The name is almost too perfect, like something a playwrite would have invented. Her name literally meant Rebirth of the Good, her last words evocative of someone else’s: “Hey dude, I’m not mad at you.” As were her crucifier’s: “Fuckin’ bitch.”
Something went on in Minneapolis on Wednesday, and it wasn’t just another brazen, cruel transgression for which this administration has become known. Something seems to be different this time. Perhaps they went too far for a change, their lies too obvious, their shtick not totally working now. People are pissed and well they should be. Voices not usually so blunt are coming out and saying it: “This administration is lying to you.”
Their lies started quickly, right after the incident, and they haven’t stopped. They’ve been amplified by FOX News and a few other bright lights of the MAGA firmament. It began with Kristi Noem saying immediately, based on no evidence at all, that Good had perpetrated an “act of domestic terrorism.” Showing the video to reporters in the Oval Office, the President said that Good “ behaved horribly. And then she ran him over. She didn’t try to run him over. She ran him over.” When one of the reporters pointed out that it didn’t look to him like the ICE agent had been run over, the President responded by saying that he had heard the woman had behaved very badly.
The administration’s point person, s usual, is J.D. Vance. He says the real tragedy is that Good had been radicalized by a left wing ideology. He repeatedly weaves the evil spell that ICE agents are “law enforcement officers” doing the Lord’s work, and we need to leave them alone so they can clean up America! Notice real law enforcement officers were pepper sprayed, beaten, practically murdered by a riotous mob at the Capitol on January 6th and those bastards will still tell you that that was a peaceful protest.
TrumpTeam frequently says the opposite of what’s true so your brain then does a somersault. And somersaults after a while become exhausting. How long can you handle the mental dissonance that the bad is good and Good is bad before you just move on? But we must not move on. The psychology of totalitarianism isn’t just the psychology of the perpetrator, but also the psychology of the victim. Evil thrives on our minimizing it. The most radical act today is to refuse to move on.
Meanwhile Good’s wife, Becca Good, put out a statement about her partner’s death. I hope as many Americans as possible will read this and pass it on:
First, I want to extend my gratitude to all the people who have reached out from across the country and around the world to support our family.
This kindness of strangers is the most fitting tribute because if you ever encountered my wife, Renee Nicole Macklin Good, you know that above all else, she was kind. In fact, kindness radiated out of her.
Renee sparkled. She literally sparkled. I mean, she didn’t wear glitter but I swear she had sparkles coming out of her pores. All the time. You might think it was just my love talking but her family said the same thing. Renee was made of sunshine.
Renee lived by an overarching belief: there is kindness in the world and we need to do everything we can to find it where it resides and nurture it where it needs to grow. Renee was a Christian who knew that all religions teach the same essential truth: we are here to love each other, care for each other, and keep each other safe and whole.
Like people have done across place and time, we moved to make a better life for ourselves. We chose Minnesota to make our home. Our whole extended road trip here, we held hands in the car while our son drew all over the windows to pass the time and the miles.
What we found when we got here was a vibrant and welcoming community, we made friends and spread joy. And while any place we were together was home, there was a strong shared sense here in Minneapolis that we were looking out for each other. Here, I had finally found peace and safe harbor. That has been taken from me forever.
We were raising our son to believe that no matter where you come from or what you look like, all of us deserve compassion and kindness. Renee lived this belief every day. She is pure love. She is pure joy. She is pure sunshine.
On Wednesday, January 7th, we stopped to support our neighbors. We had whistles. They had guns.
Renee leaves behind three extraordinary children; the youngest is just six years old and already lost his father. I am now left to raise our son and to continue teaching him, as Renee believed, that there are people building a better world for him. That the people who did this had fear and anger in their hearts, and we need to show them a better way.
We thank you for the privacy you are granting our family as we grieve. We thank you for ensuring that Renee’s legacy is one of kindness and love. We honor her memory by living her values: rejecting hate and choosing compassion, turning away from fear and pursuing peace, refusing division and knowing we must come together to build a world where we all come home safe to the people we love.
