BALTIMORE—”The crew of workers from Mexico and Central America were well into their night shift, pouring concrete to fix the potholes that dotted the Francis Scott Key Bridge.”
So they weren’t animals from insane asylums committing crimes?
Anti-immigrant hysteria depends upon not seeing or thinking about the people fixing potholes on bridges in the middle of the night.
From CBS News.
“As of mid-February 2024, Forbes estimates Trump’s net worth at $2.6 billion, putting the real estate developer at No. 1,216 on the magazine’s list of the world’s richest people.
Trump’s wealth largely stems from real estate, spanning residential buildings in New York City to golf courses and hotels around the world.
According to Bloomberg, one of his largest assets is his $500 million stake in 1290 Avenue of the Americas, an office building in Manhattan. Trump also has $600 million in liquid assets, while his Trump National Doral Miami Golf Resort is worth about $300 million, Bloomberg said.”
And yet, today he’s claiming he can’t pay his $454m judgement. I tapped out after Algebra 2/Trig, but isn’t $600m > $454m.
He should prob start charging more for the shoes.
Political analysts of all stripes agree that the 2024 Presidential Election will be decided by about 5% of voters who don’t identify with either the Red Team or the Blue Team exclusively. Those rarely seen in the wild independents will prove especially important in the six states that will likely determine which candidate gets 270+ electoral votes—Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Arizona and Georgia.
I’m Team ‘Blue Team’ in a decidedly blue state, meaning the Octogenarian won’t really need my vote. So what can I do, and people like me, who are desperate to preserve our democracy?
Several things. First, let’s identify all of our independent friends. For example, using their Alaska Airline abbreviations to maintain their privacy, I’m thinking of MARN, TMAT, and MLAL.
Second, ask each 5 percenter which of the six swing states they like the most and would be willing to move to by summer’s end*.
Third, find them a job in their swing state of choice that pays an equivalent amount.
Fourth, help them sell their current crib and buy a similar one in their swing state of choice in time to establish residency.
Fifth, hire a moving company to ease the transition, give them ample gas and hotel money, and pack treats for their journey.
Imagine if everyone on Team Blue, did this, like me, for three of their independent friends.
Landslide baby, landslide.
*with the understanding that as soon as they vote, they can move back if they so choose
If you’re anything like me, you don’t “get” Iowa. More specifically, you wonder, “What’s up with Iowans?” Especially, the white evangelicals.
David P. Gushee thinks he gets “it”.
From “The Deification of Donald Trump Poses Some Interesting Questions“.
“Trump’s evolution into a Jesus-like figure for some but not all white evangelicals began soon after he began his first presidential campaign. As David P. Gushee, a professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University, explained by email:
‘Some of Trump’s Christian followers do appear to have grown to see him as a kind of religious figure. He is a savior. I think it began with the sense that he was uniquely committed to saving them from their foes (liberals, Democrats, elites, seculars, illegal immigrants, etc.) and saving America from all that threatens it.’
In this sense, Gushee continued, ‘a savior does not have to be a good person but just needs to fulfill his divinely appointed role. Trump is seen by many as actually having done so while president.’
This view of Trump is especially strong ‘in the Pentecostal wing of the conservative Christian world,’ Gushee wrote, where he is sometimes also viewed as an anointed leader sent by God. ‘Anointed’ here means set apart and especially equipped by God for a holy task. Sometimes the most unlikely people got anointed by God in the Bible. So Trump’s unlikeliness for this role is actually evidence in favor. The multiple criminal charges against Trump serve to strengthen the belief of many evangelicals about his ties to God, according to Gushee:
‘The prosecutions underway against Trump have been easily interpretable as signs of persecution, which can then connect to the suffering Jesus theme in Christianity. Trump has been able to leverage that with lines like, “They’re not persecuting me. They’re persecuting you.” The idea that he is unjustly suffering and, in so doing, vicariously absorbing the suffering that his followers would be enduring is a powerful way for Trump to be identified with Jesus.'”
No doubt, add a lot of PressingPausers to the list of liberals, Democrats, elites, seculars, illegal immigrants, and other nefarious foes that many Iowans think they need saving from.
