Others visited Greene Square tonight, making images of each other to spread some holiday cheer on social media, I assume.
Well, it was nice. And as my wife sat in our warm vehicle and I wandered around a windy and cold park, snow began to blow in. It was very Christmassy. And the "Little Village" story is by a student at Mount Mercy University, where I teach.
Angel atop my tree.
We put up lights to shine in the darkest time of year. Our airwaves are full of seasonal tunes, and plenty of old movies get their annual replays. Putting up lights in winter is a deeply human instinct that predates the Christmas story, but in 2020, the pandemic year, I’ll take light and hope wherever I can get it.
So, Merry Christmas, however you celebrate. If, like me, you call yourself Christian, let the story of the Christ child inspire you with light in these dark times. If you have no faith or come from another faith tradition—well, I think the season of goodwill to men should include all genders and people. So Happy Holidays to you, too.
I think Imam Hassan M. Selim, who leads the Islamic Center of Cedar Rapids, summed it up well in a guest column in "The Gazette," which concludes: “For now, let us pause, let us take the time to appreciate our blessings and be grateful for them, let us be inspired and hopeful. For our Jewish neighbors, your Muslim neighbors, friends and family wish you a happy Hanukkah. For our Christian neighbors, family and friends, we wish you a blessed Christmas. We share faith. We share hope. We are grateful for you. May the lights of your menorahs and Christmas trees guide our way forward.”
I'll add a link to his column if I find a public URL for it, but I did not see one on The Gazette's web site today.
I guess I would say faith comes in many flavors, and may or may not require my idea of a deity, but other than that, I agree the Imam. All of the familiar media messages give me some solace, even in 2020. So I hope you enjoy some seasonal sights and sounds, whether your favorite Christmas movie is "Die Hard," "Miracle on 34th Street" or something else.
May our seasonal lights guide our way forward in shared humanity, hope and joy.
In a way, Hank Green’s second book, “A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor,” is a bit like the making of the Matrix, years before the Matrix.
If you read “An Absolutely Remarkable Thing” then you’ve met our cast: April May, who apparently may have died in a fire, although there is a strong hint at the end of the first book that she did not. Her Scooby gang, Andy, Miranda, Maya—and the alien who sometimes appears as a robot, Carl.
I really enjoyed Hank’s first book, which I thought was an interesting rumination on life in the internet age, in particular, how internet fame changes people. I’m a fan of the second book, too, although to be honest, I probably enjoyed the first one a bit more.
Cover of Hank Green's first book.
For one thing, the second book is told from multiple points of view, which is OK, but sometimes got in the way, for me. I found myself in particular resenting Carl a bit, who, while benevolent in intentions, was still busy manipulating people whose future he could predict.
But I did like the rumination on what it would mean if artificial reality became so compelling people were willing to give up reality for it. And that internet social media companies, even if run by good people, will find themselves doing whatever makes them money (a truth of most companies in general, I suppose, which is why we do need regulations on our economy).
So the “Dream” being coopted by an evil company called Altus, headed by our old nemesis, Peter Petrawicki. By the way, there is a software company called Altus, and I wonder what they think of this name? Peter doesn’t even run the company, which is really a tool of Carl 2.0, Carl’s more powerful sibling who secretly was sent to Earth in case Carl 1.0 failed. I did wonder a bit about the advanced alien intelligence that supposedly sent these two: Couldn’t there backup AI overlord have a few more lines of ethical coding along the lines of Carl 1.0?
Anyway, everything about Altus is a lie. It’s not even in Puerto Rico, but in Val Verde—a name I did not recognize and looked up, only to find it’s a fictional country. I liked that bit of trickery—the fake internet company that seems to be setting up the Matrix fake reality to keep humans safe in a weird alien zoo is located in a fake location.
So there was a lot to like about this second book. But beyond the switching narrators, I struggled with a few aspects. The resolution, involving a hostile leveraged buyout and the raising of billions of dollars, was clever on some level, but didn’t completely click for me. I also wish that Peter, the evil leader, was a bit more troubled by, and maybe manipulated by, the shenanigans that Carl 2.0 put him up to.
Still, I do recommend the book. Read the first before the second—I don’t know if the second would make much sense without having read the first. The second is a bit slow to start, but once April uses her robo arm to punch through a back door, the action never stops.
And maybe that’s what mostly bothers me. The pace of the book was a bit slow at first, and then became almost an endless chase scene, and I wanted to the characters to slow down and react a bit more. True, some of them spent some time holed up in a luxury apartment (plot point that bothered me—I would think Carl 2.0 could have figured that out, given that they were in contact with the old crowd), but the action was wham! wham! wham! and I wanted a little less grungy people on computers and a bit more, well, life.
Still, I think that was part of the point. Social media can take us away from life, and what does that do to us? Despite seeing some flaws in Hank Green’s second book, I rate it fairly high. It is imaginative and creative. The “Book of Good Times” was an interesting twist. I kind of liked Carl as a monkey, although a talking cat would have worked for me, too. Maybe he needed thumbs. Carl the raccoon? The idea that Andy would be seduced by the neo-Matrix and have trouble giving it up felt right, too.
In summary, get the book, read it, especially if you, like me, enjoyed the first one.
I also enjoyed Hank’s reading of his first chapter some month ago, and note that he edited the final line. I like the edited version better, and it’s interesting to see how a “done” book can still evolve as it nears completion. There’s some lesson there about editing in the real world.
My first news story, and it was on the front page.
A briefcase found by a family member makes me think of how much has changed and how much has not changed in our media universe in four decades.
The 1979-1980 school year was an interesting one for me. I had graduated from Muscatine High School in 1976, and, at age 17, was an aimless youth with no resources to go to college.
I worked for a year, attended Iowa State University for a year as an engineering major, and then found myself needing a break from the cost and stress of a big state university. I think, although I was not willing to admit it to myself at the time, that the creative side of my personality was deeply unhappy with my life choices, and my decision to return home, get a job at a local factory and attend community college part-time was partly due to an internal struggle that I didn’t fully understand.
To make a long story short, instead of following in my father’s footsteps and attending a big university and becoming a chemical engineer, I ended up taking a journalism writing class during my second quarter at MCC, and then changed my life course.
