BIGGER CAN BE A BUGGER THAT NEEDS TO BE IGNORED

by PETER THOMAS BUSCH

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paceX finally made a success of the tenth test launch of the spacecraft designed to haul 100 ton payloads and 20+ people to the Moon and to the planet Mars.

I watched 8 Starlink satellites get deployed into orbit like a Pez dispenser within 30 minutes of the launch, during a 60 minute flight test of Starship 37.

The successful test launch occurred on Wednesday, August 27, at 3:30 CT, after two previous failed attempts. The Super Heavy booster, with 33 raptor engines, sprung a leak on an oxidizer line on August 24. Mother Nature prevented a second attempt with the appearance of those destabilizing anvil clouds on August 25.

CEO Elon Musk may be on an identical tract as the next iteration of Starship V3 after suffering a public relations ‘rapid unscheduled disassembly’ with his participation in the United States President Donald Trump’s DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) government departmental budget cuts.

Each Starship launch costs an estimated $100 million.

The spaceship being developed for interplanetary travel has a rocket booster stage and a spaceship stage. The Super Heavy booster that separates and the Starship that continues on through space are being designed as independent reusable components, if SpaceX can just get the two components of the space exploration vehicle to return to Earth safely.

Test flight number 7 failed on January 16, and number 8 failed on March 6, with rocket debris falling back to Earth and causing property damage, while number 9 failed after reaching maximum velocity on May 27, 2025. A static fire test resulted in Starship 36 exploding on the launch pad on June 18.

The Starship is to be used as part of the NASA Artemis program that will land humans on the Moon in 2027.

Musk is also in a hurry to meet the next Mars launch window, which opens-up only every 26 months. If Musk misses the next launch window during late 2026 – everyone will have to wait over two years just for the launch, let alone the 6-9 months of travel time from Earth to the surface of the fourth planet from the Sun.

And to do what he intends to do, which is to build an inhabited city on the planet, Musk will not have too many opportunities left if he intends to see for himself the milestone in the evolution of humanity as an interplanetary species before he himself pushes off this mortal coil.

The World’s Richest Person will leave a lasting legacy for his 11 children and innumerable grandchildren if he can be the first person to send humans to the surface of Mars and colonize the planet with the establishment of a permanent human settlement.

Musk is also in a race for perpetual legacy gifts with Telegram founder Pavel Durov who has 106 children, 100 of whom are via sperm donorship in 12 countries. Durov does consider all 106 children his children, maintaining the intention of dividing his $13.9 billion net worth among all 106 children.

The privately owned non-governmental space exploration company will now move on to a third generation design of the Starship with the intended purpose of this V3 being the final iteration used for the first space voyages.

Starship needs to be able to carry a big enough payload and as many people as possible to justify the tremendous effort required to travel to Mars.

If you need to know, billionaire Elon Musk began his space journey in 2002 by making offers on two Dnepr rockets cast aside by Russia during the de-escalation of the Cold War arms race and the decommissioning of nuclear missiles held in excess to that which was deemed needed to destroy the world many times over.

Musk took a similar approach to Tesla, initially modifying existing car chassis and purchasing parts from other motor vehicle manufacturers before machining Tesla specific chassis and parts for mass production.

For SpaceX though, while the auto industry traditionally sources out parts for cars, the mark up on rocket parts was far beyond what Musk would pay. Musk instead found a team of engineers who could machine their own rocket parts for a fraction of the cost.

This frugality indicates that the charismatic has not yet damaged his business judgment with too much marijuana toxification.

Every penny and every pound matters because of the overall space vision of launching a thousand times per year. If the parts were already a thousand times too expensive, a thousand times a thousand launches would add up to more money than a privately owned company could possibly summon from global money markets.

SpaceX, like Tesla and Musk himself, is a product of the technological revolution, accelerating dominance with the feverish pace of competition fuelling innovation that has exponentially accelerated further advances.

Innovating a smaller microprocessor, for example, not only allows for smaller iPhones but for the fabrication of smaller satellites, requiring smaller rockets run by smaller computers, with less fuel required to boost the product into Earth’s near orbit.

This shrinkage increases in importance because of the current $1400 cost of putting one kilogram of cargo into orbit. The SpaceX dreamscape can only occur if the cost is reduced to $20 per kilogram, which Musk intends to do by manufacturing reusable rockets.

Musk states that the Starship on top of the Super Heavy booster will operate like a commercial passenger airliner capable of multiple trips per day.

SpaceX intends to ship 100 tonnes of payload with each Starship.

The ability of humanity to excel during this crushing revolution of technological change has coincided with Musk’s awareness of humanities consciousness. This human consciousness sets civilizations apart from the jungles and swamps, and from the vast openness of space.

Starship is the spaceship intended to facilitate humanity becoming a multiplanetary species and extending human consciousness beyond Earth so as to ensure the long term survival of humanity, according to Musk.

If humanity reaches other planets orbiting other stars, the risk to humanity becoming extinct becomes more remote.

Now everyone knows Musk has smoked too much dope.

Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking hypothesized that humanity had about 200 years to find an alternative to Earth before the next extinction event that would wipe out humanity.

This bold statement of the future survival of the species has become more real than one might expect, with the current climate related crises looping the Earth year-round, and the ever possibility that a world divided along political and philosophical lines will be plunged into an apocalyptic nuclear war by the irrational rivalries between peoples.

As the races have become more tolerant of each other, the politicized civilizations have become more polarized.

With this grim reality in mind, this interplanetary travel becomes less fantastical as one might expect, out of necessity.

Mars has been probed since humanity discovered the ability to leave the Earth’s surface and enter Near Earth Orbit, about 70 years ago. Going toward the Sun to Venus makes no sense because of the increased heat and radiation emitted by the Sun, while Mars is further away from the Sun than Earth.

And unlike the Moon, Mars has a thin atmosphere that might be amendable to terraforming, which is a modification of the atmosphere until life can be supported. If scientists can deconstruct the Earth’s atmosphere, perhaps another planet can be made liveable by reverse engineering the climate crisis.

The idea of terraforming another planet remains controversial, ethically, if ethics will matter once humanity fully realizes the possibility of extinction on Earth.

NASA completed the first flyby of Mars on July 14, 1965. And currently, 2 rovers on the Mars surface and 7 orbiters circling the planet are gathering information.

SpaceX has active manufacturing facilities and launch sites, including access to NASA’s Launch Pad 39A that was used for the Apollo Program that sent the first humans to the surface of the Moon, and for launching the Space Shuttle to the International Space Station.

The location of the launch complex gives the rocket access to a particular window opening to a particular launch trajectory and orbit.

