Everyone is missing that the Trump administration’s chaos isn’t an accident; it’s intentional. Yes, they are incompetent in many way, but are not complete fools. Imputing that the chaos is inadvertent ineptitude is underestimating them as Democrats almost always do. The Democrats are imagining what they’d do if they were in charge. The Trump administration shares none of those goals, values or priorities.
Chaos is a feature, not a bug. Wait a little and you’ll see why.
It’s kind of funny that if we got really rich, we’d probably live in a smaller house than we do now.
Since we’re not quite well off enough to just decide to build a house* (especially since we don’t know where we really want to live), we end up with larger-than-necessary houses so that we have one room big enough to be our office room that is not also the living room. This almost always means a three bedroom home, which is if designed properly totally unnecessary for us.
In a house we designed and had built, none of these compromises would apply.
Even if we were billionaires, I doubt we’ve live in a house more than 1500 square feet. I don’t want cleaning staff. I don’t want strangers in my house ever. I don’t want cooks or chefs or attendants or servants, no matter how rich I am.
So now we actually have to pay for a bigger house than we need because we aren’t yet ready to build our own.
*Building a custom house from scratch (not from a template or pasted together from templates) is around 3-10X as much as selecting one from, say, a Toll Brothers catalog.
This whole article is great. I could quote the entire thing. Instead, I’ll ask that you read it.
It summarizes many currents of American society and the neoliberal Democrats succinctly and without apparent anger — something I wouldn’t have been able to pull off.
I’d been thinking about how racism is institutional and systemic in nature, but no Democrat, plutocrat or member of the executive class is racist — no, it’s all those “deplorables” who happen to be working class and in charge of nothing who are somehow causing all this institutional racism at the highest levels of power. It’s like a miracle!
And this.
In a material sense, enlightened liberal Barack Obama oversaw the near total destruction of Black wealth, a foreclosure crisis that continues to eviscerate communities of color and the elevation of the most predatory of capitalist institutions— Wall Street. The liberal chide that Mr. Obama’s (and Hillary Clinton’s) critics are racists posits an ethereal realm where intentions matter and factual outcomes don’t. Self-righteous liberals claim moral superiority based on their outcome-free intentions with social disintegration as their product.
The noises you make matter to the technocratic dominant elite of the Democratic party. What you actually do does not. Don’t hire black people? You’re not racist — you can’t be because you don’t believe in welfare queens and you didn’t join the KKK! What you actually do is irrelevant since all your external signals are aligned with the dominant narrative.
Here’s what I’ve often said and still believe strongly even after Trump’s unfortunate election: the Democrats will still stab you and take your wallet, just like the Republicans. The main difference is that the Dems will apologize profusely before and after doing it and maybe even throw a bandage at you as they sprint away while counting the money.
The Republicans will instead tell you up front, “You had this coming.” And then after they stab you they’ll say, “Loser. That you’re so weak as to get stabbed proved you deserve it.”
Results: same.
“You can’t get an address without an address. You can’t get a job without a job.”
Ah yes, this is the North Florida I know.
That happened in High Springs, about 20 miles from where I grew up. Been there many times. My partner and I even ate there together once. Here. It gets great reviews, but was not actually all that good.
I work in IT and I’m pretty good at it. But I don’t feel like it’s what I’d be best at in a perfect world — I’m merely at the optimal intersection of remuneration, training, and my available intelligence and proclivities.
But in a perfect world, what job would I be best at?
Probably these:
1) Script punch-up. I don’t like writing de novo but I do enjoy editing and improving. Doing this to scripts rather than novels etc. plays to my strengths and interests.
2) Sniper. If I can see it, I can hit it.
3) Photographer. I can see the world like the camera does.
Two of those jobs are difficult if not impossible to do professionally unless you are already rich; the other one is ethically compromised even at the best of times, and I won’t be a trained killer for rich people so it’s right out.
But those three I’d be great at, as opposed to my actual job where I am just skilled enough to be in the pack somewhere.