12.18.2024 – I did it to make

I did it to make
his life miserable, which
I’m happy about

From the article, Trump Sues The Des Moines Register, Escalating Threats Against the Media by Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Maggie Haberman, David Enrich and Alan Feuer.

The article states:

In Mr. Trump’s own telling, winning his civil legal actions isn’t always the point.

Mr. Trump, who has often attacked journalists publicly for details in news accounts that he hasn’t liked, famously lost a libel case that he brought against the writer Timothy O’Brien over Mr. O’Brien’s description of Mr. Trump’s net worth as much less than he claimed it to be.

The case played out over the span of years. But during the 2016 election, Mr. Trump told The Washington Post that it was worth it, even with the loss.

“I spent a couple of bucks on legal fees, and they spent a whole lot more,” he said of Mr. O’Brien and his book publisher. “I did it to make his life miserable, which I’m happy about.”

There isn’t enough here to move my needle of dismay and disgust anymore.

There is a spoiled little ten year old coming in the run things from the Oval Office again and may God Save the United States.

It’s like when The 19th century Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz once said, “Poor Mexico, So Far From God, So Close to the United States.

Only we got the poor United States.

So far from God.

So close to Donald Trump.

I am also reminded of what Winston Churchill said when Germany under Mr. Hitler attacked the Soviet Union and Mr. Churchill said, “If Hitler invaded Hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons.”*

I think that I can say if Mr. Trump sues the Devil, I would make at least a favourable reference to the Devil in Court.

*Winston S. Churchill, The Grand Alliance (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1950), 370.

11.29.2024 – seeking to advance

seeking to advance
a revolutionary
transvaluation

In his opinion essay, “The Moral Challenge of Trumpism,” David Brooks quotes a Mr. Damon Linker who writes:

“Trumpism is seeking to advance a revolutionary transvaluation of values by inverting the morality that undergirds both traditional conservatism and liberal institutionalism. In this inversion, norms and rules that counsel and enforce propriety, restraint and deference to institutional authority become vices, while flouting them become virtues.”

For me, this simple but wonderful use of words hits at what I feel about the incoming administration.

Mr. Brooks expands on the idea of “norms and rules that counsel and enforce propriety, restraint and deference to institutional authority become vices, while flouting them become virtues.” writing:

What does heroism look like according the MAGA morality? It looks like the sort of people whom Trump has picked to be in his cabinet. The virtuous man in this morality is self-assertive, combative, transgressive and vengeful. He’s not afraid to break the rules and come to his own conclusions. He has contempt for institutions and is happy to be a battering force to bring them down. He is unbothered by elite scorn but, in fact, revels in it and goes out of his way to generate it.

In this mind-set, if the establishment regards you as a sleazeball, you must be doing something right. If the legal system indicts you, you must be a virtuous man.

In this morality, the fact that a presidential nominee is accused of sexual assault is a feature, not a bug. It’s a sign that this nominee is a manly man. Manly men go after what they want. They assert themselves and smash propriety — including grabbing women “by the pussy” if they feel like it.

In this worldview, a nominee enshrouded in scandal is more trustworthy than a person who has lived an honest life. The scandal-shrouded nominee is cast out from polite society. He’s not going to run to a New York publisher and write a tell-all memoir bashing the administration in which he served. Such a person is not going to care if he is scorned by the civil servants in the agency he has been hired to dismantle.

Now comes my point.

I know so many folks who say something along the line of “… I voted for Trump, but I don’t go along with all these things he says or does.”

See there is this train.

I don’t like the train.

I don’t like where the train is going.

I don’t like the accommodations on the train.

I don’t like the schedule the train runs on.

I don’t even like the color of the train or the arrangement of the seating or how I get my tickets on the train.

BUT they serve a really good lunch on the train on Tuesdays so I buy and ticket to ride the train.

I might get my lunch, but I get everything else, including ending up where that train is headed when I bought my ticket and provided the means for the train to operate.