Of course, they don’t really know any PressingPausers, some of whom I’m indebted to for reaching out after my recent “It’s My Parents’ Fault” post. I had a beer with one in Olympia yesterday. Others in Olympia; Greensboro, NC; Huntington Beach, CA; and Japan messaged, texted, and emailed. Trust me, no one needs saving from them. They’re savers of others.
From The New York Times:
“Former President Donald J. Trump is planning an aggressive expansion of his first-term efforts to upend America’s trade policies if he returns to power in 2025 — including imposing a new tax on “most imported goods” that would risk alienating allies and igniting a global trade war.”
The Former Guy is such a successful businessperson, and so rich, we should probably just trust that he knows what he’s doing.
The New York Times has the temerity to disagree with my assessment. They write:
“Evaluating the merits of Mr. Trump’s trade vision is complex because there could be multiple ripple effects, and he is seeking long-term changes. But many economic studies concluded that the tariffs he imposed as president cost American society more than the benefits they produced.
Research from economists at the Federal Reserve and the University of Chicago found that tariffs Mr. Trump imposed on washing machines in 2018 created about 1,800 jobs while raising the median prices consumers paid for new washers and dryers by $86 and $92 per unit. That spending added up to about $817,000 per job.”
Wait a minute. If the Former Guy is mistaken about tariffs, what else might he be getting wrong?
Increasingly, the current front runner for President in 2024 is using Nazi rhetoric. And at most news outlets, it’s not even close to the lead story.
It’s not just Donald being Donald, it’s Donald being Hitler.
Have citizens of the (dis)United States ever been more asleep at the wheel? And will we wake up in time to salvage our democracy?
“Mr. Trump has had a string of unforced gaffes, garble and general disjointedness that go beyond his usual discursive nature, and that his Republican rivals are pointing to as signs of his declining performance.
On Sunday in Sioux City, Iowa, Mr. Trump wrongly thanked supporters of Sioux Falls, a South Dakota town about 75 miles away, correcting himself only after being pulled aside onstage and informed of the error.
It was strikingly similar to a fictional scene that Mr. Trump acted out earlier this month, pretending to be Mr. Biden mistaking Iowa for Idaho and needing an aide to straighten him out.”
In fairness to Joe, there are a lot of “I” states, not just Iowa and Idaho, but Illinois. And Indiana. It’s madness.
The Times adds:
“In recent weeks, Mr. Trump has also told supporters not to vote, and claimed to have defeated President Barack Obama in an election. He has praised the collective intellect of an Iranian-backed militant group that has long been an enemy of both Israel and the United States, and repeatedly mispronounced the name of the armed group that rules Gaza.”
Somehow, they left out my recent fave, Trump riffing on which would be worse, him dying from a shark attack or “electroclushion”. Many would settle for either.
Again, the Times:
“This is a different Donald Trump than 2015 and ’16 — lost the zip on his fastball,” Gov. Right Wing Nutter of Florida told reporters last week while campaigning in New Hampshire.
Okay, I may have doctored that last sentence a little. Sue me.
This Canadian Broadcast Corporation’s Buffy Sainte-Marie documentary convinced me that she’s the most famous of the growing legion of Pretendians, the clever name given to people who falsely claim to be indigenous.
A lot of people are mad at the CBC, but their argument is not angry or mean-spirited, it’s relentlessly thorough and thoughtful, a model of investigative reporting.
This preemptive salvo Sainte-Marie penned wreaks of desperation to keep her house of cards from completely crumbling.
Alternatively, Sainte-Marie’s title, “My Truth As I Know It” may have been “My Truth As I Psychologically Need It To Be”. “My Truth As I Know It” is the quintessential phrase of our time. Just like Sainte-Marie and the many other Pretendians, Trump acolytes still talk about the 2020 election results as “the truth as they know it”. And that of course, is the tip of the conspiratorial iceburg.
Trump and his acolytes went 0-60 on legal challenges to the 2020 election results. Judge after judge said this is “the actual truth” of the matter. Objectively. All those judges, so old fashioned.
For over sixty years, Sainte-Marie has woven such an elaborate web of lies that she was unable to title her defense, “The Truth”.
Even at 82 years old, Sainte-Marie is a woman for our times where masses of people spew the truth as only they, and their gullible fellow travelers, know it.
Why do some British people not like Trump?
How do you say “mic drop” in British?
Pressing Pause 