Trump is a poor person’s idea of a rich man, a weak person’s idea of a strong man, and a stupid person’s idea of a smart man.
I’m not sure who said that first. One site credits Michael Moore, but I don’t know. Anyway. This.
Trump is completely out of touch, living in his rich asshole bubble the way he does — and his dementia (or maybe drug-addled stupor, or both) is increasingly on display.
An old fashioned term that we use — groceries. I used it on the campaign. It’s such an old fashioned term, but a beautiful term. Groceries. It says a bag with different things in it.
I think Robert Reich has this nailed: 10 rules for dealing with Trump’s demands for capitulation
Trump is 100% in this for his own ego. He doesn’t care about trade deficits, about fentanyl, about protecting women or children, about the price of eggs, about the middle class, about farmers, about the rest of the world’s goodwill toward America, or anything else. I suspect he doesn’t even actually care about his various bigotries, he’s just echoing the hate that his cult wants to hear. Trump cares only about making Trump feel important.
He is cosplaying as a head of state, just as he previously pretended to be a shrewd businessman (when the reality is, if he’d parked his inherited wealth in a money market account and started zero businesses, he’d be richer today).
The difference from his first administration is, other scumbags have latched onto him, knowing he’s weak-minded and gullible and doesn’t give a shit; they are playing him, using him as their puppet. Not just Putin this time, but Musk, Zuck, the Project 2025 shitheads, etc. The main dangers in that game are (A) that Trump has no loyalty to anyone but Trump, (B) many of the would-be puppet masters hate each other’s guts, (C) Trump’s increasingly blatant dementia and absolute foolhardiness and that of his cabinet and followers may outpace or overshadow them achieving their goals, and (D) wrecking necessary governmental institutions and crashing the economy doesn’t help the billionaires. As Musk sees with Tesla stock plunging, sales falling off, dealerships being vandalized etc. The leopards are eating everyones’ faces here.
Also this:
It is very likely that the tariff policy was generated by ChatGPT. And it includes tariffs against islands that are inhabited only by penguins, and against the British India Ocean Territory, which is occupied only by a joint US/UK military base (the original population having been forcibly deported to other islands by the UK in 1968-1973). Of course, the stupidity of those details pales in comparison to the economic and diplomatic stupidity of the tariffs in the first place.
And then there’s Elon, whose DOGE has basically been nothing but piracy:
Elon Musk Can’t Take the Heat
Everything is blowing up in Elon Musk’s face
‘Constant failure’
Five months ago, The Economist (not known to be particularly leftist…) said on a magazine cover that America’s economy (under Biden) was “the envy of the world.” Today:
Oddly, I am hopeful that billionaires and would-be billionaires, and all those people who put on blinders to Trump’s idiocies up to this point, will collectively admit the so-called emperor has no clothes, withdraw their support, pressure other Republicans to resist Trump’s worst excesses, discredit the entire MAGA / Project 2025 program, and walk back on all of the hateful bullshit. The cognitive dissonance can only stretch so far. Right?
Right…?
Anyway, enough of that.
I started reading Jonathan Stearne’s The Audible Past yesterday. Though it’s the kind of intellectual thing that could have been very dry, the writing style prevents it from being too much so and it’s telling an intriguing story. For instance: Alexander Graham Bell, before the telephone, wanted to make devices to “help” deaf people — by which he meant, train them to pass as hearing in mainstream society. (He was a eugenics fan and opposed to deaf folks having their own language and culture.) He and Clarence J Blake invented the “ear phonotograph,” which used an actual human middle ear sourced from a dead guy (unlike the earlier phonotograph) to transcribe sound waves onto paper.
But the same day I started reading this book, we had a thunderstorm and a very close lightning strike took out my computer speakers. There was a super bright flash from the lightning and basically instantaneous thunder, and I’m pretty sure I did hear a “pop” from the speakers. They were cheap, a barebones older generation of Creative Pebble speakers, not really used for music production. Still, it irked me to have to untangle their cables, toss it away and buy another pair. This time I’m going for a slight upgrade, Creative T100, still very much computer speakers and nothing super hi-fi though. The acoustics and noise in this room aren’t worth spending more, and I feel like my music is headphones-oriented anyway.
The shaving soap and brush arrived. I mostly like the scents as they sit in their containers. I’ve used Southern Witchcrafts’ “Valley of Ashes” twice so far, once without and once without the “Smolder” pre-shave oil.
The description of the scent notes of that one is odd: “Coal, Tar, Bourbon, Tobacco, Bitter Citrus, Smoke, Leather, Motor Oil, Burning Rubber, Diesel, Clove, Birch Tar, Bergamot.” Some folks online say it smells like an old-fashioned but well-kept auto repair shop, or “like Alfred working on the Batmobile” or other such things. I’m really not getting the hydrocarbon thing from it at all, nor big masculine energy; especially with the pre-shave oil I’m getting more of an impression of frankincense maybe. To me it’s slightly unusual but pleasant, and does smell like something one should be shaving with.
This is my first time using a shaving brush, and this soap does lather up very quickly and is smooth, but “thin” rather than “bulky” the way the LESSN bar can be. As I shave I don’t end up with clogs of semi-solid gunk on the razor that needs to be re-melted and rinsed off with hot water. I would say it’s not as moisturizing, and my face doesn’t seem as smooth the next day. After two shaves there’s still enough in the sample container for one or maybe even two more rounds, and I’ll go ahead and finish it before trying the next thing. (Actually I’m also curious how LESSN works with the brush instead of directly rubbing it on.)
The wall contractor’s going to park some equipment in our driveway today, so that’s a sign of impending progress — hopefully the work will start on Monday, which is forecast to be dry and cool again after this stormy week.