Financial drama in the drama department! Well, it seems a bit newsier than "McDonalds to open."
I decided to become a journalism major, and ended up transferring to a small literal arts college, partly because my original journalism teacher at MCC (shoutout to you, Dennis Stouse) had gotten a job there and was willing to hire me as one of the editors of the weekly student newspaper there.
Recently, one of my younger sisters, Cate, found an old Samsonite brief case, loaded with Calumets, the student newspaper of MCC, from the 1979 and 1980 school years. After looking at its contents, she passed it on to me.
MCC has a new prez.
What a trippy experience it was seeing those yellowed old tabloids. There was my first story, written while I was in my intro to newswriting class—a front page news headline screaming about two new chain restaurants opening near campus.
Big news, in retrospect, was not always that big in Muscatine in December of 1978.
In the spring, both my sister and I applied to be on the editorial staff, and we became the editor and campus editor of the Calumet. In the meantime, one of our older sisters had finished her stint in the U.S. Army, and joined us as a student at MCC. The three of us worked hard that year on the paper staff—none harder than Cate, by the way, although the staff we worked with larger than the ones I work with at Mount Mercy University—the late 1970s were a time of greater popularity for studying journalism.
But we had some battles. There were ongoing conflicts with the student senate over something that I’m sure was important at the time, but that I don’t remember all that well. We received some angry letters to the editor from officers of student government.
They didn’t call us fake news, but my entry into journalism came at a time when my personal politics were shifting as the world was also changing. When I was young, Robert Ray was the Republican governor of Iowa, and there was a brand of middle-of-the-road, moderate GOP that I liked.
My column in 1979 remembering my active participation in the Republican Party in 1976. It was a different world. Do you appreciate the two-part joke that the headline is?
As a teen, I was a fan of President Gerald Ford, and in 1976, when I was 17, I supported Ford at the Iowa caucuses and as a delegate to the state Republican convention (I could join and be active in the party because I was going to turn 18 and be able to vote that year). It was a little weird reading my 1979 description of that 1976 experience, because the rise of Ronald Reagan and his moral majority brand of more conservative Republican identity was gradually easing me out of the GOP.
I don’t recall if I caucused in 1980, but I’m sure I did not vote for Reagan that fall.
Anyway, the conflict with the student senate and some protests against Iran in the late 1970s foreshadowed the divisive politics we are in today. And although the ties were not yet broken then, I think that the binds of trust between audience and journalist was starting to tear 40 years ago.
I don’t blame journalists for the braking of that trust. Since the Nixon administration, Republicans have discovered that bashing the “liberal” media is an effective strategy. It was not new even them, but as society changed, I think the intensity and level of distrust was on a steady upward trend, and Nixon made it a consistent, main strategy.
And I don’t hold journalists completely blameless, either. Sometimes, urban, college educated editors and reporters can seem out-of-touch and not empathic with those who don’t share all of their values.
This post is not going to offer any solutions. Not that I don’t think about the problem a lot, but I don’t think “lack of trust” is one single issue, nor is it one sided, nor does it negate the important and not always recognized role of morale witness that journalists still fulfill.
April of 1980. Looking at these old Calumets, I'm impressed at how hard we all worked, but shout out to sister Cate who had lots of big stories and did lots of art that helped decorate the paper. And here, sister Toni appears in one of my images of a twin cities science fiction convention--I'm sure we went there to visit my oldest sister Pat as well as go to the convention. I was surprised that I didn't really take lots of images--I became something of a photographer as well as a writer in my media career, but I was getting a start here.
And looking back, four decades later, it’s weird to see things seeming so familiar and yet so different. People don’t change as quickly as the world does, and even without smart phone or a world wide web, the passions and conflicts that challenged us in 1980 aren’t so alien today. I suppose that’s a more universal rule. History is worth studying because the world was so different in 1880 that people didn’t conceive of themselves or their reality in the way that we do. But they saw through eyes like ours, felt passions and attempted to be rational using brains that were wired differently by experience but structured the same with human DNA. A lot changed in 40 or 140 years. The species faces novel challenges and needs information about today—news—to manage its adjustment to shifting realities. Yet, we also remain fundamentally the same.
Forty years ago, partly moved by a positive experience with a news story about a steak joint and a McDonalds, I joined the journalism tribe. It was a time of hot wax and copy printed on photo paper that was literally stuck to a page. Any line, any border--well, be careful with those sharp little knives and learn to cut at a 45 degree angle to make neat corners. And corrections! Printing lines of copy. Cut and paste. Anybody seen the clear tape? Layout was more of a commitment back in the day when we weren't nudging text boxes around on computer screens.
Thank you, gods of technology, for InDesign. Some parts of the old days I don't miss so much. Anyway, thanks, Cate, for providing this time capsule of times past. And sisters Cate and Toni—wasn’t that weird time at The Calumet scary and frustrating and fun?
Ghost of Christmas past, but still, merry Christmas. Don't you love the 1970s typography?
Joe Biden will be president next Jan. 20—that’s not opinion, but reality. But reporting reality seems to be something that gets the media into trouble, these days. The media are not believed by close to half of the voting public, the 70 million to whom Donald Trump is speaking truth as he denies reality.
Trump being delusional, immature and incompetent are nothing new, and helps explain why he has been fired. It’s always been about Trump to Trump—working hard to govern the country was never his thing. He lazily spends his days golfing and watching TV sending out crazy rage tweets. And his refusal to see the hand writing on the wall, to so gracelessly ignore the need for an orderly transition of power—it’s all totally normal for this flawed, abnormal man.
And yet. The Daily Show’s video of the MAGA march on Washington, calling for something or other, was a bit scary to me. So many so willing to attack the news media on baseless claims emanating from that famous source of unreliable nonsense, Donald Junk-for-brains Trump. Democracy dies in darkness and darkness seems to be closing in.
And the Donald has no incentives, now, nothing to preserve except perverse fame. Republican voices calling on him to do the right thing have been few. And I can’t help but think that it’s not only his hyper-active stupid gland at work, nor just the now reflexive craven GOP fear of the far-right base that keeps this sad charade going. I think the tweet storms and dark conspiracy claims keep the Trump base riled and up and are an attempt to excite them and fund raise. It may yet fuel Trump’s next move, which no doubt will involve some sort of awful fact-starved media.
