"From the moment he came down that golden escalator I had an instant revulsion."
I assume you must have had some other reasons for your revulsions. Otherwise, that's pretty superficial hatred.
Back to snakes. I do not like them either, but I like manicured lawns even less although I now have one tended to by the HOA that charges several thousand dollars a year for that and a few other amenities. I resisted such sterile living until after I was 82 years old and felt the need to be less than fifteen miles from a grocery store and closer to hospitals, doctors and family.
When I moved back to my home county after 50 years absence for school, military and earning a living, I purchased a large lot. It was covered with hardwoods, mountain laurel, huckle berry bushes and chinquapins. The wildlife included turkeys (until the coyotes moved in), deer, skunks, raccoons, possums, squirrels, chipmunks and a variety of snakes including copperheads. I cleared a space in the middle to accommodate a house and enough lawn to give me chance of spotting snakes when they crawled out of the woods. It took only one copperhead in the garage for my wife to put me on snake patrol every afternoon.
Almost everyone is a draft dodger or would be if there were a draft in effect. Trump did not abuse eminent domain. The local government that wanted Trump developments did. Stiffing contractors is an iffy charge. I have been involved in a number contract disputes and there are always two sides to the story and I think I have heard every excuse.
Sounds like rationalizations to me. As you say, though, every story has two sides… it’s just whether you give Trump the benefit of the doubt again and again and again.
True story: I waked into the garage one day and found a baby copperhead. I went back in the house, located my husband, and informed him "There's a snake in the garage!" He looked up at me and snarled "So, what the hell do you want ME to do about it?" We had not been married long, so I was very patient with him. I saw this as a teaching moment. I explained to him - very calmly - that when your wife notifies you that there is a snake in the garage, it means "You need to go out there and kill the %&*#@! snake!!!!"
Probably should not add another snake story but here goes. When I got out of the Army 58 years ago, I bought a small house with a wooded backyard in Tucker GA. My son was an infant. When my wife walked into the garage one morning to take him to the pediatrician, there was a snake beside her car. She began screaming and ran out of the garage. The next-door neighbor came over to help. He was a Floridian who grew up playing with snakes (and played football at FSU with Bert Reynolds). He picked up the snake, walked through our den to the backyard and threw the snake into the woods. Then my wife screamed at him. "That's not what you are supposed to do with snakes."
Pretty sure there is zero chance they replace Biden. He doesn't look like he will step aside willingly, and his wife is apparently going to keep pushing him across the finish line. The danger of pushing him out is too great for them to risk.
So, who do I see as the cat? Maybe Geoff Duncan? Adam Kinzinger? Once Trump is no longer a danger, we can explore other options. There's a realignment underway now. "Left and Right" no longer have a lot of meaning. The mainstream media refers to Trump supporters as "ultra conservative" but is it really conservative to push higher tariffs and bigger deficits? Will the religious right cease to exist when they realize that abortion and gay marriage are never going away? Is anyone REALLY in favor of less spending, or are we just arguing about what to spend it on? How will military actions change going foward? Can we get Americans to coalesce around agreed policies? Or is it going to be all racial/class identity now?
Ideally, I'd like to see the entire system reformed. Do away with the electoral college (I know. Conservative heresy. But what's a conservative anymore?) It was designed to prevent the tyranny of the large states, but it's devolved into the tyranny of the SMALL states. Both parties are clearly broken We can't continue to let a handful of people in Iowa decide who the rest of us get to vote for. My suggestions are open primaries, ranked choice voting, no more party registration, and an end to gerrymandering.
Wow, thanks for the thoughtful response—I didn’t quite expect such a long answer.
I’m not so sure about the likelihood of replacing Biden, maybe that’s naive/wishful thinking. And while I get your point on risk of replacing Biden, keeping him is maybe a bigger risk at this point? And Trump is a HUGE risk, obviously. I can imagine a less likely contender stepping forward and getting a little support, breaking the ice for a more serious challenger stepping forward… then the final decision at the convention. Call me naive, but I’m holding out hope!
All of your suggested reforms, btw, I’m totally on board with. I’m assuming you’re a conservative. I am not. But if we’re can enthusiastically agree on the slate of fundamental reforms, it gives me some faith!
