Tag Archives: History

Theological or Historical?

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“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance,
it is the [willful] illusion of [divine] knowledge [and revelation].”
— Stephen Hawking, modified by me

Actually I want to better clarify the title of this post: “Theological or Factually Historical?” No, no, no… better yet, “Theologically Canonical or Factually Historical & Widely Verified?” Yes, that is much better.

Agnotology. What is it? What does it mean? What is its significance to us today?

I think I can help you get a general, in-depth understanding of what agnotology is, what it means, and why it is very significant to us in the 21st-century and beyond. Just go to my 4-part series, Games of Unknowledging. However, if you are incredibly impatient with a lacking attention span, then here’s a simple quick definition of Agnotology:

Agnotology is the process of intentionally creating or encouraging doubt or ignorance (or lack of knowledge), for example by spreading false information, in order to influence opinion, sell an ideology, sell a product, or gain an advantage, or the study of these processes.

But keep in mind my impatient followers and readers, that may not be enough.

For the purpose of this blog-post I want to distinguish the growing chasm between religion (Abrahamic religions especially) and historical fact that is verified and corroborated by the majority of scholars and experts in all the many, many scientific fields of human history.

Christianity Cracking, Crumbling, and Collapsing as a Truthful Faith

The most significant of these failures is the historical reality of widely diverse “Christianities” or denominations, today over 40,000 plus. The political process of deciding the New Testament canon over a 400–700 year period, known as Ecumenical Counsels of the Early Catholic Church (circa 4th-century) by their highest ranking Greek priests, Greek bishops, Greek archbishops, and Greek cardinals caused immeasurable amounts of ambiguity. The first counsel you may have heard about was the First Council of Nicaea from May to July of 325 CE. After the Nicene Council it was followed-up by no less than seven (7) more counsels all the way into 754–787 CE last at the Palace of Hieria near Constantinople of the Eastern Roman Empire. Why so many counsels to decide what theology was correct, was truthful, was divine revelation over 400+ years after Jesus’ death and then everything that was later found wrong? What were the many disagreements, fractures, mistakes, false testimonies of the nature of “Christ the Messiah?” The still present enigma of Christ’s nature begs the bigger question of What was all of the mass confusion among the earliest Christian followers? Let’s get some historically verified background.

From the table above we see the major problem of earliest Christianity in the 4th-century and 5th-century was:

  1. Divine Inspired Unity vs. Human (or Roman) Politics and Welfare — the traditional religious narrative suggests that Jesus established a single, clear doctrine passed down perfectly through his apostles. However, historical and archaeological discoveries—most notably the Nag Hammadi library found in 1945—proved that early Christianity was a chaotic web of competing groups with radically different beliefs about Jesus’ purpose.
  2. The “Orthodoxy” — the heavy indoctrination we know today did not naturally emerge as the sole truth; it was codified through centuries of intense political maneuvering, theological debates, and Roman Imperial intervention by Greek-Roman men.
  3. The Selection of Scripture Was Absolutely Political from the Start: The books of the New Testament were not bound together immediately after Jesus’s death. They were not tossed down from the heavens from God either. For the first few centuries after Jesus’ execution, different Christian sects used completely different gospels. The choice of which books to include (and which to burn or banish) into a codified Bible was a slow, human process finalized centuries later. Books like the Gospel of Thomas or the Gospel of Mary were rejected not because they lacked historical merit, but because their theology didn’t align with the specific authoritarian faction that eventually won political power.
  4. Imperial Intervention (The Council of Nicaea): In 325 CE, the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great—a political ruler, not a religious prophet—convened the Council of Nicaea. He did this because Christian infighting was threatening the stability of the Roman Empire. The council voted on foundational doctrines, such as the exact nature of Jesus’s divinity (the Arian controversy). This solidified the reality that modern Christian orthodoxy was heavily shaped by Roman statecraft, not Jesus’ reform movement.
  5. The “Synoptic Problem” and Textual Evolution: Textual criticism shows that the Gospels were not written by eyewitnesses as eyewitness accounts. They were written decades later (between 70 and 110 CE) by anonymous, Greek-speaking authors, not Mishnaic Hebrew-speaking Jews such as Jesus Christ. Furthermore, Matthew and Luke heavily copied from Mark and a lost source known as “Q,” changing details, theological emphasis, and even historical timelines to fit or retrofit their specific interests and audiences.

