THE DUCK METHOD

Perception is everything, Roger, especially in political affairs. And the optics, frankly, are crap. So please shut up. For three weeks the Biden Administration sat around with its thumb up its collective ass about the Ohio train disaster. Yes, we all know that such a thing was only a matter of time; the rightwingers poo-pood safety considerations for four decades and more, but casting blame does not improve matters on the ground. And in this case, what is obvious to everyone except the administration is that for three weeks, the government did bugger all.

Bupkes.

Within hours there should have been leaders flying in, and statements to the effect that the army was en-route, Fema was sending convoys, everyone within the danger zone would be evacuated and housed at public expense, they'd get to the bottom of this, and hang the railroad executives. Resettlement, compensation, everything bigger and better!

This could have been a political triumph of stupendous proportions.

Instead: bureaucratic wailing, and blame shifting.

The damage has been self-inflicted.

So, Roger (not his real name) please shut the everloving m. f. Christ up. Stop defending the administration and spouting the party line. Saying "studies have shown that ..." or "but the Trump Administration..." are not worth the hot air they're printed on. Just. Shut. Up.
Our side can do better. Three whole weeks, Roger.
We look like a third-world failure.
Washington wankers.



Perception. Is. Everything.



And by the way, on a local level, the correct response to the Chinatown awning affair, which was clearly vindictive targeting, selective enforcement, and a clumsy attempt at extortion by the bureaucrats, should have been "we are very sorry, all those fines are cancelled, we will thoroughly investigate how this happened and hold public hearings, as well as dismiss and prosecute the people responsible if necessary, and we'll make sure that this will never happen again."

In San Francisco, anything that looks like selective enforcement looks suspicious as all hell. As does trumpeting convenient plausible deniability when someone brings it up. And there's already bucket loads of circumstantial evidence to indicate that the city bureaucracy is almost unbelievably bloated, incompetent, and corrupt. As well as, in some significant areas, sodden with old-fashioned anti-Chinese racism. Which is a San Francisco tradition.

And not just from the Caucasians. Or African Americans and Latinos.

Though I'm certainly not excluding them.
By any means.

The name of this essay came about because without my reading glasses on I mistook the name of a book as "The Duck Method". Which, upon due consideration, would be a great title for a self-help book. How to solve all your psychological issues AND get rich? The Duck Method! Naturally I expect celebrity endorsements.



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