The Electoral College has not devolved into a tyranny of the smaller states. If a Republican candidate cannot win Pennsylvania (a rare occurrence) an Electoral College win is almost impossible.
Well, tyrrany of the swing states then. There will be zero campaign rallies in NY or CA. Or Texas or Tennessee for that matter. Nobody is concerned about whether black men in Los Angeles will turn out for Biden. Screw them! They don't matter. They can vote, not vote, become Libertarian. Doesn't matter. But everyone is freaked out that a handful of voters in Detroit might boycott the election over Biden's support for Israel. Every registered black voter in Georgia will be endlessly polled and courted. Think pieces will be churned out obsessing over their views. My vote is extremely coveted. Nobody cares how my sister in SC will vote. That's just assinine.
As a federalist, my preference is one electoral vote per state. But that seems somewhat unfair because not all states are equally attractive to population. Some just have better weather, better scenery and more space. The states with more citizens deserve a little more say so but the Electoral College overdoes it. It should be handicapped in some fashion.
I’m not sure how Pennsylvania plays into the argument of whether the EC is fair or not… but I’d argue that if the Republicans have trouble getting the popular vote, then they should have trouble being elected president.
I’ll admit, though, that the current rules AREN’T based on the popular vote… so the Republican’s strategy doesn’t involve winning the popular vote (neither is the Dem’s strategy, for that matter). That might sound stupidly obvious, but my point is that we don’t really know what would happen. But we all generally pretend (as a nation) like it’s decided by the popular vote, though as Merrie noted below, our votes are very clearly not equal nor sought after by candidates equally.
"From the moment he came down that golden escalator I had an instant revulsion."
I assume you must have had some other reasons for your revulsions. Otherwise, that's pretty superficial hatred.
Back to snakes. I do not like them either, but I like manicured lawns even less although I now have one tended to by the HOA that charges several thousand dollars a year for that and a few other amenities. I resisted such sterile living until after I was 82 years old and felt the need to be less than fifteen miles from a grocery store and closer to hospitals, doctors and family.
When I moved back to my home county after 50 years absence for school, military and earning a living, I purchased a large lot. It was covered with hardwoods, mountain laurel, huckle berry bushes and chinquapins. The wildlife included turkeys (until the coyotes moved in), deer, skunks, raccoons, possums, squirrels, chipmunks and a variety of snakes including copperheads. I cleared a space in the middle to accommodate a house and enough lawn to give me chance of spotting snakes when they crawled out of the woods. It took only one copperhead in the garage for my wife to put me on snake patrol every afternoon.
By 2015, there was MORE than enough Trump did prior to his political career to consider him a repulsive figure:
1. Serial adulterer.
2. Abused eminent domain for his casino projects.
3. A LONG history of stiffing contractors who worked for him.
4. Outsourcing the production of his Trump apparel to lowest-cost firms, who often were Chinese, when making a lot of noise about America first.
5. Draft dodger.
Trump DID NOT come down that escalator a blank slate.
Building Trump Tower with illegal labor, not paying them and getting sued. Letting wife #2 learn about their divorce in the paper.
Almost everyone is a draft dodger or would be if there were a draft in effect. Trump did not abuse eminent domain. The local government that wanted Trump developments did. Stiffing contractors is an iffy charge. I have been involved in a number contract disputes and there are always two sides to the story and I think I have heard every excuse.
Sounds like rationalizations to me. As you say, though, every story has two sides… it’s just whether you give Trump the benefit of the doubt again and again and again.
True story: I waked into the garage one day and found a baby copperhead. I went back in the house, located my husband, and informed him "There's a snake in the garage!" He looked up at me and snarled "So, what the hell do you want ME to do about it?" We had not been married long, so I was very patient with him. I saw this as a teaching moment. I explained to him - very calmly - that when your wife notifies you that there is a snake in the garage, it means "You need to go out there and kill the %&*#@! snake!!!!"
Hard to believe we're divorced now.
Probably should not add another snake story but here goes. When I got out of the Army 58 years ago, I bought a small house with a wooded backyard in Tucker GA. My son was an infant. When my wife walked into the garage one morning to take him to the pediatrician, there was a snake beside her car. She began screaming and ran out of the garage. The next-door neighbor came over to help. He was a Floridian who grew up playing with snakes (and played football at FSU with Bert Reynolds). He picked up the snake, walked through our den to the backyard and threw the snake into the woods. Then my wife screamed at him. "That's not what you are supposed to do with snakes."
