When I saw the news last week that Lizzo’s backup dancers are suing her for sexual discrimination and—irony of ironies—fat-shaming, my brain leapt to an immediate and terrifying conclusion: “This is why Donald Trump will win next year’s election.” I promise I’ll explain this non-obvious, knee-jerk association, but before we proceed, a bit of background - I think Donald Trump is a terrible human and a proven threat to American democracy. I have never voted for him and never will. I do not want him back in the White House, ever.
Hey Paul, good post, I agree with much, but not all. Overall, would like to see a move toward the center. I do disagree about not teaching a first grader about queen theory (whatever exactly that is). My parents met in drama school and growing up in NY, many of their friends were gay and they were awesome. Many of my best friends to this day are queer, and they enrich my life. As I saw on a sign recently, I believe "America would be a much better place if we had less guns and more drag queens!"
No Barnaby, you're WRONG. Just kidding. I too have many gay friends and I am a better person for it. Along these lines, we are also a better society today than we were even just 20 years ago thanks to gay marriage legalization and broader acceptance of different sexual orientations. Likewise, I believe that all trans-people are worthy and deserving of love and respect, and I will do my best to use whatever pronoun a person requests. But I do think there are differences between a trans woman and a biological woman and I don't think believing so makes me a transphobe. I also believe that parents' rights rank above schools' rights and that feeding puberty blockers to a 10 year old who thinks they're trans but is more likely gay is a very imprudent thing to do. Like so many other issues in our current public discourse, this is not a black/white thing, and that's what I'm trying to point out. The reaction to CRT or queer theory shouldn't be book-burning or banning drag shows. But I do think many public and private school faculties/staffs/accreditation agencies are doing all they can to push policy and conversation as far to the left as they possibly can. Saying so doesn't mean I'm an unreasonable MAGA case, though that is how I will be painted if only in the minds of some readers.
Amazing that we're the most obese country in the world yet seemingly the only place that cares about fat shaming. Also: I wish all the people who "give me hope for the future" polled at higher than .000001%.
I think you're right about Hunter but dead wrong about President Joe Biden. I think he's a good man, maybe too old to be POTUS but we're definitely better off now than we were 4 years ago with the Trump family in charge. At least we don't have refrigerated trailers parked at hospitals filled with dead bodies and Jared Kushner in charge of the Covid response. Right now Joe Biden is what we have and the future of our country depends on Donald Trump being defeated. While I agree there is some truth in what you say about some of the radical left-wing ideology; what you're saying could influence some folks to vote for an alternative candidate who has no chance of winning and therefore help Trump defeat Biden. That would be a disaster for our country IMHO. If Trump wins we have him for life. He won't leave.
Hi Elliott - thanks for reading. I hope we learn that Joe had nothing to do with Hunter's shenanigans. Perhaps we'd know that answer already if Hunter's laptop could have been explored earlier. Likewise, I don't want this tiny article to influence anyone to vote for RFK or anyone else they don't agree with. My belief is that we desperately need more reasonable and nuanced conversation in our political dialog but the left doesn't see the extremity and rigidity of its own positions.
Agree Paul. I miss those earlier days when I just had friends - didn't even know or care if they were Rep or Dem, didn't matter. Thanks for what you do. Enjoy your writing and your comedy!
My gosh, our politics are perfectly aligned. So, let me nit pick a little bit. 1) "Dems have abandoned law and order" should be more fully articulated. Black Lives Matter was an important movement in the USA that had police departments and minority citizens and the ACLU finally working together UNTIL "Defund the Police" destroyed the BLM movement. The far right hated the BLM movement but it had too much momentum to hold it back. Leave it to the far left to do the far right's work by embracing a bizarre extremist position that they chanted in the streets. 2) The facts suggest that Hunter Biden is a loser, sleaze ball, addict and con artist who has a father that stays committed to unconditional love even when it creates political jeopardy. Seven years of deep investigations have shown that Hunter pretended that he had influence with the Vice President (which made him a valuable consultant to the Chinese) but in practice, he had no political influence with the Obama administration at all. Even Trump acknowledged this. Trump withheld financial aid to Ukraine because they would not publicly announce and investigation into Hunter/Joe Biden activities. Trump told Zelenskyy "you don't have to actually produce any evidence, just announce the investigation publicly and I will take care of the rest." 3) Biden has always distanced himself from the far left. He is a centrist. He was dragged into attempting to wipe out student debt even though he did not support it during his campaign. He made the effort and let the Supreme Court fix it. That was brilliant politics, not extremism.
1) When you dig into the agenda of BLM and Anti-racism, you find much scarier stuff than their pleasing headlines promise (to be anti-racist you must be anti-capitalist / integration into a "white" economy is oppression). And where you don't hear "De-fund the police" much any more, the damage has been done in the most-cited cities like SF and LA, but even in Atlanta. 2) I hope (and even suspect) you're right but foot-dragging to let light shine makes ya wonder is there fire near the smoke, or is that just Hunter hitting the pipe? 3) I think centrism is his natural inclination but he's not strong enough to maintain it. He's trying best he can to forgive as much student loan debt as possible with ZERO efforts to fix the underlying problems. So what's the real motivation?