Ultimately, whether these facts “undermine” or dismantle Christendom as I think they do, it all depends on the individual faith-believer, not an All-knowing, All-present God and Son. For fundamentalists or Christian Nationalists today who require literal, historical inerrancy, these historical facts pose a severe challenge. For the progressive or mainline theologians, they simply show that God worked through the messy, complex reality of human history, a bit of a cop-out in my opinion. Why? Because if you collect the entire whole of everything related to Earliest Christianity up to the last seventh ecumenical counsel, which certainly includes Roman Empire recorded, extant history (of which they were obsessed with) and all Jewish literature such as the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Tannaim Period of Jewish rabbinic-sage literature—that does indeed still exist between 10–220 CE—and during the lifetime of Yeshua bar Yosef, or Jesus, they overwhelmingly show just how messy, erroneous, retro-fitted via hindsight to cover problematic (false?) theology of the new Roman Catholic Church, and how the person named Jesus or Iisoús in Koine Greek in the canonical New Testament, was in fact NOT the divine resurrected messiah the Roman Empire (via Greco-Roman tradition of Apotheosis) fabricated. For example, there were many, many regional pagan and Jewish historians of the time during Jesus’ lifetime or within less-than 100-years of his life that wrote NO INDEPEDENT RECORDS whatsoever of a “Jesus Christ.” That is damning of Christianity. Furthermore, within a century of Jesus’ life do any of these known authors/historians make any mention of the later twelve disciples or apostles. Who are they? They are:

So this begs the question, Why the literal hiding of such a supposed Lord and Savior for all humankind to the rest of the world? What’s the purpose of the cloak and dagger? The answer? There is none and it is very, very poor foresight for an All-knowing, All-present theological God.

The Stark Comparisons and Distinctions Within Christianity Then and Today

historical factChristian beliefhistorical reality
The New TestamentA divinely inspired, unchanging set of books.A curated collection from dozens of competing texts by early church leaders/men.
Early Church DoctrineA unified, universally agreed-upon faith.A fractured landscape of Gnostics, Marcionites, & Ebionites who fiercely disagreed on the nature of Jesus Christ.
Rise of Roman Orthodoxy post-320 CEThe Holy Spirit naturally guided the “true faith” to world victory.Roman Imperial enforcement outlawed, suppressed, and destroyed competing Christian sects.

To surmise, 1) the above table, 2) the lack of independent historical sources, 3) the widely diverse, disagreeing, sometimes fighting sects over the nature of who Jesus actually was from a Greco-Roman tradition, versus 4) the historical realities of the time-period between 63 BCE and 70 CE known as the Jewish Late Second Temple Period, all show as a whole that 5) the roots of earliest Christianity (i.e. The Way Movement) through the end of the Seven Ecumenical Counsels in 787 CE reveal at best Christianity’s flimsy foundation. At worst it clearly reveals no unified theology, doctrine, or orthodoxy of practices or faith. Why?

Plain and simply, the vast chasm that existed between imperial Greco-Roman (Hellenistic-Herodian) traditions, language (Koine Greek), and culture was factually incompatible with Jesus’ beliefs, his Jewish background, he and his people’s Mishnaic Hebrew language that also included Syro-Aramaic at times, and their long established Jewish literature and traditions on who, what, and why the Jewish Messiah was to arrive for them.

Because of these deep chasms mentioned between two clashing, adversarial cultures—Roman Empire vs. Judaism—when the earliest Roman Catholic Church began to ascend, the rewritten, hijacked, edited, redacted, ambiguous, suppressive manmade orthodoxy of forming the Biblical canon over seven Roman counsels in a 300-400 year period was failing and failing bad, particularly after the siege and sacking of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE killing most Homeland Jews royally screwed any hope of total unity. As a result, the Christian canons became so heavily contaminated and contradictory later that it caused incessant confusion among all Christians then and to this day over a meager, simple 1st-century CE Jewish rabbi-reformer who failed to be the Jewish Messiah according to Jesus’ own people, then and today.

Live Well – Love Much – Laugh Often – Learn Always

The Professor’s Convatorium © 2025 by Professor Taboo is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 

The American Revolution Then & Now

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I have been a big fan of Ken Burns and his many exceptional, award-winning historical documentaries on PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) over the last few decades. The biggest reason? He does not skimp or cheat his audiences from historical accuracy, historical facts, historical context, or how history always, always applies today. This is never more true than with modern history—everything after the end of the Middle Ages, c.1500 CE, to the present—and how much we Americans are still living it, in fact, it can never be ignored nor should it be. Ever!

