Conservative Values Voters and President Trump

Welcome friends!

I was just sitting around marveling again at the fanatical loyalty of President Trump’s conservative base.  I think I mentioned in my previous post a recent poll found just over sixty percent of the man’s supporters said they couldn’t think of anything he might do that would make them stop supporting him.  That figure goes up past seventy percent for his female groupies.  Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion of course but it does raise the question of why.  What is it about the man that inspires such blind and uncritical devotion?  I thought I might take a few moments to speculate on that issue this time out... Sorry but only selected archived (previous year) posts are currently available full text on this website.  All posts including this one are available in my annual anthology ebook series available at the Amazon Kindle Bookstore for a nominal fee.  Hey, we all need to make a buck somehow, right?  If you find my timeless jewels of wisdom amusing or perhaps even amusingly irritating throw me a bone now and then.  Thank you my friends!

Will Absolute Power Corrupt Trump And The Other One Percenters Absolutely?

Welcome friends!

I know I usually do a special holiday post this time of year but I’m hardly in the mood with darkness, ignorance, and ugliness on the ascendency everywhere in the world including my beloved homeland the USA.  My heart is just too heavy this year to do anything light and amusing.  Well, no more light and amusing than when I try to get all weighty and serious anyway.  Instead, I thought I’d take yet another whack at something that’s been on my mind a lot lately: the rather remarkable divergence in how many liberals and conservatives perceive the motley collection of inexperienced (in terms of national policy) billionaires and millionaires president-elect Trump has assembled to head up his administration.  To put things in a nutshell for those who haven’t been reading the papers recently (which I would understand well enough) Trump’s team raises all manner of red flags for many liberals but seems to be viewed as a welcome breath of fresh air by most conservatives.  I suppose it mirrors the reactions of the two camps to the roughly similar issue of the potential conflicts of interest of the One-Percent President himself.  Liberals are very concerned.  Conservatives can’t fathom why.  It got me thinking I should delve into the origin of this obviously quite fundamental difference in perspectives yet again.  Hey, anything worth saying once is worth saying twice or however many times I’ve said it now.  How many times did president-elect Trump lie about President Obama being unable to produce his birth certificate?  At least I’m sincerely trying to be truthful and helpful.

Being a lifelong liberal myself and probably typical of the breed in certain respects I suppose I can speak to that side of the issue so let’s just do a little overview of how things look from the first floor of my modest ivory house if one wants to think of it that way.  After that I’ll move on to the more challenging portion of the exercise and try to imagine how conservatives must see things.  Then I’ll wrap up with a few issue that make it very difficult or I suppose if I’m being honest pretty much impossible for me to fully understand the conservative perspective in the hope that some conservative might read it one day and explain it in print, in which case I can do the whole exercise again but presumably with a much improved take on the conservative perspective... Sorry but only selected archived (previous year) posts are currently available full text on this website.  All posts including this one are available in my annual anthology ebook series available at the Amazon Kindle Bookstore for a nominal fee.  Hey, we all need to make a buck somehow, right?  If you find my timeless jewels of wisdom amusing or perhaps even amusingly irritating throw me a bone now and then.  Thank you my friends!

Trump's Secret Weapon: Baby Talk

Welcome friends!

