Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Afternoon Thread
Travel day for me, so suckier than usual blogging. Except for all the other sucky days, of course. Can't always do this 7 days per week!
Do The Local Thing
I suppose it's part of the inevitable life cycle of the activist. You start thinking big about saving the world, and then realize that maybe your local food bank (or similar) is the best use of your time. Saving the world his hard work, and too often even the powers that be who should be your allies don't really want your help.
I've seen a few waves of national dem-party-linked-but-not-quite-controlled movements being birthed and then smothered in their cribs. It's hard to control the tiger, after all. Then the election losses happen, the voters are blamed, people cry "organize!," and the two years later it's a month before the midterm elections and a bunch of DCCC blessed rich people who can partially (at least) fund their campaigns run a bunch of shitty ads and lose, or even when they win fail to build an organization on the ground because they're, you know, just not that into that. And they lose the next time voter mood shifts a bit.
Maybe I just need a nap.
I've seen a few waves of national dem-party-linked-but-not-quite-controlled movements being birthed and then smothered in their cribs. It's hard to control the tiger, after all. Then the election losses happen, the voters are blamed, people cry "organize!," and the two years later it's a month before the midterm elections and a bunch of DCCC blessed rich people who can partially (at least) fund their campaigns run a bunch of shitty ads and lose, or even when they win fail to build an organization on the ground because they're, you know, just not that into that. And they lose the next time voter mood shifts a bit.
Maybe I just need a nap.
Shorter Brexit Politicians
So we get to stay in the common market and have no restrictons on travel or work or EU residency or use of social services and you must keep your disgusting filthy pieces of shit citizens out of our country and it is very divisive of you to suggest otherwise
.
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
Who Would It Be
As I've said to a few people IRL lately, during the Bush administration I could have named a few elected Republicans who might occasionally "do the right thing." By that I don't mean "support my preferred policy choices" or "magically transform into a liberal Democrat," just maybe stand up against the worst excesses of the Bush administration of the type that even conservatives were supposed to dislike. Now? Not a single one.
They Had One Job
As I've said, I was never too critical of the actual Clinton campaign (though prominent Clinton surrogates, whose actual "connection" to the campaign is always debatable, were almost universally horrible). At least to the extent that I could see what they were doing, they seemed to do about what they could given the cards they were dealt. Some of those cards, like the media coverage, were unfair, but you go to campaign with the media you have. Some of those were the fault of Hillary Clinton, and it isn't echoing a right wing smear to say so, a claim oddly regularly made by many. Right wing smears are bullshit things like Benghazi which are basically made up in the fever swamps. Things that are true that right wingers pretend to care about and left wingers actually do care about aren't right wing smears. That right wingers are full of shit hypocrites doesn't invalidate all criticisms.
Monday morning quarterbacking - figuring out went wrong, with hindsight - is a certainly fair to engage in, but it isn't necessarily an indictment of the people involved. Hindsight makes everything clearer, or so it seems at least.
But a bunch of people assumed the responsibility of protecting the nation from Donald Trump. This wasn't a game, a sportsball contest, this, you know, mattered. And they lost. Jeebus help us all because of it. Most of them aren't going to see their family members be deported or die of pregnancy complications. With great responsibility comes great responsibility. They took on a job, and they fucked it up. They lost the election to Donald Fucking Trump.
As for all of the absolutely horrible non-campaign surrogates, I suppose it depends on what they thought their job was. That's the problem with the modern cable news and twitter campaign. I used to think Dems needed to close the hack gap, but that assumed our hacks would be any good. They weren't.
On Earth-2, Clinton might be president right now. A couple of different dice rolls, a bit of a different wind pattern on the right day, and she would have won. But she didn't, and now we're fucked, and I really don't want to hear much other than apologies from the people who were paid a lot of money to make sure President Trump didn't happen.*
*I say "people who were paid a lot of money" because I've already seen some George Bush-style blame deflecting. You remember those days when the response to "Iraq is a disaster" was "how dare you blame the troops!" Criticizing the Clinton campaign is of course not criticizing all of the people who worked very hard with little authority for little personal reward and little publicity and little future career enhancement. It's the people in charge. Some of them probably didn't even get paid that much money, but were sure of their post-campaign careers. So, same thing.
Monday morning quarterbacking - figuring out went wrong, with hindsight - is a certainly fair to engage in, but it isn't necessarily an indictment of the people involved. Hindsight makes everything clearer, or so it seems at least.
But a bunch of people assumed the responsibility of protecting the nation from Donald Trump. This wasn't a game, a sportsball contest, this, you know, mattered. And they lost. Jeebus help us all because of it. Most of them aren't going to see their family members be deported or die of pregnancy complications. With great responsibility comes great responsibility. They took on a job, and they fucked it up. They lost the election to Donald Fucking Trump.
As for all of the absolutely horrible non-campaign surrogates, I suppose it depends on what they thought their job was. That's the problem with the modern cable news and twitter campaign. I used to think Dems needed to close the hack gap, but that assumed our hacks would be any good. They weren't.
On Earth-2, Clinton might be president right now. A couple of different dice rolls, a bit of a different wind pattern on the right day, and she would have won. But she didn't, and now we're fucked, and I really don't want to hear much other than apologies from the people who were paid a lot of money to make sure President Trump didn't happen.*
*I say "people who were paid a lot of money" because I've already seen some George Bush-style blame deflecting. You remember those days when the response to "Iraq is a disaster" was "how dare you blame the troops!" Criticizing the Clinton campaign is of course not criticizing all of the people who worked very hard with little authority for little personal reward and little publicity and little future career enhancement. It's the people in charge. Some of them probably didn't even get paid that much money, but were sure of their post-campaign careers. So, same thing.
WWE
Most of Trump's battles with the media (in particular CNN, and the hilariously fake spat with Morning Joe during the campaign) are just wrestling stories. Zucker knows the game, and he'd obviously sell his children for a small ratings bump. In a way he already has.
There is Only One Brexit
Sure some details at the margin can vary, but Brexit is "hard Brexit." There is no "have your cake and eat it too" option.
The rest of the EU does. not. care. This is a pain in the ass and a waste of their time.
But the lack of further details from No 10 has alarmed many formerly pro-EU Labour and Tory MPs, who are increasingly cooperating in an attempt to stop a “hard Brexit”. Their key demands are staying as close to the single market as possible, a transitional deal to cushion the economic effect of leaving and more parliamentary scrutiny of the negotiations.
The rest of the EU does. not. care. This is a pain in the ass and a waste of their time.
Monday, November 28, 2016
Reminder
Back when Reagan was president members of the press knew that the man had some form of dementia, that he was not actually fit to run the country, and they covered it up because the feefees of America would be hurt because Reagan was the most popular president in the history of the universe. Of course he wasn't the most popular president by any reasonable measure, but the press loved him so America loved him and they added 10 extra points to his popularity rating in their minds. They did that for Bush II, also, too.
I don't expect Trump will ever be an especially popular president for a variety of reasons, but with the 10 bonus points traditionally granted to Republican presidents, who knows what must be kept from America. Because of our feefees.
I don't expect Trump will ever be an especially popular president for a variety of reasons, but with the 10 bonus points traditionally granted to Republican presidents, who knows what must be kept from America. Because of our feefees.
Good Luck With That
Actually this part could happen (though not necessarily before Article 50 is triggered), but the weird belief that there could be no negative consequences of Brexit while still actually undertaking Brexit is cute.
Britain doesn't understand that they are one country in the EU. The pain of Brexit is going to be concentrated there, and diffuse everywhere else. Sure other countries have citizens who are residents of Britain, but it's a relatively small number for each country. With every single "good" thing Britain wishes to retain, they have much more to lose than any other single country, all of which can essentially veto any proposal. Really don't think all the demanding and insulting and whiny ass titty babying is going to solve this.
A group of 81 British lawmakers have written to European Union President Donald Tusk to demand an agreement is reached on rights for Britons living in the EU and for Europeans in the U.K. before Brexit talks are formally opened.
The letter asks Tusk to add reciprocal rights for citizens to the agenda for a European leaders meeting on Dec. 15 and claims there is agreement across most EU states on the issue. Michel Barnier, who will lead negotiations for the EU, infuriated the group when he insisted talks cannot start on any aspect of Brexit until triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which formally starts the process of exiting the bloc. “No negotiation without notification,” Barnier tweeted on Nov. 21.
“Michel Barnier’s intransigence is inhumane. It is only compounded by the petulance of his recent tweet,” Steve Baker, a Conservative lawmaker and one of the letter’s signatories, said in an e-mailed statement. “He should apologize and immediately agree in principle the continuation of reciprocal rights for resident U.K. and EU citizens.”
Britain doesn't understand that they are one country in the EU. The pain of Brexit is going to be concentrated there, and diffuse everywhere else. Sure other countries have citizens who are residents of Britain, but it's a relatively small number for each country. With every single "good" thing Britain wishes to retain, they have much more to lose than any other single country, all of which can essentially veto any proposal. Really don't think all the demanding and insulting and whiny ass titty babying is going to solve this.
Cyber Monday
That's what 300 emails have told me. It's cyber Monday! The greatest made up day since Black Friday or perhaps Columbus Day Mattress Sale Monday!
Obviously you should buy yourself a Cyberman!
Obviously you should buy yourself a Cyberman!
Maybe God Hates Britain?
The combination of religious zeal and nationalism always really confuses me. I get the narcissism that leads people to think the supreme deity is on their side, but I've never really understood the "God wants my country to succeed" kind of thinking. I guess it is called the Church of England.
THE PM has admitted to having sleepless night over Brexit but says her faith in God will guide our path out of Europe.
In her most personal interview since taking office in July, Theresa May said her moral sense of right and wrong is helping her work out what is best for Britain at a “hugely challenging time.”
Theresa May admitted to having sleepless nights over Brexit in her first big interview since taking office
She claims: “There is something in terms of faith, I am a practising member of the Church of England and so forth, that lies behind what I do.”
The Fog of Fog
I woke up grumpy this morning, mulling over the "fake news" controversy, realizing that after the Iraq war and several other examples of reporting on happenings in far away places, I basically don't trust any of it. I don't just mean healthy skepticism, I mean there are moments when I wonder if people who write for newspapers read their own newspapers. Reporting seems too often to take on the form of telephone, with reports of reports of reports of reports. It's all colored by whatever US policy happens to be at the time, and it gets really confusing when our policy is confused and nobody knows exactly who "our bastards" are that week. Was that our #2 who just got whacked or theirs? Does it matter?
And rarely is the question asked: people all over the place seem to be really good at blowing each other up, sometimes with sophisticated and expensive weapons? All the blown up people, where do they all come from?
The only solution to a fire is to claim that it's twice as big as it is and then demand we pour gasoline on it to ensure it is so.
And I don't even know why. I'll get emails as I always do when I raise this question - oil! arms dealers need money! - but it isn't just one cause. I don't believe the random asshole congressman from Texas and the current POTUS and the head of the oil company and the head of Arms Dealer, Inc., and various "think tanks" and the generals and the national security "community" and the Washington Post editorial board and "liberal hawks" all want to go blow shit up on a regular basis and start wars everywhere for precisely the same reasons. All these people come together to make it happen, of course, but that doesn't mean they're all motivated by the same reasons. Christian apocalyptic messianism for some, sweet sweet cash for others!
