Land Purchase is Common

In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory for $15 million from Napoleon.  This purchase included the cities of New Orleans and St. Louis.

In 1819, President James Monroe purchased Florida from Spain.  The Adams-Onis Treaty traded American claims to Texas and $5 million for ownership of East and West Florida.  St. Augustine and Pensacola became American cities though the population was Spanish.

In 1848, President James K Polk sought to purchase California and New Mexico from Mexico.  He offered up to $30 million for the territory.  Any Mexican president who looked like he might negotiate such a deal was deposed.  Santa Anna returned from exile to fight the Americans.  After Mexico decisively lost the war, the US nonetheless paid $15 million for the territory.

In 1854, President Franklin Pierce approved the Gadsden Purchase, which added around 30,000 square miles to Arizona and New Mexico Territories.  This also included the city of Tucson.  Interestingly, Santa Anna was President of Mexico at the time.  At this time, Pierce also offered to buy Cuba, but Spain declined.

In 1867, President Andrew Johnson approved the purchase of Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million.  Viewed as a bad purchase, it was called Seward's Folly.  William Seward was the Secretary of State.  It is noteworthy that Seward also wanted to buy Greenland.

In 1898, President William McKinley purchased the Philippines from Spain for $20 million.  Though the US had defeated the Spanish fleet, it had only captured Manila Harbor.  The payment was to acquire all of the Philippines.

In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt paid $10 million for the Panama Canal Zone.  Of course, he had helped Panama secede from Columbia when Columbia had refused a treaty for the canal zone.

In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt began paying rent for Guantanamo Bay on Cuba.  Though the US had long flirted with acquiring Cuba, when it actually was acquired, the Congress forbade annexation.  The naval base was established to maintain Cuban independence.

In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson bought the American Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million.  The US had first sought to purchase them in the 1860s.

In 1944, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt purchased Water Island for $10,000 from Denmark.  It was the last of the Danish Virgin Islands and was less than 1 square mile in size.  At the time of the sale, Denmark was occupied by the Nazis.

During World War II, the US used Greenland as a refueling stop.  In 1946, President Harry Truman offered to buy Greenland, but Denmark declined.  In 1951, the US established Thule Airbase - now Pituffik Space Base - as a missile warning base for the Cold War.

President Trump's offer to buy Greenland is nothing out of the ordinary.  Clearly, the US has purchased a lot of territory with varying degrees of arm-twisting.  Greenland has been on the wish list for more than 150 years.

Maggie Moore(s) (2023)

Maggie Lee Moore (Mary Holland) fled in terror while screaming for help.  She ran down a dead end and her assailant approached.  In the morning, Sheriff Jordan Sanders (Jon Hamm) and Deputy Reddy (Nick Mohammed) examined the corpse.  When her name is mentioned, both look surprised.  Cut to 10 days earlier.

Maggie Moore (Louisa Krause) screamed at her husband, Jay (Micah Stock), so loudly that the neighbor, Rita (Tina Fey) heard some of it.  Maggie kicked Jay out of the house and threatened divorce and exposure to the police.  Jay hired a goon, Mike Kosco (Happy Anderson), to scare his wife straight.  Instead, Kosco killed her.  Now Jay was in the crosshairs of Sheriff Sanders.  However, he learned by happenstance that there was another Maggie Moore in town.  What if she was murdered?  He went back to Kosco to make arrangements.

There is no mystery here, just dark comedy that is not funny.  There are a lot of cringy interactions, where people humiliate themselves in awkward conversations.  The deputy frequently makes inappropriate comments regarding the sheriff's love life.  The budding romance between the sheriff and Rita had all the chemistry of a flat soda.  Jay Moore practically screams "I'm guilty" in every scene, though the sheriff happily goes down the wrong path.  Micah Stock makes Jay amazingly pathetic and unsympathetic.  Fine.  However, he's somehow got money to burn on a hitman and payoffs but can't afford to keep his restaurant stocked with non-moldy food.  Was moldy food meant to be funny?  Why are there customers here when the mold is beyond obvious?  Really, the sandwiches are polka dotted with mold.  The normally smooth and suave Hamm is here a man without moves.  Okay, so he's a widower and out of practice, but women are tossing themselves at him and he's got no game.  Yeah, this was not the role for Dan Draper.  Ditto with Tina Fey.  Her character has lots of undesirable traits, from busybody neighbor to self-loathing.  She says her ex-husband broke her, but she still has sex with him regularly.  Is that dark humor?  Why is the sheriff attracted to this woman?