He always was a reality TV star more than he was a business tycoon. He was never a successful captain of industry, but a spoiled rich kid who played one on TV. And as ex-president, the star power of this dim man shines brighter than ever.
Others have noted that Trumpism isn’t over with the defeat of Trump. The MAGA minions march in Washington signals the start of the next campaign. (Yes, yes, violence bad, don't hurt the MAGA minions, they get to march, too--but really, now we're concerned about people attacking protesters? At least the lawless lefty loons weren't acting under the order of a would-be dictator clearing a street for a photo op).
The campaign of 2016, after all, never ended. Having been elected president with no clear idea of what the job was, Trump occupied his time reveling in his imaginary landslide and reliving the glories of victory by continuing the only thing he liked--rallies to draw adoring crowds. They are so important to him that he continued that during a pandemic--reveling in mask-less cheers as he hopped across the country, cheefully ignoring the safety and health of his MAGA-nation.
And the pandemic rages on. Our Dear Leader rage tweets, encourages street marches and does absolutely zero to battle the deadly virus that has already robbed us of more than 250,000 souls. He is not only doing nothing, but he’s preventing the future president from even making contact with the government employees who will have to play catch up and cleanup on this raging mess once the Orange One is finally rolled out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and the White House bleached from top to bottom.
Trump tweet, screen shot from my phone. I agree, get the straight jacket, but why do so many still believe him and still think it's the media that are lying to them?
I’m trying to see some light. I am happy Biden won. Yet I worry about my country when the right has continued to make the media the enemy. It seems like facts are the stranger in the this strange land.
And back in Iowa, a red-hot state of COVID-19 infections, our aw-shucks ol’ boy Senator, the Chuckster, tweets that he’s got the ’vid. He is not alone. My incoming representative in the House, “recovering” journalist Ashley Hinson, who left a career of reporting facts to joining a party that ignores them, also is isolated with the virus. Both report mild symptoms.
Get well, Chuck. Thoughts and prayers. But, can you also test positive for a backbone? Like maybe what the Dear Leader is doing (really, not doing) is not so OK?
Well, good, or goodish. Except a person with mild COVID-19 can breath out droplets that still may kill. And where, one wonders, did old Chuck and young Ashley encounter this virus? And why was it suddenly after the election that our governor, COVID-Kim, decided it was time to take sort of serious and mostly symbolic ineffective action?
Months too late, the gov says, Iowans are to wear masks, sort of. In big groups. Bars are closed—after 10 p.m. No sports. Except for the most popular ones at the high school and college levels. And before Nov. 3, we had all kinds of GOP campaign rallies, visits by un-wise men from the East, unmasked Republicans going together to cheer Trump and share infections, yet not a peep from COVID Kim Reynolds.
Chuck Grassley, above (official Senate portrait) and Ashley Hinson, below (image downloaded from her campaign web site and cropped) have tested positive for COVID19. Our elder senator and young congressperson-elect report their symptoms are mild. Would that it was the same for 250,000 Americans already lost and counting.
I don’t expect Chuck or Ashley to provide any leadership on the virus. They are too busy laying low when MAGA nonsense gets pushed via social media. And recovering from journalism.
And Trump? He’ll fire enemies, play golf and ignore the needs of the country. Because the needs of Trump have always weighed more with him than the needs of the country.
Meanwhile, the student staff at the newspaper I advise did some good work this week, including being direct with the powers-that-be that they are not doing enough to protect us. The students were writing about university administration—but the message they state holds true at the highest level of the land.
We must do more:
The young journalists get it. Why can't the recovering ones? You probably can't read this image of a newspaper page--here is a link to a PDF of the page. Their opinion columns are worth a read, too.
Watching MSNBC Saturday night. After rousing intro by Kamala Harris, Joe Biden jogs out to give his speech. He's older than Trump, but I struggle to imagine Trump having the moves like Biden.
Joe Biden jogged to the lectern Saturday night. He spoke clearly, well, and powerfully. At 77, he seemed fit, aware and presidential.
It was a fine end to a beautiful day. I was surprised this morning when suddenly the news came. The first hint was a family message on WhatsApp, which is my headline news service, I suppose. I turned on the TV, and Morning Joe on MSNBC was telling me, a Joe, of the triumph of another Joe. I had not realized how on edge I have been for the past few days when suddenly the weight of this long count was lifted. The land of P!nk and also of Elizabeth Cochrane (a.k.a Pink, but a famous 19th century journalist writing as Nellie Bly, not a 21st century singer) had spoken. The boy from Scranton, Pennsylvania, will reside on Pennsylvania Avenue.
And before Biden spoke, we got to hear from the vice president-elect, Kamala Harris. She was rhetorically powerful, not just a wonderful warmup act, but a woman who is ready to lead the nation, should the need arise.
Kamala! In suffragette white she spoke, noting 100 years since the 19th Amendment, promising that she’s the first woman in her position—but she surely won’t be the last.
I think it turned out that old Joe chose well. Kamala delivers as VP-elect. Again, I'm watching MSNBC.
It’s to Joe Biden’s credit, as others have noted, that he picked one of his most effective opponents in the primary race to be his running mate, and tonight she delivered a speech that shows what a great choice that was.
I like Joe Biden even though he was never my first choice as a candidate this year, and honestly age was a factor in that. I would like a new generation of leaders to emerge. Well, inevitably they will, and seeing Joe speak so well tonight gives me some comfort. He seems to have the makings of a decent president, and I hope that's enough, because the problems loom larger than a tribble-headed orange autocrat.
An American president in the first quarter of the 21st century has to be effective in use of media. They have to be a TV personality, but also come across well on social media: YouTube, Twitter, etc. President Trump, for all my loathing of that loathsome human being, certainly was a media star in his own right.
And Trump came fairly close to winning a second term. The popular vote margin is not all that larger in 2020 and in 2016, and Biden’s campaign succeeded partly because it did not take the old “blue wall” states for granted this year.
Joe on my screen as I watch speech on MSNBC.