My new hometown of Asheville NC is a great city but it went through a world of hurt with the Defund The Police movement. Within a few months of the local DTP protests, 40% of the city police department took jobs in other cities that are far less liberal. The remaining 60% were the least motivated, laziest cops. Homelessness became a serious problem because calls from local retailers and restaurants for help with homeless people who refused to leave their stores were met with a simple reply from the police "oh, too bad, I think you need to contact social services to deal with that." Cops simply did not respond to calls for anything less than violent crime or a person in real physical danger (like car accidents). Ironically, the police self-defunded the payroll by 40% giving the protestors exactly what they said they wanted. 18 months later, things are fine but it was a legitimate crisis for a small liberal city in the middle of Trumpland.
Well said Mark, I agree. But to me the bottom line is that right now Biden is the only candidate with a chance to defeat Trump. And if Trump wins nothing else matters. USA becomes just another Trump property. Speaking of sleaze balls, it's now beginning to look like Jared & Ivanka monetized their positions even more than DT did.
Thanks. It's not "beginning" to look like Jared benefited in ways that make the worst claims about Hunter Biden look like kid stuff but because the Trumps corruption happens right out in public, we seem to discount it. Trump put Jared in charge of the Middle East even though Jared had zero experience. Jared started meeting with Middle East heads of State without involving the Secretary of State!!! His power and influence with Saudi Arabia and Qatar was mind boggling. At the same time, Kushner's real estate firm was in deep trouble because they were on the verge of losing control of their premiere piece of real estate - 666 Fifth Avenue. Kushner had no way to service the debt and a huge payment coming due that he could not meet. Well, a company called Brookfield came in at the last minute and paid 99 years of rent upfront giving Kushner the cash he needed. Brookfield is an investment firm and their largest investment partner by far is the Qatar Investment Authority. This all happened out in the open in 2018. Nobody disputes the facts I am describing above. Trump becomes president, he gives his son-in-law ungodly powers to influence affairs in the middle-east and 18 months into his administration, a Saudi-Qatar partnership invests $1.8 billion into 666 Fifth Avenue. Even if the most extreme claims of corruption involving Joe and Hunter were actually supported by evidence, they were playing tiddlywinks by comparison to Trump and Kushner.
I'm pretty old now (72) but I'd love to be able to read the history 50 years from now as to what actually happened. Not positive but I suspect there was even more corruption than what we are aware of. Even now the fact that a federal judge has publicly stated that the former POTUS is a convicted rapist but he is still the leading presidential candidate for the GOP is mind boggling.
Hey Paul, good post, I agree with much, but not all. Overall, would like to see a move toward the center. I do disagree about not teaching a first grader about queen theory (whatever exactly that is). My parents met in drama school and growing up in NY, many of their friends were gay and they were awesome. Many of my best friends to this day are queer, and they enrich my life. As I saw on a sign recently, I believe "America would be a much better place if we had less guns and more drag queens!"
No Barnaby, you're WRONG. Just kidding. I too have many gay friends and I am a better person for it. Along these lines, we are also a better society today than we were even just 20 years ago thanks to gay marriage legalization and broader acceptance of different sexual orientations. Likewise, I believe that all trans-people are worthy and deserving of love and respect, and I will do my best to use whatever pronoun a person requests. But I do think there are differences between a trans woman and a biological woman and I don't think believing so makes me a transphobe. I also believe that parents' rights rank above schools' rights and that feeding puberty blockers to a 10 year old who thinks they're trans but is more likely gay is a very imprudent thing to do. Like so many other issues in our current public discourse, this is not a black/white thing, and that's what I'm trying to point out. The reaction to CRT or queer theory shouldn't be book-burning or banning drag shows. But I do think many public and private school faculties/staffs/accreditation agencies are doing all they can to push policy and conversation as far to the left as they possibly can. Saying so doesn't mean I'm an unreasonable MAGA case, though that is how I will be painted if only in the minds of some readers.
Err.... "Queer Theory"
Amazing that we're the most obese country in the world yet seemingly the only place that cares about fat shaming. Also: I wish all the people who "give me hope for the future" polled at higher than .000001%.
LOL x2. I'm still pulling for Ross Perot! (But for real - check out Will Hurd!!!)
I think you're right about Hunter but dead wrong about President Joe Biden. I think he's a good man, maybe too old to be POTUS but we're definitely better off now than we were 4 years ago with the Trump family in charge. At least we don't have refrigerated trailers parked at hospitals filled with dead bodies and Jared Kushner in charge of the Covid response. Right now Joe Biden is what we have and the future of our country depends on Donald Trump being defeated. While I agree there is some truth in what you say about some of the radical left-wing ideology; what you're saying could influence some folks to vote for an alternative candidate who has no chance of winning and therefore help Trump defeat Biden. That would be a disaster for our country IMHO. If Trump wins we have him for life. He won't leave.
