An election?!

There has been absolutely zero coverage of the British election in American media.  I mean absolutely nothing.  The average literate American might know who Theresa May is.  Nobody here would have a clue who Jeremy Corbyn is.  And as for the Liberal Democrats, I don’t even know who their leader is.  It says a lot about how meaningful this election is, and unfortunately how other recent events have eclipsed it.  I think more Americans probably know who Sadiq Khan is than Jeremy Corbyn – thanks mostly to Trump’s baiting.  And I think more Americans would recognize Boris Johnson as that ridiculous buffoon during the London Olympics, or even Nigel Farage as Trump’s British buddy, over Jeremy Corbyn.  And the vast majority of Americans have absolutely no idea that there is an election in Britain going on tomorrow.  Given that, it’s impossible for me to make any solid predictions – I might stick my neck out and guess the Conservatives to win!  By how much is the question – if only the Labour Party had a more mainstream leader and manifesto, this might actually be a competitive election (Britain needs a charismatic leader like Justin Trudeau or Emmanuel Macron).  But when the only coverage I’ve seen here about Jeremy Corbyn is that he got an endorsement from Bernie Saunders, that says a lot.  This should be another chance, possibly the last chance, to do something about Brexit – but my impression is that people have sadly settled on the inevitability of Brexit, and if anything the election will only strengthen Theresa May’s impossible negotiating position.  What a sad state of affairs for a once proud nation.

Ikea

This bench is absolutely perfect for my porch area – some storage for gloves/hats/scarfs and somewhere to sit to put my shoes on.  Just my luck that it’s not in stock at the local Ikea store (nor the next nearest one in Portland) and an unavailable expected delivery date.  Typical.  Thanks Ikea and your reasonably priced furniture (I still plan to get a couple of bookcases).  If only you also did reclining sofas…  Let’s see if I can find a similar “entryway bench” (which is the American? search term I’ve discovered I need for this item of furniture) elsewhere.

Bittersweet

Look what I acquired recently...

Opinion: With his London tweets, Trump embarrasses himself - and America - once again

These are not my words, but I want to copy an opinion piece below I read this morning that I wholeheartedly agree with.  I'll just add that Trump using these horrific new London attacks to promote his Muslim travel and, unbelievably, American lack of gun control is appalling, shameful and ignorant.  I dread to think just how much worse incidents like this could be if the UK had the same gun "control" as the US.

The stoic determination and decency of the British people and their leaders was on full display in the hours after the latest horrific terrorist rampage. The Brits fought back, launching drinking glasses and chairs at the savages who attacked them. The police acted with lightning-fast precision, killing the three assailants within eight minutes of the emergency call. And, God bless him, a man returned to the bar where he experienced Saturday's horror -- to pay his bill and tip. Civilization is not going to be driven out of Britain by three, or three hundred, killers.

Meanwhile, and it pains me to write this, our president acted like a clod, a heartless and dull-witted thug in sending out a series of tweets. He -- commander in chief and leader of the free world -- first retweeted an unverified, unofficial Drudge headline about the unfolding terrorist attack. Then he aimed to bolster his Muslim travel ban (which is not supposed to be a Muslim travel ban).

"We need to be smart, vigilant and tough," he tweeted. "We need the courts to give us back our rights. We need the Travel Ban as an extra level of safety!" (Aside from the inappropriateness of President Donald Trump's tweet, he fails to grasp that the courts in these cases are reaffirming the our rights against an overreaching, discriminatory edict.)

After receiving blowback for that obnoxious missive, he tweeted out, "Whatever the United States can do to help out in London and the U. K., we will be there - WE ARE WITH YOU. GOD BLESS!" But then he decided to slam the mayor of the city attacked, who had calmly warned his fellow Londoners: "Londoners will see an increased police presence today and over the course of the next few days. There's no reason to be alarmed."

Trump took the second part out of context and responded viciously, "At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is 'no reason to be alarmed!'" (The mayor, of course, was telling them not to be alarmed by the heightened police presence.) Trump was not done, however, inanely tweeting, "Do you notice we are not having a gun debate right now? That's because they used knives and a truck!"

