I guess the Comrade is being inaugurated again. I've actually been trying to avoid any information about this, the same way some people avoid going to the dentist. At any rate, History Channel is running its series on "The Presidents," and I happened to catch the breathless segment on Theodore Roosevelt. Which most of the commentators pronounced like "Theater" Roosevelt, which is quite appropriate.
Anyway, did you know we're still paying for the mess TR created? Especially in terms of foreign policy. TR wanted to make the USA a world force, and I do mean "force." He wanted a "two-ocean Navy," and that was the engine driving the push to build the Panama Canal. Didn't realize that Columbia owned the Isthmus of Panama at the time and wouldn't deal with us to lease or buy the property. So TR engineered a revolution in the area to "liberate" control of the isthmus from Columbia. A lot of countries in central and South America still hate us for that, still see us as imperialists, remain fodder for communists and other power-mad crazies who promise to protect them from us.
Then TR also sent the 7th fleet around the world to ahake our fist at other countries and advertise that we were now prepared to go to war with them.
That's one reason Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Were you aware of that?
Something History Channel didn't mention. The USA went bankrupt in 1907 and ol' TR had to eat his hat and go to J.P. Morgan to beg for money to bail us out. After TR's tireless and hysterical bluster about trusts and the evil Robber Barons. TR explained this shift in his personal attitude by explaining, "But J.P. Morgan is a gentleman." (ROFL) So apparently TR's economic policies were about as successful as his foreign policy. And yeah, J.P. Morgan had more money than the US government. Those were the days....
But let's go back to the Panama Canal. The USA leased the land from Panama for 100 years -- and it went back to Panama a few years ago because we did not renew the lease. The canal is a useful channel for trade barges, etc., and for leisure passengers cruises, but it's no longer really useful for the US Navy. Primary bases now are Norfolk, VA, for the Atlantic fleet, and San Diego and Hawaii for the Pacific.
But the canal... took 12 years to build and billions of dollars. Government funded, required toppling one government, and now is not really useful for its original military purpose. And why?
Because at the same time TR was blustering and charging around on horseback and signing all kinds of executive orders because the US Constititution is so very cumbersome... while TR was doing his kabuki theatre about his amazing greatness, two guys who owned a bicycle shop in Ohio were fooling around with something called "aeroplanes."
The Wright brothers used their own money, their own ingenuity, their own time and labor.
And who left the greater legacy? Like all self-righteous, know-it-all maniacs, TR didn't understand that people don't need him and that, left to their own devices, they'll come up with better, cheaper, more profitable and useful solutions on their own. Nobody needs people like TR or the Comrade, despite their aggressive sales pitches to the contrary and the noisy rabble they rouse.
TR is probably the president I despise the most. Well, he's in second place now, since the Comrade took over. And I do mean "took over." More kabuki theater, more noise and crises of all kinds, more insufferable arrogance and executive orders because the Constitution represents a huge stumbling block for power-mad psychopaths. Thank God. It was designed to serve that purpose and it's still working, though crippled by the Supreme Court and idiots like Pazzo Pelosi.
Just a note -- I recently read a copy of Virginia's first Constitution after the Declaration of Independence -- I mean, Virginia wasn't truly a "state" yet, and no USA yet. And had to laugh... when it came to the section on "executive power," that Constitution has a list a yard long of what the chief executive was NOT allowed to do. Not much about what he could do. So anyone who doubts that the US Constitution was developed primarily to limit government power -- look at the historical context and shut your ignorant face.
By the way, saw a photo of Mrs. Comrade with her new haircut. It's very square-looking with the ragged bangs. She looks just like Boris Karloff as Frankenstein. Suits her.
That's all for now.
