The ornery ramblings and occasional fiction of a former political science professor turned author
If anyone asks me why I voted for Trump on 2020, I am going to point them to this ad. A couple weeks ago some guys in California put up a Trump sign on the hills above the 405 freeway, near the Getty Museum. LA County officials took it down, even though it was on private land, under the guise of “it disrupted traffic”. Flimsy excuse. Then they made this video of putting the sign up and overlaid a Trump speech. The results are fantastic.
Continue reading “Outsiders”
A while back I read Scott Adams’ book How to Fail At Everything And Still Win Big. It’s a discussion of how he went from lowly engineer in a cubicle at PG&E to creator of one of the most popular and successful comics (Dilbert). In the book he talks a lot about having a system, rather than goals. He argues that a structure or system for your life will be better in the long run than some big goal sitting out there on the “someday” horizon. In other words, have a system for your days, weeks, months. So, get up. At least put on workout clothes because that will feel like you’re going to work out and you will be more inclined to do so. If you put the goal of working out everyday on your calendar, you’re putting unnecessary stress on yourself. Instead, just get up and put on the work out clothes. That’s the system.
Continue reading “Hold my beer”I wrote about fear back in May (wow, it’s been that long?) and wrote several times since about Karens and fear, masks and fear, and fear itself again. It seems like the spring, summer, and now fall has been one long battle against fear. For some of my friends, fear is winning. They are afraid to go out as they once did because Wuhan Flu. They’re afraid we’re turning into a fascist/authoritarian/dystopian state…or Russia. They’re afraid of the changes they see around them…whether those changes may be for good or ill.
Continue reading “Fear again”In a comment over at According to Hoyt, I wrote the following: “I tried my best to turn my political science degree into a counseling degree, like all our faculty did, as I spoke with students who had lost loved ones in the towers. I was teaching at SUNY Brockport, outside of Rochester, NY. One of my students found out his uncle and cousin had died when he recognized their smashed rig (fire truck) on a TV shot. A piece of the first tower had fallen onto the truck. Another student sent me a very polite email to let me know he’d be gone for about a week as he and his parents were going to NYC to try to locate his sister who worked in one of the towers. He assured me he’d keep up with his coursework. Broke my heart. Fortunately they found his sister alive in a hospital.
In honor of all those we lost that day, we must keep our heads up and keep moving forward together.
Let’s roll.”
As was pointed out in that post, on that day and the days following we came together as a nation and as a people. Yes, of course, the usual whack-jobs went about claiming that the whole thing was perpetrated by Israel or Bush or the Illuminati or Masons or whomever. Even the Democratic party went into full overdrive insisting that Bush’s foreign policies were to blame for the attack. But ordinary people, people who sent loved ones off to work in the Twin Towers every day, people who went to work every day, who understood that pure hate drove the hijackers, those people pulled together and went about mourning the dead, both the human losses and the idealistic losses. They donated blood, sent canine search and rescue teams, donated food, blankets, space for exhausted firefighters, police, and paramedics to sleep. They volunteered wherever they could. They ignored the politicians and the whack jobs.
I was a newly minted assistant professor of political science. Nothing in my grad school career or nascent teaching career had prepared me for helping students deal with such an immense tragedy. I spent the better part of the week doing what I could for the psyches of my college students. I threw out my syllabi in every class and we talked about fanaticism in the service of government goals, of non-government organizations that took over governments, of political culture, civic culture. We talked about everything they wanted to talk about. I knew we weren’t going to make sense of anything immediately, but we tried to find all the information we could. We tried to…find answers.
In the years following I spent every September 11 (if I was teaching that day, the days around it if not) going over the events of the day, discussing the policies before and since. Every year the discussion has died a bit faster as 2001 became old history for younger students. It dawned on me today that current college seniors were two years old in 2001.
Almost more than the day itself we need to remember now how we all felt the day after and the day after that. We need to regain that feeling. We need to remember that we are all one nation whether we were lucky enough to be born here or whether we chose to be here. We need to reclaim our unique heritage from those who would twist it beyond all recognition.
Remember who we are. Remember who you are.