I know I was supposed to stop talking about the clown now he’s elected at least until he actually has a chance to do something unfortunate so I suppose the week of January 20, which is alarmingly close so let’s enjoy the last few weeks of stability and sanity while it lasts.  However, I did want to just report on one positive turn of events because believe me right now any positive turn of events is something to be savored.  If you remember last time I was saying how much we all stand to lose if Trump actually delivers on any of his many and varied campaign promises.  We could see the elimination of a great deal of the progress we’ve made these past several years and in some cases decades on a great number of different fronts: global warming, the environment more generally, nuclear proliferation, women’s reproductive rights, equal rights for gay people, race relations, distributive concerns, the minimum wage, unions, the national debt, Wall Street regulations, attempts to reduce the influence of big money in politics, freedom of the press, etc.  I said if we’re lucky the man may have been just talking out of his ass during the campaign and now he’s gotten what he wanted, a platform to look after his own financial interests as well as the financial interests of his relatives and buddies in the one percent, perhaps he’ll conveniently forget all the ignorant and destructive bullshit he’s been peddling these past months.  (By looking after the financial interests of the one percent I’m talking about things like reducing their tax bill, doing away with the estate tax to facilitate the creation of family dynasties most likely consisting in the not so distant future of the usual spoiled and feckless layabouts no doubt in line from birth to become Republican presidents themselves, removing regulations designed to prevent them from dominating the political process, eliminating social programs designed for people who are not them, etc.) I suggested that might be our one ray of hope because the man did mention at one point during the campaign if he were elected president he intended to act more “presidential” and presumably not carry on the offensive and ignorant jackass persona he found so politically rewarding during the campaign.  I remarked on it at the time.  The signals are mixed but we may be getting some indication that yes, President Trump may be at least marginally saner than Candidate Clown.

Not sure what I’m talking about?  Maybe a few examples might help.  I saw an article a week or two ago that involved a meeting between the clown and Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe... Sorry but only selected archived (previous year) posts are currently available full text on this website.  All posts including this one are available in my annual anthology ebook series available at the Amazon Kindle Bookstore for a nominal fee.  Hey, we all need to make a buck somehow, right?  If you find my timeless jewels of wisdom amusing or perhaps even amusingly irritating throw me a bone now and then.  Thank you my friends!

Trump Schlongs America

Welcome friends!

Damn.  I was really looking forward to taking a long hot shower to wash away the filth of the seemingly endless presidential campaign season and lo and behold it looks like we’re destined to suffer through at least another four years of ugliness, self serving lies, egotistical boasting, insults, bullying, pouting, pussy grabbing, bigotry, misogyny, unbridled greed, and ignorant inane bullshit of every description.  No, I’m not talking about the scary drug addled old hobo who hangs out behind the convenience store.  I’m talking about the president-elect of the USA.  It’s a new thing.  Never really had anyone like that in the Oval Office before.  Trumpkins must be celebrating at Klan rallies and Neo-Nazi hoe-downs in small towns and farming communities all across the country.  Well, I suppose I might as well put off bathing for the next several years.  When our unfolding national nightmare finally ends in four or possibly eight years I’ll head off to a nice health spa for a months long regimen of cleansing and detoxification.  Too bad we can’t so easily wash away the stain on our national history.  George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, and now … drumroll please …. Donald Trump!  No soap in the world can remove that unsightly blemish from our list of presidents.  Nope.  It’s there forever or at least as long as they keep records of such things.  Well, maybe it serves us right.  I think some of us had begun developing a certain degree of optimism about the future.  Impatient at the rate of change perhaps but confident we were inching in the right direction.  Perhaps it’s for the best in the long run we’re reminded now what a comically backward self destructive fascistic banana republic much of our population wishes fervently to create.  I was looking forward to the election cycle ending so I could get back to discussing some other things but now it’s ended I’m too depressed and sick at heart to talk about much beyond the impending national calamity about to overtake us so let’s just take a few minutes to mourn together.

Was I being overly dramatic just then?  How bad can it be really?  I guess that was a silly question.  It can be very bad.  Very very bad.  If President-elect Clown manages to deliver on even a small fraction of the idiotic claptrap he’s been peddling the past several months or in many cases years we’re well and truly screwed.  Still not getting it?  You need examples? Well, let’s see... Sorry but only selected archived (previous year) posts are currently available full text on this website.  All posts including this one are available in my annual anthology ebook series available at the Amazon Kindle Bookstore for a nominal fee.  Hey, we all need to make a buck somehow, right?  If you find my timeless jewels of wisdom amusing or perhaps even amusingly irritating throw me a bone now and then.  Thank you my friends!

Domestic Terrorism Takes Root in Oregon

Welcome friends!

