August 22, 2019

"It’s boring, at this point, to talk about the cost of living with Donald Trump as president... the massive toll, in terms of time and energy stolen from Americans forced to pay attention..."

"... to inane tweets and half-baked policy, this presidency has had on all of us," writes Dahlia Lithwick  "The Demoralizing Reality of Life Under Trump/Every day is the same, but still awful" (Slate).

And I just wonder why people keep giving Trump what he's only asking for. He's not stealing your attention.

I know the reflexive answer is that because he's President, we must keep paying attention, jumping at his every instigation, but you have to look at yourself. You can only do your part in this wild enterprise. Why can't you figure out how to do that in a way that doesn't give him perpetual dominance?

The reflexive answer to that question is that you think you're defeating him. But no, he's doing it in a way that makes your opposition energizing to him. That's how he became President in the first place. You can't stop, and he's doing it again and again and again.

A little more Lithwick:
The actual psychic toll on our mental health is crippling. The lost sleep, the grinding anxiety, the escalating fears don’t just represent squandered time. They start to chip away at your health and at your soul. The healthy response would be to tune it out altogether, but since actual people are actually suffering the brutal consequences, we cannot. And so here we are back in the narcissist’s loop, fueling his need to be at the center because, well, there he is at the center....
Take responsibility for yourself. Any therapist will tell you that!
Self-care in the form of manicures and time with the kids isn’t making a dent in it.... We are all doing too much. And we are all also not doing enough. And there is nothing wrong with you, beyond being a human being in categorically insane times.
To say "there is nothing wrong with you" is to assert that there's nothing you can do. But you can always only ever do you.

230 comments:

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Kevin said...

We have to vote for him. We have to vote for him or else our 401k’s will become worthless.

The Democrats on the debate stage told you.

Trump just said it so the media couldn’t fail to report it.

Seeing Red said...

They’re going to grab our retirement funds.

narciso said...

Joe walsh will not save you from that fate, heck he cant cover his 117k in child support.

narciso said...

Yes teresa ghillarducci as much as promosed this back in 2008.

Jim at said...

Again, the best part about the left's insanity? They brought it all upon themselves.
They deserve it.

Robert Cook said...

"Robert Cook: 'Obama was basically a (mildly liberal) Republican in practice'

"If that had even a glimmer of truth, Republican turnout for his second election would have been massive.

"How many Republicans voted for Barack Obama again? Twelve?"


That's for two reasons. One, the Republicans are like the Democrats: stupid. They believed the marketing and packaging of Obama as the progressive savior of America, when he was Wall Street's man with a plan to keep the money rolling in for the banks, investment houses, and other motley rich institutions and individuals who own our government.

Second, the Republicans have gone so far to the extreme right they see anyone to the right of Robert W. Welch Jr. as a foaming-mouthed commie.

Robert Cook said...

I meant to say "to the left of Robert W. Welch, Jr."

narciso said...

Yes but they ought to pay maintenance dues at least.

Michael K said...

Blogger Seeing Red said...
They’re going to grab our retirement funds.


This came up in Congress during the Obama admin. Here is the proposal.

Although this proposal is being initially portrayed as a voluntary choice, Americans already have the ability to purchase Treasury bonds with their retirement money. Moreover, the Obama administration is considering making these annuities the default option. And as analyst Karl Denninger noted, "'choices' have a funny way of turning into mandates." Nor is his concern unjustified.

In 2008, Professor Teresa Ghilarducci of the New School of Social Research testified before Congress proposing a similar scheme to convert private 401(k) accounts into government-run "guaranteed retirement accounts" that would pay a 3% return. And in 2008, the Argentinian government attempted to nationalize private retirement funds to help cover its runaway deficit.

As the U.S. Social Security system moves ever closer to bankruptcy, the billions of dollars Americans have saved in their private retirement accounts will become an increasingly tempting target for our politicians.

Michael K said...

Second, the Republicans have gone so far to the extreme right that Cook sees anyone to the right of Josef Stalin as a foaming-mouthed commie.

FIFY

Martin said...

Trump isn't stealing anything from Lithwick. She decides how to use her own time and energy.

Birkel said...

It's so funny when the party dedicated to power over others works with the people who have money to expand that control.

This leaves the willfully ignorant like Robert Cook puzzled.
It's happening again for the Nth time.
But true believers never see it coming.

Meanwhile, Trump is fighting against Wall Street.
And Robert Cook remains willfully ignorant.
As it ever was.

RobinGoodfellow said...

Blogger Dave Begley said...
My youngest was in college when Trump got elected. She said she was scared. I said, "About what?"

Nothing terrible has happened since then. In fact, Trump has made America great again to any objective observer.

My big questions: 1. If America is a racist country then why didn't Barack fix that during his 8 long years? 2. Didn't Barack's elections prove America isn't racist?


