tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977625681756554695.post5088644796631640515..comments2024-03-26T13:46:42.738-05:00Comments on 4 Quarters, 10 Dimes: Continued Stray Thoughts on the Current Political ClimateDavidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03463621516644789183noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977625681756554695.post-76008665314997066792018-07-25T21:45:31.249-05:002018-07-25T21:45:31.249-05:00You are most welcome!
And thank you as well - you...You are most welcome!<br /><br />And thank you as well - you forced me to be more lucid than I originally was, to think through more precisely what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it. It took some thought to respond to your well-presented points.<br /><br />The NOR is indeed a tempting target, and I'm doing it too here, just in a different way. I don't have any problem with diagnosing people, especially people who have some impact on my life. I regard it as a necessity. I've only got so much time on this planet. I need to know who I'm dealing with.<br /><br />That starts at home, though. Still working on how to deal with myself, really.<br /><br />I sympathize with the Good Listener thing - I spent most of my high school and college career as the friend people took their problems too, and mostly they just wanted someone to listen to them while they solved them themselves. I ended up with a BA in psych along with one in history and spent a month as a live-in counselor in a group home for "troubled" teenagers before I figured out that this was not the career for me. I do wonder what became of some of those kids, though.<br /><br />May the Truck Gods smile upon your rig!Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03463621516644789183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977625681756554695.post-1478818304378117822018-07-25T18:21:07.127-05:002018-07-25T18:21:07.127-05:00Since you put it that way, Point. Set. Match.*
At...Since you put it that way, Point. Set. Match.*<br /><br />At one point early in my life, I worked with kids who were, I’m not at all certain what the current term is, but at the time we referred to them using the now thoroughly discredited label “mentally handicapped”. The class title was <i>Psychology Field Studies</i>. Three days a week we went with our instructor (an actual Psychologist) into neighboring elementary schools to work with the Special Ed Kids. Did that for an entire year. Loved the experience so much that, until I found out what was required to get there, I was convinced that I wanted to become a psychologist.<br /><br />Bear with me for a moment. That information becomes relevant …<br /><br />All through High School, everyone referred to me as “the group shrink” because, if I exhibited no other talent, I proved out to be a very good listener. And, occasionally, even offered sound advice. After serving in the Air Force, I applied to use my education benefits and pursue that very goal. Turns out, I just didn’t have the internal drive to get me there. But I did take a couple of semesters of advanced psychology courses and learned just enough to become dangerous. As in, “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing …” kind of dangerous. Since that time, I have always tried to avoid “diagnosing” other peoples disorders and concentrated on trying to fix my own. (Which, frankly, has become something like a full-time job in recent years.)<br /><br />But.<br /><br />The NOR is just so damn tempting a target. I simply cannot help myself. What is it that everybody says (that drives me crazy)? My bad.<br /><br />I could connect with what you were saying but I was filtering it through the wrong database. I wanted so much to be able to declare him and his behavior “insane” as measured by my incomplete ruler. And so, this is precisely why debate is important. Your lucid points were eloquent, well thought out, and diplomatically presented, and you have once again, with certainty, won me over and saved me from the dark side.<br /><br />I am also reminded that I need to listen (or, as in this case, read for comprehension) to information being conveyed without applying filters. Thank you for that.<br /><br />Lucy<br /><br />*As to the other thing, <i>these people</i> seem to understand tennis scoring and have written a short article on tennis scoring that clears things up about as well as spending a day at a NOR rally: https://www.usta.com/en/home/improve/tips-and-instruction/national/tennis-101--scoring.html<br /><br />So, with that, I shall instead award you two stones and a biter. We hope that the end is a long ways off.<br /><br />Oh, and no - truck not broke bad - be back in saddle Friday. <<< I just solved the energy crisis! Hook up the electrodes! Mrs. Boyden just started twirling in her grave.LucyInDisguisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08169432604954981941noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977625681756554695.post-43670940173706686372018-07-25T16:43:11.941-05:002018-07-25T16:43:11.941-05:00Okay – let me walk through my response then.
