January 2024 Archives
Dear America,
I have to admit this prejudice; since the advent of Trumpism, I have always thought of Republicans as lacking in one way or another. For a long time I thought they were just dumb. But over time it has become apparent to me through personal contact with some of them that such is not the case. That is, some are, but some aren't. I have also thought of them as addled or confused, but again, personal experience with them has shown them to be cognizantly purposeful for the most part, though again, some are just driven by the beliefs they inherited or the pressures of the society they keep. I have found many of them to be intelligent, and some even morally so...some. But things keep happening that make me wonder what is wrong with them. Here's an example.
Of course, I can't know that it was a Trumper who did this, but as I drove into a parking spot at the supermarket an hour or so ago, I turned into a parking space and had to stop short because someone had left a cart square in the middle of the space, just next to the curb at the head of the space so I couldn't see it as I turned in. I had to get out with my car half way into the aisle, get the cart and take it just across the aisle to the cart-collection facility--that's how close the idiot who left the cart where it would prevent someone else from using what he had chosen to use for his own convenience was to being able to do the right thing--and then almost autonomicly and ineluctably draw the conclusion as to what kind of person had done it. The first thing that came to mind was a Republican, and second was a "Trumper." That may have been unfair, and even peremptory with regard to Republicans in general, but I have no doubt that it was a Trumper, and thus no doubt it was a Republican too. They seem to think they are the definition of "American virtue," which seems to be synonymous with "entitled" and "special" to them.
Don't get me wrong. They are entitled under the American system to have their political preferences and predilections...just as entitled as you and I are. And they can vote for whomever they like, even if their choice is a blathering, pathologically narcissistic, aspiring autocrat who freely admits that his first day in office would be the day of Trump the dictator...even if their choice is someone who said to a crowd chanting "four more years" at one of his rallies, "ya' wanna drive 'em crazy, ask for twelve!" The moron can't even add, but that observation doesn't contemplate the thought that maybe he meant twelve, as in, for as long as it takes for me to make my occupancy of the White House permanent by getting the 22nd amendment repealed by the Republican poltroons who don't dare cross me, and this all fits nicely with what we just witnessed in the Republican primaries. Everybody but Trump and Haley dropped out, and all of them but Chris Christie, who has said over and over again that Trump is a danger to democracy and is unfit to be president, endorsed Trump...even the ones who had hinted that they too saw trump as dangerous and unfit. DeSantis also said that Trump was a danger and unfit, though he said it was because Trump was to old to be president, but unfit is unfit. Yet, when he suspended his campaign, DeSantis endorsed Trump despite his age and the questions about his fitness that it raises. And the other poltroons who dropped out may never have said even that much about Trump's qualifications, but that is because of what they all have in common: they want to be vice-president. They are aspiring cronies and sycophants one and all, and I hope Trump does nominate one of them as his running mate. Maybe then some voters who somehow remain on the fence until then will climb down and vote against Trump and for Biden, even if they don't want to vote for Biden but realize that the risk of Trump getting in is too great to take because there will be a despicable, two-bit epigone waiting in the wings to take his place as the Republican leader if and when Trump ever leaves office.
I admit that all of this is derived from my speculation, right or wrong, that a Trumper left his shopping cart in a parking space because he thought he was entitled to do so because of his beliefs, but you have to agree that whether I was right or not, my conclusion was rational and well reasoned. And on that basis, I hope the shopping cart villain gets what he deserves, just like his idol, Donald Trump. As I have said often, on election day the American people get what they deserve. I sure hope the majority of us don't deserve Donald Trump.
Your friend,
Mike
I have to admit this prejudice; since the advent of Trumpism, I have always thought of Republicans as lacking in one way or another. For a long time I thought they were just dumb. But over time it has become apparent to me through personal contact with some of them that such is not the case. That is, some are, but some aren't. I have also thought of them as addled or confused, but again, personal experience with them has shown them to be cognizantly purposeful for the most part, though again, some are just driven by the beliefs they inherited or the pressures of the society they keep. I have found many of them to be intelligent, and some even morally so...some. But things keep happening that make me wonder what is wrong with them. Here's an example.
Of course, I can't know that it was a Trumper who did this, but as I drove into a parking spot at the supermarket an hour or so ago, I turned into a parking space and had to stop short because someone had left a cart square in the middle of the space, just next to the curb at the head of the space so I couldn't see it as I turned in. I had to get out with my car half way into the aisle, get the cart and take it just across the aisle to the cart-collection facility--that's how close the idiot who left the cart where it would prevent someone else from using what he had chosen to use for his own convenience was to being able to do the right thing--and then almost autonomicly and ineluctably draw the conclusion as to what kind of person had done it. The first thing that came to mind was a Republican, and second was a "Trumper." That may have been unfair, and even peremptory with regard to Republicans in general, but I have no doubt that it was a Trumper, and thus no doubt it was a Republican too. They seem to think they are the definition of "American virtue," which seems to be synonymous with "entitled" and "special" to them.
