{"id":54235,"date":"2020-05-05T15:25:10","date_gmt":"2020-05-05T19:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/?p=54235"},"modified":"2020-05-06T15:57:41","modified_gmt":"2020-05-06T19:57:41","slug":"testing-the-depths-of-our-incredulity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/testing-the-depths-of-our-incredulity\/","title":{"rendered":"Testing the Depths of Our Incredulity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There\u2019s that meme again, a jocular George W. Bush.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_54238\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-54238\" style=\"width: 1000px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Miss-Me-Yet-2020-05-05_09-45-47.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"54238\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/testing-the-depths-of-our-incredulity\/miss-me-yet-2020-05-05_09-45-47\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Miss-Me-Yet-2020-05-05_09-45-47.jpg?fit=1000%2C850&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1000,850\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Miss Me Yet 2020-05-05_09-45-47\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Miss-Me-Yet-2020-05-05_09-45-47.jpg?fit=1000%2C850&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Miss-Me-Yet-2020-05-05_09-45-47.jpg?resize=1000%2C850&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Miss me yet meme of GW Bush\" width=\"1000\" height=\"850\" class=\"size-full wp-image-54238\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Miss-Me-Yet-2020-05-05_09-45-47.jpg?w=1000&amp;ssl=1 1000w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Miss-Me-Yet-2020-05-05_09-45-47.jpg?resize=300%2C255&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Miss-Me-Yet-2020-05-05_09-45-47.jpg?resize=768%2C653&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-54238\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Borrowed from The Ale Party page on Facebook&#8230;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It does take me back, almost 20 years, with the strange effect of persuading me that my 50s just possibly might have been still occurring in the flush of my youth. I remember especially trying to explain what\u2019s what with American politics and how we choose our leaders to French neighbors (in France, lest there be any mistake), who would ask over a late afternoon gathering for ap\u00e9ros in a small village in Provence, \u201cWhat about this Bush (\u201cboosh\u201d they would pronounce it)? Is he really that stoopid?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the larger context of the entirety of my life, if not the much greater one having nothing to do with me of the modern history of western civilization (\u201cmodern,\u201d I admit, being a frangible and relative qualifier; let\u2019s just say since about the time of the French Revolution, when we pretty much validated for all time ever since the invention of the white people\u2019s expedient of assassinating onerous and exasperating leaders of the current system of governance), George Walker Bush seems only a whistle stop (putting things in perspective, as well as context) for the great train of dubious heads of state of an otherwise allegedly enlightened western democracy.<\/p>\n<p>I remember the incredulity with which many of us pondered how it was possible he was president of the Land of Lincoln (and Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Madison et alia (even taking into account the all too concrete expediency of such strategies as manipulating electoral politics, even to the extent of relying on a politically stacked deck of otherwise nominally unbiassed meters of justice and judicial probity in a small body of elders called the Supreme Court to convey a judgment, seemingly neutral in its assessment of constitutional applicability and prudence, that conveyed the electoral college votes of the great State of Florida to the presidential tally of former frat boy and recovering alcoholic George, as I say, Walker Boosh)). Now all surpassed, a mere eight years after the tenure of Bush the Younger by the investiture of he who already has won the historical sweepstakes for the absolute bull goose, emperor duck worst of presidents to reside at the head of our government, only to be exceeded doubtlessly by some, at this juncture, inconceivable specimen of the future, perhaps not even, as yet, born, assuming our great nation survives much longer. But then, are we to subscribe to the quaintly chauvinistic conceit that America, greatest of all nations yet to emerge on the world stage in the ten thousand year history of our race as an entity we call in the aggregate \u201ccivilization,\u201d could not possibly be surpassed as a wellspring of paradigms of whatever sort: greatness and awfulness alike, in a terrible way to consider as a wholly neutral matter\u2014which it doubtless is to a mute and otherwise inscrutable universe?<\/p>\n<p>Just when you think the electorate is incapable of any more corrosive bad judgment, even yet, after ten millennia, driven by violently emotionally held beliefs in what they know not how to articulate are their most fervently embraced values\u2014abstractions mind you; I mean philosophical concepts that they couldn\u2019t begin to convey using concrete language, and certainly not sufficiently well to pass the literacy portion of a high school education equivalency examination\u2014they go ahead and prove you a credulous fool.<\/p>\n<div class=\"likebtn_container\" style=\"\"><!-- LikeBtn.com BEGIN --><span class=\"likebtn-wrapper\"  data-identifier=\"post_54235\"  data-site_id=\"65de0987943ec9a27c3a9d5c\"  data-theme=\"lightgray\"  data-dislike_enabled=\"false\"  data-icon_dislike_show=\"false\"  data-style=\"\"  data-unlike_allowed=\"\"  data-show_copyright=\"\"  data-item_url=\"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/testing-the-depths-of-our-incredulity\/\"  data-item_title=\"Testing the Depths of Our Incredulity\"  data-item_image=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Miss-Me-Yet-2020-05-05_09-45-47.jpg?fit=1000%2C850&amp;ssl=1\"  data-item_date=\"2020-05-05T15:25:10-04:00\"  data-engine=\"WordPress\"  data-plugin_v=\"2.6.59\"  data-prx=\"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php?action=likebtn_prx\"  data-event_handler=\"likebtn_eh\" ><\/span><!-- LikeBtn.com END --><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There\u2019s that meme again, a jocular George W. Bush. It does take me back, almost 20 years, with the strange [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"likebtn_container\" style=\"\"><!-- LikeBtn.com BEGIN --><span class=\"likebtn-wrapper\"  data-identifier=\"post_54235\"  data-site_id=\"65de0987943ec9a27c3a9d5c\"  data-theme=\"lightgray\"  data-dislike_enabled=\"false\"  data-icon_dislike_show=\"false\"  data-style=\"\"  data-unlike_allowed=\"\"  data-show_copyright=\"\"  data-item_url=\"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/testing-the-depths-of-our-incredulity\/\"  data-item_title=\"Testing the Depths of Our Incredulity\"  data-item_image=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Miss-Me-Yet-2020-05-05_09-45-47.jpg?fit=1000%2C850&amp;ssl=1\"  data-item_date=\"2020-05-05T15:25:10-04:00\"  data-engine=\"WordPress\"  data-plugin_v=\"2.6.59\"  data-prx=\"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php?action=likebtn_prx\"  data-event_handler=\"likebtn_eh\" ><\/span><!