Firs...Okay – let me walk through my response then.<br /><br />First, yes, NOR is a perfectly fitting handle for der Sturmtrumper.<br /><br />Second, I think we’re making different points.<br /><br />I’ve always loved the bit about psychotics, neurotics, and psychiatrists – I remember hitting my psych professor with the first three items back in the 80s, and he laughed (to his credit). Points 4 and 5 I heard in other contexts (the joy of being a psych major back in the day).<br /><br />You say <i>I simply can not accept that The NOR is simply neurotic.</i> <br /><br />I have no disagreement with the rest of that paragraph. I disagree with the verb tense in that first sentence, though. I’m also not sure that the definition of neurotic offered in Point 5 is applicable here.<br /><br />Starting from the last item: for the NOR, I’d amend Point 5 to say that der Sturmtrumper <i>at one time</i> knew that 2 + 2 came to 4, but simply didn’t care. It’s apathy, not hatred. He could convince people it was 5, or 10, or whatever he needed it to be at any given point, and that was all that mattered to him. Doing that sort of convincing isn’t something a delusional person can do. Deluded people can convince themselves, but convincing others is another trick entirely. The best liars know the truth – that’s how they triangulate. He knew it was 4, and he knew he wanted others to believe it was 5, so he had to figure out a way to map out what he needed to do to get them there.<br /><br />But when you start believing your own lies, getting high off your own supply, you become delusional. Someone who truly believes that 2 + 2 is 5 isn’t going to be able to convince someone else who knows its 4 because they don’t have that map. <br /><br />At some point – and if I had to guess I’d say it was somewhere in the early 2000s – the NOR made the transition from Point 5 (as amended) to Point 4. <br /><br />We agree that he has no particular grasp of reality now. I am arguing that he once did and found it useful as a tool to further his own criminal ends but has since lost sight of it.<br /><br />There is nothing in my argument that conflicts with him being a damaged human being from the word Go. There’s nothing in my argument that conflicts with him being intelligent or stupid, talented or not talented. <br /><br />I’m also saying that there’s a difference between being “sane” by your definition (which boils down to adhering to an agreed-upon framework of moral values, as near as I can see from your paragraph on Persia and Greece) and having a grip on reality (which I’m using to mean having an instrumental understanding of facts and consequences as regarding the achievement of one’s own goals). It’s entirely possible that the NOR has always been insane by your definition but had, for most of his life, a grip on reality by my definition.<br /><br />Different points.<br /><br />I love these debates. :)<br /><br />I hope the truck isn’t too badly busted!<br />Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03463621516644789183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977625681756554695.post-107965674116046392018-07-25T13:56:33.007-05:002018-07-25T13:56:33.007-05:001. “I say we adopt both as patron saints and be do...1. “I say we adopt both as patron saints and be done with it.” [In his best ever Yul Brenner impersonation <i>ever</i>!] So let it be written, so let it be done. <br />(Who, pray tell, do we need to call? is there actually someone in charge of inducting unwitting & certainly unwilling mythological figures into the mythological RCC so they can go through all that shit to make them a Patron Saint? it’s been a few years since I read the book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_Catholic_Bible )<br /><br />17. First, at least we most certainly can agree that ‘The NOR’ is a fitting short handle for der Sturmtrumper (aka The Negative Orange Raccoon).<br /><br />Second “ … and he never really considered or even was aware of any other options.” is <b>precisely</b>* my point. <br /><br />I really do see and wholeheartedly agree with your argument. You’re soooo close. So let me try this:<br /><br />The dividing line between ‘sane’ and ‘insane’ is a moral construct. (As a historian you know that there are things that were accepted in ancient Persia or Greece as normal and sane that would be considered insane or just flat out weird in our society.)<br /><br />Found this online:<br /><br />1. Neurotics build castles in the sky.<br />2. Psychotics live in them.<br />3. Psychiatrists collect the rent.<br />4. A psychotic thinks that two and two are five.<br />5. A neurotic knows two and two are four — but he hates it.<br /><br />I believe that #4 applies to the NOR. I think, and again I’m probably reading this wrong, that you think #5 applies, and would add to that last bit “and will try to convince you that the proper answer is and always was five”.