The movie was inspired by the murder of two woman named Maggie Moore in Houston within a week of each other.  Those murders were never solved and may have no relation other than the coincidence of the victims' names.

Skip this one.

Dying before the War

In July 1845, Texas accepted annexation to the United States.  Coincident with this, General Zachary Taylor moved his Corps of Observation from Ft. Jessup - on the Texas-Louisianna border - to Corpus Christi, Texas on the Nueces River.  Though the Mexican government still didn't recognize Texas independence, it argued that the Nueces - not the Rio Grande - was the border for Tejas.  Taylor camped on the south side of the river, a clear statement that the US leaned toward Texas' claim that the Rio Grande was the border.

For the next nine months, the US Army of Occupation loitered in Corpus Christi.  Though there were certainly rumors that a Mexican Army would attack, such did not happen.  Even so, the army suffered a surprising number of casualties.  Of the 3,000 troops encamped, around 67 of them died while the army waited for the war to begin.  Most of them died from illness, a common killer for those in a new climate with unfamiliar hazards.  Quite a few died from chronic diarrhea, a few drown, one accidentally shot himself, and another was shot by a man named Springer.  One unfortunate officer, Lieutenant Henry Merrill, who had only just arrived at St. Joseph Island was killed when a ship's mast fell on him; Merrill had graduated West Point on July 1st and was killed less than 4 months later.  Nearly half of the soldiers that died were from Europe: fourteen Irishmen, seven Germans, three Englishmen, three Scots, a Prussian, a Pole, a Swiss, and a Canadian died a long way from home.  Oddly, the 2nd Dragoon Regiment suffered the most deaths: 18.  The 4th Infantry lost a dozen men and the 3rd lost 11.

Steamship Dayton

Corpus Christi Bay was quite shallow and could not accommodate the supply ships.  Thus, supplies were deposited on St. Joseph Island, one of the line of coastal islands on the Texas coast.  From there, riverboats would ferry the men and equipment across the bay - about 20 miles - to the camp.  One of those riverboats was the Dayton.

On September 12, 1845, the Dayton set out on the latest supply run.  Several officers and men from the army were aboard the ship.  2nd Lt. Ulysses S. Grant, who served as a quartermaster in the 4th Infantry, declined to join them.  Captain George Crossman, who was the Chief Quartermaster, was aboard.  The Dayton was somewhat more than halfway to its destination when the boiler exploded.  Bodies tumbled through the air.  Lt. Benjamin Berry and Lt. Thadeus Higgins - both from the 4th Infantry - were killed instantly.  As the boat sank, the other boiler exploded.  There were 8 dead and 17 injured.  Two of the injured died soon afterwards.  Captain Crossman survived with minor injuries.  Captain West, who commanded the Dayton, had been severely scalded and died shortly after the disaster.

In January 1846, Taylor was ordered to move the army to the Rio Grande.  The march began on March 8th.  Those who were too ill to march were left in Corpus Christi.  By the middle of April, 4 more had died.  Approximately 2% of Taylor's troops died while camped.  This was only a hint of what was to come.  In the Mexican-American War, disease killed vastly more soldiers than muskets, cannons, swords, and bayonets.

Bleeding Minnesota

In the 1850s, Senator Stephen A. Douglas had argued in favor of popular sovereignty, a system where the people of a state would decide whether slavery would be legal or not.  This idea was tested with the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.  Though both states were north of the previously agreed upon 36th parallel, the act allowed them to organize how they chose.  Unsurprisingly (well, it must have been a surprise to Douglas & President Franklin Pierce), abolitionists and pro-slave forces flooded into Kansas.  Murder and mayhem followed: Bleeding Kansas.  John Brown was quite active, gaining his fame or infamy depending on one's point of view.  It is agreed that this was a big step on the way to Civil War.

Today, the question is illegal immigration.  Again, we have a popular sovereignty where some states encourage illegal immigration and protect those immigrants from deportation.  The term Sanctuary City goes back decades.  There are many who are strongly opposed to illegal immigration.  Unlike the case in the 19th Century where slavery was not only legal, but Constitutional, illegal immigration is clearly illegal.  There is no argument in favor on the basis of law.  Sanctuary cities have always been enabling lawlessness, which the federal government has tolerated to varying degrees.

