Once again, the most popular tweet leaves me wondering about my own perceptions and experiences. Why couldn’t everyone see that the “dumb dog” was not dumb but instead looking at the yogurt on the table? Are that many people really in relationships where BOTH members of the couple care about paint colors? My personal experience and that of most of my friends is that one person cares and the other is like “there are different shades of white, who knew and who could possibly care”. And the “got your nose” tweet while clever itself leads me to an Emperors New Clothes existential crisis about the joke behind it which I’ve never ever understood. Do people really think a thumb between fingers looks even sorta, kinda, maybe like a nose? Really? ?
Having read Eric for a while now, it seems to me that he is an ally of the races, based uniformly on his background in speaking and writing. It hurts all of us when private and/or public false-accusations of racism are thrown around for brutal political and/or social gain, manipulatively and maliciously attacking the man often wrongly denigrated socially through mob justice -- hiding behind a cloak of false-dignity, false-nobility, and false-righteousness is the wrongdoing in this instance. I think readers of Eric’s columns and newsletters would have to agree on its face that strategically subjective, maligning political slander and/or libel against Eric are the harmful elements in these cases: I appeal to reasonable readers and listeners to his work to condemn such invidious speech.
On another topic, I agree with EZ that being "required to learn a trade while in grade school" is not realistic, but introducing grade school students to the trades is. I would hope this is already being done, but bring tradespeople in to talk to young students. You could squeeze them in between other new curricula and I think they would love hearing from a conservation technologist, a carpenter, a nursing assistant, a welder, or any of the 25+ vocations listed on the site below. Many trades are desperate for people. Could be life changing.
This is from Peter Z with middle initial c. Notice in the Trump battery/defamation trial when Trump makes a really pathetic mistake in identifying someone as his ex-wife incorrectly. The media points this out as an admission against interest. But they do not question his mental state. If Joe Biden made the same kind of mistake the media would scream to high heaven that he is incompetent.
The media in their polls (which tend not to be a large sample) and their coverage seem to be ready to jump on Biden but give Trump a pass on the many bizarre things he says and does.
Trump looks like a walking heart attack to me, but he is probably no less fit than our governor or Chis Christie. I wouldn't bet on any of their longevities. The average life expectancy of a 76 year old is 87, but for overweight men the average is 78. Biden looks pretty good for an old man but based on his shuffling gait and caution on stairs, I wouldn't challenge him to run anywhere, least of all up a flight of stairs. His current life expectancy is 87 and his father died at 86. Health issues increase, with age, for everyone. The VP candidate running with either of these men should be a more serious consideration than usual.
Reagon also had lots of speculation in the press about his mental acuity, which we now know was at least partially correct.
But there is a related issues for Biden. In every press conference, or photo op with press present the President has a script in front of him and is visibly reading directly from it. It is obviously more than notes or phrases. His unscripted comments are very limited and short. This feeds the impression that he lacks mental quickness and may have memory issues, in addition to the usual gaffes and inability to stay on message.
Trump seems to be mentally quicker. But that does not overcome his ignorance, narcissism, political incompetence, or governing philosophy for me. I am guessing that this is true for the majority of voters.
The problem for Biden is that Trump may not be his opponent.
Actually Marc, the problem for Biden is that Trump MAY be his opponent. As Eric referenced earlier in this edition of the PS, a new Washington Post poll shows Trump leading Biden by six points on a national basis. This specter of the orange boogeyman may be what it takes for more credible Democrat candidates to jump into the nomination race against Biden.
The other question for the public, when we have a president of questionable mental or physical health, is who is running the show? Dick Cheney, George H.W Bush, and maybe Al Gore, are the only modern vice-presidents that played a significant governing role and were regular advisors to the president. None would have been likely pushovers in a presidential health crisis (but an Al vs Hillary tussle is easy to imagine). We know that Wilson's wife filled in for him. and there are stories about Nancy Reagan. There are plenty of stories about Chief's of Staff making decisions. The press had on problem raising this issue with Reagan. I have no impression of Jeff Zients but Harris does not look particularly forceful or wired in. Popular entertainment has many examples of political minions acting for incapacitated presidents. The less present and more scripted the president is, the more these concerns will arise.