<br /><br />I simply can not accept that The NOR is simply neurotic. In the final analysis, this is really all I’m saying: I think he began life as a damaged Human Being and figured out a way to go downhill from there. It is possible to be brilliant, or gifted, or talented, or all three simultaneously while being demonstrably and even clinically and/or criminally insane by our society’s current definition. Yes?<br /><br />It is for that reason, and that reason alone, that I do not think The NOR <i>ever</i> had a <i>“grip”</i> on <b>“reality”</b>*. QED<br /><br /><b><i>[Special Note:</i></b> This one is actually turning out to be fun. Good thing I broke my truck so I could have the time to flesh this thing out a bit today. Hope you are similarly engaged and I’m not pulling you away from important ‘life’ things.]<br /><br />Lucy<br /><br />*Emphasis here on both of these points is intended and should be <b>underline</b>. [Damnit Blogger! Really? There are three primary ways to emphasize a point: <b>Bold</b>, <i>Italic</i>, & UNDERLINE! and you won’t accept that code? Really??? Strikethrough is a whole other issue to be ranted on at a later date.]LucyInDisguisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08169432604954981941noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977625681756554695.post-31879670431105375182018-07-25T10:59:47.471-05:002018-07-25T10:59:47.471-05:001. Well, as my friend who is a financial advisor k...1. Well, as my friend who is a financial advisor keeps telling me, "past performance is not an indication of future earnings." On the other hand, "if you keep doing what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten."<br /><br />Or, as someone else once said, "for ever proverb there is an equal and opposite proverb."<br /><br />Aaaaaaaaand we're back to Sisyphus. I say we adopt both as patron saints and be done with it.<br /><br />8. Point! Sigh.<br /><br />17. <i>you seem to be saying that at some point the Negative Orange Raccoon had a firm enough grip on reality that he intentionally chose that path.</i><br /><br />No, I'm saying that at some point the NOR had enough of a grip on reality to make that path work for him. You can't be a good grifter without a pretty good grip on a few things - enough to know your mark and what you can expect to get from them, at the very least. Delusional grifters tend to starve. It's a form of cunning rather than intelligence, I suppose. But there's no need to imply intent - it's entirely possible, indeed more than likely, that he just went down that path because that's the path he went down, that it was a matter of "least resistance" given his deformed personality (from all accounts he was pretty much the same asshole when he was a child) and he never really considered or even was aware of any other options.<br /><br />Does anyone really understand how tennis is actually scored? I've tried and while they do seem to follow the "bigger number wins" philosophy (as opposed to golf, say, or track) where those particular numbers come from just eludes me. I tried playing tennis once. Do you know that if you can hit a softball out of the infield you can hit a tennis ball into the next county? And then you stand there watching it go, look around unsuccessfully for another one, and then go get something to drink. So, not a bad sport I guess.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03463621516644789183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977625681756554695.post-43550087261114557002018-07-25T07:48:28.299-05:002018-07-25T07:48:28.299-05:001. Having given careful and diligent consideration...1. Having given careful and diligent consideration, I have come to the conclusion that Cassandra would, indeed, be your Ideal Patron Saint. Ironically, <i>History <b>IS</b></i> a form of <i>Prophecy</i>. Prophesy <i>by definition</i> is simply a prediction, and, statistically, History is the single best indicator to predict future outcomes (ask any odds-maker). <br /><br />8. <i>”I just like pointing out the hypocrisy … so maybe I'll get lucky again.”</i> Speaking of your basic Sisyphusian endeavors and ignoring historical evidence! <i>Et tu, David?</i> Oh, the irony simply burns.<br /><br />17. I think <i>[now there’s a dangerous preposition …]</i> the bone of contention here is the “presumption of conscious decision”. I see your point on using guile, deception, bullying and “generally being an asshole”. I see the evidence of the con man and agree wholeheartedly on that point. And maybe I’m reading you wrong on this point: you seem to be saying that at some point the Negative Orange Raccoon had a firm enough grip on reality that he intentionally chose that path.<br /><br />I would contend that he ain’t that smart. Nor even close. He, like us all, observed his parent, and just bumbled his way down this path in a vain attempt to do his best vaudeville pratfalls and magic tricks in much the same way as his father before him. In many ways, he even suck-ceeded beyond his own wildest dreams. (Or, for that matter, our wildest, most terrifying nightmares!) <br /><br />If he’d had a firm enough grip on the world around him, like most sane people, he would have looked around and been able to predict the future … <br /><br />outcome … <br /><br />of … <br /><br />Oh, shit. I seem to have discovered a bit of circular reasoning here … see number 1 above. And, perhaps even number 8 as well.