Just as the slavery question grew more and more contentious as the 19th century progressed, the issue of illegal immigration has done the same.  One could argue that Donald Trump won both his elections on that issue alone.  Trump is to illegal immigration what Lincoln was to slavery.  Why is illegal immigration so important to those who support it?  They would claim human decency.  That is no more convincing than when slave owners declared their slaves to be too stupid to take care of themselves.  No, there are several benefits.  First, illegals count in the census, which is why there was such a ruckus when Trump tried to get a question about legal status on the 2020 Census.  If one accepts the long-stated 12 million illegals, that is 16 seats in the House of Representatives, even if illegals don't vote.  If they do vote (and many have), they are going to reliably vote for the pro-illegal immigrant party (i.e., Democrats).  Then there is the money.  As has been exposed with the Somali daycares, a lot of money is supporting illegals in America.  How much of that gets kicked back to political campaigns or activism?

Much as the American South had built a culture on exploiting slaves, the Democratic Party of today has built a system that exploits illegal immigrants.  Like the slave, the immigrant doesn't have recourse to law; he will be deported.  The illegal immigrant is just a variation of the same old Democratic playbook: cheap labor and greater electoral representation.  Just as they resorted to violence to protect and extend slavery in Kansas, they are resorting to violence in Minnesota.  ICE represents that abolitionists.

The Naked Gun (2025)

The story opens with a little girl stumbling into a bank robbery in progress.  When confronted by an armed bank robber, she pulls off her face to reveal Frank Drebin Jr. (Liam Neeson).  He deftly took out the robbers though one escaped.  Oddly, the robbers didn't take money, just the contents of a safety deposit box.  When Frank went to interview the owner of the box, it turned out he had driven off a cliff the previous night.  Interesting.  However, the man's sister, Beth (Pamela Anderson), insisted that her brother had been murdered and she would investigate on her own.  Thus, Frank and Beth crossed paths repeatedly.

Okay, that's more plot than required.  This is nothing but a thin story to support a non-stop series of comedic bits.  Where the original Naked Gun series had silly word play or ludicrous situations, this one goes over the top.  There is the deadpan delivery that was a staple of Leslie Nielsen.  A lot of the gags are beyond silly.  Doesn't feel as clever.  Certainly has its moments but not something I will rewatch.

Meh.

Contempt of Congress

Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon both refused to comply with congressional subpoenas to testify before the J6 Committee.  Both were then held in Contempt of Congress.  Eventually, both were found guilty of defying the subpoenas and sentenced to a 4-month stint in jail.  This was an escalation from previous incidents.  For example, Attorney General Eric Holder was held in Contempt of Congress, but he did not go to jail.  Of course, he wasn't going to prosecute himself.  Lois Lerner of the IRS was found in Contempt, but she was not prosecuted either.  Interestingly, Eric Holder was the AG.  It is noteworthy that the Republicans were jailed while the Democrats were not prosecuted.

Bill and Hillary Clinton have refused to comply with congressional subpoenas to testify regarding Jeffery Epstein.  Where the Biden Administration went hard on former President Donald Trump and those who served in his administration (Navarro and Bannon), what will the Trump Administration do?  Did the Democrats cross the Rubicon by jailing Navarro & Bannon and serially prosecuting Trump?  If the Republicans don't do the same in return, will the temperature be lowered when a Democrat again takes office or will they have missed their one opportunity to prevent their demise?  Sounds crazy.

Political assassinations and violence have been rising.  Democrats have shown an eagerness to use government against their rivals, which has been ongoing for a long time.  Lois Lerner was accused of targeting right-leaning groups, thus her contempt charge.  That was more than a decade ago.  By the time President Biden was in office, the FBI was searching a former First Lady's underwear drawer.  Blue states are resisting ICE's efforts to remove criminal aliens, which has resulted in violence and deaths.  Yes, things are escalating.  Tim Pool's long-standing claim that Civil War II is coming - maybe it is already here - looks to be less outlandish every day.

Democrats had no problem attempting to imprison Donald Trump.  Turnabout is fair play.  Jail Bill and Hillary for Contempt of Congress, just like Democrats did to Navarro and Bannon.  Only when the stakes are even can the temperature be brought down.  Either everyone gets the Holder/Lerner slap on the wrist or everyone gets 4-months in jail.  No two-tiered system.

