All in the Family is
an American sitcom television
series that aired on CBS for
nine seasons from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979, with a total of 205
episodes. It was followed by Archie Bunker's Place,
a continuation series, which picked up where All in the Family ended
and ran for four seasons through April 4, 1983.
Based on the British sitcom Till Death Us Do Part, All
in the Family was produced by Norman Lear and Bud
Yorkin. It starred Carroll
O'Connor, Jean
Stapleton, Sally
Struthers, and Rob Reiner. The show revolves around the life
of a working-class man
and his family. It broke ground by introducing challenging and complex issues
into mainstream network television comedy:
Racism, antisemitism, infidelity, homosexuality, women's liberation, rape, religion, miscarriage, abortion, breast
cancer, the Vietnam War, menopause, divorce,
and impotence.
The series became arguably one of American television's most influential
comedies, as it injected the sitcom format with more dramatic moments and
realistic, topical conflicts.
All in the Family has been frequently ranked as
one of the best American television series. The show became the most
watched show in the United States during summer reruns of the first
season and topped the yearly Nielsen
ratings from 1971 to 1976, the first television series
to have held the position for five consecutive years. The episode "Sammy's
Visit" was ranked number 13 on TV Guide's 100
Greatest Episodes of All Time. TV Guide's 50
Greatest TV Shows of All Time ranked All in the
Family as number four. Bravo also named the show's
protagonist, Archie Bunker, TV's greatest character of all time.
The show always opened with Archie and Edith singing the
song posted below:
All in The Family
(Intro) S2 (1972)
I thought of the show today when I went to buy gas –
and here is why:
A lot happened in the 1970’s.
In addition to the fact that Sharon and I got
married, we also managed to produce two children.
We got married on October 6, but got hit by a deer on
our honeymoon. Naturally, the day it happened was Friday the 13th.
In 1975, Sharon got her license, as well as her first
car.
Jimmy Carter was able to get Egypt and Israel to sign
a pace treaty (the Camp David Accords)
I changed jobs in 1978, which eventually led to a
number of company-paid trips to San Francisco , since I was now a manager at
Fireman’s Fund.
Inflation started to cause a lot of pain, which led
to Nixon’s wage/price freeze of 1971.
Watergate occurred in 1972, which eventually led to
Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974.
The Vietnam war finally ended it 1975, and the release
of the Pentagon Papers was partially responsible.
What people remember the most about the 1970’s, though,
were the gas wars of 1973 and 1979 which were caused by OPEC.
The current jump in price was caused by one man – Donald J. Trump.
When I bought gas yesterday, the price of a gallon of
regular gas was $4.699 a gallon. Although was able to use my Fry’s fuel points
to reduce the amount that I paid to $3.799 a gallon, it was a large jump from what
I paid last week.
However, things are worse in California.
Where in California is
gas $7 a gallon?
The price surge includes a notable
outlier in Menlo Park, where one station is charging
customers more than $7 per gallon. The rising costs follow a month in which
gasoline prices in California increased by an average of 80 cents per gallon.
According to AAA, the spike is occurring amid the ongoing war in Iran.
When the Founding Gathers wrote the Constitution,
they set up a system of checks and balances so that a mad king could not wage a
war on his own and impoverish his subjects. Although Trump bent a lot of rules
during his first term in office, the flood of money into our political system caused
by the Citizens United case allowed him to get elected for a second term, where
he has repeatedly violated the Constitution, and it also has made it impossible
for many lawmakers to limit Trump’s actions.
As a result, the Trump administration, from top to
bottom, is the least competent admiration in our nation’s history.
The current war in Iran could have been prevented, and
Heather Cox Richardson’s letter of today explains why.
(I have highlighted parts of her letter for emphasis)
Despite reports that Russia is
providing Iran with intelligence that permits it to target U.S. forces in the
Middle East, late last night the Trump administration lifted sanctions on
shipments of Russian oil until April 11, permitting it to be sold to buyers
around the world for the next month. The U.S., along with the rest of the Group
of Seven (G7) nations with advanced economies, has maintained sanctions against
Russia since it invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has been eager to
get those sanctions dropped because oil sales will help the flailing Russian
economy. Treasury Secretary Scott
Bessent says the move is necessary to help ease oil prices, which are
skyrocketing because Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for
the attack by the U.S. and Israel. But German chancellor Friedrich Merz said
the heads of the G7 had urged Trump not to ease the sanctions, saying “[t]here
is currently a price problem, but not a supply problem.” He added that he
“would like to know what additional motives led the US government to make this
decision.”
After Trump lifted sanctions on Russian oil that was
already in ships, Democrats cried foul. At a Senate Armed Services Committee
meeting yesterday, Senator Angus King (I-ME) said: “There
is a clear winner in this war. The clear winner is Vladimir Putin and Russia.
