As Bobbitt says, it is crucial to figure out “which cultural and political struggles are simply hangovers from the dying nation-state” and not waste any energy on them.

National elections are definitely among those hangovers.

One of the cleaning ladies who came over is just a few years older than me but she has 12 grandchildren. They are small but still, 12 (twelve) grandchildren. When I said Klara was my daughter and there weren’t any adult children, we stared at each other like extraterrestrials.

I’m not the winner of this life competition, that’s for sure.

Here is an example of how Liberals scare off their own potential voters. An article in the NYTimes is titled “White Resentment on the Night Shift at Walmart.” Once you start reading it, it becomes clear that “white resentment” has nothing whatsoever to do with the subject matter. The story is about the hopelessness of Walmart workers, and it’s an important, crucial story that needs to be told.

Given that a great number of Walmart’s low-wage employees are not white making the story about white resentment is frankly ridiculous. The only way the author explains this choice of a title is that she once had a smoking break with a Walmart-employed single mother of four. That single mother happened to be white but I don’t believe anybody in their right mind will deny that there are black and Hispanic single mothers working at Walmart. And that they might be just as frustrated with their working conditions.

Literally one page earlier in the paper, there is yet another story about “white identity.” I skimmed through the titles, and it was clear that a few other articles might be going in the same direction, so I stopped reading.

This isn’t about the paper, of course. It’s about the mindset of talking this way, of thinking it’s OK to make working conditions at Walmart about “white resentment” and then be completely shocked that Pennsylvania, Michigan, Iowa, etc are not falling all over themselves to vote for you. And as we have all seen, this shit is not even winning that much of the non-white vote either. I can’t imagine Hispanic Walmart workers being all that into this way of thinking at all. And as we have seen in this election, I’m right. This shit isn’t selling.

All that this rhetoric achieves is to please a certain very small group of rich, spoiled Liberals who like to self-flagellate to spice up their sated lives. That’s all. This doesn’t win elections. And this is precisely the “identity politics” that lost us this election. A bunch of spoiled Liberal brats self-flagellates for kicks, and everybody else is bored to death with the spectacle.

The electoral college brouhaha – what a waste of time. The hope resides not in fantasies of redoing the election but in the growing irrelevance of national governments. What’s done is done. The future, not the past, is what we can impact. 

A touch of humor for my Russian-speaking readers. Yesterday, as you know, was the anniversary of Rasputin’s assassination. Sorry, everybody else, it’s too long to explain.

And yes, it’s an actual prianik.

I wanted to say that the picture in my study is all crooked for some reason but the word has been totally spoiled for me.

I’m full of hacks today, and this one concerns skinless, boneless chicken breasts, a.k.a. The Most Boring Meat Known to Humanity. They not only tend to taste boring but they also look like the dish where culinary enjoyment has gone to die. Of course, one could make them more fun by dredging them in flour and frying them on high heat, which would result in delicious moistness and a pretty crust. But that would kill the whole purpose of trying to eat healthy.

So instead, I pat them very dry and rub them with turmeric. Turmeric is orange and it gives a very pretty look to the baked chicken breast. It looks as if it had a crust, which is the best I can do without making it unhealthy. 

Actually, no, don’t think small. Think tiny. Think microscopic, minuscule, teensy-weensy. Don’t set huge goals because they will just overwhelm you, and you’ll never achieve anything in the end.

Example: don’t tell yourself “I need to finally finish the book and submit it to a publisher.” That’s a bad, horrible way of formulating your goal. People who say this to themselves never manage to finish and submit the book. Forget this huge goal and instead tell yourself, “I need to add 5 sentences to paragraph 3 of the introduction to the second chapter on the subject of X.” Now, this is a good, manageable goal. 

Instead of making yourself feel like a loser who still hasn’t been able to finish the book (lose the weight, pay down the credit card debt, complete a DIY project, remodel the kitchen, wrap the gifts, and invent the cure for cancer), you need to inhabit the image of somebody who is successful at what they plan to do. One completed tiny goal is a million times better than a list of 10 enormous goals that you never reached.

If there are big goals that keep hanging over you, this simply means that you haven’t broken them up into tiny enough parts.

N gave me a pot with herbs for a turkey rub (rosemary, sage and thyme.) It’s the best gift ever because I can snip off the herbs as I cook. I’m making an Indian chili of my own invention, and it’s so great to have the pot right there, ready to be snipped. It’s -19C outside, and an Indian chili will be just the ticket.

One can never fully get rid of the Ukrainian peasant inside.

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