The thing about Trump is...

Here's what it is (and I have said this before): He doesn't really know the details of what he is talking about, but he knows the keywords regarding it, and the reaction he wants to get, so he throws together an extempore word soup that includes just the right keywords to make it sound (in his mind) like he knows what he is talking about.

 

That creates three groups of people:

1. The people who use the keywords to assume he said something they don't like.

2. The people who use the keywords to assume he said the same thing, and they like it.

3. The people who defend him against the first group by parsing the statement to show that he didn't really say what you think he said (and BTW, I have never seen the people in this group explain this to the people in the second group).

 

And when called out on it, he will either double-down, deny he said it, or change the subject.

 

So the important thing is not whether or not he said what you think he said, it's that he creates an environment where we debate what he said on several levels instead of dealing with the actual issue.

 

That is not what I want in my president, and I am displeased enough with his "accomplishments" to not give him a pass on it.

#notthepresidentiwanted

Poetry in the Age of Trump: The 7 Words the CDC Can't Say.

The following poem is in response to the news item covered in these reports:
Word ban at CDC includes 'vulnerable,' 'fetus,' 'transgender'

CDC banned from using 7 words, including “science-based,” in budget documents 

CDC gets list of forbidden words: Fetus, transgender, diversity 

The Trump Administration Just Banned The CDC From Using These Seven Words

Here Are 7 Words That The Trump Administration Is Reportedly Banning At CDC 

Donald Trump Bans The CDC From Using These Seven Words

The Trump administration reportedly wants 7 words and phrases banned at the CDC 

The Trump administration reportedly wants 7 words and phrases banned at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 

Planned Parenthood rips Trump for CDC ban on using the word 'fetus'

Trump Just Announced That He Wants Us To Go Back To The Moon. There's Just One Tiny Problem

Holy fracking shit and piss. What the actual fuck is this?

Disease control requires words of precision,

Regardless of whether they are above the president's derision.

If "diversity" is not a thing you can say,

What is you need a variety of foods in a day?

"Entitlements" exist, for rich and for poor,

They won't go away just for wishing they were no more.

"Transgender" is a thing, I know several of them.

Believe it or not, there are things we can learn from them.

"Science-based" and "evidence-based" now has to go through community standards?

What if the community is wrong, you bastards.

If you cannot use the word "fetus,"

Tell me what is coming out of that woman's anus?

"Vulnerable" is maybe the most important word

The CDC can say, of all those that are heard.

Diseases attack, they prey and they kill.

They need controlling, or we all will be ill.

We are all vulnerable, some more than others,

And targeting is necessary to protect fathers, children, mothers.

So if someone is at risk, why should you not say

What means exactly that every single day?

My gosh and my god what are they thinking?

What are they smoking, what are they drinking?

Does everyone really need something to hate?

We are all going to die, sooner or late.

If someone is trying to help us live longer,

Shouldn't we be trying to make their work stronger?

Now if you don't trust "science," consider this:

How do they analyze what's in your piss?

Do you like cell phones, watches, and cars?

Do you like to take airplanes to travel far?

Do you like rayon and nylon and plastic and glue?

Do you like Vibram soles on the bottom of your shoe?

The device you read this on, do you like it well?

Did you grow up with Atari or toys from Mattel?

Does your camera take pictures, either digital or film?

Do you wear bifocals, use lotion on your skin?

Do you take medicine for a headache or cold?

Do you take a pill for an erection when you get old?

All those are things science has done for you.

But don't just trust me, you know this is true.

So if you don't like science, go live in a tent

Without central heating, air, or a vent.

Don't bother with soap, eat whatever you choose,

And there won't be a single tool you can use.

If after all that, you still will not give

A dollar to science that helps people live,

Then get out of that office you moved into not long ago,

Get on your feet and walk to Mar-A-Lago.

So if you want to go to the moon, you and VP Pence,

There's only one way to do it: It's called SCIENCE!

Now if you think you have something to say,

Say it in verse. Here, that is the way.

Thoughts About the Election - in Verse

2.6 million is the number by which
Hillary Clinton would have won in a stitch
If "one man one vote" were the hard and fast rule
And this nation a democracy were hard and true.
But a republic true is this land where we live,
And rights to the states are a thing we must give.
So regional diferences can be respected,
Their limited sovereignty must be protected.
So our election compromises
People with states of various sizes,
And just a few votes in certain key states
Can seal a popular candidate's fate.

Now we'll have a president who won where he had,
And fans of the other are really quite mad.
"Mandate, my ass," a singer once said
About the election of a man now dead.
But if we respect our constitution's intention,
This quirk of the rules does deserve mention.
The loser has won, and the winner has lost,
We have to accept in this season of frost.
But before off to the White House he goes,
The one going there must look at the no's
And realize that although the message is clear,
There are lots of people who do want him there,
There's others who just wanted his rival out,
or see that regime change would come about.
Yes, far from a landslide was the result.
The USA is not your personal cult.

So give him a chance, but stay on your guard.
Give him an inch, but not the whole yard.
Call out his bluffs so that all will know
That he cannot give us a job that is snow.
But if he should happen to say something smart,
Please do not act like he just laid a fart.
And if he does something that is flat out wrong,
Be sure all will hear you cry out loud and strong.