<br /><br />Current Match Standing: <br /><i>Point:</i> 20-Love <br /><i>Game:</i> 4-3 <br /><i>Set:</i> TBD <br />(however, I may have just scored a safety on myself)<br /><br />41. 😀<br /><br />45. Any time.<br /><br />LucyLucyInDisguisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08169432604954981941noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977625681756554695.post-32802804559106022272018-07-24T19:18:39.188-05:002018-07-24T19:18:39.188-05:001. History isn't prophecy - we don't predi...1. History isn't prophecy - we don't predict the future. Hell, it's hard enough predict the past. But it would be nice if people listened to us when they pontificate about the past, really - that's where the Cassandra analogy comes in. As a professional historian, I grow weary of idiots telling me How Things Used To Be because their version of the past is identical to their impoverished ideological fantasies.<br /><br />There is a certain Sisyphusian quality to it, now that you mention it.<br /><br />8. I just like pointing out the hypocrisy, mostly because it makes me feel good and that's enough reason, really. It's County Fair season here and the evangelicals come out of the woodwork to infest the Fair with their propaganda and it annoys me. I like to think I was single-handedly responsible for getting the right-wing loons at the Constitution Party to stop coming ("Oh, <i>you're</i> the idiots who think the Constitution was based on the Bible!") so maybe I'll get lucky again.<br /><br />17. You assume that if he understood there were moral and ethical ways to get what he wanted he'd do them. Moral and ethical are hard work. Bullying and cheating and generally being an asshole comes naturally to him and takes no effort at all, but they do require a fairly reality-based assessment of your mark and how to go about extracting what you want from him. I suspect he knew at one point that there were moral and ethical ways to get what he wanted but simply didn't care, and now I doubt he even remembers the distinction between them and how he operates. We may have to agree to disagree on this one.<br /><br />41. I give him all the deference he deserves.<br /><br />45. Much obliged. :)Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03463621516644789183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977625681756554695.post-81623293974226938292018-07-24T16:52:27.197-05:002018-07-24T16:52:27.197-05:001. Prophesy different from History. Marginally, bu...1. Prophesy different from History. Marginally, but different nonetheless. Ergo, despite her curse, there is a functional difference between the two that would make her an unlikely Saint for your field. Perhaps this guy <br /><br />http://www.mythweb.com/encyc/entries/sisyphus.html <br /><br />would be more appropriate. (I absolutely love the way the tale is told on that page!)<br /><br />7. Please do not get me started on the damned evangelicals. Even my wife, a lifelong Lutheran, recently renounced her membership. Could’ve knocked me over by just thinking about a feather.<br /><br />17. Not yielding on this one. If he had ever had an actual grasp, he would’ve understood that there are actually moral and ethical ways to gain what you want. I don’t believe that path ever even occurred to the Orange Menace.<br /><br />26. The weasel and bluster only come when he thinks his lie not working … and even then, only if it will somehow confuse and befuddle. Oh, yeah, and anytime he loses his place in that ‘carefully crafted’ script, so, yeah, I can see where you could’ve become slightly dispirited.<br /><br />41. Operative word in that sentence: deference. <i>[runs and hides under nearby rock]</i><br /><br />45. The only kind I give. (Especially when it’s purely unexceptional.)<br /><br />LucyLucyInDisguisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08169432604954981941noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977625681756554695.post-52303944849935949332018-07-23T22:32:43.339-05:002018-07-23T22:32:43.339-05:001. This is where I make the "what people lear...1. This is where I make the "what people learn from history is that people don't learn from history" joke that is one of the running bits of humor in my field, I suppose. Cassandra should be the patron saint of historians.<br /><br />2. I'm not sure Venezuela would be the next Poland, since I'm not sure who would rush to its defense and spread the war around the way Britain and France finally did in 1939. It would be a "splendid little war," no doubt, and then the rest of the world would turn its collective back on the new American pariah state, cut our economy off at the knees, expel our military from their bases and our diplomats from their embassies, and learn just how well they could live without us. So much of American influence comes from the illusion that we are the indispensable nation, and der Sturmtrumper is doing everything in his power to make other countries realize just how illusory that is.