The Earth spins on an access while orbiting the Sun. Mars follows a similar elliptical path around the Sun except along an ellipse through space much further away, resulting in the journey around the Sun taking almost twice as long.

A rocket must launch from Earth in an elliptical path of intersection with the planet in such a way that the target destination is the shortest distance away – basically for fuel economy and time efficiency reasons.

You wouldn’t drive 2250 miles to Boston when the trip would only take 33 miles if you just waited a bit longer to get started. In space, you might actually get to Mars sooner by waiting until a specific window opens up, instead of leaving right away. Or sometimes, leaving tomorrow will take longer than leaving today before the window closes.

SpaceX initially designed and built rocket ships exclusively in Hawthorne, California, using a former Boeing factory space, etc. Rocket testing occurs at a test site in McGregor, Texas. Launch vehicles are delivered to Cape Canaveral, Space Force Station, Launch Complex 40 in Florida. Then there is also the launch facility at Vanderberg Space Force Base, Space Launch Complex, California.

The Starship factory is at Starbase, Texas, replete with space for multiple launch pads.

Musk intends to launch one thousand Starships per year to effect colonization of Mars. Once a colony is established, even a colony of twenty astronauts, the task will be to resupply the city in which the inhabitants live.

A thousand launches per year may seem a tad ambitious, like Musk has moved from joints to a glass bong, but SpaceX already launches the Falcon 9, rather regularly – I mean 538 times in total so far, or 13 launches during the month of August alone.

Developing a cost effective reusable launch vehicle and spacecraft is the key to a non-governmental space agency exploring beyond the Moon. The Starship and Super Heavy Booster are longer than the Saturn V used for the Apollo Program, and twice as long as the Space Shuttle launch vehicle with 3 times the payload capacity.

Reusability quickly becomes a logistical necessity.

Musk’s goal is to make a Starship reusable within 5 hours of landing. This is easier said than done because of the immense forces placed on a rocket going up, and the intense heat on the rocket re-entering the atmosphere coming down.

On a planned mission far away from Earth, the Starship would continue on through space, while the rocket booster returns to Starbase, Texas, after pushing the Starship to maximum velocity.

SpaceX even catches the Super Heavy booster in a launch arm so as to accelerate the reassembly process with another Starship.

Scientists and children have dreamed of space and travel to other planets from before the first engineered satellite, Sputnik, reached Near Earth Orbit, on October 4, 1957.

Galileo Galilei observed the sky and saw stars and planets and eventually developed a theory of gravity and constant acceleration of falling objects through a vacuum. The main impetus for space travel is that once a spacecraft is propelled beyond the pull of Earth’s gravity, the spacecraft will incrementally accelerate to a maximum velocity in the vacuum of space.

The Starship will have raptor engines in space, but the engineers pull back on that potential because of the limitation of carrying sufficient fuel, and the continuous risk of spontaneous combustion when igniting fuel to drive the engines and create propulsion.

Comic book hero Flash Gordon does not blow up. And, the space exploration engineers in Star Wars have propulsion all figured out. Star Trek’s space crews do encounter issues with the precociousness of the core energy drive and the ever real possibility of an engine core meltdown. The common challenges though are the eventual confrontations with hostile interplanetary civilizations.

Mind you, the Fantastic Four obtained superpowers from a spontaneous uncontrolled space accident.

Intergovernmental space agencies have brought space exploration to this more commercial stage of a space revolution, with the planet’s billionaires using funds saved up from consumer purchases, and mergers and acquisitions, to develop space exploration companies.

The economic model of mixed public and private innovation was also used by the Spanish Queen and Christopher Columbus in proving the Earth was round in 1482 when the explorer sailed the ocean blue. The British Empire colonized Africa, India and North America by using military force paid for from public funds in combination with corporate entrepreneurialism.

NASA is a division of the United States of America. But there is no monopoly in space with the early innovator, Russia, continuing to explore space. As China has enriched itself from America consumerism, the Chinese national space agency has ramped up to mirror the original space race with an independent space station and several independent Moon landings.

The European Space Agency is constantly innovating. Japan and India have smaller space programs.

The James Bond film franchise has continually underscored that humanity’s presence in space will simply mirror the adversarial dynamics that exist on Earth. Russia and the United States will continue to compete in space despite sharing the limited habitable room on the International Space station.

SpaceX receives contracts with NASA, and has become a major technological contributor to NASA’s Artemis Moon program. Musk though competes directly with Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos for those government contracts, with each space company also having private space exploration agendas.

Space often simply facilitates the continuation of conflicts that already exist on the surface of the Earth. But once the billionaires put their egos aside, and begin working with each other and work with spacefaring governments – no that will never happen.

The current compartmentalization of space exploration innovation will likely continue even in the face of immense adversity.

Filmmaker Denis Villeneuve’s depiction of the limited interdependence of the political powers, in the face of an alien invasion that threatens existence, would likely be the outcome of any major pending disaster. Arrival shows that everyone will develop independent responses to such a danger, and share only enough information to avert their own destruction.

Musk, for example, likely took a big toke from a beautiful glass bong, before heading out to the Smithsonian Institute for Space Exploration, to take a sample of a ceramic tile from the heat shield on a decommissioned Space Shuttle, for study purposes mind you, and ultimately for reverse engineering the 18,500 tiles of a heat shield for a single Starship.

Elon Musk has a dream about space exploration, and that dream, like a lot of his other dreams, is gradually becoming a reality.

by PETER THOMAS BUSCH

Democracy in the United States was weakened by a lower court federal judge exceeding the authority granted by Congress.

Judges may seem omnipotent, with the separation of powers, and individual independence issues, such as being nominated for life, without the possibility of disciplinary actions, other than appeals, but In America, power vests in the people through democratic elections.

That balance of powers does not mean the states compete with the federal government in a struggle for power. Democracy is simultaneously simple and complicated, with only the proper functioning of the instruments of power creating sublime outcomes envisioned by the Founding Fathers.

United States Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett sided with that unique American functionality when she granted a stay of the universal injunctions ordered by judges in the multi-district lower Federal court regarding Executive Order 14160.

Justice Kavanaugh, in a concurring opinion, pointed out that the Supreme Court, namely Barrett, him, Justice Alito, Justice Thomas and Chief Justice Roberts, still have the power to impose nationwide injunctions with respect to federal statutes and executive action.

The purpose of Executive Order 14160 was immaterial to the court, because the Federal Court Judges, created a kind of attention grabbing remedy without the proper authority.

Supreme Court Associate Justice Barrett found the appropriate disciplinary response to a judge of the lower Federal Court for acting out of turn, when everybody knows so well from those elementary school public service announcements, that the executive, the legislative and the judiciary are three independent branches.

