Sadness Is Poetic, Fer Sure, Like Totally
I'm at the beach for a couple days with these goodies. It was supposed to rain the whole time and medical waste was washing up on beaches! I threw caution to the wind and kept the reservations. Somehow it all worked out, no problems except the high chance of a riptide. (We're being cautious.)
September 20, 2024
...
Some people still aren't quite sure what to think of Kamala. A lot of the criticism of her falls in these three categories:
1. There are no specifics to her plans. (Forget about the fact that if she gave specifics it would bore people to tears! I believe in the theory of relativity, but I'm not going to read any scholarly papers on it so that I understand it from top to bottom. Sometimes an outline is enough. Political outlines provide direction. The outlines are on her website. Go to Trump's website and you get nothing but bullet points! Is he getting criticized for a lack of specifics?)
2. She deflects questions. (Sure, sometimes, like every politician ever, going back to Ancient Greece, probably going back to when we were still monkeys. There's a political truism that when you are asked a question you don't like, answer the question you wished they asked. Sure, it's a dodge, but there can be good political reasons for dodges, like when you know you'll get criticize harshly both ways. For contrast, imagine Trump being asked why he sat on his hands for hours while his supporters rampaged through the Capitol. He's only answers could be that he was too weak or that he wanted them to do it. And don't overlook the obvious, we need to count Trump's catalogue of 20k lies as president as the deflections the were. Even listen to Trump speak now, and see him deflect from himself, then deflect from that deflection, and so on for an hour or two until people start leaving bored.)
3. I just don't think I know her enough. (Fair enough, so please get to know her, and don't take forever! At least get to know her well-enough to see she's clearly better than her opponent in any measurable way.)
Are we fairly comparing the two nominees? Compare criticisms of Kamala and Trump, and realize that literally every single day, Trump does something that would end Kamala's political career forever.
If there were headlines today on Kamala telling a Jewish group that if she loses, the Jewish people would have a lot to do with it. That alone would be the end of her.
Imagine if she went on to tell them what Trump told them, "I will put it to you very simply and gently: I really haven't been treated right, but you haven't been treated right because you're putting yourself in great danger."
Imagine further that she previously warned of a bloodbath if she lost, the way Trump did.
(Btw, if Trump loses, his mouth would have certainly had a lot more to do with it than the Jewish people.)
As a thought experiment, imagine her insinuating that people with children are the problem in this country! Ridiculous, right? Of course, which illuminates the double-standard.
Can you imagine 100+ former Democrat officials signing a letter to this effect, similar to the letter just put out by 100+ former Republicans against Trump?
“As vice-president, she promoted daily chaos in government, praised our enemies and undermined our allies, politicized the military and disparaged our veterans, prioritized his personal interest above American interests and betrayed our values, democracy and this country’s founding documents.”
Would there be any question of her chances after that point?
Do you see what I mean about literally everyday, Kamala's campaign would be sunk by the Trump problem-of-the-day that is destined to become yesterday's news?
For whatever reason, he's granted the Bed-of-Nails Effect. One nail for Kamala equals harakiri, a thousand nails for Trump equals a nice rest.
Non-stop nonsense is baked into the Trump cake though, and it's overlooked by many. Some like that he's a chaos agent and a disruptor of norms and institutions.
Others might not like him at all, but figure they can expect a slighty lower tax rate for themselves and the billionaires. They think some version of what Roger Ebert said about Gene Siskel- "Sure he's an asshole, but he's MY asshole."
I don't think either of those groups are taking this too seriously, but if you made it this far in this post, maybe you will. The continued destabilization we can expect from a chaos agent is not going to be good for the economy, let alone everything else.
People need to compare the two candidates fairly, and weigh potential general destabilization and definite continued nonsense, versus the very boring, yet critical, and often overlooked quality of every country that anybody would ever want to live in- stability.
Compare the differences in legit criticism and let it guide you in making what I consider to be the right decision.
Dishonorable mention of Kamala criticisms:
-Inflation! (Post-covid worldwide inflation is her fault??? And let me guess, the fact that it's improving has nothing to do with her.)
-Too liberal! (Ahhh, the timeless classic. Well it's not her fault that "commie" and "Kamala" go together so easily.)
-Immigration! (Yeah right! See my previous post on the subject if you like.)
Thanks for stopping by.
September 20, 2024
...
Oh my goodness, what a game by Ohtani- 6 hits in 6 at bats, 3 home runs, 10 RBI's, 2 stolen bases, and he became the first ever member of the 50/50 club (50 home runs in 50 stolen bases.) If he wasn't recovering from Tommy John surgery, he might have pitched a perfect game on top of it. That might have been the greatest performance in 148 years of Major League baseball history.
September 20, 2024
...