<br /><br />6. Strange target, isn't it? Your average Harley dude - of which we have more than plenty here in Our Little Town - is more likely to be a supporter of der Sturmtrumper than not, and yet here we are. I've met a lot of Harley dudes (men and women) and they tend to be decent people who like loud motorcycles and black leather for reasons that escape me but so it goes. Now they're targets. It will be interesting to see where that leads.<br /><br />7. Yeah, add theft to the long list of reasons the evangelical "Christian" community can't get enough of this guy.<br /><br />14. Sorry - just too big of a target not to take my swing, I guess.<br /><br />15. You mean at best, right? The less time this clown spends near actual legal matters the better for all of us.<br /><br />17. The Irish are amused by a great many things, much like the Scots, and often hilariously clear in their reactions. But der Sturmtrumper once did have a grip on reality - you don't become a successful grifter on that scale without a firm grasp of statistics, psychology, and economics, among other things. Now? Not so much. He's being taken to the cleaners by alpha predators and he's too stupid to know it - as is his base. This would be amusing if it weren't the entire nation (including me and my children) who suffer for it.<br /><br />26. I suppose the sheer brazen openness of his servility was a bit of a shock - I expected more weasel words and bluster than that.<br /><br />41. Well, "proper" covers a wide range of appropriate reactions really...<br /><br />45. Good advice. <br /><br />And thanks! I will enjoy the cookies, virtual or otherwise. :)Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03463621516644789183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5977625681756554695.post-39547337293203019122018-07-23T18:15:00.229-05:002018-07-23T18:15:00.229-05:00Okay, I think I’ve got all of my fingers on the pr...Okay, I think I’ve got all of my fingers on the proper keys on the home row, so let us begin:<br /><br />1. Unfortunately, we know what it takes to crush Fascism, so we won’t really need to “figure out how to crush it again”. What’s sad, is that we may actually have to go through that shit again - mostly because no one heeded the warning, fools that we are …<br /><br />2. One wonders, could it be that Venezuela is the next Poland? Oh, and just what, precisely, is this thing called sleep … ?<br /><br />6. "First, they came for …", the motorcycles?<br /><br />7. Not to mention the fact that none of that was his money.<br /><br />8. “Shine on you crazy …” (NO! I shall not slander that song …) And yes, America has become Great again. Granted, not the US, but the rest of North America seems to be doing just fine.<br /><br />9. You misspelled scrotum. Jus’ Sayin’.<br /><br />14. Spoil-sport.<br /><br />15. Look at it this way: at worst he’ll never be able to find a courthouse. Doesn’t know what one looks like.<br /><br />17. Really? we’re only up to seventeen? Wow. And everybody but his base knows exactly how mentally stable the Orange Night is. The Irish were particularly amused to discover that they were part of the United Kingdom.<br /><br />And, his “grip on reality” is definitely NOT “fading fast” - it never existed to begin with. And again, what is this sleep thing to which you keep referring?<br /><br />21. Foxy Pundits throw smoke screen to delay torch and pitchfork parties. Film at eleven.<br /><br />26. You sound somewhat flummoxed. And we should be surprised, because …?<br /><br />29. “[H]e is so profoundly ignorant, insecure, and narcissistic that he did not realize that, at every step, he was advancing the line that Putin hoped he would advance, and the line that American intelligence, defense, and law-enforcement agencies most dreaded.” NAILED IT.<br /><br />32. ❗️<br /><br />38. 10 outta 10.<br /><br />41. (<i>Still waiting for that sarcasm font</i>) All hail “the Edu-maction Guv'nor”. You’re an educator. You should show the proper deference when appropriate. [/s] <br /><br />44. Dan's cringe when she started by saying the White House had ‘tweeted’ was absolutely the most precious thing!<br /><br />45. Still sending donations. Will not forget. Remember to check your voter registration. They lost my daughters - we just caught that and got her re-registered. Never turn your back on the bastards.<br /><br />‘Nuther powderful presentation of not very stray thoughts. Rather well targeted, actually. If you ever get tired of doing this, send me an email. I’ll send more cookies. Here’s a half dozen to tide you over on your up-coming excursion:<br /><br />������ *<br /><br />Lucy<br /><br />* Honest, those really are all chocolate chip cookies ... Blogger just repackaged them so the orange one wouldn't steal them!LucyInDisguisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08169432604954981941noreply@blogger.com