Book Review at Table 2: The Little Blue Book

Reference: 

Lakoff, George and Elisabeth Wehling.  The Little Blue Book: The Essential Guide to Thinking and Talking Democratic.  Free Press: Simon and Schuster, New York.  2012.

Quotes:

p.20 The understanding that private success always depends on public support leads to progressive taxation: the more you earn from public support, the greater your responsibility for its maintenance.

p48 Extreme conservative discourse is taken as neutral in the absence of a progressive alternative, but it is anything but neutral.  It is dangerous…

p. 81 “Government has a moral duty to protect and empower its people”

p. 86 The Founding Fathers were right: public education is necessary for a democracy as well as a vibrant economy.

p. 107 Good soil feeds us forever.  In the long run, a farmer’s crops are worth more than the oil underneath.  Don’t drill.

Review: 

This book is a good start for any Liberal or Progressive who wants to engage an extreme conservative but keeps getting caught in the maelstrom of vomitous insanity spewed by our friends on the “Right”

George Lakoff, a cognitive scientist, studies how the brain works, and in this and other works and lectures he explains how the “Right” uses the mechanics of words much more adroitly than the Liberals or Progressives in getting their message across.  In fact, they are so good at this that often their message is conveyed by the Left because two things: 1) the way the Left feels compelled to explain and defend against all “Right” attacks, no matter how insane, and 2) by using and repeating the language of conservatives, thereby ingraining the ideas into everyone’s minds even further.

While I disagree with the facility by which Lakoff and Wehling in this book relate the opposing political viewpoints to broad generalities about the idea of the “family,” these authors are very compelling in their directive that the Left must understand what it is that they believe and communicate that message to the best of their ability.   Don’t use the language of the Right.  Don’t try to fight them on their own terms.  Explain why progressive ideas are better for everybody.   This book gives great examples.  I would give some here, but then that would just include posting large swaths of the text.   Instead, I encourage you to go read the book and discover them for yourself.

Overheard at Booth 2: Wondering

... thinking about next Christmas, this time, same time next year:
will we still have the debates that we are having now?
will we still be agitating for social change?
will be be fighting to keep our slim rights at work?  in the voting booth?
over our own bodies?
will we have any shot at a bare minimum income for retirement?
will the protests be silenced?

what will Christmas look like next year?

Overheard at Table 2: Lucky and Otis Look on the Bright Side

Lucky: Y’know I’ve been thinking . . .

 

Otis: Never a good sign.

 

Lucky: . . . it really wouldn’t be totally bad if Trump becomes President.

 

Otis: Oh Lord.  And how’s that, you figure?

 

Lucky: Think of the literature that would be produced.  I mean, great literature is always fiormed in resistance to oppressive eras.  We’re still producing books and movies about the Holocaust – and the heroes of WW2.  Heck, there’s not a Spanish movie director alive that can set any movie outside of the Spanish civil war.  Terrible times, frankly, make for great art!

 

Otis: So basically you want Trump to be President so that people can make great movies and write great books?

 

Lucky: Hell no I don’t WANT him to be President!  I’m just saying that at the very least, we’d have some great literature that might come out of it.

 

Otis: Well, if he wins I’m going underground, so when the Trumpites take over and put you up against the wall, I’ll write you a damn fine eulogy, OK?

 

Lucky: You’re the best friend a guy could have!

 

Overheard at Table 2: If I Were a Trump Supporter

I actually read on Twitter the other day some Trump supporter tweet "I really believe he cares."

I couldn't believe that.  The lunacy of those five words is now burned into my brain.  There is nothing that says that he cares.  I mean, the man takes a human tragedy like the murder of 50 people in a gay nightclub and states "Thanks to all the people who now know that I was right" - and just the other day he tweeted "woman gets killed walking her baby.  African Americans will vote TRUMP!" I mean what the HELL.  Any reasonable mind understands that he's only in this for himself.

If I were Trump supporter, I wouldn't have any illusions that he's in this for the American people.  He's in this for his brand and for his brand and to improve his cash flow.  I'd support him because I would believe that he wouldn't want to do anything to stop his cash flow, and if the country's economy were tied to it, then he would work to defend it.

I'd also support him because he hates the TPP and wants to support tariffs.  I'd let people know that's going to raise the price of shit through the roof.  I mean, there won't be no more Wal-Mart markdowns.  T-shirts would be $20 instead of $5, but we all have to make sacrifices, right?

I'd also support him because he's able to mobilize the disenfranchised.  Those people who never voted before came out in droves in the primaries and blasted the shit out of the Republican Party.  I mean, this guy has shredded the Republican party more than any Democrat could ever do.  They'd been trying to fight these guys for a decades, and Trump does it in just a few short months.

So that would be why I'd support him.  But I would never, ever, EVER in my life delude myself into thinking he actually CARED about America or its people.  Because he doesn't.  And he never will.

