“How'd That Work Out?”

Trump has bveen asking this question in various contexts lately, most recently over Taylor Swift. Of the Philadelphia Eagles' Super Bowl win, he observed at the White House yesterday,

“It was incredible. A little surprising,” the president said of the blowout win.

“I was there along with Taylor Swift,” Trump added before asking rhetorically: “How did that one work out?”

The “You Belong With Me” singer, who is in a high-profile relationship with star Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, was loudly booed — to her apparent surprise — when she was shown on the big screen during the game.

Moments earlier, Trump was greeted with applause and cheers when he was shown during the pregame performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

I've been wondering when Trump will address this question to J B Pritzker:

Illinois’s Democratic governor, JB Pritzker, scorched Donald Trump’s administration on Sunday night, calling for “mass protests” and declaring that Republicans “cannot know a moment of peace” during a fiery speech in New Hampshire that immediately sparked presidential speculation.

“It’s time to fight everywhere and all at once,” Pritzker said to a ballroom filled with Democratic activists, officials and donors. “Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption. But I am now.”

But the story goes on with the inevitable setting of context:

The billionaire heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune addressed more than 800 people. . .

There's nothing incongruous about a billionaire rentier shouting "to the barricades!" at a group of wealthy activists, officials, and donors. No, nothing at all. On a web search I also learned that Gov Pritzker most definitely does not wear a toupee.

In an unrelated story,

On Sunday, during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) did not rule out impeaching President Donald Trump if Democrats take control of Congress.

. . . Schumer said, “Well, look, right now, President Trump is violating rule of law in every way and we’re fighting him every single day in every way. And our goal is to show the American people over and over again, whether it’s the economy, whether it’s tariffs, whether it’s Russia and overseas and whether it’s rule of law, how bad he is.

So two prominent Democrats are arguing for basically dusting off and replaying the 2020 strategy -- BLM riots, impeach Trump (twice), Trump is Hitler. How'd that work out? But there's also a confused echo of the 2024 campaign, and that's the odd juxtaposition of white upper-class style and faux revolutionary rhetoric:

A bizarre quote by Vice President Kamala Harris—“You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?”—is going viral once again as she mounts her presidential campaign after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race following his rough debate performance, with supporters and even other politicians adopting coconut emojis and memes inspired by the quote on social media to demonstrate support for Harris.

Harris’ quote: “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you,” which she said at a White House event last year, has become an ironic slogan in support of the vice president as she campaigns for the presidency.

I've frequently noted here Harris's affectation of white upper-class minimalist hair style, wardrobe, and accessories while clumsily mimicking ghetto street argot. Now Gov Pritzker's call for unrest in the streets contrasts again with his own wealthy lifestyle:

Before Pritzker — a venture capitalist billionaire — became governor of the Prairie State, the now-governor and his wife, M.K. Pritzker, allegedly removed the toilets from their second Chicago mansion they bought in 2007 for $3.7 million to write it off as "uninhabitable" on a property tax appeal.

Cook County only taxes vacant properties at 10 percent of their market value. The property was reported by the Chicago Sun-Times as being uninhabited and allowed to fall into disrepair.

A 2018 report from Cook County Inspector General Patrick Blanchard shed some light on the Pritzkers’ porcelain problem: in 2015, the couple hired contracting company Bulley & Andrews to remove five of the toilets from their second mansion, allegedly to take advantage of the county’s low tax rate for uninhabitable properties.

As a result of the mansion’s lavatories being lightened before the inspection, the Cook County assessor’s office "lowered the 6,378-square-foot mansion's assessed value from $6.3 million to about $1.1 million."

Following the assessment, Bulley & Andrews was hired again to reinstall a single toilet in the now-governor’s "hangout/meeting area."

I think what we're looking at is the bitter end of trhe Fabian socialist strategy advanced by the UK upper class in the late 19th century -- to forestall the proletarian revolution, gradually appease the workers with faux referms that are funded by sources other than plutocratic wealth, to wit, taxes, debt, and inflation. Thus we still have some of the wealthiest families in the country, the Pritzkers, Bill Gates and his estranged wife and children, Steve Jobs's widow, and others, clinging to this old strategy, with the Pritzkers in particular claiming now to be the revolutionary vanguard. J B's sister Penny is running her side of the revolution as Lead Fellow of the Harvard Corporation.

Somehow I don't think this will work out.