I just know that when all of the serious people start nodding in unison that something needs to be done, therefore we must do something, and there's only one thing to be done. A country whose soon to be controlling political party thinks taking in even one refugee is unpossible isn't much interested in humanitarian intervention, or humanitarianism at all. Still we must do something because reasons.
And rarely is the question asked: people all over the place seem to be really good at blowing each other up, sometimes with sophisticated and expensive weapons? All the blown up people, where do they all come from?
The only solution to a fire is to claim that it's twice as big as it is and then demand we pour gasoline on it to ensure it is so.
And I don't even know why. I'll get emails as I always do when I raise this question - oil! arms dealers need money! - but it isn't just one cause. I don't believe the random asshole congressman from Texas and the current POTUS and the head of the oil company and the head of Arms Dealer, Inc., and various "think tanks" and the generals and the national security "community" and the Washington Post editorial board and "liberal hawks" all want to go blow shit up on a regular basis and start wars everywhere for precisely the same reasons. All these people come together to make it happen, of course, but that doesn't mean they're all motivated by the same reasons. Christian apocalyptic messianism for some, sweet sweet cash for others!
I just know that when all of the serious people start nodding in unison that something needs to be done, therefore we must do something, and there's only one thing to be done. A country whose soon to be controlling political party thinks taking in even one refugee is unpossible isn't much interested in humanitarian intervention, or humanitarianism at all. Still we must do something because reasons.
Sunday, November 27, 2016
White Supremacism
There's some degree of weird essential tribal affiliation in racism, but a lot of white people in America do believe that white people are superior (whatever that means) to black people and that the system is rigged in favor the latter. The two work together. Black people fail DESPITE getting all the good breaks, what did I tell you? Those people can't even succeed when their obamaphones are just handed to them!
I don't know if there's any utility in calling this basic racism "white supremacism" but that's what it is.
I don't know if there's any utility in calling this basic racism "white supremacism" but that's what it is.
Deep Thoughts From Anne Applebaum
I think my brother made an observation like this when he was about 15. It was pretty smart coming from a 15-year-old.
Get used to the idea: the movements we call "far-right" and "far left" are more similar than different
— Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum) November 27, 2016
The War On Fake News
From the email forwards your crazy uncle used to send you to facebook shares, horseshit masquerading as fact has long been a problem. Snopes (imperfect and in the old days they seemed to have a bit of a thumb on the scales in favor of conservative horseshit, but reasonably good) has been around a long time for this reason.
But big media outlets believe they are not the primary transmitters of horseshit, even when they are, and are thrilled at the thought that they can monopolize the linkbait and shut out smaller independent sites.
If anyone cared about this little blue lemonade stand, I'm sure it'd be on a "fake news" list. I don't use facebook (or anything else really) to promote it, but if I did I'd probably get annoyed.
But big media outlets believe they are not the primary transmitters of horseshit, even when they are, and are thrilled at the thought that they can monopolize the linkbait and shut out smaller independent sites.
If anyone cared about this little blue lemonade stand, I'm sure it'd be on a "fake news" list. I don't use facebook (or anything else really) to promote it, but if I did I'd probably get annoyed.
Saturday, November 26, 2016
Fidel is Dead
No Cuba expert, but I did go there about 15 years ago and learned that things weren't always quite exactly as they were generally portrayed here, and by that time (post-Soviet era, tail end of the "special period," relatively early days of opening up to European resorts and tourism), things weren't much like (good and bad!) they were generally portrayed here at all.
Friday, November 25, 2016
When in Doubt
Choose the person who pisses off liberals the most! Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!
That instinct used to be a largely bipartisan affair, though I guess it's changed a bit with Democrats moving a bit to the left (genuinely!) and also too trying to take back the word "liberal" from the dirty hippies who kept it warm all of these years (annoying!). I remember back in Ye Olde Early Days of Blooging when lefty bloggers generally called themselves liberals, some of the Very Serious People in DC who actually paid any attention to us would try to convince us that liberal was a toxic word (Rush Limbaugh is so scary!!!) and we should just embrace the word "progressive." And it was like, uh, that's a word that fake centrists who are actually conservatives slap on think tank names so they can pretend to be the "left" side of the acceptable debate.
So liberals we were.
That instinct used to be a largely bipartisan affair, though I guess it's changed a bit with Democrats moving a bit to the left (genuinely!) and also too trying to take back the word "liberal" from the dirty hippies who kept it warm all of these years (annoying!). I remember back in Ye Olde Early Days of Blooging when lefty bloggers generally called themselves liberals, some of the Very Serious People in DC who actually paid any attention to us would try to convince us that liberal was a toxic word (Rush Limbaugh is so scary!!!) and we should just embrace the word "progressive." And it was like, uh, that's a word that fake centrists who are actually conservatives slap on think tank names so they can pretend to be the "left" side of the acceptable debate.
So liberals we were.
Black Friday Crass Commercialism
'Tis the season where you spend lots of money on ungrateful brats all of the dearest darlings in your lives. Easiest way to support this site is to give me some of Jeff Bezos's money whey you make those Amazon purchases that you were going to make anyway. Click the link before you buy!
Always Doing It Wrong
I know nothing about the complex Hong Kong-China situation, but I do know that people who are advocating for silly things like "democracy" and "human rights" are always doing it wrong.
Reckless...at least he didn't use the word "childish." That's usually the go to one.
The last British governor of Hong Kong has criticised the “antics” of two recently disqualified pro-independence politicians, saying their position dilutes the fight for greater democracy in the city.
Chris Patten, now a member of the House of Lords and chancellor of the University of Oxford, said it was “dishonest, dishonourable and reckless” to conflate the push for greater democracy in Hong Kong with the argument for independence.
Reckless...at least he didn't use the word "childish." That's usually the go to one.
Not Every Household
Fortunately it'll mostly be the poors who will pay the price.
Just estimates, of course, and there's no reason it can't be made even worse by further dismantling of the welfare state.
The Anglo-American century was fun.
Every household will lose a staggering £1,250 a year because of the Brexit vote, independent forecasters say – as they painted a devastating picture of falling living standards, including no increase in real wages for at least another decade.
The respected Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) also warned that working families will be hit hardest by the unprecedented slump, with pensioners better protected.
Workers will suffer because of an expected 3.7 per cent fall in real earnings by the start of the next decade, compared with the pre-referendum forecast.
Just estimates, of course, and there's no reason it can't be made even worse by further dismantling of the welfare state.
The Anglo-American century was fun.
Thursday, November 24, 2016
Anti-Immigrant Party Chief Announces Plans To Be An Immigrant
Well, you know, not anti-ALL immigrants...
Think I'll be the only one who notices the irony, because some immigrants we don't count.
He said that he wanted his country back but now Nigel Farage is planning to abandon it in favour of a new life in the United States.
The interim Ukip leader, who is due to hand over the reins to a permanent replacement on Monday, has told friends that he is preparing to emigrate with his wife, Kirsten. Despite a long-held interest in the US, he has felt tied to Westerham, his home town in Kent, and his family in Britain. His roles as an MEP and leader of Ukip have also made it difficult to be based abroad.
Think I'll be the only one who notices the irony, because some immigrants we don't count.
What's It All About Then
I'm starting to think that austerity was simply about cutting the parts of the state they didn't like anyway?
It was true here, too, though not quite as true, but the maddening thing in the UK is just how much "everybody" agreed austerity was the only possible way forward because something something reasons something something.
"UK can sustain a relatively high level of debt." @PHammondMP defends high level of UK debt and plan to deal with it https://t.co/RDNKbPfcbO
— Sky News (@SkyNews) November 24, 2016
It was true here, too, though not quite as true, but the maddening thing in the UK is just how much "everybody" agreed austerity was the only possible way forward because something something reasons something something.
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
On The Eve of Thanksgiving
Stories:
One Angry Trump-Voter's Tale. He is not thankful.
Be thankful for net neutrality while you can
Be thankful that you can still read.
And more seriously, thanks for the times we have shared.
Random Question
Busy with travel but who is the one person in education policy circles who is worse than Rhee?
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
The Christmas Gift For All Those Relatives You Hate
It has come to my attention that Little Tommy Friedman, age 9, has a new book out. Get it for all of the relatives you hate most this season!
This is why they pay him the big bucks:
This is why they pay him the big bucks:
Thomas Friedman asks, “What do you think is America’s role in the world?” Trump laughs: “That’s such a big question!"
— Mike Grynbaum (@grynbaum) November 22, 2016
Back to the Future
In other election news, LA area voters approved a ballot measure to tax themselves for more transit. A map of the future
A myth about LA is that was the first major US city to grow up around the automobile. Actually it was the first major city to grow up around the streetcar, instead of around walking, which was how cities grew prior to that. Then they got rid of all the streetcars and rail generally and added urban highways everywhere. LA suffers from the too-dense-but-not-quite-dense-enough problem (overall it's a very dense city, but with a kind of uniform density that is a bit difficult from a transportation perspective). As is always the case, no matter how this stuff is sold, it probably won't make life better for people who take the urban highways, it'll just give more options to people who want them, and will (if allowed) transform the city into something different.
A myth about LA is that was the first major US city to grow up around the automobile. Actually it was the first major city to grow up around the streetcar, instead of around walking, which was how cities grew prior to that. Then they got rid of all the streetcars and rail generally and added urban highways everywhere. LA suffers from the too-dense-but-not-quite-dense-enough problem (overall it's a very dense city, but with a kind of uniform density that is a bit difficult from a transportation perspective). As is always the case, no matter how this stuff is sold, it probably won't make life better for people who take the urban highways, it'll just give more options to people who want them, and will (if allowed) transform the city into something different.
Nazis Who Hate Nazis
Anyone who has paid attention to the formerly fringe - now so hip and cool and sometimes I can't even hatelink this shit - explicitly racist conservatives knows that they have a weird relationship to Nazis. On one hand they sort of know that Nazis represent something "bad" and maybe they know we fought against them in WWII, and that fight wasn't really a noble fight against racist genocide, just a noble fight, as wars goes, against imperial expansion and fascist tyranny generally. So they're pretty quick to throw out NaziHitler as an epithet to anything/anybody they don't like even when it's really fucking confused.
On the other hand, they really really admire the racism and the white supremacy, so sometimes they're pretty down with the whole Nazi thing. None of it makes any sense.
On the other hand, they really really admire the racism and the white supremacy, so sometimes they're pretty down with the whole Nazi thing. None of it makes any sense.
Don't Talk About This, Talk About That
We got a bit of this during the Bush administration, when some people always thought the outrage of the day was just a distraction from The Real Crime, whatever that happened to be. And, yes, if Trump knows anything it's how to play the media (not that they make it hard for him). Of course "gutting Medicare" or "putting Muslims on a list" is more important than "tweeting stupid shit." But it's all a part of the same thing, really. He isn't president yet. Tweeting stupid shit is about the biggest power he has right now.
Turkee Week
Will be transitioning to holiday posting schedule...which means, when I have the time!
President Donald Trump. That's cool.
President Donald Trump. That's cool.
Monday, November 21, 2016
Fuck 2016
The weird thing about the internet is you can feel strangely close to lots of people you have never met or even really had any personal online interactions with. RIP Scott Eric Kaufman. Fuck this year.