That democracy applies equally to individual states as to the federal government. States have constitutional power to govern the people within the borders of the state, and the federal government has the constitutional power to govern nationally.

Oh sure, the three branches are connected esoterically, such as the President nominating justices and judges to many levels of the judiciary, and the Democrat legislators often syncing with the Democrat President, while the Republican legislators sync with the Republican President.

But everyone involved takes an oath of office to follow the Constitution that says each branch is independent.

Justice Barrett said the Lower Federal Court Judges forgot the oath that requires judges not to exceed their authority, in this case, as granted by Congress through the enactment of the Judiciary Act of 1789.

For Barrett, the fact that the Judiciary Act is almost 236 years old did not really resonate with her, even after Justice Sotomayor in dissent, said time did matter, because the associate justice is an originalist and a textualist.

Originalists believe that the contemporary implementation of every enactment and every law passed since the Declaration of Independence must conform to the original intention of the Founding Fathers of the Nation.

When it comes to guns, the people have a right to bare arms. When it comes to life, babies have a right to be born. And when it comes to executive power, the President has a right to govern.

In effect, anyway.

The textualist believe that when drafting legislation, the lawyers drafting the law got the meaning correct the first time. And so, one could just understand the law as one would plainly read the word of the text – a bit easier than Shakespeare mind you.

One would then mesh originalism with textualism to obtain the meaning of a law.

And there is nothing wrong with that approach, other than that not everyone agrees.

Justice Sotomayor believes that the meaning of a word can evolve over time so that birthrite citizenship given to black slaves and the children of black slaves born in America can include Latinos, Chinese and Russian guests who are day tripping on American soil one century and a bit after the 14^th Amendment passed into law.

This assessment by Justice Sotomayor allows judges to innovate with meaning so that an old law could apply liberally with as much clarity in the current decade as that which was done in the first decade of the Republic.

If Barrett is an originalist, Sotomayor is an organicist who believes that the constitution is an organic instrument that changes as the circumstances around one changes. This approach allows for the rule of law without rewriting the Constitution every time the composition of society changes.

Needs and means change, and so must the depth and breadth of the law.

You know though, interestingly enough, Barrett did not compare black slaves picking cotton in the plantation economy to the immigrants working the farms in southern California.

Sotomayor wielded a sledgehammer while Barrett found meaning with the use of a pincer.

The problem according to Barrett writing the majority opinion was that universal injunctions imposed by the Federal Court are not authorized. The majority simultaneously declined to even comment about the constitutionality of the Executive Order because the universal injunction was unlawful.

Get one thing right before the other, please.

The error was fatal to the states’ argument. And I mean immediately fatal – with no need to go any further to the meaning of the 14^th Amendment to the United States Constitution or the meaning of democracy in the United States.

Void abinitio.

Jesus Christ made Christianity clear, thou shalt not kill. And the Founding Fathers made the balance of  power clear, thou shall not interfere with executive action.

Trump has been allowed to go a bit further in challenging the conventional contemporary interpretation of birthrite citizenship. But nobody overtly wished the President well in the endeavour, particularly not the justices in the minority.

Barrett’s majority decision is far more breathtaking than dishing universal injunctions, though.

The Supreme Court of the United States is reestablishing the conservative notions of America in a series of decisions, such as ending affirmative action programs at Ivy League Universities, sending the issue of abortion for determination to individual states, Presidential immunity, and now reminding lower court judges of their oath of office.

Everyone has a limit.

America is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, and then each state has distinct cultures, so much so that Texans might not find a reflection in Chicago were it not for that red, white and blue ribbon of Americana that runs through the collective consciousness of a nation.

The legal decision issued by the court is more nuanced than the court making a bold statement that universal injunctions exceed the equitable authority Congress has granted Federal Courts.

Trump won the case by applying to limit injunctions to the particular plaintiff, in essence using a pincer to defeat a sledgehammer. The Federal Court can still defend an individual named in the action, but that does not mean the entire nation must follow along, or be held in contempt.

In a fragmented nation, one judge cannot be allowed to exercise more power than an elected President, otherwise the ensuing chaos will ultimately lead to rebellion, evenmore so than that dissent that now exists in America.

Texas might agree with the President, while Massachusetts might not. The naysayers will simply have to wait four years for another chance to elect a President more closely aligned with their beliefs.

Barrett was correct. A single judge cannot make a law or change a law or decide to bring a halt to a law, only the legislature can. When Americans want fixes to the rule of law, American democracy mandates that Congress decides.

And when Congress ultimately decides, which is a rare event in Washington DC, the last thing the nation needs is one disgruntled Democrat being able to stall that change for which a free nation has duly voted.

The state Attorney Generals should run for President, if they want to wield Executive Power, not forum shop for a judge that will stop the current President from acting according to his or her mandate.

KING CHARLES III URGES NATION TO FIND OPPORTUNITIES FOR REBIRTH

by PETER THOMAS BUSCH

The Canadian Liberal Government sent the Airbus CC-330 Husky #002 to the United Kingdom to pick-up and deliver His Majesty King Charles III to Ottawa for the Throne Speech, a ceremonial duty usually performed by the Governor General of Canada on behalf of the King.

The Royal Standard was raised to recognize the Monarch’s presence in Canada. And two days of games and photo-ops were organized.

What the King is doing in Canada makes no difference now that His Majesty the King is here now – or was there then. The King’s presence was impactful despite the transient nature of the moment.

The mere presence of the King compresses a history of exploration, colonialization and nation building by the British Empire in North America into a series of highly personalized memory fragments.

King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrived to deliver an outline of the new government’s agenda to the people, but the King could not resist leaving behind his post modernist impression.

His Majesty also dropped a ceremonial puck at a street hockey game near the farmers’ market. Given the availability of virtual appearances, the King may have arrived after an eight hour flight mainly to drop the puck, although seemingly always cognizant of there being a speech to give.

And at one point in the timeline King Charles III shoveled fresh dirt on a newly planted Blue Spruce. The Queen then watered the roots, quickly afterward.

On day two, King Charles III changed his suit from a gray suit to a blue suit with a light blue tie, before making his way to Parliament Hill through the streets of Ottawa in an open top, horse drawn carriage.

Blue on blue looked good on the little boy the public knew before as the Prince, next in line to the Throne, right behind his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, now deceased, God rest her sole.

Prince Charles was also known as the guy who let Princess Diana get away, with whom he had two sons, the tall bald Prince William of Wales and the short red headed Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex.

