No nation was ever so virtuous as each believes itself, and none was ever so wicked as each believes the other.
Bertrand Russell, Justice in War-Time (1916), p. 70.
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Bertrand Russell
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Custer’s Last
Virginia became the tenth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution, on June 25, 1788.
Other events on the 25th of June include Custer dying at the Battle of Little Bighorn (1876); Igor Stravinsky’s ballet The Firebird debuting (1910), with the composer becoming an instant celebrity; and Civil War veterans arriving at the Great Reunion of 1913 at Gettysburg.
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A Unique Style
Some pro-Trumpers embrace the President on the idea that “a businessman can apply common business sense to out-of-control government.”
Though government could use more such sense, not less, overall I’m not very impressed with this argument because in key ways government is nothing like business.
Government lacks the salient standard of profit and loss.
Therefore, people trying to apply decent standards are at a disadvantage. The feedback mechanism just doesn’t seem to work in favor of responsibility. Accountability is especially hard when those who must hold bureaucrats and politicians accountable are tempted to get in on the racket.
Which is why so much of politics is B.S.
And if politics is mostly B.S., then maybe putting a B.S.er in charge isn’t such a crazy idea after all.
Did Mr. Trump just prove himself in this manner?
Less than two days after bombing three Iranian nuclear sites, he abruptly announces a cease fire between Israel and Iran, with a promise of peace.
Almost every politician is a narcissist, and Trump wears that diagnosis on his sleeve. He plays one on TV 24/7. Still, it might be . . . B.S. Narcissists don’t conspire to produce peace behind the scenes.
Trump is something else. He may be a B.S.er on most subjects, but perhaps he thinks that the only way to play a B.S. system is to out-B.S. it at every move.
He may have just proven the wisdom of his
We’ll see. We all hope for peace, though, right?
Right?
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Robert Anton Wilson
It only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea.
Robert Anton Wilson, The Illuminati Papers (1980).
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Cabot’s Newly Found Land
John Cabot landed in North America a Newfoundland on June 24, 1497, leading the first European exploration of the region since the Vikings.
In 1535 on this date, the Anabaptist state of Münster was conquered and disbanded.
June 24 birthdays include Henry Ward Beecher, clergyman and reformer (1813; died 1887); Ambrose Bierce, author of “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and The Devil’s Dictionary — his dark, cynical wit earned him the epithet “Bitter Bierce” (1842; disappeared 1914); Richard Timberlake, American free-market economist (1922; died 2020).
When President Jimmy Carter broke his 1976 campaign pledge by adding another Cabinet-level department to the federal roster, he swore that a “separate Cabinet-level department will enable the Federal government to be a true partner with State, local, and private education institutions in sustaining and improving the quality of our education system.”
On March 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at shutting down Carter’s Department of Education, fulfilling his campaign promise to reduce federal involvement in education.
This was popular because everybody who’s not a bureaucrat or a teachers’ union agent knows that federal involvement in schooling, since Carter’s time, has been, not just a waste, but a detriment.
Still, teacher union-dominated Democrats are swiping at the administration with numerous lawsuits. U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston issued a preliminary injunction blocking Trump’s layoffs and transfers, ruling that they amounted to an unlawful attempt to dismantle the department without congressional approval.
Earlier this month, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Joun’s injunction, rejecting the Trump administration’s request to pause the order while appealing.
Two days later, the Trump administration, through Solicitor General D. John Sauer, filed an emergency appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court. The plea? Lift the injunction and allow the layoffs and reorganization to proceed. Trump’s team argued that the lower court had overstepped its authority and that the layoffs were a lawful personnel action to streamline the department, not an attempt to abolish it without Congress.
The injunction sent DOE functionaries back to work. Nothing’s been resolved.
Not even the rationales for Carter’s “greatest achievement” (to quote the title of a USA Today op-ed). Carter had promised to reduce the number of departments, for efficiency’s sake. When creating the DOE, he said the move would increase efficiency.
Instead, it merely increased education spending while academic achievement has plummeted.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Alfred Korzybski
The word is not the thing.
Alfred Korzybski, Science and Sanity (1933).
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Victory to Midsummer
Today is Estonia’s Victory Day, which has been celebrated on June 23 every year since 1934. The date recalls the victory in the 1919 Battle of Vonnu of the Estonian military forces (and Latvian North brigade) and their allies over German forces (Baltische Landeswehr) who sought to re-assert Baltic-German control over the region. The battle was part of the 1918-1920 Estonian War of Independence, where the main adversary of the newly independent Estonia was Communist Russia.
Today, Victory Day also marks the contributions of all Estonians in their fight to regain and retain their independence. Estonian celebration of June 23 is ceremonially tied to the following Midsummer Day celebrations on the 24th.
According to Estonian laws, the state flags are not to be lowered during the night between days.
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White, Fibrous
From early on, blood clotting has been rumored to be associated with COVID and its treatments [“vaccines”]:
The entry for “clot shot” in the Urban Dictionary is amusing:
Slangsphere.com has advice:
But is it really the case that rumors of clotting are merely that, mere rumors? An efflorescence of dark humor in a trying time? Dr. John Campbell has been following the story, and interviewing doctors, scientists, and embalmers:
In this repeat interview with Major Tom Haviland, who has spoken to and polled embalmers at morticians’ conventions, we learn that while the stories told and evidence collected by embalmers working on dead bodies (preparing them for internment) are alarming, scientists and government funders have shown remarkable restraint in following up on clues.
The clots being found after the rollout of the various “vaccines” are not just small, easy to tear. They are large, “tough and rubbery.”
However, the mainstream of the medical profession takes pains to debunk these stories every now and then, dismissing them as tall tales, or as almost anodyne, quite common before and after the pandemic, contrary to the testimony of Haviland.
Note that Haviland and Campbell are not talking about microclotting. Nor is Haviland referring to “chicken fat clots,” which are small, yellow, and have been observed for a very long time. Haviland is on track of an even more alarming trend, which features clots of sometimes gruesome length.
Be careful in choosing an emoji to accompany your “clot shot” epithet.
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Friedrich W. Nietzsche
Morality not only commands innumerable terrible means for preventing critical hands being laid upon her: her security depends still more upon a sort of enchantment at which she is phenomenally skilled. That is to say, she knows how to enrapture. She appeals to the emotions; her glance paralyzes the reason and the will. . . . Ever since there has been talking and persuading on earth, she has been the supreme mistress of seduction.
Friedrich W. Nietzsche, as quoted and translated by H.L. Mencken, The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche (1913), from Daybreak (“Morgenröte,” preface, § 3).