Intriguing New Ideas
As I think I've written before, I long thought that while most racism (ethnicities/religions can be racialized even if they don't conform to our usual ideas of racial differences) didn't get our news media all that excited, anti-Semitism was a line that couldn't be crossed. Well, I was wrong. IOKIYAR no matter what!
Will No One Think Of The Truck Drivers?
I'm a bit confused about the obsession with all of the soon to be out of work truck drivers due to automated technology. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of industries being crushed too quickly (change actually is inevitable to some degree, the speed of disruption is really the issue for things like this) and despite my pessimism about automated car technology, I see partially automated trucking to be a thing which will likely happen to some degree fairly soon (though not quite as fast or universally as people think). Still "what about the truck drivers" seems to get a lot more attention than other industries greatly hit by changes in technology/trade rules/taste evolutions/supply chain modifications.
If nothing else, unlike some recently demolished industries, trucking isn't very geographically concentrated and unlike, say, the arrival of Wal-Mart, is unlikely to destroy small local competitors. In other words, it might destroy jobs (bad!) but is less likely to destroy communities.
I'm not arguing it'll be a good thing for people impacted by it, just curious why this particular bad thing which hasn't even happened yet gets so much attention.
If nothing else, unlike some recently demolished industries, trucking isn't very geographically concentrated and unlike, say, the arrival of Wal-Mart, is unlikely to destroy small local competitors. In other words, it might destroy jobs (bad!) but is less likely to destroy communities.
I'm not arguing it'll be a good thing for people impacted by it, just curious why this particular bad thing which hasn't even happened yet gets so much attention.
Suckers
This isn't about me (I promise! Really!) but something I've observed over the past 15 years or so is how people who go into dogooder politics often get frustrated and fed up and choose to find a way to cash out instead. The frustration is due to the fact that the rewards for dogooder politics are limited. The financial rewards are limited, the successes are limited, and frankly the respect is limited. Your supposed allies (Elected Democrats, mainstream well-funded interest groups which are more into having a seat at the table than getting anything done #notallmainstreamwellfundedinterestgroups) treat you with derision up until the point when they take credit for your successes. In the electoral politics game this is pretty obvious. The people who make the big bucks are consultants and ad people, the people actually getting people to register to vote are volunteers or are being paid about as well. Win or lose the former seem to do okay. I know that quoting a wikileaks email is akin to voting for Putin, but I'll let Paul Begala speak:
(I like Paul. I'm sure politics has been pretty good for his wallet, too, but he has always seemed like a genuine dogooder to me, not just a mercenary with a career)
Congressional staffers sometimes rightly see that they can cash out and work for lobbying firms, sometimes even on the same issues if with a slightly diluted purpose, for multiples of their salaries. Probably the most useless organization in DC, HRC, sucks up all the big donor money and takes credit for anything remotely pro-gay rights that happens.
And when the opposition takes power, suddenly every organization in DC positions themselves as the scrappy underdog ready to fight the power. Some of them even are! Often they aren't. I get pretty furious every time a fundraising solicitation lands in my inbox these days. That emotional response probably isn't always correct. Some of those organizations are probably worth supporting and now would be a good time to support them! Still there's something annoying about "give us money! help us stop Trump!"
As Tom knows from our conversations, I am a strong supporter of this proposal. And if that means we don't work with some of the big-name, big-dollar admakers, I consider that an added bonus.
I am nauseated by the notion that Shrum has a villa in Tuscany while young soldiers are bleeding in Iraq because of his goddam incompetence.
Paul
(I like Paul. I'm sure politics has been pretty good for his wallet, too, but he has always seemed like a genuine dogooder to me, not just a mercenary with a career)
Congressional staffers sometimes rightly see that they can cash out and work for lobbying firms, sometimes even on the same issues if with a slightly diluted purpose, for multiples of their salaries. Probably the most useless organization in DC, HRC, sucks up all the big donor money and takes credit for anything remotely pro-gay rights that happens.
And when the opposition takes power, suddenly every organization in DC positions themselves as the scrappy underdog ready to fight the power. Some of them even are! Often they aren't. I get pretty furious every time a fundraising solicitation lands in my inbox these days. That emotional response probably isn't always correct. Some of those organizations are probably worth supporting and now would be a good time to support them! Still there's something annoying about "give us money! help us stop Trump!"
One Cause To Rule Them All
My longtime war against monocausal explanations seems to be failing.
Sometimes things are a floor wax and a dessert topping.
Sometimes things are a floor wax and a dessert topping.
An Exciting New Odor
We were discussing the coming era of Trump corruption and Mrs. A rightly pointed out that the US has immense amounts of governmnent corruption despite the fact that it always tut-tuts other countries for their supposedly more corrupt ways. This is true. But in modern history it really has been a no-no for a president to personally profit from their position during their administration. We don't have the kind of corruption that involves presidents and prime ministers just siphoning off a few hundred million from the Treasury into their pockets, directly or indirectly.
We didn't, anyway.
We didn't, anyway.
Sunday, November 20, 2016
Saturday, November 19, 2016
Respect Authoritah
I don't care that Pence got booed at a Broadway musical. I'm not even sure I'd be one of the boo-ers if I was there. But the instincts of our elite press to side with the powerful over the great unwashed masses is frightening. Trump and friends can say and do anything they want from their podiums and positions of powers, no matter how racist, anti-Semitic, misogynistic, or clearly designed to stoke hate, if not actual violence, while the masses are expected to sit meekly by if their betters (editor:YOU LIE! Just Republican betters) lower themselves to make an appearance. And this isn't just about "uncivil policies." Trump is an uncouth rude motherfucker. If his gang can dish it out, backed by the full power of the state, they can sure as hell learn to take it. Or they can retreat to their "safe spaces" instead of showing up at the parties of people whose lives they want to destroy.
Those whiny college kids and demanding their "safe spaces" because institutions are shit at dealing with rape, abuse, racism, and mental health issues. Let's make fun of them some more! Only Dear Leader needs his safe spaces.
The Theater must always be a safe and special place.The cast of Hamilton was very rude last night to a very good man, Mike Pence. Apologize!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2016
Those whiny college kids and demanding their "safe spaces" because institutions are shit at dealing with rape, abuse, racism, and mental health issues. Let's make fun of them some more! Only Dear Leader needs his safe spaces.
Friday, November 18, 2016
Your Liberal Media
Sunday: @MayaMacGuineas, @davidfrum, @GroverNorquist, @lanheechen on the policy challenges Trump will face https://t.co/nJa9QlF1sy
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) November 18, 2016
All conservatives of various kinds except for Ellison. Face the Nation guests one and two weeks after comparable 2008 election (party switch, first term).
November 9, 2008
Guests: Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., President-elect Obama's chief of staff; John Harris of Politico; and David Brooks of The New York Times
(one dem, one "neutral," one conservative)
November 16, 2008
Guests: Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.; Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala.; Gov. Bobby Jindal, R-La.; and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich
(one dem, 3 conservatives)
Both Sides
One side wants to stop black people from voting, the other wants them to be able to vote. So, you know, both sides.
#NeverTrump
Their fundamental principle going forward will be "racism is good, because it pisses off liberals."
And In Non-Racist Fake News
I've been reading "fake news" about how SocialSecurityAndMedicare are unsustainableandaffordableandgoingbroke my entire adult life. I expect to read even more of that fake news soon!
The Green Cities
Despite the tendency to think the most environmentally friendly thing to do is to go live in the middle of nowhere (it's not), dense cities are in general much "greener" than other types of development when looking at total output. But they do concentrate the pollution, so car emissions are worse locally. Take away the public transit, and they're a lot worse.
"Racially Charged"
It's the new euphemism! Every news site that uses it goes on my "fake news site" list.
The Only Sin Is Caring
Times like this I'm reminded of years ago when "opinion journalists" loved to distinguished themselves from "bloogers" and the primary distinction, aside from some made up stuff, was that bloogers actually care if they have any impact on the world, while serious opinion journalism just exists in the realm of ideas. Or something.
Don't get upset by all the racism. Only the steely-eyed Vulcan logic of centrist punditry can tell us how to steer a proper course, though who really cares actually?
Don't get upset by all the racism. Only the steely-eyed Vulcan logic of centrist punditry can tell us how to steer a proper course, though who really cares actually?
Both Sides
I used to joke that political views acceptable to our mainstream media ranged from the New Republic to the Free Republic. The New Republic isn't the cesspool of racism and conspiracy theories (the "case" for the Iraq war was one giant tinfoil hat conspiracy theory, let's call it and its proponents what they were/are) it once was, and I'm not sure anybody but us old timers know what the Free Republic is anymore. But in our new glorious age of racism, it seems like acceptable opinion is going to range from white nationalism to the Klan. The fundamental difference between the two is, of course, the costumes.
If media outlets can't call racism what it is, then we can add them to the "fake news site" lists that are all the rage.
If media outlets can't call racism what it is, then we can add them to the "fake news site" lists that are all the rage.
Thursday, November 17, 2016
How To Talk To Your Trump-Voting Relatives At Thanksgiving
The other regular genre, given the time. They're either preachy (always preaching at liberals) about how you should understand your conservative relatives and family/friendship is just too important to sacrifice over a little thing like politics, or condescending, about how you can convince them of the error of their ways.
My advice: if you can't get through a meal without people talking about contentious politics, either because you're the asshole or they are, don't go. Easy.
My advice: if you can't get through a meal without people talking about contentious politics, either because you're the asshole or they are, don't go. Easy.
Don't Just Live Your Life, Work, Take Care Of Your Kids, Try to Relax Occasionally, Watch TV, And Complain about Politics On The Internet
We could all do more, but exhorting others to stop doing whatever trivial activity they happen to be doing, like fighting with their health insurance company or watching an episode of Luke Cage, is very annoying "virtue signaling." Sort of like writing hot takes about why people shouldn't spend their time writing hot takes and instead do random thing the hot taker approves, but not that other thing the hot taker disapproves of.
All for constructive suggestions for people who want to get involved with things, but every election cycle I see people who don't do a damn thing expressing anger at other people who don't do a damn thing either. And if your job is professional politics (like this blog is for me, sort of!), time spent at your job doesn't count. That's what you're being paid for.
All for constructive suggestions for people who want to get involved with things, but every election cycle I see people who don't do a damn thing expressing anger at other people who don't do a damn thing either. And if your job is professional politics (like this blog is for me, sort of!), time spent at your job doesn't count. That's what you're being paid for.
Not Gonna Happen
Economics isn't perfect in large part because even Nobel prize winning economists seem to remember the bits of Econ 101 that fit their political agenda and none of the rest. But there are actually some smart if often obvious things "known" to economists. It's well understand that some things require some form of mandatory collective action, that on their own individual entities will not do nearly enough.
Some businesses will be more affected by climate change than others, some will be affected by regulations aimed at stopping it more than others, and some don't see themselves as being affected too much one way or another so might join in for the good PR. But it's the middle group that's the problem, and they aren't going to mend their ways without appropriate incentives. Economists know that, or should, also, too.
Even in a post-Trump era, unless fossil fuel industry contributions to Congress are contained (currently in the hundreds of millions annually), we won’t see Washington move as quickly as it must.