So, now the hard work begins. This country is deeply divided, and many in the Trump camp are convinced an election was stolen from them, mostly because it’s a lie their Dear Leader repeats over and over. A greater man and better president than Trump would calm the waters and offer transition help to the next president—but that’s not in Trump’s nature.
He’s a fighter, not a thinker. He does have some skill in media manipulation, in drawing attention, in firing up his base with incendiary rhetorical fire bombs. Sadly, he has shown no skill at governing. He claimed in 2016 that it was easy to act presidential, but has not tried to since. Damaging democracy is not even a thing he worries about, although I wish he did.
And Trump is wounded but still dangerous because he wields enormous power. I can’t help but think the raucous, wrong-headed protests at sites where election workers have quietly tried to carry on the task of making democracy work is due to Trump’s ill-advised, divisive rhetoric. Despite my happiness today, I can’t help but think that until Jan. 20, we’re living in a powder keg and giving off sparks.
Still, Trump the communicator is clearly not always skilled. Contrast the rambling, angry, incoherent and factually challenged address the Donald gave Thursday night with Joe’s performance tonight. One man was presidential, the other an angry, crazy old uncle, and the crazy one is the actual president today.
To most of the world, there’s no contest. America picked the right horse. See how Ireland's largest TV network covered the rise of Pennsylvania's most famous person of Irish ancestry:
But that's not the reality in Trumpland, which is close to half of America. I’m deeply disappointed that my state, Iowa, was on the wrong side of history in 2020. There is lots of anger and resentment in the red lands, and while Biden vows to be president of the whole United States, not just blue states, it remains to be seen if he can make it happen. Four years ago it was liberals who vowed "not my president," an equally toxic reaction on the right is already bubbling away. I hope Joe's conciliatory words helps heal that divide, a little, but it's been brewing for years, and I don't think one nice speech will quell this storm.
Yet, the media show tonight was great. Joe and Kamala were both compelling speakers. Let’s hope that the reality that follows the TV show will also turn out well, but I'm sure it will take some time.
MSNBC shot of crowd. Perhaps I watch "Firefly" too much. In my head, I hear a guitar chord followed by a man singing: "Jooooe! The man they call Jooooe!" In my estimation, any man who has had a statue been made of him is one kind of son of a bitch or another, to paraphrase the wisdom of Mal Reynolds. Still, tonight was a good night for Joes. May it be a sign of better days ahead.
Donald Trump says 2.2 million people were going to die. That only 210,000 have is thus a great success.
It’s a lie. A rather vile lie, since it traduces human lives. I know, Trump is not responsible for 210,000 deaths—many would have died had the country taken adequate action against COVID-19. But the death toll could have and should have been much lower, and the spike can be lowered now, with effective, science-based action that this president can’t wrap his head around.
It was a night of lies from Donald Trump. The final presidential debate of 2020 is over, and I have to admit I am relieved.
Trump did score some points. His contention that Biden’s environmental plan spell economic disaster is going to be the point pounded on again and again in attack ads for the next 12 days. Not that it’s true. As is much of what Trump said tonight, it’s a lie.
A lie delivered coldly and calmly by a president who dismisses severed families as the fault of coyotes, COVID-19 as the fault of China and economic meltdown as—well, I’m not sure who he is blaming. Trump claimed the economy would be a disaster if Biden is elected, but who the heck was president this year when the recession kicked in?
Typical Trump. "Don’t elect him or the chaos I have caused will continue." "Elect me so that I can put out the fire that I lit in the first place."
Sigh.
Some keys in tonight’s debate:
Biden nailed Trump on his tax returns. Trump tries to paint Biden as corrupt, but one of Trump's consistent patterns is to project his own flaws onto his foes. I don’t think Joe is pure like the October snow—but on the corruption meter, Trump has pretty much everyone trumped, yet he says Biden is corrupt. And Biden is the one who has released his tax returns, not Trump. Tell me again how Trump is more honest?
Trump made anybody with a brain sick to their stomach with his Lincoln lines. No, Trump, you are not the “least racist” person in the room. As Biden said, his dog whistles are fog horns. In one breath, you’re the least racist, in the next, your saying immigrants who show up for hearings have low IQs. You’re blaming China, coyotes and claiming not to be racist.
COVID-19 should be the nail in the coffin for this president. Just consider this exchange: “People are learning to die with it,” Biden on the pandemic. “I take full responsibility. It’s not my fault.” Actual comeback quote from Trump.
I do think that Trump did better tonight than the first debate, although he set a rather low bar to lumber over. Trump was still spouting insults, lies and trite campaign lines.
Biden speaks during debate.
Trump needed to change the dynamics of the election tonight. I do not think he did. I think Biden held his own, which I hope is all he had to do. And what was that about pillows and sheets? Earth to Trump: What?
Image by Gage Skidmore from wikimedia commons. Kristen Welker of NBC in Arizona in 2018.
Kristen Welker of NBC News did pretty well, I thought. She had been insulted by Trump before the debate, but was praised by him during the debate. Despite that, I think the use of the enforced time limits was good. There was some cross shouting, but not the chaos of the first debate. Her questions were decent and she stayed calm.
Well, that phase of the campaign is over. Five-thirty-eight is starting to write about a possible blue wave that could take the Senate, keep the House and win the presidency. Trump’s fantasy about taking the House rang very hollow, and I don’t think Trump built much of a flood wall against the coming blue wave.
Trump (above) and Biden (below) with voter questioners. Both are talking about COVID-19.
Well, I watched most of both town halls Oct. 15, and I kind of regret it. I’ve voted already, and I had trouble summoning the energy to watch. I also didn’t see all of Trump's because my DVR wasn’t totally functioning—satellite TV has been a bit wonky since the derecho storm Aug. 10, which feels like yesterday and three years ago at the same time.
Anyway, I missed the thing I’ve seen lots of tweets about—the voter who told Trump he was handsome when he smiles. I am glad I missed that. I ate a lot of pizza tonight and I would rather that it proceeds through my body without making any return journeys. Eyesight, apparently, is the next coming crisis in America.
But I saw enough—more than enough. I watched Joe Biden live. His was scheduled first, and I thought it was a courtesy to let him go first. I thought he was rather subdued and I was not thrilled at his performance.
Joe Biden. Quieter, calmer, and, in a sane universe, way more presidential.