Prince Harry is definitely out of contention for the Throne when his father, the King dies, because Prince William and Princess Kate have had three children, Prince George (not to be confused with the city in Northern British Columbia), Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. Princess Charlotte is third in line to the Throne. And Prince Harry is fifth, behind Charlotte’s younger brother, Louis, who is fourth in line.

Governor General of Canada, Mary Simon, didn’t make the cut in the ceremony today as she is the representative of the King in the King’s absence. The King being present in Ottawa made Mary Simon’s job redundant.

The Royals nevertheless invited Mary Simon to join them inside the carriage, while the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on horseback, wearing the Red Serge, escorted them to the Senate where the Speech from the Throne was to be given.

Once the King was seated on the Throne inside the Senate Chamber, everyone fidgeted a bit waiting for the arrival into the Red Chamber of the ceremonial Black Rod. The Black Rod is actually an usher who carries a black rod and opens a new parliamentary session by knocking on the parliamentary doors with the black rod. The doors are then opened and the parliamentary session begins, after a bit more parliamentary ritual and ceremony.

Unlike the King, there are individual Black Rods for each parliament under the British tradition, whereas there is only one king for all the parliamentary governments.

The newly elected Prime Minster of Canada, Mark Carney, sat down and to the immediate left of the King, with both feet firmly dug into the red carpet, like he had his toes curled into the red carpet fibers in anticipation of any Royal Commentary that would be thrown into and around the Government Agenda he had prepared.

READY, SET, GO!

According to King Charles III, Canadians are coming together with a renewed sense of national pride, unity and hope. And that ground on which they are gathering is the unceded land of the Algonquin People.

The land is considered unceded because Canadians negotiated a truce with Indigenous Peoples without taking ownership of the land in exchange for consideration of some sort, such as money or other territory. ‘This land is your land’ is a big issue in Canada.

King Charles III pointed out that this visit is his 20^th visit to Canada in over half a century – although his first as Sovereign (because his mother had a long wonderful life). Prince Charles, as he was then known, was one of contemporary British Society’s great critics. The British Press did not like the young Prince Charles so much, so Charles became a critic of that same London Society that had so bitterly rejected him.

Prince Charles criticized the urban architects for their banality, and generally used his part of the British monarchy to urge the boring Londoners toward a cultural reawakening.

What King Charles III knows about Canada’s unique identity is that the rich fabric is underscored by “bravery and sacrifice, diversity and kindness.”

Canadians have fought and died along side our closest allies, the King commented.

The Chiefs in feathered headdresses looked on.

Prime Minister Mark Carney seated next to the King, but at a lower level began to fidget a bit. Former Prime Minister Kim Campbell and Former Prime Minster Stephen Harper appeared a bit uncomfortable. The most recently Former Prime Minister, Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was beaming from ear to ear, perhaps finally realizing that he was no longer inside the political cauldron, getting torn apart every which other way.

His Majesty King Charles III went back to his vitriol, suggesting that Canada is an emerging economic power and force of peace around the world. Similarly, when his ‘Mumma’, the Queen, opened a new parliament in 1957, Canada and the world once again face new challenges.

Canada should look at the fundamental change coming as an opportunity to transform the economy and Canadian society.

Canada intends to move forward by removing the federal barriers to internal trade that have forced many people to trade south with America rather than with a bordering province, within Canada.

The new Liberal Government intends to foster true free trade across Canada and take critical actions to reach full economic potential.

When His Majesty King Charles III was finished with the Speech from the Throne, those dignitaries in attendance inside the Red Chamber created an applause, perhaps because to do otherwise might be considered rude.

The Canadian fiddler, fiddling being a great tradition in Eastern Canada where the Irish hunkered down and planted potatoes, and it being a great honor to be fiddled to, created the correct tone and atmosphere for the King’s departure.

King Charles III did a good job of it, without a doubt. And Canadians felt honored by his presence, except for a few protesters, likely compelled there in that time and place through social media deep fakes.

50 people were chosen to meet and greet the King and Queen outside the Red Chamber.

And then the Royal Couple made their way to Canada’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier as a bugler played the Last Post and then, when the bugler was done, a piper played Lament, in remembrance, just prior to a wreath laying ceremony. King Charles laid one down. And then Queen Camilla laid one down.

The Royal Canadian Airforce performed a four jet flyover during the playing of the National Anthem.

And then, three cheers for King Charles III were performed off in the distance.

And then His Majesty King Charles III was gone again. The King was here. And then the King was over there, across the big blue ocean, again.

TRUMP ROCKS & ROLLS TO START SECOND PRESIDENTIAL TERM

by PETER THOMAS BUSCH

United States President Donald Trump took greater control of the message coming from the Oval Office during the First 100 Days of his administration by sequestering, as much as possible under the rules, Congressional Representatives, and Prime Time Network Producers on Tuesday, March 4, 2025.

This message was underscored by the obvious support from the Republican side of Congress. When Trump said, Yes, the Republicans erupted in applause and standing ovations. When Trump said, No, the Republicans erupted in applause and standing ovations, all the more vigorously.

Trump began, with a recuring theme for the next 100 minutes, by listing his accomplishments, his Administration’s agenda and some of the more innocuous million dollar details discovered along the way so far.

Trump being there would have caused Deja vu were it not for the presence of new Vice President JD Vance and newish Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, standing behind him as he delivered the Address to Congress.

What is a common element of these forums is a highly personalized American vitriol which simultaneously betrays the back story of an Administration, while also shoring up support moving forward. Trump spoke as if running a corporate real estate take over in the background.

United States President Barack Obama used to talk as if running a street ministry, after finding everybody in the neighbourhood at the community basketball court.

About 51% of Americans from every economic class and every race and gender group support Trump, while 49% from every economic class and every race and gender group oppose Trump.

The designated survivor, Doug Collins, who is otherwise 17^th in line to the Presidency, as Secretary of Veterans Affairs in the Trump Cabinet, would have become president if everyone else above him in line attending the Joint Session of Congress had been wiped out by a dirty bomb or by other means, perhaps laughing gas. Collins was taken away to the ‘bunker’ under heavy security, prior to the President arriving at the Capitol Building.

Billionaire Elon Musk was present as the Presidentially appointed leader of the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk, unlike his impromptu appearances in the Oval Office, was not wearing a t-shirt and ball cap. Musk wore a business suite and juggled water bottles in the balcony section.

First Lady Melania Trump entered Congress with family friend Steve Witcoff, who is an appointed United States Special Envoy to the Middle East. The billionaire, real estate tycoon had also received an appointment in the previous Trump Administration.

First things first, though, the Trumps left their residence at the White House and headed up the street in the Government issued limousine along the National Mall to the Capitol Building.

