Browsing: Politics

A Brief History On March 11, 222, Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, known better as Elagabalus, was assassinated by the Praetorian Guard and replaced by his 14-year-old cousin. Digging Deeper Elagabalus served four years as Emperor and died at age 18, after a depraved reign of murder, torture, and perversity.  Some of the other Roman Emperors that vie for the title of “Worst” include: Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, known as Caligula, who was so awful that a major motion picture was made about his bizarre reign. Nero, although not guilty of fiddling while Rome burned, was pretty bad, murderous,…

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A Brief History On March 7, 2024, the 46th president of the United States of America, 81-year-old Joe Biden, a Democrat currently running for reelection, gave the 2024 State of the Union Address in the House Chamber at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.  42-year-old Senator Katie Britt of Alabama gave the Republican response. Digging Deeper To my students and subscribers who watched Biden’s speech and Britt’s response, I have the following questions: On a grading scale of F to A, with F meaning “failure,” a D being “below average,” a C being “average,” a B being “good,” and…

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A Brief History On March 5, 1933, Germany’s Reichstag elections were won by Adolf Hitler and his band of “national socialists” with only 43.9% of the vote, enough to allow Hitler, already appointed Chancellor, to become virtual dictator of Germany and lead the world to a path of ruin. Digging Deeper Germany’s Weimar Republic is not the only place where winning the most votes does not guarantee victory, as the US has experienced several Presidential elections where the winner won less than 50% of the vote. In 2016, Donald Trump was out voted by Hillary Clinton by 2.9 million votes,…

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A Brief History On February 29, 2020, the American Trump administration and the Afghan Islamist group known as The Taliban, met in Doha, Qatar, and signed an agreement by which the US would pull out military forces and bring an end to the longest war in US history. Digging Deeper The Taliban agreed to cease hostilities to allow the US to safely pull out of Afghanistan in exchange for the US to stop offensive action.  Unfortunately, both parties did not bother to include the Afghan government, an incredible oversight. The US lived up to its promise of restricting military operations…

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A Brief History On February 27, 2015, Russian physicist Boris Nemtsov found out personally why publicly taking issue with Vladimir Putin is dangerous to his health.  A liberal leaning politician, Nemtsov had become a vocal critic of Russian dictator Putin since about 2000, ultimately leading to the assassination of Nemtsov. Digging Deeper Nemtsov had expressed fear of being murdered at Putin’s behest only a couple weeks before the murder, a murder by five Chechen men contracted for the killing.  Nemtsov was gunned down while walking across Moscow’s Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge shortly before midnight. Despite being the victim of a crime,…

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