Watching clips from the RNC convention,
Reading blogs and online zines about El Trump,
Observing conservatives of conscience (and some without) squirm and all I can say is that it's like watching someone trying to thread a rock-salted pretzel through a needle. Good luck with that, y'all, and
Gardening in the hot hot sun. (Insert it's-in-her-DNA joke along with a stained-glass window. I slipped in an inside New Haven reference. Don't bother to figure it out; my eyes haven't stopped rolling about what passes for political outrage these days in this joint.)
I took a mini-vacation last week, rented an apartment south of Prospect Park, and did speed dating with friends, some of whom I haven't seen for years. (Shortly after moving here I realized that I like very much to sleep in my own bed, and when I did go to New York for business I persisted in coming home no matter how late it was. I kept making vague promises to friends about getting together and never keeping them in my rush to get to Grand Central.) The time I spent there last week was fun, and I'd do it again but perhaps in the fall when it's not so likely I'll be boiled alive. I don't miss New York, of that I'm certain. I'm like Goldilocks here -- this is just right. But Gawd do I miss the street theater. An example (to which I can't do justice):
I'm standing on the Manhattan-bound platform at the aboveground Parkside station. Across the way on the Coney Island bound platform is a flock of city kids, summer day campers all wearing the same bright t-shirts, shorts and sneakers. On my side are 3 young men. Something about them says tourist, Eastern European variety at that. (Don't ask me how I know. If El Trump can recognize Mexican rapists from the Upper East Side, I can spot European tourists five feet to the right of me.) They are weaving as if, at 11 in the morning in the godforsaken heat, they've been drinking. The oldest of the 3 is brandishing a camera and wants to take a picture of the middle school blackbirds. He has the kids' attention, they are happy to pose. After all he is several train tracks away, waving his camera, not giving them the finger. So they oblige him, posing as kids do, and he takes the shot. Then he points one of his younger partners. "Dis is Justin Timberlake brudder. Jus-tin Timber-lake brudder!" Am I the only one on the platform besides Tae Three Stooges who finds this hilariously funny? The kids don't. Thankfully our train comes and the kids are spared even more inanity and I get on grateful grateful grateful for the cool air and a seat. But don't you know 1/3 of this stand-up act sidles over and leans into the young man next to me and asks: Vat is the name of the building that King Kong climb? And he is serious, standing there waiting for the answer. Jeopardy for 100 points! What is the Empire State Building? Boy, I really miss all the gratuitous craziness that New York serves on a platter.
And speaking of gratuitous craziness how about the Republican nominee for President of these United States, eh? I have spent more time than I care to admit scouring the web for stories about all of it. (It's avoidance I realize, and I know exactly what I'm avoiding -- death and taxes -- but it's been fun.) I found this comment in response to a post, "Kirchick's Coup Fantasies" in The American Conservative by Noah Millman,and it comes as close as anything I've read as a rebuke to those who persist in promulgating false equivalencies when comparing Trump and Clinton -- and yes I mean you, intransient Berners -- and those who rationalize that a vainglorious and vulgar id-iot with narrow executive, and no political experience can govern the world's most powerful nation-state is qualified enough:
Reading blogs and online zines about El Trump,
Observing conservatives of conscience (and some without) squirm and all I can say is that it's like watching someone trying to thread a rock-salted pretzel through a needle. Good luck with that, y'all, and
Gardening in the hot hot sun. (Insert it's-in-her-DNA joke along with a stained-glass window. I slipped in an inside New Haven reference. Don't bother to figure it out; my eyes haven't stopped rolling about what passes for political outrage these days in this joint.)
I took a mini-vacation last week, rented an apartment south of Prospect Park, and did speed dating with friends, some of whom I haven't seen for years. (Shortly after moving here I realized that I like very much to sleep in my own bed, and when I did go to New York for business I persisted in coming home no matter how late it was. I kept making vague promises to friends about getting together and never keeping them in my rush to get to Grand Central.) The time I spent there last week was fun, and I'd do it again but perhaps in the fall when it's not so likely I'll be boiled alive. I don't miss New York, of that I'm certain. I'm like Goldilocks here -- this is just right. But Gawd do I miss the street theater. An example (to which I can't do justice):
I'm standing on the Manhattan-bound platform at the aboveground Parkside station. Across the way on the Coney Island bound platform is a flock of city kids, summer day campers all wearing the same bright t-shirts, shorts and sneakers. On my side are 3 young men. Something about them says tourist, Eastern European variety at that. (Don't ask me how I know. If El Trump can recognize Mexican rapists from the Upper East Side, I can spot European tourists five feet to the right of me.) They are weaving as if, at 11 in the morning in the godforsaken heat, they've been drinking. The oldest of the 3 is brandishing a camera and wants to take a picture of the middle school blackbirds. He has the kids' attention, they are happy to pose. After all he is several train tracks away, waving his camera, not giving them the finger. So they oblige him, posing as kids do, and he takes the shot. Then he points one of his younger partners. "Dis is Justin Timberlake brudder. Jus-tin Timber-lake brudder!" Am I the only one on the platform besides Tae Three Stooges who finds this hilariously funny? The kids don't. Thankfully our train comes and the kids are spared even more inanity and I get on grateful grateful grateful for the cool air and a seat. But don't you know 1/3 of this stand-up act sidles over and leans into the young man next to me and asks: Vat is the name of the building that King Kong climb? And he is serious, standing there waiting for the answer. Jeopardy for 100 points! What is the Empire State Building? Boy, I really miss all the gratuitous craziness that New York serves on a platter.
And speaking of gratuitous craziness how about the Republican nominee for President of these United States, eh? I have spent more time than I care to admit scouring the web for stories about all of it. (It's avoidance I realize, and I know exactly what I'm avoiding -- death and taxes -- but it's been fun.) I found this comment in response to a post, "Kirchick's Coup Fantasies" in The American Conservative by Noah Millman,and it comes as close as anything I've read as a rebuke to those who persist in promulgating false equivalencies when comparing Trump and Clinton -- and yes I mean you, intransient Berners -- and those who rationalize that a vainglorious and vulgar id-iot with narrow executive, and no political experience can govern the world's most powerful nation-state is qualified enough:
demz taters says:
The idea that
Hillary doesn’t adhere to political norms is a fallacy. She is the consummate
American political animal – hawkish, cozy with the monied class, requisite
fealty to Israel, and well acquainted with the art of the back room deal – just
like EVERY OTHER politician who’s occupied the Oval Office for the past 50
years (including the Bush admin, which did most of its work on RNC servers).
She is, in other words, the truly conservative choice. You may not like her
policies but she is not a destroyer of institutions or a dangerous
rabble-rouser. Life under Hillary will continue pretty much as it has, stable,
more or less predictable – and a little more generous for the have-nots. Trump,
on the other hand, is a dangerous radical who seeks to destabilize American
institutions and replace them with … what? He is short on details other than
promising to punish whole classes of people who have been deemed insufficiently
“American” in the rightwing media universe; to rewrite treaties, agreements and
alliances that have contributed to an unprecedented, sustained era of relative
global peace; and to make the world stop “laughing at us” which is a truly an
unhinged and paranoid point of view. If you can’t recognize which is a greater
threat to American stability, I feel for you because to people who understand
both history and human nature, there aren’t enough facepalms in the world to
adequately respond to those who think Trump is going to save the Republic.
No comments:
Post a Comment