Then the Cabinet entered, and somewhere the Generals took their seats at the front near the Supreme Court Justices. And unbeknownst to everyone watching on the networks and streaming services, the special guests, who would get specific mentions during the speech by the President, took their seats.

Special guests receiving specific mention and standing up for Congress and everyone else to witness during the address is a distinctly American tradition.

Trump is the last to enter the chamber, as the Presidents are normally without exception.

Trump was the last to enter. And Congressional Representative Al Green, from Texas, was the first to leave, after being escorted out of his seat by the Sergeant of Arms, for heckling the President during the Address to a Joint Session of Congress where friend and foe alike are invited to take their seats.

Barely before Trump could achieve any headway in the speech, Green began shouting audibles from the bleachers, in this way indirectly messaging his supporters watching from home.

Mr. Green was able to take two or three verbal swipes at the President before Speaker Johnson found his Rule Book and warned Representative Green once, before having to order Representative Green’s expulsion. Johnson had to use the exact words, like mimicking that need arising when casting a spell, otherwise Mr. Speaker’s instructions to the Sergeant of Arms might be found void ab initio, after the fact, to his much embarrassment.

Sergeant of Arms is a special term for a special security detail for politicians inside the Capitol Building. Apart from heckling, Democrats also held up paddle signs that stated various messages in opposition to the Republican Government agenda, such as (Elon) “Musk Steals” and “Save Medicare”.

Green would eventually get censored by Congress, after everyone eased off the issue and had an evening to reflect on the proper course of punishment, in the regular course of official business before Congress.

Once the chamber was quiet enough again, Trump stated the Golden Era in American History was coming, reiterating one of the catch phrases Trump delivered during the Inaugural Address on January 20, 2025, when he was sworn in as the 47^th President.

Trump does not qualify for the State of the Union Address until his second year in office, but the President has the power to call a Special Joint Session, and the President did just that to shore up his first 43 days in office and a flurry of Executive Action which he surmised so far totalled 100 Executive Orders and 400 Presidential direct moves that bypassed Congress.

The President must work with Congress, but the President also has individual executive power, although that power is substantially more limited in terms of pursuing an agenda for change, particularly because of the absence of a budget power and the ability to spend government funds.

Trump repeated the major policy platforms of his Administration, such as ‘repelling the invasion of our country’, which he has underscored by declaring a national emergency on the southern border to stop the illegal migration of people from the Southern Hemispheric nations into America.

“They heard my words and they chose not to come – it’s easier that way all around”, Trump chortled, crooning a bit for an extra loud applause, and perhaps for some chuckles and extra wide smiles from the crowd of like-minded politicians.

Trump mentioned DOGE. And Elon Musk took a bow from the balcony. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is responsible for eliminating ‘appalling’ government waste, such as social security payments to phantom citizens. Also on the agenda is the dismantling of the federal Department of Education, which once completed will create more freedom for State Legislatures and parents to decide the education of their children.

The President also maintains that America has been ripped off by every country on Earth.

And, and, the president maintains that the Administration’s tariff policy has already generated a combined 1.7 trillion in investments by Open AI, Oracle, and Apple. With a tariff wall on imports, manufacturers tend to move inside the trade barrier and produce for less and reap higher profits from domestic consumers.

Law and order will also be returned to America with the liberation of migrant towns and sanctuary cities from the drug cartels, according to Trump.

The drug cartels and MS13 are foreign terrorist organization, similar to ISSIS, shouted the President of the United States.

Only time will tell, and Trump just does not have enough days in the Presidential Term to accomplish everything. So, Mr. President gathered every about to at least show that he was trying to fulfil his campaign promises.

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

W

ho was not there at the Donald Trump Presidential Inauguration says a lot about the Administration going forward, because who was there was an insider look at the new economy that involves greater control of political and social infrastructure by capitalist forces.

Did you notice that? Not only wasn’t Disney CEO Bob Iger present in Washington DC, but Mickey Mouse was noticeably absent as well, unless he got stuck on an icy patch along the National Mall, next to the Lincoln Reflecting Pool, before everyone moved inside to warmer conditions.

A GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICA, US PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP

Trump brought the 60^th Inauguration party inside because of the bitter Washington cold made all that more unforgiving by a polar vortex. In peace, as in war, America knows how to adapt. 

Trump then quickly withdrew America from global Climate Change initiatives.

The podium of high end politicians, such as the living former Presidents and First Ladies, members of the Supreme Court of the United States, who are normally gathered on the westside of the Capital Building facing the Washington Column and the Lincoln Memorial and about 60 thousand spectators in town for just such an event, found a more comfortable place in the Rotunda and the Capital One Arena where the Wizards normally play basketball and the Capitals play hockey.

The 47^th President of the United States took the oath of office a few minutes too late after 12 Noon EST on Monday, January 20, 2025. Trump was late in the East, but Mr. President was still a couple of hours early in the West when he ushered in a self proclaimed ‘Golden Age of America’.

The President called for a Revolution of Common Sense.

A COMMON SENSE REVOLUTION, US PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP

Trump must perform this miracle in 1460 days, minus two since Monday, otherwise the Republicans will be discombobulated by the electorate in the next Presidential Election, expected in four years time in November 2028. 

The Trump Administration has gotten off to a rocket like start with hundreds of Executive Orders that Trump immediately began signing between salutes to America and speeches to the gathered crowds.

Trump kept his promise to the January 6 Rioters by pardoning 1500 accused and convicted, including the leaders of two of the off-the-grid militias who had been sentenced to multiple years off the pathways of the National Mall and behind bars in prison.

The issue of previous Presidential Administrations has been one of betrayal to America and of allowing a festering lack of trust among the citizenry toward government that was going to be corrected in swift fashion, according to Trump in his Inaugural Address delivered in the Rotunda by the Statue of Freedom in front of about 600 Very Important People (VIP).

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

The far right in Germany wants to shut down illegal immigration, reduce crime and turn on the country’s dormant nuclear power plants.

The internal combustion engine should be allowed a continued existence, according to Alice Weidel, leader of the far right party, the Alternative for Germany.

Weidel appeared on X with billionaire Elon Musk, owner of X, on Thursday, January 9, 2025, 5 pm PST. I listened to the 74 minute chat in replay on YouTube.

Weidel has been making political space for herself and for her party by blaming former Chancellor Angela Merkel for ruining Germany. Based on the Musk interview, the two main gripes about Merkel seem to be the open door immigration policy that has allowed 7 million immigrants into the country since 2015, and a move toward clean energy, by subsidizing wind and solar power, while simultaneously shutting down all of the nuclear power plants and relying on gas from Russia.