Looks like the race for the presidency is really heating up, right?  Who could have predicted the head of the FBI would try to play king maker and jump in at the last minute with a breathless albeit vague declaration that a few weeks back his agency found some emails that seem to have some connection with Hilary Clinton?  Will it turn out to be “bigger than Watergate” as Trumpo triumphantly proclaimed?  Or will it be nothing at all?  Hey, your guess is as good as mine.  The funny thing is it doesn’t matter; we’ll only know after the election.  The real news here is not the emails but the news or pseudo-news about the emails.  Anyway, now that FBI has entered the fray it seems we have a real horse race on our hands.  Will we get a corrupt lying incompetent buffoon or a Nasty Bitch?  Sorry, I meant Nasty Woman just then.  Speaking in the vernacular.  They both have pros and cons.  The buffoon might be entertaining but potentially horribly destructive and embarrassing.  The Nasty Woman might know what she’s doing but she’s so uppity and cold.  I can feel myself shriveling up as I write.  Tough call.  I remember watching the Three Stooges as a child so I do appreciate buffoonery.  I can picture the scene.  President Trumpo the Clown shows up at a fancy schmancy diplomatic event at the White House with a bunch of foreign eggheads and politically correct milquetoasts.  Some elegant older lady, let’s say a 2 or 3, asks him if they will serve canapés.  Trumpo declares confidently, “Why soitanly!” and slips into the kitchen to heat up a can of peas.  He emerges with a bowl of warm peas only to slip on a banana peel and fall into a dignified foreign duchess small hands grasping at her crotch.  Outraged she picks up a cream pie from the sideboard and throws it at him but he ducks and it hits a smirking Mike Pence who proclaims loudly, “That never happened!”  I’m telling you every day will be hilarious!  We’ll never know what manner of lunacy might happen next.  Will the government default on its debt?  Will we have another Great Depression?  Will we lose our jobs, our savings, our houses?  Will we have health insurance?  Will we have nuclear war?  Will we dissolve Congress and do away with democracy?  Will we have race war?  Will we have a war of religion?  Will we construct a Great Wall around the continental USA?  Seriously, I think we might die laughing during the next few years.  Hey, there are worse ways to go.  And what if it’s the Nasty Bitch?  Well, I guess we’ll survive well enough so that’s the good side but just imagine the damage to the egos of all those dimwitted older rural white men out there.  Oh won’t someone think of the childish?  The emails, the emails!  Well, let’s wait a week and see how it all plays out before getting too worked up shall we?  With a little luck everything might still turn out OK.  No, what I wanted to talk about this week was not the impending election but something that strikes me as every bit as ominous in its own way: the recent acquittal of a band of armed domestic terrorists by a sympathetic or perhaps just craven jury right here in the good old USA.  Did you ever wonder how those swarthy foreign countries end up with roving bands of armed lunatics they seem entirely incapable of doing anything about?  Well, wonder no more.  It’s basically the same reason we apparently intend to allow bands of armed lunatics to operate freely here in the USA.  The people demand it.  So nice when mysteries like that are solved isn’t it?

Yes, the story I’m discussing this week involves that armed “militia” that took over a federal building in rural Oregon a while back... Sorry but only selected archived (previous year) posts are currently available full text on this website.  All posts including this one are available in my annual anthology ebook series available at the Amazon Kindle Bookstore for a nominal fee.  Hey, we all need to make a buck somehow, right?  If you find my timeless jewels of wisdom amusing or perhaps even amusingly irritating throw me a bone now and then.  Thank you my friends!

The Conservative Embrace of Nonsense

Welcome friends!