As Mr. Brooks writes, “… character is destiny.”

11.15.2024 – far easier for

far easier for
guilty man to stand trial
than innocent one

As a man who has had both experiences, I can tell you that it’s far, far easier for a guilty man to stand trial than an innocent one.

When you are guilty you are depending entirely upon your legal rights; the maze of protections, legal maneuvers, and loopholes that can help you beat the rap.

You have no qualms whatsoever about using them; the law says you have that right.

When you are innocent you are always in a rage of indignation.

You feel helpless and put upon.

You are totally on the defensive.

Constantly you have to fight back the desire to leap up and scream out your innocence.

You can’t believe that this massive grinding machinery can be doing this to you.

From the book Where the Money Was by Willie Sutton, (Viking, New York, 1976).

Willie Sutton was a famous bank robber who may have been more famous by responding, “That’s where the money is.” when he was asked why he robbed banks.

It was his description of the difference between a guilty person and an innocent person on trial; that caught my eye.

Especially when I applied to politics today.

There is this feller that many agree is guilty as sin and yet he evades any and all punishment.

He is depending entirely upon his legal rights; the maze of protections, legal maneuvers, and loopholes that can help him beat the rap and he has no qualms about using them.

I feel a rage of indignation.

I feel helpless.

I feel totally on the defensive.

I constantly you have to fight back the desire to leap up and scream out that there is a difference between innocence and this guy.

And finally, I can’t believe that this massive grinding machinery can be doing this to you.

Deep down I feel those who support this feller know they are wrong.

Someday … the race is not always to the swift or to the strong.

11.14.2024 – the least qualified –

the least qualified –
remarkably dishonest …
he’s also depraved

Then there was a different camp — normie Republican — that had an entirely different view. They did not believe Trump’s words. They rolled their eyes at media alarmism and responded with some version of “stop clutching your pearls. This is just Trump being Trump. He’s far more bark than bite.”

But Trump’s selection of Matt Gaetz as his nominee for attorney general, along with his selection of Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense and Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence, shows that Trump did mean what he said. He is going to govern with a sense of vengeance, and personal loyalty really is the coin of his realm.

Gaetz’s nomination is particularly dreadful. He isn’t just the least-qualified attorney general in American history (he barely practiced law before running for elected office and has served mainly as a MAGA gadfly in Congress), he’s also remarkably dishonest and depraved.

I want to stay off of politics if I can but when someone like David French can string together the sentence “He isn’t just the least-qualified attorney general in American history (he barely practiced law before running for elected office and has served mainly as a MAGA gadfly in Congress), he’s also remarkably dishonest and depraved.” in the opinion piece, Trump’s Choice of Matt Gaetz Should Surprise No One, I have to take notice of the words least-qualified, remarkably dishonest and depraved being in used in context of a nominee for Attorney General.

People on the other side of the divide have tried to explain how their candidate was ‘imperfect’ and was making statements just to get elected.

Well, this candidate continues to make statements, continues to make a mockery of this country and of the people who felt they could somehow support him but seperate themselves from what is to come.

Good luck.

Mr. French closes with: Gaetz’s nomination is reaffirmation that the Donald Trump who tried to overthrow an American election hasn’t matured or evolved or grown.

11.12.2024 – system doesn’t work

system doesn’t work
justifies further lack of
participation

This episode of Cavin and Hobbs so sums up my day.

Sorry and sad to say that one, this was over 30 years ago and two, this is the attitude that the opposition counts on.

Still, it’s worth typing out the text.

When I grow up, I’m not going to read the newspaper and I’m not going to follow complex issues and I’m not going to vote.

That way I can complain that the government doesn’t represent me.

Then, when everything goes down the tubes, I can say the system doesn’t work and justify my further lack of participation.

An ingeniously self-fulfilling plan.

It’s a lot more fun to blame things than to fix them.

It’s a lot more fun to blame things than to fix them.

BOY, HOWDY!