Into this perilous void will step business. In fact, just this week, 365 companies and investors reaffirmed their commitment to addressing climate change and called on the U.S. government to do so as well.
Some businesses will be more affected by climate change than others, some will be affected by regulations aimed at stopping it more than others, and some don't see themselves as being affected too much one way or another so might join in for the good PR. But it's the middle group that's the problem, and they aren't going to mend their ways without appropriate incentives. Economists know that, or should, also, too.
Do Everything You Can As Fast As You Can
A wee suggestion to future Democratic presidents (optimism!).
Norms
Beutler's been hitting this for a little while, that the press needs to consider the importance of norms and principles that don't just seem like very narrow career and business interests (sometimes they are just that, sometimes there are broader issues to consider).
The press does spring into action when their prerogatives are threatened. Too often they take an extraordinarily limited view of what those prerogatives involve, limiting themselves to things which seemed to affect only a very small elite subset of the press, instead of press freedoms, first amendment issues, and other important civic norms more broadly. And even if their focus remains on "we," I'm pretty sure a few of them have women, black, Jewish, and Muslim reporters on the payroll. The past has shown too often only white men are seen as lacking bias, and women and people of color are kept from issues which might impact them. Of course white men are biased like everyone else on the planet, and minorities might have a bit of knowledge about issues affecting minority communities, but shutupShutupShutUpSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP.
The post-racial country has entered a new era of open racism, where unthinkable things will be debated on the teevee like we're debating soda taxes. This Is Not Racism, you see. There will be attacks on reporters, from the administration and/or their allies, who are seen as too hostile to their racist agenda, and those attacks will be focused on, say, Latinx reporters covering immigration. As I said to Brian on the Twitterbox, jokingly, he needn't worry that the press is focused only on their own parochial interests because they're usually really bad at doing that, too. They're bad because they define those interests so narrowly as to be devoid of principle (or at least, so narrowly as to be seen that way).
The press does spring into action when their prerogatives are threatened. Too often they take an extraordinarily limited view of what those prerogatives involve, limiting themselves to things which seemed to affect only a very small elite subset of the press, instead of press freedoms, first amendment issues, and other important civic norms more broadly. And even if their focus remains on "we," I'm pretty sure a few of them have women, black, Jewish, and Muslim reporters on the payroll. The past has shown too often only white men are seen as lacking bias, and women and people of color are kept from issues which might impact them. Of course white men are biased like everyone else on the planet, and minorities might have a bit of knowledge about issues affecting minority communities, but shutupShutupShutUpSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP.
The post-racial country has entered a new era of open racism, where unthinkable things will be debated on the teevee like we're debating soda taxes. This Is Not Racism, you see. There will be attacks on reporters, from the administration and/or their allies, who are seen as too hostile to their racist agenda, and those attacks will be focused on, say, Latinx reporters covering immigration. As I said to Brian on the Twitterbox, jokingly, he needn't worry that the press is focused only on their own parochial interests because they're usually really bad at doing that, too. They're bad because they define those interests so narrowly as to be devoid of principle (or at least, so narrowly as to be seen that way).
Morning Thread
The Halifax Examiner is having a November Subscription Drive. Good, honest, in-depth reporting that could do so much more with more subscribers. Here's how part of your subscription dollars are spent.
There weren’t document or research costs with this particular article, but there very often are. For instance, I spent $16 conducting two searches on the federal bankruptcy site yesterday, which is fairly typical of the day-in, day-out costs of doing the necessary work for this publication. Sometimes those costs are very high, however: For the Dead Wrong series alone, I’ve spent over $1,000 for court and other documents; a Freedom of Information request I filed last month cost nearly $500.All of which is to say, your subscription payments translate into good, and sometimes very good, journalism. I have enough story ideas for an in-depth article like Lambie’s every day of the week. And, unfortunately for them, there are a number of excellent but idle reporters in Halifax looking for work. Really, the limiting factor right now for the Examiner is cash. If we had the income, we could do much, much more than we are already doing on our shoestring budget.So please consider supporting the Examiner with a subscription.
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Everybody Wants You
I do think the upper class twits that rule Britain really do believe that the continent needs them (or thinks they do, effectively the same thing). They don't. And even if Italy is desperate to sell you Prosecco, good luck trying a similar pitch on every other EU country.
I've heard enough similar statements from the twits to think they really buy their own bullshit. Soon nobody else will!
Boris Johnson’s approach to Brexit has been ridiculed by European ministers after he told Italy it would have to offer tariff-free trade in order to sell its prosecco in the UK.
Carlo Calenda, an Italian economics minister, said it was insulting that Johnson had told him during a recent meeting that Italy would grant Britain access to the EU’s single market “because you don’t want to lose prosecco exports”.
“He basically said: ‘I don’t want free movement of people but I want the single market,’” he told Bloomberg. “I said: ‘No way.’ He said: ‘You’ll sell less prosecco.’ I said: ‘OK, you’ll sell less fish and chips, but I’ll sell less prosecco to one country and you’ll sell less to 27 countries.’ Putting things on this level is a bit insulting.”
I've heard enough similar statements from the twits to think they really buy their own bullshit. Soon nobody else will!
On Teevee
It occurs to me that Trump's understanding of politics is what your understanding would be if you got all of your knowledge of American politics from watching massive amounts of cable news. It's the politics show, mostly about personalities, with the president as a figure with unlimited power if only he has the will to use it.
Clicktivism
I know it's a bit incongruous for me, a blooger, to be a bit down on online activism, though I think I've always been a pretty tempered in my expressions about what my superpowers are capable of, but one of the worst developments over the last several years has been the rise of petitions-as-email-harvesting-as-an-end-in-itself. Hurray that your organization has a great big email list that you obtained by convincing people that there was some point to signing an online petition. And your next move is? I mean, aside from fundraising?
The Bell Curve
It shouldn't be any surprise that our savior press is quick to mainstream racism. They've been doing it forever. Some people say black people are stupid, others disagree. This has long been a reasonable subject for serious people to debate. Both sides.
Back To Wonking
When the admittedly exaggerated news about ACA exchange individual coverage premium hikes came out, the initial wonky response was that the exchanges are just a tiny part of the Obamacare system so no big woop. This piece on the popular/unpopular parts of Obamacare ignores the truly popular - at least for those who can get it - part of Obamacare, which is the Medicaid expansion.
Yes the exchanges/private insurance system as enshrined need this complicated mix of regulation/subsidies/mandates/penalties to work. There would be no bad bits if the subsidies were generous enough, putting everyone on Republican Medicaid, or if you just put everyone on actual Medicaid. No one would care about the mandate if it was actually affordable for everyone. It does put insurance in reach of people for whom it wasn't in reach before, but the bad bits aren't there because they're necessary, they're there because they're necessary as a part of this incredibly stupid and complicated and wasteful system. Fine, best we could do, but let's be clear about that.
Yes the exchanges/private insurance system as enshrined need this complicated mix of regulation/subsidies/mandates/penalties to work. There would be no bad bits if the subsidies were generous enough, putting everyone on Republican Medicaid, or if you just put everyone on actual Medicaid. No one would care about the mandate if it was actually affordable for everyone. It does put insurance in reach of people for whom it wasn't in reach before, but the bad bits aren't there because they're necessary, they're there because they're necessary as a part of this incredibly stupid and complicated and wasteful system. Fine, best we could do, but let's be clear about that.
In Unimportant News (Gotta Maintain Our Healthy Obsessions)
My local transit authority has a mess of a fare system. I won't bore you with the history, but roughly speaking, when the suburban commuter rail lines were going belly up the Feds made the city transit company take them over, which they didn't want to do. Then there was a strike which cut commuter rail passengers, long term, by about a third. Since then the system has mostly been kept together with bubblegum and twine, with the occasional cash infusion. Now (at least for now) there's more of a dedicated revenue stream. It's complicated -there are subways, buses, trolleys, very old light rail systems, commuter rail, etc.
Anyway, for years they've been working to replace the antiquated fare system (not just antiquated, but really inconvenient). It's been delayed and delayed for some of the usual reasons, in part because they seemed to be obsessed with maintaining the current complicated fare structure, and probably in part because the people designing it don't have enough actual user experience to know what they're doing. They're finally rolling it out slowly. Still doesn't work for the commuter rail system, but it works for some intra-city passes and now as a declining balance card to replace the token system. Got my card! It actually works!
Anyway, for years they've been working to replace the antiquated fare system (not just antiquated, but really inconvenient). It's been delayed and delayed for some of the usual reasons, in part because they seemed to be obsessed with maintaining the current complicated fare structure, and probably in part because the people designing it don't have enough actual user experience to know what they're doing. They're finally rolling it out slowly. Still doesn't work for the commuter rail system, but it works for some intra-city passes and now as a declining balance card to replace the token system. Got my card! It actually works!
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
DGAF
I spoke about the election to a group of students about 168 years ago 7-8 months ago or so. I was optimistic that Clinton would win, saying what I always said here, which was that she will win but Trump can win. Half right! haha. Anyway what I also said (if I remember correctly) was that the big concern with Trump isn't so much his policies - though those are too! - it's that he has no knowledge of or respect of the basic norms or traditions of government, of how things work, of how the supposedly co-equal branches have evolved to sort of work together. He'll color outside the lines because he doesn't know or care where the lines are. He's just gonna do whatever the hell he wants. Who cares if the Senate approves his nominees? Who cares if an FBI background check is standard procedure for them? Who cares if the Supreme Court tells him no? Who cares if certain important elements of the executive branch are supposed to have some degree of independence from day to day interference?
I don't expect the Republican Congress to do much to try to hold this gang back, but I also don't expect them to have any success even when they try. The press will throw up their hands, accept the new normal, and then demand a return to the old ways next time a Democrat is president (optimism!).
I don't expect the Republican Congress to do much to try to hold this gang back, but I also don't expect them to have any success even when they try. The press will throw up their hands, accept the new normal, and then demand a return to the old ways next time a Democrat is president (optimism!).
Both Sides, Really
Can all of those liberals who in a burst of support shelled out to subscribe for "good journalism" get their money back?
Protesting the rise of white nationalism in our government is really just the same as symbols of genocide. I can't tell the two apart, really. Both sides.
Sore losers protesting the democratic process are just as useless as hate-filled winners sneaking around towns painting swastikas and racist graffiti. I want to say that the only difference between the two is that one is ridiculous while the other is dangerous. But that’s not totally true, either.
Protesting the rise of white nationalism in our government is really just the same as symbols of genocide. I can't tell the two apart, really. Both sides.
Unknowables
I've never claimed (or thought) that Sanders would have been the better candidate to beat Trump (or Generic Republican). If pushed I'd probably say (would I be right? who knows!) that Clinton was probably the better choice for electability reasons, though I think generally electability arguments are an exercise in navel gazing. Really none of us know. Choosing "the most electable candidate" hasn't served Democrats well in most elections (we forget, but in almost all cases the losers were thought of as being the most electable in the primary). Mostly I think this is a silly debate which misses the real point: a weird old Jewish dude that most people had never heard of came pretty damn close to winning the Dem primary. "Pretty damn close" does not mean he was ever going to win, absent some massive Clinton flameout. There was never one moment when I thought he could or would win. But the fact that he came pretty close did not mean he should have been dismissed (by some) as a t0tal l0000zer man. Despite not winning, he achieved the practically impossible. This is not taking away from what Clinton achieved, but her achieving the impossible was setting herself up to be the almost inevitable winner of the 2106 primary. She'd done that before the voting even started.