Don't get me wrong. They are entitled under the American system to have their political preferences and predilections...just as entitled as you and I are. And they can vote for whomever they like, even if their choice is a blathering, pathologically narcissistic, aspiring autocrat who freely admits that his first day in office would be the day of Trump the dictator...even if their choice is someone who said to a crowd chanting "four more years" at one of his rallies, "ya' wanna drive 'em crazy, ask for twelve!" The moron can't even add, but that observation doesn't contemplate the thought that maybe he meant twelve, as in, for as long as it takes for me to make my occupancy of the White House permanent by getting the 22nd amendment repealed by the Republican poltroons who don't dare cross me, and this all fits nicely with what we just witnessed in the Republican primaries. Everybody but Trump and Haley dropped out, and all of them but Chris Christie, who has said over and over again that Trump is a danger to democracy and is unfit to be president, endorsed Trump...even the ones who had hinted that they too saw trump as dangerous and unfit. DeSantis also said that Trump was a danger and unfit, though he said it was because Trump was to old to be president, but unfit is unfit. Yet, when he suspended his campaign, DeSantis endorsed Trump despite his age and the questions about his fitness that it raises. And the other poltroons who dropped out may never have said even that much about Trump's qualifications, but that is because of what they all have in common: they want to be vice-president. They are aspiring cronies and sycophants one and all, and I hope Trump does nominate one of them as his running mate. Maybe then some voters who somehow remain on the fence until then will climb down and vote against Trump and for Biden, even if they don't want to vote for Biden but realize that the risk of Trump getting in is too great to take because there will be a despicable, two-bit epigone waiting in the wings to take his place as the Republican leader if and when Trump ever leaves office.
I admit that all of this is derived from my speculation, right or wrong, that a Trumper left his shopping cart in a parking space because he thought he was entitled to do so because of his beliefs, but you have to agree that whether I was right or not, my conclusion was rational and well reasoned. And on that basis, I hope the shopping cart villain gets what he deserves, just like his idol, Donald Trump. As I have said often, on election day the American people get what they deserve. I sure hope the majority of us don't deserve Donald Trump.
Your friend,
Mike
Dear America,
It is remarkable how obtuse American news media are at times. Their lack of perspicacity seems almost intentional by virtue of what they miss and what they mischaracterize. Nikky Haley, when asked what the American Civil War was about initially left out slavery as a cause, though as an afterthought she amended her omission by saying that, of course the civil war was about slavery though the war's precipitating inspiration was a determination of what the role of government would be in our lives. As far as I know, no one asked her in follow-up what government intrusion into the lives of those in The Confederacy then she had in mind: what government actions had so motivated the people of what was then half of our country to take up arms against the federation that was then the United States of America. And that, the media proclaimed, was a misstep on Haley's part, which only demonstrated that obtuseness to which I referred in the first place.
Nikky Haley is an ambitious politician, and she goes where the votes are. In this case, she is running for the Republican nomination for president in 2024, and she is doing so against Donald Trump who, put most politely, is a mountebank selling snake oil out of the trunk of his limo. And what is that snake oil? At least in part, it is exactly what Haley said was the cause of our civil war: resistance to the decline of white supremacy as a controlling ethos in our country. Nikky Haley was not making a mistake, whether she knew it or not, and she is sly enough that she may well have calculated her remark and its aftermath. Donald Trump ascended to the presidency by pandering to those who believe that, among other things, people make too much of slavery because in the end, it really didn't do much harm to anyone that mattered. That is what CRT, or critical race theory is about. It is institutionalization of the premise that the civil war and slavery are passé and we should get over them. There is no aftermath to be considered, much less studied, the Trumpers contend. That's where the contention that the civil war was about the civil rights of southern gentry and not about the freedom of all men who are, in their sub rosa creed, not created equal arose. Nikky Haley just climbed aboard the band wagon of the 70% of Republicans who support Donald Trump. She became Trump's co-panderer by saying what she did, thus putting herself into the same class of candidates that Trump now controls. She showed her moral flexibility...that she is as Trumpy as Trump, and that isn't a mistake for an aspirant to public office who is as morally flexible as Haley is. It was a power play.
