Ragged Dave's " critique of a Cranston homeless shelter  lacked the Gold standard of credibility. Well, of course, there is his neurotic personality and his long experience of privileged life in the American upper class. But I just ran a Google check on deplorable conditions in homeless shelters elsewhere in this country. There are numerous horror stories - why should Rhode Island be an exception ?  Headline : " D.C. homeless shelter is a stain on the city "  - The Washington Post .

                        " Imagine if the families housed at D.C General were middle class and had been made homeless by some natural disaster. Officials would not lecture them on how they might be worse off elsewhere. More important , they would figure out a way to fix the problem , and fast "  ( Post editorial Board, July 15, 2014 )