If that was “left wing ideology,” Mr. Vice-President, I’ll take it.
To those who wonder about the role of spirituality in politics, that letter was it. It’s not just a letter, it’s a reminder: “…The people who did this had fear and anger in their hearts, and we need to show them a better way.” Those words are going to penetrate the lies and tear down the wall.
James Madison, Federalist No. 51 (often misremembered as 52).
Here is the exact passage Madison wrote:
**“If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”
This appears in Federalist No. 51 (1788), in Madison’s discussion of checks and balances and separation of powers.
What Madison meant
“Control the governed” → Government needs enough authority to maintain order, enforce laws, and function.
“Oblige it to control itself” → Power must be restrained so it doesn’t become tyranny.
Heather Cox Richardson Streamed live 21 hours agoIn which I try to answer your questions about modern politics…. We’re live here on YouTube and Facebook every Tuesday and Thursday at 6 pm Maine time (3 pm PT). Get full, free access to Letters from an American here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack…
Musical Picks Jul 31, 2025 When her man threatens to skip town with the Blues Brothers, Mrs. Murphy (Aretha Franklin) shuts it all the way down – snatching wigs, flipping aprons, and serving up “Think” like it’s hot grits with sass. It’s not just a song, baby, it’s a soul-powered ultimatum.
A 250-year-old experiment in American democracy is being crushed beneath the heel of a dictatorial, neo-imperialistic force. This force is exerted by a group of people – some of whom we know, and some of whom we might not know – who, almost astonishingly when you think about it, have gained the power to run the U.S. government.
Some of them know exactly what they’re doing, and for whatever reason have chosen to sell out both conscience and patriotism for the power now afforded them. Some are apparently so ignorant of American history and government that they honestly don’t know exactly what their behavior represents. Their ignorance is not an excuse, however, for in the final analysis they’re perpetrating a direct assault on American freedom, dignity, and security.
There will be years, no matter what happens going forward, in which historians will analyze, dissect and try to understand what has happened here. The transition from an America that at least struggled to live up to its ideals, to a country in which those in charge have absolutely no intention of even trying, is of profound and historic consequence.
That we take in these facts, that we digest them in all their profundity and horror, is necessary if we’re to change them. Minimizing their significance will lead to minimal resistance, and minimal resistance to the slow march of totalitarianism is largely what got us here. I personally experienced the derision of elites in response to warnings that this nightmare was at hand; they deemed such an opinion the work of a hysterical, unsophisticated mind. They thus failed to stop the approach of totalitarianism, nor do they have to ability to stop it now. Their primary mode of political problem-solving is based on an unsophisticated – I repeat, unsophisticated – understanding of how evil operates.
In the words of top Trump policy advisor Steven Miller speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper, “You can talk about international niceties all you want, but we live in the real world governed by strength, force and power.” And he means it. When the U.S. Congress tells Trump’s Executive branch, “You can’t do that!”, this does little more than make the devil laugh. They. don’t. care.
Unfortunately, this trend is not new in American history.
In 1830, the Indian Removal Act led to the forcible removal of 60,000 members of five Native American tribes, primarily Cherokee, from their ancestral homelands. Indigenous men, women and children were forced to walk roughly 1,000 to over 2,000 miles from the Southeastern United States to newly designated Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. Hoping to protect their homeland, the Cherokee had taken their case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in their favor in 1832. President Andrew Jackson gave an infamous response to the Court’s ruling, however. He is reported to have said, “John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it!”
So it was that the forced removal of the Cherokee Nation went ahead despite the Supreme Court’s ruling against it, transgressing the Constitutional principle of three co-equal branches of government. As a consequence, at least 4,000 people are believed to have died during what has since been referred to as The Trail of Tears.
I refer to theabominable Trail of Tears for a reason. Vice-President J.D. Vance has suggested Donald Trump use Andrew Jackson as a model for how to deal with Congressional or judicial opposition. And clearly Trump does. To anyone who has watched administration officials filibuster Congressional hearings, it’s obvious that their explicit instruction has been to ignore the input – and the power – of our Congressional representatives.
