Category: Politics

  • A Crack in Trump’s Support?

    I am still having trouble coming to terms with how awful that debate was on Tuesday. I keep rereading articles, looking at polling data, and watching clips of the awful performance by Trump. Even on Wednesday, Trump still couldn’t find a way to come out and denounce white supremacist groups during “Chopper Talk.”

    I have observed that most hardcore Conservatives and Republicans have no issue with how Trump behaved, and even in some comments, they even have applauded it. That, I sort of expected. The other thing I noticed on social media, which might be more telling, was that my Conservative and Republican friends have gone silent about the debate. I would refer to them as moderate conservatives; taxes and abortion are their biggest issues but they don’t delve into conspiracy theories. They are posting about issues, and not posting about Trump as a leader. Such as, “We got to get people back to work to save the economy,” rather than, “Trump is the only person who can save this economy…”

    I admit that this observation is completely anecdotal, and not supported by scientific polling or any data. It’s just a feeling. And my gut tells me moderate conservatives are beginning to rethink Trump. Maybe not voting for Biden, but maybe thinking about not voting.

  • Post-Debate: This is bad…

    This is bad folks. Really bad. Such as, I am very nervous that the United States might not survive this election.

    It wasn’t just one moment of Trump’s shit show. And there were some really awful moments. The interrupting, the conspiracy theories, the environment forest management thing, the doubting of a fair election. Then Trump told his supporters that they should go to the polls and intimidate voters, and that the Proud Boys should stand by to be called into action. It is just horrifying that. I never thought that an American politician would behave like that, in public.

    But taken as a whole, what I was left feeling is that Trump doesn’t care who he has to hurt, or what he has to destroy, to win. For Trump, it’s win or nothing. And even if he does win, I don’t think that will be enough. I think he will go after his political opponents, and try to put them in jail.

    I joked after the Republican convention that I left feeling like I was a hunted creature for being liberal. After last night, I think Trump will call on his supporters and white supremacists to go and riot in the streets. That open conflict will follow on November 3rd.

    Even if Trump comes to his senses, and agrees to a peaceful transfer, he has already put the thought out there, and you cannot take it back.

  • Trump v Biden: The Debate Battle Royale!

    Maybe I should talk about Trump’s income taxes? That seems to be a big deal right now.

    The debate between Biden and Trump is tonight. I will be watching it alone, as anything that comes out of Trump’s mouth makes my wife very angry, and pretty much puts her in a bad mood for the rest of the night…

    And into the morning…

    And all the next day…

    And for the whole week…

    So, I will be watching the debate on my computer with headphones, while also live tweeting (@mlgroff) my reactions to whatever crazy shit that is said. My goal is to make my friends laugh, but it is also to keep my sanity.

    I was extremely nervous four years ago when Clinton and Trump met for their debates. Hilary won all the face offs, as Trump come across as disrespectful and unprepared, but we all know that in the end, it didn’t really mean anything.

    There is a good chance again, that these debates won’t mean anything. And honestly, I agree with that conclusion. Trump and Biden’s polling numbers really haven’t changed that much in two months, which for me says that most people are locked in on who they are voting for.

    But honestly, who is that 3-5% of the voting population that are still undecided? With everything that has happened in this year alone, how has that not influenced you to make a decision?

    I need to laugh, and I need to laugh and the big orange bully in the room.

  • NYC Schools Delayed, And a Normal Schedule?

    Things have changed yet again in NYC when it comes to the public schools. Looks like the Mayor and the teachers have agreed to delay the start of school a week, and in person classes for 10 days. I think this is the right decision, as far as I hear from my teacher friends, the schools are not physically ready for students, and this delay will help get things ready. This doesn’t change our plans; we are going to continue with the remote learning for our kid, and then see if she will rejoin her class in November. Hopefully, this will make everything safer for the teachers, staff, and students.

    The wife’s new job is planning to open up their offices in October. The rule they will be following is that only 50% of the staff can be onsite at one time, which will mean that she will be in the office 2 days out if the week.

    Looks like we are slowing beginning to see what our Fall schedule will be like, and this also feels like for the first time we have a glimmer of the tiniest speck of a shard of light of having a small amount of normalcy.

    Not that I am holding my breath.

    But it would be nice.

  • Well-Read and Books on the Shelf

    Okay, one last thought that I had about the FaceBook argument. That guy kept asking me what conservative media I read, and I knew full well that it was a set-up question. No matter how many sources I named, he would say he read more, and hence was an expert, and thus my opinion was uninformed and invalid. I knew better than to play that game, but it did make me think about at what point does a person cross the threshold and become “well read?”

    There is the Malcom Gladwell rule/guideline of 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert. Does that apply to reading? Not reading up on a subject, because if you spent 10,000 reading about plumbing, you might not be an expert, but you would, or at least should, be very knowledgeable on the subject. But if you spent 10,000 hours reading, anything and everything, does that makes you an expert at reading?

    I don’t know where I was going with that…

    Being well read.

    Anyway…

    With all of the news interviews in people’s homes, the performance space in demand clearly has been a wall of books in an office setting. That is the “classic” sign of a well-read person. Some offices are a little too conspicuously clean and well organized, like the books are never touched. The offices I have enjoyed looking at are the ones where the books and papers are sort of stacked all over the place. Those are usually the offices of research doctors, and I want to believe that they just threw their books on the shelf when they are done reading it.

    I can admit that, since moving back from California, I only have about half of my books in the apartment, with the other half still in storage. We have one wall in the apartment that all the housed books live on. They are in no order, and just got thrown up there. It’s not author ordered, or even in some sort style of size of book color. We just them up there with the plan of coming back and put some order to it. That was seven months ago.