Overheard at the Counter: Gardening and Music (a Playlist)

My dear friends, yesterday a Trump Troll, rather than attempting to discuss important civic matters in a rational debate, simply told my friend PK and I to "go back to our gardening and music"

How she knows I garden I have no idea, because I do not garden.   Attempted many times, but the Associated for Decent Treatment to Flora sent me a letter begging me never to touch one of our green-leaved friends again.  Apparently the Chrysanthemums accused me of abuse, the Pansies said I engage in hate crimes, and the Avacado trees tried to drag me before the World Court to be held accountable for genocide.  Suffice it to say, gardening is not my forte.

However, the Trump Troll did inspire me to cobble together a list of songs about gardening and music.  OK, songs that have "garden" in the title.   But here you go friends, get out your trowels, your top soil, your guitars bass & drums, and ENJOY!


ARTIST: The Various Artists
ALBUM TITLE: Go Back to Your Gardening and Music


Lawnmower Deth
"Lawnmowers for Heroes Comics for Zeroes"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGuQOv09PYg

Liars
"The Garden was Crowded and Outside"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrKH-nG6LG0

The Dentists
"Strawberries are Growing in my Garden (and It's Wintertime)"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b51TQOJawEg

Einsturzende Neubauten
"The Garden"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMqC7Wx2-nE&index=1&list=RDMMqC7Wx2-nE

John Denver
"The Garden"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3FkaN0HQgs

This one goes out to CARRIBETH
The Beatles
"Octopus's Garden"
[no YouTube video available - DARN YOU YOUTUBE!!]

This one is dedicated with much love to HEALING MUSE
Tangerine Dream
"Zen Garden"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0xEI3pJahA

Merril Bainbridge
"Garden in my Room"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EGfPCVThdo

The Explosive
"Who Planted Thorns in Miss Alice's Garden"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp3nhDug5Cs

R.E.M.
"Gardening at Night"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9WMncHTtEI

Pink Floyd

"The Grand Vizier's Garden Party"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4ULb9YE3UI

This last one has been my favourite for decades, and we will fade out the day with this...
Rick Nelson
"Garden Party"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAHR7_VZdRw

Overread at Table 1: A section from "Unintelligible Yelling"

From the forthcoming book, which will be finished after the much-dreaded November 2016 Presidential election is over:


The week of 08-20-2016 -

But on this day Trump seemed to get back on his feet, like a struggling newborn calf trying to talk.  Trump bravely courted the African American vote in a room full of white people.  He also bravely flew down to flooded Louisiana to bravely hand off boxes of Play-Doh from a truck so that Louisiana children could forget that they have no home, no clothes, no food, and no clean water.

Yes, his monstrous popularity seemed to soar.  The LA governor praised him for his help in getting the focus on the suffering of Louisianans, white people praised how Donald Trump bravely stated that he would win 95% of the African American vote, and no one seemed to even remember how he nearly dry humped his own daughter during the RNC.

Overheard at Table 3: We Know What You Mean

So he says he was talking about getting out to vote?  Is that what he says he was trying to say?   That's gah-gage, my friend, pure gah-bage. Lemme tellya somethin' - you got a grocer in Manhattan, 1950s, 60s, whatevah.  And he's minding his store, minding his business, and one day two goons come in to the store and they say, "Nice place you got heah.  Sure would be a shame if somethin' were to HAPPEN to it!"

Now, they never come out and SAY "We're going to set fire to your store if you don't pay us," but the grocer knows what they're sayin' and THEY know what they're sayin' and EVERYBODY know what they're sayin and when Donald Stinking Lyin Sack of Queens GAH-BAGE Trump says, "You Second Amendment people do something about it" we ALL know that he's ordering a hit on Hillary.

We know what he means.  We all know what he means.  For his little maggoty bootlickahs to act like "ooh that's not what he meant" well that's just a damn lie.

2017 Donald Trump State of the Union Address

Read a tweet today form someone asking if we could picture Donald Trump giving a State of the Union address.  Well, I can imagine it and here is what I think it might sound like:

(let me know if you think I'm way far off or if I've hit the nail on the head!)


===================================================

Donald Trump’s State of the Union Address 2017

First, I want to thank Scott Baio and Omarosa for opening up this speech for me.  Great guy, really great guy, and Omarosa, too, great lady!  Let’s thank both of them again.  Look I know, I know, you guys usually have a president who just comes on and bores you forever with a bunch of facts about the “state” of the union, but folks, listen . . . you just need to know one simple thing.  The State of the Union is just going to get better.  And better.  And better.  And better. Until we are all saying, “How much better can it get?  I mean, we’re doing so GREAT NOW!”