I was just reading another article that brought to mind the curious love affair some conservatives seem to be having with utter nonsense.  It’s getting rather comical.   Indeed, I suspect Mr. Trump’s main credential as a conservative must be that he peddles unadulterated poppycock.  I think conservatives have confined themselves to talking nonsense for so long they’ve developed a positive taste for it or if they still don’t like it at some level at least can no longer detect it.  Hey, it happens.  Like eating salt.  What tastes salty?  Whatever is slightly saltier than the last thing one ate.  If the last thing was a potato chip you’re in trouble.  Same thing with nonsense.  How idiotic does Trump have to sound before conservatives notice and begin to have reservations?  Apparently pretty damned idiotic indeed.  What is all this pre-Trump nonsense I’m talking about?  Well, I discussed last time the curious notion that having a so-called free market will solve all our economic woes and in particular ensure a fair and equitable distribution of resources.  Don’t know where they got that from but they’ve been saying that for decades.  They may have been saying that since Victorian times.  Nothing that happens in the world and no developments in the field of economics seem capable of changing that conviction.  The article that got me going this week addressed a slightly different but just as long lived conservative talking point: the importance of cutting taxes and shrinking government.  The article simply pointed out there is no real empirical evidence for this idea.  Indeed, countries with faster growing economies tend to have somewhat higher taxes and larger governments.  Of course as the article pointed out this might be because people in countries that are doing well simply have higher expectations with respect to their governments dealing with social issues.  Countries are not necessarily growing faster because they have high taxes and large governments.  The point is simply the data show in the real world higher economic growth rates tend to go along with higher taxes and larger governments for one reason or another.  Given this state of affairs one wonders why conservatives are so adamant about this particular policy prescription.  Indeed, after listening to them talk about this idea for decades I rather suspect it’s the only policy idea they really have.  At least they seem to trot it out no matter what is actually happening in the world.  Did Wall Street generate a stock market crash that threatened the economy?  We need to lower taxes and shrink government.  Is most of the wealth going to a small group of people at the top?  We need to lower taxes and shrink government.  Do we have a bunch of unemployed poor people with guns shooting one another and random other people as well?  We need to lower taxes and shrink government.  Kind of like the old snake oil one could find at the local agricultural fair.  Good for whatever ails you.

But of course the great underlying question is why are conservatives drawn to this sort of thing?  Why don’t they seem to care about facts? ... Sorry but only selected archived (previous year) posts are currently available full text on this website.  All posts including this one are available in my annual anthology ebook series available at the Amazon Kindle Bookstore for a nominal fee.  Hey, we all need to make a buck somehow, right?  If you find my timeless jewels of wisdom amusing or perhaps even amusingly irritating throw me a bone now and then.  Thank you my friends!

Race and Bad Cops

Welcome friends!

We’ve had an unusual level of lunacy here in the US the past couple of weeks so I thought I’d interrupt my previous chain of thought and talk about two issues that have been in the news a lot recently: race and bad cops.  I’ll talk more about the schism in economic conservatism generated by such issues as Brexit, immigration, and free trade next time.  I’d like to talk about it right now but I can only watch so much marching, arguing, shouting, and shooting before doing whatever I can to introduce a bit of reason to the proceedings.  That’s my way.  The Way of the Pen.  Pendo.  (Hey I like that.  I’ll have to remember to use that again someday.)

Let’s start with the relatively easy issue of bad cops setting aside the always contentious issue of “race.” ... Sorry but only selected archived (previous year) posts are currently available full text on this website.  All posts including this one are available in my annual anthology ebook series available at the Amazon Kindle Bookstore for a nominal fee.  Hey, we all need to make a buck somehow, right?  If you find my timeless jewels of wisdom amusing or perhaps even amusingly irritating throw me a bone now and then.  Thank you my friends!

Beauty Queen Injures the Majesty of the Sultan of Turkey

Welcome friends!

