99 Problems
Odds and ends
Clearing out the odds and ends on this 99th post to “Practicing Sociology Without a License”…
Today is Huey Newton’s birthday. Party for Your Right to Fight.
MAGA’s floating the idea of making Trump’s Birthday a national holiday, coyly tying it to Flag Day, like the City of Boston celebrates “Evacuation Day” every March 17th. It may coincide with some other holiday, but trust us, the British packed up an occupying army, their armaments, and enough supplies for the trip across the Atlantic in one day, and it just so happens to be the same day as the #1 Irish-American alcoholiday.
For Trump’s Birthday, MAGA will wear gold, eat food from McDonalds, and drink Diet Coke. Even if you are not MAGA, Trump’s Birthday will be an excuse for poor choices: “Everyone’s MAGA on Trump’s Birthday!”
We learned from the Stormy Daniels payoff trial that absolutely everyone in Trump’s inner orbit is just as transactional as she1 is. Everyone is in it for themselves, and engaged in trafficking “favors;” each time seeking an edge. Stormy Daniels exchanged sex for promises of appearing on a TV show, then her silence about sex was exchanged for money, after the TV promises turned out to be bullshit. Just follow the exchanges.
I moved on her actually. You know she was down on Palm Beach. I moved on her and I failed. I’ll admit it. I did try and fuck her. She was married…and I moved on her very heavily. In fact, I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture. I said, ‘I’ll show you where they have some nice furniture.’ I took her out furniture– I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there. And she was married. Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony tits and everything. She’s totally changed her look. — Donald Trump, The Access Hollywood tape.
Luigi Mangione’s was visible resistance (even though he tried to hide his identity). We need more of it, and given that everyone carries a camera, there should be more of it—and it doesn’t all have to be snuff films, either.
If we are going to repair the United States, we are going to have to amend the constitution in all sorts of ways. One would be to give the People the power to render verdicts on Presidential impeachments. 60% supermajority of the popular vote should be the threshold.
Will impeachment turn into a giant campaign? Probably, but at least there will be a contest. We have seen how partisanship blinded Republicans. Now they are reaping the benefits, even as Mitch McConnell has John McCain moments of breaking with Trump—though more feebly and with no appreciable effects other than showing another asshole having an end-of-life change-of-heart, and finally doing the right thing they knew was the right thing, all along.
Before Biden forgot to bring the leadership of Coup Americaine to justice, Mitch the Glitch was the first line of defense for the nation Public Enemy #1. He led the campaign to acquit on both Trump impeachments, giving America this shit sandwich to chew on, the second time around:
But after intense reflection, I believe the best constitutional reading shows that Article II, Section 4 exhausts the set of persons who can legitimately be impeached, tried, or convicted. The president, vice president and civil officers.
We have no power to convict and disqualify a former officeholder who is now a private citizen. — Mitch “Trump’s Bitch” McConnell, February, 2021.
By his same reasoning, he should be in favor of finally convicting Trump. Impeachments are not legal proceedings—there is no protection against double-jeopardy. Get your lifelong buddies in the House to impeach him again for January 6, Mitch. Quick, before you die.
When the less-MAGA Republicans are seeking an out for their cornfed electorate’s stupid choices bringing suffering upon themselves, they should be aware this option remains on the table.
Back to the Most Transactional President Ever. She is lazy and sloppy by nature. She doesn’t like to work too hard, and not at all if there is no visible return to her. There is an absence of altruism, displaced by an overabundance of self. She has not shown curiosity about the world, insisting repeatedly that she knows more than just about everyone. She has not demonstrated much capacity for considering abstractions such as “peace” or “power.” And to the poorly-educated, this has played well.
It also indicates that she has no concern with how societies actually operate. Hers is a two-dimensional, top-down flowchart—herself at the top and everyone else there to provide elevation.
Well, she recognizes that when it comes to the only measure of social power that she cares about, money, that she’s not at the top. There was that pesky series of federal and state criminal charges that had to be dealt with by winning the 2024 election. And that $84 million civil judgment that has to be paid, or Mar-a-Lago goes away like Rudy Giuliani’s condo.
No bank in America, Japan, or Europe would loan her money, after bankrupting a series of casinos [n.b. She pardoned Michael Milken because the junk bonds Milken issued in the mid-1980’s were used to finance Trump casinos.], so the Trump Organization sought funding in Russia (according to Erik, in 2014). More recently, the source of funding has been Elon Musk. Everyone in her immediate orbit is as transactional as she is.
The moral demands of Protestantism—at least the O.G. version where Jesus is revered more than monetized and muscularized—seemed to me a more consistent guide than Catholicism, which allowed the worst sinners absolution if they confess before dying. It makes sense, when all people are guilty, I suppose. But that leaves a boatload of work-arounds, like the Indulgences the information barons bought from Trump.
Make no mistake about it, one does not become one of the wealthiest dozen or so living people through an excess of altruism, or by leaving others be.
Unless and until Trump rescinds the Executive Order that made her a woman, her proper pronouns are she/her. So sayeth MAGA.