One is prompted to ask if he is off his rocker. But this is vintage Trump -- impulsive and cruel, without an ounce of class or human decency. His behavior no longer surprises us, but it should offend and disturb us, first, that he remains the face and voice of America in the world and, second, that his fans hoot and holler, seeing this as inconsequential or acceptable conduct. We wound up with this president because millions of Republicans could not prioritize character, decency and overall fitness to serve over their mundane and frankly petty partisan wish list (28 percent top marginal tax rate!). Self-appointed religious leaders fail to see that this soullessness -- not the dreaded liberal elite who insist on saying "Happy Holidays" or refuse to countenance discrimination against gay customers -- is a threat to the moral fiber of a democracy that requires a modicum of common sense and human decency to function.

Sure, Trump's policies and rhetoric are incoherent and based on a tower of lies. Far worse, however, is his appalling character, which accelerates the erosion of democratic norms and social cohesion a diverse democracy requires. In instances like this, those who would lecture us on President Barack Obama's under-appreciation of America's unique place in human history or proclaim that they simply had to vote for Trump because Hillary Clinton was some sort of monster are exposed as fools or hypocrites or both.

The London attacks bring out the best in Britain and in Western leaders on the European continent; it brings out the worst in Trump and his followers. The former protect the soul of Western civilization; the latter drive a stake through the animating ideas that make America special.

Stanley Cup

We are well into the Stanley Cup finals at the moment - the best looking trophy in sports.  Nashville Predators versus Pittsburgh Penguins.  That's ice hockey for those not in the know.  I don't really have a strong preference either way as to who I want to win - I don't like the Pittsburgh Steelers (that's American Football), so I guess that transfers to not liking the Penguins as well.  And apparently Trump thinks Pittsburgh is more important than Paris (even though it voted strongly Democrat in the election).  But I was shocked to notice that Nashville has a black ice hockey player.  I don't think I've ever seen one before.  It's almost as rare as seeing a black person watching a golf tournament.  But I think all sports should have the tradition of not shaving during the playoffs - it's good to see that many players have as bad a playoff beard as I would have.

Belly Of The Beast

We had a ping pong tournament today.  My company versus Facebook.  It was supposed to be a mismatch – they have 3000 employees in Seattle, we have 200.  Yet we managed to win 3-2 – including a tournament-winning glorious lop-sided victory for yours truly.  To be honest, it wasn’t their best set of players – their 2 best players were WAY better than any of us, but we were able to handle the others quite comfortably.  Then to crown the victory, we ate at the Facebook cafeteria.  One of the many perks of going to their office – free food.  It wasn’t quite the extreme Silicon Valley-esque work environment I was expecting, instead just Ikea type furnishings mostly populated by young and male employees.  But to make up for working long and tough hours they do have a lot of benefits – as well as free food, I saw a laundry service, haircuts, I’m sure they probably also have a gym and dog-sitting service.  But their presence in Seattle, along with Amazon and a load of new buildings currently going up for Google, is why the traffic and cost-of-living is atrocious and only going to get worse.  I’m not a Facebook fan – I think I deleted my original account a long time ago, and might have only logged in once or twice since to look up somebody.  And of course, they are one of the many guilty parties for distributing fake news.  So I wouldn’t want to work there – but happy to eat their free food and whip their asses at ping pong!  

Reject The Future

So, Trump officially withdrew the US from the Paris climate agreement today.  A sad, sad day.  I don’t need to repeat all the criticism and protest already voiced, suffice to say that the symbolism is telling and that IMHO it’s an extremely irresponsible and extremely shameful decision.  Trump has done a lot of dubious things since assuming the presidency, and this might be the worse.  Expect this to be a big deal when it comes to protests and future campaign talking points – this is clearly a policy mistake, but I hope it is also a political mistake.  And an absolute disgrace.  As Neil deGrasse Tyson put it (if you don’t know who he is, the best comparison I can come up with is a non-eccentric American version of Patrick Moore) in one of the better tweets I saw “If I and my advisors had never learned what Science is or how & why it works, then I’d consider pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord too.”.  That about sums it up – Trump is listening to people like his Vice President, who doesn’t even want evolution taught as fact but as theory.