And that’s what we’re going to be saying.  But right now, look, I’ve only been in this job for a few weeks, OK and already I see what the problems are.  Look folks, this is huge. I mean huge.  We’ve got a lot of problems.  A lot of problems.  And they’re not my problems. I didn’t make them.  But I know the system.  I’ve been in the system.  The system is broken and I’m the only one to fix it, OK?  And it will be fixed, believe me.  The system is not working for a lot of folks, a lot of good folks.  It’s working for the nasty guys, the really nasty guys, and these nasty guys are the guys who want to ship jobs overseas, OK?  They’re shipping jobs overseas.  To Mexico.  Where all the rapists are.  Well not all the rapists, because the rapists are coming here, but that’ll change because we’ll have the wall built by the end of the year, OK?   So here’s the deal we’re going to make with Mexico.  Mexico will pay for the wall.  They will absolutely pay for the wall.  They’re going to send us cash.  They’re gonna throw it over the wall.  In big bags, or something, I dunno.  But they’re gonna pay, OK?  Believe me.

But before they do, you see, they gotta, they gotta be told they have to pay.  And they can’t pay, they can’t get the big bags by the end of this year, when we gotta have the wall built.  So I need Congress, you see, to put up the money up front to build the wall.  And it’ll be a big wall, a beautiful wall, OK? With lots of bricks, the best bricks, well, cement, but you see, since we put up the wall, and here’s the deal, because I make deals, the best deals.  Mexico will pay us what we put in plus 10%, for every day they don’t send those bags of money over. 

And some people have asked, “Donald, what if they don’t throw bags of money over the wall?” and I say, “OK. Sure.  Fine.  Remittances.  We’ll stop remittances.”  The Mexicans, and the other Hispanics, I think they like to be called Central Americans, I dunno.  Something like that.  OK. So, they send billions of dollars each year, like, 34 billion, that’s what someone told me anyway.   We sto those, and there you have it.  Paid for the wall.  It’s done.  Let’s move on.

NAFTA.  Done.  Dead. Over.  Today.  No more NAFTA.  NAFTA’s gone.   NATO too.  As of this moment, we don’t pay another dime to NATO until all the other nations in NATO have matched us dollar-for-dollar what we’ve put in all these years, because let me tellya folks, the other nations, they haven’t been sending their best.  Dollar for dollar.  Not their best.  So, NATO’s gone.  Over.  Final.  OK?

Supreme Court.  The Supreme Court can’t go on with eight justices, we’ve got to get it back to 9, or even 10.  11 would be better, but we’ll start with 9.  My friends, my good friends, at the Heritage Foundation, they gave me a list.  A list of good judges.  Some great guys.  Really great guys.  Smart guys.  They know the law, believe me.  They know the law.  So I’m going to have Mike Pence send the names to Congress tomorrow and you guys choose one.  Just choose one.  Or two or three if you think they’ll get the job done and make some really good deals.  I want a Supreme Court that makes really good deals, because folks, the Supreme Court hasn’t been making very good deals.   I mean, they need to make better deals.  These guys will do that.

Next thing I’m gonna do is get rid of the EPA.  EPA, you’re fired!  You’re FAY-UHHHHDDDD!   Not good for business.  Nasty guys.  Bunch a nasty guys.  They don’t like business.  Bad for business.  Now, done.  Gone.  Fih-NEE-TOH!!   Bye bye!  Bye Bye!

OK, glad we’re having fun.  Are we having fun?  This is a great time.  A great time!  I think we should do this state of the union thing more often!  Like maybe once a year, how about that?  Once a year sound good to you?  OK.

Last thing for this state of the union – look folks, we’re in bad shape.  I mean bad shape.  I said it on the campaign trail and it’s true now that I just took office, we’re in bad shape.  I mean crime in the streets.  People killing our priests in France.   ISIS blowing up our gay Latinos in Orlando.  Syrians shooting our cops in Dallas, I mean, it’s horrible!  Horrible.  So here’s what I’m gonna do.  Every card carrying member of the NRA is now deputized into their local police force!  How’s that for a deal?  That’s a good deal, isn’t it?  Now we have plenty more cops on the force.  We now have 2 million more cops today than we did yesterday!  And guess what?  Whoever joins the NRA, as long as you don’t have a criminal record – you gotta be a good guy, not a bad guy! – whoever joins the NRA gets the same deal.   Joining the NRA gets you deputized into the police force where you live.  How’s THAT for community policing?  Pretty good huh!  Crime just ended today, folks, believe me!

And because I’m tough on crime – and I mean I’m tough.  I’m really, really tough, I want to let my fellow Americans know that right now, at this moment, Wayne LaPierre has sent some of his top guys, I mean his top notch guys, to the Clinton house, where they are right now kicking in the door and dragging Crooked Hillary out by her hair!  Believe me, Crooked Hillary is going to see justice at the point of a gun or the limb of a tree.  And that’s just for starters!  That’s right!  That’s right – we’re going to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN FOLKS, BELIEVE ME!!

