Ostriching

The path of developed people is to cultivate themselves seriously and to regard the faults of other people as their own.

Observing - Hexagram 20, Line 5 - Buddhist I Ching

I have a lot of Republican friends that I like and admire, even love. It is not really very easy to talk with many of them right now, emotions being rather raw.

But at the show, my GOP pals, dealers and customers alike, were pretty gracious and not a lot of people felt like rubbing it in. One fellow pirouetted elegantly when I brought up the election, you guys had a long run, give us a turn. I appreciated his restraint. 

It is a far cry from Millard comparing Kamela to a bucket of warm spit. Sue said that there were things about Trump that she found offensive but she liked his policies, a recurring theme. Now I hate his policies and was considering going down a laundry list but no matter, everyone is entitled to their opinion. What's the point?

I am giving up. You got it, let's see how you do, hopefully the environment can take another four years of fracking contamination, carbon emissions, cancer causing carcinogens, smokestack emissions, phthalates and forever chemicals in our food. And if it can not, it has been a good ride. Trump will make the environment all better. Let's make the whole Supreme Court conservative, give Leonard Leo and Opus Dei everything it could ever wish for. Good time to start drilling in our national parks again.

The other side might find out that it was easier when they were sniping on the sidelines than actually enacting laws and governing, witness Trump 1.0. Where is that great health care law again?

I think it would be best for my fellow liberals and I to stay far from media for a while. If you don't have a drug or alcohol problem, this might be a good time to pick one up to get through the next four years.

I got this email from an old friend and partner this morning:

Democrats haven’t got a clue. | Fox News

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/one-reason-trump-won-democrats-cannot-admit

Pretty well sums up the facts

JS

I read the column and wanted to scream. And honestly thought about telling my friend to never contact me again. The upshot is that the reason they elected Trump is because millions of Americans like, even love him. No shit. And maybe he lies but Dems lie more. Blah, blah blah. Standard Fox palaver.

I wrote him back. And lost it in a most unbuddhist way:

I think we know exactly who is and I think he is the most dangerous man who has ever run our country. And I think that the people who voted for him are mostly ignorant dumbshits.

He offered a rejoinder:

By almost every measure, his first term was far better for our nation than Biden’s.

I am glad to see you changed your blog focus…now more interesting and pleasant.

J

My rebuttal - 

I think he fucked up the environment incredibly and it will now get even worse. what he did at the EPA was criminal. His saying that water and air will be cleaner now is a bad joke.

He responded:  

You know what? In the 1970’S Jimmy Carter said we would run out of oil in a matter of years. I sold my

high end machine shop because of the doom and gloom forecast of a serious energy shortage. I conserve, I recycle,  but the people today

throwing paint on rare art objects are the destroyers of their cause.

I will agree to common sense environmental issues, but screw all the Ivy League nuts.

So now environmentalism is to be conflated with the absolute worst proponents, those few young people who throw paint at art objects? All of the scientific research on Climate Change, which is accepted by 97% of all scientists, is merely Ivy League bunk. Why bother to listen to research scientists and doctors when you have Elon Musk and Joe Rogan? As long  as you separate your plastics from your banana peels, everything should be okay, right JS?

I may not be the smartest or sharpest tool in the shed but I know one thing. Money always wins and money interests win and by the time we figure out that the problems are real and that there is a reason that we have just experienced the five hottest years on record and that Phoenix is now largely unlivable is because we would rather make that dough, even if it kills us.

And I don't know what else I can say. Maybe we better steer clear of each other for a while. Nice that my one time friend likes baking and birds better than politics but what we have here is an obvious failure to communicate and I have lost the patience to even try. 

Lose my number for a while.