Odds and Ends, September 2023

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Why Not Trump?

I have a fun exercise for you today. Watch this video clip of Sharyl Atkisson interviewing Donald Trump on September 24, 2023. Why wouldn’t voters love Trump if this is their image of him? (No, I’m not persuaded, but I think this is a fascinating video. Some of her other programs are worth a look.) 

Don’ y’all have a backup camera?

Recently I drove a friend to the Department of Licensing. I had to parallel park when I dropped her off, and I didn’t start from the perfect position. So I struggled with much to-ing and fro-ing. And I backed into the parked car behind me. The driver got out, checked out his front end and my back end, and said, “Don’ y’all have a backup camera?” 

Well, yes, I do have a backup camera, and yes, I was seeing his car and hearing the beeps warning me that I was getting close. And I chose to keep going because I really, really wanted to fit into that space. And, as things turned out, I was fortunate that the person in the car I “touched” was a kind soul. He would have been correct if he’s said, “Damn! You hit my car.” And he could then have gone into a rant and a rave. But he didn’t. And, in fact, the “hit” was really a “tap,” and there really, truly was no damage. But I was just tickled by his questioning whether or not I had a backup camera. Thank you, kind sir, for not turning a tiny tap into a major incident. I’ll try to do better in the future.

Mariners vs Seahawks

I confess, I’m a terrible fan. I only watch games when my teams are winning. I got into baseball this season once the Mariners got their act together and started winning more often than not. Now that we’re down to the wire, I check online to see how the game is going before I turn it on. Honestly, why do I care? I don’t know, but I can definitely get into fan mode when they’re winning. I have to say, that the rules changes this year definitely make the game more watchable. So congratulations MLB on a good decision. Now, would you Mariners just please get into the playoffs!

And what about football? You know, that game where players occasionally die on the field and frequently get concussions and other injuries. What excuse can I offer for watching football? Despite all the rule changes meant to lessen the number of concussions players get, it seems that every game has one or more head on crashes that trigger a “concussion protocol.” That’s a set of checks to see if a player has an actual concussion. If so, he can’t return to that game and has to wait for the effects of the concussion to wear off. The reason being that additional concussions before the first one resolves is correlated with more long term brain damage. Which is a bad thing.

Again, why watch a game that has done so much damage to so many players over so many years? Sigh. Fact is that really good plays are very exciting. Some of the pass plays, especially those amazing catches in tight situations. I’m in awe. But again, I can’t bear the pain of watching my team make mistakes and lose. Yup, I’m just a fair-weather fan. Sorry, fellas.

Trump Vs Biden, 2024?

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Following the 2020 election, I made it a point to find some Trump supporters who would talk to me and help me understand why they voted for a man who, in my humble opinion, is unfit to be President. I expanded my list of people I follow on Twitter, clicked on links that led to other links, and eventually I found a little group that started having weekly conversations on Zoom. The group was quite heterogeneous at the outset, included some Biden voters with concerns about Wokeness, as well Trump voters, and I learned a lot. 

Most of the Trump voters had leaned Republican over their voting careers, but some had gone back and forth between the Rs and Ds. The Biden voters in the group included folks like me who just couldn’t vote for Trump, but who were deeply concerned about everything that occurred in the summer of 2020 and responses in leftist cities. 

Some of the Trump voters could cite specific things Trump had done that they supported. But many just loathed Biden. Since I loathe Trump, that was a feeling I could relate to, even though I find it hard to attach “loathing” to Biden. He seems likable to me. My biggest gripe with Biden (at that time) was his treatment of Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings. My primary favorites had been Michael Bennet and Pete Buttigieg, and I still love Pete. I’d probably still love Bennet if he were visible today.

The main thing I learned from those discussions is that whatever I thought about Trump, I could not apply that judgement to his fans. His fans in this little group were regular people who paid some attention to politics, voted regularly, and had justifiable concerns about voting for a Democrat. They either thought Democrats in general were too extreme about climate change or Covid policies or trans rights or too soft on crime and too hard on police. Whatever their hot-button issue, Democrats were on the wrong side of it, and Trump’s personal qualities didn’t frighten them.

