A Trump Story

A friend who spent years in the USAF Reserves tells a story of meeting Donald Trump, during his mogul days, long before the presidential run and subsequent term. I thought you might enjoy it.

On a rainy night just before Christmas, a Trump Airlines plane chartered to the Air Force was bringing aircrews back home after they finished flying military cargo to the Middle East. Taxiing on an unfamiliar airstrip somewhere in the Southeast it strayed off the taxiway and sunk a landing gear in gooey clay mud.

The civilian pilots figured they’d never get someone to move the plane in time to get home for Christmas. The AF crew guys on board said they could get the plane unstuck, if given a free hand, and the pilots agreed. Long story short, they succeeded, and everybody got home for Christmas. 

Some while later, after the holidays my friend (and I presume the other AF reservists involved) got a beautiful engraved invitation to brunch at the Trump Tower, call for reservation when in the NYC area. The only requirement, wear a Class A uniform.

Some weeks or months later, my friend found himself near NYC, called the number, donned his class As, and was picked up by a limo which brought him to Trump Tower. He got a thank you and handshake by DJT and a nice meal in a ballroom-type setting. There were other guys in uniform there, and many civilians as well. 

What really impressed my friend was Trump’s apprentices, a dozen or more well-dressed young people who hovered behind as Trump ate. These approached him one at a time at some invisible signal and were whispered to by Trump before scuttling off on some errand DJT had decreed. 

If that sounds like DJT playing Don Corleone minus the ring-kissing, I suppose he was. Very much “if you do me a favor, I owe you a favor.” In those years, NYC was a sea in which Trump was one of the big sharks.

Karma

Through a series of links beginning with Instapundit, we arrive at a Tweet which documents that three of the seven GOP votes to convict the impeached Trump have been censured by their back home Republican organizations. Politico reports essentially the same info.

It appears Senators Burr, Cassidy, and Toomey were censured - almost immediately and with varying degrees of formality - by their state parties. Don’t expect similar moves for all of the remaining four, though a couple may also be criticized.

Blue Doughnuts

Ed Driscoll, an Instapundit regular, posts a substantial excerpt from a National Review article which raises interesting questions.

Democrats have puzzled over why Biden did not perform as well in cities as expected, and conversely, why Trump seemed to overperform in them. Overall, Biden won major metro areas, but his slippage compared with Trump’s gains was notable.

Trump gained in every borough of New York City except Staten Island (where he was already a favorite) compared with 2016. (snip) Compared with 2016, he gained votes in cities such as Philadelphia and Detroit, the latter of which gave Trump 5,000 more votes than in 2016 and Biden 1,000 fewer than Hillary Clinton won. As pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson has noted, even though Joe Biden won major metros as expected, closer scrutiny of a number of blue cities reveals blue doughnuts: As Democrats increased their command of the suburbs, their hold on inner cities weakened.

The article’s author seems puzzled by this trend. My view: a party which caters to college-educated suburban voters, which the Democrats have become, will appear disinterested in (and uninteresting to) the less educated, who make up the bulk of inner city voters. Add to this the really pathetic job Democrat machine politicians do of managing urban life, which the article’s author notes, and urban D votes will be lost.

Later ... Free associating about “blue doughnuts” somehow surfaced the mental image of hemorrhoid cushions, which thankfully I’ve never needed. 

Trump Acquitted ... Again

The Senate has voted on Trump Impeachment 2.0 and while 57 voted to convict, that was 10 fewer than was required for a finding of guilty. Politico reports 7 Republicans voted to convict:

Susan Collins of Maine, 

Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, 

Mitt Romney of Utah, 

Richard Burr of North Carolina, 

Ben Sasse of Nebraska, 

Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania,

Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.

The only surprise in this list is Richard Burr. He joined the six who also voted to hold the proceedings constitutional. As a lame duck, he has nothing to lose electorally but may henceforth get less cooperation from GOP colleagues between now and 2023.

Meanwhile, following the vote Trump announced he is far from finished with the MAGA movement, whatever that turns out to mean for him personally.

