I have been away from my Diplomad duties for some time. Oh, the shame!
The Diplowife and I are in California taking care of some personal and financial affairs. Done successfully. Will be returning home to lovely North Carolina this week-end. I especially miss my dogs, my house and the BBQ.
Blogging was also interrupted by a disastrous attempt at upgrading my MacBook Air to the High Sierra OS. Apple kept bugging me with little reminders on my screen to "UPGRADE, UPGRADE" so I finally did. Horrible experience. All was chugging along nicely until the whole computer just crashed and I got a flashing "?" on my otherwise blank screen. Took forever to get that cleared up and the instructions found on the Apple support site were only moderately helpful. I guess poor, poor Apple can't afford people who can write understandable English. Maybe with the new tax structure they will be able to do so.
My real reason for avoiding blogging, however, has nothing to do with the lame excuses just provided. The political scene and discourse have gotten so very unpleasant and just plain vicious that delving into the arena makes me hesitate.
The progressive insanity is now everywhere on display in its full and flowery anger and destructiveness. Trump hatred has become a mental illness. He is given zero credit for doing anything right. The Russian "collusion" story becomes increasingly absurd and unreal. The real world of the economy and its sudden and vast improvement is ignored, including the tremendous improvement in minority employment rates. The fact that Rocketman Kim has blinked in his stare-down with our President is hardly noticed. ISIS is a shadow of its former self, and that draws little notice. Israel is getting its capital recognized thanks to Trump and there is little to no notice given--including among America's secular Jews many of whom seem to have become enemies of Israel. The real world is ignored in favor of fantasies about multiple genders, the contributions of "Dreamers," conservatives being responsible for sexual repression and harassment, and on and on. Virtue signaling is the new progressive reality.
At a time when things are finally going well for America and the West, the progressive fifth column works feverishly to undermine us.
Unpleasant is too mild a word.
Several of my friends keep telling me "if only Trump would stop tweeting!" or some other criticism. They used to tell me he would never manage to improve the economy. Before that, it was that he would resign before the first six months were up.
ReplyDeleteIn short, no success he has proves their previous criticism was in error. They just ignore the fact that they have been proven wrong time after time, and point out that he is a mountebank, or a liar, or whatever.
Is it possible they will still be making wrong predictions in three more years, and still be convinced he should not run for re-election? Do they feel remorse for being wrong time after time?
"... Apple can't afford people who can write understandable English."
ReplyDeleteMaybe not, but they have a marvelously diverse workplace.
There is nothing Trump has said that is even *remotely* as racist as Tim Cook promising to 'fix' their 'diversity problem', where the *only* significantly overrepresented race is 'asian'.
DeleteBut the media gives Apple a pass, because they donate heavily to 'the good guy' progressive causes.
This cart is not just before the horse, it's careening uncontrollably down the hill.
- reader #1482
The kerfuffle about calling unpleasant countries unpleasant countries to live is funny. What are State employees going to do? Pretend they don't really deserve the hardship pay they get for living in such places solely in order to score a political point for the Democrats/CNN? And if the big deal was supposed to be that Trump used a vulgar word, well, I think CNN more than outdid him on that today.
ReplyDeleteLol, all those FSOs no one wants to hire wind up serving in those shit hole countries and everyone knows it. Someone has to go, so why not send the people you don't want to work with? Unless of course it's a career maker - spend an unaccompanied year in AIP, come home, get divorced, and get promoted!
DeleteI remember back in the 90s (when I was in the Service) some people started objecting to "Third World Country" and used "developing nation" instead. Developing into what? LOL....some nations are perpetually "developing". It's a sad fact of life that there will always be some countries that are rich and some are poor. It's a terrible thing, that human beings live in misery....but the US can't fix every other country in the world via immigration or any other means.
DeleteMy take is why import a problem when it can be solved there. That assumes folks want to solve the problem.
DeleteWell, for all the jokes they make about Trump, Canadians chose as their leader the tattooed pretty-boy son of a former prime minister.
ReplyDeleteIf Justin weren't a Trudeau, he'd be a ski instructor at Whistler...or maybe running a three-store chain of dry-cleaners in Montreal.
No argument here, my friend. He is an embarrassment to Canada.
ReplyDeleteWhat we have here is a clash of weltenschaiings ... Trump's is too close to reality to be tolerated.
ReplyDeleteDamn autocorrect ... Weltenschauungs!
DeleteWeltanschauungs ... you should not have to fight your computer.