I’ve had the good fortune to live where reasonable Republicans have held office in the past, so it’s hard for me to write off Republicans completely (even though the current iteration of the Republican Party leaves a lot to be desired). Also, during Trump’s term in office, I started listening to some “never Trump” Republicans online and found them to be a group I could relate to. Today, I consider myself to be politically homeless, but I doubt that I’ll veer Republican if things ever settle down again. Depends on whether or not the Democrats get reasonable again. 

The most troubling thing for me right now is how common it is to loathe a candidate we don’t like. Where did all this loathing come from? This is not normal, folks. I suspect it comes from the siloing we’re doing with regard to our media sources and friend groups. Years ago, I read a book called “The Big Sort,” by Bill Bishop. The full title is, “The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded Americans is Tearing Us Apart.” Published in 2008, it’s still worth a read. One point made by Bishop is that it’s so much easier to use harsher language if we’re talking within a group that mostly agrees with us. We might tone it down a bit if we know that some of our neighbors are not like-minded. 

I experience this today because some of my neighbors don’t know how far I’ve drifted from the current orthodoxy that pervades my neighborhood. People say outrageous things that only prove that they have failed to read or listen to any contrary opinions or even look for facts about the matter. And when someone says something I consider uninformed, others nearby will chime in with, “Absolutely,” and other supportive statements. Although there are times when it just doesn’t work for me to object, I do on occasion, and I come off sounding shrill and scornful, when I want to sound well-informed and articulate. That’s partly me, and partly how others hear me.

OK. So we have media silos and back-yard BBQs with like-minded neighbors. And now it’s looking like we might have a rematch of Trump and Biden with fear and loathing again the dominant mood. I want to cry. This really, truly makes me think that democracy is just not viable in the long run. 

Although I personally think that life under Joe Biden has been OK, and that his ability to manage the crisis in Ukraine is remarkably good, I don’t expect to convince anyone who thinks otherwise. But I absolutely hope to convince anyone and everyone that we can only vote for candidates who accept the possibility of losing without insisting that an election is rigged. 

Elections in America are reasonably well run. (Let’s just not talk about the Electoral College.) I love our mail ballot system in Washington even though people have tried to spread fear about mail ballots. Many states have a slew of volunteers who spend a very long day helping people sign in and cast ballots in person. Some of our voting machines in the past have not had a paper trail, and that needs to be fixed. A paper trail is essential to maintain confidence in machine voting. People who think our elections can be rigged have not spent time volunteering or even learning how many protections are in place to secure our ballots. 

No election, even in the US, is perfect. But there simply isn’t wide-spread fraud. The term used in the latest indictment of Trump is “outcome-determinative” fraud. I like this term because it allows for the possibility of anomalies that occur in most elections but don’t affect the outcome. 

I worry that if Trump were to become President again, Ukraine would vanish from the face of the earth and the US would become one of those “democracies” led by an authoritarian who stays in office forever, clamps down on dissent, installs cronies throughout the government, and forgets to help the people who supported him. You might view those outcomes favorably, or have a completely different set of concerns that lead you to support him. We can differ on those things.

But we must agree that a candidate who cannot accept the possibility of losing should not even be running for office. Some candidates lose. It could happen to your candidate. It happened to Trump. That’s the reality of elections. 

My Very First World Problems

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I got a parking ticket yesterday. $47 for backing into a space that was signed for parallel parking. No matter that every other car north of mine was backed in to their spaces. There was a sign that said, “Parallel Parking Only.” I thought it only applied to the space south of mine in which one car was parked correctly.

I could maybe contest it. But for me to get a ticket for following the mob instead of thinking for myself only seems appropriate. I’m always, always preaching that the mob could be wrong. So I think I’ll just pay it and count it as a. lesson. 

Meanwhile, the parking ticket was placed on my car while I was in the nice, new County Service Center, the place you go when the Department of Licensing won’t issue you an enhanced driver’s license because there is no record that you changed your name 56 years ago when you got married. Yes, you got that right. But hey, I took a number, got in line, spoke with a very nice civil servant, got two copies of my recorded marriage license (filed under a name with a typo, thus not easy to find – also fitting as I am the Queen of Typos). After pouting a bit about the parking ticket, I realized that the document I got did not actually verify that I changed my name when I got married, and the name change is the only part that the DOL really cares about. 

