Wednesday, 10 June 2020

Psychopath

Yesterday, I overheard someone say that there was a psychopath on Main Street. I thought for a second, and realized he must have been referring to our mayor, since the City Hall is on Main St. If he had been talking about a previous mayor, whom the city sued for wasting/embezzling/mismanaging tens of millions of dollars, I could understand. But our current mayor seems about as down-to-earth as anyone. I dismissed it as idle chatter.

 Later that day, I dropped by my brother's place. We enjoyed a beer, and mostly chatted about our gardens. At one point, the conversation came around to baldness. To be more specific, the worn out nature of my rear bicycle tire, which I had ridden over there. 

 He recounted to me how he was always getting flats on his bike, and in frustration, he went to a local bike shop, tire in hand, and asked for advice. The proprietor immediately told him he needs a new tire, as it was so worn that any piece of glass would penetrate it. Problem solved. 

 But this story is not about bikes, or even gardens. During the course of my brother's tale, he mentioned the name of the bike shop, and that it's located on Main Street. 

Friday, 5 June 2020

Maybe you shouldn't have asked

An anguished question from a Trump supporter: ‘Why do liberals think Trump supporters are stupid?’

THE SERIOUS ANSWER: Here’s what the majority of anti-Trump voters honestly feel about Trump supporters en masse:That when you saw a man who had owned a fraudulent University, intent on scamming poor people, you thought "Fine." (https://www.usatoday.com/…/trump-university-sett…/502387002/)
That when you saw a man who had made it his business practice to stiff his creditors, you said, "Okay." (https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-hotel-paid-millions-in-…)
That when you heard him proudly brag about his own history of sexual abuse, you said, "No problem." (https://abcnews.go.com/…/list-trumps-accusers-allega…/story…)
That when he made up stories about seeing Muslim-Americans in the thousands cheering the destruction of the World Trade Center, you said, "Not an issue." (https://www.washingtonpost.com/…/donald-trumps-outrageous-…/)
That when you saw him brag that he could shoot a man on Fifth Avenue and you wouldn't care, you exclaimed, "He sure knows me." (https://www.usatoday.com/…/president-donald-tru…/4073405002/)
That when you heard him relating a story of an elderly guest of his country club, an 80-year old man, who fell off a stage and hit his head, to Trump replied: “‘Oh my God, that’s disgusting,’ and I turned away. I couldn’t—you know, he was right in front of me, and I turned away. I didn’t want to touch him. He was bleeding all over the place. And I felt terrible, because it was a beautiful white marble floor, and now it had changed color. Became very red.” You said, "That's cool!" (https://www.gq.com/story/donald-trump-howard-stern-story)
That when you saw him mock the disabled, you thought it was the funniest thing you ever saw. (https://www.nbcnews.com/…/donald-trump-criticized-after-he-…)
That when you heard him brag that he doesn't read books, you said, "Well, who has time?" (https://www.theatlantic.com/…/americas-first-post-t…/549794/)
That when the Central Park Five were compensated as innocent men convicted of a crime they didn't commit, and he angrily said that they should still be in prison, you said, "That makes sense." (https://www.usatoday.com/…/what-trump-has-said-…/1501321001/)
That when you heard him tell his supporters to beat up protesters and that he would hire attorneys, you thought, "Yes!" (https://www.latimes.com/…/la-na-trump-campaign-protests-201…)
That when you heard him tell one rally to confiscate a man's coat before throwing him out into the freezing cold, you said, "What a great guy!" (https://www.independent.co.uk/…/donald-trump-orders-protest…)
That you have watched the parade of neo-Nazis and white supremacists with whom he curries favor, while refusing to condemn outright Nazis, and you have said, "Thumbs up!" (https://www.theatlantic.com/…/why-cant-trump-just-c…/567320/)
That you hear him unable to talk to foreign dignitaries without insulting their countries and demanding that they praise his electoral win, you said, "That's the way I want my President to be." (https://www.huffpost.com/…/trump-insult-foreign-countries-l…)
That you have watched him remove expertise from all layers of government in favor of people who make money off of eliminating protections in the industries they're supposed to be regulating and you have said, "What a genius!" (https://www.politico.com/…/138-trump-policy-changes-2017-00…)
That you have heard him continue to profit from his businesses, in part by leveraging his position as President, to the point of overcharging the Secret Service for space in the properties he owns, and you have said, "That's smart!" (https://www.usnews.com/…/how-is-donald-trump-profiting-from…)
That you have heard him say that it was difficult to help Puerto Rico because it was in the middle of water and you have said, "That makes sense." (https://www.washingtonpost.com/…/the-very-big-ocean-betwee…/)
That you have seen him start fights with every country from Canada to New Zealand while praising Russia and quote, "falling in love" with the dictator of North Korea, and you have said, "That's statesmanship!" (https://www.cnn.com/…/donald-trump-dictators-kim…/index.html)
That Trump separated children from their families and put them in cages, managed to lose track of 1500 kids, has opened a tent city incarceration camp in the desert in Texas - he explains that they’re just “animals” - and you say, “Well, OK then.” (https://www.nbcnews.com/…/more-5-400-children-split-border-…)
That you have witnessed all the thousand and one other manifestations of corruption and low moral character and outright animalistic rudeness and contempt for you, the working American voter, and you still show up grinning and wearing your MAGA hats and threatening to beat up anybody who says otherwise. (https://www.americanprogress.org/…/confronting-cost-trumps…/)

What you don't get, Trump supporters, is that our succumbing to frustration and shaking our heads, thinking of you as stupid, may very well be wrong and unhelpful, but it's also...hear me...charitable.

Because if you're NOT stupid, we must turn to other explanations, and most of them are less flattering.

- Adam-Troy Castro



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Never anger the gods




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