I think it was John the Baptist who described himself that way. Although he was kind of a fanatic and ended up losing his head over it, maybe it's an idea whose time has come. Last I heard, Justin Amash was planning to run for president on the Libertarian ticket. There is also a guy, William Weld I believe, who is planning to challenge Trump in the Republican primary. There's a couple of voices crying out in the wilderness for you, and I wish both of them well. As for the Democrats, Joe Biden seems to be the closest thing to a normal person in that crowd. Too bad he's a Democrat.
I read Old Dog's link about the Border Patrol. When did they start calling themselves "Customs and Border Protection", or is that even the same agency? There must be a half dozen or so agencies dealing with immigration these days, no wonder the "right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing". (Jesus said that, but I'm quoting Him completely out of context.) Be that as it may, the article was certainly disturbing, if it is indeed true. The site itself seems to have a pro-immigration-anti-Trump slant to it, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the whole story is bogus. I have met people, both in government and corporate service, that were capable of such behavior, so I am inclined to give the story at least some credibility. Meanwhile, thousands of illegals are pouring into the country every day with impunity. Go figure!
Sunday, July 7, 2019
No tea, no party
I forgot about the Tea Party too, and thanks for the reminder, Mr. Beagles. But they are still in the news, sort of. I did a Google on the Tea Party, but limited the search to the last month and found a few interesting things. The Tea Party is fragmented but that Republican House member from Michigan, Justin Amash, is rocking the boat. I think he formed a splinter group of the Tea Party years back but now has quit that group; he is the pariah of the House Republicans in that he supports Trump's impeachment. I think he's a guy to watch. certainly more interesting to me than any of the guys climbing out of the Democratic clown car.
Amash is slowly getting media attention and name recognition; two months ago I never heard of the guy and now his name keeps popping up here and there. I predict he'll grow up to be president someday but I don't know for which, if any, party.
-----
When I saw the image that Uncle Ken posted I thought, "Whoaa! That's a big spider!" Then I looked more closely and realized it was really s very small spider, durn it. I wonder what a little guy like that finds to eat on the 21st floor. Does he just hang out on the balcony, depending on a favorable breeze to blow a meal his way?
Looking at that photo I couldn't stop thinking about all those windows and I know a lot more were cropped out of the photo. I'm not a shy guy but I don't think that I would be comfortable knowing that hundreds (thousands?) of people could be watching me every time I went out on the balcony in a bathrobe. Does Uncle Ken ever wave at the people in the office buildings, and do they wave back?
-----
I see that Uncle Ken is having another show of his watercolors and I'm looking forward to the opening. It's been a long time since my last appearance at the Tencat (November?) so I think I should assure folks I'm still alive. I have very little experience with watercolors myself but I am slowly developing an interest. There's an old Japanese guy that has a channel on YouTube with tutorials and they are fascinating, very calming to watch him do his magic, but turn on subtitles unless you understand Japanese.
-----
Immigration and border issues are still a can of worms but I think that the border and customs agents could use a lighter touch. Those agents are authorized to stop any vehicle within 100 miles of a border crossing or international point of entry, as I understand it. That means they have authority within 100 miles of O'Hare airport which doesn't sound kosher to me. It must be true, though, since they are hiring. Plenty of job openings at locations "other than the southern border." Do you have your papers, citizen?
Amash is slowly getting media attention and name recognition; two months ago I never heard of the guy and now his name keeps popping up here and there. I predict he'll grow up to be president someday but I don't know for which, if any, party.
-----
When I saw the image that Uncle Ken posted I thought, "Whoaa! That's a big spider!" Then I looked more closely and realized it was really s very small spider, durn it. I wonder what a little guy like that finds to eat on the 21st floor. Does he just hang out on the balcony, depending on a favorable breeze to blow a meal his way?
Looking at that photo I couldn't stop thinking about all those windows and I know a lot more were cropped out of the photo. I'm not a shy guy but I don't think that I would be comfortable knowing that hundreds (thousands?) of people could be watching me every time I went out on the balcony in a bathrobe. Does Uncle Ken ever wave at the people in the office buildings, and do they wave back?
-----
I see that Uncle Ken is having another show of his watercolors and I'm looking forward to the opening. It's been a long time since my last appearance at the Tencat (November?) so I think I should assure folks I'm still alive. I have very little experience with watercolors myself but I am slowly developing an interest. There's an old Japanese guy that has a channel on YouTube with tutorials and they are fascinating, very calming to watch him do his magic, but turn on subtitles unless you understand Japanese.