On the other hand, he was responsive. He was polite to questioners. He asked if he had answered the questions. He admitted he has made mistakes, and noted that if he loses, it could be because “I was a lousy candidate,” a refreshing openness to the possibility of human flaws that one would never hear from President Trump.
And old Joe suddenly looked a lot better after I viewed my recorded sample of Trump. Quiet reserve gave way to angry, crazy shouting.
Would he denounce QAnon? That famous selective Trump amnesia suddenly kicked in. QAnon? Never heard of them.
What about a retweet that alleges a fresh, new democratic murder conspiracy (totally normal). “That was a retweet,” the president said. Like that’s a defense? I use Twitter, too, and I don’t retweet something that I don’t believe in. Saying something is a retweet, coming from the president, was a very odd nondefense defense. If it was batshit bullshit (which it clearly was), why is tangerine Mussolini (thank you, niece, for that linguistic flair that I stole from you) retweeting it? And then disavowing any knowledge of it?
Trump with another voter
Mr. President, your tweets are, like it or not, communications from the most powerful head of state to the world. “It was a retweet” means that you don’t care about the truth of what BS you spread from your bully pulpit. You made the bully pulpit the bullshit pulpit, and we’re a coarser, more ignorant country thanks to your terrible presidency.
Yikes.
As TV spectacles go, both town halls lacked something. It was the other candidate. Without any response from the “other side,” the town halls lacked a lot.
Trump, I suppose, was more watchable, in the sense that a plane crashing and burning on landing is more compelling to watch than a plane safely landing.
Yet, it makes you appreciate safe landings a bit more, too. Old Joe. He didn’t set the world on fire. And that’s a small blessing.
Fly on Pence. I watched most of the debate on MSNBC, but a bti on ABC, too. I think this was ripped off from ABC.
I feel some
sympathy for Mike Pence.
In the middle
of a nationally televised debate, a fly landed on his head and became the
enduring symbol of the 2020 vice presidential debate. It’s odd how asides
become “the thing” in media—a candidate’s ride in a tank, a yowl to an Iowa
crowd, one remark about a bucket of deplorables.
But sometimes
the asides resonate because they are consistent with some larger reality. That’s
reading too much into the fly, which didn’t mean a thing despite all
the memes about what flies are attracted too and what that means about Mike
Pence. Because, honestly, it doesn’t mean anything except that’s where a
mindless fly happened to land.
I wrote a
reaction to the presidential debate, which was another level of shit show all its
own. And the fire-hose of crazy that is our deranged, drug-addled Dear Leader
has made the VP debate last night seem like a month ago. Perhaps this was the
last debate of 2020, because if someone else controls the megaphone, our
loudmouthed lout of a leader can’t lower himself to participate.
Such is 2020,
but I’ll carry on and comment a bit on the Kamala show, even though it probably doesn’t mean a thing.
Vice Presidential
Debates: The Xander of politics. Everyone loves them but they don’t mean that
much.
I’m betting
that if you liked Donald, you liked Mike Pence even more. I don’t’ know for
sure, because if you like Donald, the twisted avenues of logic in your addled
brain aren’t routes I can follow.
The man Pence
succeeded in not being a totally deranged moron, which in Trumpland makes him a
genius. Like he’s been to “read the book” school, although in Penceland I’m
sure it’s “read the Book school” because there’s only one.
But if you
like Donald at this point, it’s probably that “read the book school” in your
past didn’t make enough of an impression. OK—I’m sure some good people like Trump
for various reasons I can’t possibly imagine, and I’ll try not to be too
insulting or snarky because it does nothing for discourse. Honestly, thought.
We’re way past the time when it makes any sense. He unmasks while he is
infectious, rage tweets on steroids and is clearly making a mess of himself.
So, back to the Kamala
Harris Show. The debate. Remember that? She didn’t always answer the question (will
they pack the court or not?)—but she was “there” and responsive compared to the
male animatronic that was Mike Pence. She had a few slips of the tongue—clearly
misspoke some numbers, for instance. But she was smart, insightful.
Kamala Harris watched Mike Pence mansplain. I'm afraid I've been guilty of this sometimes, but men, we do not want to make a woman make that look. And no, it was not disrespectful--Pence was a time hog, a chorono-bully. Totally manly. In all the wrong ways. Clearly I was watching MSNBC early in the debate.
And female. Not
just a woman, but a woman who is used to misogynist men who mansplain too much.
Which was Pence, fly or no fly.
I don’t know
how often the host had to try to reign Pence it, but the boring talking robot
had some prerecorded messages to dump on the audience and was not to be deterred
by any silly rules.
Kamala had a
bit more impact in shutting him up. Kamala—it was no contest. In substance, she
was closer to fact land, even if she did sometimes spin. Pence, as a Trump
spokesperson must be, spun like a tornado. Kamala was a derecho, straight on
and relentless.
Senate image. My chosen dinner guest.
So, the winner? There was no contest, really. Sen. Chuck Grassley tweeted that Pence won the debate because people would want to invite him for dinner, which makes me wonder how boring dinners are at Chuck's house because I thought the conversation would be far more interesting with Kamala as the guest.
Trump and his campaign have violently imploded. Which
doesn’t mean for sure that he will lose the election—never forget 2016 and the disaster
that was caused by the Electoral College, that 18th century twist on
democracy that is still with us—but Trump has taken some self-inflicted hits and
keeps plowing right back into that iceberg. He’s a titanic mess.
Trump is a
man infected with coronavirus who didn’t learn anything from the experience.
An N of one who is convinced his experience enlarges to everyone.
He didn’t die
(yet) and is convinced that a disease that robbed America of 210,000 souls and
counting, and more than a million globally, is not a big deal. Time to ride
around in a closed limo with your guards to waive at your mindless minions so
that you can stoke your evil ego—abusing guards who have sworn to take a bullet
for you but who should not have to needlessly face a bat virus. Mock your opponents for wearing life-saving masks. Tell us all that we've already entered the light when we can plainly see the darkness.
It's beyond serious, America. Democracy and lives are at stake. Vote as if your whole future depended on it because, in this pivotal year, we need leaders who don't ignore science or global warming or pandemics--we need to be so over blowhards whose only skill is to make a bunch of pointless public noise.
