This has been a week. You might recall I’m taking a creative writing class this semester? Today was the last class. We were asked to read a selection from our final project, which encompassed short fiction, poetry and memoir. I read my memoir excerpt.
It was about Tim Goeglein. Might as well choose a vivid chapter. It got some giggles, especially from the teacher, who, like most teachers, has had her experiences with plagiarism. A snippet:
Like President Bush, I believe in forgiveness. But I also believe in shame, and we live in a shameless age. A man exposed as a thief of other’s thoughts and expression – for years – shouldn’t be publishing book after book. The online left has long spoken of “wingnut welfare,” the seemingly endless trough from which certain conservative “thinkers” can feed, in perpetuity. Scandals, whether it be taking laundered money from the Russians, sexual misbehavior or worse, don’t seem to dent people on the right, while Sen. Al Franken was pressured into resigning for making a naughty gesture in a photograph.
It was no doubt hard for Tim Goeglein to lose his White House job. But like so many of these preening God-botherers, he was shoved off the roof with a parachute on his back, and drifted gently down into another well-paid position.
What a bitch the lady who wrote that is.
Here’s something else I wrote, for the Free Press. It was paywalled when it went up, so here’s a non-paywalled link. It’s not what I’d usually do, but I assume you guys are mostly not in the Freep area, so oh well.
Tell me what you think. And have a swell weekend.
Brandon said on December 5, 2025 at 12:22 am
I’m approximately 4,400 miles away from the Freep area.
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David C said on December 5, 2025 at 6:03 am
Sounds like a Próspera for Detroit. All it needs is a pardoned drug king pin.
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Jeff Gill said on December 5, 2025 at 9:02 am
I don’t have Brandon’s distance, but still not close enough to subscribe. Keep on bitchin’, ma’am.
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alex said on December 5, 2025 at 9:38 am
Nancy, you’ve still got the gift, whether you’re shaming Tim Goeglein or Rod Lockwood, and I’d lay money on it that you could even shame the unshamable you-know-who and every last soulless suckup serving in his unregenerate administration. Mad props to you and may your keyboard keep a-clacking.
I finally got my first ACA premium notice and mine’s going up just shy of $300 a month — if it can be trusted, and I have my doubts.
This morning it’s actually minus eight degrees outside when we’d been promised an even zero. Despite that, the house seems to be no less comfy than usual. Our rental property, I’m pleased to note, is even toastier than our house when its thermostat is set to 66 and ours is at 74. Rental house just came vacant. Tenant left it trashed so we’re going to have to sink about $8K (and counting) into it to make it leasable again. The sliding bathtub shower doors are missing and the former tenant won’t tell us what happened to them. The lint screen on the dryer is missing too and the exhaust pipe was so thoroughly clogged that I’m surprised the place didn’t burn down. Needless to say, the appliances are being held together with duct tape and need to be carted off to the dump. I got a good quote yesterday for LVP flooring and carpet, and scored residential-grade materials at a closeout price versus rental-grade shit that would have cost the same.
But, all things considered, the tenant lived there for eleven years and her monthly payments altogether came out to roughly the same amount as we paid in cash for the house. And now that she’s out, and prices are much inflated in the market and in this neighborhood particularly, the refurb should pay for itself in no time flat. And I’m having fun redecorating.
Today I’m going to scrub with trisodium phosphate the cabinetry and window over the kitchen sink, which have a strange film of black soot on them suggestive of someone having set a fire thereabouts.
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Julie Robinson said on December 5, 2025 at 10:16 am
We couldn’t sell our first house and ended up renting. The tenants brought a charcoal grill into the kitchen, ‘cos, you know, that cold weather outside. Never again.
I’m happy to report it’s sunny and 75°. Summer is miserable, winter is paradise, and I prefer it this way.
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Deborah said on December 5, 2025 at 11:21 am
I read this interesting article in the Atlantic comparing Trump supporters to Tony Soprano sympathizers. Gift article
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/12/elon-musk-judge-dredd-autocrat/680881/?gift=e2EpXMuPtOgT-df8U_sJIO3dVqapblcRQ-GJ2aXEx_w&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
I’m always flumoxed by how anyone can admire Trump or support him when he’s such a vile person, this article kind of explains it. I never got caught up with the Sopranos but I certainly enjoyed Breaking Bad, even though Walter White was such a vile person, a lying, drug dealing, murderer. While I was watching I laughed along as he was giving the evil drug lords what they deserved, even though he became a vile person himself, who wasn’t out for the little guy victim, he was out for himself.