-----
Immigration and border issues are still a can of worms but I think that the border and customs agents could use a lighter touch. Those agents are authorized to stop any vehicle within 100 miles of a border crossing or international point of entry, as I understand it. That means they have authority within 100 miles of O'Hare airport which doesn't sound kosher to me. It must be true, though, since they are hiring. Plenty of job openings at locations "other than the southern border." Do you have your papers, citizen?
Friday, July 5, 2019
What Became of the Tea Party?
Uncle Ken asked about this the other day, and I don't recall hearing anything about them lately myself. I found this on Wiki, but it hasn't been updated in over a year, so it's not exactly current.
Current status
 |
This section needs to be updated. (June 2018)
|
Tea Party activities have declined since 2010.[164][165] According to Harvard professor Theda Skocpol, the number of Tea Party chapters across the country slipped from about 1,000 to 600 between 2009 and 2012, but that this is still "a very good survival rate." Mostly, Tea Party organizations are said to have shifted away from national demonstrations to local issues.[164] A shift in the operational approach used by the Tea Party has also affected the movement's visibility, with chapters placing more emphasis on the mechanics of policy and getting candidates elected rather than staging public events.[166][167]
Tuesday, July 2, 2019
Trump is a Trumpist
Although, according to Wiki, lots of different people could be called populists by lots of other different people, I wouldn't call Trump a populist. A populist is supposed to be for "the people" and against "the elite", and Trump is for Trump and against everybody who happens to displease him at the moment. I put the terms the "the people" and "the elite" in quotation marks because one of the problems I have with populism is that it uses those terms without clearly defining them. Which people and which elite? There's lots of them out there and the different groups are often at cross purposes to each other. As I have said before, I used to think they were all in it together, but now I'm not so sure. I still think that they're all in it, but not necessarily together. Or, as Uncle Ken once said, the elites are like the ancient Greek Gods, always squabbling among themselves with little regard for the pawns beneath their feet. Unfortunately, the pawns aren't much better, always squabbling among themselves and voting for whichever fat cat promises to favor their faction at the expense of the others.
I'm pretty sure that that knowledge of good and evil means the ability to tell right from wrong. Before they ate of the fruit, Adam and Eve were innocent like children, for "they were naked and they were not ashamed". I doubt that God had a problem with humans occupying His land, for He told them to "be fruitful and multiply upon the land and subdue it." It wasn't until much later that man began to get the feeling that he had become a little too fruitful for his own good, and that perhaps he had subdued the land a little too effectively.
I'm pretty sure that that knowledge of good and evil means the ability to tell right from wrong. Before they ate of the fruit, Adam and Eve were innocent like children, for "they were naked and they were not ashamed". I doubt that God had a problem with humans occupying His land, for He told them to "be fruitful and multiply upon the land and subdue it." It wasn't until much later that man began to get the feeling that he had become a little too fruitful for his own good, and that perhaps he had subdued the land a little too effectively.
the ultimate populist
When a populist wins the election. He can and does still call himself a populist. Witness the tea party. Those guys won ranting against the fat cats and then promptly gave the fat cats everything they wanted, but they never changed their rhetoric and called their more moderate fellows RINOs and then along came Trump and they stuck to him like glue, and those in safe districts are doing quite well, but I believe some of the bigger buffoons have fallen. I would like to read an article about whatever became of the tea partiers. Well I see that Mister Google has a plethora of articles on the subject, which I will read later.
I call Trump the ultimate populist because, although he has a variety of right wing causes that he shuffles around in his deck of discord, he himself is more important than any of them. He has his coterie, but they have no power on their own, they echo Trump, often having to do some not-so-fancy footwork when he changes his mind, and if he displeases any of them, or if he just wakes up in the morning in a mood, they are gone.
I've heard that before the Russian revolution the peasants worshiped the Czar. They thought that their lives were miserable because of their immediate overlords and the overlords of those overlords and if they could somehow communicate to the Czar, why he would make everything right Trump has cut through all this by not having any middlemen.
Though, as I have said he shuffles issues around the big kahuna would be the wall. The part about Mexico paying for it has largely fallen away, and very little, if any, of it has been built. He had both houses of congress for two years, and one since then, and yet hardly a brick has been put in place. Has this hurt his standing with the basket of deplorables? Not at all. Because the wall is not the wall, the wall is Trump and he is still tossing them red meat so everything is hunky dory with them. Trump is them, they are Trump. It is a victory for the People. The ultimate populist.
