Lincoln and the Newspapers

Between 1860 and 1865....Abraham Lincoln shutdown around 300 newspapers (more or less).

Fact or fiction?

Pretty much completely true.

In this endeavor, Lincoln used the military to sweep through a town or city, and if the newspapers were printing material that was counter to the government plan of war against the south....the US Army would show up and shut them down.

This would continue until the end of the war, and the arrival of the Johnson administration.

Necessity?  Well...here's the thing, it was not in public agreement to conduct the war.  With dismal defeats over the first eighteen months, most journalists saw the 'campaign' as unwinnable and attempted to politicize their discussion in local towns. 

So the news system....for better or worse....failed to work.  Failure of the court system to rectify this?  That's another part of the discussion.

If Lincoln had not accomplished this?

Insurrection would have followed the administration and likely toppled the Lincoln administration.  

This fact being well known?  No.  I suspect if you asked a hundred 'experts' on the Civil War....fewer than ten would bring up this topic.  For some, it ruins the image of Lincoln....with some disturbed that newspapers had to be shutdown....to save the government.  

This coming up now?  Maybe if you asked people....more than a third of society would suggest a shut-down of social media (Facebook, Twitter) being necessary now.  For some....that's a very unpleasant suggestion.  

Ten Things About Me That Changed in 2020

 I sat over the past month and contemplated the landscape of 2020, and how I've changed.  So here are the ten things that I considered 'locked-down' and part of my life now:

1.  I'm absolutely skeptical of politicians (Republican or Democrat). I'd probably trust a drug dealer more....than a DC politician.  Trying to refer to the President as 'Jesus' or 'Satan'....doesn't work any more.  

2.  I really don't need the Sunday political chat shows any longer.  I can' t think of any reason that I'd watch them.  I'd rather watch Japanese monster movies, or 1930 cowboy westerns. 

3.  I'm basically finished with both CNN and Fox News.  If I'm in an airport....I'll find a seat which does not face a TV screen with CNN.  

4.  I can't think of any reason why I'm concerned or interested in BREXIT.  Whether the isle flounders or survives now....makes no difference to me.

5.  I consider the FBI politically compromised, and will not consent to any conversation with them.  The whole top-level (top fifty managers) probably have to be forced-out.  

6.  I seriously can't think of any reason why I'd want to live in Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, NY City, SF, or LA.  You couldn't even offer me a $150k job in these cities...to get me there. I see these six cities losing 10-percent of their population over the next six to eight years.  In the case of NY City for 2021....it might be half-a-million who walk out.  

7.  I've pretty much accepted that for the remainder of my life....at least while living in Germany.....I'll be wearing a mask for public shopping.  I seriously don't see Covid-19 going away....not in three years....ten years....or even fifty years.  The odds of me getting on a plane for nine hours of flight-time, with a mask?  It probably won't ever happen again. 

8.  I seriously believe that 30-percent of the population need a 50-hour a week physical job (maybe even filling sandbags) to keep them occupied and focused.  Way too many people living in dad's garage or basement, with no real job except delivering pizzas at age 32.  

9.  I really don't need some fake intellectual telling me how foreign affairs works, or how it's a 'art'.  When they appear on TV now....I hit the mute-button fairly quickly.

10.  The last people on Earth, who need to lecture me about ethics or 'truth'....are a bunch of computer geeks with no sense of reality or the world itself.  To this end, I've logged-off Facebook and refuse to participate.