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“To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero, circa 69 BCE

Cicero’s famous oratory as a Roman constitutionalist made him a statesman with no loyalties to either nobility, patrician, or plebian. He was a well-educated citizen for all the people of the empire. His work should echo in Washington, D.C. every single day and as far south as Palm Beach, Florida, and Mar-a-Lago.

Do Americans Know Enough About Their Own National History?

The short answer is no, and the age gaps are very telling: around 40% of older Americans (65+ years old) are able to show proficiency. Sadly, only 19–27% of those under the age of 45 showed proficiency in modern American history [Institute for Citizens & Scholars]. This translates to just 4-in-10 Americans passing basic history and civics tests (2019). And today it is worse, much worse. This has been an American downward trend the last several decades. To say that the United States has been raising and educating ignorant citizens of American history, not teaching their civic origins and/or their present livelihoods, is a gross understatement. “Houston, we have a problem,” a critical event-horizon problem.

Along with Heather Cox Richardson, David McCullough, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Eric Foner, the late Barbara Tuchman and many other American scholars, they and Ken Burns are deeply concerned and embarrassed about these disturbing facts of historical incompetency by our non-patriots, if you will. In fact, in his words Burns explains:

“I’m embarrassed that, as a country, we don’t grasp our history. Everyone approaches it from the arrogance of the position of how it turns out. We are all in the grip of the present, but if you point out the parallels, they are dated immediately. People are always trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.”

— Ken Burns, The Financial Times Dec. 28, 2025.

What Burns, Richardson, Goodwin, Foner, McCullough, and so many other top American expert historians are alarmed about is the same thing, the same alarm I’ve been sounding since at least 2010 not just here on WordPress, but in my school classrooms when I was a Social Studies/History teacher for several years here in Texas. Drawing from the past and present Ken Burns could not be more unambiguous in his current dismay of Americans. The parallels of his newest docuseries, The American Revolution on PBS, and speaks to current incompetence of our civic knowledge, duties, and privileges and how it applies right now, whether he intended it or not when making the series. He states:

“…President Donald Trump’s romanticising executive order signed earlier this year to remove “revisionist” interpretations in museums and on monuments that question the “unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights and human happiness”.

Trump’s Department of Education has forged a partnership with more than 40 rightwing organisations, including the America First Policy Institute, Turning Point USA and the Heritage Foundation — “dedicated to renewing patriotism, strengthening civic knowledge, and advancing a shared understanding of America’s founding principles in schools across the nation” — as part of celebrations of America’s 250th anniversary in July. On the White House’s official America 250 website, Larry Arnn, president of the conservative Hillsdale College, compares Trump to Abraham Lincoln in his desire to make America great again.”

— Ken Burns, ibid.

Burns and most all American history scholars, myself humbly included, label our current buffoon in the White House as “an insult to our [American] history” and its authentic contextual history and verifiable facts. And I feel these words are too polite and obtuse for the fake President.

Should any of you like to revisit or read some of my WordPress blogs on this troubling subject, I recommend the following from older to newest:

There are several more to be listed, but this is just introductory and relative to your interest, time constraints, and possibly much more in-depth education on American history, civic privileges/duties, and an American sociopolitical landscape past and present.

Live Well – Love Much – Laugh Often – Learn Always Your Nation’s History!

The Professor’s Convatorium © 2023 by Professor Taboo is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 

A History of Propaganda, Psychology & Tyranny

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As you read, keep in mind and in the back of your memory who or whom I might be describing today in this post; the similarities or the indistinguishables of someone(s), past and/or present.

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What is the definition of megalomania? According to the American Psychological Association the definition of the term is this:

n. a highly inflated conception of one’s importance, power, or capabilities, as can be observed in many individuals with mania and paranoid schizophrenia. In the latter, megalomania is often accompanied or preceded by delusions of persecution. See delusion of grandeur.

What is the definition of narcissism? The American Psychological Association (APA), the clinical definition of the term is this:

n.

  1. excessive self-love or egocentrism.
  2. in psychoanalytic theory, the taking of one’s own ego or body as a sexual object or focus of the libido or the seeking or choice of another for relational purposes on the basis of their similarity to the self. See body narcissism; primary narcissism; secondary narcissism. —narcissist n. —narcissistic adj.

What is the definition of paranoia? The APA states the clinical term means:

n.

