Letter Of Recommendation Example - History Department - The: Fill & Download for Free

Undergraduate students are admitted to the university and may declare their major at admission, shortly thereafter, or wait for some time in most schools to do so, taking courses to learn what fields most interest them. They are known as "undeclared" until they declare a major. Undergrad admissions are determined, for students right out of high school, based on GPA, courses taken in high school, letters of recommendation, clubs, sports, and other activities and/or community service by the student, and a personal essay. Some schools have more specific things they wish to see and specialized schools such as visual or performing arts schools will commonly want a portfolio (visual) or audition (performing). Opportunities for undergraduate research will be sought and hopefully found after admission to a school. in example, you're admitted to University of Florida. You declare your major as biochemistry. You then may try to find a professor who needs help, whether paid or unpaid, in his lab or other research opportunities.Graduate school in contrast is different. Nearly all prospective students hold an undergrad degree, normally in a related field. They may have undergrad research experience, as well, possibly even conference presentations or peer-reviewed publications. When applying to grad school, you apply directly to the department in question. So, if you want to go to University of Florida for Electrical Engineering, you apply to that department. They work with you and the Graduate School and College of Engineering within the University to coordinate and review your application. Especially in the sciences and even more so for a PhD where you apply for grad school may be determined by where specific professors teach who are doing research in your field or on a topic that interests you. In example, my dad taught for years in Dentistry and Medicine at University of Florida. His area of research was antibiotic resistance in bacteria which commonly infect the mouth and gums. So, students interested in this area—or maybe in antibiotic resistance in general—came to work with him. That is, some chose to do their PhD with him, under his mentorship, because of that area of specialized research. And obviously, same goes with many research topics. Even in something like history, if you are interested in the political history of modern Thailand, you'll obviously seek out a school with a professor or two working on that topic.As to what research, such as conference presentations which are peer-reviewed look like, here are two from my own work in the field of architectural history (this is how they appear on my CV):Scholary Papers Presented at Peer-reviewed Symposia:“Backwoods Segregation: Constructing and Enforcing the Racial Divide at Turpentine Camps in Northern Florida and Southern Georgia” Regional Identity session, Vernacular Architecture Forum annual meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah. June, 2017."Regions Broad and Small: Contrasts in Norse Settlement and Vernacular Architecture in Saint Kilda, the Orkney Islands, and the Færoes.” Regionalism and Contested Cultural Identities session, Savannah Symposium, Department of Architectural History, SCAD, Savannah, Georgia. February, 2005.

“For Bar mitzvah or Bat mitzvah I used to wonder what to give, then I realized I had a list of books in my head that I’d found illuminating and helpful to have read as a young person. Books to return to as you grow into adulthood, books to provide a guide, a commentary, and perhaps, an inspiration. Books I gave to high school graduates, and camp counselors at my son’s summer camps. I’d have been pleased to get any of them, and I’m honored to give them, in turn.”1. The Periodic Table by Primo Levi“Unique and magical, a chemist’s life, each chapter centered on one element and its relationship to the author and those around him. Mercury, Lead and Carbon are imaginary, the rest autobiographical. My favorite chapter is the story of the chemists at lunch, and the slice of onion in the linseed oil.”2. The Caine Mutiny: A Novel by Herman Wouk“A detailed dissection of a failing organization and the price it extracts. Not to mention a great novel. (The typhoon made my hair stand on end when I was a kid) I give this book to people in crazy organizations (most organizations are crazy…). I have never read a better description of where the distress and responsibility fall when things aren’t working right.”3. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett“Hammett’s best, not withstanding the Charles’ of The Thin Man (and the movies it gave birth to…). All the elements are familiar, and yet the way it unfolds is riveting. The writing is gripping, laugh-out-loud funny and timeless. The subjects are honor, duty, loss, romance and having to get up every morning and get on with your life. Because “..a man … has to do something.””4. A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes by Stephen Hawking“This is it – how we know what we know, only one equation, and as readable and instructive now as ever. Hawking’s ability to express himself against the challenges of his own body is beyond my words. This book is so clear, and starts with a wonderful joke. I was overseas the first time I read it, and his contrast of Einstein and Aristotle gave me courage to get the job done.”5. Emma by Jane Austen“One of those remarkable books which seems dauntingly long when you start and far, far, too short by the time you’ve finished. Emma, of good family and comfortable circumstances, trys to help her friends by matchmaking. The results are far from what anyone wants, complication and crisis compound on each other. But all is made well. Her own match is concluded in the sweetest way.”6. The Wisdom of the Bones: In Search of Human Origins by Alan Walker & Pat Shipman“This terrific book focuses on the Nariokatome Boy, a 1.6M yr old Homo Erectus’ skeleton. Kamoya Kimeu found the first pieces, Alan Walker and Meave Leakey assembled them, the scientific descriptions were published by Walker. The Boy is most complete Homo Erectus skeleton so far. Like us. But not us. Pat Shipman, Walker’s wife, is gifted writer. The story is his, the voice hers.”7. The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Hailey“I read this book in 1971 and I found it electrifying- Brother Malcolm X plumbed the depths and climbed the heights and had his life torn from him just as it seemed his greatest work was beginning. The hell of segregated America is something we must never forget. How one man educated himself out of prison and became a national leader is always worth knowing.”8. The Hominid Gang: Behind the Scenes in the Search for Human Origins by Delta Willis“A great how-they-did-it adventure, led by Richard and Meave Leakey, Kamoya Kimeu, etc. Kimeu is a treasure in his own right, worth meeting. Willis was with the expedition as they, Alan Walker, etc, found the Nariokatome Boy, a 1.6M yr old Homo Erectus skeleton. She also covers friction between the Kenyan team and the Institute for Human Origins (from Berkeley), who found “Lucy” in Ethiopia”9. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Valuesby Robert M. Pirsig“Pirsig wastes no time. You need a thin aluminum shim for your top-of-the-line BMW motorcycle. Do you buy expensive shim stock from the BMW dealer, or snip a piece of essentially the same thing from an empty beer can? Pay someone to think for you, or call it yourself and accept the consequences? What *is* high quality, how do you define or apply it? A great story too!”10. When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson & S. J. McCarthy“Written by a noted natural science reporter and a once-enfant-terrible of Freudian Psychology, is very readable and not always comfortable. Elephants are not the only species here. Animals feel and express emotions; cases to cite don’t hurt.Full disclosure: S. J. McCarthy is a personal friend of mine. my admiration of her writing has been verified in double-blind tests.”11. To Kill a Mockingbird: by Harper Lee“Some people can’t stop writing books. Harper Lee had one book to write. Her love of her father and the story she wanted to tell is worth more than the whole production of many other writers.Atticus Finch’s story wasn’t leading straight to Rosa Parks, Brown Vs. Board of Education or the Voting Rights Act of 1964. Low-key person-by-person didn’t get the job done. But it wasn’t a coward’s path.”12. The Cuckoo’s Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage by Cliff Stoll“An Astronomy post-Doctoral student at UC Berkeley writes a new program to manage the department charges at the campus Computer Center. A $0.75 imbalance can’t be explained. Investigation reveals a German hacker working for the KGB and using Berkeley’s computers to search the early Internet for military weapons data. Stoll isn’t completely comfortable calling the CIA or FBI, but they know nothing and the break-ins are real and even less comfortable. The FBI advises him to call back when the losses exceed $1 million. A remarkable adventure that gets to a courtroom in Germany on its way to conclusion. The era of cyber-espionage starts in text, over modems. Beautifully written, with a good chocolate chip cookie recipe included.”13. The Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme by John Keegan“A landmark book, explaining the often unrealistic conventions of military history, as far back as Julius Caesar and as close as the Charge of the Light Brigade. He then describes three notable battles in the history of England and Great Britain, and what the typical soldier would have experienced. Keegan’s account of the first Battle of the Somme is heartbreaking.”14. The Ancient Engineers by L. Sprague De Camp“A wonderful (filled with wonder) history of engineering in the long ago and far away. From the Tigris/Euphrates and Nile civilizations to Leonardo, who De Camp rightly points out, was the last of the ancients- wise, but secretive, not publishing during his lifetime or after. Not a specialist book on any area or culture, its a guided tour by someone who loves the subject. Too middle-Eastern/European centric by today’s standards, it wasn’t bad for the 1960s, and still a fun read today.”15. Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey“A year in the National Parks of the Utah desert. Abbey was a Ranger and his love of wild land fills this book like rain or sunshine.”16. Fate is the Hunter by Ernest Kellogg Gann“One pilot’s experiences from the birth of the US airlines in the 1920s through possibly profitable business in the 1930s, then flying freight and passengers world-wide in WWII, and the post-war boom. Gann had enough luck, skill, and courage to survive. Many of his friends and acquaintances did not. His writing is both graceful and direct, humble without being laconic. He doesn’t start something unless he has a point to make.”17. “The Fire Next Time” by James Baldwin“I fell in love with Baldwin’s words and thoughts the first time I read this book- 9th grade? Lean and unsparing, reflections on race and racism in the second half of the 20th century. Every word applies in 2019, maybe more so. Also courage and what still seeks to destroy Black Americans. I need to re-read it.”18. A Garlic Testament: Seasons on a Small New Mexico Farm by Stanley G. Crawford19. The Fallen Man by Tony Hillerman20. Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters by Matt Ridley21. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain22. Incredible Victory: The Battle of Midway by Walter Lord“The best kind of history, built of quotes from 350 survivors, 250 from the US and 100 from Japan. How code breaking, courage, luck and sacrifice stopped the Japanese conquest of the Pacific. A human tragedy, triumph and a victory that comprised 1/3 of what Winston Churchill called “The Hinge of Fate””23. Rising From The Plains by John McPhee24. Stranger in the Forest: On Foot Across Borneo by Eric Hansen25. Assembling California by John McPhee26. The Survival of the Bark Canoe by John McPhee27. Young Men and Fire by Norman MacLean28. Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body by Neil Shubin29. The Simple Art of Murder by Raymond Chandler30. The Immense Journey: An Imaginative Naturalist Explores the Mysteries of Man and Nature by Loren C. Eiseley31. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan32. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd edition by Edward R. Tufte33. Synapsida by John C. McLoughlin34. Five Equations that Changed the World: The Power and Poetry of Mathematics by Michael Guillen35. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn36. A Country Year: Living the Questions by Sue Hubbell37. All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot38. Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut’s Journeys by Michael Collins39. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli40: Ultramarine: Poems by Raymond Carver“Buy a copy for your brother. Read one of the poems to him.I think I’ve bugged more of my friends and family with Carver’s masterpiece, “The Car”, from this book, than with any other poem I’ve ever read. More than “Howl”, more than “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, “McCavity the Mystery Cat” or “Greed and Aggression”. There are teaching guides for middle school teachers to use this one as an exercise. Find it. Read it. Make up your own verses. Make up your own poem when you’re driving somewhere with your family. I’ll come back and edit in an excerpt, but trust me, you need this book, as a gift if nothing else.When I bought my brother a copy and stopped by his house and read him, “The Car”, he laughed and looked thoughtful, his wife squeezed his hand. and he paused, at the end, after,“… Car of my sleepless nights.My car.”and then he said, “‘The car I struck with a hammer.’ ‘The car I struck with a hammer.’ The car I cut to pieces with an oxy-acetylene torch !”See?Yeah, there’s sadness here too, but there’s a LOT of that tough heart that people, not just men, need to have to get by in this world.The first poem is called “What You Need To Paint” and lists (from a letter? a notebook?) things a well regarded fine art painter recorded. Brushes, Colors. And then the zinger, that gives the whole thing life: “The ability to work like a locomotive”.Its what we all need. Raymond Carver had it, and its beautiful to listen to, to watch, to live up to in your own life.So buy this one for your brother, or sister, or someone who YOU love, who can work like a locomotive, when its required.You won’t be sorry.”41: Seizing the Enigma: The Race to Break the German U-Boats Codes, 1939-1943 by David Khan42: Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain43: “The C Programming Language” – Kernighan and Ritchie44: “Broadsides from the Other Orders” – Sue Hubbell45: “Waiting for Aphrodite” – Sue Hubbell46: “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen47: “Sense and Sensibility” by Jane Austen48: “The Thin Man” – Hammett49: “Giant Squid” – Ellis50: “Becoming A Tiger” - SJ McCarthy51: “Microserfs” - Douglas Coupland52: “Meditations” - Marcus Aurelius53: “I, Claudius” & “Claudius The God” - Robert Graves54: “Wonderful Life” - Stephen J. Gould55: “The Souls Of Black Folk” - W.E.B. Du Bois56: “W. E. B. Du Bois's Data Portraits: Visualizing Black America” - W.E.B. Du Bois“Pair with Tufte, a practical example of excellent presentation. As if clairity is all that was needed to get the point across! (tears of frustration…)”57: “Funny Money” by Mark Singer

Nazism/Racism—Trump propaganda paralleled the propaganda used by Hitler and Joseph Goebbels.Trump’s radicalization of Americans through his rhetoric (lies)—His Nazi like tactic of provocation, along with violence by various pro-Trump White supremacist groups at public demonstrations that were similar to the Hitler Youth and his constant defamation, both written—libel (Joseph Goebbels had 126 libel suits pending against him at one point.) and spoken—slander, against any person, group of people, or any great American institution, were pure Joseph Goebbels tactics to manipulate the common man:“If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will come to believe it yourself.A lie told once remains a lie but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.There was no point in seeking to convert the intellectuals. For intellectuals would never be converted….this will always be the man in the street. Arguments must therefore be crude, clear, and forcible, and appeal to emotions and instincts, not the intellect. Truth was unimportant and entirely subordinate to tactics and psychology.The rank and file are usually much more primitive than we imagine. Propaganda must therefore always be essentially simple and repetitious.Propaganda works best when those who are being manipulated are confident they are acting on their own free will.This is the secret of propaganda: Those who are to be persuaded by it should be completely immersed in the ideas of the propaganda, without ever knowing they are being immersed in it.Propaganda must facilitate the displacement of aggression by specifying the targets of hatred.Think of the press as a great keyboard in which the government can play.The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly - it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.Not every item of news should be published. Rather must those who control news policies endeavor to make every item of news serve a certain purpose.It is the absolute right of the State to supervise the formation of public opinion.We enter parliament in order to supply ourselves, in the arsenal of democracy, with its own weapons. If democracy is so stupid as to give up free tickets and salaries for this bear’s work, that is its affair. We do not come as friends, nor even as neutrals. We come as enemies. As the wolf bursts into the flock, so we come.It would not be impossible to prove with sufficient repetition and a psychological understanding of the people concerned that a square is in fact a circle. They are mere words, and words can be molded until they clothe ideas and disguise.We shall reach our goal, when we have the power to laugh as we destroy, as we smash, whatever was sacred to us as tradition, as education, and as human affection.The essence of propaganda consists of winning people over to an idea so sincerely, so vitally, that in the end they succumb to it utterly and can never escape from it.If you tell a lie long enough, it becomes the truth.The English follow the principle that when one lies, it should be a big lie, and one should stick to it.Whoever can conquer the street will one day conquer the state, for every form of power politics and any dictatorship-run state has its roots in the street.The masses need something that will give them a thrill of horror.The war we are fighting until victory or the bitter end is in its deepest sense a war between Christ and Marx. Christ: the principal of love. Marx: the principle of hate.There is no need for propaganda to be rich in intellectual content.If we have power, we will never give it up again unless we’re carried out of our offices as corpses.There will come a day, when all the lies will collapse under their own weight, and truth will again triumph”.Historical significance—Trump’s lies and rhetoric opened a Pandora’s box of murder and mayhem by a far-right White supremacist mob who took the law into their own hands in the form of an attempted coup—MOBOCRACY. In the process, the Republican Party was radicalized by White conspiracists, racists, and religious militants and its leadership, or the lack thereof, Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell, and 147 of its Congress members, did nothing to stop it. It was no longer the Republican Party but the far-right QAnon Party who’s mission was the radicalization of Americans through social media—by using political psyops on mainstream social networks or platforms like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Reddit; and on more obscure alternative social networks like Parler, Newsmax, Rumble, and MeWe which have refrained from filtering unverified claims and don’t have moderation policies, like the mainstream networks, that address violent threats, hate speech, and defamation and so are very popular with Trump supporters, conspiracy theorists, and right-wing extremists since they can say