Random Notes from a Crank

I read an article in Mother Jones about Rep. Maxwell Frost: "Why Maxwell Frost Wants Democrats to 'Get Caught Fighting.'"

Later that day he was on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. He's sharp as hell. 

When he turns 30, he needs to run for the U.S. Senate to kick out one of the GOP douche bags in Florida--hopefully that penis-look-alike Rick Scott. 

Lately I've become irritable about the drivers where I live. They drive so damn slowly. 

So this past weekend I was in Muncie, Indiana for a baseball tournament, and the drivers around there might be even morse. 

People were driving so slow, especially around corners. It's like I was in the Deep South again with all these slow-ass drivers. 

What's the deal with people calling sports stars/personalities by their first names? My in-laws do this with professional golfers they follow. Or most notably they use when they talk about Caitlin Clark. They call her "Caitlin" in casual conversation. 

I just find that weird because using the first name connotes a personal connection. 

Well, the U.S. under President Adolf is back to bombing brown people because of "weapons of mass destruction." 

We've seen that move before. The president's poll numbers are in the crapper, so the administration gets into some kind of military intervention based on shoddy intelligence. 

There are some consequences here. First, Congress is the only entity that can wage war, not the Executive Branch. Moscow Don has basically involved us in a war because he's just doing what Israel wants. 

Second, one can assume Iran is going to react in various ways, whether it's related to the Strait of Hormuz or sleeper cells inside the U.S. doing terrorist activities.

The Trump administration is making America poor and making American less safe again. 

Musing of the Moment: Harper's Indexes

Here are some interesting stats and numbers from the November and December Harper's Indexes:

• Percentage by which U.S. women are more likely than men to have a tattoo: 41
• Portion of U.S. adults with tattoos who regret getting at least one of them: 1/4
• Increase since 1984 in the median age of first-time U.S. home buyers: 7
• Portion of prospective U.S. home buyers who say they consider climate change when evaluating where to live: 4/5
• Percentage change this year in sales of Bud Light: -16
• In sales of Modelo Especial: +11
• Factor by which beer imports from Mexico have increased since 2013: 2
• Percentage by which beer imports from other countries have decreased: 29
• Percentage change in the divorce rate between 2008 and 2020: -31
• In the divorce rate between 2020 and 2022: +2
• Percentage of millennials who are not planning to get married: 21
• Of adult Gen-Z-ers who are not: 7
• Percentage of U.S. adults who say the political system is working "very" or "extremely" well: 4
• Who express little confidence in the future of the political system: 63
• Who say there is too little attention paid to the important issues facing the country: 78

I have noticed women tend to have more tattoos than men these days. I had a student write a paper years ago that went against the conventional wisdom that tattoos people get are there to show one's individuality. His take was that getting a tattoo was more of a herd mentality issue with many people getting the same kinds of tattoos (certain trends), especially women. 

The so-called conservative war against Bud Light because of a transgender spokesperson is so stupid. Apparently many of these Bud Light drinkers are switching to Modelo, which is humorous because during the Trump administration that company ran TV ads that were clearly trolling Moscow Don and his hateful speech about Mexicans and immigrants. That's some serious irony. 

The rise in the divorce rate obviously has a number of factors, but it's possible the pandemic was a significant cause--and possibly the support of a certain presidential candidate. But then again, that increase should have happened in 2016. Maybe it was because certain people voted for that charlatan a second time?

With the GOP having an advantage with having two Senators for dinky population states and the stupidity of not giving Puerto Rico and D.C. statehood and an uninformed citizenry voting for candidates for stupid reasons, it's no surprise 78% think the political system is not paying attention to climate change, economic inequality, pollution, the wage gap, educational issues, good jobs in the U.S., and other concerns. 

The House, for example, has done next to nothing for years under GOP leadership. Many members of Congress are more concerned about winning elections and raising campaign funds than actually doing something to make the country better. They just want to do some political hokum to get votes. 

The GOP asserts that the "government" doesn't work. Then they get control of a significant branch of it and show everyone that it doesn't work because of their leadership. A dog chasing its own tail. 

Random Notes from a Crank

I've been catching up on my magazine reading. 

In Harper's there's a solid article by Andrew Cockburn titled "The Military Industrial Virus: How Bloated Budgets Gut Our Defense" that everyone should read. 

Here's a ¶ that you should read now: 
"Yet deep scrutiny indicates that defense contracts are not particularly efficient job generators after all. Robert Pollin and Heidi Garrett-Peltier of the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have calculated the number of jobs spawned by an investment of $1 billion in various industries, ranging from defense to health care, renewable energy, and education. Education came in first by a wide margin, producing 26,700 jobs, followed by health care at 17,200. Defense, generating 11,200 jobs, ranked last. 'All economic activity creates some employment,' Pollin told me. "That isn't an issue. The relevant question is how much employment in the U.S. gets created for a given level of spending in one area of the economy as opposed to others.' The fact is that defense spending generates fewer jobs than green energy, education, and other critical industries." 