Scott Adams

Scott Adams, the man most known for his Dilbert comic, died this morning.  I first became aware of Adams when Dilbert appeared in the comic section.  Of course, I didn't much like Dilbert.  I preferred The Far Side and Calvin & Hobbes.  More than 20 years later, I encountered his blog.  He had taken up political writing, which fell right into my field of interests.  Though I often disagreed with his views on subjects, he was quite engaging and often came at topics from an interesting angle.  He would often preface his opinions by saying "I'm a trained hypnotist."  To him, persuasion was the most important thing, while being right or wrong was often secondary.  Not that it wasn't important to be right, but an unpersuasive right will lose every time to a persuasive wrong.  This was keen observation, especially when facts are weak persuasion compared to emotion.

During the 2016 campaign, Scott became a key source for me.  His analysis frequently annoyed me, but all too often proved more accurate than I expected.  He and I were looking at things differently, but his views tracked better.  So I bought his book, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big.  Then I bought God's Debris.  Loserthink and Reframe Your Brain also joined my library.  He switched from blogging to streaming.  I watched his stream and was a paying member of his Locals channel for a while.  Though clearly a fan, I still couldn't get into Dilbert.  But that's okay.  He was so much more than the Dilbert guy.

RIP

Perfect Blue (1997)

Mima Kirigoe was a member of a pop band, but her agent wanted her to switch to acting.  Her friend, Rumi, was not so keen on switching.  Nonetheless, Mima switched.  She got a small part in a TV thriller and was also called upon to pose nude for a photoshoot.  Her TV character was raped, which transformed her into an avenging angel in the show.  Is it only the show?  She had crazy dreams.  Or were they memories?  She was soon haunted by her old self, the pop icon in a pink dress.  Then there is the stalker with dead eyes, the webpage that knows her every move and thought, and a series of murders.  Was she going insane?

This is not the sort of story one expects from Anime.  In fact, the script was originally intended as a live-action movie.  The movie has a dream quality to it.  There are some things that don't make sense in retrospect.  Mima sure seemed to be losing her marbles, but she was being gaslit.  Could she have dreams of murders that she did not commit only to find they happened as she dreamt?  When Ghost Mima is revealed to be an actual person, one wonders how she bounded from the second floor and fled on top of light posts.  Was Mima just hallucinating?

Though highly-rated (8 stars on IMDb, 84% Rotten Tomatoes), it missed the medium.  This isn't a story for Anime.

Flight Risk (2025)

Somewhere in rural Alaska, Winston (Topher Grace) was cooking a cup of noodles in his motel microwave when the door burst in.  Two local cops and US Marshal Madolyn Harris arrest him.  A couple of days later, Madolyn loaded Winston into a barebones charter plane.  The pilot, Daryl Booth (Mark Wahlberg) was a chatty fellow, who offered a history of how he found his way from Texas to Alaska.  Shortly after takeoff, Madolyn learned that both the radio and the GPS were offline.  Then Daryl talked about them going to Seattle; he's only taking them to Anchorage.  It turned out that Daryl was an assassin dispatched to kill Winston before he could testify against a mob boss.  Neither Mandolyn nor Winston can fly a plane.

There is a lot of inadequate securing of Daryl when he is subdued.  Repeatedly!  By the same token, Daryl had subdued Madolyn and then failed to secure her.  Everyone is needlessly reckless and it costs them again and again.  To add to the tension, it becomes clear that Daryl got information from within the Marshals, making her question her allies on the other end of the actually working radio.  Is she just flying into a trap?

A Mel Gibson film, it is just okay.  I'm sure that Wahlberg enjoyed the opportunity to play a bad guy and Michelle Dockery is a long way from Downton Abbey's Lady Mary here.  Far off type, which is cool and they are good in their roles.  No, it is the script that fails.  In order for the flight to have several fights, the characters must leave the opponent in a position to escape or fight back.  The characters must be dumb or the story would end after the first fight.  Meh.