We’ve entered the beginning stages of a worst case scenario. That doesn’t mean we can’t stop the trajectory of a neo-fascist takeover, even now, but it does mean we better as hell hurry. At this point, most guardrails against political tyranny in America have been either removed or nullified. Our last line of defense – which is our greatest – is We the People. Indeed, it’s one of those times for all good men and women to come to the aid of their country.
First let’s lay out the signs that this is a life-threatening moment for our democracy. Then we will discuss how best to respond.
This past December, the Trump administration published the president’s new National Security Strategy. This NSS represents a fundamental break not only from his first administration, but from the last seventy years of American foreign policy. From now on, that policy is to be based on transactional – basically economic – relationships with other countries, rather than on humanitarian or democratic values. Among other things, it abandons what had been a rock-solid commitment to the European alliance.
One of the main features of the NSS is what’s called the Donroe Doctrine, in which the United States now asserts dominance over the entire Western Hemisphere. We’re no longer just asserting our right to protect ourselves; we’re challenging the right of other nations to self-determination. And in typical second-term Trump fashion, his team has already gotten started.
The Trump administration claims that the seizure of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was a law enforcement operation, and there might be legitimate argument over whether or not that’s true. What is clearly not legitimate, however, is the President’s decision that from now on “We’ll run things.” There is no commitment on America’s part to replace Maduro’s regime with a democratic government, in fact the president has said they can’t have elections “until we fix things.” He says “only time will tell” how long the United States will provide oversight over the government of Venezuela. The first order of business, in his mind, is allowing American oil companies time to build the infrastructure needed to get out all that “money that’s in the ground.” The right of oil companies to be reimbursed for lost money is more important to him than that democracy be reestablished in Venezuela.
Much as in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, American leadership can be so taken with its own power to destroy something that is seems delusional as to what might come afterwards. In the past, we have proven effective at destroying dictatorial regimes, but profoundly ineffective at paving the way for a democracy to replace them. “Unintended consequences” – such as the creation of ISIS, or the return of the Taliban – doesn’t even begin to describe the level of suffering we’ve caused our own people and people around the world.
There’s no reason to believe there will not be serious blowback to what we have done in Venezuela. Yes, there are many Venezuelans wildly excited that Maduro has been removed. And that’s understandable. But the President’s plan for going forward – and in TrumpWorld, “a plan” means whatever the President feels like doing on any given day – seems dangerously naive as to the dangers that could lie ahead.
Phil Gunson, senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, who lives in Caracas, says, “The risks of violence in any post-Maduro scenario should not be downplayed.” He claims elements of the Venezuelan security forces could launch a gorilla war against the new authorities. “We were warning people in the administration that this is not going to work. We said there will be violent chaos. It will be your fault and you’ll own it.”
As did other Presidents before him, Trump apparently thinks we could handle any such problem through an application of additional brute force. He’s already said he’s “not afraid of putting boots on the ground.” In fact, yesterday he proposed a $1.5 Trillion new military budget so he can build his “dream military.” This represents a fifty per cent increase in the Pentagon budget.
$500B in military expenditure here, $500B in military expenditure there. Surely nothing could go wrong.
2) Killing of U.S. citizen by ICE agent in Minneapolis
On Wednesday a U.S. citizen named Renee Good was killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis, and state and federal officials give dramatically differing accounts of what happened. President Trump, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem all ask us to disbelieve what we’ve seen with our own eyes, as Ms. Good was clearly driving away from the ICE agents when they killed her. We have the video, after all. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz disputes the official narrative that Ms. Good was weaponizing her car against the ICE agents. He says the administration’s claim that Ms. Good was driving her car in the direction of the agents – in what Secretary Noem has called an act of “domestic terrorism” – is “verifiably false.”
All over the country, emotions are understandably running high. Protests are happening, particularly in Minneapolis. Mayor Jacob Frey has told ICE to “Get the fuck out of Minneapolis.” Governor Walz has said he would call up the Minnesota National Guard if necessary, but warned Minnesotans not to take the President’s bait. He said citizens of his state should definitely stand up to the federal government by exercising their First Amendment rights, but they should make sure to do so peacefully so as not to give the President justification for sending in federal troops or imposing martial law. Walz said, “We will protest peacefully” and “hold the line on decency and accountability.” He urged his constituents to stay calm and take care of each other.
