• Quotes,  Utah Phillips

    Monday quote – Utah Phillips edition

    I’ve been feeling very Western in sentiment lately, and less Southern I suppose – I find myself thinking more about how my Grandfather described America, i.e. bounded disparate identities moving in the same direction (that’s how I remember it anyway) – which made this quote ring true.

    Yes, the long memory is the most radical idea in this country. It is the loss of that long memory which deprives our people of that connective flow of thoughts and events that clarifies our vision, not of where we’re going, but where we want to go.”

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  • Military

    One unnoted correlation regarding gays and the military

    Seemingly the gayer the military gets, i.e. starting with don’t ask , don’t tell, then to openly serving, then to the current whatever transgender terminology the stature of the military has gone up, by any measure I can think of, in every quarter of society.  Come to think of it, it’s probably gone too far, and we we’re not exercising enough oversight and thought like we should.

    I have no greater point, but it’s odd that no one else has noticed the connection.

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  • Trump

    Transgender Dog Whistles

    So, the whole “transgender issue”, whatever that is seems to be the premier dog whistle and distraction of the age – Trump just made some pronouncement on the topic – which will gin up lots of controversy, which probably means that there is some other more important, probably brand detrimental bit of news that will be coming down the pike soon.  Russia?  Sessions?  Healthcare?

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  • Trump

    Five thoughts on Trump

    1. From some thought of Tyler Cowen – you can’t be the Court Jester and the King at the same time – the “deep state” – to the degree that it exists, which is a lot – is mostly just filling a vacuum left by Trump not actually doing things (which is probably for the best, but who know)
    2. NO ONE is talking about Trumps age (71), seemingly poor health, and direct family history of Alzheimers.  Are we that old of a country, i.e. we’re all so old that some topics are just considered taboo across the political spectrum?
    3. Trump’s alienation of the Republican industry members (i.e. the people who are the assistant undersecretaries, etc, who actually know how to do stuff) will haunt him the rest of his term – leading to a lot of things not getting done (yay!).
    4. He has spurred the democrats to be an actual opposition party, something they generally do not do well.
    5. The Republican congressional majority does not seem to matter much.
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