anything with impunity; and on the dark corners of the internet or web, known as the “Deep Web”, where users can say or post anything in anonymity. Although some sites require users to sign up for an account, their profiles are not linked to their posts. Other sites popular with Trump supporters, such as 8chan and now known as 8kun, don’t require users to create an account, and posts default to the user name “anonymous”. For instance, one anonymous Trump supporter posted this on 8kun a day before the assault on the Capital, “We will storm the government buildings, kill cops, kill security guards, kill federal employees and agents, and demand a recount”. This radicalization was orchestrated by at least one Trump administration official, ex-General and National Security Advisor Michael Flynn (who resembles Q) and possibly more like Trump Aid Stan Scavino, internet trolls (Anons), and by Trump on Twitter and through his speeches of hatred, defamation, and disinformation. As president, he was an influential QAnon troll, but he lost his influence when he lost the election and failed to deliver on the January 6 uprising or “Storm” he warned us about the day before. When asked by a group of reporters what he meant, he replied, “You’ll find out”. This psyop was straight out of a terrorism 101 textbook on how to radicalize a nation in modern times. ISIS also used social media platorms, including Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to gain supporters. By March 2015, there were at least 46,000 pro-ISIS Twitter accounts, according to the Brookings Institution.Historical evaluation—As being one of the worst in history and the most controversial and divisive in modern US history. So much so that it will be considered as an aberration, a dark stain, an embarrassing and shameful chapter in American history, since no other time in our great history have we been led by a corrupt narcissist (*see below), an unprincipled autocrat, who created an alternative realty, unfounded conspiracy lies for his own political gain, to manipulate his supporters—self-righteous domestic terrorists. His antics an incompetence contributed to the deaths of tens of thousands. He attacked the very foundation of the Democratic institutions that made the US a beacon, and he pushed the nation to the threshold of autocracy and the demise of our Republic and Democracy.Post-Trump presidency backlash—Because of the radicalization of the Republican Party, a breakaway group of former Republican officials is in talks to form an anti-Trump third party, a potential splinter party, which wold run on a platform of “principled conservatism”, including adherence to the Constitution and the rule of law - ideas they say have been trashed by Trump. The plan would be to run candidates in some races but also to endorse center-right candidates in others, be they Republicans, independents, or Democrats.List the 7 worst character traits a person can have, and then you have Donald Trump: dishonest, hypocritical, self-centered, slanderous, amoral, a cheater, and a bully. It was surreal to watch a guy so flawed attract a massive cult following, especially among Evangelicals. Reason, facts, and truth were of no consequence, just an egotistical and Homeric ambition to slay anyone in his path to victory and glory. It really exposed the dark side of humanity that lurks among us when ignited by a self-deluded authoritarian figure. His legacy of carnage, lawlessness, and sedition will be transfixed in our minds by the images of the seditious White supremacist lynch mob of cop- killers he incited through lies to “storm” the US Capital in an insurrection, an attempted coup that left 5 dead (including an officer with the US Capital Police beaten to death with a fire extinguisher; others sustained brain injuries, one lost three fingers, another one lost an eye, one had two smashed discs, and another one was stabbed with a metal fence stake), to obstruct and overthrow our democracy by disrupting the joint sessions of Congress to certify Biden’s win by counting the electoral ballots from each state and instead appoint Trump as president. His infamous mentor, Roy Cohn, one of the most reviled men in political history, would be proud: Deflect and distract, never give in, never admit fault, lie and attack, lie and attack, publicity no matter what, win no matter what, all underpinned by a deep, prove-me-wrong belief in the power of chaos and fear. Trump’s response to the bloodthirsty mob: “We love you. You’re very special…These are the things that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously and viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly and unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love and in peace. Remember this day forever”.Lies—The Washington Post’s Fact Checker team counted 30,573 false or misleading claims made by Trump. Many of them were delivered directly to supporters over Twitter. It was his playbook for success. According to CBS correspondent Lesley Stahl, Trump explained to her in 2016, off camera, of course, why he attacked the press so regularly: “I do it to discredit you all and demean you all, so that when you write negative stories about me, no one will believe you”, thus his mantra “fake news”.Murder and Mayhem—His four years of lies in his bully pulpit had his supporters foaming at the mouth about our 2020 presidential election. They then organized themselves to violently take matters into their own hands—mobocracy. On January 27, 1838, a 28-year-old Abraham Lincoln gave a speech describing America’s greatest danger: the“mobcratic spirit”. This speech is known as the “Lyceum Address”, given at a time when our young country was facing great internal strife and debate about our collective path forward as a nation. In words that ring far to familiar today, he said, “I hope I am wary; but…there is, even now, something of ill-omen amongst us. I mean the increasing disregard for law which pervades the country; the growing disposition to substitute the wild and furious passions, in lieu of the sober judgments of courts…There is no grievance that is fit object of redress my mob law”, declared the man who would be our 16th president. Now, compare that speech to Trump’s. On January 6, 2021, Trump, our 45th president, gave a speech to the middle-aged White supremacist lynch mob at the White House, his supporters, declaring “Courts are bad”. So, go to the Capital, 1.5 miles away, and “Fight like hell”. Mobocracy isn’t just an American problem. It threatens all democracies around the world. India, the biggest democracy in the world, is also fighting this battle. On July 17, 2020, India’s Supreme Court said that “horrendous acts of mobocracy” cannot be allowed to overrun the law of the land and issued a slew of guidelines to deal with mob lynching (Remember