I intended to go back today, take another number, and try again to obtain proof that I changed my name, but, of course, it’s the 4th of July. So I will try to remember to try again tomorrow. 

Meanwhile again, we still need to clean up the living room after dumping all of our camping gear in it when we came home last Friday. Did I mention that we went camping last week. What. A. Treat! Yes, camping. Tent, cots, sleeping bags, outhouses, picnic table, fire pit. The whole works. Perfect weather. Not crowded. (We went Sunday – Friday because it’s impossible to get reservations on the weekend.) 

It seems that I love to get out of town. I try not to complain about the constant city noise constantly, but I don’t love it. Makes me love winters when we close our windows. We live close to a freeway and a bunch of hospitals, a fire station and crime, so in addition to the general traffic noise, we have sirens and sirens and more sirens. It’s pretty handy to walk across the street when your heart is failing, or your abdomen is shrieking in pain, but I’m not certain that that convenience makes up for the noise. Hence the joy of getting out of town.

We had one other first world problem, namely a drug that my husband takes daily (for about 20 years, that makes his life tolerable) was unavailable as we were leaving town. Back ordered! Out of stock! Couldn’t be found anywhere! He had enough to get through two weeks, so we went camping and hoped it would get resolved by the time we got back. It wasn’t, but we got a text today saying his Rx is ready. Hope it’s that one ☝️.

All of this has reminded me that my life is so good. Just imagine if we couldn’t afford a car (or gas), or if we didn’t have a government service center a mile away with friendly civil servants eager to sort through gazillion documents to find the one with the typo that was actually mine, or if I couldn’t afford to pay the parking ticket, or if we couldn’t escape the noise of the city now and then, or if we didn’t have ready access to medical care and prescriptions, mostly covered or very low cost, or if we couldn’t live in a retirement home with activities and good neighbors and food that I don’t have to cook, or if I didn’t live in a country where I could speak my mind without going to jail, or live with the luxury of not being in a war zone. 

Folks, I will take my first world problems, with gratitude, any day. 

In This House, We Believe… What Exactly?

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Recently, I put up a post about the Cowboy Code of Ethics asking you all if you would accept it as it, modify it in some way, or do some completely other thing. Then I needed to look up the wording for signs I see around our neighborhood starting out with “In this house, we believe…” with a list containing phrases such as Black Lives Matter, Women’s Rights are Human Rights, No Human is Illegal, Science is Real… often ending with “Kindness is Everything.” Not exactly a code of ethics, but an interesting exercise none the less.

In the process of looking for that sign, I discovered that people with other ideas had adopted their own versions of this list. I found one that read: Biden Stole the Election; Fauci Can’t Be Trusted; Bill Gates Isn’t a Doctor; Hillary Belongs in Prison; Epstein Didn’t Kill Himself; Media is Propaganda. So, OK. That’s them. 

Then I opened a Substack post in which the author had created her own list. Here’s what Jenny Holland writes:

In this Substack, we believe

  • Tucker Carlson is the most perceptive, intelligent broadcaster today
  • Donald Trump is far less corrupt and dangerous than Joe Biden
  • Steve Bannon is just a Reagan Democrat, not the second coming of Joseph Goebbels
  • MAGA is the the 21st version of the early 20th century labour movement, not the Brown Shirts
  • Anti-vaxxers are probably right about everything
  • Conspiracy theorists should be listened to
  • Traditional Catholics are not domestic terrorists
  • Muslim parents are right to protest LGBT lessons in schools
  • January 6 was a fed-surrection
  • Giorgia Meloni is the most interesting politician in Europe and the left is angry because she sounds more left-wing than they do
  • Viktor Orban is correct about protecting traditional Christian values

I responded to this post by explaining what I agreed with and what I disagreed with. The author was kind enough to reply saying she thought I wasn’t hopeless. 

So, dear readers, what would we agree on if we were to come up with our own version of “In this house, we believe…” I will start, and probably not finish, this task expanding on my thinking on some of them. Feel free to challenge me on any of them.