Miles Taylor, a former senior official in the Department of Homeland Security, responded this way:
I’ve seen terrorist attacks. Hell, I’ve responded to dozens of them. The footage doesn’t show anything remotely close to a “terrorist attack” or even an imminent threat, nor does it show an officer clearly acting in self-defense. What it shows is something far more disturbing: armed federal officers escalating a routine encounter into a fatal shooting. Then within hours, they hid behind an obvious lie.
To this administration, “messaging” may or may not have anything to do with what’s true. It means simply what’s more likely to get the quickest buy-in from the most people. Lies aren’t a problem; they’re just something you have to repeat more often. It doesn’t matter to them whether Ms. Good was driving away from the ICE agents or driving towards them. To them it only matters that you say she was driving into them. Have Secretary Noem say it was a “domestic terrorism event,” Good was “weaponizing her car,” and the Mayor of Minneapolis “doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” Oh, and one thing more. Do say it was a tragedy so people will feel assured you’re still human.
Ms. Good’s final words were “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.” The ICE agent’s words right after shooting her were, “Fucking bitch.” Yet Vice-President Vance says the ICE agent who killed Ms. Good has “absolute immunity.” Why? Because they say so. And the federal government currently refuses to allow Minnesota officials to participate in any official investigation of the incident. Governor Walz said that such an investigation will therefore be neither transparent nor fair.
The administration has a particular aversion to working with other countries to combat climate change, something the president regularly refers to as “a hoax.” While our climate is now hotter than at any point in human civilization, President Trump and his team have profound hostility to dealing with it. They’ve removed the U.S. from the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, among many others. A White House memo also states we’ll be pulling out from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN’s top climate science body, as well as an assortment of other international environmental organizations including the International Renewable Energy Association, the International Solar Alliance and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Manish Bapna, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said Trump’s decision to exit the UNFCCC is an “unforced error” and “self-defeating” as it will further hamper the US’s ability to compete with China, which is increasingly dominant in the world’s burgeoning clean energy technology industries. “While the Trump administration is abdicating the United States of America’s global leadership,” said Bapna, “the rest of the world is continuing to shift to cleaner power sources and take climate action.”
It’s difficult to overstate how regressive this administration can be, particularly on environmental issues. We’re ceding trillions of dollars in clean energy investments to countries who are smart enough to follow the science and create a green future. The American people will continue to invest in cleaner, less expensive forms of energy, despite Trump’s slavish devotion to the corporate powers still making billions of dollars extracting fossil fuels. The damage he is doing by retreating from our international commitments to a healthier future for both people and planet, however, is incalculable. We will be forced to pay a heavy price in the form of harm to us, and to our children, for years to come.
This moment was described brilliantly by William Butler Yeats in his poem The Second Coming, where he wrote that “The best lack all conviction, while the worst/Are full of passionate intensity.” It’s unbelievably painful, to anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of American history, to witness a modern form of barbarism assert such power in our country as it does today.
What’s important to remember, however, is that the future is still ours to create. The President serves the people; the people do not serve the President. The radicalism of the American experiment must not end on our watch.
As it says in the Declaration of Independence, governments are instituted to secure our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And if the government isn’t doing that job, it’s our right to alter or to abolish it. Though it was obvious in the President’s interview with Terry Moran that he had never read the document, I have. And hopefully so have you.
Americans can resist the tyrannous force now intentionally taking a wrecking ball to our democratic freedoms and collective wellbeing. We can do this through a collective uprising of nonviolent power, yet it will only work if a critical mass of Americans choose to participate. Our power will not come only from political organizing in a traditional sense. It will come from an asymmetric, gorilla wave of internal and external energy by which Americans stand up to what’s happening, with a full and holistic understanding of how fascism works.
