Mao’s Terrifying Cultural Revolution in China, 1960s-1970s, As Depicted in Netflix Drama

A new movie on Netflix, 3 Body Problem, depicts Mao Tse Tung's anti-intellectual Cultural Revolution, in which educators who made "politically incorrect" statements were severely punished. Daniel Ku on X (Twitter) explained. "The opening scene of the new Netflix adaption of "3 Body Problem" depicts the inhumane brutality of the "Cultural Revolution" by the People's …

‘True Believer: Hubert Humphrey’s Quest for a More Just America’

Peter Juul: "America could use a lot more Hubert Humphrey—and more Hubert Humphreys—these days. That’s the main thought that kept running through my head reading James Traub’s excellent new biography, True Believer: Hubert Humphrey’s Quest for a More Just America. As a native Minnesotan, I may of course be biased; Humphrey stands alongside Prince, Bob Dylan, …

The American Century, From the 1940s to ?

My friend Bruce Johnson writes: "American civilization reached its zenith in the 1960s and 1970s. American music and American literature and American art were taken seriously all over the world.  American architecture and engineering arguably dominated the world. People all over the world listened seriously to the speeches of American politicians not just to predict what …

How The Legal Nightmare of Donald Trump Will End

With the news that Trump prosecutor Jack Smith has asked the US Supreme Court to decide Trump's claim that he is immune from any and all criminal prosecution for anything he did while in office, MSNBC is reporting that Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, appointed by Trump, nearly three decades ago wrote a 30+ page …

A Mini-course: Integrating Schools in the South, Baby Boomers Recall Their Seminal Experiences in the 1960s, Early 1970s

The generation that graduated high school in the late 1960s or early 1970s has now reached retirement age. Many have attended their 50th reunions, and have begun to recall what the culture was like then, different from and similar to now. As members of the Baby Boom generation, they were the first to desegregate or …

A Giant of Statecraft and Diplomacy: Assessing the Career of Henry Kissinger

It is impossible to understand American foreign policy in the latter half of the 20th century and early 21st century without examining the life of Henry Kissinger. He is called a grand strategist, a realist, a pragmatist, who dealt with the world as it is, not as he wished it to be. He focused on …

Henry Kissinger, Consumate Diplomatic Powerhouse, Has Died

Born in May, 1923 in Furth, Bavaria, Germany, Henry Kissinger was a Jewish refugee to the U.S. in 1938. He excelled academically and graduated summa cum laude from Harvard in 1950, went on to immediately earn a masters and doctorate from Harvard, become a political scientist, geopolitical consultant, national security advisor and U.S. Secretary of …

Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter Passes On, Age 96

I had an opportunity to meet her a couple of times when I was doing communications work in the mental health field. She was a longtime advocate for people with mental illness. I remember escorting her to a congressional hearing on behalf of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. I can't say we had a …

Jimmy Carter Retrospectives Begin

Jimmy Carter, at 99 has been in hospice since February 2023 and complains good-naturedly that he hasn't figured out how to die yet. But we can figure that his journalistic reckoning is coming as soon as he passes. I have some sympathy for politicians who endure character assassination by hacks. One of the most egregious …

October, 1973: Israel’s Yom Kipper War May Be Closest Parallel to 2023 War

On the High Jewish Holiday Yom Kippur, or Day of Atonement, in October 1973, a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack against Israel. The war lasted two weeks and five days. It took place mainly in the Golan Heights in northern Israel, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Suez …