The Hiccup Explained

Impeachment 2.0, now underway at the Capitol, has just this morning undergone a dipsy-doodle of “yes, we’ll have witnesses” followed almost immediately by “no, we won’t have witnesses.” You’ll likely see various explanations for that reversal.

The explanation which makes most sense to me is that, had they been permitted, Nancy Pelosi would be called as a witness. She might be forced to admit that, prior to Jan. 6, Trump had offered her troops for protecting the Capitol and she’d turned them down, ridiculing the need. Not a good look for Lucrezia Borgia’s latest reincarnation.

I don’t have inside info so it may turn out that another explanation is eventually accepted as definitive.

Another View

On Tuesday we linked you to a review of Boomers which was largely supportive of the new book. I’m guessing that, for better or worse, it will be considered one of the year’s “important books.”

If you’d like a more nuanced, less positive view of this “ generational study,” check out Kay Hymowitz’ review of Boomers for City Journal. As a boomer herself, she ‘paints’ from inside the bubble and uses a less broad brush.

Cultural Aside

Did you like the 2001 Anne Hathaway, Julie Andrews film Princess Diaries? It is a favorite of the DrsC. It features one of those mostly white San Francisco private schools mentioned in the previous post. 

I bet you never asked yourself how Mia Thermopolis and her far-from-famous artist-mother could afford a private school. Not to mention a roomy-but-funky studio/home in one of the most expensive real estate markets in the nation. 

The short answer, one supposes, is that the Renaldis paid serious child support, while for years neglecting their parental visitation rights. It is, after all, a modern fairy tale and as such need not be realistic.

CA ... Beneath the Symbolism

Ezra Klein writes for the New York Times (behind paywall) a column syndicated to the Salt Lake Tribune with this intriguing title, “California Is Making Liberals Squirm.” Indeed, check out this example Klein gives.

San Francisco is about 48% white, but that falls to 15% for children enrolled in its public schools. For all the city’s vaunted progressivism, it has some of the highest private school enrollment numbers in the country — and many of those private schools have remained open.

Fascinating ... “segregation academies” in liberal California ... who knew? You’d think them normal in Atlanta or Dallas. This is a good example of a CA tendency Klein notes (emphasis added).

There is an old finding in political science that Americans are “symbolically conservative” but “operationally liberal.” Americans talk like conservatives but want to be governed like liberals. In California, the same split political personality exists, but in reverse: We’re often symbolically liberal, but operationally conservative.

Klein has good examples. He describes CA environmental protection laws being used by homeowners to kill development in their neighborhoods. 

During the 30-some years we lived in rural NorCal, the DrsC experienced two separate ad hoc neighborhood efforts which did exactly this NIMBY thing, quite cynically. One killed a subdivision, the other stopped the establishment of a new Indian reservation. Why? Because each would have damaged the rural experience.

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Pro tip: because many paywalled NYT opinion pieces are syndicated to other papers, it is often possible to read them online as we did here. Some papers running syndicated NYT material are not behind a paywall. Web search the NYT title for alternate venues.

Many Expect Civil War

Talk about news you didn’t want to see. The Washington Examiner has results of a Zogby Analytics poll asking Americans about the likelihood of our nation having a second civil war. Hat tip to Instapundit for the link.

Pollster Jonathan Zogby of Zogby Analytics said that overall, 46% believe civil war is likely versus 43% who don’t.

For once, political parties-Republicans (49% likely and 40% unlikely), Democrats (45% likely and 44% unlikely), and independents (42% likely and 44% unlikely) were somewhat in agreement.

The poll was conducted in mid January, immediately prior to the inauguration. For reasons that are unclear, Blacks and Hispanics were modestly more likely to expect civil war than were Whites.

While this blog has mentioned civil war as a remote possibility, I hope it is clear that I believe it unlikely. I view as slightly more likely a “velvet divorce” like that of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. That is, a non-violent voluntary split into two nations which remain at peace with each other but follow different internal policies. 

