Antonio Gramsci said – and I’m quoting from memory here – that a crisis is a period of time that is a sort of an interregnum when the old has died and the new is struggling to be born. In this process, morbid phenomena of all kinds occur.

The only positive thing to come out of the Trump presidency could be that he would drop the oil prices by removing all restrictions on fracking in the US. This will destroy the rouble and wipe Russia off the map. Which is why I think he won’t do it.

And that’s it for the bright side.

Russians have discovered that Trump is descended from the ancient royal dynasty of the Russian tsars. No, seriously. 

Russian poets are composing laudatory odes dedicated to Trump. No, it’s not a joke.

Unlike the American Trump supporters, the Russians are genuinely, radiantly happy.

Hey, folks, is it true that Bill and Hillary are getting divorced? Or is it wishful thinking on the part of the people who want something good to come out of this all for Hillary?

Another thing that the Democrats need to do to make themselves more appealing is drop the “you didn’t make it on your own” ideology. I’m not talking just about Obama’s notorious gaffe. I mean that the whole line of thinking needs to go. American voters en masse will not go for “It’s not your achievement, it’s about your white / male / thin, etc privilege” and “you wouldn’t have made it without the government building roads and providing social services.” 

The point is not whether the idea is correct. The point is that it’s off-putting. Those who don’t find it off-putting are already voting for you. Do you want to hold on to this idea or do you want to hold the Congress? 

Also, dispense with the smugness and the high moral ground of all this “the Left, being right since Adam and Eve” or “the Left, making your life better since the Big Bang”. Again, people who like this shit are already yours. But the governorships, the Senate, the Congress and the White House aren’t. Quit being superior, it is not cute.

There are – what? 90 million? – of people who don’t vote. Make yourselves attractive to them and not to those you have already convinced.

Feminists would be well-advised to ease up on pop culture navel-gazing and corporate pseudo-feminist drivel like Lean In. They need to shift their central focus from the glass ceiling to the sticky floor, which, after all, is the place where most women dwell. A feminism that delivers for working-class women by addressing their material needs could expand feminism’s base and bring about a much-needed feminist revival. A feminism that delivers for working-class women by addressing their material needs could radically expand feminism’s base.

I’m all for a reduction in navel gazing but I don’t get this article at all. If reproductive freedom, free college, cheaper daycare, maternity leave, higher minimum wage, a chance to preserve social security and Medicare, cheaper healthcare are not the policies that would help working class women, then what is? Enough empty blabber, let’s talk specifics. What did Trump offer working class women that Hillary didn’t?

I’m so tired of this “Trump is the revenge of the dispossessed” narrative. 

The hotel in Houston where the conference was held was so chic and expensive that there were phone numbers of male prostitutes in ladies’ bathrooms.

I don’t get this weird fashion of  holding academic conferences in very expensive hotels. Everybody spends the entire conference blabbing about social justice while the association’s leadership luxuriates in the expensive hotel and the plebs has to spend money on taxis to schlep oneself and all of one’s stuff from a cheap hotel on the outskirts every day.

I’ll never forget that shameful MLA that was held on Nob Hill in SF. Most of the attendees were piss-poor grad students who couldn’t even afford to have a snack at that place. And the chair of my department was all, “Oh, you are not staying here?” when it was clear I could barely afford the taxi fare to get to that hotel. 

A woman I know, a life-long Democrat and a rabid Clinton supporter says,

I wish Hillary spoke to us, women. I never felt like she addressed us directly.

The best case scenario is that Trump starts building his wall, concentrates on that, goes around giving speeches about his big shiny wall, feels important and good about himself, and leaves us the hell alone. The wall is neither very useful nor otherwise, so let him play at it.

It’s still pretty shitty because the Congress and his team all suck but at least the madman will be distracted by his pet project.