That old neighborhood overrun with copperheads that I wrote about? It's Smoke Rise! Next town over from Tucker.
Very good piece, Merrie.
I gotta ask, though: outside the metaphor, who is our cat savior?
Perhaps unrelated: what do you folks think its the likelihood the Dems are able to replace Biden as the nominee? And what is the outcome of they are?
Pretty sure there is zero chance they replace Biden. He doesn't look like he will step aside willingly, and his wife is apparently going to keep pushing him across the finish line. The danger of pushing him out is too great for them to risk.
So, who do I see as the cat? Maybe Geoff Duncan? Adam Kinzinger? Once Trump is no longer a danger, we can explore other options. There's a realignment underway now. "Left and Right" no longer have a lot of meaning. The mainstream media refers to Trump supporters as "ultra conservative" but is it really conservative to push higher tariffs and bigger deficits? Will the religious right cease to exist when they realize that abortion and gay marriage are never going away? Is anyone REALLY in favor of less spending, or are we just arguing about what to spend it on? How will military actions change going foward? Can we get Americans to coalesce around agreed policies? Or is it going to be all racial/class identity now?
Ideally, I'd like to see the entire system reformed. Do away with the electoral college (I know. Conservative heresy. But what's a conservative anymore?) It was designed to prevent the tyranny of the large states, but it's devolved into the tyranny of the SMALL states. Both parties are clearly broken We can't continue to let a handful of people in Iowa decide who the rest of us get to vote for. My suggestions are open primaries, ranked choice voting, no more party registration, and an end to gerrymandering.
Wow, thanks for the thoughtful response—I didn’t quite expect such a long answer.
I’m not so sure about the likelihood of replacing Biden, maybe that’s naive/wishful thinking. And while I get your point on risk of replacing Biden, keeping him is maybe a bigger risk at this point? And Trump is a HUGE risk, obviously. I can imagine a less likely contender stepping forward and getting a little support, breaking the ice for a more serious challenger stepping forward… then the final decision at the convention. Call me naive, but I’m holding out hope!
All of your suggested reforms, btw, I’m totally on board with. I’m assuming you’re a conservative. I am not. But if we’re can enthusiastically agree on the slate of fundamental reforms, it gives me some faith!
The Electoral College has not devolved into a tyranny of the smaller states. If a Republican candidate cannot win Pennsylvania (a rare occurrence) an Electoral College win is almost impossible.
Well, tyrrany of the swing states then. There will be zero campaign rallies in NY or CA. Or Texas or Tennessee for that matter. Nobody is concerned about whether black men in Los Angeles will turn out for Biden. Screw them! They don't matter. They can vote, not vote, become Libertarian. Doesn't matter. But everyone is freaked out that a handful of voters in Detroit might boycott the election over Biden's support for Israel. Every registered black voter in Georgia will be endlessly polled and courted. Think pieces will be churned out obsessing over their views. My vote is extremely coveted. Nobody cares how my sister in SC will vote. That's just assinine.
As a federalist, my preference is one electoral vote per state. But that seems somewhat unfair because not all states are equally attractive to population. Some just have better weather, better scenery and more space. The states with more citizens deserve a little more say so but the Electoral College overdoes it. It should be handicapped in some fashion.
I’m not sure how Pennsylvania plays into the argument of whether the EC is fair or not… but I’d argue that if the Republicans have trouble getting the popular vote, then they should have trouble being elected president.
I’ll admit, though, that the current rules AREN’T based on the popular vote… so the Republican’s strategy doesn’t involve winning the popular vote (neither is the Dem’s strategy, for that matter). That might sound stupidly obvious, but my point is that we don’t really know what would happen. But we all generally pretend (as a nation) like it’s decided by the popular vote, though as Merrie noted below, our votes are very clearly not equal nor sought after by candidates equally.
"but I’d argue that if the Republicans have trouble getting the popular vote, then they should have trouble being elected president"
They do because of the cities.
How is that not a cop-out? The cities have more people! More people, more votes.
I am allergic to cats, but more than willing to find a few good rat and snake hunters! Awesome metaphor. Thank you.