My most likely scenario for what will come is neither of these but rather a continuation of muddling along, because that is the path of least resistance. Actually solving the “polarized nation” problem would take a degree of energy and will which I don’t sense is available.

Wednesday Snark

Superior snark from Instapundit by sometimes-extreme poster Sarah Hoyt, on the subject of deporting criminal aliens.

What to do with Pelosi becomes a problem, though. I don’t even know where the border to hell is, so how do we repatriate her?

Send her home to San Francisco, of course. Thanks to people like Pelosi, SF is close enough to hell as makes no difference. Grok the poetic justice.

The Wisdom of Snowflakes

 A pithy quote from a Charles C. W. Cooke article in National Review.

One need not be an incisive student of history to understand that when a man is told that he can silence his critics by merely claiming to feel “unsafe,” he will quickly claim to feel unsafe.

And that is how the First Amendment’s free speech guarantees are nullified. Hat tip to Power Line for the link.

Booing Boomers

It is possible that you, like me, find the boomer cohort tiresome. You might have that reaction even if your birthdate says technically you are a boomer. 

American Greatness has a review of a new book profiling six boomer public figures: Steve Jobs, Aaron Sorkin, Jeffrey Sachs, Camille Paglia, Al Sharpton, and Sonia Sotomayor. The book is Helen Andrews' Boomers: The Men and Women Who Promised Freedom and Delivered Disaster. 

The reviewer lumps Andrews' Boomers together with Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Ade Acid Test and Christopher Lasch’s The Culture of Narcissism as the three books essential to understanding the trajectory and significance of the boomer cohort.

I haven’t read the book, but the review is worth your time. It trashes the stereotypical boomer shortcomings in a heartfelt manner with which you’re likely to find yourself nodding agreement. Hat tip to RealClearPolitics for the link.

The Short List of Shame

Five Republicans voted with all 50 Democrats to continue the Senate’s impeachment trial. Fox News reports 45 Republicans voted for a Rand Paul motion that found it unconstitutional to impeach a former president. The list of shame is as follows:

Five GOP senators voted not to dismiss the impeachment trial of President Trump: Susan Collins, Maine, Lisa Murkowski, Alaska, Ben Sasse, Neb., Pat Toomey, Pa., and Mitt Romney, Utah.

I’ll be disappointed if any of those RINOs doesn’t face a serious primary challenge to their next reelection effort. Disloyal votes should draw negative consequences, of which none is more bitter than a career-ending repudiation by one’s own party.

Later ... This article in The Hill says actually six GOP senators voted for a trial, not 5,  and includes Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), about whom I admit knowing nothing.

Turning Off the Paying Customers

Ed Driscoll, an Instapundit regular, links to this Front Office Sports article about viewership of the 2021 Super Bowl. As you might guess, viewership was down.

The puzzling drop in sports TV viewership continues with the Super Bowl falling to its lowest numbers in 15 years.

Super Bowl 55 drew a 38.2 TV rating, also down 8% from 41.6 last year. That made it the lowest-rated Super Bowl since Joe Namath and the New York Jets’ Super Bowl III win over the Baltimore Colts 52 years ago, according to Sports Media Watch.

Believe it or not, in speculating about reasons for the reduced ratings, the article never mentions that a significant portion of the NFL’s audience is turned off by the BLM messaging on display. The satirical site The Babylon Bee headlined it thus:

Conservatives Sit Down For A Relaxing Evening Of Being Insulted By Every Major Corporation In America

As noted, a significant segment of conservatives chose to use their time in other pursuits. This makes the TV ads worth less as they attracted fewer eyeballs.

Diaper Filling

How about some Tuesday morning snark, courtesy of PJ Media’s Stephen Kruiser? His topic is the current tantrum which is alleged to be an “impeachment.”

The Democrats are getting underway with yet another public exercise of daddy issues, wasting time and taxpayer dollars in what will amount to nothing more than an on-camera diaper filling.

In Democrats’ defense, when ya gotta go ... ya gotta go. They are clearly full of it. 

