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Random(ish) Thoughts

2/25/2021

Since January 20, I find:

It takes way less time to read the newspaper. During the Trump years, I’d start The Washington Post and an hour later not yet be done with the first section. Today I whisk though it. I’ve always, and still do, love newspapers. But I think this development is a good one.

I spend far less time on Twitter

It’s been weeks since I've blurted out, "did you hear what he just said? Idiot!"

When I started this blog, I intended to write about various topics of interest to me – grandkids, language, and politics. Since Trump entered the political space I’ve had problems writing anything but about Trump! Even I got bored with myself. But, I promised I wouldn’t get used to the crazy Trump times and would not accept him as “normal” in any sense of the word. So, Trumpapalooza in the blog.

I haven't had a cup of covfefe since November.

I've noticed that weather maps from the National Weather Service are no longer highlighted with Sharpies.

Still, though, he’s “gone” at least at the moment, and it almost feels like he never was.

The words I never thought would appear in the same sentence: Donald J. Trump Presidential Library.

We've heard very little about any planning for Trump's library, but it seems improbable that he won't have one. I mean, He can build a building dedicated to...himself, brand it with the Trump name....and it's expected!

He has to raise the money to build it which offers opportunities for him but, uh, I won't get into that because, see above, it’s like he never was.

When I started with this idea (to write about a Trump Library), I figured I'd offer up suggestions for what might actually be in the library since he likely destroyed any paper from his years in office -- which couldn't have been much because he hated having records of anything.

Then, during my research (yes, despite what some may think, I do research for this blog, I ran across djtrumplibrary.com, a parody site for a Trump library. It's pretty funny, though also kind of expected. It made me realize a satire of the Trump Library could get rather juvenile. I won’t try to compete with that. Wouldn't want to raise my standards.

There will be discussion of course about where his library should be located. New York City has pretty much disowned him, and he's abandoned it...so it seems an unlikely choice for the library.

While the government maintains presidential libraries, responsibility to raise funds to build them rests on the former president. Trump has experience, of course, raising big sums of money but the spending of it often is a moving target (remember those funds he raised to pay for his court challenges of the 2020 election?)

Also there was that little settlement a few years ago where he agreed not to lead a foundation in New York after his personal foundation was found, uh, lacking in following the rules. Turned out, it wasn’t okay to use foundation money to buy a huge portrait of yourself! Who knew?

Trump lives in Florida which does seem a good place for the library. For one thing, it will be near a golf course because you can’t spit without hitting a course in Florida.

And now look at that, another damn blog post about Trump!

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About those conspiracy theories...

2/4/2021

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When I was in my third year of Hebrew school, the rabbi asked to see me after class. I wasn’t that good a student in my normal English grammar school and I’m afraid I was that much worse when reading right to left instead of left to right – so I figured I was in some kind of trouble.

I knocked on the rabbi’s door after class and heard him say, “come in, and please close the door.” Fortunately, he said all that in English.

I entered, closed the door and he told me sit in the chair in front of his desk.

“Son,” he began (no one ever called me Son so I figured it was Hebrew and had some other translation). “Son, each year I ask one person and one person only from the third grade to see me on a very important and confidential matter.”

OK, he may as well have been speaking Hebrew now because I had no idea what he was talking about. So, I said, “yes, sir?” (“Yes, sir” seemed to be the thing to say and is understood in all languages.)

“Son,” he continued, “one of the reasons I chose you for this discussion is that I’m told by your teachers and friends that you are bright, even if you don’t demonstrate that in Hebrew school, and can keep something secret when asked and, while you can’t speak much Hebrew, which is another discussion, we have an important assignment for you.”

Totally confused especially wondering who the “we” was (or were), I deferred to what seemed to be working ... “yes, sir?" I said.

He said, “this will not happen for some years but there is some training required which is why I’m asking you this when you’re so young.”

I skipped the “yes, sir” preferring to let him talk.

“Son, unbeknownst to the outside world, we Jews maintain a series of space lasers for our own protection. I want you to be our emissary to the JSF – the Jewish Space Force – and to take on the responsibility of learning all about the lasers so you can operate them later in life, if necessary. I’ve spoken to the GWWSFR – the Global Worldwide Space Rabbis Association – and they’ve agreed that you should be this year’s Chosen One.”

I figured this guy had too many sips of wine at Friday’s services but he seemed serious.