In 1776, Thomas Paine inspired his generation of Americans with a pamphlet called Common Sense. In it he wrote the famous words, “We have it in our power to begin the world over again.” And indeed they did. Our Founders established ideals of individual freedom and liberty which, while they have never been fully actualized in our history, have been seen as every generation’s clarion call to create a more perfect union. A European colleague said to me recently that until now, even though America did many things other countries couldn’t agree with, there was an abiding belief that we would somehow get back on track. “For every Viet Nam war you gave us a Bob Dylan,” he said. But not anymore. He said the rest of the world now sees us, in far too many cases, as a rogue nation which has abandoned its promises not only to ourselves but to the rest of the world.
What happens now is up to all of us, and each of us. Think of yourself as connected by a tiny silver filament with the many who agree with you that something is terribly off in America but that we have the power within ourselves to course-correct. Think of yourself as an immune cell rushing to the aid of a wounded body politic. You’re working in silent, invisible collaboration with millions of others who are feeling and doing the same.
If you pray, pray. If you organize, organize. If you meditate, meditate. If there’s a peaceful protest in your neighborhood, protest. If people are gathering to share meaningful information, show up. If you have a phone, call your Congresspeople. If there’s a newspaper you read, write a letter to the editor. If you see someone posting a lie, post the truth. If you see someone posting the truth, spread it around. If you feel you should run for office, run. If you write a Substack or a book, write. If you do a podcast, podcast. Look deep within yourself and ask the God of your understanding how you might help. No one of us, or even a thousand of us, is going to make all the difference. This is not a moment when power is of the the soloist, but of the choir. Every one of us can sing our note and if we do, the music will be the music of angels.
This is not a moment to bitch, whine, complain, use spiritual principle to justify looking away, go to bed and put the covers over your head, figure your political party can surely handle this without your help, or hate anyone. A friend of mine told me she woke up in the middle of the night recently and for a moment saw the light of Donald Trump’s soul. That’s beautiful, and I hope we all can. I actually envy her that moment. But that doesn’t mean he’s not morally accountable for what he’s doing, and it’s one of the great tragedies of American history that the John Roberts Supreme Court basically ruled that legally he is not.
The administration is counting on you to be afraid, to be acquiescent, to be psychologically paralyzed. It is extremely important that you not consent. No matter what, do not look away. Look straight into this madness and find the fierceness in your soul to say, “No way. Not now. Not ever. Not on my watch.”
In a crisis — any crisis — The Prosperos offers Translation. Translation Saturday Meetings is a weekly series of Translation presentations by veteran Translators, live and up to date on the issues of the day.
It is not a Translation workshop, It is not a Translation class. It is not a group Translation, though group participation is encouraged.
It is, however, restricted to those who have taken Translation class. So if you have never taken Translation class, check the calendar tab on The Prosperos website (TheProsperos.org) or get in touch with us and we will schedule a class.
Last week our sense testimony was: Anxiety can cause disease of the gut. Out conclusion: Gut is the expression of Truth, the synchronous opportunity for ease of Consciousness.
Translation is a 5-step process of “straight thinking in the abstract” comparing and contrasting what seems to be truth with what you can syllogistically, axiomatically and mathematically (using word equations) prove is the truth. It is not an effort to change, alter or heal anything other than our consciousness.
The claims in a Translation should be outrageous and mind-blowing, but they are always (or should always be) based on self-evident syllogistic reasoning. Here is one Translation from this week.
1) Truth is that which is so. That which is not truth is not so. Therefore Truth is all that is. Truth being all is therefore total, therefore whole, therefore complete, therefore completed, therefore finished, therefore done. I think therefore I am. Since I am and since Truth is all that is, I cannot be other than all that is, therefore I, being, am Truth. Since I, being, am Truth, therefore I, being, have all the attributes of Truth. Therefore I, being, am total, whole, complete, completed, finished, done. Since I am mind (self-evident) and since I (being) am Truth, therefore Truth is Mind. (Euclid’s axiom: Things equal to the same thing are equal to each other.) Since Truth is Mind, therefore Mind has all the attributes of Truth, therefore Mind is total, whole, complete, completed, finished, done.
