The Heady Legacy Of A Salem Witch - Abigail Putnam Was Indeed An Adulterer And A Serial One At That

In the days after the witch trials of Salem, after the years of persecution, misogyny and Puritanical hysteria, adulterous women were still damned by God and community, outcastes no longer welcomed into the commonwealth of men.  They were no longer branded with the scarlet letter, but forced to wear a black, roughly hewn scarf - a symbol of irredeemable sin and a warning to all men.  

When men saw such a woman walking towards them, they gave her wide berth as though she were infectious, as though her sin could become theirs.  So infected they would become adulterers, unrepentant sinners of the flesh. 

Of course this condemnation of women was not new.  Shakespeare's Old Vic theatre was filled to overflowing by those who wanted to hear Othello cry that he had done men a service by killing the harlot Desdemona; or hearing Posthumus' scornful, hateful screeds against all women.  Women, said Shakespeare, were never the pure, sinless, virgins of Sir Gawain or the Knights of King Arthur's roundtable, but complicit in their own undoing. 

They had agency, to use the now popular term.  Women might have been the complicit victims of men's jealous insecurities, but they also were strong, purposeful, indomitable sexual forces.  Goneril, Regan, Tamora, Dionyza, and Volumnia were mighty mistresses of their own fate, dominating men and subjecting them to their will.  Their lives might have ended badly - after all, even in the hands of a nihilist like Shakespeare there is some moral accountability. 

Sadie Thomas was of the fifteenth generation of a woman burned at the stake in Salem in 1692; and the recorded history of her ancestor, Abigail Putnam was a complex and disturbing one.  Sadie was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), membership in which requires a rigorous historical and genealogical review.  She and the DAR were quite certain that Isaiah Potter had indeed fought in the Revolutionary War, had distinguished himself many times over, and was revered in New Hampshire lore. 

From that starting point, Sadie was able to trace her ancestry back a hundred years earlier to Salem and verify that Abigail Putnam, her direct ancestor, had been set alight in February of 1693. 

The unofficial record drawn from related documents, family Bibles, and annotated gossip showed that Abigail had indeed been a loose woman. References to her harlotry, godlessness, apostasy, and wantonness appeared again and again.  She had been officially accused of adultery with the pastor of the Salem Church of Christ and bearing his child - an event illustrated by Nathanial Hawthorn in his book The Scarlet Letter - but the good folk of Salem knew that her moral turpitude had begun long before her affair with Pastor Gidden.  

The point was that Abigail Putnam was indeed a 'witch', that is a serial adulterous woman with 'a malevolent sexual perversion'.  

Hawthorne in his novel The House of the Seven Gables had written about the living legacy of the past. The spirits of the ancestors of Hepzibah Pyncheon were alive and well, and the same virulent misanthropy that ran through their veins ran through hers.  It took enormous will and great moral ambition to become a more worthy descendant of the past, but she was never able to do so.  There is indeed something about the sins of the fathers - a genetic legacy - which carries on undiluted through successive generations. 

Sadie Thomas had always thought of herself, her own serial adultery, and her obsession with sex as falling well within the normal distribution - the bell curve that describes all human behavior.  Yes, she might be located on one of the asymptotes, the randy one, but she was still a woman of natural instincts, desires, and pleasures. 

She had no sooner been married to St. John Fellowes, a scion of Boston Brahmin society, then she took a lover, an equally well-placed member of Beacon Hill society.  She had no brief with her young husband.  He was as attentive, loving, and considerate as any; but he lacked a certain sexual confidence. She wasn't looking for a satyr, simply a man who did not take her for who she was, a la feminist ideology, but for a woman, a sexual object and a very desirable one at that. 

It was during that marriage that she found out about her Salem ancestry, and her driven sexuality was finally put into perspective. Hawthorne - who himself had direct ancestors in Salem - was exactly right.  There is something indefinable but sure that is passed down through the generations. Of course most people in modern America are mongrels, but some families like Sadie's had, like the fictional Pyncheons, kept a certain generational integrity. 

When she found out about Abigail, she not only understood where she had come from, but felt proud of her ancestor.  Just think of it, Sadie said.  The will, the determination, the absolute undiminished ambition of the woman! A hero, a martyr for the for the cause of all women, gone up in flames like Joan of Arc, a volatile but persistent woman who led the French army to victory over the British and a patriot, gave her life for her country. 

This new knowledge did not spur her on to new adulteries - she had enough feminine gumption to do so on her own - but gave her a particular satisfaction.  Her ancestor and now she were giving the establishment a run for their money.  Today's women do not have to be protected and provided safe spaces.  No Means No is the idiotic fancy of indoctrinated, sexless women.  

