The Great Tune-Out

Louis C.K.'s comedy is based on how completely disgusting he is. When it was revealed that he was actually a disturbed and disgusting person no one should have been surprised right? Of course not, people freaked out anyway and he was cancelled. People are weird this way. He said exactly what he was, and people laughed, but when it was revealed that it was true, I guess not so funny anymore. Woody Allen is a similar story. He told us exactly who he was. In Annie Hall, he portrays a self-obsessed neurotic who is clearly him. In Manhattan, he was a pedophile. Why is anyone surprised when he ends up being exactly that? I see this same phenomenon with Trump. He told us exactly who he is and what he was going to do. Yet now that he is in office, they seem surprised about what he is doing. Why? He doesn't hide how awful he is. Why is anyone surprised?

During his first term, he had strong opposition in Congress. He couldn't get anything done. He had no capacity to do so. He wasn't a politician. He had no idea what he was doing. He was a bad businessman, a complete fake, out of his league in the public sector. A little boy in a big chair. Trump 2.0 is a bit different in that Republicans control both Legislative chambers and, arguably, the Supreme Court. He basically has a sycophantic, negligent and complicit Legislative branch. The Republican party's motto should be: lean over, open anus, thank you sir may I have another. 

When Trump won his second term, my first reaction was to tune out. For at least a week, I stopped listening to my current event and political podcasts. No radio news. Music only on the road. I deleted my NY Time and Washington Post emails, immediately, unread. I knew it was coming but it didn't stop me from going into shock when it happened. This is the country I live in, I guess. They would rather to be led by an incompetent, hateful egomaniac than ... say ... anyone else. I'd be happier, or more likely, less miserable with anyone else. We voted for the worst person in our country to be President, probably the most powerful person in the world, a second time. The first time wasn't a fluke. We are actually that awful! 

I slowly started up again. I started by reading the titles of my podcasts. Two weeks after the election, I listened to a few. By December 2024, I was completely ensconced in my news-junky lifestyle again. I know many people who are still tuned out. I understand, it is overwhelming. That is what Trump wants, right? For the people who hate him to tune out. He floods the zone so that there is so much going on that you cannot complain too much about one thing, here comes another and another. When it time to start paying attention again. Wake up! 

Filter out the shit and concentrate on the important stuff ... and, man, there is a lot of shit. If you tune out everything, he wins. Tune out the shit: the impotent comments, the juvenile arguments, the social media stuff. 

What he actual does, as opposed to what he says, is more important. 

Here are the bullet points:

• appointed a person who thinks vaccines are bad to be in charge of vaccines.
• claimed to hate entanglements in the Middle East, withdew from Iranian Nuclear agreement in his first term because it was Obama's, tried to get Iran to sign virtually the same agreement in his second term, and then bombed them because it looked cool when Israel did it. 
• alienates our allies
• cozies up to dictators
• claimed that Ukraine started the war with Russia (Orwellian scariness).
• tries to impeach judges that rule against him
• deports people, some who are actually citizens, without due process
• pardoned the January 6 terrorists
• cut funding of public media, Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia and the Voice of America. 
• over 1,000 grants cancelled funding scientific research. 
• over 100 lawsuits filed against his administration
• his Big Ugly Bill cuts funding to Medicaid and Food Stamps (aka the poor) to fund tax cuts for billionaires.

Approximately 135,000 government employees have either been laid off or left voluntarily. About one third of them were hired back (oops, we need those people). So efficient! 

I always assumed that I would slowly become more conservative as I got older but they aren't letting me. Between W and Trump, all the awful things I have said about Republicans throughout the years ... just weren't awful enough. I've been too nice. This current Republican party is not exactly conservative, not the conservative ideals I grew up hearing about from Eisenhower loving Republicans. Those Republicans respected the law. This shit we got here is new. It is not conservativism. It is just bullshit and it needs to be stopped. 

Courier Journal - Fall/Winter 2024

As it turns out, working as a courier in the deep of winter in Northern New England is exhausting. I was doing this job last winter, but that was an unseasonably mild winter. This winter kicked my ass. Working a job that you can sometimes walk over 18,000 steps in a day, my being in my 50's and having worked a desk job most of my life ... you could say it was rough. This is my explanation, my excuse, for not putting out a Courier Journal for Fall 2024, I was too exhausted to write. Not only that, but the heater in my living room went on the fritz. For the last month, the room where I do my writing has been freezing cold. 

Fall in Vermont elicits images of idealistic scenes of leaves changing, people raking and lots o' pumpkins. For us locals it means leaf peepers driving slowly and pulling over to take pictures of their trips north. We've gotten so used to the foliage, we often don't notice. You really have to watch your driving this time of year. You can turn a corner on a rural highway and come up on someone pulled over taking a scenic picture. Visitors don't always know how to drive on these roads. It reminds me of how bad I drove in Ireland. As it turns out, round-abouts are extremely confusing when you drive on the left side of the road. My brain doesn't work that way. I had to take several revolutions before I could get off. I have to remind myself of this, when I get pissed off at tourist drivers. 

Ever since I've moved to Vermont, I've noticed something very weird about Vermonters. They talk about Burlington like it is unsafe. I just don't get it, and it annoys me. It appears to me to be the safest city I've ever been in. Maybe it is an example of people not having travelled and not having experiences with any other cities, but it seems so preposterous to me. Business Insider magazine recently rated all of America's cities based on safeness. Burlington came in #4 while its neighbor, South Burlington, was #1. I am very lucky in that I work in both of these municipalities. New England fared well with Warwick RI, Nashua NH and Portland ME all making the top twenty.  

Crime isn't the only factor that is included on this rating but suffice it to say, I am safe when I walk around town or into people's backyards carrying packages for the good people of Burlington. It is not only a safe town but a happy and friendly place. People say "hi," smile and sometimes hold the door for me. One day recently, a woman on Church Street saw me carrying a very heavy package and walked along with me so that she could hold the door for when I got to the storefront I was going to.  One of my coworkers recently said that he feels like he needs a "bulletproof vest" when he delivers in BVT.  (No, he really said that.)  This is just completely fucking bonkers to me, but I lived in Boston for ten years and I never once felt unsafe, so maybe I am the one that isn't normal.  

Another thing I really appreciate about Burlington is this:

That's right porta-johns. Here's another:

I drink a lot of coffee so I have to pee a lot. Having these spread around the city is a godsend. The first one is in Battery Park. The second is on the corner of North Prospect and Loomis, I think. There are quite a few of them and not all of them are on construction sites. I love this town.