Let’s roll.
Photo credit: Baltimore Sun
I was reading Sarah Hoyt’s post Smelling the Smoke, and the comments. It was brought up that when it comes to mob behavior, or maintaining social credit, many people who consider themselves to be good people find themselves committing horrific acts and condoning appalling behavior. Behavior such as rioting, looting, arson, harassment of strangers, bullying, etc. All behaviors they will loudly proclaim they teach their children to abhor. They will go to great lengths to condemn language on social media posts, piling on when “trigger words” are found, calling language the equivalent of violence. And, then, they will excuse a “peaceful protester” for shooting and killing a counter-protester, because the counter-protester was a Trump supporter. “Well, that’s what happens when you support Trump.” It’s all enough to make one question the sanity of friends and family members, not to mention the world as a whole. Has everyone gone mad?
In response to statements (usually from politicians) that expressed surprise and/or shock that some marvelous idea had gone sour, my father used to say that they were operating on the idea of “how can we be wrong when we’re so sincere?” He always followed that by commenting that not thinking about either collateral damage or unintended consequences would cause worlds of trouble. Today, more than ever, I find myself thinking about my dad’s comments. Riots, looting, destruction, deaths. All of which are the result of “good” policies gone bad (yes, I count bad policing habits among that…training is a good policy gone bad), and “good” people committing evil in the name of creating a “good” society. I’m still not sure how that works, especially if one believes that two wrongs don’t make a right…but then, hey, I’m obviously not a “good” person.
Righteous and needed anger over some police tactics and procedures has been turned into a race war. Or, rather I should say, the simmering race war has found an excuse for blatant violence in the use of questionable police tactics. So, people who view themselves as the forefront of all that is good and right in the world (they know better than everybody apparently) started destroying lives and livelihoods in the name of that “good”. Then, other people, who would never condone such violence, started to condone it. They justified it. “Well, if I had to live with that sort of fear for my family, hell yeah, I’d riot.” Really? You would? You’d attack a 75-year old woman who was trying to defend her store? You’d shoot and kill a black retired police officer trying to protect his friend’s business? “Of course not!” they cry. “That’s not what I meant!” Well, then. What exactly did you mean when you said you’d riot? You’d only loot Macy’s? Or you’d only smash windows? Or you’d only throw things at cops? What exactly did you mean? “No! I mean, I wouldn’t do that…but I can see why they would!” But, if you can see why they would, that means you can picture a situation where you would do the same. At this point, they usually curse you, call you names (racist and fascist being the most common…no imagination there), stomp away and block you on all social media.
How do these supposedly good people (and under normal circumstances they truly are good) end up supporting such evil? Two words: social credit. They’ve been told that these are the policies they must support regardless of the inconsistencies and outright contradictions they can see within the policies and the outcomes. If they wish to continue to be viewed as a “good” person, they must adhere to these arguments. To do otherwise means they risk losing friends and social standing. As tribal animals that makes humans exceedingly nervous.
But! They’ve been lied to regarding the intended (and unintended) outcomes of these policies, and those who created the policies have turned around and told them that the policies are good, any problems are the fault of those opposing the policies. The most blatant of these lies is that the riots in cities that have experienced decades-long dominance by Democratic politicians are currently being blamed on President Trump. Damn, that man in powerful! But you must support these lies to maintain your social credit. Note that it wasn’t until two CNN commentators, Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon, discussed falling poll numbers due to rioting. Lemon actually said that now Joe Biden and others must condemn the riots because the poll numbers are showing that riots don’t help. So, the argument pivoted to “the riots are all Trump’s fault”. Maintaining social credit gets harder by the hour.
If you try to bring up anything good that Trump has supported, you will usually get the “stopped clock is right twice a day” response which is itself an implicit acknowledgement that he did something right. But most often you will get a response where the policy or his support is picked to pieces. “Well, I’d have to see…”
It is very frustrating, yes. Friends will drop you like a hot potato. Good people do not like being questioned on their motives or actions. Because they are good, by definition their motives and actions are good. Questioning that (any by extension making them question their own motives) is evil. Because only evil questions a known good. Where we can find support is in those who also question the good. There are a lot of people out there who categorically oppose rioting, looting, arson, and murder. And, they are not afraid to say so.
