And, he digs it. But the admonition that, "the man who dies possessed of millions of available wealth which was free and his to administer during his lifetime, dies disgraced," seems pretty cut-and-dried as a counter to the prevailing tendencies of our present-day, wealth-hoarding, gilded oligarchs.

In the 1889 essay, he allows that while it may be "desirable theoretically" that "it is a nobler ideal that man should labor, not for himself alone, but in and for a brotherhood of his fellows," it's too scary and inconvenient to contemplate revolution — and anyway, capitalism is where we're at...

He liked a progressive death tax, saying that for those with "enormous fortunes" who die, "one half goes to the state."

He said: "The average man who makes a million makes paupers as well. He has taken more than a fair share of the products of labor and wealth, and pauperism is one of the results."

No doubt it’s your frequent punning and paronomastic wordplay.

Very true. At the same time, the very nature of the show as a dramatic project, at its best, seemed to be both to reflect reality but also to act as a catalyst to move forward.

And here we can again reflect on how completely unprepared America has been to deal with the phenomenon of Donald Trump.

"All In The Family" producer Norman Lear, in 2022 (he died a year later, at 101):

www.nytimes.com/2022/07/27/o...

"These are small business owners. Taxpayers. People who invested in our community, created jobs, and served their neighbors every day. Since when are they considered the 'worst of the worst?' This isn't right. And it's not who we should be targeting if we care about safe, strong communities."

Hopefully they didn't act too surprised, because some of them certainly did go out of their way to tell people to stockpile weapons, food and cash and even attempt to "block American military training maneuvers" in the U.S. Although maybe this was especially big in Florida.

bsky.app/profile/flux...

And here it is, straight from RFK Jr's MAHA site.

Unfortunately for the above Montana influencer, the very low concentration that is safe as a gargle (1%) or nasal disinfectant (.5%) is probably way less than what he's using.

And anyway, the study didn't show a benefit.

maha1.org/category/hyd...

JFC, indeed.

$10 says he has way more than a >10% concentration in that nebulizer. If it's a 40/60 or 50/50 mix on a regular basis he's possibly in very deep trouble. How careful would this guy be to think through the nuances of proper concentration?

Cronkite says his high ratings for trustworthiness may be related to his unwillingness to engage in commentary or punditry: "I am a news presenter, a news broadcaster."

Other anchors were beginning to offer segments with analysis in addition to the "hard news."

Perhaps a lesson for us at present?

Watergate would bring about a period of "considerable moral soul searching... People have become so fed up with subterfuge, dishonesty, and lack of candor that we are going to find them demanding of their politicians a straightforwardness such as we haven't had for many generations."

And lastly...

In the same 1978 piece above, Cronkite himself says he once considered closing the evening news with, "and
for further details, read your newspaper." He goes on to say the network news should "merely whet the appetite for more details."

In this more probing piece on Cronkite from 1974, he said...