June 29, 2016

Those rebel flags are aimed at you.

You always thought so, of course. Now I can confirm that it's done, at least in my area, to intimidate black people and discourage them from moving to small cities in rural Pennsylvania. That's right, Pennsylvania, not the deep south.

This comes from someone who knows two individuals who display the "Stainless Banner" on their property. They are disturbed by a number of black women who moved to the area recently. Their theory is it's because Section 8 housing is easier to get, and the overall cost of living is lower than in Pittsburgh or Philadelphia. Of course, children, husbands, boyfriends, etc. come along and this creates the impression the area is being flooded with a wave of welfare families. I have no idea if there is even the tiniest grain of truth in all this. My suspicion is, there are a handful of welfare families, and the stereotype is applied as stereotypes always are.

Anyway, the rebel flags are supposed to scare away black people. It's a very specific, if unorganized, campaign to keep black people from moving here. I guess they figure black people have never seen the rebel flag, and will be so overcome by fear they will drive straight back to Pittsburgh. Or something like that.

Here comes the part I probably don't even have to tell you. They're just fine with welfare for themselves, white people. They think it's fine and dandy when the public assistance system picks up the tab for their drug and alcohol rehab, prenatal services, food stamps, WIC checks, and all the rest. They get pissed, really pissed, when I remind them of this, as I was foolish enough to do a couple times. They're different, not just because they're white, although that's the primary reason. Their families have been here a long time. It's the old, "We built this town..." thing.

So that's the news from here.

June 22, 2016

Donald Trump walks among the ancient Greeks.

Did the ancient Greeks foresee the rise of Donald Trump?

Many of us are familiar with Socrates and Plato, or at least we know they enjoyed hanging out in the public square and deflating fatuous blowhards. But they were not the first. They were preceded by a group of thinkers known as the pre-Socratics, philosophers who planted the first known seeds of what would become western thought. They asked the earliest questions about fields of inquiry that would later become physics, astronomy, cosmology, medicine, politics, justice, ethics, humanism, and much more. Considering they were active 2,600 years ago, some of their observations seem eerily applicable to Donald Trump’s run for the presidency. I guess people like Trump have been around a long time. Either that, or Trump uses a time machine to go back and harangue the Greeks of ancient times.

Heraclitus (550-490 BC) “Let us not make arbitrary conjectures about the greatest matters.” We’re going to build a wall and make the Mexicans pay for it.

“It pertains to all men to know themselves and be temperate.” “Men should speak with rational awareness.” “To extinguish hubris is more needful than to extinguish a fire.”

“Dogs bark at a person whom they do not know.” Trump supporters bark just to be barking.
“Bigotry is the sacred disease.” My favorite, for obvious reasons.

Empedocles (484-424 BC) “Each one forms opinions according to what he has chanced to experience as he drifts about, yet each vainly boasts of knowing the general nature of things.” Vain boasting is an understatement.

“When I enter a flourishing town, with my attendant youths and maidens, I am received with reverence; great throngs of people press upon me, seeking benefits. Some desire a revelation; others, who have long been pierced by various kinds of painful illness, want me to tell them effective remedies.” This may be what motivates Trump to seek high office.

Anaxagoras (500-428 BC) “For how could hair come from what is not hair…?” Ah, yes. The hair. I was delighted to find this quote, but somewhat disappointed there was nothing about small fingers.

Democritus (460-351 BC, 109 years old!) “The man who is enslaved by wealth can never be honest.”
Thrasymachus of Chalcedon, as quoted in Plato’s Republic. “Justice is simply the advantage of the stronger.”

HassleCat of the Olympic Peninsula (1952- AD) “A man with small fingers may also have a small mind. As he discovers his tiny fingers are only capable of grasping small things, he concludes that only small things are meant to be grasped, and he applies this principle to his mind as well as his fingers.” I couldn’t let the fingers go unremarked.

June 15, 2016

Morning Joe hammering Trump

I only see this show once every six months or so, and I don't know the general slant of things there, but they are hammering on Trump this morning. They pretty much declared he will lose big unless he backs off the crazy rhetoric.

June 13, 2016

Of course the Orlando shooting will be politicized.

I guess it would be nice if it could be avoided, but there are too many public policies involved to let them go by. Gun control, national security, immigration and religion are those that come immediately to mind. When 50 people are gunned down in cold blood, we have to consider what to do about it. Of course, most of the political discussion will be crass and unproductive, and that's the part we hate, all the usual suspects stepping in front of the TV camera to tell us they were right, and we should have listened to them, and it's all the fault of (insert opponent here).

June 12, 2016

Part loyalty, closing ranks, and all that.

If the Republicans can close ranks around Donald Trump, we should be able to come together and support Hillary Clinton. Many mainstream Republicans are truly revolted by Trump, but they are saying they support him because the possibility of President Hillary is too terrible to contemplate. They are backing Trump because they fear Hillary, and for no other reason. The only reason we would not do the same as they are doing is if we do not fear Trump, if we think he is not enough of a threat that we would burn some votes to punish our party for failing to nominate Bernie. While I can sympathize with that, I don't think there's a good case for that course of action for two reasons: (1) Clinton is not that bad, and (2) Trump is. Under different circumstances, I could support sending a message to the party, but not this time.

June 11, 2016

We can stop now.

My fellow Sandernistas, you can stop with the revelations of scandals, and the implications they will allow Trump to defeat Clinton. They won't. If Trump is able to seriously threaten Clinton, it will not be because her scandals are worse than his scandals.

Hillary supporters, your cut-and-paste campaign of articles purporting to show that Bernie never was a serious candidate are nothing more than gratuitous, or gloating, or gratuitous gloating. Sanders is no longer a threat to Clinton, and dwelling on the problems of his campaign and insulting his supporters will only lose Democratic votes.

I could go on at length, but there's nothing more to say. Thank you.

June 11, 2016

Mainstream media will have fun with Trump.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/06/09/donald-trump-unpaid-bills-republican-president-laswuits/85297274/

Let the fun begin! I know we're worried about them making too much of the email scandal, but that's only one scandal. If the accounts are even half accurate, Trump has cheated hundreds, maybe thousands, of people over the years. He bankrupted several different enterprises, leaving a trail of ruin in his wake. Better yet, he acted like an egotistical jerk about everything. And his daughter seems to be joining in, supporting the idea he daddy has the right, perhaps even the obligation, to penalize the little people for displeasing him. It's just too perfect.