You are not alone in your defense against the “good” people who currently support evil.
Trust me. You aren’t.
Get people to panic. Then tell them you can fix what’s causing the panic, if they’ll simply follow your lead. Then tell them that your solutions are the only ones that will prevent the cause of the panic from returning. Rinse and repeat. Now you’re in control. This is what our political class has been doing to us. Gaslighting is the word you’re looking for. It comes from a story and movie starring Ingrid Bergman as a woman who’s husband is deliberately trying to drive her crazy. One way he does it is to have the gas lamps in their home go high and low. When she comments on it, he says nothing happened. He also has the servants in on it. So, she thinks she’s the only one who can see the lamps going up and down. Combined with other despicable acts by the husband, like telling her that whatever else she’s seeing and experiencing is in her head, she begins to believe she’s crazy. Her husband has gaslighted her.
The end goal is not elimination of the virus. That’s not going to happen. Even with a vaccine, it will be back. The flu comes back every year and we have flu shots. A coronavirus is what a common cold is. This will be back. Bear in mind, though, it is most emphatically not lying in wait for you to walk out of your front door without a mask (despite what you’ve been allowed to assume). Nor will you get infected by walking past somebody on the sidewalk. About the only consistent, and apparently reliable, data we have access to points to age and underlying medical conditions, in combination, as the highest risk factors for death due to COVID-19. Does that mean somebody who does not hit those markers cannot get infected, and cannot succumb to this illness? Of course not. What that means is that is is HIGHLY UNLIKELY they will. There are always outliers. Always. Look at it this way…a product/drug/whatever, claims that 99% of those using it have found relief. That means that 1% did not. When you hear those stats rattled off in TV ads…suicidal thoughts, nerve damage, blindness, cancer…that means that in the trials of that drug THOSE THINGS HAPPENED TO SOME PEOPLE. That’s how they know!
Yes, we’ve had approximately 150,000 deaths in the US from this virus (that’s .04% of the total population). But something like 80% of those deaths were people over the age of 75. You can thank Andrew Cuomo and Tom Wolf for their policies of requiring nursing homes and assisted living facilities to readmit residents who had tested positive or had symptoms of COVID-19. They stuck all those sick individuals back into homes with the rest of the most vulnerable population and then locked them all in. Here in PA immediately prior to issuing that order, the PA Secretary of Health, Rachel Levine, pulled her mother out of her assisted living facility and put her in a hotel. It’s almost as if she knew her mother would be in danger is she stayed in the facility…hmmmmm.
The entire “response” to the virus has become an exercise in inducing continued panic while presenting greater and greater controls. It has gone well beyond actually having anything to do with slowing the virus. I don’t buy into conspiracy theories, but this is certainly one of those times when the political class (and I am excluding POTUS, which if you can control the frothing OrangeManBad!! actually makes sense…states are responsible for state policies and those states with the highest death rates are…wait for it…blue states!) follows Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals and never lets a good crisis go to waste. Need more evidence? Look at the ever changing demands of BLM leaders, teacher’s unions, state level policy makers, etc. Once the virus itself was as controlled as it’s ever going to get, they’ve started backing and forthing on everything that went before. Open up and get new cases? Yes, that will happen. What we’re not getting is how many of those new cases are 1) NOT the result of false positives (just search for “false positive tests” and see how many stories come up), and 2) how many of those new cases actually get sick. We’re told that large numbers of people are wandering around with the virus but are asymptomatic. What’s yet to be clarified (and likely won’t because it makes all these lockdowns and other mandates useless) is how frequently those asymptomatic cases are actually contagious.
In the end, if large numbers of us are asymptomatic, then the point of wearing masks, social distancing, etc. is gone. And when those are gone, control is gone. When control is gone, well, we go back to doing what we all do best…living our lives and taking care of our families.
Keep going. Do what you feel most comfortable doing. But don’t expect me to copy you. I don’t expect you to copy me.