FORMER GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL RUINED GERMANY

ALICE WEIDEL

Musk did not have to prompt Weidel much at all before the party leader blurted out: “Merkel ruined Germany.”

Musk had much improved his interview skills since entertaining then United States Presidential candidate Donald Trump on August 13, 2024, just weeks away from the United States Presidential Election. Musk has since been given a seat within Trump’s inner Presidential Circle, after Trump was elected-re-elected President of the United States.

The German Federal Elections are less than 41 days away, on February 23, 2025. And, based on result in state elections, the political Far Right in Germany has gained political momentum and has become a substantial threat to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s federal coalition, center left government.

Olaf had to spend some time creating a government after nearly losing the moral imperative to the Far Right last time around. Germany remains a democracy, and has been a democracy for one hundred years, with the first Presidential election held on March 29, 1925. Before that, Germany was a constitutional monarchy with a parliament and a King sharing power.

The German political system may be more layered with intrigue than the United States political system, with state elections being strong indicators of national trends. European Parliamentary Elections are also used as an indicator of broader political shifts in voter sentiment.

French President Emmanuel Macron had a similar confrontation with the French far right party, National Rally (NR). NR leader Marine Le Pen took away his majority in sweeping style, after previous unsuccessful attempts, by making electoral gains in the National Assembly elections in 2024. The French have separate direct elections for President, like in the United States.

Le Pen has not given up on her vision for France, and she is so determined and so tough that she expelled her own father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founding leader of the party, after he made too many controversial statements that threatened to alienate the party from the voter majority needed for attaining real political power in France.

Weidel apparently is a Thatcherite who believes in liberal economic policies – perhaps better described as a ruthlessly, aggressive advocacy for small government that is driven by market forces controlled by individuals such as Musk.

Weidel’s broad brush approach is to create a “Fortress Europe.”

On X, the pair of political chatter boxes agreed that nuclear power would reduce the carbon footprint while also freeing up land for other uses. Wind turbines and solar power energy plants require a lot of land.

Every once in a while Musk would try to micromanage the interview by changing the subject to such issues as the length of time required to obtain a business permit – and that anyway, Germany requires a lot of paper, perhaps truck loads of paper to meet the permit requirements, according to Musk. 

The change to this topic seemed to be more of a tactical diversion that got Weidel talking about taxes and her plans to reduce taxes in Germany. Weidel stated that people work half the year to pay their taxes to German governments.

The conversation shifted to theft under $1000, with Musk stating that the impractical implementation of the law, that would require thousands of arrests, meant that a lot of crime had been decriminalized in the United States, particularly in California where Musk operates Tesla.

Weidel appeared still stung by the world-wide mandatory vaccines required to combat Covid-19 around the world. The Far Right leader put it out there that the side effects caused by the vaccines being pushed by tech billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates are concerning.

Everyone, the two of them anyway, then shifted into double speak, with a conversation about the importance of free speech and real democracy – free speech being the bedrock of democracy in creating an informed vote. 

Musk, like Trump, often practices censorship, though, by flooding the marketplace of ideas with false information that shrouds the truth of the world, especially the truth presented on social media.

Musk has been accused of spreading misinformation, on his social media company X, recently helping Trump, who was spreading misinformation on his social media company Truth Social, to kill an omnibus spending bill in the US House of Representatives prior to Trump taking office.

Musk stated that you can tell who the bad guys are by the ones that want to shut down free speech.

Weidel unabashedly pointed out that the first thing that happens within the rise of autocratic regimes is the takeover of public media and the imposition of extreme censorship to control the way the population thinks.

The world needs independent free thinkers and the corresponding strong leadership that free speech helps develop, the pair agreed.

Then the conversation shifted to war, with Weidel being concerned for the escalation of the war in Ukraine and the risk of that war escalating into a nuclear exchange.

The Far Right leader also said that the Israel conflicts in the Middle East are so complicated, but that she supports the existence of Israel as an independent state, although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had made many mistakes in the past.

Germany needs to take steps to protect Jewish people, against Muslim crime, and that Jews were no longer safe because of the Palestinian protests, according to Weidel.

The AfD is the only protecter of the Jewish people within Germany because all other parties have done the opposite, by letting in millions of people into Germany and letting them do crimes on the street, Weidel declared.

Weidel stated that the streets of Berlin are no longer safe for Jews because of the constant Palestinian protests.

Weidel then moved Musk to speak on the topic of the SpaceX CEO’s long term plan of colonizing the Planet Mars. Musk underscored the importance of extended the lifespan of the human collective consciousness by transforming humanity into a multi-planet species. 

Earth has had five previous extinction events, and the likelihood is that a sixth one is in the forecast, which may even be a nuclear war, Musk stated.

Musk surmised that humanity had just a small window of opportunity to become a multi-planet species, before, although he did not come right out and say it, the next extinction event.

On being prompted by Weidel, Musk foretold that the breakthrough moment for humanity would be when a human colony on Mars could sustain itself without resupply ships from Earth.

And on that note, the chat ended.

MARS

Mars photo by Kevin Gill from Los Angeles, CA, United States, CC BY 2.0

MR JIMMY WAS ONE OF GOD’S GREAT GIFTS

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

W

hen the Great Ones go, the grateful nation honours their passing. In certain cases, the entire world mourns. This passing was one of those moments.

Former United States President Jimmy Carter reached the grand old age of 100 before finally being taken by the Lord Jesus Christ on December 29, 2024.

For Mr. Jimmy, the day probably could not have come soon enough after his lifelong wife of 77 years, Rosalynn, passed away the year before on November 19, 2023. The love birds were married in their hometown on July 7, 1946, just before Jimmy shipped off for duty in the United States Navy submarine fleet.

Jimmy and Rosalynn were born in the small southwest Georgia town of Plains. Plains had a population of between 400 and 479, probably fluctuating from year to year depending on the yield of the local peanut crop, so Jimmy and Rosalynn probably met, before they could be conscious of their meeting, when their mommas bumped into each other on the 100 foot or so town boardwalk that was constructed in front of the hotel and a few shops next to the railway that passed through the small town. 

Jimmy was a Baptist, and Rosalynn was a Methodist, so the parties likely did not meet at Sunday school. The happy couple’s union was destined, though, even after Jimmy’s family moved three miles away to the town of Archer, where he made his childhood home.

For me, I remember US President Jimmy Carter taking office after the dramatic fall of US President Richard Nixon, since our family binged on American politics. For us, Sunday studies meant gathering in front of the television at night to watch the network current affairs news program, 60 Minutes. 

Carter was a one term president, as the 39^th President of the United States, who had helped the nation transition from the plummeting humiliation of Watergate to regaining pride on the world stage with United States President Ronald Reagan.