I don't know whether Haley is smart enough to intentionally be that devious and hypocritical, but I wouldn't be surprised if she is. She is of Indian descent, and that means non-white to many of Trump's constituency, which in turn means she is less than suitable in their collective estimation to be their leader. By declaring herself in league with them, she at least overcomes some of what might be held against her in a contest with Trump, and that is what the Republican race is turning into. No one else in contention for the nomination is making any inroads into Trump's fealty from the vast majority of the party. DeSantis's standing in the race seems to have stopped sliding, but he isn't gaining any ground either. In fact, vis-à-vis Trump, no one is. But Haley has purloined some of the support that the others had, including some of DeSantis's. She has put herself in a virtual tie with the Florida governor for number two, which often means the vice-presidency, which in turn means a place in line to inherit the presidency itself. Is Haley that shrewd, and I don't mean that as a complement. Only she knows for sure, but I think that she is, at least half way, and I am sure she is that ambitious. I think that her denial of slavery as the cause of the civil war was just stating her heart-felt belief, which was in effect stating the MAGA trope is her credo, which in turn was just a pitch for the MAGA militia to take a good look at her. To Haley, what she said wasn't a mistake as it turns out. It was just a cynical play for the support of some people who's cynicism is just as compelling for them as Haley's is for her.
I say that Haley has now declared herself ready for the Trump big league. She has shown in more ways than one that she is as Trumpy as Trump himself, regardless of how she equivocates sometimes on the issue of Trump's moral deficiency. She just wanted everyone to know that she was one of them, and now it seems that it will redound to her benefit, no matter what the obtuse press has to say.
Your friend,
Mike
It is remarkable how obtuse American news media are at times. Their lack of perspicacity seems almost intentional by virtue of what they miss and what they mischaracterize. Nikky Haley, when asked what the American Civil War was about initially left out slavery as a cause, though as an afterthought she amended her omission by saying that, of course the civil war was about slavery though the war's precipitating inspiration was a determination of what the role of government would be in our lives. As far as I know, no one asked her in follow-up what government intrusion into the lives of those in The Confederacy then she had in mind: what government actions had so motivated the people of what was then half of our country to take up arms against the federation that was then the United States of America. And that, the media proclaimed, was a misstep on Haley's part, which only demonstrated that obtuseness to which I referred in the first place.
Nikky Haley is an ambitious politician, and she goes where the votes are. In this case, she is running for the Republican nomination for president in 2024, and she is doing so against Donald Trump who, put most politely, is a mountebank selling snake oil out of the trunk of his limo. And what is that snake oil? At least in part, it is exactly what Haley said was the cause of our civil war: resistance to the decline of white supremacy as a controlling ethos in our country. Nikky Haley was not making a mistake, whether she knew it or not, and she is sly enough that she may well have calculated her remark and its aftermath. Donald Trump ascended to the presidency by pandering to those who believe that, among other things, people make too much of slavery because in the end, it really didn't do much harm to anyone that mattered. That is what CRT, or critical race theory is about. It is institutionalization of the premise that the civil war and slavery are passé and we should get over them. There is no aftermath to be considered, much less studied, the Trumpers contend. That's where the contention that the civil war was about the civil rights of southern gentry and not about the freedom of all men who are, in their sub rosa creed, not created equal arose. Nikky Haley just climbed aboard the band wagon of the 70% of Republicans who support Donald Trump. She became Trump's co-panderer by saying what she did, thus putting herself into the same class of candidates that Trump now controls. She showed her moral flexibility...that she is as Trumpy as Trump, and that isn't a mistake for an aspirant to public office who is as morally flexible as Haley is. It was a power play.
I don't know whether Haley is smart enough to intentionally be that devious and hypocritical, but I wouldn't be surprised if she is. She is of Indian descent, and that means non-white to many of Trump's constituency, which in turn means she is less than suitable in their collective estimation to be their leader. By declaring herself in league with them, she at least overcomes some of what might be held against her in a contest with Trump, and that is what the Republican race is turning into. No one else in contention for the nomination is making any inroads into Trump's fealty from the vast majority of the party. DeSantis's standing in the race seems to have stopped sliding, but he isn't gaining any ground either. In fact, vis-à-vis Trump, no one is. But Haley has purloined some of the support that the others had, including some of DeSantis's. She has put herself in a virtual tie with the Florida governor for number two, which often means the vice-presidency, which in turn means a place in line to inherit the presidency itself. Is Haley that shrewd, and I don't mean that as a complement. Only she knows for sure, but I think that she is, at least half way, and I am sure she is that ambitious. I think that her denial of slavery as the cause of the civil war was just stating her heart-felt belief, which was in effect stating the MAGA trope is her credo, which in turn was just a pitch for the MAGA militia to take a good look at her. To Haley, what she said wasn't a mistake as it turns out. It was just a cynical play for the support of some people who's cynicism is just as compelling for them as Haley's is for her.
I say that Haley has now declared herself ready for the Trump big league. She has shown in more ways than one that she is as Trumpy as Trump himself, regardless of how she equivocates sometimes on the issue of Trump's moral deficiency. She just wanted everyone to know that she was one of them, and now it seems that it will redound to her benefit, no matter what the obtuse press has to say.
Your friend,
Mike