Had a great time at the beach this weekend. (We were careful.) We got 10 small hermit crabs. The kids named them- Spearmint, Mendive, Hairy Larry, Nimpus, Squidhead Smith, Crawly Kreider (aka Tiny Tony), Red Pincher, Bright-Legged Pincher, Spiky Cone, and Snaggy. To welcome them we fixed up a nice hermit crab feast- shrimp, honey, molasses, amaranth, sunflower seeds, dried apples, basil, flax seeds, turmeric, eggs shells, rosemary and chia seeds. All the best hermit crab foods.
September 20, 2020
...
Bill Maher on the Ukraine scandal:
Right now we are at the denial stage, "he didn't do it." Then we go to, "okay he did it but it wasn't bad." Then we go to "okay it was bad but it wasn't illegal." Then, "okay, it's illegal but not when Trump does it." Then we go to the subpoena stage, and then the aforementioned "go fuck yourself" stage and then finally landing at the Democrats with "oh well, we tried."
September 20, 2019
...
Sam Wilson, from Ken Burns' Vietnam-
"We tend to fight the next war in the same way we fought the last one. We are prisoners of our own experience. Many of things that we learned that worked in World War II weren't applicable in Vietnam. We thought we'd go over with a sledgehammer, knock things down, clean them up and it would be all over. It was a kind of an oversimplification of the problem. Combined with our overconfidence it caused us to be arrogant, and it's very, very hard to dispelled ignorance if you retain arrogance."
...
What was the thought process that lead Castro to choose to wear his blue Adidas windbreaker when meeting the pope?
September 20, 2015
...
Would you believe me if I told you that the actor who portrays Uncle Jack from Breaking Bad is the same actor who portrayed Tommy from Valley Girl? Impossible but true.
September 20, 2013
...
"In a fight between a shark and a lion, which would win?" A terrible question. In water a shark would win and on land a lion would win. A better question is "In what depth of water would a shark and lion be evenly matched?"
September 20, 2013
...
The TV Guide description for the latest episode of Breaking Bad, Ozmandias, is as follows: "Everyone copes with radically changed circumstances." I'd say!
Re-watched the beginning. It starts with one of Walt and Jesse's first cooks. Walt admonishes Jesse and then talks with Skylar about this and that. A simpler time. Walt disappears, Jesse disappears, the bus disappears. I sense that means something.
September 20, 2013
Postscript: One of my all-time favorite episodes of anything. It's worth rewatching the entire series just to get to that moment.
The moment was perfectly captured with The Limelighters- Times Are Getting Hard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKbV5GwdVPs
...
Remember that when someone smiles at you they are showing you part of their skeleton.
September 20, 2010
...
Ferdinand Magellan set sail on this day in 1519, with about 270 men, on his expedition which ultimately culminated in the first circumnavigation of the globe.
...
The decade-long Ragamuffin War started this day in 1835 when rebels capture Porto Alegre in Brazil. Can you imagine a more adorable name for a war? Ragamuffin was Doris Kearns Goodwin's nickname in her Brooklyn childhood neighborhood.
...
On this day in 1893, Charles Duryea and his brother road-tested the first American-made gasoline-powered automobile.
...
On this day in 2001, in an address to a joint session of Congress and the American people, U.S. President George W. Bush declared a "War on Terror".
...
On this day in 2009, a advertising executive got his foot run over by a lawn mower.
https://www.vulture.com/article/the-secret-history-of-the-mad-men-lawn-mower-scene.html
...
On this day in 2011, the United States military ended its "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, allowing gay men and women to serve openly for the first time.
...
Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes tennis match at the Houston Astrodome, on this day in 1973. It was all for show.
...
Down By Law was released on this day in 1986.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0TNy5LyHDreY4PH51jR5BbFNXAbUjjPUZw7hiYYcbWwL5tychKYPuAXjXzk2fcRr2l&id=741063511&mibextid=Nif5oz
...
Upton Sinclair author of The Jungle, was born on this day in 1878.
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on him not understanding it."
...
Donald Hall, poet and Doris Kearns Goodwin's co-star in Ken Burns' Baseball, was born this day in 1928. He wrote one of my favorite poems.
The Things
When I walk in my house I see pictures,
bought long ago, framed and hanging
— de Kooning, Arp, Laurencin, Henry Moore —
that I've cherished and stared at for years,
yet my eyes keep returning to the masters
of the trivial — a white stone perfectly round,
tiny lead models of baseball players, a cowbell,
a broken great-grandmother's rocker,
a dead dog's toy — valueless, unforgettable
detritus that my children will throw away
as I did my mother's souvenirs of trips
with my dead father. Kodaks of kittens,
and bundles of cards from her mother Kate.
...
Sophia Loren was born on this day in 1934.
...