Estimates released a few hours ago are that Russia has reaped $6 billion of
benefit from this war since it began just two weeks ago.
That’s about $400 million a day from the increase in oil prices and the easing
of sanctions, which is somewhat puzzling to me…. I just think the record should
show that the real winner so far is Vladimir Putin to the tune of $6 billion in
two weeks.”
Meanwhile, Kim Barker of the New
York Times reports that, at the
request of the United States, Ukraine has sent interceptor drones and a team of
drone experts to Jordan to protect U.S. military bases there. “We reacted
immediately,” Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky told Barker. “I said, yes,
of course, we will send our experts.” In a phone call to the Brian
Kilmeade Show on Fox Radio this
morning, President Donald J. Trump denied that Ukraine was helping the U.S.
with drone defense, saying “we don’t need their help…. We know more about
drones than anybody. We have the best drones in the world, actually.”
Six American servicemembers are dead after a military
refueling plane crashed in Iraq. U.S. Central Command has not specified the
circumstances of the crash beyond saying it was “not due to hostile or friendly
fire.”
Lara Seligman of the Wall
Street Journal reported today that
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is sending an amphibious ready group of vessels
led by the U.S.S. Tripoli and carrying about 5,000 Marines and sailors, to the Middle
East.
This morning, Trump, who famously got five deferments
to avoid the military draft, posted a picture of himself standing by his
parents in his schoolboy military uniform. He captioned the photo: “At Military
Academy with my parents, Fred and Mary!”
Last night, Trump posted on
social media: “We are totally destroying the terrorist regime of Iran,
militarily, economically, and otherwise, yet, if you read the Failing New
York Times, you would incorrectly think
that we are not winning. Iran’s Navy is gone, their Air Force is no longer,
missiles, drones and everything else are being decimated, and their leaders
have been wiped from the face of the earth. We have unparalleled firepower,
unlimited ammunition, and plenty of time—Watch what happens to these deranged
scumbags today. They’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for 47
years, and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am
killing them. What a great honor it is to do so! Thank you for your attention
to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP”
On Wednesday, Kelsey Davenport of the Arms Control
Association assessed that Trump’s frustration with the talks between U.S.
Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Iranian
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Geneva was fueled by Witkoff’s reports about
those talks. But, Davenport noted, “Comments made by Witkoff in two background
briefings with reporters on Feb. 28 and March 3, as well as media appearances
since the strikes began, made clear that Witkoff did not have sufficient technical
expertise or diplomatic experience to engage in effective diplomacy. His lack
of knowledge and mischaracterization of Iran’s positions and nuclear program
throughout the process likely informed Trump’s assessment that talks were not
progressing and Iran was not negotiating seriously.”
Having reviewed recordings and transcripts from those
meetings, the Arms Control Association believes that the Iranian offer showed
flexibility and was “an opening offer and unlikely Iran’s bottom line.” Future
negotiations might have revealed irreconcilable positions, Davenport wrote, but
“Witkoff’s failure to comprehend key technical realities suggests he
misunderstood the Iranian nuclear proposal and was ill-prepared to negotiate an
effective nuclear agreement.”
This morning, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spent
significant time at a press briefing at the Defense Department complaining
about headlines that say the war is widening and that the administration did
not take seriously enough that Iran could close the Strait of Hormuz. A
“patriotic press,” he said, would say that Iran is weakening.
Despite widespread reporting, sourced from within the
White House, that the administration did not, in fact, accurately gauge the
chances of Iran’s closing the strait, Hegseth said it was “patently ridiculous”
to think the administration didn’t prepare for the strait to be closed. He said
about CNN, which reported that story, “The sooner [right-wing Trump ally] David
Ellison takes over that network, the better.”
Hegseth said the Strait of Hormuz is open. “The only
thing prohibiting transit in the straits right now is Iran shooting at
shipping,” he said. “It is open for transit should Iran not do that.” Of the
issue that the Iranians are shooting at the shipping, Hegseth said: “We have
been dealing with it, and don’t need to worry about it.”
He claimed that the Iranians “can barely communicate,
let alone coordinate. They’re confused and we know it. Our response? We will
keep pressing, we will keep pushing, keep advancing.
No quarter, no mercy for our enemies.”
As reporter Matt Novak notes, “No quarter is the
refusal to take prisoners and instead just execute everyone. It’s been
considered a war crime for over a century.” Former government war crimes lawyer
Brian Finucane agreed, noting that “[d]enial of quarter—even the declaration of
no quarter—is a war crime. And recognized as such by the U.S. government.”
Jack Detsch and Paul McLeary of Politico reported today that last year Hegseth slashed the oversight
offices designed to limit civilian casualties in war and to investigate
responsibility for them. Over the warnings of top
military officials, he cut the number of employees working in that field from
200 to fewer than 40. Hegseth has vowed not to be hampered by “stupid rules of
engagement,” but as Wes Bryant, the Pentagon’s former chief of civilian harm
assessments, told the journalists, ““As it turns out, when you kill less
civilians, you tend to be putting your resources toward killing the enemy.”
Democrats in both the House and the Senate are
demanding an investigation into the strikes on a girls’ school that killed at
least 165 civilians, most of them children.
Hegseth insisted today that the U.S. never targets
civilians, and noted that Iran does. Observers note that the U.S. military has
targeted at least 40 small boats in the Caribbean, killing at least 157 people
it insists—without evidence—are “narcoterrorists.”
“[W]ar, in this context and in pursuit of peace, is
necessary,” Hegseth said, “which is why each day, on bended knee, we continue
to appeal to heaven. To Almighty God’s providence, to watch over and give
special skill and confidence to our leaders and to our warriors. To those
warriors, who this nation prays for every single day, I hear from all of you
out there, who pray for them every day, stay on bended knee, and pray for them.
I continue to say to them, Godspeed, may the Lord bless you and keep you, and
keep going.”
In today’s phone call to the Brian
Kilmeade Show, Trump suggested the war will
not continue for long and said he will know it’s over “[w]hen I feel it, OK,
feel it in my bones.”
Tonight, Alexander Ward, Lara
Seligman, Alex Leary, and Vera Bergengruen of the Wall
Street Journal reported that Trump’s
advisors, including Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine,
warned Trump that if the U.S. struck Iran, its leaders could well respond by
closing the Strait of Hormuz, but Trump said that Iran’s leaders would
capitulate and that even if they tried to close the strait, the U.S. military
could handle it. The authors report that, while Trump has told audiences that
“we’ve won” the war in Iran, in fact he has no immediate plans to end the war.
Philip Gordon of the Brookings
Institution, who was formerly a national security adviser to Kamala Harris and
the White House coordinator for the Middle East under President Barack Obama,
told Andrew Roth of The Guardian that previous administrations
had spent much time gaming out war with Iran and foresaw exactly what is
happening: Iran would attack its neighbors to try to spark a regional war and
would close the Strait of Hormuz to hurt global trade and drive up oil prices. “One
of the reasons we did the nuclear deal and didn’t try to change the regime is
exactly what’s happening,” he said of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of
Action (JCPOA). Trump took the U.S. out of that treaty in 2018, undercutting it.
Michael Rubin, a senior fellow at the center-right
American Enterprise Institute, told Roth that while the military planning had
been stellar, “politically, this is increasingly looking like a cluster f*ck.
And the reason is that step one of any plan is to establish a goal—the
targeting should be in pursuit of that goal. The United States has this
backwards. We have the targeting, but we don’t have a clear
goal, and that lies not on the Pentagon planners, but on Donald Trump.”
White House officials are concerned enough about the
unpopularity of the war that they are trying to change their messaging to
convince the American people that the military is so powerful that it will
eventually overcome Iran’s ability to retaliate.
Perhaps the clearest sign the
administration is concerned about the Iran war is that Vance is distancing
himself from it. A story by Diana Nerozzi and Eli Stokols of Politico today claims that “Vice President JD Vance was skeptical of
the U.S. striking Iran in the leadup to President Donald Trump’s decision to
launch the war.” Sources told the journalists that Vance is “skeptical,”
“worried about success,” and “just opposes” the war.
And yet Trump has also been threatening a “takeover”
of Cuba, prompting Senate Democrats yesterday to file legislation to stop him
from going to war against Cuba without congressional approval. Senator Tim
Kaine (D-VA) said in a statement: “Only Congress has the power to
declare war under the Constitution, but [Trump] operates with the belief that
the U.S. military is a palace guard, ordering military action in the Caribbean,
Venezuela, and Iran without Congress’ authorization or any explanation for his
actions to the American people. We shouldn’t risk our sons and daughters’ lives
at the whims of any one person.”
Throughout history, our nation
has faced some daunting challenges – and has overcome them.
It will literally take decades
to reverse that damage that Trump has done in the last year, so we’ll just have
to take one step at a time.
First, it is critical that the
Republicans lose control of both the House and the Senate so that Congress can
once again be a check on the president.
Second, Trump needs to be removed
from office, either by the 2028 election, or by impeachment. At the rate we are
going, impeachment seems likely to occur first – and Jeffrey Epstein may be one
of the reasons why.
The fiasco in Iran is costing
our country $1 billion a day, so it made no sense at all to cut taxes for
billionairess, while simultaneously cutting SNAP benefits and Obamacare subsidies.
Sone day in the future, our
country will return to what most of us would consider “normal”, which will allow
future generations to say “those were the days”.
www.historyofpencils.com 
Executive Pens Direct +7
