Good question

Katy Tur wants to know why Matt Gaetz is carrying Trump’s water and intimidating Michael Cohen:

Which makes this an even weirder tweet. Why open yourself up to an accusation of threatening a witness?

— Katy Tur (@KatyTurNBC) February 26, 2019

Gaetz isn’t on House Oversight. https://t.co/xXMq1lv7Kp

— Katy Tur (@KatyTurNBC) February 26, 2019

Gaetz is a Trump loyalist.

And Michael Cohen is a thuggish former lawyer. He was disbarred today but that only means that at one time, he passed the NY bar exam. No mean feat. John Kennedy Jr. took several tries to pass it. My point is that as bad a lawyer as people have tried to portray Cohen, he was smart enough to get a license.

But he’s still a thug and, you know, if I were him, I’d embrace that tomorrow. Just admit it. “I’m a fixer for a company of thugs, know what I’m saying? We are not nice people. The Trumps and the Kushners are not nice people. I know more shit about them than we have time for. I’m only going to give you the highlight reel. Why should you believe me? Hey, why should you believe anyone that worked for Trump? We’re all liars. We’re all going to jail because we didn’t come clean up front. We lied willingly for him because we were all loyal thugs in the service of the head Don. We benefitted from it and we were afraid of him. But you know, my wife knows what a shithead I’ve been for years. I’ve had to tell her everything but she already knew. Because I didn’t give a rat’s ass about anyone or anything. I could swing my dick around because that’s the kind of guy I am.

The question is, why are Matt Gaetz and his buddies supporting the thug in the White House? Why is Matt so fucking loyal to a criminal? Why is he provoking his base? What’s that all about, Matt? You know as well as I do that none of us, including Don the Con Trump, has any goddamn business running the White House. We’re only going make it sink to our level. We’re not even supposed to be there. So what’s it all about, Matt? Are you selling your voters a pocketful of lies for what reason? What does Trump have on you?

Take your time, I’ll wait. I got all day.”

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In case you aren’t sufficiently disillusioned about Trump’s support, don’t expect Evangelicals to abandon him no matter what comes out tomorrow. They won’t drop him as long as 1.)they believe that he is an agent of god and 2.) they are personally in no physical danger.

That support for him will shift only if they start to feel under threat in some way.

After all, the tribulations and awful stuff is supposed to happen to the non-believers, not to them. The best part of being a Rapture loving evangelical is the self satisfaction they feel about their moral superiority and the punishment of the unworthy.

Suffering with the rest of us is not in the plan. Then Trump will have to go.

Just sayin’. The delusion is deep with them.

A Plague of Queen Bees

Donald Trump says he intends to “create chaos” in the Democratic coalition. Niiice. We understand Donald. That’s his personality. Zero empathy, maximum destruction, all in service to his gluttonous need for attention and power.

You’d be surprised how that kind of behavior can devastate you so close to home.

Some of us have lived with or have been the target of the iconic mean girl all of our lives. If you’ve grown up as a military brat where you’re always the new kid on the block, or if you have a relative whose primary goal in life is to monkey wrench close family relationships, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

But when it comes to your work place, there’s a whole new level of stress and distraction. It always takes me by surprise. You can’t win by being more professional, polite or smart. In fact, there is some evidence that those are the very qualities that get you into trouble with insecure women who seemingly never left middle school.

Targets are usually anyone who is “different” from the organizational norm. Usually victims are competent, educated, resilient, outspoken, challenge the status quo, are more empathic or attractive and tend to be women, aged 32 to 55. Targets also can be racially different or part of a minority group.

That and physical differences. If you happen to be genetically disposed to be tall, blonde and fit in spite of your lack of exercise, that can get the wrong kind of attention as much as having a physical disability or a big nose.

I’m witnessing this unique level of hell at the present time. It’s not just affecting me. It’s affecting a bunch of other people who have been derailed by grudges, pettiness, gossip, social and professional exclusion. It’s putting major initiatives in jeopardy, causing a loss of productivity. And it’s women who are perpetuating this on other women.

If you ever wonder why it is that men are able to succeed professionally while women struggle, this could be part of the reason. Men aren’t forced to walk on eggshells all day wondering how their hair might have offended someone. When men send an email asking questions, they get answers. When targets of other women send email or make requests, they get attitude or obstruction.

Commonly heard complaints:

Oh, the email wasn’t phrased right, it was directed at a person they weren’t allowed to speak to, I didn’t like her directness, she used a word in the wrong context, she’s too confident, comes off as too technical, she’s a know it all and some people aren’t interested in growing in their jobs, she is a bitch because she skipped the Christmas party. (Oh yeah, you can get reported for being insufficiently social with the hive no matter how politely you say you don’t want to participate. The B word was used liberally and loudly in a crowded room. It hard to keep that information from spreading.) And on and on and on.

Conformity is key. Getting work done efficiently apparently is not.

The infestation is going to have an impact on productivity and accomplishments. I don’t expect the queen bees to suffer. They will survive a nuclear winter because they’ve got awesome manipulation skills.

But eventually, it’s going to affect the bottom line. Workplaces would do themselves a big favor if they studied up on the problem. It’s unlikely that you can change the way these women think or operate. But you can hold them accountable for the results of it.

By the way, I have never seen this in the R&D industry. Maybe men outnumber women to such a degree that it fails to get a foothold to cause destruction. But in IT it seems to be an epidemic.

As for me, I’m trying hard to not spread dissension or petty cruelty. I’m taking the No Diss Democrats pledge. I will support and vote for the Democrat who wins the primary. Trump can’t divide us.

And at work, I’m not playing by the Byzantine Calvin ball rules anymore. From now on, I’m collecting data. Every failure has a trail of missed or deliberately skipped communications and all roads lead to Rome.

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I want to take this opportunity to thank those of you who have hit my tip jar. I’m putting the money towards a good cause- my cranial prosthetic, ie wig. A good, convincing hair piece is expensive but will be invaluable to me in the months ahead and will lift my spirits. Its very timely too. This morning, the shower was clogged by a gigantic blonde hairball. I guess that means that the weed killer is working. 😉

So thank you so much.

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Walk to work music. Looking for music that bounces me down the street to take my mind off, well, everything else. 🤗