The neutral image that would be the main one in normal times. But 2020 is not normal times. Start of the debate, they look different ways and see very different worlds--but most of us live in the one that Kamala sees.
Hmm. the debate? Kamala
won, fly or no fly. I sure hope Biden does, too. In a giant blue wave. Make ’em squeal and send Joni
Ernst back home, too.
Yet, a blue
wave will not instantly fix things. I said Kamala was a derecho, and she was in the debate, but in
governing, Trump is the relentless, destructive storm who won’t stop blowing.
It will take years to recover from his damage. His shit will be around for
quite a while.
View of candidates on MSNBC before debate begins. From the back side, Biden looks to be in way better physical shape.
The quote came late in the debate, when the candidates were discussing urban violence and the BLM movement.
“He does not want to calm things down,” said Joe Biden of Donald Trump. “He pours gasoline on the fire.”
And right after that, moderator Chris Wallace asked Donald Trump to condemn white supremacist groups—whom his own government has identified as the main domestic terrorism threat.
Trump’s answer was incoherent. His message to the Proud Boys was “stand down, but stand by.” And then he referred to Antifa as it if were a thing.
“Antifa is an idea, not an organization,” Biden correctly countered.
Biden speaks. Trump is not happy listening.
I don’t think Joe Biden debated all that well, to be honest. He had his moments, but he did not always track the questions well and sometimes did lose count of his own points as he was answering.
But Trump. Holey orange crazy! What a hot mess. A family member observed on WhatsApp during the debate that it seemed like Trump became more orange as the night went on. Trump got into disputes with the moderator and seemed to be debating him rather than Biden. Trump repeated slogans like “law and order, law and order” but didn’t note any policy that leads to that.
Biden noted Trump’s pathetic response to protests so that he could clear a street for a photo opp, and Trump just responded with anecdotes about urban violence. But the uptick in violence is happening after more than three years of Trump as president. Warning us things will fall apart in Biden’s America because they are falling apart now seems like a really weird case to try and make.
And as Biden noted, the real threats to suburbs aren't BLM and Antifa. It's coronavirus and climate change that may wipe them (and the rest of us) out.
Sure, I know Trump claims violence is a problem because Democrats run cities—but as Chris Wallace noted, Republican cities are not peaceful, either.
And then there was the election. I don’t think our election system is perfect, but Trump suggests in advance that it’s fraudulent because he senses he will lose, and if you can’t win the game, you try to yell at the refs, I suppose.
Well, I saw on Facebook that some friends had tuned out. Honestly, after 45 minutes I was ready to do the same. I did not—I felt like I had to observe the whole thing. But it was tough to watch. A dumpster fire.
Like Trump’s America.
Put these yard signs up tonight. Nothing tonight changed my mind at all.
On Sept. 11, a student in my writing class works on a blog post draft.
I am teaching a writing class in this odd fall semester of 2020, and students in that class will be sharing their perspectives via personal blogs. I’m writing this on Sept. 11, 2020—a somber anniversary, but many students are choosing to write about the global pandemic. They are in a writing lab, drafting their first posts that should be published next week.
I always like this blog assignment—it’s one I often use in almost every media writing class. For one thing, it means students are gaining experience actually managing their own personal web sites. It also means that their writing is what professional writing should be—public. We get used, in school, to writing for each other and not writing for the world at large—but for my media students, the world at large is meant to be their audience.
A student in the school uniform of 2020. Masked, and focused on writing.
I have told students before about Jenny Valliere, the program manager of Z102.9 radio station here in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Jenny has told me that having her own blog was helpful to her in launching her radio career because she was able to show a prospective employer that she’s already active online and creating original content. Her blog.
Lindsay Leahy, another former student, writes a very interesting blog about how faith has helped her overcome adversity. She graduated long enough ago that I don’t think I required her to write a blog, but I did have a hand in helping her become a better writer, I hope—most of all, she was managing editor of the “Mount Mercy Times,” and although I thinking this blogging exercise is valid, student media experience is gold. Her blog.
Anyway, once students have started their blogs, I will share some links. In the meantime, it’s nice to see students at work, creating something new. That’s the power of writing—we writers get to be creators.
The power of blogging is that we then get to share those creations so easily with the world.
You Tube! Love it and hate it. Like most social media, it can be a conduit for hate and misinformation.
But it provides an old man who honestly is of the TV generation with an addictive and pleasurable screen experience.
I grew up on TV. I hate to admit it, and I know my young life would have been better spent with less TV. Television is not called the “boob tube” for nothing. I was lucky, in a way, that I grew up in a bookish family, so at least I did start reading young, and although I’m a slow reader, I do enjoy it and still do it. Art Cullen, I’m working my way through your book “Storm Lake,” and I’m sure it’s doing me a lot more good than anything on TV or YouTube ever did.
But maybe “working my way” is an implication that reading is cognitively more complicated than the experience of having pictures flash before your eyes and hearing sounds that are pleasurable, for some reason.
Anyway, back to YouTube. Part of the issue with TV is that, even in longer programs, it’s flashes of quick images. While it’s possible to follow a longer plot and some complicated thought through the tread of a TV story, for the most part, I think, my brain is not that engaged by most videos. I tend to consume YouTube at times of rest—at night after completing a task (like tonight, for instance) or while eating lunch.
What have I been dipping into while editing images and preparing world-famous blog posts? A mix, which is what YouTube tends to provide. It’s quick snacks, which can be satisfying if not always mentally as stimulating as a book about Northwest Iowa can be (I’m ¾ of the way through “Storm Lake,” and I do recommend it).
