Project Update: Done Transcribing, Editing Ugly Essay Outline, and Political & Social Justice Thoughts in the Form of Tweets
Woops! @BBCClick inspired me to write a few paragraphs for my novel before going to bed before forgetting. Add more time to sleep deficit! President Trump exhibits classic signs of mental illness: shrinks - NY Daily News https://t.co/19D3AYsXoM .@GreatDismal As much as I agree, there's a few issues with argument: narcissism is personality disorder, can be used in slippery slope. . . .@GreatDismal . . .future, & in the long run, much like historical successful fascist regimes, many have bought into Trump for own egos. .@GreatDismal . . .and like the argument for impeachment, the next in line is almost worse: he's capable & has equal or worse ideas. . . .@GreatDismal . . .Now if we can impeach or declare unfit a whole administration. . .I would think it's a productive approach. .@GreatDismal . . .But right now, keep current judges alive, fight the short term, then convince Middle America for mid-terms, governors. . .@GreatDismal . . .mayors, then in 2020, vote in a sane President & administration. .@GreatDismal . . .Also have to unify economic and social justice advocates. The #DumbAssinChief might have won the Electoral Vote/College, but he's accountable to the whole of the US. .@screwjaw Not a recipient of the hate or kindness, but damn, I tear up & feel proud to be an American when I think about all the kindness. The #DumbAssinChief might have won the Electoral Vote/College, but he's accountable to the whole of the US. .@screwjaw Maybe if they did some listening, they woudn't have so much hate? https://t.co/PmDimn3vFu This reads like the anti-Kansas Tea-Party Economic Experiment. 2 wks behind on podcasts. Hearing a lot of #Obama farewell address. I would listen to inspirational speeches from him on a weekly basis. .@screwjaw Quick research shows 2020 Congressional re-apportionment doesn't look to help. :( .@screwjaw Interesting note, though, 2015 marks the first year of rural population growth since 2010. https://t.co/9mFvFhHROe .@screwjaw This clinches my feeling that 2016 results more to do with geographic demographic changes. https://t.co/mz71ePMwxH .@screwjaw And Trump's anti-immigration policies & covert (not so much) racism aiming to stem factors that weaken his coalition in future. .@screwjaw This is the strategic reason, if not moral reason, why Democrats should not abandon,. . . .@screwjaw Rather, focus even more on the social justice ("identity politics") angle rather succumb to the lure of the white working class. .@screwjaw Even though, at the same time, hearing POC critiques of Obama, more elevating social programs needed for all. It's comforting to see people making jokes on social media again. Stupid #DumbAssinChief Sometimes I think #DumbAssinChief sounds like an AI without all the bugs worked. The way he repeat even makes me think #MaxHeadroom. Why does #DumbAssinChief say the names & other controversial words in iambic when they should be trochaic? Federal judge in Seattle—appointed by Bush 43—puts nationwide halt to Trump’s travel ban https://t.co/1OPS1rovRW So hunh, #DumbAssinChief doesn't believe courts have right to second guess his Constitutionality & lawfullness? https://t.co/UftSaZmUcN .@screwjaw Oddly enough, the popular movement requires the judicial system to protect human decency.
I expect to embed a bunch of Tweets this week. It works better for my ruminations on politics and social just this week, but I’ll start with one about writing:
Despite going to bed late last week, I produced some pretty good text. I finished up transcribing the latest chapter this week. Plan to go back to previous chapters to change the name of a character and re-format some parts for consistency (and hopefully cut some words/pages since I get verbose). The character name change comes about because de facto, I combined two characters to one, one that I had always been present and another one that existed in a draft before 2000. A gender/sex change back to the excised character should serve the story better.
I finished an outline draft for one the essays that I had done piecemeal during lunch hours at work. You read right, I draft outlines. Looking back on outlines that I’ve done on this essay going back about ten years, I think I have fifteen outlines plus various other scribblings on paper and in notebooks. I printed out this current outline and brought it on a spa trip yesterday with plans to take a hack at it while taking a break from relaxing. I, unfortunately, I didn’t take a break from relaxing. I’ll have to see what I can do during lunch hours with it using pen and paper rather than a mobile a phone. Something about pen and paper gives me a sense of flexibility and freedom.
Looking back at the rough draft of my last essay, the one that acts as exemplar for the things I want to do with this set of essays, it makes me jealous of myself all that time ago. It has a good basis and understanding of the topic. Thing is, I spent a good long while on that one, too, something like 3-4 years.