In the end, we win and they lose.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
This week prompt was a visual from Leigh Kimmel. It is titled “Wave Motion” and you can see it on this week’s list at More Odds Than Ends. I went back this morning to remind myself and see what I could come up with in response. What popped out surprised me. I love the beach. I mean, I feel a need to walk on a beach on a daily basis, something I have not been able to do except for brief periods of time for the last twenty years. Growing up I was on the beach almost every day. I used to say that I could never live very far from the ocean because otherwise I would feel hemmed in and claustrophobic. Well, adulting and adult life has done the impossible and pulled me away from the beach. Leigh’s picture exposed a great deal of longing I hadn’t been paying attention to. I really need to get to the beach and soon.
This beach was two blocks from my high school. Yeah, I was spoiled. It was a magical place to grow up and I miss it all the time (not that I can afford to move back, mind you…)
The beach has always been a happy place for me. A place where I can rest, relax, let my mind wander and my soul refresh itself. Being near water is good; I live a couple of long blocks from the Schuylkill River now, for which I’m grateful, but there’s something about the ocean that just resonates with me. So, here’s what I came up with:
******
Waves
Waves breaking on the shore, hissing through the sand.
Lapping at my feet and pulling pieces of seaweed back out to sea.
Surfers rising and falling over smaller waves, looking for “that one” to drop in on and ride.
Memories of body surfing and tumbling in the waves.
Big waves crashing down, creating that distinctive beach roar.
Breaking apart over the rocks.
Small waves rippling across a toddler’s feet, eliciting squeals of happiness combined with trepidation.
Waves creating rhythms which keep me grounded and free at the same time.
Light waves sparkling off the water.
Waves of sound from people, dogs, and wind.
Life comes at you in waves.
*******
Feel free to join in the fun over at More Odds Than Ends.
Image by RUBEN EDUARDO ORTIZ MORALES from Pixabay
I read a post in Legal Insurrection this morning discussing a Chris Cillizza/CNN piece suggesting that the reason Biden picked Kamala Harris for his running mate is because “…if and when Biden steps aside” she’s more than qualified to step in. My first reaction was “Wait. What?” Are we now supposed to be voting for candidates whose slogan is “Vote for me…I’ll step aside for my running mate!” Really? I have to wonder if after posting this “analysis” (it’s linked in the Legal Insurrection piece) Cillizza looked at it and thought Did I say that out loud? I mean, I know Biden’s health and competency have been discussed many times in many places, but it is a serious issue.
In 2016 my mother died from what were described as complications due to Alzheimer’s Disease. She died from complications from her second concussion in one month due to falling on her head because the Alzheimer’s left her incapable of understanding what she was doing in addition to affecting her balance. I spent ten years watching my mother succumb to this horrible, disgusting disease. I know what it looks like. I see my mother’s eyes in Joe Biden and hear her in his attempts to answer questions. I don’t like Joe Biden the politician, but it is heartbreaking to watch Joe Biden the human being struggling in public as he is. I have nothing but anger and loathing for the people around him who are pushing him to continue with this farce. This is an attempted power grab by them, nothing more. The worst perpetrator of all of this is his wife.
Doctor (if she still upholds her oath) Jill Biden should know better on a professional level, and on a personal level she should want to protect the man she says she loves. My father did everything in his power, spent any amount of money it took to keep my mother safe and as happy as possible. He gave his life trying to keep her safe and protected. Jill Biden is pushing her husband into what I am convinced will be a very public break down. It’s disgusting. I’m not sure what she thinks being First Lady for what a year? two? will get her, but she’s clearly willing to sacrifice her husband to get it.
If the goal of pushing Biden and selecting Harris is to get Harris into the Oval Office, then there has been an enormous ethical lapse on the part of the DNC (quelle surprise…ethics? We don’t need no stinking ethics!). Harris didn’t make it in the primary race…why? Because…um…let me think…oh, yeah. Democratic voters didn’t like her! But, hey. They’ll be perfectly happy if we shoehorn her into the job, right?
