Strangely, we have quite a few cars with Florida plates in town for the holidays. I recognize them even before I see the plates because of the very typically Floridian driving manner. What I don’t get is why people who have relatives here don’t have them come to Florida instead of driving over here. 

Today we woke up to this, and I’m sure it gladdens nobody’s heart but mine:

I can’t believe I’ll finally have a white Christmas. Klara is still sleeping but I wonder what she’ll say when she sees it.  

This is absolutely what the Democrats should be doing right now. I’m so glad they are working so hard to promote my and your interests. This is precisely what we need from them right now and always. 

Also, I found out from MSNBC this morning that we are now supposed to like Bannon because he’s complex and not just a Nazi. Whew! Such a load off my mind. I was worrying he was one of those simple Nazis but now I know he’s complex, so it’s all good.

It’s on FB, so no link:

Welcome to the communist-anarchist bakery.
Karl Marx sandwich.

Organic baguette.

Free coffee.

This is the perfect example of what Jim McGuigan calls “cool capitalism.” It’s the rugged Marlboro man of the 2010s.

Capitalism appropriates rebelliousness and uses it to sell product. Whatever makes people feel edgy, cool, modern, quirky, unusual, and rebellious will help move product. Nobody cares about meaning or ideology. Capitalism has devoured ideology ages ago. It’s all about a superficial interplay of identities, posing, and playacting in order to be able to consume more. 

In response to this, people have started to denounce the evils of the Communist regimes and the pitfalls of the Marxist ideology. What they don’t seem to get is that this bakery (and its many brethren) is what capitalism is all about. Criticizing the bakery is not about criticizing communism. If you are uncomfortable with the bakery, what you can’t fully accept is capitalism. And if you think it’s a swell idea, you are as neoliberal as one could get. 

Finally, a valuable article on the tax bill. Here are some interesting quotes:

Highly compensated attorneys, doctors, accountants, and financial-service professionals will lose tens of thousands of dollars in deductions for their heavy state and local taxes and costly coastal mortgages, without getting much in return. 

And get this, in particular:

Offered a better job across the country? If your new employer tells you, “Don’t worry—we’ll cover your moving costs,” those payments will now add to your taxable income.

This is a clear attempt to put the brakes on the mobility of those who are doing well with fluidity. Please, don’t confuse them with the deterritorialized, supranational elites (known in the sloganeering media as “the super rich” or “the banksters”). Those can’t be stopped no matter what you do. That ship sailed back in 1973.

In the meanwhile, those who are not getting with the program are given a kick in the shins to get them into a more fluid state of mind:

If a plumber makes $60,000 a year as wages paid by an employer, he or she will pay 60 percent more in income taxes than if that plumber had been a sole proprietor or self-employed and takes advantage of the pass-through rate.

Even the language signals towards higher fluidity as the better choice for this category of people.

There is a growing abyss between those who are embracing fluidity and those who aren’t. The tax bill is trying to weigh down the former and speed up the latter. It also tries to coax the deterritorialized supranational elites into hanging around at least for a bit. For the bizillionth time, I don’t for a second believe it will work, so please don’t tell me it won’t. I already know it. 

Yes, it stinks. Nobody said liquid capitalism is a pleasant thing. I strongly believe that the worst approach is to pretend nothing is happening and that we are still living in the solid capitalism era, so let’s tax the banksters to the gills and get free community college for everybody. The second worst approach is to pretend that fluidity is the best thing ever because look how swell it worked out for me and anybody who complains is a deplorable basket case. 

By providing no actual plan of how to deal with liquid capitalism, the US Democrats paved the road for the tax plan we are now seeing. And guess what? They are still not offering anything but antiquated and meaningless slogans. Every day I wait and hope to see if finally somebody will say something. But all I get are the attempts to distract me with noisy outrage and useless memes. 

Yes, the tax bill stinks. Liquid capitalism positively reeks. What are we going to do about it, though?  

Who’s the idiot who invented the ridiculous idea that kids don’t lie? They totally do. 

When Klara realizes it’s bath time, she gives me a look of extreme suffering and tragic dispossession and says, “I’m hungry, Mommy. Tummy hurts. Hungry!” And she rubs the supposedly hungry tummy with a dejected look. The first couple of times, I bought it because toddlers don’t lie, right? and took her downstairs to eat. Of course, the moment we got there, it turned out that what she really wanted was, “Mommy, I go outside in the stroller! I go for a walk! I see Santa and snowman!”

Sometimes, she says, “I bumped my finger, Mommy. Kiss finger!” I kiss the finger, blow on it, she thinks about it, and offers me the other hand, “I bumped this finger also. Finger hurts! Kiss finger!” Then it turns out she pretend bumped her nose, her head, the monkey’s tooshie, the pencil, and everything else in sight. 

Also, the question of “who threw the cookie on the floor? Did you throw the cookie?” is greeted with a very honestly and even indignantly delivered, “No, Mommy! I no throw cookie.” 

At Klara’s dance lesson, there’s this tiny little boy called Teddy who always greets everybody with a very serious and convincing, “Hello. My name is Jordan (Madison / Jack / Monkey / Giraffe).” And every time his mother panicks and says, “Teddy! You know it’s not true! Your name is Teddy!” And the boy gives us a look that clearly means, “And whom are you going to believe, me or this weird lady?”

From the style guidelines of an academic journal:

Latin terms such as op. cit., loc. cit., ibid. and the like, which can be confusing, are not permitted.

What you really need to be a super productive academic is to not be a wounded person. Because if you have open wounds, all of your productive energy will seep away through them. 

And once you get the psychological wounds taken care of, then you’ll definitely need a good planner. 

1. One of the biggest things the year was going back to New Haven for a reunion with my two friends I made in grad school. It was really great to make peace with that part of my life. I’m still on a high from that trip, and it’s been months. 

2. I also reconnected with my former thesis advisor. People suspect I did it for some vaguely defined calculating purposes but that’s crap.  The only benefit I derived from this is peace of mind and psychological well-being.

3. I made new friends here in town, and they are coming over for Christmas. Which is very unusual for me. 

4. I lost 28 lbs of weight but it doesn’t feel like an achievement because the process stalled as soon as the fall semester began. At least, I haven’t regained any of it, but I need to learn to control my diet when I’m teaching. Which is most of the year. I need 30 lbs more to come off according to the diabetician whom I trust because she’s been amazing.

Talking about diabetes, if you are even a bit predisposed, don’t look at the following photo since it might put you into a hyperglycemic shock it’s so sweet:

By the way, I did find a dance school that charges a reasonable amount of $10 per lesson and won’t put us out in the street with a monthly bill that’s higher than my salary.