Now if you wish to respond to this post,
Remember to follow the rule I love most.
You may think it's better, you may think it's worse,
But all of your comments must be in verse.

Two million "illegal votes"? Really, Donald?

Posted to Facebook November 28th, 2016

Really, Donald? Landslide? You got fewer electoral votes than any winning president since the 1970's except G.W. Bush, and do you really, really think that there were as many as two million "illegal" votes? In your heart of hearts? There are fewer than two million transgender people in the US and people living in Detroit combined! Is this how to unite the country?

I was really having hopes that your practicality would lead you to a much more moderate path than some of your supporters were hoping, especially after some of the moderation of some of your campaign promises this past week. But then you go and say (tweet) things like this...


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/27/donald-trump-i-won-the-popular-vote-if-you-deduct-the-millions-of-people-who-voted-illegally/

"Professional protestors incited by media"? Really?

I posted this on Facebook on November 11, 2016:

I was really, really hoping that Trump would not do something like this for at least a day.

"Professional protestors"? Really? The last time I heard something like that was from Reagan about the No Nukes rally on June 12, 1982! He said that the nearly one million people who marched from the UN to Central park were working under Moscow's orders.

"Incited by media"? Really? I am going to go out on a limb here and say that the only "inciting" that the media had to do was report that Trump won the election. Are you really surprised that the folks who did not want you to be president are acting with a level of passion commensurate with the level of vitriol spewed against Obama and Hillary by Trump and his supporters?

You know, after Trump sued because a voting district in a largely-Latino community allowed people to vote when they had gotten on line before closing, and his daughter-in-law actually said that Hillary was under criminal investigation on CNN ON ELECTION DAY and had to be corrected by the journalist interviewing her, I really wonder if I should be surprised.

Fear and Loathing in 2016 - The Presidential Election

Mostly I sharethings on Facebook these days. But sometimes I post something that I want to have in a more public forum. Though I have far, far fewer followers on Blogspot than on Facebook, search engines are more likely to find things here than there. So with that in mind, I am going to share some things that got their first exposure on FB.

I originally posted this as the election results came in and it looked clear that Donald Trump was going to be the next president of the United States of America:

When I was in high school, it was the height of the Reagan-era Cold War. As a boy growing up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan to an adult college-student mom in an aggressively social-engineered elementary school that promoted diversity, understanding, and peace, Reagan was the boogieman. He made threatening comments against the Russians. The Doomsday Clock clicked closer to midnight. And all the advances in social justice and environmental responsibility were doomed to be rolled back by his presence.

I campaigned for Mondale in 1984. I wore Mondale buttons and handed out literature in Grand Central Terminal. I drew a cartoon of Reagan's face on a Ghostbusters button and wore it on my hat. And I truly believed that the missiles would fly if Reagan was re-elected. In Stuyvesant High School, most of my friends shared that feeling.

On the night of the election I was doing my homework when the results came in. Shortly after the election was called, I heard a roar in the sky outside my window. I honestly feared that it was a nuclear ICBM, and checked my clock to see how long before the counter-strike would come.
I have never felt as scared after a presidential election since then. Disappointed, yes. Upset, occasionally, but never scared.

But his year, as CNN tallies up the votes, I am even more scared. the electoral process has disappointed me at every turn, but the worst is how a person that is so divisive, so unsympathetic, so vitriolic in his message of hate, anger, and intolerance, that it took the messiest party convention I have seen to get him nominated, could come so close to winning.

I have been surfing YouTube a lot this year. I have always had a fascination for the history of World War II. It may be a bit of a stretch to call Trump America's Hitler (some of us said the same thing about Reagan back in the day), but things he has said, his pattern of behavior, has opened up a world of negative possibility for the future.

I fear for the safety of our democracy. Up until the end of the 20th century, thus history could be generalized as a "March to Freedom," a history of expanding rights to all people in the US, towards a greater realization of the American dream.

Since then, however there has been a re-fracturing of our society as those who are comfortable with their place in the status quo do whatever they can to keep it, and fear is an easier card to play than hope. So identifying a boogeyman and defining your role in society as a leader against that boogieman is a safe bet, if you are willing to ride it all the way with no holding back.

The trouble with "not holding back" is that it takes you into modes of behavior and the doing of deeds that are beyond the bounds of what we call civility, courtesy, respect, politeness, and all that makes it possible for people to get along despite their differences and prejudices.

In a nation of "E Pluribus Unum" ("of many, one") figuring out how to get along is the path to survival. Being uncompromising is admirable when standing up for that which you believe, but believing in compromise is not sexy, and willingness to get along is seen as a sign of weakness. This is true especially when you have gotten where you are by being uncompromising.

So as the vote counting drags on I have a fear that this may be the last election in this country, and the ideals of this great nation, tested in so many ways over these past 240 years, to the point where they are almost illusory, will become corrupted to the point of being forgotten, and ultimately disappear, never to inspire social progress again. That is what scares me.

Now Trump is making his acceptance speech. So far he is saying all the right things about being president for all of us and uniting people. Whether or not he achieves this remains to be seen. We have four years. Keep the faith.