Women have always had the upper hand because of paternity. Only a mother knows who the father is, and despite burqas, lock-and-key and punitive surveillance, Saudis are afraid, just like every other man, that his wife's children are not his. 

It didn't take paternity to fuel the aspirational passion of Ibsen's heroes - Hedda Gabler, Rebekka West, and Hilde Wangel - women who had their will with overmatched men, and who sent them to their deaths simply because they could. 

Sadie took great pleasure in the fact that great ancestor Abigail went to the stake guilty as charged - not that she was possessed by the devil as the prosecution contended, but that sexual priority ran in her veins.  Men were little more than imbecilic, rutting creatures; but women were canny, savvy, and delightfully treacherous.  As she crackled, smoked, and charred, Abigail took it all with remarkable aplomb and dignity.  Those who were convinced she was possessed by the Devil were even more so as she was reduced to cinders without a cry. 

Sadie's husband found out about her affairs, confronted her, but was willing to take a contrite, apologetic wife back.  Of course Sadie did no such thing.  Her take it or leave it stance was intimidating.  Her husband pleaded and begged, but Sadie was immovable.  There was only one thing to do - dissolve the marriage - but thanks to a favorable pre-nuptial agreement, Sadie went into her next marriage very well off. 

Husband Number Two was treated no differently.  He was a good provider, companion, and dance partner but that was as far as it went.  Sadie was not one to be cowed into social brevity.  She would have lovers galore and be proud of it. 

She wrote her own obituary.  

Sadie Thomas, descendant of Abigail Putnam, burned at the stake in Salem in February 1692, heroine, indomitable force, individualist and sexual voyageur, died yesterday.  She was ____years old.  Heroine in her own right, fierce individualist, sexual icon, terror to many but admired by many more, Sadie will be remembered for her fierce, undiminished sexual candor and dismissal of the same Puritanical cant that charred her ancestor. 

 

Fast Food, Fast Women, And Fast Wars - Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, If You Can't Get It Over Quick, Forget About It

Donald Trump had a surprise coming after a missile eliminated the Grand Vizier of Iran, after the exiled Shah's son said he was ready to return to Tehran and take over the reins of power, and after thousands of Iranians danced in the street celebrating the overthrow of the regime.

 

However Iran was not giving up.  As a matter of fact it launched a counter attack against just about everyone in the region, raining missiles and launching fleets of drones against friend and foe alike - a show of resilience, resolve, and military savvy.  The Iranians knew that something like this American invasion would happen, and they were ready. 

The regime's head might be cut off - the Ayatollah was dead - but twenty others had been groomed for the job, sycophants as versed in the Quran and has hateful of Israel, the Jews, and The Great Satan America as their predecessor.  

Moreover and much more importantly, the Ayatollah and the mullahs were just figureheads, bearded clerics who stood for theocracy, Islam, and a Muslim caliphate.  The real power had always rested with the IRGC - the Revolutionary Guards, a paramilitary force combining the best of the Vietcong and Papa Doc's Tonton Macoute killing squad.  Like the Vietcong they were dispersed throughout the country and had infiltrated village communities to uphold order and discipline with intimidation and brutal force. 

It was the IRGC that murdered tens of thousands of civilian protesters before the war, and it is the IRGC who operate the successful drone and missile attacks across the region. 

When the statue of Saddam Hussein was toppled in Baghdad after the American invasion, President George Bush announced, ‘Mission Accomplished', pulled American troops out, and left the country to the rest 'democratizing forces of good'.  

Of course, nothing of the kind was in the offing.  Competing militias had been waiting for this moment - for the Americans to do the job for them and pave the way for their rise - and soon enough the internecine fighting began.  Democracy had always been a vain hope for a country which had never known it, and Islamic militancy was the only real, expected outcome. 

So when the Ayatollah was decapitated, Donald Trump thought that the war would be over.  Cheering Iranians would flood the streets waving American flags and welcoming the new Shah.  No such luck.  The IRGC flexed its muscles and the war continued.

What were they thinking, these men in the war room? 

These same men had said that eliminating the Taliban in Afghanistan would be a piece of cake, nothing but a tawdry bunch of ragheads with poppies.  They had forgotten that these same tribesmen had defeated the Russians a few decades before - ironically with American military assistance - and that Afghanistan in its long history had never been conquered or occupied. 

Never mind, the war planners said, times have changed.  They had not of course, and after a short military presence, former President Biden pulled out all American troops. 