-- 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that meme again, a jocular George W. Bush. It does take me back, almost 20 years, with the strange [&hellip;]","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ZrXL-e6L","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":27088,"url":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/no-good-can-come-of-this-newstead-of-state-to-facebook\/","url_meta":{"origin":54235,"position":0},"title":"No Good Can Come of This\u2014Newstead of State to Facebook","author":"Howard","date":"2019 April 23","format":false,"excerpt":"So, the deathstar gets Jennifer Newstead as wily mouthpiece: Newstead\u2014from the Patriot Act to Zuckerberg's Counsel This is where I dip into my highly conserved store of exclamations rarely used. Yikes. I see in this move, probably objectively a brilliant one by Facebook, though they'll need a public relations genius\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Current Events&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Current Events","link":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/category\/current-events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Jennifer_Gillian_Newstead-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":54189,"url":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/with-a-sharpie-what-can-go-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":54235,"position":1},"title":"With a Sharpie\u00ae what can go wrong?","author":"Howard","date":"2019 September 6","format":false,"excerpt":"You just can't go wrong with a product like Sharpie Well, you might, if you happen to be a recent chief executive of the United States who happens to have problems with way more than one or two words in the lyrics to \"God Bless America\"... It's OK with that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Culture&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Culture","link":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/category\/culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Sharpie-marker-types.jpg?fit=1200%2C467&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Sharpie-marker-types.jpg?fit=1200%2C467&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Sharpie-marker-types.jpg?fit=1200%2C467&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Sharpie-marker-types.jpg?fit=1200%2C467&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Sharpie-marker-types.jpg?fit=1200%2C467&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":54120,"url":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/shorts-and-briefs-2-july-2019-when-youre-smiling\/","url_meta":{"origin":54235,"position":2},"title":"Shorts and Briefs | 2 July 2019 | When You&#8217;re Smiling","author":"Howard","date":"2019 July 2","format":false,"excerpt":"\"ThankYouSoMuch Mr. President_#02,\" Raffaello De Vito, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Trump Thoughts Today This happens sometimes when I am surfing and I do my daily check as a lurker on Facebook. I saw two links in particular that caught my eye, to news stories in standard mainstream media sources.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Current Events&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Current Events","link":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/category\/current-events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kim-Jong-un-Behance-bd68e767970641.5b4cf2c32e751-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C717&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kim-Jong-un-Behance-bd68e767970641.5b4cf2c32e751-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C717&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kim-Jong-un-Behance-bd68e767970641.5b4cf2c32e751-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C717&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kim-Jong-un-Behance-bd68e767970641.5b4cf2c32e751-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C717&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kim-Jong-un-Behance-bd68e767970641.5b4cf2c32e751-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C717&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":172,"url":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/bertha-shorts_briefs_27_may_2016\/","url_meta":{"origin":54235,"position":3},"title":"Shorts &#038; Briefs | 29 May 2016","author":"Howard","date":"2016 May 29","format":false,"excerpt":"100 years, 70 years, 50... Verdun, Hiroshima, Vietnam... it's a busy time, and a busy week, for reconciling ourselves to one another on the planet, or doing so ceremoniously. We seem to choose nice round numbers\u2014even decades are best. I reckon in 2066, we'll be joining hands with Syrians and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Culture&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Culture","link":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/category\/culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/verdun.jpg?fit=720%2C405&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/verdun.jpg?fit=720%2C405&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/verdun.jpg?fit=720%2C405&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/verdun.jpg?fit=720%2C405&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":53928,"url":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/shorts-briefs-10-may-2019-deconstructing-facebook\/","url_meta":{"origin":54235,"position":4},"title":"Shorts &#038; Briefs | 10 May 2019 | Deconstructing Facebook","author":"Howard","date":"2019 May 10","format":false,"excerpt":"I want to recommend for your current events reading today this rather long read, a New York Times opinion piece as part of their Privacy Project, intended for the Sunday Review by the co-founder of Facebook, Chris Hughes (so insinuated into the fledgling company, when it hadn\u2019t quite started to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Culture&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Culture","link":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/category\/culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Zuckerberg_Hughes_Harvard_2004_Rick_Friedman-jumbo-e1557490540632.jpg?fit=680%2C686&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Zuckerberg_Hughes_Harvard_2004_Rick_Friedman-jumbo-e1557490540632.jpg?fit=680%2C686&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Zuckerberg_Hughes_Harvard_2004_Rick_Friedman-jumbo-e1557490540632.jpg?fit=680%2C686&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":55090,"url":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/trump-as-of-today\/","url_meta":{"origin":54235,"position":5},"title":"Trump as of Today","author":"Howard","date":"2024 October 6","format":false,"excerpt":"In the Times today, there\u2019s an analysis of possible signs of encroaching loss of cognitive ability in the former president. Essentially, the signs are a broadening and intensification of tendencies that have been there at least since the famous walk down the gold escalator that defined the identifying trope and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Analysis&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Analysis","link":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/category\/analysis\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}