Trump’s Mugshot and What it Means

What a time to be alive. What a time, right time to be alive. Have presidential mug shot, going down, went down, and you imagine the memes that we’re going to get to enjoy the swag we’re gonna get our hands on. I mean, coffee cups, beach towels, beach balls, T shirts, I just, I, there’s people thinking about stuff to put that picture on that I hadn’t even thought of I didn’t even know existed. So that’s pretty awesome. And if you are with half the country that despises Donald Trump’s big day for you, if you are the other group that likes him, then it is a big day for you too. Bad day for you know, it’s a lot going on. There is a lot going on 10 years ago, give or take, trying to think I should have probably researched it a little bit 10 years ago, I can literally remember reading about microaggressions, trigger warnings, things like that. And it did not compute, like information entering had booked or not processing at all, I did not get it. I was like, Well, what in the world is this? Is this a real thing? Trigger warnings microaggressions we are making new terms for hurt feelings for getting bent out of shape. To these people not know how they never heard that Sticks and stones may break my bones. but words will never hurt. Well, turns out turns out, either they hadn’t or they just didn’t care. Because here we are now 10 years later. I remember. I can remember the later that night after reading it during the day. I was a part of it Alumni Association. And there was an undergraduate at the monthly meeting. And I asked him his name was Ben. I’m like Ben. And he was at one of the local schools said, Is this something that’s happening? So I go Yeah, I just we had one of those, or microaggression or trigger warning that we heard about. It’s like, Oh, my goodness, this is an actual thing. So anyway, now obviously fast forward. That turns out that that really signaled the humanities, or some people a lot of people’s inability to take a joke. And obviously, bad news for lots of people, particularly me, I am a serial button pusher. I am a serial pusher of envelopes and boundaries. I am aggressive and very, very playful way and see my friends and people who know me best rolling their eyes at that one that I I like to mix it up. I like to say, mildly outrageous things from time to time. And not necessarily a very popular thing anymore, even though it is really popular and maybe more so maybe more important than ever. Anyway, here we are. Here we are 10 years later, and now we are the platforming people and canceling them and silencing them. And we have safe spaces and intolerance in the name of tolerance. That’s a funny one. very tolerant, but really, really intolerant. If it’s different. I’m really tolerant and less what you think is different than what I think are really tolerant and Alas, what you want is different than what I want. Ah, I get it. Okay. To do the math in my head, not able to. I’m not coming up with maybe I need maybe I need to know that new math. Somebody can help me out with that. Maybe it does add up, and I’m just bad at math. Maybe I am an antiquated dinosaur. Probably true in a lot of ways. And I’m just doing the math wrong. Somebody can help me with that potentially. I am of the belief that sunshine is the best disinfectant that the remedy for bad speech is more speech, not less speech. I would far rather know Know what everybody thinks? Good, bad or ugly, I would rather see it out in the open, I would rather be able to identify the crazy people with terrible ideas. I want to know who the people who have real hate in their hearts, I want to know who they are, I want to know where they are at all times. I do not want them hiding in corners of the internet or in dark alleys or dark rooms, dark smoky rooms in my community. No, I want to pull the pull the blinds, pulled the drapes, pull the curtains, and for sunshine to fill the room. And I want to know who these people are and what they think. And I don’t know that that people have thought that went all the way through. Wouldn’t you prefer that? Wouldn’t you want that? I would rather have my elected officials telling me really what they think about stuff. Instead of spewing a bunch of BS or talking points and going and doing something totally different or contrary or whatever, I would just rather know. Here’s what I think here’s what I’m going to do, here’s what I intend to do. And then we can hash it out. That’s the whole idea here is okay, here’s what I think. And I’m going to tell you what I think I want to know what you think. And we can we can have a robust exchange of ideas. In I think I, if you if you are unable to win based on the strength of your ideas, then you shouldn’t win. If your ideas cannot hold up under pressure, if they can’t, if they don’t hold up, because they’re not good enough, then they’re not good ideas. You have a shitty idea. You trying to sneak it through somehow, which is what our politics, which is what our politics do. I mean, we have these massive omnibus bills called, you know, save kittens. But within the Save kittens bill is, you know, an infrastructure bill and funding for, you know, space satellites. And in robots. Like what I thought the bill was about saving kittens like, yeah, totally as this is the savings kit and Bill, kit and savings Bill, you get the idea. Like, no, it’s not. Let’s just let’s have a free and open exchange of ideas. And let’s, let’s get to interrogate reality, interrogate the truth. And we appear, it appears many of us. I wonder how many people really want this? Really, really want this? How many people really want deep platforming, a canceling? And how many people are really worried about trigger warnings and safe spaces? Is it more than I think? Or is it less than I think, what do you think? I think that the whole thing about bad ideas is that they’re bad. And the only way to get rid of bad ideas is to have good ideas. And the only way that we’re going to do that is by talking about them. The social media has done lots of terrible fucking things done some good things, I guess. But it’s made everybody critics and we’re all critiquing everything else, because we have the ability to. And as the number of critics grows, the number of creators shrinks. And it gets really easy to pick up a rock, throw it through a window, it’s really hard to actually create a window. It’s really hard to build things. takes years. takes a minute to throw a rock through a window set of fire. Way too many of us are critics way too many of us are just I do not think that we are doing ourselves any services or doing any ourselves any good through our current behaviors. But that’s me, so I am offended. I am literally offended by a lot of behavior that is going on. Like I’ve talked about what really offends me. First, I thought nothing offended me. It turns out lots of things offend me. I’m offended that Donald Trump skipped the Republican debates. It’s offensive to me. Like you, sir, Mr. Pres. in it or not above the system, you are running to become our top public servant. You work for the people.