America has never had patience for long-term anything.  Had George Bush left an implacable military presence in Iraq - military occupation and martial law - the country might have moved gradually towards the new Western mode of governance. Had there been a more forceful and immovable military presence in Afghanistan instead of backing a weak, corrupt puppet in the pay of the Taliban, things might have been different. 

America can be forgiven for its short-sightedness.  The gunfight in the OK corral was the very image of prairie justice - good vs evil in one final, dramatic showdown.  No procedural issues, not negotiations, no unending trials, no codicils and amendments. 

Cattle rustlers caught with someone else's beeves would be strung up then and there - extrajudicial justice on the spot.  Who needed any more proof that a band of outlaws with cattle branded with the mark of the true owner had stolen them?

Why are there no long multi-course dinners in America like there are in Italy?  Or relaxed two hour lunches, afternoon sexual liaisons, and languid, easy days as there are in France?  Or midmorning hours at the Cafe des Deux Magots? 

Because we have other things to do, no time for dallying when there's money to be made.  A quick take-out pastrami-on-rye between phone calls is the operational meme in American offices, a quick Jack Black and a Bud chaser before heading home to the suburbs, and that's that. 

Eliot Spitzer, former Governor of New York, caught in flagrante delicto with a prostitute in the bridal suite of the Mayflower Hotel, said that as governor he had no time for courtship.  He was too busy, and so too is Washington's ruling elite.  Madame de Charney's establishment for pleasure does a land office business, so time-bound and demanding are those in power. 

The Russians are in their war in Ukraine for the long haul.  They know that Americans will get sick and tired of propping up a corrupt regime no match for Russian military staying power and will soon force Zelenskyy to the bargaining table.  The Chinese have no intention of ever giving up their claims on Taiwan, and America will soon wonder what all the fuss is about and let regional politics play out. 

China and Russia have definite imperial claims dating back to empire and dynasty.  Theirs is a long history where long wars were the rule, not the exception.  American presidents cannot possibly imagine that there was ever a Hundred Year War in England and France in the 14th century.  A hundred years? Are you kidding?

And so it is that America has already lost the war in Iran.  Since the regime did not topple when the Ayatollah was killed, the drones and missiles will  keep up their counter offensive, and the Straits of Hormuz will retain in Iranian control given the world's need for the oil transported through them. 

There will eventually be a cease fire and peace agreement. The Iranians will sign anything, knowing that they will be able to rebuild their nuclear facilities in time, rearm renascent Hamas and Hezbollah and support them in their anti-Israel terrorism, and continue their potent Islamic theocracy. 

When asked what the object of the war in Iran is, the President of the United States had no ready answer, for he doesn't know.  All he does know is that the American electorate in an election year is getting tired of the war and wants it over and done with. 

The world understands America - how could it not when the only country which pays no attention to history is the United States. The American Left actually wants to erase history, pretend it didn't happen, and create their own new fantastical version of the past. 

So, the Iranian theocracy has held on for almost fifty years and will stay on for many more.  Russia and China, America's adversaries if not enemies know this well and incorporate its certain defeat into their own geopolitical strategies.  Donald Trump's Sturm und Drang is welcome, and he intends to become one of the Machiavellian triumvirate joining Russia and China, but such aggressiveness means nothing without will, patience, long-term intent, and resounding, long-lasting power. 

Stardom, Savior, Political Puppeteer - The Genius Of Donald Trump

 It has been almost two years since the second coming of Donald Trump, the second term of the President denied a segue after a close, contested, and still never conceded election; and the American Left is still ailing.  How could this mountebank, this vaudevillian, this charlatan possibly be President of the United States?

 

The Biden years had been, according to his acolytes, halcyon and determinative - the New Age of progressive, democratic socialism had finally arrived in America.  An era of good will, charity, compassion, and community.  Biden had promised a multicultural, multi-gender, multi-ethnic country of historic importance. Gone would be the racist, oppressive, domineering days of Donald Trump, Republicans, and conservatist ideology.  Disappeared would be notions of crass individualism, greed, untoward and undue wealth, and America would once again be the people's republic. 

'Tone it down', said a Biden advisor when one of the Administration's Congressional supporters had referred to America as 'The People's Republic', a term heretofore referred only to China and North Korea. 'Wouldn't want to give people the wrong idea'. 

And there he was again, the clown, the buffoon, the Destroyer having his way, proposing the preposterous agenda of the MAGA right, turning America back to the Stone Age, hopscotching over the evolutionary years of socialist compassion and reviving the memory of Robber Barons and the untamed, wild West. 

Barbery Byfield was at her wits end after a year of Donald Trump.  She had assumed that he would stumble, fall loose shunted off the rails, be impeached for insurrection and treason; gut no, he was still in the Oval Office reigning like a Turkish pasha, surrounded by the princes of Wall Street and a harem of blonde, blue-eyed, cornflower virgins. 