  1. a paranoid state.
  2. a former diagnosis for a relatively rare disorder, distinct from paranoid schizophrenia, in which the person reasons rightly from a wrong premise and develops a persistent, well-systematized, and logically constructed set of persecutory delusions, such as being conspired against, poisoned, or maligned. It is equivalent to persecutory-type delusional disorder.
  3. historically, any psychiatric disorder characterized by persistent delusions. See also classical paranoia.
  4. in ancient times, any mental disorder or delirium. —paranoiac n., adj.

One could also elaborate further with a #5 under paranoia the regular, unfounded perception of oneself always being the victim of say, witch hunts, or sociopolitical attacks.

What is the historical definition of tyranny? According to the Cambridge.org dictionary the term means:

tyranny

noun.

  1. government by a ruler or small group of people who have unlimited power over the people in their country or state [or police state] and use it unfairly and cruelly.
  2. a situation in which someone or something controls how you are able to live, in an unfair way.

There are many other manifested, associated behaviors which are typically present in a person who suffers from these four mental-illnesses, whether the person is aware of them or not in their behavior and thinking or admits them to others.

Of the most notorious eight tyrants of modern history in the header at top and then labelled here, I want to focus on Adolf Hitler, third from the left. Between January of 1919 and April 1945, Adolf Hitler and his inner-circle of Heinrich Himmler, Hermann Goering, Joseph Goebbels (Propaganda Minister), Martin Bormann, Albert Speer, and Joachim von Ribbentrop, then all of their subordinates, were all responsible for the murders, killings, genocide and/or imprisonments leading to death of over 12,243,500 men, women, and children in a span of just 12-years.[1] In other words, 1,020,292 people per year, or approximately 85,025 men, women, and children per month. The scale of this industrialized killing and combat fatalities by the Nazis may never again be topped unless it is a nuclear war of three to four enemy nations.

What was the hypnotical draw of Hitler to the German-Austrian masses in July 1919 through October 1929? What was his personality at the time? Who was around him? What were the living conditions in Germany after World War I? Let’s take a closer look.

Adolf Hitler’s Personality 1919–1929

Throughout all of recorded human history even into the 21st-century, most people want to be ruled, told what to do, what to think. They do not want total freedom. Total freedom often scares the shit out of ordinary people. They would feel even less control of their life and would rather not be held accountable for their mistakes or bad decisions. Psychologically, even that fear mentality of horribly screwing up enslaves them to live a self-perceived yet false reality of not having enormous responsibilities and suffering the consequences if they stay in the shadows; otherwise being disliked or hated by hundreds or thousands of people. Therefore, the majority of ordinary people with fragile self-confidence seek out ways, or to be on the lookout for a leader, an extraordinary spokesperson and doer they can follow and they do the hard work for them, a fall-person, e.g. Cult Leader, supreme King, or Messiah to name just three.

Adolf Hitler quickly gained immense popularity among the German National Socialistic Workers’ Party members and the general populous by February 1921 because of his gifted talent for crowd manipulation and fervor. How did he do it?

Animated and anger-ridden speech posed by the leader of the National Socialist Workers’ Party, Adolf Hitler. Hitler made an everlasting name for himself with this speech before the Reich Court in Leipzig.

He enthralled his audiences because his speeches, whether to a small audience or a very large audience was full of hate, of blaming others for the misery and hardships of the German workers in which he overly pandered to, to the poor and struggling German’s internally angry for their horrible living conditions. Hitler gave them permission to be angry, outspoken, and violent, if they chose to be, toward perceived threats, but not actual proven threats. But no matter, outrage sells. Period. Sadly, it is one of the easiest human traits to whip up and unleash.

Hitler understood the nature and underlying fury the German people were experiencing. He understood at least two causes of this anger: 1) the Treaty of Versailles, 1919, and 2) the Stock Market Crash and Great Depression of 1929 and hinted about in 1919. Hitler truly believed that he alone was Austro-Germany’s liberator, savior, and only solution. This was his ‘divine calling/mission.’ Thus, what does a Cult Leader do for his lost people?

One quick method to fan the resentment and fury of ordinary, struggling, unemployed workers and to gather them together, rally “followers” for the cause was to go on the attack. Hitler targeted intellectuals of the universities. He targeted deplorables, e.g. gays, lesbians, and ‘loose women.’ He specifically attacked philosophical progressives (that often stabilize a country and their citizens) and he especially targeted immigrants. Years and years as a underachieving student in school, a floundering mediocre artist, unemployed man with little to no money, unrecognized and overlooked by any World War I distinctions other than the Iron Cross, First Class for his combat service—but never ranked higher than a private which in military strategy would one day come back to bite and haunt him—had all built up in immense frustration. It would soon inflame the selling of public outrage and hyper-animated speeches. His fury hypnotized the Nazi party and German people.

Who Surrounded Hitler in 1919–1929

Let’s examine the most important political colleagues Hitler assembled around him.

Franz Xaver Schwarz — when the Nazi Party was banned from existence by the German government in 1923, Schwarz became a member of the Greater German People’s Community as their treasurer. This “community” was merely a fake front for the Nazi Party based in Munich. By February 1925 Schwartz completely restructured and reformed the Nazi Party’s finances and administration. In March 1925 he was also the significant (or only?) money-bags for Hitler’s new book, Mein Kampf, which laid out Hitler’s ideology for territorial expansion as well as transforming German society into a dictatorship based on the Aryan race.

For Hitler the only solutions for reforming and transforming Germany back to a world power (MAGA = Make All Germany Awesome) was 1) exterminate Jews and undesirables, and 2) imprison his dissidents, or those who don’t agree with him and speak out against him. Sound familiar today?

When Hitler was released from prison in December 1924, he immediately went to work on his “divine mission/calling.” Ever since his narrow escape from a French or British artillery shell that killed all of his regiment in the trenches of the Battle of the Somme, 1916, and wounded by shrapnel, then later the British mustard gas attack at Ypres, Belgium, 1918, where he was severely blinded and barely escaping death, Hitler fully believed he was divinely picked to lead Germany and conquer the world. Does escaping death or assassins sound familiar today? 🤔 During this 1925–1929 period of political rise to power Adolf Hitler endeared several key, future Nazi Party leaders. Below are some of them.

Rudolf Hess — when Hess witnessed Hitler speak in 1920 at a Munich Nazi rally, Hess became deeply zealous on every word Hitler spoke to him. In fact, Hess and Hitler saw eye-to-eye on the belief that Germany lost WW1 because of Jewish conspirators and Bolsheviks in eastern Europe, not total military defeat as was the fact.

Dietrich Eckart — was a staunch Völkisch poet, journalist, and political activist for the German’s Worker Party, the predecessor of the Nazi Party. Eckart was a major influence on Hitler’s rise to power. He died after being released from prison in Lansberg where Hitler and other Nazis were jailed after the failed Beer Hall Putsch, 1923, the failed coup d’état by Hitler’s Browns. It’s worthy to note too that Hermann Goering was also part of that insurrection.

Otto Strasser — as an early member of the Nazi Party he and his brother were part of the party’s more extremist wing of the Nazis. Focusing primarily on the party’s socialist elements, Strasser and his brother joined forces with Joseph Goebbels to govern the northern sector of Nazi Germany. Until 1930 Otto Strasser was a key component of Hitler’s early rise to power in Germany.

Adolf Hitler, Supreme Dictator and Joseph Goebbels, Propaganda Minister

Joseph Goebbels — is arguably one of Hitler’s closest political colleagues very gifted in oppressive, deceiving propaganda and completely controlling Germany’s narrative of world domination then World War II through all 20th-century communication methods. Essentially Goebbels completely outlawed any communication entities in 1930’s Germany other than the Nazi State’s propaganda ministry. Sound familiar today with attacks and defunding of National Public Radio, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), and many other media companies critical of the current administration in Washington D.C.?

Who today can you think of and remember that surrounded our 45th and now 47th U.S. President that is in prison, or convicted in court (less than 34-times 🙄), or continues to avoid arrest for illicit, explicit, or criminal behavior? I can think of at least ten men.

  • Michael Flynn
  • Peter Navarro
  • Rick Gates
  • Roger Stone
  • Michael Cohen
  • Steve Bannon
  • Charles Kushner
  • Allen Weisselberg and…
  • Jeffrey Epstein

Germany in 1919–1929 the Post-War Years

These ten years in Germany were not just horrendous times for ordinary Austro-German people, but the perfect crisis/storm for a liberator, a quick-fix Snake Oil salesman and a Savior/Messiah of Germany to make the nation great again, i.e. Make Austro-Germany Astounding… again (a 1930’s–1940’s MAGA party).

What were the key factors in Hitler’s divine arrogance, unmatched political drive, extreme self-belief, and rise to ultimate power?

  1. Escaping Death — not just once, but multiple times. Hitler narrowly escaped death in World War I at the Battle of the Somme. He survived, barely, a mustard gas attack near Ypres, Belgium in October 1918. And later during World War II he survived multiple assassination attempts, the most notable was Claus von Stauffenberg bomb attack at the Wolf’s Lair at Rastenburg, Poland, in 1944, otherwise known as Operation Valkyrie. Sound very similar to a present-day leader who survived Butler, PA, at a rally, and again on a golf course in West Palm Beach, FL? Hmmm. Some egomaniacs often believe that if they “miraculously” escape death multiple times they are destined for historical, epic stories lasting the test of time like a Savior/Messiah bloodied-up raising their fist in defiance. It makes a huge TV spotlight series, doesn’t it? Even better than the fame of The Apprentice. 🙄🤦
  2. Enlisting Radical Loyal Followers — Hitler and his Nazis campaigned enormously for years on empty promises and false hopes in order to fill/pad their ranks. If the followers are gullible and want quick, fast results from their leader/savior, they will swallow their “membership” hook-line-and-sinker asking no questions, but total devotion to the cult and cause. Again, sound familiar today?
  3. Ceasing Total Control of the Press and Speech — with the enlisted help of Joseph Goebbels’ propaganda mechanisms in place, he and Hitler had complete control of exactly what the German people would learn, watch, and hear, i.e. tricked and brainwashed. Even when Nazi Germany was losing battles and the war, Goebbels was still deceiving the people with false victories and promising Nazi Wonder Weapons and technology that was about to win the war for the Third Reich. Of course, these were all bold face lies and were never delivered as promised.
  4. Creating a National Police State — once Hitler was unequivocally made the sole supreme leader and dictator of Germany, he and Heinrich Himmler immediately created the two forces of the Schutzstaffel (or SS) and the Geheime Staatspolizei or Gestapo with Hermann Goering, Rudolf Diels, Heinrich Himmler, and Heinrich Müller. These two police forces were charged with accusing, arresting, removing dissidents or opponents of the Third Reich and Hitler, then imprisoning them without trial. They did it with haste and brutality particularly against unwanted immigrants and Jews. Sound familiar today? If not, then simply research the current track-record of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or I.C.E.
  5. National Expansion via Annexing or Force — Hitler and his inner-circle began planning for the expansion of the Third Reich throughout all of Europe then the world. With the exception of Great Britain and the Soviet Union, Hitler accomplished this goal of European domination and expansion. Sound familiar today? Question. Who today has publicly stated the U.S. will reclaim the Panama Canal, seize control of Greenland and the Gaza Strip. Also Canada, Mexico even renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, and seize Venezuela. Sound familiar today? It should.
  6. Targeting Perceived Deplorables — Hitler and his Third Reich police state specifically targeted lesbians, bisexuals, gays, trans-different, and queers (LGBTQ+) throughout Germany and Europe, imprisoning and/or killing them as contaminating the Aryan race. Sound familiar today? It should because in two terms as President this was not only what was campaigned, but is now happening… again in the U.S.A.

These six “mandates” above—that MAGA Republicans keep falling back on from their supreme cult leader—are just a few of his power-seizing acts that catapulted a liberating savior king to ultimate power, especially when his base/party and radical followers control every aspect of federal governing right now. Coincidence? Or is it intentional totalitarian authority exactly in the footsteps of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich? Think about it. Try to deny it. You can’t. History can never be rewritten, only ignored, hidden, or white-washed. But the facts never change.

Trump narrowly escapes death and assassination attempt in Butler, PA, just like Adolf Hitler did multiple times.

A Conclusion About Past-Present Tyrants

In the recent past and today, who utilizes the exact same Hitler-tactics here in the U.S.? Who used it earlier in 2015-2016 then to a fever pitch on January 6th, 2021 at the Capitol Building? Like the Supreme Reich’s Chancellor, Hitler, could have halted everything, but did not stop the violence in 1930’s Germany. Hitler also sat idlily by watching the reports from his staff in the 1930’s. On January 6th, 2021, so did the U.S. President sit idlily by not doing a damn thing about the violence, destruction of the U.S. Capitol and the killing of Capitol Police Officers. Then several hours later the President wanted to JOIN the violent insurrectionists mob at the Capitol, but the Secret Service refused to take him there!

Any of this sound familiar? It should. If you know your history—not just modern history of WW2, but also Classical history and Ancient history—then you know full well this is us Americans, and our current President, repeating history practically to the tee. And one of Hitler’s greatest talents was deflecting and distracting his base supporters to real events of his regime. Hitler’s followers had (apparently) no clue about the many concentration camps just outside of their town/village. Today who does the exact same thing in the U.S. and Washington D.C.? You know who it is, there is no denying it.

Did you put him back into the White House in November 2024? If so, shame shame SHAME on you! 🤦‍♂️😠 You’ve killed democracy and the spirit of liberties and the rule of law! The American voters are in need of a SERIOUS education in critical-thinking skills and verifiable history that is currently being mimicked here in the United States by our present administration. Wake up people!

Learn from History – Do Not Repeat It – Otherwise Wallow in Misery – Wallow in Death

The Professor’s Convatorium © 2023 by Professor Taboo is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 

My Joyful Escapes

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During these times of great sociopolitical distress, unknown national or global pathways caused by the last several months and since 2016, I have been forced to find some type of solace, some level of pleasure and joy to keep at bay my nagging depression for this nation called the Disunited States of America, and more so my native home state of Texas. What have I found, discovered to temporarily relieve my torment the last decade or more?

My lifelong passions of football/soccer, World War II aviation, and the history of Antiquity, specifically the Roman Empire of the 2nd-century BCE through its decline and fall. Sometimes, more often lately, these “escapes” have kept my sanity in tact; or rather, in tact as is possible these very trying years. Given my age and declining health due to my living situation caring for my Early Alzheimer’s mother, vodka and tequila are no longer viable options or escapes (lots of cussing under my breath for that).

Therefore, I have been forced to find other alternatives to relieve my chronic sadness, my chronic pain, and my chronic frustration from where my once great home country is now headed. As some of you might remember, I am a fanatic for these three areas of interest: footballing/soccer, WW2 history/aviation, and Antiquity and the Roman Empire. I love these areas of interest so very much! And I always look for an opportunity to immerse myself in all three as many times as possible given my time restrictions at home. So…

Are any of you, my followers, my visitors, a kindred spirit in these three areas? I’d love to know. And if so, let’s sometimes chit-chat about them. I get immense pleasure diving into these subjects and how profoundly they changed our current world and all of our lives, particularly in the West. Are any of you gamers? Or are you just well read in these areas? Please let me know. 🙂

Here are some YouTube videos on these three areas I am passionate about:

Football Manager 2024 —

DCS World WW2 —

Rome 2: Total War —

Live Well – Love Much – Laugh Often – Learn Always

The Professor’s Convatorium © 2023 by Professor Taboo is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 

History Repeats? Why?

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When I was 12 or 13-years old I learned a very painful lesson, literally! Who or what taught me this hard painful lesson? The who was my father. The what was a gas-powered mechanical lawn edger.

After edging my neighbor’s front and back lawns with their mechanical edger with the blade spinning on the side, I did not know how to turn it off. I walked to our house, explained to Dad I didn’t have a clue how to turn the motor off so he and I returned to the still running edger. Here’s the complete story in my December 2014 blog-post, To Operate A Mechanical Edger.

The short version of what happened that Saturday afternoon in 1975 was that Dad explained to me verbally, and by pointing at the external spark-plug with its attached metal short-out bar, that all I needed to do was to push that little metal L-clip onto the tip of the spark-plug and the motor and blade would stop. Easy.

WHAAM! 💥😵🥴 I was almost knocked to my ass. Unmoved by what he saw happen to me, Dad repeated again what to do so the motor would shut off. WHAAM! Same painful result. Was I not holding it to the spark-plug long enough? Dad pointed at me to turn it off. WHAAM! This third time hurt even more. I was tearing up and shaking like a leaf in the wind. I looked up to Dad in complete shock and baffled. “Turn it off” he said again with a straight face, unmoved. I tried to hold the clip down even longer this attempt. WHAAAAAM!!! Now I am convulsing trying to shut the edger motor off and crying now.

Finally, Dad had mercy on me, pointed at my other hand holding tight the metal handle-bars, and calmly explained to me “Dwain, your are directing the electrical current from the clip and spark-plug, through both your hands and arms, into your upper body, and back to the edger’s metal handle bars. Move your left-hand off the metal and onto the rubber handles.”

