Not lying, not a boast: I'd been wondering for two years why there haven't been new tales of infidelity from the White House.

Well, maybe he just got too old.

Or maybe Melania, Wife #3, finally brought him to heel.

But only after reading this stunning paragraph did I recognize that the 'pussygrabber' has had fewer bimbo eruptions than the Man from Hope:

No wonder so many members of the working class flip us the finger, even if they are staging that gesture for the reporters’ pen at a Trump rally, or for a quick hit on Fox News. In the last election, it was such political genius for Trump to say: “I love the poorly educated.” Had Hillary Clinton or even Bernie Sanders been capable of saying that, they’d be on their way now to a second term. And it was also genius for Trump to make a point of pumping up his own moral squalor. It’s as if he wanted working people to know that at last they could vote for a president who was incapable of looking down on them.

(Emphasis: Uncle Cridmo)

Donald Trump *wanted* Stormy Daniels... He wanted her baaaad!

But not for the sex.




The rest of that article is worth reading (even if, despite its frank insights, it's too timid for guiding lefties to political success). There's much to learn from reading things you disagree with.

"This is a high school nation." …That's a great line, as well as true.


Additionally, Jonathan Haidt was correct last year when he speculated that Hillary's "deplorables" taunt changed the direction of American politics.

Cool airplane picture! These are A-10s from Selfridge Air National Guard Base, northeast of Detroit, not too far from Miss Alkon's old stamping ground.

The official A-10 nickname is "Thunderbolt II," but everyone calls it the "Warthog."

"This is a high school nation."

When I lived in Jacksonville, Florida, a friend of mine who moved their from out of town - post-college - used to complain that everyone he met asked him, "what high school did you go to?"

The town identified people by high school. It told them who you were, the neighborhood in which you grew up, the influences to which you were exposed - in a way that the college you attended could not.

Ben Johnson wrote, "Language most shows a man. Speak that I may see thee." For Jacksonville, your high school was Johnson's speech, an identifying mark. Perhaps it's that way for the whole country.

Like Lisa Birnbach's "where did you prep?" query, our post-secondary experience forms and shapes us, tells others who we are.

Exactly. We grew up in a college town, where the question was more likely to be "What [continent/nation/state] are you from?" My sister was surprised after moving to a nearby industrial town that the question was a short "Didja gota [cityname]?," meaning the lone local high school.

It always seems like a tragically small frame of social reference.

It always seems like a tragically small frame of social reference. ~ Crid at February 2, 2020 9:01 AM

It does.

At the time, Jacksonville's population was still adjusting to the city becoming a large city and was stuck in a small town mind-frame.

I imagine that frames of reference have broadened as immigrants, transplants, and students at the city's two universities bring a wider perspective - although the city's signature dish is still basically a bologna sandwich in a pita (the infamous Camel Rider).

Upon arriving there in 1987, I presumed Jax was a cosmopolitan coastal city… But Iran-Contra was winding down, and the truth was soon apparent.

Nonetheless a magnificent city in so many ways.

Squinching.

https://youtu.be/ff7nltdBCHs

https://www.fastcompany.com/3022472/always-be-squinching-and-other-tricks-from-a-portrait-photographer-for-taking-flattering-pic

Yes, American IS a high school nation, for better or worse. That doesn't mean, of course, that the country lacks potential. James Cash Penney didn't even go to high school, if I remember correctly.

Sometimes, unfortunately, American society itself seems like high school, but I bear up.

In the meantime, a brief change of subject:

Coronavirus Live Update Feb 2nd , 2020 (Agenda Free TV)