I also remember Mr. Jimmy’s continuous participation in Habitat for Humanity, post Presidency, during which he could be witnessed picking up a hammer and building houses for people.

Jimmy Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, in 2002. Carter had brokered peace between Egypt and Isreal, during his Presidency, which was at the time a monumental achievement. And then, Carter also promoted worldwide peace, often engaging in conflict resolution, and facilitated economic prosperity with his foundation as an ex-President for several decades. 

The Nobel Peace Prize Laureate kept going for another 20 years until he could not go anymore.

Mr. Carter influenced me in other ways. When I watched a newsreel on YouTube showing Jimmy Carter stating to a reporter that the history of the American South began with Gone with the Wind, I would eventually watch the film again, and write a review. (See Sidebar)

America goes out of the way to honour those people who dedicate their lives to public service. US President Jimmy Carter laid in repose at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia from January 4 -7, 2025, before being flown to Washington DC, to lay in repose there as well, in the Capitol rotunda, placed on the Lincoln catafalque made in 1865 for assassinated President Abraham Lincoln to lay in state on there as well.

Carter was then taken, with much ritualistic pomp and ceremony, to a National Service held at the Washington National Cathedral, which is an Episcopal Church, in Washington DC on Thursday, January 9, 2025.

The cold wind of the Washington winter blew to the point the flag bearers outside the National Cathedral had a difficult time waiting for the former President to arrive for his final farewell on the national and international stages.

The flag bearers had to wait a bit longer for the living former Presidents and most of the former First Ladies to take their seats at the front of the cathedral for the service.

In the deep background, wildfires were burning out of control in Southern California, fueled by tinder dry drought conditions and 100 mile per hour Santa Ana winds funnelling over the mountain ranges from the Great Basin and desert regions just east of the Great State of California.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former First Lady Hillary Clinton had a lot in common on Thursday, each having lost the Presidential election to President Donald Trump, who was also in attendance, although Harris was so preoccupied, her being from California, they did not even share a glance. 

The Clinton’s did not look so happy, generally, as if something had happened in the Cathedral’s catacombs while waiting for the service to begin, like a slight between Presidents or whatever, in direct opposite to the happy Trumps, getting ready for a second 4 years in the White House.

President Obama was unchanged since his presidency, all chatty and wearing a full smile, although having grown a swath of grey that was not there 8 years ago when being evicted from his residency at the White House.

The Presidents sat in chronological order of their Presidency, with current President Joe Biden entering last and sitting in the front row. Who would be the next to go was difficult to say, as after 39 (Carter), comes 42 (Clinton) 43 (Bush Jr.) 44 (Obama), 45 (Trump) 46 (Biden) or 47 (Trump) with President George W. Bush looking the worst for wear on camera, anyway, although his father, 41 (President George H. Bush) lived a long life to the age of 94.

When the Military Honour Guard brought in Jimmy Carter, the Cathedral became host to three Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, that could be seen anyway, with Carter (2002) joining Obama (2009), and former Vice President Al Gore (2007), who was seated behind the Presidents, as a climate change activist who had toured the Globe educating people with a persuasive presentation containing the hard facts about climate change.

I had to double check this, but the Clintons have been locked out of the Nobel Prize, so far, anyway. And maybe that is what the Clinton scowls were all about when they first entered the Cathedral chamber to take their seats for the service, with Gore, already seated, beaming up at them as they took to their designated seats.

The bitter political battles were not forgotten, but the grievances were, otherwise for the most part, temporarily put aside to pay respects, in a democracy, anyway, to former President Jimmy Carter.

Jimmy’s faith in Jesus was mentioned, during the eulogies, as a guiding light throughout his long life, as if his life map had perhaps predestined him for a long walk of faith under God.

Two posthumous eulogies were given, if you can have that sort of thing in the English dictionary, with Steve Ford reading his deceased father’s eulogy, 38 (President Gerald Ford), which he had written for Jimmy before his passing, and Ted Mondale, for his deceased father, Jimmy’s Vice President, Walter Mondale.

Jason Carter, just one of the grandsons, remembered his grandfather taking him for fishing trips and for walks through the forests of Georgia. 

President Joe Biden mentioned Jimmy Carter’s character as being so distinguished as being able to lead by example in the 40 years of public service post-presidency. Biden said that Carter refused hate a safe harbour.

And there was absolutely no doubt, perhaps all across the world, that Jimmy Carter, a white southern Baptist, in the minority of a small southern Black town, led the good life and made good use of his time on earth.

And for that, everyone around the world appeared grateful.

SWEEPING MASTERPIECE DEPICTS HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS IN THE BURNING SOUTH DURING THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

BY PETER THOMAS BUSCH

Hollywood had begun to master the feature length film during the sound era only to be put back again with Technicolor until one of the greatest movies ever produced ran in theatres nationwide.

Gone with the Wind (1939) still holds the top in terms of cinematic achievement as a sweeping breathtaking masterpiece about the beginning of the end of the culture in the Deep South as civil war breaks out between the Yankee steel producers to the North and the Confederate slave owners to the South.

Producer David O’Selnick took a bit to get the right cast – spending the wait revising the script based on the Margaret Mitchell novel that won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1937).

Clark Gable was under contract by another studio. And Vivien Leigh had to still be discovered among the casting calls for the female lead. The star studded cast also included Hattie McDaniel as Mammy, as well as Leslie Howard and Olivia De Haviland.

Director Victor Fleming had been wrapping up The Wizard of Oz (1939) when Selnick fired his director and hired Fleming to direct a second blockbuster in the same golden year for Hollywood.

Gone with the Wind would earn eight Oscars, including best actress in a leading role for Vivien Leigh and best actress in a supporting role for Hattie McDaniel, as well as best directing, best screenplay, cinematography, art, editing and best picture.

Clark Gable was nominated but lost to Robert Donat for his portrayal of a boarding school master in Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939). Gable had already won an Oscar for It Happened One Night (1934) and received a second of three nominations for the first of a number of remakes of Mutiny on the Bounty (1935). Gable died at the relatively young age of 59, but he had already had a long career with 82 acting credits including opposite Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift in his last film, The Misfits (1961).

Leigh gave what is still considered one of the greatest performances in cinema only to follow with another greatest performance opposite a young Marlon Brando in a Streetcar Named Desire (1951). A Streetcar Named Desire is based on the Tennessee Williams play of the same name. Tennessee Williams also earned credits for the movie’s screenplay.

Leigh died young as well at the age of 53, but unlike Gable, she had just 21 acting credits, although two of which are possibly two of the greatest performances in cinema.