Instead of marveling at what Sanders had done, for reasons I could only conclude were "sore winnerism," many people spent trying to kick more dirt over the grave of his campaign. Instead they should have been trying to figure out how and why he did so well. Maybe it was all just sexist Berniebros who couldn't stand voting for a woman. Also, too, maybe not.
I voted for Sanders in the primary, but if the PA primary had been earlier I probably would have voted for Clinton. He'd already lost, and I figured I'd cast my vote for "team Lefty."
Instead of marveling at what Sanders had done, for reasons I could only conclude were "sore winnerism," many people spent trying to kick more dirt over the grave of his campaign. Instead they should have been trying to figure out how and why he did so well. Maybe it was all just sexist Berniebros who couldn't stand voting for a woman. Also, too, maybe not.
I voted for Sanders in the primary, but if the PA primary had been earlier I probably would have voted for Clinton. He'd already lost, and I figured I'd cast my vote for "team Lefty."
To The Victors Go The Spoils
I'm not going to claim Our Side is pure, and certainly in state and local politics the party distinctions can break down in a lot of ways, but plenty of Republicans think the entire point of obtaining power it to use it for your benefit. Things that Democrats would at least be slightly embarrassed about are seen as the entire point of Republican governance.
Test
The service that ran my blog rss feed through twitter killed itself, so I'm trying to fix that...
Did I Try Turning It Off and On Again
Spent 15 minutes trying to log one of my browsers out of twitter. I hate computers.
Words Mean Things
Labeling Bannon a "nationalist" instead of a "white nationalist" isn't just covering for racism, it's racist itself, removing any distinction between nationalism, which many people just read as a strong form of patriotism, and white nationalism, which explicitly seeks to create a whites only nation.
But, yes, I'll spend money to subscribe to all of that quality news I keep hearing about.
Various "critics" call it white nationalism, but the voice of the Times calls it just nationalism. What it must be like to be black or jewish at that paper now...
But, yes, I'll spend money to subscribe to all of that quality news I keep hearing about.
WASHINGTON — A fierce chorus of critics denounced President-elect Donald J. Trump on Monday for appointing Stephen K. Bannon, a nationalist media mogul, to a top White House position, even as President Obama described Mr. Trump as “pragmatic,” not ideological, and held out hope that he would rise to the challenge of the presidency.
Various "critics" call it white nationalism, but the voice of the Times calls it just nationalism. What it must be like to be black or jewish at that paper now...
Monday, November 14, 2016
Organize, Organize, Organize
Three different presidential elections (2004,2008,2016) I've seen movements built around presidential candidates and then largely disappear. I'm making an assumption about 2016, and 2012 doesn't really count. Obama for America was perhaps the only real movement, but in both 2004 and 2008 the structures were built and then quickly dismantled. Democracy for America has lasted longer than any of the actual presidential campaign movements (yes Dean was a primary candidate, but never a general election one). I'm not sure why this happens when we have to get the band back together every two years, but I suspect it has something to do with the general lack of comfort with building and sustaining a membership movement over which the members have some input, rather than a top down organization built around a personality.
My least favorite savvy thing these days is "demcocrats don't vote in the midterms!!!" Well I wish they did, more, but the real point is "why don't highly paid professionals with million of dollars in campaign money know how to get people to vote???" Maybe they're doing it wrong?
My least favorite savvy thing these days is "demcocrats don't vote in the midterms!!!" Well I wish they did, more, but the real point is "why don't highly paid professionals with million of dollars in campaign money know how to get people to vote???" Maybe they're doing it wrong?
"history-making"
Heckuva job, Associated Press.
WASHINGTON —
President-elect Donald Trump is considering a woman and an openly gay man to fill major positions in his new leadership team, history-making moves that would inject diversity into a Trump administration already facing questions about its ties to white nationalists.
All Our Critics Are EEEDIIOTS
I can't remember who it was because I got pissed off and hit the unfollow button, but I think it was a NYT reporter (was some prominent publication, at least) who tweeted something to the effect of "most of our critics couldn't even manage to a report a zoning meeting!" It wasn't precisely that. It might have been "mange to report a police crime report!" In any case, I was struck by two things. One, I actually thought that reporting whatever he was referring to - some basic aspect of daily civic life - would be really hard, and boring, and not at all sexy, but he was referring to it as if it was the easiest/lowliest form of reporting instead of a really hard and important part of journalism which is just at the bottom of the status totem pole. Maybe it's the job they give the rookies, but it shouldn't be. Second, and more obviously, yes, we know, most opera critics probably can't hit a single note themselves, and most journalists can't do most of the things they criticize, I mean report on, either. What's your point?
Language Isn't Neutral, Neither is Choice of Stories
Going to have go get back to media criticism 101, I guess. Reporters will defend anything they write by saying it's their job to be "neutral" and for editorial boards, pundits, and activists to make their arguments based on that reporting. I never know if they're that stupid about what they do or if it's just a lie they all (most) embrace, but choosing to refer to Steve Bannon as a "strong conservative" versus "alt-right" versus "anti-Semite" versus "white nationalist" versus "white supremacist" is a choice. None of these terms are "neutral." They all have specific meanings, and some are better descriptions for readers than others.
I long thought anti-Semitism was a step too far in bigotry in the US, that it was something the US media would "monster" in a way that they're capable of even if they don't admit it. I guess even that is only unequivocally bad if "both sides" agree it is. If one side goes full racist and full anti-Semite, then, well, it's just just a one side/other side controversy. Let the readers decide but let's make it as hard as possible for them to do so by not adequately describing the situation!
I long thought anti-Semitism was a step too far in bigotry in the US, that it was something the US media would "monster" in a way that they're capable of even if they don't admit it. I guess even that is only unequivocally bad if "both sides" agree it is. If one side goes full racist and full anti-Semite, then, well, it's just just a one side/other side controversy. Let the readers decide but let's make it as hard as possible for them to do so by not adequately describing the situation!
Sunday, November 13, 2016
Get Your Passports
I don't mean this in a "so you can leave the country!!!" sense, but given all the fucked up stuff with ID coming from the states (voter ID laws, obtaining driver's licenses) and the Feds (PA driver's licenses will soon not be valid as ID to fly, for example), get a passport. Make sure you kids have passports. Renew them all if they're expired.
Also, too, if you're a noncitizen resident eligible to apply for citizenship, do that, though for not quite the same reasons...
Also, too, if you're a noncitizen resident eligible to apply for citizenship, do that, though for not quite the same reasons...
I Know The Politics
Times like this lots of newer people who haven't been paying way too much daily attention for the last 20 years get into politics and one has to resist a bit of eye rolling. Not that I'm a sage with a magic crystal ball (though, really, I did get Pennsylvania right (well, it flipped before Virginia)! It just all went bad.) But I find myself having to not be the cynical old man and resist saying "no, that's not going to happen," "no, that's not how things work," etc.
And, who knows, new people could have crazy ideas that just might work.
And, who knows, new people could have crazy ideas that just might work.
Saturday, November 12, 2016
The Unknowables
It's easy to nitpick these things without a full understanding of what actually happened and why, but there are some pretty frightening suggestions that Clinton's GOTV operation was idiotic.
I'll withhold judgment until I think I have a better sense (random griping isn't informative enough), but if so, everyone involved really just needs to go away. They had enough money.
I'll withhold judgment until I think I have a better sense (random griping isn't informative enough), but if so, everyone involved really just needs to go away. They had enough money.
It's Rarely One Thing
Back during the peak of our Great and Grand Glorious Adventure in Iraq, when freeance and peeance was always just an F.U. away, I used to regularly ask the question, "Why Are We In Iraq?" It was a mostly rhetorical question, meant to highlight the shifting and ever more absurd rationales, and the fact that nobody actually seemed to know*, but I'd often get a response along the lines of "It's all about the oil, stupid!!!!" or a slightly more complicated but similar explanation. And, yah, ok, sure it was about the oil or related perceived (if not actual) economic interests in some sense at least, but it wasn't the only reason. My broader point was that nobody knew because there wasn't a single reason, or even set of noncontradictory reasons, that made any sense.
Yes Trump won because of racism. Much of his support came from actual hard core white nationalist racists, people who think The Real Racism is that Michael B. Jordan was cast as Johnny Storm, and people who just don't give a crap about racism and wish everyone would just shut up about it (who are also racists in their own way). Pointing out that there are other reasons people don't necessarily embrace the Democratic party and its presidential candidate (fairly or not!) is not being blind to this racism or suggesting that the Democrats should get a bit more racist themselves to get these voters, any more than I thought calls in previous elections for Democrats to get a bit more Jesus-y or pretend to listen to country music more would get those voters.
There's across the board economic injustice in this country. People who think the blahs are taking all the secret welfare and getting all the good government jobs are idiots and likely racists. The poors, and poor minorities, of course have it worse than "merely" lower to middle middle class whites. But as people have been pointing out for decades, the middle class ain't so middle class anymore, if you define middle class as an existence in which buying a house, raising 2 kids and sending them off to state university, and not living in existential dread that you're a couple of paychecks away from it all falling apart while living fairly modestly, is the "norm."
It's cool to say these people often vote against their economic self-interests. Also probably often true. And I don't think there's any magic way to cure racism or to turn all of these people into Democrats. Some people are tribal Republicans and would have voted for Donald Trump even if a video of him raping a child surfaced. Personal prosperity doesn't remove racism. Many of our elites, captains of industry, and our "billionaire" next president are horribly racist.
But if the Dem pitch is "vote for us, we'll make your lives better" then they'd better get a bit more serious about making lives better.
*As much as we mock this, Tommy Friedman was probably closest to being right.
Yes Trump won because of racism. Much of his support came from actual hard core white nationalist racists, people who think The Real Racism is that Michael B. Jordan was cast as Johnny Storm, and people who just don't give a crap about racism and wish everyone would just shut up about it (who are also racists in their own way). Pointing out that there are other reasons people don't necessarily embrace the Democratic party and its presidential candidate (fairly or not!) is not being blind to this racism or suggesting that the Democrats should get a bit more racist themselves to get these voters, any more than I thought calls in previous elections for Democrats to get a bit more Jesus-y or pretend to listen to country music more would get those voters.
There's across the board economic injustice in this country. People who think the blahs are taking all the secret welfare and getting all the good government jobs are idiots and likely racists. The poors, and poor minorities, of course have it worse than "merely" lower to middle middle class whites. But as people have been pointing out for decades, the middle class ain't so middle class anymore, if you define middle class as an existence in which buying a house, raising 2 kids and sending them off to state university, and not living in existential dread that you're a couple of paychecks away from it all falling apart while living fairly modestly, is the "norm."
It's cool to say these people often vote against their economic self-interests. Also probably often true. And I don't think there's any magic way to cure racism or to turn all of these people into Democrats. Some people are tribal Republicans and would have voted for Donald Trump even if a video of him raping a child surfaced. Personal prosperity doesn't remove racism. Many of our elites, captains of industry, and our "billionaire" next president are horribly racist.