Reading the entire text from Carlson does shed some new light. It's more a stream of consciousness getting to a larger point, with a dumb (or maybe honest dose of bigotry) line thrown in the middle. Regardless, he still deserves a solid fish slap.
The reply from Jarvis DeBerry is telling as well. Rather than using any number of examples of unfair violence from white men in recent history, he goes back over a century, and specifically to black victims. Otherwise, he'd inevitably need to address interracial and intraracial violent crime data.
It is also interesting that the Democrats aren't talking about the 25th Amendment. In 2017 they were talking a lot about removing Trump due to mental/emotional inability to hold office. And in 2020 Pelosi introduced a bill to create a commission on presidential fitness that could assess the President's ability to hold office, shortly after his Covid diagnosis. Fortunately for everyone, the bill went nowhere.
So an interesting question about Michael M.’s comment which I must have missed when it was posted. While I am certainly encouraged that he sees the need for medical care for people with gender dysphoria, I can’t help but wonder why he felt “fearful” and “repulsed” when he first heard about transgender people. What’s that all about? What caused that, do you think? It’s probably related to a cultural taboo that is a consequence of the patriarchal and misogynistic character of our culture. When I was a kid on the school playground, the worst insult one could say to a boy was to call him a “sissy.” There was a visceral hatred of boys who weren’t masculine in their behavior. Why? Because in our culture, females were and often still are viewed as lesser. Did people get as upset with girls who were tomboys? No. I know there is a lot of resistance to what I am going to say, but our culture is still pathologically patriarchal and misogynistic. That’s the only explanation. Another illustration of what I am saying is the fact that almost all of the anti-trans hatred we are seeing today is directed at transgender women, as opposed to transgender men.
Once again, the most popular tweet leaves me wondering about my own perceptions and experiences. Why couldn’t everyone see that the “dumb dog” was not dumb but instead looking at the yogurt on the table? Are that many people really in relationships where BOTH members of the couple care about paint colors? My personal experience and that of most of my friends is that one person cares and the other is like “there are different shades of white, who knew and who could possibly care”. And the “got your nose” tweet while clever itself leads me to an Emperors New Clothes existential crisis about the joke behind it which I’ve never ever understood. Do people really think a thumb between fingers looks even sorta, kinda, maybe like a nose? Really? ?
Having read Eric for a while now, it seems to me that he is an ally of the races, based uniformly on his background in speaking and writing. It hurts all of us when private and/or public false-accusations of racism are thrown around for brutal political and/or social gain, manipulatively and maliciously attacking the man often wrongly denigrated socially through mob justice -- hiding behind a cloak of false-dignity, false-nobility, and false-righteousness is the wrongdoing in this instance. I think readers of Eric’s columns and newsletters would have to agree on its face that strategically subjective, maligning political slander and/or libel against Eric are the harmful elements in these cases: I appeal to reasonable readers and listeners to his work to condemn such invidious speech.
Amen, Shaun.
On another topic, I agree with EZ that being "required to learn a trade while in grade school" is not realistic, but introducing grade school students to the trades is. I would hope this is already being done, but bring tradespeople in to talk to young students. You could squeeze them in between other new curricula and I think they would love hearing from a conservation technologist, a carpenter, a nursing assistant, a welder, or any of the 25+ vocations listed on the site below. Many trades are desperate for people. Could be life changing.
This site is associated with the military, but doing a quick search it was the best summary on trades I could find. https://www.asvabprogram.com/media-center-article/135.
Hallelujah, David – I agree with you wholeheartedly!
Gentiles’s wanting a Sioux chef is a little “hat on a hat” as they say
https://www.reddit.com/r/Barry/comments/bb49r1/noho_hank_said_hat_on_a_hat_in_the_last_episode/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
This is from Peter Z with middle initial c. Notice in the Trump battery/defamation trial when Trump makes a really pathetic mistake in identifying someone as his ex-wife incorrectly. The media points this out as an admission against interest. But they do not question his mental state. If Joe Biden made the same kind of mistake the media would scream to high heaven that he is incompetent.
The media in their polls (which tend not to be a large sample) and their coverage seem to be ready to jump on Biden but give Trump a pass on the many bizarre things he says and does.
You probably went to press before the news of the Blackhawks #1 draft pick came out.