Hi Elliott - thanks for reading. I hope we learn that Joe had nothing to do with Hunter's shenanigans. Perhaps we'd know that answer already if Hunter's laptop could have been explored earlier. Likewise, I don't want this tiny article to influence anyone to vote for RFK or anyone else they don't agree with. My belief is that we desperately need more reasonable and nuanced conversation in our political dialog but the left doesn't see the extremity and rigidity of its own positions.
Agree Paul. I miss those earlier days when I just had friends - didn't even know or care if they were Rep or Dem, didn't matter. Thanks for what you do. Enjoy your writing and your comedy!
My gosh, our politics are perfectly aligned. So, let me nit pick a little bit. 1) "Dems have abandoned law and order" should be more fully articulated. Black Lives Matter was an important movement in the USA that had police departments and minority citizens and the ACLU finally working together UNTIL "Defund the Police" destroyed the BLM movement. The far right hated the BLM movement but it had too much momentum to hold it back. Leave it to the far left to do the far right's work by embracing a bizarre extremist position that they chanted in the streets. 2) The facts suggest that Hunter Biden is a loser, sleaze ball, addict and con artist who has a father that stays committed to unconditional love even when it creates political jeopardy. Seven years of deep investigations have shown that Hunter pretended that he had influence with the Vice President (which made him a valuable consultant to the Chinese) but in practice, he had no political influence with the Obama administration at all. Even Trump acknowledged this. Trump withheld financial aid to Ukraine because they would not publicly announce and investigation into Hunter/Joe Biden activities. Trump told Zelenskyy "you don't have to actually produce any evidence, just announce the investigation publicly and I will take care of the rest." 3) Biden has always distanced himself from the far left. He is a centrist. He was dragged into attempting to wipe out student debt even though he did not support it during his campaign. He made the effort and let the Supreme Court fix it. That was brilliant politics, not extremism.
1) When you dig into the agenda of BLM and Anti-racism, you find much scarier stuff than their pleasing headlines promise (to be anti-racist you must be anti-capitalist / integration into a "white" economy is oppression). And where you don't hear "De-fund the police" much any more, the damage has been done in the most-cited cities like SF and LA, but even in Atlanta. 2) I hope (and even suspect) you're right but foot-dragging to let light shine makes ya wonder is there fire near the smoke, or is that just Hunter hitting the pipe? 3) I think centrism is his natural inclination but he's not strong enough to maintain it. He's trying best he can to forgive as much student loan debt as possible with ZERO efforts to fix the underlying problems. So what's the real motivation?
My new hometown of Asheville NC is a great city but it went through a world of hurt with the Defund The Police movement. Within a few months of the local DTP protests, 40% of the city police department took jobs in other cities that are far less liberal. The remaining 60% were the least motivated, laziest cops. Homelessness became a serious problem because calls from local retailers and restaurants for help with homeless people who refused to leave their stores were met with a simple reply from the police "oh, too bad, I think you need to contact social services to deal with that." Cops simply did not respond to calls for anything less than violent crime or a person in real physical danger (like car accidents). Ironically, the police self-defunded the payroll by 40% giving the protestors exactly what they said they wanted. 18 months later, things are fine but it was a legitimate crisis for a small liberal city in the middle of Trumpland.
Well said Mark, I agree. But to me the bottom line is that right now Biden is the only candidate with a chance to defeat Trump. And if Trump wins nothing else matters. USA becomes just another Trump property. Speaking of sleaze balls, it's now beginning to look like Jared & Ivanka monetized their positions even more than DT did.
Thanks. It's not "beginning" to look like Jared benefited in ways that make the worst claims about Hunter Biden look like kid stuff but because the Trumps corruption happens right out in public, we seem to discount it. Trump put Jared in charge of the Middle East even though Jared had zero experience. Jared started meeting with Middle East heads of State without involving the Secretary of State!!! His power and influence with Saudi Arabia and Qatar was mind boggling. At the same time, Kushner's real estate firm was in deep trouble because they were on the verge of losing control of their premiere piece of real estate - 666 Fifth Avenue. Kushner had no way to service the debt and a huge payment coming due that he could not meet. Well, a company called Brookfield came in at the last minute and paid 99 years of rent upfront giving Kushner the cash he needed. Brookfield is an investment firm and their largest investment partner by far is the Qatar Investment Authority. This all happened out in the open in 2018. Nobody disputes the facts I am describing above. Trump becomes president, he gives his son-in-law ungodly powers to influence affairs in the middle-east and 18 months into his administration, a Saudi-Qatar partnership invests $1.8 billion into 666 Fifth Avenue. Even if the most extreme claims of corruption involving Joe and Hunter were actually supported by evidence, they were playing tiddlywinks by comparison to Trump and Kushner.
I'm pretty old now (72) but I'd love to be able to read the history 50 years from now as to what actually happened. Not positive but I suspect there was even more corruption than what we are aware of. Even now the fact that a federal judge has publicly stated that the former POTUS is a convicted rapist but he is still the leading presidential candidate for the GOP is mind boggling.