2) It is not spiritually correct to espouse political opinions.
Word-tracking: Spiritual: spirit, inner (as opposed to outer), breathe of life, life force, enthusiasm Enthusiasm: full of God God: supreme being Correct: right, true, truth Espouse: to marry, to adopt as a belief Political: politics Politics: city, citizen, civilization Civilized: polished, made smooth, respectful Opinion: to think, to believe Believe: to accept as true
3) Truth being Mind and Truth being all that is, therefore Truth is the only Mind. Since it is Mind which believes, therefore Truth is the only Believer. Therefore Truth is the only acceptor of that which is so. Respect meaning to look again implies looking through the surface of something to the reality underlying it. Since Truth is Consciousness and since Truth always looks through the surface of everything, and since Truth is one Person, therefore Truth IS a respecter of Person. Since Truth is a respecter of Person, the civilization or politics of Truth is based on respect. Therefore Truth espouses a politics of respect. Truth being true, is therefore right, therefore correct. And there being no other life force than Truth, therefore Truth is spiritually correct. Truth being all that is, therefore Truth is one. Truth being one cannot have a supreme being and lesser beings, therefore Truth is indivisible non-hierarchical beingness.
4) Truth is the only Mind. Truth is the only Believer. Truth is the only Acceptor of that which is so. Truth IS a respecter of Person The civilization or politics of Truth is based on respect. Truth espouses a politics of respect. Truth is spiritually correct. Truth is indivisible non-hierarchical beingness.
5) Truth is a respecter of indivisible, non-hierarchical Personhood.
Weekly Invitational Translation Group invites your participation. If you would like to submit a Translation on any subject, feel free to send your weekly Translation to zonta1111@aol.com and we will anonymously post it on the Bathtub Bulletin on Friday.
Richard Hartnett, H.W., M. ________________________
“The Many Myths Hidden in the Holidays”
At this time of year most of us celebrate New Years and Christmas. The stories around these holidays echo many different mythological traditions. In this talk I will address many hidden gems from our holiday traditions. I anticipate there will be some interesting surprises for most of my audience. And of course, I will roll the stories back to our ontological foundations. Ho Ho Ho!
Rick Steves Travel Talks Oct 22, 2024 Travelers learn that when history speaks, we should listen. And in this special Election 2024 edition of Monday Night Travel, we join Rick Steves for a thought-provoking trip that goes back a century to track the rise of fascism in Europe. We learn how fascism took root in the turbulent aftermath of World War I when frustrated masses rose up, their fears stoked by charismatic leaders who manipulated their anger. We see the totalitarian societies they promised built and the brutal measures used to enforce their ideology. And as Rick screens his hit public television special, “The Story of Fascism in Europe,” he’ll share insights on how wannabe autocrats in fragile democracies across the West today seem to be reading from the same playbook that was so effective for Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco. Watch this important hour and encourage your family and friends — especially those on the fence about the importance of voting — to do the same. #ricksteves#mondaynighttravel • “The Story of Fascism in Europe” TV Special: https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read… • Fascism Clips on Classroom Europe: https://classroom.ricksteves.com/vide… • Rick’s Book “Travel as a Political Act”: https://store.ricksteves.com/shop/p/t… • “The Holy Land: Israelis and Palestinians Today” TV Special: https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read… • Register to Vote: https://www.vote.org/ • Rick’s Endorsement of Kamala Harris: / pfbid022eeuvakkpzb76uc1wawqdrvpzgk5bskjvqc… • Planning a trip to Europe? You’ll find lots of free travel information at https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/ • Subscribe at http://goo.gl/l6qjuS for more new travel talks!
“I do not say that democracy has been more pernicious on the whole, and in the long run, than monarchy or aristocracy. Democracy has never been and never can be so durable as aristocracy or monarchy; but while it lasts, it is more bloody than either. … Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty. When clear prospects are opened before vanity, pride, avarice, or ambition, for their easy gratification, it is hard for the most considerate philosophers and the most conscientious moralists to resist the temptation. Individuals have conquered themselves. Nations and large bodies of men, never.”
s!
