A few readers asked me to provide updates on my quest to save the world, and since I have some breaking news regarding the blog, I thought I’d take care of things in one fell swoop.
First, I want to thank the millions of Americans responsible for making my quest a near-impossibility by replacing one senile old man in denial about his incompetence with another senile old man in denial about his incompetence . . . and about everything else that matters.
My official start date was November 15, but I received several phone calls from freaked-out future colleagues immediately after the election results came in. Every request began with “We know you don’t start work until next week but we’d like to pick your brain regarding the Americans” and I responded to every request with, “Okay, but you owe me a drink.” I wound up with eight IOUs that I intend to collect shortly.
They were all shocked by Trump’s resounding victory but I wasn’t surprised in the least. I explained that most Americans lack compassion for the disadvantaged and care only about themselves and their pocketbooks. Their orientation towards life emphasizes short-term results and instant gratification. Bidenomics may have wowed the economists but the majority of voters refused to accept the truth that economic recovery takes time and felt that the Democrats were doing nothing to alleviate the pain of high grocery bills and gas prices. Many American men are terribly insecure about losing their dominant role in society, blamed the Democrats for attempting to emasculate them through their “woke” ideology and flocked to the faux tough guy who would put women in their place. The majority of voters couldn’t have cared less about Trump’s felony convictions or his attempt to invalidate the 2020 election; all they cared about was the price of eggs and the need to rid the country of imaginary job-stealing, dog-eating immigrants.
I also drew their attention to a bit of commentary by Michaël Foessel that appeared in Le Monde:
Any nation remains democratic insofar as it is endowed with the ability to self-reflect. Nationalism blocks this self-reflexivity and freezes it. Its visceral opposition to “wokeism,” an attitude whose excesses can be noted, is a challenge to the reflexivity that democratic societies adopt about themselves. In society’s relationships with women, sexual minorities or formerly colonized populations, it’s a matter of asking questions about harm and injustice. Take the famous phrase “we can’t say anything anymore”: According to the far right, we used to be able to say things because we were surrounded by people like ourselves. “We” is used to mean men, mainly white ones; “anymore,” to mean that we once had a freedom of speech that particularly allowed to spread racist or sexist prejudice.
Americans rarely engage in self-reflection, as demonstrated by their denial of cause-and-effect regarding terrorist attacks and the failure to seriously address the epidemic of mass shootings. The vast majority believe that the USA is the greatest country in the world and anyone who disagrees better watch out. Nothing is ever America’s fault; there is never a reason to apologize for anything. Apologies are for wimps.
I shared my opinion that Trump is a danger to the EU due to his tariff fetish and disdain for NATO but will have little effect on the EU’s efforts in the field of human rights. I also expressed my firm belief that the incoming administration shares none of our values, cannot be considered a reliable partner in any endeavors and that Europe should reduce its dependence on that relationship. Over the next four years, Trump and his cronies will create havoc all over the world and reverse any progress we have made in the fight against global warming—and though I doubt that Trump would intentionally start a war, he’s stupid enough to stumble into one and he certainly won’t stop Russia and Israel from adopting even more aggressive postures.
When one of my colleagues suggested that “this too shall pass” and eventually the Democrats will return to power, my response was, “I wouldn’t count on it,” and left it at that. The truth is that Trump’s victory was aided and abetted by the blatant incompetence of the Democratic Party. Biden hung on too long, making it difficult for any other candidate to put together a solid campaign plan. His endorsement of Kamala Harris—and the stunningly servile acceptance of that choice by other leading Democrats—left the party with a candidate closely tied to a decidedly unpopular president. Kamala didn’t help much by saying she wouldn’t change anything Biden had done and alienated her core constituency by bragging about owning a Glock and traipsing through the swing states with Liz Cheney. My dad is usually a pretty mellow guy but he was seriously pissed off by the election results and completely disgusted with the party he belonged to for fifty-odd years. In response, he finally joined his daughter in renouncing his U.S. citizenship, giving up on the dream he believed in for most of his adult life.
Lesson: If you lose people like Dad, you don’t have a chance in hell of coming back.