But if the Dem pitch is "vote for us, we'll make your lives better" then they'd better get a bit more serious about making lives better.
*As much as we mock this, Tommy Friedman was probably closest to being right.
I Suppose The Travel Office Staff Will Remain
According to Sam Donaldson's law. Otherwise...
Welcome to The President Show. The job stops when the cameras are off.
I'd say 50/50 Trump resigns, or is effectively MIA, before the end of the term. Not that President Pence will be an improvement.
Even W. mostly showed up for work and understood that it was a serious job.
Trump’s children and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who guided him throughout the campaign, appear to have retained their influence in an official capacity. Kushner’s presence at the White House on Thursday drew notice from Obama’s staff when he asked, as they toured the West Wing, how many of the individuals there would remain into the next administration. Nearly all will depart along with the president.
Welcome to The President Show. The job stops when the cameras are off.
I'd say 50/50 Trump resigns, or is effectively MIA, before the end of the term. Not that President Pence will be an improvement.
Even W. mostly showed up for work and understood that it was a serious job.
Friday, November 11, 2016
You Lost The Election To Donald Trump
This isn't about anger or recrimination, it's just getting back to what I've said all along. If you do this, you're in it to win it. The responsibility is too great. I would've said the same thing about Bernie Sanders had he won or anybody else. Don't do this fucking thing unless you can win it. And if you don't win it, take the responsibility and consequences of that, which are going to be far less than the consequences for most of the people - yes, including Trump voters - of this election. I'm not aiming this just at Clinton herself, but most of the people who run Clintonland, which has basically run Democratic DC, for decades (with some exceptions). That doesn't include everybody who worked in Clintonland as basically if you worked in Dem politics for the past couple of years you worked in Clintonland. Didn't have much choice. The responsibility falls on the people who ran it. Yes Obama was president for these past 8 years, but he never really created Obamaland outside of the White House. He should have, but...
A big problem in this country is that elites fail upwards. Hey, maybe it was just a bad dice roll, but you were the one betting everybody else's money. Resign honorably, hand off the keys to someone else, disappear behind the scenes. You'll be fine, most of you are quite wealthy. If you're unsure how to spend your time and money, you can pay me to give you some advice about how to do that. I'd manage quite nicely. I hear southern Italy is nice, though I've never actually been. Let's go on a trip together! And your power isn't really going away, anyway, just your name on the business cards and letterhead. Let it go.
A big problem in this country is that elites fail upwards. Hey, maybe it was just a bad dice roll, but you were the one betting everybody else's money. Resign honorably, hand off the keys to someone else, disappear behind the scenes. You'll be fine, most of you are quite wealthy. If you're unsure how to spend your time and money, you can pay me to give you some advice about how to do that. I'd manage quite nicely. I hear southern Italy is nice, though I've never actually been. Let's go on a trip together! And your power isn't really going away, anyway, just your name on the business cards and letterhead. Let it go.
And Piss Off About That
I've seen some prominent liberals fretting "oh noez Trump now owns the NSA!!!" Well, uh, yeah, principled opposition to the NSA's ever expanding powers never depended on whether one thinks the guy in charge is a good guy or a bad guy. Abuse of those powers never required that the person on top was the one abusing them. The powers are themselves intrinsically abusive, and giving them to a secret, largely unaccountable, and powerful for rather obvious reasons agency is nuts even if you trust the person who is supposedly their boss.
Don't Overlearn
Obviously when there's a colossal failure, there are things to be learned, but any time there's a Democratic loss they're supposed to learn the same lesson they're told to learn, strangely, when they win. Be more conservative! Reach out to white males, just not white males in unions! Don't improve their lot in life, just make it clear you hate the same people they hate and listen to the music they listen to! Don't love gay people so much! Forget women, all those white women didn't vote for you anyway!! The problem is Democrats are out of touch with the culture of Real America!
Obama won twice. It's important to remember that. And whatever his flaws, he didn't do it by pretending to be a cultural conservative. He wasn't always perfect on those issues, but he probably catered to the hate-gay-people-and-women crowd much less than most Democrats. Also, too, he's black.
It's hard threading this needle. I think to support Trump you have to be a racist or not care much about racism. I think the strength of Trump support is due to that racism. But things are fucked up and bullshit, still, in this country. Yes I know the stats show that Trump supporters on average aren't poor. But that doesn't mean they're doing well, either. The story of the past 35+ years is that while the poors have largely stayed poor, the middle class has gotten hammered too. Those household income stats mask declining actual fortunes, fading retirement hopes, and the fact that things are fucked up and bullshit for their kids and their communities.
People do believe there's a secret welfare state for the blahs, the immigrants, the gays, for everybody but them. This is, of course, wrong. There is no secret welfare state. But we all know the government is always handing out cadillacs and obamaphones, but for some reason I never got my free cadillac.
Here at my little blue lemonade stand I can point out that there's no secret welfare state, but no one who needs to hear that is going to hear that from me. And there's no advantage to pointing it out either. Everybody should get access to the secret welfare system! Everybody should have free cadillacs and obamaphones, or at least access to free college and a cable company that isn't always screwing them. Instead, fix the fact that things are fucked up and bullshit, or at least promise to.
Trump voters are rich! They make $70,000 in household income! That's higher than average! Well, sure, they aren't poor. But good luck putting two kids through college on $70,000 per year without loading them with massive debt. This shit is much more expensive than it used to be. Nobody over the age of 50 who isn't currently writing a tuition check seems to be aware of that. Good luck doing that if you've had even one recent negative event in your life (a layoff, a hospital bill). Good luck having any savings when you're 60 and nearing retirement, assuming your knees haven't given out yet. People don't.
It's false that things are more fucked up and bullshit for relatively well off white people than for others, but it's not false that things are more fucked up and bullshit for them than they used to be. It's stupid of them to blame the secret welfare state for taking all of their money, but they do.
As for minority voters, who really are supposed to be a part of the Democratic coalition but who didn't quite manage to vote as much this time, things are obviously still fucked up and bullshit for them. Our immigration system is horrible. This was not fixed. I've read dozens of excuses for why Obama kept deportation levels so high, but, whatever, he did. Cops keep killing unarmed black people and getting away with that. I don't know how much this is new, and how much it's that we hear about it more, but Democrats aren't exactly out in front on this issue. And many of them really are poor, and the poor always get screwed.
All of us savvy people "know" the Dems are better for the notrich than Republicans are, but I can forgive people for not knowing that. And if I can't have mine, why the hell should "they" get theirs?
As for Clinton, I know what her policy proposals were. I'm not sure anybody else did. The media is horrible and don't talk about policy, but we knew that. I also know that improving the EITC in a complicated fashion and promising free college, but not for all people because that's crazy Bernie talk, but for some people and "debt free" college for all and can you fill out this form please to determine your eligibility* and oh by the way none of this shit will get through Congress anyway so why aren't we promising the moon if we can't deliver the half a moon we are promising. All the Dems are now on board with "expanding" Social Security. This is great! What does it mean? Probably giving more to the blahs and the immigrants and the gays.
Sure all of this is "pundit's fallacy" stuff. But I'm not gazillionaire Tom Friedman telling you that what the people really want is to invade more countries and have better cell service in the subway. I don't actually think all the country wants from our politicians the same things I want. I do know that things are fucked up and bullshit for much of the country. President Trump is going to make everything a whole lot worse, of course, but candidate Trump said he'd fix things. We'll keep the immigrants out. We'll bring back coal jobs. Show me a problem, and I'll fix it. Not set up a plan to adjust the framework to tweak the incentives to modestly change the market outcomes. Just fix it.
*I knew kids in high school who couldn't get their parents to fill out college financial aid forms. This type of thing is a problem nobody talks about.
tl;dr Shit is fucked up and bullshit and neither our benevolent nor our malevolent overlords know or care.
Obama won twice. It's important to remember that. And whatever his flaws, he didn't do it by pretending to be a cultural conservative. He wasn't always perfect on those issues, but he probably catered to the hate-gay-people-and-women crowd much less than most Democrats. Also, too, he's black.
It's hard threading this needle. I think to support Trump you have to be a racist or not care much about racism. I think the strength of Trump support is due to that racism. But things are fucked up and bullshit, still, in this country. Yes I know the stats show that Trump supporters on average aren't poor. But that doesn't mean they're doing well, either. The story of the past 35+ years is that while the poors have largely stayed poor, the middle class has gotten hammered too. Those household income stats mask declining actual fortunes, fading retirement hopes, and the fact that things are fucked up and bullshit for their kids and their communities.
People do believe there's a secret welfare state for the blahs, the immigrants, the gays, for everybody but them. This is, of course, wrong. There is no secret welfare state. But we all know the government is always handing out cadillacs and obamaphones, but for some reason I never got my free cadillac.
Here at my little blue lemonade stand I can point out that there's no secret welfare state, but no one who needs to hear that is going to hear that from me. And there's no advantage to pointing it out either. Everybody should get access to the secret welfare system! Everybody should have free cadillacs and obamaphones, or at least access to free college and a cable company that isn't always screwing them. Instead, fix the fact that things are fucked up and bullshit, or at least promise to.
Trump voters are rich! They make $70,000 in household income! That's higher than average! Well, sure, they aren't poor. But good luck putting two kids through college on $70,000 per year without loading them with massive debt. This shit is much more expensive than it used to be. Nobody over the age of 50 who isn't currently writing a tuition check seems to be aware of that. Good luck doing that if you've had even one recent negative event in your life (a layoff, a hospital bill). Good luck having any savings when you're 60 and nearing retirement, assuming your knees haven't given out yet. People don't.
It's false that things are more fucked up and bullshit for relatively well off white people than for others, but it's not false that things are more fucked up and bullshit for them than they used to be. It's stupid of them to blame the secret welfare state for taking all of their money, but they do.
As for minority voters, who really are supposed to be a part of the Democratic coalition but who didn't quite manage to vote as much this time, things are obviously still fucked up and bullshit for them. Our immigration system is horrible. This was not fixed. I've read dozens of excuses for why Obama kept deportation levels so high, but, whatever, he did. Cops keep killing unarmed black people and getting away with that. I don't know how much this is new, and how much it's that we hear about it more, but Democrats aren't exactly out in front on this issue. And many of them really are poor, and the poor always get screwed.
All of us savvy people "know" the Dems are better for the notrich than Republicans are, but I can forgive people for not knowing that. And if I can't have mine, why the hell should "they" get theirs?
As for Clinton, I know what her policy proposals were. I'm not sure anybody else did. The media is horrible and don't talk about policy, but we knew that. I also know that improving the EITC in a complicated fashion and promising free college, but not for all people because that's crazy Bernie talk, but for some people and "debt free" college for all and can you fill out this form please to determine your eligibility* and oh by the way none of this shit will get through Congress anyway so why aren't we promising the moon if we can't deliver the half a moon we are promising. All the Dems are now on board with "expanding" Social Security. This is great! What does it mean? Probably giving more to the blahs and the immigrants and the gays.
