Of course, not a single one will leave. It's just bluster - it's always just bluster - and endless emoting and drama queen excess.
Some interesting things going on in the vicinity of the Paco Command Center, i.e., donks revealing their true character (one or more I might have mentioned before, but I want to include a comprehensive summary here).
1) There's a guy in the neighborhood who mows people's grass, a Trump supporter. One donk neighbor showed up at his front door to pay her monthly lawn maintenance bill, and when he opened the front door, she noticed he had Fox News on tv and began yelling at him.
2) Another neighbor - also a Trump supporter, who had Trump signs in his yard - was out for a walk and stopped to chat with two women who were out in the street having a conversation. He asked them how their mail delivery has been lately (it's a real problem here), and one just walked off without acknowledging him, the other gave him a terse response that did not invite further inquiry, and then she moved along, too.
3) An elderly couple who live diagonally across the street from us used to fly their flag all the time - around the clock, in all weathers (which, incidentally, is not what you're supposed to do, based on what I remember from my Cub Scout manual). Nice folks to talk to, never had any problems with them. Well, they were among the first to put a Harris sign in their yard. And the last time they flew their flag was election day. It disappeared along with the Harris sign the day after the donk apocalypse.
Things will probably get back to something approximating normal eventually, but it's impossible to forget that, however friendly these people may seem on the surface, they are driven by "ideals" that I will always find utterly alien to traditional American beliefs, and, in many cases, alien to the most basic standards of a humane world view.
Update Correction: at least one washed-up Hollywood type does appear to have departed - "Eva Longoria Reveals She Left ‘Dystopian’ U.S.: If Trump Keeps His Promises, ‘It’s Going to Be a Scary Place’".
Her reasoning seems to be a little...confused:
“I had my whole adult life here,” Longoria told the magazine. “But even before [the COVID pandemic], it was changing. The vibe was different. And then COVID happened, and it pushed it over the edge. Whether it’s the homelessness or the taxes, not that I want to s–t on California — it just feels like this chapter in my life is done now.”
So, is the chihuahua-faced actress more concerned about Trump or about what California has become under the very non-Republican governor, Gavin Newsom? Inquiring minds...meh, couldn't really care less.
But they will leave Twitter. Or X. Whatever. And they will make sure you know they are leaving. Because they will announce their departure. Repeatedly.
ReplyDeleteAnd then... after a while, frustrated by their dozens of followers on BlueSky, they will quietly return. Because face it, attention is like oxygen to them.
Spot on.
DeleteThe only thing worse, as Mr Wilde did say.
We've had enough immigration the last four years, a few years of emigration wouldn't hurt.
ReplyDeleteBut Paco, aren't your neighbours just misinformed? The narrative that the US is full of 'haters' goes back to the Civil Rights stuff. (And wasn't it just the mirror image of McCarthyism before that?). As an outsider, I think Americans have been at each other's throats hunting unbelievers for a very long time. I only say this as it might help you tolerate these a-holes, which is difficult no doubt about it.
ReplyDeleteBruce, I'm currently reading Culture of Complaint, written by Robert Hughes (the non-pervy one) in 1992. I remembered it as mostly being about the idiocy of the left, but thirty years later I find that Hughes was equally unforgiving of the American right.
DeleteAs you say, it's the same game but the sides swap ends from time to time.
Things are so much worse than when Hughes wrote that book. I wonder what he'd say now if he was still alive. His son lived in our area. Very tragic story.
DeleteCompare Wikipedia pages for old British and American actors: the American ones always describe the actor's politics, the British ones do not. I'm NOT saying this is a bad thing. In the long run it may be a very good thing - we docile British bending to officious police and Starmer for example.
DeleteI have a neighbour who was very kind to us, but was inspired by our PBS/ABC to see a 'far right' conspiracy everywhere. There was even a book by an ABC journalist about...Q Anon. Yes Australian public broadcaster thought a Q Anon conspiracy was behind every problem. I laughed in his face, but he was terribly serious 'You have to read the book'. I wonder how he's feeling now?
ReplyDeleteI have an old American friend who migrated here 40 years ago. From San Diego, his father was USAF flying SAC round the clock. He protested in 1967 at the Pentagon with Abbie Hoffman's Yippees, then when they started talking violence he quit them and became a peacenik. Anyway, we worked together, and one time we realised our supervisor was corrupt. My US friend wanted us to openly confront the guy, which he did. But the Aussies all shrank away. He was frustrated, 'We Americans stand up for our rights. What is wrong with you Aussies?' Point well taken. His experiences since only confirmed the impression. Americans have this unusual tendency to be confontational and 'stand up for their rights' while others don't.
ReplyDelete'Chihuahua-faced' actress?
ReplyDeleteWait... I see what you mean.
Eva Longoria is 49 years old and feels 'this chapter in (her) life is done'. Umm yeah, menopause is what it's usually called.
ReplyDeleteEva Longoria is 49 years old and feels 'this chapter in (her) life is done'.
ReplyDeleteYeah, before she knows it, she's going to be closing in on the index.