It wasn't that long ago, ten, twenty thousand years, that we humans were part of the wild, and then we discovered agriculture. Instead of roaming around hunting and gathering and not leaving much of a mark, we started plotting land, took it out of the wild and brought it into civilization. The rest of the forest was God's and the little plot was now Man's.
Could that have been the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Clearly taking something of God's and making it Man's was evil, but we did it anyway.
Of course we can't know what that writer or group of writers was thinking like six thousand years ago, but that leaves us free to say whatever we want doesn't it?
Leaving tomorrow for the Fourth in Champaign. Won't be getting back till Friday, and won't be posting again until Monday, so you dawgs carry on without me.
Oh, we were talking about bugs on the 21st floor so I took this photo yesterday morning.
I call Trump the ultimate populist because, although he has a variety of right wing causes that he shuffles around in his deck of discord, he himself is more important than any of them. He has his coterie, but they have no power on their own, they echo Trump, often having to do some not-so-fancy footwork when he changes his mind, and if he displeases any of them, or if he just wakes up in the morning in a mood, they are gone.
I've heard that before the Russian revolution the peasants worshiped the Czar. They thought that their lives were miserable because of their immediate overlords and the overlords of those overlords and if they could somehow communicate to the Czar, why he would make everything right Trump has cut through all this by not having any middlemen.
Though, as I have said he shuffles issues around the big kahuna would be the wall. The part about Mexico paying for it has largely fallen away, and very little, if any, of it has been built. He had both houses of congress for two years, and one since then, and yet hardly a brick has been put in place. Has this hurt his standing with the basket of deplorables? Not at all. Because the wall is not the wall, the wall is Trump and he is still tossing them red meat so everything is hunky dory with them. Trump is them, they are Trump. It is a victory for the People. The ultimate populist.
It wasn't that long ago, ten, twenty thousand years, that we humans were part of the wild, and then we discovered agriculture. Instead of roaming around hunting and gathering and not leaving much of a mark, we started plotting land, took it out of the wild and brought it into civilization. The rest of the forest was God's and the little plot was now Man's.
Could that have been the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Clearly taking something of God's and making it Man's was evil, but we did it anyway.
Of course we can't know what that writer or group of writers was thinking like six thousand years ago, but that leaves us free to say whatever we want doesn't it?
Leaving tomorrow for the Fourth in Champaign. Won't be getting back till Friday, and won't be posting again until Monday, so you dawgs carry on without me.
Oh, we were talking about bugs on the 21st floor so I took this photo yesterday morning.
Monday, July 1, 2019
Wiki on Populism
"Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasise the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against "the elite". The term developed in the 19th century and has been applied to various politicians, parties, and movements since that time, although has rarely been chosen as a self-description. Within political science and other social sciences, several different definitions of populism have been employed, with some scholars proposing that the term be rejected altogether."
Although I didn't read the whole article, I did scan over it, and it seems to be an elaboration on the theme that is summarized in the opening paragraph. Wiki is good that way. Funny thing is, populists don't usually describe themselves as populists, that's what other people call them. I have noticed in the last few decades, that some candidates brag about being "outsiders", which is kind of the same thing. So what happens when an outsider gets elected? Does he join the very establishment that he campaigned against, or does he still think of himself as an outsider?
Maybe the reason I don't get too excited about the civilized and the wild making contact is that I never have been all that civilized myself. I don't consider myself to be all that wild either, although I have known a few people who claimed that I was. I respect animals, both wild and domestic, for what they are, and don't try to make them what they aren't. I suppose that I should feel the same way about humans, but I don't. It seems that humans ought to be capable of so much more, but maybe I expect too much of them.
I have long been of the opinion that the Adam and Eve story has been misinterpreted in the Judeo-Christian tradition. I seem to remember that we have discussed this before, but briefly, I think its an allegory about growing up and taking responsibility for the consequences of your own actions.
Although I didn't read the whole article, I did scan over it, and it seems to be an elaboration on the theme that is summarized in the opening paragraph. Wiki is good that way. Funny thing is, populists don't usually describe themselves as populists, that's what other people call them. I have noticed in the last few decades, that some candidates brag about being "outsiders", which is kind of the same thing. So what happens when an outsider gets elected? Does he join the very establishment that he campaigned against, or does he still think of himself as an outsider?
Maybe the reason I don't get too excited about the civilized and the wild making contact is that I never have been all that civilized myself. I don't consider myself to be all that wild either, although I have known a few people who claimed that I was. I respect animals, both wild and domestic, for what they are, and don't try to make them what they aren't. I suppose that I should feel the same way about humans, but I don't. It seems that humans ought to be capable of so much more, but maybe I expect too much of them.