So here is just a rather random look at what I’ve been mindlessly hanging with on a Saturday night:
Tunes—I use Pandora on several computers, but sometimes let YouTube play DJ for me. A small smattering of my Saturday playlist:
1-Taylor Swift, “You Need to Calm Down.” This 2019 song is probably not that musically sophisticated—pop songs usually aren’t, I suppose, but I’m not really a music person. I just enjoy the music I enjoy, and for whatever reason Ms. Swift hits my buttons with this one. It’s an “I need to smile, let’s play some Tay-Tay” song for me:
2-Garbage, “Empty.” A 2016 video from these 1990s rockers. Not exactly as bright and playful as Taylor, but still this song often sums up my mood when I’m frustrated (as who isn’t in 2020) and makes me feel better:
3-4-"Bailo En Mi Cuarto" by Anne Reburn, Dubax, HarryU and Debi Gutierrez; and "Bored" by Tessa Violet and MisterWives. OK, I do like male singers, too. I’ve played a few Red Hot Chili Peppers tracks in my Saturday jam, too. But I do have an appreciation of the female voice, for some reason. Anne Reburn does many entertaining covers and her own original music, too. Tessa Violet is the same, in a way, in that she has done many covers, although she’s further in her career and does more of her own original music. Anyway, both of these talented women teamed up with others on two songs that are both resonate with my life in 2020. Come Monday, when classes start, I may be a bit less isolated than I want to be—but 2020 has featured lots of alone time, and these two artists teamed up with other singers and with fans to collaborate on social musical videos about 2020. Maybe YouTube does have something to offer:
Music is, of course, personal as well as social. You like what you like and it may or may not appeal to me. I will credit YouTube partly with expanding my musical horizons a bit. I think we all have a special relationship with the music that was popular in our formative years, and I feel that YouTube playlists both can bring me back that music whenever I want (Simon and Garfunkel have some great videos), but also bring me new music.
And YouTube bring me video blogs. As a blogger, I particularly appreciate the Vlog Brothers. So:
5-Hank Green, Vlog Brothers, “Go Play!” The next book in my reading cue, right behind “Storm Lake,” is the second novel by this bright writer, who is also a YouTuber, along with his brother John. And I just really like this video. It made me think of my son Ben, who has a PhD in Math from ISU. I’m curious about what he thinks about the joy of math:
I use YouTube to watch some news content, now and then. But I do like some quirky content that isn’t available elsewhere. I read “The Gazette” for news, listen to NPR and let Rachel Maddow explain the world to me a few nights a week. I have CNN and Reuters on my phone. So YouTube is for “news” that’s a bit more, well, different.
For example, what do you know about bird penises? Don’t think Joe is about to get weird on you—I love a YouTube channel called “SciShow” and they give me information on all kinds of topics, including updates on COVID-19.
6-SciShow “Why Did the Rooster Lose Its Penis?” Besides posing a clickbait question, the video is interesting to me because it basically does not answer the question. The true answer is that science doesn’t know why—but evidence shows ancestors of most birds probably did have external male genitals, so somewhere along the line many birds lost theirs. I think it’s just fun to listen to the SciShow people explain interesting, quirky topics like this (and Hank Green, by the way, is one of the driving forces behind this channel and hosts may SciShow videos, but not this one):
I like several informative YouTube channels. Dr. Emily Zarka on “Monstrum” is a favorite. I watch most videos on PBS Eons, too.
So that’s it, my Saturday six. It’s not a complete list of my YouTube habits, and one of the dangers of the internet site is that its addictive nature challenges a viewer to not over do it. I didn’t get into “The History Guy,” for example, or Jim Gaffigan or Taylor Tomlinson, two of the several comedians I like to enjoy on YouTube. I often sample videos from the late night talks shows—I miss your “Colbert Report,” Stephen, but still enjoy your stuff.
I’m not trying to cover all of my liked videos. I just decided to post a bit on what I happened to be enjoying tonight while thinking about the nature of this hugely important internet site. Like all social media, an issue with YouTube is that it is, in a way, user constructed—what I watch tends to lead to what I’m fed. That means that rather than an open world where I might see anything, I’m actually seeing a rather narrow neighborhood crafted from my personal preferences.
I don’t hate that. But I do need to be aware of it, to, and actively break out, now and then, of my own neighborhood. So besides trying to ensure I don’t spend too much time on YouTube, I also am interested in suggestions that don’t come from the internet algorithms.
Consider this post, to some extent, a few suggestions for you if you too are taking a break this Saturday night. And based on what you see here or what you may know about me, what would you suggest I sample next?
I gave two of the best Trump family speakers two hours of my life Thursday, and it left me a little scared.
Because I’ll state something that might surprise you.
President Donald Trump did a pretty good job at his acceptance speech Thursday night. Oh sure, he was not as energetic as he is when he’s ranting at a huge crowd. It was “teleprompter” Trump, who is always less engaged than unplanned, rant Trump. But for Teleprompter Trump, he was pretty good.
As a speaker, he did OK—and like a dog singing “Happy Birthday,” OK was better than anybody could have expected of him. Of course, the content of his long, long speech was full of deceit and exaggerations and fear mongering. It was, after all, a lie fest from the liar-in-chief.
Anyway, after Ivanka Trump gave the best speech of the awful tribe named “Trump” at the convention, the president’s pretty much just OK speech left me a bit depressed. Because he might pull it off. Between voter suppression, riling up his base and all kinds of semi-legal shenanigans, this con man might pull off the scam one more time. In case you have more than a hour to kill or need a cure for insomnia, here it is:
So, I went to bed without writing up my summary of the RNC, sleeping on it to see how I felt in the morning. And I feel better today. His ratings were lower than Joe Biden's which must hurt. And on second look, Trump's speech does not grow on me.
Still, Trump hit the right, right-wing notes, calling to his base on crime, patriotism, abortion, socialism and, Heaven help us, even God, which really made me nauseous.
So, as a wrap-up on the freak show that was the sad reality TV scare fest from what was once an American political party, my wrap-up of the RNC, focusing mostly on the long speech by President Trump.
First the setting. What can I say? It was a horrible desecration of the people’s house. Trump called it a “home,” but it’s the nation’s home and a president merely borrows the White House for four years. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, had a great tweet Thursday night that sums up how I felt:
Trump, the "law-and-order" candidate, can’t be bothered to understand or follow the law.
True, a president is personally exempt, but he’s used the full machinery of government—and lots of government employees—as political props and settings. What a jerk. The low moment of his speech was his smirky reference to the setting (quote is accurate, used a transcript from NPR):
“The fact is I’m here -- what’s the name of that building? (Gestures behind him to cheers from the gathered doomed gladiators) “But I’ll say it differently. The fact is we’re here and they’re not. To me one of the most beautiful buildings anywhere in the world, it’s not a building, it’s a home, as far as I’m concerned. It’s not even a house, it’s a home. It’s a wonderful place, with an incredible history.”