Something I realized about Breaking Bad- the more bland the character, the better person they are. Exception- that maniac Todd who is the blandest, and perhaps the worst.
September 20, 2013
...
Louis CK on true, profound happiness:
“Underneath everything in your life, there is that thing, that empty … Forever empty. You know what I’m talking about?
There’s that knowledge that it’s all for nothing and you’re alone. It’s down there, and sometimes when things clear away, you’re not watching anything, you’re in your car, and you start going, “Oh no, here it comes.” That I’m alone, like it starts to visit on you. Just this sadness. Life is tremendously sad, just by being in it. You’re driving and then you go, “Oh, ah, ah …” That’s why we text and drive. I look around, pretty much 100% of people driving are texting.
Anyway, I started to get that sad feeling. I was reaching for the phone, then I said, “You know what, don’t. Just be sad. Just let the sadness stand in the way of it, and let it hit you like a truck.” I let it come, and bruise, “Oh …” and I just started to feel, “Oh my god.” I pulled over and I just cried like a bitch. I cried so much and it was beautiful. It was like this beautiful … Sadness is poetic. You’re lucky to live sad moments, and then I had happy feelings pass it. Because when you let yourself feel sad, your body has antibodies. It has happiness that comes rushing in to meet the sadness. I was grateful to feel sad, and then I met it with true, profound happiness.
It was such a trip. The thing is because we don’t want that first bit of sad, we push it away with a little phone [bleep] or the food. You get a little … You never feel completely sad or completely happy.”
...
I keep thinking about this...Tig Notaro's bit about God never giving you more than you can handle, after her mother's death, her boyfriend breaking up with her, and a diagnosis of some serious health problems, all within two weeks...
https://youtu.be/XRDUAnpsL6w
Sep 20, 2015, 7:31 AM
Postscript: The best bit in stand up history? Louis CK was there, texting all of his friends that it was a monumental set.
...
Brewminate- Are You Reading the Wrong Books? What Science Is Saying About Fiction Readers
"What has science concluded? Studies are showing that readers of fiction are more empathetic towards others. By engaging with a story, readers are temporarily placing themselves in a character’s shoes, therefore, the more stories you read, the more shoes you’ve tried on. It’s a fascinating insight into the world of reading."
https://brewminate.com/are-you-reading-the-wrong-books-what-science-is-saying-about-fiction-readers/
September 20, 2015
...
The Onion- Study Finds Harshly Criticizing U.S. Education System Only Causing It To Fall Further Behind Peers
http://onion.com/1OmsCOF
...
The Hill- Blue Cross warns GOP repeal bill ‘undermines’ pre-existing condition rules
http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/351549-blue-cross-warns-gop-repeal-bill-undermines-pre-existing-condition-rules
September 20, 2017
Postscript: One difference between the Democrats and Republicans, the Democrats don't forward bills undermining pre-existing conditions. In fact, the Republicans fought the law the Democrats created, protecting pre-existing conditions. Obamacare, they fought it for like 10 years.
...
Fatherly- Judge Brett Kavanaugh Accusations: High School is Not an Alibi for Sexual Assault
To put how far we fallen in perspective, read this headline. If you're in the mood to read several hundred jokes about sexual assault, just go to the comment section of any right wing article about Kavanaugh. And remember, if you find any of those jokes funny, make sure to vote Republican.
* I'm using the word "jokes" pretty loosely
http://esqr.co/xNUdntS
September 20, 2018
...
McSweeney's- WE CAN’T IMPEACH ONE OF THE MOST UNPOPULAR AND CORRUPT PRESIDENTS EVER AND RISK ALIENATING THE RACIST VOTERS WHO’D NEVER VOTE FOR US ANYWAY, by Bob Vulfov
"He might tweet some mean things about us. Or he might tell a bunch of Cadillac dealership owners at Mar-a-Lago that he’s totally innocent and being treated unfairly. Hell, he might even call into an evening cable news show and stammer aimlessly about how he’s the subject of a witch hunt. It’s impossible to know just how ingeniously this smooth operator will exploit impeachment to benefit himself. We couldn’t possibly prepare for the countless strategies he’d employ. The president will just take impeachment and spin it positively because he is a master of communication and has never fumbled over his words like a child giving a book report on a book he didn’t read."
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/we-cant-impeach-one-of-the-most-unpopular-and-corrupt-presidents-ever-and-risk-alienating-the-racist-voters-whod-never-vote-for-us-anyway
September 20, 2019
...
Headline today- Semi-Truck Seemingly Carrying Dildos And Lube Overturns On Interstate—And Here Come The Jokes
The driver was killed.
OK, not really, but that sure would put a damper on the levity.
September 20, 2022
...
Couple of goodies...
September 20, 2019
Postscript- Kindergarten and preschool.
...
...
Comments
Post a Comment