It’s only until the Trumpers realize they are the ones being exploited and scammed do they care and then eventually stop supporting him. When the leopard eats their face they finally get it. Some of them anyway.
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Dexter Friend said on December 5, 2025 at 11:44 am
Let us see a well-gentrified Zug first. Then…oh hell, then Belle Isle will always be Belle Isle.
Alex, we too were promised a 0 Fahrenheit low and rapidly plunged to -8. Dripping the pipes, something you do in a 126 year old frame house, again worked.
nance, any updates on Delray? Your mentioning Zug Island kindled a memory of your story on Delray. from AI:
…”The old industrial heart of Detroit starting with ‘D’ you’re likely thinking of is Delray, a historic working-class neighborhood south of Downtown, known for its heavy industry (steel mills, chemical plants) and immigrant communities, though it’s often just considered part of the larger industrial southwest side rather than a distinct “district” like Corktown or Midtown. “
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Deborah said on December 5, 2025 at 12:01 pm
Architectural news about the stupid ballroom https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/us/politics/trump-ballroom-white-house-construction.html?unlocked_article_code=1.6U8.k_FH.SEhjHatoPdCZ&smid=url-share gift article.
I’ve mentioned here before that my husband knows architects who worked on projects for Trump buildings. They all said it was a nightmare. One story which I’ve told was that for a presentation to Trump, the architects had the room surround with architecture drawings tacked up on the walls, Trump came into the room and immediately tore down the drawings, crumpled them up and threw them on the floor and walked out. Obviously meant to intimidate. He also didn’t pay fees due at the end of the project, he’s famous for that.
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alex said on December 5, 2025 at 12:11 pm
We had dinner in Delray once with Nancy and Alan. It was at the Carbon Athletic Club and they were hosting a chicken paprikash feast (at which I also won a raffle that paid for my IKEA purchases that I’d gone up there to make). It was quite special to me because my dad had lived in that neighborhood as a newly arrived immigrant. He toiled in the local factories, decided it was a dreadful existence, and managed to put himself through college and law school and never looked back. Of course, this was way before they monetized education and the American Dream was still very much alive, even for foreigners. My dad’s example makes me feel like a relative failure because I had everything handed to me and never made much of an effort academically or career wise. The old man’s 98 and still with us.
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Jason T. said on December 5, 2025 at 1:00 pm
Monorail! Monorail! Monorail! Monorail!
I hear those things are awfully loud …
It glides as softly as a cloud!
How does anyone even suggest a monorail and keep a straight face? It’s basically short-hand for grifting now.
A great column. The Belle Isle “freedom city” sounds a little like Walt Disney Co.’s creation of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which was the legal fiction that allowed the corporation to ignore Florida state laws and oversight for 40 years. I recommend Carl Hiassen’s “Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World” for a look at some of the issues that created.
But instead of giant costumed rats and ducks, Belle Isle will have douchebags roaring around on monorails. Is there a chance the track could bend? Not on your life, my Hindu friend!
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Schtreaky said on December 5, 2025 at 1:12 pm
Thanks for the Free Press link to your opinion column. You were a brave person to click on that survey text link! I would have deleted that thing in a heart beat. Thankfully it only provided inspiration for your excellent piece.
Not being a Michigander, I had to look up Zug Island; what a perfect alternative to Belle Isle. Let Lockwood and his buddies live on an island that truly reflects the handiwork of capitalism’s titans of industry.
I say, let the rich move to their “Freedom Cities,” then we blow the bridges and cut off their air and water access. We won’t let them starve so long as they agree to pay a 75% top marginal tax rate.
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Alan Stamm said on December 6, 2025 at 1:15 pm
You still know how to sharpen a skewer and stick it to roast deserving swine like Rod Lockwood. Unlike cicadas, your skills never lie dormant.
Freep op-ed is a tasty treat.
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Dexter Friend said on December 6, 2025 at 3:01 pm
It has been years since I used to ride around and around on the People Mover.
AI: “Detroit People Mover reopens with limited service, free … the Detroit People Mover (DPM) is still active, free to ride as part of a pilot program, and runs daily on its elevated 3-mile loop through downtown Detroit, connecting key areas with various transit options. It offers quick access to entertainment, sports venues, and business districts, with hours generally covering mornings to late nights, though it’s subject to temporary closures for maintenance, like the recent track switch replacement in late 2025. ” AI….