Delete"Why allow immigrants from shit hole countries ?", asks president Trump. Yes, why indeed. I can tell you that we are many, many, many who love to hear a politician say something we all are thinking. Finally. Thank you, president Trump , and I love it when the MSN explodes. They will attack him relentlessly but many of us, ordinary people, victims of outrageously destructive politics, say, bless you, finally ! That is the political style many of us like, he is a friend of us,he says it like it is, not like the milque-toast politicians we have in Western Europe who do nothing about the invasion, the occupation, the crimes. Maybe Trumps words can make things happen ? Maybe he punctured some "balloon" ? In Eastern Europe they also have some politicians with stamina. Bless them too.
ReplyDeleteSwedish lady
YES, a thousand times yes, SL. I am sure for all the media and liberal folks (but I repeat myself)who are gasping with horror there are many others who are cheering the President on because like it or not, undiplomatic or not.....this is the reality. Many countries around the world ARE sh*t holes.
DeleteSo far the aggrieved include the marxist pope, the UN, the EU assorted professional-whiners mainly of the brown-skin variety, CNN, Mr Apology himself-Obambi, Senator Durbin more will be added to this list as the day goes by and virtue signallers and welfare parasites wake up. This leads me to believe that whatever was said-we still do not know the actual words-not only relates to his deplorable supporters but a good proportion of tax-payers throughout the world.
DeleteAs a bonus it would seem that US ambassadors overseas called to explain the comment-which I repeat, we still do not know what was said-would rather give up their post. Trump is a genius.
You just ignore the news and life is good.
ReplyDeleteTrue enough. Ignore the news. The Piedmont is a nice area.
ReplyDeleteBut vinegar has no place in BBQ.
"But vinegar has no place in BBQ."
DeleteIt's the only thing that belongs on BBQ...
Barry (in NC)
Eastern style
DeleteDiplomad, you probably need to get out of California.
ReplyDeleteHe did.
DeleteI believe it was one of your kids who coined the expression "Turd World Countries", President Trump should appropriate it.
ReplyDeleteAbout that Yale Psych girl's briefing on Trump: Note that everything she used to make her decision comes via MSM. So is her analysis of Trump, or of the Press?
ReplyDeleteBut it was the perfect set up for Trump to lob one out of the park with that immigration discussion with the members of Congress.
Green Bear
I have two Macs. Neither has been upgraded to High Sierra. I'm very wary of it. This is the first time in a long time I have not jumped on the new OS bandwagon. This is a watershed upgrade; it totally changes the underlying file system the OS resides on. I'll be patient and wait until they've ironed all the kinks out...
ReplyDeleteI don't know about anyone else, but I'm waiting with bated breath for a story about your Guatemala interactions with the teacher/activist who was bumped off first-class by Sheila Jackson-Lee.
ReplyDeleteI fell the same way; and my solution is simply to limit expose to the MSM. There is no longer any reason to consume its product, because whatever it is properly called, it is not fair and accurate reporting of news. It is amazing the relief you feel when you just turn it off. Same goes for social media. Remember; none of it is compulsory.
ReplyDelete"Virtue signaling is the new progressive reality."
ReplyDeleteAt least we have a President who doesn't care about virtue.
...just reality.
Deletemedia-defined virtue.. which is not reflective of.... the noble virtues real people in America hold.
Delete- reader #1482
You overestimate Turdeau HarryBro, his only experience in the real world is as a substitute drama teacher to young kids (translation part-time babysitter). Running a dry-cleaners is way beyond his skill-set.
ReplyDeleteLOL, the President has every single person thinking "shithole" when thinking about immigration...
ReplyDeleteBarry
1. Kudos to those (Rich Lowry) who turn things around on the attackers. I would ask someone if they believe that the poor, unsafe, corrupt countries run by dictators or kleptocrats are that way because of the color of the skin of the people who live there. If yes, then he or she is the racist. If no (the actual case), then what did Trump say that was racist? No doubt some people will try to blame "oppression by Western Civilization" for the problems of these countries, but of course, there is scant evidence of that, and any supposed examples can be quickly swatted away.
ReplyDelete2. So many good things to read right now (outside of the mainstream media, of course). On the same theme of turning things around on the attacker, this piece, describing a Facebook attack on Mike Rowe (and his reply) is highly recommended.
I think Mike Rowe laid the wood to her!
DeleteI feel your pain. I'm a Foreign Service retiree and I live in Spain because it is so bad, so ugly in the US. I originally left when Obama was in office, because I couldn't stand what he was doing to the country. But now I can't stand the 24 hour a day hysteria - not just on the news, but everywhere.
ReplyDeleteI try to ignore the news, newspapers and internet news as much as possible. Online news is the only thing I can barely tolerate, and I must confess that it is perversely addicting.
I pray that Trump stays the course, especially on immigration and I can go home to be close to my only child.
Delilah