Democrats are showing themselves to be unethical, power hungry, authoritarian, and self-serving with their 2020 presidential ticket. Don’t believe me? Go back and dig out tweets and articles about Harris in 2019. I’ll give you a freebie: Look up that snake-oil salesman Shaun King. Then compare them to today’s tweets and articles. The supposedly considered opinions have switched 180 degrees and Harris has done nothing and said nothing different from nine months ago.
I am appalled at the treatment Joe Biden is being subjected to by those who supposedly care about him. I appalled and angered by the blatant machinations and obvious subverting of the process for electing the highest office in the country, by the Democratic Party leadership. And, I’m saddened by all the people I know, like, and love who are willfully buying into this crap.
But, in the end, I’m cautiously optimistic that the blatant actions of the DNC and their lapdogs in the media will make ordinary voters sit up and take notice. I’m positive that those voters will not like what they see. In the end, I will keep harping on the hypocrisy I see and keep bringing it up. I will do this if for no other reason than to hopefully plant some small seed of doubt in even one person’s mind.
You want to keep this country functional and free? Do not let them get away with this crap. But, you must be willing to fight.
Be not afraid.
Image by Mary Pahlke from Pixabay
Where is your line, past which you will not go, when it comes to what’s being called “woke culture?” What has to be destroyed or torn down, or worse, who has to be killed before you say, “Enough! I will no longer support this cause!” Where is that line? What has to happen for you? I read a piece by James Lindsay at New Discourses that addresses this question, and it got me thinking. Where is my line? What makes me back away and disavow an idea or movement or goal?
I am not a big joiner; I don’t go to protests, marches, or rallies. In college, I went to a few rallies. One of them was when Reagan came to campus on the campaign trail prior to his first term. A large number of students stood in the back and raised our hands in the Nazi “heil Hitler” salute. We thought we were so clever to be calling out the candidate for his “Nazi” leanings. We were dumbasses. My only excuse is that I was a sophomore and as a (now former) faculty member, I know that sophomores can be a particular type of dumbass…no longer scared freshmen, so they think they now have a handle on everything, but still trying to prove that they are smarter than seniors. Dumbassery abounds. I still cringe at the thought of that rally.
As an aside, as an actual adult, I have discovered I have a form of claustrophobia that hits when I cannot see where I can leave the crowd. I’m short. I can never see over a crowd. So, in crowd situations, I look for a landmark that’s near the exit or gate. Something like a tree, light pole, sign…that sort of thing. If I can’t see where to leave the crowd, I start to panic. So, no marches or rallies for me.
My other reason for not going to rallies etc. is that I know too much about political theories and other forms of government. As an undergrad I was a government major. I also hold an MA and a PhD in political science. I have spent my entire post-high school educational career studying politics. I took an entire, semester-long class on Marx (don’t do that…trust me). I say all of this to demonstrate that I really have spent most of a lifetime studying politics and more importantly, I specialize in emerging democracies, what makes them succeed, why do some fail… I believe that I can say with some authority that whatever its faults, our system is light years ahead of any Marxist/socialist government system. Light. Years. Just remember one basic idea: Whatever government gives to you, it can take away. And the corollary: Rest assured, government will always take things away if it thinks it can get away with it.
All of this is a long way to say, my line was crossed at the violent looting and protests. Actually, my line was when Antifa became a thing and proudly announced their socialist/Marxist goals. But Lindsay continues…if your line has been crossed, or when it’s crossed, what will you do? Will you speak up? Will you write? Will you say anything? When your line is crossed, what do you do?
I’ve decided that I will write, and to the extent it doesn’t drive me crazy, I will post articles and comments on Facebook. That is the venue where I keep in touch with the majority of my friends. 99% of my FB friends are also real life friends from college, high school, and my professional life. So, there is an element of risk. Risk that people will cut me off or that I will cut them off because they become insulting. But, I know that I do have many friends who, while we may sharply disagree on how to address problems this country faces, we share many more points in common. And, we can and do argue, yes loudly and strongly, but in the end, we can go have a beer and figure out why cats and dogs act like they do or solve all the other problems in the world. The caveat for this is we’re face to face or on the phone. FB does not allow for nuance, facial expressions, and allows you to forget that you actually do know the person on the other end of that comment or post. In the end, I will keep posting. I like to think that maybe, just maybe, somebody will take in what I write, and it will sit in the back of their brain forcing them to give the idea at least some attention.