The Changing Demographics of a Syrian Refugee

In this clip, Professor Casagranda states that Greek fire was invented by a Syrian refugee.  There is no further context to that.  Well, everyone knows what a Syrian refugee is, right?  We just had thousands upon thousands of them flee the Syrian Civil War and flood into Europe.  They are mostly Arabic Muslims.  Anyone watching this clip will mistakenly conclude the same of the refugee who invented Greek fire.  Why would you not?  Unless you actually know history, like Professor Casagranda.  A 7th century Syrian refugee is quite different from a 21st century one.  In fact, Callinicus of Heliopolis was a Greek-speaking Jewish architect who fled the Muslim conquests of that Christian nation.  Huh.  I'm sure that omission was unintentional.

A Minecraft Movie (2025)

Steve yearned for the mines as a child but was chased away by old man miner.  Years later while slaving away at his boring job, adult Steve (Jack Black) remembered his dream.  He returned to the mine, but this time, he cleverly outmaneuvered old man miner and got to digging.  In almost no time at all, he discovered a magic orb that granted passage to the blockish realm that all Minecraft players know.  Here, he mined, crafted, and built.  Then, he found his way to the Nether, a dark realm ruled by a pig witch named Malgosha (Rachel House).  She imprisoned him.

Meanwhile, in our world, Garrett (Jason Momoa) was on the brink of bankruptcy.  He had won a video game championship in 1989 and was still coasting on that 'achievement.'  In desperation for money, he bid on the contents of storage unit.  He thought it was a bust.  However, the magic orb was part of his loot.  Garrett was soon joined by Henry (Sebastian Hansen), Natalie (Emma Myers), and Dawn (Danielle Brooks).  All of them were transported to Minecraft World, where the joined the quest to foil Malgosha's dark plans.  Oh, and also get back home.

Jack Black goes far beyond William Shatner levels of overacting, emoting where no man has emoted before.  Jason Momoa joins the embarrassment by wearing a pink jacket whining like few leading men have ever whined.  Impressive commitment to the role.  Henry, who proves to be a genius kid with poor people skills, is generally the central character, Steve and Garrett playing goofy mentors.  Natalie is his older sister, though it is hard to tell.  Wow, when she first appeared on screen, I wondered why a 14-year-old was driving a car.  No, she's well into her 20s but sure doesn't look it.  Lastly, there is Dawn, a realtor who has a side gig of a mobile petting zoo; there is a llama in her car.

There is no pretense to seriousness.  This is slapstick silliness in a crazy unbelievable world.  Good popcorn fun!

Presidential Sons

Might it be the case that a lack of sons among most of the early presidents led to a more orderly transition of power?  Washington established the peaceful handoff, but the lack of sons may have aided in keeping the tradition going.

Founding Fathers

George Washington had no children of his own.  Martha had been widowed at age 26 and brought 2 children with her when she married Washington: John and Martha.  John became ill during the Siege of Yorktown (1781) and died shortly after the British surrendered.  Had Washington become a monarch, he had no progeny to benefit.

By contrast, John Adams had three son who survived to adulthood.  The eldest, John Quincy Adams, pursued a career in government and eventually became president during his father's lifetime.

Thomas Jefferson had only daughters.

Like Washington, James Madison had no children.  However, his wife, Dolley Payne Madison, had a child from her previous marriage.  John Payne impoverished his mother after James Madison died.

James Monroe's only son died in infancy.  Monroe is the last of the Founding Fathers to serve as president.

Antebellum Presidents

Almost 50 years after the Declaration of Independence, John Quincy Adams became the first to follow his father's footsteps into the White House.  Like his father, he had three sons.  Two died tragically and young (suicide and alcoholism), but Charles Francis Adams sought the Vice Presidency in 1848.

Andrew Jackson had no children, nor did his wife, Rachel, who had been previously married.  They adopted a nephew who proved to be a lot of trouble.

Martin Van Buren had two sons: Abraham and John.  Abraham served as personal secretary while his father was president.  John became the Attorney General of New York, an office his father had held.

William Henry Harrison had 10 children, but only 1 son outlived him.  Interestingly, that son, John Scott Harrison, was the father of President Benjamin Harrison.

John Tyler had the most children of any president, but he and his sons joined the Confederacy during the Civil War.

James Knox Polk had no children.

Zachary Taylor had one son, Richard, who went on to be a general in the Confederate Army.

Millard Filmore had one son, also named Millard, who a became a lawyer.

Franklin Pierce had 3 sons, all of whom died before he was inaugurated.

James Buchanan never married, earning his title as the bachelor president.