Democrats’ hopes were dashed when, after months of breathless anticipation, Mueller licked windows and ate paste for 6 hours in front of congress. And their dreams of impeachment evaporated like a fart in a hurricane.

Now they have pivoted to racism/white supremacy to see of that will stick. When that fails, Journolist will roll out new talking points.

buwaya said...

" that would pay a 3% return."

My 401k average annual rate of return has been @10% over the last ten years. This is normal.
Which is what you could have expected holding a balanced portfolio of equities.

Birkel said...

buwaya,
You could have done better than that.
Depending on your risk tolerance, of course.

buwaya said...

That's why one of my priorities is extracting my funds from the 401K.
Its not the bulk of our assets, but it certainly isn't small.

There are ways to do this while minimizing tax payments.

It also takes time.

Beasts of England said...

’Second, the Republicans have gone so far to the extreme right they see anyone to the right [left] of Robert W. Welch Jr. as a foaming-mouthed commie.’

Reagan could today run and win as a Republican with no change to his policies or positions. There’s been no movement to the right in my voting lifetime, let alone a lurch to the extreme right.

Could a similar claim be made today regarding Bill Clinton? Not even close. JFK? Hahaha!! Before the primaries are over, even Obama’s platform will be completely trashed as not far enough left.

narciso said...

well it's like a doppler shift sort of thing, btw, since culture advances much farther than politics as mark steyn has observed,

Mark said...

Recently back from a two-week vacation in France. Took my elderly mother.

We got in more than a couple of arguments with me telling her, "Will you turn that damn TV off? We're on vacation. Why get yourself all aggravated with the Trump stories? Will you please take a vacation away from it all." (She's an MS-NBC junkie Trump hater.)

Susan said...

I was at work all day today. What Trump was doing didn't cross my mind once.

I am going to do yard work now. I probably won't think of him again until tomorrow.

He has not affected my daily life in the least. Unless I need a laugh, then I rewatch election night coverage.

Lewis Wetzel said...

Blogger buwaya said...
. . .
My 401k average annual rate of return has been @10% over the last ten years. This is normal.
Which is what you could have expected holding a balanced portfolio of equities.


The value of my 403B is up 70% since the day Trump was elected (including contributions). I will now retire, comfortably, at age 60 instead of 62. God bless America.

ccscientist said...

Yes, it can be exhausting to have TDS. It is funny because while I find trump mildly distasteful, I keep being pleasantly surprised by what he accomplishes. It baffles me that someone could be so horrified by Trump that it ruins their life. The tweets do that? Really?

Original Mike said...

"Recently back from a two-week vacation in France. Took my elderly mother.
We got in more than a couple of arguments with me telling her, "Will you turn that damn TV off? We're on vacation."


Yeah, that's sad.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Maybe not but I am glad my kids don't have to sit through "a 3-day intensive program for incoming white students."

My youngest was being taught lies at U of Arizona but still came out conservative.


Very little of this crap is happening up the road at ASU. I livestreamed the welcome assembly/pep rally they had for incoming freshmen and the college president had nothing woke to say at all, other than generalities about the value of all kinds of diversity including viewpoint. My daughter had has zero wokeist nonsense presented to her thus far in any of the different arenas she's been introduced to. She's a girl in the engineering school and absolutely no one is kissing her ass and giving her extra helps and suggesting that she needs crutches, which I am delighted to see.

She has been on campus for a couple weeks now (moved in early) and has met a ton of kids from California flat out admitting that their parents would not send them to the freakshow that is the UC system. Read an email today that enrollment has increased 10% over last year to a total of 119,000 undergraduate and graduate students in the system right now - at a time that other schools are seeing decreases in enrollment. People are voting with their feet.

n.n said...

college president had nothing woke to say at all, other than generalities about the value of all kinds of diversity including viewpoint. My daughter had has zero wokeist nonsense presented to her thus far

Diversity of individuals? A positive development. The rest of the diversity doctrine assesses value of human life through color judgments (e.g. racism, sexism) when race, sex, etc. are not relevant. Oh, well, baby steps.

George said...

I bet she also suffers from climate change derangement syndrome

Tina Trent said...

He's just not that into Dalia Lithwick. So she gets manicures.

Tina Trent said...

What wasn't Robert Welch right about again? The Venona Project exposures vindicated him. The collectivist takeover of kindergarten to higher education is profound. Speech is being stifled: generations of young people have been fully indoctrinated.

Heck, it's even turning out flouride lowers IQ.

You have to wonder if the offices of National Review are located on some haunted ancient burial ground.

Jack Klompus said...

"This leaves the willfully ignorant like Robert Cook puzzled."

Gotta keep up that pose as an edgy dissident New Yorker.

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