On the good news front, my work is quite interesting and our efforts are well-supported by our director. My first week was devoted to preparation for a parliamentary debate scheduled to coincide with the International Day for the Elimination of
Violence against Women this coming Monday. The endgame involves pressuring the EU Council to get off their collective asses and make gender-based violence a crime in the EU. The Pelicot mass rape trial has given our efforts a boost and hopefully we can use that disgusting episode to give the matter greater urgency.
But godDAMN, it sure got cold in Paris this week! Before we arrived we arranged to lease an apartment in the 8th arrondissement so I could walk to work but I wasn’t expecting snow and ice to arrive so early and left my ice-friendly shoes and serious winter coat back in Ireland. A 15-minute stroll turned into an hour-long adventure, but I’m proud to say that I only fell on my ass once. Compared to what I felt when I forked over a bucket of Euros for a six-month lease on a one-bedroom furnished apartment in Paris, the sensation of my butt landing on concrete was much less painful.
*****
As far as the altrockchick is concerned, I’m getting some pushback from my parents and spouse about my decision to close up shop. I agreed to keep my options open but pointed out that I don’t have to make a final decision until next April and that right now I needed to concentrate on my new job (which also ends next April).
However, you will see some new stuff in the interim. As promised, I went through my pre-2016 reviews written in the “short and sweet” style and decided that the Jimi Hendrix classic Are You Experienced? and Admiral Fallow’s Tree Bursts in Snow deserved a more complete treatment. Following in my parents’ footsteps, Alicia would like to write a piece about her experience with me entitled “My Partner.” I’m not sure when these efforts will be completed, but they’re more likely to appear early next year. Call it our own Project 2025!
I would like to close by wishing the Americans in the audience a happy Thanksgiving but on the surface there doesn’t seem much for non-delusional Americans to be thankful for. Trump’s decision to fill key positions in government with a bunch of incompetent toadies tells me things are going to get very bad very quickly and I dread what will happen when he pardons all those Proud Boys. I hope you all have family, friends and loved ones who give you joy and if you don’t, there are plenty of other countries that are welcoming digital nomads and retirees.
In any case, please stay safe.
Altrockchick, you explained the American election here more clearly than 90% of American mainstream political writers. That’s no surprise. I’ll miss your writing about music because you’re also a better writer than 90% of the music writers on the internet. Have fun in your new job and European life!
Hi ARC, wonderful to read your dispatch from the trenches of EU human rights work, I really hope you are provided opportunities to use your intelligence, savvy and compassion to advance their work. And I can’t wait to read Alicia’s thoughts contained within “My Partner”!! I have had to stop watching the BBC World News (my main news source), it’s just too awful what’s happening in my country right now, and it has finally sunk into my naive mind the fragility and non-permanence inherent in a democracy – “Rehearsals For Retirement” should have helped me with that, if I had understood better what Phil was singing about. Will always look forward to reading your work, no matter what it’s about.
I am sure glad the final decision is to keep this amazing website going.
I know I have, like many, continually commented and commended your style, musical knowledge and plain speak. Can’t recall if or when I have read such a strong collection of cogent and biting musical analysis. Hey, I’m an old fat fuck white guy and want to say that to lose your voice would be, for me, a very sad day.
Best wishes and luck in your new role and can’t wait to hear how you are adapting to this. Grant (Canadian 66yr old, white, fat fuck at your service)
Where were you when I was young and looking to get married…
Yaaaaay! Glad you’ll be back! We NEED your sexy, smart, musical voice! Spot on these assessments but one more thing- Kamala and Joe and all Democrats have failed one critical oversight- Plain speak. Most Americans have (still) not educated themselves on politics and use Fox News and Trump for truth. As long as they yell simply and loudy, most American idiots follow lock, stock and barrel on the STYLE of language, not content. As long as the right constantly blames through hate and righteous indignance, they left never gets a shot to speak truth.
As long as the content is basically reductive and goes along a blamable grievance (to the Democrats) and has no feasible strong, plainly spoken response from the intelligent other half, the good gets ignored. Instead, they sound like politicians trying to rouse the audience like Obama by yelling the truth like an old school politician looking for clamorous applause on the way to certain victory. Dems needed to get dirty on all levels with name-calling and reductive fights about blame. The age of the populist is here- with the Legion of Doom mk2 now their name- Elon, RFK Jr, et al. We need to pick rock stars and TV celebs of our own.
