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Monthly Archives: November 2020
Sense of Humor Somehow Still Intact
Anonymous Lefty, “The only way he gets to 270 is if he loses 50 pounds.” Proving anyone can be politically incorrect.
This Rookie Senator
Is all in on “Hopeful Healing”. And offers this critical insight, “I’ve never persuaded someone to change their mind about something that was important by telling them why they’re wrong and why I’m right.”
Our Post-Election Choice
Democrats and Moderate Republicans are responding to a disappointingly close election in at least three different ways.
A) The “Perplexed Yet Respectful Resistance” response.
B) The “Angry, I Don’t Know Anyone Outside of New York City, Mindless Stereotype” response. Note that you can negatively stereotype by race, class, and gender and still be given a Nobel Prize.
C) The “Hopeful Healing” response.
I propose “D“, which is “Hopeful Healing” preceded by a six month-long moratorium on political discussion of any kind. We need a collective time-out. Eventually though, we need to start asking questions, listening to, and learning from people who think and vote differently than us.
Or maybe six years?
‘American Exceptionalism’ No More
A condensed explanation of “American exceptionalism” from Wikipedia:
“American exceptionalism is an ideology that rests on the notion the country is inherently different from that of other nations, stemming from its emergence from the American Revolution, becoming what one political scientist called “the first new nation” and developing a uniquely American ideology, “Americanism”, based on liberty, equality before the law, individual responsibility, republicanism, representative democracy, and laissez-faire economics. It’s also the idea that America has a unique mission to transform the world. In his Gettysburg address, President Abraham Lincoln said Americans have a duty to ensure, “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Finally, it’s the idea that America’s history and its mission give it a superiority over other nations.”
Trump is a walking, talking refutation of American exceptionalism. At this stage in our nation’s history, how can anyone feel a sense of superiority?
Today’s Lecture Notes
In her last paper, a classmate of yours wrote, “From being isolated, I have transitioned from thinking ‘is my work good enough’ to ‘am I good enough’.”
- Everyone honest sometimes question whether they’re good enough. You are good enough whether you’re capable of doing your best work right now or not. The importance of your life dwarfs the importance of your academic performance this semester.
- Things are going to get better, and regardless of your grade point average, you’re going to make a positive difference in people’s lives.
- We can’t improve our mental health without other’s help. The hardest thing to do is the most important. Asking for help.
I’m Not A Political Consultant
But I could be. Imagine if Trump’s campaign was a bit more inclusive and I was hired to advise on messaging and strategy.
The incessant attacks on Biden’s character are a dead-end. A lot of Republicans fret about his probable policies, but they also know deep down, he’s a decent person. And human decency counts now more than ever. Instead, focus on real threats to American life by tweeting this out:
It’s grossly unfair that college professors have lifetime job security and an all-time great President has to reapply for his job after only four years.
Then just sit back and watch the “likes” and retweets.
And here’s how you blunt the criticism that the President hasn’t clearly communicated what he hopes to accomplish in a second term. Again, tweet this:
Authoritarianism. Just try it. What have you got to lose?
The first two-thirds of that would also make an excellent bumper sticker and pin.
Weeks ago, I also would’ve insisted on placing a voting box at every truck stop and boat ramp in Florida.
And lastly, that 400-person White House party planned for tonight, I’d trim that guest list by about 396 people.
Social Isolation Is a Bitch
WRIT 101. I finished reading Paper 3 over the weekend. My students don’t need a writing professor, they need a therapist.
Get Rich Or Become Politically Irrelevant Trying
From ‘Why Trump Can’t Afford to Lose‘ by Jane Mayer.
“Two of the investigations into Trump are being led by powerful state and city law-enforcement officials in New York. Cyrus Vance, Jr., the Manhattan District Attorney, and Letitia James, New York’s attorney general, are independently pursuing potential criminal charges related to Trump’s business practices before he became President. Because their jurisdictions lie outside the federal realm, any indictments or convictions resulting from their actions would be beyond the reach of a Presidential pardon. Trump’s legal expenses alone are likely to be daunting. (By the time Bill Clinton left the White House, he’d racked up more than ten million dollars in legal fees.) And Trump’s finances are already under growing strain. During the next four years, according to a stunning recent Times report, Trump—whether reëlected or not—must meet payment deadlines for more than three hundred million dollars in loans that he has personally guaranteed; much of this debt is owed to such foreign creditors as Deutsche Bank. Unless he can refinance with the lenders, he will be on the hook. The Financial Times, meanwhile, estimates that, in all, about nine hundred million dollars’ worth of Trump’s real-estate debt will come due within the next four years. At the same time, he is locked in a dispute with the Internal Revenue Service over a deduction that he has claimed on his income-tax forms; an adverse ruling could cost him an additional hundred million dollars. To pay off such debts, the President, whose net worth is estimated by Forbes to be two and a half billion dollars, could sell some of his most valuable real-estate assets—or, as he has in the past, find ways to stiff his creditors. But, according to an analysis by the Washington Post, Trump’s properties—especially his hotels and resorts—have been hit hard by the pandemic and the fallout from his divisive political career. “It’s the office of the Presidency that’s keeping him from prison and the poorhouse,” Timothy Snyder, a history professor at Yale who studies authoritarianism, told me.”
This explains why Jim Jordan is STILL on Fox News as a Trump super surrogate. And why so many others in the media or government are consciously going down with the ship. Every Trump acolyte has one thing in common—like their leader, they’re most interested in their own self-preservation. So why continue riding the Trump train when it’s hours from jumping the track?
Because, as others have speculated, the only way out of Trump’s financial and legal nightmare is for him to start a media company. And hope like hell it’s his first business success.
What does this have to do with Jim Jordan and all the other True Believers? To answer that, one has to understand Jim Jordan’s financial situation. He makes $174,000 a year and this is Ballotpedia’s estimate of his past net worth:
When he’s blabbering on Fox News, he’s not trying to tilt the election, he’s auditioning for a top job at Trump Network with the expectation of making ten times more money. And the same for McEnany, Sarah Sanders, and Charlie Kirk. Don’t be surprised to see Ingraham and Hannity switch teams if the money’s right.
Pressing Pause 