Another advantage I had with it: I had only two sources for it, and the author of those two sources wrote them as an accomplished sociologist working on a case study. Also, he had an argument. Even though I came up with a structure that had little to do with those case studies, I could write my essay as an alternative interpretation for how things ended, with some refutation of the hypothesis they had made.
For this essay, I have a lot of sources and none of them make a clear, thought out argument of why events ended up as they did. It requires a lot more original thought on my part. I’ve got some general ideas in my head, but I have yet a way to figure out how to put them down on paper in a comprehensible and compelling way. In my head, my ideas make sense, but I need to make a logical structure and also relate them to the actual events. At least I need to do so enough to make a satisfactory rough draft.
Hopefully that doesn’t require re-reading sources too much. I plan to do that more when I restart the writing process for second run throughs of drafts. Right now, I really just want to get rough drafts for all six essays, so I can get a sense of accomplishment from that.
POLITICAL/SOCIAL JUSTICE THOUGHTS
As mentioned at the start, this blog entry will be heavy with embedded Tweets. I did it a lot this week, and I think I owe myself some sleep tonight.
TRUMP’S SUITABILITY FOR DUTY AS POTUS VS HIS NARCISSISM
BEGINNING OF THE WEEK AFTER THE INITIAL "MUSLIM BAN" FALLOUT & EMOTIONS & HOPE FLYING
ANGER AFTER READING ABOUT THE "HATE SPEECH IS FREE SPEECH" MOVEMENT PRETTY MUCH LED BY MILO YIANNOPOULOS
ENJOYED READING ABOUT ECONOMICALLY PROGRESSIVE GOVERNING LEADING TO ECONOMIC GROWTH AND BETTER LIVING CONDITIONS
DAMN! BARACK OBAMA'S FAREWELL SPEECH REMINDS ME THAT WE'RE THE HOPE WE CAN BELIEVE IN
RESEARCH AND ARGUMENT OF BELIEF AND HOPE THAT TRUMP'S ELECTION AN ABERRATION OF THE GREAT RECESSION AND ELECTORAL DEMOGRAPHIC TEMPORARY SHIFT
This last point strikes a string that I'd really like to explore and learn more about. During the 2016 Election, we heard mostly about the white "hard" working class. If we heard about people of color, we pretty much heard about them as monolithic communities and which candidate they would support, as a default, and maybe how the candidates reacted to Black Lives Matter (BLM).
BLM addressed the hot button ticket of police killing black people with little provocation, but there's more to black people, other people of color, and other communities than who they support and one issue at a time. Heck, different parts of those communities have their own interests and causes that they want to stand and fight for, whether it be for police not shooting, being treated as equals, getting representation, having the opportunities for jobs, getting opportunities for education, helping to deal with the vagaries of survival and having the opportunities to expand their horizons about the world, and so much more.
People of color are human and have as much variety as whites and other majority populations. In some ways, these communities might have more variety to them, too.
And as I have heard from a few podcasts and read in the news (I AM NOT A GREAT EXAMPLE OF HOW TO LEARN ABOUT THESE THINGS), Obama didn't do the best job providing these communities such opportunities, either. The biggest hypothesis of why this occurred has to do with his expending his political capital on trying to get along with the GOP and finding compromises that worked for everyone. It didn't work. Mitch McConnell, after all, vowed to make Obama a "do-nothing President" and try to prevent Obama from doing anything. Ironically, Obama succeeded at his greatest accomplishments when he stopped trying to compromise then pushed through his through whatever means he had available to him.
I'll admit, I voted for Obama back in 2008 because I read about him being so good at reaching across the aisle and getting things done that way in the Senate. The GOP really disappointed me in the barriers they put up against Obama. I guess this taught me needed cynicism for how US politics works and that the idea of compromise and working together accomplishes nothing. We need a President with a good, moral, ethical, honorable agenda and who knows how to put it through by any means necessary. It definitely helps to have the other branches of government, too.
We especially need to have that President in office for nominating Justices to protect human rights and the good fight for down the road. I'll post more Tweets on that matter below.
HAPPY FOR NORMALITY ON SOCIAL MEDIA AGAIN AND LINGUISTIC SHOTS AT TRUMP
JOYFUL ABOUT THE JUDICIAL BRANCH DOING ITS JOB PROTECTING THE SPIRIT OF THE US AND THE CONSTITUTION
Well that about covers my thoughts on politics and social justice issues this week. It didn't feel like so much of a roller coaster ride as the week before, which felt calming and unsettling at the same time. Calming because it felt like our nation returned to some level of sanity. Unsettling because I've done little to help the good fight other than spread news, thoughts, and donate money toward good causes and causes that work to fight the good fight. I aim to get life and brains more organized to do more to fight the good fight.
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