We needed (and still need) simple language to fight against a brute and a liar. Gavin Newsome was probably the only chance Democrats had last year but he wasn’t fighting and no one was allowing anyone to fight. And tough-guy talkin’ Republifucks brainwashed by Fox don’t take kindly to no educated elitists telling them to buy electric vehicles by 2035 or rebuild bridges and other critical infrastructure in the US or even a female president. Kamala needed to educate people- as a wiser leader- regarding inflation, the Fed and what happened since the Pandemic, but doing so in her most forceful voice. Instead, my mamala Kamala came off not wanting to say the wrong stuff.
We will never have another shot at this. Trump and Putin will fuck something up with Europe and life on this planet will end shortly, I fear. I really hope I will be wrong.
Excellent point about the lack of plain talk—and she rarely answered questions as asked. I think a Newsome-Whitmer ticket would have done better, but I’m sure the Trump team would have dug up all kinds of dirt about Newsome via his ex-wife engaged to Trump Jr., irregardless of the truth. What the Democrats really needed was the second coming of FDR, who mastered the art of communicating to the plain folk. Today we think of Arkansas as deep red country, but I had a colleague in Seattle whose parents came from Arkansas and she told me that she had three Arkansas uncles named Franklin, Delano and Roosevelt!
Even though I don’t think much of his writing, I’ve been re-reading Sinclair Lewis’ It Can’t Happen Here and he does describe how easy it would be for a wannabe dictator to destroy democracy. Pretty scary stuff.
I hope the final decision is to keep the website going. I think it a masterful collection of brilliant and witty musical analysis, and to lose it would be very sad.
Honestly, when the options are so bad, I don’t even blame the voters that much. Honestly, I would rather abstain from an election with candidates like these. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the votes that either candidate received weren’t from people even thinking that they were voting on someone good, but more like trying to choose the lesser of two evils. Not to mention that when a government is bad, people’s first instincts will be to vote on the other side. Politics are a mess, all we can really do is try to make things better whenever and wherever we can with the people around us. And that’s valuable. Big things come from small things. But maybe a major reason why we struggle so much with our big modern societies is that we grew them too fast, and biological evolution can’t fully keep up, our brains are still wired as tribal animals.
About global warming, I don’t think Trump will be able to impact it much either positively or negatively. That said, I have to talk about the really annoying sensationalism around the topic. On one side, there’s the stupid denial. On the other, there are those who speak of global warming as a human extinction event. Global warming has the potential to cause the greatest catastrophe of human history, but it’s still far-fetched to think that it could end our modern civilization or cause human extinction. That said, the deaths of millions if not billions of people due to rising oceans, extreme climates and less food is still truly horrendous, to say the least. The threat of the literal end of modern civilization shouldn’t be the point where it is bad enough to warrant action and long-term foresight! It’s sad that it can feel like only such level of threat would make governments and big companies truly think in the long term (makes me think of a comment saying that an alien invasion would be the one thing that could actually make humanity put aside the differences and fight together). As always, the poorest and most vulnerable groups will suffer by far the harshest consequences, not the richest men. And it’s truly insane how Elon Musk tries to sell a terraformation of Mars as the solution to our problems, as if anyone but the extremely rich could go to a colony there this century, nevermind how even Earth in its worst climates throughout history is still infinitely more habitable and “terraformable” than fucking Mars! Just another example of Elon Musk’ stupidity. I’m convinced that any good idea and genuine innovation from his companies happens despite him and his insanely extreme, stupid and unrealistic visions for the future. He’s so dumb, such as in his belief in the notion of implementing chips to everyone’s brain.
Sorry for the long rant post. I wish you the best!
Given Trump’s pledge to open as many oil fields as possible and his determination to cancel environmental protections, I think he will have a big impact on the environment. Right now the US is the #2 polluter behind China, and he seems determined to be #1. What the dummies who voted for him didn’t realize is that the doesn’t give a shit about the common folk and is committed to establishing a government by the rich and for the rich—look at all the billionaires nominated for cabinet positions!
I agree with your criticisms of Trump, the guy is scum. I really think that a lot of people just voted in him because he was the other side, not out of genuine belief that he actually cares about the common folk. The fact that a guy like him won shows how much the Democratic Party, and politics in general in the country, have disgraced themselves. An awful time for politics in the United States, so much of the world really. At least the country isn’t an autocracy, so that still puts a limitation on how much damage he can cause, the country is not entirely dependent on his whims. That said, he can still cause so much damage. I just hope that somehow neither him or his chosen ones are successful in being as damaging as they have the potential to be.