In A Streetcar Named Desire, Leigh plays the eccentric sister-in-law, Blanche DuBois. DuBois loses the family property in Mississippi to creditors and must stay with her sister and Brando’s character, Stanley Kowalski, in the French Quarter of New Orleans. 

DuBois exhibits emotional and psychological distress as well as financial distress, but she takes the new beginning as an opportunity to resurrect her personality.

Leigh’s performance shows how the psychological make-up of a fragile soul can quickly deteriorate from just a few directed personal insults.

Gone with the Wind describes the loss of a way of life in the American south reliant primarily on the plantation economy before and after the American Civil War. 

While film critics claim the film is racist and whitewashed the injustice of slavery practice in the plantation economy of the South, the historical film depicts a period of time in which slavery existed and the racial prejudices defined society from a white perspective.

Fleming weaves the complex narrative forward through a number of sub-plots about relationships, love and marriage, the foolishness of war and the momentary, although frequent, fall from grace of mankind.

The sophisticated narrative flows seamlessly from scene to scene and topic to topic, aided by the sectioning off of segments of the film with the art filled scenes of dark silhouettes against the beautiful Georgian landscape shot in Technicolour.

Fleming paints with the camera as much as he tells a story, with scenes such as the two boys making the bell ring to announce the end of the working day, and several scenes of trees in silhouette against a Georgian sunset.

Such imagery reappears forty years later in director Francis Ford Coppola’s war epic Apocalypse Now (1979), which narrates the end of post-World War II heroic America with the military loss and great moral injustice of the Vietnam War. 

Coppola also uses a novel, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1899), as an outline for the collapse of humanity in the film. Conrad’s compelling descriptions of anti-hero characters would influence literature and film for the next century.

Fleming’s telling of the love interest, which compels audiences to jump from scene to scene through a love triangle, to find out who ends up with whom and how that affects the other love interests, is flawless story telling made all the more remarkable because of the inclusion of anti-hero characteristics.

People end up married to other people often for all the wrong reasons, and quite often somewhat unrelated to love.

Fleming shows audiences that different relationships are the product of different personalities with often secret motivations that mature as people experience life.

Gable plays Rhett Butler, a millionaire bachelor spending more time in a brothel than courting young women to be married.

Rhett spars with Scarlett O’Hara, played by Leigh, throughout the film from the early beginnings when all the pretty young women from rich plantation families court young men to be married.

Howard plays, Ashley Wilkes, a more mature man who marries Melanie Hamilton, played by Da Havilland. Fleming shows that the loyalty between married people and to the family carries them through the rough times when other people of less character would be torn apart.

Fleming does not provide an answer for the love dynamic, the director simply states the love dilemma is life in all it’s complexities.

Gone with the Wind is a David O. Selznick production during a time when the studio executives controlled the film industry as well as the individual film projects.

Selznick had produced commercially successful movies for MGM, Paramount Pictures and RKO Pictures. And then Selznick formed Selznick International Pictures to produce his own film projects beginning in 1935, while distributed his films through United Artists.

Selznick produced the earlier version of A Star is Born in 1937. And Selznick would win a second best picture Oscar the year after Gone with the Wind for the production of Rebecca (1940). 

Selznick is also known for bringing British film director Alfred Hitchcock to Hollywood under contract. Hitchcock became one of the greatest film directors with his mastery of the narrative and suspense.

The film has been so endearing and rereleased more than once every generation that the ideas behind the film and the complex sweeping images that created the overall vision for the film made indelible marks on the collective consciousness, especially with such classic lines as “Frankly dear, I don’t give a damn,” performed by Clark Gable.

The film carries audiences for almost four hours with the unravelling of a number of complex characters, such as Scarlett. Leigh first portrays her character as a narcistic fool, but as Scarlett suffers and survives during the film’s various parts, Scarlett changes, not entirely, but enough so as to eventually win the audience’s favour.

Then, by the end, with the help of move magic, Scarlett becomes the personification of the South during the American Civil War and the Reconstruction Era.

“I’ll never be hungry again” and “Tomorrow is another day” are Scarlett’s closing lines of this epic masterpiece.

The intent to document the history of the American Civil War from the perspective of the wealthy Southern plantation owners results in the use of Southern racial stereotypes prevalant during a time when the cotton plantation economy relied heavily on the subjugation of inexpensive slave labour. 

Scarlett’s character has respect and compassion for the black slaves wearing out their hands and bodies working the cotton fields, and also for the black domestic workers taking care of the household and the personal details of dress and diet.

But ultimately Scarlett is motivated by self interest, not just towards the Southern white gentlemen, but towards the black slaves that generate wealth and prestige for the O’Hara family. 

The idea of Tara, the family plantation, is what keeps Scarlett alive through the worst of the Civil War and the Reconstruction.

Fleming shows how the world of the South gradually disintegrates to the point where those Southerners that did survive the deconstruction, caused by the armies of the Yankee North and the Confederate South, must start over from less than humble beginnings, while other people, like the war profiteer, Rhett Butler, simply carry on almost unscathed and undeterred.

Vivien Leigh creates a character that continually shifts and shapes with the particular circumstances in which the character finds herself.

Scarlett is at first surrounded by young handsome wealthy and eager-to-marry men, but they are just as eager to join the Confederate army.

Scarlett and the men are filled with hubris and, that rare quality of youth, the delusion of invincibility.

Soon enough civil war is declared and the mood gradually shifts over several scenes to one of remorse and sorrow as the war dead are counted, including family members of almost every Georgian family.

Leigh shows the stronger side of the duality of Scarlett, as the young Georgian heroine volunteers as a nurse in the Atlanta war hospital during the most important battle of the American Civil War at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in July of 1863. 

Scarlett feels the horror of war but then she eventually finds where her self-interest lies, and she heads back to the plantation even though the hospital is dearly short of staff.

At the same time, Fleming uses the camera to paint a picture of panic as the Yankees are near victory on the outskirts of Atlanta. The Southerners fear the Yankees’ arrival and dominance in the South.

The narrative becomes a metaphor for the Reconstruction Era as Fleming has the war casualties lined up in the street outside the hospital clearly far too many for the hospital staff to manage.

Scarlett then falls to the weaker aspects of her character by calling on Rhett Butler to help her escape to her family’s planation.

The audience remains sceptical of Scarlett, but through the perilous journey and further personal tragedy, she gradually becomes more and more endearing until Tara becomes the symbol and Scarlett the personification of Reconstruction.

Gone with the Wind documents the distinct regionalism of the American South at a time when that culture and social-economic dynamic is under pressure to change.

The film has influenced generations because of the lasting portraits of human nature and the timeless story of war and peace told by actors at the pinnacle of their art.