And, why do this? Well, as Lindsey points out, if you don’t know where your line is and don’t actually articulate it, you will likely cross it without noticing, or with some vague rationale. Then you will be on a rapidly descending slope and well into the area where you will now support a multitude of horrific actions by groups you claim to find credible.
You have to find your line before you cross it.
This simple act of getting people to commit to their principles before they let them slip is of tremendous importance and use because of how we process our moral reasoning. We do this by post-hoc rationalization, meaning that we lawyer ourselves into believing we acted morally after act, which often means after we’ve already crossed the line. Drawing a clear line ahead of time, especially in a social context where accountability weighs in, makes it that much easier to see the line, bright and clear, and that much harder to cross first and rationalize after.
James Lindsay, The Woke Breaking Point
We all need to pay attention to the stated aims, and the fine print in the groups we support. We need to learn their history, even that of the political parties. (How many people are surprised that the Democratic Party created the KKK to be their militant arm? Or that the Republican party was the last third party to become a major party through their single-issue platform of abolition in the 1860 election?) Pay attention. Read a variety of sources with a variety viewpoints. Believe it or not, you won’t die if you read something you disagree with.
What will it take for you to say “That’s it. I’m out.”? Vandalizing statues? Tearing them down? Tearing down every statue they decide they don’t like? Burning churches? White people screaming insults at black cops? Cities losing control of a neighborhood for weeks? People getting raped and murdered in those autonomous zones? Rioting every single night for over 50 nights? Mayors who do not stop such excesses?
Figure out where your line is and then figure out what you will do when it’s crossed. Yes, it is that important.
Working from home. How often while in a corporate job did I daydream about being able to work from home? The easy commute from bedroom to office, the close proximity of the kitchen, the ability to sit on the couch as opposed to at a desk…the list goes on. Well, since March 12, I’ve gotten my wish. So, how does it compare to the daydream? As with many things, the reality does not measure up to the wishful thinking. During the semester (while I was teaching on line) hubby and I did the dance of the Zoom meetings…”I have a meeting at this time. OK, I have one here. OK, I can hang out in the living room”…You get the picture. One of us was traipsing in and out of our shared office at any given point in time.
The semester is over and I’ve resigned/retired from my faculty position. But, I’m still writing. Book 2 will be coming out this fall and that is my priority right now. But, I don’t really have a proper work space. I have ceded the office to hubby as he (obviously) still has meetings and phone calls. Sitting on the couch and trying to write is not going well. I really need to figure something out in an apartment where options are very limited.
The other issue is the “no alone time” thing. I am used to having summers off and scheduling myself (however well or poorly I manage that). I am NOT used to hubby being home All.The.Time. No, we don’t argue or fight or fuss at each other and we love hanging out together. But, there’s absolutely no alone time right now. Yesterday, I walked downtown to get my hair cut and we realized it was the first time since March 16 (his last day in the office) that we had not left the house together. We each had about two hours to ourselves (OK, I was at the hair salon, but it was soooo nice to see and talk with other people!) and I think we really needed it.
There’s also the issue of pets, or new coworkers. My cat likes to sit next to me, half on my lap, and rest on the keyboard of my laptop. Yet another reason why I need to get off the couch and figure out a different work space. I cannot spend all day watching bird videos with him. It’s just a time sink. People with small children at home have the same problem. You have to entertain or otherwise engage the kids in a way that allows you to get some work done. That’s extremely difficult.
Do not get me wrong. I am extremely grateful that we have been able to keep our jobs, that we have the home infrastructure necessary to be able to work from home, and that we enjoy spending insane amounts of time together (now that I think about it, being in grad school together may have contributed to that. We are used to having lots of unstructured time and used to spending lots of time together while working on our own projects).
Are you sharing work space? Do you have interesting and exciting new coworkers (i.e. kids and/or pets)? How have you managed it?
Happy Friday Eve (tm Stan)!
Image by Mylene2401 from Pixabay