Transmogrification of the Old Time Southern Democrats to the Republican Party.

 

  A history lesson you won’t get on Fox News.

 

In the 1940’s and early 50’s, the main political power in the South was the Democratic Party.   My grandmother raised me, and her sister was married to Fielding Wright, who was the governor of the state of Mississippi from 1946 to 1952.   Even though politics was far from anything I was concerned with, it existed in my peripheral world.

 

President Truman had desegregated the military, and the powerful Southern political figures of that era were concerned about a possible move to desegregate the South.  In 1948, they came together in a common effort to oppose racial integration and to retain Jim Crow laws and the Southern racial segregation status quo.

 

Mississippi Governor Fielding Wright, Mississippi Senator John Stennis, Mississippi Senator Allen Eastland, and South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond were among the movers and shakers of this movement.   It was decided that if the Democratic Party introduced a platform of integration at their 1948 convention, the southern democrats would break away and form a third party.

 

As expected, Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota made a speech urging the party to adopt an anti-segregationist plank, and thirty-five southern members walked out of the convention.

 

The States’ Rights Democratic Party (Dixiecrat) was formed with a party slogan of ‘Segregation Now, Segregation Forever!’  The party ran Strom Thurmond for President and Fielding Wright for Vice President.  

On Election Day, the Thurman-Wright ticket carried Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina, receiving 1,169,021 popular votes and 39 electoral votes.

 

The defeat of the Dixiecrats was the defining point at which disenchanted southern Democrats began to change party affiliation.  Over the next twenty years, most southern, segregationist, white fundamentalist Christian Democrats were assimilated into the Republican Party

 

It is remarkable when you think about it: The Republican Party, once the party of Lincoln and champion of human rights, slowly became the party of the financial elite, white southern Christian fundamentalists, and covert racists, while the Democratic Party became the party of the middle class, the ethnic, and the poor.

Republicans can no longer call themselves the party of Lincoln.  Lincoln would not be welcome in today's Republican Party.    

 

the Ol’Buzzard

 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

On this day of the Solstice, where the seasons realign themselves, I hope that everyone can take a breath and step away from the insanity of politics that seems to permeate our daily lives, and whether you are Jewish, Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Muslim, or Atheist, look around and accept:  

 That we are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.

 

the Ol’Buzzard

THE FUTURE WITH AI

 

Anyone predicting the future of AI on the human race is like a monkey throwing a rock at the moon: bravado and conjecture. 

We are on the cusp of the birth of AI.  The programmers who instruct computers to learn, themselves don’t know exactly what is happening inside the computer self-programming.

We are, with AI, where computers were in 1984, with an Apple II-C loaded with 128 KB of RAM. 

Who could have envisioned, in 1984, the fantastic capabilities of our cell phones only forty years later?

It is safe to say that AI will revolutionize our world.   The powers of this science are yet to be tapped and are even hard to imagine.

 

Politicians are discussing government controls on the use of AI, but if the science is there, it will be pursued – especially by the Military.  

(See Accessory To War, by Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Avis Lang)

 

Remember that in the first atomic bomb test on July 16, 1945, the scientists had agreed there was a slight chance that the bomb could cause a chain reaction in the atmosphere with catastrophic consequences, but they continued.

(See American Prometheus by Bird and Sherwin)

 

  It was also unnecessary to drop the second bomb on Nagasaki, but scientists and the government wanted to see the power of the plutonium-fueled bomb.

 

Computers that can think, independent of human beings!

 

AI will benefit us in many ways, but there is always  Yin and Yang.   

 

 

If we build it, they will come

or

If we build it, they will use it

the Ol'Buzzard

 

 

DO YOU REALLY SAVE MONEY BY LOWERING YOUR HEATING AT NIGHT?

 

 

We kept our day temperature at 72, and lowered it to 66 at night when the outside temperature was well below freezing.   Even at 66, our furnace still ran at increased intervals all night.   In the morning, it would take half an hour or more of constant running to bring the temperature back to 72. The countertops were cold, the walls and all appliances were cold, and the whole house had to heat up to 72. 

I am not convinced that dropping the temperature at night actually saves heating fuel.

the Ol'Buzzard

 

Donald Trump is not a bright man.  He is totally ignorant of American history, world history, science, health, math, and most academic subjects.   He is, however, a master of manipulation and, I have to give it to him, self-enrichment.

 

There are not many times I find myself in agreement with the President, but renaming is one of them.

 

The historic name, The Gulf of Mexico, seems to imply a small body of water bordered by Mexico, when in fact it shares a shoreline with the United States, each country with approximately 1.700 miles of shoreline. So why call it the Gulf of Mexico?   I like the Gulf of America.

The Department of Defense; really?   The only attack on the homeland that had to be defended in the last hundred years was Pearl Harbor.  Yet, we have military all over the world fighting wars, declared and undeclared. We don’t fight defensively, we fight offensively – we fight wars, so why not the Department of War?   We can claim that we send our military out to defend this country's interests, but that's usually a hollow claim, driven by economic or political agendas.  The military and the military industrial complex is a war machine. 

 And while we are at it, let's name the new White House Ballroom the Donald J Trump Ballroom.   No one had a say in the destruction of the East Wing of the White House; that is on Trump.  Congress did not approve or finance the new Ballroom, and has no say in the construction or architecture.  This is truly the Donald J Trump Ballroom.   

And one more rename while we are at it.   This planet is covered by 70% ocean and 30% earth.  Why do we call it the Earth?   Let's rename it Ocean, or Oceana, which sounds better.  The third planet from the sun: Mercury, Venus, Oceana, Mars… 

It's all a game: the Name Game

the Ol'Buzzard

I LOVE MAINE

 I have lived in Maine on and off since 1962.  The demographics have changed with the influx of people from outside Maine.

I knew Maine when it was still rural.  The people were pragmatic, and the vast wilderness was still virgin.

Now the Maine wilderness is cut up with snowmobile trails, and roads into once-remote, pristine lakes and rivers.    The new scourge of ticks makes the woods less accessible. 

But this is the new world we live in.

Maine is still a beautiful state, and if you move away from the coast into the interior, there are still homes that are reasonably priced, and communities where people still care about their neighbors.

 

the Ol'Buzzard