Thank you for the update. I’m largely in agreement with your assessment of our present state of affairs. However, I would make the case that our fate was sealed once President Biden withdrew from the race. The fact that the old man with no criminal record had to leave the race and the old man with 34 criminal convictions could stay tells us everything we need to know about the American psyche. People demanded President Biden exit after a terrible debate against Trump. Conversely, Kamala Harris had a wonderful debate against Trump, and yet it didn’t make any difference.
I must confess I only discovered your blog only recently after coming across your 2014 review of Francoise Hardy’s “La Question”. Tomorrow, I travel from Boston to NYC to my visit my Dad for Thanksgiving week. I hope to go to Chez Josephine on 9th and 42nd next Saturday where a husband-and-wife act (who are friends with my Dad) regularly perform. When I last saw them in August, I mentioned my love of Hardy’s music and they indicated they would play a song of hers the next time I saw them. I have requested they play “Si mi caballero”.
Finally, a general question. I get the sex, and I get the music. But how does the baseball fit into your grand scheme of things?
Until then, please take care.
The New York Times ran a few articles about Trump’s deteriorating mental condition but for some reason it didn’t land with the public. Anyone with a functioning brain who watched Kamala crush him had to notice his manic state. Chalk it up to mass cognitive dissonance and the evangelicals who believe Trump is the second coming of the savior.
You must have missed my earlier reply on baseball: “As for baseball, my parents had partial season tickets with the Giants and I fell in love with the game and its history. I’m probably one of the few people who have read the Baseball Encyclopedia from cover to cover and about every fourth book I read today involves baseball history. The combination of strategy, probability and surprise appeals to me—anything can happen in baseball! That said, there are many aspects of today’s game I don’t care for—the ridiculous salaries, the emphasis on power and the decline of small ball, pitch counts, over-expansion that dilutes the quality of play and that stupid extra innings rule with a runner planted on second base. When done right, baseball is a thinking-person’s game and I even when I play I like using my brain.”
Not sure it was “a resounding win”. He might end up with just 50 per cent of the popular vote (or even less.)
Of course that doesn’t help in the real world of Electoral Colleges and majorities in the House and the Senate but it does mean that the great American public isn’t all bad.
Given how his cabinet of MAGA incompetents is bound to create utter chaos there is still hope for redemption in the mid-terms.
Fair point. In using the term “resounding,” I was referring to the trifecta, not the voting tallies and should have clarified that. With the House, Senate and Supreme Court in his pocket, Trump can do whatever the hell he wants for at least two years . . . and there’s always the possibility that he could declare a state of emergency and “postpone” the 2026 elections. The key to Hitler’s rise to power was gaining control over law enforcement when he became Chancellor, and this article in the Guardian suggests that his preferred nominee for the FBI will give him full control over that department: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/19/trump-kash-patel-fbi-director
I would be happy just reading political blog posts from you:)
One more thing: I recommend the film Ainda Estou Aqui (I’m Still Here). It’s a brazilian film, it was released this month here in Brazil, and it’s about one real family whose life was dismantled due to the military dictatorship of Brazil in 70s abducting the father and killing him. Fantastic lead performance by Fernanda Torres. Her mother, the legendary actress Fernanda Montenegro, is stunning as well in the brief time she appears.
Right now I don’t have access to streaming services or a DVD player, but I’m very interested and will put it on the top of my to-do list.
If you go, “gonna miss you.” I’ve enjoyed your columns, including the disagreeable ones, and my fingers will be crossed for more, especially when marathon-grading season rolls around.
Thanks for staying with us. I am cleaning barf from phenomena of trickle of lefties, especially old white men like myself, actually finding silver-linings in Trump win. A sort of ‘hitler bad but trains ran on time’ vibe. Well , fuck them … incels with one less friend (me). Luckily I already bailed and enjoyed Paul McCartney last week with 65,000 love filled citizens of Mexico City. The 8th?
No one has ever lived in the 8th.
This is my second round in the 8th!
To paraphrase Michael Jackson, who was not fit to sharpen Prince’s pencil, I guess you’re not like other girls.