And if you are unhappy with the way the system works, I invite you to change the system. But it is offensive to me that you simply opt out. And I don’t care what the reasons are just telling you that it is a net negative for the process and for our country, when our elected officials or people who are interested to becoming our elected officials just say, You know what, I’m not doing that anymore. We have other officials that refuse to debate that, that don’t campaign that do not take questions from media. And this is all really, really negative and bad thing. I’m offended by the attempt to remove candidates from ballots that flies in the face of everything that I believe to be true and correct. Have you ever gone to have you ever been approached by somebody who’s trying to get a candidate on a ballot, there’s a certain number of signatures that are required, again, part of our democratic process. Sometimes signatures are needed to get on a ballot, sometimes signatures are needed to get some kind of initiative on a ballot. And what that does is it demonstrates that there’s enough people out there who think that it’s a good idea that XYZ candidate or XYZ idea be voted on by everybody. So have you ever been approached by that? What do you do when that happens? I sign every single one of them, every single one of them always have, why? Because I believe that we all have the right to get our ideas out there. And to have them voted on to be considered for the role. And then we have an election, and we let the chips fall where they will, where they may. So that we now have, and I’m sure it’s happening at every level and on both sides. So I’m not, you know, give a shit about Republican or Democrat. I dislike both parties. I think essentially equally. But it’s gross. It’s offensive to me that we’re trying again, just like ideas, you feel like you can’t beat the candidate. Oh, well, instead of actually going through the process and putting better ideas out. We’re just gonna make it so they can’t even run. So they can’t be part of the election. I think that that is total bullshit. I am offended by it. I think that it is wrong. And I think that we need to stand up and say that. So I don’t know what is going to happen. I don’t know what. When you have people who are really trying to win at all costs, we all end up losing. And maybe that’s the way it’s always been. Maybe it’s always been, we’re going to do whatever it takes to win. And now we just know. Now we just know more about it. That I think I suppose that’s a good thing. Again, Sunshine being the best disinfectant. I believe that I know that the truth is important. Maybe it’s all that’s important. Maybe it’s all that matters, is what is true. But getting back to the idea that made the best ideas when we must be engaging in conversations with people that we disagree with, and have the courage and the respect, and the appreciation and understanding of there’s a lot more going on here than just this one issue or this one candidate or this one thing. What’s at stake is our way of life and our system and our process. And there is no perfect system, nor is there a perfect process. And I think it’s always important to revisit and to reconsider things. That’s all part of the process. too, let’s talk about it. But simply trying to circumvent and go outside of the system, just to get your way. Well, I do not accept that do not abide that. That is my think really the path to ruin. And that’s not acceptable. So looking forward to the memes, looking forward to check it out all the cool swag that is soon to be coming our way. So you know, sometimes you need to look on the look on the bright side, find that silver lining. And that’s probably what it is. So stand up for what you believe in. Think about what you believe in. Maybe that’s the big takeaway here. What do you think? What do you think? Think it all the way through? Think long term. Use the slow part of your brain, fast part of our brain. That’s the stuff that we don’t like, slow part of our brain. It’s more logical, it’s more reasoned. And that’s the part we want to be using with this stuff. And again, think about you think about your kids, or people you care about and future generations as well. What are we doing here? What are we doing here? And as always, do your part for doing your best

Transcribed by https://otter.ai