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Brandon said on December 6, 2025 at 3:55 pm
Speaking of land plans:
https://www.businessinsider.com/kanye-west-malibu-home-turned-into-investment-property-2025-12
Do you want to own a piece of a home once owned by Kanye West?
Steven “Bo” Belmont is betting that you do.
Belmont, who purchased the Tadao Ando-built home from West for $21 million in 2024, has big plans for this concrete slab in Malibu: turning it into a luxury community space for members in the vein of the Soho House. Belmont wants to let multiple people share in his property by selling paid memberships for access to the space and a share in its equity.
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Jeff Gill said on December 7, 2025 at 8:12 am
So I’m idly fishing about for more about who this Randian monomaniac is, and I’m assuming at first he’s gotta be this guy’s son:
https://www.nahb.org/why-nahb/nahb-past-presidents/1940s/rodney-lockwood
On further review, I’m quite sure of it:
https://www.lockwoodcompanies.com/construction.html
In my admittedly limited experience of rich people, there’s a short list of ways to become one that I’m aware of. The first is to have rich parents, a means not to be slighted; sarcasm aside, it appears to be quite easy to have rich parents and flush it all away, so there’s some modest credit to be given to those scions, even Fred & Mary Anne’s younger boy.
The second most common is to have found a particular place in the economic drainage system where money just sloshes over the gutter, and stand there with a big enough pot or kettle to catch some. Many obscure financial instruments seem to be just legal means to take a cut as the tidal currents run, from the wealth managers at Chase Bank downtown helping widows handle their estates, to investment gurus like Jeff Yass in Philly who have figured out how to make billions out of fractional movements of assets.
Then there’s a category I have to call “struck by lightning.” I don’t mean to imply there’s no work or diligence involved, but from being able to dunk a basketball to putting out a best-selling novel (although I could ask you to name three best-sellers of 2025 to suggest this isn’t the sub-category it used to be), it’s still a means which requires some mix of genetics and good fortune. Even Mr. Albom keeps saying he’s “a lucky guy” and I take him at his word. Someone else with his essential skill set (define it down however you will) showing up at the right time in the correct office might have ended up with the same fiscal outcome. But a non-trivial number of people who get rich do so in ways that seem pretty non-replicable for someone proposing to follow precisely in their footsteps.
Which leaves the fourth, and surely largest category: those whose labors have earned them wealth. I’m sure they exist, hard working folk who toiled step by step up to the heights of huge incomes and civic if not social security. Sincerely, I can think of a hatful who have worked their way from obscurity to relative financial stability into a secure retirement, but wealth? Not so much.
Lockwood & Trump seem to have very similar backgrounds, though, even if separated by a few states from Queens to Lake Huron. I’m sure I had a point when I started this… and I hope my sermon holds together better in a couple of hours. Anyhow.
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BigHank53 said on December 7, 2025 at 9:00 am
Why do both of those projects involve demolishing a park?
Because they are parks, and nothing infuriates a libertarian more than something that’s both (a) beautiful and (b) free for anyone to use. So, while they could certainly put in the effort and money to reclaim a brownfield like Zug Island. It would be a lot of work. And a lot of money. And you’d have to actually, you know, make it look good. And people like Olmstead don’t exactly grow on trees.
Belle Isle? Shove in some luxury condo developments and McMansions and sell it back for dollars on the penny. All you need to do is steal the thing in the first place.
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David C said on December 7, 2025 at 10:54 am
Ugh. Financial advisors. Don’t get me started. I inherited a one from my mom’s estate. Trying to get the money transferred over to my account has been like pulling teeth. So far, I’m getting sales pitches. I’m doing fine with index funds and intend to keep doing so. I ask for his rates and he all he says is “I’m worth it, believe me”. Just one more stress to add on to the stress of losing mom and one more I don’t need.
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Dexter Friend said on December 7, 2025 at 2:39 pm
David C., I can’t imagine that stress. I was always a paycheck-paycheck man and my younger brother inherited 100% of our parents meager assets.
When at age 71 I received my share of the sold family farm after my uncle passed, I just stuck it in the bank and let it draw a little interest.
One cousin bought another house and one bought a new car. Mine is my rainy day fund, and rain always comes in buckets here.
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