Because It Damned Well Was. S.V. Date for the win.
Call it Trump’s Coup Attempt
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Category Archives: Politics
Sentence to Ponder
From “Why North Korea’s Princess Will Never Wear The Crown”.
“A dozen female defectors who had been architects and doctors told me that while they could only sell scrap metal or work at public bathhouses in Seoul, they were happier and treated more fairly.”
72% of the people who have fled to South Korea are women.
Is Feinstein the Canary in the Presidential Coal Mine?
From the New York Times:
“Many Americans say they do not want President Biden to run for re-election, and his age is a big reason. In an NBC News poll released last weekend, 70 percent of adults said Mr. Biden, who is 80, should not run again. Asked if age was a factor, 69 percent of them said yes. Other recent surveys detect a similar lack of enthusiasm, with many voters — including around half of Democrats — calling him too old to seek the White House again.”
Historians will look very favorably on Biden’s first term. I appreciate every single way he’s the complete opposite of the previous President.
But count me among the aforementioned 70%, 69%, and the “around half” group of voters. For one reason. Diane Feinstein.
I can’t criticize California’s voters for electing an octogenarian and then do the same thing. Especially in one’s 80s, as Feinstein demonstrates, mental and physical health can go south very, very quickly. Why take that risk when we don’t have to?
‘Either Know Or Don’t Know’
In 2018, nearly six million Californian voters gave 84 year-old U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein a relatively easy victory over her rival.
Fast forward five years.
From the NYT:
“The grim tableau of her re-emergence on Capitol Hill laid bare a bleak reality known to virtually everyone who has come into contact with her in recent days: She was far from ready to return to work when she did, and she is now struggling to function in a job that demands long days, near-constant engagement on an array of crucial policy issues and high-stakes decision-making.”
Just how unfit is she?
“. . . Ms. Feinstein appeared confused about the warm greeting when a small group of reporters asked about it days later.
“’I haven’t been gone,’ she said. When pressed on whether she meant that she had been working from home, she pushed back in a manner that suggested she might not have been aware of her long and politically charged absence. ‘I’ve been here,’ she said, appearing to grow agitated. ‘I’ve been voting. Please, either know or don’t know.'”
Lots of people are growing agitated at her family and staff for not forcing the issue of her resignation, in part to preserve what’s left of her considerable legacy. But few are digging deep enough to lay the blame with the six million voters who elected her in 2018.
‘Take America Back’
That was the message on the “TRUMP 2024” sign on Old Military Rd in Tenino, WA yesterday as I cycled by. Which got me thinking.
Who took America? When did they take it? Where did they take it? The Good Wife said the answer to the first question is “obviously liberals”. But I’m a liberal and I haven’t taken it anywhere. So some subset of liberals? Even then, there’s the other questions.
If you happen to find it, please report its whereabouts.
“A Slight Openness”
From the New York Times.
“Among some Texans, the drumbeat of mass murder has fueled rising frustration and a slight openness to more gun regulation in a state where even Democrats proudly discuss their firearms. But the violence has done little to reshape the political realities in the State Capitol, where Republicans control both legislative chambers and all statewide offices.
In the past two years, as the state has been shaken by more than a dozen mass killings of four or more people, Texas has increased access to firearms, doing away with its permit requirements to carry handguns and lowering the age when adults can carry handguns to 18 from 21.”
Utter madness.
Paragraphs to Ponder
“Most of those around Mr. Trump know his problems—bad judgment, little understanding of history, disordered ego. They’re for him for their own reasons. But to their credit, they never say, ‘He’s wiser than he was in his first administration,’ or ‘He’s mellowed,’ or ‘This is a good man.’
When your own people can’t say these things, that is a weakness. What they do believe, and will say, is the Democrats are worse, the media is worse, and Mr. Trump was never treated fairly. That is their sole unifying principle.
Those around Joe Biden believe in Mr. Trump, in that they believe they can take him. He can take Mr. Trump again. They can’t know that about other candidates but they know it of Mr. Trump because he does what Mr. Biden has long struggled to do, rally and unify the Democratic base. They long to read, ‘Trump Wins GOP Nomination.’ It means the November headline is ‘Biden Re-Elected.’ How odd it would be for Republicans at this point in history to give Democrats what they so long for.
The Difference Between the (dis)United States and South Korea
Like the (dis)United States, South Korea is in the midst of a loneliness epidemic. Japan too.
From CNN:
“Some South Korean youth are so cut off from the world, the government is offering to pay them to ‘re-enter society.’
The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family announced this week that it will provide up to 650,000 Korean won (about $500) per month to isolated social recluses, in a bid to support their ‘psychological and emotional stability and healthy growth.’
About 3.1% of Koreans aged 19 to 39 are ‘reclusive lonely young people,’ defined as living in a ‘limited space, in a state of being disconnected from the outside for more than a certain period of time, and have noticeable difficulty in living a normal life,’ according to the ministry’s report, citing the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs.”
And yet. . .
The Sad Truth of the Matter
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Sentence To Make Grown Men and Women Cry
The last one in this short/live update from Jonathon Swan in the NYT on Trump’s Tuesday night speech at Mar-a-Lago.
“One theme to watch in the speech is how Trump portrays the nature of his victimhood. His advisers and allies have explicitly referenced scripture and the fate of Jesus Christ — a play to rally evangelical voters. Trump’s campaign spokesman, Steven Cheung, on Monday tweeted out a picture of a Trump supporter by the roadside in Florida holding a large wooden cross. Mr. Cheung quoted Ephesians 5:2, implying that Trump was imitating Christ’s sacrificial love through his handling of his criminal indictment in the porn star hush money case.“
Someone PLEASE tell me we’ve bottomed out.
Pressing Pause 