In this house, we believe:

  • All lives matter.
  • Doubt is essential.
  • Fairness is fine, but don’t expect that you’ll get it.
  • Schadenfreude is acceptable once in a while.
  • Western medicine is capable of good things, but a little humility would be good for all. (I survived pneumonia as a kid with the help of penicillin; I’m alive with the help of a pacemaker today.)
  • The health of my community sometimes requires sacrifices on my part.
  • The concept of “My Truth” is BS, though “The Truth” is often elusive.
  • We all act based on our hopes and fears. Understanding other people’s hopes and fears might help heal some of our divisions. We could, at least, have better conversations.

Regarding the first of these, “all lives matter,” I honestly, truthfully, deep, deep down, believe that if we are not safe to say that all lives matter, we cannot heal our divisions. Saying this does not erase our history, but if we cannot respect each other enough to say that their life matters just as our own life matters, then we cannot get to square one in solving anything.

Regarding doubt, we obviously need to accept some things as provisionally true in order to get out of bed in the morning and do anything at all. But we should also be willing to entertain new information and change our minds when something persuasive comes along. It’s becoming really, truly hard to know what’s right and what’s wrong, but doing nothing is not an option, just as picking a side and sticking with it no matter what is also not an option. 

Western medicine, aka Big Pharma, drives me crazy with their ridiculous propensity to take advantage of patents, their ability to flood any legislative body with lobbyists, and their ability to present cherry-picked information to doctors along with steak dinners and cocktails. Is the answer public funding of all research? I doubt it. Better oversight by a more independent FDA? Perhaps. Whatever the case, we need to address this. AND other forms of coziness between physicians and services such as labs, imaging, and other equipment providers.

Public health has been targeted since Covid lockdowns, vaccine mandates, and masking school kids. But it’s essential. So many of the improvements in life expectancy over the past 200 years are due to public health efforts. We can’t allow this service to be undermined.

“My Truth:” Give me a break. Yes, your experience has shaped your thinking, but no, you do not have “Your Truth.” You have your thoughts based on your experiences. Actual truth is what we can agree on after testing it in a series of back and forth challenges. And even then, it’s provisional until somewhere down the line, new information upends our current understanding. 

My brain is now maxed out for the day. Time for you to argue with me!

About That Code of Ethics…

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The reason I featured that particular “code of ethics” (see my May 25 post) for discussion is because it so starkly contrasts with other guidance we get nowadays. I’m thinking of “centering” guidance, such as “We will center racism…” or whatever other ism is in the headlines. I stumbled across the “Live each day with courage…” code when I was browsing news about Wyoming, my home state. I do that periodically, just to see what that broad empty expanse of the Wild West is up to today.

In my most recent exploration of all things Wyoming, I discovered that the Code of the West was adopted in 2010 as the Official State Code of Wyoming. The one thing I changed in my recent post was the “Work for the team” line which was originally “Ride for the brand.” I just figured that “Ride for the brand” would give too much away, and I wanted it to come to you in a neutral way.

This code is being used in schools across the state, and I have to say that prefer it to all of the various diversity, equity, inclusion guidance that kids get in many schools today. I would quibble with lots of it based on experience derived from my advancing age. For example: “Always finish what you start.” Ha. A year ago, as part of my ongoing downsizing effort, I officially gave up on a variety of knitting projects, some of which were fairly close to completion. I’d had them sitting around, some for years, waiting for a bit of advice, time, or that feeling of optimism I had when I started them. They only induced guilt each time I looked at them until I finally said to myself, “This is ridiculous. Perhaps someone will make use of this yarn. Get these out of here!” And yes, I’m glad I did that.

One bit of the code I do like is this one: “Talk less. Say more.” For me, it’s missing a bit in the middle, namely “Listen first.” I really am committed to doing a lot more listening lately, and I am learning some valuable things. I’d do other editing before adopting the code as is, but if a state is going to give guidance in this day and age, I rather they use this code than, say, the Ten Commandments, or “Look for racism everywhere all the time,” or other admonitions that pass for good advice today.

If you were searching for advice that schools could adopt, would you start from scratch, edit something like this, or forego the exercise altogether? Years ago, I substituted in a 4th grade classroom that had this for a motto: “It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice.” It was a great class, but perhaps it was because the teacher just led the kids in a supportive, but patient way. Perhaps it wasn’t just the motto. Whatever the case, I do think it might be worthwhile to think through our values now and then. Have they changed? Do they need to be updated? Have world events or personal experience affected how we see things?

Hmm.