A history, you jerk, that you are ignorant of. Another low point—technically after the speech, but part of the Trump awfulness: Fireworks on the National Mall (a federal public park that includes, among other things, the Vietnam National Memorial with the names of heroes who didn’t claim bone spurs to stay home) that spelled out “Trump” and “2020.”
If that didn’t turn your stomach, see a doctor to see if you have a stomach.
The other main point of the flawed optics of the evening where the odd crowd. The fact that there were Trump MAGA-A acolytes from all over, crowded together, largely not masked during a pandemic that this horrid president has infamously not managed well. It was a Sturgis-style super spreader event, and shows that this president is so cold, so indifferent to fellow humans, that some of them may die, yet it’s a price he’ll happily pay.
We’re closing in on 200,000 dead, and this president and his followers brag about making respirators and banning travel. Well, hooray, those are two things you did right, but you completely squandered any time you bought by not listening to science, pushing quack cures and claiming the virus would disappear like “magic.”
And Trump holds an in-person party with people from all over, unmasked and undistanced.
If your ego demands accolades from a crowd so badly that you’ll force federal employees to violate federal law and potentially expose over a thousand of your misled fans to a deadly virus during a pandemic, you’re not, as our former secretary of state called you, a fucking moron.
You’re a fucking monster.
So, Trump spoke well. And displayed his full evil in full view. He and Joe Biden have both stated that this will be a campaign for the soul of America.
Not that there was any doubt before Thursday, but Thursday proved, if anybody needed proof, that one of those candidates sure doesn’t give a rat’s patootie for his own or anybody else’s soul.
His speech was preceded by Ivanka Trump. She’s a good speaker, but is part of the dark tribe trying to promote the orange demon on us. And it was odd, how “co-presidential” she seemed. Ivanka, nobody elected you to anything.
She was among the best speakers during the whole RNC, I thought, but the bar was pretty low so she didn’t have to work hard to clear that low bar. The most amusing line in her speech, to me, was this (quote from ABC news transcript):
“My father has strong convictions. He knows what he believes, and says what he thinks. Whether you agree with him or not, you always know where he stands. I recognize that my dad's communication style is not to everyone's taste. And I know his tweets can feel a bit -- unfiltered. But the results speak for themselves.”
“Unfiltered?” His tweets are the all-caps yowling of a mad man who, sadly, is president of the U.S.
For now. Shame on America if we prolong this nightmare for four more years.
And I don’t care about Joe Biden’s obvious shortcomings at this point. Get me out of here!
Other observations on Trump’s speech:
It was full of ridiculous exaggerations and distortions. For example, Trump on his record on race relations: “And I say very modestly that I have done more for the African-American community than any president since Abraham Lincoln, our first Republican president. And I have done more in three years for the Black community than Joe Biden has done in 47 years.”
Donald Trump has never in his life said anything in modesty. He’s a narcissist of the first order.
Another point that Trump bragged about was cutting regulations, thus approving oil pipelines and removing the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement. He promised to cut regulations more in order to promote jobs, and made this claim about Joe Biden: “Biden has promised to abolish the production of American oil, coal, shale and natural gas, laying waste to the economies of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Colorado, and New Mexico, destroying those states. Absolutely destroying those states, and others.”
One of the dirty little secrets of life is that any extraction economy is doomed in the long run. The wells will run dry, the vein will be played out, the drillers and miners will make money now, but not generations from now. And Biden won’t open federal lands to drilling like Trump will, but has not pledged to end production of American fossil fuels. Instead, he has called on us to transition to a sustainable green economy, which will create jobs.
Making the planet uninhabitable by just drilling and burning and devil-may-care is the road to hell.
Trump is not our ecological savior. He is the Satan of the environment.
OK, I admit I’m getting carried away. That’s the mood swings induced by the RNC. And I do have a favorite, no-shit-Sherlock chyron that I saw on MSNBC: “Fourth Night Filled with more false statements” Yes, it was. Surprise, surprise.
So now the fall campaign begins. Here is our lineup (images from Wikimedia commons, most by Gage Skidmore, except Mike Pence image which is a White House photo):
President Donald J. Trump. Check whatever he says. This man will gladly get you killed if it means he wins. Not an exaggeration. Image by Gage Skidmore.
"Sleepy" Joe Biden. I'll take sleepy over evil, any day. And why does Trump always list as flaws in others attributes that he has? Trump leaned on the lectern Thursday like a sleepy old man. Takes one to know one, I guess. Image by Gage Skidmore.
Vice President Mike Pence. In some ways, worse than Trump, because he'll spill his venom in a friendly, folksy, neighborhood preacher sort of tone. It's also not easy to find this man's image--of all four figures here, this is the oldest image, the one that is an official White House image because he doesn't get out much or draw attention when he does, and it's cropped to show Mike. Unlike the orange-skinned one, this guy has the pale skin of someone who avoids the limelight. And the sunlight. Mike Pence, mild mannered vampire? White House image (from visit by Greek officials, hence the flags).
California Sen. Kamala Harris. She's equipped to be president, probably the best of this bunch of candidates. The woman stands out as the best human for the job. Image by Gage Skidmore.
Voting for a “Joe” is going to be easy for this Joe. Well, maybe not as easy as I wanted since a judge tossed out ballot requests in my county. But I’ll crawl over hot coals to vote against the current occupant. You know that building, behind you, Don? I hope soon that it's the house where you used to live.
Final note: This is a reflection of the times we live in. Here is much of section A of The Gazette this morning. I don’t think you can read the stories, just look at the headlines. Trump is on the bottom of page 4. The county I live in setting new virus records is on page 6. And I don’t think The Gazette got it all that wrong. Many of the headlines are on the aftermath of the Aug. 10 derecho that blew this city apart, so I will concede much of the end-of-the-world tone of these pages is due to Mother Nature and not Monster Trump.
Still, the Republicans have said repeatedly this week that you should be scared to live in Biden’s America. They’ve got it wrong. The real nightmare is now, here are headlines from Trump’s America:
