This afternoon, I will be speaking to a delegation of Argentinians who are in town to learn about American government. Trying to come up with a theme for my comments and thought of my Grandma Saxman who used to say, “Well, Lord knows I tried…”
Please feel free to offer any suggestions I can share with our southern hemisphere friends! Just hit reply…
As a result of that confab, Virginia FREE Friday Zoom moves to 4:15pm today.
*****
Donald Trump has been indicted with very predictable reactions from the reaction crowd.
When news of this magnitude breaks, my age kicks in. I recalled this Chinese proverb:
A farmer and his son had a beloved horse who helped the family earn a living. One day, the horse ran away and their neighbours exclaimed, “Your horse ran away, what terrible luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not.”
A few days later, the horse returned home, leading a few wild horses back to the farm as well. The neighbours shouted out, “Your horse has returned, and brought several horses home with him. What great luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not.”
Later that week, the farmer’s son was trying to break one of the horses and she threw him to the ground, breaking his leg. The neighbours cried, “Your son broke his leg, what terrible luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not.”
A few weeks later, soldiers from the national army marched through town, recruiting all boys for the army. They did not take the farmer’s son, because he had a broken leg. The neighbours shouted, “Your boy is spared, what tremendous luck!” To which the farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.”
I have not paid too much attention to the various pending legal matters regarding the former president, but watching all the resulting Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) brought to mind Carl Sandburg’s observation:
If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell.
The problem here is BOTH sides are pounding the table and yelling like hell even though the indictments remain sealed.
So, yeah…we’ll see…
My takeaways (probably better bets than my March Madness bracket) are:
- this will help Donald Trump in the short term. Small bump in the polls.
- over the long term more and more Republican voters will want to move on from Trump’s legal problems which could become more serious than this one.
- Independent and centrist voters will continue to look for a political home.
- Republicans will attack the politicization of legal system but steer clear of the unseemly underlying facts of this case. Paying off a porn star is a suboptimal narrative.
- someday someone might point out with some level of disgust that the former president actually shtupped a porn star and likely tried to cover it up. Folks like to say, “It’s always the cover up that gets you into trouble.” Umm…how about…oh never mind.
- how much fun is it watching folks choose between defending A) drag shows in schools or B) former presidents paying off porn stars?
- how about C) neither A nor B?
The Washington Post Editorial Board opined quickly:
The Trump indictment is a poor test case for prosecuting a former president [1]
Donald Trump deserves the legal scrutiny he’s getting — which has come from many corners on many counts. Yet of the long list of alleged violations, the likely charges on which a grand jury in New York state voted to indict him [2] are perhaps the least compelling. There’s cause for concern, and caution, ahead.
Peggy Noonan wrote a good column on this last week titled:
She concludes:
The question is, Are we doing the wise thing? No. Hold your fire. Save the mug shot for Georgia, the handcuffs for Jan. 6. Those were real offenses against the country.
We’ll see.
Speaking of improving societal well being…
Wait, were we?
No. Not at all.
A new study out shows that going to a Live Sporting Event (LSE) improves well being. [4]
It found that attending live sporting events results in higher scores of two major measurements of subjective wellbeing – life satisfaction and a sense of “life being worthwhile” – as well as lower levels of loneliness.
Seriously. Just go to a ball game. Get a beer and a hot dog. Sit in the stands. Root for a team. Buy a hat. Keep score. But take someone with you. THEY NEED IT and probably so do you, too.
It might just begin to heal this fractured nation.
Not convinced you need to go to a ball game? Check out this polling from the Wall St. Journal on our American values pull back: [6]
 [7] |
Attendance at baseball games has gone down over the last decade plus, maybe MLB’s rules changes will help reverse these trends. If we don’t think internet, social media, and smart phones aren’t are a bigly part of this decline, then we just aren’t paying attention.
When we look at screens more than other human faces, we mirror the machines. #SuboptimalOnSteroids
We have seen enough of this one. It’s bad. Time to deal with the consequences head on.
Throw in what our children call The Big Lie – that they stay in school, graduate college, get married, can buy a house and afford to raise children.
Here’s what their generation is going to say to ours/yours:
 [9] |
The math just isn’t there anymore. They can’t find affordable housing, think about paying for child care, and…ya know…enjoy life.
Our solution as a family? Build one big multi-generational house and share the costs. Wish us luck as we have only just begun. BUT the good news is that all four adult kids and their spouses/partners want to do this.
Seriously, this is happening.
We’ll see…
This afternoon, I will be speaking to a delegation of Argentinians who are in town to learn about American government. Trying to come up with a theme for my comments and thought of my Grandma Saxman who used to say, “Well, Lord knows I tried…”
Please feel free to offer any suggestions I can share with our southern hemisphere friends! Just hit reply…
As a result of that confab, Virginia FREE Friday Zoom moves to 4:15pm today.
Click Here to join the conversation about Trump’s indictment and the news of the week. [10]
Clowns to the left of me/jokers to the right
Here I am stuck in the middle with you.
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