To this day that incident has never left my traumatized memory. It never will leave me, ever. It hurt so much and burned into my fingers, muscles and memory that today anytime I deal with electricity and electrical currents and/or equipment, that painful lesson always rushes back to me.

Why would I want to repeat that horrible, excruciating lesson? Why would anyone want to repeat or keep repeating over and over hard, painful lessons of the past? Why? Isn’t that sheer stupidity?

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In Heather Cox Richardson’s latest Letters from an American dated October 27, 2024, Heather writes “I stand corrected. I thought this year’s October surprise was the reality that Trump’s mental state had slipped so badly he could not campaign in any coherent way.” But once again she and the rest of normal, sane, democracy-loving Americans have been again taken to all-time lows after Trump’s Nazi-esque rally at Madison Square Garden yesterday. Apparently, his MAGA rally deliberately recalled its February 20, 1939 predecessor, a pro-Hitler rally of some 18,000 “true Americanism” featuring George Washington in his Continental Army uniform front and center stage bookended by swastikas. Yes, I shit you not people!

Heather continues in her letter:

Apparently in anticipation of the rally, Trump on Friday night replaced his signature blue suit and red tie with the black and gold of the neofascist Proud Boys. That extremist group was central to the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and has been rebuilding to support Trump again in 2024.

Nazi fascist rally in the old Madison Square Garden, New York, USA, Feb. 20, 1939

Her letter is a very good, well-sourced on the verifiable, historical facts and I highly recommend reading it despite how deeply disturbing the rally events panned out. As I read Heather’s letter, skimmed over some other non-profit news coverage of the fascist, Nazi-esque Republican rally yesterday, I kept asking myself this question, Why can’t half of Americans today remember or learn from national and world history, modern history at that!? Seriously, what is that half of the U.S. population’s malfunction? Do they have no clue what the 1930’s–1945 Axis powers did to the entire world, in particular Adolf Hitler, his SS and high-ranking Reich Ministers and Generals, then the Holocaust? WTF!!!?

Written c. 38–41 BCE

Indeed an ignorant child bereft of earnest wisdom and learning.

If you haven’t yet read the 700+ pages of Project 2025: Mandate for Leadership & The Conservative Promise, then I vehemently urge you to do so. It eerily resembles Hitler’s Neuordnung, or “New Order” of 1934–1939. In some parts of Project 2025 it seems identical to Hitler’s vision and near completion of its “promises.”

Will Americans not learn from our grave, indecent, atrocities of the past? Will we never learn from those who we just fought a long, four year war (WW2) to rid Europe and Asia from the worst men in history and the deaths of 75-80 million people worldwide? What does it take to not repeat history in November 2024? How is this even a question right now? I sure as hell don’t want to re-experience my electrical shock memory and trauma as a boy with that damn edger! Isn’t that just common sense?

Addendum 10-30-2024 — Heather Cox Richardson’s follow-up Letter dated Oct. 29, 2024 is another disturbing, poignant letter of former President Trump’s follow-up press conference regarding the Nazi-esque rally Sunday night:

On Monday, Trump felt obliged to tell an audience in Georgia, “I’m not a Nazi.” The Trump campaign has made it a point never to apologize and never to explain, but on Monday it broke that rule, trying to distance itself from performer Tony Hinchcliffe’s comments about Puerto Rico. 

This morning, Trump announced he would hold a press conference at Mar-a-Lago. He showed up more than an hour late for the assembled press, then began the event by undermining faith in the election, claiming the campaign is going “very well; there are some bad spots in Pennsylvania where some serious things have been caught or are in the process of being caught,” although it was unclear what he meant. 

He went on to deliver such a litany of lies that CNN cited them as a reason to cut away from the speech. Trump chose not to acknowledge the offensiveness of the Madison Square Garden event, saying ““The love in that room, it was breathtaking—and you could have filled it many many times with the people that were unable to get in.”

American voters; sane, reasonable, Moderate American voters, if you cannot just read on a literal basis beyond what this narcissistic, megalomaniac, fascist, Orange Orangutan Baby and his extreme MAGA Republican supporters and sycophants are saying BETWEEN the lines, implicitly as well as explicitly, then please do so with vigilance, honorable conscience, with your COUNTRY first, not your Party. You are an American first who loves this country even with all of its flaws and imperfections, as well as its celebrated glories, equality, liberties, and freedoms. Do the right thing by Nov. 5th!

The Professor’s Convatorium © 2023 by Professor Taboo is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0