Nick Hanauer's "Better Schools Won't Fix America" in The Atlantic (titled "Education Isn't Enough" in the magazine) is a worth a read. He lays out the myth of "educationism," the belief that better schools will fix America's problems. Based on his experience and data analysis, the real problem is that we're living in a new Gilded Age. The article reminds me of the adage that my Dad liked to say: "A wise man will change his mind, but a fool never will." 

Parts of what's left of my hair has been turning gray for a few years now, but now I have a single gray hair in one of eyebrows. It looks weird. I don't want to pluck it like I'm some vain person, but I need more gray hair in my eyebrows, so it doesn't stand out so prominently. 

What's really gotten gray is my beard when I grow one. 

Stay Positive: Nike's Ad Campaign

As the Senate grills a hand-picked far-right probable Supreme Court justice, it seems more people are concerned about Nike's ad campaign that includes Colin Kaepernick. 

One of my Facebook "friends," a relative by marriage, immediately spread the following opinion piece among his social network: "Why I'm Boycotting Nike: Get Broke or Woke." 

A more measured and nuanced take on the whole situation is this article: "What Did Nike Just Do? Kaepernick Ad May Gain More from Gen Z than It Loses." 

It stands to reason that one of the iconic American brands probably did quite a bit of market research before unveiling this ad campaign. I'm sure they did some serious cost-benefit analysis before featuring Kaepernick in the campaign. 

As the second article relates, a number of companies have taken political stances, which is nothing new. I'm thinking Nike weighed short-term loses against long-term gains and went with the latter. 

As for me, I need some new athletic shoes. My pair of Saucony running shoes have lost some umph on their footboards. I haven't bought a pair of Nike shoes in ages, probably since the 90s, because I tend to like the styles and fits of Adidas and Saucony. When I do my next shopping spree for athletic shoes, I'm trying on some Nikes. 

Regardless, I still don't see how kneeling is a sign of disrespect. Not going out during the anthem or belligerently doing something else might be seen more accurately as disrespectful. 

People can stupidly burn their shoes or tear up their clothing all they want, but Kaepernick was advised by a veteran and 49ers fan way back when to kneel as a sign of respect. 

The rest of all this hokum is just dog-whistling.  

Random Notes from a Crank

The other day I had to watch a tv show in real time like a common animal rather than watching the dvr recording of it. It was horrible. All those commercials. 

I am so angry and frustrated with my local state representative and state senator that for the first time in my life I"m going to vote in a GOP primary rather than the Democratic primary, so I can vote against them. It'll be hard to stomach voting for a president on the GOP ballot, but I may have to go with Trump because his candidacy could spell doom for the Republican party in a Whig-like shakeup. It's an extreme outside shot, but it could happen. Or at least a Trump candidacy would flush all kinds of voters to the Democratic side. As much as I agree with Trump that we need to get American industry going again (which is part of Sanders' message too), I also agree with Rubio's notion that Trump is a con-man. 

For example, see Jon Oliver's wonderful takedown of Donald Drumpf, "a litigious serial liar with a string of broken business ventures and the support of a former Klan leader." #MakeDonaldDrumpfAgain

Music Friday: "Gimme Shelter"

It a Rolling Stones kind of morning, folks. 

Here's a Stones song set to footage of Vietnam. 



Whenever I hear someone use the phrase "winning hearts and minds," I think about footage like this. 

Conservatives' Cliches

Hours after I make a post about how I won't probably post about politics much, I read the syndicated op-ed column by Clarence Page in my local paper. In the JG-TC, it is titled "Taking Stock of Conservatives and Their Lists of Cliches," but on website of the Chicago Tribune, it is called "Cliches Conservatives Say."

Page is responding to a book by Jonah Goldberg titled The Tyranny of Cliches: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas.

I find it interesting that Goldberg thinks that liberals and progressives cheat by using cliches because conservatives and libertarians use them too. We're human after all.

In addition, and I know Jay Heinrichs who wrote Thank You for Arguing and Word Hero would agree with me on this supposition, I would argue that conservatives and the GOP, on the whole, are typically better at rhetorically/linguistically framing issues than Democrats and liberals are.

A good example are the slogans of "pro-life" and "pro-choice." Sure, people like to have their choices, but "pro-life" is difficult linguistic trap to escape.

Damn reality and its "liberal bias."

Setting the Record Straight...

Click HERE and enjoy.

Or for a non-partisan take on all the crud out there, click HERE for "Seven Falsehoods about Health Care" by factcheck.org.

Or "Keep Your Insurance? Not Everyone."

Or "More 'Senior Scare.'"

Or "CPR Administers Bad Facts Again."