Trump’s mob who built a gallows in front of the White Hiuse and chanted “Hang Mike Pence” as they stormed the Capital.) and cow vigilantism (It was religious vengeance against evil in their minds just like Trump’s supporters.).It threatened our democracy and Republic because it was an unprecedented insurrection against our democracy and lawfully elected president. It took the form of a modern Salem witch-hunt. But this time, it was a hunt for a rigged election allegedly orchestrated by Democrats who were characterized as being Marxist Socialists, Communists, Satanists, pedophiles, and chid sex-traffickers, an in all the hysteria, any state official, county official, company official, citizen, or members of Congress could be found culpable for it without proof and burned at the stake. In contrast to Lincoln, Trump gave a speech desecrating our courts: “Courts are bad….When you catch somebody in a fraud. You’re allowed to go by very different rules….You don’t concede when there’s theft involved….You will have an illegitimate president, that’s what you’ll have. And we can’t let that happen….We will not be intimidated into accepting the hoaxes and the lies that we’ve been forced to believe over the past several weeks. We have amassed overwhelming evidence about a fake election….Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore….Truth and justice is on our side….Together we are determined to defend and preserve government of the people, by the people, and for the people….We want to go back, and we want to get this right because we are going to have someone in there that should not be there and our country will be destroyed, and we’re not going to stand for that….We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore”. So, moments later, it became a physical assault, “trial by combat”, Giuliani said, on our Capitol and a hunt for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence to violently stop the peaceful transfer of power by mob law.We had become like Rome. Augustus had told Romans he was the only one who could save Rome, make Rome great again, and they believed him.Imagine a world where political norms have broken down. There’s murder and mayhem. Senators use bad faith arguments to block the government from getting anything done. An autocrat rigs (or another one person tries to rig) elections and gives himself complete control over the government. Even stranger, many voters subscribe to the autocrat’s personality cult and agree that he should have absolute control. Welcome to Rome (or the US 20 centuries later) in the 1st century BCE. The Republic that had existed for over 400 years had finally hit a crisis it couldn’t overcome. Rome itself wouldn’t fall, but during this period it lost its Republic forever thanks to Augustus Caesar.The only positive aspect of Trump’s presidency was how great our American Republic and democracy (the rule of law, our Constitution, and government by the people) was in protecting the will of the people in contrast to the Roman Republic, in spite of also having an autocratic and fascist president (**see below) who stoked his cult of personality among his supporters (but not “the people”, he, instead, slanderously attacked most Americans, especially the college educated and nonWhites) on Twitter and Republican News networks in order to try keep himself in power. Trump was able to fool millions of voters, members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, and state officials, but he was unable to fool or deceive our judiciary, our courts—state, federal, and Supreme Court; our federal government—the Attorney General William Barr who Trump appointed and the Department of Justice (DOJ), including FBI Director Chris Wray who he appointed; our Department of Defense—our military (It serves our Constitution and not the president, said Army General Mark Miley and former secretary of defense under Trump, Marine General James Mattis.); our state, local, and federal election administrators and officials— the Department of Homeland Security including its cybersecurity officials (CISA), the members of the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council (GCC) Executive Committee, the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS), the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED), and the members of the Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Council (SCC); our free press; and most Americans (Over 7 million more voted for President Biden.).That racist far-right (Oath Keepers—an anti- government militia group that claims to have recruited tens of thousands of former law-enforcement and military officials into its rank; Three Percenters—an anti-government militia group; and the Boogaloo Bois—an anti-government militia group); the non racist alt-right—Proud Boys who promote Western culture and not the White race; religious (Evangelicals, who don’t separate church and state, saw success under Trump on issues, such as abortion, assault weapons, immigration, and Israel, and view Democratic Party candidates as anti-Christ’s that don’t support their religious views), and non-college educated White male citizens (Their female counterparts dumped Trump in the 2020 election.) voted for an authoritarian figure who speak their language and promoted their religious, political, and racist agenda.That Republicans fell for 2 conspiracy lies or hoaxes: 1), a religious conspiracy lie, and 2), an internet conspiracy lie, known as QAnon, in order to try to keep Trump in power by undoing the 2020 election.—Middle aged, White, Evangelical Republicans, who seek a religious state over a secular one because they don’t separate church and state, fell for an outrageous religious conspiracy lie propagated by the “Liberty Center for God and Country” because they saw Trump as their candidate to deliver them from evil. LCGC’s founder, Steven Hotze, a doctor in Texas, said that Communist revolutionaries have been undermining the American Constitutional Republic for decades (McCarthyism). Their goal is to establish a totalitarian Communist regime in the United States. He asserted, “The Communist revolutionaries have infiltrated the public school system, university facilities, the seminaries and clergy, the state and federal bureaucracies, corporations and both political parties. The Democrat Party has been completely taken over by Marxist Socialists and Communists. ANTIFA and BLM are the militant arm of the Democrats. It has been well documented that their funding has come from the Communist Chinese Party. The Chinese Communist Party has bought off leaders in the Democratic Party and in the mainstream media”. This organization was also the main source and proponent of voter fraud. In the six weeks leading up to 2020 election, LCGC paid nearly $300,000 on 20 private investigators to probe what they claimed was “the Democrats massive election fraud scheme in Harris County”. The group’s lead investigator, ex policeman Mark Aguirre, assaulted, David Lopez-Zuniga, with his vehicle and then at gun point because he falsely believed that Zuniga was transporting truckloads of mail-in ballots fraudulently signed by Hispanic children whose fingerprints couldn’t be traced. The following are some of their posts on their website:[Note to Christians: Your making the same mistake as Jesus’ disciples were making by looking for a political messiah. Christians need to quit seeking a political messiah. Jesus, our Messiah, has already come, and he established a spiritual kingdom, not a earthly one.]