Sure all of this is "pundit's fallacy" stuff. But I'm not gazillionaire Tom Friedman telling you that what the people really want is to invade more countries and have better cell service in the subway. I don't actually think all the country wants from our politicians the same things I want. I do know that things are fucked up and bullshit for much of the country. President Trump is going to make everything a whole lot worse, of course, but candidate Trump said he'd fix things. We'll keep the immigrants out. We'll bring back coal jobs. Show me a problem, and I'll fix it. Not set up a plan to adjust the framework to tweak the incentives to modestly change the market outcomes. Just fix it.
*I knew kids in high school who couldn't get their parents to fill out college financial aid forms. This type of thing is a problem nobody talks about.
tl;dr Shit is fucked up and bullshit and neither our benevolent nor our malevolent overlords know or care.
New Overtime Rules
In other words, yes, thanks Obama, now pay up.
Maybe they're joking, but it's, you know, the law now. I ain't no smart talking legal guy, but my understanding is this is pretty much a clear cut violation of the new overtime rules. "But we're different!!!" doesn't cut it.
...update: I'm partially wrong, the new overtime rules aren't actually in effect until Dec. 1, but actual enforcement of the old ones should cover this anyway.
A Democratic campaign organizer filed suit in federal court in Philadelphia on Wednesday, saying that she and others were forced to work 80 to 90 hours a week and were not paid overtime by the Pennsylvania Democratic Committee, and through it, the Democratic National Committee.
..
No one gets overtime on political campaigns, said Neil Oxman, founder of the Philadelphia-based Campaign Group, who has worked on "hundreds and hundreds of races" on the national, state, and local levels.
"I've hired hundreds and hundreds of people. I've watched thousands of people work on campaigns. People know these jobs are 80- to 100-hours-a-week jobs. No one asks for overtime. If they did, people would think they were joking.
Maybe they're joking, but it's, you know, the law now. I ain't no smart talking legal guy, but my understanding is this is pretty much a clear cut violation of the new overtime rules. "But we're different!!!" doesn't cut it.
...update: I'm partially wrong, the new overtime rules aren't actually in effect until Dec. 1, but actual enforcement of the old ones should cover this anyway.
Thursday, November 10, 2016
Cynical Me
Pretty sure it's best to ignore fundraising requests from any DC-based organizations for a few weeks. The timing is not exactly right. This doesn't apply to all dogooders, of course.
Some Sanity
It appears voters aren't always willing to spend lots of tax money for rich people so they can have 8 home games per year.
SAN DIEGO -- City of San Diego voters delivered a powerful electoral blow to a ballot measure that would have raised hotel room taxes to partially fund a downtown football stadium for the Chargers, with support falling well short of the two-thirds that was required.
Primary Colors
I never had any opinion about whether Clinton or Sanders would be a better general election candidate. I think people are entitled to have opinions about that, of course, but a big warning bell for me was always people who had *strong* opinions about that. It's unknowable and there are arguments on both sides. Sanders lost. Some of his supporters were and are convinced that he would have won. I think that's silly. Maybe he would have! Who knows?
But Sanders lost the primary. Clinton won. Many of her supporters - and the people working for her - were strongly convinced of the same about their own candidate. That belief - right or wrong - had relevance during the primary. It really had no relevance for the general election. That battle was won, there was no need to keep fighting it. It did not matter whether Clinton was the better candidate, what mattered was making her win. She was the candidate. Continuing to be invested in the idea that she was the best candidate blinded people to ways in which she wasn't a perfect candidate (even if you believed that overall she was the best one). Maybe it was a hangover from 2008. They couldn't stop fighting the primary.
Some of the reasons she might not have been were unfair. Like, you know, sexism. Lots of Clinton supporters in 2008 told me privately (and some people here expressed it in the comments if I remember correctly) Obama couldn't win the general election because he was black. If true, also unfair! It could have been true, though it turns out it wasn't. Racism and sexism are horrible. We live in a horribly unjust and unfair society. Other largely unfair reasons Clinton had problems as a candidate included 25 years of "scandals" that mostly weren't and media treatment of the Clintons generally. Unfair!
But you can't wish unfair away, and you can't make it go away by screaming "unfair!" at it. If Sanders had been the candidate there would have been a lot of unfair things he would have had to deal with, as Obama, Kerry, and Gore did (that racism and misogyny are things which have to be dealt with makes Obama's and Clinton's situations more obscene and depressing, and, yes, more unfair, but no less real). Hell I concede even Mittens dealt with some unfair things. Yes, yes, they would have tried to make Sanders seem like commie-loving Stalinist. Unfair! The man just likes Scandinavia. Still he would have had to deal with that and everybody knew it.
A lot of us thought she would win. Including me! If you think the polls are bullshit you'd better have a good reason to think so, not just a gut feeling. It turns out the polls were bullshit in this election in a way they haven't been before. I'm not sure anyone will ever really know why, or if polls will ever be anything other than bullshit again.
Anyway, you go to an election with the candidate and electorate and the horrible unfairness of everything that you have. The key is to have a strategy for dealing with it. You get no extra points to compensate for the unfairness.
So many of the arguments for why voting patterns in the primary demonstrated that Clinton was the better candidate were transparent bullshit. They were transparent bullshit in part because the exact opposite arguments were made in 2008. I don't fault them for making those arguments to win the primary, I fault (some of them) for apparently actually believing those arguments. Performance in a partisan primary says almost nothing about how you will do in a general election. Bernie Sanders, Susan Sarandon, and the Berniebro army didn't lose the election, any more than voters who stayed home or Latinx voters who voted for Trump did. Clinton, the Clinton campaign, and the broader professional Clintonworld did. It was their job to win. They took on that responsibility. That might be horribly unfair, but that's the way it is.
But Sanders lost the primary. Clinton won. Many of her supporters - and the people working for her - were strongly convinced of the same about their own candidate. That belief - right or wrong - had relevance during the primary. It really had no relevance for the general election. That battle was won, there was no need to keep fighting it. It did not matter whether Clinton was the better candidate, what mattered was making her win. She was the candidate. Continuing to be invested in the idea that she was the best candidate blinded people to ways in which she wasn't a perfect candidate (even if you believed that overall she was the best one). Maybe it was a hangover from 2008. They couldn't stop fighting the primary.
Some of the reasons she might not have been were unfair. Like, you know, sexism. Lots of Clinton supporters in 2008 told me privately (and some people here expressed it in the comments if I remember correctly) Obama couldn't win the general election because he was black. If true, also unfair! It could have been true, though it turns out it wasn't. Racism and sexism are horrible. We live in a horribly unjust and unfair society. Other largely unfair reasons Clinton had problems as a candidate included 25 years of "scandals" that mostly weren't and media treatment of the Clintons generally. Unfair!
But you can't wish unfair away, and you can't make it go away by screaming "unfair!" at it. If Sanders had been the candidate there would have been a lot of unfair things he would have had to deal with, as Obama, Kerry, and Gore did (that racism and misogyny are things which have to be dealt with makes Obama's and Clinton's situations more obscene and depressing, and, yes, more unfair, but no less real). Hell I concede even Mittens dealt with some unfair things. Yes, yes, they would have tried to make Sanders seem like commie-loving Stalinist. Unfair! The man just likes Scandinavia. Still he would have had to deal with that and everybody knew it.
A lot of us thought she would win. Including me! If you think the polls are bullshit you'd better have a good reason to think so, not just a gut feeling. It turns out the polls were bullshit in this election in a way they haven't been before. I'm not sure anyone will ever really know why, or if polls will ever be anything other than bullshit again.
Anyway, you go to an election with the candidate and electorate and the horrible unfairness of everything that you have. The key is to have a strategy for dealing with it. You get no extra points to compensate for the unfairness.
So many of the arguments for why voting patterns in the primary demonstrated that Clinton was the better candidate were transparent bullshit. They were transparent bullshit in part because the exact opposite arguments were made in 2008. I don't fault them for making those arguments to win the primary, I fault (some of them) for apparently actually believing those arguments. Performance in a partisan primary says almost nothing about how you will do in a general election. Bernie Sanders, Susan Sarandon, and the Berniebro army didn't lose the election, any more than voters who stayed home or Latinx voters who voted for Trump did. Clinton, the Clinton campaign, and the broader professional Clintonworld did. It was their job to win. They took on that responsibility. That might be horribly unfair, but that's the way it is.
Mirror Not Yet Invent
This isn't about the "circular firing squad," but people who fail at their jobs should resign honorably whether or not they really deserve it. That's why they get paid the big bucks, that's the price for taking on great responsibilities.
In practice this doesn't happen, of course. Instead they'll stick around and make sure to get jobs for their kids, too, because meritocracy.
In practice this doesn't happen, of course. Instead they'll stick around and make sure to get jobs for their kids, too, because meritocracy.
My Dreams Gone
I've always said I thought it would take 3 terms of Dem presidents to "de-Republican" DC. I don't mean drive them out of town, just get a bit closer to parity on how much the town (including media) is dominated by Republican narratives about the world. There are "journalists" who you can tell have nothing but Republican staffers still on their "rolodex" (these days I assume it's whatever internet chat program people use now. Lost track after google inexplicably mostly killed gchat). It's been a Republican town since Nixon. The Clinton era did nothing to change that for reasons you might remember. Obama did, some, but needed just a few more years...
Everybody's Gotta Eat
The undertold story of times like this is how politics (not just elected) is a career path for people. Big shift in DC. People out of jobs, people looking for jobs.
Wednesday, November 09, 2016
Wonk'd
One thing which would be interesting to explore is precisely why all of the worst* parts of Obamacare - the mandate and the exchanges/insufficient subsidies (politically and substantively) - were the parts that got all of the attention. I don't mean attention from critics, I mean attention from its "wonky" supporters who wrote endless treatises about how cool this Rube Goldberg machine was and how all of the lego pieces were going to fit together just right. When news - legitimately overstated and exaggerated - of premium increases hit, those same wonks retreated to "but only 3% are on the exchanges!" even though the exchanges were weirdly sold - again, by its proponents! - as the central features of Obamacare.
The medicaid expansion, nixing of pre-existing conditions and lifetime caps, certain types of mandated coverage, etc.. were all the really *good* features of Obamacare. Why don't most people know about them?
*Worst politically and/or substantively. I get the logic of the mandate, but it's shit if it isn't affordable, simple, and stable.
The medicaid expansion, nixing of pre-existing conditions and lifetime caps, certain types of mandated coverage, etc.. were all the really *good* features of Obamacare. Why don't most people know about them?
*Worst politically and/or substantively. I get the logic of the mandate, but it's shit if it isn't affordable, simple, and stable.
What A Long Strange Trip It's Been
Like most of what I write this should probably be a bit more well thought out, but I've been thinking over the last few weeks about how things have changed since this little blue lemonade stand started. A lot of the things the "netroots" advocated for and pioneered (whether we helped to create any of it is another question, but we were there first) became mainstream and professionalized. A more vocal liberalism, or at the very least a more vocal center-leftism, became a part of the discourse in a way that it hadn't been before. The rabid lambs of the internet were out in front on some important issues, and consciously provided space for the more important powers that be to move into. We were anti-war and pro-gay rights and anti-Social Security busting before it was cool. I'm not saying the bloogers were the first activists on these issues - of course not! - but I do think we helped to mainstream them and make them part of the standard Dem position. I've long thought bloggers helped knit together a tapestry of issues which were seen as somewhat disparate before. An end to the cafeteria Democrat. Gay rights and reproductive rights and racial justice and criminal justice reform and retirement security and immigration reform and livable wages and health care reform and consumer protection aren't really different issues at all. They're all one, really. Not that Dems are close to being perfect on all of these issues, or even would be if they were our benevolent dictators, but it's harder for them to run from them anymore.