He told me that my training would start that summer but I could tell no one, even my parents. I agreed because this sounded intriguing to me and was apparently quite an honor. Plus I got to away for a month! Maybe there’d be girls there.

That summer, I told my parents that I’d received a grant from George Soros to attend the overnight Camp Shalom for a month, when really I was heading off to JLSC – Jewish Laser Space Camp.
And so my journey began. I kept my mouth shut, and over the next few years was trained in all aspects of space lasery. I was never activated because there’d been no call for using the space laser. But I was always at the ready!

Then, one day, that shiksa – Marjorie Taylor Greene – blew our cover. I don’t know how she knew, but she outed us by saying Jewish Space Lasers started the California wildfires. She was labeled a fruitcake for this and other reasons. Still, she was correct about the Jewish Space Lasers but she was wrong on the California wildfires.

That wasn’t us.

That was QAnon.

Shalom.

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Marjorie Taylor Greene: The Real Thing

2/2/2021

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Many people think politicians say and do things aimed only at getting elected. They don’t really believe what they’re saying but they think they need to say it to get your vote. An old saw maybe but widely believed. And (too) often true.

Finally, there is a politician who says what she honestly believes: Marjorie Taylor Greene, the new Congresswoman from Georgia. There’s no trying to figure out where she’s coming from. She lays it right out there:

She is a racist and anti-Semite.

A lot of politicians “play to the base.” In today's Republican Party they play to former President Trump's base which apparently means they need to wink a belief in racism or a nod to antisemitism. Not Marjorie Taylor Greene. She's the real deal.

Now, she’s running around trying to back peddle on some of her beliefs, especially her belief that the tragic school shootings over the last two decades were staged. Faked, Phony. But can she really get away with that kind of back peddling? Maybe enough to get House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy to slap her wrist rather than remove her from committee assignments.

I do question the true racist feelings of craven politicians like Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri or Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. I don’t know if they are a-winking-and-a-nodding or truly believe it. I mean, do you really believe those two ambitious pols think the 2020 election was “stolen” by the Democrats, as both argued – whatever story they tell you now?

But those two will say anything to endear themselves to that large voting bloc that is owned by former President Trump. Trump says the election was stolen. They will argue his case because, well, the base.

But Marjorie Taylor Greene is the real thing. She does not think people of color or Jews deserve the same rights she does. That woman even believes she has the right to carry a gun on the floor of the House of Representatives. Even the stoic, always thinking-never-blinking Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell calls Greene’s beliefs “loony.”

Michelle Goldberg wrote in today’s New York Times: “American conservatism — particularly its evangelical strain — has fostered derangement in its ranks for decades, insisting that no source of information outside its own self-reinforcing ideological bubble is trustworthy.

“If you’re steeped in creationism and believe that elites are lying to you about the origins of life on earth, it’s not a stretch to believe they’re lying to you about a life-threatening virus. If what you know of history is the revisionist version of the Christian right, in which God deeded America to the faithful, then pluralism will feel like the theft of your birthright. If you believe that the last Democratic president was illegitimate, as Trump and other birthers claimed, then it’s not hard to believe that dark forces would foist another unconstitutional leader on the country."

Add in that Greene believes that a space laser ignited the California wildfires and stir in her belief that funding for such projects comes from Rothchild Inc. and mega-donor George Soros, always the targets of hate from anti-Semites, and McConnell should have added the word “tunes” to his calling her ideas “loony.” He, of course, did the polite Senate thing and didn’t mention Greene’s name but his target was clear.

Should she be removed from her new committee assignments as is being discussed by Republicans and threatened by the Democrats? Absolutely, especially that Education committee. I mean, she believes the tragic school shootings of recent years were faked.

She should be expelled from the House? Tougher question. On the facts, yes. But if the Democrats go down that road, they open the gate for similar actions against their own. Even if their "crimes" don’t rise to Greene’s. Plus, while the House has that option, with a two-thirds vote, should the voters who elected her be dismissed? I don’t know the answers to those questions.

Should she be censured? At the minimum, yes.

Used to be the anti-Semites and racists had to hide their true deep-down beliefs and wink at voters on those topics.

If Marjorie Taylor Green gets away with her crazy beliefs and gross behavior, she will set the mark that you needn’t hide your disgusting beliefs anymore.

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Random(ish) Thoughts

About those conspiracy theories...

Marjorie Taylor Greene: The Real Thing

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