—Middle-aged, White, far-right militant Republicans, who seek political victory at all costs, fell for an internet conspiracy lie, known as QAnon, alleging that a secret cabal of Deep State pedophiles connected to Democrats and celebrities were manipulating the government and controlling the media in pursuit of dark ends including child sex trafficking (cf. the Salem witch hunts), and QAnon believers regard Trump as their champion fighting the pedophiles. QAnon draws its name from Q, a self-professed government insider who posts cryptic messages on obscure Internet chat boards. It started out as a larp and a joke and then morphed into a political organization when people started taking the game seriously as though they were really getting cryptic messages from an unnamed government source (that many perceive to be Michael Flynn) about who really controls the government and media. Yeah, even Mike Myers wouldn’t have tried to write storylines this preposterous. Have we forgotten the Salem witch hunts? But it did catch on, all the way to the White House. After Trump fired every advisor he had in the federal government who wouldn’t support his lies, he then surrounded himself with discredited sycophants and conspiracy theorists to feed him his own lies. He turned to two high-profile QAnon hero’s, Michael Flynn (He refers to himself as a “digital soldier”, and he follows other soldiers on the internet.) and Sidney Powell, to advise him on how to undo the results of the election, and Flynn advised him to use the military and “rerun” the 2020 election. And they are not the only Republicans embracing this internet lie. President Trump has retweeted hundreds of pro-QAnon tweets, and he praised, calling her a “future Republican Star”, Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green, a QAnon believer. She even drew scorn from Republican leaders, for her QAnon affiliation, during her primary race, but they quickly embraced her and instead attacked Liz Cheney. She also said on Facebook and video that Nancy Pelosi should be killed with a bullet to the head, that other other Democrats should be executed, such as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, and FBI agents who are members of the Deep State. But one high-profile Republican, Arizona Republican Party Chairwoman Kelli Ward tweeted a QAnon slogan or hashtag: “Mr. President….we are with you in #Arizona. We are working every avenue to stop this coup & to stop our Republic from crumbling….#CrossTheRubicon”, a reference to Julius Caesar’s crossing the Rubicon river after the Roman Senate told him not to, effectively kick-starting the Roman civil war and Caesar’s dictatorship. These Republicans were doing the unthinkable, they were asking for a dictatorship by ignoring the will of the people, the House, and the Senate. Jesus didn’t even do this. He submitted himself to the Roman Republic. A lot of Republicans were now looking to Julius Caesar, instead of our great American Presidents, as the type of leader they wanted to emulate. Controlling people through myth or lies, however, is nothing new. Instead, that’s how it’s often done. Up until the 19th century CE, kings and pharaohs used religious myths that made them god-kings, in the 20th century, governments used scientific myths or lies (eugenics) that espoused White supremacy, and in the 21st century, governments used conspiracy myths a new type of myth to gain and maintain power. And the QAnon myth, like all popular myths, borrows from earlier myths and fears, most notably, Pizzagate, in the fall of 2016, and then, suddenly, in October 2017, Q comes roaring with a lot of the same ideas attached to it. And, any racist or anti-communist is easy prey to be duped into believing any type of conspiracy myth that perpetuates their communist fears (McCarthyism).That there was a large White segment of the population who didn’t get their information from independent news sources, the free press (journalists and not commentators), but only from unvetted partisan sources—their own news services, that is, Trump media, on such forums as Twitter, Facebook, Parler (is becoming popular because they are getting banned on Twitter for their disinformation) YouTube, and on Fox News (and its new challengers, Newsmax and OANN, One American News Network) which served as a mouthpiece for the Trump administration, providing propaganda for Trump, and becoming a form of state TV as directed by its creator Rupert Murdoch (***see below) and his hypocritical Republican agenda (news sources should be unbiased, critical, and truthful), and from a fake university—PragerU, short for Prager University. However, it’s not a university but is an American media company that creates videos on various political, economic, and philosophical topics from an intolerant or American right-wing perspective. While those on the far-right, the extremists, got their news or information from QAnon on anonymous websites, such as 8kun. Their conservative Republican leaders like to keep them ignorant and uneducated so that they can sell them anything. According to one of their heroes, the talk show radio host Rush Limbaugh, the four corners of deceit are “the government, academia, science, and the main stream media”. That’s right out of the Communist handbook on how to win over and then control their citizens. So, they flock to the true deceivers who keep them blind. On a positive note, in December, Newsmax, Fox News, and One America News Network were threatened with defamation lawsuits from a pair of voting-system companies. Smartmatic threatened to take legal action against the three news programs and is also demanding retractions. Dominion lawyers told Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell that legal action is “imminent”. A top employee of Dominion Voting Systems, Eric Coomer, director of product strategy and security for the Denver-based company, who went into hiding after becoming the subject of conspiracy theories from the right since the election, is suing the Trump campaign, a number of campaign surrogates, and pro-Trump media outlets, alleging defamation. Dominion also took one step towards legal action against Sidney Powell by sending a retraction letter, comparing the “Karen” to “Bigfoot” and the “Loch Ness monster”. The company and its voting machines, it says, have been the target of a relentless and “reckless disinformation” campaign led by Powell, Rudy Giuliani, other allies of President Trump, and Trump himself. [Update: Dominion has filed defamation lawsuits against Giuliani and Powell for 1.3. billion each]That Trump was a complete failure in leading us during a pandemic. He never embraced medical science and its experts who recommended that we wear masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19. From the White House to his rallies, there was no mask wearing mandates. The attendees only had to sign a waiver to not sue Trump if they got the virus while there. Rather, he wanted massive crowds and spectacle (a fascist ploy) in order to give the impression of his popularity, even to the extent of always lying about the crowd numbers, but with no concern for the safety of the attendees. Hundreds were infected with COVID-19 just within the White House and many more from his rallies, causing some to even die, such as Herman Cain.That his presidency was mired in corruption, scandal, and nepotism (****see below). In August, 2020, New York prosecutors told a federal judge that there were “public reports of possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization”. They added that they may also be investigating possible crimes involving bank and insurance fraud, according to the New York Times, which also reported that Deutsche Bank has been complying with a Manhattan’s District Attorney’s Office subpoena for months, turning over detailed financial records in connection with some $2 billion the bank has lent Trump. The subpoena also appears to go beyond obtaining financial records relating to alleged pre-election hush money payments to silence two women, Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. Both of the women have claimed to had affairs with Trump. Information gleaned from the DA’s inquiry could expose tax cheating and money laundering as well as bank and insurance fraud, which are felonies. In addition, now that he has pardoned criminals, it is highly likely that he will face obstruction of justice charges. Especially since he alluded to it as revealed in the Mueller investigation.That 70% of Republicans believed the election wasn’t fair (Politico.com) because of Trump’s lies. He could say anything, and his supporters believed it. It amazed me how a president could lie everyday on Twitter, spill toxic filth, and defame his own citizens all over the country without repercussions. For instance, two days after the race was called for Biden, Trump tweeted, “Nevada is turning out to be a cesspool of Fake Votes” and “Pennsylvania prevented us from watching much of the Ballot count”. Two states falsely and maliciously defamed in just one tweet. The irony is that three people were arrested for voting fraud in Pennsylvania, all Republicans who tried to vote for Trump twice, and they were charged with committing multiple felonies.That Trump was acting like an authoritarian dictator trying to illegally and unconstitutionally overthrow our election so he could stay in power. In contrast, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who is in GOP leadership and oversees inaugurations as chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, said that “the president should turn this discussion over to his lawyers. And if they have a case to make, there’s a process where they make that”. And that it was reasonable “for Biden to accept the mantle of presumptive president in the interim if news organizations begin calling the election for him”. And Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), said that “the president is wrong to say that the election was rigged, corrupt, or stolen—doing so damages the cause of freedom here and around the world, weakens the institutions that lie at the foundation of the Republic, and recklessly inflames destruction and dangerous passions”.The number of hate groups operating across America rose to a record high—following three consecutive years of decline near the end of the Obama administration—as Trump continued to fan the flames of White resentment over immigration and the country’s changing demographics. Whereas other presidents, such as Obama and John Kennedy, followed the example of Jesus who condemned hatred towards our neighbor: “If we cannot now end our differences”, said JFK, “at least we can help make the world safe for diversity”.The Republican Party became a party of disinformation (e.g., the Republican Party alleged voter and election fraud, but they didn’t do it in court, just on social media), election conspiracy theories (e.g., Trump adviser Sidney Powell alleged that Dominion voting machines were rigged and that Georgia’s Rep. Governor Brian Kemp had been bribed by a Venezuelan front company, with ties to Hugo Chavez, in cahoots with the CIA to throw elections to Communists),and of authoritarianism, ignoring the rule of law (e.g., Trump tried to redo the elections in the 4 swing states he lost.), as it supported Trump’s anti-democracy efforts. 106 House Republicans and 17 state Republican attorney generals backed a Texas lawsuit to overturn the 2020 election. The lawsuit sought to overturn millions of votes in four battleground states that president-elect Joe Biden legally won. Texas congressman Louie Gohmert and pack of GOPers sued Vice President Mike Pence in bid to pick Trump electors and overturn election results on January 6. His lawsuit claimed Pence has the unilateral authority to keep Trump in office, and 139 House GOP and 8 GOP Senators, led by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, objected to the electoral college votes.Though some or even many may have done it so that they wouldn’t get primaried, it was harmful to our democracy. Many Americans lost confidence and faith in our democracy and election system. As a result, the Republican Party lost any semblance of “moral integrity” it always claimed it had, its fiscal conservatism that it actually hasn’t had since George H. Bush (Since the world wars, it has been Republican presidents that have put us in national debt: Reagan added 1.86 trillion due to his tax cuts and defense spending, increasing it’s budget by 35%; George H. Bush, in contrast, was the last Republican president who tried to live up to the label of a fiscal conservative. He raised taxes to cut the budget deficit; George W. Bush added 6.1 trillion due to his 2 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and his 2008 financial crisis, and he left Obama with the tab; and Donald Trump added almost 7 trillion due mainly to his tax cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 