Bernie Sanders takes notes
Why would anyone make art for money unless one was starving and homeless and could sell the art for food or shelter, or both? Money is not why art is made. Though sometimes art makes money, making money on art doesn't make it art.
Most artists I know are socialists, if they're anything at all. I asked a writer friend recently about his politics. He took a few moments to think about my question and then said, "I guess I'm a Marxist" as if he was surprising himself with his answer.
I don't know what I am. I know what I'm not, I'm not a Republican or a Democrat. I've been down in the dumps politically ever since the 2000 Bush swindle in Florida, and the more reading of American history I do the downer in the dumps I get. Woe is me and the hundred of thousands like me.
Since I turned 18 here's who I've had as my President--Nixon, Ford, Carter*, Reagan, HW Bush, Clinton, W Bush, Obama, Trump--a pretty sorry lineup. I put an asterisk beside Carter, who is retrospect wasn't terrible and is, as another friend put it, doing a really good job as an ex-President. I went door-to-door for Obama and look what I got! An inflated re-empowered Wall St., Guantanamo still open for business, and Trump, yes Trump who I lay on Obama's doorstep. But that's a subject for some other time.
I don't know what to say about Trump, I really don't. I don't understand the appeal. When I watch him speak, and I do with a kind of fascination, I watch the way his mouth moves. I learned this when I had a business associate who lied--watch the mouth move, the mouth will tell you as much as or more than the eyes. I know the type, a real estate developer. The game is all about using the word "great" as many times as you can in your presentation to the planning commission and in your press releases.
I guess what surprises me is how inept Trump is. I thought he'd at least be a decent administrator/businessman. That Cabinet! It really is a chamber of little horrors. there's no other way to look at it. A NY TIMES columnist was writing a weekly column, a contest to name the worst cabinet member, and each week Trump's team would joust among themselves for first position. Ross, DeVos, Perry, Mnuchin, Carson, take your pick. Don't forget either that Mitch McConnell's wife works for Trump as a Cabinet Member.
My idea for a Trump 'buyout' got no traction. I still think everyone dismayed with Trump could pitch in a modest amount of money, say $27 per person, to be dumped into a big sack and delivered to The White House in exchange for his resignation. At the very least it would be a great pr stunt and probably make the national news. The odds in Vegas of his accepting it would depend of course on the amount collected, but I'd wager they'd be 50/50.
Which brings me to Bernie Sanders, a socialist. I'm unequivocally backing Bernie. There's no more deserving candidate. I don't even care if he can win, which is the knock on him of course by the pundits. When I watched Trump's State of the Union speech, Bernie was the only person taking notes. While everyone else was clapping like the trained seals they are or sitting stone-faced like the trained seals they are too, Bernie was actually listening and taking notes with a Bic pen. This guy's a serious man, probably too serious for his fellow citizens, many of whom detest socialism without really knowing what socialism is, never mind that they're already operating in what could pass for a socialist system, and embrace the fantastical lies of a rich kid capitalist bully instead.
As to our pundits. I have to laugh when one of the talk show 'news' anchors asks a pundit if they'd, "Mind staying on for a few minutes more." Hehe.