I have long been of the opinion that the Adam and Eve story has been misinterpreted in the Judeo-Christian tradition. I seem to remember that we have discussed this before, but briefly, I think its an allegory about growing up and taking responsibility for the consequences of your own actions.
populism
I guess squirrels are squirrels to me. I guess neither of the dogs get that feeling of the civilized and wild worlds meeting, like Almighty God touching the finger of that poor schlep Adam (He had one job (this seems to be a current meme), but you know, a pretty girl offers you a bite, I'm sure we all would have done the same), when a squirrel eases a peanut from between their fingers. Maybe it is just me.
But why the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Why not just the tree of God doesn't want you to eat from. I don't know that Adam ever did anything with that knowledge, just shuffled off meekly under the thunderous wrath of that Angry God. By the end of the first couple pages of the bible we are through with him and Eve and those odd sons of theirs, and we are about to embark on Noah, a more interesting story, but that is some Angry God isn't it?
A stupid idea huh? Well you know sometimes when you put out five pages a week you have to throw in some stuff. But if The Institute is not a place ro defend a stupid idea then where is such a place? All the candidates standing in front of you ready for the debate look pretty different, but if you compare them to Trump, how they are like him and different from him, they look a lot more similar. If a democrat wins it's almost a sure thing that the dems will take the senate also. But while, the reps are suck up toadies to their prez, the democrats will not be that way (Obama barely got Obamacare through is democratic house and senate). The new dem president will have to get his bills through both houses so Bernie's bills will end up more moderate and Old Joe's more progressive, so what actually happens will be more similar across the candidates. So I posit that it doesn't make that much difference who the candidate is, and that this avoids a fractious fight.
But to be honest I am not sure how awful a fractious fight in the primaries is. This would call for a survey of previous elections which I don't have time for this morning.
I think what Obama, Bernie, and Trump have in common is populism. Populism is a bit hard to define, I'm going to suggest the wiki page, though I haven't read it because I trust wiki. I think populism can be loosely defined as throwing the bums out. One thing I was not crazy about during the Obama campaign was how change was stressed without spelling out so much what kind of change. I saw him as more leftist than he was and I think a lot of other people saw in him things that they wanted. Bernie's populism is stronger, he tends to rail about evil forces. And Trump's populism is total. It is an odd fact that it is all defined by one man and what he may have said on a particular day, but the slathering mob is convinced that he is on their side and an attack on him is an attack on them. I don't know why they are attracted to this repellent character of the sort, that if he showed up at their daughter's wedding he would be tossed out way before the cutting of the cake. But there it is.
But why the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Why not just the tree of God doesn't want you to eat from. I don't know that Adam ever did anything with that knowledge, just shuffled off meekly under the thunderous wrath of that Angry God. By the end of the first couple pages of the bible we are through with him and Eve and those odd sons of theirs, and we are about to embark on Noah, a more interesting story, but that is some Angry God isn't it?
A stupid idea huh? Well you know sometimes when you put out five pages a week you have to throw in some stuff. But if The Institute is not a place ro defend a stupid idea then where is such a place? All the candidates standing in front of you ready for the debate look pretty different, but if you compare them to Trump, how they are like him and different from him, they look a lot more similar. If a democrat wins it's almost a sure thing that the dems will take the senate also. But while, the reps are suck up toadies to their prez, the democrats will not be that way (Obama barely got Obamacare through is democratic house and senate). The new dem president will have to get his bills through both houses so Bernie's bills will end up more moderate and Old Joe's more progressive, so what actually happens will be more similar across the candidates. So I posit that it doesn't make that much difference who the candidate is, and that this avoids a fractious fight.
But to be honest I am not sure how awful a fractious fight in the primaries is. This would call for a survey of previous elections which I don't have time for this morning.
I think what Obama, Bernie, and Trump have in common is populism. Populism is a bit hard to define, I'm going to suggest the wiki page, though I haven't read it because I trust wiki. I think populism can be loosely defined as throwing the bums out. One thing I was not crazy about during the Obama campaign was how change was stressed without spelling out so much what kind of change. I saw him as more leftist than he was and I think a lot of other people saw in him things that they wanted. Bernie's populism is stronger, he tends to rail about evil forces. And Trump's populism is total. It is an odd fact that it is all defined by one man and what he may have said on a particular day, but the slathering mob is convinced that he is on their side and an attack on him is an attack on them. I don't know why they are attracted to this repellent character of the sort, that if he showed up at their daughter's wedding he would be tossed out way before the cutting of the cake. But there it is.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)