which caused an annual budget deficit of over 1 trillion for 4 years while Congress added another 2.4 trillion to fight the pandemic.), and the Republican Party lost its “tax cut” moniker since it was also a scam or lie under Trump. Trump and the Republicans swindled us. The law they passed initially lowered taxes for most Americans, but it built in automatic, stepped increases every 2 years that began in 2021 and that by 2027 would affect nearly everyone but the people at the top of the economic hierarchy. Corporate tax cuts are permanent, but for the poor and average citizen they are not. And instead, all taxpayer income groups with incomes of 75,000 and under—that’s about 65% of taxpayers—will face a higher tax rate in 2027 than in 2019. So, it was a tax increase delayed until after Trump would possibly start his 2nd term in office, how convenient.It acted like a third-world country. Confidence in America plummeted when he took office. Much of the world was watching the US with a mix of shock, chagrin, and most of all, bafflement. His bungling of the pandemic and authoritarian rhetoric made the world even more uneasy. Here are some quotes from around the world: “The USA is a first-world country but is acting like a third-world country”, said U Aung Thu Nyein, a political analyst in Myanmar. Adding to the bewilderment was his refusal to accept defeat by challenging our democracy. “It reminds me of Belarus, when a person cannot admit defeat and looks for any means to prove that he couldn’t lose”, said Kiryl Kalbasnikau. In 2020, Trump was named “Loser of the Year” by German news magazine, and one of Europe’s biggest news magazines, Der Spiegel. Trump is regarded in the German, French, Swedish, Norwegian, and Spanish press as a buffoon, a low IQ ugly American, and a fascist, dictator wannabe. Being “Loser of the Year” seems a mild moniker considering the negative views held of him by a vast majority of Europeans.(*****See below for his unparalleled list of lifetime losses.) “Trump’s presidency ends as it began: without decency and without dignity”, Der Speigal declared. Someone on QUORA asked “Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?” Nate White (irony?) from England wrote the following response: “A few things come to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace — all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief”…. “Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he just doesn’t talk in crude, witless insults — he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness”. Those were just a “few” things that came to his mind lol. For more great insight, read his full article, “British Writer Pens the Best Description of Trump I’ve Read”. In contrast, JFK and Barack Obama are highly admired worldwide. Six of JFK’s speeches have been translated into 12 languages, and nations across the globe hailed Obama’s presidency as a stroke for racial equality and a presidency that brought better international ties with a balanced, less confrontational US. Those were times when America was great.On a humorous note, maybe I should have just quoted Liddel’ Savage:_________________________________________*First fn. Narcissism Symptoms:** Trump’s first national security adviser, Michal Flynn, who he pardoned for lying to the FBI, made calls for Trump to invoke martial law, and in the minds of some authoritarian-leaning and conspiracy-minded Trump supporters, the Insurrection Act was a needed step to prevent president-elect Joe Biden from assuming the presidency. Trump did reject the election outcome and tried to unlawfully and unconstitutionally force others to support him, firing them if they didn’t and replacing them with lackeys, and if the military was under his control, he would have used them and invoked martial law. Steve Bannon, the chief executive officer of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and who was appointed Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor to the President following Trump’s election, had his Twitter account permanently suspended after he suggested that Dr Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray should be beheaded. Trump also tried to control the media by calling all non-Trump (non-state-controlled) media “fake news”, and it became the mantra for his cultists. Florida Rep. Governor Ron Desantis, sent his gestapo (state police) to raid the home of former Department of Health data manager, Rebekah Jones, who he previously fired, for not altering COVID-19 data. They pointed a gun in her face and at her kids, and took her phone and computer.***In New Zealand, the quality of political discourse improved dramatically when Rupert Murdoch’s media left the country. Just think how much Murdoch and other Fox News investors have profited over the years from sowing misinformation and turning Americans against one another. His son, James Murdoch, issued a excoriating rebuke following the storming of the Capital. He condemned the US media for “propagating lies” which have unleashed “insidious and uncontrollable forces” that will endure for years. Questioned about Fox News, he said media groups had amplified election disinformation, which successfully sowed falsehoods.****Trump’s most powerful advisor was his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who approved the creation of a campaign shell company that secretly paid the president’s family members and spent almost half of the campaign’s $1.26 billion war chest, a person familiar with the operation told Business Insider.*****This will be a shock to many, but Trump is considered to be a phony and a loser in New York and New Jersey, and he is just now being exposed nationally and internationally for who he really is though he will continue to be able to feed off his many sheep who will hang with him until the dying end. His most infamous failure, as recorded by QUORA writer Mike Burch, was to “turn $413 million dollars in free money from his father into losses of over a billion dollars in six bankruptcies, forfeiting all his casinos in the process”. (The Trump Taj Mahal exemplifies who Trump really is, an indebted con man. “He’s nothing but a snake oil salesman”, said Steve Jenkins in South Jersey, ******see below) “His bankers”, Burch added, “made him sell his yacht and put him on a allowance. And he has a long list of other failures: the fraudulent Trump “University”, the fraudulent Trump Foundation “charity”, Trump Steaks, Trump Vodka, Trump Ice, Trump Mortgage, Trump Magazine, Trump Shuttle, Donald Trump, the fragrance (i.e., pure reeky bullshit), TrumpNet, goTrump.com, Trump Gold-Plated Toilets, etc. All losers, so sad!”******One of Trump’s lawyers told Vanity Fair’s Marie Brenner, Donald is a believer in the big-lie theory. If you say something again and again, people will believe you”.