November, 2016 archive
Stray Thought 0
Donald Trump seems to be acting as if winning the Electoral College tally in the recent popular vote is akin to a successful hostile corporate takeover.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
John Romano considers an incident in a Florida school and looks for some hope.
The incident.
And yet there it was this month on the wall of a girl’s bathroom at an Orlando-area high school. It warned blacks to start picking out their slave numbers and was gleefully punctuated by “KKK 4 lyfe.”
Below it, in larger letters, was a final thought:
“Go Trump 2016.”
Follow the link and decide whether he found any hope.
Twits on Twitter 0
Jack Ohman twits the twitter-in-chief.
Framing 0
Notice how, when Not White people do it, it’s “heroin” and when white people do it, it’s “opioids”?
The Reality Show Presidency 0
Phillip Lopate argues that the election postmortems are missing the point. It’s not anger that was the primary motivation of Trump voters; it was the desire for entertainment and excitement. They became a willing audience to his reality show. He also makes some interesting points about what makes a phony scamdal a successful political scandal.
Here’s just a tiny little bit of his article.
And there is also the excitement of hating.
My own take is this: In the phrase, “white working class” of which the punditocracy has become so fond, “working class” is not the operative. The operative word is “white.”
Aside:
I have no patience with the nattering about whether more visits to this state or that state, different nuance on platform statements, and the like might have changed the results. This election was not a strategic failure on the part of a candidate or a campaign.
It was a moral failure on the part of the voters and, perhaps especially, of the non-voters.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Do not let politeness take a back seat to anything.
Harrison said Judd accidentally caused the loaded weapon to discharge. The projectile struck the seat and then struck Alyssa Glosson in the back of the head.
The story says no charges will be filed because Hey! Stuff Happens.
Buyer’s Remorse 0
Shorter Erika D. Smith: You get no sympathy from me.
“It’s Not Me. It’s You.” 0
Gerald Haslam considers how racists convince themselves they are not racist. A snippet:
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Be polite to your neighbors.
A bullet went through a kitchen cabinet and shattered some glass pans in a home on Evergreen Road.
The rear neighbor was putting his gun in a new holster when it misfired.
The bullet went through the dining room wall, through the backyards, and into the neighbor’s house.
. . . and yet another gun that fired itself
Afterthought:
When I was young ‘un, back in the olden days, “misfire” meant that, when you pulled the trigger, nothing happened. Must be some of that gun nut newspeak.
No More Classes, No More Books, No More Teachers . . . . 0
In a lengthy essay, Alan Taylor looks at the place of education in United States history. He points out that, by and large, the founders believed strongly that an educated citizenry was essential to the survival of the new nation and pushed, sometimes with more success, sometimes with less, to make learning more available. Ultimately, this resulted in a strong system of public education.
He fears this trend has reversed, as school budgets are cut back, college students are laden with debt, class-sizes increase, and public systems of higher educations are being starved for funds. Here’s bit from the essay; follow the link for the whole thing (emphasis added).
Although the current definition of education is relentlessly economic, the source of the crisis is political. Just as in Jefferson’s day, most legislators and governors believe that voters prefer tax cuts to investments in public education. Too few leaders make the case for higher education as a public good from which everyone benefits. But broader access to a quality education pays off in collective ways: economic growth, scientific innovation, informed voters and leaders, a richer and more diverse culture, and lower crime rates—each of which benefits us all. Few Americans know the political case for education advanced by the founders. Modern politicians often make a great show of their supposed devotion to those who founded the nation, but then push for the privatization of education as just another consumer product best measured in dollars and paid for by individuals. This reverses the priorities of the founders.