Saturday, June 23, 2018

Trump Time

Our entire country is temporarily insane.

But that's only online and on t.v.

In real life it just isn't so. These two ersatz realities do not match the reality in which we live and breath. And that's why it's good to get out and see it for what it really is.

For example, Just this instant the sounds outdoors escalated from zero to eleven. Westword (a local newspaper with office two blocks away) is hosting their music showcase. It takes the whole immediate neighborhood. (But not around them) The largest stage is the parking lot below my balcony. It's a bit annoying and a lot of fun. Half the alley is blocked by a large Coors truck, so that limits egress to the south exit from our garage. For three days, we must turn left to get out. Then when we do, a gigantic trash bin, the kind that appears at demolitions, two of them, are positioned right there on the street blocking view of oncoming traffic. It's an accident in waiting. Today the whole place will be crawling with music lovers. Young people slow walking all over the place for blocks around. Parking a major intensity. Right now they're testing amps. The little tents that you see are set up selling things nobody usually wants. Except for beer.

The ink that I bought to make beer labels is 100% dry. Nothing came out of both containers, black and colors. I need the labels tomorrow so that meant driving to Staples or Office Max to buy them again locally. And that put me right next to a Safeway grocery store in my old neighborhood where I used to go all the time. They've remodeled entirely. The whole place looks more splendid. Fruits and vegetables pouring out of the place. After marveling at the improvements I noticed they don't have shitaki mushrooms. What a bummer! I spoke to the workers there more than you usually do. I engaged each person conversationally as they assisted one way or another and to a person each one extended their usual service. Each person responded positively to simply being treated as a person and not so much as an employee. I wish you could see the very broad and genuine smiles on their faces when I told them they are helpful, that they make a good team, and so on. They are nothing at all like the people read about online and seen in videos online. These people, mostly young people but not entirely, are too busy to notice the things we concentrate on. For them politics exists as a ghost. They would have no idea what we are talking about and reading about.

I've encountered a dozen to twenty articles about the Time magazine cover. A magazine that hardly even exists. They're purposefully provocative or else they'd have no existence at all. I haven't read a single one. I avoided all articles about Democrats clamoring. I avoided all articles about Never Trumpers clamoring for attention. I know what they said and wrote by the headlines and my bag of fucks to give is empty. Nil set. So headline after headline after headline, skip, skip, skip. No reading for me. All my bookmarks are worthless presently.

Meanwhile my president is sailing. And media is going insane. Celebrities are coming unglued. Activists are energized over nothing, over their losing, over their desperation, they're creating insanity out of thin air and we already know they don't give a shit about their issues because they were quiet about the same things previously. They're looking for issues, scrounging for issues, demanding attention. So I don't give it to them. No energy for you!

Here, have a thing wot I dun. This did take a bit of energy. But only because I used to really like Time magazine. They taught me to read. I relied on them for information. Then as they sank they taught me to read through them. They taught me to read them as a bunch of bumbling fumbling flailing idiots. They couldn't propagandize their way out of a paper bag. There are dozens of these parodies. Here's a couple. Here's mine.


I'll be busy today doing stuff in the real world. Not reading about Democrats worried about midterms and instigating insanity.

6 comments:

Trooper York said...

What an excellent post Chip.

You are right that most normal people are not as invested in politics the way we are. But that is why we post or read at Lem's Levity in the first place. It energizes us and gets us going. Most people barely get a sense of what is going on.

That is why the President is a master at communicating outside of the media beltway coccoon. One of his most masterful moves was working with Kim Kardashian to free that grandmother from jail after she had spent twenty years in the can. Millions upon millions who have never heard about Wolf Biltzer know Kim and Kanye. To get them to like Trump opens him up to millions. The opitcs are great for him.

Trooper York said...

What I really like about your post is your discussion about the people in the supermarket. What you describe is exactly how my wife and I operate when we are out shopping. She has to come with me because I am too weak to do it by myself these days. It always freaks people out how we get to know people and converse with them.

My Mother-in-Law in paticular was freaked out about how we got to know everyone at Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's is a very interesting place. It is sort of like a cult. The workers are abnormally happy for some reason. They must drug them or something. What is interesting is that the job description does not seem as hard and fast as in other supermarkets. Sometimes you see someone stocking the shelves and sometimes they are cashiers. They always engage in conversation. So one day last week we were there and I was pretty tired so I sat down on one of those motorized carts while the wife checked out the groceries. Two or three of the workers came over to ask me how I was feeling since they had worked with us each week. My mother in law couldn't believe it.

The thing is if you treat people like a human being and engage them by saying thank you then you will have a very pleasant experience shopping. Even someone who is pissed at the nasty customers will turn it around immediately if you just act like a human being.

I bet the workers at the Safeway really miss you. You are the kind of customer who makes retail bearable. Keep it up.

chickelit said...

The Trumper Tantrum continues.

edutcher said...

The irony is several polls are saying the country sides with Trump on the illegal kids. I'm skeptical of polls as numbers, but, if enough look to be going in a way they usually wouldn't, that does suggest (and I do mean suggest) a trend.

And media is going insane. Celebrities are coming unglued. Activists are energized over nothing, over their losing, over their desperation

You giot it. The Left is all about emotion, primarily envy and hate. If you don't hate, you can't be a Lefty.

Democrats worried about midterms and instigating insanity.

If that ain't the truth...

And Troop's point about Kim and Kanye, as opposed to Wolf is right on the money.

MamaM said...

I used to really like Time magazine. They taught me to read. I relied on them for information.

Me too. I used to look forward to its arrival in the mail.

Then as they sank they taught me to read through them. They taught me to read them as a bunch of bumbling fumbling flailing idiots. They couldn't propagandize their way out of a paper bag.

True as well. I like wot you dun to the cover

There is a huge festival taking place in our neck of the woods for the next two week-ends with 50,000 expected to attend. Sort of a modern day Woodstock for millennials and old hippys devoted to good times in the woods with art installations and electronic and jam bands as the focused draw. It's called the Electric Forest Festival and it doesn't exactly restore my faith in humanity--but it's definitely more than and different from non-stop outrage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2I8bF35uSo.

chickelit said...

Troop, have you ever tried Trader Joe’s swordfish steaks? It tastes just like chicken.