Pragmatic politics focused on the public interest for those uncomfortable with America's two-party system and its way of doing politics. Considering the interface of politics with psychology, cognitive biology, social behavior, morality and history.
Etiquette
DP Etiquette
First rule: Don't be a jackass. Most people are good.
Other rules: Do not attack or insult people you disagree with. Engage with facts, logic and beliefs. Out of respect for others, please provide some sources for the facts and truths you rely on if you are asked for that. If emotion is getting out of hand, get it back in hand. To limit dehumanizing people, don't call people or whole groups of people disrespectful names, e.g., stupid, dumb or liar. Insulting people is counterproductive to rational discussion. Insult makes people angry and defensive. All points of view are welcome, right, center, left and elsewhere. Just disagree, but don't be belligerent or reject inconvenient facts, truths or defensible reasoning.
This short note of interest just came to my attention again. It is worth a short post, just to keep bad memories fresh. The human mind tends to suppress bad memories. Sometimes that's a bad thing, like in this instance.
Various sources reported on this little nugget related to the 2020 election. Business Insider reported on the fund raising in an article entitled Trump is pocketing Georgia Senate runoff donations for his PAC, while the GOP candidates themselves don't get a dollar, a new report says:
While fundraising for the Georgia Senate runoffs, President Donald Trump is diverting 75% of most donations to his Save America political action committee, effectively allowing him to hold on to that money for future endeavors, Politico reported Monday.
"The reality is Donald Trump does not care about the future of the Republican Party, so if he can raise money off of the Georgia runoffs but keep the money for his own purposes, he will do so," a longtime GOP strategist told Politico.
This is just a reminder of how blatantly corrupt the ex-president was and still is, e.g., this April 2021 article entitled How Trump steered supporters into unwitting donations.
Two billionaires, Jeff Bezos (Amazon) and Sir Richard Branson (Virgin Galactic) are locked in a ferocious pissing match. Bezos whipped it out first a few weeks ago by declaring he is going into space on the first commercial space flight on his rocket, which I affectionately call the "Big Weiner."
Today, various sources are reporting that in pissing retaliation, Bezos announced that he is going to take a Wally Funk with him on his first Big Weiner. Bezos had planned to auction the last seat of his first space flight to the highest bidder. But after Branson's uppity move, Bezos had to do something.
Who or what is Wally Funk?
Good question. Wally Funk is an American woman, 82 years old. She is an aviator.
Mary Wallace "Wally" Funk in 1995
Short detour: Ms. Funk came to my attention some years ago, when she was admirably memorialized on a world smash hit CD, The Flight of Wally Funk, by the famous Australian rock band Spiderbait. The CD contains record shattering Spiderbait tunes such as Most Boys Suck, which is a gentle and touching commentary on the . . . . things in the typical early adult human male mind. This is heavy evolutionary biology stuff.
Most Boys Suck - lyrics
Love that patronizing air
Telling you what it thinks fair
It's as if we really care
We know that most boys suck
We're supposed to underplay
Worship everything you say
Doesn't seem to work that way
We know that most boys suck
You would like us all to know
Your dick fascinates you so
Ugly little sucker though
We know that most boys suck
Spiderbait is an outstanding Australian rock band. My fave Spiderbait Nobel Prize winning masterpiece is Parking Lot, which is the sad story of a woman who laments hard times about getting her tight pants on and waiting for her boyfriend to get out of custody for stealing groceries. It's really heavy social commentary stuff. There are echoes of another Spiderbait Nobel Prize winning masterpiece, Arse Higgin' Pants, in Parking lot. Tight pants seem to be a thing with the Spiderbait crowd.
One can only wonder how this would have played out if Branson hadn't whipped his fantasy out and locked horns with Bezos. Wally would most likely had her seat into space and her place in history diminished by the highest bidder that Bezos decided to forego. It was only in view of Branson's ego with its stream of urine thought that pushed the thought of Wally into Bezo's fevered mind.
See, sometimes something good can come from billionaires in pissing matches.
Former PresidentDonald Trumpsaid Wednesday he had made up his mind about whether he would seek to regain the White House in 2024, but declined to actually say whether he would launch yet anotherpresidential campaign.
“You’re not going to answer, but I have to ask,” Fox News host Sean Hannity told Trump at a town hall event in Edinburg, Texas.
“Where are you in the process, or — let me ask you this, without giving the answer … have you made up your mind?”
“Yes,” Trump responded, generating applause from the friendly audience.
On Wednesday, Trump railed against McConnell again, saying the Kentuckian “can no longer do the job.” He also lashed out against “RINOs” (“Republicans in name only”) and “weak Republicans” in Washington.
A new C-Span poll of presidential historians has ranked US presidents. As usual for expert rankings so far, the ex-president is ranked in the bottom four. He is tied with Franklin Pierce for third worst. The results are shown in comparison to rankings from 2017, 2009 and 2000.
This survey was informal, with respondents selected by C-SPAN, not by scientific polling. This year, more historians were invited to complete the survey compared to the past. C-SPAN said this was to better reflect diversity in race, gender, age and philosophy. That makes it harder to directly compare it to previous surveys. All of the respondents are distinguished presidential historians covering a broad range of perspectives.
The experts rated presidents from 1 to 10 on ten different leadership categories. The averages of all of ratings were then ranked. The ten categories are public persuasion, crisis leadership, economic management, moral authority, international relations, administrative skills, relations with Congress, vision/setting an agenda, pursuit of equal justice for all and performance within the context of the times. The ex-president's best average rating was for public persuasion, where he came in 32nd. On moral authority and administrative skills, however, he came in dead last, i.e., he was first in being last on morals and competence. That assessment seems quite reasonable.
Obviously, this ranking by experts is way out of synch with how most rank and file republicans view the ex-president. Some of them believe he was sent by God and was a great president. Some Republicans believe he is far and away the best US president ever.
One can reasonably expect silence from radical fascist Republican media sources and leaders. Most of the rank and file will probably remain ignorant of how history is starting to assess the fascist president's God-awful time in office, his incompetence and his lack of morality.