Abraham Lincoln had 4 sons, only 2 of whom survived him.  Of those, only Robert lived beyond the age of 18.  Robert became Secretary of War for President Garfield and Minister to the UK under Benjamin Harrison.

Post Civil War Presidents

Andrew Johnson had 3 sons, 2 of whom predeceased him and all of whom died of alcoholism.  Yikes.

Ulysses S Grant had three sons.  The eldest followed his father's footsteps by going to West Point and joining the military.  The younger two did pursue politics but without success.

Rutherford Hayes had 4 sons who survived him, none of whom pursued politics.

James Garfield had 3 surviving sons, one of whom went on to be Secretary of the Interior for President Theodore Roosevelt.

Chester Arthur had two sons, only one of whom made it to adulthood.  Chester Jr. proved to be a playboy, a man who lived a life of leisure.

Grover Cleveland had 2 sons by his wife.  As he married late in life, the boys were only 11 and 5 at the time of his death.

Benjamin Harrison's only son, Russell, became the US Consul for Mexico and Portugal.  Though he did become a politician, it was only at the state level in Indiana.

William McKinley had only two daughters, both of whom died by the age of 3.

20th Century Presidents

Theodore Roosevelt had four sons.  The youngest was shot down during WWI.  Two others died (heart attack & suicide) while in the military during WWII.  The last lived until 1979.  None followed their father into politics.

William Howard Taft had two sons.  Robert Taft became a noted Senator and sought the nomination for president several times but never won it.

Woodrow Wilson had only daughters.

Warren Harding had no children with his wife but did have a daughter by his mistress.

Calvin Coolidge had 2 sons, one of whom died during his presidency.  When Coolidge said that the business of government is business, his son, John, took it to heart and became a businessman.

Herbert Hoover had 2 sons, neither of whom pursued elective office.

FDR had several sons.  Two pursued elective office but never achieved anything close to their father's success.  The youngest son, John, did not seek office but he did become a Republican.  Yes, the youngest is usually the rebel.

Harry Truman had only one child, a daughter.

Dwight Eisenhower had two sons.  One died of scarlet fever at the age of three.  The other, John, followed his father example by joining the military but not politics.  John's son, David, would go on to marry Richard Nixon's daughter.

JFK had one son survive to adulthood.  JFK Jr. died in a plane crash when only 38.

LBJ had only daughters.

Richard Nixon had only daughters.

Gerald Ford had 3 sons, none of whom pursued politics.  Steven Ford is an actor.

Jimmy Carter had three sons. Jack Carter was the nominee for the Senate from Nevada but lost to the Republican.  The other sons have not pursued politics.

Ronald Reagan had two sons.  Michael was adopted with his first wife.  He followed his father into entertainment, notably talk radio.  I listened to his show a few times when I lived in Southern California.  Ron Jr. is his son with Nancy.  Ron is the rebellious son who became a Democrat.  Though he went into entertainment like his father, he didn't parley that into political office.

George Bush had four sons, two of whom became governors of major states (Texas and Florida).  George W Bush became the first son of a president since John Quincy Adams to become president.  JEB sought the Republican nomination in 2016.  George Bush himself was the son of Senator Prescott Bush.  Yes, here is the makings of a family dynasty to rival the Adams.  That's not a good thing, BTW.

Bill Clinton has only a daughter.

21st Century Presidents

George W Bush has only daughters.

Barack Obama has only daughters.

Donald Trump has three sons, 2 of whom followed their father into business.  Both Donald Jr. and Eric have also become activists since their father jumped into politics.  His third son, Barron, is still in college.

Joe Biden had two sons.  The older son, Beau, died while his father was Vice President.  The younger son, Hunter, has been one long source of scandal for his father.

One thing to note is how many of these presidential sons became alcoholics or drug abusers.  Several committed suicide.  It must be quite hard to live in the shadow of a presidential father.

Reconquista

In this short video, Professor Casagranda once again tries to mislead the viewer.  Oh, how can a different people reconquer a region?  You aren't the Germanic people who were kicked out by the invading Arabs.  It was never yours, so this is just a landgrab.  Casagranda has chosen the framing of Germanic people being displaced by Arabs rather than Christian people displaced by Muslims.  With that change in framing, the previously Christian Iberian Peninsula was once again Christian.  Hey, now Reconquista makes perfect sense.  I could figure that out and I don't have a PhD.