I have my own opinion about that, but I’d love read what you think about it.
Trump looks like a walking heart attack to me, but he is probably no less fit than our governor or Chis Christie. I wouldn't bet on any of their longevities. The average life expectancy of a 76 year old is 87, but for overweight men the average is 78. Biden looks pretty good for an old man but based on his shuffling gait and caution on stairs, I wouldn't challenge him to run anywhere, least of all up a flight of stairs. His current life expectancy is 87 and his father died at 86. Health issues increase, with age, for everyone. The VP candidate running with either of these men should be a more serious consideration than usual.
As I recall, Reagan got regular and outspoken criticism for his lack of press conferences, which he gave at the same rate as Biden.
https://www.statista.com/chart/24515/us-presidents-press-conferences/
Reagon also had lots of speculation in the press about his mental acuity, which we now know was at least partially correct.
But there is a related issues for Biden. In every press conference, or photo op with press present the President has a script in front of him and is visibly reading directly from it. It is obviously more than notes or phrases. His unscripted comments are very limited and short. This feeds the impression that he lacks mental quickness and may have memory issues, in addition to the usual gaffes and inability to stay on message.
Trump seems to be mentally quicker. But that does not overcome his ignorance, narcissism, political incompetence, or governing philosophy for me. I am guessing that this is true for the majority of voters.
The problem for Biden is that Trump may not be his opponent.
Actually Marc, the problem for Biden is that Trump MAY be his opponent. As Eric referenced earlier in this edition of the PS, a new Washington Post poll shows Trump leading Biden by six points on a national basis. This specter of the orange boogeyman may be what it takes for more credible Democrat candidates to jump into the nomination race against Biden.
The other question for the public, when we have a president of questionable mental or physical health, is who is running the show? Dick Cheney, George H.W Bush, and maybe Al Gore, are the only modern vice-presidents that played a significant governing role and were regular advisors to the president. None would have been likely pushovers in a presidential health crisis (but an Al vs Hillary tussle is easy to imagine). We know that Wilson's wife filled in for him. and there are stories about Nancy Reagan. There are plenty of stories about Chief's of Staff making decisions. The press had on problem raising this issue with Reagan. I have no impression of Jeff Zients but Harris does not look particularly forceful or wired in. Popular entertainment has many examples of political minions acting for incapacitated presidents. The less present and more scripted the president is, the more these concerns will arise.
Reading the entire text from Carlson does shed some new light. It's more a stream of consciousness getting to a larger point, with a dumb (or maybe honest dose of bigotry) line thrown in the middle. Regardless, he still deserves a solid fish slap.
The reply from Jarvis DeBerry is telling as well. Rather than using any number of examples of unfair violence from white men in recent history, he goes back over a century, and specifically to black victims. Otherwise, he'd inevitably need to address interracial and intraracial violent crime data.
It is also interesting that the Democrats aren't talking about the 25th Amendment. In 2017 they were talking a lot about removing Trump due to mental/emotional inability to hold office. And in 2020 Pelosi introduced a bill to create a commission on presidential fitness that could assess the President's ability to hold office, shortly after his Covid diagnosis. Fortunately for everyone, the bill went nowhere.
mayor brandon johnson negotiating concessions with the CTU? really? i'll take the other side of that 'bet', EZ - ain't gonna happen.
So an interesting question about Michael M.’s comment which I must have missed when it was posted. While I am certainly encouraged that he sees the need for medical care for people with gender dysphoria, I can’t help but wonder why he felt “fearful” and “repulsed” when he first heard about transgender people. What’s that all about? What caused that, do you think? It’s probably related to a cultural taboo that is a consequence of the patriarchal and misogynistic character of our culture. When I was a kid on the school playground, the worst insult one could say to a boy was to call him a “sissy.” There was a visceral hatred of boys who weren’t masculine in their behavior. Why? Because in our culture, females were and often still are viewed as lesser. Did people get as upset with girls who were tomboys? No. I know there is a lot of resistance to what I am going to say, but our culture is still pathologically patriarchal and misogynistic. That’s the only explanation. Another illustration of what I am saying is the fact that almost all of the anti-trans hatred we are seeing today is directed at transgender women, as opposed to transgender men.