What gave him the right?

But Barbery hadn't been paying attention.  Donald Trump didn't come out of nowhere.  He was the first real America president - a man with a bar fighter's instincts, a Borscht Belt comedian's talent for insult, a New York real estate mogul's intimidation and 'so, sue me' chutzpah, and a marvelous sense of the low-brow glitz and glamour of the bourgeoisie.  Of course he was President!

Joe Biden had spent his whole political life in Congress, wheedling a few dollars here and there for Delaware in return for his vote for military armaments, welfare, and whatever turkey was basting in the oven.  He was in it for the long haul.  Delawareans wanted little from their representative for they had little and aspired little.  The state had made its political bones through tax shelters, Dupont, and Atlantic beaches - and that was a store easy to keep; so Joe Biden kept at it, a favor here, a favor there, and the voters knew that Good Ol' Joe would always be on their side. 

He was a questionable running mate for Barack Obama.  Most presidential contenders want a a Vice Presidential candidate from a high-electoral college state, but Obama demurred. He wanted a Greyhound bus driver - the company was famous for hiring drivers not smart enough to let their minds wander past the dotted lines but smart enough to keep the bus on course - a second who would Yes, Massa, the boss, never raise his voice, and come to work each morning ready to follow orders. 

Why the Democratic party thought that this wobbly old man had any chance against Donald Trump perplexes political observers.  By the time of the campaign this man who never made much sense, read from prepared scripts, and had been a political lapdog his entire life was a goner, and in a palace coup was deposed by Kamala Harris, a prolix, entitled, race-bating woman who hadn't an original idea in her head.  Again, what were they thinking?

In came Donald Trump like gangbusters.  He had suffered anonymous and scurrilous accusations, lawfare, ad hominem slurs and  insults during his first term, and was determined to payback the swine who had caused him so much grief.  Not only would he in his first days rescind all of Biden's executive orders, but he would ask Congress to repeal all the heinous assaults on the Constitution and restore the country's originalist principles. 

Since he could not run for a third term, was a billionaire twice over, and could care less about his political legacy - what was done was done - he turned political incorrectness into an art.  He was funnier than Jackie Mason and Shecky Green put together.  Manners, propriety, good taste were things for withering matrons of Beacon Hill and Nantucket. His was a new era that channeled the old.  The Wild West, prairie justice, rugged individualism and Manifest Destiny were in his blood. 

Barbery Byfield was at the end of her rope - a woman who despite beginning her progressive journey as tightly wound, strong, and well-braided as anyone - and felt herself unravelling before the disassembling nightmare of the Trump White House. How could anyone of serious purpose mount an attack on a man who played by no rules, for whom ridicule was in play no less that rational exegesis?  She had no weapons in her armory, no arrows in her quiver, no lances, axes, or spears for hand to hand combat. 

While Barbery fretted, Trump went on his Sherman-like rampage.  'The South shall never rise again', said the Union commander as he marched his way through Georgia and South Carolina, laying waste to farms, homesteads, field, and livestock. And Donald Trump was no different.  There would be nothing left of the ragged, unhinged, idiotic swing to socialism by the American Left.  None of their shibboleths would be left standing.  The way would once again be clear. 

He was the Devil incarnate to the Left but a Savior to the Right.  He was a Crusader, a knight in shining armor, a superhero, a man. They loved the way he dangled his opponents on strings, played them like a master puppeteer. Destruction and elimination of the progressive Left was not enough.  Only humiliating them, again a la Sherman, was due. 

Never has the American electorate seen a politician like Donald Trump who came out of nowhere to dominate world affairs – and who did so without a moment of hesitation, with great aplomb, and with unforgettable panache.

The Left is left on the curb, a crows’ convocation of cawing malcontents with no traction, no sex appeal, no attributable merit.  A bunch of beggars, Bowery bums, Clapp Street homeless.

Will the Trump cavalcade win the day in midterm elections this year, and hold on to the White House in 2028? Uncertain.  The Left has turned even farther askew and has put all its eggs in a Democratic Socialist basket.  Better go all the away than go out with a half-hearted whimper. Idealists love the idea of One World, reconfiguring the country to fold the wealth of the one percent  into the remaining ninety-nine, to create a free, compassionate, inclusive nation.

Idealists have no concern about bottom line economics, so the will fiddle while New York burns; but even hopeless fantasists vote. 

Whatever happens in the next two hears, no one will forget Donald Trump, a truly unique, revolutionary president.  Electoral politics in the United States will never be the same.