So difficult to avoid talking about Trumpo the Clown every week isn’t it?  I don’t think we’ve ever had a presidential candidate like him before in the history of the US.  I don’t mean that in a good way.  Did you catch the recent story about one of his business ventures, “Trump University,” being the subject of some sort of court case?  Past employees have been in the papers calling it nothing but a big money making scam.  I guess his billions just isn’t enough for him.  Well, he has needs I guess; like anyone else but more so.  Conservatives crack me up sometimes.  Hey, we found a scheming money grubbing fast talking con man!  That’s who we want to be President of the US!  He’s one of us!  But they’re not alone.  I thought they might be but no the North Korean government was just in the news writing an opinion piece characterizing Mr. Trump as “wise” and “far-sighted.”  Ha ha ha!  How’s that for a funny image?  American conservatives marching arm in arm with Kim Jong Un and his minions to elect Donald Trump President of the USA.  It’s a funny world sometimes isn’t it?  But you know I said last time I wasn’t going to be pulled into Trump’s “all eyes on me” media strategy so I’m determined not to take the bait.  Instead I thought I’d talk about some funny stories I’ve been reading recently about the Sultan of Turkey Recep Erdogan.  Wait a minute.  Did I use the correct title?  I have a vague memory of someone trying to make Turkey a modern secular democracy early in the last century.  I think it was Mustafa Kemal Ataturk wasn’t it?  Maybe I’d better look up the correct title before I go any further.  Hey, what do you know?  The correct term is actually president.  President of Turkey.  That’s funny, right?  Just like the USA.  Not!  Anyway, seems President Erdogan has been running about charging all manner of people with “insulting” him, which as one might imagine is no laughing matter in Turkey.

Yes, Turkey is one of the handful of countries that still have what they call lèse majesté laws... Sorry but only selected archived (previous year) posts are currently available full text on this website.  All posts including this one are available in my annual anthology ebook series available at the Amazon Kindle Bookstore for a nominal fee.  Hey, we all need to make a buck somehow, right?  If you find my timeless jewels of wisdom amusing or perhaps even amusingly irritating throw me a bone now and then.  Thank you my friends!

A Tale of Two Trumps

Welcome friends!

Well, well, well.  Looks like conservatives have finally chosen the person they consider most qualified to be the next President of the United States.  Donald Trump.  I know.  I almost feel I should stop right now.  I said almost.  No, as much as I would like to just stop and marvel at how funny life can be sometimes I feel I should probably address an issue that’s been on my mind a lot recently.  How have liberals or if you prefer progressives like me and our conservative friends come to think about the qualifications and suitability of political candidates so remarkably differently?  Many people including me of course have written on some of the more unfortunate aspect of Mr. Trump’s personality, ethics, and worldview, such as his rudeness, racism, xenophobia, sexism, egotism, and so on, so I don’t think I need to go there again just now.  We get it.  Many conservatives apparently don’t really care about such matters or probably some of them find them attractive.  He’s one of us!  No, what I wanted to talk about today is not the similarity of Mr. Trump’s views to those of your average rural dumb ass redneck but the possibility there’s an even more fundamental difference in opinion at work here, a difference that really goes to the heart of the conservative and liberal world views.  Indeed, it occurred to me the other day I wouldn’t see eye to eye with conservatives on Trump’s suitability to be President even if we were to edit the man down to just his two most notable and defining features.  No, not his hair and his pout.  I’m talking about his vast personal wealth and complete lack of political experience.  Just those two considerations alone tap into two interrelated issues that I suspect differentiate liberals and conservatives.  I’m talking about distributional issues and in particular the ethical credentials and status of the economic elite of the country on the one hand and the assessment of our more or less democratic system of government on the other.  I know there’s been a lot of talk recently about the rather obvious conflict between Trump and some elements of the more traditional conservative elite of the Republican Party and about whether he truly represents Conservatism with a capital C or Republicans with a capital R or anything else with any capital letter whatsoever.  Well, I believe that along the two dimensions I just mentioned at least support for a candidate like Mr. Trump is very much in the tradition of conservative Republicanism.  Let me explain... Sorry but only selected archived (previous year) posts are currently available full text on this website.  All posts including this one are available in my annual anthology ebook series available at the Amazon Kindle Bookstore for a nominal fee.  Hey, we all need to make a buck somehow, right?  If you find my timeless jewels of wisdom amusing or perhaps even amusingly irritating throw me a bone now and then.  Thank you my friends!