Ground Broken

Last Friday I wrote of us no longer being CA homeowners and our new place being started in NV. At her blog, the other DrC has photos of that NV groundbreaking which apparently happened on-schedule.

You’ll recollect that I mentioned the new property has a big panoramic view. In the second of the two photos posted, above the trenched dirt which is its focus, you can sort of see that our new place is atop a small mesa with amazing sight lines. Check it out.

Unicorn Sighted

I just finished reading something I do not expect to find, a politically balanced article. No, really, I did and it is, hat tip to RealClearPolicy for the link.

Author Kevin Dorst truly does seem to be able to understand the world view of both of our politically/ideologically polarized red vs. blue, right vs. left camps. See his article at Arc Digital.

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The main quibble I have with Dorst’s very even-handed discussion isn’t ideological. I don’t believe he assigns as much credit-or-blame to the Internet as it deserves.

While I love the Internet and am on it at all hours, it is clear to me that its everyman-a-publisher feature has been samizdat, on steroids. With an equally subversive effect on the status quo ante.

Instead of requiring investment in paper and ink, and then in distribution, all that’s needed is this generation’s version of the typewriter and you’re off to the races. Whatever you write and post is immediately available to - literally - the world; to everyone online who can read the language in which you wrote.

This has proved useful for ISIS and for quilters, for coin collectors and fitness addicts, for evangelists, devil worshipers and atheists, for the NRA, the Sierra Club and Donald Trump ... for everyone of every stripe and persuasion. Asynchronous gatherings of the like-minded occur, regardless of geographic distance or time zone. 

I am reminded of a line of haunting song lyric:

What brings us together is what pulls us apart.

The Internet has been a quantum leap into the unknown, the consequences of which we are beginning to see unfold. The upsides are obvious, the downsides less so, but real nevertheless. Instead of emphasizing what we have in common, it emphasizes the ways in which we differ, what we only share with some. 

No Carnival, No Mardi Gras

Having written about the Super Bowl, below, I started thinking about the next event which is Mardi Gras/Carnival. It falls on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, the official beginning of Lent. 

A quick check shows that both New Orleans and Rio de Janeiro have cancelled the celebration for 2021, because of the Chinese flu. Sad but probably a necessary precaution. One that will cost the merchants of both cities many millions of dollars in lost tourist revenue. 

The Not-So-Super Bowl

Crafty old Tom Brady wins another Super Bowl, beats the hot new kid. There is hope for us old guys after all. I might have watched a few plays except I forgot it was on. Not much interest in the NFL in our circle. 

Everyone online seem to be dumping on the halftime show. What else is new, I can’t remember one I liked. I guess the ads weren’t much either. 

I read the Geezer-in-Chief put in a videotaped pregame appearance, pleading for mask wearing, etc. He is so lame, this is his idea of the really aggressive anti-C19 program that Trump didn’t do? Meh.

I wonder if pro football hasn’t past its sell-by date, what with CRT memes and all. 

The Left’s Lies on Immigration

Jerry Kammer, in a column for the Center for Immigration Studies, writes the following, debunking the WaPo argument for open borders:

Jared Bernstein, who was an economic adviser to Vice President Biden before joining the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, offered an assessment that threw cold water on the import-foreign-workers enthusiasts who write the Post's editorials. Wrote Bernstein:

One thing we learned in the 1990s was that a surefire way to reconnect the fortunes of working people at all skill levels, immigrant and native-born alike, to the growing economy is to let the job market tighten up. A tight job market pressures employers to boost wage offers to get and keep the workers they need. One equally surefire way to sort-circuit this useful dynamic is to turn on the immigrant spigot every time some group's wages go up. (p. 157)

This is basic economics - supply and demand - when you increase the supply, prices including those for labor drop. A ridiculously low wage may look good to someone accustomed to third world poverty. 

The Biden loose borders policy increases labor supply, so wages will fall. Understand it as Biden’s payoff to his corporate dark money backers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.