Overheard at Booth 3: "We just can't..."

Christian Lady 1: ... we just can't take in all those people.

Christian Lady 2: You're right.  It'd be nice if we could take in all those kids and help them, but he's right.  We have to take care of our own people first.

Christian Lady 1: Right.  America first.  Because if we don't take care of ourselves we won't have a country for anybody at all.

Christian Lady 2: Right.  Hey, did you get that invite for Bridget's shower?

Christian Lady 1: Sure did.  That's next month on the 20th, right?

Overheard at Table 1: One or the Other-er

Lucky Moran: Doesn't really seem like we've got any good choice this year.

Otis Redwing: Like a choice between Dumb and Dumber.

Lucky: Or Crooked and Crookeder.

Otis: What really gets me is how the comb-over has completely lowered the educational level of public speaking.

Lucky: Like to a playground level?

Otis: Sandbox.  Sandbox level.

Lucky: Like where my cat buries his poop.

Otis: Exactly.

Overheard at Table 4: How We Now Discuss

The Subject:  Donald Trump Revokes the press credentials of Washington Post

Voter:  I disagree with this.  He should not have done that.

Trump Supporter:  CAIR did the same thing. 

Voter: CAIR is not running for President of the United States, an office that is sworn to uphold the

Constitution, including the 1^st Amendment.

Trump Supporter: The media lies.

Voter: First, that’s not the point.  Second, it demonstrates that he only wants media when he controls the narrative.

Trump Supporter: He’s a private citizen.  He can do what he wants at his events.

Voter: If he wants to be President, he needs to start by upholding the Constitution.  Including the free press.

Trump Supporter: So do you hate Carson and Sessions too?

Voter: If Trump wants to be President, he needs to start by upholding the Constitution.  Including the free press.

Trump Supporter:  The media lies.

Overheard at the Counter: Socialist Revolution

The barista looks at my Bernie Sanders shirt and says coquettishly, "Are you a ... socialist?"

I smile conspirationally and reply, "I'm a demoCRATic Socialsist!"
Then, I take my $2 coffee, and walk out into the warm Sunday afternoon, feeling quite revolutionary.

Overheard at Table 2: Trump v Cameron

A big man with a bad comb-over spews through pursed lips: "I hope to have a good relationship with David Cameron, I think we can have a good relationship, but it's up to him.  I don't think we're going to have a good relationship, because there's a problem, and this problem with our relationship is that he does not have his tongue in my rectum.  I don't know why he won't put his tongue in my rectum, it's a very nice rectum, very nice.  A big, beautiful rectum.  It's already got a lot of tongues in there.  Putin's tongue is in there.   All of the Republicans who are smart guys - I mean the smart guys, not the nasty guys - all their tongues are in there.  I think David Cameron's tongue will be in there too, if not by the convention then definitely by the election.  Then there won't be any more problem."

Overheard at the Counter: Asshats and Circus Clowns

Niall Carter: So basically one of the two main political parties just got schlonged, what with Trump riding in and slaughtering every semi-rational alternative option.

John Steppenwolf: Sure looks that way.

Carter: This is going to be a LOOONG year.

Steppenwolf:  Me, I'm worried about the years to come.   Trump's set the tone.  From now forward, every person running for President is gonna haveta be both an asshat and a circus clown.

Overheard at Table 1: Trump is that uncle . . .

"Trump is that uncle that always shows up about every other year at the family gatherings.  He's always got a newer, younger wife with a boob job and the latest flashy car.  He's always talking about his business deals and showing off his Rolex even more than his new wife.   And everybody puts up with him, because they think he's a big gas bag and is, for the most part, harmless . . .

"That is - until the time you catch him trying to follow your sister into the bathroom!"

Overheard at the Counter: Gluttons for Our Own Doom

Niall Carter: Definitely a freaky troll doll you all have got going fer ya, here.

Steppenwolf (taking a sip): What's all this us?  You've been here since Reagan.  You're in this too.

Niall: Maybe I don't want to be.  You all be getting scary real fast.

Lucky Moran: It's just the dust being shaken up from the rug.

Niall: Dust that should have stayed under the rug, if you ask me.

Steppenwolf: Maybe it needs to be aired.

Lucky (motioning the barista for another refill): Well, the way I see it, if we want to air it this way, and elected this moronic playboy racist freakshow, then we are all just gluttons for our own doom.

Overheard at Table 4: Trump trump trump trump

Dever Dodd: My Gad all I hear these days is Trump this and trump that, man you'd think he was president already!

Clare O'Casey: I'm afraid that's how people see it.  Like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Dever Dodd: More like a nightmare where you just can't get yourself to wake up from!