For better or for worse, the cable news "hack gap" was closed to some degree, with even some non-hack liberalism making some appearances. A world where Chris Hayes is the left flank on cable news is better than a world where Michael Kinsley is. So, some progress. But the mainstreaming and professionalizing of it all has come with some costs. Probably it's time to be a bit more punk and a bit less Dad rock.
For better or for worse, the cable news "hack gap" was closed to some degree, with even some non-hack liberalism making some appearances. A world where Chris Hayes is the left flank on cable news is better than a world where Michael Kinsley is. So, some progress. But the mainstreaming and professionalizing of it all has come with some costs. Probably it's time to be a bit more punk and a bit less Dad rock.
About Right
Roy:
Sure, Trump stirred up the Nazis, but look on the bright side, he made the liberal elites sad! I think this was a big part of the winning formula. I doubt Trump voters seriously believe their man will make international trade more advantageous to the U.S., or settle race relations, or bring global peace. But they don't like the people who are actually working on these things; they are delivering unsatisfactory results and, in the Trumpkin mind, that isn't because these things are difficult and complicated, but because they spend too much time thinking about their friends the blacks, the women, the foreigners, and the gays. Never mind your so-called rights, widget sales are fluctuating, now how'm I going to afford that second home? It's gotta be the fault of liberal elites!
Lessons Never Learned
Once again we'll discover that nobody cares about the deficit, that tax cuts for the rich are always affordable, and Dem failures to spend the money on nice things, or at least advocate spending money on nice things, when they're in power is never rewarded.
Maybe I Need A Good Video Game
I used to like playing them. My problem is that I like the big immersive take forever to play RPG-type ones, but I have the attention span of Tetris. Meaning, I play for a couple of hours then put it away for a few weeks and can barely remember that I started to play the damn game next time I try to pick it up.
In It To Win It
What I always meant was, the Clinton campaign, broadly defined, had one job.
I actually never really faulted the campaign itself very much, at least during the general election. Broader Clintonland - which includes the entire self-appointed DC Dem establishment - was basically horrible throughout, largely because they never stopped fighting a primary that they had basically won in March.
We mock Republicans for the grift. Big Dem donors should wonder where their money is going, too.
I actually never really faulted the campaign itself very much, at least during the general election. Broader Clintonland - which includes the entire self-appointed DC Dem establishment - was basically horrible throughout, largely because they never stopped fighting a primary that they had basically won in March.
We mock Republicans for the grift. Big Dem donors should wonder where their money is going, too.
The Presidency Is Powerful
I don't have a transcript, but late last night I half heard Chris Matthews babbling some nonsense about how a President Trump would have to go through Congress to change immigration policy, or something like that. Even leaving aside that the usual norms won't stop Trump, and that a Republican Congress won't stop trump, the executive has an immense amount of authority over certain issues, like immigration, that really don't require any Congressional approval whatsoever.
Tuesday, November 08, 2016
Keep on Chatting
I can't keep up with the many fine sites that are updating election results... so chat away!
As Always
The results of this election confirm my sincerely held religious belief that America is a center-right country.
Happy Hour Thread
Calm before the storm? Storm before the calm? Stalm before the Corm? Whatever. Get happy!
OH NOEZ THE COUNTRY IS DIVIDED
Every election, like newborn babies our pundits see the world anew, and are shocked to discover politics is about fundamental disagreements.
Swing State Blues
Every four years PA is classified as a swing state. Every four years, as the election approaches, there's some media narrative pushed by the Republican campaigns (which, given ad buys, I think they believe) that they're really really going to win PA no really their internal polling tells them that.
PA is a swing state in that the vote is usually fairly close and no Dem campaign can ignore it. Gotta put the work in. But it is never (never say never, things change, but you know what I mean) some sort of wild card state where Republicans can pull off an upset victory. PA will go Republican only if it's a Republican that is having a near landslide night. So, no, there is no "divert resources from Ohio and Florida and North Carolina and Indiana and Virginia and focus on PA" strategy that makes sense. If all of those states tumble, PA could too, but then the Republicans will already have won. The only reason for them to waste money in PA is to draw Dem resources into it, but given that money isn't really a constraint in modern presidential campaigns, there isn't all that much point in doing that either.
PA is a swing state in that the vote is usually fairly close and no Dem campaign can ignore it. Gotta put the work in. But it is never (never say never, things change, but you know what I mean) some sort of wild card state where Republicans can pull off an upset victory. PA will go Republican only if it's a Republican that is having a near landslide night. So, no, there is no "divert resources from Ohio and Florida and North Carolina and Indiana and Virginia and focus on PA" strategy that makes sense. If all of those states tumble, PA could too, but then the Republicans will already have won. The only reason for them to waste money in PA is to draw Dem resources into it, but given that money isn't really a constraint in modern presidential campaigns, there isn't all that much point in doing that either.
Voter #143
All done. About 20 in line. Not nearly as many as friends are reporting elsewhere but a lot more than I have ever seen at my polling place.
Almost Over
I guess we'll see what the "how fucked are we" measure says. I suppose an alternative measure is how much worse Trump does than Mittens. Mittens wasn't a perfect candidate, of course, but he fit the "nice, reasonable Republican" model reasonably well (I'm not saying I think he is nice or reasonable, but he could play it on teevee, if that makes sense.)
Morning
Up early for Taco Tuesday!!! By the end of the day I expect the taco truck that is parked two blocks away to be parked just one block away!!!
Monday, November 07, 2016
Pundit Bingo
Howard Fineman just said that if she wins, Clinton's first job will be to reach out to Trump voters.
Apparently Trump raised a lot of issues that they care about (issues not actually specified).
Apparently Trump raised a lot of issues that they care about (issues not actually specified).
A Lot Of People
That's a long line. I think they've commandeered about four full city blocks for the event? Not gonna be enough..
..apparently they're letting 30,000 in.
..apparently they're letting 30,000 in.
End of the Line
Current end of the line for the Clinton rally. That is around the corner from my house. The line is still growing. It is 1.5 miles to the event.
Canvassing
An elderly African-American man has positioned himself by the bus stop around the corner. Not sure for how long, but he wasn't waiting for the bus. As I walked by:
Him: You going to the polls tomorrow?
Me: Of course.
Him: I assume you aren't voting for that man.
Me: Of course not. No worries.
Him: Well bring a few friends then. We have to send a message.
Me: They're all voting too.
The Worst Election Coverage Ever
I'd mellowed a bit on my media criticism in recent years. Probably some of that's just due to the fact that I don't watch as much cable news as I used to, but still I've thought that many of old flaws of politics coverage had faded somewhat. Somewhat is a key word there, but for a variety of reasons I thought there had been some improvement.
And then campaign 2016 hit. Presidential campaign coverage is always the worst, of course, but this coverage was bad in a way that managed to transcend the worst of 2004 and 2008 (I think 2012 was overall not so bad, relatively speaking). Individual reporters and individual publications always understandably object to being lumped in with "the media" but they also tend to circle the wagons in a way that any group does when it is attacked. Can't have it both ways. If you identify with a group, you acknowledge the group exists. And this year, coverage of a white nationalist presidential campaign, and the concerns of its supporters, was given top billing at every step. Sure there was negative Trump coverage, but all coverage, positive and negative, went through Trump. It was all about him.
Though at least, late in the campaign, a few journalists are starting to get publicly annoyed by what a hack Mark Halperin is. I'm not sure if they object to his role as a hack Trump fluffer, or the fact that he gets paid 7 figures to be a hack Trump fluffer, but either way.
And then campaign 2016 hit. Presidential campaign coverage is always the worst, of course, but this coverage was bad in a way that managed to transcend the worst of 2004 and 2008 (I think 2012 was overall not so bad, relatively speaking). Individual reporters and individual publications always understandably object to being lumped in with "the media" but they also tend to circle the wagons in a way that any group does when it is attacked. Can't have it both ways. If you identify with a group, you acknowledge the group exists. And this year, coverage of a white nationalist presidential campaign, and the concerns of its supporters, was given top billing at every step. Sure there was negative Trump coverage, but all coverage, positive and negative, went through Trump. It was all about him.
Though at least, late in the campaign, a few journalists are starting to get publicly annoyed by what a hack Mark Halperin is. I'm not sure if they object to his role as a hack Trump fluffer, or the fact that he gets paid 7 figures to be a hack Trump fluffer, but either way.
I Am Lazy
If I were a real political junkie I'd head to the RALLYPALOOZA with Springsteen and the gang, but honestly the 2008 DNC in Denver kinda used up all of my standing in line tolerance. If I'm that lukewarm, then someone else should get a nice place in the audience instead.
But for anybody heading in to town for it, whether you're driving or planning on taking public transit, or whatever, remember that greater center city of Philadelphia is actually pretty walkable. You can walk from Jefferson Station to where the rally is in about 20 minutes. And if you're driving, you really don't need to park "a few blocks away." Find a spot within a mile and then walk. (All of this assumes you don't have mobility issues, which of course plenty of people do!). I'm constantly reading people on the internets wondering where "it's safe to park." It's safe for humans, and car insurance is there if your car isn't safe (it probably is safe!). Driving around looking for a spot can be annoying, but it's less annoying if you don't try to park right by the destination where everybody else is driving around looking for a spot. Weather's nice, take a leisurely walk for the last mile.
But for anybody heading in to town for it, whether you're driving or planning on taking public transit, or whatever, remember that greater center city of Philadelphia is actually pretty walkable. You can walk from Jefferson Station to where the rally is in about 20 minutes. And if you're driving, you really don't need to park "a few blocks away." Find a spot within a mile and then walk. (All of this assumes you don't have mobility issues, which of course plenty of people do!). I'm constantly reading people on the internets wondering where "it's safe to park." It's safe for humans, and car insurance is there if your car isn't safe (it probably is safe!). Driving around looking for a spot can be annoying, but it's less annoying if you don't try to park right by the destination where everybody else is driving around looking for a spot. Weather's nice, take a leisurely walk for the last mile.
Pundit Bingo
It's that time again. When Democrats (likely) win office, we all get talk about how they didn't really win. It was a fluke. Or the people who didn't vote for them weren't the right kind of people, knowwhatimean? No matter what happens this election will be a mandate for Trump voters, because every election is. When they win they get what they want, when they lose they should get what they want. The Democrats must heal this nation by appointing Paul Ryan co-president and Stephen Bannon the head of the United States Commission on Civil Rights. It's time to end racism against white people once and for all! It's the new War on Racism!
Sunday, November 06, 2016
TRANSITPOCALYPSE
Between the transit strike and the big Clinton/Obama/Bruce rally tomorrow, it might be a good day for people who have personal days to take one.
Tell Us What You Really Think, Mr. Mayor
The mayor of Philadelphia:
Rudy Giuliani just told me that The Donald is fit to be commander in chief. Hahahah! 😂😂😂😂😂😂. Can't make this shit up!
— Jim Kenney (@JimFKenney) November 6, 2016